Zhù Ying had always been sharp-witted, Zhang Xiangu was likewise a straightforward woman, and Zhù Shenhan, though an ordinary man, was no fool either. Yet this family of three — three charlatans of a sort — had been thrown into complete confusion by a group of yamen runners.

Aside from Zhù Shenhan, none of them had ever been seized by runners before! At the time, Zhang Xiangu and Zhù Shenhan had stepped forward and been pushed back, while Zhù Ying was hauled away. Zhang Xiangu latched onto the arm of the man blocking her and pleaded: “At least tell us why! We are within sight of the imperial capital — you cannot simply take a person away like this!”

Zhù Shenhan also demanded: “At least give us a charge, so we know what wrong has been done!” Drawing on his own past experience, he figured Zhù Ying might have gotten tangled up in some matter while wandering the capital these past few days — but it probably wasn’t anything serious. If they knew what it was, it could be sorted out. He pulled a small silver ingot from his pouch — his private savings — and pressed it into the palm of an impatient runner, asking: “Could you give us a hint?”

The runner took the silver, weighed it in his hand, and said with a snort: “Stop your noise! She’s been walking around the streets all day, caught the eye of a noble who found her disagreeable — they just want to teach her a lesson.” With that, he walked away without looking back.

Zhù Shenhan and Zhang Xiangu stood there for a while in the cold winter night of the capital. A gust of wind swept past; Zhù Shenhan sneezed and said: “Let’s go back first.” He pulled Zhang Xiangu home with him and bolted the door.

Zhang Xiangu was frantic with worry: “What are we to do? Brother Jin and Young Master Gan aren’t around! Lord Zheng has gone off on imperial business! The third child has always been clever and never offended anyone — what celestial authority have we run afoul of now?”

Zhù Shenhan said: “Our whole family has no connections to bad people here in the capital. The sort of person we know is someone like Jin Liang — how could anything serious come of this? It’s probably some vague, ambiguous business. She may suffer a bit physically. We still have some money on hand — we’ll use it to smooth things over and get our daughter out quickly.”

Zhang Xiangu said: “The curfew is already in effect — any smoothing over will have to wait until tomorrow! How is she going to get through this one night?”

Zhù Shenhan had once served time in a county jail. It was only a prefectural one, but he figured that jails everywhere were probably not so different. He said: “It’ll be fine. As long as it isn’t something serious, even going to a proper jail won’t mean a long stay. They won’t lock her up with serious offenders. Tomorrow we’ll ask around to find out where she is…”

Cells were assigned by the gravity of the offense. Minor offenders were kept in one area; those with more serious charges were placed deeper in; hardened criminals yet further still. Those condemned to severe punishments such as death might even be transferred to the Court of Judicial Review for a final review, and before execution, all condemned were gathered together and counted off to be escorted to the execution ground.

Minor offenders, those whose cases hadn’t yet been heard, those awaiting trial, witnesses seized to be questioned, those awaiting transfer to the heavier cells — and so on. Some were even held in the rooms where the runners took their shifts on duty; they wouldn’t be given prison clothes, and some had simply been caught violating the curfew. Many were given a flogging and released.

Then there were some like Zhù Ying — people who had private connections to someone within the yamen, caught on a whim and brought in for a lesson. Others were the runners’ and clerks’ own racket — seizing a few plump “sheep” on some pretext and squeezing them for money, releasing them once the money came. Or someone was brought in to scare them into paying back rent or debts; once payment was made, they’d be let out within days.

In short: no specific charge meant the matter wasn’t serious.

Zhang Xiangu relaxed slightly and said: “All right, first thing tomorrow morning we’ll go ask around!” She mentally went through the people she knew in the capital. Zhù Ying had said Huajie had gone to the countryside to sweep graves and wasn’t in the city. Lord Zheng Xi and his entourage had gone out on assignment and weren’t available. Beyond that, there was no one to rely on!

After much deliberation, Zhang Xiangu thought that the inn’s proprietor seemed to be a local acquaintance of sorts; perhaps he could be asked to make some inquiries tomorrow.

