Chapter 256: Filial Piety (V)

Chapter 256: Filial Piety (V)

Inside the Hall of Shouren.

Xiang Zheng sat as still as a bell, unmovable as a mountain: "Rise. You may speak standing."

When Le Wuya rose, he did not immediately press the matter of the impeachment, but instead changed the subject: "How is the matter you were asked to investigate by the Sixth Prince?"

An ordinary imperial censor, upon discovering that the emperor showed indifference to his impeachment memorial, would either be indignant or dejected.

But Le Wuya had remarkable composure.

He would simply answer whatever the emperor asked.

"Your Majesty," he said, "it is not a family secret formula, but a medicinal powder from southern Yunnan brought by a wandering physician named Su Sanbai."

This Su Sanbai was originally a quack physician.

A year and a half ago, while passing through the pestilent lands of southern Yunnan, he unfortunately contracted a severe bout of malaria. It ravaged him with high fever and delirium, and he nearly died on the road. It was a small mountain tribe that dragged him back, administered medicine to him, and saved his life.

The medicine was a powder made from bark scraped off a "sacred tree" by the locals.

The pestilence in southern Yunnan was fierce. When locals contracted malaria, they would often make their way to the sacred tree to pray devoutly, to seek the tree spirit's blessing. Only after receiving the sacred tree's permission would they dare to scrape off a small amount of bark to brew into a decoction.

The tribe called this powder "Ghost Head Shake."

Su Sanbai scoffed at all of this.

Once he had recovered from his illness, he went straight to the sacred tree and, without hesitation, scraped off every bit of bark he could reach, packed it up and took off.

In Su Sanbai's eyes, the reverence the locals of Yunnan held for the sacred tree was utterly foolish.

His malaria was certainly not cured by some so-called "miracle."

The secret lay in this "Ghost Head Shake."

He saw its value and dreamed of making a small fortune.

If he came across a high-ranking official or noble with malaria in dire need of a cure, presenting this "Ghost Head Shake" would surely set him up for life.

However, "Ghost Head Shake" did not bring him the fortune he had imagined.

Su Sanbai's first attempt was treating a wealthy merchant's son for malaria.

He was full of confidence, having already planned how he'd splurge the money.

But this substance was unpredictable. After one dose, the boy not only failed to improve but instead suffered from ringing ears and dizziness, wailing incessantly.

Su Sanbai was a total incompetent. The moment an unexpected situation arose, his true colors were revealed—he broke out in a cold sweat, and could no longer maintain the facade of a master healer. When questioned by the family, he knew nothing at all, and couldn't even mumble basic medical knowledge like the "Eighteen Incompatibilities."

The wealthy merchant saw through his incompetence and flew into a rage, ordering his servants to beat him with clubs and throw him out, nearly breaking one of his legs.

After this beating, Su Sanbai learned his lesson. He reluctantly gave up his plan of stockpiling the medicine, and instead sold it at low prices to commoners suffering from malaria, watching to see if it worked.

The results were disappointing.

Perhaps he had failed to learn the locals' method of preparing the medicine, or perhaps the sacred tree truly only worked for true believers—the cure rate was less than half.

Clearly, if he tried to peddle this medicine to the rich and powerful again, he had a fifty-fifty chance of getting a severe beating.

And if a patient happened to kick the bucket after taking the medicine, he'd face charges.

Su Sanbai had to accept his bad luck and give up on getting rich off "Ghost Head Shake." He drifted along, selling the medicine as he went, hoping to unload this hot potato for whatever cash he could get.

And so, this mediocre physician, desperate for cash, encountered Scholar Tian, who was so desperate he'd try anything.

...

Facing the pensive Xiang Zheng, Le Wuya reported in a measured tone: "When I was in Nanting, I also knew that the Yunnan region was plagued by pestilence. The locals have all sorts of remedies for such ailments. This so-called 'Ghost Head Shake' might actually work. Su Sanbai has already signed his confession and is willing to lead us to the sacred tree. I've confiscated the remaining powder and stored it in the Censorate's archives for now..."

Xiang Zheng tapped the desk with his knuckles and praised: "You've been very thorough. Good work."

Le Wuya clasped his hands in salute: "You flatter me, Your Majesty. This was not difficult."

This was no false modesty on Le Wuya's part.

Upon arriving at Zhangde Prefecture and locating Su Sanbai himself, Le Wuya just said a few kind words, and Su Sanbai was so flattered he was walking on air.

After Scholar Tian's case came to light, there was much debate among the people—some praised his filial piety, others condemned him as heartless and unjust.

But no one paid Su Sanbai any mind.

He was just a "physician" buried in the case files—a seemingly insignificant afterthought.

Su Sanbai knew his place and didn't dare overstep. He had planned to slip quietly out of Zhangde, but unexpectedly, a high-ranking court official found him, invited him to tea, addressed him as "Dr. Su," politely asked about the details of "Ghost Head Shake," and promised that if he could find the sacred tree, he would not only receive a hundred taels of silver, but the court would also build a shrine in his honor in his hometown, where people would burn incense for him.

Su Sanbai had drifted through life in obscurity and scheming, living in a daze—he'd killed more patients than he'd cured and taken more beatings than coins. He'd never been treated with such respect in his life.

Immediately, he spilled everything he knew like beans from a bamboo tube.

As he rambled on about his past, Le Wuya sat across from him with a gentle smile, gazing at him with encouraging eyes, while inwardly wondering how badly this quack who had desecrated the sacred tree would be beaten if handed over to those Yunnan natives.

...

After presenting Su Sanbai's testimony, Le Wuya stepped aside and fell silent.

But Xiang Zheng could no longer pretend not to know.

