CH 23

Cui Xie heard that something was wrong, so he quickly threw Shopkeeper Ji onto the bed and hurriedly pushed Pengyan: “Hurry and call your father in along with Clerk Ji and the other clerk at the front desk and meet me in the courtyard.”

He hurried down the stairs, catching sight of the store’s back entrance and called out in the direction of the front of the store ‘There is trouble, quickly come here’. Standing on his tiptoes, he reached and removed one of the exorcism double-edged treasured swords attached on the wall and he had not even unsheathed the sword before advancing into the courtyard. The back door located on the first floor of the store was closed and it was semi-soundproofed. Furthermore, the store clerk was occupied with business and hadn’t paid attention to the chaos happening at the back. Hence, they were a step slower.

Cui Xie grabbed the treasured sword and ran in, but saw that the courtyard’s drooping Flower Gate had been sealed off, but another narrow corridor had been constructed on the side.

Drooping Flower Gate (chuihuamen): the gate that leads to the inner central courtyard, the view is often blocked by a patterned screen wall with flowers on it.

As he followed along the narrow path into the main courtyard, upon entering, at his feet, he only saw a pile of scratched up pieces of satin clothing, smashed pieces and powder from porcelain shards, in addition to blood-red rouge and snow-white lead face powder—these items cast askew all over the place. On the outskirts of the main courtyard, there were a few red-nosed servants gazing upon the scene with respect and fear; they stood neither on the left nor the right. They encircled two young women with messy hair and unkempt faces as well as disheveled clothes standing in the middle as the two individuals faced each other.

He momentarily was unable to discern who had cried for help earlier, so Cui Xie clutched the sword scabbard and asked, “Just what has happened? I have already reported this to the officials!”

A woman in a pink garment in the middle yelled out, “Good, report to the officials! Just report it! Wang Xiangzhen, you have no conscience. I was also born with eyes and nose, generally meant to be a beautiful wife. My Father and Mother also gave me a neat and tidy dowry with thousands of taels to accompany me as I married over to your family. Now you’re so good, you turned around to use my money to raise an outside mistress! Good, I just wanted to take this to court with you!”

Another individual wearing a verdant-green embroidered coat replied, “Fine, just go report to the officials, don’t think that I’m afraid of you! Also, call the Lord to see, how could there be such hateful wives who beat and scold their own husbands in this world, this is one of the seven grounds for divorce!”

Seven grounds for divorce: A list of rules/principles that are enough reason to divorce your wife: not being obedient to the in-laws, childless, adultery, jealousy, disease, talking too much and theft.

Upon hearing this, Cui Xie grew more confused, he raised the sword and pointed at the group of people: “Who can call the shots here? Who is the one that wants to report to the officials? And who is the one who said they had just been raped?”

A hoarse but overly arrogant voice came from the crowd: “Who wants to report to an official? Who dares to report to the officials?! This is the family affair of my Wang family, just who dares to be nosy?!”

Clerk Ji and the other store clerk that had been manning the front desk had just exited out of the store at this time. Upon catching sight of the completely disheveled and disordered courtyard, they nearly fainted, loudy roaring at the group of people gathered in the middle, “What are you all making trouble for? This is our Young Master, the son of an Imperial court official, don’t hurt him! Official Wang, just look at how messy this courtyard has gotten, you did not tell us anything of this in the beginning!”

The servants looked at the two clerks with sullen and dark expressions. While the two clerks had spoken harshly and seemed intimidating, in reality, their bodies were not straight and cramps traveled up to their calf muscles. They hated that they were unable to kneel down immediately and show off a pitiful appearance.

Cui Xie blocked in front of them, narrowed his eyes and asked, “You are imprisoning a woman from a respectable family in my courtyard and I cannot interfere? I was personally commended by the Emperor as a loyal and righteous man, and the commendation gate has already been built, how can I just let your evil deeds go!”

The owner of the hoarse voice hiding in the crowds hesitantly cried out: “You, you are that Cui, Cui…”

Cui Xie clenched the scabbard and stretched out an arm to block Cui Yuan who had just come over, sternly shouting to the restless group who were waiting for a chance to make trouble: “Don’t move! Careful, my sword doesn’t recognize people! At the time, along with the jinyiwei, we fought a bloody battle with the White Lotus Society’s demonic Patriarch, blocking multiple sword slashes with my body, personally striking damage onto that demon’s face which earned me the Emperor’s personal grace in the form of an honorable commendation. To this day, those sword injuries still remain! Do you all still want to test if your heads are stronger than the demon Patriarch?”

Jinyiwei: means the ‘Embroidered Uniform Guard’; and was essentially the Imperial secret police that served the Emperors of the Ming Dynasty. They are given the authority to overrule judicial proceedings in prosecutions with full autonomy in arresting, interrogating, and punishing anyone, including nobles and the Emperor’s relatives. The guards would usually don a distinctive golden-yellow uniform with an identifiable plaque hanging near his torso and carrying a special blade weapon. 

