Chapter Nine: A Petty Grudge Spawns a Double Murder; Lecherous Schemes Bring Ruin in an Instant

A fool mad with lust — he laughs and claps his hands,

Forgetting life itself for beauty's sake.

He digs his pits, lays his traps, ensnares the simple,

And in the still of night gropes through the dark like rotten wood.

All to satisfy a moment's pleasure.

The clouds and rain last but a breath, and then are gone —

Yet the law of kings runs long.

He fancied himself a diver who had seized a precious pearl;

Instead he won a severed head,

His neck awash in blood.

— To the tune of "Waves Scouring Sand"

What name shall we give to a deed when it succeeds? And what becomes of a man when it fails? These were the questions Yang Jiao-shan posed when deliberating affairs of state. My own view is this: when a man takes up the nation's cause with a sincere heart and wholehearted courage, success need not earn him the name of loyal minister, and failure need not bar him from becoming a loyal ghost. But for those who do evil — whether through recklessness or through cunning — success brings only the names of treachery and deceit, while failure brings strangulation, beheading, exile, or hard labor. Such outcomes, such names — are they not laughable? And yet men will court these nameless, outcomeless ends in pursuit of fame and profit, convinced they are snatching a few happy hours. Is this not the very image of slitting one's belly to conceal a pearl? As for the pleasures of wine and women — they last but a moment; why make them the pivot of one's life? This is precisely what the Founding Emperor's Six Injunctions forbade: "Commit no wrongful acts." And yet men will not take heed.

In the capital, which lies beneath the very wheels of the Son of Heaven's carriage, there are county and prefectural offices to administer, five district patrols to keep the peace, and on top of these the offices of surveillance — the Eastern Depot, the patrol camps, the Embroidered Guard. Under a single official's name there are any number of guardsmen and runners; beside each guardsman and runner there are any number of assistants and deputies. And beyond them swarm the impostors and hangers-on. True functionaries and false alike cluster thick as ants, and the net of scrutiny stretches tight as a wall. Yet men are still not afraid. Today one man is cangued to death; tomorrow another takes his place. One case has barely closed before the next breaks open. The capital draws adventurers from all five directions and gathers the desperate competitors of every province.

In matters of official advancement, abuses abound: bribing one's way past examination barriers, falsifying qualifications, purchasing appointments through patronage or donation, buying vacancies, poaching vacancies, nursing vacancies. In matters of revenue, there are those who take commissions for collecting taxes, who falsify accounts, who short-change and delay. Purchasing agents pilfer from the funds entrusted to them, falsify expenses, and fall into arrears. I have seen how taxes collected in kind — once they reach the hands of dishonest merchants — dissolve like mud in water, while the official regulations remain as strict as ever: of ten parts collected, scarcely one or two reach the treasury. And should a single batch be rejected, it is as though it sank to the bottom of the sea. Tea, wax, dye-stuffs, padded garments — arrears drag on for years. Iron, copper, saltpeter, and sulfur — arrears mount to tens of thousands of taels. Abuses multiply without end. In penal matters, those above accept bribes and intercessions; those below twist the law and tamper with documents — all of it feeding the extortioners and ruffians who batten on pretexts. And so extortion flourishes in the capital.

Now these extortioners, I think, must be clever men. Strange that clever men would do such foolish things. People say it is greed that brings them low — that Heaven deliberately clouds their judgment so they commit crimes that cost them their lives. I say it is simply this: they see what lies before them and forget what lies behind; they see gain and forget harm; they never once think through where their schemes will end, or what names those schemes will earn them.

To think is to turn foolishness into wisdom; to remain blind is to turn foolishness into madness.

The boundary between an honorable name and a ruined name

Is often no more than a hair's breadth.

