Reincarnation (4)

Le Wuya stayed up all night. Using the "last will" written by Wenren Yue as a guide, he sorted through the case files and checked the county annals.

After all this painstaking work, Le Wuya finally understood why Wenren Yue believed that Mingxiu had been wronged.

Scholar Ming, full name Ming Xiangzhao, was twenty-five years old and from a modest family background. His father repaired furniture and the whole family made their living as craftsmen.

In the county examination held in the twentieth year of Tianding, Ming Xiangzhao ranked first among the local candidates.

Just as the provincial examination was approaching and he had the opportunity to leap through the dragon's gate, his father was conscripted and sent to Beijing to work as a craftsman. Unfortunately, he contracted a cold on the way back and died of illness only fifteen miles from home. His body was brought back by his fellow villagers.

After mourning bitterly, Ming Xiangzhao stayed home to study and waited three years before taking the exam again.

This experience was somewhat similar to Wenren Yue's.

However, the two men had completely opposite temperaments.

Unlike the docile Wenren Yue, Scholar Ming was naturally hot-tempered and sharp-tongued. He often argued with others at the academy, and was not popularity among his peers.

This too was clearly recorded in the case file, which noted that he was "arrogant and domineering, with words that always cut to the quick."

The reason he committed the so-called "crime of rebellion" traced back to an earlier matter.

According to the regulations of the dynasty, women were not permitted to go to court alone to file complaints. If they had grievances, they could only entrust male relatives of the clan or hire lawyers to act on their behalf.

After Ming's father died, his mother took over her husband's work, but due to her age, she could only manage light chores.

Some helpless widows and orphans who had quarrels with their neighbors or families could find no close male relatives to sue on their behalf and found hiring a lawyer too expensive. So they came to Ming's mother, brought her rice, flour, and coins, and asked the young scholar Ming to write their petitions and file their lawsuits.

In the conspiracy case against Ming Xiangzhao, the chief clerk of the indictment used pointed insinuations to smear Ming Xiangzhao. The gist of the case was this: the man, too proud as a scholar to take common work, yet too ashamed to eat without contributing, had let his mother arrange these requests on his behalf so he could earn money for the family. This, the prosecution framed as laziness, greed, and exploitation.

Le Wuya had met Ming Xiangzhao during his time in prison.

He was a genuinely fine-looking young man. If he cleaned up and walked down the street, he would be a handsome, spirited scholar with a heroic air.

This young man might have had some self-interested motives, but being forced by circumstances was not wrong; when he stood up for others, it was not necessarily about the money.

Because, according to the dozens of petitions Le Wuya had dug through overnight, he had honestly been litigating on behalf of the weak.

That said, judging from the language of the petitions, he was indeed outspoken and unrestrained, and frequently criticized the unfairness of the government.

...He was indeed the kind of "insufferable scholar" whom the government found deeply irritating but could neither beat nor scold.

After all, he was not without talent — far from it. He was very likely to make a name for himself in the future, and his prospects were unlimited. He was not someone to be trifled with.

Helpless, the officials had no choice but to hold their noses and endure him.

Of course, that was not what the case file said.

The case file stated only that this scholar was proud of his talents, accustomed to acting high-handedly, and given to making inflammatory remarks. The government had shown him leniency out of respect for his status as a scholar. Who could have expected that he would show no gratitude and actually conceal forbidden books at home?

Yet Wenren Yue's "last will" mentioned something the case file had omitted entirely.

Half a year earlier, when Wenren Yue had just taken office, Ming Xiangzhao had openly filed a lawsuit on behalf of a friend of his mother's, Aunt Su — and it had become a significant case.

Aunt Su had been widowed early in life and had raised her young son Chang Xiaohu on her own.

Chang Xiaohu had been born with a weak constitution and was prone to illness. Fortunately, he had a sharp mind and had taught himself how to use the abacus.

To supplement the family income, he and Aunt Su arranged through Chang's father's second cousin, Ge Erzi, for him to take on an apprenticeship as a bookkeeper at Xiaofu Coal Mine on the western outskirts of Nanting County. After graduating from the apprenticeship in March, he would work in the mine's accounting office.

