Chapter 20: Jian Lexian Cunningly Deploys His Brother-in-Law; Yin Ruren Storms the Office of Magistrate Huang

Now, when Yin Cheng caught sight of Lexian, he said at once: "Old Jian! Come play dice with me — let's chase the old ram together." Lexian laughed and said: "Excellent! You've come at just the right moment! You may chase the old ram if you like — only, the stakes must not be small!" Yin Cheng said: "A hundred cash a round." Lexian said: "Too small!" Yin Cheng said: "Two hundred." Lexian said: "Too small, too small!" Yin Cheng said: "Three hundred, four hundred, five hundred, a thousand!" Lexian kept shaking his head. "Small, small, small!" Yin Cheng said: "Ten taels of silver!" Still Lexian shook his head. Yin Cheng said: "Old Jian! Where did you come into all this money? If you won't play with me, at least lend me a few taels!" Lexian said: "Nothing to lend — if you want money, we gamble for it!" Yin Cheng said: "What stakes would satisfy you, then?" Lexian said: "The ancients had a saying: 'A single throw of a thousand gold.' Put down a thousand taels of gold, and I'll play with you." Yin Cheng burst out laughing: "Old Jian! Have you gone mad?" Lexian said: "I'm not mad — you're just a little short of funds, that's all! What sort of man sits in the role of a wife's brother to a sitting magistrate and stays this threadbare?" Yin Cheng said: "That's just what I think myself — but I can't find a road to money." Lexian said: "You need only stake a thousand taels of gold, bet it all on one throw, and we'll see who wins. If you win mine, you'll have all the silver you need. A thousand taels of gold converts at sixteen — a thousand taels of gold is sixteen thousand taels of silver!" Yin Cheng said: "But you'd never pay!" Lexian said: "As long as you win it, I would never welshe." So saying, he pulled Yin Cheng over to his lodgings, took out the dice cup, and said: "Come, come, come!" Yin Cheng laughed: "All right then — a thousand taels of gold a throw. If you renege, I'll have my brother-in-law hold you fast — don't think you can fly to the sky. You go first — roll, roll!" Lexian threw a nine. Yin Cheng said: "This round is already mine!" He threw twice and missed, then scooped up the dice, rolled them between his palms, and hurled them with force. The dice tumbled into the cup: three twos, two sixes — and one die still spinning. With a six coming up, it would be a matched sequence — a win. Yin Cheng quickly grabbed Lexian's lapel with one hand and called at the spinning die: "Six, six, six!" Sure enough, it rolled a six — but in doing so it knocked one of the twos over to a four, leaving eight points, and he had lost by just that much. Yin Cheng let go and spun around to flee. Lexian quickly gave chase and caught him by the arm. Yin Cheng cried in distress: "You'd skin me alive!" Lexian said: "Dear brother-in-law! Don't be like that — I have something to discuss with you!" Yin Cheng said: "Nothing to discuss — unless you intend to skin me!" Lexian pressed him into a seat and said: "Brother-in-law, please sit down. We were only having a bit of fun — who takes it seriously?" Yin Cheng said: "Seriously or not, I've got nothing but my life!" Lexian laughed: "What would I use for courage to take a brother-in-law's life? As it happens, there are a thousand taels of gold right here — the question is whether you want them." Yin Cheng said: "Are you dreaming?" Lexian said: "I'm not dreaming — this is a windfall beyond dreaming, and it's yours if you have the skill to take it!" Yin Cheng sensed now that there was something behind these words, and asked: "What windfall? What skill is required?" Lexian then explained the matter of Liang Tianlai's lawsuit against Ling Guixing, and continued: "Ling Guixing has been wrongly accused, and in his fury and frustration he is willing to send a thousand taels of gold inside, to have his grievance redressed. If, brother-in-law, you can persuade the one inside to accept the case, there is an additional thousand taels of silver as thanks for you. And if you can manage so that not a single copper is demanded, would not both the thousand in gold and the thousand in silver all be yours, dear brother-in-law?" Yin Cheng pondered a while and said: "I'll go and try my luck. If it comes off, I'll invite you to Gubu to open the proceedings." Lexian said: "Many thanks, brother-in-law — but the faster the better!" Yin Cheng said nothing more, stood up, and walked inside.

