Miao Chu

Chapter 228 Laughing
Empress Dowager Yang's eyesight was failing due to old age, so to make it easier for her to read, the article was copied in large font, spanning seven pages, with only a few words on each page.

Moreover, the text is written in a very plain style, with few obscure words. It uses almost no allusions or embellishments from beginning to end. Not to mention scholars, even if you read it to an old man or a child in the street, they can understand it very easily without any extra explanation.

The writing style was so simple and fluent that Zhao Yu was able to get into it almost immediately.

Since it is a biography, it naturally focuses on the characters and stories throughout.

The story begins by recounting how, during the reign of Emperor Xin Feng, a criminal was apprehended, "tracing his trail through graveyards and wilderness under the moon and stars."

It is also said that they finally found a clue, and Xin Feng ran around all night, "and at dawn, he encountered thieves armed with weapons in a dilapidated temple."

"When the blade came, he used his arm to block it."

However, such actions are by no means without problems.

He was not very disciplined in his actions; even before a verdict was handed down and the prisoner had already been captured and surrendered, he would still beat him—his superior once advised him against this, but he responded with an angry glare.

He failed to follow some required procedures and did not report much of the work that should have been reported. He acted arbitrarily and even clashed with colleagues and superiors repeatedly, causing widespread discontent within the government.

But he is also very loyal to others.

His subordinate's mother was seriously ill, and he had been searching for doctors and medicines without success. He remembered that he had heard somewhere that a patient had recovered after taking a prescription from a seaweed. He took leave from work and went to great lengths to find the prescription and finally bought it back.

He went to catch the thief, but the thief escaped, leaving only the thief's mother holding her grandson, looking bewildered and helpless. He couldn't bear to see this, so he took out his own money to buy some cakes. After inquiring, he learned that the mother had always been kind, but pitifully had given birth to a son who was a debt collector. He then asked the village head to help take care of her and not let the old woman and her young son be frightened or fall ill.

At the beginning of the year, during the Lantern Festival, more than a hundred women and children went missing. He stayed up day and night, searching everywhere for clues. Finally, the missing person escaped, and he led a team to track her down. They worked tirelessly, unraveling the clues and finding traces, and summarized several characteristics of the missing person.

As a result, the government soldiers took credit for the crime, and the cunning bandits managed to escape by water escape, while Xin Feng was also seriously injured.

Letting the traitor escape was a grave mistake, and upon returning to the capital, the authorities dealt with him according to regulations.

However, several months later, in Huazhou, someone recognized the thief Lü Mao after hearing about the distinctive features of the thief summarized by Xin Feng and reported it to the yamen. Meanwhile, someone else, based on Xin Feng's experience in dealing with Lü Mao in the past, prepared to arrest him.

The article describes how Huazhou caught the thief and how they set up the trap. In just a few words, less than ten characters, it depicts a seemingly inescapable net.

But at this point, the writing shifts, describing how Lü Mao escaped.

How did he book a boat at the last minute, change clothes, prepare, and get a warning so he could realize something was wrong and immediately flee? How did he take his friend's child hostage, even kill the old friend who gave the warning, and finally escape to the boat?

As for the boat, no matter how cautious he was, he finally made a wild statement, turned over and jumped into the water to escape—but ended up in the fishing net and was dragged up by the fishermen.

The bandit leader, Lü Mao, was captured.

Soon after, many lost women and children gradually returned home, both in the capital and in other prefectures.

The story of escaping death and reuniting with family is described in just a few words, but it is enough to let people imagine the scene.

Although Zhao Yu was the emperor, he was still a human being.

He was completely captivated by the story's unfolding, feeling anger, emotion, and excitement. When he finally saw Lü Mao captured, even though he had known this outcome, he couldn't help but slam his fist on the table and finally let out a long sigh of relief.

At the end of the story, the timeline of the article goes back to when Xin Feng was recuperating in Yanjin County. Someone asked him what he thought and whether he would regret it, since he was so badly injured while chasing the culprit and would most likely be demoted and have his salary reduced in the future, and even if someone else caught the thief later, it would not help him at all.

"Has the thief fallen?"

"The thief has fallen."

Xin Feng burst into laughter.

***
Upon reading the last word, Zhao Yu felt a tightness in his heart, a stinging sensation in his nose, and tears welled up in his eyes, falling with each word.

The entire text is almost entirely written in plain description to depict Xin Feng. Even when Lü Mao is described later, the more cunning, cautious, and decisive Lü Mao is, the more it shows that it was reasonable for Xin Feng not to capture him in the past. Even if he was captured later, it was largely due to the clues that Xin Feng had painstakingly obtained with many people in the past.

The text is entirely neutral, yet it also describes his character flaws and rash actions.

