CH 12

Cui Xie brought Pengyan out of the courtyard and suddenly saw Landlord Zhao hurrying towards them from the front. Once the elder caught sight of Cui Xie, he halted and squeezed out a stiff smile, “Did you hear them making trouble? In fact, it was just an ignorant fellow who said a few impudent remarks, nothing much. You can rest easy, our street knows you and won’t listen to his silly words!”

A few silly words?

If all the neighbors knew about it and had even come to console him, it was most likely more than just a few impudent remarks!

When he first transmigrated over, he was engaged in a messy household tussle and now that he had arrived at the ancestral home, this group of actors still chased behind him like demons, with too much spare time and nothing else better to do. He endured the rising ebbs of nausea in his stomach and he waved a white flag towards the Cui couple in his mind. He only wanted to calmly and peacefully study for two years and then take the jinshi Imperial examination. These people actually were annoyingly persistent and still sent someone to pull on his back leg—did they really treat him like the wretched heroine in a drama and wanted to abuse him?

Jinshi: highest rank a scholar can get and is attained after passing the triennial Imperial court exam. When scholars attain this rank they usually become court officials. It should be noted that the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) had a very large number of jinshi graduates reaching up to around 24, 536 in total.

If they wanted to fight, then fight! Let’s see who can tear into the other first!

Before crossing over, he had seen how in palace dramas, after the Imperial concubines and consorts had a catfight, one would be ruthlessly killed. Compared to how many living people these ancient people had seen in their entire life, he had seen far more of those ‘deaths’ than that!

Cui Xie’s chest burst with a wave of boiling anger, yet his face was calm. A little smile appeared on his face: “Truly let Landlord Zhao see something embarrassing. The family’s people are ignorant and were even so troublesome that they disturbed the neighbors. This is to be blamed on our Cui family’s not strictly disciplining them well.”

Only the corners of his mouth were slightly raised, but the smile did not reach his eyes. His gaze fell in front of him, and one could not tell what Cui Xie was thinking.

Landlord Zhao had seen the arrogant and mean appearance of the person sent over by the Cui family and then remembered that Cui Xie had a stepmother at home. He could not help but think of Cui Xie as a little pitiful thing who was bullied, and sympathetically comforted: “This is not your fault, these family servants are bullying their master…”

Cough, cough, cough—

Landlord Zhao suddenly realized that he had been criticizing and commenting on other people’s family affairs. He coughed hard a few times and did not dare to speak anymore. As he led Cui Xie along, he kept silent as they walked out of the residence’s main gates.

As soon they walked out of the outer courtyard, one could hear Cui Yuan’s slightly hoarse voice shouting: “If you have something to say, then come inside…there are people coming and going. You open your mouth to say such baseless, crooked insults, how do you want the Young Master to conduct himself in front of others in the future?”

A strong voice full of pressure and backbone replied sharply: “What did I say, Uncle Yuan, am I wrong? The Young Master injured his younger brother at home and made the Master and Furen fall ill from anger. The Master then punished him to think over it at the ancestral home. He was not sent here to enjoy any blessings! Along with this same reasoning, Furen was still worried over his life here and earnestly instructed me to send the monthly allowances. Unexpectedly, the Eldest Young Master has no intention of properly reflecting and is instead repairing houses and wells. Compared to the Second Young Master…”

夫人(fū ren): the mistress/wife, also a general term to refer to an official’s wife/madam.

“You are speaking nonsense, this house is too neglected to live in, how can we not make repairs…”

Cui Yuan did not have any fighting strength remaining after quarreling and his voice was easily cut off. The man sharply cut in and fiercely refuted: “This residence was built by the Old Master, and Master grew up here, what’s wrong with it? Uncle Yuan, you really have gotten used to the pampered lifestyle, and suddenly can’t live in such a house for the next half of your life?”

“Furthermore, it’s already been half a month since you left the capital and you have already arrived in Qian’an for at least ten or so days. Why did you not have the time to clean up the house then, could you have been sleeping in this wasteland then?”

“The Master ordered you to go directly to the ancestral home! Just where did you stop halfway and how did you spend those days!”

That person pressed harder and harder, his cutting, sharp voice inciting low voices from the neighbors and passers-by. Cui Xie held Pengyan’s trembling hands, stepped over the gate’s threshold, and finally caught sight of the person sent from the capital.

He wore a yellow tussah silk robe and possessed a round face, his figure tall and familiar to the eye.

Pengyan whispered ‘Second Manager’ and Cui Xie finally recalled where he had seen the man from—was this, not the Second Manager, Cui Ming, who had urged them to leave the residence the day after he had been beaten? No wonder this grating and sharp voice sounded a bit familiar to the ears.

This Second Manager had also caught sight of Cui Xie. He immediately wrinkled his brows and raised his eyebrows, revealing an unkind smile. He exclaimed loudly: “Eldest Young Master, I have been waiting for you for such a long time! You have finally decided to come out!”

