Shen Ying casually pulled a runner and told him to show the way. Zheng Xi watched Shen Ying’s party turn the corner before withdrawing his gaze. Mister Huang was already back, panting with exertion, bent over his knees: “All — all — all sent down. The city gates are being closed right now. The people — told to spread the word and call them back in. They — they’ll be here soon.”
Zheng Xi was satisfied by his willingness to comply. “Let us begin.”
His voice was neither loud nor soft, its pace neither quick nor slow, without a single fluctuation from start to finish — and it set Mister Huang’s heart to trembling. This, he felt, was a far harder man to deal with than Imperial Envoy Zhong.
Mister Huang’s scheme had been to sell a favor to the new envoy while quietly embarrassing Imperial Envoy Zhong — to let him know who really held sway here. The new envoy was young and looked easy to talk to. He should be simple enough to manage. They would help him break the case and be credited for it — who knew, perhaps he’d put in a word for them at court. A young son of capital aristocracy! The Zhou Young Master who just left was also from the capital — and amounted to no more than that. A young man twenty-some years their junior, who’d maybe seen a bit more of the world — his mind couldn’t be that much sharper. More or less in that range.
Now, it didn’t seem to be going as anticipated.
Mister Huang kept his wariness up as he walked ahead, calling out, “Watch your step, Your Excellency!” — and shouting at runners and jailers to hold up torches and lanterns, and open locks, then begging Zheng Xi’s pardon for the smell of the gaol.
Zheng Xi caught the moldy, dank smell mixed with the burning torch and lamp-oil — a thoroughly “gaol smell” — but did not complain. He adjusted to the light and walked in.
Inside the gaol, many prisoners began calling out their grievances. Some shouted with full force, others with weak, faint voices. There were cries of injustice — “I just owed a bit of rent, so I was arrested, and now there’s no one to work the fields and earn the money to pay rent!” — and cries of “It wasn’t me!” and “It was that vile woman who did this to me!” and so on.
Mister Huang’s eyes were fixed front, his gaze inward — he paid these people no mind, keeping the runners leading the way, saying: “There’s a pit here, watch your step. The yamen has limited funds and can’t repair things often. Everyone who enters this place says they’re innocent.”
If this were a foolish envoy, he would have had endless things to say. Now he stayed quiet. The prefecture’s gaol was not especially large, and it wasn’t long before they reached the innermost section. “This is where the serious criminals are kept.”
Zheng Xi looked to both sides. “Separated into different sections?”
Mister Huang replied in a low voice, “Hearing that you were coming, we worked quickly and organized the case. This side is the monks and Daoist priests who came from the capital — their ringleader is a demonic charlatan, very scheming, and the whole group follows him. This side is the local fools — brought in to fill out the numbers. Imperial Envoy Zhong ordered the families of the local riffraff arrested too, but some of them are too wily and couldn’t all be caught right away. And what good would that do? Punishing their families before the case is even decided doesn’t seem right.”
Zheng Xi listened calmly. He had already grasped the deeper meaning: Mister Huang and the other petty officials had their own agendas. They resented Zhong Yi for coming down hard on them, and also wanted to preserve their long-term grip on the local area. The last thing the clerks wanted was yet another iron-fisted envoy making trouble. Better to send this one packing as quickly as possible. Officials and their underling clerks — they might share a yamen, but they were not of one heart.
This briefing from Mister Huang only reinforced something Zheng Xi had already concluded: when I return to the capital to take over the Court of Judicial Review, I must bring several people who are truly my own.
His thoughts drifting, he thought of that interesting young peddler. Just you wait.
The left cell door swung open, and even Zheng Xi was brought up short. “What happened here?”
A few figures, smeared with dried blood, were chained to the walls. The chains were short — just enough to allow them to stand up, sit down, and take one step in either direction — with neighboring prisoners separated far enough that they could not touch each other. On the wall directly facing the cell door sat a figure with long, salt-and-pepper hair and beard, occupying an entire wall to himself. Both his shoulders had been impaled with iron hooks.
Mister Huang lowered his voice. “He is the head of the group. The prefectural governor was afraid of evil spells, so he had the prisoner’s shoulder bones pierced. That way he can never use his sorcery again.”