This man's surname was Wang. He was the fourth son in his family, a native of Yue, who had settled in the capital. People called him Little Wang the Fourth. By nature he had the heart of a sheep-gut alley — cramped and devious — while he put on the manner of the vast Dongting Lake and boundless sea. His connections above were powerful eunuchs who ran the imperial workshops, and the stewards of noble households with military influence. In the middle were key functionaries, clerks, and bannermen. Below were a mob of ruffians who had borne the cangue more than once, who could catch wind and snatch shadows — unregistered vagabonds all. Whenever any man left the faintest trace of vulnerability, it went without saying that Wang the Fourth would devour him. He dealt in divorce suits, insinuating himself as mediator. If a man refused to buy his way out, Wang the Fourth would appear as accuser or witness, hounding the man until his family was ruined and his life forfeit. He even found ways to extort law-abiding wealthy citizens by fabricating pretexts and sending them threatening notes. This is how he made a name for himself in the capital and built up his fortune. Even inspecting censors with some authority found they could not bring him down. And should anyone manage to apprehend him, he would inevitably find some powerful patron to wriggle free of punishment — short of a direct imperial edict, there was no holding him.

He bites like a tiger, he schemes like a monkey;

He conjures illusions worthy of the demon of Liuqiu.

Though the statutes of kings hang bright above the palace gate,

The great whale still slips through the net.

He had at home one wife and two concubines, and a close kinsman — his brother Wang the Third. With easy money always at hand, he spent his days prowling the pleasure quarters. Whenever he caught sight of an attractive woman, he would not rest until he had her in his grasp.

One day, as he was passing in front of the Imperial Utensils Workshop, he heard a boy call out: "Hot ones! Burning hot!" Immediately from a small lane came a woman's voice in reply: "Baked cakes for sale." That voice — it was like the warbling of spring birds beneath the flowers, making a passing man slow his steps. Wang the Fourth, hearing the sweetness of it, deliberately slowed his pace. At the end of the lane he saw a reed curtain pushed aside, and a young woman stepped out — like a spray of red apricot blossoms leaning out over a hedge, swaying gently in the east wind. She took ten copper coins and handed them to the boy, then from a willow basket chose six baked cakes and four steamed buns.

Wang the Fourth looked her over with care:

Morning toilet barely done, her dark hair loosely gathered,

Her face like a pear blossom touched by pale mist.

Her eyes rippled like molten jade,

Her cheeks faintly flushed — she owed nothing to powder or rouge.

Two peaks rose blue-green as the mountains of Wu,

Her fingers tender as new-polished jade.

Long and slender without a hair's reduction,

Delicate yet full.

Such a face — enough to make a man's longing run deep.

— To the tune of "Tying the Skirt Sash"

Wang the Fourth watched her go back inside, then asked the boy: "Whose daughter is that?" The boy said: "She's the daughter of Old Chen who does the copying in the Bureau of Military Affairs. She's not yet betrothed." Wang the Fourth said: "I'll take her for my third concubine." He sent a matchmaker to the family.

This Old Chen was also a southerner. The family was poor, and he earned his living by writing and copying for the Bureau. His wife was surnamed Zhang; his son Chen Yi was about twenty years old, and mixed with all manner of rough and unreliable people. His daughter was called Elder Sister. The matchmaker arrived and first offered congratulations: "What a joyful day for your household! This Master Wang is the most famous and capable man in the capital — rich and powerful. He has a principal wife who was left bedridden after childbirth and cannot manage the household. Hearing that your Elder Sister is beautiful and capable, he has sent me specially to ask her to come and be mistress of the house." When asked for details, it turned out to be Little Wang the Fourth. Chen Yi, an inexperienced young man, said: "Wang the Fourth is a man of consequence in the capital. If we attach ourselves to him, there will be advantages for us in the future — let it be done." Old Chen said: "We have only this one daughter, and I was counting on finding a man of means, someone the whole family could depend on for support." It was Zhang the wife who said: "This match cannot be settled so quickly — let us deliberate at length."

The slender vine of the girl creeps seeking support;

Let her choose with care where she twines.

If she reaches toward wormwood and hemp,

I fear she will be snapped halfway.

In time, word came that Little Wang the Fourth already had two concubines. Zhang the wife said: "A man like that is nothing but a city butterfly — fickle as poplar floss. He had a wife, then took a concubine; he had one concubine, then another; and now he is about to cast both aside for a third. The moment he lays eyes on someone new, who can say he won't abandon Elder Sister too?" So she stalled him with words, saying: "We are a modest household with only one daughter, on whom my husband and I depend for our old age. We want her married to a man who stands alone, not given to be someone's concubine." Negotiations went back and forth several times, and the Chen family refused.

