Chapter 364: An Illicit Child

In the second month of the twenty-seventh year of the First Emperor of Qin, the Prison Scribe of Anlu County, Nu, received a case. The one who came forward to report it was the county's Assistant Field Overseer, Zhong.

Though Zhong's rank and post were not high, he was the elder brother of the county's foremost magnate, Heifu, who held the rank of Grandee of the Right. Nu dared not be negligent and immediately received him in person.

Zhong was already past thirty. In the past, he had been a dark, gaunt farmer. After gaining wealth and status in recent years, his face had filled out considerably, but his clothing remained simple—a suit of hempen clothes.

Although Heifu's renown was illustrious and unsurpassed in Anlu, Zhong had always kept a low profile, working honestly in the county office and diligently inspecting farming matters. Sometimes he would even go barefoot, carrying a hoe into the fields to demonstrate to the common people the deep-plowing methods that had come from the Guanzhong region.

It was hard to imagine that such an honest man would become entangled in a lawsuit, let alone as the plaintiff.

After being invited into the hall by Nu, Zhong explained the reason for his visit.

"Someone has falsely claimed to be the outer wife of the Grandee of the Right and to have borne his illicit child?" After hearing the account, Nu was utterly shocked.

An "outer wife" was what the ancients called a "mistress." "Illicit child" was the term in Qin law for a child born out of wedlock. Because fornication outside of marriage was not condoned by the authorities, an illicit child held very low status and had no right to inherit identity. In better cases, if acknowledged by the father, they might receive a bit of property. In worse cases, they were no different from a servant in the household.

Although the First Emperor had enacted laws to crack down on fornication, "illicit children" still emerged in an endless stream in Nan Commandery. After all, the lands of Jing, Chu, Yun, and Meng had harbored such traditions since ancient times.

For example, five hundred years ago, Dou Bobo, a noble of the Ruo'ao clan of Chu, had a clandestine affair and fathered a child with the daughter of the Duke of Yun. To cover up the scandal, the infant was abandoned in the Yunmeng Marshes, where it was nursed by a tigress and fed with her milk. The child showed no fear of people and did not shy away. The Viscount of Yun believed it to be a divine being, so he brought it back to Yun and ordered his daughter to raise it, naming it "Dou Gouwutu," which meant "the child suckled by a tiger."

So it was perfectly normal for officials in Nan Commandery to have outer wives, but Nu did not believe Heifu would do such a thing.

"Years ago, when the Grandee of the Right served as the Chief of Huyang Ward and I was the Clerk of the County Prison, I often associated with him. I know well that the Grandee of the Right only loved to amuse himself and play with stalwart men, and kept his distance from women. When he encountered women on the streets and in the markets who flirted and tried to entice him, he never even glanced sideways. In those two years, let alone an outer wife, he never even visited the pleasure quarters once!"

"Indeed."

Zhong said, "But that woman claims to be from Yuzhang in Jiujiang Commandery, a prostitute in the army market. Three years ago, when my younger brother was on his southern campaign and passed through Xunyang, he supposedly summoned her to serve him in bed..."

"This..."

Nu now found it difficult to judge. The army was the loneliest place. Several hundred thousand Qin soldiers campaigned against Chu, and it took two full years to completely annihilate the state. As a result, in those two years, illicit children sprang up across Chu lands like bamboo shoots after a spring rain—all seeds left behind by Qin soldiers among the local women. As for whether those Chu women were willing or coerced, no one could say.

Zhong sighed and said, "My younger brother never mentioned this matter to us. But that woman stated the time and place clearly, and even got his rank and authority at the time exactly right. Our mother has always wanted my younger brother to have an heir. After hearing all this and seeing that the three-year-old child was dark-skinned, bearing some resemblance to my younger brother in his youth, she believed it to be true..."

The elderly are always easily convinced, and they also feel that the more descendants, the better. Having a child born of an outer wife was nothing much.

But the principal wife did not see it that way.

"Fortunately, my sister-in-law asked just one question, and the woman's story fell apart."

At this point, even Zhong could not help but admire his sister-in-law's calm and rationality. An ordinary woman would surely have erupted in jealousy, but she had merely asked the woman one cold question.

