IBGSW Chapter 162
Commoners in Troubled Times
As they walked through the village, Zhao Fusheng kept looking left and right.
As she had seen earlier, Kuailiang Village was less a village than a small town. The village streets were far neater than those of Goutou Village, which she had visited. Some villagers ran businesses. There were people selling wine, people selling mountain goods and herbs, and even a cloth shop.
“Sixth Uncle, your village seems a lot better off than the villages I’ve been to,” Zhao Fusheng said, glancing at Sixth Uncle, who walked next to her.
The old fellow knew his place. He had to lead the way, so he had no choice but to walk with her, but he kept half a step behind, always putting her in front. When she spoke, Sixth Uncle smiled and said:
“Our village really isn’t doing badly.” He sounded rather proud when he spoke of it. “Your Honor has probably heard that the mountain behind our village is rich in white perilla. The herb treats headaches, dizziness, insomnia and restless sleep, and calms the soul. Plenty of older people who can’t sleep well or whose minds are unsettled take white perilla and find it works every time.”
“So every year when the perilla is growing, many outsiders come to buy. They have to wait here while it’s picked and dried, so they eat and lodge here, and the quick-witted villagers have opened eateries and taverns.”
Sixth Uncle was sharp too. He could tell that Zhao Fusheng’s eyes had fallen on the nearby shops as soon as she entered the village, so he explained for her benefit:
“Sometimes when someone has a headache or fever, they buy medicine here too. Because of these trades, our village really does have an easier time than other villages.”
Before setting out, Zhao Fusheng had heard Magistrate Pang say a little about Kuailiang Village, but Sixth Uncle’s explanation was much more detailed than the magistrate’s. She nodded and asked, as if making idle conversation:
“Does your family dig white perilla and sell it too?”
“We do,” Sixth Uncle answered. “My old lady and I had six sons, all of them married, and they gave me eleven grandchildren. The oldest grandson already has a family. The whole household goes up the mountain to dig perilla, and we earn quite a bit a year.”
“That many people? How much silver does your family make in a year?” Zhao Fusheng asked, her interest piqued.
“My sons and grandsons, and the daughters-in-law and granddaughters-in-law, are all capable and quick, and they dig fast. Just in May and June, those two months, we can earn seventeen or eighteen taels of silver.”
“That much!” Wu Shaochun exclaimed.
Sixth Uncle’s eyes crinkled with a smile.
“Add the farming every year, and over the whole year it comes to fifty or sixty taels.”
When Zhao Fusheng had handled the ghost case in Goutou Village, she had chatted with Wu Dajing, the village elder there, and so had a rough picture of how the common people lived. Making fifty or sixty taels a year was indeed well off.
“How much do you pay in tax each year?” Zhao Fusheng asked again.
“My household is large, twenty-six people in all. The Demon-Suppression Bureau levy alone is thirty taels a year, and on top of that there are various head taxes, about thirteen taels altogether.”
Those taxes alone already came to forty-three taels. Sixth Uncle went on:
“The land tax is five sheng and seven shao per mu1. Our village is one clan, so we don’t count too carefully who owes what. Whoever had a good harvest pays a bit more. Over a year it comes to about eleven or twelve taels.”
“So at the end you’re left with only five or six taels?”
Fan Wujiu said, puzzled:
“How is that well off?”
In the heyday of Wan’an County, an ordinary three-person family in the county spent over one tael a year. Sixth Uncle’s household of twenty-six had only five or six taels left over, which showed how impoverished they actually were.
“That’s already enough. At least there’s something left over.”
Hearing Fan Wujiu’s words, Sixth Uncle was not annoyed. Instead he said with a contented smile:
“Plenty of other villages are in debt every year, and when New Year comes, the creditors can hound a man to death. Our village at least pays its taxes in full, doesn’t starve, and owes no one money. That’s already a good thing.”
“...”
Hearing this, Zhao Fusheng fell silent.
Zhang Chuanshi snuck glances at her from the corner of his eye, thinking this official was truly peculiar. He had gone on two cases with Zhao Fusheng, and both times she had chatted with the villagers about taxes and livelihoods, none of which had anything to do with the ghost case. What was the point of asking?
Zhang Chuanshi couldn’t work out what she was thinking, but he didn’t ask. He had no interest in how the villagers lived, and turned to look about.
As they talked, they arrived at Sixth Uncle’s house.
Compared with the other homes, Sixth Uncle’s household had many people, and the house took up quite a lot of ground. Next to it stood an exquisitely carved wooden archway, with the words Kuai Clan Ancestral Hall written on it. Behind the archway was the main gate of Kuailiang Village’s ancestral hall.
Under the darkness of night, the ancestral hall stood open, its interior deep and dark. By the firelight from outside, one could just make out the entrance, but the farther in you looked, the more it seemed like spilled ink, and beyond a certain depth nothing could be seen at all.