What a pity to give such tender loveliness

To a shallow and faithless man.

Later, Wang the Fourth said: "Since they insist on a single man, my brother Wang the Third has no wife — I'll arrange the match for him instead." Word came to the Chen family through a busybody: "The scoundrel has cheated you. If you agree, how do you know you'll get Wang the Third rather than Wang the Fourth? And Wang the Third in name is a brother, but in practice he carries the baskets and does the weighing at Wang the Fourth's house — no better than a servant boy." So the Chens refused again.

After some time, through others' mediation, Elder Sister was given in marriage to a soldier named Shi Cai. He had a room to live in, two more rooms that brought in rent, and two military stipends. One he served in himself; the other he redeemed each month for two qian and four fen from the Imperial Horse Pasture Office. Together they received two piculs of unhulled rice per month; selling the rice tickets to others brought about eight hundred copper coins, worth one tael of silver — enough to buy coal and wine.

Chen Elder Sister married him and lived a comfortable enough life. Each morning a fire was kindled on the hearth, water heated in the clay pot. After washing her face, she would first buy several baked cakes and steamed buns, or sweet gruel for breakfast. At midday, if she was industrious, she would cook a pot of rice — polished or millet — for two meals. If less industrious, she would buy noodles. In the evening they would buy some sorghum spirits; if there was money, fish and meat; if not, fresh beancurd with scallions and garlic. A few coins for oil, a few for vinegar and soy sauce — they managed to get by. All day and night they seldom left the warm kang, and were reckoned a pair well matched.

When hungry, there is yellow millet; when tired, there is bedding —

Where else need one seek paradise?

A wife of queenly grace who meets his gaze across the table —

No need to journey in dreams to the Luo River goddess.

Then one day orders came from the commanding office: Shi Cai was to be transferred to Changping prefecture to labor at the imperial tombs. He tried through every connection to be excused, but could not. His wife being a young woman of humble station, unsuited to living alone, he placed Elder Sister in her father-in-law's home and went off to do his labor. Changping was sixty li from the capital. He was gone two months without a word. When people were sent to inquire after him, some said: "An inner-court official called him away to do work at his residence." Others said: "He couldn't bear the labor and was driven away by the official." Still others said: "He went to cut firewood outside the walls and was probably seized by the patrolmen." No firm word came. Elder Sister spent her own money to send her brother to inquire — with no result. More than a year passed in this way, and Chen Elder Sister was as good as a living widow.

I have exhausted the tortoise shells in divination,

Yet the sword-pointed longing tells me nothing of when he will return.

The empty room, the cold pillow and mat —

The lamplight moves, and I move with it, alone.

At this time there was a man named Ruan Liang, a native of Jinhua, about twenty-four or twenty-five years old, who had struck up a brotherhood with Chen Yi and often visited the household. His intentions were not honorable — he frequently made insinuating remarks. But Elder Sister kept her virtue and paid him little heed. He would often say: "Your husband has been gone so long without news — he's probably no longer among the living. A girl of your youth and beauty — why ruin your life waiting for a man who may never come back? You should do something to change your lot." Old Chen was an upright man who said: "A woman with a husband — who will take her? If I hastily remarry her and the husband turns up alive, where will that leave us? There will be a lawsuit." Ruan Liang said: "If Elder Sister is willing to remarry, I know the officials well and can get her a certificate of abandonment — nothing to fear." It was Elder Sister herself who said: "I have enough to eat and enough to use. What is there to remarry for?"

Even a chance union makes a husband and wife;

In a humble dwelling, quiet chastity can dwell.

Another month or more passed in this way. Then one day two men walked in. The one behind wore a dark blue tunic and a square scholar's cap, a gauze veil over his eyes, and a rope around his neck. Without a word they tied up Old Chen and took him to the inner patrol office, where he was thrown in the lockup for five nights. Chen Yi was so frightened he dared not show his face. People made inquiries on his behalf and learned that a clerk from the Ministry of War had been caught making counterfeit official documents, and it was alleged that Old Chen had once sold one such document for him. In the offices of the inner-court eunuchs, money was life; without it, death. Though the Emperor, in his enlightened scrutiny of abuses, had sternly warned all surveillance offices after the fire at the Anmin warehouse, such practices could never be wholly rooted out. Though Old Chen protested his innocence, he could not be quickly released.

