MHNEB 5

Book 1:  Now we don’t hear the loom shuttle; we only hear our daughter sighing.

问案木兰

Chapter 5: Investigator Mulan

 -xxx-

Edited by Granny

“Mulan, those people came again last night?” Yuan-shi worriedly looked at the He Mulan who was eating her maize porridge. “Why not you move back into our house?”

“No, it’s just a few idiots that’s all.” He Mulan shook her head, as she thought of last night’s “wandering swordsmen”. She could not suppress her laughter and started to laugh out loudly.

“I can’t rest my heart when you are by yourself.” Yuan-shi let out a sigh.

“Then you should move to Huaishuo county with us.” In the past, Hua Mulan always wanted to bring her whole family with her to live in the Sixth Town. A lot of Xianbei-ren conjugated together in the Sixth Town. Many of them were also her very close friends. Compared to staying in Liang county, it was much more suitable for a woman like her with a special status and history to stay in the Sixth Town.

Hua father pounded his crutches on the floor, uttering harshly:

“The emperor has commanded me to Putian, so I need to take good care of the grain crops! Look at the Pin City’s coarse grains! Although old soldiers like us are prone to illness, weak and we cannot serve the emperor in their (1) Garrison, what we can do well is that we still can send the army’s grains to the frontlines! If another person were to cultivate the crops, I will not be assured!”

But you are not the one cultivating the crops ah, it's Hua Younger Bro who cultivates the crops!

He Mulan helplessly cursed silently.

After eating the meal, He Mulan took out her handkerchief out to wipe her mouth. Seeing this, Yuan-shi felt it was a pity as she had just taken out a handkerchief.

In Great Wei, cotton is considered a type of rare goods. Usually, cotton is only available to the Southern Han-ren. Great Wei’s silk and cotton are very valuable. A small piece of cotton can exchange a lot of chicken eggs. He Mulan was used to using tissue papers. In this time period, there were no tissue papers, even those cotton cloths were unavailable. Everything here was made of coarse linen materials. As the winter clothing here are made of fur and are not cotton-padded, people lived through their lives in harsh conditions.

Among the Hua Mulan’s bestowed goods, He Mulan chose a piece of cotton cloth to cut it into three smaller cloth. Since then, she has been using the smaller cloth as handkerchiefs. She does not need an embroidered handkerchief or patterns on the cloth. If it can absorb water, it is fine for her.

After using the cloth, it would not be considered wasteful if she washes it.

In modern times, one could buy a long bolt of cloth for just 10 yuan. However, now, even using the cloth to wipe her mouth would be considered wasteful.

Luckily, Hua Mulan’s family do not covet her wealth. Whatever she takes out from her treasury they wouldn’t pester her about what she does with it. But their faces were still filled with pity over what she does with her wealth. They are all honest people, whatever they are thinking in their heart would be reflected at their faces. With just one look, anyone could tell.

He Mulan pushed her bowl away from her. Every day for three consecutive meals she has eaten maize grains. The mouthfeel in her mouth was not pleasant. If it were not for those dry meat and those side dishes that were quite tasty, even if she was not picky about her food, she would not be able to get by eating such meals.

Indeed, it is meritorious when one was not picky about food.

Today, He Mulan kept the same appearance that she had as a man. She was not used to wearing Hua Mulan’s dresses. Among Xianbei commoners, women’s clothing had a narrow waistline and narrow sleeves but wearing it is not cumbersome. But the problem is since underwear is not (normally) worn, it is very chilly underneath. (2) Moving around in a dress is also hard, so she switched to wearing men’s attire of pleated pants.   

She was also not willing to put on rouge and cosmetic powder. (3) Most Xianbei women had a whiter skin colour. Filling their cheeks with rouge and by combing their hair into buns is one of their folk customs. If it were a white-skinned Xianbei woman, this get-up would definitely look very beautiful on her.

Yuan-shi has always kept this get up and she has never felt uncomfortable with this get-up.

But there was once when Yuan-shi exuberantly gave He Mulan a similar makeover. When He Mulan took a glance at the bronze mirror, she could not see whether it suit her or not because the bronze mirror could not reflect her skin colour, But there was some awkwardness in the look that one could not put into words.

When she showed her the reflection of her appearance after the makeover when she passed by the water jar, she found it extremely unbearable under Yuan-shi’s fervent gaze. Eventually, she swallowed the words “how ugly” down her stomach. From then on, she decided she will never put on rouge or cosmetic powder.

