Second Uncle's Astonishment

"Hey!" The girl in the yellow dress named Caiwei fluttered her lovely eyes. "Why can salt turn into silver?"

After speaking, she hesitated, then pulled out a stalk of sugarcane and offered it to Xu Qi'an. "Here, you can have this."

Was she trying to bribe me?

The two officials were already nowhere to be seen. Xu Qi'an withdrew his gaze, thought for a moment, and replied, "I once came across an alchemical manual in an ancient book that described how to turn salt into silver."

The girl in the yellow dress widened her eyes. "Which ancient book? Where is it? Who wrote it?"

Its name was High School Chemistry. As for the author... hmm, People's Education Press? Xu Qi'an said, "The ancient book was destroyed long ago, but I still remember its contents."

The girl in the yellow dress suddenly breathed faster. "Quick, hurry and tell me."

Xu Qi'an sighed. "My life is hanging by a thread. I'm really in no mood to teach anyone."

The girl in the yellow dress rolled her eyes at him and said irritably:

"You're a slippery one. We at the Directorate of Astronomy don't meddle in court affairs. What happens to you is still up to His Majesty, so there's no point in holding out for a better price with me."

"Couldn't you just take me in? Given the Superintendent's standing at court, I imagine it wouldn't be a problem for him to ask for a prisoner implicated by association," Xu Qi'an said.

He needed an extra safeguard for himself. What if the tax silver couldn't be recovered?

The girl in the yellow dress turned her bright eyes on him and looked him up and down. "You're clearly a martial artist. Why do you want to become a sorcerer?"

Cultivation had to start early. Most cultivators laid their foundations as children. It was too late for a martial artist to switch to being a sorcerer now.

"I don't care about hugging a powerful thigh. I mainly admire the Superintendent's bearing." Xu Qi'an's tone was reverent, and his expression was earnest.

"Then tell me what's in the ancient alchemical book first," she said after some thought. The girl's eyes were clear and bright, large and almond-shaped, with jet-black pupils and sharply defined whites.

In his previous life, Xu Qi'an had only seen such clear, beautiful eyes in children.

"The contents are rather abstruse and profound. I'm afraid you won't understand them if I merely recite them. They require a meticulous explanation before they can take deep root." Xu Qi'an dangled the bait.

Chu Caiwei rolled her eyes, unconvinced. "Across the Nine Provinces, when it comes to Alchemy, we sorcerers of the Directorate of Astronomy stand at the very top."

"Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorus." Xu Qi'an rattled them off as if he could recite them backward.

"???"

What was he talking about? The girl was bewildered for a long moment, then her willow brows shot up. "You're messing with me. When the Directorate of Astronomy takes in disciples, we only take children."

She snatched the sugarcane back from Xu Qi'an's hand.

She walked away with light steps, her skirt fluttering.

I'm a virgin too. Xu Qi'an opened his mouth, then understood: the Directorate of Astronomy took in disciples from childhood.

Well, that road's closed.

Two days passed in a flash. Xu Qi'an spent them in his cell, fearing for his life.

He was afraid the tax silver wouldn't be recovered in time. If it was found after he had been exiled, even recovering it wouldn't change his fate.

And if Prefect Chen was a black-hearted maggot who claimed all the credit for himself, it would still be a dead end.

But there was nothing he could do. He had done all he could. What more could a prisoner do?

Once again, Xu Qi'an felt how terrifying feudal society was.

"Let fate take its course," Xu Qi'an lamented.

Clang!

The iron door at the end of the corridor opened. A jailer came in holding a poker, took out his keys, and unlocked the cell. "Xu Qi'an, you can go!"

Xu Qi'an was overjoyed. He clenched his fists hard. "Has the tax silver been recovered?"

"Come with me to sign and leave your handprint, and you can go." The jailer scrutinized him. "You really are hard to kill, kid."

"What about my second uncle?" Xu Qi'an pressed urgently.

"Cut the nonsense and follow me." The jailer had a terrible temper. He rapped Xu Qi'an's pert backside with the poker and herded him out of the cell.

An official at the yamen had him sign and leave his handprint. Then the jailer returned the clothes that had been stripped from him when he was thrown into prison.

A yamen runner led him out of the Capital Prefecture's yamen through the back gate.

By then, the eastern sky was beginning to brighten, and the streets were cold and deserted.

Clang!

The sound of the iron door opening jolted Xu Pingzhi awake. He opened his eyes, which were bloodshot.

Disheveled and filthy, Xu Pingzhi bore some resemblance to Xu Qi'an. His own son, Xu Xinnian, on the other hand, had features that were far too handsome and looked quite different from both of them.

In the cell across the corridor, Li Ru shuddered in her sleep and woke with a start. Her face was haggard, and an expression of utter terror appeared on it.

The couple looked at each other across the corridor. Li Ru said miserably, "Husband, even if I die, I won't enter the Imperial Music Bureau."

She was thirty-five and had taken good care of herself, a beautiful woman with abundant charm. Even after five days of fear in prison had left her haggard, the allure in her eyes and features was hard to conceal.

What kind of place was the Imperial Music Bureau?

It was a purgatory for women.

Covered in wounds, Xu Pingzhi opened his mouth but couldn't speak. Suddenly, hot tears streamed down his face. "My wife, I've wronged you. We'll go to the Yellow Springs together, and in our next lives I'll be your ox and horse to make it up to you. I only pity the children, and my nephew."