Official law is harsh as bitter wormwood;

The malice of clerks is more venomous than tigers.

Without ten thousand strings of cash to propitiate the spirits,

How can one escape the rod?

Then Ruan Liang appeared and said: "This matter is clearly a wrongful accusation. But in these offices, you are hardly the only innocent man. Only great financial resources can pull you out. I see that Wang the Fourth is a man of ability. He once sought Elder Sister for a concubine — why not agree to the match now, and give her to him? I guarantee Old Chen will walk out of the lockup at once." Zhang the wife, distraught with worry, said: "Wang the Fourth again! If heaven has any justice, Old Chen will come out on his own." Elder Sister gave Ruan Liang a sharp look and said: "I will not marry. Stop meddling in my affairs." Ruan Liang laughed: "Elder Sister, the nights grow long — fear there'll be no one to share your suffering." Elder Sister grew angry: "Get out! And never speak such nonsense to me again!"

As fate would have it, Ruan Liang had swallowed an insult. He had not gone far from the door when he ran straight into Wang the Fourth. Wang the Fourth said: "Where are you off to, little Ruan?" Ruan Liang, eager to curry favor, said: "I went today with good intentions and got a mouthful of spite for my trouble." Wang the Fourth said: "Which stinking loose woman has swallowed a leopard's heart, daring to anger my brother? Let me go deal with her, and get back at them for you." He grabbed Ruan Liang and started to go, asking: "Which slut's house is it?" Ruan Liang said: "Not a slut — that ungrateful Chen Elder Sister. I told her: your husband has vanished, your father is locked up — why not let me arrange a match and send you to the elder brother? Let him sort things out and rescue your father. But the little wretch had no gratitude at all, started screaming and threw me out, wouldn't even let me through the door. And Chen Yi — although he's no match for you, I've called him brother. He didn't even stop her — just let her spew abuse." Wang the Fourth said: "Don't be angry. We'll take our time with them. Come to my place first and have a cup of wine."

Finding the fine ale of Qingzhou,

Driving out the tiresome magistrate of Pingyuan —

Men say wine banishes sorrow,

But I fear it can rouse a quarrel just as easily.

Little did anyone know how ill that wine would prove. Back at Wang the Fourth's house, he called for drink. First came a bowl of stir-fried pork bones, then a bowl of sausage stuffed with meat, then deep-fried chicken, braised tripe, crackling skin — and the wine was court-grade spirits. Just as they were settling in, Wang the Third arrived. Wang the Fourth called him to sit and they all began drinking. Ruan Liang again complained that Chen Elder Sister and her family would not listen to reason — it was outrageous. Wang the Fourth cried: "Is Chen Elder Sister so high and mighty? I'll have her one way or another." Ruan Liang said: "I want to have her too, to vent my anger." Wang the Third said: "But she won't have us — how can we have her?"

There is a saying: lust makes a man as bold as the heavens — and wine makes him bolder still by half. Wang the Third thought for a moment and said: "While Chen Yi and his mother are away from home, we can take her by force and bring her here. Once she is inside, she is ours to do with as we please." Ruan Liang said: "Fourth Brother, that way I still get nothing." Wang the Fourth, the brute that he was, thought a moment longer and said: "I have a scheme that will cut off her family roots entirely, and then Elder Sister will be ours." He said nothing more, but leaned close to Ruan Liang's ear and spoke a few words, then said: "Tomorrow night you will be needed. If it succeeds, twenty taels of silver — and I'll find you a good sister-in-law into the bargain." He then whispered the plan to Wang the Third as well. Wang the Third said: "It's rather too brutal." The wine party broke up.

Three men in league — the bond that cleaves gold;

A demon plot that mocks heaven and earth.

Little did they know that schemes hatched over wine

Were fermenting a plan for their own destruction.

