Pont de l'impuissance

Chapitre 1

This book is from , a free TXT novel download site.

For more updated and free ebooks, please visit . (Da Qing Shen Duan)

Great Qing Shen Duan 1 1

Winter of the second year of the Jiaqing reign.

Mu Qingyi, the seventh-rank deputy commander of the military garrison in Chongnanfang, Dongcheng District, Beijing, left home alone at 9:45 AM and never returned. His body was discovered by the night watchman in Guaibang Hutong in Dongcheng District at the turn of the hour of Chou and Yin the following day.

Mu Qingyi was Zhang Wentao's longtime friend and a shrewd and capable detective. Just six months prior, Zhang Wentao had recommended him to take up an official post in Beijing. When Zhang Wentao heard the news of his close friend's murder, he trembled as if struck by lightning, frozen in place. After a long while, he weakly asked, "Has it been investigated? Are there no mistakes?"

The yamen runner who reported the matter said, "Your Honor, we have already checked him. His clothes and appearance are not bad, and he even has an official seal on him. Several officials who are very familiar with Master Mu have also examined him."

"Who are they?"

"Lord Shu Lu, the Manchu Imperial Censor, and Lord Li Chengqing, the Han Imperial Censor, who are patrolling the eastern city, and Lord Lian Pengju, the clerk of the eastern city..."

"Alright." Zhang Wentao waved his hand, using the last bit of strength in his body to say to his personal servant Fu Lin, who was standing to the side, "Have someone prepare a sedan chair, let's go to the scene and take a look."

The murder of a high-ranking official in charge of maintaining order and preventing bandits in the capital, right before the emperor's carriage, caused an uproar throughout the city.

Zhang Wentao was a fourth-rank official, the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, renowned throughout the court and the country for solving two major cases in the capital and one mysterious case within the palace, earning him the title of "Divine Judge of the Qing Dynasty" from Emperor Qianlong. At this moment, his four-person blue sedan chair stopped in Guaibang Hutong. The alley entrance was already crowded with onlookers; had it not been for several yamen runners blocking the entrance, they would have already squeezed in. People peered into the alley, whispering amongst themselves. Zhang Wentao alighted from the sedan chair, and the yamen runners parted the crowd, leading him into the alley.

After walking only thirty or forty steps into the alley, Zhang Wentao saw that officials and clerks from the Ministry of Justice, clerks and runners from the Military Affairs Bureau, and constables and coroners from Shuntian Prefecture had already arrived. They were bustling about, moving around, seemingly doing nothing. Zhang Wentao went over and saw the two Manchu and Han imperial censors patrolling the eastern city, Shu Lu and Li Chengqing, as well as Cao Wenzhi, the Minister of Revenue and Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture. He went over to greet them. Cao Wenzhi knew that Zhang Wentao and Mu Qingyi were old friends who had gone through thick and thin together for many years, and comforted him, saying, "Brother, don't be too sad. I will definitely petition for an imperial decree to commend Commander Mu. After the culprit is caught, we will offer a blood sacrifice at Commander Mu's grave."

Zhang Wentao only said one sentence: "I'm sorry to have troubled you, sir." Without saying anything more, he walked towards Mu Qingyi's body.

Looking at his old friend, now a cold corpse, Zhang Wentao was overcome with grief and tears streamed down his face. He paused briefly, took out a handkerchief to wipe away his tears, and then approached to examine the body. He saw that Mu Qingyi's corpse was dressed in casual clothes, but very elegantly: a maroon satin jacket with a flared front and grey squirrel fur trim, a honey-colored satin robe with grey squirrel fur trim, lined with a tight-fitting crepe fabric, pale white satin trousers, white velvet stockings, and dark satin embroidered shoes. On his head was a small square-topped velvet hat with a lake-green knot, as if he were about to receive a distinguished guest.

