Yan Liangyu held the battered Ding Xin in her arms as they huddled in the corner of the room. Niu Baishi clutched a green bamboo switch in one hand, the folds of his fleshy face twitching with fury as spittle flew from his mouth.
“You shameless slut! How dare you cry? My parents worked themselves to the bone to buy that flour, and you stole it and gave it away? What about the big steamed buns and that braised pork elbow? Speak! Which bastard did you give them to?”
Yan Liangyu’s face had gone pale, but she still glared at him and shouted, “Niu Baishi, I’m warning you—if you dare hit her again, I’ll report you to the authorities and have you thrown in prison!”
Yan Liangyu had been raised in the sheltered inner quarters since childhood. When had she ever witnessed such a terrifying scene?
Although Niu Baishi was short, he was fat and powerfully built. His broad frame was practically as wide as hers and Ding Xin’s combined.
To make matters worse, the bamboo switch in his hand whistled through the air with every swing.
She held Ding Xin tightly, trembling from head to toe, yet still forced herself to shout at Niu Baishi to stop.
Niu Baishi was a shameless thug. At her words, he sneered viciously. “She’s a whore who’s been fooling around with some wild man! Am I not allowed to beat her? Get out of the way! If you don’t, I’ll beat you too.”
Before the words had even left his mouth, the bamboo switch came crashing down.
Ding Xin saw it and abruptly twisted around, covering Yan Liangyu completely with her own body. The switch was just about to land on her thin, frail frame when—
“How dare you!”
Yan Tongshu and Yan Liangrong rushed in and threw themselves in front of Yan Liangyu and Ding Xin.
Gao Qi and Xu Qiu followed close behind, forcing their way into the room with their hands on their swords. They glared coldly at Niu Baishi.
Yan Tongshu pointed angrily at him. “Niu Baishi, this official is warning you. Since Ding Xin has chosen not to pursue the matter, you may be lucky enough to escape legal punishment. But the woman standing before you is an imperial-appointed female official. Assaulting an official of the court is punishable by thirty strokes at the least, and exile at the worst.”
Niu Baishi froze in terror, though he continued to bluster. “Bullshit! A female official? Who are you trying to fool? I’ve never heard of women being allowed to hold office!”
Niu Baishi had a bad temper—but only at home. If he truly lost control of himself outside and acted like a reckless fool with no sense of danger, someone would have cracked him over the head in the dead of night and thrown him into the river long ago.
At this moment, he was merely putting on a brave front. In reality, his legs were already shaking with fear.
Seeing that he intended to play dumb and bluff his way through it, Yan Tongshu gave Gao Qi and Xu Qiu a meaningful glance.
The two men instantly drew their swords. The cold, gleaming blades slid from their sheaths with a sharp hiss, filling the dim room with a murderous chill.
The bamboo switch fell from Niu Baishi’s hand with a clatter. His knees gave way, and he dropped to the floor with a heavy thud, bowing repeatedly until his forehead struck the ground.
“Spare me, my lords! Please, spare me!”
Yan Liangrong helped Yan Liangyu and Ding Xin to their feet. Furious and anxious, she scolded Yan Liangyu, “Why didn’t you bring more people? How could you come here alone?”
Yan Liangyu answered meekly, “People from the Niu family are usually away from home at this hour, so I brought only the female physician and sent the others to search the surrounding area. Niu Baishi suddenly came back just now and started making a scene. He was being unreasonable and wouldn’t listen to a word I said, so I sent the physician to call for help. The people she went to fetch should be here any moment.”
Yan Liangrong was trembling with anger. “You! What would you have done if something had happened to you?”
Yan Liangyu lowered her head. “I’m sorry, Sister. I know I was wrong. It won’t happen again.”
