Chapter 22 Who was the arsonist?
Tai Shan was eased that the fire was put out, but what Lu Jiangbei said really made her sacred. His last words almost scared the hell out of her. Tai Shan stood up trembling and turned around to face all the Taoist nuns. She stared at them like a predator and said very loudly, “Who did this? Tell me who cooked here and set the fire!”
But no one replied. All the 77 nuns kept silent.
Tai Shan was so pissed off that her body shook badly. She yelled again, “No matter who did this, if you could step up right now, you will live. Otherwise, if you get exposed later, I will kill you for sure!”
Still everyone looked at each other. No one came out to confess. freewebnov(e)l.com
Tai Shan was determined and yelled out loud, “Anyone who exposes the arsonist, I will give her 20, no, 30 liang silver as a reward now!”
Whispers in the crowd were like buzzes. After a while, a tall and fat middle-aged Taoist nun pointed at a nun on her right, who was lowing her head, “At 21:45, I saw Huai Xin brought some food to her room!”
All eyes turned to the Taoist nun who kept lowing her head and started talking,
“21:45? The kitchen was always closed between 19:00-21:00. Where did she get the food? She must have cooked them herself furtively!”
“Yeah, Huai Xin is famous for her greed for food and I have seen several times that she carried food to her room at midnight!”
“I’ve seen that several times too! It definitely was her who made midnight snack here and caused the fire!”
“Hey, have you forgot that she once finished copying scriptures and just left with the oil lamp on. The next day, the oil was run out and the desk became black as well!”
“How can I forget? That truly scared me! A fire almost got set up!”
“She has the worst memory in the world!”
“…”
Actually, 9 out of 10 nuns in the temple had cooked midnight snacks here. Merely tonight, more than a dozen Taoist nuns cooked potatoes and corns here, and discussed the handsome imperial guards lived in the West Wing-room. After that, they left with laughter and no one paid attention if the fire was put out. Was there any chance…
There was a saying went that the law did not punish numerous offenders. These Taoist nuns were on the same side, so no one dared to expose another. At this moment, Huai Xin’s name was mentioned, which made them so excited. They immediately said bad things about Huai Xin and wanted her to be the scapegoat.
Huai Xin was originally the disciple of Tai Xi, but she went and lived as a dependent of Tai Chen because she thought there was too little money for her to earn as a tailor. She often assisted Tai Chen with some business that attracted hatred, such as collecting the “serving god money” of sick Taoist nuns, reporting every mistakes of other nuns to Tai Chen, and exposing discontentment those nuns said behind Tai Chen’s back. A few days ago, she tricked Zhen Jing into being punished by Tai Chen. So, in the Taoist Temple, she was isolated and quite many people had problems with her.
Yesterday Tai Chen lost her force, and Huai Xin went back to Tai Xi immediately as a cleaner to sweep the yard. So, Tai Shan didn’t sell her.
Tonight, Huai Xin had indeed cooked here. But she remembered clearly that when she left, not even a single spark existed! Now everyone exposed her like this and mentioned what she did several years ago. They were pushing her to the cliff’s edge!
Huai Xin rushed to Tai Shan’s feet and complained tearfully, “I was wronged! Younger Master, don’t believe their nonsense. They used to have issue with me, so now they all said I am the arsonist!”
Tai Shan sneered, “If only a few people said you are an arsonist, I might still think you were wronged. Will all the 80 people in Shui Shang Temple wrong you? You have lived here for about 11 years. Didn’t you make a good friend?” And then she shouted, “Anyone who can prove her innocence, I will reward you with 5 strings of 1,000 qian.”
The Taoist nuns all denied it unanimously and talked at once, “She talked rubbish!” “We had never wronged her!” “She definitely set the fire!” “She’s going to get Tai Chen out of the mess!” “She was a henchman of Tai Chen and she used to say that Tai Chen should be the Master in charge in the temple!”
Huai Xin fell to the ground in grief. She finally understood the saying that everyone gave a shove to a falling wall. And she suddenly became indignant and desperate. After all, she only used to extort their money, but now they extorted her life! They all came to this poor Taoist Temple for a living, but none of them valued their friendship at all!
Tai Shan nodded contentedly, then turned to Lu Jiangbei and said, “Master, I’ve made it clear that the arsonist is the villain, Huai Xin. She intended to rescue the extremely evil one, Tai Chen!”
Lu Jiangbei did not look at the arsonist on the ground. Instead, he stared at the distance with a smile and said slowly, “Tie her up and put her to death by fire at tomorrow noon.”
What he said frightened everyone. Those who had used the cooking bench tonight were scared. So close! It was almost like they were about to lie there. There must be a brave one because of the rich reward. Just now some of them were really tempted by the 30 liang silver under the promise of Tai Shan, but only a moment later, someone exposed it first. If they didn’t charge Huai Xin with the fire, was there any chance for them to be alive?
There were also many young Taoist nuns. They were obsessed with those fantastic moves of these four people, and they even fanaticized a lot. But now they saw that Lu Jiangbei could understate the horrible “execution by fire” slightly, as if killing someone was more common to him than eating, drinking and walking. So, the love stories in their heads disappeared immediately. Of course, these people were not chivalrous and tender soldiers of fortune in Jianghu, but imperial guards in the name of “ruthlessness”. It was said that they would suddenly draw a sword to cut down the table or people when they were eating…
“It’s not me! It’s not me at all! I know who set the fire. It is the girl who lives in the East Wing-room. Her surname is He!” Huai Xin burst into a shout.
