Ashes to Crown

Chapter 7: Chapter 7: The Process

Many people were kneeling in the county government’s public hall, but the County Magistrate and his constables were all standing outside. One constable peered inside curiously.

”Sir,” he asked, ”what major case is this? Even an official from the Capital City is here.”

The County Magistrate glared at him. ”Mind your own business. Don’t ask about things that don’t concern us. Do you want to go in and be interrogated yourself?”

The constable shrank back and dared not speak again.

The County Magistrate stared at the floor, feigning detachment, when he heard a loud CRACK from the main hall—his own gavel had been thrown to the ground.

Deng Yi retracted his hand and leaned back in his chair, looking at the four people kneeling on the floor. Aside from a coachman, there was the recently located Lady Yang—a prostitute named Li Niang—a doctor, and the Posthouse Minister.

Piles of money and jewels, some large and some small, were laid out before each of them.

”Let’s hear it,” Deng Yi said, his gaze sweeping over the four before landing on Li Niang. ”If I’m not mistaken, you must have been the first.”

Li Niang quickly raised her head. ”No, no, my lord, I wasn’t the first. The young lady found the doctor before me.” She pointed a finger at the man beside her.

The man was a doctor, and he stammered in a panic, ”My lord, I... I... I don’t know anything.”

Deng Yi said coolly, ”It’s fine. You tell me, and then I’ll know.”

The doctor quickly assented, taking a deep breath to collect his thoughts. ”I’m a traveling physician. That day, I was walking along the road when I saw two young girls sitting by the roadside, resting—”

Deng Yi cut him off. ”How old were those two girls? What did they look like? Be specific.”

The doctor thought for a moment. ”The younger one was twelve or thirteen, and the older one no more than fifteen. They were dressed very plainly. The older one was standing while the younger one sat. The younger one... she was very pretty. She had a small face and large eyes.”

It was as if her eyes could speak. Her voice was pleasant, too—so delicate and frail, you couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.

That was why he had been so bewitched at the time.

Deng Yi gestured with his hand. ”Continue.”

”The young lady called out to me, said she needed a doctor, and gave me a bag of money. I thought I’d found some business, but she didn’t want me to examine her. She told me to come to the posthouse in a few days to see a certain woman. There was only one requirement: regardless of what I found, I was to say the woman’s illness was incurable and she didn’t have long to live.”

As he said this, he stole a glance at the official seated on the dais, but his expression was placid, betraying no emotion.

”I... I’m not one to just lie to people. I just... I figured I’d see for myself when the time came. If she could be cured, I would have certainly done my best to treat her.”

Deng Yi said nothing, but Qi Du You, who was standing to the side, sneered. ’This money-grubber, still trying to make excuses for himself.’

The doctor lowered his head, not daring to look at them.

”For the next few days, I loitered around the posthouse. Since I’m a traveling physician, it wouldn’t look strange. Sure enough, one day a posthouse soldier ran out looking for a doctor, bumped into me, and brought me inside. That’s when I met this... lady.”

He turned his head to look at Li Niang beside him.

After her initial panic, Li Niang was no longer flustered. She hadn’t committed any heinous crime, only taken money to pretend to be someone’s mother. Seeing the doctor look over, she even gave him a flirtatious smile before looking up again at the official—

”My looord~” she purred.

The official glanced at her. Li Niang, accustomed to handling all sorts of clients in her line of work, stiffened and knelt up straight.

”That day, I was taking an afternoon nap in my room when those two girls climbed in through the window. It scared me half to death! I live on the third floor, you know. I thought they were bandits who had come to rob the place.”

As expected of a woman from her profession, she was quicker-witted than the doctor. Without waiting for Deng Yi to ask, she began to give a detailed account on her own initiative.

”But when I looked, it was just two girls, maybe thirteen or fourteen. They looked ordinary at first glance, but the younger one was very good-looking.”

Li Niang’s eyes lit up. As someone whose trade was beauty, she had a keen eye for it in others.

”In a few more years, when she’s seventeen or eighteen, she’ll be an absolute, unrivaled beauty. Her eyes are a bit too fierce, though. That’s not so good. Men don’t tend to like that—”

Deng Yi interrupted her. ”Get to the point.”

