Chapter 39

After the bailiffs arrived, the entire village was in a state of panic. All the residents of Huailing Village were law-abiding folks. Aside from the Village Chief, almost no one ever dealt with bailiffs. They had an innate fear of them, especially today, when the officials had come armed.

Tian Yao and Yu Nian were just hoping to watch the spectacle. They didn’t get too close to Tian Wen’s house, instead heading to Liu Zhi’s place. The Chen home was close to Tian Wen’s—close enough to hear Wang Cuihua’s wailing.

Mother Chen stood in her yard and poured Yu Nian and Tian Yao some tea. “No idea what crime they committed. All these flashing blades are going to scare my precious grandchild.”

Liu Zhi hugged his belly. He was now seven months pregnant and very visibly showing. “It’s not that easy to scare him.”

Tian Yao looked at Yu Nian. “What do you think they did?”

Yu Nian thought for a moment. “Just a few days ago, they held a big banquet in the village. He was at the peak of his glory. Even if he committed some offense, the county government would usually give face to a Scholar and go easy. But for them to come so aggressively… unless…”

Tian Yao and Liu Zhi both turned their eyes to him, full of intense curiosity.

“Unless his status as a Scholar wasn’t legitimately earned,” Yu Nian said.

“No way,” Tian Yao said. “It was bailiffs who came to announce the good news that day. They wouldn’t slap their own faces like that, would they? Besides, cheating on the imperial exams is a capital crime!”

“It’s not impossible.”

Liu Zhi had a thought. “It is quite possible, actually. We all know Tian Wen’s scholarly level. It was always suspicious that he managed to pass.”

Yu Nian took a light sip of tea. “The Village Chief will definitely tell us about it.”

Chen Xu had just finished chopping firewood and was radiating heat. “Did you know? Two days after the banquet, Tian Wu split from the family.”

When Tian Wu was mentioned, the Chen elders were filled with sympathy. They’d never seen parents so exploitative of their own son. Tian Wu worked out there like livestock, toiling away tirelessly. He was twenty years old and still unmarried. It was truly awful.

“But I heard Tian Wu married a widow with a child, and the whole family left Yunxi Town.”

“That’s a good thing, then!” Liu Zhi said. “Our dynasty’s laws don’t implicate family members. Tian Wu split the family and left. He definitely won’t be affected by this, right?”

“Do you think Wang Cuihua has a passive personality?” Mother Chen retorted. “One son is a lost cause, so she’s bound to cling to the other. Let’s hope Tian Wu went far, far away, so she can’t find him.”

In just three or four days, the Tian family had undergone a heaven-and-earth upheaval. The families who once associated with them now avoided them like the plague.

In a matter of days, Tian Wen had plummeted from heaven to hell.

One moment he was plotting how to extract even more benefits from the village; the next, he was in chains.

Tian Liu had been carried off just yesterday by his brother’s classmate in a modest palanquin, entering his household through a side door. Today, the bailiffs had come.

Tian Wen didn’t understand how this had been exposed so quickly. They’d promised him it was foolproof!

What had happened was this: when Tian Wen went to take the exams, he ran into the same classmate who’d taken him to the gambling den, Wang Xin. The Wang family had a bit of money, so many students hovered around him. Figuring they had some past drinking-buddy camaraderie, Tian Wen sidled up to him.

Wang Xin was an idle, loafing sort. His Child Scholar status had been bought for him by his family. His family had some connections in the Prefectural City and learned the identity of this year’s Proctor. It turned out that through a tangled web of relations, the Proctor was distantly related to the Wang family.

Ever since His Majesty opened the imperial examinations for exceptional talent, the court had placed immense importance on them. To the scholars in the academies, cheating was beneath their intellectual integrity. Thus, no precedent for cheating had ever occurred in this dynasty.

With everyone assuming it was impossible and no one watching for it, Wang Xin, through the Chief Examiner, obtained the answers for this local level exam. It was only the township exam, after all; the Chief Examiner’s authority was supreme.

