From this day on, I could no longer bear the sight of snow falling in bitter winter weather…
The previously noisy courtroom of the Three Judicial Offices was silent now.
Outside the hall, raindrops still clung to the thorn bushes. When the wind blew, they fell one by one into the mud.
Kneeling beneath the court, Yu Lin recalled the times she had questioned female prisoners in the Ministry of Justice prison who had suffered abuse.
As a woman herself, she had done everything she could to control her words and emotions out of empathy. Admittedly, in the eyes of those female prisoners, she had been a refined and gentle judicial officer. They respected her and trusted her. They believed she had no intention of humiliating them.
Yet they still could not bring themselves to speak.
In Great Liang, the telling and recording of “suffering” rested in the hands of scholar-officials.
When a clean-handed scholar was humiliated, or an upright censor was caned, once they were thrust into the noisy arena of public opinion, they had no desire to hear their abusers repent. They would climb onto the stage themselves, glaring at the crowd with bloodshot eyes and tears in their faces, recounting the pain they had endured physically and the torment they had suffered mentally.
One brutal beating.
A lifetime of virtuous reputation.
After many years in office, Yu Lin gradually came to understand that the expression of “suffering” elevated the noble even higher, while driving the humble even lower.
Just as she herself now knelt beneath the hall of the Three Judicial Offices, stripped of her official robes and her bound hair undone, having “fallen” into a place of lowliness.
If she were to describe how she had become a prison prostitute, then aside from a few former colleagues, no one would lament the humiliation of a former Vice Minister of Justice.
Instead, they would want to see how far a woman could be driven.
How much more she could endure.
What shocking and shameless words she might utter before finally breaking down into madness.
She could tell the story.
But why must she be the one to tell it, merely to stir compassion in the officials present and provoke restless fantasies in those outside the court?
Unless those officials first listened to the obscene confessions of the perpetrators themselves and blushed with shame, just as they were doing now.
Only then would a woman’s plea not become a knife turned against herself.
Yet men had always mourned only those of their own kind.
They never turned the blade toward their comrades.
Unless that man wanted to die.
Yu Lin turned her head slightly and looked at Zhang Yao.
While considering how best to “crush” him, she also wondered whether she might have a chance to ask about his past.
“He’s right.”
Yu Lin straightened her back and looked toward the officials seated above.
“The prison operated a brothel. Female prisoners were prostituted. He truly behaved like a beast. His depravity is unforgivable. Even ten thousand deaths could not atone for his crimes.”
She repeated Zhang Yao’s own words.
Several officials immediately lowered their heads and covered their faces with their wide sleeves.
Beyond those hidden faces, Yu Lin’s voice remained calm.
“Yesterday was the final night before my execution. Prison Deputy Warden Wang Shaolian replaced the death-row restraints I was wearing with a set of fine shackles that he had illegally manufactured.”
Wu Longyi lifted the fine shackles beside him.
“These ones?”
“Yes.”
Yu Lin answered, “These shackles are not authorized under the Code. Nor may they be used on condemned prisoners. On the night before my execution, they were suddenly placed on me, and I was taken to the forbidden chamber. Before replacing the restraints, Wang Shaolian openly told me that he had sold my final night. Afterward, he boasted that he intended to force all the other women in the prison into becoming prison prostitutes as well.”
“That’s a lie!”
Wang Shaolian surged forward on his knees.
With his hands bound behind his back, he lost his balance and crashed to the ground. After struggling upright, he ignored his embarrassment and shouted toward the bench.
“My lords! Supervision is my duty! This death-row prisoner was crying and causing disturbances before her execution… trying to incite unrest throughout the prison… That’s why I had her isolated! As for those restraints… those restraints were specially made because the Ministry of Justice prison took pity on her being a weak woman. That’s why… they were made in violation of regulations. I admit I was wrong… but I was only following our Minister’s example of showing mercy and compassion toward prisoners. Surely I shouldn’t be punished for that…”
“Deputy Warden Wang.”
Yu Lin turned and interrupted him.
