Chapter 296: Bian Erxing

Chapter 296: Bian Erxing

After she left, Meng Wan sat in place for a moment before getting up and heading straight for the study he shared with Song Tingzhou.

Chi Yu followed close behind him, scratching his head. "You said yesterday that the Ministry of Justice caught a suspect—could it be Bian Erxing?"

Meng Wan found a blank sheet of letter paper, spread it out and pressed it flat with a paperweight. "If the Ministry of Justice only arrested one suspect, then it's most likely him."

"That couple really is pitiable." Chi Yu idly plucked at flowers nearby. Meng Wan didn't care for incense, so the room held two vases with red plum blossoms Huang Ye had picked from the courtyard. Huang Ye had never studied flower arranging—he just went with whatever felt right, bringing a splash of color to the house in the middle of the vast white winter.

Meng Wan rolled up his sleeves, picked out an ink stick, and added some warm water from the teapot to grind the ink carefully. "And how do you figure they're pitiable?"

Chi Yu was puzzled. "The two of them with a kid, slaving away for others, and in the end they don't even have a roof over their heads—how's that not pitiable?"

Meng Wan wiped his hands with a cloth nearby, took a brush from the brush rack, and lightly dipped it in ink, writing across the paper with smooth, flowing strokes. "Good or bad, it's all just their word. I've never met her before—why should I believe everything someone says?"

"But... but she was holding her child... and kneeling at the door crying. It shouldn't be a lie, right?" Chi Yu's voice trailed off, his earlier sympathy now tinged with doubt, because their lord was way sharper at reading people than he was.

The room fell quiet. Meng Wan didn't speak for a while, focusing on writing the letter. After finishing, he blew on the bold, free-flowing running script characters before finally finding time to say to Chi Yu, "She said herself they were sold to a minor landlord in a small town, not someone particularly wealthy. Since he spent money to buy servants, even if he disliked them, why not just resell them? That way he could recoup what he paid. How could he simply kick them out?"

Chi Yu slapped his thigh. "Right!"

Meng Wan sighed to himself. These were still the small stuff. Most importantly, in an era this harsh on servants, without a master to follow, someone with slave status couldn't even leave the city gates. Even if she managed to bribe a guard or two at some small town, how could heavily guarded Shengjing City let a woman like Guo Wanzhen—who didn't even have a registration document—through the gates?

The real scheming here went way deeper than the small detail of being kicked out by a landlord.

"Chi Yu, have someone take this letter to the courier station." Meng Wan sealed the finished letter in an envelope, melted wax over the seal, and handed it to Chi Yu.

"Alright, I'm off." Chi Yu ran out with the envelope, glancing at the characters on it before tucking it into his shirt—three out of five he couldn't recognize.

Something *ping*, then *fu*?

*Huang* something or other?

To save Song Tingzhou from having to detour home after morning court, Meng Wan had the household servants send Guo Wanzhen to the Shuntian Prefecture by carriage.

The simple carriage rolled down the morning streets, wooden wheels clattering over the stone-paved road. In the northern winter, it got light late. Even though she'd lingered at the Song residence for a while, it was still pitch black outside.

Guo Wanzhen sat in the carriage, worrying about her son still at the Song house while scheming other things. As she thought, her face alternated between hardened resolve and hesitation. With no one else in the carriage, all her thoughts played out on her face, completely unaware that chaos had broken out in the alley outside.

A single figure had cleanly taken out six masked assassins, without making a sound loud enough to disturb the Song family's carriage.

That person was also masked, slender of build, wrapped head to toe in black, features unidentifiable. Facing a ground full of corpses, they didn't even look back, only casting a casual glance at a certain rooftop as they left the alley.

Chi Yu pressed Meng Wan's poking-out head back down, eyes as wide as they could go.

Meng Wan barely dared to breathe, lying flat on the rooftop, forehead pressed against the tiles. He held that position for who knows how long, until he was just about frozen solid, and whispered to Chi Yu, "Is he gone yet?"

Chi Yu replied at normal volume, "Gone? He left ages ago."

"He left ages ago and you didn't say a word!" Meng Wan couldn't help but smack him on the head. If they weren't both lying on someone's rooftop right now, he wouldn't have been able to reach Chi Yu's head.

Chi Yu rubbed his head. "You didn't ask!"

And he had the nerve to act all wronged?

Meng Wan was pissed, his voice rising. "Hurry down and check who those dead guys were."

Chi Yu jumped down from the rooftop in one move. Meng Wan shuffled awkwardly from the rooftop to the wall, then hesitated about jumping down.

He looked for a landing spot for ages and found them all too high. Just as he was about to call Chi Yu back, he looked up and caught two people approaching out of the corner of his eye.

