The Night Watcher of Great Jing - Chapter 42

The household Zhao Li had indicated belonged to a family surnamed Chen.

More than a month earlier, the wife of the Chens’ second son had disappeared while heavily pregnant.

Someone in the village claimed to have seen her leave with a young man.

After listening to the villagers talk over one another, Zhao Li abruptly arched a brow.

Once again, someone in the village had seen it.

“Who personally saw the children being abducted?” Zhao Li asked. “And who personally saw the Chen daughter-in-law leave with a man?”

The villagers looked around and considered.

Someone finally said, “I think we heard it all from Granny Oil.”

“Who is Granny Oil? Come forward and answer!”

“Granny Oil caught a chill. She was afraid of spreading the sickness, so she is recuperating at home.”

*Interesting,* Zhao Li thought.

Every disappearance had the same witness, and the woman had fallen ill at precisely the right time.

“Go bring her here.” Zhao Li paused and looked at Zheng Lian. “Zheng Lian, go with them.”

As she spoke, she gave him a meaningful look.

Bring the woman here first. If she resisted, use force.

Zheng Lian understood. He closed the Register of Impermanence in his hands and followed a villager toward Granny Oil’s home.

Her house stood near the center of the village, so they soon arrived.

“My lord, the house ahead belongs to Granny Oil.” The villager pointed with a trembling hand.

As Zheng Lian strode closer, he felt eyes upon him. He turned toward the stare, but saw only a half-open window.

“Granny Oil! Granny Oil!”

The two men pushed open the wattle gate and entered the yard. At the main door, the villager began knocking and calling her name.

He had shouted only twice and received no answer when Zheng Lian stepped forward and kicked the door.

The Jingning Guard had perfected the art of kicking in doors. They could breach the gates of princes and ministers in the capital, let alone the flimsy door of a village home.

With a crash, the door slammed into the wall and knocked down a large patch of plaster.

One hand on his saber hilt, Zheng Lian hurried inside. He crossed the main room without pause and headed straight for the side chamber from which he had felt the stare.

The moment he entered, the heavy fragrance of face powder filled his nose.

Zheng Lian held his breath, raised his sleeve over his nose and mouth, and drew his saber two inches from its sheath.

The room had looked crude from outside, but within, it held a dressing table and complete cosmetic case, a carved nanmu wardrobe, and a large carved bed.

Red and colorful decorations festooned the bed curtains in gaudy profusion.

A fat, prosperous-looking old woman lay beneath the quilt. A broad headband was tied around her forehead, and she groaned repeatedly in discomfort.

The sight of Zheng Lian seemed to rouse her from a stupor.

“Who are you? Why have you broken in here?”

“The Jingning Guard summoned you. Why did you not come?” Zheng Lian asked, discreetly examining the room as he spoke.

“It’s not that I refused, my lord. I’m too ill to leave my bed.”

Granny Oil’s face was pale and sweat covered her head. She looked quite convincing.

Zheng Lian merely sneered. “Unless you’re dead, you’re coming.”

With an air of careless indifference, he walked to the dressing table and opened the cosmetic case. From inside, he picked up a heavy gold hairpin.

“You’re a wealthy old woman.”

Granny Oil stared from the bed. She stole a glance at Zheng Lian and cautiously said, “This old woman found it on the road. I was just planning to surrender it to my lord.”

The glib excuse drew another sneer from Zheng Lian.

He slipped the hairpin inside his robe and walked to the wardrobe.

He yanked it open and stirred his scabbard through the cabinet full of silk and satin garments. Only after making certain no one was hidden inside did he approach Granny Oil.

The old woman’s sweat had already soaked her pillow.

Zheng Lian crouched to check beneath the bed, then straightened.

“Let’s go. Do I have to invite you?”

“B-but…”

Granny Oil had not expected Zheng Lian to pocket one of her gold hairpins, then immediately turn on her.

“My lord, this old woman truly is ill! Ah! My lord, what are you doing?”

Zheng Lian had never been known for gentleness toward the old or the young.