“I’ve heard this sort of defense too many times. You want to absolve yourself by shifting blame onto the prison guards who took me to the forbidden chamber. The only reason you’re doing this is because you believe that before opening this flesh trade, you had already paid tribute to the true gods of Liangjing City. You think someone powerful is holding an umbrella over your head.”
A flicker passed through Wang Shaolian’s eyes.
His body swayed as well.
Yu Lin continued, “You’re thinking that as long as you delay today’s trial and leave room for your patrons to act, they’ll arrange things for you behind the scenes. Under threats and inducements, someone in the Ministry of Justice prison will eventually take the blame for you. At that point, they’ll ask the court to torture me into changing my testimony. Then you’ll become the wronged party, while I will receive even harsher punishment for falsely accusing you. However…”
She paused.
Then she turned to look directly at Wang Shaolian.
“My testimony matches that of the Commander of the Northern Pacification Bureau. Torturing me alone into changing my statement would be useless. And if you wish to interrogate a high-ranking imperial officer under torture, even the Three Judicial Offices must first obtain an imperial decree. Will the gods you’ve worshipped help you obtain that decree?”
“You bitch! Shut your—”
“Afraid?” Yu Lin interrupted.
“Afraid that if I keep talking, the gods you’ve worshipped will silence you?”
She had struck directly at his weakest point.
Though Wang Shaolian had dealt with her many times in the past and had often been constrained by her authority, he had never seen Yu Lin in a courtroom.
She saw straight through him.
She had pinned down that Northern Pacification Bureau Commander who seemed to have suddenly gone mad, used his status to expose Wang Shaolian’s escape route, blocked it completely, and was even trying to use the power behind that escape route to strangle him in return.
Ten years as a judicial officer had not been wasted.
Blood rushed to Wang Shaolian’s head.
“You damned bitch! You! Shut up! You’re trying to kill me, and now you’re trying to drag the Directorate of Ceremonial into this too! Do you think—”
“The Directorate of Ceremonial?”
Yu Lin struck another vital point.
Realizing he had misspoken in panic, Wang Shaolian completely lost control.
“Shut up! Shut up! You bitch!”
One of Zhang Yao’s arms slipped free from where they were folded across his chest.
Just as he was about to turn around, Yu Lin softly called his name.
“Zhang Yao.”
The moment the words left her mouth, a furious shout rang out from above.
“Impudence!”
Mao Heng slammed the desk and rose to his feet.
“Wang Shaolian! You dare bellow in court? Do you have any respect for the Three Judicial Offices?”
Wang Shaolian was trembling with both anger and fear.
Yu Lin turned back around and lowered her voice slightly.
“Wang Shaolian, I advise you to confess.”
Wang Shaolian stared fixedly at her back.
“What exactly are you? What exactly are you, Yu Lin? Huh? Why are you so difficult? You’re about to die, yet you’re still this difficult!”
Yu Lin said nothing.
Only the corner of her lips twitched faintly.
Wang Shaolian shuffled another step forward on his knees.
“A bitch who wrapped herself up and pretended to be a man so she could become an official! For ten years you’ve deceived the Emperor, betrayed your teachers and ancestors! Even when being escorted to the execution ground, you refused to kneel and even spat in people’s faces! Lord Mao, Chief Censor Wu!”
He turned toward Mao Heng and Wu Longyi, slammed his forehead against the floor, then straightened.
“For a bitch like her, if you don’t teach her a lesson, if you don’t expose her true nature and crush her spirit, would she obediently walk to the execution ground?”
“How did you expose my true nature? How did you crush my spirit?”
“…”
Only then did Wang Shaolian realize that somewhere along the way, she had completely disrupted his train of thought.
After several rounds of questioning, he had already made multiple fatal mistakes.
“I’ll answer for you.”
Yu Lin pursued relentlessly.
“You sold me to customers. You used their lust and depravity to crush my spirit. Really, you should just confess.”
Wang Shaolian knelt there blankly.
His back had gone stiff.
He could not utter a single word.
Mao Heng coughed.
“Wang Shaolian, answer the question.”
Wang Shaolian’s back remained rigid.
“I…”
Zhang Yao silently folded his arms once more.
To be honest, as a harsh enforcer, Zhang Yao normally had no interest in breaking prisoners psychologically.