Zhù Shenhan was also uneasy in his heart, and said: “All right, tomorrow we’ll lock the door properly and go together. If nothing else works, we’ll just squat in front of that gate and wait!”

Zhang Xiangu’s eyes and the tip of her nose had both gone red: “The third child doesn’t know what she’s suffering right now! She’s a girl…”

In jail — whether a proper prison or a duty room — the overwhelming majority of inmates were men. And the most ferocious, brutal criminals were overwhelmingly men too! Her daughter was not yet fourteen years old! What were they to do? If her true identity were discovered…

Zhang Xiangu was filled with remorse, her tears impossible to wipe away: “Back in the prefectural city, I should have made everything clear to Lady Da and Lord Zheng Xi the imperial envoy. If I had said something then, none of this would be happening now.”

Zhù Shenhan murmured: “We still don’t know what sort of noble this is, or what it’s about. Stop crying. Let’s go out and see what we can find tomorrow.”

Zhang Xiangu said: “The third child…”

——

When Zhù Ying was led away in iron chains, Zhù Shenhan was already asking questions — she had caught, in the midst of her stumbling steps, the runner’s reply. She adjusted her pace to match the rhythm of the several runners, and as she walked, she thought: What noble?

She knew only a handful of nobles, all of whom she had met back in the prefectural city through legal cases. There was the group around Zheng Xi, the group around Zhong Yi, and the group around Sheng Ying. The Zheng Xi group had already left the capital again and had no grievances against her, so it wasn’t them. Zhong Yi wouldn’t bother with something so petty. The Sheng Ying group — hard to say. Oh, and there was also Zhou You.

Because she had just run into him on the street, Zhù Ying counted Zhou You among the suspects, and added Chen Meng as well for good measure. These were all the prominent people she knew. If no one harbored a grudge against Zheng Xi and was displacing it onto her, then the culprit was practically self-evident.

She muttered to herself: “Which noble is it? I haven’t even…”

A runner snapped: “What are you muttering?! Behave yourself!”

The man who had taken the silver ingot from Zhù Shenhan came back, saying: “Still haven’t come to your senses? Think about who you offended today!”

The runner in charge shot him a look. He reluctantly turned the silver over to his superior, and stood there pouting in silence.

Zhou You! Zhù Ying settled on the true culprit — though she didn’t know that Zhou You had not personally ordered her little tour of the duty room. That, however, did not stop her from laying the whole account squarely at Zhou You’s feet.

A noble.

Zhù Ying thought without expression: a noble.

The man who had warned the runners didn’t know it was Zhou You either. What he had meant to convey was a message from a certain spoiled young scion who had gone to find a yamen clerk of the prefecture.

The clerk had gone to the runners and said: “The young master spotted an insolent little brat on the street today. Go fetch him and lock him up for a few days — teach him a lesson.” He gave a street name and told them to ask around for a white-skinned young man driving a mule cart and wearing a leather robe.

The local runners knew the streets well, and Zhù Ying had made no effort to conceal her whereabouts; the whole family spoke loudly while shopping. At dusk, the runners found Zhù Ying at her newly rented lodgings and took her in.

Their way of teaching a lesson was either to arrest someone and beat them, or ruin their livelihood, or lock them up to put a scare into them. Among these, locking someone up to frighten them was the most profitable — one didn’t even need to extort openly; the “offender” or their family would come forward with offerings on their own. Today was no different from their usual practice. Sure enough, they had already received one small silver ingot — enough, if broken for coins, to buy the whole group a round of hot wine to warm themselves after braving the cold for this errand. And after this, there was a chance of more. They’d keep the person locked up for three to five days, then go back and ask whether they could be released; if the noble’s temper had cooled, they’d collect a few strings of cash from the prisoner’s family, divide it among themselves as a household supplement, and let the person go.

If the noble’s temper hadn’t cooled, they’d keep the prisoner a while longer — there was no rush on their end. After about ten to fifteen days, they’d ask again. If the order was still to keep the person in after a month, they could no longer hold them in the duty room — into the main jail they’d go, to be kept indefinitely. If anything came of it, the young masters and their kind would have to answer for it.

