The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty (ENGLISH TRANSLATION)

CH 4

As Qiu Jun had been one of the head authenticators of the provincial exam, he naturally became the respected teacher of that very batch of examinees.

Among the crowd of students, Tang Fan had gained the most of his good graces. Qiu Jun believed that if he industriously forged ahead in his studies, then his future accomplishments would be in no way inferior to his own. Thus, Tang Fan was accepted into his branch as a disciple, and this moment also became a tale that spread in Shilin.

After Tang Fan got into the roll of qualifiers, he stayed in Hanlin Academy for three years, then was allocated to Shuntian Prefecture by the Ministry of Appointments. This study-brother Pan of his had definitely contributed to that, as unless there was a vacancy in Court, he would have proceeded to be kept waiting in the Academy, or undergone the also-common event of getting assigned to some remote little county to serve as an official there. ‘Head of Politics of a Region’ sounded more impressive than ‘Judge’, but the Heavens would be high up, and the Emperor far away — who knew how many months or years it would take to get one’s talent remembered by the latter? Once three years passed, there would once again be new candidates to appoint to posts. Who could still remember one name in a vast sea of people?

From having this layer of a connection, the relationship between Tang Fan and Pan Bin couldn’t be described as distant.

Tang Fan was also aware that the man was indeed not any sort of traitor; his talent was simply a bit mediocre, and he was a bit scared of getting into trouble. Because of that, he still did everything he could to calculate on the other’s behalf. Hearing Pan Bin’s grumbling, he didn’t get angry, but instead smiled a bit. “How about you and I make a bet, Brother?”

Pan Bin was somewhat displeased, thinking to himself, even though there’s no harm in calling me ‘Brother’ in private, I’m still your superior. How can a senior-junior pair be like so? However, due to his teacher Qiu Jun’s reputation, it wouldn’t be good for him to bicker too much about it, so he lightly coughed. “You’re feeling lucky?”

Tang Fan pointed at the empty bowl in front of him. “If I win, you’ll have to treat me to a bowl of mincepork noodles.”

“Very well. Seems you want to treat me to another one, then,” Pan Bin answered with a grin.

It was on account of his generous teacher that Pan Bin looked after his younger schoolmate more, but he really didn’t take Tang Fan’s words too seriously. From how he saw it, Tang Fan was young in age when he had first entered officialdom, so how could he comprehend what was at stake in this? It’d be great if he didn’t invite calamity for him.

As for said teacher’s words of praise towards Tang Fan, Pan Bin took those even less to heart. He thought that although the former was an expert in the field of knowledge, he was severely average at being an official. So many years wouldn’t have passed like this where his rank would still be lower than his student’s, otherwise.

The abrupt death of the Marquis Estate’s eldest son was swiftly reported to the higher-ups. On Shuntian’s side, Pan Bin didn’t adopt Tang Fan’s suggestion of proceeding with investigation; rather, a private communication with the Marquis directly resulted in Zheng Cheng’s determination as ‘death by a sudden development of acute shed-yang illness.’ In this way, the maid Ah-Lin, who had been on-scene at the time, couldn’t shake free of blame.

Yet, how the judgement would ultimately go was not Shuntian’s say at all. Due to the involvement of the Estate, Marquis Wu’an himself would definitely have to go seek out the Emperor, and he would definitely be the one that would ultimately come to a decision.

It stood to reason that Ah-Lin hadn’t killed him directly. Even if she really had seduced him and indirectly caused him to die, that wouldn’t reach the level of a crime punishable by death, being banishment at most. However, were a lone woman to get sentenced to exile, how many atrocities would she then be subjected to? Come to think of it, she might not be even able to reach her destination on the road there. That was all saying nothing of the fact that it was the Estate that she had offended; the Marquis wanted to strangle a weak, powerless woman to death, and he wouldn’t even need to think to make it happen. It would practically be as easy as a flip of the hand.