Fan Changyu turned her head and shouted at Jin Laosan and his group, “What are you crying out for?”

Jin Laosan replied awkwardly, “Isn’t this the son-in-law you took in?”

Fan Changyu was momentarily stifled, and instinctively glanced at Xie Zheng. His expression was calm, as if unmoved by Jin Laosan’s words. She breathed a sigh of relief, then continued, “He is indeed the husband I took in, but why do you follow him calling him ‘son-in-law’?”

Jin Laosan and his companions lowered their heads and kept silent, like a cluster of little brides not recognized by a wicked mother-in-law.

Fan Changyu watched, her temples twitching, then waved her hand and said, “I only brought you all to Wang Ji today to demand justice. Now that justice has been served, go back to your homes, and do not do those bullying men and overpowering women things again.”

Jin Laosan and his group obediently answered and left. Fan Changyu cast a furtive glance at Xie Zheng, who was standing not far off, and felt inexplicably a little guilty; but thinking she hadn’t done anything wicked, she folded up the sheet of paper in her hands, straightened her back, and walked over to ask, “Why are you here?”

Fine snow fell among Xie Zheng’s ink-black hair, making his brows and eyes appear even colder. “A few days ago the essay I wrote sold well. The bookshop owner took a liking to it and invited me out for a cup of tea. I heard you went to Wang Ji, so I came to see.”

Fan Changyu said in surprise, “To be favored by the bookshop owner—then your writing must be quite remarkable!”

Xie Zheng had not expected her to look ignorant yet know so much about these matters; he lowered his eyes to hide his thoughts and said, “I fled from Chongzhou; I understand more about the wartime situation there and the people’s hard lives. Even if what I write is crude, it’s something Lin’an Town hasn’t heard before, which is why the bookshop owner valued it. How did things with Wang Ji turn out?”

The latter sentence carried the intention of changing the subject.

Fan Changyu’s mind wasn’t as roundabout as his; she didn’t notice and, walking, relayed the Wang Ji incident to him: “…I didn’t hit anyone, I only kicked his chopping block, then used the butcher knife to cut his hair, and scared him into that state…”

Halfway through, Fan Changyu suddenly stopped talking, glanced at Xie Zheng, and then fell silent.

All the way he had just listened to her animatedly recounting what happened in Wang Ji’s shop without speaking. Now that she suddenly quieted, he tilted his head and asked, “Why did you stop?”

He was truly handsome; his delicate brows and eyes seemed drawn with an ink brush. When his gaze was half- lowered, the jet-black pupils no longer carried the usual impatience at the corner of his eyes, and unexpectedly gave a slight impression of chilliness and gentleness.

When Fan Changyu met his eyes she suddenly felt embarrassed. She scratched her head and said, “Do you also think I’m too crude?”

Xie Zheng’s eye corners rose slightly, showing some surprise at her question, then he said, “No.”

Placed before his misfortune he would have thought so, but now he would not.

Only those without worries about food and clothing have leisure to wonder about what’s coarse or refined, literary or unliterary. People still worrying about having enough to eat think only of the next meal.

To judge the poor by the things the rich pursue is truly “Why not eat meat porridge.”

Hearing this, Fan Changyu lifted the corner of her mouth into a smile; she didn’t care whether he spoke truly or was just placating her. She kicked a small stone at her feet. As if having been lonely too long and suddenly wanting someone to talk to, she nearly talked to herself: “My father used to forbid me from using force in front of outsiders; my mother wouldn’t even let me go slaughter pigs. She said, if a daughter does these things, people will speak ill. If I marry Song Yan, he might not dislike me, but others will mock and despise me behind my back.”

“For those past ten-plus years I kept myself restrained. Although far from a proper gentlewoman, my reputation in town was decent. Later, after my parents died, for the sake of living, I had no choice but to start slaughtering pigs; I even grabbed a stick to teach people a lesson a few times. Now the townspeople mostly treat me like a she-ogre.”

She waved the paper that hired thugs for the money shop in her hand and half-jokingly said, “If I stop slaughtering pigs in the future, I could collect debts for people!”

Xie Zheng naturally knew how important a woman’s chastity and reputation were; she already bore the stigma of an ill-fated lone star, and now with a fierce reputation outside, even if people didn’t say it to her face, they would surely gossip behind her back.

This woman before him might truly be open-hearted, or might be finding solace amid hardship.

A flake of snow landed on his eyelashes and in an instant melted into a few tiny droplets. His dark eyes looked at Fan Changyu; his tone was languid yet earnest: “Then go collect debts.”

Fan Changyu was in the middle of kicking another stone by the roadside; at his words her foot slipped and she nearly did a split on the frozen road, luckily an iron-pincer like hand grabbed her arm in time.

Fan Changyu widened her eyes, “You actually encourage me to do that wicked thing?”

Half her arm was still being supported by Xie Zheng. Even through the thick winter jacket, his five fingers could still feel that the arm was slender—yet not limp like a strand of noodle that made one think her weak and easily bullied, but rather like the forelimb of a tiger or leopard: lean but full of strength.

Matched with those wide, round apricot eyes glaring up at him, she looked all the more like a dusty little leopard, stubbornly trying to show its fierceness.

Through the padding of winter cloth, his palm suddenly felt a faint numbness.

Xie Zheng furrowed his brows, withdrew the hand that had been supporting her arm, and turned his gaze aside. “I meant that you shouldn’t fear others’ words.”

Fan Changyu mulled over it for a moment before realizing what he meant. The small knot of irritation left in her heart dissolved completely.

She quickly caught up with the man walking ahead on his crutch. “Your leg’s still lame—let me call an ox cart to send you back!”

“……”

“No, I mean—your leg injury hasn’t healed yet!”

