Chapter 13: Bodhisattva Barbarian (Part 1)
“That mud Buddha temple on Qingyuan Mountain has been abandoned for over a decade. Who would have thought there was a corpse hidden inside the statue…”
Inside the Guangning Prefecture Yamen’s meeting hall, Assistant Magistrate Yang, his crimson robes still damp from the rain, wiped the fuzz from a peach with a handkerchief. Remembering the corpse he had seen in the morgue before dawn, he lost his appetite, put down the peach, and picked up his teacup. “I heard it was the scholar’s own younger sister who smashed the back of the statue and discovered the body.”
“Younger sister?” Assistant Magistrate Tao, who had been leaning back in his chair, massaging his rheumatic leg, sat up straighter. “A remote, abandoned temple… how could a young woman know that her brother was sealed inside that Buddha statue?”
Even the beggars who lived in the temple hadn’t known. How could she have found her way there and known about the corpse inside?
“She claims it was a dream,” a judicial officer said respectfully.
“A dream?” Assistant Magistrate Tao exclaimed, putting down his teacup. “What kind of explanation is that? Preposterous!”
“Where is the young woman now?” Assistant Magistrate Yang frowned, irritated by the peach fuzz on his handkerchief.
“She’s being held in the Silu Prison. The beggars reported the case to Magistrate Yin earlier. Magistrate Yin believes her explanation is insufficient to explain her presence at the temple and the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the body. Therefore, he ordered Investigator Tian Qi Zhong to take her to the Silu Prison for questioning,” the judicial officer continued.
“So, she’s being subjected to the ‘welcome beating’?” Assistant Magistrate Tao exchanged a glance with Assistant Magistrate Yang and stroked his white beard. “This case is very strange…”
The Tian Qi Zhong they were discussing was another judicial officer of the Guangning Prefecture. At this moment, in the rainy Silu Prison, he was interrogating a prisoner.
“Miss Ni, do you still insist on your dream as an explanation?” Tian Qi Zhong, his face expressionless, sat behind his desk, scrutinizing the young woman lying face down on the torture bench.
Her plum-green dress was stained with blood. Her temples were damp with sweat, strands of hair clinging to her cheeks. Her face was as pale as a sheet, her body trembling uncontrollably.
“Yes,” Ni Su whispered, one hand gripping the edge of the bench.
“We don’t speak of ghosts and spirits here.” Tian Qi Zhong frowned, his voice sharp. “Young woman, confess the truth!”
He gave a signal, and a guard raised a water-fire staff and brought it down hard, eliciting a near-silent scream from Ni Su. Her trembling intensified. In the dim light, half her face was pressed against the bench, her pale neck, exposed beneath her sweat-soaked hair, looking thin and fragile.
The pain from the beating didn’t numb; it only intensified with each strike, making her flesh crawl. She could feel the stickiness of blood soaking into her clothes.
“If you don’t believe in ghosts and spirits, sir, why do you carry a protective talisman?” she asked, her lips trembling as she forced out the words.
Tian Qi Zhong froze, his hand instinctively going to his waist. Beneath his green official robe, he indeed wore a folded yellow talisman.
His elderly mother had specifically requested he carry it. Although he didn’t believe in such things, he couldn’t refuse his mother’s wish.
But the talisman was hidden beneath his robe. How did this woman know?
“I said, I dreamt of the mud Buddha temple, and I dreamt of myself smashing the back of the statue,” Ni Su gasped, each word a struggle. “I even dreamt of you, sir. The path was slippery from the rain, and your talisman fell on the ground. Then the guard beside you picked it up…”
The more she spoke, the more uneasy Tian Qi Zhong became.
“Oh my, Master Tian, how could she know…” The guard standing beside him covered his mouth in astonishment.
That morning, as soon as the West City Gate opened, the beggars had rushed to the Guangning Prefecture Yamen to report the case. Tian Qi Zhong had immediately gone to the temple on Qingyuan Mountain.
Inside, they found a decomposing corpse and this young woman kneeling beside it.