"You say he shared your bed several times. Did he send someone to summon you to the main tent, or did he sneak into the pleasure-quarter shacks himself?"

The woman said that the man had come on his own at night. She had asked him about it, but the one who called himself "Heifu, Commander of a Separate Division" said his status was too high, and summoning her directly to the main tent would not look good, so he had come in disguise.

In truth, Ye Zijin had been somewhat uncertain in her heart at the time. In the pleasures of the bedchamber, her husband had claimed he had never touched a woman before, but Zijin had not quite believed him.

Her husband's techniques were practiced and skillful. Apart from the wedding night, when he had been more tender with her and stopped after only a taste, he had been unstoppable ever since, always demanding she assume embarrassing postures. He was likely a veteran of the amorous arts. Although she had never heard of any misdeeds, he must have had quite a few women—how else could he be so practiced?

Though there was suspicion, from the account the woman gave, Ye Zijin had also concluded that this affair was most likely false.

"Did he pay afterward?" Ye Zijin asked another crucial question.

The woman hesitated for a moment, then said he had not. He had only given her a piece of hempen cloth to make clothes. The next day, he had left with the main army and vanished without a trace.

But she had always remembered the matter. For several months afterward, she had not shared a room with anyone, until she found herself with child. She had stood by the river, belly swelling, craning her neck in hope, but the officer who had claimed he would "come fetch her after the war ended" never appeared again.

After giving birth, the woman raised the child alone for two years. She made inquiries everywhere and finally managed to obtain a travel permit and board one of the boats that Heifu had arranged to run between Xiakou and Jiujiang, transporting soldiers' families free of charge. That was how she had come to Anlu...

"Upon hearing this, my mother and I knew that such a disgraceful affair could never have been my younger brother's doing."

Zhong then presented the evidence: a scroll of bamboo slips and a thread-bound book of hemp paper. This was something new that Heifu had recently devised. In the past, a single book would have required many scrolls, but now it could be bound directly into one volume.

Nu took it and saw that the cover was boldly written in clerical script: "Record of the Southern Campaign." Looking at the handwriting inside, it was very delicate and graceful, as if written by a woman...

"It was written by my younger brother during his southern campaign in Yuzhang, recording the daily march and formations, local customs, and what he did. My sister-in-law transcribed it onto paper for him."

And for the night the woman claimed "Heifu" had crept into her shack, although the location was indeed Xunyang, the aged bamboo slips and paper book clearly recorded:

"The boat passed the islets of Jiujiang. We had traveled less than ten li when suddenly clouds and wind surged, and great waves rose. We hastily moored at Xunyang. That night I lodged in this town, boarded a tower ship to visit the Five Hundred Commander Zhao Tuo, and talked with him deep into the night. I slept aboard the ship. The next day, the weather cleared again, and we departed."

Thus, the accounts did not match. Although the woman vehemently denied it, saying she had misremembered the exact day, Heifu had remembered clearly: he had stayed only one night in Xunyang. The lie collapsed on its own.

Afterward, the woman honestly confessed. She had actually guessed early on that the officer who had come to spend the night that day was boasting recklessly and impersonating Heifu. He could not possibly have been a high official like a Commander of a Separate Division. But she had still come, crossing the river with her child, clinging to a one-in-ten-thousand hope.

"My mother pitied her and wanted to take in the mother and child, but my sister-in-law did not agree."

When Zhong first met Ye Zijin, he had thought her merely a gentle-natured daughter of a distinguished family, soft-spoken and soft in manner. But today, she had revealed her forceful side!

She said, "If this woman were truly my husband's outer wife, and this child truly my husband's son, I would naturally arrange for them properly, raise them with fine food and delicacies, and treat them as my own."

"But these people are merely impostors harboring wishful hopes. If we are soft-hearted and take them in, rumors and gossip will likely spread throughout Anlu, throughout Nan Commandery. The rustic folk of the villages are mostly lovers of excitement who would rather believe it to be true. A falsehood, once in their mouths, will become truth!"

Every word of this was reasonable. So Zhong's mother had stepped back and said, fine, if we won't keep them, then don't blame this poor woman either. Give her some travel money and let her return to Xunyang.