Yan Tongshu’s gaze was sharp as a blade as he advanced step by step toward the kneeling Niu Baishi. “Niu Baishi, you said you’d never heard of women serving as officials. Then allow this official to introduce one to you. The woman you nearly struck just now is a female official of the imperial court, newly appointed this year after passing the latest examination. She holds the ninth-rank position of Assistant Registrar in the Office of Law. You intended to assault an imperial official. Even though you failed, it is still a serious offense, punishable by thirty strokes of the cane.”
“No, no, no!” The liver-colored face of Niu Baishi instantly turned deathly pale. He waved his hands frantically. “M-My lord, surely ignorance is an excuse! I didn’t know. I truly didn’t know.”
He sobbed, “If I’d known she was really an official, I wouldn’t have dared even with ten times the courage!”
Yan Tongshu demanded sternly, “You wouldn’t dare strike her because she’s an official, but do you think ordinary people deserve to be beaten? What about your wife? Does she deserve it?”
“This… this…” Niu Baishi’s lips trembled violently. “She—she was unfaithful. She kept taking the good things from our household and giving them to her lover.”
“She didn’t.” Yan Liangrong stepped forward, her voice clear. “Ding Xin gave those rice, flour, and meats to her good friend Tao Yang, who had gone mad. Seeing that Tao Yang was all alone and helpless, she offered her what assistance she could. She was only acting out of loyalty and affection. You shouldn’t have misunderstood her.”
Yan Liangrong knew that Ding Xin and Tao Yang were not actually very close. But Ding Xin was unwilling to leave the Niu family, and in order to explain this unusual behavior and make Ding Xin’s life easier in the future, Yan Liangrong had no choice but to put it that way.
Niu Baishi looked unconvinced. Who would help someone by giving away fine food instead of coarse grain, sending out things their own family could barely bear to eat?
Those two steamed buns made from white flour could have been exchanged for bran and lasted them several days.
Yan Tongshu ordered, “Gao Qi. Xu Qiu.”
The two men straightened and answered solemnly, “Here.”
Yan Tongshu’s voice was cold and heavy as iron. “Arrest him and send him to the Kaifeng Prefecture.”
“No—please!” Niu Baishi desperately kowtowed to Yan Tongshu. “Please, Your Lordship! I truly didn’t do it on purpose. I really didn’t know she was an official. If I had known, I wouldn’t have dared, even with ten times the courage! Please spare me this once!”
Dragging her battered, bruised body, Ding Xin staggered to Yan Tongshu’s side and sank to her knees. “My lord… my husband truly didn’t know. Please… please show mercy and forgive him. He… he won’t dare do it again.”
Yan Tongshu frowned. “He beat you, and you’re still pleading for him?”
Ding Xin lowered her head, tears rolling down her cheeks like strings of pearls. “He beat me because I deserved it. It’s my fate that is to blame. I committed sins and incurred debts, so I must repay them. He came to help me repay those debts. He beat me willingly, and I accepted it willingly.”
“The law comes first. You cannot decide the matter according to your own wishes.” Yan Tongshu lowered his voice. “Even if mercy is to be shown, it should be the victim who asks for it.”
Ding Xin understood at once. She immediately crawled several steps on her knees toward Yan Liangyu. “My lady, please! Spare my husband. I was the one who brought this trouble upon you. It was my fault. Please, in your great compassion, forgive him.”
As she pleaded, she repeatedly struck her head against the ground, each impact resounding with a dull bang. “If you truly cannot calm your anger… then beat me instead! Let me take the punishment in my husband’s place!”
Ding Xin’s reaction was entirely beyond Yan Liangyu’s understanding. She stood frozen in place, her eyes filled with confusion and bewilderment.
How could she possibly love a man who was so vile, so ugly, and so foul-mouthed—and who treated Ding Xin so badly? Was she out of her mind?
“Forget it.” Yan Liangyu looked away. Blood had already begun to seep from Ding Xin’s forehead, and Yan Liangyu simply couldn’t bear to watch anymore. She could only call it off. “Big Brother, I’m not hurt. Not at all. So please, let it go.”