Generally speaking, it was just a matter of a few days’ detention. So though the runners had been rough in making the arrest — they’d even struck Zhù Ying across the back with a sword hilt — they hadn’t really beaten her badly or done anything worse. They simply brought her to Wannian County’s duty room to be “deposited” there for a while, having explained to the Wannian County runners that they would come to “collect” her in a few days.

As the two runner captains chatted, Zhù Ying calmly took in her new accommodations.

The duty room may indeed have once been used for its original purpose as a room for off-duty shifts — the building looked surprisingly sturdy, and inside was a row of wide communal sleeping planks. The interior had been simply modified: wooden bars had been installed over the windows, and a coarse wooden lattice had been added around the sleeping area to partition the inmates’ communal space from the guards’ space. On the guards’ side were a table, some chairs, and a small bed; a lamp sat burning on the table.

From what Zhù Ying knew of Zhou You, he was a man of no real persistence. The one thing that could make him hold a grudge was opposition to Zheng Xi; for everything and everyone else… Zhù Ying shook her head. Zhou You lacked the long-term patience. Even a man of genuine ill intent, if he had the will, might accomplish great villainy — but Zhou You simply wasn’t capable of it.

She thought: before leaving home, she had already given her parents instructions to wait for Zheng Xi to return, at which point the lines of communication would open. If one word could put her in here, one word could equally bring her out.

A noble, she thought.

——

From the conversation between the men who had arrested her and the duty-room guard, Zhù Ying learned that this place was Wannian County — one of the two counties into which the capital prefecture was divided. It turned out that the men who had arrested her were from the prefectural yamen, but the prefectural duty room was currently occupied with other business and couldn’t take her back; they had therefore arranged with the Wannian County runners to borrow space for a temporary hold.

“Once our end has room, we’ll bring her over together with the few of yours that need to be sent up to the prefecture.”

Both groups of runners worked the capital’s streets and knew each other as familiar acquaintances. There was a slight competitive edge between them, but also cooperation — much like a middleman introducing colleagues in the same trade.

The Wannian County runner didn’t hesitate: “Done!” He looked Zhù Ying up and down — a clean, pale-complexioned, fine-looking young person. Probably just failed to please some noble, brought in to take a small loss, and then the noble would come play the hero by “rescuing” them.

Understood — perfectly clear!

Neither group of runners gave Zhù Ying any further trouble. One collected the chains, the other shoved her into the duty room, and that was that.

The door in the wooden lattice was wound shut with an iron lock behind Zhù Ying — an iron lock the size of an adult’s fist. Click — locked.

The Wannian County runner wanted to see the prefecture runners off, locked the door, and left as well. Zhù Ying looked around at a roomful of prisoners with an expression of perfect innocence.

The entire room was lit by only a single oil lamp; it was difficult to make out faces very clearly. But thinking of her own experience of ending up here, she supposed these people were not all imprisoned for actual crimes.

The prisoners who had already been resting looked up at her too. An old man greeted her: “Young one, how did you get here?”

Zhù Ying shook her head.

The old man looked her over — she didn’t seem like someone involved in any serious case — and asked: “Violated the night curfew?”

Zhù Ying thought for a moment, then said: “More or less.” The kind of day when you could run into ghosts in broad daylight was no different from night, after all.

The old man smiled: “Same for those two over there. And me as well. Nothing to be afraid of — just one night’s detention at most, two or three days tops, and they’ll let you go. Where were you when they grabbed you? As long as you weren’t caught ‘moving’ something out of someone else’s place, you won’t be kept long!”

At this, the others in the room all laughed.

Zhù Ying looked at the assembled people with curiosity: all sorts of heights and ages, some dressed similarly to herself, some in plain coarse clothing, some looking crestfallen, others entirely unconcerned — only two looked genuinely threatening, the sort that seemed like bandits.

Zhang Xiangu’s worry had not been wrong: this was a group of men, not a single woman among them.

The old man pointed to two people who were rolling their eyes and snoring: “Those two were also just brought in — drunk and causing a scene in the street. They brought it on themselves.”

Zhù Ying said, aggrieved: “I was just walking along minding my own business.”

