东宫 Eastern Palace: Chapter 5

The weather is slowly getting colder, I finally got a chance to sneak outside with A’Du.

Spending time on the streets is good: people come and go, many carts lining up like dragons and moving like water nonstop [1], and very crowded. We went to the tea shop to listen to stories. No one knew where the original storyteller went, they got another storyteller. However, the storyteller did not know the story about the heavenly sword and only told stories about the imperial court that happened a few years ago.

"Back then Western Liang was defeated, since then whenever the Celestial Empire [2] army approached them, they would be so scared that they would throw their flags away, an acknowledgement of defeat. The declared emperor was kindhearted, and decided to form a bond with Western Liang. In addition, the emperor had granted a marriage to Princess Mingyuan to the Western Liang Khan [3]. The peaceful relationship between the two countries lasted for ten more years, until the unexpected death of the old Western Liang Khan. The new Khan was very ambitious, declaring a war against the Celestial Empire. The Celestial Empire took control of the borders of Western Liang. The new Khan saw the powers of the Celestial Empire, but it was too late to regret. The new Khan decided to offer her daughter for marriage to the Celestial Empire in exchange for a lenient treatment.....”

In the tea shop, everyone stood up and laughed, while A’Du jumped up and broke the cup. Usually, A’Du would stop me from fighting, but this time I'm afraid she cannot help but hurt someone, so I pulled her out of the tea shop.

The sun is shining brightly outside, I remember Princess Mingyuan, she was a good-looking woman, dressed differently from women from Western Liang. When she died from illness, my father was very sad.

Father was kind to her, Father said: “Being good to her means being good to the whole Central Plains."

We Western Liang people always believes that if we treat others good, then other people would treat us good too. Unlike the people in the Capital, always thinking too much, face to face say one thing, but do another from behind people's backs.

If it was three years ago, I would have fight with the people in the tea shop, but now I feel discouraged.

A’ Du and I sat at the bridge side to rest, on the river the sail of the boat collected a lot of wind , the sailor was holding onto a long pole stick, all of a sudden putting the stick underwater, then slowly moved backwards one step at a time to go. I remember the time when I first went to the capital, when I saw a boat, I would make a big fuss out of nothing, how can a small cart move in water? I was even more surprised to see the bridge, resembling like a rainbow, who built the stones into a rainbow? At Western Liang, although the river water is very clear and shallow, the river water made a "qua la la" sound, even horses can jump across the river, the river does not have any boats nor any bridges.

After coming to the Capital, I saw a lot of things that I have not seen in the past, but I don't feel happy at all.

Just when I was lost in thoughts, suddenly not far away, there was a "thump" sound, followed by someone shouting: "Come on people ah! My brother fell into river! Hurry and rescue him ah!"

I looked up, not far away stood a seven to eight year old girl crying: "Help save my brother. He fell into the river!"

I saw a little head floating on the water surface and then it sank again. I jumped into the water without hesitation to save the child, forgetting that I couldn’t swim. By the time I grabbed onto the child’s arm, I don’t know how much saliva I had choked onto. I kept thinking this was bad, not being able to save the child, but also causing myself to drown. It doesn’t matter if I drowned to death, but no one would take care of A’ Du. She doesn’t even know the road to get back to Western Liang...... I drank a lot of water. When I sank into the river water, A’ Du pulled me out of the water, but I was unconscious at that time. A’ Du placed me on a large stone at the riverside, I spit out a lot of water. I remember the first time when I was at Eastern Palace, I saw a crystal fish tank with goldfish inside. I felt that it was extremely rare to see it. How could the fish be so big and cute with its’ plump belly, but also be able to slowly spit out bubbles? Now I understand why, because the fish’s belly was filled with water.

A' Du was all wet from top to bottom, she crouched down beside me, clothes still dripping water. She looked anxiously at me, I knew if I don't wake up, this silly girl would cry.

"A' Du ......" I was feeling dizzy and I spit out a mouthful of water, "Where's the child?......"

A'Du brought the child from the water to show me, his body was dripping wet, a pair of teary eyes looking at me.

I got up feeling dizzy, there were quite a lot of people surrounding us, which made the place feel very crowded. I would always go on the streets to enjoy the excitement, but this time I wasn't expecting to be the centre of attention. When A' Du and I were twisting our wet clothes to get rid of the water, someone was crying and yelling while breaking through the circle of people, "My child! My child!"

Those two must be a married couple. Both of them are holding onto the child that fell into the water, bursting in tears. The sister of the child was standing on the side rubbing her eyes.

A family reunion, I felt very happy. The whole time at the tea house I was listening to the storyteller telling a story about a chivalrous hero, but I did not think that today I could become a hero. Who knew when my thought wasn't finished yet, the child who fell in the water would suddenly cry out: "Dad, it was that person who pushed me into the river," raising his hand and pointing at me.

