Chapter 66: Self-Dealing Theft

On the eleventh day of the Twelfth Month, during the Hour of Pounding (5–7 p. m.), outside Huyang Station, Heifu was giving strict, personal instructions to Ji Ying and Yu Liang.

"You must remember: nothing can go wrong on this trip. Do not let this man escape. If you encounter any carts or horses along the way, immediately show my two-foot official tablet and commandeer them! Once you reach the county seat, go straight to the Assistant Magistrate's office and knock on the gate. Find the duty clerk on night watch, hand over the deposition explaining the situation, and make the full circumstances clear! Then, as written in the request document, ask the duty clerk to immediately dispatch men to Chaoyang Hamlet! Can you do this?"

"Brother Heifu, rest assured, I understand how serious this is!"

Ji Ying, uncharacteristically solemn, cupped his hands gravely. Then, together with another station soldier, Yu Liang, he escorted the bound Gongshi Quji north along the road.

Heifu watched the three figures recede into the distance, lost in thought.

He had never expected that at noon today, at the gate of Chaoyang Hamlet, that hamlet gatekeeper—who had seemed so simple and honest, holding a clay bowl and shoveling rice into his mouth—would be deeply implicated in a gang tomb-robbing case!

This was outright self-dealing theft!

But Quji had only heard those tomb robbers say they would go find that hamlet gatekeeper at night, and so on. How exactly the hamlet gatekeeper colluded with the robbers—whether he provided assistance, fenced their stolen goods, or personally took part in the tomb robbing—remained vague and unclear.

On the strength of such ambiguous hearsay alone, Heifu could not immediately go to Chaoyang Hamlet to make an arrest. Moreover, moving against the hamlet gatekeeper might scare off those tomb robbers whose whereabouts were still unknown, which would be counterproductive.

That was why he had Ji Ying and Yu Liang escort Quji to the county seat overnight. Heifu did not trust the township or hamlet officials; any hamlet clerk more or less had old acquaintances and connections in the township. The county jailer and duty clerk were more reliable.

Robber-catcher Dongmen Bao came over at this moment and asked, "Heifu, the informant has been taken away. What should we do now? Wait for orders from the county?"

"It takes two double-hours to reach the county seat. The duty clerk won't send men back until tomorrow morning at the earliest. We can't wait."

"Then what?"

Heifu said, "Quji also mentioned that the day he overheard those robbers, they said the tomb they were opening was very large and hard to excavate; they had already been digging for several days. They were supposed to break through around the time of the Twelfth Month sacrifice and remove the grave goods, but continuous rain and snow forced them to stop. Now the weather is clear, the snow outside is nearly melted, and they should be resuming work… They wouldn't dare do this in broad daylight, so they can only dig in secret at night."

"Station Chief, do you mean… we should go to the vicinity of that graveyard tonight and arrest the tomb robbers?"

Li Xian also perked up. If they could crack a major case like this, it would be a huge merit, no doubt about it!

"Exactly. Time waits for no one. Although Quji hasn't been exposed, our visit to arrest someone today may have alerted that hamlet gatekeeper, and he will certainly warn the tomb robbers. That leaves the tomb robbers with two choices: one, play it safe and stop digging; two, dig through the night, take the grave goods, and sell them…"

Little Tao said, "If… if they are… c-cowardly… and stop digging, then wouldn't that…"

Heifu smiled. "Those who become thieves are either driven by desperation or are reckless brutes. Let's hope they choose to take the risk. We'll go try our luck… Dongmen Bao, Li Xian, Little Tao!"

His expression hardened as he called out several names in quick succession. The three men immediately answered!

"You three, follow me to the station to pick weapons. We'll set out at once and catch them red-handed with the goods. Then we'll follow the clues and thoroughly investigate the crimes of Chaoyang Hamlet's gatekeeper!"

…

The period from 7 p. m. to 9 p. m., in the Qin dynasty's twelve double-hours, was called "Cattle and Sheep Entering." As the name suggests, the sky darkened, birds returned to their nests, and the cattle and sheep grazing outdoors were driven into their pens.

The gatekeeper of Chaoyang Hamlet was named Bo Wu. Every day at this time, he would stand by the hamlet gate, watching with a genial smile as the hamlet folk who had gone out to graze, fish, or hunt returned one by one. Only after tallying the comings and goings would he slowly close the gate.

Once Cattle and Sheep Entering passed, the hamlet gate would not open again. No one in the hamlet was permitted to enter or leave—not even the hamlet chief or field official.

Except for one person.

That was the hamlet gatekeeper himself.

The moon quietly climbed the tips of the willow branches. As the night deepened and all the cooking fires in Chaoyang Hamlet had gone dark, after most of the hamlet folk had dragged their weary bodies to bed, the tightly shut hamlet gate slowly opened a crack…

Hamlet gatekeeper Bo Wu slipped out the gate. Huddling his hands in his sleeves against the cold wind, he paced back and forth impatiently, as if waiting for someone.