All the way, he thought to himself: "Why not promise him only a thousand taels of silver, and keep the thousand in gold for myself — that would be rather good!" Then he thought again: "No, no — that's too little. He might not be moved. Better to offer five hundred taels of gold." Turning these thoughts over as he walked, he soon arrived at the magistrate's study, where Magistrate Huang was reviewing official documents. Yin Cheng walked in and called out: "Brother-in-law!" Magistrate Huang looked up and said: "What have you been up to these days? You're nowhere to be seen for weeks at a time. Look at yourself in a mirror — your face is all wild and unkempt. I urge you to settle down. Copy out a few lines of calligraphy in the study, read a book or two. If you can't manage serious reading, even a novel will do to steady your nature. Why roam the streets all day? What good does it do?" Yin Cheng said: "Brother-in-law, you complain I don't read — yet that thick-board edition of Golden Lotus I brought from home last time, you went and burned it, calling it a 'silver book' (homophone for 'licentious book'). Were you afraid I might read money right out of those 'silver pages' and get rich? Now I've come to bring you gold — isn't that fine?" Magistrate Huang said: "Stop talking nonsense — go inside!" Yin Cheng said: "This is no nonsense — it is a real matter. That lawsuit Liang Tianlai filed — Ling Guixing was wrongly accused!" Then, thinking again: "Five hundred in gold may not be enough to move him — better to offer more. I'll take a smaller cut." He continued: "He has sent word through others asking brother-in-law to redress his wrong, and says he is willing to send eight hundred taels of gold for your use." Magistrate Huang was greatly startled, and roared in anger: "You run wild outside all you like, but how dare you meddle in my lawsuits! Be careful, and get out of here at once!" Yin Cheng had expected one word to seal the deal, and now found himself slapped with a huge rebuff. In foul temper he stormed out of the study in three strides and went to the inner quarters.

Yin Ruren was in the middle of slapping a maidservant and cursing an old serving-woman; Yin Cheng took no notice and walked straight to his sister's bed, threw himself down, and wept. Ruren finished berating the servants, went to the room, saw this spectacle, and was greatly alarmed. "Brother! What is the matter?" She asked twice without answer. She asked again: "Has someone bullied you? Tell me quickly — I'll stand up for you!" Hearing her ask, Yin Cheng wept harder. After a good long while, he spoke between sobs: "Sister — sister! Lend me some travel money and let me go back to Jiangxi. Brother-in-law is throwing me out!" Yin Ruren was greatly alarmed at these words, and suddenly called out: "Maidservant! Ask the master to come in!"

In a moment Magistrate Huang came in. Yin Ruren said: "If you want to throw him out, throw me out along with him — just give us travel money and we brother and sister will leave at once! Then you can take your time finding a wife who is virtuous, pretty, gentle, and whose family has been wiped out to the last soul — someone worthy of your attentions. I haven't that kind of good fortune, and would do better to follow some man into the street and grind ink for him while he sells calligraphy, scraping together a few dozen coins to buy rice and cook a meal. What fortune do I have to live in a government yamen? This yamen was built for ladies of good fortune — those of us from humble stock are fit only to suffer hardship. Instead of knowing our place, we've crossed mountains and seas to come here and be mocked! Brother! Get up this instant! Roll up your bedding — we're leaving. A man doesn't weep. Even if you have no talent and can't sell your calligraphy, you won't starve to death. We'll open wide our eyes and watch others rise to riches and high rank!" Then, still calling for bedding to be rolled: "Even if there's no travel money, I'll beg my way home — a woman of my sort won't lose face over that!" Magistrate Huang said: "What is all this about? I don't understand!" Yin Ruren said: "Hmph! Who asked you to understand my affairs! My brother is useless and clings here in a state even a third-grade servant would be ashamed of. I was never properly wedded in the first place — I ran off with a man on my own. My brother is thus every kind of turtle and cuckold's offspring, so of course you want to throw him out!" Magistrate Huang said angrily: "Ruren! What kind of talk is this? He goes about making trouble outside, without the least care for his own dignity—" Yin Ruren cut in: "Hah! He comes from a humble family — he is all the turtle-spawn you like — it's not as if he's a county magistrate. What dignity is there to care about?" The magistrate said: "I don't know how many times I've been aggravated, and I can't seem to shame him into anything better—" Ruren cut in again: "Yes! That's what you call the good-for-nothing who won't do the decent thing and die — but he hasn't died, which leaves me nothing to boast of!" Magistrate Huang said: "All that aside — today he suddenly decided to meddle in my litigation! Did I wrong him by saying a few words? Was that enough to count as throwing him out? Does it merit this great commotion?" Yin Ruren turned on her brother: "Brother! Do you never look in the mirror? Who are you to interfere in government business? No wonder you got yourself humiliated, and then come here to cry at my door!" Yin Cheng, hearing this, scrambled to his feet. "Sister! This is truly 'a dog biting Lü Dongbin'! I always hear people say that officials weigh gold in great scales and silver in small ones, and that our Panyu county is a famously good posting. Yet this yamen is ice-cold and dry — people outside say the county magistrate here is a fool who doesn't know what to do with money. I've been bewildered by this for some time. Today I went out and met a private secretary from a gentry household, who spoke of how that Liang fellow had wrongly accused one Ling — a man who reads and studies — and said that the Ling family is willing to pay eight hundred taels of gold to have the injustice redressed. They knew I was the wife's brother and came to me especially; I didn't even seek them out. And now brother-in-law wants to throw me out! Sister — one tael of gold is worth sixteen, so eight hundred taels of gold, that's one times eight is eight, six times eight is forty-eight — twelve thousand eight hundred taels of silver! I came in with a good heart to bring in ten-odd thousand taels of silver, and I got this instead. Don't you find that maddening?"

