Chapter 602
Old Tales of Los Angeles
On the eighth day of the tenth month of the thirty-second year of the Jia Ning era.
Cold Dew, the seventeenth solar term in the Chinese lunar calendar.
There's a saying in Ningchao: "During the Cold Dew, wear only a single layer of clothing to get through winter; at night, the Cold Dew will freeze an old ox to death." Pedestrians walking on the street in the early morning can already see the white mist rising from their breath.
As the rooster crowed, Xiaoman stepped out of the west wing and rubbed her arms. The snoring of Pao Ge and Erdao came from the wool felt tent, and the thunderclap turned into a muffled sound when it passed through the tent.
At this moment, the main room door creaked open, and Chen Ji, dressed in a single garment, walked straight into the side room, bent down to pick up the carrying pole, and was about to leave.
Xiaoman said while tying her apron, "Young master, come back soon. Dinner will be ready in a little while."
Dark Cloud jumped onto Chen Ji's shoulder, and Chen Ji smiled as he went out the door: "Okay, Menlou Hutong is very close, I'll be back in a bit."
The man stretched and crawled out of his tent. He kicked the tent next to Erdao's: "Get up and get to work. Take the chamber pot further away."
Erdao crawled out of the tent and rubbed his eyes: "How far?"
The gangster casually said, "Let's go to Daoxila Hutong. Old Li lost a game of chess and refused to pay. Let's suffocate that bastard."
Erdao Wengsheng replied, "Okay."
The man quickly added, "It's not that we really want to suffocate you."
After Erdao left, Paoge leaned against the kitchen doorway, smelling the aroma of fried oat noodles, and said helplessly, "Miss Xiaoman, haven't we finished our oat noodles yet? We've been eating them for over a month."
Xiaoman stood in front of the stove and complained, "Do you think I want to eat this stuff? We only have thirteen taels of silver left at home, and we're about to run out of food. You're all idle and lazy. One of you goes out to play chess with the old man every day, another goes to the Imperial Hospital to read books, and the third slacks off when chanting scriptures and practicing Buddhism. Who cares about the family?"
The gangster said sarcastically, "Thirteen taels of silver, if spent sparingly, can last for another two months."
Xiaoman muttered, "You guys aren't worried at all. I was thinking of buying some cloth before New Year's Eve to make a new outfit for the young master. I wonder why the young master saved that princess. 540,000 taels of silver, that's enough to spend for ten lifetimes... no, it's more than ten lifetimes."
The gangsters didn't care at all and said cheerfully, "Officials ask about punishment, the powerful ask about disasters, ordinary people ask about getting rich, the poor ask about wealth, the rich ask about the road ahead, the wealthy ask about calamities, and those who are wealthy ask about seeking immortality. It's all selfishness. Someone has to think of something different, right?"
“Always spouting off a whole set of theories,” Xiaoman rolled her eyes. “Young Master has been at the Imperial Hospital for a month now, and they don’t even pay him a salary. What’s the point of him helping out so much? I’ve seen him reading medical books every day. Last night, he was even carrying a cloud up to the roof to read by moonlight late at night. Is he really planning to open a clinic? Opening a clinic is fine too; clinics make money pretty quickly…”
The man laughed and said, "It's good to be busy. Being busy will make you forget all your unhappy things. Right now, the boss needs something to distract him. If you don't let him read day and night, what if he does something rash and hangs himself?"
Xiao Man spat three times: "Young Master is not that stupid... Have you heard, Brother Pao? On the first day of the tenth month, the Qi family opened their ancestral hall and expelled Qi Xianzhun and Qi Zhenwu from the family register and sent them back to Jizhou. They also took the initiative to hand over their hidden properties in the capital to the Directorate of Ceremonial. I secretly calculated that the Qi family handed over hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in one go this time."
The man nodded and said, "I've heard about it. It's all over the streets. Someone is creating a buzz, saying that the Qi family truly deserves the title of 'the most cultured family in the world,' and has the courage to cut off one's own arm. They don't even tolerate the mistakes of their own family members."
Xiaoman scoffed, "It's just sacrificing the pawn to save the king. Do they really think everyone would believe that? Even Aunt Zhang next door doesn't believe it."
