Xu Zhengying smiled from the sidelines. "Just as I said, everyone was composing poems and trading verses, enjoying the friendship of gentlemen. How could they possibly have fallen out? It must have been a misunderstanding." Inwardly, he commended the two Qiu brothers for knowing which way the wind was blowing.
With matters having reached this point, Murong Feiyan had become the meddlesome one instead. Of course she could see what had actually happened, but here one side was willing to strike and the other willing to take the blows. Even if she hauled them all back to the Capital Prefecture, her superiors would only blame her for making trouble.
Murong Feiyan walked behind Hu Xiaotian and reached out to untie his ropes. In a voice only the two of them could hear, she said, "You got lucky today!"
Hu Xiaotian smiled. "Why have you set your sights on me, Constable Murong? Could it be that you've developed special feelings for me?"
Murong Feiyan said, "You'd better rein in your horse at the cliff's edge and mend your ways, or else..."
"Or else what?"
"Or else one day I'll put you behind bars!"
Hu Xiaotian sighed. "Constable Murong, your prejudice against me runs far too deep. As an officer of the law, you should always maintain an impartial heart. Above all, don't look at people through tinted glasses."
Murong Feiyan only half understood his words. She snorted coldly. "Utter nonsense. I don't even know what you're talking about!" She waved a hand and led the four constables away.
The two Qiu brothers had taken a beating for nothing and ended up having to plead Hu Xiaotian's case for him. In front of so many people, they had lost every scrap of face. Too embarrassed to linger and at a complete loss as to how to face whatever came next, they squeezed through the crowd and slunk away. Seeing what had happened to the Qiu brothers, none of the other beaten scholars dared step forward to accuse Hu Xiaotian. Each fled faster than the last.
Seeing this sudden turn of events resolve the matter so easily, the six servants from the Hu Residence grew even more swaggering and overbearing. Not only did the victims dare not complain, even the government constables could do nothing to them. They glared like fiends at the onlookers and threatened, "What are you looking at? Want me to beat you up?"
Frightened by the servants' brazen arrogance, the common folk hastily scattered. After this disturbance, however, Hu Xiaotian's vile reputation was certain to spread even farther.
Xu Zhengying invited Hu Xiaotian into his carriage. He had learned to fear this young master. Since he had brought him out, he had to deliver the fellow home. If he let him keep wandering around outside, there was no telling how much trouble he would cause. By now, Xu Zhengying regretted it so bitterly that he wanted to slap himself twice. I was just asking for it! This brat is a walking god of plague, leaving disaster everywhere he goes! Why did I bring him out?
Once inside the carriage, Hu Xiaotian actually became much quieter. He closed his eyes, giving no hint of what was on his mind.
Xu Zhengying coughed to break the silence. "My dear nephew, why did you get into a dispute with the Qiu brothers?" He really was puzzled. He could not understand why Hu Xiaotian had started fighting with those two.
Hu Xiaotian did not open his eyes. "I didn't like the look of them. Is that allowed?"
Xu Zhengying was speechless. Beating someone up just because he did not like the look of them-this was a genuine young thug!
Hu Xiaotian, however, was thinking of Huo Xiaoru. He had stood up for her today, and when the affair escalated, she had left without a word or even a farewell. That woman was far too heartless. I did so much for you. Don't you feel even the slightest gratitude?
The spring breeze lifted the window curtain. A thread of fine rain drifted down soundlessly and slipped into the carriage on the wind. Its cool touch roused Huo Xiaoru from her thoughts. Her clear, limpid eyes gazed forlornly out the window. At some point, it had begun raining outside, and the misty drizzle shrouded the scenery in a hazy veil.
Wan'er sat beside her with the puppy in her arms, her large, lively eyes blinking repeatedly. She bit her lip, then finally could not resist asking, "Miss, why did we leave?"
Huo Xiaoru said nothing and continued gazing quietly out the window.
Wan'er said, "Miss, Young Master Hu was standing up for you. When the officials arrived just now, shouldn't we have helped by giving testimony? We couldn't just stay out of it, could we?" The girl was thoroughly bewildered by her mistress's actions.
Huo Xiaoru said, "If I'd stayed, people would certainly have said he flew into a crown-lifting rage over a beauty and came to blows over a dancing girl. Do you think that would sound good once word got around?"
Wan'er had no answer.
Huo Xiaoru was meticulous, and her considerations were far more thorough than the young girl's. Upon seeing the men from the Capital Prefecture arrive, she had immediately chosen to leave, not because she feared being caught up in the trouble, but because she worried her presence would bring Hu Xiaotian even more of it. Today's entire dispute had arisen because of her, yet the story would hardly sound glorious if it spread. She was merely a singing girl, while Hu Xiaotian was the son of the Minister of Revenue. It was precisely out of gratitude for his righteous act that Huo Xiaoru had rationally chosen to withdraw. She believed his intelligence and connections should enable him to resolve the trouble. If she insisted on staying, she would only make the situation more complicated.
Wan'er pouted her cherry-red lips. "Miss, I think Young Master Hu is not only amusing, but a good person too."