· ─ ·✶· ─ ·

The two hired an ox cart. On the way, Fan Changyu stopped by the clothing shop to pick up the winter garments she had ordered for the family for the New Year, and also bought a packet of malt candies for Changning. They finally returned home to the west of the city before nightfall.

When she went to Aunt Zhao’s house to fetch Changning, however, Aunt Zhao told her that a bailiff from the county yamen had come that afternoon, instructing Fan Changyu to appear at the yamen in three days to attend the hearing. The complaint Fan Da had submitted so long ago was finally going to trial.

Fan Changyu hadn’t thought much of it, but Aunt Zhao spoke worriedly: “The one who came to deliver the message was a constable under Head Bailiff Wang. He let slip some news—he said Fan Da has been visiting the yamen’s clerk frequently these days. That clerk is the nephew of Butcher Guo. Butcher Guo bore a grudge against your father years ago. Originally, since you took in a husband, the house and land should be ruled in your favor—but now, with that clerk meddling, I fear at least half will be given to your uncle.”

Fan Changyu hadn’t expected those two troublemakers to team up. Her brows knit tightly. “How could half be given to Fan Da?”

Aunt Zhao sighed. “Those officials, how they judge a case depends on their own mouths. Folks like us don’t know the law as they do. And Fan Da went to the clerk—if you try to hire a legal adviser, he wouldn’t dare take your case for fear of offending the clerk.”

Fan Changyu immediately frowned.

The clerk might hold no official title, but he was in truth the second-in-command at the yamen. Added to that, with Butcher Guo’s old grudge against her father, she certainly wouldn’t have the upper hand in the hearing three days hence.

Even if she wanted to pull strings now, no connection could outrank the clerk—unless she could reach the county magistrate himself. But that was pure wishful thinking.

Not to mention, her family had no ties to the magistrate. On top of that, the magistrate had once wanted to marry his daughter to Song Yan, and she was Song Yan’s former fiancée—if the magistrate didn’t deliberately make things difficult for her, that would already be kindness enough.

Fan Changyu thought for a while, feeling a dark cloud hanging over her head. She asked, “Auntie, do you know how Butcher Guo and my father became enemies?”

She only knew that Butcher Guo and her family didn’t get along, but she truly didn’t know the grudge Aunt Zhao spoke of.

Aunt Zhao sighed. “That was more than ten years ago. Most of the shopkeepers on that street have changed hands—you’ve only been doing business there a few years, so no one’s told you.

“Back then, Butcher Guo was a local hoodlum. All the shopkeepers on that street had to pay him protection money, or he’d send ruffians to cause trouble. When your father opened a shop there, he refused to pay. The thugs came to stir up trouble but were beaten and forced to confess that it was Butcher Guo’s doing. Your father then reported him to the authorities. The county magistrate at that time was truly a just official—he not only had Butcher Guo flogged but even jailed him for more than half a year. From then on, your father and Butcher Guo became mortal enemies. Now that the Guo family has a clerk in the yamen for a relative, and you’re entangled in a lawsuit, they’ll surely take the chance to make things hard for you.”

With such an old grudge, there truly was no way out of this matter.

After returning home, Fan Changyu’s brows remained tightly furrowed.

After dinner, when Changning had fallen asleep, she still sat alone by the hearth, holding a half-burned stick and poking patterns in the ground.

The cage of the gyrfalcon sat beside the hearth. After a day of smoke and ash, its feathers had turned a shade grayer.

The entire main room was silent, only the occasional crackle of sparks from the burning wood in the hearth breaking the stillness. The falcon didn’t dare make a sound, only darted its round bead-like eyes back and forth between the two people by the fire.

When the fire popped again, Xie Zheng looked at Fan Changyu’s tightly knitted brows in the firelight and finally spoke: “Don’t be too anxious…”

“I’m not anxious. I’ve already thought of a way.” Fan Changyu threw the little stick aside. Her tone was firm, yet her face showed none of the relief that should come with finding a solution—only a certain gravity.

Xie Zheng half-raised his eyes; his originally languid gaze had cooled by three degrees. “What method?”

Go beg her former fiancé?

That did seem to be her only feasible option at the moment.

After that afternoon’s conversation, Fan Changyu no longer regarded him as an outsider. Her fingers were interlaced tight, the corners of her mouth pressed nearly flat. “If my parents knew my plan, they’d surely be disappointed. I used to look down on such deeds myself, but now there’s no other way…”

Xie Zheng suddenly did not want to hear more. The firelight and her shadow reflected in his cold phoenix-like eyes as he cut her off: “I’ll help you.”

Fan Changyu looked up, puzzled. “How will you help me?”

Xie Zheng said, “When officials decide a case, no matter how biased, they must speak according to the ‘Great Yin Code’. If they can still divide the house and land after you were taken in as a son-in-law, it’s only because they’ve exploited a few loopholes in the statutes. There are three days left—I’ll open the Great Yin Code and take apart the sections relevant to this part and explain them to you in detail. When you face each other in court, you won’t need a pleader; you can handle it yourself.”

Fan Changyu was at once astonished that he knew so many statutes and a little worried about feasibility. “Can that… work?”

Xie Zheng’s gaze, like shards of ice, swept over her without an ounce of mercy. “Isn’t going to beg your former fiancé the plan you thought of?”

Fan Changyu looked baffled. “Beg him for what?”

Xie Zheng frowned. “Isn’t that the method you thought of?”

Fan Changyu: “…I was planning the night before the court to disguise myself as someone from the gambling house, put a sack over my uncle and bind him and take him away.”

Xie Zheng: “……”

Confessing to planning such a thing to someone, she felt a little embarrassed. “Previously Head Constable Wang said, if my uncle doesn’t go on the day of the court, the case doesn’t count.”

Xie Zheng: “……”