Chapter 28: Governing in Peace (Part 1)

Chapter 28: Governing in Peace (Part 1)

However, Le Wuya did not fret for long.

There was a mountain of official business waiting for him in the county office.

Just as the second letters from Little Six and Little Seven arrived one after the other, the Chen family’s series of related cases finally reached a conclusion.

Chen Yuanwei, who had shunned worldly affairs and excelled in both civil and military arts, was implicated in framing others for rebellion and selling people into slavery, causing the premature deaths of twenty-five people in the Xiaofu Coal Mine due to accidents, overwork, illness, and other causes. His crimes were heinous: his degree (from the imperial exams) was revoked, all his property was confiscated, and he was sentenced to death by beheading, to be carried out in autumn.

The Xiaofu Coal Mine was renamed the Nanting Coal Mine, taken over and operated by the government.

Key figures of the original Xiaofu Coal Mine, such as Chen Fu'er and Manager Lu, were sentenced to death by hanging, also to be executed in the autumn. The overseers of various levels, who had acted as accomplices, were reduced to slavery and forced to work as miners in the Nanting Coal Mine.

The hoodlum Ge Erzi, who had sold people into slavery resulting in death and usurped his widowed sister-in-law's property, was sentenced to one hundred lashes and exile to the remote frontier, never to return. All his assets were turned into silver and given to Su Shi as compensation, the mother of Chang Xiaohu.

The rogue Liu Deben, who had falsely accused Ming Xiangzhao of treason—fortunately, Ming Xiangzhao and his mother had survived—was sentenced to one hundred lashes and exile to three thousand li away, with an additional five years of hard labor.

The coroner Shang Juncai, who had accepted bribes and failed to conduct truthful corpse examinations—with twelve past case reports being vague, clearly not properly examined—was sentenced to fifty lashes, twenty strokes of the cane, and exiled to Qianzhou.

Master Chen's entire household was convicted: men between fourteen and fifty were exiled to Danzhou; the young, old, and female dependents could choose to become servants, to work in the Nanting Coal Mine cooking, cleaning, and doing other labor.

On the day the verdict was pronounced in court, the streets were almost deserted.

The whole town had packed the area in front of the yamen, waiting to see what would become of this "Chen the Good."

As the word "beheading" was announced, Master Chen collapsed on the spot.

Master Chen’s family had expected to be exiled entirely, with many likely dying on the road, and were in a state of constant fear. When they heard that the magistrate had shown special mercy, sparing the elderly and young in the household and not punishing the women by making them government prostitutes, they wept as they thanked him, filled with gratitude.

They were satisfied, and so was Le Wuya.

With this new labor force, the Nanting Coal Mine could run smoothly.

He took the opportunity to announce that the Nanting Coal Mine would continue to distribute coal to poor families annually, as before.

Sounds of gratitude spread from the courtroom to the outside.

As for whether Master Chen lived or died, no one cared anymore.

Once the case was settled, Le Wuya launched into a new round of tasks without a break.

The county was rife with trivial matters, and Nanting County was, after all, a minor transportation hub.

Where there are many people, there's bound to be trouble—this saying was indeed true.

It stands to reason that such daily petty affairs could easily dull a person's ambition, making the ambitious feel they were wasting their youth.

But Le Wuya didn’t see it that way.

In his past life, he had handled too many big affairs and grown weary of them. Dealing with neighborly squabbles, brawls, and unfair division of property among kids had its own simple pleasures.

Wen Renyue, watching Le Wuya come and go every day with a happy look, felt pleased as well.

He had spent days writing letters for the miners, but Le Wuya still dragged him back to serve as his personal secretary.

After Kan Shi recovered, she saw that her son had become a new man, much more mature than before, and felt an inexpressible joy in her heart. Upon hearing that he had a chance to serve the magistrate, she had no other wishes. She grabbed Wen Renyue and went on a long lecture: "The magistrate has truly given our mother and son a new lease on life. Whatever he tells you to do, do it. Don’t go against him like before, always insisting on having your own way."

Wen Renyue, not having been nagged by his mother in a long time, listened carefully and nodded obediently: "I understand, Mother."

But Le Wuya found that Wen Renyue still liked to contradict him.

There was something in this man's nature that was quite similar to the stubborn mule Ming Xiangzhao.

One day, after Wen Renyue dutifully held a horse stance for fifteen minutes as Le Wuya had instructed, he passed by a shop selling freshly roasted sunflower seeds. They were piping hot and fragrant, so he bought a bag, tucked it inside his coat, and took it to the yamen. Then he went to prepare tea for Le Wuya.

Little did he expect that as soon as he entered the study with the tea, Le Wuya would start scolding him.

"I heard you went to work as a river laborer, unloading goods at the small dock?" Le Wuya asked him. "If you want to do manual labor, work for me. I bought a dozen new storybooks yesterday and hauled them back myself—my hands are killing me."