Because of the ambush on Guo Wanzhen, Meng Wan instinctively assumed the killers had come back—but looking closer, he saw they were two servants of this household, staring up at him with faces like they were constipated.

Meng Wan hadn't botched a landing in ages. By the time he limped over to Chi Yu, he was as disheveled as could be. And with six corpses still lying in the alley, neither he nor Chi Yu could run—nor could they stay. They had no choice but to wait obediently for the West City Military Patrol to haul them in as suspects and take them to the Ministry of Justice.

As luck would have it, while they were being interrogated after all that mess, Song Tingzhou showed up at the Ministry of Justice with Guo Wanzhen.

"Lord Song, this morning the West City Military Patrol found six people killed in the west district. They caught two suspects at the scene, one of whom claims to be... your husband?" The warden of the Ministry of Justice's detention house stopped Song Tingzhou with a strange look on his face.

Song Tingzhou's breath caught, and he asked quickly, "Where is he? Is he hurt?"

Seeing his demeanor, the warden bowed quickly and replied, "Rest assured, Lord Song. Your husband is waiting in the side hall. He's not seriously hurt."

Song Tingzhou still wasn't reassured. He stopped short of the pretrial detention and turned to leave instead. "May I trouble the warden to take me to him."

The warden guided him toward the side hall. "Of course, of course. This way, my lord."

Guo Wanzhen got anxious. "Lord Song, my husband..."

Song Tingzhou couldn't spare a thought for Bian Erxing right now. Without looking back, he said, "Wait here a bit longer."

Guo Wanzhen had no choice but to wait at the entrance to the pretrial detention.

Meng Wan was still rather embarrassed when Song Tingzhou came to collect him. To preserve his image of being smart in Song Tingzhou's eyes, he shamelessly shifted the blame onto Chi Yu. "It's all Chi Yu's fault—his voice was so loud up on that rooftop. Otherwise, we never would've been spotted."

Chi Yu first nodded out of habit, then realized what he was actually saying. He pointed at himself in disbelief—his fault?!

"It was clearly you, my lord, being clumsy and getting... caught."

Under Song Tingzhou's calm gaze, Chi Yu's voice trailed off.

"No matter how important the matter, you must always put my husband's safety first." As Song Tingzhou spoke, he noticed something off in the way Meng Wan walked. He crouched down and reached for his ankle, drawing a faint hiss of pain from Meng Wan.

Song Tingzhou looked up at him, a rare hint of reproach in his eyes. "Wan'er."

Meng Wan admitted fault right away. "My fault, my fault. Next time I'll just send Chi Yu alone. You go handle your case, I'll sit in the carriage by the gate and head home, and have Xiao Ci or A Xun check me out."

Song Tingzhou scooped him up without a word and headed for the entrance. Meng Wan couldn't decide whether to struggle or hide his face.

"Chi Yu can just help me out the door—you should get back to work." Meng Wan begged sincerely. The Ministry of Justice was the second most crowded department after the Ministry of Revenue. At this moment, he was the most eye-catching sight there, drawing all sorts of weird stares everywhere he went, nearly boring holes through him.

Song Tingzhou remained as steady as ever, oblivious to the mocking looks, and carried Meng Wan securely to the carriage parked outside the Ministry of Justice. He watched Chi Yu drive off before heading back to the pretrial detention.

The warden in charge had watched the whole scene and was thoroughly impressed. But he had more sense than the lower-ranked clerks, and said with a grin, "Lord Song and your husband are really devoted. Our Ministry of Justice operates strictly by the rules—I hope Lord Song won't take it the wrong way."

Song Tingzhou said nothing. He didn't care what others thought, and there was no need to argue. He followed the waiting Guo Wanzhen and the warden deeper into the pretrial detention.

Bian Erxing was held in the deepest cell of the detention house—dark, sunless, and reeking of rot even though Shengjing wasn't as humid and hot as Lingnan. Through the narrow wooden door, they could see a figure curled up on a straw mat.

"Erxing? Erxing?"

Guo Wanzhen called softly twice, but the figure on the straw mat didn't move.

Something seemed off. Song Tingzhou ordered in a low voice, "Open the cell door. Have someone go in and check on him."

The warden was already panicking. He quickly summoned the jailer to unlock the door and rushed inside without hesitation, rolling Bian Erxing over on the straw mat—he was already stiff.

He collapsed onto the ground, and despite the freezing winter weather, cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

Song Tingzhou looked at Bian Erxing's emaciated corpse, so gaunt he barely looked human, and sneered, "So this is how the Ministry of Justice does things, by the book?"