Zhang Wentao bent down and examined Mu Qingyi's body, finding only two wounds. One was a knife wound, entering from the back; because Mu Qingyi dodged to the side, it didn't penetrate deeply, merely grazing his ribs. The other was a sword wound, piercing his throat from the front—a fatal wound. Even the knife wound, though not fatal, had been fatally slashed in the direction Mu Qingyi had dodged, injuring his right lung and causing serious injury. Even without the sword, Mu Qingyi wouldn't have had the strength to dodge a second blow. It seemed the assailants were two people, both highly skilled in martial arts, killing Mu Qingyi in the blink of an eye. Mu Qingyi had been a constable and possessed some martial arts skills. Yet, facing two assassins, he had no chance to defend himself. Clearly, these two were martial arts masters.

Looking at the surrounding footprints, they had been carefully swept away, leaving no trace. There were no signs that Mu Qingyi's body had been disturbed.

“It was a deliberate act of murder! Not a spur-of-the-moment decision! The other party is a martial artist, and a very skilled one at that. Could it be a feud between the martial arts world?” Zhang Wentao muttered to himself as he stood up and turned to ask, “Which one of you is Lian Pengju, the clerk of Chongnan Ward?”

An official wearing a gold-topped hat with intricate carvings, dressed in a robe with five pythons and four claws, and covered with a brocade robe with peacock patterns, walked over and said, "This is your humble servant."

"Who was the last person to see Mu Qingyi at the yamen yesterday? What did Mu Qingyi say when she left?"

Great Qing Shen Duan 1 2

"Commander Mu left the yamen at 3:45 AM yesterday. He said goodbye to me as he left, saying he was going to meet a friend. He didn't say anything else."

"Did he say where he was going to meet his friends?"

"They didn't say, but I just found out. A waiter at Deyiju Restaurant saw Commander Mu dining in a private room with a woman!"

"A woman?"

“Exactly. Commander Mu is a regular customer of De Yi Ju, so he recognizes him. I've brought the waiter over to identify the body. He said the clothes and appearance of the person eating there are exactly the same as the corpse. It's Commander Mu!”

"Call him over!"

Lian Pengju ordered the waiter to be brought in. The waiter knelt down and said, "This humble servant greets Your Excellency!"

"What's your name?"

"My name is Mo Ye."

"Can you recognize that the person you had dinner with that day was Mu Qingyi?"

“I would never mistake you. Although Master Mu is the deputy commander of the military command in Chongnan Ward of the East City, he doesn’t have any jurisdiction over Rinan Ward in the North City. But Master Mu and you are already well-known for your ability to solve cases, and you’ve been to our restaurant for drinks a few times, so I recognize you. We waiters may not be good at much else, but we are experts at recognizing people, and we are never wrong.”

"So, do you remember what that woman looked like?"

"The woman wore a bamboo hat and a veil, which she didn't remove even when eating and drinking. So I couldn't see her face clearly. But her figure was superb, and she walked with a graceful gait, like a beauty! I'd guess she was only in her early twenties."

"What clothes was she wearing?"

"The woman was dressed very luxuriously. Underneath, she wore a bamboo-root-patterned blue satin jacket with beaded leather, over which was a royal blue vest with silver trim, a light blue crepe skirt, sky blue satin trousers, and a pair of green leather boots with inlaid floral patterns. By the way, although she was a beauty, her feet were quite large."

"Is it Bigfoot? Can you see clearly?"

“I can see it clearly, it is indeed Bigfoot!”

"Did you hear what they were saying?"

"I delivered the dishes a few times, and only heard a few words, but I couldn't understand them."

"Why can't I understand?"

"Both of them were speaking Cantonese, and the younger one couldn't understand a word!"

Zhang Wentao then remembered that Mu Qingyi was from Guangdong, so this woman must be from his hometown. It wasn't strange to meet an old friend in a foreign land and have a drink at a restaurant. But what was strange was that this woman was twenty years younger than Mu Qingyi and a Manchu woman with bound feet. How could they be acquainted?

At this moment, Cao Wenzhi and others approached. Cao Wenzhi asked, "Lord Zhang, have you discovered any clues?"

"Lord Cao, I just examined the knife wounds. The assailant is highly skilled in martial arts, delivering a fatal blow in an instant. However, the perpetrator doesn't seem to be Mu Qingyi's enemy. If it were an enemy, they would never kill with a single blow without confronting the attacker to vent their anger. Therefore, it's highly likely a hired assassination. The knife and sword wounds are unusually smooth, especially where the blade struck a copper button on Mu Qingyi's clothing, slicing it in two. This suggests that both individuals were wielding valuable weapons. Martial arts masters with valuable weapons—who has the power to hire such people? I think in the capital, it's either imperial relatives, high-ranking officials, or wealthy merchants."