But after reading this article, almost everyone will feel an overwhelming sense of injustice—why? On what grounds? Should this be a demotion? Should this be punished?
But as soon as the injustice arises, the text reminds one that it was wrong to begin with, and if the court does not act according to the rules and shows leniency, then there will be no rules in the world.

After reading the article, one will not feel angry, but only regretful.

The government office was not wrong, and Xin Feng may have been wrong, but in the eyes of ordinary people, that mistake was not a mistake at all. Besides, some things in the world are neither right nor wrong.

It's such a pity.

Others could only sigh in regret, but fortunately Zhao Yu was different.

“This Xin Feng.” He couldn’t help but laugh, but his laughter was still tinged with tears.

Empress Dowager Yang hurriedly ordered someone to bring her son cloth and a copper basin, and she also shed tears. She then asked, "Where is Xin Feng now? How are his injuries?"

“Since it’s a serious injury, it probably won’t heal that quickly,” Zhao Yu said.

He said, “Mother, this man has made many contributions and worked hard, and he is such a good person. How can we ignore him? Not to mention if the people see this, they will only think that my Zhao family is stingy and unkind. Who will be willing to risk their lives and work hard in the future? Even if the people don’t say anything, how can I live with myself?”

"Although his actions are understandable, it is a fact that he acted carelessly, allowing the thieves to escape. It would be better to overturn the decision overnight than to change it again so frequently. Besides, the Kyoto Prefectural Government has not done anything wrong..."

Empress Dowager Yang immediately shook her head and said, "My son is right. Changing orders frequently is inappropriate. The emperor's words are law. If you speak, those below will inevitably speculate, making it difficult to get things done in the future..."

She thought for a moment and said, "I'm old enough that I don't care about your court's affairs anymore, so it's more appropriate for me to step in."

Then, he said to the palace servant beside him, "Take my gifts and go to visit him. See what state Xin Feng, the patrol inspector, is in now, and whether he can be moved."

***
In Pantao Lane, just as she was urging her two children to get dressed and wash their hands, and then changed the water in the basin for her husband to wash his face, Madam Du heard someone knocking on the door.

As soon as the door opened, it was the helper that Miss Song had hired, carrying breakfast, who arrived at the door.

The other party was a woman in her forties. She packed her things quickly and carefully. What was rare was that she rarely pried into private matters and rarely talked nonsense.

After two days, Mrs. Du was already very satisfied with her.

The helper set out breakfast, and only after everyone had finished eating did he clear the table, tidy up the house again, and wash and dry the clothes that had been changed from the previous day.

After all the housework was done and it was almost time to leave, the hired servants didn't leave immediately. Instead, they stood at the door and quietly asked, "Madam Du, is the official in your household surnamed Xin?"

"Yes."

"Could it be that your name is Xin Feng, and you're a patrol inspector in the capital prefecture?" Madam Du was taken aback, then nodded.

Because it was a short-term contract and she had only been there for two days, she hadn't said much to the other party yet. She only briefly mentioned that her husband was working in the government office and had been injured and was recovering. Little did she know that the other party already knew.

I know that, so what's the point of asking this question all of a sudden?
Before Du could ask any questions, the group of hired men opposite her said, "I only found out from someone that our official is Inspector Xin Feng. My cousin was kidnapped at the beginning of the year, on the Lantern Festival. We searched everywhere, stopped working and earning money, just wanted to find her. But after searching for half a year, we couldn't find her at all. We really couldn't eat during the day and couldn't sleep at night."

"I thought I would never see her again, but a few days ago the government came to my door and brought my cousin back. They said they had caught the kidnapper, asked her a lot of questions, and found traces of many kidnapped people based on her confession, and rescued her."

"Everyone was overjoyed. My uncle's family wanted to thank the constable who caught the boy, but after asking around at the yamen for half a day, several names came out, all of them officials. It didn't sound right at all..."

"I was asking around when I suddenly got the news. Upon further inquiry, I discovered that this place was indeed Peach Lane, and there was an official with an injured leg—who else could it be but Inspector Xin?"

As she spoke, she picked up a basket from the doorway and handed it over, saying, "There's not much to give you, except that my aunt makes mugwort cakes. She got up early this morning to make and steam them. She made sixty in total, along with some other small things..."

Madam Du quickly pushed the basket back, saying, "How can this be? You know this is the government office; we can't just accept things from people randomly. What if we get caught!"

As the two were pushing and shoving each other, they suddenly heard a commotion outside the alley. Soon after, several people rushed over.

"Madam Du, some angels have come outside, saying they are looking for your husband, Lao Xin!"

"Hurry up and tidy up the house, I'll be there right away!"

"Do you need any help?" the person asked, rolling up their sleeves.

"Where's your husband, Lao Xin? Any good ideas yet? Can he get up? Can he greet the guests?"

