Chapter 4: The Rod
“Rewards and punishments are not clear, and people are not used properly.”
Upon learning that Shi Hongzhao had ordered him to be whipped twenty times, Xiao Yi’s opinion of him plummeted, and he felt the Shi family was not a good place to end up.
His shoulder was patted; Zhang Mantun had come forward and asked curiously, “You’re quite capable. How did you dare to be sure the Marshal wouldn’t kill you?”
“Brother Mantun said the Son of Heaven is young, and the Marshal is Assisting the State. Assisting the State means governing, which requires talent and winning people’s hearts.”
Zhang Mantun shook his head repeatedly and said, “Nonsense. The Marshal detests scholars the most. He’d only consider you a talent after killing all you bookworms.”
Xiao Yi said, “Is that what you think? No wonder the Marshal has no advisors around him. I think the Marshal detests officials forming cliques, not scholars who can be of use to him. Look, Da Lang is a scholar.”
“The Eldest Young Master, he likes to call him ‘Young Master’.” Zhang Mantun said, “The Eldest Young Master studies, so the Marshal dislikes him.”
“The Marshal discusses everything with the Eldest Young Master, how could he dislike him?”
“No, every time the Eldest Young Master wants to speak, the Marshal stops him.”
“Does Brother Mantun know why?”
“How would I know?”
Xiao Yi lowered his voice and said, “Because the Marshal knows the Eldest Young Master is speaking the truth.”
“If he’s right, why does he still stop him?”
“What do you think, Brother Mantun?”
“Hurry up and say it. I hate it when people drag things out!”
“Everyone says the Marshal dislikes scholars. How can he let the scholarly Eldest Young Master always be right?”
“I understand!” Zhang Mantun suddenly realized and said, “The Marshal needs to save face too. No wonder. He always discusses things with the Eldest Young Master in private.”
Xiao Yi raised a finger and made a shushing gesture.
“These words must not be spread. If others hear them, they’ll say we’re speculating about the Marshal.”
“Oh, my mother…”
Zhang Mantun gasped, filled with lingering fear.
Xiao Yi, with a composed expression, said, “Don’t worry, I heard nothing.”
Zhang Mantun finally relaxed, thinking that if this kid pleaded for mercy, he would order them to hit him lightly.
But it wasn’t until they reached the punishment room, and two guards stepped forward to escort Xiao Yi, that Xiao Yi still hadn’t spoken. This, however, put Zhang Mantun in a difficult position.
“Wait.”
After much thought, remembering he had been spared twenty lashes, Zhang Mantun simply said, “I’ll do it.”
“Yes.”
“You, go in!”
Zhang Mantun pushed Xiao Yi in roughly and pressed him onto the wooden bench.
The bench surface had been worn concave from years of punishment, and the floor tiles below were stained red with blood, with bone fragments embedded in the cracks.
On the opposite wall hung various torture instruments. Zhang Mantun picked up a military cudgel with barbs, called a “tendon-revealing whip.” As the name suggested, it would rip the skin and flesh, exposing the tendons with a single strike.
“Bite down hard.”
Stuffing a handkerchief into Xiao Yi’s mouth, Zhang Mantun swung the military cudgel high and brought it down.
“Crack!”
The sound was as loud as thunder, audible throughout the entire courtyard.
Xiao Yi, however, felt no pain. Military cudgels were divided into “solid strikes” and “sound strikes.” Three solid strikes could take a person’s life, while sound strikes were all thunder and no rain.
Not hearing his groans, Zhang Mantun feigned anger and immediately delivered a second blow.
“Let’s see you still put up a brave front, you brat?!”
“Ah—”
Xiao Yi finally cried out in pain, his voice a miserable wail.
For him, this could be considered professional expertise.
“Two, three…”
As he reached the tenth strike, there was a commotion outside the punishment room, and someone pushed the door open.
Zhang Mantun quickly gripped the cudgel tightly, veins bulging on his arm, and swung with all his might.
“Crack!”
The military cudgel snapped, and Xiao Yi’s lower garment was also stained with blood.
“Bad luck.”
Zhang Mantun turned around and saw a beautiful servant girl. He grumbled, “Miss Chun Tao is here. I still have ten more strokes to go.”
“Captain Zhang, can you stop hitting him? Young Master said that although he is young, he knows how to protect the Shi family and must be saved.”
“The Marshal has given orders; I dare not disobey.”
“Then I won’t make it difficult for you. Young Master has prepared healing ointment for him. I’ll wait here for you to finish hitting him and apply it for him.”
Having said that, Chun Tao lightly covered her nose and mouth with her fingers, her eyebrows conveying a perfectly appropriate disdain, not for the gore, but for the foul air of the place.
Zhang Mantun saw this and said, “This is no place for Miss Chun Tao to linger.”
“If you must hit him, then do it quickly.”
“Alright.” Zhang Mantun switched to a short cudgel and quickly swung it ten times at Xiao Yi’s backside. He stepped aside and announced loudly, “The twenty lashes are complete.”
“Thank you, Captain Zhang. Young Master will remember your thoughtfulness through me, Chun Tao.”
Xiao Yi pretended he couldn’t get up and groaned, “Little Yi also appreciates the Eldest Young Master’s kindness.”
Seeing his state, Chun Tao smiled faintly and handed him a porcelain bottle.
“You are Little Yi? I’ve met you today. Will you apply this medicine yourself, or shall I?”
“I wouldn’t dare trouble you, Miss Chun Tao. I can apply it myself.”
“Look at you, being so capable,” Chun Tao said with a double entendre, feigning reprimand.
As she was about to leave, she suddenly thought of a small matter and casually asked, “By the way, Captain Zhang, have you seen Young Master’s Golden-Crowned Finch?”
