Now, Gao Guotai picked the thing up and looked at it: it was two bolts of satin. By the light of the bright moon high overhead he unrolled them, and on them were the words “Xinglong Satin Shop.” “These two bolts aren’t from any firm here in our own Yuhang County,” said Li Siming. “There are two silk and satin shops in Yuhang, the Tiancheng Silk Shop and the Yongshun Silk Shop. I’ve no idea where this Xinglong Satin Shop is.” “Let’s stand here and wait,” said Gao Guotai, “so that if someone comes looking we can give it back. If the owner dropped it himself and can afford the loss, it doesn’t much matter. But if it was a servant on his master’s business, losing it could cost him his life.” The two of them waited there a long while, but no one came looking. “It’s getting late,” said Li Siming. “Let’s go home. If someone comes looking tomorrow and describes it right, we’ll give it to him. If no one does, we’ll put up notices at all four gates of the city, and then no one can say we kept the stuff on the sly.” “By rights I ought to go and see Wang Chengbi today,” said Gao Guotai. “I came out with his money to buy things and change it into silver, and he’s waiting for me to come back and drink with him. It was because I’d lost the silver that I wanted to kill myself. If I don’t go back now, I’m afraid he’ll suspect me.” “Come home with me first, Elder Brother,” said Li Siming, “and then we’ll send a servant to take him word. Tomorrow you and I can go and call on him together.” Talking as they went, the two walked on. They came to the gate of Li Siming’s house by the West Gate. It stood ajar, and they pushed it open and went in. Gao Guotai saw that outside the inner gate1 there were three rooms on the west side, with lamplight flickering inside. “It’s late tonight,” said Gao Guotai. “I’ll go on inside tomorrow. Let’s just sit in these rooms.” “I’ve let these three rooms out,” said Li Siming, “not that I need the rent. I’m often away from home, so with another household of neighbours here we can all keep an eye out for each other.” Gao Guotai nodded. They went to the inner gate and called, and an old maidservant came out, opened it and looked. “The master’s back.” “Go in and tell your mistress,” said Li Siming, “that my benefactor and elder brother, Gao Guotai, has come.” The old woman went in, and before long a voice inside said, “Please come in.” Only then did the two go through to the main house. Gao Guotai found the rooms neat and clean. Madam He came out and greeted Gao Guotai with all due courtesy. Li Siming told the maidservant, “Get a few dishes ready. We two brothers will go and drink in the east side room.” The two went to the east side room, and there under the lamp they unrolled the two bolts of satin again and looked. “It’s a true sapphire blue, this satin,” said Li Siming. “But I’ve no idea where this Xinglong Satin Shop is. Tomorrow we’ll put up notices at all four gates. If someone comes looking and describes it right, we’ll give it to him. If no one comes, then it’s meant for us, and we’ll each have a robe made out of it.” “Yes,” said Gao Guotai. “And tomorrow, my worthy brother, you must take me to thank Brother Wang Chengbi. If he hadn’t saved me, I’d be down in the Nine Springs by now. That friend is a loyal, upright, sincere and trustworthy man, honest and kind-hearted, with all the air of a true gentleman. He took to me as if we were old friends at first meeting, and I am deeply grateful to him. A good friend is hard to find.” “Good,” said Li Siming. “Tomorrow I’ll go with you, Elder Brother, to see this friend of yours.” The two finished their wine and went to bed, and nothing more happened that night.

At dawn the next day the two got up and washed their faces, and they were drinking tea when they heard someone outside shouting, “Li Siming! Is there a Gao Guotai staying at your house?” There was knock after knock at the gate. The two stood up and went out. When the gate was opened they saw two head runners standing there with four men behind them, in black cotton caps with tassels and plumes, black cotton shirts and leather belts buckled at the waist, and on their feet snug-legged runner’s boots, every one of them holding an iron truncheon2 or a wooden club. One of the two chiefs was called Jin Lingshou, the other Dong Shichang. As soon as they saw Gao Guotai they said, “Friend, your name’s Gao — Gao Guotai, is it?” “That’s right,” said Gao Guotai. “What do you two want?” The chief shook out an iron chain and chained Gao Guotai. Li Siming stepped up to stop him, and they chained Li Siming too. Hauling them along, they said, “Into the yard and search for the loot.” They went through every room in the inner courtyard and found the two bolts of satin in the east room. “Chiefs,” Li Siming and Gao Guotai asked, “what have we done that you’ve chained us up?” “Here’s a warrant,” said Chief Jin. “His Honour, our magistrate, sent us to bring you in chains without delay. We two wouldn’t dare chain up honest folk for no reason; we couldn’t answer for arresting the innocent. You two know what you did, and you still ask us?” “Haul them off,” said the head runners. “No more talk. When you get to the yamen, you’ll find out.” They hauled the two away at once, carried off the two bolts of satin as well, brought them to the constables’ lockup at the county yamen and sat them down there.

