Chapter 38

Magistrate Gu tilted up the man's bowed head, studied it carefully, and said: "This is the secretary by your side."

Magistrate Wang nodded: "This wretched beast came begging me this morning to save him, saying he had done wrong.

"I asked around and found out: because Worthy Nephew Lin's wife looks exactly like a fugitive he once harshly interrogated under torture, this lowlife believed Worthy Nephew Lin's wife *is* that fugitive. Fearing she would rely on Worthy Nephew Lin's influence to seek revenge against him, he actually used my name to hire men to commit murder, intending to eliminate Worthy Nephew Lin and his wife.

"However, he did not succeed. Learning that all the hired men had been thrown into Zhuyang County's jail, he panicked and came begging at my feet. How could I shield someone who intended to harm others?

"I immediately brought him over to Magistrate Gu, to be dealt with as you see fit. After all, the incident happened in Zhuyang County, and this man is my secretary—it would not be proper for me to intervene in this matter."

Hearing this, Magistrate Gu said coldly: "Magistrate Wang, my eyes are not blind after all."

Magistrate Wang laughed: "Naturally I know that, which is why I delivered the man to you."

Magistrate Gu remained silent.

Magistrate Wang pressed closer to Magistrate Gu and said: "Could Magistrate Gu be suspecting that I am the real mastermind? Have these villains ever laid eyes on me? Did I personally give the orders? Magistrate Gu, I am also an innocent man. You must not fail to distinguish right from wrong and splash dirty water on me without a shred of evidence."

Magistrate Gu glared at him viciously.

Magistrate Wang stepped back and said: "The man has been delivered to you. I'll take my leave now. No need to see me out."

Having said this, he turned and left. At the doorway, he paused and said to his secretary: "You have followed me for so many years—if you have no merit, you still have toil. Rest assured, I will take good care of your family."

"Thank you, my lord, for your magnanimity!" The secretary's face was full of tears. He turned on his knees and kowtowed with a "bang bang" in his direction.

Magistrate Gu watched Magistrate Wang leave. After he was gone, he kicked at the secretary, saying: "Is it truly as your master says—that *you* wanted to harm Worthy Nephew Lin and his companion?!"

The secretary was kicked several meters away. He scrambled up in a sorry state, knelt properly, and said through sobs: "Answering the magistrate: my master's words hold no falsehood; every word is true!"

"Has he seized your weak spot and is holding it against you?" Magistrate Gu asked.

The other answered: "No. I simply could not keep it hidden any longer and had no choice but to confess my crimes, hoping it would not bring trouble upon my family!"

Magistrate Gu took a deep breath and said: "Someone! Stop the attendant—no need to send the letter. Drag this man away and interrogate him under harsh torture!"

Magistrate Gu thought to himself: No matter what weak spot he has over you, under severe torture, I refuse to believe you won't confess!

Magistrate Gu had a beautiful dream, but that very evening, the secretary died suddenly.

Magistrate Gu summoned the jailers and questioned them about the circumstances.

The jailers knelt. The head jailer said, with great trepidation: "We are all old hands at this. We applied torture with a measured hand—we would absolutely not beat a man to death. A quarter of an hour ago, after finishing the water torture, the man was still alive and well. He refused to confess, so we thought, let him recover a bit, don't let him die, and interrogate again tomorrow. Who knew that just now, while patrolling the prisoners, we found he had died..."

Magistrate Gu's face was exceptionally ugly. He gave them a loud reprimand and penalized them half a month's wages.

The jailers dared not make a sound.

"Uncle." A young scholar walked in.

Magistrate Gu said: "What are you here for?"

The scholar said: "Aunt heard the sound of your scolding from the back. She sent me to ask what happened."

Magistrate Gu said: "What else could it be?"

He dismissed the jailers and told the scholar the whole story from beginning to end.

Upon hearing this, the scholar smiled cheerfully and said: "Uncle need not fly into such a rage over this. Although this secretary died suddenly in jail, making it impossible to confess his mastermind, it is still not difficult to lodge a memorial against Wang Gong and make him suffer a loss. If Chancellor Meng, for Brother Lin's sake, takes the matter seriously, stripping him of his post is not impossible either."

"What idea do you have?"

