“Hey!” The yellow-dressed young girl named Cai Wei blinked her beautiful eyes. “Why can salt be turned into silver?”
She hesitated for a moment, then pulled out a sugar cane and handed it to Xu Qi An. “Here, have this.”
Is she trying to bribe me?
The two adults had already disappeared. Xu Qi An withdrew his gaze and, after some thought, replied, “This commoner once saw an alchemical secret text in ancient books about turning salt into silver.”
The yellow-dressed girl’s eyes widened. “Which ancient book? Where is it? Who’s the author?”
Its name is ‘High School Chemistry’, and as for the author… well, the People’s Education Press? Xu Qi An said, “The ancient text has long been destroyed, but I still remember its contents.”
The yellow-dressed girl’s breathing quickened. “Quick, tell me!”
Xu Qi An sighed. “This commoner’s life is in peril. I’m not in the mood to teach.”
The yellow-dressed girl gave him a side-eye and said irritably, “You’re quite slick. Our Sky Monitoring Bureau doesn’t interfere with state affairs. How to deal with you is still up to His Majesty. There’s no point in haggling with me.”
“Why don’t you just take me in? With the Supervisor’s position in the court, getting a convicted criminal shouldn’t be a problem,” Xu Qi An said.
He needed to add insurance for himself. What if the tax on silver couldn’t be recovered?
The yellow-dressed girl’s bright eyes moved up and down, examining him. “You’re a martial artist. Why do you want to be a sorcerer?”
Cultivation should start early. Most cultivators lay their foundations from a young age. It’s too late for a martial artist to switch to sorcery now.
“It doesn’t matter whether I latch onto a powerful patron or not. I mainly admire the Supervisor’s demeanor,” Xu Qi An said with a devout tone and serious expression.
“Then first tell me the contents of the alchemy ancient text,” she said thoughtfully. The girl’s eyes were clear and bright, large almond-shaped eyes with jet-black pupils, distinct in their black-and-white contrast.
Xu Qi An had only seen such clean and beautiful eyes on children in his previous life.
“The content is somewhat abstruse and profound. Merely reciting it orally, I’m afraid you won’t understand. It requires in-depth and gradual teaching to take root,” Xu Qi An baited.
Chu Cai Wei rolled her eyes, unconvinced. “Throughout the Nine Provinces, when it comes to alchemy, our Sky Monitoring Bureau’s sorcerers are at the forefront.”
“Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorus…” Xu Qi An recited fluently.
“???”
What on earth is he saying? The girl was dumbfounded for a while, then furrowed her brows. “You’re fooling me. Our Sky Monitoring Bureau only takes in young boys as disciples.”
She snatched back the sugar cane from Xu Qi An’s hand.
She walked away with light steps, her skirt fluttering.
I’m a virgin too… Xu Qi An opened his mouth and then understood. The Sky Monitoring Bureau recruits disciples from childhood.
Well, that path is closed.
…
Two days passed in a flash. Xu Qi An spent them in fear and trepidation in his jail cell.
He was afraid the tax silver wouldn’t be recovered in time. If it happened after he was exiled, even if it was recovered, it wouldn’t change the outcome.
Then, what if Magistrate Chen was a rotten scoundrel and claimed all the credit? It would still be a dead end.
But there was nothing he could do. He had done all he could. What more could a prisoner do?
Once again, Xu Qi An felt the terror of feudal society.
“Let fate decide…” Xu Qi An sighed mournfully.
“Clang!”
The iron door at the end of the corridor opened. A jailer holding a fire stick entered and took out a key to open the door. “Xu Qi An, you can go now!”
Xu Qi An was overjoyed and clenched his fists tightly. “Has the tax silver been found?”
“Come with me to sign and fingerprint, then you can leave.” The jailer looked him over. “You’re one lucky bastard.”
“What about my Second Uncle?” Xu Qi An asked urgently.
“Stop talking nonsense, just follow me.” The jailer had a volatile temper and smacked Xu Qi An’s buttocks with the fire stick, hurrying him out of the cell.
Under the arrangement of a clerk at the yamen, he signed and fingerprinted, then received the clothes that had been taken from him when he was thrown into jail from the jailer.
A yamen runner led him out of the Beijing Prefecture yamen through the back door.
At this time, the east was dimly lit, and the streets were quiet and cold.
…
Clang!
Xu Pingzhi was awakened by the sound of the iron door opening. He opened his eyes, his eyeballs bloodshot.
The disheveled Xu Pingzhi’s features somewhat resembled Xu Qi An’s, while his biological son Xu Xinnian’s features were too handsome, quite different from the two of them.
In the opposite cell across the corridor, Li Ru, who had been in a deep sleep, shuddered and woke up. Her face was haggard, showing an expression of extreme fear.
The couple looked at each other across the corridor. Li Ru said mournfully, “My lord, even if I die, I won’t enter the Courtesans’ Training Institute.”
She was thirty-five years old and well-maintained, a beautiful woman in her prime. Even after five days of fear and worry in prison, despite her haggard appearance, she still couldn’t hide the charm in her eyes and brows.
What kind of place was the Courtesans’ Training Institute?
It was hell for women.
The battered Xu Pingzhi opened his mouth but couldn’t speak. Suddenly, tears streamed down his face. “My wife, I’ve let you down. Let’s go to the underworld together. In the next life, I’ll be your ox or horse to make it up to you. It’s just a pity for our children, and my nephew.”