The next day was the fifth of the second month. The women of the Chen household sat at home grieving over the official case, with no way to rescue Old Chen. Then Ruan Liang walked in: "I got a bit heated yesterday after those cups of thin wine and gave offense — I've come today specially to make amends." Chen Elder Sister heard him and ignored him, turning her face to the wall of the kang. Chen Yi said: "Brother, if you're going to visit, please mind your words in future." Ruan Liang said: "Elder Sister blames me, and even the old mother seems displeased. Let me take Yi out for three cups to smooth things over." Chen Yi said: "Never mind." Ruan Liang seized him and would not let go, and the two of them went off together.

Off they went to seek pleasure with wine —

But the cups were not yet drained when seven feet of life came due.

After a while, when the first watch was approaching, Zhang the wife said: "It's growing late — why hasn't he come back?" Then Ruan Liang came rushing in, holding in his hand the old dark-blue robe that Chen Yi had worn out. He said breathlessly: "I was drinking with Yi just now, and when we came out we ran into that bald-headed Zhang, who says Yi owes him money. One wanted it paid; the other had nothing. They quarreled and came to blows. He sent me to bring you this robe as proof and ask you to come quickly to help." Zhang the wife said: "I am eight months with child — I am heavy and cannot move easily." Ruan Liang said: "It is precisely because you are so large that they will be afraid of you. You must come — I'll support you as you walk." Half dragging, half pulling, he got her out the door.

Chen Elder Sister, not knowing what was happening, sat at home nursing dark forebodings. Meanwhile, Ruan Liang had indeed treated Chen Yi to wine, and as dusk was falling, they arrived in front of the Imperial Utensils Workshop. Ruan Liang said: "There's a new pleasure house nearby in the workshop district — let's take a quick look and then go home." He pulled Chen Yi along by force. When they reached an earthen embankment in a deserted spot, Chen Yi was caught off guard — Wang the Fourth struck his temple with a brick. He fell senseless to the ground. Wang the Third and Ruan Liang kicked him several times, and in an instant he was dead.

Three wolves lying in wait for a single lamb —

How could his life be spared?

Ruan Liang stripped the outer robe from the body to use in luring Zhang the wife. When she arrived and saw her son lying on the ground, she bent down to look — and at that moment all three villains struck at once, finishing her as well.

A plot devised for pleasure's sake,

A mad scheme to seize what was forbidden.

Pity the mother and son —

Their bodies sprawled along the roadside.

Ruan Liang said: "Now that Chen Elder Sister has no one to watch over her, let us all go together." He stripped a silk skirt from Zhang the wife's body. Ruan Liang ran ahead to the Chen house. Elder Sister sat dumbstruck on the kang, staring at a solitary lamp, waiting with no word of news. Suddenly Ruan Liang burst in: "Your mother went to the scene and fainted when someone shoved her — she sent me with this skirt as proof, asking you to come." He reached out to drag her from the kang. Elder Sister said: "I can't go unattended." Then another man came in as well, also grabbing at her: "Come, come!" Elder Sister, alarmed, was about to cry out. Ruan Liang snatched a kitchen knife from the table: "Make a sound and I'll kill you!" The first man clapped a hand over her mouth; another slipped inside and blew out the lamp. Ruan Liang pressed his body upon Chen Elder Sister and forced her down onto the kang. Both her hands were pinned — one by each man — and Ruan Liang tore away her undergarments, lifted her legs, and claimed the first turn.

A secluded flower, fragrant in its hidden hollow,

Its scent turned inward toward the cliff-face vale —

How could it bear the frenzy of bee and butterfly,

Their scattered, wanton desecrations?

Elder Sister could neither struggle free nor cry out; she endured their violations for a long while. When the first man finished, another said: "You little vixen — I sought you time and again and you refused. Now you're in my hands." His assault was even more brutal. Elder Sister had no choice but to endure, and in her heart she thought: this must be Wang the Fourth. After another long interval, a voice at her side said: "You've had your fill — shouldn't you give way and let me have my turn?" As the second man withdrew, a third threw himself upon her, and at the same moment released the hand that had been covering her mouth. Elder Sister immediately screamed: "Robbers! Murderers! Rapists! Neighbors, help!" At her cry, the men scrambled up hastily. Elder Sister also raised herself. But the men were upon her — some supporting, some pushing, some dragging — and they hustled her out of the room. One of them untied the peach-red ribbon from her knee bindings. Just as they were about to turn out of the small lane, someone at the lane entrance had already heard the screams and come to their door. The three men had no choice but to abandon Chen Elder Sister and scatter in flight.

