The formula incident brought the forty-third year of Jiajing to an end, and the first case tried in Huizhou Prefecture in the new spring was Sun Dahe’s secret-stealing case.
Finally, Sun Dahe was sentenced to three years of hard labor and banished to work in the stone quarry, while Sun Dalang was sentenced to wear the cangue while being paraded through the streets.
On the day of the parade, crowds of people gathered.
At the city gate tunnel:
“Ah, these Sun family people are truly ungrateful wolves! Back then, when the Sun family lived by the city gate tunnel, they were so poor they couldn’t even afford proper meals. It was the Li family’s young master Jingxuan who saw potential in Sun Dahe and recruited him into the ink workshop, even personally mentoring him, leading to the Sun family’s current prosperity. Who would have thought the Sun family would be tempted by the Tian family’s reward and secretly steal the Li family’s ink formula to sell to them? This deed is utterly unconscionable.” The streets were packed with crowds gathering to watch Sun Dalang’s parade.
At this time, people whispered among themselves while waiting for the parade procession.
“I just don’t understand, do you think Sun Dahe has gone stupid? In the Li family ink workshop now, the Old Madam is elderly, and Manager Shao is old too—isn’t it obvious? Once Manager Shao leaves, Sun Dahe will naturally become the manager of the Li family workshop. That would have been a brilliant future. Why would Sun Dahe need to be tempted by the Tian family’s silver?” This was the doubt of those who understood the situation.
“Isn’t it obvious? Sun Dahe was implicated by his eldest son,” people around responded.
“That’s true.” Several people nodded in agreement.
“By the way, Sun Dahe went to the quarry, Sun Dalang is being paraded, but why hasn’t anything happened to the Tian family?” someone else asked doubtfully.
“The yamen’s doors open with eight strokes—without money, don’t enter even with reason on your side. The Tian family has plenty of people and money; throw some at the yamen, and what trouble could there be? Besides, the Tian family just offered a reward; they didn’t force the Sun family to steal. So naturally, nothing happens to the Tian family,” a worldly-wise old man said, showing his teeth.
“That’s true indeed. These days…” People on the side shook their heads.
“They’re coming, they’re coming, stop talking!” At this time, the sound of gongs came from the front, signaling the arrival of the parade procession.
At this moment, Zhenniang and Sun Yuejuan were standing on a staircase at the entrance of the Tiger Stove, positioned high enough to see over the crowd as a line of yamen runners escorted several prisoners along the road. The prisoners all wore cangues, wide and large, looking very heavy as they pressed down on their necks and shoulders. One wrong move could force a person to their knees.
Some of the cangues had turned reddish-brown, stained with who knows how many years’ worth of prisoners’ blood from their necks.
“Ah, isn’t that the young master of the Luo family?” At this time, an exclamation burst from the crowd. Zhenniang looked into the distance and saw that following behind Sun Dalang was indeed the Luo family’s young master, Luo Wenqian, though now a prisoner.
“Yes, it’s the young master of the Luo family. Don’t you know? In the imperial court, the emperor has already issued an edict—Yan Shifan and Luo Longwen have been sentenced to death by beheading. They’re just waiting for the appointed time for execution. The Luo family won’t be able to recover from this,” said an idle man on the side. Though such idlers might appear lazy in daily life, they were always well-informed about the news.
“Right, what about the other Luo family members? Why do we only see the young master?” the previous person asked again.
“I heard that some time ago, Luo Wenqian had already sent everyone away and transferred much of the family wealth too. Everything was fine, but unexpectedly, the Tian family’s second young master Tian Rongchang found out about it and informed Commander Fang of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. The Guard sent people to recover all the Luo family’s property. As for the other Luo family members, there are many rumors—some say they were killed on the spot, others say they escaped and their whereabouts are unknown. In any case, only Luo Wenqian remains in Huizhou now. Fortunately, the officials considered him a cultured young gentleman and only sentenced him to three days in the cangue, so at least his life was spared,” the idler said.
Then he grinned and added cheerfully: “Life is truly interesting—the once high and mighty, dashing young master Luo has now become a prisoner beneath others. Who knows, he might end up having to mix with idle folk like us just to earn a meal. Interesting, interesting indeed.”
The idler rambled on.
Zhenniang listened from the side, feeling quite uncomfortable. Only this idler would find it interesting, while Zhenniang only felt the truth of the words ‘life is impermanent.’
