Wei Hongming had dominated the county for many years. This was the first time he had ever been thrown into prison.
Although Wei Hongming had also started from a modest household in his early years, he had never suffered the hardship of imprisonment. After being locked up for less than two days, he hurriedly began greasing palms, bribing the jailers to carry word back to the Wei family.
He was counting on Wei Bai to ransom him out.
Several days passed. Wei Bai did not come. Instead, Yun Qingwen arrived, impeccably dressed, to pay him a visit.
It was Yun Qingwen’s first time entering such a dark, rat-infested place. He covered his nose and mouth with a handkerchief, the disgust in his furrowed brows undisguised. After walking for quite some time, he finally saw Wei Hongming in one of the cells, clad in a plain prison uniform, hair disheveled and face grimy.
His brows tightened further. Though the sight of him so wretched was almost laughable, Yun Qingwen found that the simple prison garb looked far cleaner than the gold and silver Wei Hongming usually adorned himself with.
“Why are you the one who came? Where is Wei Bai?”
Seeing Yun Qingwen instead of the person he had summoned, Wei Hongming was startled for a moment, then immediately bristled.
He had clearly sent word to Wei Bai. He did not believe Yun Qingwen—who never succeeded in anything—had the ability to get him released.
“What can you accomplish by coming? Go and tell Wei Bai to get me out of here at once. This damned place isn’t fit for a human being!”
At that, Yun Qingwen lowered the handkerchief and cast him a sideways glance. “Even at a time like this, you are still ordering me about. I see you do not understand what it means to be a prisoner.”
Wei Hongming gave a cold snort. “A prisoner? I am your husband. If something happens to me, what good will it do you, a mere inner-chamber ge’er?”
Yun Qingwen laughed. “The benefits would be too many to count on my fingers. One after another you brought into the household, lustful and without taste. When people say you are my husband, I feel sick.”
“I did not come today to exchange idle words. The Yun family may be merchants, but we are a respectable household. We cannot tolerate a son-in-law who abuses his power and disregards the law. If you know what is good for you, sign the divorce letter yourself. Then the Yun family will not press you to the bitter end. But if you refuse to part amicably, do not blame us for being ruthless.”
Wei Hongming stared at the divorce letter being handed in. Shame and anger surged within him. He had expected rescue, yet she had come only to demand a separation—kicking him while he was down. It was laughable.
He snatched the document and tore it to pieces at once. Stepping up to the iron bars, he smiled with a sinister expression. “At a time like this you still want a divorce? Keep dreaming. I advise you to find a way to get me out, otherwise even if I die, I will drag you down with me!”
“You!”
Seeing his obstinacy, his complete disregard for over a decade of marriage, Yun Qingwen felt only revulsion. Fortunately, she had already steeled her heart.
“If you will not sign, I am not afraid to make this ugly in public. Let the county office judge it. In any case, the prefectural office owes the Yun family a favor. If anyone dies, it will be you.”
Wei Hongming narrowed his eyes as he watched Yun Qingwen’s assured expression. A bold suspicion suddenly formed in his mind.
“It was you. You stole my account book and handed it to Du Heng!”
Yun Qingwen waved her handkerchief lightly, as if to dispel the foul air before her nose.
“If you are unkind, why blame me for being unjust?”
Wei Hongming’s chest heaved violently. He had not expected it truly to be her.
Though they had long since torn off the mask between them, he had always treated her as a fool to be summoned and dismissed at will. He had never imagined that the stepping stone he had used would end up crushing his own foot.
Rage churned within him. If not for the iron bars, he would have lunged forward and wrung her neck.
“Do not count on anyone coming to rescue you. Since word spread of your imprisonment, the common people you once oppressed have been crowding in to file accusations. It has dragged out quite a number of the Wei family’s dealings. Wei Bai has already been detained. He can barely save himself—he cannot even clear up his own mess. Do not expect him to spare a hand for you.”
For the past two days, Wei Hongming had known nothing of what was happening outside. He had not expected Du Heng to strike with such thunderous force, intent on uprooting the Wei family entirely.
Panic overtook him. His expression shifted rapidly. The murderous look from moments ago vanished, replaced by a pitiful one.
“Ah Wen, even if our marriage has not been what it once was, we knew each other in our youth. We shared many years together—you cannot forget that so easily. I admit these past two years I have been preoccupied with my future and neglected your feelings, but I did it so you could live better.”
“Go and beg your father. Ask him to pull strings and get me out. I will certainly mend my ways. From now on, I will listen to you in everything.”
