MHNEB 7

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

吓人木兰

Chapter 7: Terrifying Mulan


Edited by Kubera

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On the third day.

“Will you admit to it or not?” Magistrate You sat upright on the above of the court, gazing down at the Liu Meng who was pressed down below the court.

“This villager really……” Liu Meng cried painfully, at this moment, he really regretted his actions

“Continue hitting him……”

He Mulan speechlessly looked upon Magistrate You’s tribunal transversion. She was rendered speechless by the ancient time’s jury trial’s simple use of brute force as the way it conducted was really brutal.

But it was honestly satisfying.

Liu YuAn failed in using his own death to frame Liu Meng. But he succeeded in using his death to garner people’s attention towards the case of “Liu Meng’s snatching his familial possessions”.

He Mulan served as a witness that saw both parties’ disputes, as well as being the last outsider that Liu YuAn was in contact with, had also participated in the jury trial. But she was the witness, yet she had an official post before, so she was able to stand in the court, looking upon Liu Meng suffering.

Records had to be made if one attended the court. He Mulan naturally will not pretend to be Hua Mulan’s tang elder cousin who was now located far away at the border. So, she righteously wrote “Hua Mulan”’s name. The scribe and county officials were in a shock after seeing that name. Later, they conversed in whispers after seeing it.  

When He Mulan finished talking about why she went to Liu house, what she did in Liu house and what Liu YuAn said when he poured out his woes to her, Magistrate You then pointed to Liu Meng’s family. He brought together villagers who knew about the issue of Liu Meng renting Liu YuAn’s plot of field and interrogated them. The middleman at that time had already moved out of Liu township. If they had to find the middleman, they had to spend a few days finding him, but Magistrate You used ten strikes of the rod to Liu Meng’s bottom for Liu Meng to pass down the location of the educated person who wrote the contract.

In this way, a few pieces of evidence were on hand. At first, when the villagers matched the two families were in goodwill. But who knows what the situation will turn out to be this way? With Liu YuAn dead, he naturally had to be honest and blurted out that on that year, he advised the deceased’s father to rent out the plot of the field to Liu Meng’s family to cultivate crops.

But anyone who was educated hated finding troubles for oneself, especially if it had to do with matters of the court. There is no imperial examination here. To become a governmental official or a civil servant, one needed to be elected. Reputation is also important. There will be few educated people who will be willing to write a contract that will cause discord between others for a stranger. Therefore, there are only a few who is willing to write a contract for Liu Meng. Once he confessed that he asked someone in his wife’s brother family to write, suddenly, the gentry men and the villagers who were outside echoed “Oh” altogether.

‘This dude (Liu Meng) definitely purposely did it!’

He Mulan saw that Magistrate You was interrogating Liu Meng non-stop about some small morsels of details. Once Liu Meng did not explain clearly or answer his questions with a slight delay, he would request the yamen runners standing outside the court to hit him with the rod. In her heart, He Mulan can’t help but laugh.

Unexpectedly, Magistrate You is also someone who abhors evil as his deadly foes. Although he will not wrongfully malign a murder case, it is still possible to brutally make such a villain suffer.

Since all the evidence is gathered and coalited, Liu Meng had gotten about over tens of hits by the rod altogether. Even as a muscular and strong man, he could not bear it. Because of this, almost anything that Magistrate You asked later was answered without any delay.

The ancient laws centred only at ‘discipline’ and ‘judgment’ which are in the hands of the official of the area.(1) In other words, how is the case settled and how is the punishment passed it depend on the official’s experience of good or evil when passing down the judgment.

From head to toe, Magistrate You was a person of ancient times. Hence, the way he handles his official position would be like of the ancient times. When he was young his father died. Although he was born in the side branch of a noble family, his family was poverty-stricken. When he was young, he was brought up with the support of a clan.

The people he hated the most are those who bully the helpless. He also pitied the Liu family’s pair of siblings. Therefore, he sentenced Liu Meng heavily, causing many spectators who were standing outside the court to sing praises of his actions.

Liu Meng had seized the property of others and was sentenced to repair the city wall at the border, which required 270 days of hard labour in a year. In addition, other than destroying the false land deeds and returning the plot of the field to Liu family, Magistrate You decreed that Liu Meng’s family should give half of his property to the Liu tribe (2). The tribesmen would take up the responsibility or bringing the two Liu family’s children up, and take charge of their plans of marriage, and raise them up to adulthood. After they were brought up to adulthood, the tribesmen’s family who raised the kids up will receive the familial properties. (3)

With such a decree, the people of Liu Township would compete over who should raise the two kids.

Letting Liu Meng’s family hand over his property was due to Magistrate You’s feeling of pity, so he added punishment for Liu Meng.

Everybody was happy with the increase in punishment. Nobody was suspicious about it. It could be seen that this case was ‘humanized’ to several levels.