Aunt Su scraped together every coin she could, handed it to the intermediary, and reluctantly sent her son away.

Chang Xiaohu never came back.

Aunt Su, worried about her son's health, packed a bag of medicine that Chang Xiaohu regularly took and traveled to visit him on her bound feet.

The coal mine, however, was closed to outsiders and no information could be obtained. Aunt Su had no choice but to hand the medicine and some dried food to the gatekeeper and to timidly plead with him to pass it on to Xiaohu.

Aunt Su saw Xiaohu again after a heavy rain.

His body had been washed down from upriver and had caught on a rock. It was discovered by villagers who had risen early to go fishing.

Aunt Su received the news and stumbled over to the riverbank. When she spotted her son's swollen face from a distance, she screamed and fainted.

He was covered in wounds — bruises upon bruises, with blood matting his hair. The condition of his body was terrible.

When Aunt Su regained consciousness, the more she turned it over in her mind, the more something felt wrong: her son had gone to the mine to work as an apprentice bookkeeper — how could he have been beaten like this?

She went to the second cousin, Ge Erzi, who had recommended her son to the mine, to drag him before the authorities. However, as a woman alone, she could not go to court herself, so she thought of Ming's mother, with whom she was well acquainted.

Aunt Su came to her door in the middle of the night, weeping and pleading. When Mingxiu heard the whole story, he was so indignant that he wrote a furious petition that very night and submitted it to the yamen the following morning.

This was not the first time Wenren Yue had encountered a case involving a suspicious death during his tenure, but he had always been cautious and never dared to be careless.

The second cousin, Ge Erzi, was from a local poor family — originally an idle and self-important man. As soon as he appeared in court, he wailed that he had been wronged and wept loudly. He looked even more grief-stricken than Aunt Su, who was on the verge of tears but had none left.

According to him, he had merely been a middleman and had no idea what had happened to Chang Xiaohu in the mine. He was as innocent as a snow lotus from Tianshan.

Next, the manager of Xiaofu Coal Mine was called to appear in court.

The man was smooth and measured, and stated flatly that there had been a heavy rain a couple of days before. Chang Xiaohu had most likely failed to see the path clearly and accidentally fallen into the water. As for the injury to his head, it was almost certainly caused by a collision with rocks, and the wounds on his body must have been caused by branches striking him in the current.

The autopsy results submitted by the coroner also concluded that "the body sustained injuries from branches and stones, and the deceased died of drowning after a fall."

At this point, Aunt Su was growing somewhat dispirited, but she refused to retreat.

She said that people who had seen Chang Xiaohu's body had remarked that the wounds on him were very deep, as though he had been whipped.

Was there any reason why branches would leave whip marks?

The other side had a ready answer: Chang Xiaohu's body had been submerged in dirty water overnight. On top of that, the summer heat had caused the wounds to swell and fester. The villagers had no expertise in such matters, so they were simply guessing. Moreover, they had only seen Chang Xiaohu's body from a distance and had never examined it up close. Rumor traveled like wind and rain. How could such testimony be taken seriously?

Wenren Yue went to examine the body in person, but unfortunately he lacked the expertise. Looking it over again and again, he had a sense that the wounds resembled both whip marks and ulcers, but could not say for certain.

What he did unexpectedly notice was that on the few patches of undamaged skin Chang Xiaohu had, there were the healed traces of old stick injuries.

Furthermore, Chang Xiaohu's skin was rough, and his fingers were covered in calluses. Though there was blood caked under his fingernails, the coal-black color was still faintly visible — it did not look like the hands of someone who did delicate work such as accounting.

Wenren Yue quietly noted these doubts and did not raise them openly. He only used the old injuries on Chang Xiaohu's body to press the coroner.

The coroner was unmoved, and said that the mother had likely caused those injuries when disciplining her son in the past.

Hearing this, Aunt Su burst into tears, insisting that her son had been frail since birth and that she had always kept him carefully, for fear he might die young. Her son had been sensible and obedient, and she had never laid a finger on him since the day he crawled out of her womb.

Ming Xiangzhao flew into a rage and began arguing with the coroner on the spot.

Both sides held their ground and neither would yield.