A sinister wind laced with a fishy stench blew out of the hall, as if from a bottomless pit, making people shiver.
“This is our Kuailiang Village ancestral hall. My family has served as its gatekeepers for generations, so we live next door to the clan hall,” Sixth Uncle said with a smile, seeing Zhao Fusheng halt at the gate.
Zhao Fusheng’s gaze had fallen on the depths of the hall. She nodded and asked:
“May I go in?”
As soon as she asked, the villagers’ expressions stiffened and showed resistance.
Sixth Uncle’s face grew awkward too.
Since the two sides first met, he had yielded and backed down at every turn and carried himself with magnanimity, and the two sides had at last come to coexist peacefully. Now one sentence from Zhao Fusheng had again upset the balance they had been holding.
His face wavered, and after a while he shook his head anyway:
“Your Honor, every village has its own rules.”
“What rules?” Zhao Fusheng asked.
“Our village’s rule is that no one who isn’t surnamed Kuai, and no woman, may enter the ancestral hall.” When he spoke of “rules,” Sixth Uncle’s expression gradually hardened. It was as though Zhao Fusheng, by asking to enter the hall, had touched the old man’s sore spot. “I respect you honored guests coming from afar, and I hope you will not make things difficult for us.”
The harmonious atmosphere grew tense again from this short exchange, and Zhang Chuanshi secretly studied Zhao Fusheng’s expression.
He knew a little about this current commanding officer of the bureau. She had an especially domineering side and disliked being refused. Sometimes she was patient and sometimes she acted rashly, and she was hard to predict in any case. Sixth Uncle’s refusal might well stir up her anger...
Just as Zhang Chuanshi was letting his mind wander, he suddenly heard someone call out:
“Husband.”
A large crowd was already waiting at the front door of Sixth Uncle’s house.
The villagers who had run ahead had brought word earlier, and Sixth Uncle’s whole household was already up and waiting for the honored guests to arrive. His sons and grandsons were grown, and his eldest grandson was even married, yet the family had not divided its household and seemed to live all together.
An elderly woman stood in the doorway holding a small child and peering out. Behind her stood her sons and daughters-in-law. When they saw Sixth Uncle’s party arrive in a great procession, they looked delighted.
Seeing that Sixth Uncle’s party had stood at the ancestral hall gate for a while, the old woman with the child spoke up and broke the silence.
At her voice, the sharpness in Zhao Fusheng’s eyes gradually softened. She turned to look at the newcomer, and Sixth Uncle, without meaning to, breathed a sigh of relief.
The unpleasant subject was closed, and both sides tacitly dropped the matter of entering the Kuai Clan Ancestral Hall.
The old woman greeted Sixth Uncle, then her eyes fell on Zhao Fusheng and the others, and she asked:
“And these honored guests are—”
“Guests invited by Precinct Chief Zhou. What are you all doing standing here? Have you killed the chicken and set out the wine?”
Sixth Uncle answered, then frowned.
He held great standing in his household, and when his sons and grandsons heard him, they hurried to answer:
“Father, the chicken’s killed and the fire’s lit. We were afraid of being rude, so we came out to welcome the guests first, and we’ll go set the table right away.”
Sixth Uncle nodded in satisfaction, then said to Zhao Fusheng:
“Your Honor, please don’t mind our humble house.”
“Not at all.”
Zhao Fusheng shook her head, and under Sixth Uncle’s courteous guidance, the party went into the house.
After passing through the front gate, a large courtyard came into Zhao Fusheng’s view.
Rooms had been built around the courtyard on all sides, likely the dwellings of Sixth Uncle’s sons and grandsons. Faded couplets were pasted beside the doors, and dried grasses and plant seeds hung from the walls. Several big jars were piled under the eaves, with water stains left in the corners and a few wooden basins set out. A freshly killed chicken lay in one basin, giving off a strong smell of blood.
Directly opposite the courtyard gate was Sixth Uncle’s main hall. The door stood open, and inside was a big wooden table with long benches set out neatly.
Once everyone was inside, Sixth Aunt put down the child she had been holding and warmly invited everyone to sit. A woman of about forty brought over a big plate of roasted melon seeds and shyly urged them to help themselves.
A household like this completely overturned the impression Zhao Fusheng had formed when she first heard about the Kuailiang Village tragedy. She frowned and began to wonder whether Zhuang Laoqi, now dead, had been spouting nonsense and deceiving her with lies.
“I’ll get straight to the point. We’re not people sent by Precinct Chief Zhou. We’re from the Wan’an County Demon-Suppression Bureau.”
At Zhao Fusheng’s words, everyone from Kuailiang Village gasped in shock.
