You'd Better Shut the Hell Up!

They say you learn from your mistakes.

Li Nuo had learned from one mistake, only to make another.

He hadn't expected even little kids in ancient times to be so crafty. He was a college graduate with a higher education, yet a six-year-old girl had played him like a fiddle time and again.

Song Mu'er was sweet and sensible. She only stayed mad for a little while before waving her hand and saying, "Forget it. It's all Song Ninger's fault for being so sly. Let's come up with a different secret signal. Don't let her fool you again next time..."

Li Nuo didn't mind explaining the problem to Song Ninger.

He wasn't a three-year-old child. How could he hold a grudge just because Song Ninger hadn't let him play Rattan Ball last time? He wasn't that petty. Besides, he didn't even remember it.

But Song Mu'er cared a lot about the matter. It was like the way children often didn't want their friends to get along with someone they themselves disliked. The only difference was that these two were sisters.

After thinking it over carefully, Li Nuo spotted a pattern.

Song Mu'er usually came with Song Jiaren, and his wife clearly liked Mu'er more, too. You could say he followed his wife's lead.

Song Ninger, on the other hand, always came with the maids from Song Manor. It was just that she'd had her personal maid hide this time and had announced the secret signal first. Otherwise, Li Nuo wouldn't have been taken in so easily.

The sisters had the same arithmetic teacher, and were given the same homework. Song Mu'er had come to ask him about that very problem, too. Song Ninger had beaten her to it, figured out the problem, made a face at Song Mu'er, and run off. Li Nuo could only comfort her. "It's a good thing I explained it to Song Ninger first. Now I won't make any mistakes when I explain it to you..."

Only then did Song Mu'er cheer up. She tilted her little face up and asked, "Between me and Song Ninger, Li Nuo-gege, you're closer to me, right?"

Li Nuo didn't even need to think about it. "Of course. Song Ninger isn't as sweet as you, and she isn't as polite, either. I explained the problem to her, and she didn't even say thank you..."

Song Mu'er wasn't angry at all anymore. So what if Song Ninger had gotten there first? Li Nuo-gege was still closer to her. He might be a little stupid, but at least he knew how good she was...

Li Nuo hadn't said it just to comfort her, either. While explaining the problem to Song Ninger, he'd gotten a good sense of the girls' math level. When he explained it to Mu'er, she wouldn't need to ask why. Li Nuo started from the very basics, and Song Mu'er let out surprised exclamations every so often.

"So that's how it works!"

"Our teacher never taught it like that..."

"If our teacher had explained it this way, I would've understood long ago..."

"If Li Nuo-gege taught arithmetic, he'd be the best arithmetic teacher in the world!"

Song Jiaren stood off to the side and glanced quietly at Li Nuo. She agreed with Mu'er.

Her family had hired several arithmetic tutors for her before, but she'd never been able to understand the subject. For more than a decade, she'd thought arithmetic was the hardest thing in the world.

But now, as far as she was concerned, arithmetic...

Wasn't all that difficult after all.

Li Nuo smiled at Mu'er's flattery but said nothing. Her words weren't an exaggeration, either. After all, he'd studied modern mathematics systematically. The problems in the Great Xia Calculations Classic were child's play to him—easy points on an exam.

Song Mu'er's arithmetic teacher might have studied the Calculations Classic inside and out, but there was no way he could teach as well as Li Nuo.

After all, he'd only taught arithmetic for a few decades at most. The methods Li Nuo used were the crystallized wisdom of countless master teachers of mathematics from later generations. They were more systematic and scientific, with simple, clear derivations that were better suited to young children.

The ones who were better than Song Mu'er's arithmetic teacher weren't Li Nuo, but Newton, Gauss, Euler... and countless other great mathematicians from another world.

Song Mu'er had figured out the problem. Her bright eyes darted about as she told Li Nuo, "You made me mad just now, so your punishment is to dress me up until I look pretty..."

Li Nuo didn't have that skill just yet. It was a talent you had to trade your life for. He made an excuse. "I can't. I swore a few days ago that I'd only ever dress up my wife..."

"Oh, I see. All right, then..."

Song Mu'er was sensible enough. She didn't press him after hearing that, and went out into the courtyard to play by herself.

Li Nuo continued studying the Great Xia Codex. In the past few days, he'd tried a fair number of cases, but they'd all been the most common civil disputes, involving only a few sections of the Great Xia Codex: the Marriage Law, the Theft Law, the Dispute Law, and the Judgment Law.

Besides those, the Great Xia Codex also included the Security Law, which protected the emperor and safeguarded the nation's sovereignty and border security; the Official System Law, which covered the establishment, selection, and duties of government officials, as well as the punishment of corrupt officials who abused the law; and the Unauthorized Levy Law, which covered the recruitment of soldiers, troop deployments, the duties of generals, military supplies, and the regulation of labor levies.

These laws were part of the Great Xia Codex, but they didn't fall under the jurisdiction of Chang'an County Office. As a result, Li Nuo hadn't come across them in the past few days.