The old man said: “Looking at how you’re dressed, you’ve got a little money — but not too much. They target exactly your type: squeeze out a few coins. It’s nothing serious. Have your family send some money and it’ll be taken care of.”

Zhù Ying asked: “And what about you, sir?”

The old man smiled a little sheepishly: “Owed a debt. It’s late — scoot over on the planks, let’s sleep.”

Zhù Ying glanced at the communal sleeping area. A man with a fierce face gave a cold laugh: “Soft skin, tender flesh — coming into a place like this and still expecting to be picky?”

Another man with a seemingly honest face shifted over and said: “Sleep here!” The duty room had only a few dirty blankets, hard as iron, spread over straw.

They threw a blanket in Zhù Ying’s direction.

Zhù Ying didn’t use it as a cover — she gathered some of the straw together as a base, then folded the blanket in half: one half spread over the straw, the other half smoothed flat against the wall. Wearing her leather robe, she sat on top of it, leaning against the wall with legs crossed, and dozed.

The fierce-faced man let out a cold snort: “Such airs!”

Zhù Ying breathed steadily and didn’t open her eyes. This place was actually tolerable. The capital was cold even after snowfall, but she was wearing a leather robe and had a blanket to lean against — manageable. Sharing a room with many people wasn’t especially difficult either. During the great shamanistic festivals back in her home village, the whole troupe of spirit-mediums would often crowd together in one place; though back then she had been with Zhù Shenhan, with a father on the outside looking out for her.

Looking over this room of prisoners now: from what she could observe, the old man who claimed to owe a “debt” probably owed gambling debts — he was missing two fingers. Missing fingers could also indicate a thief caught in the act and dealt with by the underworld, who often had their index fingers chopped off — but this old man was missing his little finger and ring finger instead.

As for those two in the corner who claimed to have violated the curfew: they looked very much like burglars who had broken into an empty dwelling. What poor tradecraft! In Zhù Ying’s estimation, if you’re going to break into a place, do it in the daytime. At night everything is quiet, and there’s the curfew on top of that — any light or movement is immediately conspicuous; who else would they arrest but you? If you’re going to work in that trade, do you really not think it through? Idiots!

The middle-aged man who had moved over to give her space seemed genuinely to have gotten unlucky for violating curfew — his clothing was unremarkable, the look of a man who earned his living by physical labor. The other curfew violator was the young man also wearing a leather robe, who looked like a student — though a student getting arrested meant a considerable loss of dignity!

There wasn’t enough light in the duty room to make out more than this. Having taken stock of her surroundings, Zhù Ying went still.

The guard came back and struck his sword hilt against the lattice a few times. Zhù Ying opened her eyes. The guard asked: “Look at you — can’t stand the filth? Want a private cell? Want a proper bed?”

Zhù Ying tilted her head with an expression of genuine puzzlement. The guard said: “Private cell, five hundred coins a night. Just a bed, sharing with five others, one hundred coins a night.”

Zhù Ying thought: my whole family gets by on about two strings of cash a month if we’re lucky — five hundred coins? You might as well rob us outright! Zhou You had no patience, but he’d still keep her locked up for at least three to five days before releasing her, meaning several strings of cash would be spent. And those two at home, running back and forth in a panic, might spend money looking for her on top of that. They had just paid a full year’s rent and stocked up on firewood and provisions — they couldn’t waste that money!

She kept looking at the guard with a blank expression. The guard said: “Damn! What bad luck! She’s simple-minded!”

If the price had been just a little lower — say, twenty coins for a separate bed in shared quarters — Zhù Ying might well have paid; she was perfectly willing to spend a little to suffer a little less… but she was no easy mark!

The guard asked again: “Anyone else want a room?”

The young man in the leather robe said: “Me!”

The guard opened the lattice door, let him out, and walked off locking the door behind him with a contemptuous sound. The old man said to Zhù Ying: “For a hundred coins you could sleep in a real bed — why didn’t you go?”

Zhù Ying said: “I have no money.”

“You could move in first, then have your family send money.”

Zhù Ying shook her head. The old man sighed, wrapped himself in his dirty blanket, rolled over — the straw rustling beneath him — and slept.

The cell gradually fell silent as everyone drifted off, and the guard did not return.