Tian Wen discovered Wang Xin’s secret one sleepless night. Outside Wang Xin’s room, he overheard the conspiracy. He used this to blackmail Wang Xin into sharing the answers with him.

So the two conspired and shared the answers. From then on, they were bound together, a rope with two grasshoppers. As part of this, Tian Wen agreed to give Tian Liu to Wang Xin as a concubine. Their fates were now linked, mutually assured destruction.

To call them both empty-headed was an understatement. Their written answers were practically identical. Wang Xin at least understood the stakes and deliberately got a few questions wrong. But Tian Wen, obsessed with proving himself and washing away his shame, wrote his answers to match the source exactly.

After the results were posted and the township-exam scrolls were sealed, an Imperial Envoy suddenly arrived in Yuancang Prefecture. Upon hearing that the top scorer’s paper was a work of stunning genius, the Envoy demanded the scrolls be unsealed for inspection. The Proctor tried to obstruct him, but the Imperial Envoy outranked him.

The sealed scrolls were presented. After reading the “perfect” answer, the Envoy’s gaze turned razor-sharp. Guards immediately seized the Proctor. The investigation that followed was swift and devastating. Within three days, everyone involved in the scheme was identified, and the bailiffs began making arrests.

When the Village Chief learned the details, his face turned ashen. He had thought the village had finally produced a scholar, but instead he had committed such a heinous crime. This was the first case of imperial exam fraud since the founding of the dynasty. Tian Wen would likely not survive this.

“What kind of official investigates so thoroughly?” Tian Yao felt a shiver run down his spine. “As expected of an official, to have such sharp insight.”

The Village Chief shook his head. “They only say he’s an Imperial Envoy, come to Yuancang Prefecture in search of someone, and acting on His Majesty’s behalf to inspect the common folk. Some say the Envoy was the one who set the exam questions and recognized the answer sheet as identical to his own. That’s why…”

Half a month later, they finally learned the aftermath.

Because Tian Wen wasn’t the primary mastermind of the fraud, he was spared execution but sentenced to life imprisonment. The Tian family was henceforth permanently banned from the exam system. The main conspirator, the Wang Family, had bribed an imperial official and showed contempt for the law. Father and son Wang were sentenced to beheading, and all family assets were seized by the state. Because this dynasty did not practice collective punishment, those found to be unaware of the crime were imprisoned for three years.

Tian Liu, who had just been carried into the Wang household and hadn’t yet tasted its wealth, was thrown directly into jail.

For a time, all anyone could do was sigh at the tragedy.

After the case concluded, Wang Cuihua went to town daily to look for Tian Wu. At his former workplaces, she would wail and scream, accusing him of being unfilial. After being chased away, she’d alternate between crying and laughing, seemingly losing her mind. Tian Yao heard all these rumors from other villagers.

During those fifteen days, Tian Yao had practically lived beside that vegetable patch. He watched the seeds they planted slowly sprout, turn into seedlings, and grow robustly.

“Yu Nian, what do you think these will grow into?” After watering the seedlings, Tian Yao draped himself over Yu Nian’s shoulder.

“I’m not sure, but it shouldn’t be anything bad, right?” Yu Nian stroked his hair. “I still can’t understand some parts of Little Dad’s notes.”

The weather was warming up. Their heavy padded clothes were packed away. Dressed in light spring clothing, Tian Yao lying on him meant Yu Nian could feel the heat from his body.

“Oh, right,” Tian Yao suddenly remembered something. “I need to go to town for a few days. Probably about half a month.”

Yu Nian froze. Since arriving in Huailing Village, they had never been apart. The sudden prospect of Tian Yao leaving made him deeply uneasy.

“What are you going to do in town?”

