Chapter 22.1

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Fan Changyu had already left the room, but the person sitting at the desk, pen in hand, didn’t look up. His lips pressed tighter together as he wrote.

Listening to the fading footsteps, he set down the pen and leaned back against the chair. His dark eyes clouded with an unreadable expression.

Summoned at will, dismissed just as easily?
She dared.

After instructing her younger sister not to wander while she was gone, Fan Changyu stopped by the Zhao family next door. She greeted Aunt Zhao before preparing to head to the county yamen.

Aunt Zhao, however, stopped her. “Your uncle and I will go with you. That place is intimidating. I’ve heard that if you’re not careful, they might even use the punishment staff. A dozen or so strikes of the cudgel, and you’ll be skinned alive! If we’re with you, at least we can think of something if anything happens.”

There’s an old saying: The common folk should never cross officials. With Fan Da aligning himself with the county magistrate’s clerk, who clearly bore a grudge against the Fan family, the Zhao couple had been losing sleep over the situation.

Though Fan Changyu was skilled in martial arts, appearing in court was an entirely new experience for her. After some thought, she accepted their offer.

The three of them hitched a ride on an ox cart to the county yamen. They arrived early, but the entrance was already crowded with townsfolk eager to see the drama unfold.

Fan Changyu understood the process of questioning during a trial. Once the county magistrate ascended to the hall, she and Fan Da would be called in first. The magistrate would begin by asking Fan Da to restate his complaint, with the court’s registrar recording their testimonies. If any disputes arose, witnesses could be summoned for clarification.

The witnesses Fan Changyu sought were neighbors from the old Fan family home. While most people would avoid getting involved in such matters, Fan Da’s reputation for poor behavior had earned him no shortage of enemies among the neighbors. Many disapproved of his actions and readily agreed to testify that Fan Da was nothing more than a compulsive gambler.

As time passed, the crowd gathered at the yamen gate grew larger. The clerks had already placed the bamboo sign-in bucket and the wooden gavel on the magistrate’s desk. Yet, there was still no sign of Fan Da, the plaintiff. This absence left Fan Changyu feeling puzzled.

Arriving late to a trial meant being punished with the staff. Could Fan Da have forgotten about today’s court session? Overslept, perhaps?

Aunt Zhao, scanning the area, began muttering softly, “Where’s Fan Da? Why isn’t he here?”

Fan Changyu found her mind wandering to an absurd thought: Could it be that my frustration from memorizing the legal code these past days was so intense that I sleepwalked last night and tied up Fan Da?

Her fleeting musings were interrupted by the sound of three heavy strikes on the courtroom drum, snapping her back to the present.

The yamen officers entered the courtroom first, arranging themselves in a wedge formation on either side. Each held a punishment staff nearly as tall as a person, their expressions fierce and intimidating.

The crowd gathered outside the courtroom murmured in hushed tones, clearly uneasy at the sight of these officers. Fan Changyu noticed that all of the officers were unfamiliar faces—none of Captain Wang’s constables were present. This realization, combined with the likely involvement of the magistrate’s clerk, caused a subtle unease to creep into her heart.

The county magistrate, dressed in his official robes, entered from a side door and ascended the platform. Seated behind the desk, his small eyes, squeezed nearly shut by his corpulent face, swept across the courtroom. Grabbing the gavel, he slammed it down heavily, commanding, “Court is in session!”

The yamen officers simultaneously struck their staves against the ground and bellowed, “Mighty justice!”

The resounding thuds of the staves hitting the floor seemed to synchronize with the pounding hearts of the onlookers outside.

The magistrate’s clerk, sporting a handlebar mustache, raised his voice and declared, “Bring the plaintiff and defendant to the court!”

Although Fan Changyu felt a twinge of fear, as the yamen officers escorted her into the courtroom, she still managed to give Aunt Zhao and Uncle Zhao a reassuring glance.

Yet, even at this point, Fan Da had not appeared. She knelt alone as the defendant before the court.

The corpulent magistrate, evidently encountering such an unusual situation for the first time, exchanged a puzzled look with the thin, wiry clerk at his side. Neither seemed to understand what was happening.

