2
The Vulnerable Man
Erlangtan Battalion Office Guardhouse.
The three Su family men sat on a pile of rice straw, staring blankly at each other.
“Anyone hurt?” Su Youcai examined his two sons.
Both Su Tai and Su Lu shook their heads. The brawl hadn’t lasted long before being swiftly suppressed by the battalion office.
“It was clearly the Cheng family who started it, so why are only we being detained?” Su Lu complained indignantly.
“Because they have a scholar in their family,” Su Youcai sighed.
“Isn’t Uncle still a seventh-rank official at the battalion office?” Su Lu asked, puzzled. “Didn’t they say that when he stomps his foot, Erlangtan trembles three times?”
“Ah, that’s just his boasting,” Su Youcai said with a bitter smile. “He’s just a lowly Junior Officer, barely worth mentioning.”
“But that’s still better than some rankless sour scholar, isn’t it?” Su Lu found it hard to believe.
As the saying goes, ‘unintentional words hurt the most.’ Su Youcai’s mouth twitched at this, and he remained silent for a long while.
Only then did Su Lu remember that his father had struggled for half his life without ever passing the exams to become a ‘rankless sour scholar.’ He quickly changed his tone: “It seems scholars are quite valuable after all.”
“Of course they are. If I could have passed the scholar exams, would I have ended up in this state?” Su Youcai lamented. “Do you know how your grandfather lost his battalion commander position? It was because he injured Cheng Scholar.”
Su Lu thought to himself, good heavens, generation after generation having trouble with the Cheng family scholars…
Su Youcai sighed again with mixed emotions: “Times are different from the early days of the dynasty. Since the Tumu Crisis, military officers’ status has been declining steadily. The current Hongzhi Emperor favors civil officials over military officers even more, alas…”
As father and son were talking, they suddenly heard a gurgling sound. Both turned to look at Su Tai, who had been quiet all along.
The second Su son touched his stomach and lowered his head in embarrassment.
“Eat this, we saved it for you.” Su Lu pulled a cracked melon from his robe and pressed it into his second brother’s hand.
“I already ate.”
“Liar, there weren’t even three melon stems on the vine.” Su Lu sighed.
“Qiu Ge is so clever.” Su Tai gave a simple-minded smile and split the melon. “Let’s eat together.”
Su Lu’s childhood name was Qiu Ge because he was born in autumn.
“We’ve both eaten already,” Su Youcai and Su Lu shook their heads. “It didn’t taste good at all.”
“Oh.” Only then did Su Tai hold a piece of melon and begin eating it in small bites with his large mouth.
“We’ll be out soon, Xia Ge doesn’t need to be so frugal.” Su Youcai pinched Su Tai’s soft chin. Xia Ge was Su Tai’s childhood name because he was born in summer.
“Really?” The brothers’ eyes lit up.
“Of course. Commander Zhou used to be your grandfather’s deputy. He’s just putting on a show for outsiders – would he really make things difficult for us?” Su Youcai said with experience.
“That’s great!” The brothers were overjoyed.
~~
The three men waited patiently. They waited until evening when the guardhouse door creaked open and in walked a Junior Officer wearing a cyan round-collar robe and a black folded-brim hat.
The man was tall and stout with a round head and face, sporting a short beard that made him resemble Su Tai. Seeing him enter, the three hurriedly stood up and said:
“Uncle.”
“Elder Brother.”
“Hmm.” The man nodded. He was precisely Su Lu’s uncle, Su Youcai’s elder brother, and Erlangtan Battalion Office Junior Officer Su Youjin.
“Let’s go, time to head home.” Su Youcai patted his pants and called to his son, “If we’re late, your aunt won’t save us any dinner.”
“Ah, we can’t go back today,” his elder brother sighed. “Cheng Xiucai is pinning this on us.”
“What happened?” Su Youcai asked, confused. “The Cheng family beat Third Brother black and blue, and now they want to shift the blame?”
“Third Brother only has superficial wounds. His nose was broken and it looked bloody and scary, but it’s not serious…” The elder brother sighed again. “It’s Cheng Xiucai’s older brother—you all broke his leg.”
“What? That can’t be. We’re scholars who can’t even harm a chicken,” Su Youcai exclaimed in disbelief.
Before he finished speaking, two loud thuds echoed as Su Tai stomped his feet. Then, with a crack, the jail cell’s brick floor split in two…
“My feet were numb, so I stomped them,” Su Tai muttered softly, hanging his head like a child who had done something wrong.
“…” The elder brother was speechless for a moment. “And you call that ‘can’t harm a chicken’?”
“Haha…” Su Youcai laughed awkwardly. “Xia Ge knows his limits; he’s never hurt anyone before.”
“What’s the use of saying that now? The man is already injured,” the elder brother said irritably. “Cheng Xiucai has threatened that if the Baihu Office doesn’t give him a satisfactory resolution, he’ll go to the county and beat the drum to appeal for justice!”
“If the Baihu Office can’t handle it, why not take it to the Qianhu Office? What’s the point of dragging it to the county?” Su Youcai grumbled.
Erlangtan was under the jurisdiction of the Military Garrison, so civil administration, public order, land disputes, and the like should all be handled by the Garrison. But after nearly 150 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the Garrison had severely deteriorated. The Registry Office and Adjudication Office were virtually useless, and unresolved issues piled up, eventually relying on neighboring counties to step in.
“Who told him he’s a County Student? The County Magistrate will surely favor him,” the elder brother said gloomily. “The Qianhu Commander can only watch helplessly and will likely scold Zhou Baihu for making him lose face.”
