Love is More Than a Word

Chapter 2 - Part 4

Chapter 2 - The Famous Masters and Outstanding Disciples, Part 4

Author: Su Youbing

Translator: EXandros

Proofreader: KainGuru

Miss Tong of the Tong's household had long been a topic of discussion by people during their leisure. Whether it was about the fact that she was in her twenties and yet she was still unmarried, or her vicious temperament, it was enough to discuss her for three days and three nights. Now that she had suddenly hang herself — although it was unknown why, some busybodies had long linked this matter to Tao Mo's visit to Mr. Yichui's residence. There were even rumors that Miss Tong did not want to get married to County Magistrate Tao. She cried to her parents, but it was fruitless and thus, she chose to hang herself.

In short, all kinds of rumors shrouded the entire county like snowflakes, and the eve of the New Year became noisier.

Even though Miss Tong was said to have hanged herself, her death caused an uproar, and the county's yamen still had to conduct an investigation. When Cui Jiong received the news, he took the coroner to autopsy the corpse. Although there were no rumors yet at that time, the Tong's household was a rich and influential family in the locality and they also had an affinity with Mr. Yichui. He must not treat them without proper respect and examine her from head to toe very carefully.

Miss Tong's parents cried so hard, but they had no grievances in the least. Obviously, they had foreseen this result.

Cui Jiong interrogated for half of the day. After seeing that nothing was suspicious from the human testimonies, material evidences and the corpse, only then did he return to the county's yamen to report to Tao Mo.

Tao Mo immediately sobbed when he heard about it. Although he did not intend to marry that Miss Tong, those words from Mrs. Yichui still got them involved in some kind of a relationship. He did not know if Miss Tong was really like what rumors had it — that she took it too hard and committed suicide for fear of being married to him. If this was the case, it was really his big sin.

Three days after Miss Tong passed away, Mrs. Yichui brought gifts and came over to visit.

In the beginning, Tao Mo was oddly ridiculed by her show of goodwill. Now that Miss Tong had passed away, it was impossible for them to get married. Later on, he found out that Mrs. Yichui had heard those slanderous gossips that had spread in the city, and had caused him trouble because of her impulsiveness, so she came to visit this time to offer him her apologies.

Tao Mo originally did not take these things to his heart. He thought that during the time at his hometown, the rumors he had received were more than these and he regarded these as nothing, let alone this purely fictitious matter. He immediately took this opportunity to console her from her grief.

After much consoling, Mrs. Yichui's eyes were red, "It was Yinghong who didn't have the good luck. County Magistrate Tao, if she had seen you and found out that you're actually a tender and considerate man, she wouldn't have to take things too hard."

Tao Mo's face was red being praised like that, "Madam, I'm underserved of these compliments. A dead person can't come back to live. If Miss Tong knew that you would be so sad like this, she'd feel uneasy in the afterlife."

"How could she not feel uneasy, I'm just afraid that she hated me." Mrs. Yichui sighed, "I didn't kill Bo Ren, yet Bo Ren died because of me [1]."

([1] An excerpt from the book "The Thirty-nine Accounts from the Jin Dynasty" which also talks about Zhou Yi [269-322], a high minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, whose courtesy name was Bo Ren. This line literally means that although one didn't have the heart to hurt that person, that person was hurt by oneself and suffered injuries because of oneself.)