All the Taoist nuns were shocked. Who was she talking about? The surname of that girl was He? Many people couldn’t help looking at Duan Xiaolou, because this morning, someone saw him standing in the East Wing yard and doing nothing. Therefore, it was said that General Duan of the imperial guards was interested in Miss He, who was 10 years old. And he planned to take her to his home as a child bride.
As expected, Duan Xiaolou’s handsome appearance was cold and frightening. He glared at Huai Xin and questioned, “It’s already a deadly crime for you to set fire to the official, but now you dare to accuse Miss He who has always been at peace with the world. There’s even more disrespect in your words. You should be sentenced to...”
“I’m not talking nonsense, I have evidence.” She didn’t care about anything and interrupted Duan Xiaolou without thinking of his identity, “Come and see this!” She pointed to a semicircle black mark on the wall and cried hysterically, “I was wronged. She is the arsonist! This is the evidence she left behind!”
Everyone gathered and stared at the black mark carefully. It seemed like it was printed after being covered with charcoal ashes, and they could vaguely see that was a pattern of fortunate clouds and blessed pig.
Duan Xiaolou frowned and said unhappily, “It’s barely the evidence. Huh? For one thing, it may not come from Miss He. For another, we’re not sure when it was left. Maybe it’s printed here a long time ago. How can we frame someone for just one mark?”
Liao Zhiyuan said gloatingly, “Prison Law in the Hong Wu Period stipulated that ‘Witnesses surpass physical evidences.’ You only have a vague evidence, but there are 80 witnesses. They all clung to one view that you’re the arsonist. Based on this, you can’t win.”
Gao Jue looked at the sky ruthlessly and said, “In order to warn others against following a bad example, tomorrow noon in front of the gate. First, her body will be dismembered, then she will suffer the flame. We will make a statement!”
Huai Xin cried and said loudly, “This black mark was from Miss He–At that time, she was dead and Zhen Jing was changing shroud for her. I saw Zhen Jing take a gold lock out of the box, and put it on her! The pattern on that gold lock is a round little pig with its 4 hoofs walking on the clouds. No one else would have such a gold lock!” She finished in one breath and continued, “Also, I was not the only one. Huai Dong also saw it! At that time, we were looking out of the window, and I bet that it’s worth 50 or 60 liang. But Huai Dong said that workmanship was worth at least 80 liang!”
After hearing this, the crowds became noisy. Hearing Huan Xin said that with vivid details, they began to wonder if Miss He really set the fire. They wondered why the pattern on her gold lock had appeared on the wall here? The East Wing-room she lived was far away from the kitchen. She was just a lady convalescing here, but why did she bother to cross a dozen yards to the kitchen?
Tai Shan narrowed her eyes and thought about this for a moment, then she turned to ask Huai Dong, “Do you know what happened? Does the pattern on the gold lock of Miss He match the pattern on the wall?”
Everyone looked at that Taoist nun as if they could see the answer straight through her head.
The Taoist nun seemed to be very introverted and not used to so much attention. She clutched at her sleeve and lowered her head to speak in a low voice, “It was a small thing that happened a few days ago, so I can’t remember... That day, I just took a quick look through the gauze window. How could I see clearly what Miss He was wearing in the coffin…?”
Tai Shan stopped for a moment and looked round at other Taoist nuns, then asked them severely, “Did any of you ever see Miss He has a lock like this? You all said Huai Xin was the arsonist, but did you see her light it?”
Some Taoist nuns were puzzled by her questions, but a lot of smart Taoist nuns suddenly realized that she wanted Miss He to be charged with arson!
Duan Xiaolou frowned, “Tai Shan, what do you mean? The fire is clearly set for the failure management of your Taoist Temple. Miss He has nothing to do with it. You can’t involve her in this casually.”
Tai Shan’s head began to sweat and she smiled, “General Duan, don’t worry, we are all reasonable people, so we will not slander people without reason. Miss He is the most likely suspect right now because she lives here and Huai Xin is testifying against her. If you want to back her up, at least let her confront herself. Otherwise people would think she was too guilty to come... Poor as she is, and I sympathize with her, but we won’t take the blame for ‘setting fire to officials’ for her.” It was obvious that she had treated He Danggui as the arsonist.
Tai Shan was thinking that if the nun in the Taoist Temple had set the fire, that Taoist nun would not be spared, but the Taoist Temple would also be implicated. At that point, the temple would be punished and her usury business would also be affected. But if an outsider set the fire, the temple went from a suspect to a victim, then the officials may even grant them the permission to reopen the door to pilgrims. She didn’t care what the imperial guards would do to He Danggui. If she was in bad luck, she would be killed. If those officials who were not afraid of being accused of bending the law for selfishness, she would be released.
Duan Xiaolou was very angry. He wanted to say something, but was stopped by Lu Jiangbei. The latter patted his shoulder and persuaded him, “Childe Duan, why don’t you let Miss He come over and explain? Nothing you say can help her.
Tai Shan nodded with a smile, “Yes, yes, that’s it. We are all reasonable people. We’re just going to ask her some questions, and we will not do anything to her.” Then she turned to Zhen Ming, “Go to the East Wing-room and ask Miss He to come over. Hurry up! And remind her of taking her gold lock!” Zhen Ming answered and ran away.
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