SEHE Chapter 61

His Own Case 

“Well, about that……”

“If Court Companion has any difficulties, please speak freely. I will certainly help resolve whatever I can.” Pei Yanci adopted an air of sincerity.

“There are no difficulties. His Highness has already taken care of the difficult matters. It’s just that I suddenly realized I still don’t know where your private residence is. How about this—have one of my attendants discuss the details with you later about when and where to deliver it, so as not to trouble the chief steward.” Hu Erlai was momentarily stunned, then suddenly broke into hearty laughter, making up for his brief lapse.

Hearing this, Pei Yanci also took the opportunity to go along with it. “In that case, I’ll trouble Daren.”

If he truly accepted that Silla maid, it would be easy to give others leverage against him. At present, Hu Erlai didn’t want to give her either, putting it off by saying he’d have an attendant come discuss it with him later. As for whether anyone would actually come, Pei Yanci held no hope. After vaguely letting a few days pass, the next time they met, he would pretend that he’d already sent an attendant to inquire, complain a few words about incompetent subordinates, then make an excuse that someone else had requested the Silla maid, and the matter would be dropped.

Both understood this tacitly, yet neither spoke it aloud—this was maintaining face.

In officialdom, the most important thing was maintaining face.

When you gave the other party face and they returned your face, and in this back-and-forth pulling, things still got accomplished—that demonstrated a person’s political acumen.

This was also a custom that had evolved over time. If you said it was bad, it was indeed a great bad habit—even small matters had to be discussed in roundabout ways, plainly wasting people’s energy. But the fact that it had long been rooted in the court, unable to be changed even after countless dynastic changes, meant it had its own logic.

Actually, not just in Anjing—once you reached a certain official rank, the entire Great Yu power circle was only so large. Capital officials had their days of being sent out, and provincial officials also had their day of returning to serve in the capital, not to mention those in the same office like the Eastern Palace. In this small territory, you saw each other constantly—everyone was colleagues. Today someone asked you to do something, tomorrow you asked someone to do something. To offend someone over trivial matters was simply not worth it. To tear off all pretense over some small matter, mutually assured destruction just gave others a joke to watch. Convenience for others was convenience for oneself—this was mutual face-saving.

Look at the present situation—the two parted in perfect harmony, not a single fault to be found, yet both their objectives had been achieved.

Pei Yanci looked at the sun’s position. Seeing there was still time before the evening meal and having nothing to do, he returned to his room, changed clothes, and practiced martial arts for an hour and a half. When he saw the sun was about to set, he stopped, washed up, and went to the main courtyard, arriving just as the kitchen servants and maids were serving dishes.

A greeting sounded from outside the door. He had just stepped aside when he saw Gu Jiuqing stride in with large steps.

His back remained very straight, like an unbending pine or bamboo. Even when he needed to bend, it was at the waist. From the back of his neck, shoulders to his spine formed a unified line, always taut with an ineffable spirit and vigor.

At first, Pei Yanci thought he was putting on airs, but after understanding him more deeply, he realized this was the outward manifestation of his inner mettle.

Thinking this, he bowed slightly with his head lowered. In his boredom, a slender hand suddenly grabbed his forearm, pulling him aside away from the surrounding servants, and whispered in his ear. “The Dali Temple has agreed. Tomorrow find some time—just say your surname is Pei, and someone there will take you directly to see it. This prince has other matters tomorrow, so this prince won’t accompany you.”

This case concerned the lives of Pei Yanci’s closest relatives. Gu Jiuqing had originally planned to go with him, to stay by his side, thereby demonstrating his regard and benevolent care for him. But today he had just had an unpleasant quarrel with Prime Minister Zheng, and tomorrow he had to enter the palace—he truly had no time to attend to him.

“Your Highness, please attend to your business. This humble one knows what he’s doing.” Pei Yanci assumed he didn’t want people to know that someone from the Eastern Palace wanted to review a criminal’s case files, which was why he gave such detailed instructions.

Seeing his solemn expression, he asked again, “Have you encountered some thorny matter?”

“It’s nothing major.” Gu Jiuqing didn’t elaborate. His gaze was cold, sharp, and resolute, keeping everything in his heart, having already made his own decision with no need to speak of it and burden him with the knowledge.

