Jiu'er Is Arrested

Jiu'er Is Arrested

Er Dan's Mother's cries startled the Distillery helpers eating breakfast, and everyone ran out.

"What's wrong? Why are you shouting?" Er Dan's Father asked nervously.

"Come on, everyone, go look in the proprietor's room! He's not there, and the place has been turned upside down. The cabinet's been smashed too. Something must have happened," Er Dan's Mother said, panting.

The moment they heard this, everyone rushed toward the main family house up the slope. But when they reached the courtyard gate, they all stopped. The proprietor had leprosy. They usually avoided contact with him for fear of catching it, and rarely even came near this house on the slope.

Everyone turned to look at Luohan.

Luohan was the Distillery foreman. He was the oldest and understood brewing, so his words carried the most weight among them. He glanced at the others, then forced himself to go inside, calling, "Proprietor? Proprietor, are you in there?"

There was no answer from inside.

Luohan entered the room and saw the table overturned onto the kang, the cabinet smashed, and everything in utter disarray. He knew something serious had happened.

The helpers were curious too, peering over the wall into the yard.

Luohan came back out, looked at the others, and said heavily, "Something really has happened. Let's split up and search nearby. See if we can find the proprietor."

"What if we can't find him?" one helper asked.

"Then we report it to the authorities. The proprietor's gone missing. We wouldn't dare hide it," Luohan said.

They spread out and searched for half the day, but found no trace of Li Mafeng. In the end, Luohan could only take several men into town to report the case.

This was a major case. Gaomi County was poor, but the Shibali Slope Distillery was fairly well known. Police Chief Qian Donglai personally led seven or eight officers over. Qian Donglai rode a horse while the officers had no choice but to run behind him, leaving them panting after eighteen li.

As police chief, Qian Donglai rarely came out in person. But he had come this time because he had his own little scheme. He was notorious for being greedy and lustful. The Shibali Slope Distillery had been operating for years, and he wanted to see whether he could squeeze some money out of it.

Stopped outside Li Mafeng's house, Qian Donglai did not dare enter. This was where a leper lived. He loved money, but he valued his life even more.

"You, and you. The two of you go in and inspect the scene," Qian Donglai said, pointing at two constables.

The two men he pointed at looked miserable, but they did not dare defy orders. They could only force themselves inside, give the room a cursory glance, and touch nothing. Less than two minutes later, they ran back out.

"Reporting to the chief, the man is gone. There are signs of robbery and ransacking. We suspect Li Mafeng was abducted."

Qian Donglai cursed the two idiots inwardly. The helpers who reported the case had already said all that. Did they need these men to look?

"Can you tell who committed the crime?" Qian Donglai asked.

The two constables exchanged looks, thinking, How would we know? They braced themselves and said, "Probably... bandits."

The two men were simply talking nonsense, hoping to muddle through somehow.

Qian Donglai looked toward the Distillery helpers. "Did any of you hear anything last night?"

The helpers stood together, somewhat trembling. They were ordinary folk and feared officials most of all, because in their minds, officials were all unreasonable.

"We didn't hear anything."

"Yeah, we slept pretty soundly. We didn't hear a thing."

Several people chimed in at once.

Qian Donglai swept his gaze around and saw that the red wedding characters pasted on the door were still fresh. He asked, "What's with these wedding decorations? Did the Distillery recently have a happy occasion?"

Luohan said, "Reporting to the chief, the proprietor married a few days ago. The new wife went back to her family home yesterday morning for her Return Visit and hasn't returned yet."

Qian Donglai's eyes shifted as he said, "Three days after the Return Visit, there's a criminal case here. Something is suspicious. That new wife is highly suspect. You men, go arrest her and bring her here. I will interrogate her thoroughly."

Four constables took along a helper who knew the way and headed for Jiu'er's family home to arrest her. At that moment, Jiu'er had just argued with her father and was riding a donkey back alone to Shibali Slope. The two groups met on the road, and the police immediately seized Jiu'er and brought her back.

Qian Donglai looked at the frightened Jiu'er and secretly shook his head. She's quite pretty. What a pity.

With an imposing official manner, Qian Donglai said sternly, "Speak! Did you want to seize the Li Family's property, then conspire with others to harm Li Mafeng? Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence? Only days after the wedding, Li Mafeng was abducted, and no one knows whether he's dead or alive."

Jiu'er's face turned pale with fright, but she still forced herself to say, "Sir Chief, I truly don't know what happened. I went back to my family home, stayed one night, and came back. I know nothing else."

"Hmph. That little trick of yours won't work on me. Men, take her away and interrogate her harshly. I refuse to believe we can't get her accomplices out of her," Qian Donglai shouted.

Several constables rushed up and pinned Jiu'er down. She struggled desperately in terror. "Sir Chief, I've been wronged! I didn't hurt anyone! I truly didn't hurt anyone!"

But no matter how fierce or stubborn she was, she was still only a country woman. How could she have ever seen such a scene? The Distillery helpers dared not move either, though they all sighed inwardly. Once Jiu'er fell into the hands of the authorities, it would be difficult for her to return in one piece.

Jiu'er was taken away and thrown into Prison that very night. Hugging her legs, she curled up in the straw in a corner, her body trembling nonstop.

Even now, she still did not fully understand what had happened.

Shibali Slope Distillery,

A group of helpers sat or lay on the kang. Some smoked dry tobacco, some picked lice, and some scratched at their feet. Er Dan's Mother rested a sewing basket on her lap and stitched shoe soles one stitch at a time.

Luohan looked over the group, knocked the ash from his pipe bowl, and said, "We can't stand by and watch them die. The master's fate is unknown, and the mistress has been thrown into Prison. We have to think of something."

Er Guzi crushed a louse beneath his fingernail and said with a frown, "We're only helpers. We work for the master. What can we do?"

Luohan packed another bowl of tobacco and said, "First, we get the mistress out."

"How do we do that?" Er Dan's Father asked.

"With money. Qian Donglai is Gaomi County's most notorious greedy bastard. He just wants to extort a sum of money. If we don't bail the mistress out, she definitely won't get out. As long as we spend enough money, getting her out shouldn't be too difficult," Luohan said.

"But where would we get money?" Dazhuang asked.

"Maybe there's still money in the master's room," Er Zhuang said.

"Money, my ass. The bandits probably cleaned it all out long ago," Dazhuang said.

"Elder Brother Luohan, are you saying we should pool our money? With the three and a half coins we have, we probably couldn't even get past the police station gatekeeper," Er Dan's Father said.

Everyone fell silent.

Luohan lit his pipe, took several puffs, and looked at the bean-sized flame of the lamp. "Perhaps there's another way."