Kites Scatter Papers, Who Is the Du Clan?

The second day after the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The vice minister of the Court of Judicial Review and the Censorate were still investigating the matter of the moat, and the injured citizens had received treatment.

But the sight of the explosion that day had been so horrifying that, even though two days had passed, there was still no news. The citizens, who already believed in ghosts and gods, grew ever more frightened. They no longer dared go out to do business, venturing only around their homes or nearby.

The rumors also grew more and more rampant. People avoided every family surnamed Du as though fleeing a flood or a ferocious beast, whispering at the sight of them as if they were the "evildoers" in the warning of calamity, destined to suffer retribution from ghosts and gods.

This left other honest citizens surnamed Du in misery. They trembled with fear that someone in their families had committed some wicked deed that offended heaven and reason, while enduring their neighbors' pointing fingers. They were utterly exhausted in body and mind.

On a mountainside outside the city, where the wind blew toward the royal capital.

"No, everyone's hiding at home. Even if we scatter these, there's nobody to pick them up and read them."

Shao Lan scratched his head and stood on the mountain in great distress, looking out over the royal capital below. A bulging bundle was slung across his back.

The youth beside him, dressed in red and a little taller, kicked him. "Idiot, I'll fly the kites. You go scatter money in the streets. Be quick about it. The vice minister of the Court of Judicial Review and the officers are still investigating around the moat. Don't get caught."

After a pause, he added venomously, "And if you do get caught, don't give me up. Just kill yourself."

"Sss!"

The kick had made Shao Lan's backside ache. He rubbed it, displeasure written across his handsome face.

"Hey, why do I have to go?"

Shao Chi gave him a cold look. "Because you can't fly a kite."

"...You!"

Shao Lan flushed, flared up for a moment, and said, "Fine, I'll go into the city."

He had just started down the mountain when he remembered something.

"But I don't have any money..."

"What about the money Master had Chunzhi bring us a few days ago?" Shao Chi frowned.

"I gave it to the Information Pavilion. It's not like you don't know how much the Information Pavilion spends every day, not to mention the new recruits in training. Even our brothers in the Beggars' Sect went out begging for food today." He paused, then added with a pout, sounding aggrieved,

"Me too..."

There was no helping it. Master had too many people to support, but she was only a princess now, and once they had sucked her dry, she was a pauper.

"...Wait here." Shao Chi closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then reluctantly reached for the money pouch at his waist. Shao Lan didn't even have money for food anymore. He was stupid beyond saving.

But the pouch was empty...

Shao Chi's mouth twitched. He reached inside his clothes at his chest and felt around his waist again.

Still empty!

"Hehe, you don't have any money either." Shao Lan grinned, his eyes brimming with schadenfreude.

"Idiot, go find Wanniang and ask her to help us out." Shao Chi shot him a cold glare.

"Oh, fine, I'll go. You're so fierce."

Shao Lan pouted, and the sixteen-year-old went down the mountain humming a tune.

As noon approached.

No matter how frightened the citizens of the royal capital were, they still had to go out to buy food. Suddenly, kites appeared one after another in the sky above the city, all coming from the same direction.

It was the season for autumn outings, so there was nothing unusual about kites, and no one paid them much attention.

A blue-clad youth wearing a black mask stood atop a restaurant, casually tossing a cloth bag up and down in one hand. Seeing that there were few people about, he tossed down a few pieces of broken silver worth several taels and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Oh my, who dropped their silver in the street? Five hundred taels!!"

His shout rang out abruptly in the relatively quiet street.

The next moment.

"Clang!"

"Clang!"

A series of doors flew open.

"Ah, my silver! I'm the one who dropped it!"

"Bullshit! That's mine! Where's the silver? Where is it?!"

"Nobody touch it! That's mine, move aside! Hey, who's pulling my pants off?!"

The street, which had been desolate and quiet, was suddenly flooded with people. Every one of them bowed their heads, eyes glittering as they searched the street for the legendary five hundred taels.

Seeing the crowd grow, the masked Shao Lan grinned and took the bow and arrows from his back with one hand.

He nocked an arrow, aimed, and loosed it.

All in one smooth motion!

"Whoosh!!"

"Pop!" A stack of papers had been tied to the kite. When the arrow precisely pierced the string binding it, the papers immediately fluttered down from the sky.

"Ah, what's this?!"

"Didn't someone say there was money? Why is it paper? Hey, wait, what does this say?"

"I can read. Let me see... Wait!"

"What is it?"

"...This paper says the 'Du clan' on the river-suppressing stone tablet is actually a serving official, Du Chengji, the minister of punishments! Seven years ago, he drunkenly broke into a house and tried to defile a woman. When he failed, he smashed her skull in a rage, slit her throat, and drained her blood. Her parents-in-law, husband, and son came home and caught him. They tried desperately to stop him, but he killed them too, even the five-year-old child. His methods were so cruel that they outraged both man and god. Wei Ning, the vice minister of punishments, arrested him and brought him to justice, and the evidence was conclusive. But unexpectedly, a fire broke out, the criminal disappeared, and the evidence was burned. Seven years later, that villain transformed himself into the current empress dowager's own nephew, the former governor of Yu Prefecture, and now the minister of punishments!"

"What?! How could something so utterly inhuman have happened?!"

The surrounding citizens broke into an uproar, utterly shocked.

"Look, all these papers say the same thing!"

"The vengeful souls have come back to claim his life!"

The youth on the restaurant roof had long since disappeared, heading for the next kite to do the same again.

Soon, papers scattered through the sky above the royal capital like flying snow.

"What is this?"

The vice minister of the Court of Judicial Review, still investigating around the moat, noticed them too. He picked up a paper and read it, and his expression changed in an instant.

"This is bad! Quick, search for whoever made these papers! And collect every single one of them. Not one is to get out!"

Although the officers acted quickly, they were still too late. Shao Lan had known they were there and had deliberately saved this place for last; he had already finished everywhere else.

"Hey! Are you looking for me?!"

With a whistle, Shao Lan saw officers searching the street. He hid his bow and arrows in a flower bed on the restaurant roof, then turned and disappeared from sight.

"He's there! Stop!" The officers spotted him and immediately gave chase.

On the mountainside outside the city, Shao Chi saw that all the kites had been shot down and quickly withdrew as well.