Fan Changyu immediately turned around and snapped at Jin Laosan and the others, “What are you shouting for?”

Jin Laosan said sheepishly, “Isn’t he your live-in husband, the Guye?”

Fan Changyu faltered. Almost instinctively, she glanced at Xie Zheng. His expression remained indifferent, seemingly unmoved by Jin Laosan’s words. Only then did she let out a quiet breath of relief before continuing, “He is indeed the husband I took into my household, but why are you all calling him Guye?”

The group of Jin Laosan immediately lowered their eyes and fell silent, looking for all the world like a bunch of newlywed wives who had been rejected by their wicked mother-in-law.

Fan Changyu’s temple twitched at the sight. She waved a hand. “I took you to Wang Shop today only so we could confront them and seek justice. Now that justice has been served, you should all go home. And from now on, stop bullying men and preying on women.”

Jin Laosan and the others murmured their obedient assent before leaving.

Fan Changyu stole another glance at Xie Zheng, who was standing some distance away, and for some inexplicable reason felt a little guilty. But then she remembered that she hadn’t done anything heinous, so she folded the sheet of paper in her hand, straightened her back, and walked over to ask, “What are you doing here?”

Fine snow settled in Xie Zheng’s ink-black hair, making his brows and eyes appear even colder and more aloof. “The model essays I wrote some days ago sold rather well. The bookseller took a liking to them and invited me out for a cup of tea. I heard you had gone to Wang Shop, so I came over to see.”

Fan Changyu looked surprised. “The bookseller took a liking to your writing? Then you must be quite the writer!”

Xie Zheng had not expected her to be seemingly so unlearned yet know rather a lot about such things. He lowered his eyes, concealing his thoughts, and said, “I fled here from Chongzhou, so I know more about the turmoil of the war there and the hardships of the common people. Even if what I write is rather crude, it is something the people of Lin’an Town have never heard before. That is likely why the bookseller took an interest in it. How did things between you and Wang Shop turn out?”

The last part was clearly meant to change the subject.

Fan Changyu, however, had nowhere near as many twists and turns in her mind as he did and failed to notice in the slightest. As they walked, she told him what had happened at Wang Shop. “…I didn’t even hit him. I only kicked over his cutting board, then took a butcher’s knife and cut his hair. And that alone scared him into such a state…”

Halfway through, Fan Changyu suddenly stopped talking. She glanced at Xie Zheng, then closed her mouth.

All this while, Xie Zheng had merely listened to her recount the events at Wang Shop with great animation, never saying a word. Seeing her suddenly fall silent, he finally turned his head and asked, “Why did you stop?”

He was truly a handsome man. His refined brows and eyes looked as though they had been drawn with an ink brush. When he looked at someone with his eyes lowered slightly, the impatience that so often lingered at the corners of his eyes was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he gave the strange impression of being both coolly aloof and gentle.

Fan Changyu met his gaze and suddenly grew a little self-conscious. She scratched her head and asked, “Do you also think I’m a little too uncouth?”

The corners of Xie Zheng’s eyes lifted slightly, as though he was somewhat surprised by the question. Then he said, “No.”

Before he fell into such dire circumstances, he might have thought so. But not anymore.

Only those who lived without worry over food and clothing had the leisure to concern themselves with whether something was coarse or refined, cultured or elegant. Those who still had to worry about whether they would have enough to eat had little room in their minds for anything beyond their next meal.

To judge impoverished commoners by the standards of what the wealthy pursued was nothing short of asking, “Why don’t they eat meat porridge?”

何不食肉糜 (hé bù shí ròumí) literally means “Why not eat meat porridge?”

The phrase comes from the Western Jin dynasty, specifically the reign of Emperor Hui of Jin (晋惠帝), who was notoriously regarded as incapable of understanding the hardships faced by ordinary people.

According to the Book of Jin (晋书), there was a famine and people were so hungry that they had no grain to eat. When Emperor Hui was told about this, he supposedly asked: “Why don’t they eat meat porridge?”

The problem was that 肉糜 (ròumí) meant a fine meat porridge/congee made with meat. If people couldn't even afford ordinary grain, suggesting that they eat meat was completely absurd. So the phrase became an example of someone being so sheltered and out of touch with ordinary people's lives that they cannot understand their suffering.

It's somewhat similar to the famous phrase “Let them eat cake” associated with Marie Antoinette.