“That bird isn’t enough to fill a gap… I haven’t seen it. It must have flown away, flown away.”
“It seems I don’t need to look for it in Second Young Master’s courtyard.” Chun Tao smiled meaningfully and curtsied as she left.
“See?” Zhang Mantun muttered. “Even a female mosquito flying around the Eldest Young Master’s courtyard has some swagger. Unlike our Second Young Master.”
Mentioning Shi Deyuan, he seemed to sigh.
————————
A spring palace painting was unfurled, meticulously detailed and vibrantly colored. A short, plump finger brushed across the painted beauties.
“This is my favorite 《 Han Palace Spring Dawn 》. I spent a lot of money to buy it from Jiangnan.” Shi Deyuan stared intently at the painting, his expression growing lecherous, and muttered, “The people of Jiangnan are strange. With so many beauties, they insist on painting the beauties of our Han Palace… Lustful, so lustful.”
Zhang Mantun scratched his head. Even he knew this “Han” wasn’t that “Han.” When the Southern Tang painter created this painting, the current dynasty hadn’t even been established yet.
But he was too lazy to remind Shi Deyuan.
“You two, come here quickly.” Shi Deyuan finally deigned to turn his head, beckoned, and gestured for Zhang Mantun and Xiao Yi to come closer to the painting. “Come, let’s look together. I’ll share my treasured beauties with you. From today on, the three of us are grasshoppers on the same boat.”
“Second Young Master, it’s ‘grasshoppers on the same rope’,” Zhang Mantun couldn’t help but correct him.
Shi Deyuan glanced at him as if he were an idiot and retorted, “If I say it that way, you can’t understand?”
“I can understand, though.”
“Little Yi, you’re really quite lustful.” Shi Deyuan turned to Xiao Yi and said, “You’ve been beaten like this, and you can still stand to admire my paintings.”
Zhang Mantun immediately became nervous and quickly said, “It wasn’t that I hit him lightly; it was the Eldest Young Master who sent Miss Chun Tao to save him.”
Shi Deyuan suddenly said, “Do you two look down on me?”
“Huh?”
“You must be thinking, the Eldest has so many beautiful maids, and I only have a few spring palace paintings…”
“A few?” Zhang Mantun blurted out. “Are those just a few? If Second Young Master were to put more effort into practicing martial arts, I wouldn’t have to live in constant worry.”
“You go down. I want to talk to Little Yi.”
Zhang Mantun turned and left, muttering about “unpleasant truths” and the like. Standing outside the door, fearing Xiao Yi might hurt Shi Deyuan again, he stopped, covered his ears, and stood in the corridor, letting the cold wind blow.
Shi Deyuan ignored him, mysteriously fumbled behind the screen for a while, and then pulled out a whistle stick.
Xiao Yi didn’t know what he intended to do and asked, “You want to hit me again?”
“No, I have something important to tell you.”
Shi Deyuan’s expression was mysterious, as if he were sharing a serious secret.
He tiptoed forward a couple of steps, leaned close to Xiao Yi’s ear, and began to speak.
“At noon today, the kitchen made fish slices. A fishbone got stuck in my throat. You made me swallow some rice to swallow it down, which tore my throat and made me so angry that I hit you. Do you know why I was choked by the fishbone?”
“Why?”
“It was a crucian carp. The fish slices should have been made with a perch, which has fewer bones. The kitchen claimed they used perch, but I checked myself, and they clearly used crucian carp.”
“So?”
Shi Deyuan’s expression became serious as he analyzed, speaking slowly, “Isn’t it strange? How did a perch become a crucian carp? I thought about it for a long time and couldn’t figure it out, until… you came alive.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“You are the crucian carp.” Shi Deyuan said, “The perch became a crucian carp, Little Yi became you, a fish became another fish, a person became another person. What a strange thing, what a strange thing.”
These words were absurd, but even more absurd was that Xiao Yi understood.
He had transmigrated, and Shi Deyuan, who had spent his days with the original body, had noticed something was amiss.
Xiao Yi waited to see what would happen, not stating his position.
Shi Deyuan became excited on his own, rubbing his hands like a fly, saying, “You’ve changed, you… you’re like… how to put it?”
“Reborn?”
“See, you admit it!” Shi Deyuan exclaimed in surprise.
Xiao Yi retorted, “What do you want?”
“You bribed the King of Hell, didn’t you? I knew it! Tell me how to do it, so I can become a crucian carp too.”
“You can’t.”
“Why?”
Xiao Yi feigned solemnity, thought quickly, and shook his head, “The Shi family’s accumulated sins are too heavy.”
“Zen Master Wen Yan also said that, but I’ve been trying to kill fewer people, and I offer masses for those I do kill.”
“It’s not enough.”
“How much is enough?”
“Do good deeds and accumulate virtue until your blessings are complete.”
“Really?” Shi Deyuan seemed hopeful, waving his whistle stick. “Then I can also be reborn?”
“Of course.” Xiao Yi took the whistle stick as he spoke. “When the time is right, I will strike you…”
Having appeased Shi Deyuan, his secret was temporarily concealed.
Only temporarily.
That night, attended by other servants in the room, the injured Xiao Yi was able to return to the servants’ quarters.
The room was crowded with over ten people, and the air was thick with body odor. No one was in the mood to talk, lying like exhausted livestock, their snores, teeth grinding, and suppressed murmurs all weak and listless.
Xiao Yi lay among them, letting the cold wind pierce his wounds through the thin quilt, and suddenly realized a truth he had never known even on his deathbed in his previous life.
Being strong and enduring hardship was far from enough. No matter how much a servant endured, a lifetime of endurance would only make them a servant.
To change one’s destiny, one must create and seize every opportunity.