The man shook his head: "If you keep telling the truth, people will start to believe it. The Qi family has suffered heavy losses this time, and most importantly, they probably won't let it go easily. The boss needs to be careful."
Xiaoman asked worriedly, "What if the Qi family really holds a grudge?"
Taking advantage of her distraction, the man from the brothel picked up the sack of oat noodles from the ground and ran off, saying, "Miss Xiaoman, I'm giving this oat noodles away. Let's eat something else, or I'll throw up. I'm going out to find work, and I'll definitely bring back some money tonight."
……
……
Chenji used to fetch water from Menlou Hutong, which was just one street away from Shaojiu Hutong. Now, fetching water is much more convenient.
Chen Ji carried his load on a shoulder pole, walking through the alleyways with their gray tiles and white walls. Wu Yun walked alongside him, stepping on the tiles. Neither of them spoke.
As usual, a long queue had formed early in the morning by the well in Menlou Hutong. Chen Ji calmly joined the queue at the back, while Wu Yun swaggered onto his shoulder and waited with him at a leisurely pace.
Just then, the gate to Yang Xiucai's courtyard opened, and people immediately surrounded him: "Mr. Yang, are you reading the newspaper today?"
Yang Xiucai still looked impatient, but before he could speak, a young man stuffed an egg into his hand and said with a smile, "Mr. Yang, it's still warm."
Yang Xiucai looked down for a moment, then stuffed the egg into his sleeve: "Get the newspaper."
The young man tentatively asked, "Mr. Yang, could you read the newspaper from Wenyuan Bookstore? I heard the front page is about Viscount Chen Ji of Wuxiang." Chen Ji turned around to look.
Yang Xiucai was also surprised and said, "Wen Yuan Bookstore's newspaper was suspended for a month or so. Why is it resuming publication today?"
The neighbors sighed, "Who knows? But the Sanshan guild sells it door-to-door, saying it's for the Third Prince of Wuxiang..."
Yang Xiucai snatched the newspaper, looked down at it, and muttered to himself, "Unfilial, unjust, inhumane... what a huge label."
The neighbors stopped queuing for water and crowded around, saying, "Sir, please read this to us. What exactly is written in the newspaper?"
Chen Ji looked at the empty queue in front of him and glanced at the well. He didn't join the crowd, but silently walked to the well and rowed.
But then Yang Xiucai said loudly, "Regarding the three crimes of Viscount Chen Ji of Wuxiang, the first is unfilial piety. Chen Ji is the illegitimate son of the Chen family on the right side of the prefecture. His father, Chen Liqin, is an official in Jinling, a court official. His stepmother, Liang, comes from a prestigious family and is gentle, kind, respectful and frugal. Chen Ji lost his mother at a young age, and Liang raised him as her own son, her kindness as heavy as a mountain."
"However, when this son was in Luoyang, he declared that he had rebelled against the Chen family and treated his biological father as a stranger. When he saw his father in the mansion, he did not call him 'Father' but 'Lord Chen'. He also did not call his stepmother 'Mother'. He was completely disrespectful. The relationship between father and son is natural, and the relationship between ruler and subject is a fundamental principle. Chen Ji, as a son of a concubine, disobeyed his elders and betrayed the natural order. This is the first instance of his unfilial conduct."
Chen Ji calmly lifted the bucket onto the well, and a murmur arose from the crowd.
Someone whispered in surprise, "How can a father and son hold a grudge overnight? Even if there is a huge grievance, why doesn't he even call him 'father'?"
Ignoring the murmurs, Yang Xiucai continued reading: "The second is unjust. The Book of Rites says that the marriage ceremony is to unite two families in good relations, to serve the ancestral temple above, and to continue the lineage below. The marriage between Chen Ji and Zhao Ning, the third daughter of the Qi family, began in the spring of the thirty-second year of the Jia Ning era. The five rites of betrothal, asking the name, accepting auspicious gifts, presenting betrothal gifts, and setting the wedding date were all completed. When setting the wedding date, the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month was chosen as the auspicious day for the wedding."
