Chapter 104: Lies

The next morning, Magistrate Clerk Nu, who had rushed over from the county seat upon hearing the news, stood at the crime scene, frowning in silence.

This banyan tree grew atop a small hill; below the hill was a sheer cliff over a hundred feet high, and below that a rushing stream. The stream banks were littered with moss-covered boulders. Constable Shuwu's body lay sprawled across them, half his skull smashed into a bloody pulp…

Station Chief Heifu said that he had fallen for the bandits' trick, stepped into a trap, and was hung upside down from the banyan tree, unable to free himself. When Shuwu arrived, the bandit picked up a crossbow bolt, drew his bow, and shot him in the eye socket. Shuwu, in agony, stumbled blindly and fell off the cliff.

"Smashed up like this — how can we record the original wound?"

Nu shook his head and had others help him. With great difficulty, they finally extracted the fatal crossbow bolt from Shuwu's shattered skull. It was indeed deeply embedded in the eye socket, but its original condition was long past reconstructing.

Just then, a junior clerk hurried over and reported: "Magistrate Clerk, the arrow that wounded Station Chief Heifu has been found by the pool."

It was the same type of crossbow bolt, the tail snapped off. Because it had been pulled from a wound, the diamond-shaped arrowhead was still smeared with bits of flesh and blood. Heifu had said he tossed it aside after treating his wound by the pool, and sure enough, it was found there.

After carefully inspecting it and finding nothing amiss, Nu nodded and had everyone secure these material evidence items, preparing to carry Shuwu's body back to the county seat for a second examination. Although a few minor doubts remained, the overall picture was essentially consistent with Heifu's account.

Still, Nu felt that something was not quite right.

"This bandit managed to escape while being pursued by a Constable and a Station Chief, and even counterattacked, leaving one dead and one wounded — isn't that a bit too formidable?"

He was only in charge of solving the case; he had never imagined that apprehending the bandit would go so wrong. Now the officials of Anlu County would have a bitter pill to swallow…

But until they left, none of them discovered the truth. This crime scene had been meticulously arranged by Heifu, who knew the work of a Qin Magistrate Clerk inside and out!

…

"That is how it happened."

Several days later, Heifu was summoned once more. Before the Prison Scribe, the Magistrate Clerk, and many other colleagues, he calmly recounted the events all over again.

"Station Chief, you may leave."

Xi nodded. Heifu had described the incident in great detail, and it matched the scene investigation perfectly. With Nu stating that the head of the corpse was too badly smashed for him to determine anything further, the authorities found no additional points of suspicion.

"Yes. This guilty officer takes his leave."

Heifu cupped his hands and limped out of the county jail. His subordinates, Dongmen Bao, Ji Ying, and the others, were already waiting outside. Seeing his condition, they hurried over to support him.

Although he had slipped up this once, Heifu's standing in everyone's eyes remained unchanged.

Outside, the sunlight was dazzling and warm. In a daze, Heifu felt again that sense of release he had experienced nearly a year ago when he first walked out of this place. At this moment, his hands were slick with clammy sweat…

He had lied, covering up the truth that he had killed a man, because he had absolutely no other choice.

Heifu had heard of an incident like this: in neighboring Jingling County, there was also a Station Chief who, while pursuing bandits, accidentally shot and killed the Thief-Seeker running ahead of him. Afterward, he confessed truthfully. But because no one except the long-fled bandits could testify for the Station Chief, he was ultimately still convicted of murder and made to forfeit his life for the Thief-Seeker's…

There was actually another incident, one that would happen in the near future. Xiahou Ying was a man of Pei, serving in the county as a minor clerk in charge of carriages and horses, and he was a sworn bosom friend of Station Chief Liu Bang. Every time he returned from escorting a messenger or a guest, passing the station where Liu Bang served, he would stop his carriage and seek out Liu Bang to talk of everything under the sun, and they would chat for the better part of a day.

The two also frequently sparred in martial arts. However, once, with no one else to witness it, Liu Bang accidentally injured Xiahou Ying during a bout.

This minor matter, which the two good friends laughed off, was reported to the authorities by someone with ill intent, who accused Liu Bang and Xiahou Ying of brawling in private — a bandit wounding a man!

As a Station Chief who knew the law yet broke it, injuring a person meant severe punishment. Although Liu Bang appealed to the county, stating he had not intentionally harmed the man, and Xiahou Ying provided the same testimony, the accuser insisted on his charge, leading the county to suspect the two of collusion and concealment. As a result, Xiahou Ying was tortured for a long time, receiving hundreds of lashes of the bastinado…

In the end, because Xiahou Ying clenched his teeth and absolutely refused to retract his testimony, he proved Liu Bang's innocence, and the accuser received the punishment for false accusation. But what if Xiahou Ying had been unable to endure the torture and provided testimony unfavorable to Liu Bang?

Then there probably would have been no Han Gaozu rising up by slaying the white serpent. Liu Bang himself would have spent the rest of his days as a convict laborer on Mount Li.

These two incidents share a similarity with Heifu's predicament: there was no third party present. So, besides pinning the blame on the escaped Zhongli Mei, what else could he say? Stretch out his hands and frankly tell everyone: "I killed the Constable, because he was trying to kill me"?