Liu YuAn finally got back his family’s plot of field, albeit using a way that will lead people to sigh.

And He Mulan can use her identity as a witness to witness the sight of an ancient official’s trial.

“Detection”, “torture”, “the finding of witnesses and pieces of evidence”, “interrogation”, “judgment”, “execution” ……the ancient time’s county yamen combines public law and inspection into one single body. This cause He Mulan to be in admiration of how the yamen in ancient times work.

It was clear that Magistrate You was one with a heart filled with compassion yet will not malign someone and will uphold justice. He was a young man with his own wisdom. Towards him, He Mulan felt admiration.  

It was a shame that probably to avoid raising suspicion, Magistrate You did not communicate much with He Mulan. And even though he used He Mulan’s autopsy report to interrogate and close the case of “Liu YuAn’s suicide”. But he did not mention anything related to “Hua Mulan” in his files or in the case.

Comparing to Xianbei-ren, Han-ren emphasizes more on women’s ethics. Since the Qin and Han dynasty, the coroners are all untouchables. Nobody else dared to lower themselves to take up this trade up to treat it as something to be proud of.

Magistrate You did this to protect Hua Mulan, which is why Hua Mulan accepted his efforts.

The case was solved easily. He Mulan and Hua younger brother stayed in Yu City for about 5-6 days. Magistrate You had thought that as they were Xianbei-ren, Hua Mulan’s identity was also very special, so he did not ask them to stay in the magistrate’s building together with the rest of the witnesses. He arranged for them to stay in the current county’s head’s house.

Because Hua younger brother had to take care of the horses and military crops normally, he rarely could come to Yu City. Before they headed back, He Mulan and Hua younger brother sauntered around the market here. They bought a few vegetable seeds, salt, and items as such back home.

What was worth mentioning was that when they left their lodging they did not bring much. Since in the early years of Northern Wei there were no copper coins circulating, they relied on using He Mulan’s few pieces of handkerchief and a few trinkets that she carried with her as payment.  

Should she tell them that she used those cloths to wipe her mouth and sweat?

Forget it, she shouldn’t mention it.

On the way back, Hua younger brother looked a little out of his senses.

He Mulan was not Hua younger brother’s sister and did not have many interactions with Hua younger brother. But Hua younger brother busied himself here and there for her, poured tea and delivered water for her (4) and he changed the water vat’s water for her and heated the water for her. No matter how cold she was, she was unable to watch and not care about him.

This was why He Mulan started:

“Younger bro……”

Hua Mutuo appeared as if he was startled by He Mulan’s voice. He slid down a little from his horse. He swung his body to stabilize his posture, as he manoeuvred his horse to head straight ahead.

The technique of riding a horse and his immediate response was great. It was no wonder that he was a young man that was constantly raising horses.

He Mulan commended Hua younger brother for his horsemanship, then continued:

“What do you really want to ask me? Speak.”

He had a hesitant appearance as if he had yet to decide on what to say. It appeared (to He Mulan) that he had constipated or had diarrhoea.

She had already asked him if he was urgent and needed to stop for a moment. But in the end, he said it was not the case. That would only mean that he had something to say.

Hua younger brother had a face that wore a troubled expression. It looked like he discovered something that should not be discovered. Yet, he also appeared to be in joy that his sister had found out about his feelings.

Just when Hua younger brother’s face was filled with an expression that “my constipation was cleared” or “my diarrhea is finally cleared ah”, he whispered:

“Sis, how did you know how to interpret the corpse’s wounds?”

If they were in a war, once a person is killed, there is no need to check the wounds, right?

Unless she had previously witnessed all types of murder and suicide cases?

Rumour had it that Rouran (5) had many intelligence gatherers. In the army, there were quite a few Rouran spies. The people of Rouran and Xianbei looked very similar. Unless his sister had met such bad people before?

Regretfully, He Mulan was not able to answer Hua younger brother’s question.

This was why she was silent for a short moment. She answered him unconfidently:

“Probably, it was because I have seen too many?”

Hua Mulan would certainly have seen many corpses. After all, they were in a state of war for about 12 years. The way she put it should be acceptable.

Hua younger brother’s face turned into a sheet of white in an instant. It was so white that He Mulan mustered all her strength to question herself on the answer that she gave-was it that scary?

The sole male descendant of the Hua family is really afraid of corpses.

Being a military family’s child that is afraid of corpses, this might be the biggest flaw he could have.

The journey from Yu City back to Yingguo county was very quiet. Hua younger brother was still sunken in the fact of those “scary words”. He kept imagining about it. When they arrived back to their home, Yuan-shi saw that her son’s complexion was not very good. She gazed up and down at him in a panic.

