As the head of a great clan, Old Man Dou was undoubtedly qualified. He had prepared an enormous net early on for Yun Ye, planning to trap the small Yun family within it and then strangle them. He had carefully studied all the memorials his relatives and friends had prepared to impeach Yun Ye, scrutinizing every word and sentence for possible loopholes.
Yun Ye’s twisted logic and fallacies, Yun Ye’s arrogance, Yun Ye’s self-proclaimed status as a divine son without self-awareness, his origins, his background, his acceptance of bribes in Longyou, his business dealings in Guanzhong, forcibly indoctrinating students with his personal theories, with suspicions of misleading the young…
Three men make a tiger—spreading rumors and submitting memorials was the responsibility of censoring officials. The last time these people were used was during the Wude years. Liu Wenshi, as a founding minister, had fallen under the verbal and written attacks of these people. These dozens of memorials should strip Yun Ye of his title completely. Once he lost the Marquis Lantian title, the Yun family would be meat on the chopping block for him to handle as he pleased. He had even considered the reactions of the Cheng family, the Niu family, and Li Jing’s family, and made detailed arrangements accordingly. Looking at the dense list of interest exchanges on his desk, these three families should be satisfied. Great clans were all bound by interests. In the face of these benefits, what difficulty was there in abandoning the small Yun family?
A mayfly shaking a tree, a mantis blocking a chariot—just a young fellow whose head had been muddled by excessive righteousness, destined to vanish in smoke and ash today. The glory of Marquis Lantian could only be like a meteor streaking across the night sky, brilliant for a moment, while the Dou family was the bright moon in that night sky, continuing to shine brilliantly as always.
He heard that riders dispatched by the Yun family were posting notices everywhere. He smiled indifferently—this was merely the Yun family’s death throes. He said to Dou Yanshan, when you kill a dog, won’t you allow the dog to bark a few times before dying?
Hearing that Yun Ye had gone out to file charges, Old Man Dou laughed even more happily. He didn’t believe Chang’an County Magistrate Zuo Kui had the guts to accept the complaint. As long as the complaint wasn’t accepted, would Yun Ye actually come knocking himself? If he was that brainless, the Dou family would prepare dozens of lives for Yun Ye to take—there was nothing to worry about.
The only thing that worried him slightly was that no news had come from Longyou. Originally there was contact once a month—this was routine. The chief steward in Longyou had actually not sent a messenger this time. Although over the decades there had been a few times when messengers had accidents on the road, was it the same this time?
Yun Ye entered the county yamen? This made Old Man Dou somewhat angry. Did Zuo Kui have to give face even to a dying man? Standing in the Dou family courtyard, one could see the flying eaves of Taiji Hall in the distance. This was a piece of scenery Old Man Dou had deliberately preserved. Every time he watched the sun set from that corner of the eaves, he couldn’t help but let his imagination run wild.
Yet there was still no news from there. The lifeless court—when would it show some decisiveness? Did they need to discuss such a small marquis for so long? Didn’t the emperor always want to reduce titles? This old man was delivering one to him—why hadn’t he reached a conclusion yet?
Old Man Dou grew anxious. Yun Ye’s words were brought back by the stewards without missing a single character. Especially when he heard that ten thousand people had spat curses at the Dou family together, his hands trembled and the veins on his neck danced. The prestige the Dou family had accumulated over a thousand years was destroyed in an instant.
A lowly brothel woman could completely ruin the Dou family’s reputation, more precious than gold, leaving nothing behind. Without needing to think about it, from this day forward, if the Dou family wanted to escape the label of being a human candle family, it would be pure fantasy.
“The Yun family’s merchants rode fast horses as soon as the city gates opened, carrying proclamations slandering our Dou family out of the city. I heard that as soon as they left the city, they scattered in all directions. This old servant thinks they won’t rest until they’ve plastered the proclamations all over Guanzhong.”
The white-haired old steward reported the progress of events to the family head in detail.
Old Man Dou lay on a low couch with tears streaming down his aged face. Yun Ye’s attack was too vicious. The most fragile thing in this world was a person’s reputation. To establish a good reputation required the efforts of many generations, but to destroy someone’s reputation didn’t require much effort at all. This time, to deal with Yun Ye, the Dou family’s losses were too catastrophic. Even if they uprooted the Yun family completely, it couldn’t offset this loss. For the first time, Old Man Dou conceived the idea of dismembering Yun Ye into ten thousand pieces.
Rolling to his feet, Old Man Dou hurried to San Shilang’s memorial hall. Before the hall, the kneeling human candle still had that candle flame burning in its upturned, gaping mouth. Looking at Lüzhu’s ghastly smile, for the first time Old Man Dou’s heart held no satisfaction. Previously, whenever he came to the memorial hall to visit his young grandson, he couldn’t help but spit on the human candle to vent his hatred. Thinking that all these events had been caused by this lowly maid, he drew a guard’s horizontal sword. Swinging it in a half-circle, he brought it down heavily on Lüzhu’s corpse with a single chop.
The human candle was crafted quite perfectly, and Old Man Dou’s strength was insufficient. He hadn’t managed to split the corpse open—the horizontal sword was embedded heavily in the neck area. Old Man Dou knocked on his aching lower back and was just about to have guards take the human candle to the back courtyard to burn it when he heard a series of chaotic footsteps approaching.
A team of men dressed as bailiffs entered the memorial hall. Seeing the human candle toppled on the ground, they said nothing, picked it up, and started walking out.