Or rather, most cases handled by the Imperial Prison already had a predetermined outcome before the interrogation even began.
What he needed was simply a confession that matched that outcome.
Psychological warfare was useless and only wasted his energy.
Yet now, he found Yu Lin’s method of questioning extremely interesting.
Even though Wang Shaolian had been thrown into complete confusion and was sweating profusely, Yu Lin herself remained composed, dignified, and calm.
Without realizing it, Zhang Yao’s lips curled upward.
He shifted his knees three inches to the side, yielding the central position beneath the court to Yu Lin.
Yu Lin slowly exhaled.
When she spoke again, she no longer paid any attention to Wang Shaolian.
“My lords, when I first entered the Ministry of Justice, I accompanied my teacher on prison inspections. I heard many stories from the women imprisoned there—stories of how they had been violated and abused by lustful men. My teacher and I repeatedly tried to eradicate such practices within the prisons. Yet no female prisoner was willing to come to court again for that purpose.”
At first, I didn’t understand why they were unwilling to clear their names. Later, I finally realized that outside the prison walls, they still had parents, husbands, and children.
“If they endured in silence, they could still find a place to belong after leaving prison. If they were executed, there would still be someone to bury their bodies. Yet even so, there were strong-willed women who took their own lives in shame and despair.”
As she spoke, her gaze softened.
“Last winter, heavy snow fell upon the Liangjing Canal. I was boating with colleagues when we encountered a woman throwing herself into the river. In those freezing waters, I tried to save her, but she refused to reach out her hand.”
“I knew who she was.”
“In the third year of Fengming, she cursed her father and was reported by her own son. She received one hundred strokes and three years of penal servitude. During her imprisonment, she suffered repeated abuse. After her release, she contracted an unspeakable illness. Both her maternal family and her husband’s family abandoned her. She spent three years begging in Liangjing before finally sinking herself into the icy water during the New Year.”
“Since that day, I have been unable to bear the sight of snow falling in bitter winter weather.”
When she finished speaking, Wu Longyi lowered his head in silence.
Mao Heng looked at her petition and said nothing.
“I…”
Yu Lin’s voice had grown hoarse.
“I committed a terrible mistake. I hurt someone very dear to me. But a death by a thousand cuts is already the harshest punishment. I will not add to my own crimes by discussing it further here in court.”
“However, before I die, I want to make amends for that mistake.”
“My lords, I was once a judicial officer myself. I will not oppose the law, nor will I defy the law.”
After saying this, she placed both hands on the floor and bowed deeply.
“My lords, we are not livestock. We are human beings… I beg the Liang Code to save the common people of this world.”
No one spoke.
After a long silence, Du Lingruo suddenly cursed through tears.
“Damn it.”
“You, Wang Shaolian, aren’t even human! As for me, Du Lingruo—ending up like this is exactly what I deserve! I won’t argue for myself anymore. Wang Shaolian, Commander Zhang’s household has wood but no money. I was the one who gave him the money for prostitution—twenty taels of silver, a whole ingot! It was silver from the imperial treasury. I still remember the inscription engraved on it. Search for it and see for yourselves! I, Du Lingruo—”
“Senior Secretary, please wait.”
Before Du Lingruo could finish, Yu Lin interrupted him.
“You taught me how to set this trap and helped seek redemption for me. I am grateful for the Directorate of Ceremonial’s sense of righteousness and cannot bear to see you damage your own reputation.”
Du Lingruo froze.
“A trap? The Directorate of Ceremonial taught you?”
While Du Lingruo was still bewildered, Zhang Yao was already kneeling there, quietly laughing.
Du Lingruo glanced at Zhang Yao.
Then realization struck him.
He hurriedly raised his head and shouted toward the bench.
“Ah, right! Wang Shaolian repeatedly offered dirty money to me and asked me to pass it on to the Chief Eunuch, trying to drag him into corruption. The Chief Eunuch had long despised his conduct, so he instructed the female prisoner to set this trap and expose his crimes. And now this scoundrel is trying to drag the Directorate of Ceremonial into it and damage the Chief Eunuch’s reputation. It’s truly—truly shameless!”