“Everyone is dead, now they’re telling us to investigate? What were they doing before?!”
Inside the hall of Shanmen [Department], Jinxia sat leaning against a round pear chair and was looking at the document in her hand, feeling unsatisfied.
“The person is indeed dead, but the silvers haven’t been found yet. The total of the repair funds for the river is one hundred thousand taels of silver and it must be brought back.” YangYue took the document from her hands, and was a bit angry, “Zhou Xian was just a small director in the Department of Occupational Waterworks Bureau, how could he have the courage to swallow one hundred thousand taels of silver? Just because he is dead, all the blame is directly put on him!”
Zhou Xian was from Zhejiang province, Wuxing district. During the 21st year of Jiajing’s reign, he passed the palace examination, in the the 23rd year of Jiajing’s reign he was appointed to work in the Department of Domestic Affairs and in the 31st year of Jiajing’s reign, he was appointed Director of the Department of Waterworks Bureau of the Occupation. The funds were supposed to be used to upgrade Yangzhou river, but ever since he’d arrived in Yangzhou, he had gradually lost his interest for work. Then when they had investigated the misuse of the funds, he’d committed suicide for fear of being arrested.
“What is there to investigate? Yan Shifan is the Left Executive Deputy of the Ministry of Work, aren’t the funds from every project going through him?” Jinxia coldly snorted, “You can go to his house and check, it will save us time.”
“Xia’er!” Yang ChengWan stopped her.
Yan Shifan was the son of the current head of the Supreme Secretariat, Yan Song. Yan Song was a powerful person in all social stratifications of society, practically everything was in his hands. Meanwhile, Yan Shifan, beside holding the position of Left Executive Deputy of the Ministry of Work, his second position was Director of the Royal Seal Office, arguably the biggest department in the kingdom. Jinxia sighed, everyone also knew it was a place where according to the proverb ‘those who are brave would die by defending it whereas those who are weak would die by hunger’. Yan Shifan’s position was like giving him a neck to catch a cake [the right to control things], he could swallow as much as he desired and decide how to eat it and when to eat it.
“Father…” YangYue shook his head, “This case cannot be accepted, if we cannot solve it, we’ll be labelled as incompetent, but if we do solve it, I’m afraid we can’t keep our lives.”
Yang ChengWan opened his tea cup lid and gently removed the floating tea leaves, looking at the rising smoke, he said quietly: “There are no other ways, the Assistant Minister, Liu Xiangzuo of the Left of the Judicial Review Department personally appointed me to duty. You both can go home and pack, then come with me to Yangzhou.”
“Master, Da Yang and I can go alone, you should stay in the Capital to rest.” Jinxia said, “Jiangnan is a very humid place, your foot injury could relapse.” She was sure that this trip would require a lot of energy and discomfort. Yang ChengWan was old, plus his leg was hurt, so why bother joining this difficult trip, it would have been better if he took this opportunity to rest.
Yang ChengWan shook his head: “JinYiWei will be participating in this investigation, how could you two face them?”
JinYiWei!
Jinxia and YangYue looked at each other, they seemed to be sharing the same thoughts and both displayed a sad face.
Considering that JinYiWei’s supreme leader, Lu Bing, had a good relationship with Yan Song, therefore, in Jinxia’s view, JinYiWei would not be able to expose Yan Song’s crimes.
“Which JinYiWei’s person is going to be sent?” Jinxia asked quietly.
“Head of Jurisdiction Registration, Lu Jingli, Lu Yi.” Yang ChengWan said plainly.
Jinxia and YangYue were surprised at the same time. The funds for the river repair were one hundred thousand taels; the amount was not small, but not even this big, so was it necessary for Lu Yi to intervene?
They were shocked for half of the incense burning time, then Jinxia quickly came back to her senses. If all the government rules were to be followed in a straight line and spent every month and year, then every three years there would be tests and exams for promotions; if you wanted to get promoted quickly then you would have to provide a good service, as well as to impress Jiajing. If she could make some achievements, she might be able to directly rise from level seven to level four.
“Master, so how do we handle this case?” Jinxia looked at Yang ChengWan.
“We just do our part and others don’t have to interfere.” Yang ChengWan said slowly.
Hearing this, Jinxia and YangYue stopped arguing, without speaking any further, then they headed home and packed their clothes.