Having confirmed that the old woman was suspicious, why would he wait for her to continue spouting nonsense?

He tore away the quilt and dragged Granny Oil, clad only in her underclothes, out of bed.

“Help! Help!” The old woman screamed as Zheng Lian hauled her away, resorting to a village woman’s usual method of creating a scene. “Murder! Someone is trying to murder this old woman!”

Such tactics might work in a quarrel between villagers. Against a violent institution like the Jingning Guard, they were plainly useless.

And so Zheng Lian dragged Granny Oil into Cuixiang’s courtyard like a dead dog.

“Aiyo… Aiyo…”

Granny Oil sprawled on the ground, some of her moans real and some feigned.

Zheng Lian went to Zhao Li and whispered several sentences in her ear, then handed over the gold hairpin.

Zhao Li turned it between her fingers and coldly watched Granny Oil wail and make a scene on the ground.

According to the villagers, Granny Oil was a childless widow who earned her living by traveling from place to place as a broker woman.

In Great Jing, broker women belonged to the traditional group of female trades known as the Three Aunts and Six Grannies, alongside human brokers, matchmakers, ritual mistresses, brothel madams, and midwives.

As women, broker women could come and go through the rear courtyards of both wealthy clans and humble families. With clever, persuasive tongues, they bought and sold goods, carried messages, and negotiated affairs.

They delivered letters for women in love and transferred money for corrupt officials, forever serving as intermediaries.

The profession undoubtedly suffered from prejudice, but that prejudice was not entirely groundless.

The gold hairpin was heavy in Zhao Li’s hand and looked almost new. Its mere presence in Granny Oil’s cosmetic case was grounds for suspicion.

Granny Oil had likely seen Zhao Li’s youthful, harmless-looking face and mistaken her for the young women she usually dealt with. She sat on the ground slapping her thighs and howling.

She began with how her parents had died when she was a child, continued through the death of her husband in adulthood, and finished by lamenting that she was nearly sixty and still suffered such torment while ill.

The villagers had known her for years. Pity showed on their faces, but the Flying Fish Robes Zhao Li and the others wore kept them silent.

Zhao Li was not susceptible to such tricks.

She watched coldly as Granny Oil knelt, beat the earth, and wailed to heaven, then looked at the village head, who had just arrived.

“Why has the Chen family not come yet?”

At the question, the village head nodded rapidly. “I’ll urge them myself.”

He had just stepped toward the entrance when a dark-faced man slowly approached, reluctance written all over him.

The village head relaxed at the sight. “The Chen family’s second son is here.”

Granny Oil was still howling on the ground. Zhao Li and Zheng Lian took the second Chen son inside to question him.

He bowed, then stood to one side with his head lowered.

“When did your wife disappear?” Zhao Li asked.

The question seemed to touch a raw nerve. Even from several steps away, they could hear his teeth grinding together in hatred.

“That whore left on the first day of the third lunar month.”

His face flushed red when he spoke the word *left*.

To him, his wife’s disappearance was a humiliation that left him unable to hold up his head.

“Why did she leave?” Zheng Lian asked.

The second Chen son shuddered and glared resentfully at Zheng Lian. The moment his gaze fell on the Flying Fish Robe, however, his shoulders sagged. He lowered his head and answered dejectedly.

“Granny Oil saw that whore with her own eyes…”

He seemed to summon enormous effort before forcing the next words through his clenched teeth.

“She saw the whore embracing a traveling peddler before they left together.”

“Did you search for her?” Zhao Li asked coldly, watching the man’s face swell scarlet as if he had suffered an unbearable disgrace.

“Why would I search for a whore like that? May the adulterous pair and their bastard die outside!”

The second Chen son thrust out his neck and shouted.

“Why are you shouting?”

Zhao Li casually snatched a teacup from the table and smashed it at his feet.

“How far along was your wife?”

The porcelain shattering beside his boots startled the man into honesty.

“She was more than eight months pregnant when she left. She should be nearly ready to give birth by now.”