Huo Xiaoru smiled faintly. "What does it matter to us whether he's good or bad?"
The carriage suddenly braked hard. Caught completely off guard, Hu Xiaotian and Xu Zhengying were pitched toward the front by their momentum. Hu Xiaotian caught the handrail inside the carriage and stopped himself in time, but Xu Zhengying was not so lucky. His head struck the front wall, leaving him momentarily dazed. Steadying himself, Xu Zhengying pulled the curtain aside and snapped, "You idiot! How are you driving?"
The driver had hastily pulled on the reins because something had happened ahead. They had been following a freight cart, but a damaged section of road had left a pothole up ahead. In the overcast, rainy weather, the freight driver had failed to notice it and driven over it, trapping a wheel in the hole. Laden with goods, the cart lost its balance and toppled to the right. Not only had its cargo spilled across the ground, it had also pinned the driver beneath it.
Once he understood what had happened, Xu Zhengying waved a hand. "Never mind it. Just go around!"
The driver nodded and raised his whip to move on, but Hu Xiaotian heard agonized cries for help amid the wind and rain. He hurriedly said, "Wait!" Pushing open the door, he climbed out of the carriage. Ahead, a heavily laden cart lay overturned on the road. An elderly man with graying hair lay on the ground with his left leg pinned beneath a wheel and spilled grain scattered around him. The old man was clearly injured, and his cries were harrowing.
Yet human feeling was so thin in the capital that not one person volunteered to help. Seeing Hu Xiaotian get out, Xu Zhengying produced an oil-paper umbrella from somewhere and opened it, ingratiatingly shielding him from the rain. To his surprise, Hu Xiaotian took off his outer robe, rolled up his sleeves, and waved to the servants arriving behind them. "Come here! Help move the cart and save him!"
Xu Zhengying said, "Better one less trouble than one more. This..."
Hu Xiaotian paid him no attention and had already led the six servants over to the freight cart.
Xu Zhengying hurried after him with the oil-paper umbrella. "My dear nephew! My dear nephew! With your standing, how can you expose yourself to the wind and rain for a mere servant?" In a society with such rigid distinctions of rank and status, these words were hardly surprising. His thinking had settled into a fixed mold, and he believed this was simply how things should be. With their standing, why would they concern themselves with whether some lowly person lived or died? Seeing that he could not stop Hu Xiaotian from helping, he tried to persuade him that he need not do it personally.
Hu Xiaotian said, "That's where you're wrong. Everyone is born equal. What distinction is there between high and low, noble and humble?" Although the fellow usually swaggered about and ordered people around like a young tyrant, deep down he still held the belief that everyone was equal. Thus, the words sprang straight from his mouth. What seemed perfectly ordinary and natural to him profoundly shook everyone around him.
Xu Zhengying froze at those words. By the time he recovered, he saw that Hu Xiaotian had already braced himself against the back of the cart to help.
Liang Dazhuang and the other servants were also shaken by Hu Xiaotian's declaration that everyone was born equal. Almost immediately, however, they decided his words were utterly absurd. You were born into a wealthy and powerful family, a young master and an official's son from birth. We were born into ordinary commoners' families, destined from birth to be servants and laborers. Heaven determines a person's lot. What do you mean, born equal? If we're equal, why weren't our places switched?
Liang Dazhuang called loudly, "Let's all push together and get the cart up!" He tried to get everyone to push the cart forward together and rescue the old man from beneath it.
Hu Xiaotian said, "Absolutely not!" He first examined the old man's condition. Although the man's left leg was pinned beneath the wheel, he seemed reasonably lucid. Sensation in both lower limbs was normal, so his spine probably had not been injured. Hu Xiaotian told the others to unload the cart first to reduce its weight, taking care to disturb it as little as possible during the process so as not to worsen the old man's injuries.
Hu Xiaotian gave the old man a preliminary examination. Once he was certain there were no external injuries to his head, face, or upper body, he smiled reassuringly. "Sir, don't be afraid. We'll have you out very soon!"
The old man endured the pain and nodded.
After the cargo had been unloaded, Hu Xiaotian had everyone brace one side of the cart and lift it up toward the other side. He went to the old man and supported him from behind. Once the wheel had been raised clear of the man's lower body, he carefully dragged him out from beneath the cart, keeping him flat.
Moving the old man inevitably aggravated his injury, and he screamed in pain.
Hu Xiaotian examined the old man's lower limbs. His right leg was uninjured and perfectly normal, but his left thigh had fractured under the pressure of the wheel. Fortunately, the fracture had not gone all the way through, nor was there any displacement. This was what medicine commonly called a hairline fracture, which usually required no surgical treatment. Hu Xiaotian asked for a short knife and slit open the old man's trouser leg, quickly confirming his diagnosis. There was no open wound on the thigh, only a simple hairline fracture. Using whatever was available, Hu Xiaotian had Liang Dazhuang find two wooden boards. He placed one against the inside of the injured thigh as a splint and the other, longer board along the outside of the old man's left leg, then secured them firmly with cloth strips from his hip down to his ankle.
Before you continue