Shao Qing suddenly prostrated himself on the ground. “Let me take the beating for her. Miss Nong is of weak constitution. She will not be fit for the rest of her sentence if she suffers this.”
“Are you defying me, thief?” Magistrate Bu barked.
“Let me take the beating.”
“If you’re so eager, you may have fifty strikes of your own. Guards! Take thembothoutside.”
Two men grabbed Shao Qing roughly from the ground.
“Shao Qing, are you an idiot?” Zhi Lan cried. His gallantry had only provoked the magistrate and now they both had to suffer.
“I won’t be a coward again,” Shao Qing said fiercely. His jaw was set in a determined line and Zhi Lan could only look at him, helpless.
Where was the soulless thief without principles when she needed him?
Suddenly, deep resonate peals rang through the tribunal. Zhi Lan felt the vibration to her bones. Someone had struck the bell outside, demanding an audience.
“Not so fast,” a familiar voice cried out.
To Zhi Lan’s astonishment, Lady Bu walked in with nothing short of a crowd behind her. She spotted a pair of guards, Magistrate Li, an old woman, a dirty stranger bound in ropes, and a middle-aged man who looked extremely familiar.
The man stopped in his tracks, gazing at Shao Qing with shock and unrestrained emotion.
“Wife!” Magistrate Bu barked from his desk. “You go too far! I am in the middle of a ruling.”
“This is relevant to your ruling,” Lady Bu said. “You yourself have committed a crime against my family. It relates to this young man.” She gestured to Shao Qing, still in the guards’ grasp. “Let them go and let us talk civilly.”
The guards let Zhi Lan and Shao Qing back to the ground. Zhi Lan rubbed her shoulders, wincing.
“What crimes do you speak of?” Magistrate Bu demanded, scowling. “Why have you brought this riff raff?”
“Interesting choice of words,” Magistrate Li said, stepping forward. “I would not consider myselfriff raff.”
Magistrate Bu’s face darkened at the sight of the older man. “Good riddance. Have you not your own city to rule over?”
“Ruling is for our emperor. I merely enforce justice on his behalf. And you, Magistrate Bu, have caused my family much injustice.”
Magistrate Bu sputtered. “What right do you have to make such claims?”
Magistrate Li narrowed his eyes. “Madam Xuan, please step up.”
The old woman behind him did so. Her back was bent with age and her coarse gray hair was done up with a plain wooden hairpin. Her face was so wrinkled it looked like a prune.
“Who is this woman?” Magistrate Bu sputtered.
“Don’t tell me you don’t recognize your own cronies,” Magistrate Li said. “Madam, do you wish to remind his lordship?”
“Twenty years ago, I was a nanny. Your lordship gave me nine silver taels,” Madam Xuan said.
Magistrate Bu’s face grew white, then red. “I recall no such thing!” he bellowed. “What use do I have for a nanny?”
Zhi Lan watched all this in bewilderment, looking from the old woman to Magistrate Li to the middle aged man. She knew why he looked familiar now—he was the spitting image of Shao Qing. She turned to the thief kneeling beside her. Shao Qing looked as lost as she felt.
“You placed me in Magistrate Li’s household, to care for Master Wen Jun’s newborn child,” Madam Xuan said. “I was told to take the child away in the night.”
“Ridiculous! A raving madwoman!” Magistrate Bu’s face was blotchy. A shiny sheen of sweat coated his forehead.
Madam Xuan continued on, unbothered. “I traveled here to Zhu City and put the baby behind a brothel called The Peony Pagoda. When I told you the deed was done, you rewarded me the silver.”