To have endured that and survived to now — no small feat. Zheng Xi said, “Remarkably strong-willed.”
Mister Huang said, “Just tough skin. This way, Your Excellency.”
The room holding the local prisoners was somewhat better — they were not chained, and no one had had their bones pierced. A long layer of straw served as a communal sleeping mat. Someone sat there scratching himself; someone else was crying out his innocence; another lay flat, likely having been beaten during a previous interrogation. Every one of them was filthy and disheveled — but compared to those chained to the walls, their situation was considerably better.
When they saw a stranger enter, a few lunged forward to cry their grievances — then caught sight of Mister Huang alongside him and shuffled awkwardly back. Mister Huang murmured to Zheng Xi, “These are they. They normally run petty schemes and cons. A few beatings and a spell in here isn’t entirely unjust — teaches them a lesson, and maybe they’ll stay out of serious trouble in the future.”
Zheng Xi made no comment. “Let’s go out. Wait for Deputy Envoy Shen’s party to arrive — do you know the Chen family’s affairs?”
Before Mister Huang could answer, one of Zheng Xi’s personal attendants entered from outside. “Seventh Young Master, the governor has been sent home. I stayed until their household came out to receive him, then came back. Not knowing the local area well, I didn’t know which physician was reliable and left them to find their own.”
Zheng Xi gave a small nod and, unhurried, turned to leave. Mister Huang trotted ahead to lead the way: “This way — the main hall of the yamen isn’t far from here. The governor will be able to rest now that you’ve arrived — half his injury is from fury and vexation. He can’t recover like that.”
Arriving at the yamen, the city’s runners and clerks were gradually assembling. Zheng Xi did not take the judgment seat yet — hands behind his back, he surveyed the main hall by torchlight, then sat down to one side and drank tea. Jin Liang said, “Should I go receive Deputy Envoy Shen?”
Zheng Xi said, “Let the others go.”
Shen Ying was already ready to bring his two nephews from the Chen residence to meet up with Zheng Xi.
Chen Meng, his eldest nephew, had not seen his maternal uncle in twenty years — the reunion between them, natural and inevitable, brought tears and shared accounts of the years apart.
Most of the household servants were Chen Meng’s trusted people, with some who had come as part of his mother’s dowry years before — seeing Shen Ying, they called out, “Fifth Young Master, you’re well! How grown up Fifth Young Master is! Fifth Young Master is an official now! If the late First Madam knew, she’d be overjoyed!” and wept and wept.
The “second nephew,” Chen Wei, presented an altogether different scene. His mind had already begun to unravel. When asked to present himself to his maternal uncle, he said, “Nonsense! My uncle is nothing like this! My uncle is a man of firm and imposing bearing — not this sickly-looking sort!”
Chen Meng’s face changed even faster than Shen Ying’s. He managed a strained smile and said to Shen Ying, “Uncle, he’s gone mad. We needn’t lower ourselves to argue with a madman.”
“Gone mad?”
Chen Meng said, “Daring to disturb the ancestral graves — if that’s not madness, what is?” He said through gritted teeth. “He was born after I was already sent away — at that point he couldn’t even speak yet, let alone remember anything. I cannot fathom how he came to hate me so deeply. Wanting me dead, he didn’t even spare our ancestors!”
Shen Ying placed his hand on his nephew’s shoulder and said to this grieving and furious young man, “That’s enough. Things will be better now. Let’s go. Come to the yamen.”
Chen Meng exclaimed, “Uncle, are we not staying here to rest? We’re judging the case tonight?”
A faint smile touched Shen Ying’s face. “Of course — it must be a night interrogation, and it must be swift. Remember: the imperial envoy on this mission is Zheng Family’s Seventh Young Master. Zheng Xi, courtesy name Yuanguang — when you address him, remember to avoid using the characters in his name.”
“Yes.”
“This prefecture city is in complete disorder — what on earth happened?”