I just asked a waiter at the Yiju Restaurant, and he said the woman dining with Mu Qingyi was a young Manchu woman. She was dressed elegantly and spoke Cantonese. This narrows down the pool of people I need to investigate. She might be the wife or child of a Manchu official who served in Guangdong, or a noblewoman with ties to the imperial family. I think Mu Qingyi's death must be related to this woman. But since they were able to dine together, they couldn't possibly be enemies. The woman wore a veil, and seemed unwilling to let anyone know her relationship with Mu Qingyi. The case is truly perplexing and I can't seem to make sense of it.

All traces left at the scene had been deliberately erased; the only remaining clue was the origin of the Manchu woman.

Shu Lu, the Manchu censor patrolling the eastern city, interjected, "Lord Zhang's analysis is meticulous and logical. However, how do we investigate this Manchu woman in the capital? And what kind of female relative do we need to investigate? We can't possibly summon all the female relatives of Manchus who have served as officials in Guangdong, or all the imperial women who have stayed in Guangdong, to the court for interrogation."

"Lord Shulu is right. The opponent is very shrewd and has considered all possibilities, blocking all avenues to solve the case. However, she still miscalculated one step and failed to foresee a loophole thousands of miles away."

"How can it be a thousand miles away?"

"Mu Qingyi has been by my side for four years. I know his character; he would never make enemies in officialdom, nor would he stumble over women. Therefore, all the grudges and grievances most likely originated in Mu Qingyi's hometown in Guangdong."

"What do you mean?" Cao Wenzhi asked, puzzled.

"The fact that the woman spoke the same dialect as Mu Qingyi indicates that both of them had lived in Guangdong. Mu Qingyi rarely wears such elaborate clothes, yet yesterday he specially changed into such formal attire to meet a Manchu woman twenty years his junior. This suggests that their relationship is unusual, and they must have spent a considerable amount of time together to become so familiar. He wouldn't have had such opportunities later, when he was the head constable of Kaihua County in Zhejiang and the ninth-rank prison clerk of Xuanhua Prefecture in Zhili Province. Such opportunities could only have arisen in Guangdong. Therefore, the key to solving this case must be found in Guangdong. I am willing to escort Mu Qingyi's coffin back to his ancestral home and investigate this case in Guangdong!"

Great Qing Shen Duan Er

They left Beijing on the nineteenth day of the first lunar month, and arrived in Guangzhou on the first day of the sixth lunar month. It was the hottest time of year, the sun shining relentlessly, making everything dazzlingly bright. The heat was relentless, the wind dry and parched, leaves curled up, and mules and horses snorted. Zhang Wentao and his party traveled without stopping, arriving at Mu Qingyi's ancestral home in Qingyuan County.

Liu Demeng, the magistrate of Qingyuan County, had already received news from the official gazette and the provincial dispatches, and had sent men to wait outside the city. Upon hearing that Zhang Wentao had arrived, they went out of the city to greet him. Upon seeing Zhang Wentao, he said, “Lord Zhang, you must be tired from your journey. A sedan chair has been prepared for you. Please come to our county office to rest for a while! I will send someone to deliver Commander Mu's coffin to Shijiao Village! Please rest assured, sir!”

Zhang asked Tao, “No need. Mu Qingyi and I have known each other for many years and have a deep friendship. It is my duty to escort the coffin back home. After I have finished arranging Mu Qingyi’s funeral, I will go to the county office to bother you.”

Having no other choice, Liu Demeng ordered someone to change Zhang Wentao's horse and sent two yamen runners to clear the way and escort Zhang Wentao to Mu Qingyi's hometown, Shijiao Village.

Zhang Wentao delivered Mu Qingyi's coffin to his doorstep. His son, Mu Weishen, had already learned of his father's death from Magistrate Liu and embraced the coffin, weeping loudly. Zhang Wentao recounted the case and then comforted him, saying, "The dead cannot be brought back to life. Please accept your grief. I came to Guangzhou partly to send your father home, and partly to find the murderer in Guangdong. After your father's burial, I will do everything in my power to find the killer and bring him to justice, to comfort Brother Mu's spirit in heaven!"