“Ah, if only you had passed the Xiucai exam back then…” he couldn’t resist nagging his brother again.
“Can we not bring that up?” Su Youcai felt even more frustrated, having just been embarrassed by his son, and now his elder brother was rubbing salt in the wound. “What does Zhou Baihu think?”
“Settle privately,” the elder brother said. “Zhou Baihu has invited Cheng Xianggong to come to the office tomorrow to discuss terms… In plain words, it’s to see how much we’ll have to pay them.”
“Ah, and they won’t extort us to death?” Su Youcai’s expression darkened.
“They’ll ask for the sky, and we’ll bargain from the ground up,” the elder brother sighed resignedly, pulling a dry food bag from his robe and handing it to him. “Your sister-in-law prepared dinner for you.”
“Are we staying here tonight?” Su Youcai took it.
“Nonsense, if we can’t reach an agreement, how can they let you go?” the elder brother said helplessly.
“Then let Xia Ge and Qiu Ge go back first,” Su Youcai compromised. “I’ll stay here alone; it’s the same.”
“Father, I’ll stay with you,” Su Tai insisted, shaking his head firmly.
“Me too,” Su Lu could only agree.
~~
The night was deep, and autumn insects chirped.
The Baihu Office was pitch black, leaving only the father and sons in the Guardhouse.
The Su father and sons each held a dry, hard sorghum cake, chewing until their teeth ached. Finally managing to bite off a piece, they choked, their eyes rolling back…
“My throat is getting scraped raw…” Su Lu’s face turned red with effort as he struggled to swallow a piece.
“Big brother is really something, sending dry rations without any water.” Su Youcai pounded his chest vigorously but still couldn’t swallow. “Trying to choke us to death?”
“Take small bites, chew slowly and thoroughly.” Only Su Tai could eat normally.
“Second brother has experience.” Su Lu followed his method, chewing longer, and finally managed to swallow a mouthful.
“Hehe…” Su Tai chuckled naively. “You gain experience by eating more.”
The Su family could be considered comfortably fed, yet they still ate sorghum cakes and sorghum rice three times a day. Even Su Lu had grown accustomed to that bitter sorghum taste.
“Sigh, I wonder what kind of family gets to eat refined grains?” Su Lu struggled with his sorghum cake while reminiscing about the taste of rice and steamed buns.
Only after coming here did he realize that the ordinary life he had taken for granted was actually anything but ordinary.
“Cheng Scholar’s family.” Su Tai’s reply came half a beat late.
“Really?” Su Lu hadn’t expected scholars to have both prestige and substance.
“Of course. Haven’t you heard people say? ‘The scholar eats truly well, with millet and white flour gracing his lips’.” Su Tai nearly drooled.
“Old man, don’t you want to take the exam again?” Su Lu turned to ask Su Youcai.
“Can we ever get past this?!” The once-again discouraged Su Youcai angrily bit into his sorghum cake, nearly breaking a tooth.
“Forget I said anything, don’t get angry.” Su Lu quickly apologized.
“Hmph…” Su Youcai snorted twice, rubbing his cheek. “You think I don’t want to take it? Our family offended the county magistrate. As long as he remains in position, I have no way out.”
“How long has he been in office?” Su Lu asked.
“Ten years…” Su Youcai said bitterly.
“What? Hasn’t his term ended yet?” Su Lu was stunned.
“You ask me, who should I ask?” Su Youcai said with a pained expression. “Supposedly it’s three years per term, with a maximum of three terms. But there are always exceptions. Officials in our remote mountainous areas sometimes serve over a decade.”
“Good heavens…” Su Lu gasped, thinking they were working one man to death.
“Ah, anyway, your old man has no hope left.” Su Youcai sighed resignedly. “If you want to take the exam, do it yourself.”
“Fine, then I’ll take it myself!” Su Lu slapped his thigh.
“Cough, cough…” Su Youcai nearly choked to death on sorghum crumbs.
“What’s wrong?” Su Lu quickly patted his back.
“Son, having ambition is good.” Su Youcai chose his words carefully, afraid of hurting him. “But we must be realistic. Your old man not only offended the county magistrate, but also because becoming a scholar is too difficult.”
“Our poor remote area doesn’t even have a Garrison School. To take the scholar exam, you must go to the Hejiang Prefectural County Exam.” He sighed and continued:
“That’s just the first step. After passing the county exam, you still have to take the Prefectural Exam with all the candidates from the entire Luzhou area. We’re remote, but Luzhou isn’t – it’s an important cultural and educational center in Sichuan, producing numerous provincial graduates and imperial scholars every examination cycle. How can we compete with them for scholar titles?”
He fully expected his son to abandon this unrealistic notion after hearing this, but instead Su Lu insisted: “I still want to try…”
“Try what, you little brat!” Seeing that his words had gone in one ear and out the other, Su Youcai grabbed Su Lu’s ear. “You’ve never been willing to study since childhood, barely recognizing a basketful of characters. And you want to imitate others in taking the imperial examinations? Keep dreaming!”
“Don’t twist, don’t twist, you’ll twist it into a ‘paddle ear’!”” Su Tai quickly shielded his younger brother.
“Su Laoquan, at twenty-seven, began to strive and read books!” Su Lu hid behind Su Tai and said: “I’m not even half his age yet, why can’t I dream?”
“Father, Qiu’er can even recite the ‘Three Character Classic’.Su Tai said in surprise: “He might really pass the imperial examination and become a scholar.””Scholar?” More like leeks…” Su Youcai didn’t want to deal with these two clowns, turning his head to focus on dealing with the sorghum cake.