Yin Ruren asked urgently: "Brother! How does this work? Is someone truly willing to send us eight hundred taels of gold? Why didn't you come to me first?" Yin Cheng said: "And what would coming to you accomplish? He needs someone to redress his injustice before he'll pay — just coming to you does nothing. Did you expect them to give it to you for free?" Yin Ruren counted on her fingers: "Eight hundred taels — one tael of gold is four taels of silver-standard currency (fu) — four times eight is thirty-two, so three thousand two hundred taels standard. That's a full two loads of fu-silver! Whether we have that blessing or not I don't know. Master! Why do you refuse gold sent right to your door? What is your reasoning? Are you so accustomed to poverty that it no longer frightens you?" Magistrate Huang said: "He openly offers a bribe — how could I blithely accept? I haven't even tried the case yet — I don't know who is in the right. If I accepted money and then shielded a criminal and harmed the people, what then? Moreover, I have my official stipend — I do not covet windfalls!" Yin Ruren said: "Hah! Never mind talking of blessings — what is this about shielding criminals and harming people? You just said yourself you haven't tried the case — how do you know it would be shielding criminals? Tell me what this case is about." Magistrate Huang said nothing. Yin Cheng said: "What case? A man named Liang was robbed and attacked by bandits — seven or eight people killed — and instead of filing against the bandits, this Liang accused a scholar named Ling, claiming Ling incited the attack." Yin Ruren said: "And who is sending the eight hundred taels?" Yin Cheng said: "The Ling man himself — he was wrongly accused, so he's willing to pay for brother-in-law to redress the injustice for him!" Yin Ruren abruptly turned on Magistrate Huang: "Such an effortless good deed, and you won't do it! Am I to be poor my whole life because I married you — to be denied even a single day's comfort? Since the plaintiff's accusation targets a man of learning, how do you leap straight to shielding criminals? Before you rose in the world, you too were a man of learning — were you a bandit at that time?" Magistrate Huang stamped his foot: "Alas! How can you be so muddled? He is not accusing the Ling man of being a bandit — he says Ling organized bandits to attack and injure people!" Yin Ruren said: "I am not muddled — you are! You are also a man of learning. Did you ever organize bandits? Have you ever known even one bandit? I thought you were enlightened by your learning — that you would cherish a fellow like yourself. Yet here you are, treating someone no different from you as a bandit, and telling me I'm muddled!" Magistrate Huang said: "I never said he was definitely a bandit! I simply said that since I haven't tried the case, I can't know for certain he isn't one!" Yin Ruren said: "There you go, still muddled! If you can suspect a man of learning of being a bandit, why not suspect yourself of being one? In this matter it is clear that the Ling man was wrongfully accused. Tomorrow you sit in court — first clear the Ling man, then separately dispatch runners to catch the real bandits. That wouldn't wrong the Liang man either. As for these eight hundred taels of gold — if you won't take it, I'll take it! Whether our marriage goes well or ill, this is the moment that counts. If it goes well, we share the benefit; if not, I'll take the gold as travel money and go back to Jiangxi. You can stay here and play the clean official! Brother — go now, tell them to deliver the gold immediately. I guarantee that nothing will happen tomorrow, and that he won't dare refuse to follow my plan!"

Yin Cheng had been aching for this signal, jumped up, and went. By the time Magistrate Huang thought to stop him, it was far too late.

What outcome did this uproar produce? Read on to the next chapter.