Wenren Yue ordered the court to be adjourned and the case to be heard at a later date.

Though Wenren Yue was upright and somewhat blunt, he was not foolish.

Wenren Yue's father was a businessman and he had dealt with mine owners whose hearts were as black as coal, willing to wring the blood and marrow from their miners' bones.

He therefore suspected that when Chang Xiaohu entered the coal mine, he had never been assigned to do accounting work at all, but had been sent directly down into the mine as a laborer.

Wenren Yue arranged to have Chang Xiaohu's body temporarily housed at a local village, and sent word to the mine's accounting office. After personally escorting the accountant there, he gestured to the five shrouded corpses and said: "Since Chang Xiaohu was an apprentice at this mine, you must know him. Which one of these is Chang Xiaohu? Please identify him."

Unfortunately, the other party was not foolish either.

Wenren Yue wrote in his suicide note: "Fang Chuan stepped inside and glimpsed a corpse. The accountant crumpled to the ground in a faint. He claimed to have been frightened and refused to look any further."

When Le Wuya read this, he could not help but smile at the image of Wenren Yue's helpless expression.

He was still too soft-hearted when it came to dealing with people.

If it had been Le Wuya, he would have had a hundred ways to make that accountant sit up from his deathbed.

What was more, Wenren Yue had made a critical mistake — worried that Aunt Su, having so suddenly lost her son, might be in poor health, he had told her to go home and rest without arranging for anyone to stay with her.

Sure enough, when she returned to court the next day, Aunt Su was a different person. She sat to one side and said nothing.

Wenren Yue proceeded to interrogate the mine foreman, and several miners were brought under escort to the yamen.

They all agreed that they had known Chang Xiaohu. This frail young man would come to the mine from time to time. He had been quite enthusiastic and would pitch in to help them, apparently having heard that working underground was more profitable. He had even followed them down into the mine twice out of curiosity.

Wenren Yue felt that something was not right.

Chang Xiaohu was in poor health, so it was understandable that he wanted to earn more money — but his body was wholly unsuited to heavy physical labor. Surely he would have known that?

But Aunt Su actually admitted it through her tears, saying that her son had indeed always been warm-hearted since childhood. He had been occasionally mischievous as a boy, and she had beaten him with a switch. She had not mentioned it last time because she was old and had misremembered.

She said a great deal in a confused and roundabout way, and the meaning behind her words was clear: she would not pursue the lawsuit.

Once the plaintiff withdrew and there was no evidence to prove homicide, the case had to be closed.

This case had no proper beginning and no end, which would have oppressed anyone with a sense of justice.

Ming Xiangzhao, burning with indignation, was all the more affected. He set aside his studies and went around making inquiries about the coal mine every few days.

Who could have guessed that three or four months later, Scholar Ming would suddenly be accused by a young man — a local troublemaker.

This young troublemaker claimed that one day, while drinking at a pub, he had overheard Ming Xiangzhao, drunk and muttering, saying disrespectful things about the reigning emperor.

At the time, the county magistrate had been summoned and was away from the county.

So Sun Rusun, the deputy magistrate, took the initiative, sending officers to search the Ming household. They turned up two banned books.

Now that there was both witness testimony and physical evidence, Scholar Ming could not talk his way out of it no matter how eloquent he was, and was sent directly to jail.

At first, Ming Xiangzhao believed that as a registered scholar, the government would not dare to punish him, and that he would at least be spared a flogging. He therefore cried loudly that he had been wronged, insisting he had no idea the book was in his home and that someone must have planted it.

But Sun Ru was resourceful. He had Ming's mother arrested and locked in the cell next to his, forcing him to watch her suffer alongside him.

Though Ming's mother was accustomed to hard labor and was physically robust, she was an elderly woman after all, and could not help but be overwhelmed by fear. Within two days, she was so weakened by shackles weighing dozens of kilograms that she could barely breathe.

It was harrowing to witness even from a distance.

He went from denouncing the injustice harshly to weeping as he pleaded his innocence.

Eventually, he no longer dared to claim he had been wronged at all, and signed a confession with trembling hands, begging that his mother not be implicated by him and left to die in prison.

