It was Wu Chang, the head eunuch from Fengtian Hall, who had arrived.
His gaze fell upon Su Jin. He placed his whisk over his left wrist, and his already joyful tone became even more respectful. “Oh my, Lord Su is here as well.”
Among the palace eunuchs, those with any rank at all customarily addressed supervising censors as “Censor,” but only those of the fourth rank or above were addressed as “Lord.”
Qian San’er’s smiling eyes curved like new moons. “From Eunuch Wu’s tone, does our Imperial Censorate have good news?”
Wu Chang smiled and said, “Most likely. In any case, it’s not bad news. This humble servant first congratulates Lord Su and congratulates Lord Liu and the Imperial Censorate.” He then looked at Su Jin, bowed, and made a gesture of respectful invitation. “Lord Su, His Majesty summons you to Fengtian Hall for an audience. Please come with me.”
Su Jin nodded once, bowed farewell to Liu Chaoming and the others, and left with Wu Chang.
Upon arriving at Fengtian Hall, aside from Emperor Jingyuan seated high upon the dragon throne, standing at the lower right were Grand Court of Judicial Review Minister Zhang Shishan, Minister of Personnel Zeng Youliang, and Secretariat Drafter Shu Huan.
Su Jin performed a full prostration, kneeling with her forehead to the ground. “This subject, Supervising Censor Su Jin of the Imperial Censorate, greets Your Majesty.”
However, Emperor Jingyuan did not respond.
Fengtian Hall fell silent for a time. Su Jin could only remain kneeling with her face pressed to the ground, unable to move.
After approximately the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, a voice finally drifted down leisurely from above. “Minister Su, when you went to Suzhou Prefecture to handle the ‘forged imperial seal documents’ case, you seemed to have submitted a memorial pleading for leniency for the Suzhou prefect and magistrate?”
Su Jin’s heart tightened. “In response to Your Majesty, yes.”
Emperor Jingyuan circled and marked draft proposals with his brush while saying, “Your memorial was delayed on the road. By the time it reached my imperial desk, the men were already dead.” He paused. “But I remember that your memorial seemed to include a line saying ‘the evidence points to the man surnamed Wu and his accomplices as the perpetrators. The Suzhou prefect and magistrate were intimidated by his威 and dared not speak out—they were truly implicated,’ requesting that I show leniency in their punishment?”
As he spoke, he set down his brush, his tone still leisurely. “Minister Su, this phrase ‘intimidated by his威’—威 of what?”
The Brocade Guard answered to His Majesty. That man surnamed Wu had falsely posed as a Brocade Guard commander. Behind his borrowed authority, wasn’t it precisely the current emperor?
Su Jin remembered that when she had uncovered the “forged imperial seal documents” case, she had submitted two memorials. The first had already explained the true situation—that only the man surnamed Wu and his accomplices were involved, and that all the officials, major and minor, in Suzhou had been deceived.
Unexpectedly, when the palace’s edict came down, it still ordered that the Suzhou prefect and magistrate be beheaded and displayed as a warning. She felt deeply guilty and thus submitted a second memorial pleading for their lives, but it sank without a trace.
Half a month later, she suddenly received a letter from Liu Chaoming. Its tone was extremely harsh, rebuking her for disturbing the Emperor’s ears—a crime punishable by death.
In over a year away on inspection, Liu Chaoming had only written to her twice. The first was when she was in Huguang Circuit and had taken personal risks to obtain evidence of the Provincial Administration Commissioner’s embezzlement. He had sent a letter asking about her injuries and rebuking her reckless actions, but his tone was still relatively mild.
However, this second letter was full of reproach throughout. At the end, there was also a passage—
Those who cannot retreat and seek second-best options will die; those who cannot endure what ordinary people cannot endure will die; those who cannot think thrice before acting will die.
When the Way is not practiced, the wise go too far and the foolish fall short. (Note 1)
Su Jin turned these two sentences over in her mind, then bowed. “In response to Your Majesty, this subject was reckless. This subject did not understand Your Majesty’s intent or Your Majesty’s heart. Later, seeing that the tally system was implemented smoothly and officials everywhere changed their old ways, I realized that Your Majesty executed the Suzhou prefect and magistrate to set an example for officials throughout the realm. Those two men—” Su Jin kept her face pressed to the ground, forcibly suppressing a trace of grief in her eyes, and said calmly, “—died for a worthy cause. Your Majesty’s vision extends far—this subordinate cannot yet match it.”
