At dawn, a pale blue light like a veil drifted across the eaves of the Shuntian Prefecture Yamen, and bronze bells tinkled softly in the morning breeze. Lord Wang was snoring loudly, his brocade quilt slipping down to his waist, revealing his round belly, when he was suddenly dragged from his bed by an officer, blanket and all, without even a moment to put on his cotton-padded shoes. Rubbing his eyelids, caked with mucus, he glimpsed the scene below through his sleepy eyes and was instantly horrified—five burly men, bound like dumplings with hemp rope, kneeled side by side, their bodies dripping with dark green filth, their hair dangling with half-dried feces balls. The stench was so overwhelming that the swallows on the beams fluttered their wings and fled out the window.
"Who the hell..." Lord Wang pinched his nose and backed away, his official boots scraping harshly against the blue bricks. "Which toilet did you pull this out of?"
"Sir! Someone from the General's Mansion is here!" The officer, his face flushed red, pointed at the old butler leaning on a cane beside him, "The old butler said he wants to report a crime!"
The old butler was dressed in a brand new blue cloth gown, his back straight as a pine tree. As he bowed to Lord Wang, his cane made a crisp sound on the ground: "This humble official is reporting on behalf of my eldest daughter, Shen Weiwan. Someone is colluding with foreign thieves and intends to seize the important warehouse of the general's mansion."
Lord Wang was about to explode when he heard a howl from the tied-up man: "Your Excellency, you are innocent! Madam Liu sent us here! She said that the general's private money was hidden in the warehouse, and she wanted to give us 30% of it!" The speaker was Liu San. When he struggled hard, the feces ball on his bun fell onto the desk with a "plop", startling the clerk so much that he dropped his brush and jumped back.
The old housekeeper glanced at Liu San coldly, then pulled out a wax-sealed letter from his sleeve. He pinched the edge with his fingertips and handed it over, "Please read this, sir. This is a handwritten letter from Liu and Liu San, along with their blood-stained testimony of dividing the spoils."
When Lord Wang took the letter, his brow furrowed in distaste the moment his fingertips touched the paper. The edges were stained with dark brown stains, and it exuded a strange odor, a mixture of feces and ink. After he saw the words, "After the matter is accomplished, the treasury property will be divided 30%, and I will never break my promise," and the distinct cinnabar handprint of "Liu" at the end, he leaped from his chair, his official hat tilted to the back of his head. "What a rebellion! How could a woman in the general's inner chambers be capable of such collusion with foreign thieves?"
"Your Excellency!" Seeing the official's face suddenly change, Liu San cried even harder, his face covered in tears and fecal water. "Last fifteenth day of last month, Liu met me at the Yuelai Teahouse in the west of the city. She gave me fifty taels of silver as a deposit and said Miss Shen hid the gold in the third row of wooden boxes in the warehouse. She told us to go and steal it at midnight. She was operating a corner gate in the mansion as an insider..."
"Enough!" Lord Wang slammed the gavel so hard that the cinnabar box on the case jumped. "Go to the General's Mansion and summon Liu! If she resists, show no mercy and arrest her right there!"
At that moment, Liu was smashing her dressing box in the west wing, her gilded mirror box shattering onto the ground, scattering her pearls and jade. She heard the Shuntian Prefecture officers pounding on the corner gate, and her mutton-fat jade comb clanged to the ground, breaking off half its teeth. She tried to crawl under the bed, her face pale, but the officer grabbed her brocade skirt and pulled her out like a chicken, "Let me go! I'm the Second Lady of the General's Mansion! That little bitch, Chen Weiwan, framed me!"
In the lobby, Liu was dragged to the case with disheveled hair. She caught a glimpse of the traces of feces on Liu San and others, and saw the familiar letter on the case. Her legs went limp and she collapsed on the blue bricks, her fingertips trembling like sieves: "I didn't write this! This letter is forged! Chen Weiwan bribed the lawyer to make a false testimony!" She screamed and threw herself towards the letter, but was stopped by Lord Wang.
"Liu," Lord Wang pointed at the seal on the lower right corner of the letter with an ivory pick, "is this 'Liu's private seal' also fake?" He turned to Liu San and said, "Tell me in detail how Liu came into contact with you."
Liu San's saliva flew, splashing on the case: "She wore a blue cloth dress and a veiled hat, and gave me a jade pendant of excellent quality as a token of trust! She also said that after the matter was completed, she would give me another three hundred taels of silver and let me take my brothers and run away..."
Liu was so angry that she was shaking all over, her nails almost digging into her palms: "You are talking nonsense! Shen Weiwan must have given you money to teach you to frame me like this!"
"Bullshit!" Liu San spat out a mouthful of dung-stained saliva. "If I had taken the money, would I have fallen into the cesspool? There's a five-foot-deep cesspool dug under the west wall of the General's Mansion, covered with thin wooden boards. I fell in first and nearly choked to death on the manure!"
The officers in the hall were so stifled that their shoulders shook. One young officer couldn't help but burst out laughing, earning a sharp glare from Lord Wang. Lord Wang coughed twice before suppressing the twitching of his lips. "Ms. Liu, we have witnesses and evidence. What else do you have to say?"
Liu looked around at the contemptuous eyes around her, and suddenly rushed towards the old housekeeper like crazy, scratching his face with her nails: "It's you! It's you, the old dog, who helped Shen Weiwan to harm me! The old servant of the general's mansion, shall not die a good death!"
The old housekeeper dodged to the side and sighed bitterly, "Second Madam, if you had stopped earlier, why would you have ended up like this?"
"Silence!" Lord Wang slammed the gavel again, the clang echoing through the hall. "As a member of the royal family, Liu colluded with foreign invaders and attempted to embezzle the family property. She is guilty! She will be sent to death row and await the emperor's judgment!"
When Liu was dragged away by the officers, her hair was disheveled like a ghost, her skirt was stained with mud and feces, and she kept cursing: "Chen Weiwan! Even if I become a ghost, I will not let you go--" The sharp curses became farther and farther away, and were finally blocked out by the heavy gate of the government office, leaving only a faint stench lingering in the hall.
When the news reached the General's Mansion, Shen Weiwan was sitting before a mirror, Chuntao inserting a scarlet gold and kingfisher hairpin into her hair. Hearing about Liu's disgraceful behavior in court, she couldn't help but laugh, the pearl pendant on her hairpin swaying slightly with her trembling shoulders. "It was all expected; it was only a matter of time."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com