Now, when Ai Hu heard Lord Fan ask whether he knew his Old Master by sight, he said to himself, “This’ll be the end of me! I did see Ma Chaoxian back then, but I never paid him any mind. And on top of that, it’s been three years. Still, I can’t very well say I don’t know him. But why should this gentleman ask me only whether I know him or not? There must be some reason for it.” Having thought it over, he answered, “My Old Master — yes, I know him.” Hearing this, Lord Fan gave the order: “Bring in Ma Chaoxian.” The attendants answered with one voice and went straight out.

Lord Yan, meanwhile, seeing most clearly as onlookers do, had noticed that Ai Hu hesitated before answering “I know him,” and he knew the boy was not quite sure. He grew secretly anxious and alarmed, afraid that, young as he was, Ai Hu might pick out the wrong man on the spot, and then all would be lost. In his urgency a ruse came to him. Pointing with one hand and screening it with his wide sleeve, he said, “Ai Hu, when Ma Chaoxian comes in presently, you are to confront him face to face and make everything plain. Don’t you shield him.” While his mouth said this, his eyes were signalling; he would not go so far as to shake his head, but the wings of his gauze hat1 stirred ever so slightly. Ai Hu had already had his suspicions when Lord Fan asked whether he knew the man or not, and seeing Lord Yan behave like this, he understood still better. Then he heard the clank of chains and fetters outside. Still on his knees, he stole a look out, and saw an elderly eunuch who, though he wore the instruments of punishment about his neck, still had a faint smile on his face as he came up the vermilion steps; only when he reached the courtroom did he compose his face and hold his breath. What was more, on seeing the officials he neither knelt nor gave his name, but stood there bolt upright without a word. Our young master grasped it all the better.

Then Lord Fan said, “Ai Hu, confront Ma Chaoxian face to face.” Ai Hu made a show of raising his head and taking a look at the man. “He’s not my Old Master. My Old Master — I know him.” Up on the bench Eunuch Chen laughed. “Good boy! Sharp eyes indeed!” And turning to Lord Fan he said, “To judge by this, there’s no doubt the boy really does know Steward Ma. Here! Take this one down, and bring Ma Chaoxian up.” The attendants took the false Ma Chaoxian down. Before long they brought up the chief steward Ma Chaoxian: a man who had cheated his own conscience and turned traitor, who harboured treacherous designs, with tears of pain in his three-cornered eyes, crooked in heart through and through. The attendants struck off his instruments of punishment there in the court, and he knelt facing the bench. Seeing him like this, Eunuch Chen could not help feeling a pang of pity, but there was nothing for it, and he said, “Ma Chaoxian, someone now accuses you: three years ago, when you went home on leave, you made so bold as to carry His Majesty’s Nine-Dragon Pearl Crown off to your house in secret. You are to confess it truthfully.” Ma Chaoxian was frightened out of his wits. “That crown truly was lost from the treasury. Your prisoner knows nothing whatever about it!” Then Lord Wen said, “Ai Hu, confront him face to face.” Ai Hu went through his statement once more and said, “Old Master, now that it’s come to this, there’s no use trying to wriggle out of it.” “You young wretch, you’re downright hateful!” said Ma Chaoxian. “When did I ever know you?” “Old Master, how can you not know me?” said Ai Hu. “I was only twelve then, and I waited on you for I don’t know how many days, and you were always praising me for being so quick and clever and saying I’d make something of myself one day. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten, Old Master? It just goes to show: ‘great folk have short memories2.’” “Even if I did know you,” said Ma Chaoxian, “when did I ever hand the imperial crown to Ma Qiang?” “Steward Ma,” said Lord Wen, “you need not deny it. Now that it has come to this, make a clean confession and spare your flesh the pain. If you will not confess — this is a case under imperial edict, and we shall have to use the heavy instruments of torture.” “Your prisoner truly did no such thing,” said Ma Chaoxian. “If Your Excellencies see fit to put me to torture, squeezed or beaten3, it is yours to command.” “I expect that if we question him with our hands tied,” said Lord Yan, “he will never confess. Attendants, bring the heavy instruments of torture.”