If Su Sanbai's additional testimony were adopted, it would mean that Scholar Tian's mother's recovery was not a divine miracle, but the gods' doing.

In that case, how could he still honor him without contradicting himself?

Filial piety and foolish filial piety—though seemingly separated by a single word, they were in fact worlds apart.

In truth, had Wen Ren Yue not struck first and impeached the prefect of Zhangde, this matter would have been best left alone for Xiang Zheng.

He could have honored Scholar Tian to encourage filial piety, while secretly having the Imperial Medical Institute study the "Ghost Head Shake."

In this way, he could both educate the people and do some good.

But Le Wuya had struck first, impeaching the local prefect the moment he spoke, leaving Xiang Zheng no chance to "set it aside" and plead ignorance.

Moreover, although the court historian was required to retreat ten paces behind the screen when the emperor privately summoned a minister, Le Wuya's impeachment had been delivered with such righteous fervor and a booming voice that it was hard to tell if the historian had already heard.

...And to top it off, Chang Yuxing was still waiting outside.

That old geezer had sharp ears—he'd probably heard a good chunk of it too.

Thus, Xiang Zheng had no choice but to play along with Le Wuya and ask: "What did Kou Chun do?"

Le Wuya immediately presented another stack of testimonies: "Your Majesty, when I first looked at this case, the evidence seemed airtight, so I didn't plan to dig any deeper. But after I went to Zhangde myself, I saw that the incense offerings at the Medicine King Temple had exploded—more than ten times the usual amount. Worshippers were packed in shoulder to shoulder, and people donating for oil lamps, thresholds, and merit fields just kept coming nonstop. In just the last month, 512 people each donated over five hundred wen. I've got all their names written down in this register for you to look over."

Xiang Zheng's eyebrow twitched.

Le Wuya acted like he didn't see it and went on: "That made me a little uneasy, so I talked it over with Censor Song and then went out among the people to look into things. The case itself is full of controversy and not worth getting into, but while I was asking around, I found something that really shook me, and I have to report it to you."

Xiang Zheng: "Out with it."

"When I went through the temple's account books, I found big money moving between the Zhangde prefectural office and the Medicine King Temple—they were splitting the incense money seventy-thirty. And here's the weird part: of the seven commendations put in from Zhangde over the last five years, six were recommended by the temple's abbot himself."

Xiang Zheng's brow got even tighter.

"The more I looked, the more suspicious I got, so I decided to do a full audit of the temple's books—and that's when I found two sets of hidden accounts. The first was in the abbot's account at the local Huitong Silver House. Every month, a set amount—'twenty taels of official donation silver'—went out to Kou Chun's private residence. The second one I found in the dowry box of the temple caretaker's wife. Within a month of each of those six commendations being approved, a payment labeled 'calligraphy fee for Master Kou' would go out—again, to Kou Chun's private residence..."

Le Wuya paused, and his voice had a hint of hesitation: "...While I was in Zhangde, I heard a kids' rhyme: 'Medicine King Temple, a silver vault; the prefect moves in, the Bodhisattva laughs'..."

Le Wuya stayed cool and measured, but Xiang Zheng exploded: "How dare you!"

Le Wuya dropped to his knees right away, quick and smooth about it.

This move of his—cutting off any retreat—was vicious as hell.

To the emperor, a commendation was just a flick of his red brush.

He could overlook the death of a kid, overlook whether Scholar Tian was really filial or just faking it, overlook whether people might take it even further and start copying what Scholar Tian did.

The tax breaks were nothing to Xiang Zheng—a drop in the bucket.

But he cared a hell of a lot about political stability.

A small temple like Sangui Temple, stuck out in the middle of nowhere, barely got any incense offerings. A dozen monks took turns farming, didn't want anything to do with the government, and so could keep to themselves and stay clean.

But for a big temple like the Medicine King Temple, the abbot wasn't some holy man anymore—he was a big shot in the community, inevitably tied to local officials by mutual interest.

Officials and abbots splitting the people's incense money between them? That wasn't exactly rare.

Plenty of people went to the abbot to get him to pass along the deeds of filial sons, virtuous men, righteous husbands, and chaste women to the prefectural office, asking the court for commendations—that wasn't rare either.

And a lot of regular folks, knowing how tight the government and the temple were, would make up a few rhymes—that wasn't rare either.

But pile all those "not rarers" together, add the highly controversial spark of Scholar Tian on top, and the whole thing becomes a powder keg.

Without a single word of lies, Le Wuya had managed to hit the emperor right where it hurt.

Le Wuya didn't give a damn about commendations or memorial arches.

Because he knew those things actually worked.

Back when Qi Wuhu was scraping by in the poor soil of Jinyuan County, Le Wuya had told him to go find filial sons and chaste women in the county, hold them up as examples, and ask the court for commendations and arches to get tax breaks and make their lives a little easier.

The catch was, they had to be the real deal—genuinely filial sons and truly chaste women.

If some piece of trash who publicly threw his own kid to his death got rewarded for it, Le Wuya would feel like he'd swallowed a fly.

Nobody made him swallow flies.

So since someone insisted on making him sick, he'd reluctantly send the kid's dad to keep the kid company in the grave.

And tossing in a prefect as extra company was just a bonus.

Le Wuya said, his voice hard and firm: "Scholar Tian's mother got better because of medicine, but he lied and said it was the Bodhisattva's miracle. Kou Chun, the prefect of Zhangde, lied to the court, bought and sold commendations, and used the emperor's name to line his own pockets. Even worse, he played up the gods' powers, tricking people into donating more and more, so the sick stopped seeing doctors and just prayed to Buddha, wasting their money and putting off treatment. It's absolutely disgusting."

He raised his head and said, deadly serious: "If this keeps up, we could see another Zhang Jiao rebellion!"

Author's note:

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