Chapter 42: A Secret Letter
Qingyan, utterly distraught, was taken by Qiu Henian to Aunt Li’s house next door.
Aunt Li, upon understanding what had happened, tears nearly streaming down her face, lamented the difficulty of saving money with two children—it was as if their entire savings had been stolen.
She shook her head, wiping away tears, muttering, “Who did this, causing such misery?!”
Qingyan’s face was pale. After Aunt Li wiped away her tears and brought him hot water to drink slowly, he began to recover somewhat.
Not long after, Qiuniang also knocked on the door and entered.
She said to Qingyan, “Big Brother told me everything. He asked me to come and keep you company. Don’t worry too much. These workers are all from nearby villages. They can’t escape from here. Big Brother and the others will surely catch them.”
She sighed deeply, blaming herself, “It’s all my fault for not choosing the right people, causing such trouble for your family.”
Qingyan shook his head and said, “It’s not your fault at all. We thought we knew them well. They were familiar workers—who could have imagined they would do such a thing? I just hope they haven’t gone too far and can still be found!”
After talking for a while, Qingyan gradually emerged from the panic and heartache. He secretly thought that even if they couldn’t recover everything, money was just material wealth.
They were young, capable of earning more from scratch. They had hands and feet and weren’t afraid of working hard.
Before an hour had passed since these words were spoken, Liu’s daughter-in-law hurriedly arrived, her face filled with worry, “They’ve caught the person and are now at the village head’s house!”
Everyone hurriedly went together to the village head’s house.
When they arrived, they found the village head’s house tightly closed. After knocking for a while, the village head’s son came to open a crack in the door and peered out. Seeing them, he opened the door and let them in but closed it firmly behind them and locked it.
Inside the house were the village head, his two eldest sons, the Liu brothers, and Qiu Henian. Standing neatly in front of them were the four workers hired by Qingyan and Qiuniang.
Seeing Qingyan and the others enter, Qiu Henian quickly scanned Qingyan’s face and body. Seeing that Qingyan’s complexion had improved a lot since he had left, he withdrew his gaze and looked at the four men standing in front of him.
The old worker looked nervous but spoke clearly, “You can inquire throughout the neighboring ten miles. My family used to be scholars. We fell to this level due to our family’s decline. I understand propriety and righteousness. I’ve been a laborer for ten years and have never stolen a single copper from the master’s house. If I did this, may the heavens strike me dead!”
The other workers also defended themselves in similar manners. Only the youngest worker’s eyes wandered, his face filled with panic. Whenever someone spoke a little louder, he would flinch, looking unsettled.
After the others had spoken, he stammered, “I… I didn’t steal… steal the money. You can ask around in the neighboring village. I usually work odd jobs in town and work as a laborer during the farming season. I’ve never stolen from the master’s house.”
“I found you at the tavern in town. Did you go drinking as soon as you left Liuxi Village?”
Qiu Henian suddenly asked.
The young worker dared not look him in the eye, just nodded with his head down.
Qiu Henian continued, “The other three have all gone home. Why didn’t you?”
The young man hesitated, “They all have wives, but I don’t. I… I was planning to go to the Plum Blossom Pavilion in town. I had my eye on that courtesan, who costs two taels of silver. I didn’t want to spend the money, so I went drinking instead.”
He gritted his teeth and raised his head defiantly.
“Visiting a prostitute and drinking isn’t a crime. Why did you arrest me? I want to go home!”
As he spoke, he began to walk away.
At that moment, a figure suddenly rushed over and, just as the young worker reached the door, exclaimed, “Ah!” and kicked him down.
Qiu Henian withdrew his leg and bent down to grab the outer garment of the person who had reached the door.
The garment tore open, revealing a cloth bundle hidden in his abdomen.
Qiu Henian reached in and pulled out the bundle. The young worker on the ground, enduring the pain, tried to snatch it back but was evaded by Qiu Henian.
The bundle was light and didn’t seem like it contained silver. Qiu Henian was puzzled. After shaking it open, some of the contents spilled out, and he was slightly startled.
While most people hadn’t yet understood what was happening inside the bundle, Qiu Henian tightly grasped the bundle in his hand. He then kicked the young worker several times, causing him to scream continuously.
Liu, who had been following closely behind, apparently saw what was inside the bundle and was also stunned for a moment.
Then, seeing Qiu Henian’s reaction, seemed to understand something and quickly intervened, saying, “Calm down. He deserves to be punished, but if you beat him to death, you’ll have to pay with your life!”
At this point, the others also came to their senses and rushed forward to stop Qiu Henian. However, Qiu Henian was very strong and forcibly dragged these several strong young men forward, kicking the young worker on the ground several times until Qingyan squeezed to his side and hugged him, looking up at him with concern and fear.
Qiu Henian finally stopped, gasping heavily, his eyes red.
Liu went to talk quietly with the village head for a few words. The village head suddenly showed an understanding expression.
He spoke up, “The others can leave first. Qiu Henian and I have something to discuss, along with Liu. You stay too.”