“First, His Majesty sent Imperial Envoy Zhong Yi to purge corrupt elements. He was swift and decisive — nearly every last clerk of the entire prefecture and its counties was arrested. Just as he was in the middle of it, Second Brother came back. He said he had a dream — dreamed of the ancestors — and came back to perform the ancestral rites. Then, unexpectedly…” Chen Meng’s voice broke between grief and anger. “There was a slip of a tongue, and I heard what they said. Uncle, I am a man born under an unlucky star. Since my mother passed, I’ve had nothing to live for. But if it meant implicating the ancestors, no number of deaths could atone for that. I had no choice but to report it to the authorities — to have the matter investigated and resolved, to put a permanent end to it.”
Shen Ying said, “Good child. You’ve suffered. Before I came, I saw your father. He said: let the law take its proper course.”
Chen Meng said, “Father has always been single-minded in his dedication to principle. Twenty years ago, he upheld the law. Twenty years later, he naturally cannot allow the law to be bent either.”
Uncle and nephew walked out side by side, Shen Ying speaking as they went. “Do you know the whereabouts of your cousin from the Feng Family?”
“What? The Feng Family? My third aunt’s daughter? Is she here?”
“Ah, then you don’t know. Never mind — let’s take care of your affairs first, and then we’ll look for her. Whether she is alive or not, we must have some word of her.”
“Which cousin?”
Shen Ying gave a bitter smile. “Which else could it be? The only one who could have been smuggled out was the one just newborn.”
Both uncle and nephew fell into a moment of quiet grief.
They went out, stepped up to the saddles, and Chen Wei was brought out as well — his attendants forming two lines with torches to light the way ahead. By this hour the sky was fully dark and the streets dim and unlit, so the party did not notice that in one corner of a dark alley, a figure was pressed close against the wall.
Once they had all left through the gate, Zhù San drew deeper into the alley’s shadows. Her footsteps were nearly soundless. She retreated several paces, then turned and quickened her steps, arriving home quickly. She walked faster with each stride, her mind buzzing with astonishment: so it was the imperial envoy arriving after all! Then who was the one I met? Oh — I heard that the deputy was a Chen relative. If so, is that Zheng the Seventh the principal?
She had never seen a real imperial envoy before and didn’t quite dare assume — but arriving home to face Zhang Xiangu’s worried eyes, she still managed to hold herself together and said, “Nothing’s wrong. The envoy’s deputy is just here to visit a relative.”
Zhang Xiangu was alarmed. “The imperial envoy arrived? What about your father’s case?”
Zhù San thought it over. She had gotten her carrying pole back — no evidence left in Zheng the Seventh’s hands — and even if he wanted to trace things back to her, it would take time. If he truly was the envoy, the first thing on his list was the case, and once the case was resolved, she could either collect her father and run, or pack up and follow her father to wherever he was exiled or conscripted. By then, even if Zheng the Seventh remembered her, she wouldn’t be local anymore. And besides — a man of such wealth and rank had more interesting things to occupy him. How long could he keep thinking about her?
Zhù San said, “I’ll go out and listen for news tomorrow.” Mainly to go and see what the imperial envoy looked like — if it was Zheng the Seventh, then this case should be fine, and Zhū Shenhan should be safe from execution. Collect Zhū Shenhan and the family would be whole again.
Neither mother nor daughter had any idea that Zheng the Seventh was at this very moment working the case.
With Zhong Yi’s prior pounding, the local officials were all somewhat afraid of imperial envoys, and they assembled with complete punctuality.
Zheng Xi, however, was nothing like Zhong Yi — disarmingly ordinary. He was not out to terrorize these petty officials and clerks. Though it was the middle of the night and he was keeping everyone up, he was perfectly courteous. “It is already quite late. Are you all tired?”
Mister Huang was the first to speak: “To serve Your Excellency is our unshakeable duty.”
Zheng Xi said, “If there is an unshakeable duty, it is your duty as guardians of this territory. If we work hard tonight and get the case resolved, Imperial Envoy Zhong and I can return to the capital to make our report, and peace can be restored here.”
What music to their ears! Please, just take that plague away with you. You leave, we return to peace. This envoy might be young, but he was truly speaking their language!
Mister Huang said, “How would Your Excellency like to proceed?”
Zheng Xi said, “I have my arrangements.”