Sixth Uncle had doubted the identity of Zhao Fusheng’s party from the start, and had suspected that she might not be court personnel at all. But he could tell she was out of the ordinary, and Fan Wujiu looked like a man not to be trifled with, so maybe they were not ordinary people either. Later, hearing her ask about taxes, he had decided he had misjudged them and that the party must be envoys sent by the court.
He hadn’t expected that she would now admit herself that Precinct Chief Zhou had not sent them, yet that they were court people nonetheless, and from the county Demon-Suppression Bureau at that. That put them in a far higher league than Sixth Uncle had imagined.
The people of Kuailiang Village froze.
They looked at one another, not daring to make a sound.
Even Sixth Aunt instinctively pulled the grandson she had set down back into her arms and covered his mouth with her hand, afraid the child might be reckless and ignorant and offend Her Honor.
“Your Honor—”
After a long while, Sixth Uncle hesitantly spoke up, looking at Zhao Fusheng and the others:
“Are you really from the Demon-Suppression Bureau?”
“We really are from the Wan’an County Demon-Suppression Bureau. I’m the commanding officer, and these are the order envoys who accompany me,” Zhao Fusheng said with a nod.
“This...”
The party’s status instantly made everyone in the room unconsciously tone down their movements. Even the most worldly Sixth Uncle became more constrained and seemed at a loss.
Deep down, he still held some doubt, but the three words “Demon-Suppression Bureau” pressed on his heart like a mountain and kept him from voicing any challenge.
Zhao Fusheng simply said:
“Our county recently took on a menial worker, who came from Zhuang Family Village.”
At the name “Zhuang Family Village,” Sixth Uncle’s tense expression loosened, and he turned instinctively to look at Sixth Aunt. Sixth Aunt seemed unable to find a place to put her hands and feet. She wanted to speak but didn’t know how to cut in at such an occasion.
“This man called himself Zhuang Laoqi.”
When she mentioned Zhuang Laoqi, Sixth Aunt suddenly let out a long sigh:
“Oh, him. That’s my third uncle’s boy.”
Sixth Uncle quickly looked as though it had dawned on him:
“Shouqiang. Zhuang Shouqiang, the one who’s so good at drinking, young as he is.”
“Right, right.”
Once he said that, others seemed to remember Zhuang Laoqi too and began talking over one another:
“A very honest man. The year before last, before New Year, we had a drink together when we went visiting relatives.”
Other villagers chimed in.
When they spoke of someone they knew, the atmosphere grew warm again.
Zhao Fusheng watched without letting it show. After Sixth Uncle finished speaking, he seemed a little nervous:
“Did, did that boy get himself into trouble in the county?”
He stood up, rubbing his hands.
“Don’t tell me Your Honor has come here to have us pay money to ransom him?”
At his words, the other people’s smiles faltered.
“We don’t have much money this year—” a woman behind Sixth Aunt muttered under her breath, and a bearded big man turned and scolded her:
“Shut up!”
“We’re all relatives. If Zhuang Shouqiang really did get into trouble and needs money to buy his freedom, we can scrape something together,” said one of the men in the crowd.
Kuai Mancai, who held the pitchfork, hadn’t come into the room and was leaning in the doorway. Hearing this, he was displeased:
“But he’s a Zhuang. What does he have to do with us Kuais?”
“What do you mean, nothing? Our Kuai and Zhuang families are in-laws,” answered one of Sixth Uncle’s sons.
Kuai Mancai said:
“In the past it was fine to call us in-laws, but now how do the people of Zhuang Family Village have the face to say so?”
“You shut your mouth!” Sixth Uncle flew into a rage at this, stood up, and shouted flushed with anger, the veins standing out in his neck.
His prestige in the village was high, and once he spoke, the other villagers fell silent.
“Your Honor, Zhuang Shouqiang does have family ties with us. I watched that boy grow up, and he’s an honest fellow. If he’s caused some great trouble and needs money to ransom him, name a number, Your Honor, and our village will pool what we can and see if we can manage it,” Sixth Uncle said.
Zhao Fusheng tilted her head back and looked at him for a good while.
The old man’s face was calm and his eyes clear and upright. He really didn’t look like a man full of wicked schemes.
An idea stirred in her, and she shook her head:
“No need. He won’t need money to be ransomed.”
“Such a serious offense?” Sixth Uncle said in shock. “What did he do?”
“He’s dead,” Zhao Fusheng replied.
When she said this, everyone froze.
Sixth Aunt, holding the child, was at a loss for what to do, and even Kuai Mancai, who had been so sour earlier at the mention of “Zhuang Family Village,” didn’t dare make a sound.
At first Sixth Uncle couldn’t believe it. Then dismay and regret came into his eyes:
“He, how did he die—”
“He was killed by a malignant ghost.” After Zhao Fusheng said this, Sixth Uncle’s house fell into a deathly stillness.