His Honour had gone out to receive a visiting official and had not yet come back. Not until the sun was slanting in the west did he return to the yamen, and at once he sent word to make ready for a session of court. The three squads of runners3 gave the court cry and stood in their ranks in attendance. The guard squad’s duty was to protect the court and lend it awe; the lictors saw to the lining-up of the court and kept things in order; the constables of the arrest squad carried warrants and summonses and caught robbers and thieves. Each of the three squads had its own business. The magistrate was surnamed Wu, his given name Zhaokui. He had come up through the examinations, and since taking office he had judged cases like a god. He was so clean-handed that nothing filled his two sleeves but the breeze, and he loved the people as his own children. Under his rule, truly, no one picked up what was dropped on the road and no one barred the door at night. Now he took his seat in court and ordered, “Come, bring in the case!” Someone below reported, “In the robbery of the satin shop at Yinjia Ferry — torches lit and weapons drawn, the owner wounded with a blade, fifty bolts of satin and a thousand taels of silver taken — the ringleader, Gao Guotai, and the harbourer, Li Siming, have been arrested.” “Ah.” The runners on both sides gave the court cry, and Gao Guotai and Li Siming were brought up at once. The two knelt. “Your Honour above,” said one, “the licentiate4 Gao Guotai kowtows to you.” “This humble one, Li Siming, kowtows to you,” said the other. From his seat above, His Honour looked down and saw that Gao Guotai was refined and cultivated, of upright bearing and fine, clean features, with nothing fierce or murderous in his face. Then he asked, “Gao Guotai, you and your gang robbed the satin shop at Yinjia Ferry with torches lit and weapons drawn. How many accomplices were there in all? Where have the stolen bolts gone? Speak!” “Venerable Father of this county,” said Gao Guotai, “this licentiate is a man of books. I know nothing of any robbery of a satin shop at Yinjia Ferry. As for torches and weapons, this licentiate knows nothing at all.” His Honour slammed down his gavel block. “Hah! Ask with folded hands5 and he’ll never own up. Come, drag him down and beat him for me!” “Venerable Father, calm your anger a moment,” said Gao Guotai. “This licentiate has something to lay before you. Of the armed robbery at Yinjia Ferry and the owner wounded with a blade, this licentiate truly knows nothing. Put me to the harshest torture if you like — even if you meant to make me confess to rebellion, this licentiate would not confess.” “As I see it,” said His Honour, “you’re a seasoned thief, no doubt about it. If you know nothing of the satin shop robbery, how did these two bolts of satin come to be in your hands?” “This licentiate picked them up outside the city last night,” said Gao Guotai. “I meant to put up notices at the four gates today, and if anyone came looking, this licentiate would surely have given them back. I never expected the Venerable Father to summon me here. That is the honest truth, every word of it.”

