Yan Tongshu unfolded the case file, casting off his earlier lethargy and despondency as his expression turned solemn.
Lady Qing? So Qin Xianglian really couldn't hold back any longer and was finally suing Chen Shimei?
Yan Tongshu flipped through the file. Murder to silence the witnesses? What nerve!
That bastard Chen Shimei—abandoning his wife and children, heartless and ungrateful—and now he dares to kill to cover it up?
The further he read, the more something felt off to Yan Tongshu. This assassin was far too merciful and considerate. Not only had he withdrawn in time, but he'd even pointed Lady Qing toward a way out.
Was this a hitman, or a philanthropist?
And this excuse about supporting her mother-in-law? Bizarre and flimsy.
Yan Tongshu stood up. "Let's go. Time to hear the case."
Hearing a case was still better than stamping documents.
Zhang Jiu and Li Fulin exchanged a glance and hurried after him.
Mindful that Yan Tongshu had just left the Xianlin Hall and might not yet grasp how deep Chen Sizhen's connections ran, Zhang Jiu cautioned, "Lord Yan, the woman is accusing Princess Tijia, who is the Empress Dowager's most beloved. Should we not notify the Princess Tijia estate first?"
Yan Tongshu nodded. "Yes, we should notify them."
Hearing this, bitterness crept into Zhang Jiu's eyes. There it was—the moment a case touched the upper echelons, the investigation would cease.
Yan Tongshu turned his head. "Take men yourself, and escort—oh, wait, we don't have evidence yet. So invite. Personally lead the constables over and invite Consort Chen to come face the accusations here."
Zhang Jiu froze. Li Fulin also tried to advise, "Lord Yan, Princess Tijia is the Empress Dowager's most cherished pearl. Perhaps we should suppress this for now and seek His Majesty's direction before proceeding."
Yan Tongshu stopped mid-step, scratched his cheek, and asked with feigned confusion, "Does Princess Tijia have that much power?"
Zhang Jiu's eyes darkened. "Princess Tijia is the Empress Dowager's eldest daughter and Prince Ming's most beloved niece..."
Though the Empress Dowager was not His Majesty's birth mother, she was Prince Ming's sister. In the late Emperor's final years, Prince Ming had pushed hard to depose the Crown Prince in favor of the Empress Dowager's own son. Now that His Majesty had newly ascended the throne and the realm was still unsettled, Prince Ming's faction dominated the court. Even if His Majesty wished to reclaim authority, he could not easily move against Prince Ming. And with the Empress Dowager doting on Princess Tijia as she did...
Zhang Jiu paused. "Princess Tijia's previous consort would not stay in his proper place and secretly frequented brothels. Princess Tijia personally led men to break both the consort's legs and divorced him on the spot. Afterward, Prince Ming found fault with the former consort and reduced his entire family to commoners. In the end, the former consort's family, unable to bear the gossip in the capital, left the city on their own."
Yan Tongshu stroked his chin. "So she could have me dismissed from my post?"
Zhang Jiu and Li Fulin nodded with solemn gravity.
Yan Tongshu broke into a grin. Now that's a stroke of luck!
She urged, "Then what are we waiting for? Take the constables and seize Consort Chen—don't bother with 'invite' anymore. Drag him here directly!"
Zhang Jiu and Li Fulin: "..."
Li Fulin confirmed one more time, "Lord Yan, are you certain you want Consort Chen brought here by force?"
Yan Tongshu nodded.
Li Fulin and Zhang Jiu exchanged looks, then bowed. "Yes, my lord. We'll do as ordered."
Yan Tongshu emerged into the main hall. Lady Qing, Granny Chen, Chen Yingge, and Chen Jiangge were all kneeling on the ground.
The constables stood in rigid formation on either side, gripping black lacquered staffs, staring straight ahead.
The moment Yan Tongshu appeared, the staffs struck the floor in unison.
"WEI—WU—"
The low, thunderous chant of authority rolled through the hall like a mountain wave, reverberating between the pillars and rattling the heart.