When he reached a supplementary clause after the Official System Law, Li Nuo froze, then looked puzzled.

The clause concerned the Redemption Penalty. In other words, a person could atone for a crime with money, paying silver in place of punishment.

For every tael of silver, ten strokes of caning could be commuted. A hundred strokes could be waived for just ten taels.

Flogging was more expensive: one tael could commute a single blow, so a hundred blows could be waived for a hundred taels.

Imprisonment was even more expensive. One year in prison cost a hundred taels.

But Penal Exile and the Death Penalty couldn't be commuted with silver.

Of course, not everyone was allowed to pay their way out of punishment. This law applied only to officials, the powerful and wealthy, and their relatives. It existed to preserve the privileges of the bureaucratic and aristocratic classes.

What puzzled Li Nuo was that the son of a fifth-rank official like the Ministry of Personnel's Director was eligible for the Redemption Penalty. Facing a three-year prison sentence, all he had to do was pay three hundred taels of silver to escape punishment entirely.

Three hundred taels was nothing to a fifth-rank official.

Li Nuo thought it was unfair, but that was exactly what the Great Xia laws stipulated.

It was unreasonable, but legal.

Then why hadn't the Wang family used it?

Did they not know about it?

Li Nuo thought he hadn't studied the Great Xia laws thoroughly enough. Maybe there was some restriction on the Redemption Penalty that Wang Yue couldn't meet. As a meticulous man of the law, he had to get to the bottom of it. So he called Steward Wu over.

Steward Wu jogged in from outside and asked, "What can I do for you, young master?"

"Nothing in particular. I was reading the section on the Redemption Penalty in the Great Xia Codex, and noticed that Wang Yue's crimes could be pardoned with silver. But the Wang family hasn't used it. Is there some restriction on the Redemption Penalty that I don't know about?"

"Uh, well..."

Steward Wu looked up at the sky, trying not to let his young master see how troubled he was.

There were no restrictions on the Redemption Penalty, of course. The problem was that the Wang family didn't dare use it!

A few years ago, the child of another official had committed a crime much like Wang Yue's. That official used the Redemption Penalty to buy his son's freedom with ease. The boy didn't spend a single day in jail.

A month later, the official was stripped of his post. The Court of Judicial Review confiscated his family's property and sent it to the imperial treasury. Every male descendant in the direct line was executed, without exception. The collateral relatives were banished into exile, and the women were made government slaves...

Ever since then, no one dared use the Redemption Penalty in any case connected to the Court of Judicial Review.

Without redemption, you served a few years in prison at worst. Redeem your sentence, and your whole family died. The officials of Chang'an knew how to do that math.

A moment later, Steward Wu lowered his head and said, "Of course the Redemption Penalty can be used. Maybe the Wang family didn't want to part with those three hundred taels. Or perhaps the Director of the Ministry of Personnel had a change of heart and didn't want to buy his son's freedom. If you really want to know, I could go ask the Wang family?"

Li Nuo waved a hand. "Forget it, forget it..."

All he needed to know was that there were no restrictions on the Redemption Penalty.

The man's only son had just been given a hundred strokes and sentenced to three years in prison. Going to their house to ask questions now would be a bit too heartless.

Of course, Li Nuo had no idea that the Wang family had left Chang'an as a whole that very morning, leaving their house empty and Wang Yue alone in the Chang'an County Office jail, howling in agony.

Early the next morning, Li Nuo had breakfast, then went to work at the Chang'an County Office as usual.

The county office was lively again today.

But unlike yesterday's chaos, everything was orderly today.

Li Nuo got out of his carriage and saw Pei Zhe waiting for him at the entrance. Unlike the previous two days, a potbellied man in official robes was standing beside him.

When the man saw Li Nuo, he hurried over on his cumbersome legs, bowed, and said obsequiously, "Your humble servant, Assistant Magistrate Zhang Yue of Chang'an County, pays his respects to Your Excellency..."

Li Nuo returned the greeting with a slight clasp of his hands and a smile. "So you're Assistant Magistrate Zhang. I've heard so much about you."

Those words made Assistant Magistrate Zhang's heart flutter with apprehension. He wondered if Magistrate Pei had badmouthed him to this young master while he'd been away. Otherwise, how would he know who he was?

As he fretted, a sedan chair stopped at the county office entrance. A man lifted the curtain and stepped out.

Seeing the confusion at the entrance, the man froze. Then his brows drew together, and he looked toward Pei Zhe. "Lord Pei, Assistant Magistrate Zhang and I have only been away from the county office for a few days, and you've already turned it into a complete mess. You've made this solemn government office look like a Vegetable Market..."

Before the man could finish, Assistant Magistrate Zhang hurried over and stopped him. With sweat beading on his forehead, he said, "Lord Wang has misspoken. I apologize to Your Excellency and Lord Pei on his behalf..."

Lieutenant Wang froze. His lips moved as if he still had something to say, but Zhang clapped a hand over his mouth and glared at him. Grinding his teeth, he hissed in his ear, "You'd better shut the hell up..."