His Honour took the two bolts of satin in his hands, looked at them and ordered, “Bring in Wang Hai, the keeper of the Xinglong Satin Shop.” Before long a man came up from outside, a little past fifty, with full, well-set features and an honest face. He knelt and kowtowed to His Honour. His Honour told a runner, “Take these two bolts of satin down to him. You, see whether they were sold from your shop or carried off by the robbers. This is a grave matter. Don’t be vague about it.” Wang Hai took them, looked them over and said, “Your Honour, these two bolts were plainly carried off by the robbers.” “How do you know the robbers carried them off?” His Honour asked. “What proof is there? Speak.” “If it please Your Honour, there is proof,” said Wang Hai. “The goods on the shelves in my shop are all marked ‘Xinglong Satin Shop’, but they don’t carry our shop’s seal stamp. When someone buys satin from us, once the purchase is settled, a stamp goes on it separately — a seal in seal script that reads ‘Wealth by Rightful Ways6.’ There’s no stamp on this satin, and that’s how I know the robbers took it.” His Honour had him taken down. Gao Guotai, kneeling to one side, had heard every word. “Gao Guotai,” said His Honour, “did you hear that? Put him in the ankle press7 for me. Squeeze him, then we’ll question him again.” “Venerable Father, in your wisdom,” said Gao Guotai, “this licentiate truly found these two bolts. Even if the robbers did carry them off, they may have dropped them, and this licentiate picked them up. The Venerable Father says this licentiate robbed with torches and weapons — what proof is there? Let it be looked into.” His Honour flushed with rage. He slammed down his gavel block. “You’re plainly an old hand at thieving, and you dare play the slippery customer before this magistrate! And you still say I’ve judged you wrongly!” He ordered his men, “Bring up the witness.” When Gao Guotai heard there was a witness, the colour drained from his face in fright.

A man was led up from one side. Gao Guotai looked at him and did not know him at all. He was a man of twenty-odd, in a black cotton headscarf, with a short lined jacket of black cotton over his shoulders, black trousers, white socks and black shoes. His face was pale, a pale with a bluish tinge to it. He had a pair of fighting-cock brows, deep-set eyes, a garlic-bulb nose, thin lips, a narrow forehead, sunken temples, a long neck and a big, drooping jaw. Li Siming knew him the moment he saw him. It was a neighbour from his own compound, surnamed Leng, the second son of his family, nicknamed Catch-You-Unawares8 (Leng Bufang), who lived in the three rooms in Li Siming’s outer courtyard. He had tried to borrow from Li Siming and been turned down, and he had borne a grudge ever since. There were just the two of them in Leng Er’s household, and he could not keep his wife, so she went out to work as a hired servant in other people’s houses, while he stayed home alone all day, scheming and hating Li Siming for having money and not lending him any. That evening he was in his room, fretting, when he heard that Li Siming was having a guest in. “Li Siming never has friends to the house,” thought Catch-You-Unawares. “Is something going on?” He listened in secret: the guest was Gao Guotai, and Li Siming had brought him in. Leng Er stood by the inner gate listening, and heard Li Siming say that they had picked up these two bolts of satin, that they were from the Xinglong Shop, and that if no one came looking for them the two of them would have robes made. Leng Er heard it all clearly. “I’ve heard the Xinglong Satin Shop is at Yinjia Ferry,” he thought, “and a while back there was an armed robbery there, and nobody’s been caught for it yet. Tomorrow I’ll go to the yamen and stick a plaster on him9 — I’ll say he’s the harbourer10. That Li Siming is really hateful. He’s come into a fortune like this, and when I went to borrow a few strings of cash he wouldn’t lend me a thing. I’ll show him what I can do! Then next time I come to borrow, he won’t dare refuse me.” So first thing the next morning he headed for the county yamen and asked, “Which chief’s on duty?” Someone answered, “It’s Jin Lingshou — Chief Jin’s turn.” Leng Er went in. “Chief Jin, that armed robbery at Yinjia Ferry — have you cracked it?” “Not yet,” said Chief Jin. “Li Siming, the landlord of our compound,” said Leng Er, “is harbouring big-time robbers. Yesterday the ringleader, Gao Guotai, was staying at his house, and the two of them were plotting all night. I heard it plain as day, so I’ve come specially to tip you off.” “Good for you!” said Chief Jin when he heard it. “Come, I’ll take you to see our magistrate.” He sent word inside, and His Honour at once took his seat in court and had Leng Er brought up to give his account. Leng Er came up, knelt and said, “Your Honour, I live in a house that belongs to Li Siming, and I often see suspicious-looking people coming and going from his place. Last night the ringleader Gao Guotai was at his house, talking about the armed robbery at Yinjia Ferry, when the owner was cut. I’ve got no quarrel with my landlord. I’m only afraid that if Your Honour found out, I’d be charged with knowing and not reporting, and letting robbers escape.” His Honour had Leng Er taken down first and sent Jin Lingshou and Dong Shichang to bring Gao Guotai and Li Siming to court in chains, both together. And when the two had arrived and he called for the witness, it was Leng Er who was brought up.

To learn how the case was judged, read the next chapter.