Shen Ying arrived with his two nephews. After the three of them exchanged greetings with Zheng Xi and took their seats, Mister Huang and the others waited carefully for what would follow. Zheng Xi first questioned the plaintiff and original complainant, Chen Meng, asking him to state the circumstances. Chen Meng glossed over the part about reporting his own younger brother to the authorities, saying only: “The ancestral graves have been desecrated — the family’s descendants are grief-stricken. For fear that the curse might harm the entire household and blight the family for generations, and for the sake of Second Brother’s reputation, I wished to seize the demonic charlatan myself and interrogate him, to break the spell. But that would have been mob justice. Mob justice undermines the law of the land — and my father, being the chancellor, must himself abide by the law. Seeing no other recourse, I could only report it to the authorities. I beg Your Excellency to interrogate the charlatan in accordance with the law and restore peace to my family!”
Shen Ying silently winced. He had forgotten — Zheng Xi’s childhood nickname was precisely “Annin” — “Restoring Peace.”
Zheng Xi gave a light laugh. “Understood.”
When it came time to question Chen Wei, Chen Wei had already lost the ability to keep himself upright. When asked, “You disturbed the ancestral graves — are you not afraid of retribution?” he slid off his chair and kowtowed, begging for mercy. “I will never dare again. I didn’t want to disturb the ancestors — I just wanted that cur dead! A criminal official’s grandson — what right did he have to turn things around…”
One look from Zheng Xi, and someone moved in immediately to cover his mouth. A brief struggle, and Chen Wei’s strength gave out — and then, as if some clarity had briefly returned, he calmed.
Zheng Xi pressed: “Was the burial ground disturbed or not?”
Chen Wei said, “I just burned some paper offerings! The master was performing the rites! Some kind of master — utterly ineffective!” He shot a look of pure hatred at his elder brother — yet showed not a trace of fear toward this half-brother.
Zheng Xi then ordered the capital’s “demonic charlatan” to be brought in. The charlatan was in a wretched state — unable to walk properly, he was carried in on a wooden bench rather than a full door plank.
Zheng Xi wasted no words on this individual. First he ordered the iron hooks removed; then he ordered water to be given to the man to drink — he even nearly offered him ginseng broth. As this “demonic charlatan” recovered a breath, he still struggled to shout, “Wronged! It wasn’t me! He made me do it!”
The charlatan’s disciples followed his lead in protesting their innocence. Zheng Xi said, “Take your time and explain.”
An articulate disciple stepped forward to speak for them. They had originally been scraping a living in the capital — helping with funeral rites and memorial ceremonies, making a bit of incense-oil money at temples, and sometimes serving as hangers-on for wealthy households. Respectable people wanted nothing to do with them, but among the dissolute sons of the idle rich, they had their connections. Chen the Second had heard of them through a friend, and had come to them asking them to put a curse on his elder brother!
“We would never dare do such a monstrous thing! But he’s the chancellor’s son, powerful beyond reason — we had no choice but to trick him by saying that to perform the rite, he had to go to his ancestral graves himself. We hoped that with the ancestral graves so far away, a pampered young master like him would lose his nerve. Who could have imagined he actually took it seriously, and swept us all up and dragged us along? We truly did not dare perform any death curse — we only went through the motions, and even offered a few rounds of blessings for the eldest young master! We beg Your Excellency to vindicate us!” Finished, he kowtowed solidly.
If Chen the Second still had his wits, he would have leaped up and bitten them. He had wined and dined these people, and now he was the fool of the piece. Even his elder brother Chen Meng felt his stupidity had something almost pitiable about it. Shen Ying kept shaking his head and sighing. He had no shortage of grievances against his brother-in-law Chancellor Chen, but seeing his brother-in-law’s son turn out like this, he somehow found himself feeling a pang of sympathy for his brother-in-law. The current generation has its reckoning here and now.
Zheng Xi remained steady as a mountain, his tone never shifting. “Is that all?”
“That is all!”
Zheng Xi then had the local spirit mediums brought in and asked: “And what is your story? These men weren’t the ones who recruited you?”