According to Article 137 of the Household and Marriage section of the Da Ning Code, once the betrothal gifts have been paid, the marriage contract is established and filed with the authorities, and cannot be revoked. If the groom's family reneges, the betrothal gifts will not be recovered. If the bride's family reneges, they will be punished with eighty strokes of the cane and the betrothal gifts will be recovered. If the groom's family fails to marry without cause, the bride's family may sue the government for another marriage. Anyone who reneges on a marriage and causes damage to someone's reputation will be sentenced to three years of penal servitude. If the result is death, the person will be hanged.
"Now Chen Ji has actually redeemed Bai Li, a prisoner of the Jiaofangsi, with 540,000 taels of silver. What has Qi's daughter done wrong? She is waiting to be married, longing for him, but she has been betrayed like this. She has been humiliated in the street and her reputation has been ruined. How can she bear it? This is the second injustice."
Someone in the crowd said, "I heard that Miss Qi is crying all day long, and her eyes are about to go blind from crying."
The woman whispered, "But Viscount Wu Xiang and the Princess overcame countless difficulties; they are clearly a perfect match..."
A man spat and said, "You two are a pair of dogs. You're engaged, yet you act like this. If you have someone else in your heart, why did you even get engaged to the Qi family? You spent 540,000 taels of silver, and in the end, you were still abandoned."
Scholar Yang held the newspaper high, impatiently silencing the murmurs: "Are you going to listen or not?"
"Listen, listen, you read it first."
Yang Xiucai cleared his throat: "The third is his lack of benevolence. Mencius said, 'The heart of compassion is the beginning of benevolence.' Chen Ji colluded with street thugs to establish the Red Gate, which occupied places like the Eight Great Hutongs, Liulichang, Panjiayuan Ghost Market, and Chongnanfang, extorting money from the people. Merchants work from sunrise to sunset, with small profits, yet they are required to pay money monthly. If they refuse, they are beaten. Chen Ji, a nobleman, does not think of serving the court, but instead competes with the people for profit and preys on them. This is the third aspect of his lack of benevolence."
Scholar Yang paused here, then read aloud word by word: "Three crimes combined: unfilial piety, injustice, and inhumanity. How can such a beast in human clothing stand between heaven and earth? How can he hold a position in the imperial court?"
After Yang Xiucai finished reading, the alley quieted down.
The next moment, a man said, "The Wenyuan Bookstore's newspaper has suddenly resumed publication, clearly targeting Chen Ji. To slap such a big accusation right off the bat is probably an attempt to put him to death."
Yang Xiucai sneered, "So what if we come after him? Is what the newspapers say not true? Our Ning Dynasty is founded on filial piety and upholds loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, and righteousness. Such unfilial, unbenevolent, and unjust people should have their true colors revealed to the world so that no one can be deceived by them."
As they spoke, Chen Ji, carrying two buckets of water, walked through the crowd without changing his expression: "Excuse me, please make way, be careful not to get splashed."
The people in Menlou Hutong made way for him, whispering among themselves: "By the way, yesterday at the teahouse, I heard someone say that Chen Ji seems to be involved in the prison break in Luocheng and is implicated in Prince Jing's rebellion. If this is true, he'll be implicated for disloyalty too."
"real or fake?"
"I don't know. That person spoke very convincingly, even saying that Chen Ji tricked his way into opening the inner prison gate."
Chen Ji had just stepped out of the crowd when he suddenly stopped.
As for other matters, none of them were exactly secrets. The Qi family's counterattack was also within his expectations; it was just a matter of sooner or later. Grand Secretary Qi waited a full month after waking up before launching his attack, much later than he had anticipated.
The only people who knew about the raid on the inner prison in Keluo City were Prince Jing, Old Man Yao, Liang Gou'er, Liang Mao'er, Bailong Feng Wenzheng, the Crown Prince, and She Dengke.
The others are either no longer alive or have long since left Ning Dynasty, so they could never have revealed this matter. The only one who could have leaked the secret is... She Dengke.
Chen Ji looked down at the water in the bucket; his face was reflected in the water, but it was blurry and indistinct. (End of Chapter)