***
Yuan Chen originally had arranged for Jinxia to go meet the Yi family in two days. Yuan Chen gritted her teeth and made a new set of clothes that were decent and embroidered with bright red flowers, hoping that at least Jinxia would look rather beautiful and feminine. Unfortunately, Jinxia had to immediately go to Yangzhou, and based on the difficulty level of this case, she would be gone at least for one or two months.
“How is this good? Or should I go to Master Yang and ask him not to take you this time.” Yang Chen panicked.
Jinxia kept shaking her head: “Mother, this time is impossible, this case is very important, the river repair funds are lost. If I don’t go, I will fail my job. If we find these funds, there will definitely be a prize.”
Regardless of whatever the government works were, Yuan Chen did not understand and could only continue to say: “Yi’s third son, have you met him?”
“I can’t remember anymore.” Jinxia said quickly.
“How could you not remember? You just delivered a basket of charcoal to his house last month.”
“I only remember that charcoal is very expensive.”
Yuan Chen glared at her for a few moments, until Jinxia shuddered: “Are you purposely trying to make my life difficult?”
“Mother…” Jinxia tried to sweet talk, persuading her, “I really don’t remember.”
Yuan Chen grumbled, “This Yi family is well-educated and very calm, marrying into that family will not be difficult.”
“Mother! This is not urgent, wait for me to come home and talk about it! Don’t panic too much!” Jinxia quickly said, while her hands and feet were busy cleaning the clothes. From her pocket, she took out four silver taels and gave them to Yuan Chen, “This time, I will be on duty for a long time, I went to Shanmen [Department] and asked for two months’ salary up front, so you can use this in advance.”
Yuan Chen took the money, walked Jinxia to the door and said: “Be careful on the road, don’t try to do anything brave.”
“Don’t worry, everything will be fine.”
Jinxia carried her bags to Shanmen, thinking about the remaining money in her pocket and she sighed and sighed.
From the Capital to Yangzhou, there was the Nanbei Grand Canal and of course the easiest way was to take a boat to avoid the bumpy road. On the river route, there was an official ship owned by the government. It was a courier ship, used to send government officers from one post to the next. Yang ChengWan, while waiting for the people walking with Liu Xiangzuo to board the ship, learned that JinYiWei’s Lu Yi had already boarded on the ship and had been waiting for them since an hour ago.
“Lu Daren is resting in his cabin on the ship, we were given orders not to disturb him.” The crew answered Lu Xiangzuo’s question, “Do I need to inform him?”
Although, the Assistant Minister of Left of the Judicial Review Department was a fifth-level official, and thus his position was higher than Lu Yi’s, a level seven, nonetheless he was very scared of him, so he did not dare to ask Lu Yi to come and greet him and while laughing awkwardly he said: “No need to rush, not in a hurry, things can be discussed later.”
People working on this ship all year round dealt with officials from various levels and the treatment they provided was based on status. People like Yang ChengWan, who was not of a high status, would not be treated as special. They informed Yang ChengWan of his cabin and left to go help Liu Xiangzuo to his cabin.
On this ship, they had their own rules: High-status officials were hosted in the upstairs cabins, which had spacious, bright and clean rooms, while non-ranking small officials like Jinxia were accommodated in the downstairs cabins with smaller and narrow rooms, always dark and damp. Whereas, the rooms for the ship’s crew were even worse and they were forced to sleep together in small and cramped rooms.
YangYue went to accompany Yang ChengWan to his cabin first; he took out cooked tea leaves that he brought from home to remove the smell of mold in his room, then he invited his father to rest. Jinxia was not used to the cramped cabin on the ship, the mold smell made it difficult to breathe, so she went up to the deck to get fresh air.
The Nanbei Grand Canal river route had been built in the Yongle era a few years ago, since then there had been no problems to travel from south to north using this waterway: grain from the south was continuously sent to the north, supplying cities and garrisons. Above the river, grain-carrying vessels were milling nonstop and wild ducks were swarming in the waves. While unstoppable grain deliveries were made from south to north, numerous seeds kept falling into the river, causing the fishes in the water to collide with the ducks.
Jinxia leaned against the edge of the ship, gazing at the wild ducks with a blank stare.