——

The next morning, Zhù Ying woke early, jumped down from the communal planks, neatly folded the blanket, and stretched her limbs on the floor. The duty room was at least functional — no furniture to speak of inside, but also no shackles, and the guard didn’t necessarily stay through the whole night — a clear sign this was truly a “minor offense” holding area.

After she exercised for a while, others gradually began to open their eyes — though few were willing to actually get up. They were in jail, after all; who needed to rise early?!

Zhù Ying took the opportunity to observe every person in the cell. Besides her own section, there were two other areas partitioned off by wooden lattices; all three areas combined held several dozen people. Some were lying awake without moving; others hadn’t even woken yet!

Finally, a guard arrived from outside with a large bucket — from the smell, it appeared to be a gruel of mixed grain and dried vegetables cooked together — along with a large wooden basin holding some bowls, all pushed through the lattice door. A crowd surged forward to grab bowls and grab at the gruel. The guard swung his baton at those grabbing: “If you knock it over, none of you eat!”

Zhù Ying positioned herself not too close and not too far. She fished out two bowls that looked relatively clean, and as others were fighting over the long-handled ladle to dish out gruel, she simply plunged her bowls directly into the bucket and scooped up two servings. She quietly handed one to the old man.

The old man grinned and took it, sucking up a large mouthful along the rim of the bowl with a slurp: “Warm!”

This was all the food there was — just this vegetable gruel. Zhù Ying’s first bowl was only a shallow serving; she finished it quickly, and by the time she went back to the bucket, the others had already filled their bowls and were eating. She took the ladle and scraped the bottom of the bucket, scooping up the thick rice and vegetables settled there, filling her bowl full to the brim. She returned and ate slowly. By the time the others finished their large bowls, she had in fact already eaten one large bowl and one shallow bowl.

The old man noticed, accepted the second bowl she passed him, and laughed, giving her a thumbs-up.

Zhù Ying collected his bowl too and tossed both into the wooden basin. The old man said: “Good eyes on you, young one.”

Zhù Ying had a habit of showing respect to elderly people. They may have grown weaker with age, but the old had seen and experienced much — especially old hands in any trade. Many kinds of work they could no longer do physically, yet their judgment was still sharp. She had picked up a scattered assortment of skills from various old people over the years: here a technique, there a trick. The craftspeople back in the county town might not match the sophistication of those in the capital, but they were all experienced in their local ways. Without them, no matter how naturally gifted she might be, she could not have figured out so many things on her own. Some knowledge still requires a master to open the door — like learning enough characters on the sly from the village teacher to eventually read books on her own.

For Zhù Ying, these people were worth far more than some physically imposing “big brother” figure.

Zhù Ying dipped her head shyly.

The old man had not been wholly incapable of getting his own food — he had received a kindness, and he returned it by pointing out things to Zhù Ying: “Don’t provoke that one.” He indicated a burly man with a bruised face.

He pointed to the fierce-faced man who had sneered at Zhù Ying the night before and said: “Zhang Thirteen — bad temper, doesn’t do much that’s good, likes his drink, gets into fights. But he doesn’t bully the weak. Has a bit of a chivalrous streak.”

He indicated a stocky middle-aged man nearby: “Wang the Butcher — gambling and fighting got him thrown in here. Addicted to gambling; when he’s desperate enough, he’ll use a knife on someone.”

He pointed to the people in the last lattice partition and said: “These — all freshly arrested brawlers who used serious violence, with deaths and injuries on both sides. Wannian County caught them, but the cases need to be consolidated and handed over to the prefectural yamen, so they’re being held here for now before being sent to the prefectural jail in a day or two. The street bosses of the prefecture were recently arrested by the authorities and beaten to death — these men were fighting in the shadows over the vacant position. The gang leaders, seeing this, have gone into hiding too; the streets are unsettled right now, with every small-time operator scrambling to grab territory. Watch yourself when you go out — get home before dark, and don’t get caught violating curfew again.”

Zhù Ying thought to herself: no wonder those thieves had been so bold, and when she tricked a few of them, their bosses had never come looking for her. She asked: “And you? What will you do when you get out?”

