Now, when the county magistrate had read the list the monk had written, he turned to Tang Er. “You say the bundle is yours. Then tell me what is in it. If you get it right, the bundle is yours; if you get it wrong, I shall try you for murder for gain.” Tang Er said, “In my bundle there are two bolts of pink silk damask with a small flower pattern, two bolts of white Songjiang cloth, two strings of cash threaded on red cord, a piece of red damask besides, an old head-cloth, an old jacket and trousers, an old pair of shoes, and two hundred taels of fine silver. That’s all, nothing else.” His Honour heard him out. “Monk,” he said, “what you wrote and what he says are the same. Whom am I to award the bundle to?” “Your Honour hasn’t asked him properly yet,” the monk said. “Ask him how many pieces the silver comes in.” “All I know is that the silver comes to two hundred taels,” said Tang Er. “How should I know how many pieces?” His Honour flew into a rage. “It’s your silver, and you don’t know how many pieces it is in? Open the bundle and look!” The bundle was opened at once and everything counted. All the other things tallied, and the silver, sure enough, was in thirty-seven pieces2. “Tang Er,” said His Honour, “I can see you are a hardened thief. You killed this monk’s fire-tender1. Where have you put the body?” “Your Honour, I truly didn’t murder anyone for gain,” Tang Er said. “Somebody gave me this bundle. If Your Honour doesn’t believe me, send for the man who gave it to me and ask him, and you’ll know.” “Who gave you the bundle?” said His Honour. “Li Wenfang, the provincial graduate3 of this county,” said Tang Er. “He’s my master. He gave it to me. I never murdered anybody for gain.” His Honour asked the clerks and the others under him how many provincial graduates called Li Wenfang there were in the county. Just the one, the clerks reported, and His Honour ordered Li Wenfang summoned to the hall to answer the charge face to face.

Li Wenfang was sitting in the clerks’ study, fuming, and the clerks, who all knew him, were trying to calm him down. A runner came in from outside. “Master Li, you are asked to come before the court.” “What is it now, that I’m called before the court again?” Li Wenfang asked. “A grave case — a man’s life,” said the runner. Li Wenfang went up into the hall and looked. There was Tang Er, kneeling, and beside him stood a ragged monk; what it was all about he had no idea. “Squire,” said Tang Er, “you gave me this bundle, and he’s framing me, saying I murdered someone for gain.” Ji Gong put in from the side, “Go on, drag out your fence, I’m not scared. We’ll see who comes out on top.” From the bench the magistrate asked, “Li Wenfang, do you know him?” Li Wenfang thought, “This is an ugly business. I mustn’t get dragged into a lawsuit along with him.” So he said, “May it please the honoured father of the county4, this provincial graduate does not know him. I did not give him the bundle.”

The magistrate flew into a rage. “What gall, you rat! You won’t talk straight unless I put you to torture. Bring out the leg press!” At once the three squads of runners raised the court cry5. Men came forward at the order and threw down the leg press, and Tang Er went white with terror. “Your Honour, there’s no need for torture! I have more to tell you. Li Wenfang and I are mixed up in another case!” “Confess!” His Honour ordered. Tang Er said, “I come from Sichuan, Your Honour. From a boy I was in service at the Li residence, waiting on my Second Squire and keeping him company at his books. I was counting on my Second Squire making his name and rising high, and then the likes of me could make our fortunes too. Who’d have thought it? My Second Squire fell sick and died. I was so low I took to drinking all day long for comfort, sobering up only to get drunk again. One day my First Squire, Li Wenfang, got me drunk and asked me, ‘Do you want to get rich or don’t you?’ ‘Nobody gets up early except for profit,’ I said. I said I did. He said, ‘If you can hide stark naked in your Second Mistress’s courtyard, then on my birthday I’ll send someone to knock at the gate, and you come out from inside, and I’ll give you two hundred taels of silver.’ Money blinded me for a moment, and I agreed. Yesterday I sneaked into my Second Mistress’s courtyard and hid there. I waited till it got dark, slipped into her room, took off all my clothes under the bed and put them on the bed. I saw my Second Mistress was fast asleep with the baby in her arms. I went out to listen, and heard someone knocking at the gate outside. I ran for it, and my Squire and Zhao Haiming saw me, but they didn’t catch me, and I hid in the study in the garden. When it got light, I found out they had repudiated my Second Mistress and kept the child, and they wanted to dismiss the wet nurse, but the wet nurse just cried and wouldn’t go. My First Squire is out to grab the family property. He gave me two hundred taels of silver, and the damask and the cloth with it, and the rest he’ll give me when the new year comes round. I meant to go home, and then I ran into this Death-Bringer of a monk, who says I killed somebody for gain. I never did any such thing. That’s what happened, and I’m telling no lies.”