"Just doing some odd jobs for exercise. Besides, I've only heard about the people's hardships. If I don't experience them myself, how will I really understand?"

Wen Renyue set down the tea and the sunflower seeds, then bent down to feel Le Wuya's wrist to make sure everything was okay. Relieved, he said, "Brother Gu, here are your sunflower seeds."

Le Wuya took them without ceremony and happily started munching.

Seeing him eat the seeds without restraint, Wen Renyue reminded him helplessly, "Be careful, those are heating – you'll get a sore throat."

Le Wuya raised the tea cup by his hand and gave him a triumphant raise of the eyebrow: "I have cooling tea to balance it out."

Wen Renyue fell silent.

Le Wuya took a sip of the cooling tea, and it was so bitter he nearly spat it out.

His eyes narrowed, and he immediately guessed who had the nerve.

He turned and glared at Wen Renyue.

To his credit, the man was honest and fessed up: "My father was big on health, so I know a thing or two about it. When I heard you wanted cooling tea, I specially went to the pharmacy to get a custom mix, adding extra kudzu root powder and dandelion."

"Who gave you permission to act on your own?!"

Wen Renyue had his own logic: "The stuff you were drinking before wasn’t cooling tea; it was sugar water. Drinking that does no good."

Le Wuya, of course, didn’t appreciate it. He said bitterly, "You swapped my tea without permission—that's wrong! This time it's dandelion; next time it'll be arsenic!"

Wen Renyue laughed, "Brother Gu, you’re being unreasonable."

Le Wuya, refusing to let it go, grabbed his collar: "Give me back my sugar water."

Just as the two were tussling, Clerk Luo entered with a worried look: "Magistrate, we've got trouble again."

Clerk Luo's full name was Luo Hongfang, and he was in charge of public works, which included local taxes, land, and household registration.

Like Secretaries Zhang and Duan from the penal and household offices, he was an experienced clerk. However, each had their own style, making them easy to distinguish.

Secretary Zhang had always been on Deputy Magistrate Sun's side, but lately, sensing the shift in power, he had been slyly trying to win Le Wuya's favor.

Secretary Duan was always low-key and never took sides, even when the political winds turned.

Luo Hongfang was a pragmatist, utterly absorbed in his work.

He wouldn’t come to Le Wuya unless he encountered a difficult problem.

Le Wuya, still holding onto Wen Renyue, asked, "What is it?"

Clerk Luo said: "The families of Wu and Dou in the west of town had a fight between their children. In the scuffle, they damaged a vegetable stall. The stall owner came to complain, demanding compensation. I mediated, and both families agreed to pay half to settle the matter."

Le Wuya: "Then isn’t the matter already resolved?"

Wenren Yue, knowing Le Wuya was clueless about the past, frowned a little. "...These two families again."

Le Wuya asked, intrigued, "Oh? You know them too?"

As he spoke, Le Wuya couldn't resist the smell of the roasted melon seeds, sneakily grabbed a handful and stashed them to crack open.

Wenren Yue gave a helpless smile and pushed the melon seeds and herbal tea closer to him.

"Brother Gu," so young and playful, full of energy, probably didn't have a long life in his past life.

He wanted him to live a long life.

Le Wuya glanced at him and accepted the quiet kindness.

Wenren Yue knew all about the county's small issues and laid it all out: "The Wu and Dou families were originally neighbors. The Wu family was on the east side, and their roof was built a bit higher. Whenever it rained, water always ran off their eaves to the Dou family's yard to the west, flooding the yard. As a result, during a heavy rain three years ago, an old tree in the Dou family's yard got waterlogged and died. The Dou family, of course, wouldn't let that slide, claiming it was their great-grandfather's tree. They wanted more than just payment—they wanted the Wu family to redo the eaves so no more water would drain into their yard. The Wu family agreed to pay for the tree but flat-out refused to rebuild the house. And that's how the feud started."

Hearing this, Clerk Luo was surprised, wondering how Scholar Ming knew so much about this.

But then he thought it over and got it.

Scholar Ming had always been a busybody and had handled plenty of lawsuits, so it wasn't weird he could rattle off all sorts of civil cases in the county.

Clerk Luo chimed in, "...Feuds in this world only get bigger, never smaller. These two families are neighbors, always bumping into each other, like teeth and lips. How can they avoid rubbing each other the wrong way? Every time something comes up, they make a huge stink and end up in court. It's become a regular thing. Especially the two youngest sons, who are at that hot-headed age. They've gotten into drunken fights more than once, making it known all over the county. It's really shameful."

Le Wuya crunched on melon seeds noisily. "Oh. How'd you handle it before?"

Clerk Luo gave a bitter smile. "Your Honor, honestly, unless the east family's eaves get torn down, this thing will never be over. I've gone back and forth, brought in the village head, and all the relatives from both sides. We mediated again and again, but it was pointless. Now they're just stubbornly clinging to their pride, neither one willing to back down."