YangYue walked toward the deck looking for her, then followed her eyes, and shouted in praise: “So fat!”
“Right?” Jinxia nodded in agreement, she linked her hand together and sadly said, “If we didn’t have work everyday, I would come here to catch wild ducks, surely to sell them at high prices.”
“It’s a pity to sell them, they must be delicious to eat. This wild ducks’ meat is hard, it’s different from domestic ducks, if you want it to be delicious it has to be cut thick, gently seasoned with warm oil.” When he started talking about food, YangYue didn’t have the ability to stop. “Snow pears are also washed clean and then cut into sheets, two pieces of snow pear plus one layer of duck meat, put it in oil and fry it while turning it over and over, fry until the duck meat is crisped, the fragrance is…”
“Don’t tease me, I’m hungry!”
Jinxia looked at him miserably, she was short on money. She had thought she would be able to take some food from Shanmen, but because she had to chase after the ship, she couldn’t eat anything. On the ship, she had passed by the kitchen looking for something to eat but there was nothing and now she was starving to the point of having back pain.
Knowing that she had not eaten, YangYue took something out of his pocket and gave it to her.
At first glance, it was a leek fried pancake wrapped neatly with oil paper. Jinxia felt very grateful: “You really know me!” Without saying much, she opened the oil paper then took a bite of the pancake and chewed happily.
“Have you not eaten?” Jinxia glanced at him briefly, she was chewing as she answered his question: “…Busy…”
“Saving money doesn’t mean stop eating! I heard that you took your salary in advance for two months.” YangYue shook his head, “how many dowries do you have to collect before you can get married? If you knew today would turn out like this, back then you shouldn’t have been so fierce.” YangYue was one of the fighters who lost to Jinxia a few years ago.
The pancake wasn’t too big and as Jinxia kept chewing it, in just a moment the pancake was gone.
“Don’t mention it anymore, this time the problem isn’t money, but it’s more complicated than money.” Jinxia wiped her mouth with her sleeve, after hesitating for a while: “…If you look at mother, she’s very determined about this marriage.”
Just as Jinxia was speaking, YangYue was already laughing: “This is good, which unlucky family did your mother choose?”
Jinxia angrily stared at him: “Go!”
YangYue tried to hold back his laughter and gently said: “Calm down, master Xia.”
After Jinxia finished glaring at him, then she said: “The third son of the Yi family.”
“Yi family… oh! I remember that’s your brother’s teacher.” YangYue nodded in agreement and said: “Indeed, your mother has thought ahead, if you marry into that family, your brother’s tuition will be saved.”
“More than than: every year the cost of buying ice in the summer and charcoal in the winter, and the cost of new year’s celebrations can all be saved.” Jinxia added, “In a year if you make a calculation, a lot of taels can be saved.”
“Well then, why don’t you hurry and get married!” YangYue giggled avoiding Jinxia’s leg that was about to kick him.
“Even though I, master Xia, go through days with pressure I’m still very comfortable, at least I’m still free to go anywhere. Children of the Yi family, everyday can only recite ‘Zhi Hu Zhe Ye’ literature, not to mention that their bodies are so weak that the wind can blow them away. Why should I get married there, then become a horse and cow for them?” Jinxia felt annoyed, “If I really get married there, it would be the same as forcing me to die.”
“Why are you yelling at me for, go tell your mother.” YangYue still laughed.
“My mother only sees money, how can I talk to her if I don’t have any money?…Don’t talk about this annoying problem anymore!” Jinxia looked at YangYue then suddenly had an idea, “Or like this, I’ll just tell my mother that I’ve become your woman…”
YangYue almost fell into the water.
“I’ll endure the suffering to live with you.” Jinxia thought deeply while looking at him.
YangYue shook his head vigorously until his neck felt cramped: ”Don’t, I don’t deserve it, you shouldn’t force yourself. I mean it!”
Jinxia narrowed her eyes examining him.
YangYue rested his face as she was trying to make herself look as sincere as possible.
After a short while, Jinxia slowly sighed: “But I can’t, you snore so loud, who can stand it?”
Suddenly, Jinxia turned around to realize that not far from behind her there was someone standing, a bright red FeiYu Fu [Flying Fish Uniform], wearing a belt with an embroidered phoenix wrapped around its waist, and a sword neatly tucked.
Lu Yi!