Li Niang looked sheepish and continued, ”The young girl threw three bags of money at me, said she was hiring me for three days, and told me to pretend to be her mother.”

She pointed at the moneybags in front of her. She had far more than the doctor, with valuable gold and silver hairpins and jade bracelets scattered among the coins.

”My lord, I’m just a woman for hire. It doesn’t matter if the client is a man or a woman, or if I’m pretending to be a wife or a mother—I don’t get to choose.”

”I just lay there pretending to be sick and said what she taught me to say—”

At this, she leaned forward to look at the Posthouse Minister kneeling at the far end.

”Mr. Xu, those words really weren’t my own. It was all my daughter, Ah Fu, who told me to say them.”

The Posthouse Minister remained expressionless. He didn’t respond, simply turning his head away. On this day, he had been utterly disgraced.

The Posthouse Minister was silent, but the coachman couldn’t wait any longer. He kowtowed in a panic. ”My lord, my lord, I don’t know anything! I didn’t meet anyone! It was this lady who said she needed a carriage, then said she didn’t, and that I didn’t have to return the money, so I, I just—”

’It would have been a waste not to take the free money.’

He pushed the handful of coins before him forward. His pile was the smallest of them all.

”I don’t want it anymore! I’ll turn it in! Spare me, my lord!”

Li Niang spoke up from the side. ”My lord, I was the one who found him. It has nothing to do with Ah Fu—that’s the girl’s name, what she called herself. Besides, Ah Fu told me to go all the way to Yangtun before getting out of the carriage, and then wait for the coachman to leave before I departed. But I didn’t think it was necessary, so I got out early. As a result... well, the plan wasn’t perfect, and you officials managed to track it down—”

She gave a sheepish smile as she spoke.

”If that young lady finds out, she’ll probably dock my pay, won’t she?”

Deng Yi also smiled. He thought for a moment, then nodded. ”She probably would.” His gaze shifted to the Posthouse Minister. ”Xu Cheng, you—”

The Posthouse Minister prostrated himself, kowtowing. ”I am guilty. I was blinded by greed and derelict in my duty. I await your punishment, my lord.”

A tall pile of money lay before him—

From his place on the dais, Qi Du You pointed at him and said with resentment, ”Old Xu, how many times have I told you? You’re good at everything except for your greed. I knew it would get you into trouble sooner or later!”

Before Deng Yi could speak, hurried footsteps sounded from outside, and a cloaked young man burst in.

”Lord Deng,” he asked urgently, ”have you found my sister?”

Deng Yi smiled at him. ”Ah, Young Master Chu Ke has arrived.”

’So this must be the young master from Mr. Chu’s family that Qi Du You was talking about—the one who was supposed to be looking for his sister, yet sat comfortably in the county government office,’ the Posthouse Minister thought, still prostrate on the floor. He lifted his head slightly for a peek, wanting to see if he resembled the deceitful Ah Fu in any way.

The young master was seventeen or eighteen years old, fairly tall, with a pale complexion. He looked anxious, his restless impatience clear on his face.

’That Ah Fu wasn’t like this,’ he thought. ’She seemed gentle and frail, and with me she either cried and pleaded or kowtowed in thanks. But looking back now, that girl was actually very composed.’

’If she weren’t composed, she couldn’t have fooled so many people.’

”Lord Deng, I heard she’s been found?” Young Master Chu Ke asked urgently.

”Young Master Ao Ke,” Deng Yi said, ”take a look first. Do these valuables belong to your family?”

Only then did Chu Ke look around the hall. His gaze fell on the piles of money before each person, and he immediately shouted, ”Yes!” He reached out and snatched the jade bracelet and red hairpin from in front of Li Niang. ”This is my mother’s! It was part of my mother’s dowry!”

His face flushed with anger as he spoke.

”That little bitch, she actually dared to steal!”

Li Niang watched the young man before her. ’Tsk, tsk. To call his own sister a little bitch... This young master clearly doesn’t get along with her at all.’

”And this.” Young Master Chu moved over to the Posthouse Minister’s side. Seeing the pile of money, he shouted angrily, ”So much! I don’t even know where the family money is kept! How did she steal so much! All this money, such precious jewelry, and she just gave it away so easily! Is she insane?!”

Deng Yi chuckled. ”Miss Chu Zhao isn’t insane. She’s a heroine.”