The scholar said: "Please sit, Uncle, and allow me to explain in detail..."

The two, by lamplight, discussed for some time. Magistrate Gu laughed heartily, saying repeatedly: "Good! Good! Good! I want to impeach you, and impeach you I will! What can you do about it?!"

Late at night, Zhuyang County.

Magistrate Gu's attendant, carrying the memorial, went to the post station. A lamp was kept lit at the station, with someone on night watch. The attendant handed over all the sealed memorials to the post runner, then relayed Magistrate Gu's words and gave him instructions.

The post runner repeatedly said: "Please tell the magistrate to rest assured; it will be delivered to the capital perfectly intact."

The attendant returned to the residence behind the yamen.

Only when Magistrate Gu saw his attendant did he set his mind at ease. He then, with peace of mind, left the office together with his nephew.

What he didn't know was that a shadowy figure crouched in a tree behind the building. Through the half-open window, this figure had been monitoring everything in the room.

The shadow waited until he and his nephew parted, each retiring to their bedchambers, then leaped down from the tree, evaded the servants in the residence, left the yamen, lightly and quietly avoided the patrol runners—who were especially diligent tonight—and ran toward the northern city gate.

This was a person with martial skill, running both quickly and softly. In just a moment, he arrived before the city gate.

With a flicker of movement, he exited Zhuyang County. Following a familiar route, he walked along a small path next to the official road. From there, he led out a fine horse, raised his leg, and mounted.

At this time, there were two post runners heading toward the capital. Although Magistrate Gu's memorial did not explicitly state its importance, its significance could be guessed from his instructions.

He must reach the capital before these two to ensure the lord's grand plan would not be affected.

Now it was entering autumn, and the rain was gradually increasing. To avoid delaying the journey, one had to travel more miles on clear days.

The two post runners, having rested briefly, continued onto the yet unrepaired official road.

A fine horse charged out from the small path alongside.

Upon that fine horse sat a man in black, holding a bow and arrow in his hand. He spurred his horse onward relentlessly.

The two post runners were greatly horrified and pulled tight on their reins: "Whoa! Stop!"

Their horses, startled, reared up on their front hooves. The two exerted force through their legs, using the saddle to clamp the horses' bellies, forcing them to calm down.

The two post runners, too, calmed down at this point. Drawing the long blades at their waists, they said: "Where have these bandits come from? Withdraw at once! Daring to attack us—your crime will extend to your three clans! If you leave now, your crimes will not be pursued!"

The man in black said nothing. He urged his horse forward, blade raised, charging at them!

The two post runners exchanged a glance, turned their horses, and raced toward the post station, which was about nine li behind them. Behind them, the man in black switched his blade for a bow, nocked two feathered arrows, and aimed at the two of them.

.

"My lord."

The man in black crossed the threshold and respectfully handed a sealed document pouch bearing a wax seal to Magistrate Wang.

Magistrate Wang had just risen from bed, dressed in his inner garments. He took it with one hand, tore open the pouch, pulled out the memorial inside, opened it for a look, and burst out laughing. He flung the memorial to the ground:

"What excellent lax governance! What excellent insufficient capability! What excellent employment of a treacherous man! What an excellent old scoundrel Gu!"

"Master..." His concubine, who had been attending at the side, spoke timidly.

Magistrate Wang shot her a glance. The concubine instructed the maid to gather the clothes, and the two quickly left the room.

Magistrate Wang said: "I originally intended to spare your life, but since you refuse to know what's good for you, don't blame me for being ruthless." He beckoned to the man in black. Once the other drew closer, he gave a few low-voiced instructions.

.

After Lin Yue left the worksite job, his following days were spent at home reading and ghostwriting coursework for Bi Laosan.

Gu Jun would occasionally take his books over to consult the other. With the other's help, he read books even faster.

During this period, Gu Jun discovered that the garlic seeds, scallion seeds, and coriander seeds he had planted days ago in the pots had sprouted.

The garlic grew fastest. The sprouted garlic shoots, in just a few days, had already separated into leaves. Each leaf was glossy green; the longest one had already reached the length of a finger.

The scallions were still short, and the two separated leaves were also thin and slender.