“Outrageous! Where are you mongrels from? Is the Dou family a place you can come and go as you please?” Old Man Dou was furious. What were the household guards and stewards doing, allowing a team of bailiffs to rampage through the residence? Was there no justice in heaven?
The leading man didn’t even cup his hands. Grinning, he said to Old Man Dou: “My lord, please calm your anger. This humble one is also just following orders to carry out duties—there’s no other way. If you, old sir, don’t plan to openly eliminate us, then please step aside so this humble one can return to report.”
“Who are you? Whose orders are you following?” Old Man Dou calmed down. Today’s events were full of strangeness. When had bailiffs dared to charge into the Dou family’s inner halls?
“This humble one is a bailiff from the Chang’an County yamen, naturally following County Magistrate’s orders, coming to retrieve the body of Miss Lüzhu who was made into a candle. Tsk tsk, such a beauty—the Dou family could actually bring themselves to do it. What a waste.” The man looked at Lüzhu, who had been made into a candle, with pity, sighing repeatedly.
“Young brother, if you’re willing to show flexibility, the Dou family would be deeply grateful. This jade pendant is worth five hundred strings of cash—take it to drink some wine, and consider that our Dou family owes you a favor. How about it?” Old Man Dou produced a peacock pendant from his hand. Its green tail feathers, ruby-like eyes, and brownish long beak looked natural—one could tell at a glance it was quite valuable.
The leading man stepped forward, took the jade pendant, looked at it, then tucked it into his bosom. To the smiling Old Man Dou he said: “Money makes things easier.” He turned to his subordinates: “Brothers, I’ve taken the money. Don’t make things difficult for this old man of mine. We agreed to step back one step—let’s step back two steps. Don’t let people say we’re not honorable men.”
Under Old Man Dou’s gaze, that group of bailiffs all stepped back two steps in unison, then continued walking out.
This kind of humiliation was more than Old Man Dou could endure. With a single command, the Dou family’s household guards pounced. They didn’t intend to hurt anyone—they just wanted to reclaim the corpse. Who would have expected this group of bailiffs to be extraordinarily fierce? They wielded their fire and water staffs with godly skill. The Dou family’s household guards were all heroes selected from hundreds, yet they were no match at all for this group of bailiffs. In an instant, over a dozen were beaten with broken bones and fractured tendons, while the rest scattered with their heads in their hands.
The leading man laughed heartily at Old Man Dou, grabbed the human candle from the ground, and left the back courtyard.
The old steward supported the family head who had fainted, both pinching his philtrum and pouring water. After a long while, Old Man Dou finally awakened. The first thing he said upon waking was to have the steward call Dou Yanshan back from outside the palace, saying there was business to arrange.
Yun Ye didn’t know what step Li Er planned to take. Just as he was hesitating whether to make things even bigger, he saw Hong Cheng walking over with a team of people, carrying under his arm a naked female body, unnaturally curled, hands behind her back, as if worshipping.
Hong Cheng placed the corpse against the county yamen gate and bellowed at the top of his lungs: “This is that human candle from the Dou family. Neighbors, look carefully—there’s still a wick in the mouth. It lights right up.” Having said this, he actually used a tinderbox to light that wick.
Watching this scene, a woman in her thirties rushed over. Crying out just once, “My daughter!” she embraced Lüzhu and didn’t move, whimpering in her throat like the death wail of a wild beast. The Chang’an common people at the county yamen entrance all shed tears.
After a long time, the woman still didn’t move. Hong Cheng sensed something wrong and gently nudged the woman. He saw that her eyes were wide open, bloody tears flowing down, her mouth holding half a wick—she had been dead for some time.
Yun Ye removed his outer robe and put it on Lüzhu. Exhausted, he sat on the ground, legs crossed, guarding the two corpses. Apart from shedding tears, he said not a word.
People from Guanzhong never lacked fighting spirit. Earlier they had maintained an attitude of watching the excitement, but now they were all stunned. Someone shouted, “Go to the Dou family and demand an explanation!” The crowd instantly surged toward the Dou family. Along the way, more and more people kept joining. The procession grew larger and larger, finally reaching the point where the entire city was in an uproar.
Hong Cheng asked Yun Ye with some concern: “Marquis Yun, what should we do now? The neighbors have all gone mad.”
Raising his head, Yun Ye’s eyes held no spirit at all. He said dully: “Isn’t this what you needed?”
“No one expected the Chang’an neighbors to be this激烈 intense. With this momentum, it would be enough to storm the imperial palace.” Hong Cheng involuntarily licked his dry lips.
“That’s good, this is good. Let all those great clans see—this is the power of the common people, this is the power of the common people they call weak and vulnerable. After knowing their strength, perhaps there will be a few fewer human candles, perhaps the cruel and poisonous oppression will be lightened. Lüzhu, look—you’ve avenged yourself. Those who tortured you, I think they won’t survive today.”
The time had come, yet the street-clearing drum didn’t sound. Thick smoke rose from Xinghua Ward. The Jinwu Guard finally mobilized. The streets were filled everywhere with chaotic hoofbeats.
Patting Lüzhu’s rigid body, Yun Ye smiled and said to her: “His Imperial Majesty should finally say that famous line of his. How did it go again? Oh, ‘Water can carry a boat, but can also overturn it.’ With this statement, many fewer people will die. You’re remarkable, Lüzhu. You’re a hero. Really, I’m not lying to you!”