Nie Siran X Su Ruhe (6)
Night had already fallen, and the officials of the prefectural office had all left their posts. Ordinarily, no one would ever come to beat the drum and cry injustice at such an hour.
Su Ruhe hurriedly changed into his official robes and brought people with him to the prefectural yamen.
By the time he took his seat in the yamen hall, his breathing was still somewhat uneven. Looking out toward the pitch-black courtyard beyond, he said, “Bring in the one who struck the drum.”
Very soon, the yamen runners led the people inside.
Lamps had been lit outside, and with a whole courtyard between them, Su Ruhe at first could only make out, from afar, that there were two people following behind the bailiffs, though he could not yet see their faces clearly.
When they drew closer, he could tell from the way they walked that one was a man and one a woman. The man was tall, thin, and straight, while the woman was slender and graceful.
Su Ruhe raised a hand to beckon Liu Shoutian over. He was just about to question them when, from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the pair entering the room. His gaze swept over the man and the woman, and suddenly his throat went dry.
Liu Shoutian waited a long while without hearing any question, and so he asked of his own accord, “What matter does Your Excellency have?”
“No... no matter.” Coming back to himself, Su Ruhe had Liu Shoutian sit back down. Drawing a deep breath, he straightened his posture and looked toward those below. A trace of complexity flickered through his eyes, too swiftly to grasp.
“Those standing below the hall, for what matter did you strike the drum?” he asked calmly. Yet his gaze could not help falling upon the woman.
At the side, Liu Shoutian gave an angry shout. “Audacious! You see the Prefect and yet do not kneel. Utterly without propriety. Men, seize them.”
“Wait.” Su Ruhe knew Liu Shoutian was a man who prized ritual, but as for the people below...
Clasping his hand tightly, he stopped him in a gentle voice. “It is no matter. Let us first hear what they have to say.”
The woman in purple below began to cry as she said, “In reply to Your Excellency, this common woman wishes to accuse the man beside her.”
Su Ruhe’s fine brows drew together. He did not look at the man, only asked the woman, “Where are you from, and what grievance do you carry?”
The woman covered her face with an embroidered handkerchief and said through sniffling tears, “This common woman lives at Saltwater Lane in the western part of the city. I came to beat the drum tonight because I wished Your Excellency to uphold justice for me.”
Su Ruhe looked at her. “What justice do you ask this official to uphold?”
Lowering her handkerchief, the woman cast a shy yet aggrieved look toward the tall man at her side and choked out, “This man accepted the embroidered handkerchief that this common woman stitched with her own hands. A woman’s handkerchief is a private thing, and surely Your Excellency knows what such a thing signifies. Yet who could have known that this man would now refuse to acknowledge it!”
Su Ruhe’s brow twitched. Suppressing his surprise, he asked evenly, “You mean that he accepted your handkerchief, yet does not intend to marry you?”
“Precisely so. The handkerchief is the token of our affection. Since he was willing to accept it, he must surely cherish affection for this common woman. Why then does he shirk marriage? I truly had no other way, and so could only ask Your Excellency to judge this matter.”
Su Ruhe still looked into the woman’s eyes. “Could there perhaps be some misunderstanding in this?”
The woman’s crying stopped. Twisting the handkerchief tightly in her hands, she looked baffled. “A misunderstanding? Does Your Excellency believe that this common woman has wronged him?”
Su Ruhe blinked. “What this official means is that you and he ought not have known one another for long. If this... young master accepted your handkerchief, perhaps there was some other reason.”
Tears gathered in the woman’s eyes, and the grievous look she put on, all sniffling and pitiful, was enough to stir pity in the heart.
The room fell quiet for a time. Only when the woman’s sobbing had weakened did Su Ruhe turn and ask the man, “As for what was just said, do you have anything to say?”
The man’s gaze collided with Su Ruhe’s in midair. He gave a light laugh, and anyone could hear the wanton playfulness hidden within it. “Your Excellency, this commoner has been wronged.”
The two words “been wronged” were drawn out low and circling, no little in the way they hooked at the heart.
“... And in what way have you been wronged?” Su Ruhe asked steadily.
The man said, “Your Excellency, discern clearly. This woman is extorting me.”
“Tell it from the beginning.”