One doesn’t see him building tall towers or hosting guests, only sees his tower collapse—this was the current portrait of the Luo family.
“Move faster!” A yamen runner, seeing Luo Wenqian walking slowly, gave him a hard kick that made him stagger, nearly falling to his knees. Luo Wenqian gritted his teeth to stay upright, turning his head to glare fiercely at the runner.
His face was covered in bruises, only his eyes remained, bloodshot red.
“What, you’re not satisfied? I’ll hit you again.” The runner said, throwing another punch at Luo Wenqian’s head, then said smugly: “How’s that?”
Luo Wenqian said nothing and just stared at the runner for a moment before turning around to continue limping along with the parade procession.
The parade procession gradually moved into the distance.
‘A tiger fallen to the plains is bullied by dogs,’ Zhenniang thought.
Beside her, Sun Yuejuan watched her brother’s figure disappear into the distance, sniffed heavily, and then descended the stairs. Zhenniang followed.
“Water Uncle, do you have scissors?” Sun Yuejuan glanced at Zhenniang and asked Water Uncle.
“What for?” Zhenniang was startled by Sun Yuejuan’s look, immediately becoming alert. She wondered if Sun Yuejuan might try to attack her because of what happened to her father and brother.
Though she had this thought, she felt it was unlikely.
“Yuejuan, what do you want scissors for? What happened to your father and brother has nothing to do with Zhenniang,” Water Uncle was also startled.
“I know it’s not Zhenniang’s fault, but now that my family and the Li family have come to this, my friendship with Zhenniang is over. I want to cut robes and end our friendship with Zhenniang,” Sun Yuejuan said with red-rimmed eyes.
Cutting robes to end the friendship—Sun Yuejuan had read too many romance novels. Zhenniang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Fine, if she wants to cut robes, then let’s cut robes.
Water Uncle handed a small pair of scissors to Sun Yuejuan.
Sun Yuejuan lifted her hem, cut off a corner of her garment, and handed it to Zhenniang: “Cut off your corner and give it to me.”
“Such a good piece of clothing, won’t it be ruined if we cut the corner? What a waste. My mother will scold me,” Zhenniang said calmly.
“You…” Sun Yuejuan glared.
“Alright, alright, I’ll cut it,” Zhenniang immediately complied.
Taking the scissors, she cut off a corner of her garment, then exchanged corners with Sun Yuejuan, thinking to herself that this was a strange way to end a friendship.
“Water Uncle, do you have needle and thread?” Zhenniang asked Water Uncle.
“Yes, yes, I’ll get them for you.” Water Uncle quickly replied. As a lone old man, he naturally kept sewing supplies for mending.
Soon, Water Uncle brought a needle and thread.
Zhenniang took them and began sewing Sun Yuejuan’s corner onto the place where her corner was missing.
“What are you doing?” Sun Yuejuan asked angrily.
“Well, there’s a missing corner here, so isn’t it good to patch it up?” Zhenniang replied matter-of-factly.
“Who told you to patch it? You’re supposed to burn the other person’s corner—that’s how you cut robes to end friendship!” Sun Yuejuan was speechless.
“Oh, so that’s how it’s supposed to be done.” Zhenniang feigned sudden understanding, then slightly furrowed her brow, looking at the sewn corner: “Never mind, the clothes would look too ugly with a missing corner, let’s leave it like this.”
Then Zhenniang waved to Sun Yuejuan: “I’m going home, there’s lots to do at home. You know how my mother is—she’ll scold me if I slack off even a little.”
With that, Zhenniang left.
Sun Yuejuan watched Zhenniang’s retreating figure, stamped her foot, and then looked at the cloth corner in her hand. Finally, she took the needle and thread from the table and sewed the corner onto her clothes.
“Water Uncle, I’m leaving. It will be hard to come see you in the future.” With that, Sun Yuejuan quickly departed.
Watching the two girls leave in opposite directions, north and south, Water Uncle sighed. Such good friends, yet now their life paths diverged.
As Zhenniang walked, she looked at the cloth corner. Actually, her friendship with Sun Yuejuan wasn’t particularly deep, but her previous self and Sun Yuejuan had played together since infancy—they were truly the closest of friends. This cloth corner would be what she kept for her previous self’s sake.