Chapter 256: Removing the official hat
Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
Relay Station
This relay station wasn’t by any means small. There were many huge rooms used for various purposes, including a dining room, resting rooms and living quarters. There was even a boat docked nearby for the soldiers within. Regardless of the weather, there was always important messages to be passed via the patrol station after all.
Officials, constables and soldiers alike walked in and out of the rooms. They were entitled to use these facilities within the patrol station in accordance with their ranks. The Advisor Official was of the fourth rank, and was considered rather high. At this point, he was having a simple meal with wine and dishes. He was around forty years old and looked rather worn out. The wrinkles on his forehead were very deep and obvious.
At this point, someone stepped forward, "Your excellency, a Daoist passed me this file to hand over to you."
This man was a middle aged, and looked rather nervous as he handed the file over. He was sweating across his forehead, as he fondled with the ten taels in his pockets. After all, getting a mere scolding for ten taels was more than worth it.
"A Daoist passed you a file?" The Advisor laughed out and looked at his subordinates, "How much money did you take from him to pass me this file?"
The subordinate started stammering in fear, "Your excellency, I… I…"
He played with the silver in his hands and couldn’t speak. Seeing him behaving this way, the Advisor waved his hands, "Forget it. I was promoted to this rank and became an Advisor, but was placed in charge of Irrigation. Although it’s a promotion, it wasn’t what I wanted to be. Since I’m not in charge of finance matters, I shan’t bother myself with matters pertaining to money. I know it’s been hard on you anyway. How long do you think I’ve been here, in this post?"
Hearing the advisor’s words, the subordinate nearly teared as he replied, "Your excellency, it’s been a year and six months."
"Ai, a year and six months. When I first started out, I was somebody. And now, everyone around thinks I’m an empty official, with nothing to do." The Advisor took a sip of his wine, his face was red as he scolded angrily.
After venting his anger out for some time, he finally calmed down and laughed, "Come, let me see what you have. Could it be that the capital city’s monastery is looking for me? And yet I’m just an idle official, what can I do for them?"
The subordinate who was still kneeling down wanted to console his master, and yet he said nothing.
The Advisor didn’t think too much of it as wel. He placed the wine cup on the table and started flipping through the files. As soon as he caught a glimpse about what the matter was, he was stumped. He then started flipping the pages vigorously, his eyes revealed a startled look and had a mixture of both delight and disbelief. His hands started trembling.
"Master, is there something bad? Master, please forgive me, please forgive me. I shouldn’t have been greedy." The subordinate started kowtowing.
The Advisor didn’t even hear him plead at this point. He stood up and took several paces back and forth before reaching a sudden realization. He then looked at the file once again.
He read and read, devouring every word within the file. When he was finally done, he slapped the table with his hands, causing the wine jug and cups to jump up, and wine to spill. He started laughing out, "Stop kowtowing. Quick, let’s go to Yu Cheng City."
"Yu Cheng City?" The subordinate was stumped. That city was extremely far away, and was nearby Ying Prefecture even.
"That’s right. There’s no need to inform anyone. We’ll just go now."
Yu Cheng City, Jade Mountain Pavilion
The mountain wasn’t very far away from the city, a couple of hundred meters away. It was spring, and the trees were lush and green. It was raining slightly as well, causing everything to be damp. The Advisor draped on a thick raincoat and looked like a normal middle aged man. When he saw the pavilion and realized there was nobody, he smiled and was in no rush to dig. He then pointed at the pavilion and said, "This city came under a severe flood in the previous dynasty. The magistrate thus requested for taxes to be levied for a year. The dynasty was magnanimous and granted the request."
"The next year, this pavilion was built in order to commemorate and to remember the magnanimity of the Emperor."
As he spoke, he looked around, and saw that the rain was getting heavier. Gazing into the distance, the Advisor’s face was filled with worry. After a long time, he then sighed, "According to this record, this is the place, right in front of this pavilion. Dig around and see, if it’s real or not. We shall know soon enough."
"Yes!" His subordinate had long prepared tools to dig and started digging. They were rather lucky, for they dug only for a short while and hit something.
"Slow down, slow down!" The advisor looked around, and realized that nobody was around. He then took a closer look, and saw a wooden box in the ground. The wooden box was very normal looking, but was rather badly decomposed.
The Advisor was elated as he instructed, "Quick, quick open it up."
The subordinate opened the box as instructed. There wasn’t any foul stench being emitted from the box at this point, since all the flesh was gone. There was a skull within. Staring right at the skull, the Advisor sighed out, "Indeed, he wasn’t lying."
"Master, there’s a tile within." The subordinate then took it out and carefully handed it over to the Advisor, who noticed that it was bronze plated. The words were still very clear, and it read "You Ji."
"Haha, this is a big case." The Advisor laughed out, "Come. Let’s return. I shall report this matter to the Governor, and invite the imperial banners to come and exhume the bodies. We shall then prosecute the person responsible for it."
At this point, his face muscles were twitching in elation as he spoke.
Jie An Prefecture, Prison
The foundations of this building was made from limestone, and the walls were made of stone. The cells within were extremely small and were divided by a narrow passage. It was cold and damp within, with a foul stench lingering. Just being nearby was enough to make anyone feel nauseous and disgusted.
Apart from the foul stench, another very distinct smell was that of blood, and was enough to make someone vomit. Bai Ceng looked at the few of them inside. Some of these women used to wear garments of many colours. But after being tortured over a period of time, their clothes were torn and tattered, and the stink of feces along with blood lingerd in the air. Each one of the women were pale. One of them had been tortured on her legs, and was extremely swollen at this point. Several toes were missing as well.