He adopted a sincere expression. “If you dislike the young ones in the household, send them all away. I will stay only with you.”
Seeing him once again put on that familiar look of coaxing sincerity, Yun Qingwen could not help recalling how, in their youth, though he had not possessed Du Heng’s refined bearing, he had still been handsome.
When he spoke earnestly and made promises, even the most laughable vows had seemed somewhat believable.
Back then, she had been deceived by precisely this manner. But times had changed. Setting aside that Wei Hongming had long since grown stout and lost his former elegance, after countless quarrels and heartbreak, Yun Qingwen could not summon the slightest softness or sympathy. She only felt that in her youth she had truly been blind to have chosen such a man and wasted so many years.
“Enough. Every time you have needed something from me, you have used these same words. You may not be tired of them, but I am.”
Yun Qingwen said coldly, “You can stay here and wait for confiscation and exile—or execution.”
With that, she turned and walked away.
“Ah Wen! Ah Wen! You cannot abandon me!”
Without looking back, Yun Qingwen stepped along the staircase of the southern prison, where the light gradually grew brighter toward the exit. Never had she felt such relief.
That day at the restaurant, when she ran into Qin Xiaoman, they had shared a meal together. At first she had intended to mock Qin Xiaoman a few times, yet as they ate, they began to drink.
After several rounds of wine, she had confessed her desire to divorce and return to Luoxia County.
“It is not easy for someone of merchant background to remarry. Can you truly part with your husband?”
Yun Qingwen rested her flushed cheek in her hand. “Husband? Hah. He has given me no child, not even a mouthful of food earned by his own hands, nor the slightest tenderness. He has done plenty of disgusting things, though. Who would cherish such a husband? I would rather spend the rest of my life alone than endure the filth of the Wei household.”
Qin Xiaoman rolled his eyes. “Since you have thought it through so clearly, then divorce him. The Yun family fortune could buy half of Qiuyang County. Could they not support you, a single ge’er, for the rest of your life?”
Yun Qingwen let out a belch. “If it were that easy to divorce, would I still be worrying? Back when I insisted on marrying that bastard, my parents were already angry with me. These past few years I have brought them no peace. It is a blessing they did not cast me out outright. How could they trouble themselves over my divorce?”
Qin Xiaoman said bluntly, “Your parents are soft-hearted. If I had a ge’er like you, I would have disowned him long ago.”
“Hmph.” Yun Qingwen shot back, “Then I suggest you and your husband have more children. Otherwise, if you raise an unfilial one in the future, you might hesitate to disown him for fear of having too few heirs.”
The two of them drank a little more.
Qin Xiaoman said, “If you truly wish to divorce, once the Wei family falls, it will be much easier.”
Yun Qingwen lifted his head at those words and looked at Qin Xiaoman.
“For the sake of being neighbors with your maternal family, I can overlook past grievances and lend you a hand.”
After leaving the southern prison, Yun Qingwen stood beneath the warm spring sun. Once he had stepped out of that dark, airless place, he finally drew a deep, open breath.
He was not especially clever, but having grown up in a prominent merchant household, he was no fool.
If he seriously thought through certain matters, he could understand them well enough.
There had been too many coincidences in this affair. Looking back now, how could Qin Xiaoman have been helping him out of pure kindness? There had clearly been an element of using him.
It was not that he alone wanted the Wei family to fall; rather, the county magistrate could no longer tolerate them.
Though he had never involved himself in Wei Hongming’s business dealings, living under the same roof meant he knew a thing or two. In recent years, Wei Hongming had grown increasingly arrogant. Many of his misdeeds had already been brought into the open.
If the county magistrate were upright, how could he possibly allow a local tyrant like Wei Hongming to continue unchecked?
In any case, Yun Qingwen did not regret what he had done.
Even if he could have endured continuing life with Wei Hongming, given the conduct of the Wei brothers, the family was bound to collapse sooner or later. It was never a lasting enterprise.
By the end of the second lunar month, the county office had gathered numerous pieces of evidence against the Wei brothers. Besides loan-sharking with fraudulent interest and seizing farmland, Wei Hongming had repeatedly committed rape and taken lives without regard for human life.
Wei Bai had bullied others with his power, forced innocent women into prostitution, and the two brothers had even sent men to obstruct official county business.
Many of these sordid affairs had been extracted from Yong Er during interrogation. Seeing that his former masters had fallen, Yong Er—whose mouth had once seemed sealed with iron—spilled everything the Wei family had ordered him to do in order to save himself.
Now that the wall had collapsed, everyone pushed.