“What happened, what happened! I noticed that both of you were gone for so many days, and when the head’s men were sent down to collect clothes, I had a bad feeling. Your father had also stood by the door daily to await the both of you, regretting that he had Mutuo follow……”

After Yuan-shi finished speaking, she realized that there was a problem with what she had just said. When one hears, it feels like their family value Hua younger brother more, as she uneasily glanced at her own daughter “Hua Mulan”.

He Mulan did not let out a hurtful expression. Instead, she smiled and comforted Yuan-shi: “Nothing really happened. Magistrate You is a good official. The case was solved very cleanly. Maybe Younger bro is not used to the bed over there, so he did not have a good rest, right?”

She wouldn’t admit to his parents that their own proud son is a person who vomited out bile after seeing a corpse!

Hehe, younger bro was really let off lightly, be thankful for your “sister” being fair and considerate to you ba!

Hua Mutuo froze, then nodded his head relentlessly.

Yuan-shi let out a sigh of relief after this. It was unsure whether she was relieved that her daughter did not mind what she had said or relieved that Hua Mutuo did not suffer much.

He Mulan is not the real Hua Mulan, naturally, she will not feel hurt. Besides, in her family, they doted on the younger her rather than her brother, the male descendant. Hence, she did not feel anything much towards them caring more about the younger Hua younger brother.  

For parents to divide a bowl of water equally would be very hard. This problem would be solved solely based on their decisions. In a human’s heart, it would be made up all of the flesh. (6) Who said that they did not care about Hua Mulan?

It was just that Hua Mulan left home for 12 years, they were closer to Hua younger brother as they were together more often. It was just they were more courteous towards Hua Mulan.

In a human’s heart, it would be made up all of the flesh: everybody was born kind, everybody had a compassionate side.

Hua father sat on top of the small stone pillar. He only knew how to repeat “it’s good that you’ve come back”, “as long as you are fine it’s good”. He Mulan did not know why she felt that her nose was suddenly sore. Her eyes also turned red.

Her own father was an old cop, and his personality was alike Hua’s father. On one side he was proud that the whole family was working at the public security sector bearing the heavy responsibility of the society, on the other side he was worried about the safety of her brother and her. He had to wait for them (at home) for a very long time for them to return home every time they had a case. He would repeatedly murmur “It’s good that you come back”.

She felt that she missed home.

At one side, Fang-shi who was holding her two-year-old daughter changed from her usual melancholic self when she saw her (Hua Mulan), and brought her children out from the house. She did not see how her own husband was doing first. Instead, she swept a glance over her (Hua Mulan) body. She muttered, “Thank the heavens and the earth”. Then, she passed the two-year-old daughter that was in her embrace to Hua younger brother. She long-windedly nagged to him on how hard her life doing things like plant crops and feed the horses at home when he was not around.

When Hua younger brother fished out a box of new rouge he had bought in the market, she kept all her grievances immediately and smiled.

This allowed He Mulan to start to discover another side of Fang-shi.

She was still young. Therefore, she still had the heart of a young girl.

They were all good people.

Perhaps it’s because of this ordinary and a little long-winded life, that this all-powerful heroine would finally choose to return home.

Hua Mulan wanted this type of life.

Why should she feel that it was a pity for Hua Mulan?

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(1) 法律: literal meaning Law. ‘律’: discipline but it was also part of the word 法律. In Chinese, individual characters had their own meaning. When they are used in a combination of 2,3,4 or 5s, sometimes they may have another meaning. But 法 means laws 律 could also mean order. But generally, 法律 means law.  

(2) Liu tribe: remember, I speculated that the whole Liu township’s villagers had the surname Liu? Well, this confirmed what I speculated. The whole Liu Township belonged to villagers of the same tribe, Liu. They were all tribesmen.

(3) familial properties: this referred to Liu Meng’s half of familial properties.

(4) poured tea and delivered water: acting as a servant for Hua Mulan.

(5) Rouran: Like Xianbei, it’s a race. In the Mulan movie (not the Disney movie), Mulan fought a war between Xianbei and Rouran. In the history of the Northern Wei Dynasty, both tribes fought too. Read about rouran here: click here 

(6) the author was just expressing that it was very hard to give equal affection and love to all their children. But that didn’t mean they didn’t love her. They love her too, but maybe they did not show it.

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Fleur’s corner:

I was supposed to upload this on Monday. However, my laptop crashed many, many times when I was translating. It took me many hours to finally finish translating. :< My keyboard’s letter ‘L’ stopped working too. Anyone has any solution for it?

Anyway, Mulan’s family is golden. They are really all good people. 

I’m looking for another translator to help out in this project so we can have faster releases. As well as me needing a little more time to write my thesis;A;  If anyone is interested, contact me, please!! 

And if no one is interested, I’ll shamelessly advertise people to follow me on my Tumblr ;D 

There will be a chapter next week, but no guarantees on what day it’d be since my laptop is not cooperating. 

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