The next day at dawn, the courtyard gate was suddenly kicked open from the outside.
A loud bang.
The old wooden door bolt snapped clean through. Both door panels flew outward and crashed into the bamboo fence with a clatter, sending the old hen in the chicken coop into a flapping, clucking frenzy.
The alertness Shen Yuntan had honed in the apocalypse had her eyes snapping open the instant the door was kicked. Her body reacted faster than her mind. She rolled off the bed, pulled on her cloth shoes, and shot out the door like a cheetah poised to strike.
Outside the courtyard gate stood a man in his early twenties, wearing a gray-blue long robe, a square scholar’s cap, and black boots. His features were decent enough, but his face was twisted with fury, and his eyes were bloodshot.
This was Liu Sandong, the Liu family’s youngest son and their most accomplished scholar. He was a licensed xiucai whose name was on the rolls at the Changshan County Confucian temple. He taught at a private school in the county town and earned a tidy sum in tuition fees each year. He carried himself with a swagger and never deigned to look anyone in the eye.
He hadn’t been home yesterday, busy teaching at the school. Shen Yuntan had long expected he would come looking for trouble.
In the Eastern Ling Dynasty, a xiucai wasn’t a high rank, but it carried the privileges of not kneeling before officials and being exempt from corvee labor. In a local area, that made him somebody.
The Liu family’s ability to throw their weight around in Qingshan Village came not only from their numbers, but also in large part from Liu Sandong’s status as a scholar.
“Shen Yuntan.”
Everyone else called her Chouya. Almost no one used her real name. Today Liu Sandong used it, but he spat it out through gritted teeth, as if he wanted to tear it apart and chew it to pieces.
Shen Yuntan couldn’t be bothered to answer. Her eyes were cold as she stared straight at him, as if looking at a particularly dim-witted monkey.
“You beat my entire family half to death. You’ve gone completely lawless. Do you have any respect for the law at all?” Liu Sandong roared.
“You want to talk to me about the law?”
Shen Yuntan looked at him with contempt, her voice no quieter than his. “Your family’s pack of animals killed my Grandmother. A human life was in their hands. Why didn’t you come talk to me about the law then? What, does the law of the Eastern Ling Dynasty answer to your family now?”
“You—!”
Liu Sandong’s face darkened. He clearly hadn’t expected her to fight back so sharply. He opened his mouth to distance himself. “They only came to talk things over with Auntie. It was a small dispute. Auntie lost her footing herself. You can’t pin all the blame on my parents.”
“Liu Sandong, your family’s pack of animals killed someone, and at least they admitted they pushed her. You’re worse than your family’s animals.” She named him directly as she cursed.
“You—you’re a junior. Beating and insulting your elders like this. You ill-bred thing.” Liu Sandong was shaking with rage.
Shen Yuntan fired back without the slightest courtesy. “You four siblings, the way you treat my Grandmother as an elder, how good is it really? By your logic, you’re a litter of ill-bred things yourselves.”
“You…”
Liu Sandong made his living with his tongue, smooth and eloquent, but today she had him choking on his words.
He knew these arguments wouldn’t hold up and he couldn’t outtalk Shen Yuntan, so he brought out the county court as a threat. “You beat my entire family half to death and set fire to my house. Every one of these crimes has witnesses and evidence. I’m going to file a complaint against you at the county court.”
“Go ahead and file it if you’ve got the guts. What are you doing here running your mouth?”
Shen Yuntan wasn’t afraid of him going to the county court at all. She even had the audacity to give him directions. “If you don’t know the way to the county court, turn left here and go three li, then turn right and go straight for five li. That’ll take you right to the courthouse door. Take care, no need to see you off!”
With that, she turned and went back inside.
At this hour, most of the village households were already up. The commotion here was loud, and many people had come with their bowls in hand to watch.
Seeing that Shen Yuntan had completely changed her nature, fighting head-on like yesterday and not giving Liu Sandong the slightest respect, many villagers looked worried, but more of them were just enjoying the show.
“Shen Yuntan!”
Liu Sandong was enraged by her attitude, teeth bared, eyes glaring, face red as a boiled shrimp.
As if wanting to show off in front of the villagers and neighbors, he raised his voice to threaten her. “Listen carefully. I’m giving you three days to hand over the house deed and the land deed, and to pay my family one hundred taels of silver in compensation. As for you beating my whole family, I can consider not pursuing it.”
“Otherwise, I, Liu Sandong, am a man of some standing in the county. One petition filed, and you, a lone girl who beat the family of a titled scholar and burned down a house, will face exile at the very least!”
At the words “exile,” many of the villagers who had never seen the wider world went pale. Even the village headman, who had just arrived, furrowed his brow.
One hundred taels. The house deed and land deed.
This routine was exactly like Madam Qian’s, except Madam Qian used robbery and this scholar used threats. Different methods, same essence.
No, Liu Sandong was more disgusting.
He also wanted to stand on a moral high ground, keeping his own hands spotless, as if he were “giving her a chance” rather than robbing her.
Shen Yuntan gave a cold laugh, not a trace of panic on her face. She turned and looked at him with cold disdain, tearing off his mask of hypocritical scheming. “After all that talk, it all comes down to wanting my family’s house and the money my Grandmother left behind.”
“Your family’s old bastard and old hag are shameless, sure, but at least they put things out in the open and came straight to the house to rob. You’re even more shameless than they are, and your schemes are even filthier and more despicable.”
“One hundred taels of silver, the house deed and land deed? Your appetite is hardly small.”
“You scholars really do have a way of doing things. Not as crude as them, but the goal is the same.”
“Liu Sandong, you’ve studied well. You’re still just a broken-down xiucai, and already you’re showing signs of corruption and extortion. Once you pass the provincial exam and start drawing imperial salary, our Eastern Ling Dynasty will have one more maggot fattening itself on the common people.”
Shen Yuntan slapped a big label on him in advance. Not only did the villagers’ and neighbors’ expressions change drastically, but Liu Sandong himself, named directly, went pale with fright.
“Shen Yuntan, what nonsense are you spouting?!”
“Am I spouting nonsense?”
Shen Yuntan faced him directly, her voice louder than his. “You think because you’ve studied for a few years and know a bit of court law, you can use a chicken feather as a warrant to threaten me? I haven’t studied, I’m an illiterate village girl, but I know a life should be paid for with a life!”
“It was your Liu family who came first, arrogant and shameless, to rob my house and savings. It was your family who killed my Grandmother first. I didn’t go to the county court to report the murderers and have them arrested. I just beat them up and burned a roof. Even if this goes before the county magistrate, the right is on my side.”
“If you want to file a complaint, go file it. I’ll find a lawyer to write a petition and fight the case. I’ll see it through to the end.”
This body of hers had never studied, and Grandmother Liu was illiterate too. She was a proper illiterate. But she had studied in the apocalypse. She understood what needed understanding. Even if she had never fought a lawsuit here, she could guess the process.