Who witnessed all of this? Who could testify for him?

With only Heifu's own word, who would believe him?

Would the Qin officials, who always valued evidence above all, readily trust him?

Was he supposed to point to the heavens as his witness?

Heifu had no such confidence, nor did he want to entrust his life to the hands of others ever again.

"Apart from lying to save myself, I had no other way."

This was why Heifu had gone to the trouble of meticulously arranging the scene to clear himself of all involvement.

Because telling the truth would only make things worse. The Constable's family, though not top-tier in the township, still had many brothers serving as minor clerks. What awaited him then would likely be endless lawsuits and brutal torture. Heifu had no wish to end up convicted of "banditry and murder." That would mean the complete end of his career as a Qin official, leaving him no path but to flee and rebel.

…

Throughout the latter half of the seventh month, Heifu remained at home recovering from his injuries. The affairs of Huyang Station were handed over to Thief-Seeker Dongmen Bao to handle on his behalf.

Meanwhile, in the county seat, the storm over this incident had yet to subside. The impact of this arrest operation was significant, and with the main culprit ultimately escaping, the relevant officials could hardly avoid being implicated.

While Heifu was recuperating at home, in the county seat, several senior county officials were indeed engaged in heated debate.

The County Left Commandant, who bore a grudge against Heifu, vigorously advocated for dismissing Heifu from his post as Station Chief on grounds of dereliction of duty!

The County Right Commandant, however, argued that Heifu had only lost the main culprit at the very end. Without his repeated suggestions during the investigation, they might not have even captured the accomplice Shi and those Chu fugitives — because they were discovered too early, Zhongli Mei's plan had ultimately failed. Of those Chu fugitives who fled toward Cloud Dream Marsh under cover of darkness, all but one, whose trace was never found, were captured and brought back.

Prison Scribe Xi also provided legal counsel: "Station Chief Heifu failed to capture the bandit. The penalty is a fine of three suits of armor, nothing more."

"That is far too light!" The Left Commandant shook his head repeatedly, still insisting on severe punishment.

While the officials were in dispute, the commandery suddenly dispatched a messenger with a document.

The officials looked at each other in bewilderment. The news had already reached the commandery seat? How had the reply come back so quickly this time!

With uneasy hearts, after opening the document, the County Clerk's expression turned rather colorful.

"County Clerk, what does it say?"

From the County Magistrate down to the two Commandants, everyone stared eagerly at that wooden tablet. Its contents concerned their own career prospects.

"It is not a punishment for us from the commandery office." The County Clerk, somewhat at a loss for how to answer, simply let everyone read it together.

It turned out that the "footprint studies" Heifu had previously submitted, which the County Clerk had reported upward to request merit for him, had received the approval of the Commandery Clerk, who deemed the method worthy of promotion throughout the commandery. Therefore, Heifu was to be commended and rewarded…

"He can be promoted one rank in爵位, to Ornamented Hat?"

"To reward instead of punishing for a fault — how can there be such a principle!" The County Left Commandant was so furious that smoke seemed to pour from his seven orifices, and he threatened to personally write a letter to the commandery to appeal the facts.

"Heifu failed to capture the bandit and should be fined armor according to the law, but his prior achievements cannot be erased."

Xi cupped his hands toward the County Left Commandant and said: "If the Left Commandant insists on his view, then I will have no choice but to jointly submit a statement of the facts to the commandery seat, advocating that reward and punishment be carried out simultaneously."

…

At this moment, Heifu was unaware that the county's senior officials were once again quarreling fiercely over him. His arrow wound had not injured the bone, and after recuperating at home for over half a month, it was healing day by day. Only his mood was low.

His eldest brother, Zhong, thought that his younger brother was still brooding over letting the bandit slip away. He took the initiative to bring Heifu out to the fields, pointed at the harvested golden rice stalks bundled into sheaves, and consoled him: "Being an official is just like farming. Wind, rain, drought, and flood are all common occurrences — how could everything always go smoothly? Younger brother, you must learn to take it in stride."

"You've gone to a lot of trouble, Elder Brother." Heifu smiled, tossed the matters of Zhongli Mei and Shu Wu to the back of his mind, and asked, "I haven't asked you yet, Elder Brother — after using the compost method last year, what was the harvest yield from the fields?"

Better not to bring it up — the moment the subject was raised, Zhong's face lit up with delight, and he said cheerfully, "Using Second Brother's method, the harvest increased by quite a lot! Take foxtail millet, for example. Originally the yield was 2 dan per mu, but this year, the yield was actually as much as 3 dan per mu!"

……

PS: I've seen everyone's feedback. The previous story arc, because it was the New Year period, with so much going on and then falling ill, was written in a great rush. Many aspects weren't thought through carefully enough, the writing drifted off course, and there are quite a few bugs — my apologies. Now I can only try my best to patch things up. Fortunately, the cops-and-robbers drama is completely over; I'm really not good at writing that sort of thing… I'll adjust my state as quickly as possible, and I hope everyone can still look forward to what's next.

(End of chapter)