The old man chuckled: “Me? I’m in no hurry to leave.”

Zhù Ying thought: then you’re at least a serious gambler! But she asked: “What’s your name, sir?”

The old man said: “No need for formalities. Call me Old Bones.”

Zhù Ying said: “When I get out, is there anything you’d like me to pass along?”

Old Bones said: “No need. Those people know I’m in here. Oh — these next couple of days, I’m counting on you for meals, all right? These old bones of mine need a rest.”

At this point, both Zhù Ying and Old Bones assumed she would be out within a day or two. Little did either of them know that by that same afternoon, the prefectural jail had cleared up space, and the Wannian County authorities transferred the prisoners to the prefectural jail — the brawling lot. One by one they were dragged out, put in leg irons, and herded onto prison carts.

As Zhù Ying watched an entire cell block empty out, the new guard seemed to recall something and pointed at Zhù Ying: “You! The fair-skinned one, not tall, blue robe. You’re the one!”

Because of the handover, the previous guard had told the new one that this person had been placed here by the prefecture side; so they sent her along with the others to the prefectural jail — rather than releasing her.

Zhù Ying thought: what is going on?

Old Bones called out admiringly: “Good kid!” He was an old hand and yet somehow hadn’t read this one correctly — he had thought her some young gentleman student from a decent family. He had seen only that she looked educated, and that while her hands showed she did some kind of work, it was clearly nothing like heavy farm labor — probably household tasks. The picture of a modest household, well enough to be clothed and fed but without many servants. Someone who could get by, but not richly.

And yet she had slipped past his notice — and in the process managed to earn herself the honor of going into the main jail in irons.

“Truly, great heroes emerge in youth!” Old Bones mused aloud.

Zhù Ying didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She asked: “Is there some kind of misunderstanding?” No sooner had she asked than she was struck from behind on the back of the neck — she gently stretched her neck forward, so the blow didn’t land cleanly.

The person who struck her paid no particular attention to it and merely cursed: “You little wretch! You wretches — misunderstanding, what misunderstanding?! Move it!”

It turned out to be a miscommunication during the shift change between the two groups of guards: they had failed to make clear the situation, and had grouped Zhù Ying in with the brawling violent offenders! Because of this blunder, when Zhù Ying arrived at the prefectural jail, she was not placed in the duty room — she was put into the main prison cells!

The kind of place reserved for serious offenders with established criminal cases, or for those with major involvement in significant cases.

Zhù Ying, all alone, was dumped here. People capable of committing serious crimes were not typically her age — there might be adult men who were short and lean, roughly similar in build to her, but they all had the bone structure of grown men. Zhù Ying could scarcely believe the runners had simply thrown her in here like this!

Worse still, she had no way to explain the “misunderstanding” right now, because the people who had originally arrested her were not here! She recognized the faces of those who had come to her home — not one of those faces was to be found in this place.

Zhou You — look at what sins you have wrought!

The prison warden looked Zhù Ying over, removed her shackles, weighed the situation, and shoved her into a cell.

The cell was half below ground, half above. Three sides were solid walls; the fourth was a heavy wooden lattice with a fine-barred door locked with a chain. The windows in the walls were also sealed with wooden bars. There was a communal sleeping area; with only six prisoners, it was somewhat more spacious than the duty room before. A chamber pot sat in one corner beside the planks. The sleeping area was also covered with straw and had blankets — equally hard as shells — and the blanket that apparently should have been hers appeared to have been claimed by a heavily bearded man who was sleeping on top of it. The floor was filthy, and the entire space emanated a smell of mold and decay.

Zhù Ying’s cell already held five people when she arrived. Before entering, she scanned the nearby cells — they looked about the same, with at most six people each. She estimated this cell held no more than six people; she wondered if there was some regulation behind that number.

The lattice door locked behind her again. Zhù Ying sighed. The half-underground cell was somewhat warmer than the Wannian County duty room, but looking at her new “fellow prisoners,” they were clearly not a friendly lot. In the Wannian County duty room, there had been an “Old Bones” who chatted with her, someone who made room on the sleeping area for her and gave her a blanket — people who had mocked her, yes, but without deep malice.