Hua Mulan looked like a mixed-blood. She looked like she belonged more to the masculine type. Her skin did not return to the former fair white skin, and her two cheeks were filled with red rouges, forehead affixed with a cosmetic powder mark (4) ……

She believed that if the original Hua Mulan had this get up, she will surely look very beautiful. But that is solely for the Hua Mulan that had a slim figure, fair white skin and was in her teenage years. As for now, it’s hard to say…

She started to understand why ‘She comes out to see her comrades; her comrades are all shocked ‘.  (5)

In this case, He Mulan is referring to why she was so shocked after seeing her own appearance; because she understood why her comrades (in the ballad) would be shocked as well.

In fact, Hua Mulan looked better without any makeup or adornments on her face. Sometimes she will return to wearing the pleated dress. Then, she will walk around the house without makeup, to appease Yuan-shi’s frown that could kill an insect if it’s wedged in between the folds of her frowns.

In summary, Hua Mulan and her family were all good people that were honest and considerate. Therefore, He Mulan did not want them to be upset.

Just as He Mulan was done with her dinner and was preparing to take a walk after, Liang county’s “head” and the neighbouring Liu family’s township’s village chief suddenly came to visit. This caused the whole Hua family to be in a state of chaos.

That so-called “head”, is the person in charge of disputes amongst Xianbei-ren, similar to the Han-ren village chief who had the authority of the township, most of the Xianbei jurisdiction would be left to the head which had merits in the battlefield or a person with good moral standing. In Dawei Xianbei-ren and Han-ren lived together. Both the village chief and the head oversaw the matters of the village and security-related issues.

This Liu family’s village head had come over in the morning to pay a visit. He claimed that the Liu family’s lad that died this morning had a fight with Liu Meng once over a dispute. At that moment, Hua Mulan’s tang cousin Hua KeHu was present there, so they wanted to ask him about the situation at that point of time.

The “head” that was currently here was once Hua Mulan’s subordinate. Hearing that this incident involved Hua Mulan’s family, he immediately brought the village chief with him and got on to his horse to take a trip to the Hua family home.

“This should be Lord Hua?” Hua KeHu had an official post in the army, He Mulan had an entire dress-up of Xianbei’s men attire and had a disposition that was different from others. When the Liu family’s village chief saw her, he was sure that the “right lord” he was looking for was her. He warmly saluted and spoke to her, “This old crock here is Liu family’s village (6) chief, everyone calls me old Liu, today, this old crock is here to……”

“General Hua, the Liu YuAn who came to your house to request for marriage has been pronounced dead this morning in Liu Meng’s house courtyard.” This Xianbei head had once welcomed Hua Mulan back to the township. Once he saw Hua Mulan, he naturally understood who “Hua KeHu” was and had approximately deduced what was the situation yesterday. He lowered his head respectfully to explain the issue (for Hua Mulan) to understand.

In the military, Hua Mulan was a 5-ranked valiant general. The commoners here had only heard of her name but do not know who she is. They were aware of the nasty rumours that had spread. But the officials here do not dare to act slowly in this incident.

“For what reason did you come over to my house looking for her?” Hua father relied on his crutches to stand up, with a frown, he bellowed: “Yesterday he went to check out the bearing of the man who requested for marriage. It could not be that all of you think he’s the killer?”

“It is not the case. Hua-ye (7) may not know this-the Liu YuAn died at Liu Meng’s house. His whole body was covered in more than 10 wounds and he died in an extremely tragic way. The assailant’s dagger was found in Liu Meng’s house water vat. But this Liu Meng adamantly insisted that he does not know anything. He claimed that since yesterday afternoon, he had stopped harassing Liu YuAn……”Old Liu let out a heavy sigh.

“Originally, there would not be a second way about it-Liu Meng would be the killer. But strangely, Liu Meng’s neighbours that lived around him all said that they did not see Liu Meng going out to stir trouble. He also did not seize Liu YuAn back to his house. Needless to say, they did not even see a shadow of Liu YuAn.”

He Mulan started to think in her heart.

Whenever someone kills a person, there is always a reason behind it. For the sake of money, Liu Meng cheated Liu YuAn’s familial possessions. But since he already had those possessions in his hands, he does not have a motive to kill. Wouldn’t the neighbours be aware of this if they had a dispute and Liu Meng accidentally killed him? He had tens of stab wounds, and if they had a dispute it would not be without noise. The way Han-ren and Xianbei-ren live is different. Most Han-ren live adjacent to each other.

Hence, this line of thinking also does not makes sense.

