As a lone orphan in a feudal dynasty, with neither family nor friends to back her, Yu Fanfan stood no chance against the massive wealth and power of the Cheng Manor. No matter how strong she was, the estate’s hordes of servants could easily drown her in spit alone.
Surrendering without a fight, however, was not her style. She still had to seek justice for the original host of this body.
During yesterday’s donkey cart ride to the capital, she had turned the problem over in her mind, plotting how to settle the score.
After weighing her options, inspiration struck. If her own strength fell short, she could simply make up the difference with public opinion. It was time to subject these ancient folk to a modern bombardment of narrative warfare.
So, upon arriving in the capital yesterday afternoon, Yu Fanfan had not rushed to confront them. Instead, she found a reliable inn, booked a modest private room, settled Four-Eyes in, ate her fill, and then headed out to the streets with the rest of her silver.
After making the rounds, Yu Fanfan spared no expense. She bought several yards of plain white cloth, fetched a bucket of dog blood from a butcher shop, and managed to hire an audacious, down-on-his-luck scholar.
Under her strict direction, he took up the brush and splashed the blood across the banner. Before wrapping up, she stopped by the south market to purchase a tall bamboo pole—towering the height of three people—to hoist her handiwork high.
Yu Fanfan was quite pleased with the finished product.
First thing that morning, with a full stomach and the massive white banner resting on her shoulder, she stepped outside to demand justice. An enormous crowd of onlookers trailed right behind her.
She had even bought a bronze gong with some spare silver, but there had been no need to strike it; the spectators were already doing an incredible job drawing attention.
As she walked, she could distinctly hear the dutiful bystanders reading the banner aloud for those in the crowd who were illiterate.
On one side of the towering banner, written in bold dog blood, was a massive character for Injustice.
The other side featured a couplet dripping with crimson. The right scroll proclaimed, The Cheng Manor has lost all conscience, bullying an orphan girl and murdering for wealth. The left asked, Is this a lapse in morality, or the corruption of human nature?
Above them sat the horizontal scroll: Give Me Justice.
The educated onlookers among the crowd were thoroughly perplexed.
“This couplet is utterly bizarre,” one mused, scratching his head. “The tonal meter and parallel structure are all wrong, yet reading it aloud is strangely… uh… intriguing. Most intriguing! No, I must follow and see what this is about…”
Idle bystanders, looking for any excuse to kill time, snapped their folding fans shut with theatrical flair. Swaying their heads in amused nonchalance, they called to their companions, “Heh, a lively spectacle first thing in the morning! This beats the teahouse operas by a mile. Care to join me, brother, and see what unfolds?”
Their scoundrel friends chimed in at once. “Lead the way! Let’s go!”
Troublemakers who loved nothing more than chaos shouted gleefully to the streets:
“Oh, look at this! Now this is a show! Beats the old storyteller at the lane entrance by a country mile—a real, live drama unfolding right before our eyes! Come on, everyone, come look!” Their sing-song shouts echoed through the alleys, drawing more curious eyes with every step.
Never underestimate the power of the masses, even in ancient times. The common folk of the capital loved a good spectacle above all else.
Before Yu Fanfan had marched very far with her blood-written white banner, deliberately flaunting it through the thoroughfares, a terrifying tide of humanity had already gathered in her wake.
She banged her gong every three paces and wailed her song every five, marching steadily across nearly half the inner city of the Capital. Lord have mercy, the crowd trailing behind her was a sight to behold—proof enough of just how much the people of Great Qi loved a good spectacle.
Meanwhile, on the eastern side of the inner city, where the aristocracy resided, stood the sprawling Cheng Manor.
As the saying went, even the gatekeeper of a prime minister ranked like a seventh-grade official. The Xie family had fought alongside the founding emperor, earning a prestigious iron certificate for their meritorious service and an unreduced hereditary title spanning five generations.
Even now, in its fourth generation, a noble house remained a noble house. Their power and influence in Great Qi were formidable—so formidable that even their gatekeepers looked down on commoners by three tiers.
These arrogant lackeys usually lounged about the gatehouse, gossiping, cracking melon seeds, and basking in lazy comfort.
That easy leisure vanished the moment an unusual commotion rumbled from beyond the heavy vermilion doors. Sensing trouble, the head gatekeeper led a few of his men forward and cautiously cracked open the small side door beside the ceremonial gate to peer outside.
One glance was all it took for the gatekeepers to nearly wet themselves.
These days, who dared pluck hairs from a tiger’s beard?
The gatekeeper was incredulous at first, but his heart plummeted the moment he clearly saw the woman leading the mob, carrying a massive white funeral banner. Without stopping to think, he grabbed several subordinates nearby and barked out panicked orders.
