CHAPTER 20

When sympathetic friends meet, kindness is repaid with kindness; resentment cherished in the heart of an inferior man brings grievous injury

AS Gao Guoqin examined the object he had picked up, he saw that it was a bundle containing two rolls of fabric. When he opened the bundle, he and Li Seming could see by the bright moonlight that the edges of the cloth were marked with a name, the Ever-Flourishing Silk Shop. Li Seming said, “The name on those two rolls is not that of one of our Yuhang prefecture firms. We have two silk shops in Yuhang, both called Ever Following Heaven’s Guidance. I do not know where the Ever-Flourishing Silk Shop can be.”

Gao Guoqin said, “We will stand here and wait. If someone comes who says that he has lost his silk, we will give it to him. If this were lost by someone who had been sent on an errand by his master, the matter could be most serious for him.”

The two men stood there for quite a long time, but did not see anyone come looking for the silk. Li Seming then said, “It is now quite late. Let us go back to my house and wait until tomorrow. If we find anyone who is looking for the silk and describes it, we will consider the matter ended. If no one comes, we will put up notices about the two rolls. This action will show that we did not want to hide them.”

Gao Guoqin said, “First, I must go to inform Wang Chengbi about my situation. He gave me some notes that I was to change into silver, a small part of which I was to use to buy some things. He wanted me to come back and drink some wine with him. It was because I lost the silver that I was thinking of committing suicide. If I do not go back now, I fear that he will suspect me of stealing.”

Li Seming countered, “First come home with me, brother, and then I will send one of my household servants to him with a message. Then tomorrow you may take me to meet him.”

As they talked, they continued on their way until they reached the home of Li Seming at the West Gate. The front gate was not completely closed. They pushed it open and entered.

Before they reached the second gate, which closed off the inner courtyard, Gao Guoqin could see a light shining through the window lattice of a house with three sections on the west side of the outer courtyard. Gao Guoqin said, “It is very late now. Tomorrow I will go within, but tonight let us just sit in that room and talk.”

Li Seming said, “Those three sections are rented out. I really do not bother about rent money, because I am often away from home and I need to have someone live there to keep an eye on the outer gate.” Gao Guoqin nodded. They went on to the second gate and knocked.

A serving woman opened the gate from inside, saying, “Ah, the master has returned.”

Li Seming said, “Go in and tell your mistress that my kind friend Gao Guoqin has come.”

The old woman went in. Before long they heard a voice say, “Please enter.” The two men then walked through the inner courtyard and into the principal house.

After Li’s wife, Ho Shi, had politely come to greet their guest, Li Se ming told the old serving woman, “Have several kinds of dishes prepared. We two brotherly friends will go to eat in the east building.”

The two then went there to sit and under the lamplight opened the rolled up fabric to look at it. Li Seming said, “These two rolls are a real treasure. I simply do not know where the Ever-Flourishing Silk Shop is located. Tomorrow we will post notices, and if anyone answers and tells a satisfactory story, we will give him the silk. If no one claims it, why not use it to make two long gowns—one for you and one for me?”

Gao Guoqin answered, “Yes, but tomorrow, dear friend, you will go with me to see Wang Chengbi. If he had not saved me, I would already have been beneath the Nine Yellow Springs. He is a friend who truly seems to be sincere and straightforward, a prince of a man who treated me from the first as if he had always known me. I feel very grateful to him. Good friends are not easy to find.”

Li Seming said, “Good. Tomorrow I will go with you to meet that friend of yours.” After the two had finished drinking and talking together, they slept peacefully in the east room.

The next morning the two men awoke and were drinking tea together when they heard someone shout: “Li Seming! Do you have a man named Gao Guoqin staying with you?” The shouts from the outer courtyard continued. The two men stood up, went outside, and opened the gate to see who was calling. There stood two headmen with four underlings, all wearing dark kerchiefs and dark clothing, with uniform jackets. Each wore a leather belt and boots and carried a wooden staff with an iron tip. One of the heads was named Qin Lushou. The other, Dong Shichang, asked, “Friend, you are named Gao, are you not, and is your personal name not Guoqin?”

Gao Guoqin replied, “That is not wrong. Why do you two ask?”

Dong Shichang immediately took iron fetters and locked them upon the wrists of Gao Guoqin. Li Seming started to protest, and he was locked in irons as well.

One of the heads said, “We will now enter the inner courtyard and search for stolen property.” Searching everywhere, they soon brought out the two rolls of silk.

Li Seming asked the two men, “Headmen, why have you manacled us?”

Headman Qin answered, “We have here a warrant by which the highest official of the prefecture urgently dispatched us to arrest you, but we two have no reason to mistreat you, nor would we dare to mistreat anyone who is arrested. We take no pleasure in mistreating people. Whatever you may have done, you yourselves know. Therefore, why should you ask us?”