“Yesterday afternoon because Liu Meng did not manage to start a quarrel, Liu YuAn was also worried that Liu Meng would come to stir trouble again. Thus, he brought his daughter and son to his neighbouring paternal cousin’s house. Now, even the Liu family’s children are unaware of what had happened. As this matter is extremely fishy, this old crock thought of coming over to ask Lord Hua, to see if you have spotted any peculiarities……”

“I got it.” He Mulan nodded her head. “Where is the corpse of Liu YuAn now?”

“It’s currently placed at Liu Meng’s courtyard. We did not move the corpse as we are awaiting the arrival of Yu City county’s official (8).”

“Since it’s this case, I’ll make the trip down with all of you, to take a look at the scene of the crime.”

“Mu……what are you doing!” Yuan-shi nervously grabbed her daughter’s sleeve. “Since the purpose of Old Liu coming down was to understand what had transgressed, you can just describe to him what was the situation. It means that both of you are not fated when that house’s lad requested for marriage, but the request was not granted. Why do you still want to continue suffering! You are not an investigating officer, what can you see if you go down to the scene of the crime, since the person is already dead, how can he speak to you?”

He Mulan bitterly laughed. She was not able to explain the fact that it was due to her professional work ethics, it will be impossible for her to see this sort of simple case turning into a complicated case.

“Mommy, the dead really can speak.”

Yuan-shi was stunned, she did not understand what her daughter was saying. He Mulan took the opportunity to pull her sleeve off her mother’s hand. She took a few steps back, giving Yuan-shi and Hua father a kowtow to signify as her apology. After all this, she stood up and got ready to leave.

This Liu Village Chief saw this sight and heard He Mulan shout to Yuan-shi “Mommy”. He was clear in his heart now. In shock, he widened his eyes as they constantly sweep pass He Mulan to assess her.

This……this is really a woman……

This lofty and unyielding character, neither proud nor humble, is really a woman?

It was no doubt why everyone calls her a “female heroine”, even the head was very respectful towards her.

If there is really a woman who could obtain merits on the battlefield, it is only through a character like this!

Yesterday He Mulan firmly told the Liu family’s man who wanted to marry Hua Mulan that her tang cousin “Hua Mulan” will not marry him.

As a result, he was met with a mishap today.

If you say that He Mulan was totally not affected by this, it will surely be false. Hua Mother wanted her to act like she does not know anything, but she is not able to do so.

Besides, “Hua KeHu” has already been involved in this matter. When Yu City Yamen’s bailiff and coroner arrives, surely, they will summon her to the court trial. At that moment, the fact that “Hua KeHu” is “Hua Mulan” will be exposed. After all, the head knows of her identity, while Hua KeHu is currently still at the Sixth town training the military troops.

“Hua family’s mama, rest assured, I will head there together with General Hua. I will not allow them to be impetuous.” The middle-aged head with body clad with Xianbei traditional costume saw that General Hua’s parents are worried, so he promised Hua mother and father:

“This matter concerns the reputation of General Hua; I will treat this matter with utmost caution and care.”

“If so, I appreciate your efforts.”

Towards the head, Hua father did a military chest thump (9), then saw his daughter and the rest of them leaving the house.

Because this incident was no small matter, He Mulan led her treasured horse “shadow” out from the back of the house. This fully black fur-coated Akhal- Teke (10) bred horse, it’s Hua Mulan’s beloved steed, and now it’s currently being cared for by Hua younger brother.

He Mulan flipped her body onto the horse, and the head followed the same action. That old Liu man’s head servant also got onto a horse. A bunch of people riding horses headed towards Liu county together, causing a huge commotion around Hua family’s neighbours and villagers.

After He Mulan had left the house, Hua younger brother has his eyes fixated at his sister’s back, wondering whether he should go or not in his heart. Fang-shi saw that her husband was acting in this manner, in her heart she felt very irritated. She can’t help but sarcastically said:

“You only know how to stare at her with wide eyes! It seems like our house does not have a grown able man; we need a daughter to check out these dirty matters!”

“My second sister has been in the military for 12 years; I doubt she would be scared of this!” Hua younger brother lowered his head, “For me, it’s because I don’t know what my second sister would be doing, so I’m worried.”

“If you are worried just go! It’s not like there’s no horse in the house!”

Xianbei’s military household must take charge of rearing the horses. Other than taking care of Hua Mulan’s fine steed, “Shadow”, Hua family also reared two other military horses. These horses are fed the grains that were sent by the imperial court. Although these horses cannot be sold, riding it temporarily was fine.

After getting chided by his woman, anger rose in his heart.