Everyone’s eyes immediately focused on Cui Xie and the crowd surrounding the gates was set ablaze with a low din, buzzing with people’s whispers. Among the crowd, a few particularly conspicuous tongsheng in white robes squeezed through. One of the youth widened his clear eyes and shouted to Landlord Zhao standing behind Cui Xie: “Grandpa, you told me to come home early from school to accompany the guests, is this that person?”

Tongsheng: an entry-level examinee who had passed the county/prefecture exams

Good news is not easily spread, but bad news rapidly spreads thousands of miles in an instant. With just a few words from Cui Ming, after Cui Xie arrived at Qian’an, he had set up the story of a father disciplining an unfilial son, and now this filial relationship was now completely destroyed.

‘Good things are not easily spread, but bad news rapidly spreads thousands of miles in an instant: ancient saying, that means in only a few days, the neighbors in the neighborhood would know about a person’s bad rumors

Cui Xie approached the carriage with a tranquil expression. Cui Ming arrogantly raised one eyebrow and unveiled a greasy smirk: “Please forgive me Young Master, but this little Manager was simply disciplining a subordinate and was too loud, accidentally disturbing you. Today, this subordinate is here to send over the Young Master’s monthly allowance—Furen knew that the Young Master had traveled here with plank injuries, and was afraid you would be short of food, clothing, and medicine. She specially asked this subordinate to send superior goods over. Requesting the Young Master to allow these to be sent in.”

Cui Ming raised his chin towards the coachman and proudly smiled: “Go into the courtyard and unload all the things we brought for the Young Master.”

Cui Xie raised his hand to stop him and asked in a low voice: “You say that you were sent by the family to bestow me some goods, is there official documentation? Is there a checklist?”

What list? It was already considered nice that the Furen had been willing to leak something from her fingers. Did he really think he was still the Eldest Young Master when he was in the capital?

Cui Ming pursed his lips, hummed a little bit through his mouth, and then disdainfully grinned: “Eldest Young Master, what checklists does our family have for monthly allowances? It is all distributed according to status. These were all personally prepared by the Furen herself, then is it possible that Furen would deduct any…”

Cui Xie sternly shouted: “Shut up! How dare you commit such a crime!”

Cui Ming was taken aback, his twisted smile freezing distortedly on his face, looking funny and weird. The people watching the commotion were also shocked by this thundering voice and finally realized that Cui Xie was still indeed the son of a high official from the capital. Naturally, the crowd could not help to quiet down, bend their knees a bit lower and hide behind others.

Those few Confucian scholars and students a little further away could not help but shake their heads and curl their lips. They thought he was not giving enough respect to the dignity of this man and instead indirectly scolding his parents who had only meant to discipline him a bit.

However, Cui Xie ignored everyone, took a step forward, and severely reprimanded: “You just slandered me in public for being unfilial. Seeing that you are the Master’s servants at home, and have pride in your ancestors, I will not deal with you in front of others’ eyes. But, I could not predict that you would be so crazy as to even slander my mother! Someone come, plug his mouth for me! Don’t let him say another ‘Master’ or ‘Furen’, truly ruining my parents’ righteous and benevolent reputation!”

Cui Ming could not predict that Cui Xie would reverse black and white like so and stared at him blankly.

‘颠倒黑白’ or  ‘reverse black and white’: idiom; meaning to distort the truth or misrepresent facts

Pengyan reacted quickly, immediately running up to give Cui Ming a hard slap. Cui Yuan rushed over to restrain Cui Ming but was afraid he would violently injure his son and the Young Master in the process of doing so.

Landlord Zhao was also looking on at the scene, his heartbeat beating frenziedly. He quickly ordered: “Zhao Kui, Zhao Sheng, hurry and protect Little Xie-ge, don’t let those two hurt him!”

The coachman of the Cui family only just reacted now and darted over to help up the Second Manager. Cui Xie took a step forward, faintly glanced at him, and coldly asked, “You also want to bully your master as a servant?”

The coachman had been hired from outside and was not one of the Cui family’s servants, nor the Furen’s trusted confidants. After wildly thinking a few times, he could only bow his head and beg: “Young Master, have mercy. This servant only listened to the Master’s orders to send a few things, but the Second Manager caught a fever on the road, and that’s why he spouted off some deranged nonsense…”

Haha, got a fever on the road? Did they treat him as he had never seen Water Margin before?

Water Margin, also translated as Outlaws of the Marsh or Tale of the Marches is a 14th-century Chinese novel. It was considered one of the Four Great Classical Novels of ancient literature written in vernacular Chinese. The Story is set in the era of the Northern Song’s fall and tells of how a group of 108 outlaws gathers at Mount Liang to form a sizable army before they are eventually granted amnesty by the government and sent on campaigns to resist foreign invaders/suppress rebel forces. These outlaws are regarded by some commentators as heroes, despite the fact that they perform wanton killing, retribution, and cannibalism. Despite this, it has many morals and messages that may relate to us, modern society folks.