Everyone, including the other three workers who were too frightened to speak up, went out. Qingyan comfortingly squeezed Qiu Henian’s wrist, and he smiled faintly at him. Qingyan finally left the room with peace of mind.
Once Qingyan left, Qiu Henian’s face darkened.
Inside the room, only the three of them remained and the young worker on the ground, groaning in pain. Their voices were so low that they couldn’t be heard clearly, only occasionally hearing a few cries of pain.
Outside, Qingyan anxiously waited and remembered when he had hugged Qiu Henian earlier, his fingers touched something tightly held in his palm—cool and slippery, like a piece of cloth. The feeling was somewhat familiar, but he couldn’t remember what it was for a while.
It wasn’t until after dinner time that the door to the room finally opened.
The young worker was tied up and taken to the woodshed, where he was locked up.
The old worker saw this and couldn’t bear to watch. He wanted to speak up for him, but the village head spoke first, “We’ll report to the authorities tomorrow morning. Everything will be clear then.”
That night, Qingyan stayed in the empty bedroom at Aunt Li’s house. Qiu Henian stayed at home, living in the house next door to Wang the Blacksmith’s.
Late at night, Qiu Henian took out the cloth bundle he had hidden during the day. After shaking it open, a silky, pure white undershirt slipped out.
Qiu Henian looked down at it. It was the white and light yellow ones he had picked out for Qingyan in the tailor shop back in early spring. The white one was a silk shirt, it was quite expensive.
With not much money at home before, Qiu Henian had been thinking about it for a long time. When there was a little more money at home, he quickly bought it for him.
Qingyan was originally fair-skinned. Wearing this shirt made him even more clear and translucent. Under the oil lamp light, his skin was as lustrous as a pearl.
Qiu Henian couldn’t remember how many nights he had held the young man in his arms, his large hands stroking down his back from behind his neck, all the way down. Stroking it all the way, Qingyan would raise his arms around his neck, his face lying in his neck, making a subtle hum like a kitten.
Qiu Henian tightly twisted the intimate clothing in his hand until it became deformed.
Thinking of the fact that the worker had stolen this intimate clothing and even took it to the Plum Blossom Pavilion, Qiu Henian’s eyes turned bloodshot.
If this matter became known to the villagers, they would inevitably gossip and fabricate sordid stories.
Qiu Henian decided to keep it a secret; he didn’t want Qingyan to feel distressed because of this, so he kept it from him as well.
The few people who knew about this were reliable and discreet; he didn’t worry about them.
After giving the worker a lesson, he dared not speak rashly.
With this in mind, Qiu Henian stood up, took the intimate clothing and the cloth bundle in his hand, and threw them into the burning stove. The thin garments quickly turned into ashes.
Tomorrow, he would buy another identical one and put it back in the closet. Qingyan would never know.
Early the next morning, before dawn, Qiu Henian went to the county office with the Liu brothers.
They returned with two bailiffs from the county office.
The bailiffs first interrogated the young worker. Despite him being alone briefly during dinner, he still denied stealing the silver coins.
The bailiffs then inspected the scene of the incident, searched under the bed drawers, checked under the bed and around it, as well as the windows and doors of the house and the courtyard gate.
One bailiff asked, “Was there always someone at home yesterday?”
Qiu Henian replied, “In the morning, I was at the shop, and my wife went to town to buy vegetables. She was probably gone for less than an hour.”
The bailiff then asked Qingyan, “When you returned, did you notice anything unusual? Were all the doors and windows locked and closed?”
Qingyan nodded and said, “Yes, I didn’t notice anything wrong.”
The two bailiffs discussed for a while and said, “This worker is highly suspicious. Let’s take him back to the county office. Even if he insists, once we use torture, he will confess within a few hours!”
Saying that, they walked towards the door, preparing to take the worker from the village head’s house.
Just then, the bailiff at the front suddenly exclaimed, “Hmm?”
He bent down and picked up a piece of paper from inside the door.
The other bailiff reacted quickly and rushed out the door.
The bailiff holding the paper quietly read aloud a few lines on it, “Yesterday, around the hour of Si*, I saw someone climbing over the west side of this door’s courtyard wall, with a cloth bag tied around his waist. This person has a bad reputation in the village and fears retaliation, so I dared not inform anyone. But my conscience troubled me, so I left this letter, please do not investigate me.”
*T/N: Around 4 pm
Following these lines, at the very bottom, a few short words were written.
“The person I saw is Wang Heyao, the eldest of the Wang family who lives in the east of the village.”
Qiu Henian and Qingyan stood beside the bailiff, reading these words clearly.
The method of delivering this letter seemed familiar. Qingyan’s gaze swept over the handwriting, recalling the scene when he had taught the person to write a few days ago while he was sick.
His eyelids twitched slightly, and he looked up at Qiu Henian.
Qiu Henian felt his gaze, withdrew his eyes from the letter, and looked at him.
After a moment, he shook his head at Qingyan.
Spoiler for the Next Chapter:
Until that warm hand continued down to pat twice on the fleshiest part of him, Qingyan’s body stiffened suddenly.