The man then laid out the situation from first to last. He had merely happened to pass by Saltwater Lane. The embroidered handkerchief had simply, by chance, fallen to his feet. He had picked it up and returned it to its owner, yet who could have expected that he would be fastened onto in this way, with her proclaiming to everyone that he was her betrothed husband.
At once, the woman lifted her skirts and knelt upon the ground, knocking her head as she wept. “Your Excellency, he truly is this common woman’s betrothed. I beg Your Excellency to uphold justice.”
The man’s eye corners slanted lazily downward, his expression half smiling and half not as he looked at the woman. He straightened his sleeves, folded his hands, and crossed his arms as he watched the farce before him, like an outsider looking on.
“What proof do you have that he is your betrothed?” Su Ruhe looked at her. His eyes, still as an old well, seemed able to see straight into the human heart, leaving no place for secrets to hide.
The woman bit her lip. “He took this common woman’s embroidered handkerchief...”
Su Ruhe said, “That cannot count as proof. This official asks you, what is his surname and given name, where does he reside, and how many members are there in his household?”
“He...” The woman’s eyes turned quickly. “His surname is Wang. He lives, lives in the south of the city, and there are six people in his family.”
Su Ruhe let out a sigh. He had truly not expected to run into such a case, laughable and absurd enough to leave one at a loss whether to laugh or cry.
Or rather, a clumsy scheme plotted by human hands, with loopholes all through it.
“You are lying.” Su Ruhe rose from his seat and looked down upon the woman below him.
The woman lifted her face, bafflement in her eyes, and murmured, “This common woman did not...”
Su Ruhe stood before her, upright as pine and cypress. Though he had not yet spoken, for some reason she cut off her own words, her shoulders shrinking back a little.
“You are lying. He is not of the southern part of the city as you claim nor is his surname Wang.”
The woman opened her mouth yet had no chance to speak.
Su Ruhe said, “He is a native of Ye Jing. He resides at Tong’an Lane, and there are four members in his household.”
The woman’s expression changed. She suppressed the panic in her heart and suspected that the Prefect before her was merely trying to trick her. She could not show fear first.
“Your Excellency, he is indeed a man of Yan Cheng.” The woman still spoke stubbornly.
Su Ruhe shook his head. Upon his fair and delicate face, not a trace of emotion remained.
When he spoke again, his voice was low and slow, cold as snow and ice. “His surname is Nie. He is the only grandson of Lord Nie Chouwen, formerly Prime Minister. You are truly bold beyond measure, to dare extort even him.”
The woman’s face turned deathly pale. Shocked and horrified, she looked toward the onlooking man. In an instant, it was as though she had fallen into an ice cellar, and her whole body went limp.
She had only… only seen that this man was especially handsome, that when he smiled, he was so pleasing to the eye that it made the heart itch, that even his bearing was refined, surpassing any man she had seen in all her life. For one moment, a demon had led her astray, and so she had clung to him.
“If this official has guessed correctly, the one who struck the drum earlier should have been Young Master Nie. You wished to stop him, and when you found you could not, you then came before the hall and filed your accusation first, hoping to muddle your way through.”
Seeing that things had turned ill, the woman entirely panicked. Half crawling and half kneeling, she moved to Su Ruhe’s feet and knocked her to the ground in rapid succession. “This common woman had eyes yet failed to know Mount Tai. This common woman was foolish and committed a grave wrong. I beg Your Excellency and Young Master Nie to spare this common woman this one time. This common woman will surely know her error and mend her ways, and will never offend again.”
Yet Su Ruhe merely waved a hand and instructed the yamen guards, “Take her away. Lock her up in the prison.”
Ignoring the woman’s cries, the yamen guards dragged her away by force.
Once quiet had returned, Su Ruhe turned his eyes to Nie Siran. “Young Master Nie, where is your travel pass?”
Nie Siran lowered his hands and gave a shrug, helplessness written between his brows. “My bundle was snatched away by them.”
Without a travel pass, one could not prove one’s identity. Ye Jing lay far away, and for the moment it truly was not easy to prove who he was.
No wonder the woman had been so bold. So it was because she had relied on that with no fear.
Turning his head, Su Ruhe asked Liu Shoutian, “Merits Officer Liu, the marriage customs of Yan Cheng are enough to make this official regard them in a new light.”