Tian Qi Zhong had ordered his men to take her into custody while he and a few guards followed slowly behind. He clearly remembered that when his talisman fell, the woman had already been escorted down the mountain path. She couldn’t have seen it.
But this made the matter even more bizarre.
Could it be… that she really had dreamt it? Tian Qi Zhong touched the outline of the talisman beneath his robe, uncertainty gnawing at him.
“Sir, she’s fainted,” the guard standing by the torture bench suddenly said, interrupting Tian Qi Zhong’s thoughts.
Tian Qi Zhong looked up and saw that the woman was indeed unconscious. She had responded to the interrogation with absurd claims. According to procedure, she should have been subjected to the welcome beating to teach her not to disrespect the Guangning Prefecture Yamen.
But this frail woman had not only endured the beating but also stuck to her story.
“Find a medic,” Tian Qi Zhong said, then, remembering that she was a woman, pointed to the nearby guard. “And have your wife come and help dress her wounds.”
“Yes, sir,” the guard quickly agreed.
Ni Su drifted in and out of consciousness, occasionally hearing muffled voices. She felt someone undressing her, carefully peeling away the blood-soaked fabric from her wounds. The pain was excruciating, but she was too weak to cry out or open her eyes.
The scent of medicine was the most comforting smell to her. She instinctively tried to identify the ingredients, but her thoughts grew hazy. After a while, she managed to open her eyes slightly.
The dim prison cell was silent.
But a figure stood there, clean and pristine. The cell blocked the daylight, and the prison lamp was useless to him. His eyes were dark and lifeless.
Perhaps hearing her shallow breaths, different from when she was unconscious, Xu He Xue turned towards her. He couldn’t see her, but he heard her soft sobs.
He groped his way to her bedside and crouched down.
“Xu Zi Ling,” Ni Su murmured, tears welling up in her eyes, “I’m in so much pain.” Her voice was hoarse and raspy.
Xu He Xue was silent for a moment, then said, “I could have…”
“We made a deal,” Ni Su interrupted, her half-open eyes unable to see his face clearly. “You’ve already helped me find my brother, but I haven’t helped you yet.”
“Even without the beggars, I would have reported the case to the authorities. But then, how could I explain how I knew my brother was in the mud Buddha temple? They can easily find out that I arrived in Yun Jing yesterday. What means or connections do I have to find a person who’s been missing for months in a remote, abandoned temple on Qingyuan Mountain?”
She slowly shook her head. “If it doesn’t make sense, then it doesn’t make sense. But if you use your powers to help me escape this beating, then either you’ll be discovered, or I’ll be treated as a demon.”
“Since they know I just arrived in Yun Jing yesterday, I couldn’t possibly be the one who killed my brother. I’m a lone woman from Que County, with no power or influence, and no time or motive to harm him. They can’t close the case by blaming me.”
In the mud Buddha temple, beside her brother’s decomposing body, Ni Su had thought all this through.
The talisman on Tian Qi Zhong was also part of her plan. It wasn’t she who had seen it, but Xu He Xue. She had mentioned the talisman only to support her claim of a dream.
The pain clouded Ni Su’s mind. She could barely see the young man before her. Tears blurred her vision, and she soon lost consciousness again.
The prison cell was silent. Xu He Xue didn’t hear her voice again.
A fine rain fell. The main gate of the Guangning Prefecture Yamen’s Silu Prison faced a long alley. Beyond the alley was a bustling street. A poor scholar with a handlebar mustache sat at his stall against the wall, having had no customers all morning.
He sighed, then felt a cool breeze on his face. He opened his eyes slightly and saw a figure standing before his stall.
The figure wore a veiled hat and a fur-trimmed winter coat. The old scholar found it odd, then heard a cold, calm voice from beneath the hat. “Please write a letter for me.”
“Huh?” The old scholar saw the figure place a piece of silver on his stall. He quickly replied, “Alright, alright. Just tell me what you want to write, sir.”
The old scholar hurriedly ground ink and began to write. But the more he wrote, the more alarmed he became. “Sir, where are you sending this letter?”
The young man didn’t answer, so he didn’t dare ask again. He blew on the ink to dry it and handed the letter over.