Ye Zijin still disagreed. She bowed low to the ground, her voice gentle but her attitude utterly firm.

"Mother, reward that does not encourage is called the cessation of good; punishment that does not chastise is called the indulgence of evil. Though this woman is pitiable, what she has done is against the law. If we give her money and silk and send her away, not to mention that our family would be guilty of shielding and concealing wrongdoing, the county folk, seeing that this woman profited, will likely, before many days have passed, have women carrying children in their arms coming to falsely claim to be my husband's offspring—enough to break down our doorstep!"

The young woman gave the only solution: "Report the crime to the authorities. Request the officials to clarify this case, then send the woman back to her original place of registration for trial. We must find the villain who impersonated my husband and left behind this debt of debauchery!"

Although Qin law was strict, those who committed crimes and broke the law were still numerous, and impersonation and fraud happened from time to time. For example, a few years ago, there had been the highly influential case of a disciple of the Nanyang Academy impersonating the son of Feng Wuze to swindle money and silk. The southern expedition army was a mixed bag; it could not be ruled out that some officer had impersonated his superior in the pleasure quarters.

That military clerk who impersonated Heifu was the root of all evil and had to be caught and severely punished.

"Only thus can this matter be put to rest!"

This was the reason Zhong had, for the first time ever, come today to act as plaintiff.

"The wife of the Grandee of the Right... truly worthy of being the daughter of a Commandery Governor. She acts with the lingering authority of Governor Ye." Nu was full of admiration, feeling that this lady was truly not to be trifled with.

Zhong nodded in agreement. Before bringing the weeping woman to the county office, he had also asked his sister-in-law with concern:

"Though our family acts thus in accordance with the law, by treating a widow and orphan in this way, will the county folk not consider us unkind?"

Ye Zijin, however, had her reasoning: "Elder Brother, the noble man loves others by virtue; the petty man loves others by indulgence. I believe we should practice the love of the noble man, not the pity of the petty man. Besides..."

"Establishing boats, opening sugar workshops, feasting the elders, supporting the youth—the benevolence and virtue our family has shown in Anlu are already sufficient, and the people of Anlu hold our family in great affection. But I humbly think that there is still one thing lacking..."

"What is lacking?" Zhong asked. Unknowingly, in Heifu's absence, their family had come to rely on Ye Zijin as its backbone.

The young woman, newly a wife, no longer wore the obedient and agreeable manner she had before Heifu. In her smile, there was now a faint, imposing authority.

"A heart of awe and reverence!"

Just as Heifu was being cleared by his wife of the suspicion of keeping an outer wife and fathering an illicit child, a thousand li away in Pei County, Sishui Commandery, in a village lane beside Sishui Ward, the big-bearded Liu Ji lifted a drowsy-eyed infant high into the air and roared with laughter.

"This nose, this forehead — exactly like mine! Truly my own seed!"

The widow Cao, her face pale and forehead drenched in sweat, lay weakly on the tattered straw mat, a gratified smile on her lips. She was already dreaming of being respectfully addressed as "the Chief's Lady" after marrying Liu Ji.

But her smile soon froze. After teasing the infant he had named "Fei," Liu Ji lowered his head and, with utter shamelessness, said something to the widow Cao.

"I acknowledge this child is mine. I will send two dan of millet each month to support you and the boy, but I cannot marry you!"

He said it without a shred of shame: "My proper wife must be a refined lady from a good family. You can only be my outside woman..."

The widow Cao's face instantly changed color. Furious, she grabbed a clod of earth and hurled it at Liu Ji, cursing.

"Liu Ji, you heaven-cursed wretch! A vagrant loafer in the old days, a piddling minor clerk now — no money, no house, and you still dream of marrying a noble lady? I spit on that!"

She clutched Liu Fei and wept: "This mother here doesn't need your support! This child isn't yours either — he's by the cobbler next door. Get out!"

Liu Ji hastily dodged and fled out the door, then stuck his head back in and said with a cheeky grin, "Lady Cao, I only promised to support you beforehand, never promised to marry you. A true man's word is his bond. Just you wait — I'll go bring this month's grain over right now!"

(End of Chapter)