Le Wuya nodded, understanding.

He figured Clerk Luo had really done his best.

His trick of getting respected or related folks to mediate would work nine times out of ten with other people.

But at the heart of it, this family's beef was still about land.

Without fixing the land issue, it'd be useless in the end.

Le Wuya propped his chin on a scroll and turned to ask Wenren Yue, "Ming Shouyue, what do you think should be done?"

Wenren Yue knew this was a test from Le Wuya. He thought seriously for a long time but still couldn't find a solution.

If this matter were easy to solve, it would have been solved long ago.

Soft approaches didn't work, and hard ones were even worse.

After all, it was just a dispute between two families. If the yamen made a big fuss, got involved, and went to tear down the Wu family's eaves, the Wu family, being so stubborn, would not easily let it go. They would go to the Prefect and accuse the yamen of unlawfully invading their home, which would be enough trouble for the yamen.

He had to resort to his usual compromise method. Bowing with clasped hands, he replied, "Your Honor, I thought that if the yamen were willing to pay to repair the Wu family's eaves, perhaps this long-standing lawsuit could be resolved."

Clerk Luo shook his head slightly and did not reply.

Le Wuya was rather speechless. He picked up the herbal tea and said, "If you were paying this money, I'd be a hundred times willing. The people pay taxes for you to build roads and bridges, repair charitable halls and academies, not for you to muddle through disputes."

Wenren Yue had a good temper and knew that this was a criticism of his naive idea, so he humbly said, "It was Shou Yue's oversight."

Le Wuya smiled slyly like a fox. "Hey, let me teach you a trick, how about that?"

This face's features were ones Wenren Yue had long been accustomed to, yet he could use them effortlessly to create a radiant expression.

Wenren Yue lowered his head, suppressing his inexplicably racing heart. "I await your instruction, Your Honor."

Le Wuya said, "Easy. Return my sweet drink to me."

Wenren Yue flatly refused, "...That won't do."

Stubborn!

Le Wuya picked up the teacup, reluctantly took a sip of the bitter herbal tea, winced, and asked Clerk Luo, "The east family's eaves are high, and the west family is unhappy. Is that the situation?"

Clerk Luo: "Yes."

Le Wuya: "What are the statuses of these two families?"

Clerk Luo: "They have modest wealth and run some workshop businesses."

Le Wuya said "Oh." "When they built their houses, did they hire someone to check feng shui?"

Clerk Luo was startled, his eyes moving as he understood somewhat. "...Of course. Most of these merchants are superstitious. For major events like building houses and raising beams, they always invite a feng shui master."

Le Wuya: "Then invite the most famous feng shui master in this city. The silver can be taken from the public funds; at most half a string of cash should be enough. Have the feng shui master go and survey both families' houses again."

With just a few words, Clerk Luo already understood Le Wuya's intention, but he didn't want to appear too clever. "What should be said? Please instruct, Your Honor."

Le Wuya looked down at his storybook. "Tell the east family privately that wealth generates water flow, and water represents fortune. If their water flows to the west family, it means they are continuously sending their own wealth to the other, which is unfavorable for them."

"Then tell the west family privately that water symbolizes wealth. Letting wealth flow from the east family to theirs is heaven's will. Ask them not to be angry about it. After a few more years, just wait and see."

Clerk Luo's eyes lit up. "Your Honor, that's a brilliant move."

Le Wuya: "Since you know it's a brilliant move, why aren't you going quickly?"

After seeing Clerk Luo out, Le Wuya picked up the personnel evaluation booklet on the table and specifically looked at Clerk Luo's evaluation grade from last year.

...It was marked as average.

Le Wuya muttered to himself, "The personnel office needs to be shaken up. I don't need people who have two eyes only for breathing."

Wenren Yue saw that he intended to rectify the bureaucracy and was about to speak, but Le Wuya pulled him over to a pile of old documents.

He pointed casually. "All the criminal case files of Nanting County for the past three years are here. I've gone through them once. Among them, there are forty-seven cases with missing evidence. I'll give you three days to pick them all out."

Looking at the towering stacks of documents, Wenren Yue couldn't help but be surprised. "...Brother Gu, you've read all of them?" In such a short time?

Le Wuya's surprise was no less than Wenren Yue's. He retorted, "What's so much about this little?"

Hearing this, Wenren Yue became deeply worried.

In his previous life, how much toil and hardship had Brother Gu endured to be able to say such a thing?

He steadied himself, said no more, and reached for the topmost case file.

If he could be more capable and share some of Brother Gu's burdens, then Brother Gu wouldn't have to be like this.

For the sake of having a Brother Gu who could crack melon seeds, drink tea, and chat and laugh, Wenren Yue asked himself, he could do even more.