“Everyone is dead, now they’re telling us to investigate? What were they doing before?!”
Inside the hall of Shanmen [Department], Jinxia sat leaning against a round pear chair and was looking at the document in her hand, feeling unsatisfied.
“The person is indeed dead, but the silvers haven’t been found yet. The total of the repair funds for the river is one hundred thousand taels of silver and it must be brought back.” YangYue took the document from her hands, and was a bit angry, “Zhou Xian was just a small director in the Department of Occupational Waterworks Bureau, how could he have the courage to swallow one hundred thousand taels of silver? Just because he is dead, all the blame is directly put on him!”
Zhou Xian was from Zhejiang province, Wuxing district. During the 21st year of Jiajing’s reign, he passed the palace examination, in the the 23rd year of Jiajing’s reign he was appointed to work in the Department of Domestic Affairs and in the 31st year of Jiajing’s reign, he was appointed Director of the Department of Waterworks Bureau of the Occupation. The funds were supposed to be used to upgrade Yangzhou river, but ever since he’d arrived in Yangzhou, he had gradually lost his interest for work. Then when they had investigated the misuse of the funds, he’d committed suicide for fear of being arrested.
“What is there to investigate? Yan Shifan is the Left Executive Deputy of the Ministry of Work, aren’t the funds from every project going through him?” Jinxia coldly snorted, “You can go to his house and check, it will save us time.”
“Xia’er!” Yang ChengWan stopped her.
Yan Shifan was the son of the current head of the Supreme Secretariat, Yan Song. Yan Song was a powerful person in all social stratifications of society, practically everything was in his hands. Meanwhile, Yan Shifan, beside holding the position of Left Executive Deputy of the Ministry of Work, his second position was Director of the Royal Seal Office, arguably the biggest department in the kingdom. Jinxia sighed, everyone also knew it was a place where according to the proverb ‘those who are brave would die by defending it whereas those who are weak would die by hunger’. Yan Shifan’s position was like giving him a neck to catch a cake [the right to control things], he could swallow as much as he desired and decide how to eat it and when to eat it.
“Father…” YangYue shook his head, “This case cannot be accepted, if we cannot solve it, we’ll be labelled as incompetent, but if we do solve it, I’m afraid we can’t keep our lives.”
Yang ChengWan opened his tea cup lid and gently removed the floating tea leaves, looking at the rising smoke, he said quietly: “There are no other ways, the Assistant Minister, Liu Xiangzuo of the Left of the Judicial Review Department personally appointed me to duty. You both can go home and pack, then come with me to Yangzhou.”
“Master, Da Yang and I can go alone, you should stay in the Capital to rest.” Jinxia said, “Jiangnan is a very humid place, your foot injury could relapse.” She was sure that this trip would require a lot of energy and discomfort. Yang ChengWan was old, plus his leg was hurt, so why bother joining this difficult trip, it would have been better if he took this opportunity to rest.
Yang ChengWan shook his head: “JinYiWei will be participating in this investigation, how could you two face them?”
JinYiWei!
Jinxia and YangYue looked at each other, they seemed to be sharing the same thoughts and both displayed a sad face.
Considering that JinYiWei’s supreme leader, Lu Bing, had a good relationship with Yan Song, therefore, in Jinxia’s view, JinYiWei would not be able to expose Yan Song’s crimes.
“Which JinYiWei’s person is going to be sent?” Jinxia asked quietly.
“Head of Jurisdiction Registration, Lu Jingli, Lu Yi.” Yang ChengWan said plainly.
Jinxia and YangYue were surprised at the same time. The funds for the river repair were one hundred thousand taels; the amount was not small, but not even this big, so was it necessary for Lu Yi to intervene?
They were shocked for half of the incense burning time, then Jinxia quickly came back to her senses. If all the government rules were to be followed in a straight line and spent every month and year, then every three years there would be tests and exams for promotions; if you wanted to get promoted quickly then you would have to provide a good service, as well as to impress Jiajing. If she could make some achievements, she might be able to directly rise from level seven to level four.
“Master, so how do we handle this case?” Jinxia looked at Yang ChengWan.
“We just do our part and others don’t have to interfere.” Yang ChengWan said slowly.
Hearing this, Jinxia and YangYue stopped arguing, without speaking any further, then they headed home and packed their clothes.
