Chapter 611
More Important Days
Chen Ji leaned against the bars of his cell, listening to the howling wind coming from the prison.
The Ministry of Justice's prison was empty, as if it had been abandoned for a long time. In those days, petty thieves were sent to the Five Cities Military Command prison, while officials were sent to the inner prison, making the Ministry of Justice's prison seem useless.
At that moment, the sound of keys clinking together rang out, followed by the sound of a key being inserted into the lock, and then, with a click, the door opened.
Chen Ji turned his head and saw Wu Xiu walking into the prison dressed in a python robe.
Wu Xiu didn't seem like a suspect brought in for trial. Looking at the Ministry of Justice prison, he exclaimed, "It's much better than my Directorate of Ceremonial's inner prison. Each cell even has a small window. It's small, but you can see the moon... Which cell am I in?"
Chen Ji was taken aback. He had thought Wu Xiu was there on official business, but he hadn't expected that Wu Xiu had been arrested by the Ministry of Justice.
The head of the prison did not respond to Wu Xiu's words.
He silently led Wu Xiu forward, but Wu Xiu stopped in front of Chen Ji's cell and asked with a smile, "Excuse me, could you lock me in this cell?"
The jailer hesitated, saying, "Lord Wu Xiu, you are both involved in the same case. According to regulations, you cannot be locked up together to avoid collusion..."
Wu Xiu's smile remained unchanged: "How is your family?"
The prison warden's expression changed, and he hurriedly opened the cell door.
Wu Xiu calmly walked into the cell and surveyed the surroundings. After looking around, she leaned against the wall opposite Chen Ji, not worried that the dirty cell would soil her python robe.
He waved his hand at the head of the guardhouse: "That's all for you, you can leave now."
The steward hurriedly left.
After the footsteps of the prison warden faded into the distance, Chen Ji turned to Wu Xiu and asked, "Why was Lord Wu Xiu also imprisoned here?"
Wu Xiu said with a relaxed expression: "Xi Feng confessed that I was involved with Lin Chaoqing, a spy of the Jing Dynasty. Because I suspected that you had evidence of my collusion with the Jing Dynasty, I ordered him to kill you to silence you."
Chen Ji frowned, quickly thinking about the cause and effect.
Wu Xiu lifted his robe and sat down on the ground: "I know you're quick-witted, but don't bother thinking about these pointless things. They have nothing to do with you. If nothing unexpected happens, I should be going to Chongli Pass to repair the Great Wall. Fortunately, I've built some gates over the years, which might come in handy."
Chen Ji was taken aback again. This was the first time he had known that Wu Xiu was also an official... That's right, the Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial was only a fourth-rank official, which did not hinder his path to cultivation.
Seeing that Wu Xiu looked relaxed, he simply sat down on the ground as well and looked at Wu Xiu opposite him: "It seems that I have never seen Lord Wu Xiu in such a panic. Entering the Ministry of Justice prison is like returning to his own home."
Wu Xiu leaned against the wall behind him and thought for a moment: "Panic... I've panicked before. Thirty-one years ago, on the Lantern Festival, a few of us planned to go to see the lanterns together. Without waist tokens or travel permits, we sneaked out of the Firewood and Coal Bureau. We mingled with the crowds, entered the city through Yongding Gate, and passed through the city gate tunnel to reach the Tianqiao Temple Fair, where the streets were full of lanterns..."
At this point, Wu Xiu's eyes lit up: "Rabbit lanterns, lotus lanterns, carp lanterns, revolving lanterns, one after another, hung from one end of the street to the other. Red, yellow, green, purple, they illuminated the whole street as if it were daytime. No, even more beautiful than daytime."
"The streets were packed with people. There were vendors selling sugar figurines, candied hawthorns, masks, clay figurines, and lanterns. Some carried loads on shoulder poles, others pushed carts, and still others set up stalls, one after another. Some were guessing riddles, some were playing ring toss, and others were watching magic tricks. Children rode on their parents' shoulders, holding rabbit lanterns and giggling. Women walked in twos and threes, wearing velvet flowers in their hair, their faces glowing red in the lantern light."