“You lot, get out there and hold the line! Don’t let the Eldest Young Madam—no, don’t let that cast-off divorcee make a scene and ruin our manor’s reputation. Move, now!”
“Boss, what about you?”
Panicking and completely out of their depth, the lackeys looked to him for guidance.
Cold sweat poured down his face. Without offering an explanation, he turned on his heel and sprinted inside, shouting over his shoulder, “I’m heading to the inner courtyard to report to the stewards! Just go, hurry…”
Leaving those parting words, the head gatekeeper bolted toward the inner quarters, abandoning his men to face the music outside.
Beyond the gates of the duke’s manor:
Clang!
A brass gong rang out, and Yu Fanfan bellowed, “The Cheng Manor abuses its power, humiliates an orphan girl, and plots murder!”
Clang!
The gong sounded again, followed by another roar from Yu Fanfan: “The Cheng Manor has a heart as black as coal, too filthy for all the rivers in the land to wash clean!”
When it came to verbal warfare, Yu Fanfan was a seasoned professional.
Knowing a hard battle lay ahead, she had made sure to eat her fill before leaving home. With food in her stomach and no longer any need to hide her immense strength, the heavy white funeral banner posed no challenge.
Energetic and theatrical, she shouldered the banner, banged her gong, and put on a full-blown performance right outside the gates of Cheng Manor.
Inside, the gatekeepers tasked with stopping her were sweating under the pressure.
They exchanged uneasy glances, hesitating and weighing their options. In the end, desperate to save their own skins and jobs, they jostled one another through the servant side-door and swarmed outside, quickly surrounding Yu Fanfan as she continued her loud, dramatic display.
“What is the meaning of this, Eldest Young Madam? Lest you forget, you come from this manor. Why turn around for no good reason to tarnish our name and drag our reputation through the mud?”
Yu Fanfan didn’t bother engaging with the servants; talking to them was pointless.
Her only response was a look of utter disdain and an even faster, louder rhythm from her gong.
Seeing her lack of response, their anxiety mounted.
The middle-aged leader quickly shifted tactics, dropping his initial harshness for a conciliatory approach. “Eldest Young Madam, please don’t make things difficult for servants like us. If there’s a problem, we can sit down and talk it over. With so many onlookers watching, could you please stop causing a scene?”
Yu Fanfan let out a cold sneer. Looking right past the middle-aged gatekeeper, she refused to say a word, stubbornly banging her gong and continuing her opera performance.
Seeing such defiance from a woman cast out by their duchess—an orphaned girl stripped of her chance to become the heir’s wife, left with no one to rely on—the gatekeepers grew furious. Refusing to take the easy way out, she had chosen to do this the hard way.
Her public spectacle directly threatened their livelihoods. To minimize their blame and avoid punishment later, they had to take action, ideally by subduing this discarded wife to redeem themselves.
With Yu Fanfan turning a deaf ear, the middle-aged gatekeeper waved his hand. A group of estate guards, alerted by the commotion and armed with short clubs, rushed out from the gates. They swiftly encircled her, cutting off any escape as threats and intimidation spilled from their mouths.
“Eldest Young Madam, we only still address you as Madam out of courtesy. But respect is something you have only when we choose to give it. Don’t refuse a toast just to drink a forfeit! If you take my humble advice, you won’t make things difficult for us servants. If you behave and follow us inside, everything can be settled amicably. Otherwise, don’t blame us for not showing you any respect.”
Yu Fanfan thought to herself: Oh, I’m ‘so scared’!
Her gaze swept over the burly guards. They weighed wooden clubs in their hands, tapping them rhythmically against their palms and occasionally swinging them through the air as they closed in, trying to intimidate her into submission. Lowering her head, she let out a cold sneer, eyes gleaming with sharp resolve.
When she looked back up at the arrogant lackeys, her expression was pure determination.
She slammed the large white banner resting on her shoulder down onto the ground. She had intentionally had the base sharpened, and with the force of her strike, it drove clean into the smooth bluestone paving outside the Cheng Manor.
The pole sank inches into the stone, the impact so fierce that the very top of the banner shuddered.
The unfurled banner billowed in the wind. Its blood-written characters seemed to gape like wide-open mouths, silently mocking the sprawling Cheng Manor, the masters hiding within, and the insolent lackeys on the steps, lending Yu Fanfan their wordless support.
As the staff struck the stone, she gripped the white banner, her voice ringing clear with indignation.
“Look, everyone! Everything I said is true! The duke’s manor bullies the weak, and even their gatekeepers act like vicious dogs abusing their masters’ power, laying hands on a helpless woman who used to be their mistress! Good people of the capital, open your eyes and see! Take a good look at this black-hearted Cheng Manor, colluding from top to bottom to bully an orphan girl and murder for wealth! Look—I’m not making this up, the truth is plain as day…”