Yan Tongshu’s gaze remained fixed on Ding Xin.
Her body was covered in vivid red welts from the whip—her face, neck, arms. There wasn’t a single patch of exposed skin that remained uninjured.
Yet she seemed completely unaware of the pain.
The violent movements she had made while pleading for mercy had torn open several wounds, and thin threads of blood slowly seeped out. Even after Yan Liangyu said it was over, Ding Xin still instinctively kept her body rigid, deliberately allowing the wounds to split further.
Her behavior was far too strange.
Yan Tongshu sighed. “Since that is the Lady Historian’s wish, this official will put Niu Baishi’s offense aside for now. But if he commits another offense, he will be punished more severely.”
She turned to Niu Baishi and enunciated each word. “Niu Baishi, from this day forward, you are forbidden to lay a hand on anyone. Anyone at all. Do you understand?”
“Yes, yes, I understand.” Niu Baishi nodded frantically. “I’ve got such a good wife, willing to plead for me. I’ll never hit her again. I swear—if I ever lay hands on my wife again, may thunder strike me dead. May I die a terrible death.”
Yan Tongshu nodded, then glanced at Ding Xin from the corner of her eye.
Niu Baishi had sworn that he would never hit anyone again, but Ding Xin did not seem satisfied. Her body remained tense, while her face instead revealed a profound disappointment.
Now that the matter had been settled, Yan Tongshu and the others left the Niu residence.
Once outside, Yan Tongshu looked back.
Niu Baishi was grinning as he coaxed Ding Xin, while Ding Xin’s face was ashen and lifeless, her vacant eyes making her look like a soulless wooden puppet.
A man like Niu Baishi cared deeply about his reputation, feared being cuckolded, was easily swayed, and loved to indulge in malicious suspicions.
His pack of wastrel friends had surely spent no small amount of time gossiping behind his back. If Ding Xin had not been a virgin when she married him, he would have flown into a rage long ago. He would have been even more convinced that she had a lover, degraded her as worthless, and constantly called her a “slut” or a “used woman.”
But from beginning to end, Niu Baishi had never said anything like that. His suspicion that Ding Xin had a lover stemmed solely from the fact that she kept taking the good things from their home and giving them away.
That meant Ding Xin had still been a virgin when she married Niu Baishi.
If Ding Xin and Tao Yang had suffered the same kind of atrocity, resulting in the same psychological disorder—and if Ding Xin had gone to such lengths to help Tao Yang out of sympathy for her—
then although both victims were beautiful, young, and pitiable women, this matter had nothing to do with that particular crime.
There were far too many victims. This case was likely connected to something much bigger and would have to be investigated thoroughly.
Yan Tongshu picked up the peach whistle and raised it to her lips, blowing a barely audible note.
At that single sound, Ding Xin, inside the house, suddenly reacted like a startled bird. She looked around in panic, violently shoved away Niu Baishi as he approached her, then curled up in the corner with both arms wrapped tightly around herself, her entire body trembling uncontrollably as she begged over and over.
Upon returning to the Kaifeng Prefecture Office, Yan Tongshu summoned the constables and ordered them to make inquiries in several nearby villages, finding out how many villages had experienced similar incidents and how many victims there were.
Yan Tongshu cautioned them, “Remember, change into plain clothes and blend in with the villagers. Don’t attract attention.”
If what the female peddler had said was true and the culprit had been committing these crimes for several years, then he should continue this year as well.
Especially since Tao Yang had kept urging Yan Liangrong to run.
So many of the victims were either orphans, or came from families with few members and depended on one another for survival. Others lived in seclusion and had little contact with people.
Under such circumstances, if the culprit had managed to identify and target beautiful women so precisely, he must certainly have had an accomplice on the inside.
If there were accomplices in the villages, then they had to be even more careful not to alert anyone.
If the culprit learned that they were already onto him and refrained from committing another crime this year, it would be difficult to catch him.
