One question from Li Nuo made the woman blush. Fidgeting, she said, "My husband is very potent in that department. Every night, he has to keep at it for at least half an hour, sometimes even a whole hour..."
Everyone present, Pei Zhe included, looked utterly stunned.
An entire hour!
They could barely last a quarter of an hour, sometimes not even half of that. They couldn't imagine what half an hour—or even a whole hour—was like. Just moments ago, they had looked down on the man for beating his wife. Now they regarded him with solemn respect.
You had to hand it to him.
Though Li Nuo had been a virgin in both his lives, he knew what an entire hour meant.
Sure enough, there was a top scholar in every trade.
He even made a special trip to the prison to see the man. He hadn't expected such powerful strength to be hidden beneath that frail body.
Of course, Li Nuo wasn't the only one who went to watch.
Even after he left, Pei Zhe and several bailiffs were still gathered outside the man's cell, quietly asking him something. Li Nuo vaguely heard Magistrate Pei ask what he usually ate and whether he had any special tricks...
Li Nuo didn't join in with them.
Because he didn't need to.
No matter what the man's special skill was, as long as his portrait in the Code of Law was glowing, that skill would be Li Nuo's too.
Though, at the moment, it wasn't much use to him...
But it would come in handy someday.
After locking up the wife-beater and setting a good example for the other commoners, Li Nuo had unexpectedly gained a useful skill as well. His spirits were high.
As he passed a certain cell, Li Nuo's steps slowed for a moment.
He turned to look at the figure seated inside, puzzled. The last time he'd come to the prison, she had gritted her teeth and cursed him as a "scoundrel." Why wasn't she cursing him today?
The girl glanced at him, her gaze complicated, then quickly looked away.
Li Nuo wasn't so pathetic as to ask why she wasn't cursing him. After giving her a surprised look, he left the prison. By then, commoners were already lining up beside the long table outside the county office...
Li Nuo's guess had been right. The county office didn't have many cases not because peace reigned beneath the Son of Heaven, with the people living contentedly and having no grievances to air.
A greater reason was that the commoners had a kind of fear-filter when it came to the authorities. When faced with minor disputes, they usually either settled them among themselves or swallowed their anger. Even if they suffered a small loss, they would rather bear it than step through the yamen's doors.
This wasn't just true in a feudal dynasty. Even in modern times, most ordinary people didn't realize they could—or have the courage to—use the law to protect their legitimate rights.
But today was different.
Today, they didn't have to enter the yamen. Li Nuo had brought the yamen out onto the broad street to hear cases. It brought the authorities closer to the people and eased their anxiety, so more and more people began lining up.
Of course, the cases they brought forward weren't major ones.
A considerable number involved lost belongings, and the people hoped the county office could help find them. The chances of solving such petty thefts were low, but Li Nuo still had the clerk record each one. If they caught the thief later and recovered the stolen property, they could notify the owners.
Only a small portion of the cases could actually be handled on the spot.
Most of those concerned civil disputes involving marriage, finances, land, and property—all matters closely tied to the commoners' daily lives. There wasn't a single serious criminal case.
Li Nuo wasn't greedy. He understood that little streams made a mighty river. Taken together, these small cases could yield just as much as major criminal cases. He handled every case himself, working from morning until night. For lunch, he made do with a few steamed buns.
Li Nuo had left home at daybreak. Now the sun was nearly setting, yet people were still lining up.
Though his stomach was empty, Li Nuo felt deeply satisfied.
The reason was simple: when he left that morning, he had twenty-five days left to live. Now he had thirty.
A month was still a short time, but at least his lifespan was increasing every day. It gave him something to look forward to.
After he finished handling another debt dispute, an elderly woman with graying hair came trembling forward. She suddenly knelt before Li Nuo and cried, "Upright magistrate, please seek justice for my daughter!"
Li Nuo hurriedly helped her up. "Please sit, madam. Tell me your grievance slowly."
At the elderly woman's appearance, the crowd began murmuring.
"It's Auntie Chen!"
"What's Auntie Chen doing here?"
"Her case is different. If it could've been handled, they'd have dealt with it long ago. Why wait until today..."
"Ah, poor Auntie Chen. Her daughter had been promised to a good family, but someone violated her. The family broke off the engagement, and that lovely girl went mad..."
"What a sin..."
The elderly woman kept crying, her words breaking off between sobs and difficult to make out.