He was never a talkative person by nature, and Pei Yanci was even more reliable in handling matters—there should be no need to worry. Yet his heart felt uneasy, dull and heavy. Before he could say more, the forearm he was grasping broke free from his grip of its own accord.

Regarding his lack of availability tomorrow, Pei Yanci had guessed seventy to eighty percent of what he would be doing. Seeing his lips move slightly, he asked, “Does Your Highness have other instructions?”

“No.” His expression became even more cold and severe.

Pei Yanci didn’t know what he had done to anger him. Recently, this person’s emotions had been somewhat difficult to fathom, but since it didn’t affect him, he didn’t bother with it.

He briefly reported on some matters within the mansion, then withdrew.

Gu Jiuqing had become so busy that he could only handle miscellaneous household affairs during his meal breaks.

Pei Yanci walked out of the courtyard and looked up at the sky—a vast river of stars, moonlight like silk.

Right now, he was the most idle one.

It truly felt uncomfortable.

****

The next morning, Pei Yanci went early to the Dali Temple. An official in dark green robes personally received him, leading him to a small room. He then went to the doorway and gave some instructions. Soon after, someone pushed a cart full of case files to the desk.

“Daren, please take your time reading. Someone is looking for me outside—I need to go handle something, but I’ll be right back.” The official greeted him amiably and walked out, not closing the door completely but leaving it half open.

“Assistant Minister, shouldn’t we go inside and keep watch? What if important evidence goes missing?” the subordinate who had just pushed the cart asked uneasily in a low voice. The Dali Temple had regulations—anyone who came to review past case files must have someone from the office watching nearby.

“That’s someone instructed from above.” The Assistant Minister glanced at him. “If you really saw something, would you report it or not?”

Not to mention that everyone was searched on the way in and out to prevent case files from being lost or destroyed. Even if the person inside read confidential details of the case that shouldn’t be disclosed externally, that was the intention of those above. Even if they really did pursue their negligence later, they had been called away and left for a while. Who called them away, what the person inside did in the meantime, who orchestrated all this—they wouldn’t know.

Moreover, to prevent the person inside from going too far, he still left the door half open, so that people passing by outside could conveniently check on the activity inside while also telling him to remain constantly alert and not make any inappropriate moves.

With these few words and actions, he completely avoided his own responsibility.

****

Pei Yanci had no idea about the twists and turns in those petty officials’ minds. He quickly opened a file describing the case’s proceedings.

In the seventh year of Rui’an, Xiangzhou suddenly suffered a locust disaster. All eight counties under its jurisdiction were afflicted, the land yielded not a single grain, and hundreds of thousands of common people resorted to exchanging children to eat. The Emperor issued an edict of self-blame and had Cui Ya take full charge of the matter.

Cui Ya did not choose the capital granaries but immediately had the neighboring Jizhou open its granaries to provide disaster relief. At the same time, he ordered the Yuhai Circuit Commissioner to go inspect Xiangzhou, and the Xihai Protectorate to dispatch one hundred thousand soldiers from its subordinate military commands to suppress the disaster victims.

At the time, it seemed Cui Ya reacted swiftly and thought carefully, even considering the worry that disaster victims might rebel and cause trouble.

Soon, some matters were still exposed.

First and foremost was that the disaster relief situation in each county was unsatisfactory, especially in Yao County, which held nearly half the province’s population—organization was chaotic, disaster victims disorderly, casualties countless. The Circuit Commissioner first conducted open and covert investigations, discovering that the grain rations distributed to disaster victims in Yao County were only ten percent of what was mandated. Where was the rest? They searched all of Yao County without finding it.

As Yao County’s magistrate, Pei Yan—the father of Pei Yanci’s original self—along with all the county officials, were arrested and imprisoned on charges of ineffective disaster relief and embezzling disaster funds, then escorted to Anjing. Pei Yan cried out his innocence the whole way, saying he had never seen extra grain rations and knew nothing of other matters. Before the Three Judicial Offices could hold a joint trial, he used a sharpened chopstick to pierce his own throat in the prison.

Pei Yanci read through it carefully. To say there were no suspicious points would be impossible.