Du Heng had always been lenient in his judgments, doing his utmost to give people a chance to reform.
But the Wei family’s crimes were too numerous, and blood had been spilled. No matter how lenient he might be, he would not grant such malignant rot another opportunity.
The county academy stripped the two brothers of their scholarly titles, reducing them to commoners. The Wei household was ordered confiscated. Wei Hongming was sentenced to execution after the autumn assizes. Wei Bai, not having a murder charge directly tied to his name, was spared death but exiled to the frontier for military service. Whether he lived or died would depend on his own fate—but for a pampered young master accustomed to fine clothes and rich food, exile would hardly be more pleasant than death.
As for Yun Qingwen, because he had reported the crimes, Qin Xiaoman and Du Heng honored their agreement. The court granted the divorce, allowing him to return to his natal family with the dowry he had brought into the Wei household, preserving his dignity.
On the day the Wei property was confiscated, the county was as lively as during the New Year. Even farmers from distant villages came despite the trouble, eager to witness the spectacle.
The merchants, commoners, and hired farmhands who had once suffered under the Wei family all applauded in satisfaction.
Over the years, Wei Hongming had amassed considerable wealth. Even after Yun Qingwen reclaimed his dowry, the silver and assets seized amounted to nearly fifty thousand taels.
The impoverished magistrate Du Heng looked at the ledger and shook his head. No wonder the county coffers had been empty—the silver had flowed into the Wei family’s hands.
Du Heng distributed the money in full compensation to the merchants and farmers who had once been exploited by the Weis. About twenty thousand taels remained.
He opened the granaries and carried out a large-scale relief effort, distributing rice, grain, flour, and cloth to impoverished households throughout the county. Afterward, roughly fifteen thousand taels were left and entered into the public accounts.
By the time the Wei affair was concluded, it was already mid-March.
Du Heng patted the public ledger, feeling both body and mind lightened. He turned his head to look at Qin Xiaoman.
“The county has spent no small amount on waterworks. The funds we had accumulated earlier were nearly exhausted, and we were about to run out of room to maneuver. The Wei family has truly given us a great boost. If the public account runs dry again in the future, perhaps we should simply rely on these wealthy households.”
Every time, there seemed to be an unexpected gain.
Qin Xiaoman pursed his lips. “Taking down a powerful household is not an easy matter. There is all that acting and pretending. It was easier back when I farmed in the village—work when tired, sleep when tired, then work again. None of this scheming.”
He had once been such a straightforward person. Now he had become shrewd as well, often helping Du Heng lure others into traps.
“My husband has worked hard.”
As the saying went, advancing and retreating together—so long as their hearts were one, even ten thousand difficulties could be overcome.
“Oh, right. Jiang Qi sent over a dispatch earlier, told me to show it to you when you had time.”
Qin Xiaoman handed it over. “You were reconciling accounts just now, so I did not interrupt.”
Du Heng picked up the document. The gilded cover alone told him, “It must have come from the prefectural city.”
He opened it and skimmed quickly; there were not many words.
Qin Xiaoman leaned close, his eyes pointing at the crucial line. “Excellent?!”
“The results of the annual performance evaluation have come down.”
Du Heng’s brows relaxed as he read. “I thought my assessment would be affected by my aunt’s affair and that I would not receive this rating.”
Qin Xiaoman smiled. “Exactly!”
“It must have been a comprehensive evaluation. Compared to the practical achievements and tangible improvements over the past year, that slight blemish in moral assessment was offset. In the end, they still awarded an ‘Excellent.’ I imagine Qiuyang County was such a mess before, and now that it has begun to show improvement, the higher authorities do not wish to discourage local officials. Granting a favorable assessment will spur further effort.”
“You as well—why did you not let Duan Xue reveal in court that the Wei family had instructed her?”
Du Heng had originally thought the same way. Yet if everything were dragged into the open, it would disgrace the family name. Duan Xue and her mother’s reputations would both suffer.
They were, after all, two women alone—one widowed, the other without brothers or sons to rely on. Life in this era was already difficult enough. Why burden them with such infamy?
In any case, the Wei family’s crimes were more than sufficient to crush Wei Hongming. There was no need to add the Duan mother and daughter to the tally.
As for the rumors previously spread by the Wei family—that he was heartless and ungrateful, that after rising in status he meant to take a concubine and abandon old ties—he had his own way of dealing with those.
After hearing Du Heng’s explanation, Qin Xiaoman did not reproach him. As a ge’er himself, he knew how heavily this world weighed reputation.