His house’s second sister always made her own decisions, if not she wouldn’t have taken her father’s place in the military. Although now she returned back home, you can’t expect her to marry an ordinary person while wholeheartedly putting her heart down to assist her husband and teach her kids after she returned home!

When he saw their parents fretting for his sister’s marriage daily, he felt very dismissive about this in his heart.

A girl like her, would she even need to get married? She was able to accomplish anything by herself!

In terms of fighting, those men cannot beat his sister. If there happen to be thieves, wouldn’t his sister need to protect her husband!

If the man fears there is no heir, in the future, Fang-shi and he can bear a boy for his sister. The boy can follow his sister as her son.

It happens to be that he’s awkward in speech. He has words in his mind but is unable to convey it to his parents and his wife.

It was very obvious that his second sister did not want to marry. When his mama gave up on that idea, then, he would speak about it.

Now, although he is worried, a character like his second sister who had been through the battlefield would surely have her own schemes. This was why she was confident in going over to investigate. What good would he do if he goes? Let the others see his ignorance?

He had not seen a dead body before. If his legs go soft there, it will make his second sister lose face!

Fang-shi is still garrulously ranting about how he is not like a man. Yuan-shi was leaning against the door as she craned her neck out, her gaze fixed upon somewhere afar. By acting in this way, seemingly, she’s trying to use her gaze to persuade her daughter-in-law’s mouth to continue prattling.

Hua father got very agitated hearing all these, so he loudly hollered:

“MuTuo, follow them to see what’s going on, if there really is a problem, you can be there to take care of it!”

Hua MuTuo froze. He turned his body to confirm what he heard, but Fang-shi pulled Hua MuTuo by his arm, as she pulled him towards the direction of the manger.

Isn’t it just a dead body, what are they hesitating for!

-xxx-

(1)Their: I used ‘their ‘instead of ‘his’ as Hua father would likely be respectful to the emperor. Using ‘their’ is a more respectful way of a personal pronoun. It’s a term for royalty. In movies, dramas, royalty use ‘we’ when referring to themselves. Thus I used ‘their’ here.  

(2) chilly underneath: she’s going commando! (not wearing anything)

(3)抹胭脂贴花黄: putting on cosmetic powder and adorning a flower: here

(4) 花黄: a cosmetic powder that one use to affix a flower, or a symbol usually, in between one’s eyebrows. If you’ve watched Chinese historical dramas, (especially those stories revolving around palace life are strife between the inner courts), you will see it affixed on a noble lady’s forehead. But since it’s a trend in this era, most commoners do it as well.

See: here

(5) She comes out to see her comrades; her comrades are all shocked. – A line from Mulan’s ballad. I referred to this version of the translation: here 

The context is when her comrades see her real appearance, they were all shocked that she was a woman. This was after the war, when she saw her comrades. This matches the current timeline that He Mulan is in now. Recall that a few chapters back, Hua Mulan said she returned from the war, and it was of the verse in Mulan’s ballad ‘Generals die after a hundred battles; heroes return after ten years’ time.’  

(6) village chief: instead of using village, they use ‘township’ here. But previously it’s all calling the dude a village chief. To standardize, I’ll call him village chief.

(7) -ye: an expression to symbolize respect, seniority and to call someone of a higher status. Also can be used to call someone grandfather.

(8) officials: here, it can also mean servants of Yu City county.

(9) chest thump: I found a wolf on wall street’s chest thump video: here

Basically, something like this, but Hua father only did it once. And yes, it’s because I couldn’t find any other images or videos to represent this.

(10) Mulan’s horse will probably look like this: here

-xxx-

Fleur’s corner: 

Happy April Fools everybody! This is not a fake chapter! AHA :)

There have been some translation error in ch2. I realized the dude who requested for marriage with Mulan was not called Liu JiaLang. I was deciding when I was translating ch2 to call him Liu family’s lad or Liu JiaLang. He’s called Liu YuAn. (I think) Apparently, the whole Liu township is surnamed ‘Liu’.  I’ll make the appropriate changes to ch2.

I was supposed to release the chapter last night but something came out. So I realized this chapter late.

By the way, we won’t have a chapter next week. But, in place of that, I’ll be giving a brief background of Hua Mulan, where she stays…etc. I’ll probably have a new post about this every 3-4 days next week. (But it’s just next week). Please follow my Tumblr for the updates :)!

As the story word count gets longer and longer, I might split the chapter into 2 for 2 separate release. But releases will get more frequent after my finals.

Also, a shoutout to Alexandra chin! She’s going to release the manhua version of MHNEB! Click here to check out her website: here

Kubera has edited ch1 and 2 of the novel! <3

-xxx-

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter