Chapter 57 – Porcelain Bumping 

Editor: kllua

Proofreader: breakbones

Originally, Zhuang Zhong and Feng Huan could have travelled together for a few more days. However, Zhuang Zhong had felt that going alone would make it easier for the existing Mei county officials to relax, allowing him to discern their true selves better. Keeping in mind to remain cautious, he would only pull out Feng Huan if necessary. Although many people were aware that he was a part of Feng Huan’s group, it was different from knowing that he was escorted into YunZhou by Feng Huan himself. Moreover, it was too eye-catching to follow the large army, making it inconvenient for him to gather a perspective on the common people’s feelings.

In the end, although it was a decision made in advance, Feng Huan had thought that Zhuang Zhong was deliberately avoiding him and left indignantly. It was only after Zhuang Zhong promised that he could come and retrieve his gift after a month that the latter was willing to let him go. Before leaving, Feng Huan had also ordered the guards to follow and protect him. Four of them would be his personal guards while the others would pretend to be ordinary people and follow him. Their appearances were mostly ordinary with the exception of constable Zhang, who was appointed as the head of the Yamen runners. While he had a large and strong build, the others’ appearances were not very noticeable.

Zhuang Zhong, who closed his eyes and was resting, was about to go to sleep before he heard a ruckus coming from outside the carriage. Through the curtains, the coachman explained, “My lord, the carriage that Young Lady Fang was in hit a woman, killing her. Her family members are currently making a ruckus.”

Hearing that, Zhuang Zhong quickly got up and jumped out of the carriage. Fang Ying Ying’s carriage was in front, and it was already surrounded by many people.

“Such an ill-fated life my mother-in-law had to die so miserably! You were still helping me with the cooking this morning. How can you be gone just like this?!”

“Mother, wake up! You bastard, you killed my mother. You have to pay for this!”

“Big brother and sister-in-law, you need to calm down. Can we afford to provoke those who have the means to travel in a carriage…”

“You bastard, you live off of us and yet dare to say such things now. If I cannot get revenge for my mother’s death, how can I be considered her son?! Let me tell you, no matter who you are, since you dared to kill my mother, I will not spare you.”

“Nonsense. Your mother was already lying here previously, and we did not even run her over with the carriage. How can you say we hit her?!”

Here, Zhuang Zhong recognized it to be the coachman’s voice.

“Heavens, my mother died so unjustly. She has been killed by a carriage and yet those responsible will not admit it! This is unreasonable! Young lady, you look so cultured but why are you so cruel!”

With the guards pushing aside the crowd of people, Zhuang Zhong approached the scene. He saw an old woman lying in the middle of the road, a young woman kneeling and crying beside her while a man was furiously pointing at Fang Ying Ying. If it were not for the guards, something might have already happened. Not far from this road was also a village, and when they heard the ruckus, they all rushed over. Upon hearing that the old woman was killed by the carriage, they condemned Fang Ying Ying one after another.

Fang Ying Ying’s face was ghastly pale as she recalled her past with the abnormal fetus, and she looked as if she was about to faint.

Zhuang Zhong hurried forward. “Sister, there is no need to be afraid. I am here.”

It was only then that Fang Ying Ying regained some vigour and wryly smiled. “I am fine, but… Never mind, let’s not talk about this first. We really did not hit this woman. The carriage was travelling fine before the coachman suddenly stopped. Out of curiosity, I opened the curtain to take a look and saw this woman lying in front, two zhang¹“丈” (zhang) is a Chinese unit of measurement. Its value varies over time and currently it is around 3.33 metres. from the horse.”

The man became furious. “Up till now, you still refuse to admit it! You are so vicious. I have to take you to the local authorities to get justice for my mother!”

A middle-aged man came forward and said, “Do not be impulsive. I think this is the first time this woman has experienced such a thing. Besides, it is her coachman’s fault and she was just deceived by him. Listening to this woman speak, she must be from outside. It is not easy to travel, so do not make things too difficult for her. If she ended up locked in a filthy place, how can she live? Not only that, the old woman is now dead, and the young lady had not meant for this to be intentional. There are so many places, and yet your mother had to wander into the roads. Why don’t we just settle this privately?”