The White Lotus Society was a religious and political movement, much like a sect or cult, that appealed to many Han Chinese who found solace in the worship of Wusheng Laomu (“Unborn Venerable Mother”, who was foretold to gather all her children at the millennium into one family). Basically in response to famine, crowded conditions, and harassment from petty government officials, White Lotus leaders in central China began a rebellion; they promised their followers that there would be the return of the Buddha and the end of suffering. They were heretics who wished to overthrow the current government.

He pulled open his robe collar, revealing fierce and sinister scars laced across his shoulders which consequently made that handsome and somewhat excessively delicate face emanate a majestic and murderous aura. 

The unsheathed sword he was exposing seemed to be repeatedly glimmering and all of the Wang family’s servants could not help but shrink within themselves, much like a ball. The owner of the voice, full of ample haughtiness and arrogance, belonged to a man who appeared from within the crowd. But his eyes were bruised black and blue, his whole face was covered with bloodstains in addition to a long bloody gash that spanned from the corner of his mouth to his neck.One did not know how he could endure the pain and still keep up such high and mighty appearances, all those directly facing him could not help but swallow a bit when meeting his face.

Clerk Ji shuddered more violently and a part of his body softened. He fell to the ground, unable to get up and grabbed Cui Xie’s thigh and pleaded bitterly: “Young Master, please spare us! My father and I were only momentarily muddleheaded! It’s just that the bookstore was heavily damaged by the floods last year, the previous payments for goods could not be settled and the ordered goods could not be sold in time, truly having a money deficit! The Cui family did not care about us either, everyone was going hungry and we were further pressed down by the debt collector! We were at the ends of our ropes and only then did we have enough courage to rent the courtyard to this Official Wang.”

Cui Xie squinted at Clerk Ji as he continuously proceeded to explain.

Cui Yuan pulled Clerk Ji away and slammed him on the ground scolding, “How dare you privately rent the Young Master’s courtyard!” He then pulled Cui Xie’s collar over the scar and instructed him to be careful of catching a cold or getting a sore throat.

That furen wearing the pink garments faced them and shouted, “This yard can be returned to you and we don’t need the rent money either, I just want you to beat this prostitute out for me!”

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

The man grew angry and cursed: “You wicked wife, trying to go against the heavens in front of your husband!”

Cui Xie felt that the current scene did not look like that of a human trafficker and abductee, so he pulled the clerk by his collar, his eyebrows raised and furrowed as he asked the male: “That woman, did you kidnap that furen or did you force her to become your wife? Just now, why did she say you forced her?”

The back door to the courtyard slammed open with a “bang” and in trickled Pengyan who was closely followed behind by several tall and robust men, his forehead covered in sweat. He sternly shouted, “Everyone stand down, don’t you dare offend my Young Master!” He then said: “Da-ge, these are the local xiang yue and lizheng administrators, as well as a few neighbors who are willing to help. I was afraid that it would take too long to invite people from the yamen, so I first invited them over to help.”

These two terms refer to two local administrative/governance institutions set up in areas below the county level. Every 100 households is defined as “Li” and every 5 “Li” was defined as a Xiang. The administrator of Xiang is called Xiang Yue and the administrator of Li is called Li Zheng. The Ming Dynasty used systems inherited in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the Xiang Yue, She Xue and She Cang system.

Lizheng: administrator of 100 households or 1 “Li”

Xiangyue: administrator of 5 “Li” (500 households)

Yamen: administrative government office of a local bureaucrat/officials at a county level or higher

When the xiang yue administrator saw that the courtyard had been smashed into pieces, he bitterly asked, “Official Wang, what is the matter? Throwing things around in broad daylight and now you want to beat people?”

Wang Xiangzhen looked at the courtyard and seeing that these were all faces he recognized, he lost a little bit of his arrogant demeanor, his brows and eyes drooped as he replied, “In this peaceful and tranquil world, in a courtyard that is but a few steps away from the county yamen, who would dare to prey on commoner women? My wife was really too fierce and I did not manage her well and she ran out to smash a few things….all the objects in this courtyard are my possessions, and in fact, it did not damage any of the owner’s things.”

Clerk Ji tearfully explained to Cui Xie, “When our shop was hit hard by the floods, the artisans’ houses were also damaged by the disaster, and in addition we owed debts to several paper mills and other clients, but Young Master’s family refused to pay a single penny. We almost went to streets to beg for money…It was this Official Wang who paid the debts for us and he did not want us to sell him the yard, merely wanting to rent it for a few years. A villain really wouldn’t do this!”

Wang Xiangzhen clearly saw the corners of Cui Xie’s mouth tighten and seeing how he was holding the treasured sword upside down, he still arrogantly shouted, “I paid a hundred taels of silver ro rent this courtyard, you can’t drive people out!”