Tian Yao explained, “Brother Yusheng came back a few days ago, didn’t he? He’s a long-term laborer for Squire Liu’s household in town. After that refugee incident, their family went to the Prefectural City. Since that’s settled down now, they’ve returned. Squire Liu’s family wants to use this time to renovate their manor and are hiring a big crew. Brother Yusheng put in a good word for me with Squire Liu. Young Master Liu still remembers the wild goose from before. He said it’s fine that I’m a ‘ger’ and that they’ll put me in the courtyard where the other ‘ger’ stay. Working for half a month, I can earn two taels of silver!”

Yu Nian’s face held no expression. He just stared at his own legs, silently confronting his own uselessness. If he could even just walk right now, he’d never have to send his husband off to sell his physical labor.

Tian Yao immediately understood what was going through Yu Nian’s mind. He stepped in front of his wheelchair and bent down. “Yu Nian, I know what you’re thinking. But now isn’t the time for that. We need to make money quickly, to treat your legs. When your legs are better, you can dote on me all you want.”

Despite his words, the knot in Yu Nian’s chest didn’t loosen.

“You can take care of yourself now. I should use this time to really make some money. Spring is here; most families have started farming. If I don’t go out, if I just stay home all day, I’ll get restless.”

Yu Nian just grabbed his hand. “Yao Ge’er… my mother’s hairpin… it could be pawned for some silver.”

Tian Yao immediately clapped his hand over Yu Nian’s mouth. “Pfft, pfft, pfft. That’s the very last thing your mother left behind. How can you think of pawning it? And you already gave the hairpin to me. It’s mine now. You can’t have any designs on it.”

He knew the pain of selling a deceased loved one’s belongings when you were at the end of your rope. He swore that if he ever had money again, he would buy back his father’s leather pelt.

Faced with Tian Yao’s persistent coquettish pleas, and every time he tried to argue, Tian Yao sealed his mouth with another kiss, then, before he knew it, his clothes were being undone—it was a blatant honey trap.

…

“I talked to Aunt Shun. She’ll bring you food every day.” Tian Yao was sprawled across Yu Nian’s chest, his inner thighs still twitching faintly, his voice still trembling.

“That won’t be necessary. I won’t let myself and Little Gray starve.” Yu Nian’s hand trailed from his hair, down his neck, and to his waist. Beneath his palm, he felt the uneven rise of scar tissue—the marks left from the last injury. No matter what remedy he’d tried, the scars wouldn’t fade and would forever remain on Tian Yao’s body.

“Fine.” Tian Yao tangled his fingers in Yu Nian’s hair. “If anything happens, send Little Gray to find someone in the village. He’s even more familiar with the village than you by now.”

“Alright.”

“If you miss me, you can come find me in town. I might not have much free time, but just seeing you would make me really happy.”

“Alright.”

Tian Yao rambled on, telling Yu Nian to take good care of himself, take good care of Little Gray, and take good care of the little seedlings in their vegetable patch. Yu Nian agreed to it all.

As he talked, Tian Yao drifted off to sleep.

He was leaving for town first thing in the morning. Yu Nian did not sleep a wink that night.

Early the next day, Yu Nian and Little Gray accompanied Tian Yao to the village entrance. While they were talking by the roadside, a commotion came from the direction of the Song family’s house in the distance. It was the sound of shattering bowls and fists hitting flesh. Tian Yao glanced at Yu Nian and then changed direction, heading that way.

“Brother Qiao? Are you home?”

The person who came to the door, however, was not Shen Qiao. It was his husband, Song Yao. When he saw Tian Yao, Song Yao forced a smile. “You heading out?”

“Is Brother Qiao not home?” Tian Yao tried to peer into the house but saw no sign of Shen Qiao.

Song Yao shook his head. “He went out early this morning. No idea where he went.”

Doubtfully, Tian Yao glanced at the closed door behind him, but in the end, he pushed Yu Nian’s wheelchair and they left.

As soon as they were gone, Song Yao went back inside.

There, lying on the floor, was the very person they had been asking about: Shen Qiao.

He was barely breathing, his face swollen and bruised.

“Wretched whore!”