Scholar Ming had always been proud and unyielding, but after suffering such a devastating blow, he became so utterly disheartened that he fell seriously ill.

Wenren Yue absolutely refused to accept this situation and insisted on a thorough investigation.

Deputy Magistrate Sun, however, stopped him with a few pointed words.

"My lord has never handled matters of this nature and does not appreciate the gravity of it. Possessing banned books and disrespecting the emperor are already capital offenses — how could he possibly confess willingly? Out of regard for my lord's reputation, I have refrained from physical interrogation. If this man has any filial piety in him, he should accept his guilt. However kind-hearted my lord may be, that mercy ought not be extended to someone guilty of a capital crime."

Wenren Yue's direct superior, a prefect named Lu, was old, dim-witted, easily swayed, and unwilling to bear any responsibility. Upon hearing that the matter involved sedition, he sighed, muttered something vague about how scholars today were not what they used to be, and immediately moved to close the matter, ordering Wenren Yue to organize the case files and submit them to the court.

Wenren Yue was pushed from above by the prefect and hemmed in from below by the deputy magistrate. Even the clerks could not be counted on to support him. He had no room to maneuver and was in a state of extreme agitation. Moreover, at his lowly seventh grade, there was no possibility of him petitioning higher authorities directly. In desperation, he had resorted to drastic measures and drawn Le Wuya into the matter.

At this point, the situation was nearly clear.

It was because Scholar Ming had stirred up trouble for Xiaofu Coal Mine over the Chang Xiaohu case that someone had poured this bucket of filth over him.

The method of framing him was simple and effective — just slip some forbidden books into his home.

Relying on this scheme, the conspiracy was straightforward and nearly impossible to contest.

His supervisor was useless, his colleagues were placing obstacles, the coroner was causing trouble, the witnesses had been bribed, and the yamen refused to give Wenren Yue a hearing.

Even if he wanted to reopen the old case and exonerate Scholar Ming by reinvestigating Chang Xiaohu's death, there were two problems: first, it was a long-term solution that couldn't address the immediate problems — even if doubts about Chang Xiaohu's death could be established, that would not prove that Ming Xiangzhao had no intention of rebellion; second, a long time had passed and Chang Xiaohu's body had decomposed, making a reversal of the case all the more difficult.

In terms of timing, location, and allies, nothing had favored this unlucky young scholar.

Anyone else in his position would have considered Scholar Ming's fate was sealed.

There was no sign of distress on Le Wuya's face. Because he was not troubled by it in the least.

He opened the county annals without pausing.

Sure enough, the "Master Chen" that Wenren Yue had mentioned was the true owner of Xiaofu Coal Mine.

His given name was Chen Yuanwei -- he was a Juren but not an official.

Seven years ago, he had relocated to Nanting County.

Five years ago, a small coal mine was discovered in Nanting County. Just as the government coal-mining policy was relaxing and allowing some mines to be operated by private parties, Chen Yuanwai used his connections and influence to secure the operating rights to this small coal mine.

Every winter for five consecutive years, he distributed some coal scraps to the market free of charge, which had earned him the local nickname "Chen the Great Philanthropist."

Le Wuya had always been impatient with reading and writing. His handwriting was famously ugly, but he read quickly and accurately.

Before long, he noticed that the county annals mentioned that when Chen Yuanwai had first arrived in Nanting County seven years ago, he had purchased only ten acres of land and set up a commercial storefront in the area.

It was only after the small coal mine came into his hands that he began purchasing land on a large scale, while also acquiring more shops — all of them centered on the coal mine's operations.

This indicated that Mater Chen's personal fortune had not been substantial before then, and that Xiaofu Coal Mine was his most important source of income and the cornerstone of his family's standing in Nanting County.

The coal mine was highly profitable, and its importance to the Chen family went without saying.

With this in mind, Le Wuya looked through the previous year's tax records and found that after the county had paid its various assessable taxes — grain, rice, gold, and silver — there was not much left in reserve.

He rested his head in thought, gazing out the window at the dim night sky.

...That small coal mine seemed quite valuable.

Perhaps there was a way to have it confiscated?

As Le Wuya's calculating nature surfaced, he had no idea that, elsewhere in the world, someone had been upending everything on his account.

A woodcutter arrived near the post house in Ningyuan County, Yizhou, at dawn.

Seeing that it was heavily guarded, he circled around and did not approach. Instead, he quietly set off three firecrackers at a spot a hundred paces from the post house.

The guards did not take much notice, assuming it was some mischievous child from a nearby family.

Though the sound of these firecrackers was slightly sharper than the ordinary kind.

Not long after, a figure walked out of the inn alone. He wore a plain uniform with a black cloth wrapped around his forehead. There was a faint sheen of sweat on his cheeks. A wooden practice sword was tucked at his waist, suggesting he had just finished practicing.

Seeing him emerge, the guard at the door immediately knelt and called out, "Sixth Prince."

The Sixth Prince, Xiang Zhijie, gave a brief nod and strode out.

The guards were so far beneath the prince in station that they dared not ask where he was going, and could only follow at a discreet distance — neither too close nor too far.

The Sixth Prince looked in the direction where the firecrackers had sounded and, sure enough, spotted the woodcutter leaning against a tree, as if resting.

The guard assumed the Sixth Prince wished on a whim to pull aside a local commoner and inquire about the price of firewood and rice rice, so he held back and did not disturb him.

Seeing that no one else was nearby, the firewood carrier turned over the pile of firewood and said quietly: "My lord, General Pei knows you are in the area and has sent me with a message."

The Sixth Prince, Xiang Zhijie, had grown considerably taller than he was four years ago. He was still a man of few words, calm and composed, with an unhurried and dignified bearing: "Speak."

The messenger lowered his voice: "To report to the Sixth Prince: 'The furnace has cracked.'"

The Sixth Prince was startled.

When he grasped what those three words meant, he suddenly stepped forward: "How can that be?"

The messenger bowed his head and said nothing.

The Sixth Prince had been extraordinarily well-trained in composure. Even though his heart was churning, he still raised his hand and patted the messenger on the shoulder: "...I understand. You have worked hard."

The firewood carrier picked up his load and departed in small, unhurried steps.

The Sixth Prince closed his eyes, lost in thought.

Then a voice came from behind him: "Sixth Brother, it is cold out. You are only wearing those thin clothes — aren't you cold?"

The Sixth Prince's slightly trembling eyelashes slowly stilled.

After a moment, he turned around and looked as composed and even-tempered as ever: "Seventh Brother."

The Seventh Prince, Xiang Zhi, wore a black fox-fur hat and a black fox-fur collar. He held a hand warmer inlaid with silver fox fur. From head to toe, he looked like a little fox who could not bear the cold.

He asked: "How much does a load of firewood cost today?"

The Sixth Prince replied without changing his expression: "Twenty coins."

The Seventh Prince laughed and said: "It must be because your clothes are of such fine quality that he thought you did not know the price of firewood and rice and overcharged you. A load of firewood in the next county only costs five coins."

Sixth Prince: "If he had run into Seventh Brother dressed as you are, he would have charged one or two silver taels."

The Seventh Prince laughed.

Though he had always found this sixth brother of his rather tiresome, the old version at least had more character than the current version. In the old days, though he would stammer a little, he had still been willing to talk and make an effort to please people, which at least made him entertaining.

These days, he either guarded his words like gold, or told jokes that were not funny at all — hardly interesting.

The Seventh Prince faintly recognized the woodcuter.

He was the son of the Sixth Prince's wet nurse. He had first served in the prince's household, and later, from what the Seventh Prince had heard, had gone to the army to earn military merit.

So it turned out he had come here as a messenger.

He vaguely recalled who was garrisoned in this area...

But there are some things that need not be exposed. It was enough to keep them in mind.

The Seventh Prince made his best effort to play the part of a well-behaved younger brother: "I have heard that a case of sedition by a scholar recently occurred in Nanting County, Yizhou, and the matter is under trial. The selection of scholars is connected to the very foundations of the state, and Father must be concerned. Brother, would you care to accompany me to look into it?"

The Sixth Prince suppressed the turmoil in his thoughts: "As you wish."

As the Sixth Prince replied, his mind turned to the teacher, whose furnace had cracked.

Perhaps he truly could not be kept in this world much longer.