Bian Erxing, who reportedly turned himself in, died in the Ministry of Justice's prison, and the jailer at the pretrial detention center was fired that very day. The Vice Minister of Justice, Zeng Shiqi, could not escape blame either, but as a Superior Officer, he just got a scolding from the Minister and a pay cut, and that was that.

With the Ministry of Justice failing in their duties, the case naturally fell entirely to the Shuntian Prefecture. Song Tingzhou had spent most of the day at the Ministry of Justice, and when he left with the witness Guo Wanzhen in the afternoon, Zeng Shiqi was waiting for him in the Zeng family carriage.

"Lord Song, can I have a word with you in private?" Zeng Shiqi lifted the carriage curtain and said to Song Tingzhou.

"Lord Zeng, if you have something to say, you can say it here; there's no one here I don't trust." Xue Sheng and the Tao brothers were all nearby, and Song Tingzhou didn't hesitate much and climbed into Zeng Shiqi's carriage. The carriage stayed put, parked right on the street outside the Ministry of Justice.

Zeng Shiqi's carriage was quite plain, without much ornamentation, just a thick wool blanket, the fur old and worn, clearly seven or eight years old.

He offered Song Tingzhou his hand warmer. When it was refused, he let out a barely noticeable sigh. "Lord Song, did you ever have any dealings with the former Prefect of Shuntian, Lord Bian?"

Song Tingzhou sat opposite Zeng Shiqi and corrected him, "Lord Bian was the prefect two terms back."

Zeng Shiqi gave a bitter smile. "Right, I almost forgot. There was also Lord Duan, who only lasted three months in between."

"I have never met Lord Bian, but my husband was lucky enough to see him once." Song Tingzhou mentioned that when they left the capital seven years ago, Meng Wan had defended Qing Xing in the Shuntian Prefecture court.

"Huanren was a good official. His achievements can't hold a candle to yours, Lord Song, but like you and me, he came from a nobody family, clawed his way up through hardship, and won the Emperor's favor, and held the post of Prefect of Shuntian for twelve years." Zeng Shiqi seemed familiar with Lord Bian, and as he spoke of him, a tear even slipped out of the corner of his wrinkled eye.

"What is it that you wish to say, Lord Zeng?" Song Tingzhou didn't move at all, maintaining the same posture as when he boarded the carriage, his expression cold and unmoved.

Zeng Shiqi hadn't expected him to be so impervious to persuasion. He blinked back the tears and, after letting out a long breath, said tactfully, "When a person dies, it's like a lamp going out. Since Bian Erxing has already confessed, don't get too hung up on some phantom culprit. Looking out for yourself and your family is the smarter move."

Song Tingzhou hadn't expected him to call him up just to say something so ambiguous. He gave a half-hearted bow and said, "Thank you for your advice, Lord Zeng. I'll tread carefully."

With that, he got off the carriage, while Zeng Shiqi continued to explain from behind, "Lord Song, this official's meaning is..."

He was old, bundled up against the cold, and not as nimble as a younger man. By the time he managed to shove the curtain aside, Song Tingzhou was already mounted.

Upon returning to the Shuntian Prefecture, Song Tingzhou immediately summoned the officials who had worked under Lord Bian to ask about the relationship between Lord Bian and Vice Minister Zeng Shiqi. A Vice-Prefect who had been favored by Lord Bian knew some of the inside story.

"Lord Zeng and Lord Bian were successful candidates in the same imperial examination year and were very close. Sometimes they would even go boating and sightseeing together."

Standing before Bian Erxing's withered, pale corpse, Song Tingzhou murmured to himself, "Same examination year, close relationship?"

Guo Wanzhen had been crying uncontrollably in the Ministry of Justice prison, but now she seemed to have recovered her composure, repeatedly asking Song Tingzhou when she could go back to see her son.

Song Tingzhou pointed at the corpse before him. "Aren't you afraid? If you don't tell the whole truth, Bian Erxing's fate could be yours tomorrow."

Guo Wanzhen shuddered. "I... this servant doesn't know what to say."

Song Tingzhou ordered the yamen runners to close the courtroom doors, and the room immediately darkened. He walked over to sit behind the judge's desk and slammed the gavel with a sharp crack, causing Guo Wanzhen to collapse to her knees as if boneless.

"Since you don't know what to say, I'll ask you one question at a time. You just need to answer truthfully, understand?"

Kneeling in the courtroom, with yamen runners holding water-and-fire clubs on either side and the Great Magistrate seated high above, all of Guo Wanzhen's petty schemes were cast aside. Her mind went blank, leaving only the fear that coursed through her body.

"Yes... I understand... this servant understands."