“My lord, we must be more careful this time. Several of our brothers still cannot get out of bed from yesterday.” Hearing the jailer report that the drugging had succeeded, a bailiff said to Chief Wang.
“My lord, this prison is truly cursed as hell. That little fool was clearly poisoned to death, yet he was jumping around lively on the second day. Yesterday, this man clearly took the sleeping powder, yet it had no effect at all. Could there really be ghosts about?” Another cowardly bailiff looked around with a face full of terror.
“Nonsense! The Master does not speak of strange phenomena, physical exploits, disorder, and ghosts.” Chief Wang scolded loudly. Even so, he felt a bit creeped out inside, a persistent chill running down his spine.
“In my opinion, we must be cautious and not act blindly like yesterday without confirming whether the drug we administered actually took effect,” reminded an older bailiff.
“Let’s put our heads together. How should we probe him?” Chief Wang thought it made sense; if they hadn’t kept a backup plan yesterday, they would have been in deep trouble. He gathered everyone together to discuss their next course of action.
Inside the prison, Zhao Yu had slept too much and was now full of energy, wondering how to pass the time. Just as he was fretting, the jailer arrived like timely rain to nourish his dull prison life.
“The two of you must find the time dragging. Would you like to play madiao?” Two jailers approached the door of their cell.
“What is madiao?” Zhao Yu asked with intense curiosity, perking up his ears. Upon seeing that he had hooked them, the jailer enthusiastically explained how to play madiao. After listening in a daze for a long time, Zhao Yu finally figured out that it was basically mahjong. He then happily agreed. With the little simpleton’s consent, the jailers knew the plan was already half successful. The two of them glanced with feigned difficulty at Baili Yan, who showed no reaction, and said to the little simpleton, “There are only three of us. We’re still one short.”
Sure enough, the little simpleton took the bait and immediately scurried over to Baili Yan, looking at him with eager anticipation.
“Brother Liu, don’t you think the long night is hard to pass the time? Having some entertainment would make it easier to get through this lonely evening.”
“I don’t think so.” In order to figure out what wicked scheme these jailers were up to, Baili Yan was bound to agree. However, he wanted to see how the little simpleton would react, so he flatly refused.
“Brother Liu, come on, come on. Playing madiao is a lot of fun.” Failing to act spoiled, Zhao Yu switched to coaxing him like a child.
“Playing madiao requires stakes to be interesting. You…” Baili Yan looked the silly kid up and down with suspicion and said nothing.
Zhao Yu didn’t catch on at first, but then he realized that playing mahjong involved gambling money, right? He looked down at himself in prisoner’s garb; he truly had nothing to his name, and instantly his spirits deflated. Baili Yan found it somewhat amusing, watching the silly rabbit’s ears droop all at once.
“Well, young master, we can lend it to you first.” Seeing that things were about to fall through, the jailer panicked and did a stupid thing. As soon as the words left his mouth, he wanted to slap his own face.
“Really? You guys are such good people!” The silly rabbit instantly regained his energy, and his imaginary rabbit ears seemed to perk right back up.
Baili Yan wanted to cover his face in exasperation. Had all these people been infected by the silly rabbit? Who in their right mind would lend money to a death row inmate to gamble with, or was Amixian simply a place that naturally produced fools?
Thus, at the eager insistence of the silly rabbit, the four of them sat down together and began playing madiao. Zhao Yu was overjoyed; he finally had some entertainment. In modern times, he would have had plenty of his favorite programs at this hour, but here there was no recreation whatsoever. Baili Yan thought to himself that if he stayed in Amixian much longer, he might actually catch the local stupidity. The two jailers felt a mixture of agony and joy, agony over the money they had lent to the fool, and joy that they could fulfill the mission assigned by their superiors. Baili Yan joining their ranks also made the jailers even more certain that these two had hooked up and were definitely in cahoots.
To prevent the players opposite and adjacent to each other from colluding, Baili Yan and Zhao Yu sat at the east and west positions respectively, while the two jailers sat at the south and north.
Once the game started, the jailers realized there were even more miserable things waiting for them. Zhao Yu clearly looked like someone who had never played before, while Baili Yan was a card-counting master. After two rounds, the little simpleton was either dealing into other people’s winning hands or handing them wins on a silver platter. Within a few rounds, all the simpleton’s money had gone into Baili Yan’s pocket, forcing him to borrow more from the jailers. In the end, the ones actually losing money were the two jailers. With their pockets emptied, the two wretched jailers could only pray that the plan would succeed, or else they would lose everything.
After a few more rounds, Zhao Yu played as if he were in a strategic alliance with Baili Yan, discarding whatever tiles Baili Yan happened to need. In truth, he didn’t want to do it either, but he was helpless against the other’s formidable card-reading skills.
Unable to bear it any longer, and seeing that the drug should have taken effect by now, the two jailers angrily stood up and flipped the table over.
“This is outrageous! You two are colluding.”
Under their deliberate push, the table flipped toward Baili Yan. Sitting composedly in his chair without even moving his body, Baili Yan casually swept out a palm with seemingly effortless grace. With a loud clack, the table shattered into multiple pieces and crashed to the ground, scattering the madiao tiles everywhere. Zhao Yu froze, still holding the tile he was about to play. What on earth was going on?
The faces of the two jailers turned pale. Thinking that it was over, that this man still hadn’t fallen for the trap, and that their money was gone, the two miserable jailers wailed inwardly and turned to slip away.
“Wait.” Baili Yan called out to them. The jailers stiffened instantly, cold sweat pouring down their foreheads as they feared their plot had been exposed and they would be hacked to pieces.
“Clean this up, and then bring another table over.” Baili Yan instructed indifferently. The silly rabbit maintained his original posture, sitting in the chair with tiles in hand, looking around in utter confusion.
“Yes, yes, yes.” The jailers breathed a sigh of relief and hastily complied. With the highest efficiency of their lives, they cleaned up the messy room and brought over a new table. Just as they thought they could leave, they were called back again. This time, both men’s legs were trembling, terrified that this man might punish them.
“Go fetch some hot water. I want to wash up, and get some for him too.” Baili Yan said, glancing toward the silly rabbit, who had finally recovered his wits and was busy playing with his fingers.
“Your humble servant will handle it immediately.” The jailer cursed inwardly: they really are a pair of adulterers and illicit lovers.
When Chief Wang, who was anxiously awaiting news, received the report, he wanted to bang his head against a wall. What kind of terrible luck were they running into, bumping into such a freak of nature? How was he supposed to explain this to the eagerly awaiting county magistrate? The bailiffs also wiped cold sweat from their brows, thanking their lucky stars that they had sent someone to test the waters first, otherwise… Thinking of the several brothers who had lost half their lives and were still bedridden after a single encounter with the man, they couldn’t help feeling a sense of fortune amidst the disaster.
Biting the bullet, Chief Wang went to report to County Magistrate Liu. As expected, County Magistrate Liu flew into a rage, cursing, “Useless trash! A bunch of useless trash! What use do I have for the likes of you?”
Chief Wang mentally retorted in silence: the imperial court pays us, not you, Your Honor.
In the end, the advisor decided to step in personally. County Magistrate Liu harbored high hopes, while Chief Wang, having failed multiple times, sat back to watch the show.