Despite such words, the man roared, “That is impossible. She killed my mother and I cannot spare her so easily! I want her to pay with blood!”

“Your mother is already dead and cannot come back to life. Why not let this young lady pay more for the coffin so that your mother can be put to rest?” Saying that, the older man turned to Fang Ying Ying and explained, “This man is famous in our village for being a blockhead, and he is quite filial. You just had to kill his mother. It is really… If you do not want to be brought to the local authorities, it is better spend money to circumvent this disaster.”

The other man became unhappy. “Second uncle, how can you be like this!? I do not want money. I want justice.”

As the older man comforted his nephew, he kept raising his solution with money to Fang Ying Ying while ignoring Zhuang Zhong. One could not blame him for that, as Zhuang Zhong looked young while Fang Ying Ying’s way of dressing was older and she looked like the one who made the decisions. He had assumed that they were a pair of siblings with Fang Ying Ying as the head.

Zhuang Zhong motioned for Lu Lian to bring Fang Ying Ying away, but she refused. “I want to stay here.”

Towards that, Zhuang Zhong did not object and only said, “I am the head of the family. If you have anything to say, please say it towards me.” The older man paused slightly before saying with good intentions, “I will help hold my nephew back. After you give us some money, leave quickly. I will convince him. Anyway, his mother was a timid person. It is possible that she was frightened by you all and was knocked down. It is not entirely your fault, but in the end, it was you who killed his mother. It can be considered fortunate that you just have to give a small amount as a mere token. Besides, it is not easy for outsiders like you. If you get caught, I am afraid it will be difficult for you all to move around here.”

The younger man jumped up. “Second uncle, how can you say such things? It is clear that they killed my mother. How can we absolve them from the blame?!”

Once again, the second uncle turned around and comforted his nephew painstakingly, but the young man still looked furious as if he would rush up to them for a fight any time. Tall and bulky, the younger man had eyes like bronze bells which looked quite frightening.

Zhuang Zhong squatted down beside the old woman’s body.

“What are you doing?! Do not touch my mother!” The man jumped over with the intention to pull Zhuang Zhong away, but was stopped by Constable Zhang. The man wanted to break free, but found that he could not at all. This man was trained in martial arts!

“You said your mother was killed by our carriage?”

The woman guarding the old woman’s body cried, “I saw it with my own eyes. Mother was walking well when the carriage suddenly came out and knocked her down. I hurried over, but her breathing had already ceased.”

“You said your mother walked over by herself?”

The woman nodded while wiping her tears. The coachman hurriedly objected, “That is not the case at all! The old woman was already lying here!”

Hearing that, the young man got agitated again but was stopped by Constable Zhang. Those standing around started to condemn them, saying that they were heartless rich people who were careless about human life and so on.

Throughout the journey, Zhuang Zhong was dressed informally with the rest so they looked like ordinary merchants. Their clothes and carriages were also not extravagant, but people who were able to use carriages could not be considered ordinary and should possess a substantial amount of money.

“You said your mother-in-law made breakfast for you all this morning?”

The young woman nodded while her husband asked impatiently, “What is the use of asking such questions?”

“How was she last night? Was there anything wrong?”

The young woman glanced at her husband secretly. The man replied, “She was fine. She even fetched a bucket of water yesterday, and everyone in the village saw it. Don’t you dare escape the blame. My mother’s body was fine!”

Zhuang Zhong coldly hummed before suddenly shouting, “Come and catch these two murderers!”

The guards quickly arrested the pair. As the couple was tied up, they looked dumbfounded and were unable to react at all.

“You- you villains! You killed my mother and now you want to kill us. Someone come, they are going to kill us and massacre the village!”

“Mother, you died miserably! God, open your eyes. How can there be such a vicious person in the world who kills someone and yet tries to silence the rest!”