A moment later, Yan Tongshu sat down. The echoes faded, and the courtroom fell silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Yan Tongshu placed the case file on the table. "You who kneel below—what grievance do you bring?"
He had already read the file, but due process had to be followed.
Lady Qing, after days of sleeping rough on the road, was even more gaunt than she had been in the capital, her face dark and caked with dust.
Granny Chen held the two children close on either side, her face ashen and lifeless.
Clearly, accusing her own son was wrenching her heart as if it were being roasted over fire.
The two children stared with wide eyes. They had no memory of their nominal father and felt no sense of reality about him.
When Zhang Jiu had questioned her earlier, Lady Qing had already told her story once. This time, it flowed more smoothly.
Lady Qing pressed both palms to the floor and lifted her head toward Yan Tongshu. "In answer to Your Honor, this woman is Feng Qingniang, known as Lady Qing, twenty-eight years old. Ten years ago, my parents arranged my marriage to Chen Sizhen from the neighboring village. A year after we wed, I bore a daughter, Chen Yingge. Two years after that—seven years ago now—when I was five months pregnant, my husband took the family savings and support from the clan and went to the capital to sit the imperial examinations.
Four months later, I gave birth to a son, and following my husband's instructions before he left, I named him Chen Jiangge. Ever since my husband departed, I have thought of him day and night, praying for his swift success and return. But seven years passed without a single letter or word. Five years ago, in the bitter cold of deep winter, we were too poor to afford cotton clothing, and my mother-in-law nearly froze to death."
At this, Lady Qing began to weep again.
She was Chen Sizhen's lawful wife, the mother of his two children.
Even if he cared nothing for her—an outsider—how could he abandon his own birth mother, his own flesh and blood?
"A year ago, my younger brother also went to the capital to sit for the examinations, and I asked him to help me search for my husband. But not only did I fail to find my husband—my brother also vanished without a trace." Lady Qing raised a hand to wipe her tears. "Your Honor, not long ago, I was working as kitchen help at General Meng's mansion. At Madam Meng's birthday banquet, I saw my husband again. And that so-called dead husband of mine had become a princess's consort. Now he lives in wealth and glory, plump and well-fed.
After that, Chen Sizhen gave me two hundred taels of silver and told me to leave the capital and go back to Jiangzhou to live a good life. I believed him. I took my mother-in-law and children and left. But that faithless dog, that gutless wretch, sent assassins to kill all four of us. I beg Your Honor, my lord of great clarity, to see the truth and give my family justice."
Yan Tongshu felt even more disgusted with Chen Sizhen after hearing all this.
Yan Tongshu told everyone to rise, then had the constables bring stools for Lady Qing and the others to sit on while they talked.
The courthouse floor was blue stone, ice cold—kneeling too long would ruin a person's knees.
She took a deep breath and asked, "You say you encountered assassins on the road back home. Tell me the details, exactly what happened."
Regarding the assassin business, Yan Tongshu had many questions, but the file wasn't detailed, so she wanted to hear it directly from Lady Qing.
Lady Qing recounted the events of that night again. Yan Tongshu asked about specific details, and Lady Qing supplemented everything she knew as thoroughly as she could.
When Lady Qing finished, Yan Tongshu questioned Granny Chen in turn.
Granny Chen had been twenty-three when she fled famine to Chen Village and married Chen's father. At twenty-five, she gave birth to Chen Sizhen, who was now twenty-six. Counting the years, she was already fifty-one.
But this fifty-one-year-old woman had been ground down by life until she seemed nearly eighty, her hair a mess of gray and white, her frame withered and skin stretched thin over bone, not an ounce of flesh anywhere. The cotton jacket she wore had been worn for years, stiff and hard as board, hanging loose and empty over her shrunken body.
Granny Chen sobbed as she spoke: "Lord Magistrate, this old woman is accusing her own son—how could that not break her heart? He's a piece of flesh cut from my own body. When I gave birth to him, the famine had just struck, and we had no money and nothing to eat. I had no strength left in me and nearly died on that bed. Later, when Asi turned seven, his father drank too much and pitched headfirst into a field ridge and died one night. I raised him alone by washing clothes for others and picking through what people threw away.