***
Yuan Chen originally had arranged for Jinxia to go meet the Yi family in two days. Yuan Chen gritted her teeth and made a new set of clothes that were decent and embroidered with bright red flowers, hoping that at least Jinxia would look rather beautiful and feminine. Unfortunately, Jinxia had to immediately go to Yangzhou, and based on the difficulty level of this case, she would be gone at least for one or two months.
“How is this good? Or should I go to Master Yang and ask him not to take you this time.” Yang Chen panicked.
Jinxia kept shaking her head: “Mother, this time is impossible, this case is very important, the river repair funds are lost. If I don’t go, I will fail my job. If we find these funds, there will definitely be a prize.”
Regardless of whatever the government works were, Yuan Chen did not understand and could only continue to say: “Yi’s third son, have you met him?”
“I can’t remember anymore.” Jinxia said quickly.
“How could you not remember? You just delivered a basket of charcoal to his house last month.”
“I only remember that charcoal is very expensive.”
Yuan Chen glared at her for a few moments, until Jinxia shuddered: “Are you purposely trying to make my life difficult?”
“Mother…” Jinxia tried to sweet talk, persuading her, “I really don’t remember.”
Yuan Chen grumbled, “This Yi family is well-educated and very calm, marrying into that family will not be difficult.”
“Mother! This is not urgent, wait for me to come home and talk about it! Don’t panic too much!” Jinxia quickly said, while her hands and feet were busy cleaning the clothes. From her pocket, she took out four silver taels and gave them to Yuan Chen, “This time, I will be on duty for a long time, I went to Shanmen [Department] and asked for two months’ salary up front, so you can use this in advance.”
Yuan Chen took the money, walked Jinxia to the door and said: “Be careful on the road, don’t try to do anything brave.”
“Don’t worry, everything will be fine.”
Jinxia carried her bags to Shanmen, thinking about the remaining money in her pocket and she sighed and sighed.
From the Capital to Yangzhou, there was the Nanbei Grand Canal and of course the easiest way was to take a boat to avoid the bumpy road. On the river route, there was an official ship owned by the government. It was a courier ship, used to send government officers from one post to the next. Yang ChengWan, while waiting for the people walking with Liu Xiangzuo to board the ship, learned that JinYiWei’s Lu Yi had already boarded on the ship and had been waiting for them since an hour ago.
“Lu Daren is resting in his cabin on the ship, we were given orders not to disturb him.” The crew answered Lu Xiangzuo’s question, “Do I need to inform him?”
Although, the Assistant Minister of Left of the Judicial Review Department was a fifth-level official, and thus his position was higher than Lu Yi’s, a level seven, nonetheless he was very scared of him, so he did not dare to ask Lu Yi to come and greet him and while laughing awkwardly he said: “No need to rush, not in a hurry, things can be discussed later.”
People working on this ship all year round dealt with officials from various levels and the treatment they provided was based on status. People like Yang ChengWan, who was not of a high status, would not be treated as special. They informed Yang ChengWan of his cabin and left to go help Liu Xiangzuo to his cabin.
On this ship, they had their own rules: High-status officials were hosted in the upstairs cabins, which had spacious, bright and clean rooms, while non-ranking small officials like Jinxia were accommodated in the downstairs cabins with smaller and narrow rooms, always dark and damp. Whereas, the rooms for the ship’s crew were even worse and they were forced to sleep together in small and cramped rooms.
YangYue went to accompany Yang ChengWan to his cabin first; he took out cooked tea leaves that he brought from home to remove the smell of mold in his room, then he invited his father to rest. Jinxia was not used to the cramped cabin on the ship, the mold smell made it difficult to breathe, so she went up to the deck to get fresh air.
The Nanbei Grand Canal river route had been built in the Yongle era a few years ago, since then there had been no problems to travel from south to north using this waterway: grain from the south was continuously sent to the north, supplying cities and garrisons. Above the river, grain-carrying vessels were milling nonstop and wild ducks were swarming in the waves. While unstoppable grain deliveries were made from south to north, numerous seeds kept falling into the river, causing the fishes in the water to collide with the ducks.
Jinxia leaned against the edge of the ship, gazing at the wild ducks with a blank stare.