At that moment, the clerk responsible for taking notes quietly said to Li Nuo, "Young master, I know about this case. Half a year ago, this old woman's daughter was raped and violated. She was supposed to be married in just half a month, but when the prospective family found out, they broke off the engagement. The girl couldn't take the blow and went mad..."
Li Nuo furrowed his brows. "It was such a serious case. The county office didn't handle it?"
The clerk shook his head. "We couldn't. She came to the county office half a year ago, but there were no other witnesses or physical evidence, so it was difficult to reach a verdict. And besides, the person she accused has a distinguished background. The magistrate couldn't afford to offend him..."
Li Nuo looked toward Pei Zhe. Pei Zhe immediately shook his head and spread his hands. "I don't know anything about it. This has nothing to do with me. I've only been assigned here for a month. It was the previous magistrate's doing..."
He had no intention of taking the blame for his predecessor. He was quick to distance himself from the matter.
Li Nuo looked at the clerk. "What's that man's position?"
The clerk replied, "His father is the son of the Official of the Ministry of Personnel's Department of Examination."
The Great Xia bureaucracy resembled that of the Tang dynasty, though there were many differences. Li Nuo had only just begun learning about it, so he asked, "Is the Official of the Ministry of Personnel's Department of Examination a high-ranking official?"
Pei Zhe glanced at him and thought, Whether that official's position is high depends on who you compare him to...
Compared with most officials, he's the father.
Compared with your father, he's an ant.
The Official of the Ministry of Personnel's Department of Examination was only Principal Fifth Rank, on par with Magistrate of Chang'an. That wasn't an especially high rank, but the Ministry of Personnel was one of the Six Ministries, and its Department of Examination was responsible for assessing the performance of officials throughout the realm and making recommendations for their promotion or punishment. As its head, the Official of the Ministry of Personnel's Department of Examination was someone Pei Zhe couldn't afford to offend.
Though he wasn't Pei Zhe's direct superior, it would be easy for him to make things difficult during performance reviews. If Pei Zhe failed his assessment for three consecutive years, he would be demoted. If he kept failing year after year, he would keep being demoted. After six consecutive failures, the black gauze cap would be stripped from his head, and he would never be employed again...
That was why few officials below Fourth Rank in Great Xia were willing to offend the Department of Examination.
He gave a light cough and explained to Li Nuo, "The Official of the Ministry of Personnel's Department of Examination heads the Department of Examination. He holds Principal Fifth Rank and oversees performance evaluations for officials below Fourth Rank in Great Xia. To some extent, he can influence their promotions..."
A Principal Fifth Rank official held the same rank as the Magistrate of Chang'an. That was no low position.
In a remote place, even a Principal Seventh Rank county magistrate could wield absolute power over life and death.
But Chang'an was beneath the Son of Heaven's feet. Could the son of a Principal Fifth Rank official really trample the law at will?
Li Nuo looked at Pei Zhe. "Your county office didn't dare handle this case?"
Pei Zhe said helplessly, "The Official of the Ministry of Personnel's Department of Examination is someone no one at the Chang'an County Office, myself included, can afford to offend. But the difficulty with this case isn't whether we dare handle it. It happened half a year ago, so evidence is hard to gather. Unless he confesses, it'll be difficult to convict him..."
Li Nuo understood all that, of course.
It was a difficult problem for him too.
Whether the son of the Official of the Ministry of Personnel's Department of Examination was guilty or not, all he had to do was bring him in, and the Code of Law would tell him.
The problem was that nobody else knew about the Code of Law's existence, and Li Nuo couldn't convict the man out of thin air.
The accused was still the son of a high-ranking court official. Even if Li Nuo had held no office, and even if his father had been the Minister of Justice, his father would still have needed evidence to arrest and try the man. He couldn't do as he pleased.
That was how it should be in principle.
The difficulty with this case lay in gathering evidence. Li Nuo looked at Pei Zhe and asked, "Where is the previous Magistrate of Chang'an now? Can we have him come testify?"
Pei Zhe shook his head. "I'm afraid not."
Li Nuo asked, "Why? Isn't he in Chang'an?"
Pei Zhe replied, "He's dead."
The previous Magistrate of Chang'an had been executed by order of the Minister of Justice. By now, the grass on his grave was probably already tall.
If he hadn't died, Pei Zhe wouldn't have been here...
Before you continue