My boy Asi was clever from a young age. At seven, he could memorize the Three Character Classic just by eavesdropping outside the private school. Later, the clan chief of Chen Family Village discovered that Asi had a gift for learning, and the whole village pooled their silver to send him to study. Lord Magistrate, you have no idea—our village is poor. For generations, not a single man had passed the provincial examination, but my Asi passed it on his second try.
The road to the capital examination was long, and Chen Family Village is poor. Everyone scraped together what they could, gathering just enough for his travel expenses so Asi could sit for the imperial exam. I never imagined he would be so heartless. He never remembers the kindness of his hometown folk, nor his own wife and child, nor even me, his own mother. I—"
Granny Chen sobbed and sobbed until she couldn't catch her breath. Her face turned ashen, and the whites of her eyes rolled back.
Yan Tongshu quickly told her to stop speaking, and had a runner bring her a cup of hot tea so she could catch her breath.
Once Granny Chen had settled somewhat, Yan Tongshu turned to Lady Qing: "Lady Qing, you say that Consort Chen is your husband. Do you have proof?"
Lady Qing nodded emphatically: "When we set out, the clan chief, the most respected elder in our village, told us that the capital had many rules, that people were questioned at every gate, and told us to bring all our documents. He said if we truly couldn't find the man, we could carry our marriage contract to the yamen and seek help. So we brought every single document we had."
The journey had been hard, sleeping in the open and enduring every hardship, and Lady Qing had kept the papers close to her body for fear of losing them.
Now, glancing away from the crowd, she took out a stack of documents still warm from her body, hidden deep in the folds of her clothes.
A runner came forward with a tray, and Lady Qing placed the documents on it. The runner carried the tray to Yan Tongshu.
Yan Tongshu went through them. There was a visitation permit issued by Jiangzhou, passage documents for the surrounding prefectures, the marriage contract between Lady Qing and Chen Sizhen, and Chen Sizhen's birth certificate, complete with his handprint and footprint.
At the bottom was a yellowed letter of vow, written in Chen Sizhen's own hand.
It read: "I, Chen Sizhen, of the Chen clan, vow that I shall never forget the kindness of my clan. Should I one day pass the imperial examinations, I shall return to my hometown to build bridges and roads, rebuild the ancestral hall, aid my neighbors, and establish schools, so that every child of the Chen clan may study and learn right from wrong."
The documents were complete, and Lady Qing and Granny Chen were resolute in their accusations. They could even send a letter to Chen Family Village in Jiangzhou to confirm the facts. Every villager could testify that Chen Sizhen was Lady Qing's husband.
With both witnesses and physical evidence so solid, would the case be settled the moment Chen Sizhen appeared?
Yan Tongshu's left eyelid twitched violently.
Left eye twitching meant bad luck. No good.
Sure enough, at Princess Tijia's manor, Li Fulin and Zhang Jiu had run into trouble.
Although Yan Tongshu had said to escort, given Chen Sizhen's status as consort, the two men followed protocol when they arrived and first notified the gatekeeper.
The gatekeeper asked their business, and Li Fulin replied: "The Kaifeng Prefecture has received a lawsuit against Consort Chen. Please ask Consort Chen to come with us to the prefecture to stand before the court."
The gatekeeper hurried inside to report.
As it happened, Princess Tijia was at the manor that day.
When the gatekeeper reported the news, Princess Tijia flew into a rage: "How dare they! Who presumes to falsely accuse my consort?"
Aunt Cuisheng, the senior maid by Princess Tijia's side, personally brought Li Fulin and Zhang Jiu inside to hear the details.
Daunted by the princess's prestige, Li Fulin kept wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, while Zhang Jiu kept a cold, expressionless face, neither pleased nor perturbed, and merely stated the facts about Lady Qing.