Fan Changyu smiled, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly at his words. She didn’t bother wondering whether he was telling the truth or merely humoring her. She kicked a small pebble along the road and, as though she had been alone for too long and had suddenly found herself wanting someone to talk to, murmured almost to herself, “My father used to forbid me from using force in front of outsiders. My mother wouldn’t even let me help with the butchering. She said people would gossip if a girl did such things. Even after I married Song Yan, even if he didn’t mind, other people would still laugh at me and look down on me behind my back.

“For more than a decade, I kept myself restrained. I was still a far cry from being a proper young lady of a respectable household, but I had a fairly good reputation in town. Then my parents passed away, and for the sake of making a living, I had no choice but to start butchering pigs too. I’ve even picked up a cudgel to teach people a lesson a few times. By now, most people in town probably think of me as some sort of shrew.”

As she spoke, she raised the piece of paper from the money shop advertising for hired muscle and said half-jokingly, “If I ever stop butchering pigs, I could always go collect debts for people!”

Xie Zheng naturally knew how important a woman’s reputation for chastity and virtue was. She already carried the reputation of being a Lone Star of Heavenly Calamity who brought misfortune to those around her, and now that she had made a name for herself as someone fearsome, there was no doubt the townspeople talked about her behind her back, even if they dared not say anything to her face.

Perhaps this woman was genuinely open-minded.

Or perhaps she had simply learned to make light of things in the midst of hardship.

A flake of snow landed on his lashes and melted moments later into tiny beads of water. His dark eyes settled on Fan Changyu, his voice lazy yet earnest, “Then go collect debts.”

Fan Changyu was in the middle of kicking another pebble by the roadside when his words made her foot slip. She nearly did the splits on the icy road, but fortunately, an iron-clamp-like hand caught her by the arm in time.

Fan Changyu’s eyes went round. “You’re actually encouraging me to do something so heinous?”

Half of her arm was still supported by Xie Zheng’s hand. Even through her thick winter coat, his five fingers could feel how slender her arm was. Yet it wasn’t so soft that she seemed frail and easily bullied, like a strand of noodles. Rather, it was like the foreleg of a tiger or leopard—lean and sinewy, yet powerful.

Paired with those wide almond-shaped eyes, she looked even more like a scruffy little leopard still doing its best to bare its fangs and put on a show of ferocity.

Through the thick winter coat, a faint tingling sensation suddenly spread through his palm.

Xie Zheng frowned. He withdrew the hand supporting her arm and looked away. “I meant that you shouldn’t be afraid of what people say.”

Fan Changyu pondered his words for a moment before finally understanding what he meant. The last lingering trace of gloom in her heart dissipated completely.

She caught up with the man hobbling ahead with his cane in just a few steps. “Your leg is still lame. I’ll get an ox cart to take you home!”

“……”

“Ai… no, that’s not what I meant. I mean, your leg hasn’t healed yet!”

The two of them took an ox cart back. Along the way, Fan Changyu stopped by the ready-made clothing shop to pick up the winter clothes she had ordered for the whole family to wear for the New Year. She also bought Changning a packet of maltose candy. They finally made it back to their home in the western part of the city before nightfall.

When Fan Changyu went to Auntie Zhao’s house to pick up Changning, Auntie Zhao told her that a constable from the county yamen had come by that afternoon and instructed her to appear at the county yamen three days later for the hearing. Fan Da’s petition had been submitted for so long that, at last, the case was finally going to be heard.

Fan Changyu herself hadn’t thought much of it, but Auntie Zhao said worriedly, “The one who came to deliver the message was a constable under Head Constable Wang. He let slip a few things—apparently, Fan Da has been making frequent visits to the yamen advisor these past few days. That yamen advisor is the maternal uncle of Butcher Guo, and Butcher Guo had an old grudge against your father. Originally, since you took a live-in husband, the house and land should have been awarded to you. But now that yamen advisor is meddling in the matter, I’m afraid at least half of it may end up being given to your eldest uncle.”

A shīyé (师爷) was not technically a formal-ranking government official, but a advisor attached to the magistrate’s yamen who could wield considerable practical influence.

Fan Changyu hadn’t expected those two shit-stirrers to join forces as well. Her brows immediately drew together. “Why would they give Fan Da half?”

Auntie Zhao sighed. “Those officials can decide a case however they please with nothing more than their own word. How could ordinary people like us possibly know the law as well as they do? And Fan Da has the yamen advisor on his side. Even if you hire a legal advocate, who would dare take your case and offend the yamen advisor?”

Fan Changyu’s brows knitted even tighter.

Though the yamen advisor held no formal office, he was effectively the second-in-command of the yamen. With Butcher Guo’s old grudge against her father added to the mix, there was no way Fan Changyu would come out ahead when the case was heard three days from now.