That evening, Yan Tongshu sought out Yan Liangrong and Yan Liangyu. “Sister. Liangyu.”
They were family, so Yan Tongshu dispensed with formalities and sat down directly across from them. “What are you two discussing?”
Yan Liangrong looked deeply troubled. “We’re trying to think of a way to get Tao Jiang and Ding Xin to speak, but we haven’t come up with anything.”
“Coincidentally, that’s exactly why I came to find you both.” Yan Tongshu’s expression turned solemn. “Tao Yang, Ding Xin, and Lu Lan must have endured something terrifying and agonizing. Every one of them is carrying severe psychological trauma. But we don’t know what they went through, so we have no idea where to begin.”
Yan Liangrong and Yan Liangyu nodded. That was precisely why they had been unable to find a solution, despite thinking it over again and again.
Yan Tongshu continued, “But deep down, they must want the culprit brought to justice. They have reservations—they’re afraid, and that’s why they don’t dare step forward and tell anyone what happened to them. So long as we can dispel those fears, they’ll be willing to speak.”
Yan Liangyu asked, “But we don’t even know what those reservations are.”
“Generally speaking, when beautiful women are persecuted, sexual assault is the first possibility that comes to mind. I initially suspected that as well, but my conversation with Ding Xin and Niu Baishi today made me reconsider.” Yan Tongshu’s gaze was calm. “It wasn’t sexual assault. Yet the victims were all women—beautiful, unmarried women without anyone to rely on.
“Although we haven’t finished counting the victims, we can already conclude that there are quite a few. Ding Xin is beautiful and petite. Tao Yang is a head taller than the average woman and exceptionally striking; she is even taller than most men. As for Lu Lan, she is strong and capable of hard labor.
“Ordinary criminals usually choose the weak as their targets. They don’t seek out difficult victims. That gives us a profile of the killer. He must be a man. Either he is small and frail, perhaps physically disabled, and unable to defeat an adult male—or he is deeply insecure, accustomed to being humiliated, and convinced that women are weaker than he is. So he only dares choose women more vulnerable than himself as targets, venting his hatred of the world upon them. He takes pleasure in the sense of control he feels when hurting others. They must have suffered extremely severe abuse…”
Images of Tao Yang and Ding Xin surfaced in Yan Tongshu’s mind.
“Self-harm is a way of compensating for the guilt they carry in their hearts. The murderer’s abuse shattered their self-respect and pride, making them feel worthless, while also leaving a blade hanging over their heads. Take Tao Jiang, for example. She must know something. She repeatedly made sure that we would arrest the murderer, but the moment she learned that ‘everyone would be punished according to the law, without exception,’ she immediately shrank back in fear. Therefore, while being abused, they may well have been forced to do something horrifying in order to survive.”
At this, Yan Liangrong seemed to understand. “In other words… they fear that the day the murderer is brought to justice will also be the day they themselves lose their lives?”
Yan Tongshu nodded. “Judging from the severity of these girls’ self-harm, they must all be kind people. It was their guilt and remorse that drove them to the brink of collapse, compelling them to hurt themselves again and again. So I believe the crimes they committed were not truly as terrible or unforgivable as they imagine. They are simply afraid because they do not understand the law. As long as we explain the statutes to them thoroughly and make them understand that nothing will happen to them even if they speak out, they will tell us everything.”
Yan Tongshu looked at Yan Liangrong and Yan Liangyu. “But there is one problem. Too much time has passed, and the clues leading to those criminals have surely gone cold. We know nothing now, so we cannot guarantee that we will be able to arrest the culprits after these girls speak out. Besides, there is an informant in the village. The enemy is hidden while we are exposed, so we cannot attract attention by visiting Tao Jiang and Ding Xin’s homes too frequently.