Bee-mad and butterfly-wild, she was cruelly tormented,

Her fragrance battered, barely any left.

Yet the close-strung bells protecting the flower held firm —

One branch still sheltered in the cleft of the cliff.

Chen Elder Sister steadied herself a little, rearranged her clothing, and went to tell her neighbors of her ordeal — but let us not dwell on that.

As chance would have it, the inner patrol lieutenant was making his night rounds, riding a horse through the quiet streets with a pair of blue-lacquered batons and a pair of olive-stone lanterns glowing in the distance. In the shadows he seemed to see two drunkards sprawled at the earthen embankment: "Quickly, go drag them over and sober them up!" The men went to get them — and found two corpses, killed by persons unknown. The lieutenant immediately summoned the local residents. In the lamplight someone said: "That man looks like Chen Yi who lives near the Workshop." The lieutenant dispatched men to escort this witness to summon the bereaved. The party came in haste; Chen Elder Sister was at that very moment elsewhere, explaining how her brother and mother had been lured away and gone missing. When the runners told her they had already been beaten to death near the embankment at the Utensils Workshop, she burst into inconsolable weeping.

How cruel, that a fair face should carry such a wretched fate —

And family and kin be cast into a ditch.

She locked the door, and with several neighbors went to find the patrol lieutenant. She told him: her brother had first been lured out by Ruan Liang under pretext of an invitation to drink; her mother had also been lured out by Ruan Liang with the story that her brother was in a fight. She did not know how they came to be killed. Then, at the second watch, two men had come with a third to rape her. By their voices, one of them was Little Wang the Fourth. After two men had had their way, her cries had alerted the neighbors and the men had scattered. The patrol lieutenant immediately ordered the ward headmen and neighbors, together with the bannermen, to search and arrest. There was a commotion throughout the night. By the time the search parties arrived, all had fled. The families and close associates of the suspects were seized, and through repeated interrogations and cross-referencing, all three men were brought in from distant places within three days. For a capital case, even those who had colluded could not simply be overlooked. The ghosts of the wronged clung fast, and there was no escaping them.

Heaven's judgment is strict in its retributions;

The law of kings punishes the wicked and stubborn.

Laughable are the foolish and credulous —

Once the trap is sprung, they struggle but cannot break free.

Once the three men had fled, they had already given themselves away by their flight. The patrol lieutenant took down Chen Elder Sister's testimony point by point and subjected the prisoners to rigorous interrogation — those who needed the boot received it; those who needed the rod received it. In the matter of murder, Wang the Fourth was the principal schemer; Ruan Liang and Wang the Third were the executors. In the matter of rape, Ruan Liang was the first assailant; Wang the Fourth was second; Wang the Third attempted rape but did not succeed. In the killing of Chen Yi, Wang the Fourth dealt the fatal blow; Ruan Liang and Wang the Third joined in afterward. In the killing of Zhang the wife, Ruan Liang first kicked her in the belly; then Wang the Fourth and Wang the Third beat and kicked her to death. In the rape of Chen Elder Sister: the one who threatened with a knife and untied her knee-ribbon and pushed her was Ruan Liang; the one who covered her mouth and pinned her left hand was Wang the Third; the one who blew out the lamp and pinned her right hand and later supported her was Wang the Fourth. Everything was confessed clearly, item by item —

Like Qin's mirror that illuminated all things,

Like the cauldron of Yu inscribed with a hundred monsters.

Though the acts were secret, they emerged one by one.