Cui Xie did not forget the people who had rented this courtyard out in the first place, and he bowed towards the xiang yue and lizheng administrators as well as the neighbors first: “This courtyard was rented out to someone behind my back by Shopkeeper Ji and Clerk Ji. This is the first time I have visited the store. Their  family affairs have nothing to do with my Cui family, requesting that these da-ren bear witness to this.”

Daren: honorific for a government official or one of higher authority; literally means “bigger person”

Clerk Ji weepfully pounced onto Cui Xie’s leg and cried:” This matter is all this little one’s fault, this one’s father is old and can’t bear heavy punishment. Requesting that the Young Master deal with this one instead and let my father go…”

Those xiang yue and lizheng administrators couldn’t bear to keep watching, but Cui Xie refused to look in that direction. Instead, he pointed to the courtyard and said, “ I cannot clearly discern his family matters. Several individuals have lived here for a long time, and it is appropriate to assume that they know whether this woman was taken as his wife or mistress…received from someone else or forcefully snatched over. If she really was kidnapped, you can just tell me and I will report this to the County Magistrate.”

A few people pulled him aside and whispered, “This woman really was not kidnapped. Official Wang is the esteemed son of our Xingzhou’s Right Protector and commander, Great Official Wang. His marriage was unsuitable and he ended up marrying a stern and ferocious wife, and under her jurisdiction, he was not allowed to take a concubine. While he went out on a trip with his friends, he took advantage of that time to take a songstress on the outside. But, he did not dare to take her home so he rented the courtyard behind the Young Master’s store for her to live here…”

On the contrary, that woman faced him and pamperedly shed a few tears, and the fingernail marks on her face, rouge, and muddied face with face powder falling off had all combined together, but it did not look like she had noticed. Upon further inspection, it really did not look like she had been taken captive.

Cui Xie let out a sigh of relief, and stuffed the sword into Pengyan’s outstretched hands. He then turned around and asked Clerk Ji, “How many years have you rented this courtyard for?”

Clerk Ji lowered his head and replied, “No, it hasn’t been that long…”

Cui Xie continued to question: “Why did the rent money not appear in the account ledgers?”

Clerk Ji remained silent, and Cui Xie coldly sneered: “Because the ledger is a fake, isn’t it? Where are the real account ledgers?” He was also a person who had studied calculus and probability theory. If it wasn’t for the fact that he could not understand the symbols used in Ming Dynasty accounting books, he should have really taken a closer look at the account books at that time!

“In..in my room…” Shopkeeper Ji scurried up from behind, panting, his entire face similarly bitter and agonized: “We really did not dare to be greedy and covet after the Young Master’s silver! The Master first said that we would be paid silver, but when we went to the allotment center, not only did they refuse to give a single tael, they also claimed that we had already claimed our given allotment. They accused us of deceiving and swindling the Cui family out of their money and almost tied us up and sent us to the officials. Us father and son had no other way but to rent out this courtyard!”

This matter…it really seemed like a type of thing the Cui family would do. Cui Xie noncommittally asked, “What about the clerks in the store?”

Shopkeeper Ji stammered, “The business in the store was not good and we were unable to continue to support them…so, this old man took the initiative and asked them to go outside and find their own livelihoods.”

Cui Xie nodded, looked at him and continued, “How many clerks are there? How many engraver artisans are there in total? Is it possible to call them back?”

“The people here were all contracted when business was booming. There is an old accountant, two clerks, five engraver artisans, two printers and four handymen, but they also have families to support. Not working for a day means there will be no rice to cook in the pots…” Shopkeeper Ji replied, his voice becoming quieter and quieter as the father and son pair looked at Cui Xie with increasing trepidation and anxiety. 

From beginning to end, Cui Xie’s expression was neither unhappy or angry, but just indifferent and faint. This made those who saw it feel increasingly uneasy and even those two women did not dare to continue to fight and trade insults, instead peeking at him from behind the backs of others.

Wang Xiangzhen could not bear the atmosphere anymore. Seeing that Cui Xie no longer had a sword in hand and didn’t look like he could kill anyone, he courageously took a step forward and whispered, “Why don’t I lend you another courtyard? I also have a quiet charming little courtyard in Xiangguan, but it’s just that your bookstore’s location is really good. It is much more convenient and Sister Yue is already used to living here…”

He turned around and saw that his beloved lover’s face was full of bloody streaks and his wife ferociously glaring at him, and he suddenly felt that there was something wrong with what he just said.

Cui Xie did not even spare him a glance and calmly instructed, “I have nothing to do with this Young Master. Since this courtyard has been rented to you , naturally you can continue to live in this courtyard. Let everyone bear witness to what I am about to say next. Clerk Ji, you will be tasked to find all the previous employees of the store and summon them back. Ask if any are willing to work for me. In the future, I will provide them with food, clothing, lodging and pay them monthly wages. But accordingly, I want to re-sign a contract with them.”