More than ten days had passed since Yi Shuyuan arrived in Yuanjiang County's seat. For the first few days, he had worked diligently and meticulously, but after returning to West River Village on his first day off and then resuming work, he had begun to relax.
Although he had no colleagues to talk to, there was no damned petty nonsense either, much less a superior watching over him. Yi Shuyuan's work depended entirely on his own initiative, provided he maintained a reasonable pace and could show some tangible progress whenever the magistrate or county deputy asked.
But the compilation was still in its early stages. His main task was to read and familiarize himself with the basic material-not only the county's records, but any documents from the surrounding areas held here as well.
It was already late at night. An oil lamp stood at the corner of the desk, illuminating its surface but failing to light up the entire Library.
With a coat draped over his shoulders, Yi Shuyuan sat at the desk reading Notes on Mountains and Waters. The book broadly covered some of the famous mountains and waters throughout the Great Yong Empire. Though many of its descriptions were rather general, it was still one of the few geographical works in the Library.
"Haaah..."
Yi Shuyuan yawned. Seeing how dim the room was, he removed the paper lampshade and used bamboo tweezers to pull the wick up a little. As the flame grew considerably stronger, the room brightened too.
"Whoosh, whoosh."
The wind had picked up outside. Feeling a chill, Yi Shuyuan pulled the coat tighter around himself.
"Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom."
Suddenly, drumbeats sounded from the front of the county office. Yi Shuyuan paused, then instinctively put down his book and stood. Holding the front of his coat, he walked to the entrance and opened the Library door.
"Whoosh, whoosh."
The wind stirred the hair at his temples, and the drumbeats grew clearer.
"Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom."
At this hour, the county office could hardly be beating the drum to summon its staff. Was someone beating it to seek redress?
Yi Shuyuan's interest was immediately piqued. He hurriedly put his coat on properly, then gently closed the Library door. Across two lifetimes, he had never witnessed a real court hearing. Never mind that he was still awake-even if he had already gone to bed, he might well have climbed out to watch.
Court hearings were, of course, open to spectators. Ordinary people could watch from a prescribed distance, let alone Yi Shuyuan, who was now a clerk in the county office.
As he passed through the corridors, he saw candlelight appearing in several sleeping quarters. From the talking and cursing inside, he knew they had to belong to the Black-Clad Constables. These men were required to stand on either side of the courtroom, and they were now scrambling out of bed and into their clothes.
In fact, once the court drum sounded, every department that heard it was theoretically required to send someone over.
Yi Shuyuan did not concern himself with all that. His brisk steps brought him to the courtroom ahead of many others. Some Strong Constables already stationed there on night duty were lighting the lamps.
"Mr. Yi? You're still awake?"
Several constables in the courtroom were wondering who had suddenly come from the inner offices when one of them recognized Yi Shuyuan. Yi Shuyuan did not know him, however, so he simply cupped his hands and smiled.
"I was working on the records in the Library late into the night. I've never seen anyone beat the drum to seek redress, so I came to take a look. After all, quite a few cases are recorded in the county annals."
"You really are dedicated, Mr. Yi. Who wouldn't want to be asleep at this hour?"
The other constables also cupped their hands in greeting. Their superiors valued this man highly, after all. Yi Shuyuan returned each greeting, then followed two constables to the main entrance with curiosity, watching them remove the bolts together and open the doors.
"Claaang..."
With a low rumble, the county office's main doors slowly opened, and the person beating the drum gradually stopped.
The light from the courtroom illuminated the drummer. Through the widening gap between the doors, he looked inside and saw the constables opening them-and, of course, Yi Shuyuan standing behind them.
"Who is beating the drum here?"
The constable's voice burst out in a resounding shout. Clearly, he had some training. But Yi Shuyuan's eyes had already widened slightly, his pupils dilating.
The drummer was around thirty. His body trembled a little from the cold, and his face was somewhat pale. Though he looked uneasy and apprehensive, his voice was reasonably loud.
"My lord! I'm a commoner from Du Family Village by the E River. I wish to accuse Jia Yuntong, a merchant from River Prefecture, of abducting and murdering women-"
The drummer shouted this and bowed toward Yi Shuyuan, who hurriedly stepped aside and explained.
"I'm no lord. His Lordship hasn't arrived yet."
The two constables went outside and "ushered" the man through the entrance, one on either side, barking sternly.
"Wait here. His Lordship will arrive shortly!"
But just as the two constables brought the drummer through the main entrance, a faint light flashed and vanished. A white figure was flung away from beside him.
"Ah!"
With a woman's startled cry, the white figure fell to the ground ten feet outside the entrance.
Yi Shuyuan stepped aside beside the doors and looked at the drummer, but his peripheral vision seemingly wandered outside.
It was a woman in white. Her deathly pale face had a bluish cast, and a faint wound on her forehead oozed reddish-black blood. After being thrown back, she immediately got up and tried to enter the courtroom.
Whoosh-
Another white light flared.
"Ah!"
The woman screamed and was thrown back again. This time, she fell farther away, landing right in the street. She struggled to her feet once more and quickly approached the courtroom entrance, but dared not step through. She merely looked around in panic, then paced helplessly before the doors.
The moment the doors opened, Yi Shuyuan had seen the woman standing beside the drummer. He had never even considered such a possibility, yet a flash of intuition and the visual shock had told him what she was.