“Even when we educate people about the law, we cannot treat anyone specially, or we may alert the enemy. We cannot place all our hopes on Tao Jiang and the others. More girls—girls we do not yet know about—must learn and understand the law before the victims will truly dare to step forward. And there is only one institution capable of doing that: the Legal Bureau.”
Yan Liangyu pointed at herself. “We are?”
Yan Liangrong explained, “The Legal Bureau was newly established by the imperial court, and one of its duties is to explain the laws and statutes. If we act in the name of the Legal Bureau, no one will find it suspicious. But, Tongshu, we already tried that, and hardly anyone was willing to listen. Everyone is exhausted from struggling to make a living, laboring day and night. They simply have no energy to sit down and listen to dry legal provisions.”
“Didn’t Assistant Magistrate Zhang write stories?”
Yan Liangrong sighed softly. “People in the city love listening to storytellers, but villagers do not.”
“Then put on operas and plays.” Yan Tongshu’s eyes lit up. “Find people to turn the laws we need to publicize—such as the provisions that reporting a crime can earn one a reduced sentence, and that surrendering oneself can lessen the punishment—into theatrical scripts and perform them. Once the day’s farmwork is done and everyone is resting in the evening, their favorite thing is watching a grand opera. In the countryside, those performances are packed almost every time.”
Yan Liangrong and Yan Liangyu were, after all, daughters of officials. Though kindhearted, they had spent little time among ordinary people and did not truly understand what village life was like or what the villagers needed most. As a result, they often found themselves trapped in a dead end of their own thinking.
After considering it for a moment, Yan Liangrong asked, “Should we pay performers to put on the shows?”
Yan Tongshu said, “We can invite the villagers to take part as well. Pay them to act, and let them improvise—have them voice the things they feel most wronged about and want most, then weave those into Assistant Magistrate Zhang’s story.”
Her tone was earnest. “The more genuine it is, and the closer it stays to the people’s true feelings, the more moving it will be—and the more likely it is to spread by word of mouth.”
Yan Liangrong nodded solemnly. “I understand. I’ll start looking for people tomorrow.”
Yan Tongshu reminded her, “You have to move quickly. I had the yamen runners make inquiries. Tao Yang went mad on the twenty-sixth day of the seventh month. She didn’t lose her mind immediately after being abused and brought back. It was the prolonged psychological torment she couldn’t endure—she drove herself insane. So whatever happened must have taken place before the twenty-sixth.”
Yan Liangrong readily agreed. “All right!”
Yan Liangrong worked swiftly. In just two days, she had assembled a makeshift opera troupe.
They performed in nearby villages for five consecutive days. When the other women of the Legal Office saw how effective it was, many common folk, believing the events and people in the story to be real, began coming to them for help of their own accord. The other women of the Legal Office also started organizing performers to stage operas for publicity.
With so many people working together, their efforts soon spread across more than a dozen surrounding villages.
Everyone assumed this was simply a new way the Legal Office had devised to promote knowledge of the law, so Yan Liangrong and Yan Liangyu’s opera troupe attracted even less attention.
On this day off, Yan Tongshu came to watch the performance in the guise of a younger brother, carrying Yuanzi along to support her older and younger sisters.
Yan Tongshu spread a cloth on the ground and took out some dried fish. She fed Yuanzi while chatting with Pearl, Jinbao, and the others as they waited for the show to begin.
The stage had been hastily assembled from wooden planks and stones. It stood a step or so above the ground, making it easier for the villagers below to see.
Yan Liangrong and Yan Liangyu were busy backstage, directing and coordinating everything, and had no time to greet Yan Tongshu. Pei Jin’an had come as well. He showed none of the usual arrogance of a young nobleman, rolling up his sleeves and helping Gao Qi carry things back and forth.
To attract an even larger audience, the Legal Office had also prepared free tea.
Anyone who came to watch the performance could receive a bowl of tea free of charge.
The villagers had to bring their own bowls, while Zhao Sheng was in charge of pouring the tea.