First, the disaster grain was not distributed to all eight counties simultaneously but was sent to Yao County, which was somewhat farther from Xiangzhou. While it was true that Yao County had the largest population among the eight counties, to bypass nearer counties for more distant ones, distributing in sequence and claiming the grain rations couldn’t all be transported at once—the testimony’s reasoning recorded in the case files was too weak.

Second, Pei Yan’s death was suspicious. His previous testimony had been crying out his innocence, then he suddenly committed suicide, and moreover chose such a prolonged and painful method of death. This didn’t seem like dying to prove his innocence, but more like being silenced.

He turned to the physical evidence registry and saw that in the underground cellar of the private residence where Pei Yan’s younger brother kept his mistress, there were over a dozen gold bars and many flying money drafts worth several hundred thousand taels—and the residence itself wasn’t even in Pei Yan’s name.

The more Pei Yanci read, the more he felt there were numerous suspicious points. He silently noted these questionable areas in his mind when suddenly, his hand paused while turning a page.

Among the testimony signatures, he saw a familiar name.

Crown Prince’s Retainer, Zhang Dongqin.

Regarding this person, Pei Yanci’s impression was of a man approaching forty, with a spirited and hearty manner. When the Crown Prince gathered his subordinates to discuss government affairs, he hadn’t seen him speak up many times. When occasionally encountering him privately, he always greeted him with a smiling face, those eyes always carrying laughter yet remaining unperturbed by changes.

Previously he had heard that this person was deeply trusted by the Emperor, having just been promoted a year ago from the fifth-rank deputy head of the Censorate to the third-rank Crown Prince’s Retainer.

When this testimony was recorded, he was still just an Assistant Household Officer in Xiangzhou.

From seventh-rank to third-rank sinecure, from provincial official to capital official, all in just nine short years.

This was altogether too smooth sailing.

Pei Yanci looked at this testimony again. In this embezzlement case, this person became the most crucial witness to convict Pei Yan of embezzlement—Zhang Dongqin was responsible for matters concerning a province’s household registration and taxation, and had discovered that the taxes reported by Yao County for several years had problems. Later, during his participation in disaster relief, he personally witnessed Pei Yan lining his own pockets, greatly withholding grain rations. He had reported this matter, but never received a response.

The door opened with a creak.

The Assistant Minister entered the room and smiled. “It’s going to rain. I’ll close the windows so the case files don’t get wet.”

Passing by the desk, he sneaked a glance—what was spread open on the desk was merely the general description of how the case unfolded.

“What time is it?” Pei Yanci asked.

“Nearly noon.”

He stretched his back. “Since it’s going to rain, I won’t disturb you further. I’ll take my leave first.”

“Since it’s going to rain, why doesn’t Daren stay and read a while longer? There’s no rush.” The Assistant Minister smiled. “The roads are slippery in the rain—easy to collide with people.”

Pei Yanci’s expression paused. “In that case, very well. I’ll read a bit more.”

“Unfortunately, case files are dry materials. It’s dim indoors and we can’t light lamps. Can Daren make do with reading?”

“I’ll follow your guidance.”

“In that case, I thank Daren.” The Assistant Minister made a colleague’s courtesy bow and immediately left in a hurry, not forgetting to close the half-door he hadn’t closed before.

Before long, Pei Yanci heard a commotion outside.

Gu Jiuqing had asked someone to let him enter the Dali Temple to examine his own family’s criminal case files—this already violated taboos. If he were seen here by someone, both Gu Jiuqing and the person he’d asked would be impeached, which was why the Assistant Minister had just hurriedly closed the windows and door and warned him not to go out and wander around.

Listening to the commotion outside, it seemed quite significant—not like people from the Dali Temple.

He had already finished reading the cartload of case files that morning. With nothing to do now, he moved to the door and poked a hole in an inconspicuous corner, peering outside.

He saw an eye.

The base of the eyelashes was painted with golden-orange powder, sweeping upward and hooking toward the outer corner—bewitching and alluring. The lower eyelid had red and orange intermingled, seeming like a fish tail about to curl and splash upward, while those black pupils tinged with purple, unlike ordinary people’s eyes, contained the rippling water spray.

Pei Yanci blinked, not having anticipated this scene, and stood frozen in place for a moment.

Those large, narrow eyes slightly narrowed, curving into a beautiful arc.