Now, Lei Ming and Chen Liang came into the courtroom, and the two of them made their bows to His Honour. “What are your surnames, you two?” said His Honour. “Which of you is Chen?” Each of them gave his name. “Lei Ming, Chen Liang,” said the magistrate, “you two have been carrying on an adulterous affair with Madam Sun. How many days has it been going on? Sun Erhu here has brought charges against the pair of you.” When Lei Ming and Chen Liang heard this, their faces changed colour with rage.

A word of explanation: after Sun Erhu parted from them in the night, the young rascal went into the city that same night. Someone egged him on, and he smashed a teacup against his own head. At daybreak he went to Changshan County to cry injustice, saying that Lei Ming and Chen Liang had been carrying on with his sister-in-law and he had caught them at it, and that Lei Ming and Chen Liang had drawn their knives on him and hacked his head with a teacup, and here were the wounds to prove it. Because he had cried injustice at the yamen, His Honour had issued a warrant and summoned Lei Ming and Chen Liang. When His Honour asked how many days they had been carrying on with Madam Sun, Chen Liang said, “If it please Your Honour, this humble one is from Zhenjiang Prefecture, and Lei Ming is my sworn elder brother. This is the first time the two of us have come to Changshan County; we only got to the Deyuan Inn yesterday. It was hot last night, so we were sitting out in the courtyard to cool off. We heard someone shouting, ‘Murder! Help!’ The two of us make our living in the escort trade1, and since we were boys we’ve trained at leaping onto eaves and running along walls. We took it for a highway robbery and followed the voice. It was coming out of a house, and when we leapt into the yard to look, there was a man with a knife about to cut down a woman. We went in and talked him round, and only then did we learn it was Sun Erhu trying to murder his sister-in-law. We’d never known him before. We talked Sun Erhu out of there, and who’d have thought he’d nurse a grudge? He says the two of us have been carrying on with Madam Sun. Think about it, Your Honour: we only put up at the Deyuan Inn yesterday. If Your Honour doesn’t believe it, send for the innkeeper and ask him. We’re not her kin and we’re not her friends; we don’t even know Madam Sun. Your Honour can send for Madam Sun and question her. Besides, we’re strangers here, from a thousand li or so away, and we only came yesterday. How could we be having an affair with Madam Sun? If we’d been staying here ten days or a fortnight, then you might say there was something in it.” While he was still speaking, His Honour had already sent men to fetch Madam Sun. Now, that morning Madam Sun had been weeping, and when her maidservant came back she asked what the matter was. “Don’t cry, mistress,” said the maidservant. “Why stoop to Sun Erhu’s level? He’s an ignorant lout.” She was still comforting her when there came a knocking at the gate. The maidservant went out to look and found two official matchmakers2 and two runners. “Who are you looking for?” asked the maidservant. “Sun Erhu has brought charges against Madam Sun,” said the matchmakers. “His Honour orders her to come before the court.” When Madam Sun heard this, she said, “Good! So Sun Erhu has brought charges against me. I was just thinking of bringing charges against him.” She hired a small sedan chair at once, took a maidservant with her and came to the yamen. She got down from the chair, and the maidservant helped her up into the hall.

The magistrate took one look at Madam Sun and saw that her face was sallow and greenish, and he knew she must be a woman whose man had long been away from home, or else a widow. Those who hold office make a point of hearing the voice to judge the truth, and reading the face to tell the colour of a matter. Madam Sun knelt before the bench. “What is your surname?” asked His Honour. “This humble woman is a Sun,” said Madam Sun, “and a Kang by birth. My husband passed away three years ago, and this humble woman lives as a widow.” “Sun Erhu has now brought charges against you,” said His Honour, “saying you have been carrying on in secret with Lei Ming and Chen Liang, and he caught you at it. Tell the truth.” “I don’t even know anyone called Lei or Chen,” said Madam Sun. “Sun Erhu is a clansman outside the five degrees of mourning3, and it was my own doing: I burned the paper and drew the ghost4.” And she told him all that had happened before, thus and so. His Honour ordered Sun Erhu, Lei Ming and Chen Liang taken down for the time being. “There are no outsiders here now,” said His Honour. “These are all my own officers. This belly of yours, what is the story behind it? Tell me the truth. This magistrate means to earn a little merit, and I will surely save you. Tell me, is it a child or an illness?” “If it please Your Honour,” said Madam Sun, “this humble woman truly is ill.” His Honour ordered the court physician fetched at once, and his men fetched the court physician straight away. His Honour ordered him to take Madam Sun’s pulse there in the hall and see whether it was a child or an illness. Now this court physician was a muddle-headed quack. He felt her pulse and reported to His Honour, “To my eye, she has a happy pulse5.” When Madam Sun heard this, she spat at the physician — “Pah!” — and said, “You’re talking nonsense! My husband has been dead three years, I’ve lived as a chaste widow, so where would a child come from? Every word out of your mouth is a fart!” “Impudence!” said the physician. “If I say it’s a child, then it’s a child.” “Madam Sun,” said His Honour, “let me ask you: when you and Sun Erhu were quarrelling at home, why did Lei Ming and Chen Liang come to break it up?” “This humble woman doesn’t know anyone called Lei or Chen either,” said Madam Sun. “Sun Erhu meant to kill me, and I screamed for help, and the one called Lei and the one called Chen came. I don’t know them.” His Honour ordered Lei Ming and Chen Liang brought up. When the two came up, His Honour said, “Lei Ming, Chen Liang, why did you jump into somebody’s yard in the dead of night for no reason and meddle in what was none of your business?” “We meant well,” said Lei Ming. “How could we see someone about to die and not save her?” “It’s hateful,” said Madam Sun. “What is hateful?” said His Honour. “It’s hateful there’s no knife here,” said Madam Sun. “If there were a knife, I’d cut my belly open and let Your Honour see whether it’s a child or an illness.” When Lei Ming heard this, he said, “You there, woman, if you really have the nerve to cut yourself open, I’ve got a knife here for you to do it with. If it’s an illness, someone is sure to avenge you. If it’s a child, then you know yourself whose it is.” As he spoke he reached out, drew his knife and flung it down on the floor.