Even after the figure had walked some distance away, the old scholar couldn’t help but watch. He saw the young man crouch down and speak to a child, who then took the letter and ran off, skipping and jumping.
Inside the Di Qian Gate, a few streets away from the Guangning Prefecture Yamen, was the headquarters of the Yin Ye Si, the Imperial Secret Service.
Inside, Han Qing, the Director of the Zhi Jian Department, listened to a report from a subordinate.
“Yesterday, the Emperor returned Minister Zhang’s former residence to him. After returning home, Minister Zhang personally gathered his belongings and burned them in the courtyard.”
“Belongings?” Han Qing, a eunuch in his thirties, had a stern face and a clear, gentle voice.
“Reporting to Director, twenty years ago, when the traitor Xu He Xue passed the imperial examination, he gifted Minister Zhang a painting he had done himself, titled ‘Fishing Alone in the Snow’. At the time, Minister Zhang praised it profusely and even wrote a poem on it, which became quite famous,” the subordinate replied respectfully.
“Are you saying Minister Zhang burned that painting?” Han Qing asked, holding his teacup.
“Yes, he burned it himself.”
The subordinate, seeing the Director’s silence, cautiously added, “Director, you can now report to the Emperor that Minister Zhang has severed all ties with that traitor.”
Rain pattered against the eaves. Han Qing held his teacup, lost in thought.
“Director,” another subordinate hurried in and bowed. “A child came to the main gate, saying someone asked him to deliver this letter to you.”
Han Qing glanced at the letter and gestured for someone to bring it to him.
He put down his teacup, unfolded the letter, and scanned its contents, his brow furrowing. He looked up. “Where is the child?”
The subordinate immediately brought the child in. Han Qing’s men questioned him repeatedly, but all they learned was that a young man had given him the letter.
“Did anyone report a case to the Guangning Prefecture Yamen today? Was the deceased a scholar from Que County? Was the body found on Qingyuan Mountain outside the West City Gate?” Han Qing asked his subordinates.
“I believe there was such a case,” a subordinate who had just arrived for his shift said. He lived near the Guangning Prefecture Yamen and had heard about it from his family. “I heard the scholar’s body was found inside a mud Buddha statue.”
A scholar’s death, and a scholar who had come to Yun Jing for the winter examination.
Han Qing looked down at the letter. The person who wrote it was certain he would investigate a case related to the winter examination. But who was this person?
His gaze settled on the name “Ni Su” in the letter. “Is the deceased’s younger sister, Ni Su, currently held at the Guangning Prefecture Yamen’s Silu Prison?”
“I heard the woman made absurd claims and is likely being subjected to the welcome beating,” the subordinate replied.
Han Qing crumpled the letter and said sternly, “Take my seal and go to the Silu Prison immediately. Bring that woman to the Yin Ye Si.”
Several subordinates hurried out into the rain.
None of them noticed the tall figure standing under the eaves.
Being so far from Ni Su was causing Xu He Xue immense pain. The candles she had lit for him yesterday had been consumed during their journey.
His spirit form was growing fainter.
Shimmering dust mingled with the rain and mist. Xu He Xue, supporting himself against a pillar, felt his wounds reopening. He stumbled forward, then stopped abruptly and turned around. He saw the eunuch standing in the hall, lost in thought.
He didn’t recognize the man’s face.
When he had left Yun Jing, the eunuch had been only eleven or twelve years old.
Xu He Xue turned and his figure dissolved into the rain and mist.
But voices echoed in his mind:
“Minister Zhang personally gathered his belongings and burned them in the courtyard.”
“He burned them himself.”
“Minister Zhang has severed all ties with that traitor.”
Xu He Xue looked up at the gray, overcast sky. The eaves of the building, with their ornate carvings, reminded him of the time, fourteen years ago, when he, full of youthful ambition, had listened to his teacher’s teachings.
“Zi Ling, I hope you soar high and never abandon your aspirations.” His teacher’s words of encouragement still rang in his ears.
But in the end, at fourteen, he had defied his teacher’s hopes and expectations.
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