Five days had passed. What awaited him was execution by beheading, and what awaited the women of his family was the Courtesans’ Training Institute. Besides Li Ru, the Xu family had two daughters, one sixteen years old and the other five.
They were curled up in the corner of the cell and were also awakened at this time.
The five-year-old girl rubbed her eyes, murmuring “Mother”. She was unaware of her fate.
The sixteen-year-old girl sat up. Her disheveled hair framed an oval face, fair and smooth. Her small mouth was thin and rosy, her eyes large and expressive. Her nose, unlike that of most women, was not small and delicate but straight and prominent. This gave her features a particularly three-dimensional and exquisitely beautiful appearance.
She had a kind of static, sculpted beauty.
She instinctively moved closer to her mother, her thick eyelashes trembling slightly with fear.
Several jailers with swords at their waists strode in.
In Li Ru’s eyes flashed despair and determination.
Xu Pingzhi gripped the bars tightly, his knuckles white, his teeth clenched. Losing the tax silver and dereliction of duty, he admitted he deserved death, but to implicate his wife and daughters, he couldn’t rest in peace.
Especially the young daughter, only five years old, to be sent to the Courtesans’ Training Institute to be raised, her future was bleak.
As parents, how could they be reconciled to this?
“Xu Pingzhi, come with us. After signing and fingerprinting, you can leave,” the jailer opened the cell door without shackling them, standing in the corridor, tapping the bars with the sword hilt, indicating they should come out on their own.
“Xu Pingzhi has been patriotic and loyal all his life, the whole family loyal… Eh, what did you say?” Second Uncle Xu doubted his ears.
What do you mean?
“Can leave? You just said we can leave.” Xu Pingzhi couldn’t believe it for a moment. “What’s going on? Aren’t you taking me out for beheading?”
“Don’t know,” the jailer said impatiently. “These are orders from above. If you want to know, ask when you get out.”
Li Ru was confused and uneasy, holding her two daughters’ hands. The family followed the jailers silently towards the end of the corridor.
“My, my lord… they’re not tricking us, are they?”
“How could they be so frivolous?” Xu Pingzhi was injured and walked with a limp. He was also confused, feeling both the joy of escaping a great calamity and the bewilderment of not understanding the situation.
Li Ru had a thought. “It must be Xinnian. Surely Xinnian has been running around these past few days, pulling strings for us, making the court show leniency.”
The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed. She excitedly said, “My lord, don’t forget, Xinnian’s teacher was the Deputy Minister of Justice twenty years ago.”
Twenty years ago… That was so long ago… Xu Pingzhi felt something was off, but he couldn’t think of anyone else he could rely on in the official circles, given that he had no powerful backers.
“Perhaps,” he said.
“I always said our Xinnian was a dragon among men. Back then, I wanted him to practice martial arts, but you wouldn’t agree. You insisted on having that little brat Xu Qi An practice martial arts instead.”
“Mommy, bunnies are so cute. I want to eat a bunny,” the young daughter looked up with her small face, chewing on her little finger, her eyes spelling out “hungry”.
“All you think about is eating…” The hot-tempered Li Ru scolded reflexively, but looking at her young daughter’s dirty little face, her expression immediately softened. “Be good, you’ll have a bunny to eat soon.”
Xu Pingzhi couldn’t be bothered to explain to her that “your son has no talent for martial arts.” No matter how many times he said it, his wife would automatically ignore it.
In a mother’s eyes, her son is always the most outstanding.
When they reached the place for signing and fingerprinting, Xu Pingzhi took the brush from the yamen clerk. His fingers trembled slightly as he signed his name and pressed his fingerprint. Xu Pingzhi felt as if he had achieved some kind of transcendence.
It was like a seed buried deep in the ground sprouting and seeing the sunlight.
The world suddenly became so beautiful, even though not a single copper coin had been added.
His wife and daughters didn’t need to sign their names, they just pressed their fingerprints.
Xu Pingzhi couldn’t contain his curiosity and cupped his hands, asking, “Sir, may I ask why our crimes have been pardoned?”
Li Ru immediately looked at the clerk.
“The case has been solved. The tax silver has been recovered,” the clerk replied.
“The tax silver has been recovered? Haha, good, good! Those damn demons, how dare they rob our Great Shang’s tax silver.”
Second Uncle Xu was quite excited. After laughing, he realized that according to Great Shang’s laws, although the tax silver had been recovered, his dereliction of duty was still true.
The recovery of the tax silver wasn’t his achievement. Why would the court pardon him?
Even if they were lenient, he should still be exiled to the frontier.
“Lord Xu, here is your official robe. Keep it safe,” the clerk presented the green robe of a seventh-rank military official that had been taken away earlier.
Even restored to his original position… Xu Pingzhi realized something was amiss. As he took the official robe, he said in a deep voice, “Sir, could you enlighten me?”
With the official robe in hand, the title “this official” came out with some confidence.
By rights, even if pardoned from death, he shouldn’t be restored to his original position.
“According to the laws of Great Shang, if an elder in the family violates the law, the children can atone for their father’s crime by meritorious service,” the clerk said.
“It was Xinnian. My lord, Xinnian helped the court recover the tax silver,” Li Ru wept with joy.
“Xinnian…” Xu Pingzhi’s eyes moistened. “My good son.”
The clerk glanced at the excited couple and said, “It was your nephew Xu Qi An. He helped the Magistrate solve the tax silver case. He just left.”