Wu Xiu smiled and looked at Chen Ji: "I was six years old that year, and everyone was stunned when I stood at the street corner. It was my third brother who pulled me and said, 'What are you standing there for? Come on...' and we walked into the crowd."
Wu Xiu's voice grew slower and slower, and she stopped looking at Chen Ji: "People were packed together, shoulder to shoulder, sleeve to sleeve. It was hot everywhere, a mixture of the sweetness of roasted chestnuts, the aroma of roasted lamb skewers, and the oily smell of fried meatballs. Those smells wafted into our noses, making our stomachs rumble."
Wu Xiu didn't seem in a hurry to explain why she panicked that night, and kept talking about other things: "My third brother grabbed me and said, 'Look, look! There are stilt walkers!' I looked up and saw several stilt walkers walking over our heads, wearing theatrical costumes and painted faces, walking steadily. Behind them were lion dancers, the lion's head swaying and its eyes blinking. Further ahead, there were fireworks. The fireworks back then were even more beautiful than they are now. A fireball was fired, and with a bang, it exploded into a flower. Red, green, and gold, it lit up the sky."
Wu Xiu suddenly sighed softly: "I stood there, looking up, watching the fireworks explode one by one, and suddenly I cried."
The cell fell silent.
After a long silence, Chen Ji finally asked, "Why are you crying?"
Wu Xiu thought for a moment, then chuckled softly, "I don't know."
He lowered his head and looked at the python robe he was wearing: "Later, as we walked, we got hungry. The silver that my second brother brought from the palace was stolen by Old Rong on the street. In the end, my eldest brother traded his hairpin for five hot mutton buns, which were very delicious."
Chen Ji reminded him, "Lord Wu Xiu hasn't explained why he's panicking."
Wu Xiu leaned against the wall of the cell, looking up at the small skylight above her.
Moonlight streamed in through the skylight, a thin ray falling onto his knees: "I was eating steamed buns when the palace guards who came to arrest my eldest and second brothers spotted us. Those four are really disloyal; they abandoned me and ran away in a flash. The guards caught me and asked where the others were. I panicked and wet my pants."
Chen Ji suddenly felt something was absurd. He was sitting in the Ministry of Justice prison at this moment, listening to the leader of the eunuch faction, the Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, say that he had wet his pants in a panic when he was six years old.
Chen Ji asked curiously, "Did Lord Wu Xiu expose them?"
“Of course not,” Wu Xiu smiled. “I heard they went to Qipan Street later. Although it wasn’t as lively as Tianqiao, it was even more beautiful. It’s a pity. Every time I went to Qipan Street on the Lantern Festival afterward, they said it wasn’t as beautiful as it was on that night thirty-one years ago. I was so eager to see it. But no one can go back to that Lantern Festival thirty-one years ago.”
Chen Ji seemed to be deep in thought: "I wonder who Lord Wu Xiu is referring to as his eldest brother, second brother, and third brother?"
Wu Xiu did not answer.
Chen Ji asked curiously, "What brought Lord Wu Xiu to the palace?"
Wu Xiu sneered, "Trying to trick me into revealing my secrets?"
Chen Ji shifted to a more comfortable sitting position: "Since I'm just idling around anyway, and it's rare that Lord Wu Xiu is willing to talk about the past, I'll keep you company. Once we get to Chongli Pass, there won't be anyone left to chat with you."
Wu Xiu thought for a moment: "My third brother, fourth brother, and I were all executed because our fathers accepted bribes from the Imperial Concubine while working at the Imperial Observatory and made unfounded astronomical predictions to participate in the struggle for the throne. They were the main culprits. Fortunately, they were protected by family friends, so they only suffered castration and were exiled to the Firewood and Coal Bureau to suffer. My Wu family was an accomplice and was not implicated."
Chen Ji pondered for a moment: "If the court can turn a blind eye to a crime that could lead to the execution of the entire family, then the person pleading for leniency must be a very important figure."