I was dumbfounded, I don’t know what was going on.

"I also saw that she pushed my brother into the river," the little girl said with her tendered voice. Listening to this seems like there are five sounds of thunder striking in my ear.

"How could people have such vicious hearts!"

"Did the child block you from doing something?"

"I really can’t tell, you looked refined and educated, but how can you do such a beastly thing?"

"Polite scum! Dressed up animal[4]!"

"We cannot let them go !"

"Yes!"

"We cannot let them go!"

The people around rushed forward and shoved us. A’Du clearly doesn’t know what happened, and was just looking at me. The veins at the sides of my head were throbbing. I did not expect being a good person would be treated as a bad person. This made me so angry!

"Bring the child to the doctor and let the doctor look at the child!"

"You have to pay for the damages! There’s no reason to push someone’s child into the river. Pay money now!"

I said: "It was me who saved the child, how could you with your sharp white teeth insisted that I was the one who pushed the child down!"

"Did you not push the child? What were you saving him for?"

I almost spit out a mouthful of blood, this is ...... What kind of fallacious reasoning?

"My son suffered such a shock, please God seek a doctor!"

"Yes! First call a doctor to see where he is hurt!"

"Why would this child be hurt? I was the one who saved him ......"

"This bad person still doesn’t admit it! Fine, if you don’t want to pay for the damages, then you have to go to the court with us!"

Everyone around was yelling: "lock them in the court!"

I could hear everyone yelling: "Go to the court!"

I am so angry. If they want me to go to court then I will go, because I am not afraid since I'm innocent.

There were a bunch of people, making loud noises on the street to get people's attention. The parents of the child were yelling: “Everyone look....no justice...pushing a child into the river, but crazily saying that you saved a child. Children cannot lie ...... "

A’Du and I were treated like street rats, vegetables were thrown at us, people around us fiercely spitting saliva. Luckily A’ Du has good martial arts skills, none of the vegetables thrown at us had hit us, but the more they were like this, the more I was furious.

While waiting in the court, my anger had finally calmed down a bit, finally at a place with justice. This is the first time coming to a court, looks quite luxurious. Chang'an and Wanan are under jing zhao yan xia. Chang'an and Wanan combined are the first County. When the court start, you could feel the power in the atmosphere. A sound could be heard from the court workers on the side when the court started, then the Wannian magistrate slowly sat down and started asking for the names of both the defendant and the complainant.

I then knew that the couple's surname was Jia, who lived near the canal bank to sell fish for a living. When they asked me for my name, I naturally made up a fake name and called myself "Liang Xi." Usually, when I am wandering on the street, I would also use this name. When the Wannian County magistrate asked me what my job was, I stuttered. The advisor next to the magistrate looked at me, and couldn't help but ask: "Are you an unemployed person"

Saying that I was an unemployed person wasn't much of a difference, so I nodded my head in agreement.

Wannian County magistrate was listening to the nonsense from the couple, and asked two children. In a synchronized way, the two children said it was me who pushed the brother into the river. Wannian County magistrate stopped asking them and turned to me and asked: "Are you good at swimming?"

"No."

Wannian County magistrate then nodded his head and said: "You didn't purposely push the child into river, but you almost killed him, is there anything good to say about this?"

My breath jumped: "I saw him fell into the water, and went to save him. Why would I push him into the water? I push him down the water to do what?”

I said: "I saw him fell into the river, so without any hesitation, I jumped into the river to save him, only to realize that I couldn't swim as well!!"

Wannian county magistrate said: "This is nonsense! Human are selfish, especially for their own life. You don't know him and you can't swim, but you go save him? You push him in the water in order to save him! "

I looked at the sign behind him with four characters 'ming jing gao xuan' [5]. Seeing those characters on the sign behind him made the veins in my temple jump up and down. Every time the veins move, I wanted to hit him.

The Wannian county magistrate looked at me speechless: "You have no reason to push the child into the water. You caused the child to suffer from shock. Now I will sentence you to pay back money to the Jia family to compensate for the damage you had caused to the family."

I laughed coldly: "So this is how you judge a case?"

Wannian County magistrate slowly said: "Do you think I am unfair?"

"Of course unfair! The sky is clear and bright. Obviously, it was me who saved the child. You only listened to one side of the story and you already decided to not believe me."

"You said you didn't push the child into the river, do you have any witnesses or evidence?"

I looked at A' Du , said: "A' Du saw me save the child, she then saved us from drowning."

Wannian county magistrate said: Then let's summon her and question her."

I held back my breath, said: "She cannot speak."