Liu Shoutian hurriedly rose and bowed, his face full of bitter embarrassment. “Your Excellency does not know. In Yan Cheng, there are more women than men. In many commoner households, daughters remain unmarried even after turning twenty. They... they have simply been driven to desperation...”
“Your Excellency has only just arrived in Yan Cheng and has been busy with affairs. This subordinate originally meant to inform Your Excellency after a few days, once things had grown more leisurely.”
“So, they are specifically targeting outsiders?”
Liu Shoutian said, “Yes. Outsiders have no helpers in the locality. Once they lose the travel pass used to prove their identity, if they are extorted in such a way, they have a hundred mouths yet still cannot explain themselves.”
“It truly is...” Su Ruhe was angered into laughter and ordered, “Tomorrow, summon this woman’s family to the yamen for questioning. For this vile custom to have persisted in Yan Cheng for so many years, your contributions have truly not been small.”
The mocking edge in those final four words left the officials present wishing only to find a crack in the ground and disappear into it.
Su Ruhe led Nie Siran back to the Prefectural residence.
“The guest room has already been prepared. Young Master Nie has had a trying day today and should rest early.” He led him to the entrance of the courtyard, then turned with his lantern in hand, about to leave.
Nie Siran called after him, “Is Lord Su not curious why this one would appear in Yan Cheng?”
Su Ruhe turned back. “Young Master Nie travels through the four seas. There is nothing strange in his appearing here.”
Nie Siran smiled. “No. I came here to find you.”
“To find me?” Beneath the moonlight, astonishment flowed through Su Ruhe’s eyes like a spill of water and light.
“Indeed.” Nie Siran stepped forward and came to stand before him. “Someone slipped away without so much as a greeting. How ought that debt to be settled?”
Inside his boots, Su Ruhe’s toes curled against the ground. Embarrassment welled up in his heart and choked him, leaving him momentarily without words.
“I went to Wutong Lane to look for you. Your home was empty as though thieves had passed through it. The old woman next door said you had mounted horse and carriage and gone to take up office in Yan Cheng. I did not believe it at first. Little Lord Su, you truly are able to run.”
Su Ruhe had believed that after the night of Qiqiao, there would no longer be any crossing of paths between him and Nie Siran. Later, this man truly had not appeared before him again.
He did not know why Nie Siran would still come looking for him.
Nie Siran looked at him and said, “In your heart, you are certainly thinking, why would I still come looking for you.”
“In truth, there is no especially remarkable reason. In all these years, it is rare to meet one person pleasing to the eye and the heart. One wishes to treat him well, yet he refuses to appreciate it. If I did not chase after him and ask clearly, there would always be a knot in my heart. Would Lord Su not say the same?”
“I always thought...” Su Ruhe moved his gaze away. “That you disliked me.”
“I did dislike you, quite a bit.”
Su Ruhe pressed his lips together and stared at the wild grass by the roadside without speaking.
“You truly cannot bear teasing at all. I chased you for a thousand li. Is that still not obvious enough?”
“Little Lord Su, where do you intend to run next?” There was teasing in Nie Siran’s gaze.
Su Ruhe tightened his grip on the bamboo pole of the lantern. The wind made the lantern sway wildly from side to side. Gathering himself, he said, “I was not running away. I received orders to come take office in Yan Cheng.”
“Given your merits, you ought to have been promoted upward, not transferred out. So this was something you yourself asked for.”
Nie Siran was such a clever man that he had nearly understood everything on the very day Su Ruhe left the capital.
“And, fundamentally, you had no intention of ever returning to Ye Jing again. Am I correct?”
Su Ruhe was not in the least surprised that he had guessed it. At this point, concealment no longer served any use, and so he admitted it in one breath.
Nie Siran looked fixedly at his face. After several months apart, he was even thinner than when Nie Siran had last seen him in Ye Jing. His face, already not large, had now grown so thin that even the cheeks had nearly hollowed in.
“Su Ruhe, I should be the one asking you.”
Su Ruhe stared blankly. “Ask me what?”
“Do you truly dislike me that much?”
✧ A Word from the Author ✧
Thank you very much for everyone’s support. I will continue to work hard!
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