Zhang Jiu had personally questioned Lady Qing. He said, "That Lady Qing has documents and proof. Hers is no false accusation. Please allow us to take Consort Chen back to the Kaifeng Prefecture for questioning."
"How dare you!"
Princess Tijia had been furious enough upon hearing about Lady Qing and had wanted to drag her consort before her to settle accounts. But she was a princess, the jewel of the Empress Dowager's eye, the niece of Prince Ming, the most honored princess of the Great Wu dynasty. Her dignity absolutely would not allow some assistant magistrate to put on official airs before her.
Princess Tijia slammed the table and rose: "This manor is my manor, and here, I have the final say. What does the Kaifeng Prefecture matter? Without my command, I'd like to see who dares seize anyone within these walls!"
Seeing Princess Tijia's fury, Li Fulin hurried to explain: "Your Highness, please calm yourself. We are not here to seize anyone—we only ask that the consort come to the prefecture to stand before the court."
Princess Tijia let out a cold snort: "Li Fulin, I am a first-rank Princess Tijia, the most honored princess of the entire Great Wu dynasty. If some lowly woman can make a false accusation and have you men drag my consort away, what face will I have to show anyone from this day forward?"
Zhang Jiu argued coldly: "Your Highness, that Lady Qing holds a marriage contract and a birth certificate. A simple comparison of the fingerprints on the certificate would settle the truth. With something this simple, why should you—"
"Show them out!"
Princess Tijia refused to hear another word, cut Zhang Jiu off, and ordered Aunt Cuisheng to have them thrown out.
Zhang Jiu refused to leave, standing his ground, and despite Li Fulin tugging hard at him, he would not budge. Princess Tijia grew enraged and called in her armed guards to beat Zhang Jiu, Li Fulin, and the yamen runners out of the manor.
The dynasty strictly regulated weapons. Ordinary officials' households were not permitted to keep sabers or blades of any kind among their servants, and the only weapon they could ever wield was a wooden staff.
But Princess Tijia had been personally elevated to first-rank princess by the late emperor and given the special privilege of keeping private soldiers. The entire manor was guarded by twenty-three elite warriors.
These men were the best of the best, and the Kaifeng Prefecture runners were no match for them.
After Zhang Jiu and Li Fulin had been beaten out the gates, the hands Princess Tijia had braced against the table suddenly trembled. She collapsed back into her chair, breathless, clutching her chest and gasping urgently.
Aunt Cuisheng hurried to soothe her, rubbing her back: "Princess, please don't let this upset you. Those Kaifeng Prefecture fools don't know their place—we'll go to the Empress Dowager, we'll go to Prince Ming, and we'll make them pay for this. We'll get you justice."
Princess Tijia shook her head, but her breathing refused to steady.
It wasn't until the manor physician arrived to guide her breathing personally and prescribed medicine that she finally recovered.
Princess Tijia gripped her embroidered handkerchief, forcing back the burning heat in her eyes, stubbornly refusing to cry. Her knuckles went white as she squeezed out three words between clenched teeth: "Where is the consort?"
Aunt Cuisheng asked around and reported back: "He's in the rear garden, playing with the Little Princess."
The Little Princess was the only daughter of Princess Tijia and Chen Sizhen, three years old this year.
Princess Tijia hurled the handkerchief onto the table, the veins on the back of her hand bulging: "Tell him to get in here!"
"Yes, yes!" Aunt Cuisheng withdrew hastily.
A moment later, Chen Sizhen walked in.
He was handsome and refined, and even though he sensed the tension in the room and instinctively hunched his shoulders, his face still carried that pine-and-bamboo scholarly air, untouched by any hint of the contemptible.
Once Chen Sizhen entered, Aunt Cuisheng signaled the others to withdraw and closed the door behind her from the outside.
Chen Sizhen forced an ingratiating smile onto his face. “What’s the matter, Princess? Who could have upset you so?”
Princess Tijia clenched her teeth, struggling to contain a towering rage, and spoke slowly, one word at a time: “Your lawful wife has arrived.”
“Lawful… lawful wife?”