Back then, because his own reputation had suffered, he had struggled to find a decent match. Not everyone was as fortunate as he had been.
“That is good. You have considered it thoroughly.”
Du Heng gave a quiet acknowledgment. In truth, he also had his own private thoughts. It was by occupying the original body that he had lived to this day—gaining a good husband, two well-behaved children, succeeding in the imperial examinations, and entering officialdom. Though he had earned these things through hard effort, without this body none of it would have been possible.
Since fate had brought him to the original owner’s hometown, helping the latter’s relatives within his means was, in a way, a gesture of respect.
Though his aunt had been unreasonable, his cousin was innocent.
“The Duan family has no male heirs left,” Du Heng said. “There is no man in the household to manage affairs. The collateral branches will bully an extinct line. Now that the Wei matter is settled, I intend to provide a dowry and see Duan Xue properly married.”
When the Wei estate had been confiscated and compensation distributed, Duan Xue and her mother had been among the first to receive restitution. They had returned to their village home with the funds.
But two women guarding money and land would inevitably attract covetous relatives. If Duan Xue married and gained support from her husband’s family, the collateral branches would not dare act brazenly.
Qin Xiaoman already knew of Duan Xue’s understanding with the He family. He was glad to see the marriage happen.
“Very well. I will prepare the dowry.”
In the fourth lunar month, Duan Xue was sent off in marriage from the county office itself. Candies and coins were scattered along the streets wave after wave. The celebration was as grand as if the magistrate’s own daughter were marrying.
Many townsfolk came to watch the spectacle.
They saw the magistrate and his husband personally escort Duan Xue to her bridal sedan.
The lively wedding accomplished two things. First, it restored Duan Xue’s dignity, making it known that although the Duan family had no male heirs, she still had a cousin who was a county magistrate.
Second, Wei Hongming had previously spread word everywhere that Du Heng was unfaithful and morally corrupt, that after attaining success he had abandoned old kin and intended to take his cousin as a concubine. Now, instead of marrying her himself, he had sent her off in honor to a respectable household. The slander about his private virtue collapsed of its own accord.
Having eradicated the county’s malignant tumor, the people now praised the magistrate as upright and devoted to the public good. Any further attempts to smear him only sounded petty and malicious. Du Heng had, by and large, won the hearts of the people.
He felt greatly relieved, believing he might finally rest for a while. Yet only a few days passed before trouble arose again.
“My lord! Husband! Something has happened!”
That day, after returning from the yamen, Du Heng and Qin Xiaoman were trimming branches in the garden when a servant rushed in anxiously.
“What is it?”
“The cousin’s mother—she has passed.”
Du Heng and Qin Xiaoman both frowned in surprise and shock.
With Du Youyan known to have a magistrate nephew, and Duan Xue married into a loyal and decent household, the Duan family should have been able to live peacefully from then on.
But during the public trial of Wei Hongming, Du Youyan’s heated exchange with him had spread beyond the courtroom.
The hearing had been open to the public. Many townsfolk had attended. Such unsavory yet sensational talk of illicit relations naturally became fodder for gossip.
Whether there had been truth to it or not, Du Youyan could not endure the whispers. Unable to preserve her dignity, she had thrown herself into the river.
By the time Du Heng and Qin Xiaoman arrived in the village, her body had already been recovered.
She might not have been a good relative, wife, or mother—but she had been Duan Xue’s only remaining kin. Duan Xue wept as if her heart were breaking.
“Mother ended her life because of me. I have wronged her.”
“What do you mean?”
“There were too many idle tongues. Mother feared they would turn their talk upon me and ruin my peaceful life. So she chose this end.”
Du Heng and Qin Xiaoman could only sigh.
The dead could not return. They consoled Duan Xue and saw that Du Youyan was properly buried.
Under adversity and hardship, a person’s will to survive often grows strong, like wild grass bending in the wind.
Yet when life becomes smooth and content, people can grow unexpectedly fragile. And sometimes the invisible blades of rumor cut deeper than steel.
By late April, at the turn of spring into summer, the county’s irrigation works were completed through the combined efforts of officials and villagers.
Even the farthest of the twelve townships managed to install waterwheels and flood their rice paddies before the summer heat set in.
After inspecting the irrigation in the countryside, Du Heng returned and encountered two carriages that had just halted outside the rear residence gate.
The men atop the horses dismounted at once upon seeing him.
“Magistrate Du, it has been some time. Our master has specially sent us with a small token of thanks. We hope you will not disdain its modesty and will accept it.”