Seeing such a scene, Bai Ceng then asked fiercely, "Are you ready to give your statements?"
A jail warden then frowned and replied, "Don’t think that just because these are women, they are softer. After numerous rounds of torture, they still refuse to give up any statement. Most of them are dizzy right now from the most recent bout."
Bai Ceng turned silent before he sighed, "Master is still waiting. What should we do?"
The jail warden laughed and said, "It’s hard to obtain a verbal statement. But this was written yesterday, and we grabbed their hands and affixed their thumb prints onto the statements."
As he waved his hands, another jailer stepped forward and handed him the written statements. The warden then spoke, "Don’t go easy on them because of how weak they look. They are all extremely proficient in martial arts. After we’re done washing them up, I shall give them over to our brothers to use their bodies. The smell on them is revolting. When we’re done with them, we should cut their tongues out and cut their limbs off. We shall then say that they either tried to commit suicide or tried to flee."
"What if they die?" Bai Ceng asked.
The warden laughed out loudly as soon as he heard this, "Deaths are common enough in jail. All we have to do is to write a report saying they fell sick. They’re not some high ranking or famous persons anyway. So what if they die?"
Assistant butler heard this, and suddenly thought of the incident with the River Deity. He then retrieved the statements and took a look, sweat was forming on his forehead. "There are some things which I have no choice but to do. Unless I choose to flee instead, but what would happen to my family then?"
Thinking this way, he then took the statement and left the prison.
Magistrate’s Residences, Study
The magistrate was looking through several documents, "Ploughing the lands near the riverbanks were the instructions given to us by the Imperial Courts. This would draw the water out and can be used for agriculture. I shall come back to this again next year and make a decision then."
As soon as he had written that down, the assistant butler Bai Ceng came in, Your excellency, the matter has been settled."
The magistrate received the statement from him and laughed, "Good, good. Fetch some people, we shall take down the monasteries with this."
"Yes!"
As soon as the order was given, a pair of constables followed along, and the magistrate was about to leave his residences when he saw an oxcart arriving. When he looked across, he realized that it was someone he didn’t wish to see. This person was dressed in immaculate looking robes. It was the fourth ranked Advisor.
This person had just been in a conflict against himself. However, he cast his support for King Lu and gained the position of the magistrate. With his newfound authority, he cast the Advisor aside into a role which was undesirable. There was a great amount of animosity between the pair of them. Seeing the Advisor appear, the magistrate wasn’t afraid and laughed out, "Your excellency, Official Advisor, are you here to check the irrigation channels here in my prefecture? Why haven’t you informed me of you arrival?"
These words were supposed to taunt the Advisor for not following protocols. After all, if he wished to inspect something within the prefecture, he had to inform the county’s magistrate before deferring to him, the prefecture magistrate. He was the highest ranking magistrate. How could he show up just like this?
Hearing these words, the Advisor wasn’t upset. Instead he shouted out, "Men, come here. Remove the black official hat which magistrate Yue Bai is wearing. Take it down now!"
"Yes!" Several men showed up from behind him and stepped forward.
"You dare?" The magistrate raged out, "I am an official of the fifth rank, and a magistrate. What rights do you have to touch my official hat?"
This followed a particular decorum.
Taking off a person’s official cap was a symbol of a person being removed from authority. Even if wore his official robes, but didn’t have his hat on, he wouldn’t be given the appropriate respect. Doing something like this was very serious.
"Of course I would dare to. I’m here on the orders of the Governor. I’ve even brought the Imperial banners!" The Advisor laughed out, as several men raised up the green standards of the Emperor. At this point, the men hesitated no longer and took off his official hat before pinning him to the ground.
The few constables who followed the magistrate took several steps back. The assistant butler Bai Ceng was extremely afraid at this point. He fell to the ground, and sat on his rump, causing a large mass of dust to fly up.
The Advisor walked around the magistrate, who was kneeling on the ground now. He felt an immense sense of elation as he spoke out, "As for you, the Governor’s orders are that you are stripped of your rank and title at this point. You have to report to the imperial courts to await jusgement."
As he finished speaking, he then threw down a piece of note, "Let him read it."
The guards then unhanded him and allowed him to read the note. The magistrate was extremely filthy with sand and dust at this point, and was even bleeding. His hands were trembling as he picked up the note and read it. HIs face turned pale, and cold sweat started to form. This was what he had been hiding for the past decade, and have been finally revealed today!
Only after a long time did he finally manage to regain his senses. He struggled and said, "This is rubbish. There’s no proof. Even the Governor has no authority to strip my ranks. I shall write this matter up to the relevant authorities."
The Advisor gritted his teeth, "You should know, that we’ve already dug out the area around the pavilion. We found the skull and his identity tile. Additionally, we’ve also dug up your old residences and found several decomposed bodies and armour. There were also the identity tiles of those who went missing. You’re finished."
Hearing these words, the magistrate went weak as he mumbled to himself, "Impossible, that’s impossible."
The Advisor laughed coldly, "All these years, you’ve never moved the body. You probably assumed that you managed to escape punishment, and was free of worries?"
The magistrate slumped to the ground in despair. At this point, Pei Zi Yun and the female Sect Leader walked across. When the magistrate saw them, he understood. "It was you… It was you…"
"It’s me!" Pei Zi Yun said calmly. Hearing the tone in his voice, the few of them around couldn’t help but tremble at how cold he sounded.
Pei Zi Yun leaned towards the magistrate and whispered, "Do you really think we’re so weak? Whoever offends us shall meet with no good end, unless you’re a perfect man with no blemished past, and yet is there anyone like that?"
The magistrate’s face turned pale.
Pei Zi Yun then turned around, "Come, let’s go to the prison and fetch them up."