YangYue walked toward the deck looking for her, then followed her eyes, and shouted in praise: “So fat!”
“Right?” Jinxia nodded in agreement, she linked her hand together and sadly said, “If we didn’t have work everyday, I would come here to catch wild ducks, surely to sell them at high prices.”
“It’s a pity to sell them, they must be delicious to eat. This wild ducks’ meat is hard, it’s different from domestic ducks, if you want it to be delicious it has to be cut thick, gently seasoned with warm oil.” When he started talking about food, YangYue didn’t have the ability to stop. “Snow pears are also washed clean and then cut into sheets, two pieces of snow pear plus one layer of duck meat, put it in oil and fry it while turning it over and over, fry until the duck meat is crisped, the fragrance is…”
“Don’t tease me, I’m hungry!”
Jinxia looked at him miserably, she was short on money. She had thought she would be able to take some food from Shanmen, but because she had to chase after the ship, she couldn’t eat anything. On the ship, she had passed by the kitchen looking for something to eat but there was nothing and now she was starving to the point of having back pain.
Knowing that she had not eaten, YangYue took something out of his pocket and gave it to her.
At first glance, it was a leek fried pancake wrapped neatly with oil paper. Jinxia felt very grateful: “You really know me!” Without saying much, she opened the oil paper then took a bite of the pancake and chewed happily.
“Have you not eaten?” Jinxia glanced at him briefly, she was chewing as she answered his question: “…Busy…”
“Saving money doesn’t mean stop eating! I heard that you took your salary in advance for two months.” YangYue shook his head, “how many dowries do you have to collect before you can get married? If you knew today would turn out like this, back then you shouldn’t have been so fierce.” YangYue was one of the fighters who lost to Jinxia a few years ago.
The pancake wasn’t too big and as Jinxia kept chewing it, in just a moment the pancake was gone.
“Don’t mention it anymore, this time the problem isn’t money, but it’s more complicated than money.” Jinxia wiped her mouth with her sleeve, after hesitating for a while: “…If you look at mother, she’s very determined about this marriage.”
Just as Jinxia was speaking, YangYue was already laughing: “This is good, which unlucky family did your mother choose?”
Jinxia angrily stared at him: “Go!”
YangYue tried to hold back his laughter and gently said: “Calm down, master Xia.”
After Jinxia finished glaring at him, then she said: “The third son of the Yi family.”
“Yi family… oh! I remember that’s your brother’s teacher.” YangYue nodded in agreement and said: “Indeed, your mother has thought ahead, if you marry into that family, your brother’s tuition will be saved.”
“More than than: every year the cost of buying ice in the summer and charcoal in the winter, and the cost of new year’s celebrations can all be saved.” Jinxia added, “In a year if you make a calculation, a lot of taels can be saved.”
“Well then, why don’t you hurry and get married!” YangYue giggled avoiding Jinxia’s leg that was about to kick him.
“Even though I, master Xia, go through days with pressure I’m still very comfortable, at least I’m still free to go anywhere. Children of the Yi family, everyday can only recite ‘Zhi Hu Zhe Ye’ literature, not to mention that their bodies are so weak that the wind can blow them away. Why should I get married there, then become a horse and cow for them?” Jinxia felt annoyed, “If I really get married there, it would be the same as forcing me to die.”
“Why are you yelling at me for, go tell your mother.” YangYue still laughed.
“My mother only sees money, how can I talk to her if I don’t have any money?…Don’t talk about this annoying problem anymore!” Jinxia looked at YangYue then suddenly had an idea, “Or like this, I’ll just tell my mother that I’ve become your woman…”
YangYue almost fell into the water.
“I’ll endure the suffering to live with you.” Jinxia thought deeply while looking at him.
YangYue shook his head vigorously until his neck felt cramped: ”Don’t, I don’t deserve it, you shouldn’t force yourself. I mean it!”
Jinxia narrowed her eyes examining him.
YangYue rested his face as she was trying to make herself look as sincere as possible.
After a short while, Jinxia slowly sighed: “But I can’t, you snore so loud, who can stand it?”
Suddenly, Jinxia turned around to realize that not far from behind her there was someone standing, a bright red FeiYu Fu [Flying Fish Uniform], wearing a belt with an embroidered phoenix wrapped around its waist, and a sword neatly tucked.
Lu Yi!