Seeing this, the onlookers raised their hoes to attack Zhuang Zhong, causing more and more people to gather around. However, with the guards sent by Feng Huan, no one could touch him. Initially, Zhuang Zhong had no intention to explain. It was only when a man known as the village head arrived that Zhuang Zhong spoke.

“You are the village head for HeXi Village?”

When the village head saw Zhuang Zhong upright demeanour, his heartbeat could not help but speed up. Furthermore, recalling how a new county magistrate would take office soon, he had an ominous premonition. However, the village head heard news that the magistrate would only take office in a few days. This caused the village head to relax, but even so, he did not dare to slight Zhuang Zhong. “It is me, this lowly one.”

“I have long heard that the villagers in HeXi Village have a reputation of being fierce. As long as someone passes by, they spare no effort in taking advantage of them and scamming them of everything. In the past, I thought it was a mere exaggeration, but now it appears to be true!”

The village head’s back dripped with cold sweat. Ridiculing the rumour, he said, “This- this is all a misunderstanding.”

The young man became unhappy. “Village head, you cannot speak nonsense just because he looks decent! Do not think we are unaware of your intentions. If you…”

“Shut up!” the village head rebuked furiously. When the man saw the village head’s expression, his heart rate sped up, and he did not dare to speak further.

“Young master, do not listen to his nonsense. However, someone really died in front of your carriage. If you do not provide an explanation, it will not be good for you.”

Zhuang Zhong coldly hummed, “You still dare to mention money at this point! First, let’s not mention how the old woman had died. I just checked her body, and she has been dead for at least seven hours. Now it is a quarter past noon, which means that she died this morning in yinshi²“寅时” (yinshi) is around 3 to 5am.! However, just now these two people said that she was fine last night and even made breakfast for them in the morning. Is it possible for them to have seen a zombie and arrange everything for her to lie beneath the wheel of my carriage?”

The couple was stunned. The woman sat limply on the ground with a pale face while the man stuck out his head and objected, “Nonsense! How do you know that she died this morning? You are obviously talking nonsense deliberately in order to escape responsibility!”

Zhuang Zhong sneered, “Your mother’s body is about to stink. Do you really treat everyone as a fool? Corpse spots that do not fade when pressed are clearly visible on her exposed skin, her fingers are stiff, and her corneas are muddy with visible pupils and small creases on the surface. All of this shows that she has been dead for more than seven hours! Moreover, those who are trampled by horses and die have yellowish bodies, broken hands, and traces of blood coming from their mouth and nose that are black in colour. She did not possess any of these signs. Although I cannot check it in detail, I can conclude that she absolutely did not die from being trampled by a horse.”

Hearing that, cold sweat dripped down from the young man’s face. “Non-nonsense. Who can prove that what you said is true?!”

Fang Ying Ying came forward and said in a loud voice so that everyone could hear. “Because he is the newly appointed magistrate of Mei county and a famous expert in solving cases in the capital – Zhuang Zhong!”

The man’s body immediately sagged. If it was not for the guard holding him, he would have ended up on the ground.

*An explanation for this chapter’s title: “碰瓷” (pengci) literally “porcelain bumping” was originally a Peking colloquialism referring to a ploy used by criminals to defraud innocent bystanders by involving them in staged damage of artwork or other types of property. It is comparable to the English expression of “staged crash”, a type of insurance fraud. In China, one could see it being used to refer to the faking of traffic accidents in order to fraudulently collect compensation.

Translator’s Notes:

Hi, apologies for the long wait. I have been swamped with various things such as getting covid, preparing for graduation and going on the tedious process of job searching. Although I cannot promise a regular update schedule yet, do be assured that I have the intention to finish this novel. Thanks for your understanding and I hope that everything is going well for all of you.

• 1
  “丈” (zhang) is a Chinese unit of measurement. Its value varies over time and currently it is around 3.33 metres. ↩︎
• 2
  “寅时” (yinshi) is around 3 to 5am. ↩︎