The coriander grew even more slowly than the scallions. From a distance, its sprouted buds were akin to a single green dot. However, its fragrance was the most intense.

One evening, Gu Jun finished reading all the books the other had given him. He went out and pulled aside one of the patrolling yamen runners to test his language skills.

After confirming the other could easily understand his speech, he happily returned home, thinking that tomorrow he could go out and look for work, while at the same time preparing dinner.

To celebrate that tomorrow he could go out and look for work, Gu Jun picked up a bowl and went before the pots. He pinched off the fruits of his hard work—the garlic leaves and scallion leaves—and used them to fry a plate of eggs.

The eggs had been bought and delivered by the patrolling runners.

After the assassination incident, their household groceries and such were all bought and delivered by the runners, for which Magistrate Gu had allocated a sum of money.

Although his cooking was still terrible, he really could fry eggs.

The one trick to making them delicious was plenty of oil.

Lin Yue took a small stool and sat in front of the stove, tending the fire. He placed very little firewood, yet the fire burned very fiercely.

He noticed Gu Jun's change in mood and asked the reason.

Gu Jun said with a beaming smile: "Something good has happened for me."

"Let's hear it."

Gu Jun said: "You already knew about it before." Later, not only will you know, you'll also be frightened out of your wits. To avoid the other pressing further, Gu Jun picked up a chopstick-full of the fried eggs, blew on it to cool it a bit, and stuffed it into the other's mouth.

"Tasty?" Gu Jun asked.

Lin Yue felt like laughing outright: "I haven't even chewed yet."

Gu Jun urged: "Hurry, hurry! I want to hear your assessment."

Lin Yue chewed carefully, swallowed, and said: "Average. Not different from the dishes you've fried before."

Gu Jun: "..."

"Your sense of taste is broken."

"Sense of taste? The tongue, you mean?"

Gu Jun didn't answer. He picked up a chopstick-full of eggs and tasted them himself. Richly aromatic with oil, the salt just right, the fragrance of farmhouse free-range eggs was almost stimulated to its peak. Gu Jun looked at him resentfully: "Liar. Don't eat the eggs with your meal!"

Lin Yue laughed and said: "Wasn't I just trying to let you taste the flavor too? Why are you resenting me for it?"

Gu Jun raised his foot to kick him. Before the kick landed, the other picked up his small stool and dodged backward. Seeing this, Gu Jun stretched his leg out further, but he didn't account for his unstable center of gravity. His body tilted, and he fell straight toward Lin Yue.

Lin Yue apparently hadn't anticipated him harming himself as well as others. Unable to dodge in time, he was crashed into and both fell to the ground.

After Lin Yue fell, his vision practically went black for a moment. A single frame of an image then suddenly leaped forth.

It was the image of a woman with a gentle face, dressed simply, kneeling before a Buddha statue, worshipping.

The image flashed past, just like the other images that had been flickering up more frequently these days.

He had become accustomed to it. Raising his eyes to look at Gu Jun, his expression was impassive. He said: "Get off."

Gu Jun's thigh had hit the stool. Propping himself on the other's body, he was trying to get up. Hearing this, he said: "Don't rush me."

Lin Yue said: "Hurry up."

Gu Jun was annoyed to death by his urging. In a slip of his hand, he pressed down on the other's lower abdomen. Hearing a muffled groan, he hurriedly released his hand and flopped down again.

The sound of Lin Yue grinding his teeth came by his ear: "Gu Jun!"

"Present!"

This cry made Gu Jun feel as if he were back in the classroom, when the teacher called roll. He raised his head and subconsciously answered "Present."

The other's face was written all over with "Is there something wrong with you?" He caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eye, gave a light cough, and, though in the wrong, spoke with confident righteousness: "This is all the result of you rushing me. I told you not to rush, not to rush... Mmph?!"

Lin Yue pressed down on the back of his head, forcing his head down, and tilted his own head to kiss him.

He had been speaking; his tongue didn't even need to pry open his teeth to easily delve deep into his mouth.

Gu Jun froze, his mind filled entirely with that rampantly sweeping, scorching, wet, soft thing in his mouth.

Subconsciously, he wanted to push away. The other pressed the back of his head tighter, his other hand resting on his waist, firmly trapping him in his embrace.