Chen Sizhen felt his hands and feet turn to ice. He staggered backward in terror: “Wh-what lawful wife? Princess, you must have been deceived by someone, surely?”
Hadn’t Qingniang already left the capital?
His men had seen her leave with their own eyes.
Could it be false?
Princess Tijia’s fingernails dug deep into her palms, almost drawing blood. “That woman struck the petition drum at the Kaifeng Prefecture…”
She raised her eyes, her gaze like a blade dipped in ice, piercing straight into Chen Sizhen’s heart: “…and proclaimed herself your wedded wife, accusing you of abandoning your wife and child seven years ago, and of neglecting your own mother. The officials from the Prefecture are waiting outside the gate right now, ready to take you to the courthouse for a face-to-face hearing. Chen Sizhen, you’d best tell me the truth, or I will personally deliver you to the Prefecture for execution.”
With a thud.
Chen Sizhen’s legs gave way, and he dropped straight to his knees, his face ashen. Crawling on his knees toward Princess Tijia, he seized the hem of her magnificent gown with trembling hands: “Princess, save me, save me… I beg you, save me…”
She had only been bluffing, but Chen Sizhen broke so easily. One push and he confessed everything.
Princess Tijia felt a chill rise from the depths of her heart, straight to the top of her head—cold as bone, agonizing beyond words. She shot to her feet, raised her hand, and slapped Chen Sizhen hard across the face.
Her first husband had caroused in brothels and kept a mistress on the side. Back then, she had been young, headstrong, with no tolerance for dirt in her eyes—she had personally led men to break his legs.
And now, after carefully selecting a man born of humble origins, whom she believed to be loyal, devoted, and grateful for kindness, she had hoped to prove to the world that whenever Princess Tijia chose, she could cast off a husband and find an even better consort.
Who would have thought—she’d been deceived for seven whole years.
Seven years.
Princess Tijia seethed with hatred toward Chen Sizhen. Slap after slap rained down—over twenty in all—until her arms grew weak and numb, yet it still did not quench her bitterness.
Chen Sizhen’s nature was cowardly to the core. Beaten into a swollen mess, he dared not defy the Princess.
He only sobbed and begged: “Princess, I didn’t mean it. I was forced by circumstances. That Qingniang is a shrew—she was wed to me by my mother, not chosen by me. At the time… at the time…”
Chen Sizhen was utterly panicked and desperate, grasping at any words that came to mind: “At the time, my mother feared that if I went to the capital for the examinations, I might meet danger and leave no heir, so she arranged for me to marry Qingniang. She is two years older than me, hot-tempered, always cursing—known in the village as a fearsome shrew. There was never any affection between us, no common ground. Really, Princess, you must believe me. I never loved her. The only one I have ever loved is you!”
Princess Tijia sank into her chair, drained. She was always one of great dignity, but now she could no longer maintain a princess’s composure.
Her eyes were red, one hand braced on the table to support herself, and she spoke with a mixture of anguish and resentment: “Don’t talk to me about love. I once truly believed your honeyed words. Now it’s plain—this so-called love, this affection, only we women take it seriously. You are no different from my previous consort. What you see in me is nothing but my power, my wealth and glory…”
“No, Princess, that’s not true, truly not.”
Chen Sizhen’s face was streaked with tears: “Princess, I truly love you. It was love at first sight. That Qingniang—she… there was never any feeling between us. She was homely, and when I was at home, she would constantly belittle me. And besides… she had a violent temper, never knowing how to care for another. Only you… only you would ask if I was tired… would tell me that if I was weary, I should rest, that I could wait a while.
But she—that Qingniang—she only ever pushed me. Princess, I truly know I’ve done wrong. I didn’t mean to deceive you; I simply couldn’t help myself. Princess, I beg you. Save me. If I’m taken to the Prefecture, I’ll never come out again. Princess…”
By the end, Chen Sizhen was sobbing uncontrollably.
Princess Tijia’s eyes were full of contempt. “You know you’ve done wrong now? It’s too late…”
Before she could finish, from outside came a maidservant’s anxious attempts to stop someone: “Oh, Little Princess, the Princess and the Consort are in discussion inside—you cannot barge in.”