After about half a ke, a figure finally crept along the hamlet wall, tiptoeing over, and gave a light cough.

Bo Wu saw him and said angrily, "What took you so long!"

"Haha, don't be angry, Bo Wu. We had a bit of wine, delayed us some."

The man appeared to be around thirty, with a ruddy face and a short beard. He wore a short jacket with tight sleeves, but draped over it was a cross-collared robe with the left lapel overlapping the right—a garment clearly meant for the dead…

Bo Wu's eyes widened, and he scolded in a low voice, "Chang, you wretch! You dare wear something dug out from a tomb! What if someone sees?"

"What of it?"

The red-faced robber Chang was unconcerned. He raised his arm, letting the wide sleeves of the robe flutter slightly in the night breeze, and said smugly, "Better to let us poor folk, who lack clothes and coarse cloth, borrow these fine things than leave them on corpses that feel neither cold nor heat, lying in their coffins. A pity so many are rotted and ruined, or I'd have brought you a silk garment too, Bo Wu…"

"Enough nonsense." Bo Wu glanced around and continued, "The reason I asked you here tonight is to tell you: that tomb can't be dug any further!"

Chang's face immediately darkened. "Why can't it be dug?"

"Just do as I say."

But Chang would not listen. He sneered, "Bo Wu, oh Bo Wu, it was you who first contacted us, saying there seemed to be tombs in the wilderness between Chaoyang Hamlet and Xiaojing Hamlet, with no fields or houses nearby, and that they could be opened."

"Not only that, you used your position to provide us with tools, hide the grave goods we dug up, and slowly send them to the neighboring county to sell for money. Now, those small surrounding tombs have all been emptied, but they yielded little gold. Only the large tomb deepest inside remains, and just as we're about to break through and all make our fortune, you get cold feet?"

"I'm not getting cold feet." Bo Wu hurriedly explained, "Before, wasn't this Huyang Station empty of both a station chief and a robber-catcher? Seeing that no one was in charge, I told you to take the chance to dig. But now it's different. Do you know, a new station chief has come to Huyang Station!"

"So what if a station chief has come?"

Chang's face showed disdain. "We've dug tombs in Xinshi County too. All along the way, we've passed countless station lodges. But as long as we lie low by day and travel by night, hiding in the weeds, those station chiefs can't do a thing to us!"

"This station chief is different," Bo Wu said. "Just last month, he caught three robbers nearby with his bare hands—he's highly skilled. And today, he suddenly came to Chaoyang Hamlet on an inspection tour, scaring me half to death. Fortunately, he only took away a Gongshi who picked up lost money in the county seat…"

"Someone claims that Gongshi Quji, while on labor service in the county seat, picked up money dropped on the ground and needs to be taken back to the station for questioning." That was the charge Heifu announced to the people of Chaoyang Hamlet when he took him away, even though he did not yet know the gatekeeper's shady dealings at the time.

Because in Qin, the statutes decreed that picking up money and not turning it in was also a crime. So apart from Quji's wife, who wept and wailed that her husband would never do such a thing, the hamlet folk had no great suspicions…

The hamlet gatekeeper also thought no one knew of his own affairs.

The two continued their discussion by the gate but could not reach an agreement. The cautious Bo Wu felt they could no longer take the risk and should stop first. Chang, however, believed that after all the hard work his gang had put in, lying low by day and traveling by night for so long, how could they give up just when success was within reach?

During this, a dog somewhere in the hamlet suddenly barked, startling Bo Wu badly. Seeing he could not persuade Chang, he could only back down a step himself and said:

"Then tonight, while the snow has completely melted, dig out that tomb quickly. Take out all the valuables inside, then seal the tomb back up. Leave my share and get out of here fast! With that Heifu around, you can't stay in this area any longer!"

"Everything will be as you say, Bo Wu."

Finally, before Chang left, Bo Wu pointed at the fluttering robe on his body and said with a look of disgust, "In the future, don't come to see me wearing that thing. I advise you to wear it less often too. Be careful…"

"Careful of what? Vengeful spirits clinging to me? Does Bo Wu believe in ghosts and gods again now?"

Chang was not afraid. He was a habitual tomb robber who had desecrated countless graves. The nobles who once sat high above were now nothing but dry bones; he could piss and shit on them without any reaction. Divine punishment, ghostly retribution? Where was it?

He laughed scornfully a few times, took the packet of food Bo Wu gave him, hoisted three new iron spades onto his shoulder, and slowly walked off in the direction of the rising moon…

…

At the same time, the men inside Huyang Station had also finished their preparations and were ready to set out…

PS: Fine, fine, I won't end every chapter on a cliffhanger from now on, okay—I'll do it every other chapter.

(End of chapter)