Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The courtroom went still for a moment.

At the side, the clerk’s hand halted over his brush, and the bailiffs exchanged glances.

Cui Yanxing did not speak at once. He read the complaint from beginning to end, his finger pausing on the three words “Luo Family Case.”

“This prefecture was already preparing to reopen the Luo Family Case. Your father handled it before?”

“He did.”

“Where is the original testimony?”

I took an old sheet of paper from my sleeve.

“This is a copy I made of the testimony exactly as it was when Luo Yuniang first came to the Lin Family asking for help with her complaint. The version later submitted to the prefectural office was missing two lines and had an extra signature mark.”

The clerk took the paper and presented it.

Cui Yanxing read it for a long time.

“Why come only today?”

I raised my eyes to him.

“Because my father prepared a confession last night.”

“Whose confession?”

“Mine.”

Outside, the sky slowly brightened.

Cui Yanxing set down the testimony and asked, “Where is the confession?”

“In a hidden compartment in the Lin Family study.”

“You didn’t bring it?”

“No.”

Someone in the hall let out a quiet scoff.

I heard it, but I did not move.

Cui Yanxing looked at me. “Why not bring it?”

“If I had taken it, they would know I’d already seen it. Between last night and this morning, they would have had enough time to alter a second copy.”

Something shifted in Cui Yanxing’s gaze.

“You’ve thought this through carefully.”

I lowered my eyes.

“I’m afraid of dying.”

The faint laughter in the hall vanished.

By the time the bailiffs went to summon people from the Lin Family, day had fully broken.

Father arrived quickly.

He wore his usual blue cotton robe, his hair bound without a single strand out of place. His clothes were neat, his headpiece perfectly straight. He looked less like a man answering a summons than someone attending an ordinary inquiry.

My elder brother followed behind him, his face pale. Mother did not come.

The moment Father entered and saw me, he frowned first, as if he were looking at some old household object that should never have been put on display before others.

“Qingcai.”

His voice was low.

“Whatever you have to say, say it at home.”

I knelt below the bench and did not answer.

He turned to Cui Yanxing and cupped his hands in greeting. “My daughter has been frail since childhood. Perhaps she was frightened last night and said some foolish things. I hope Your Excellency won’t take offense.”

Cui Yanxing said, “She is accusing you of privately altering testimony in the Luo Family Case.”

Father froze for a moment, then sighed.

“The Luo Family Case is complicated. My daughter only copied a few papers in the study and does not understand the gravity of it. She is young. She is quick to believe rumors.”

When he said that, his gaze fell on me and softened a little.

“Qingcai, you’ve always been timid since you were little. Did the Luo Family come to see you again? You don’t actually believe what they said, do you?”

He sounded so convincing.

As if I were only throwing a childish tantrum, running into court to make trouble for the family.

My elder brother stood behind him, his lips moving before he said softly, “Little sister, come back first. Mother was so worried she didn’t sleep all night.”

I looked at him.

He looked away.

Cui Yanxing handed Father the testimony I had submitted.

“Master Lin, do you recognize this handwriting?”

Father only glanced at it once, and his brows loosened slightly.

“It’s my daughter’s handwriting. She likes to copy my legal drafts in her spare time. It’s not strange that it resembles mine.”

“Then look at this one too.”

Cui Yanxing had the clerk bring out the Luo Family Case file kept at the yamen.

The two sheets were placed side by side on the desk.

One was the original testimony as I had copied it.

The other was the statement in the prefectural case file.

Same witness’s name. Same day’s statement.

It was missing the line, “I saw a carriage from Duke An’s Mansion stopped at the alley entrance.”

It had the added line, “It was late, and the rain was heavy. I did not see any suspicious persons.”

The signature mark was there too, and the ink at that spot was slightly darker.

Father looked at the two sheets, the pad of his finger still resting on the desk’s edge. Even his sleeve had not shifted so much as half an inch.

Cui Yanxing asked, “Master Lin, which one do you think is genuine?”

Father raised his head.

“Once testimony enters the yamen, the yamen’s archived copy is the standard. The one in my daughter’s hands is only a private copy. It cannot be counted.”

Lin Huaizhang had been a litigation master for twenty years. He would not be frightened by a single sheet of paper.

I said, “Your Excellency, Luo Yuniang is outside.”

Only then did Father look at me.

The glance was brief.

Like the pause of a brush tip on paper.

Cui Yanxing ordered that Luo Yuniang be brought in.

When she entered, her clothes had been washed so many times they had turned pale. There were two layers of patches sewn onto her cuffs. She dropped to her knees and kowtowed, her forehead striking the floor tiles with a loud thud.

“This common woman, Luo Yuniang, greets Your Excellency.”

Cui Yanxing asked her, “Do you recognize the people before you?”

Luo Yuniang looked up.

First at Father, then at me.

When she looked at me, her eyes reddened at once.

“I do.”

Father said gently, “Madam Luo, in a courtroom, one must not speak recklessly.”

Luo Yuniang’s shoulders trembled.

She was afraid of Father.

A great many people were afraid of Master Lin. Afraid of his reputation, afraid of his brush, afraid that with a single sentence he could write black into white, and white into “still open to doubt.”

I had once been afraid too.

Clenching her teeth, Luo Yuniang pulled out half a yellowed sheet of paper from her clothes.

“Your Excellency, this is the complaint Miss Lin revised for me back then. She never met me in person at the time, only had an old serving woman pass it out through the side gate. But I recognize her handwriting.”

She raised the paper above her head.

“When she writes the words ‘human life,’ the last stroke presses down hard. It isn’t Master Lin’s handwriting.”

No one in the hall spoke.

Father stared at that half sheet of paper.

I had not given that to her.

I hadn’t known she had kept it.

Luo Yuniang began to cry, her voice hoarse as if it had been ground raw over gravel.

“My husband, Luo Heng, was a coachman at Duke An’s Mansion. Before he died, he said that the minor official beaten to death in the alley that night was not hit by him at all-it was people from the Duke’s Mansion who dragged him onto the carriage. But after the testimony was submitted, it changed. Later they said my husband killed someone while drunk, and he was sentenced to execution after the autumn assizes.”