Chapter 26: A Rabbit in a Hat, A Grievance

"Show it to old Zhu?"

Gu Zhengchen stood up and bowed deeply to the insightful Li Yi. "My deepest thanks, Magistrate."

Li Yi laughed heartily, patted Gu Zhengchen on the shoulder three times, and walked away with a grain reaper in hand.

"Master, was that the Magistrate?" Gu Cheng asked, utterly astonished.

Watching Li Yi’s retreating figure as he took small, measured steps, Gu Zhengchen suddenly realized the truth. His palm-leaf fan slipped from his hand, and he slapped his forehead in frustration. "Li Shanmei, you old fox!"

"Master..."

"Master your head! He took our reaper without paying a single copper!"

"But he is the Magistrate, sir."

"So what if he’s the Magistrate? Why should he take our property for nothing? Damn it! Does the county office have any sheep? The kind I can just 'happen' to lead away?"

Gu Cheng felt faint.

Gu Qingqing brought over some mulberries and held out her hands, stained a deep purple-black. "Brother, have a taste."

Gu Zhengchen accepted the mulberries and took a bite, a faint smile touching his lips.

Magistrate Li Yi had used the reaper to convey a hidden message: he had been recommended to the imperial court. As for the three pats on the shoulder, they weren't an invitation to sneak into the magistrate's residence at midnight, but a sign that if all went well, he had only three months left in Teng County.

Three months?

Gu Zhengchen looked at his younger sister, then toward his mother, who was picking mulberries in the distance. A trace of reluctance flickered in his eyes. According to the regulations of the Ming bureaucracy, local officials could bring their wives and servants to their posts, but not their parents or siblings. If he left, how would he settle his mother and sister?

At the county office, Li Yi instructed the Registrar, Sun Ang, to summon the village elders of Teng County. He demonstrated the reaper and ordered them to have such tools manufactured in their respective areas to expedite the wheat harvest. The elders, not daring to offend the Magistrate, promised to comply. They returned and reluctantly had a few reapers forged, resulting in a night of endless clanging from the blacksmith shops.

As dusk approached and Li Yi prepared to retire to the inner hall, the head of the bailiffs, Chen Sanxiu, rushed over, his face pale with alarm. "Magistrate, it is dire! A murder has occurred."

"A murder?" Li Yi’s expression turned somber. "Where and when?"

Chen Sanxiu quickly replied, "At the pond two hundred paces north of the government office. As for when, it is unknown; someone swimming in the pond discovered human remains."

"Remains?"

Li Yi summoned his secretary, the county assistant, and the coroner, and walked to the pond with Chen Sanxiu and the other bailiffs. The pond was not large, barely sixty paces in circumference. It was half a zhang deep at the edges, and only a zhang deep at its center. In the southeast corner, a wooden boat was tied to a washing stone with a thumb-thick hemp rope. To the west of the pond stood the white wall of Wang Fugui’s residence, and to the east was the ancestral home of the Liu family.

"Who discovered the remains?" Li Yi asked sternly.

A middle-aged man, shirtless and still dripping wet, stepped forward and knelt. "Magistrate, I am Zhou Er. The weather was simply too hot, I only wanted to take a bath..."

Li Yi’s face darkened. "Get to the point!"

Zhou Er shivered. "I dove into the water and found a corpse at the bottom of the pond, weighed down by stones..."

Li Yi frowned and looked at the head bailiff, Chen Sanxiu. Chen understood and led his men into the pond. Because visibility was poor underwater, it took nearly an hour to lift the body to the surface and bring it to the bank.

Torches were lit, and Li Yi covered his nose and mouth with a handkerchief, enduring the stench. The coroner stepped forward to examine the body. The flesh had completely rotted away, the chest bones were crushed in several places, and the coarse cloth clothing was tattered. The coroner carefully inspected the bones, discovering a wooden plaque at the neck. He cleaned it and handed it to Li Yi. "Magistrate, the skull has multiple cracks. He was likely killed by a blunt object before being sunk into the pond. It is difficult to estimate the time of death, but it may have been years ago."

"Gu Fei!"

Li Yi took the plaque, and his expression shifted violently as he read the characters. The secretary, Yan Bin, shivered as he leaned in to look. It was indeed the characters "Gu Fei" on the plaque!

The county assistant, Jin Dache, felt the name sounded familiar but could not place it. Li Yi’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he looked at Jin Dache with a heavy expression. "In the first year of Hongwu, the imperial court launched the northern expedition and conscripted civilians to transport supplies. Over three thousand men from Teng County were drafted. After the army captured Dadu, three hundred remained in service, and over two thousand four hundred returned. More than two hundred died for various reasons. If my memory serves, the name 'Gu Fei' was among those two hundred!"

Jin Dache suddenly recalled that Gu Fei was none other than the father of the local scholar, Gu Zhengchen from Dayan Village!

"This... how can this be?" Jin Dache was horrified. How could a dead man return alive, only to be beaten to death and sunk in this pond?

Li Yi’s face was grim as he ordered Jin Dache, "Transport the body to the office for a thorough investigation! Additionally, have the registrar and the clerk bring out the old conscription rosters. I must inspect them myself!"

Yan Bin leaned toward Li Yi and whispered, "Magistrate, if Gu Fei’s name is on the list of the dead..."

Li Yi clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. "Then it means someone deliberately added his name!"

"There are few who could pull off such a feat," Yan Bin cautioned.

Li Yi knew this well. Only a handful of people in the entire county office had access to those rosters. However, this alone was not enough to pin the murder on anyone; if the culprit insisted it was a clerical error, the charge would not hold.

"Someone must have seen Gu Fei in this vicinity!" Li Yi scanned the pond and the surrounding streets.

Yan Bin was worried. "Five or six years have passed; it will not be easy to investigate. Furthermore, Teng County was unstable in the first year of Hongwu, with many bandits roaming about."

Li Yi snorted and pointed at the pond. "It could not have been wandering bandits. Bandits kill for wealth in an instant; why would they go to the trouble of sinking a body and weighting it down with stones? Whoever killed Gu Fei must have had a grudge against him! Head bailiff, go and invite Gu Zhengchen here, but be careful not to disturb the rest of the Gu family."

Chen Sanxiu agreed and hurried away. Li Yi held a torch and walked along the pond, stopping to gaze into the water. "To sink a body into the center of the pond, one would need a boat. Whose boat is this?"

Yan Bin quickly sent someone to inquire. Before long, the bailiff returned: "The wooden boat belongs to the family of Wang Fugui."

"The Wang family?" Li Yi narrowed his eyes and looked at Yan Bin.

Yan Bin glanced at the Wang residence wall and whispered, "Magistrate, this cannot be a coincidence."

Li Yi did not reply. He continued walking until he reached a dilapidated alleyway. He suddenly stopped, stepped back, and shone his torch onto the wall. On the white wall was a vivid drawing of a rabbit, but strangely, the rabbit was wearing an official’s hat.

Yan Bin frowned. "Who is so bold as to mock the government?"

Li Yi stared at the rabbit for a long time before speaking. "A rabbit wearing a hat—this is the character for 'injustice.' Perhaps someone saw something but dared not speak out, and thus chose this way to cry out for justice!"