Yan Tongshu looked around. More and more villagers were streaming in, filling the area several layers deep. When there was no room left to sit, people simply found trees along the edges of the fields, climbed up them, and waited for the show to begin while fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans.
There seemed to be about as many men as women—roughly half and half. Neither outnumbered the other.
Just as Yan Tongshu was thinking this, something heavy settled against her shoulder.
“Make some room.”
Yan Tongshu turned her head and saw Qin Yi appear out of nowhere, holding a plump, snow-white cat in his arms. Lu Xi followed behind him.
When Lu Xi noticed Yan Tongshu’s gaze, he gave her an apologetic, helpless smile.
Yan Tongshu patted Pearl, who in turn patted Jinbao. The three of them silently shuffled to the left.
Qin Yi elegantly flicked up the hem of his robe and sat down. Then he gently stroked Snowfluff’s soft white fur, his eyes turning toward the dried fish in Yan Tongshu’s hand.
With unmistakable meaning, Qin Yi raised his gaze and let it fall upon Yan Tongshu’s face.
“Yan Tongshu.”
“Hmm?”
Qin Yi said, “We’re friends.”
Yan Tongshu blinked. So?
Qin Yi said solemnly, “Friends should share.”
Yan Tongshu sighed. This young emperor had been getting stranger and stranger lately.
resigned to her fate, she rummaged through her bag and took out a small bamboo tube, handing it to Qin Yi. When he opened it, he found it filled with tiny fried fish—each one carefully selected by Yan Tongshu, with its head and tail intact, plump and perfectly formed.
Qin Yi poured one out of the tube and happily held it to Snowfluff’s mouth. Snowfluff took a tentative bite, then its eyes lit up. It crunched through the crispy little fish in no time, then gazed at Qin Yi with its beady eyes, clearly wanting more.
Qin Yi laughed and scolded it affectionately for being “such a glutton,” then fed it another fish. Before long, Snowfluff was full and lay motionless in Qin Yi’s arms.
Yuanzi raised its round, chubby head and shook it, its eyes full of disdain—as if to say, What a stupid cat.
Just then, the sound of gongs and drums rang out, signaling the beginning of the performance. The lanterns around them were lit as well, illuminating the stage brightly.
Yan Tongshu turned her attention to the play.
Today’s performance was about a woman with a tragic fate. For the first sixteen years of her life, she had enjoyed a happy family, doted on by her parents. Then, when it came time to arrange her marriage, the matchmaker found her a family of equal standing. Her own family had an acre of good farmland, and so did the other family. She was pretty and gentle-natured, while the young man was handsome and well educated, with a promising future ahead of him.
With both sets of parents and the matchmaker acting as go-betweens, she met the young man several times. Although they did not say much to each other, they found that their temperaments and interests aligned, and she agreed to the marriage.
But on the day she donned her red wedding dress, the person standing before her in the groom’s ceremonial robes was not the man she had chosen. Instead, it was a short, lame man with a face covered in pockmarks.
She was horrified and resisted any intimacy with the groom. The groom’s parents leaped in through the doorway and told her that the man she had met during the matchmaking meetings had been this ugly cripple’s handsome and talented older male cousin. They urged the bride to accept her fate, saying that she and the short, lame man were already married. She belonged to him now—even if she cried and went back to her parents’ home, no other man would ever want her.
The girl refused and wept, demanding to go home. Naturally, the lame man’s family would not allow it. His parents ran outside and blocked the door, shouting in at them:
“Son, hurry up and consummate the marriage! Once it’s done, she’ll have no choice but to acknowledge it!”
“Those bastards! How horrible!”
“Isn’t this marriage fraud?”
“Oh, the poor girl! I can’t stop crying!”
The villagers were outraged and demanded that the entire family who had deceived her be beaten to death.
Onstage, the short, lame man wore grotesque makeup. Inside the simply decorated bridal chamber, lit by two red candles, he grinned ferociously and lunged toward the bride.