Mu Qingyi's funeral was held with great pomp and circumstance. A lintel was erected in front of his ancestral home, and a large tomb was built, according to the standards for a seventh-rank official. Monks from a nearby temple were invited to set up an altar and perform rites for the deceased's soul. Local gentry, former officials, relatives, and friends all came to pay their respects. Because Mu Qingyi was particularly well-liked in the area, groups of people came and went, and it wasn't until three days later that the crowds thinned out. Only then was the coffin lowered and the body buried.

After all the funeral arrangements were completed, Zhang Wentao called Mu Weishen to his side and asked, "I heard that you are an adopted son?"

“Yes, my father had no children. I was adopted when I was eight years old. My father was highly respected and well-liked in the area, so ever since I changed my surname to Mu, I have always been well taken care of by the villagers.”

Zhang Wentao sighed. He suddenly realized that although Mu Qingyi had been with him for three or four years, he knew very little about his past, and felt a little ashamed. He gestured to the seat for Mu Weishen to sit down and said in a friendly tone, "Your mother passed away the year before last? Why didn't you send someone to Xuanhua to report the death?"

"The journey is too far, and we have no money for the trip. We sent someone to deliver a message, but there was no one there to go."

"Mu Qingyi is the only son in three generations, so you don't have any relatives?"

Mu Wei thought for a moment and said, "I have an older sister, but she can't really be considered an older sister."

"Huh, what does that mean?"

"The year before I was adopted into the Mu family, my father had also adopted a nine-year-old girl. But after only two or three months, the girl ran away."

Zhang Wentao stiffened: "Whose family did she adopt? Did she run back to her original family? Where is she now?"

“He’s not a local; his father was a prisoner. That’s all I know. I’ve only heard these things; I don’t know the details.”

"Oh, did your father have any enemies in his lifetime?"

“When I came here, I was already old enough to remember things. At that time, my father was a constable in the county. Although he was a constable, he was kind-hearted, warm-hearted, honest and upright, and did not seek personal gain or avoid harm. He acted only according to his conscience. Therefore, he had an excellent reputation in the surrounding villages. Even the bandits he caught admired him.”

Great Qing Shen Duan San

For the past few days, Zhang Wentao has been traveling around the village and countryside, trying to find out about Mu Qingyi's past.

But Mu Qingyi's background was like water, pure and spotless, without a single blemish. Everyone said that given Mu Qingyi's character, it was impossible for him to have any enemies. Some said he saved several lives in a fire on a certain day, others said someone fell seriously ill and was saved thanks to Mu Qingyi's timely medical intervention. Everything he did in the village was good, nothing bad; he only bestowed kindness and never incurred resentment. Zhang Wentao searched for several days but couldn't find any reason to kill Mu Qingyi, let alone any high-ranking officials or princes. However, the background of the girl he had adopted and who later ran away was gradually becoming clearer…

It was June of the forty-second year of the Qianlong Emperor's reign, a sweltering month. Qingyuan County, known for its simple and honest people and seldom experiencing theft, was suddenly plagued by a series of thefts—food, clothing, bedding, pots and pans, and other household items. Mu Qingyi, then a constable, was only twenty-two years old. He quickly apprehended the thief in a dilapidated temple. But when he saw the thief's appearance, he couldn't help but gasp in shock.

The thief was disfigured by leprosy, and he was traveling with a nine-year-old daughter. A man afflicted with a serious infectious disease and a nine-year-old girl were beyond the capacity of the county government to imprison. The only solution was to send them back to their hometown. However, the father and daughter had already been driven out of their hometown. This constant back-and-forth could easily lead to their deaths along the way.

Mu Qingyi took the patient home and invited a doctor to treat him. To prevent the plague from spreading in the village, he soon sent the patient to an empty temple in the mountains and hired people to bring him food and care for him. He adopted the nine-year-old girl as his goddaughter. But in September, the girl ran away.

The girl didn't go up the mountain to look for her father; in fact, she didn't know where he was staying. From then on, there was no further news of the girl.