Yi Shuyuan felt a creeping dread, but he could not help watching everything unfold, nor did he choose to leave. At the same time, he wondered why he could see ghosts.
With that question in mind, Yi Shuyuan looked at the others. The other constables clearly could not see the woman at all. Even the drummer kept looking around as though searching for something, but although his gaze swept toward the entrance, he did not seem to see where she stood.
He can't see her either? An inexplicable sense of strangeness stirred in Yi Shuyuan.
Just then, a flurry of footsteps came from the rear of the county office. Soon, two rows of constables carrying water-and-fire rods jogged into the courtroom. A little later, an official in formal robes and a black gauze hat strode in, accompanied by a scholar in ordinary clothes.
As the magistrate took his seat, his adviser sat at a small desk to one side, ready to record the proceedings. Yi Shuyuan tactfully withdrew outside the courtroom and tried to remain calm, though his peripheral vision kept straying involuntarily toward the woman not far from him.
Other constables and even arrest officers arrived one after another during this time. No one bothered with formal greetings; they simply waited quietly outside the courtroom. A single beating of the drum had brought more than half the county office's personnel. Yi Shuyuan thought that if Wu Minggao did not live so far away, he too would have had to come upon hearing it.
Soon, the magistrate brought his sounding block down heavily on the court desk.
Crack!
"Court is in session!"
The two rows of water-and-fire rods struck the floor repeatedly: "Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud."
"Majesty-might-!"
Yuanjiang County's magistrate was surnamed Lin and had held office for two years. With a sparse beard and a lean face, he now stared sternly at the drummer who had been brought before him.
"Who beat the drum? What accusation do you bring?"
If it was some trivial matter, the drummer would inevitably receive a beating first. Otherwise, none of those whose sleep had been disturbed throughout the Yuanjiang County office would stand for it.
The drummer was clearly distracted, looking this way and that.
Crack!
"You there, answer at once, or face the rods!"
The drummer shuddered, then summoned his courage, cupped his hands, and spoke loudly.
"I am Du Fang, a commoner from Du Family Village by the E River. I wish to accuse Jia Yuntong, a merchant from River Prefecture, of abducting and murdering women-under the guise of trading, Jia Yuntong has deceived many women from respectable families, and he also uses underhanded means to seize them by force. Some could not bear the humiliation and were persecuted to death by him. Please uphold justice, my lord-"
People were not actually required to kneel before officials in this courtroom, but Du Fang grew increasingly agitated as he spoke. When he finished, he dropped straight to his knees.
"Please uphold justice, my lord!"
The night wind made the candles in the courtroom flicker slightly despite their shades. The magistrate looked at the man below, who appeared to be an ordinary young farmer.
River Prefecture? This doesn't merely cross county boundaries-it crosses prefectures! What about witnesses and material evidence? The murder happened within this county, surely? Magistrate Lin frowned, but still intended to get to the bottom of it.
"Where is this merchant from River Prefecture now? Who did he kill, and what was your relationship to the victim?"
"He has killed more than one person, but I know of only one. Her name was He Xin, originally from Luo County in Wu Prefecture. That wicked merchant abducted her from Wu Prefecture, then sank her body in the E River after killing her. His tower ship is moored at the county town's wharf right now. If you send men to arrest him, my lord, you will surely bring that villain to justice!"
Thanks to the books he had read earlier, Yi Shuyuan immediately recalled that the E River also ran through Wu Prefecture. That ship might have traveled all the way downstream from Wu Prefecture along the E River.
The magistrate frowned at this. The man before him had yet to explain the particulars. Naturally, he could not dispatch the county office's men on the strength of a single statement.
"What was your relationship to the deceased?"
Kneeling on the ground, Du Fang hesitated, then answered honestly.
"N-none."
"Hmm? Then how did you learn that He Xin was murdered?"
Du Fang began looking around again.
Crack!
"Is your guilty conscience making you tremble like a thief? Tell this official the truth!"
The magistrate was clearly growing angry. Holding court in the middle of the night was one thing, but the accuser's evasive eyes, shrinking posture, and constant glances around were simply contempt for the court.
Magistrate Lin's reprimand made Du Fang shudder violently, and he blurted out an answer.
"My lord, it was He Xin's ghost who told me herself. She appeared in my dreams every night, and sometimes pleaded beside my ear at midnight. At first I was terribly frightened, but afterward I became filled with anger. So, at her pleading, I came to report it to the authorities!"
A ghost?
Magistrate Lin's brows knitted tightly, his face full of disbelief. Still, beating the drum late at night was indeed somewhat unusual. After a moment's hesitation, he spoke.
"Since you have come to beat the drum, I presume you have some way to make me believe you?"
Du Fang looked at the magistrate, then kept searching around him.
"Miss, Miss He, we're in the courtroom now. Miss He! Didn't you say you had a way to let His Lordship hear your voice at midnight? Miss, hurry and tell His Lordship..."
Watching Du Fang look around and talk, the magistrate waited for roughly half the time it took to drink a cup of tea. His patience wore away, and his temper rose. Had he actually entertained even the slightest thought of believing such absurdity?
Crack!
"Insolent troublemaker! I think you're the one spouting ghostly nonsense. How dare you make a fool of this official! Guards, give him twenty strokes of the paddle!"
Now the magistrate was truly enraged!
Before you continue