The headmen said to the underlings, “Take them away with as little talk as possible. When you get to the yamen, you will all understand.” The men were taken away quickly, along with the two bolts of silk. When the party reached the prefecture yamen, Gao Guoqin and Li Seming were taken inside.

At this time everyone was waiting for the magistrate, who was away on official business and had not yet returned. After they all had waited until the sun was approaching the horizon in the west, the magistrate came into the yamen and took his seat upon the bench.

There were three classes of underlings who stood during court and served by assisting in carrying out the magistrate’s court functions and by maintaining a sense of orderliness. First were the robust and vigorous fellows who acted as bailiffs, either serving summonses or as guards, or performed other similar tasks in which they might have to overawe the accused. Second were the ugly fellows who acted as jailers or executioners, beating the prisoners with bamboo and applying other tortures. Third were the quick fellows who acted as constables and detectives, serving warrants and uncovering hidden criminal activities.

The magistrate’s surname was Wu and his personal name was Daoguei. He had entered into government life through the competitive public examinations. As soon as he had begun his duties, he had kept away from anything questionable, as if he were a saintly immortal. No taint of improper influence had ever touched his sleeves. He loved the common people as if they were his children. He truly went through his life neglecting nothing, and his gate was never closed at night to anyone who had a complaint.

This evening he took his seat in the court and prepared to take up the business at hand. He began at once with the case of the armed attack upon the Ever-Following Heaven’s Guidance Silk Shop, during which the owner had been wounded with a knife and fifty bolts of silk had been stolen, together with a thousand ounces of silver. Now the alleged head of the robbers, Gao Guoqin, with his accomplice, Li Seming, had been captured.

The bailiffs immediately brought the two men before the bench. They knelt and identified themselves.

“Gao Guoqin, bachelor degree graduate, kowtows to his lordship above!”

“Li Seming, an insignificant person, kowtows to his lordship above.”

The magistrate looked down and saw Gao Guoqin, polished and gentlemanly with upright deportment and extreme politeness, whose clear and regular features and facial aspect had no suggestion of baleful criminality. Then the magistrate shot a question at him. “You slave, Gao Guoqin, when you and the rest committed the armed robbery at the Ever-flourishing Silk Shop, how many men did you have with you and where did you take your loot? Explain in detail!”

Upon hearing this, Gao Guoqin replied, “Revered as my father above, this student is a man of books and knows nothing about the Ever-Flourishing Silk Shop, nor any armed robbery.”

The magistrate struck the desk and gave a look that frightened the entire yamen, saying, “Ha! Seize him for interrogation! Though not one in ten thousand wishes to confess at first, after interrogation they all do! Drag him here and beat him for me.”

Gao Guoqin said, “Do not be angry, good father. This graduate speaks sincerely. About the robbery of the silk shop and the wounding of the proprietor, I truly know nothing. If you beat me during the examination, it will only be to make me say something that is not true and about which I know nothing.”

The magistrate said, “As I see it, you are a base-hearted person with a long experience in crime, and you certainly stole from the silk shop. If you do not understand why I believe so, then why were these two bolts of silk in your possession?”

Gao Guoqin answered, “Yesterday evening this graduate was outside the southwest corner of the wall and I found the silk. I had intended to put up notices about it today in order to find the owner and return it to them. It had never occurred to me that we would be brought here. This is a true account of what happened.”

When the magistrate heard this, he took the two bolts of silk into his hands to examine them. At the same time he ordered that Wang Hai, the proprietor of the Ever-Following Heaven’s Guidance Silk Shop, be brought into court. Before long a man was seen coming in from the outside. He was about fifty years of age with a broad round face. He seemed to be a worthy, simple, and straightforward person. He knelt and kowtowed. The magistrate had one of the court underlings take the two bolts of silk down to Wang Hai, saying, “Look and see if these were something usually sold by your shop. If so, were they taken from your shop by the robbers? In a matter of such importance we cannot be careless.”

Wang Hai took the rolls, and after looking at them said, “Your worship, these two bolts of silk are very clearly among those taken by the robbers.”

When the magistrate heard this, he asked, “How do you know that they were stolen by the robbers? What evidence is there of the fact? Explain.”

Wang Hai said, “To reply to your worship about the proof, in my store the goods on the shelves are only marked with the words Ever-flourishing Silk Shop. They do not have the imprint of our own shop seal. If someone comes to us to buy silk, at the time of the purchase we stamp the goods with our seal. The words on this seal are a reasonable profit, with characters formed in the ornamental style. This silk is not stamped with our seal. Because of this fact, I know that the bolts were taken, and not purchased, by the robbers.”