Princess Tijia froze as if struck by lightning, her entire body rigid.
Back then, she had been able to break cleanly with her previous consort because, besides being young and headstrong, she had had no children.
But now, she had a daughter.
“Mother, Father,” came her three-year-old daughter’s tender voice from outside the door, “finish your secret talk quickly, won’t you? Wenyi wants you both to come play ball with her.”
Chen Sizhen, as if clinging to a life raft, crawled forward crying and clutched Princess Tijia’s legs: “Princess, look at our daughter—she’s only three. Could you bear for her to lose her father so young? Princess, I beg you, save me. If you save me this once, I swear, from this day forward, I will stay within my doors, devoting myself entirely to you and Wenyi…”
Slap!
Princess Tijia whipped around and delivered another blow, sending stars spinning before Chen Sizhen’s eyes.
Then the energy drained from her body, as if all air had seeped away. A single tear slipped from the corner of her eye, and she wiped it away with her hand: “Chen Sizhen, you had best remember what you have said today. If you ever dare to stray again, I will personally petition for your head to be cut off.”
The Princess had agreed to save him!
After a long daze, Chen Sizhen was overwhelmed with joy. He quickly raised his right hand and swore oath after oath, promising that he bore no second thoughts.
Meanwhile, Li Fulin and Zhang Jiu had returned empty-handed.
Yan Tongshu pondered for a moment, then first recessed the court and ordered the yamen runners to settle Lady Qing and her companions in the rear courtyard of the Kaifeng Prefecture for the time being.
Li Fulin suggested: “Lord Yan, perhaps we should first enter the palace and report this to His Majesty.”
Yan Tongshu cast him a cold glance. “His Majesty will not see us.”
Zhang Jiu was puzzled: “Why would Lord Yan say that?”
Yan Tongshu shot him a look. “Guess who it was that sent this case to the Prefecture in the first place?”
She was eighty percent certain that the assassin who had attacked Lady Qing was someone sent by His Majesty.
Yan Tongshu shook her head, walked to the magistrate’s desk, sat down, and wrote out an official document. She stamped it with the official seal and handed it to Li Fulin. “Take my written order and request Meng Zheng, Commander of the Divine Arms Infantry, to dispatch twenty Divine Arms soldiers to assist the Kaifeng Prefecture in handling the case.”
With that, Yan Tongshu stood and sternly ordered: “Also select twenty yamen runners, remove the water-fire staves, and arm them with paired blades—long swords with narrow edges, short swords with wide edges.”
Li Fulin shuddered. “This… Lord Yan, absolutely not!”
Yan Tongshu let out a cold snort. “I am the acting Prefect of Kaifeng, the highest authority in this Prefecture. I act according to the law—what is impermissible? If Princess Tijia and the Empress Dowager are displeased, they may have me dismissed.”
She had been wanting to quit for a long time.
Worse than a beast of burden.
Before the words had even faded, Yan Tongshu was already striding out of the courtroom with long, quick steps: “Since Magistrate Li is unwilling to muster the men, I myself will do it. Assistant Magistrate Zhang, proceed at once to the Divine Arms to request reinforcements.”
Li Fulin stood rooted to the spot, gaping in disbelief.
So this was the so-called “overly upright” Lord Yan?
He had been an official for over a decade and had never seen anyone this reckless.
"Tell me, how could anyone do things this way?" Li Fulin tugged at Zhang Jiu, only to see him gazing at Yan Tongshu's retreating figure, those ink-black jade-like eyes stirring slightly, a complex look in them.
In an instant, Zhang Jiu let out a light chuckle, and snatched the official letter from Li Fulin's hand: "Since Magistrate Li harbors such misgivings, let this official make the trip to the Divine Guard Army instead."
With that, Zhang Jiu strode away.
Li Fulin's mouth fell open. He had thought that Zhang Jiu, after that incident, had learned to be more tactful—but now he was acting like a fool all over again?