Only now did the magistrate understand the whole affair. Beside him the record clerk was taking down the confession, and the magistrate cursed silently, “What a Li Wenfang! The swine! A provincial graduate, no less, and he does a thing that outrages heaven and reason!” When the record clerk had finished writing the confession, the magistrate had Madam Zhao, Madam Li and Zhao Haiming brought up to the hall and told the record clerk to read Tang Er’s statement out. As Zhao Haiming listened, he understood at last that his daughter was a woman of true chastity and virtue. He was filled with remorse — he had all but driven her to her death himself — and his heart ached with the pity of it. He knocked his head on the floor before His Honour and begged him to see justice done.

The magistrate flew into a rage. “Li Wenfang, as a provincial graduate you ought to serve the public good and keep to your station, and instead you do a thing that outrages heaven and reason! A man who fails his parents as a son will surely fail his sovereign as a subject; a man who wrongs his brother will surely betray his friends. Your brother is dead, and you ought to take pity on his widow; that too would do credit to the virtue of the house of Li. Madam Zhao has kept her chastity through hardship, and you turn on her with the heart of a tiger or a wolf and lay so treacherous a trap. When you die and go down to the Underworld, how will you face the ghost of your brother Li Wenyuan? You know the law and you broke it, and I mean to deal with you severely. Will you take a beating or a fine?” Li Wenfang trembled with fear. His face burned and his heart was full of shame, and he had nothing to say for himself. He begged the honoured father of the county for mercy and asked, “What if I take a beating? What if I take a fine?” “If you take a beating,” said His Honour, “I shall write to my superiors and have your provincial degree stripped6 from you, and then I shall deal with you severely myself. If you take a fine, I shall show you favour. You will at once hand over all the property your family owns to Madam Zhao to manage. You will sign a bond for me, to be kept on file, answering for any harm that comes to mother or son; and if any harm comes to them then, I shall arrest you and punish you. I fine you fifty thousand taels of silver, to petition for an imperial testimonial7 for Madam Zhao and raise a memorial arch to her. You will also have the gentlemen of the district go together with a sedan chair to bring your sister-in-law home. If you fail to comply, I shall deal with you severely all the same.” “That is a fair judgment, honoured father of the county,” said Li Wenfang. “This graduate willingly accepts the fine. I shall do as Your Honour orders.” “Be that as it may,” said His Honour, “I must still punish you, or you may never mend your wicked ways. Here! Call the clerk of the Personnel Office and give him a hundred strokes of the ferule8!” The clerk of the Personnel Office came up at once. Li Wenfang, being a gentleman of the district, pleaded and pleaded. “I’m not having the runners beat you,” said His Honour. “You’re getting off lightly.” The clerk came over and gave him a hundred strokes of the ferule, and Li Wenfang begged piteously for mercy.

His Honour ordered Zhao Haiming brought forward. “Zhao Haiming,” His Honour said, “you failed to see the matter clearly and all but drove a chaste wife to her death. Will you take a beating or a fine?” Zhao Haiming knocked his head on the floor. “What if I take a beating? What if I take a fine?” “If you take a beating,” said His Honour, “I strip you of your rank as squire9 and give you two hundred strokes of the military rod. If you take a fine, I fine you three thousand taels of silver, to be paid here in court. It is not that I want it. It is to build a shrine10 to your daughter for her chastity and heroism, so that her good name may live on for a thousand ages.” “That is Your Honour’s gracious favour,” said Zhao Haiming. “I would gladly give six thousand.”

Next His Honour had Madam Li brought up. “Madam Li,” said His Honour, “you must attend your Second Mistress well. You may not depend on being a wet nurse for your living, but now that you have taken the place, you must do the work faithfully. Your Second Mistress cares for you, and you should do your utmost for her in return. Besides, when you have nursed the child through his infancy, you will have both credit and reward.” “I shall respectfully obey Your Honour’s instructions,” said Madam Li.