Here, however, not a single one of these five was easy to deal with.

Zhù Ying sensed something predatory about the listless middle-aged man sitting cross-legged on the planks.

The slightly bulkier man next to him — a lewd gleam in his eyes — was certainly someone given to lustful appetites.

The heavily bearded man turned over and sat up, studying Zhù Ying and the warden. His face was all heavy flesh, with the look of someone accustomed to bullying others — his gaze swept over people searching for their weak points, as if his fist might at any moment drive into those very spots, causing arbitrary pain and humiliation.

The lean, wiry one who had been humming a little tune had eyes and an expression that announced he was ready at any moment to trick someone. Unlike the heavily bearded one, who operated with his fists, this man was definitely the type who would silently stab someone in the side when they weren’t looking, then walk away as if nothing had happened.

Beside him, remarkably, was a man who looked rather cultured, about thirty years old. When he saw Zhù Ying, he gave a slight nod of his head and smiled — an approachable demeanor.

Zhù Ying thought: I must keep my wits about me and manage this imprisonment well!

——

The imprisonment proved anything but easy to manage.

There were no shackles here either — but a cell had three solid walls, each cell held fewer people, and beyond the cell doors, the entire prisoners’ living area was separated from the outside by another lattice barrier, beyond which lay the space partitioned off for the wardens’ duty room.

Even an escape attempt here required opening one more door than in the duty room.

When Zhù Ying was pushed into the cell, the warden threw her a single-layer cloth top — wide and oversized, dirty and old — and barked: “Put it on!”

Zhù Ying unfolded it to look, and saw that on both the front and back were large circles, each containing a large character: “Prisoner.” Worn over her leather robe, it still had room to spare.

The other prisoners were all studying her. Zhù Ying meekly lowered her head, thinking: I’ll observe for a day or two first.

Without warning, a large shadow fell over her. Zhù Ying looked up with a start, took two steps back, and found her back against the wooden lattice — looking up at the heavily bearded man.

The heavily bearded man was powerfully built, about thirty, stroking his chin as he stared at her: “Take it off!”

Zhù Ying stared back, wide-eyed, and said nothing. The bearded man said: “Want me to do it for you?!”

Zhù Ying hunched her shoulders, removed the prison tunic she had just put on over everything else, and held it out to him. He took it, gave it a look, and gave a cold smile: “All right. That one too!”

What Zhù Ying was wearing was the leather robe given to her by Yu Miaomiao — even in the capital, it was the sort of garment a modest household would think twice before purchasing. The prisoners here were all dressed inconspicuously; her robe was neatly worn and carefully maintained. The heavily bearded man’s own winter clothing was worn out, and so he had fixed his eyes on hers.

Zhù Ying said nothing and actually removed the leather robe. Before she could even hold it out, the heavily bearded man had snatched it away.

The cultured-looking man shook his head at this.

With the warm leather robe stripped away, Zhù Ying shivered — she was left with just a lined inner jacket, and it was cold.

The bearded man’s frame was larger than Zhù Ying’s; even worn directly against his body, the leather robe wouldn’t button up. He wore it open-chested, somewhat annoyed, and then put his own worn winter coat back on over it — throwing his prison tunic at Zhù Ying: “Here!”

The cultured-looking man said helpfully: “Put it on. If a warden sees you without a prison tunic, they’ll beat you.”

Zhù Ying nodded at him and quickly pulled on this tunic — which was even dirtier and smellier — making her look even more lost in oversized clothing than before. When she raised her arm, half a sleeve of this prison tunic flopped down in tatters. No wonder the bearded man had been happy to swap tunics — this was why!

She edged closer to the cultured-looking man, gave him a brief, tense smile, then looked down again. The cultured-looking man said: “Don’t be afraid — it’ll be fine. Old Hu is always like this. See? Aren’t you getting along well enough now?”

Old Hu was the heavily bearded man. He came striding over, and the cultured-looking man watched him with a smile. Old Hu was furious, and swung his hand — missing the cultured-looking man entirely, instead striking Zhù Ying across the face. Zhù Ying once again deflected with the same technique as before, turning with the force of it so that the blow did land, but the impact left five finger marks blooming red across her cheek, stopping well short of knocking out two teeth.