The five days had passed. What awaited him was the executioner's blade, while the women of the family faced the Imperial Music Bureau. Besides Li Ru, the Xu Household had two daughters: the eldest, a girl of sixteen, and the youngest, only five.

They were curled up in a corner of the cell, and now they, too, woke with a start.

The five-year-old rubbed her eyes and murmured, "Mother." She knew nothing of her fate.

The sixteen-year-old sat up, her disheveled hair framing a fair, oval face. Her small mouth was thin-lipped and rosy, and her eyes were large and lively. Unlike most women's small, delicate noses, hers was high and straight, giving her features a particularly sculpted look that made her exquisitely beautiful.

She had the beauty of a still sculpture.

She instinctively edged closer to her mother, her thick eyelashes trembling slightly with fear.

Several jailers strode in, sabers hanging at their waists.

Despair and resolve flashed in Li Ru's eyes.

Xu Pingzhi gripped the bars with both hands, his knuckles white and his teeth clenched tight. He had lost the tax silver and neglected his duty, and he believed he deserved to die. But having dragged his wife and daughters down with him, he couldn't die with his eyes closed.

His youngest daughter in particular was only five, yet she was to be sent to the Imperial Music Bureau to be raised. Her whole life would be shrouded in darkness.

As parents, how could they accept that?

"Xu Pingzhi, come out with us. You can leave after you sign and leave your handprints." The jailer opened the cell doors without putting them in shackles. Standing in the corridor, he tapped the bars with the butt of his saber, signaling for them to come out on their own.

"All my life, I, Xu Pingzhi, have loved my country and been loyal to my sovereign. My whole family has been loyal unto death-wait, what did you say?" Second Uncle Xu suspected he'd heard wrong.

What was that supposed to mean?

"We can leave? You just said we can leave." Xu Pingzhi could hardly believe it. "What's going on? Aren't you taking me out to be beheaded?"

"I don't know," the jailer said irritably. "Those are the orders from above. If you want to know, ask for yourself when you get out."

Baffled and apprehensive, Li Ru took her two daughters by the hand. The family followed the jailer silently toward the end of the corridor.

"H-husband, could they be lying to us?"

"How could they treat this so casually?" Xu Pingzhi was injured and walked with a limp. He was just as baffled, both joyful at having escaped death and bewildered by what was happening.

A thought occurred to Li Ru. "It was Xinnian. Xinnian must have been running around these past few days, using his connections on our behalf. That's why the court showed us mercy."

The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed. She said excitedly, "Husband, don't forget, Xinnian's teacher was the vice minister of punishments in the eighteenth year of Yuanjing's reign."

The eighteenth year of Yuanjing's reign... That was over twenty years ago. Xu Pingzhi felt something was wrong, but he couldn't think of anyone else he could count on, with no powerful backer in officialdom.

"Perhaps."

"I told you our Xinnian was a dragon among men. Back then, I wanted him to study martial arts, but you wouldn't agree. You insisted on having that little brat Xu Qi'an practice instead."

"Mother, bunnies are so cute. I want to eat bunnies." The youngest daughter tipped up her little face and gnawed on her pinky, her eyes practically spelling out the word "hungry."

"All you ever think about is eating," the short-tempered Li Ru scolded instinctively. Then, looking at her youngest daughter's dirty little face, she softened. "Be good. You'll have bunny to eat soon."

Xu Pingzhi couldn't be bothered to explain to her that her son had no talent for martial arts. No matter how many times he said it, his wife always ignored him.

In a mother's eyes, her son was always the best.

At the place where they were to sign and leave their handprints, Xu Pingzhi took a brush from a prefectural clerk. His fingers trembled slightly. After signing his name and pressing down his handprint, he felt as though he had undergone some kind of transformation.

He was like a seed buried deep underground, sending up a shoot and seeing sunlight.

The world had suddenly become so beautiful, even though he hadn't gained a single copper coin.

His wife and daughters didn't need to sign; they only had to leave their handprints.

Unable to contain his curiosity, Xu Pingzhi cupped his hands. "Sir, might I ask, why have our crimes been pardoned?"

Li Ru immediately looked at the clerk.

"The case has been solved, and the tax silver has been recovered," the clerk replied.

"The tax silver was recovered? Ha ha, good, good! Those damned fiends dared to rob Great Feng of its tax silver."

Second Uncle Xu was greatly heartened, but after laughing, he remembered that under Great Feng law, although the tax silver had been recovered, it was also true that he had neglected his duty.

He hadn't been the one to recover the tax silver, so why would the court spare him the death penalty?

Even if they dealt with him leniently, he should have been exiled to the frontier.

"Lord Xu, this is your official robe. Please take care of it." The clerk presented the green robe of a seventh-rank military official that had been taken from him earlier.

They've even restored me to my post. Xu Pingzhi realized something was amiss. As he took the robe, he said gravely, "Sir, could you clear up my confusion?"

With the official robe in hand, he had a little more confidence when referring to himself as an official.

By rights, even if his death sentence had been waived, he shouldn't have been restored to his post.

"Great Feng law stipulates that when an elder in a family breaks the law, a descendant may perform a meritorious deed to atone for his father," the clerk said.

"It really was Nian'er! Husband, Nian'er helped the court recover the tax silver!" Li Ru wept tears of joy.

"Nian'er." Xu Pingzhi's eyes grew moist. "My good son."

The clerk glanced at the excited couple. "It was your nephew, Xu Qi'an. He helped the prefect solve the Tax Silver Case. He only just left."

This chapter is three thousand Chinese characters long. You're not allowed to say it's short.