Wannian county magistrate laughed: “So it’s a mute person!" The moment he smiled, I knew the situation would get worse. As expected, A'Du took out her gold inlaid knife. If I didn't stop her by holding onto her, she would have already cut the magistrate's ears off. A'Du instantly stood still and looked at the magistrate angrily.The court workers around yelled: " You cannot carry a sharp knife in the court."

A'Du moved, didn't try to break free from my hand, used the knife to point, movements like a snowfall, and then soon afterwards, she put away the knife. She suddenly moved at lightning speed, without waiting for the crowd to react, the box of red sticks on the magistrate's table had made a "bo" sound, and bursted open. The red sticks inside the box was scattered on the ground, each stick has been split into half. The box contained at least six sticks, unexpectedly at a flash, all the sticks were split open by A'Du's knife, and also all the sticks were evenly split open right in the middle. Everyone at the court was stunned, people outside were making noises to create a disturbance: " Good trick!"

The court workers near the door were aware that this was not some trick, but knife skills. The magistrate was scared, his face changed colour, but pretending to be calm: " Someone come ...... come! How can you play with weapons in the court! "

The court workers advanced forward to take away A'Du's knife. I said: "If you dare to approach us, then she will cut off your ears and I'm not going to stop her from doing that."

Wannian County magistrate said: "This is the Wannian county court, are you trying to rebel against us?"

I said: "Your honor, you have wronged me."

Wannian County magistrate said: "If you don't want to be a rebel, quickly hand over the knife......" He haven't finished speaking yet, but A'Du was already glaring at him. He corrected himself and said, "quickly put away the knife!"

A' Du placed the knife at the side of her waist. I think today we got ourselves into a big disaster. I don't know how to end it.

When the Wannian County magistrate saw that A'Du had put the knife away, he felt more relieved. The magistrate looked at the advisor beside him and then the advisor went down and whispered to me: "Two heroes good at fighting, which master do you work for? "

I did not understand what he was saying. I rolled my eyes and said: "Say it more clearly!"

The advisor lowered his voice: "Our magistrate meant which master do you two with extraordinary skills work for?"

I laughed. So this Wannian County magistrate would be scared of being at an disadvantage, seeing that we had made so much noise, he must have thought that we came from a powerful background. Eighty percent, he thinks that we are the martial artists raised from a wealthy family. I pondered for a while, if I mentioned Li Cheng Yin's name, then the magistrate would not believe us. I had an idea, I got it!

I quietly told him: "My master is General Pei Zhao."

The advisor suddenly realized something, turned around, secretly raised his hand and whispered: "So you are General Pei's people who are the Yu Lin Lang, no wonder you are so outstanding."

Those Yu Lin Lang bastards, I don't want to be involved with them, but I cannot say that. There was once this phrase: A wise person knows better than to fight when the odds are against them.

The advisor went back to his position, whispered something into the magistrate's ears.

Wannian County magistrate's complexion became hard to look at, finally hitting the gavel [6] once: "Since it is General Pei's people who follow orders, then we should invite General Pei to acknowledge this!"

My body became crooked, I did not expect the magistrate to use this type of move, I thought if Pei Zhao have duties in the Eastern Palace, then this situation would have became worse. If he doesn't come, and send some unknown person, then I would feel miserable. Do I have to fight at court, and then run away?

Later Pei Zhao told me that , although this Wannian County magistrate was merely just a seventh ranked court official, but because this court is in front of the imperial city, he has to deal with the most difficult cases. People who are able to deal with these cases, are the most skilled and capable officials. Seeing that we had made so much noise on the court and unable to resolve this, hearing that we are Pei Zhao's people, the magistrate actually sent someone to invite Pei Zhao to come here. These officialdom things are messy, even if Pei Zhao let me talk the whole morning , I would not be able to understand.

Coincidentally, today Pei Zhao does not have any duties. When invited, he actually came.

Today, Pei Zhao didn't wear an armor, but a military official gown. I have never seen him dressed like that. Before I only met him a few times face to face and most of the time he was on duty at the Eastern palace, wearing an armor. When he came in, I couldn't even recognize him, because he looks so different from his usual looks, like a refined scholar.

He looked at A'Du and I, remained calm and collected [7]. The Wannian County magistrate had already welcomed him from his seat, a face filled with smile: "I didn't want to disturb you, General Pei."

Notes:
[1] 车如流水马如龙 carts lining up like dragons and moving like water nonstop- this phrase is to emphasize that the streets are busy and crowded
[2] 可汗 Khan- a title equivalent to king or leader
[3] 天朝 Celestial Empire- name used to refer to China
[4] 衣冠禽兽 lit meaning:dressed up animal- describes a person as immoral and despicable
[5] 明镜高悬 min jin gao xuan- perspicacious and impartial in judgement
[6] 惊堂木 gavel- a block of wood that the magistrate use to get everyone's attention
[7] 不动声色 - not a word or movement

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