Magistrate Liu said, “Tang Er, you wolf-hearted, dog-lunged wretch! When your second master was alive, how did he treat you?” “When the Second Squire was alive,” said Tang Er, “he treated me very generously.” “Since the Second Squire treated you so generously,” said His Honour, “once he was dead you ought to have served your Second Mistress with all your heart. Instead you plotted to grab the family property, conspired and colluded to ruin a chaste and virtuous widow. Here! Drag him down and give him eighty heavy strokes of the board. Put him in a twenty-five-catty cangue11 and show him to the public here for three months, then send him back to his native place under escort12, to be handed to the local officials there and kept under strict watch.” Everyone concerned signed their bonds, and Li Wenfang invited the gentlemen of the district to bring Madam Zhao home, where she was reunited with Molang’er. But of this no more.

When everyone had left the hall, His Honour found himself in a quandary. “What am I to do about this monk?” he thought. “Without the monk I could never have settled this case. But if I say I owe it all to him, there’s still his fire-tender murdered for gain, and where am I to find him a murderer?” And he thought, “I’ll scare him with a few stern words, say his charge was false, give him a few strokes and hustle him out any old way, and that will be the end of it.” His Honour had got this far in his thoughts and had not yet said a word when the monk spoke. “Your Honour, you’re in a quandary now. Without this monk you couldn’t have settled this case, but if you say you owe it all to this monk, you’ll have to deal with the murder for me too. So you’d best scare me with a few words, give me a few strokes and bundle me out any old how.” “Monk, you’ve guessed it,” said His Honour. “Here! Drag him down and beat him!” The runners came over and dragged at him. “Monk, lie down!” “Is the bed made up?” said the monk. “None of that talk,” said the runner. The monk began to shout. “I’m going to be beaten! I’m going to be beaten!” He had shouted it twice when someone was heard shouting outside, “Your Honour, whatever you do, don’t beat that monk of ours!”

A man came in from outside with a bundle on his back and knelt before the bench. His Honour looked: he was dressed as a personal attendant. “What is your name?” he said. “My name is Zhao Fu,” the man said. “I’m the fire-tender. I was on the road with the monk, and halfway I had to relieve myself, and when I’d finished I couldn’t catch up with him. I asked around and heard the monk had got into a lawsuit.” “Your Honour,” the monk said, “this is my fire-tender. Open the bundle and look, Your Honour. If what’s inside isn’t right, count it as a false charge from this monk.” His Honour opened the bundle and looked. Sure enough, it was just like Tang Er’s bundle, down to the number of pieces of silver. “Now this is strange!” His Honour thought. Zhao Fu did not look like a fire-tender to him. “Zhao Fu,” said His Honour, “you don’t look like a fire-tender. Tell me the truth: what temple is that monk from?” Zhao Fu told him everything about Ji Gong from first to last, and how Prefect Zhao had invited him to come to Kunshan. When the magistrate heard it, he hastily left his seat, came over and bowed with great respect. “Holy monk, so you are Ji Gong, Chancellor Qin’s substitute monk! Your disciple truly did not know, and has given you great offence! If you, venerable sir, had not come, how could your disciple have settled this case so clearly? Here, give this bundle to the holy monk’s man as a reward!” “Thank you, thank you!” said the monk. He took his leave on the spot, and gave the two bundles to Zhao Fu and Zhao Lu as a reward, one each.

Together they went to the Second Squire13’s house. The monk took out a lump of medicine and bathed the old lady’s eyes, and at once they began to clear. In three days the three lights14 shone through to her. Zhao Fengming first sent the two servants back to Lin’an and kept Ji Gong on to treat the old lady’s eyes. The old lady’s eyes got well, and Ji Gong stayed there three months, spending his days discussing letters and learning with Zhao Fengming.

One day a servant suddenly came in and reported, “Two head constables have come from Lin’an. They have come for Ji Gong on a matter of the greatest urgency.” The monk worked it out by his inner light and knew that a disaster big enough to bring down the sky had struck Lin’an.

What could have happened? To find out, read the next chapter.