When people in the Ming Dynasty claimed they were suffering a fever, it was just like how a modern murderer claimed they had a sudden mental illness. These were merely ploys made for escaping responsibility.

Cui Xie sneered secretly in his heart and waved his hands to the two servants sent over by Landlord Zhao: “Requesting that these two uncles help with a few matters. Take a rope to tie up that one wearing the yellow tussah silk robe and unload everything from the carriage. Open it and let everyone see what these ‘gifts’ are.”

Cui Ming had nearly lost his voice, and he cried out in horror: “You dare to mete out punishment on your own accord! I, although I am merely a servant, you have no merit to your name. If you want to beat me, the master will not protect mmph mmph…”

Without waiting for him to make trouble, Pengyan cleverly shoved a handkerchief to plug his mouth and restrained Cui Ming with his father’s help. Those Zhao servants did not dare to make a move, but Landlord Zhao nodded at them with a sense of urgency: “Tie up! At worst, we can ask Ying’er to send over a message to the yamen. The County Magistrate will have to give this old man some face.”

yamen: administrative government office of a local bureaucrat/official, think of it like a local county jail/magistrate office

Landlord Zhao’s grandson wanted to say something, but Landlord Zhao turned his face abruptly away from his grandson.

Not only the Zhao family’s servants, but there were also some onlookers who volunteered to help. Five or six people tied up Cui Ming together. The coachman was so scared that he turned around and was looking to escape, but the number of people watching the commotion kept increasing. He plunged into the crowd, but could not shove his way out. On the contrary, he was beaten a few times, shoved to the ground, and thus made unable to move.

Several onlookers took the initiative to unload the baggage from the carriage, untied it, and spread it out into the open street.

Cui Xie raised his clasped hands and made his rounds, thanking everyone for their help. Walking to the middle of that baggage, fumbling through the packages on his left and right, he finally picked something up—a mere string of coins.

He swiveled around and asked Cui Ming: “Is this the monthly allowance Furen instructed you to send over?”

Cui Ming indistinguishably screamed and yelled a couple of times.

Cui Xie impatiently responded: “If it is true, just nod your head. If it is not, just shake your head, no need to talk nonsense. If you have any grievances, wait until you are sent to the yamen later and explain them to the County Magistrate.”

Cui Ming began to shake his head desperately, humming incoherently for quite a while, his tears almost flowing out. Cui Xie once again asked if this was their monthly allowance, and this time Cui Ming did not dare to be vague and honestly nodded.

Cui Xie gave Pengyan a look, and without having to speak, Pengyan took the string of coins. He stared straight at Cui Ming and said, “Da-ge’s monthly allowance is two taels of silver, this manservant receives 500 copper coins and my father receives one tael of silver and five copper coins. This is only half a string and only compensates for my own monthly allowance. As for da-ge and my father’s…”

da-ge: big brother; in this case, it is referring to the Eldest Young Master. Here, when any of the Cui family members or servants use -ge, -ge is used as an affectionate endearment referring to children in the family, not to be confused with an older brother. I know it’s weird, but it’s just a term used to refer to children in an official household during that time period.

Picture of coins on a string. A full string is usually 1000 coins, so half of a string is 500 copper coins.

“That’s right, the servant Mother sent over was actually a  money-stealing thief and stole my entire household’s monthly allowance.” Cui Xie interjected first, suppressing the ‘deducted’ word that Pengyan was about to say. He then picked up two bundles off the ground, pulling out two sets of coarse, plain cotton robes, and shook them open on the ground for Cui Ming to see, “You brought this from home? Only these few?”

Cui Ming did not dare to nod anymore, so he shook his head again, whining in his restraints.

Cui Xie vaguely smiled, but it was also not a smile: “I’ll just say it then. Before I left the capital, the family had already commissioned for the long autumn garments to be distributed. How could only a few coarse, rough robes be sent over? My autumn garments must have been secretly stolen for your own use.”

I did not! It was not me! How could you as a Master slander us servants!

Cui Ming struggled desperately, trying to take out the handkerchief in his mouth, but he was held down by Cui Yuan who had been keeping an eye on him this entire time. The two servants from the Zhao family and a few onlookers from the crowd let out a few peals of curses and yelled: “Shameless thing! Actually stealing your Master’s property and still dare to strike with a muckrake to frame one’s master. Not to mention an official’s family, not even us small families dare to house such greedy and ruthless servants. They should be taken to the yamen, stripped of their clothes, and take a planking!”

‘strike with a muckrake’: Idiom from Journey to the West; means to counterattack or to make bogus accusations against the victim