These past two days, the doctor has assigned Xin Feng to try walking two hundred steps every day. He has also been prescribed new medicine, which is to be changed every half hour, so that the effects can be observed.

Whether it's walking or changing dressings, someone has to watch over you.

Because of this matter, Madam Du was busy from morning till night. Since Song Miao had ordered food, she didn't even have to go out, so she naturally didn't know what was happening outside. Now, seeing everyone's actions and hearing their conversation, she was completely bewildered and asked, "What angel??"

Just then, someone came clearing the way outside. Sure enough, the village head was in the lead, followed by two men leading horses, all heading towards him.

Further on, many people followed, some standing at the alley entrance peering in, others boldly crowding around.

In front of all these people, he pointed in a direction and said something. One of the angels threw down his reins, stepped forward, and asked directly, "Which one of you is a member of Inspector Xin Fengxin's family?"

"That's me!" Du's heart pounded.

She led her people in hastily through the door, then turned into the inner room, calling out from afar, "Old Xin!"

Several more people followed in to see what was going on.

Xin Feng was walking with his hand on the wall when his wife called out to him. He turned around and was about to reply when he saw two angels following him in.

"This must be Inspector Xin, right?"

Having received Xin Feng's agreement and with the village head's nod, the envoy in charge said, "I wonder how Inspector Xin is doing? Is he able to walk around? We convey the Empress Dowager's message that she wishes to invite Inspector Xin to a banquet at the palace!"

Xin Feng froze, completely dumbfounded.

Almost simultaneously, a buzzing sound came from the room of idle people, and some of them immediately ran out.

Soon, a buzzing discussion could be heard outside.

"The Empress Dowager has invited us to a banquet! Good heavens, I wonder what delicious food we'll get at that feast! I bet there will be rare delicacies, dragon liver and phoenix gall!"

"They must have heard about what happened to Lao Xin, right?"

"Didn't they say that student surnamed Han wrote an article? I even heard those scholars read it aloud. Sigh, it brought tears to my eyes—I always knew Old Xin was reliable, but I never knew he was this capable!"

"Old Xin, he's really struck it rich!"

When the Empress Dowager invited him to a banquet, even though Xin Feng was much better, he was determined to force himself to get up and go, even if he still had to lie down.

However, he still felt uneasy and couldn't help but ask, "Gentlemen, do you know where the Empress Dowager heard my name from? And what is the reason for this sudden summons?"

"The Empress Dowager heard many stories about Inspector Xin catching kidnappers and thieves, and praised him highly, which is why she summoned him—Inspector, hurry up, everyone is waiting!"

Everyone was waiting and urging him on, and Xin Feng only had time to change his clothes and comb his hair before getting into the carriage.

As the carriage entered the palace, a sedan chair was brought over to fetch the passenger.

Xin Feng had lived for decades and this was the first time he had received such treatment, but he couldn't be happy; instead, he was extremely nervous.

Upon hearing the news from the gatekeeper, he finally walked into Ciming Palace, leaning on his cane.

Just as he was about to bow, a person opposite him said, "Inspector Xin, no need for formalities—it is I who have been too kind, but it is you who have had to go through the trouble of traveling to the palace despite your injury."

His words drew crowds to the audience.

Xin Feng hurriedly thanked him, but when he looked up, he saw that there was not only an old woman sitting opposite him, but also another person in the right seat, wearing a jade crown and ordinary clothes, who looked to be about forty years old.

Who could this be?

"I heard that the Empress Dowager has invited Inspector Xin to discuss the case of the abduction during the Lantern Festival..."

Upon hearing the word "朕" (Zhen, meaning "I, the Emperor"), Xin Feng felt a jolt of fear and no longer cared about guessing why he had come to this place.

Almost instantly, a thought flashed through his mind—if he had known this would happen, he would have washed his hair and taken a shower before coming!

Xin Feng was in a daze, answering questions when asked and giving random answers when not asked. For a long time, his mind was completely blank.

Until he heard the person opposite him ask, "I don't see that it's explicitly stated in the records, nor is it detailed in Han Li's article—that Lü Mao is so cunning, what hints did you leave that allowed people to recognize his whereabouts?"

Xin Feng immediately regained his senses.

He heard himself shout, "So that His Majesty and the Empress Dowager may know, it was all thanks to the sharp eyes and keen mind of Lady Song that we were able to discover the whereabouts of that scoundrel Lü Mao!"

　Many thanks to EvC for the jade pendant with tassels on the left and the He Shi Bi jade pendant for me, to Little Leaf under the Bodhi Tree for the small sachet, and to Perfect Foam and Book Friend 20251003145054246 for the peace charms they each gave me :)

　　Thank you to my cat, Egg, from the bookstore for sending me two word processing gadgets. Just a small token of my appreciation =3=
　　Thank you everyone ~
　　(End of this chapter)