Chapter 27
Zhang Yunhuai could not persuade me.
He put me under house arrest.
He truly is a formidable figure, unafraid to offend the Loyal and Brave Marquis, and even, together with his father Zhang Censor, impeached An Huaijin before His Majesty.
An Huaijin was demoted to an official post outside the Capital.
With his intervention, the Capital Prefect presided over the trial and quickly determined Wei Donghe’s guilt.
The procedures still had to be followed.
He took me, accompanied by the Chief Judge, to the prison to see Wei Donghe.
Wei Donghe and I grew up together. My family ran a rice shop, his sold meat.
My mother died early. When Sun Dagui was too busy making a living to look after me, I was mostly at Wei Donghe’s house, gnawing on pork bones with him.
His father looked fierce, but every time he saw me, he would grin foolishly-
“Xiao Chun is here, come, eat more meat, little girls look better with a bit of chubbiness.”
He even said, when we grew up, I should marry their Donghe.
My eyes darted between him and Wei Donghe, and I said crisply, “No, my father says Wei Donghe will grow up to be as ugly as you.”
His father was a bit embarrassed then.
I didn’t know any better as a child, and later, when Wei Donghe grew up, he didn’t look like his father at all.
He always followed behind me, looking to me for everything.
I got used to having him by my side, inseparable.
But now, the boy before me was shackled in heavy chains, covered in blood, his face unrecognizable.
I could not recognize him.
I truly could not recognize him.
The chains binding him were black and rusted with blood, almost cutting into his flesh.
He had suffered all manner of torture, his head hanging low, motionless, as if he had been dead for a long time.
The jailer splashed a basin of water on him.
He struggled to open his eyes, and through his ruined face, his gaze fixed on me.
Then the corners of his mouth moved, his voice broken and intermittent.
He was saying: “I don’t know her. I did it, it was all me. Kill me.”
Wei Donghe was actually timid, but whenever it came to me, he always found boundless courage.
Like when he limped alone to the Capital to find me, and upon seeing me, cried like a child.
He said, “Xiao Chun, I’m useless. I was so scared without you by my side. I thought of going to the yamen to report, but there were too many bandits in the woods. I was so scared, I accidentally fell off a cliff and broke my leg… Am I especially useless? By the time I limped back to town, everything was gone.”
In my memory, my boy was always afraid of pain.
When his father beat him, he would always cry and howl loudly.
But now, he was covered in wounds, confessing to every crime again and again.
The Second Young Master was satisfied. He said to the Chief Judge, “He has confessed. Execute him in three days. He’s already like this, there’s no need for further torture.”
The Chief Judge hurriedly agreed.
I said nothing the entire time, my gaze fixed on Wei Donghe, my face numb and unfeeling.
But they did not know that inside, my heart was bleeding and festering, collapsing from within, inch by inch, falling apart.
Zhang Yunhuai led me away. As we turned to leave, Wei Donghe lowered his head and faintly hummed a nursery rhyme-
“…The Jia family’s child is thirteen, wealth and glory can’t last for generations. Able to make the golden-spurred rooster fight, white silk robes ride in soft carriages. Father dies a thousand miles from Chang’an, a servant leads the funeral cart along the road.”
I knew this nursery rhyme; it was Teacher Li’s least favorite.
Back at Shengchuan Academy, every time he hit us with his ruler, Wei Donghe and I would deliberately annoy him by humming this ‘Shenji Yao’ in front of him, then dash away.
Teacher Li always said we were hopeless, so angry his beard would bristle and his eyes would bulge.
“Father dies a thousand miles from Chang’an, a servant leads the funeral cart along the road.”
I heard it-Wei Donghe was saying goodbye to me.
He said, “Xiao Chun, I’m going home.”