The cultured-looking man said: “All right, you’ve gotten what you wanted for today. Dinner will be coming soon.”

Only then did Old Hu grunt and lie down again — without returning the blanket to Zhù Ying.

The cultured-looking man said: “He’s just like that. That’s why he ended up injuring someone badly enough for them to die — not intentional, precisely.”

Old Hu suddenly sat bolt upright and cursed: “Nonsense! I just beat a few weaklings! They died two days after I beat them — what business is that of mine?!”

Zhù Ying thought: if someone dies two days after you beat them, you still beat them to death — the cause and effect are clear. Do you think the people who made the laws are idiots? If you’d done this act a couple of months earlier, you’d have been heading to the autumn execution ground already.

The cultured-looking man turned to Zhù Ying and said calmly: “Don’t worry. As long as you don’t have some shop or property his master has taken a liking to and wants to ‘buy,’ he doesn’t ordinarily beat people. You were smart — you gave him what he wanted. You’ll be fine.”

Zhù Ying quietly asked the cultured-looking man: “May I ask your name, sir?”

The cultured-looking man smiled: “Nothing so grand — surname is Wen.”

Zhù Ying shifted half an inch closer to him: “Good day, Uncle Wen.”

The cultured-looking man smiled again and asked gently: “And you?”

At this moment, a hand reached toward her from the side, a bent index finger brushing the back of its knuckle lightly against Zhù Ying’s injured cheek. Zhù Ying recoiled in alarm, and looked warily at the man — his face wearing an expression of obvious ill intent.

The man smiled lasciviously: “My, my — Old Hu, you hit too hard! So little care for something so beautiful! What a lovely face — what a shame to damage it. Tsk, hey — how come you’re not asking your big brother here what his name is? Let me tell you, I’m Pan Bao, I’m — hey, don’t back away…”

Zhù Ying fled back to the cultured-looking man’s side: “Uncle — Uncle Wen…”

Uncle Wen said: “Don’t be afraid. He’s just teasing you. He only has eyes for women.”

Pan Bao said: “In here, male company will have to do! Ha ha ha ha! I think you’re even prettier than my wife!”

Zhù Ying pressed her lips together tightly and suddenly grabbed Uncle Wen’s sleeve. Uncle Wen said: “It’s all right — he doesn’t kill people.”

Zhù Ying shot a glance at Old Hu. This glance irritated Old Hu: “You little wretch, who are you looking at? How dare that scoundrel be compared to me?!”

Uncle Wen helpfully explained: “This Pan Bao is just someone who can’t control his lower half — quite different from Old Hu. Old Hu is straightforward: if he wants to do something, he does it…”

The listless middle-aged man, upon hearing the word “thief,” glanced over at the others, then lay back down.

Uncle Wen said to Zhù Ying in an unhurried manner: “Pan Bao set his eyes on a maidservant belonging to an old woman on the street. He went to the old woman to request the girl; the old woman refused. So he violated the maid, then said he didn’t mind that the girl had been defiled and was willing to take her in. Unexpectedly, the old woman wouldn’t hear of it and tried to fight him, and he beat the old woman too and injured her. What a shame — he’s got some money, and if he’d been on the outside, he might have given the family a bit of money for medical care. But our deputy magistrate had to take it upon himself to speak up for the people and hauled him in here. Now, well — over there, they’re injured and crippled, unlikely to make it through this winter…”

His voice was unhurried, yet Zhù Ying caught the excitement beneath it — excitement directed at her. He was watching her reaction!

Zhù Ying shrank back again.

Pan Bao said: “I act openly and above board too! I go after whoever I want! Just you wait — even if I’m sentenced, I’ll use some money to get myself out of here in a few days! I didn’t commit a capital offense! The deputy magistrate may be upright, but he can’t keep me locked in here forever! Heh heh!”

Uncle Wen leaned closer to Zhù Ying and said quietly: “I think he doesn’t have enough money to buy his way out of this charge. What do you think?”

At that moment, a shuffling sound: the lean, wiry man stood up and said: “Food’s coming!”