Emperor Jingyuan looked at her deeply, then said nonchalantly, “Very well. Rise and speak.”
He then asked about various cases over the years and about the Huguang river channel construction project. Su Jin answered everything, with nothing amiss.
After Su Jin left Fengtian Hall, Emperor Jingyuan said, “Minister Zhang, I heard that when Su Jin passed the imperial examination years ago, she spent some time editing texts with you at the Hanlin Academy, making her half your student. What do you think?”
Zhang Shishan clasped his hands in a bow. “In response to Your Majesty, this person is more steady and composed than in the past. Their brilliance is restrained yet does not lack keen intelligence. They can be called a great talent fully formed.” He continued, “They actually remind this subject of Lord Liu when he first entered officialdom.”
Emperor Jingyuan glanced at him and shook his head. “Liu Yun is different. He grew up in the Liu family. How does the Liu family raise their children? Preserve heavenly principles, eliminate human desires—they polish a person smooth from childhood. If one’s aptitude is ordinary, their whole life passes this way. If occasionally there’s a prodigy with exceptional talent whose brilliance is too intense but cannot grow outward, what happens? It can only grow inward. On the surface all seems well, like warm jade in water. But if you peel it open, the heart inside is full of thorns.”
Secretariat Drafter Shu Huan said, “Then in Your Majesty’s view, is Liu Yun ordinary or extraordinary?”
Emperor Jingyuan gave a cold laugh. “What do you think?” He then changed the subject. “This Su Shiyu has a proud bearing. From the beginning, I thought that if he was willing to restrain his brilliance and temper his heart and emotions, his future would certainly be promising. Now that great talent has initially formed, Minister Shu, draft an edict promoting him to Assistant Chief Censor of the fourth rank.”
Shu Huan acknowledged and immediately withdrew to a nearby desk to write.
Zeng Youliang said, “Your Majesty, this Su Jin was promoted from an eighth-rank magistrate to seventh-rank censor less than two years ago. Now to promote her three ranks again—isn’t that rather inappropriate? Moreover, the rank of censor is inherently different from other high officials.”
This was not untrue. Censors held supervisory authority. A seventh-rank censor could impeach prefecture-level officials, while this fourth-rank Assistant Chief Censor could already impeach ministry hall officials. (Note 2)
Who knew that upon hearing this, Emperor Jingyuan would pick up a memorial from his desk and laugh with a “hmph.” “You still have the face to bring this up? Do you think I don’t know what happened five years ago?”
Zeng Youliang was so frightened he knelt on the ground. “In response to Your Majesty, if Your Majesty is asking about Censor Su’s demotion back then, this subject was ill at the time and kept in the dark. When I later learned of this matter, I also felt deep regret.”
Emperor Jingyuan turned another page of the memorial, then suddenly said dismissively, “However, Minister Zeng has a point.”
Upon hearing this, Shu Huan, holding the drafted edict, asked, “Your Majesty, shall this edict be proclaimed or not?”
Emperor Jingyuan glanced at his desk. “Wu Chang, take it to the Imperial Censorate.”
Wu Chang held the edict high and withdrew.
Emperor Jingyuan set down the memorial in his hands. “Liu Yun is extremely wise, knows when to advance and retreat, and though he appears to have feelings, in truth he is without feeling. The court cannot lack such people.”
He then sighed deeply. “It’s a pity. I am old. In a few more years, you too will be old, about to die. When the new emperor ascends, who should lead the court in the future? This resplendent great hall ultimately cannot have only one Minister Liu.”
“People whose hearts have grown thorns—their hearts have been hollowed out completely. How frightening.”
Su Jin had just returned to the Imperial Censorate when the edict from Fengtian Hall also arrived, along with a reward of three hundred taels of silver.
Wu Chang joked, “This reward includes the three cases over the years along with this promotion—Lord Su should not think it too little.”
Su Jin returned the courtesy. “Eunuch Wu jests.”
Liu Chaoming glanced at Su Jin and said coolly, “Since you’ve been promoted to Assistant Chief Censor, first go change into your official robes.” He then instructed, “Zhao Yan, first take her to see the various places in the Imperial Censorate, then come together to the public hall to see me.”