What was the relationship between this girl and that Manchu woman? Zhang Wentao tried hard to connect the two, but one was a noble and beautiful Manchu woman, and the other was the daughter of a Han commoner suffering from leprosy. It seemed difficult for the two to have any connection.

Inside the county government office in Qingyuan County, the incessant chirping of cicadas only intensified the oppressive heat. Zhang Wentao sat in the main study, holding a block of ice, while Magistrate Liu Demeng stood beside him, constantly wiping away sweat.

"Twenty years ago, when this nine-year-old girl disappeared, it was September. The south has no cold days, and it's harvest season. Plus, the people are kind and generous; it's impossible for her to have frozen or starved to death. So there are only two possibilities: either she was taken in, or she was abducted. A little girl wouldn't go very far. She has a red birthmark on her forehead, making her easily recognizable. If she was taken in, it's relatively easy to find her, but if she was abducted, it will be very difficult," Zhang Wentao said to Liu Demeng with a somber expression.

"Governor-General Li Feng of Liangjiang and Governor Chen Shiwen of Guangdong have both issued official documents. They say that the documents for assistance in the investigation have been sent out, and all counties in Liangguang have begun searching for this girl who disappeared in the forty-second year of Qianlong's reign. It is believed that the truth will soon be revealed."

"Yes. I have also received documents from Governor Alinbao of Hunan and Governor Zhang Chengji of Jiangxi. The two neighboring provinces of Hunan and Jiangxi have also begun to assist in the investigation of this girl. After all, the addition of a new family member and the adoption are major events that cannot be hidden; if she has not been abducted, we should be able to find out soon."

Three months passed, but there was still no news. All the prefectures and counties that had assisted in the investigation reported that no one had adopted such a girl between the 42nd and 43rd years of the Qianlong Emperor's reign. Zhang Wentao was now completely baffled.

The Great Qing Divine Judgment Four

Autumn in Guangdong remains hot and humid; even though it's Mid-Autumn Festival, the weather is still not cool. Zhang Wentao was already staying at an inn in Guangzhou. People in Guangzhou love to light lanterns for Mid-Autumn Festival, presumably to rival the moon's brilliance. On Mid-Autumn night, every household lights lanterns, and many extinguish their own lights, hanging the lanterns on walls and doors. They then set up a table in the courtyard or in front of the door, laden with mooncakes and fruit. Families gather around to admire the moon and chat. Children, carrying lanterns, run happily through the streets and alleys with their friends, comparing whose lantern is the most beautiful.

Seeing that Zhang Wentao had been working tirelessly for months on the case, the Prefect of Guangzhou, Zhang Daoyuan, invited him to come out and enjoy the moon and lanterns. Zhang Wentao could not refuse, so he changed into plain clothes with Zhang Daoyuan and went out into the street with only two soldiers.

A bright moon floated in the clear, blue sky, a few wispy clouds like gauze, and a silvery light shimmered on the water. The moon in the sky was lonely, but on the ground, countless stars had fallen, and myriad lights twinkled. Lanterns of all colors hung in the streets and alleys, vying for attention with their designs: five blessings arriving at the door, carp leaping over the dragon gate, dragons, phoenixes, and unicorns… The streets were bustling with people admiring the lanterns and the moon, a truly lively scene.

Zhang Wentao and Zhang Daoyuan walked for a while and saw a lantern placed on the ground in front of an inn. It was about ten feet tall and had three tiers. The top tier depicted a crane with a red letter in its beak, below which floated clouds and then a blue sea. Because it was so beautifully made, it attracted a crowd of onlookers. Zhang Wentao noticed that the lantern was made in August of the forty-second year of the Qianlong Emperor's reign. Intrigued, he called the innkeeper over and asked, "Who made this lantern? It's so magnificent."

The shopkeeper chuckled, “The locals don’t have such skill. Twenty years ago, a lantern maker and his apprentice passed through Guangzhou and stayed at our shop. When I asked, I found out he was the famous Lantern Liu from Henan. It just so happened that the Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching, so I asked Lantern Liu to make a large floor lantern. And when he finished, it was truly outstanding! I waived his shop fee and added five taels of silver to his bill.”