Even if she tried to pull strings and ask someone to put in a good word for her, whoever she could reach through her connections would still be beneath the yamen advisor in rank. Unless she could somehow get to the county magistrate—but that was nothing short of a pipe dream.

Not to mention that her family had no connections with the county magistrate to begin with. The mere fact that the magistrate had wanted to take Song Yan as his son-in-law, while she was Song Yan’s former fiancée, was enough to make it a blessing if the magistrate didn’t deliberately make things difficult for her.

Fan Changyu thought it over, feeling as though a dark cloud had settled over her head. She asked, “Daniang, do you know what caused Butcher Guo to fall out with my father?”

Fan Changyu knew only that Butcher Guo had never gotten along with her family. She genuinely had no idea what grudge Auntie Zhao was referring to.

Auntie Zhao sighed. “That was more than a decade ago. Most of the people who had shops on that street back then have long since changed, so you never heard anyone mention it while doing business there.

“Back then, Butcher Guo was a street thug too. Every merchant on the whole street had to pay him protection money. If they refused, a bunch of local ruffians would come and cause trouble. After your father opened a shop there, he refused to pay this protection money. The ruffians came to make trouble, but instead, your father gave them a good thrashing. They ended up admitting that Butcher Guo had sent them, so your father reported Butcher Guo to the authorities. The county magistrate at the time truly was a righteous and impartial magistrate. Not only did he have Butcher Guo beaten with the cangue and baton, he also threw him in prison for more than half a year. That was how the grudge between your father and Butcher Guo began. Now that the Guo family has a relative serving as a yamen advisor, and you happen to have a lawsuit on your hands, they’ll certainly use this opportunity to make things difficult for you.”

With such an old grudge between the two families, there truly seemed to be no way out.

Fan Changyu returned home with her brows furrowed the entire time.

After dinner, Changning went to bed, while Fan Changyu remained seated alone beside the brazier, holding a charred little stick and poking and doodling on the ground with it.

The cage containing the gyrfalcon was sitting beside the brazier as well. After being smoked by the fire all day, its plumage had turned another shade grayer.

The entire main room was utterly silent. The only sound was the occasional crackle of firewood in the brazier as sparks popped from the flames. Even the gyrfalcon dared not make a sound, merely darting its beady little eyes back and forth between the two people sitting beside the fire.

When another spark popped from the firewood, Xie Zheng looked at Fan Changyu’s tightly furrowed brows in the firelight and finally spoke, “Don’t worry yourself too much…”

“I’m not worried. I’ve already thought of a way.” Fan Changyu tossed aside the little stick. Her words were firm and decisive, yet there was no relief on her face at having found a solution. If anything, she looked rather grim.

Xie Zheng’s eyes lifted halfway, the lazy look in them turning three shades colder. “What way?”

Was she going to ask that former fiancé of hers for help?

It did seem to be the only feasible option left to her.

After what they had discussed that afternoon, Fan Changyu no longer treated him like an outsider. She clasped her hands tightly together, her lips pressed into an almost straight line. “If my parents knew what I’m planning, they’d probably be disappointed in me. I used to look down on this sort of thing myself, but I have no other choice now…”

Xie Zheng suddenly found that he didn’t want to hear the rest. Firelight and her reflection flickered in his cool, thinly curved eyes as he cut her off, “I’ll help you.”

Fan Changyu looked up at him in confusion. “How are you going to help me?”

Xie Zheng said, “No matter how biased the authorities are when ruling a case, they still have to base their judgment on the Great Yin Code. If they can award part of the property to your eldest uncle even after you took a live-in husband into your household, it means they’ve merely found loopholes in a few provisions of the law. We have three days. I’ll take apart and explain every relevant section of the Great Yin Code to you until you understand it inside and out. When you face your opponent in court, you won’t need a legal advocate. You can handle it yourself.”

Fan Changyu was astonished that he knew so much about the law, but she was also a little concerned about whether this would really work. “This… can it actually work?”

Xie Zheng shot her a look as cold as shards of ice and said without the slightest mercy, “So going to beg your former fiancé would work?”

Fan Changyu stared at him, utterly bewildered. “Why would I beg him?”

Xie Zheng frowned. “Wasn’t that the solution you came up with?”

Fan Changyu: “……I was planning to disguise myself as people from the gambling house and have my eldest uncle bundled up in a sack and dragged away the night before the hearing.”

Xie Zheng: “……”

Having to admit that she had planned to do something like that was a little embarrassing. She said awkwardly, “I heard Head Constable Wang say before that if my eldest uncle doesn’t show up on the day of the hearing, the case won’t count.”

Xie Zheng: “……”