The Imperial Censorate was similar to the various ministry yamens. Besides several public halls, it also had duty lodges for officials on night watch. The duty chambers for the four hall officials (Note 3) were beside the duty lodges. There were also document archives, interrogation rooms, and trial chambers.
Su Jin walked to a door that resembled a prison cell and couldn’t help but stop.
Two guards who looked like jailers stood before the door. There was no horizontal plaque hanging from the eaves, but a sign hung on the left side of the door: “Dark Chamber.”
Su Jin asked doubtfully, “Lord Zhao, what is this place used for?”
Zhao Yan’s expression became somewhat unpleasant. After a pause, he said, “It’s also for interrogating criminals.”
He had always had an inexplicable feeling—although he was nominally second-in-command of the Imperial Censorate, he had never been exposed to the core of the office’s affairs. And this dark chamber gave him the most direct sense of this. Ordinarily, apart from Liu Chaoming, only Qian San’er could occasionally enter.
Su Jin was somewhat surprised. “Aren’t there already several interrogation and trial rooms?”
Zhao Yan averted his gaze and only said, “This… I don’t know either. There are always some cases that Lord Liu must personally interrogate.”
But what exactly was he personally interrogating?
Zhao Yan still remembered that after Zeng Ping’s corpse was carried out, he had gone to look at it once. Of ten toes, only one remained. His left hand was gone, his eyes gouged out. Though his arms and legs were still there, all the bones inside had been shattered.
What kind of interrogation required such severe torture? He clearly remembered that Zeng Ping had already confessed and signed the confession.
But this wasn’t even the worst.
He remembered that not long ago there was another one who, when carried out, was just a jar. It turned out that his hands and feet had all been cut off and he’d been pickled into a human pig.
These people who were sent inside—when they came out, they had only one thing in common: their tongues were still there.
For a moment, Zhao Yan didn’t know how to answer if Su Jin asked further. Fortunately, the sound of someone seeking an audience came from outside the gate. Su Jin found the voice somewhat familiar. Her heart leaped with joy, and she bowed to Zhao Yan. “Your Lordship, the visitor sounds like this subordinate’s old friend. This subordinate would like to go see.”
Zhao Yan breathed a sigh of relief and nodded. “Go ahead.”
Su Jin walked to the front hall. It turned out that Zhou Ping had brought Feng Mengping to the Imperial Censorate.
After she left the capital, the original capital yamen vice magistrate Sun Yinde had been transferred to become a vice minister in the Ministry of Works. Subsequently, Yang Zhiwei had petitioned the palace for an edict appointing Zhou Ping to take over as vice magistrate.
Su Jin quickly stepped forward, stood in the courtyard, and called out with a smile, “Gaoyan.”
Zhou Ping was negotiating with Censor Yan Xiu. Hearing the voice, he turned his face around. Upon seeing Su Jin, his eyes also showed extreme joy. He walked forward several steps and grasped her hands. “Shiyu, you don’t know—yesterday when I heard from Lord Yang that you’d returned to the capital, I was so happy I couldn’t sleep all night. Before dawn today, I brought Feng Mengping to the Imperial Censorate, but I was delayed at Chengtian Gate for a while and nearly died of anxiety.”
Su Jin’s eyes also held a joyful gleam as she said, “Me too. As soon as I returned to the capital, I wanted to go see you, but unfortunately I ran into a case. Gaoyan, has this past year been satisfactory for you?”
Zhou Ping was about to answer when Liu Chaoming, having appeared from the public hall at some unknown time, looked at the bound Feng Mengping, then at Su Jin and the other person, and suddenly said coldly, “Kneel.”
—
**Author’s Note:**
Note 1: Taken from the “Doctrine of the Mean.” The original sentence is “The reason the Way is not practiced, I know: the wise go too far, the foolish fall short.” It means: “The reason the doctrine of the mean cannot be implemented, I know: intelligent people are self-righteous and understand too much; foolish people lack the intellect and cannot comprehend it.”
Liu Chaoming said this to tell Su Jin not to be too clever—to know when to stop.
Note 2: In early Ming, seventh-rank censors could impeach high officials. In this story, to limit the Imperial Censorate’s power, only fourth-rank censors can impeach hall officials. This is purely a fictional rule.
Note 3: The four hall officials are the Left and Right Chief Censors, and the Left and Right Vice Chief Censors. Currently, the position of Right Vice Chief Censor is vacant.
Thirteen will appear tomorrow~