The local spirit mediums began protesting at once: “We knew nothing! We weren’t even allowed near the altar. This has nothing to do with us! We were told they were running short of people for the ceremony and pulled us in to fill the numbers. We’d just be performing a walk-on part. We only wanted to earn a bit of hard-earned money — who’d have thought it would land us in gaol?”
Zheng Xi looked at the charlatan’s disciple, who kowtowed again. “To fool a rich fool a bit more thoroughly… more people, a more impressive spectacle — better for inflating the bill…”
In the end the charlatan’s camp collectively pleaded their case: “We just wanted to fleece a little money from them. We would never do something truly wicked!”
The local spirit mediums protested even more: “We didn’t even try to fleece anyone. We just wanted our meager laboring pay!”
Zheng Xi ordered the two groups separated and had each group describe the positions they had occupied during the ritual, and then describe each other’s positions. The charlatan’s group’s account of their own placements, though deliberately falsified in parts, could not conceal the position of the main altar — it was undeniably at the core of the burial grounds, with the local spirit mediums positioned at the outer edge, and a few of the local spirit mediums placed at the Chen residence itself to burn incense and recite prayers.
Only at this point did Zheng Xi order Jin Liang to bring out the broken jade hairpin and bronze bell — first for Chen Meng to identify as possible missing items, and then for the spirit mediums to identify whose things these were. The moment the charlatan’s group saw these two objects, their faces changed with obvious alarm. Among the local spirit mediums, one recognized them and said they belonged to “the demonic charlatan.”
Chen Meng said, “Your Excellency, this student does not recognize them.”
Zheng Xi said, “You naturally would not recognize them — things that should have been buried with your ancestors, and were placed there when they were interred, at which time you were absent. How would you know them?”
Shen Ying drew a sharp breath. “From the grave? In the ritual? This means…” He wasn’t foolish — neither were Mister Huang and the rest. The understanding rippled across them all and a wave of fury swept the room.
Mister Huang couldn’t stop himself from glancing at the clerk who had gone to the relay station, then pulled him into a corner and hissed in a low voice, “Why didn’t you give us a heads-up?”
The clerk was dumbfounded. “He — he wasn’t like this at all.”
Well — it was this fool who had been blind to a true dragon. Mister Huang could only accept the loss, and could only hope this great lord, worldly and wise, knew how to get along with those below him, and would leave them some leeway in small matters. The main case now had no room left for their contribution. They could only manage the minor cleanup and fine details for this Excellency, and make it neat and tidy.
With this thought, Mister Huang arched his back and carefully stepped forward to wait on hand.
Zheng Xi glanced at him. “There is no need for that.”
Mister Huang hurried to say, “This humble one also has some information to report. But Your Excellency’s penetrating clarity has left nothing for lesser men to say — all that remains are a few scraps and peripheral odds and ends.” Damn it all! He had sorted the case into order, he had separated the two groups of prisoners into different cells — that alone showed he knew who the principals were and who the accessories, that he had basically worked out the essentials. He had just needed to provide the final hint to the envoy.
And now it turned out to be a full-scale surrender rather than an uprising. The more he thought about it, the more it galled him.
Zheng Xi said, “No rush.” He gave his orders: Jin Liang would lead a team, his own envoy retinue split with the local runners to go out through the opened city gates and investigate the burial grounds through the night. He ordered Chen Wei taken into custody and allowed Chen Meng to go along with Jin Liang.
Then came the last question: “Where are the stolen goods?”
The demonic charlatan’s men clenched their teeth and said nothing. Mister Huang stepped forward. “You men make your living from this trade, so you know what penalties apply. The principal and the accessories face different punishments — but if you say nothing and get beaten to death with the cane, well, that’s what happens. The case is as good as solved regardless.”
Those words carried more weight coming from Mister Huang than from Zheng Xi, because these petty local officials — their hands were genuinely ruthless.
The charlatan’s men were still wavering; the local spirit mediums had already begun marshaling their “clever ideas” — some guessing the goods were hidden wherever the charlatans had been staying, some guessing they might have stashed them in the Chen residence right under everyone’s noses, tossing out theories that gave everyone a headache.