Wu Xiu said meaningfully, "He's not a big shot, just a sharp-tongued old doctor."
Chen Ji stood there, stunned.
He suddenly understood why Wu Xiu was willing to tell him these things.
Wu Xiu ignored him and continued to recall: "The coal bureau was outside the capital, next to the moat. It was a row of low houses, made of adobe, with cracks in the walls that let in wind in winter and mosquitoes in summer. Twelve people slept on one communal bed, so crowded that they couldn't even turn over."
"As for food, there were two meals a day. In the morning, it was thin, so thin you could see your reflection. In the evening, it was thick, meaning you could see the grains of rice and count them. The vegetables were pickled vegetables, one piece per person, thinner than a finger. We were hungry, hungry every day, so hungry we couldn't sleep at night, so hungry we wanted to bite into everything we saw. Third Brother was so hungry he stole horse feed beans, but the steward caught him, hung him up, and beat him for three days. If it weren't for the old imperial physician, he would have died there... But he also developed a leg ailment."
Chen Ji listened quietly.
Wu Xiu looked at Chen Ji: "We had it much harder than you guys back then. We had to carry firewood every day. The firewood was cut down from the mountain, bundles taller than a person. Two people would carry it, stacking it in the warehouse. I was too young to do anything, so my third and fourth brothers helped me. I sat beside them watching them carry charcoal. The charcoal was already burned in the mountains, packed in baskets, and they carried it out of the mountains, three miles away, eight trips a day. In the summer, it was so hot we couldn't breathe, our shoulders were chafed raw, and the blood stuck our clothes together, so we couldn't even take them off at night."
Chen Ji suddenly asked, "Aren't your eldest and second brothers from the Firewood and Charcoal Bureau?"
Wu Xiu glanced at him and smiled, "We met our eldest brother first, and then our second brother secretly followed our eldest brother out of the palace to play, and that's how we met our second brother."
Chen Ji remained calm: "How did you two meet?"
Wu Xiu seemed to lower her guard: "Back then, my elder brother wanted to find someone to teach the young eunuchs to read and write, but no scholar was willing to teach them. So he came to the charcoal bureau himself and taught them word by word, rain or shine, for three years. At first, I didn't want to learn, but I was thinking about my elder brother coming to the charcoal bureau to teach every day, because he would bring some food with him every time he came. Sometimes it was candy from the palace, sometimes it was meat, sometimes it was cakes, but the best was mutton buns."
Wu Xiu looked up at the sky outside the window as it gradually brightened, lost in thought: "Later, my elder brother said that only by reading and learning to read could one understand the principles in books. Only after understanding the principles in books could one enter the palace to work. Only when one could enter the palace to work could everyone come together. So I started to study seriously, studying day and night. But when I grew up, I realized that the better one studied, the harder it was for everyone to reunite."
Chen Ji remained silent for a long time, his mind filled with too much information. It seemed that Wu Xiu wanted to tell him many things today by using fragmented stories from the past.
Before he could figure it out, he heard the sound of a night watchman's drum outside the window.
It's the hour of Mao (5-7 AM).
The sound of a key turning could be heard outside the Ministry of Justice prison.
Wu Xiu stood up and patted his butt: "Let's go, the three judicial departments are going to conduct a joint trial... You're not involved today, just watch."
Chen Ji hesitated: "Does Lord Wu Xiu know that he will be going to the Ministry of Justice prison today? If so, why didn't he make preparations earlier?"
Wu Xiu smiled and said, "Because today we need someone of sufficient weight to bear the anger. Of course, you may also be targeted by the anger, but it's okay. Once your second brother calms down, he will figure it out himself."
The chief jailer of the Ministry of Justice arrived at the cell door: "Your Honors, court is in session."
Wu Xiu walked towards the door, turning back to Chen Ji as she reached the entrance: "I know you hold grudges... Don't worry, there will be opportunities, but not today. Today is a more important day." (End of Chapter)