The officer in charge of the patrol was the eunuch Ma. Reviewing the confessions, he saw that the killings and the rape were all capital offenses. As for Zhang the wife — eight months pregnant, the child dying with the mother — though she was not beaten to death directly, her death had a direct cause. The post-mortem examination was conclusive, and he formally submitted the case as a triple killing of innocent persons and referred it to the Board of Punishments. In recent years the Board, fearful of rebukes and heavy penalties, had come to be manned largely by men of letters with little backbone — eight or nine out of ten were examination-degree holders with no stomach for confrontation. When it came to cases referred by the depot and guard offices, they did not dare to differ. They would simply take the confessions and testimony and find a statute that fit, always erring on the side of severity — for that was the surest way to protect one's position and one's skin. The original charge of three deaths, the Board upheld as three deaths. Wang the Fourth was sentenced to death by slicing; Ruan Liang and Wang the Third were sentenced to immediate execution.

The memorial went up, and fortunately the Emperor — reverent and cautious in all matters of justice — questioned whether a fetus with form but no independent life could truly count as a separate death. He sent the case back to the Board for reconsideration. Previously the Board had followed the patrol camp's lead; this time, mindful of the Emperor's intent, they dared not maintain the three-death count. Wang the Fourth, Ruan Liang, and Wang the Third were all reclassified as beheading offenses. By this point Ruan Liang had already died in the Board's prison from the injuries of repeated interrogation under torture. The imperial edict came down: Wang the Fourth to be executed immediately in consultation with relevant officials; Ruan Liang's corpse to be desecrated posthumously; Wang the Third to await execution under sentence; Chen Elder Sister to be released and sent home. The Document Office drafted the execution warrant and the vermilion-sealed memorial, and sent them to the Board of Punishments registry. The registry official signed it; the bailiffs conveyed it to the Board. The Embroidered Guard bound the prisoner and, together with Board officials, escorted him to the Western Execution Ground. The Censorate had already delegated a supervising censor to oversee the beheading. For Wang the Fourth, once he reached that place, ten mouths could not speak for him, eight shoulders could not break free, twenty feet could not carry him away. The drinking companions and gang members of former days, his one wife and two concubines — all they could do was watch wide-eyed as his head was struck off.

Do not shed tears for today's end;

Think rather on the wrongs of former days.

Look only at the son of the Chen house —

For what cause did he fall into the mire?

Truly, Wang the Fourth, vicious and brutal to the last degree, was one whom the principle of heaven had to eliminate. And so spirits above and below conspired to move him to this deed — and in the act of rape he spoke those words that sealed his confession.

Is there anywhere under heaven a man who kills two people and escapes without paying with his life, or who rapes a woman and goes undiscovered? If on that night the mother and son had been killed and then Chen Elder Sister silenced as well, no one could have known who had done it; the neighbors would have suffered greatly from the suspicion. If the three men had carried Elder Sister off and hidden her away in some remote place, leisurely abusing her, and the deed had never come to light — people would have said Elder Sister had conspired with a lover to murder her brother and mother and had vanished God knows where, an unsolvable mystery.

What makes me laugh is this:

A grand hall with painted beams — yet in life one occupies no more space than a man can kneel in;

Embroidered quilts and silken curtains — yet in sleep one takes up no more than a single mat.

Dragon's breath and phoenix roasting — yet what is offered goes no further than a single mouth;

Pearl-sewn garments and silk trousers — yet what is worn covers no more than a single body.

To exhaust one's very marrow in the service of a skeleton — this is lust;

To labor like a horse and ox for one's descendants — this is greed.

Consider: for the sake of one Chen Elder Sister, a man left his own wife and two concubines without anyone to care for their white-haired years — not knowing whom they would end up with. For a mere twenty taels of silver, he threw away his own life, and met his end on the execution ground. What did he gain in the end, that it should come to this?

As for the story of Chen Elder Sister's husband and father — people say it was all through the machinations of Wang the Fourth and his gang that the husband vanished without trace and has not yet been found. But the father, because of these very events, was exonerated. Looking at the whole picture — what good did all that cunning do? If only these villains, when they were plotting their scheme, had stopped to think: if it succeeds, we gain nothing but a moment's pleasure and earn the worst of names; if it fails, we lose everything — our families and our lives. However hot the heart may burn, all turns to cold ash. It is a pity there are so few who pause to think things through.