Chapter 13

Chapter 13

After Xie Wujiu left, Qingshi Town was quiet for a long time.

The Zhou Family was taken to the prefectural city. Zhou Cheng’an’s hands were crippled; I heard he cried all the way, and there was never any news after that.

Shen Guan did not die.

He investigated the grain relief case to the end, implicating seventeen officials from the prefectural city.

My father’s private school became livelier and livelier.

Many children who couldn’t afford tuition also came.

My father grumbled about it out loud, but in private he went over the accounts again and again, and finally hung a wooden plaque at the door.

The poor are exempt from tuition.

Xu Yuanbao looked at the sign and said, “Teacher, you’ll lose money this way.”

My father said, “So when your father brings meat tomorrow, remember to ask him to give us a discount.”

Xu Yuanbao covered his money pouch. “Teacher, you’ve learned to be sly too.”

Chen Sangsang later also entered the private school.

Her father initially disagreed, saying it was enough for a girl to know a few characters; embroidering was the proper work.

Chen Sangsang went through the household accounts and figured out that two workers had been stealing silk threads.

The next day, her father personally brought her to school and gave my father two bolts of cloth.

Life seemed to be turning for the better.

Only, every winter, I would receive a letter.

The letters were never signed.

The first year, the letter contained only one line:

The Northern Frontier is very cold.

I replied:

Reciting books can keep out the cold.

The second year, he wrote:

I killed three people.

I stared at that line for a long time.

Finally, I replied:

Why did you kill them?

The third year, he replied:

One was selling grain, one killed a witness, one was a rebel. The evidence was complete.

I replied:

Understood.

That autumn, a very thick letter came from the Northern Frontier.

It wasn’t Xie Wujiu’s handwriting.

The letter was forwarded by Shen Guan, with a military case file enclosed.

In the Northern Border Old Army, there was a Deputy General Deng, who, under the name of the Former Followers of Prince Yan, privately withheld grain and forced a few refugees to transport it for him. After the matter was exposed, he wanted to push those refugees out as scapegoats.

According to the Old Army’s rules, privately stealing grain in the army was punishable by beheading.

But Deputy General Deng had once protected Prince Yan, and the old soldiers all pleaded for him.

Shen Guan wrote in the letter that they argued all night in the tent.

Some said, the Young Lord had just returned to the Northern Frontier; he shouldn’t chill the hearts of the old ministers.

Some said, they were just a few refugees, their lives were cheap anyway.

After listening, Xie Wujiu asked only one question: “My mother, back then, was it also because her life was deemed cheap that no one saved her?”

No one in the tent dared answer.

The next day, Deputy General Deng was executed.

Those refugees weren’t collectively punished; instead, they received grain and travel permits. Xie Wujiu also ordered that Deputy General Deng’s family be sent back to their hometown, and after the land and property were investigated, what was due was returned.

I read the case file three times.

On the last page, I finally saw Xie Wujiu’s own handwriting.

He said:

I very much wanted to kill the people who pleaded for him.

I replied:

You didn’t kill them.

A month later, he replied:

Mm.

Just one word.

But I stared at that word for a long time.

The hardest thing in this world is never picking up the knife.

It’s when the knife is already in your hand, and everyone around says you can strike, yet you can still pause, and ask whether you should.

The fourth year, the Northern Frontier raised troops.

The court called them Yan Rebel Remnants.

But among the common people, it was said that the Yan Army did not kill civilians, did not plunder grain, and had stricter discipline than the imperial army.

The fifth year, Shen Guan was demoted.

Passing through Qingshi Town, he came to the private school and sat all afternoon.

I poured him tea.

Looking at the children reading in the courtyard, he suddenly smiled.

“Miss Lin, that letter of yours back then saved many people.”

I said, “It also let a knife loose.”

Shen Guan shook his head.

“The knife was already in its sheath. You just made the one holding it remember not to wave it around recklessly.”

I said nothing.

That winter, I received a letter from Xie Wujiu.

He said:

Shen Guan is a good official, I will protect him.

On the back of the letter, there was also a very small line of characters.

I have not wielded it recklessly.

Looking at those five words, I suddenly laughed.

And as I laughed, I felt a sadness.

Clearly, in this lifetime, so many things had already turned for the better.

Madame Qin did not die in a shabby house no one knew about, the Zhou Family’s evil debts were exposed, Shen Guan lived, and the private school had more and more children.

But Xie Wujiu still stepped onto the battlefield.

He still had to kill.

Still had to sit in that position far away from everyone else.

Some fates, their direction changed, but their weight could not be changed.