Mister Huang said, “Everyone quiet!” Then he stepped forward and bowed. “Do they have no family members? Send a search to the capital — out of ten, surely one or two will have relatives living with them. If those relatives had ever laid eyes on stolen grave goods in the house, they’d be accessories to a robbery as well — handled as such, that wouldn’t be too unjust. Eating the meat together, taking the beating together.”
One among the charlatan’s group broke. “I’ll talk!”
Once one opened their mouth, the rest followed.
The picture became clear rapidly. Chen Wei — a pampered, indulged wastrel born into wind and smooth sailing, with a mother who protected him every time his father tried to discipline him, and that mother was no ordinary woman, with strong family ties and a grandfather who had been a chancellor in his own right — all he wanted was to have his elder brother killed, but since his elder brother was far away, he had no idea what his elder brother even looked like. More than ten years, and the eldest hadn’t come back to the capital once, exiled as if by banishment.
And so he turned to cursing.
Then it so happened that a band of grave robbers came along, thinking to themselves: digging up the chancellor’s ancestral graves in the capital would bring the whole law down on us in no time. Let us go to his hometown — by the time anyone discovers it, we’ll have been long gone, with plenty of time to spare. Let that family deal with their own disloyal offspring.
Chen Wei, told he had to come back to the family’s hometown for the ritual, somehow failed to notice anything was wrong. He could have come back — why not simply bring an assassin?
The rest played out much as everyone had surmised. With one exception: among the local spirit mediums there was a well-respected elder of the trade, who had served as the middleman — a household manager from the Chen residence had come personally to his temple, implored him to help, and paid a deposit, after which he had agreed — only to find all of them had tumbled together into the same trap.
By the time the night was half spent, the party sent outside had returned. Chen Meng’s eyes were red; Jin Liang and his men all looked stricken. Jin Liang reported to Zheng Xi: “The coffin was opened. A body was found.”
That meant a capital offense. Mister Huang turned things over anxiously in his mind.
Zheng Xi said, “Take the suspects into custody. Have them put their seals to their confessions. Seal the stolen goods for storage and bring everything back to the capital. Tomorrow, make a public announcement throughout the entire prefecture: these were grave robbers, not a curse. It will help restore calm to the people sooner.”
Mister Huang and the rest were delighted and all said together, “Your Excellency is wise!” There were different kinds of imperial envoys. Some could pass judgment on the spot — execute the condemned, beat the guilty — such envoys generally had special authority to act with discretion. Others had to take all the evidence, witness testimonies, and stolen goods back to the capital along with their own recommendations, and lay everything before the court to make the final determination. Generally speaking, the emperor would follow the envoy’s recommendation. The envoy’s opinion was therefore more or less the outcome — only the execution was deferred.
Zheng Xi was clearly the latter type. And Zhong Yi must be the latter type as well. But Zhong Yi was hateful! He lingered and would not leave, his reach far too long, trying to use the locals for his own advancement. Dreaming!
Mister Huang ventured carefully: “And these people?” He indicated the local spirit mediums.
Zheng Xi asked the local spirit mediums: “Is there anyone among you who was once from a wealthy family, and later fell on hard times?”
The spirit mediums didn’t dare lie — they all said no.
He asked again: “Do you know of anyone in your trade who fits that description?”
The spirit mediums also said no, adding, “Even a fallen son of the wealthy would, at worst, become a hanger-on for the rich — that’s a hundred times better than the hard-scraping life we lead!”
Zheng Xi said, “Select one or two key witnesses and bring them along as testimony. As for the rest — since there was no witchcraft case, what is the point of holding them? All those unconnected parties may be released. All of you — lead more cautious lives going forward.” He added this last line and immediately felt it was rather useless advice.
Jin Liang said, “Yes.”
Zheng Xi then gave his instructions to Mister Huang and the others: “You’ll need to work a bit harder. Don’t open the city gates yet — after the public announcement is made throughout the prefecture tomorrow, help me with one more task. After that, I’ll give you your rest.”
Mister Huang had glimpsed daylight at last. He asked urgently, “What task? We’ll handle it right now.”
“Once this case is concluded tomorrow, summon the neighborhood and district heads of this prefecture. I have questions for them.”