Outside, the gathered townsfolk whispered among themselves, their chatter growing louder as the situation dragged on.

Realizing that the deadlock could not continue, the magistrate finally addressed Fan Changyu. “Who kneels below this court?”

Fan Changyu responded, “This humble woman is Fan Changyu.”

The magistrate squinted at the complaint scroll before him and bellowed, “Where is the plaintiff, Fan Daniu?”

No one, either inside or outside the court, answered.

In the awkward silence that followed, the muffled whispers of the townsfolk became conspicuously loud.

The magistrate slammed the gavel on the desk with force. “Outrageous! In all my years of handling cases, I’ve never seen a plaintiff outright fail to appear in court. This is a blatant disregard for the law!”

The wiry clerk beside him glanced at Fan Changyu before offering a suggestion. “Your Honor, please quell your anger. Fan Daniu is but a lowly commoner; he would not dare to be tardy without cause. Perhaps there is some underlying matter. May I suggest dispatching officers to his home to inquire? This would demonstrate your honor’s unparalleled discernment.”

The magistrate pondered briefly before nodding. “Approved!”

Soon, officers were dispatched to Fan Da’s home to locate him, and the magistrate ordered a temporary halt to the trial. Fan Changyu was no longer required to kneel in the courtroom.

This unexpected development only fueled the curiosity of the gathered townsfolk. Instead of dispersing, they crowded the entrance, eager to speculate on why Fan Da had failed to appear in court.

Fan Changyu sat on a small stool outside, rubbing her sore knees, when a minor clerk approached her. “Captain Wang has asked for you, Miss Fan. Please come with me.”

Thinking Captain Wang had some instructions for her, Fan Changyu followed the clerk through a side door to the offices behind the yamen.

The clerk, seemingly one of Captain Wang’s trusted aides, kept watch by the door once she entered.

Captain Wang wasted no time on pleasantries. He went straight to the point. “Your uncle… did you kidnap him?”

Fan Changyu’s heart skipped a beat. She had briefly entertained such an idea at the start, but she had long since abandoned it in favor of a legal approach. She immediately shook her head. “I would never do something so reckless.”

Captain Wang let out a relieved sigh. “Good. That’s a weight off my mind.”

Captain Wang had asked the question because Fan Changyu had previously inquired about the consequences if Fan Da failed to appear in court. It had raised a suspicion that warranted private confirmation.

Lowering his voice, he explained, “Fan Da has connections with Clerk He. Even if someone used such a tactic against him, he could twist it around and accuse you of disrespecting the law. That would be enough to have you thrown into a dungeon, or worse.”

“I understand,” Fan Changyu replied calmly.

The officers sent to search for Fan Da had been selected without involving Captain Wang’s men. This was telling—it was clear that he couldn’t offer her any assistance in this matter.

Leaving the office, Fan Changyu returned to the courtroom to wait. But as time dragged on, half an hour passed, and the officers sent to find Fan Da still had not returned.

The magistrate, growing impatient, sent another messenger to urge them along. Finally, after another half-hour, the officers returned—carrying a stretcher covered with a white cloth.

Following closely behind were Fan Da’s wife, Liu Shi, and the two elder members of the Fan family, their wails echoing through the air.

The figure beneath the white cloth was, unmistakably, Fan Da.

Fan Changyu’s expression froze in shock. Fan Da… is dead?

The onlookers at the county yamen murmured amongst themselves, their gazes darting suspiciously toward Fan Changyu.

Fan Da had schemed to seize her family’s property, yet on the very day of their courtroom confrontation, he had died. It was too much of a coincidence for anyone to ignore.

“How could he die on the very day of the trial?” someone muttered, voicing the thought on everyone’s mind.

“Fan Da was as strong as an ox. It wouldn’t be easy for an ordinary person to take his life…”

Fan Changyu felt the weight of the varied gazes directed at her—curiosity, suspicion, even accusation. She pressed her lips together slightly, her own mind swirling with confusion and doubt.

Who killed Fan Da?