The magistrate prepared to come down from the bench. Gao Guoqin knelt again as he realized the meaning of what had been said. The magistrate asked, “Gao Guoqin, did you hear that?” Then the magistrate commanded, “Have the instruments of torture affixed to Gao Guoqin, and afterward we will question him again.”

Gao Guoqin said, “Truly, your worship, this graduate found the silk. The robbers took it, and perhaps they lost it and I found it. What proof does the magistrate have that I am the robber? Can’t this be investigated?”

When the magistrate heard this, he suddenly became very angry. Frightening everyone in the yamen, he shouted, “You low creature! It is clear that you are a habitual criminal. How do you dare to attempt such deception in this district? You still say that the prefecture is treating you wrongfully. Attendants, left and right! Have the eyewitness brought forward.”

When Gao Guoqin heard that there was an eyewitness, he was so frightened that his face changed color. Then he saw the attendants leading a man forward from one side of the courtroom. When Gao Guoqin looked at him, however, he did not recognize him, but saw only a man somewhat over twenty years old with a dark blue kerchief on his head. The man was wearing a short, dark cloth jacket over a dark-blue shirt and pants, a white sash and dark shoes. He had a grayish face with darker touches, eyebrows like the spurs of a fighting cock, and a pair of eyes like the bottoms of teacups. His nose and lips were thin, his forehead and face were narrow, and his rather large chin slanted back into emptiness.

Li Seming recognized him as soon as he saw him. He was the man who lived in the three-sectioned building in the outer courtyard of Li’s home. He was supposed to watch the outer gate. His name was Leng Er. The neighbors called him Leng, and nicknamed him “the Unwatchful.” He usually attempted to borrow money without returning it. His heart was filled with vengeful thoughts. Leng was a person who lived from day to day. He could not take care of his wife, who went out to work for other people. He spent his days at home spinning schemes and plans and nursing his hatred for Li Seming, who would no longer lend him money.

On the evening of the day that Li Seming brought Gao Guoqin home, Leng was there sitting in his room, vexed and melancholy, when he heard the voice of Li Seming’s wife inviting someone to come in. Unwatchful Leng thought, “Li Seming does not ordinarily invite friends home. Perhaps there is some business afoot.” He peeked out, saw Gao Guoqin with Li Seming, and heard Li Seming say Gao Guoqin’s name. Leng went to the inner gate and stood listening. He heard Li Seming say that the two bolts of silk they had picked up came from the Ever-Flourishing Silk Shop, and that, if no one claimed them, “we two could make two gowns from them.” Leng, as he was listening, recalled that a short time before, there had been an armed robbery at the Ever-Following Heaven’s Guidance Silk Shop and that the case had not yet been solved.

“Tomorrow,” Leng decided, “I will go to the yamen and I will make this crime stick to Li Seming like plaster is stuck to a sore. I will simply say that he is a receiver of stolen goods. He really deserves to be hated, getting so rich. I went to him to borrow a few strings of cash and he would not lend them to me. I will let him know how dangerous I am, and if I want to borrow money again, he will not dare to refuse to lend it to me.”

In this frame of mind, early the next morning Leng went to the district offices and asked who the headman was. Someone said that it was Qin Lingshou and that it was his watch. Leng went in to see him and asked, “Headman Qin, about the case of the armed robbery at the silk shop—do you have anything on the investigation?”

Headman Qin replied, “We haven’t.”

Leng said, “Li Seming, the landlord in our courtyard, has received a quantity of stolen goods. Yesterday the head of a band of robbers, Gao Guoqin, stayed at Li Seming’s house. The two men were negotiating all through the night. I clearly heard Li Seming say, ‘Bring it here and I will send you word.’”

When Headman Qin heard this, he said, “Very good. I will take you to see our magistrate,” and sent someone with a message to the magistrate. The magistrate immediately went into the courtroom and sent for Leng to come and talk with him.

Leng went in and knelt saying, “Your Worship, this insignificant person lives in the house of Li Seming. I often see him greeting and talking to evil-looking people as they go in and out of his house. Last evening Gao Guoqin, the head of a band of robbers, was in the house talking about the armed robbery at the Ever-flourishing Silk Shop and the stabbing of the proprietor. I have nothing against my landlord, but I feared that, if I did not report this matter to Your Worship, I would be guilty of letting the robbers escape.”

The magistrate then ordered, first, that Leng should be taken out of the courtroom. The magistrate further ordered that Qin Lingshou and Dong Shichang should immediately go to bring back Gao Guoqin and Li Seming in irons. After these two were in court and the magistrate called for the eyewitness, the constables were then to bring Leng forward.