The next day.
Twelfth Sister rushed over to find Ye Suijin.
Coincidentally, there was no one with Ye Suijin at the moment, so she could see her sixth sister when she came.
"Sister!" she said, "Magistrate Yuan is going to Deng Prefecture? Can I go with him?"
Ye Suijin looked up: "Do you know what he's going to do there?"
Twelfth Sister nodded.
She also said: "I promised Magistrate Yuan that I wouldn't gossip about it. I didn't even tell my parents."
Although Twelfth Sister was a girl, she was also reckless and mischievous, with a reputation for being a troublemaker. But in this life and the next, she had one good trait - she kept her word once she promised something.
This was because she had learned from Chen Ling. But Chen Ling was far away in his hometown, while Twelfth Sister still had to live with her parents in Biyang.
Her teacher was not by her side, but there was a Magistrate Yuan here.
Since taking office, Yuan Ling had handled many backlogged cases. He had also dug through the archives in the yamen and found many old case files that had been damaged by worms.
Twelfth Sister was now the most prestigious young lady in Biyang City. Other girls who wanted to play with her couldn't even find her.
She spent her days in the Biyang county yamen, hiding and listening to Yuan Ling try cases - she had no choice, Yuan Ling was not like her cousin Ye Jingyi who would humor her and let her sit in court as a clerk. Yuan Ling was a proper imperial examination graduate from the previous dynasty, a real scholar.
Even Twelfth Sister didn't dare make trouble with a graduate. Her teacher Chen Ling was only a scholar in white.
Both were county magistrates, but their backgrounds were quite different.
In the world of scholars, Chen Ling had to defer to Yuan Ling.
But because she often lingered in the county yamen and took the initiative to help tidy up and organize the old case files, and often asked Yuan Ling for advice, Twelfth Sister and Yuan Ling were also very familiar with each other.
Yuan Ling was an upright gentleman. He was not much older than Cousin Ye Fourth, and his temples were already frosted with age. His age made him suitable to be Twelfth Sister's father or even grandfather. There was no need to worry about gossip.
Although not teacher and disciple, they had an affinity as half-mentor and half-friend.
Ye Suijin said, "Since you know what he's going to do there, do you know what you'll be facing if you go?"
"I know," Twelfth Sister said. "Actually it's just like in plays and novels, inspecting on behalf of the heavens. If officials commit crimes, demote them. If commoners commit crimes, sentence or behead them as the law requires."
She was a little excited as she said this.
Ye Suijin noticed.
But reality was not a stage play.
She lowered her eyes, then raised them again: "After investigation, Third Son Ye of Ye Family's Fourth Branch, kidnapped and raped good families' daughters, encroached on others' land, falsely claimed military achievements, embezzled military provisions, and murdered an entire family including the husband and children in order to obtain another's wife. According to the law, he should be beheaded."
"Twelfth Sister Ye, will you behead him or not?"
Twelfth Sister stared at her with wide eyes.
Ye Suijin looked back at her coldly.
Twelfth Sister opened her mouth: "How could my brother have..."
"Of course it's hypothetical," Ye Suijin tapped the desk with her fingers. "I'm only asking you, hypothetically, if you went with Yuan Ling and discovered this, Twelfth Sister Ye, would you behead your eldest brother or not?"
Just randomly combining a few of these hypothetical crimes was already worthy of immediate decapitation, not to mention all of them.
Twelfth Sister knew very clearly that in this hypothetical case, "Third Son Ye" deserved beheading.
But the hypothetical person was her eldest brother.
Twelfth Sister had clearly wanted to answer "of course he should be beheaded", but this clear and correct answer was stuck in her throat, unable to come out.
It was as if her mouth was stuffed full of numb seeds.
Twelfth Sister and Ye Suijin stared at each other, beads of sweat appearing on Twelfth Sister's forehead.
Finally, she said: "Bah! Bah bah bah bah bah bah bah!"
Begone ill omens. Although hypothetical, it was still inauspicious.
"It's not true, is it?" she asked apprehensively.
Ye Suijin rolled her eyes.
Twelfth Sister relaxed: "As long as it's not true, that's good."
My brother wouldn't do something like this.
"You think you're going to watch a show, see lively events, read case records," Ye Suijin said. "When you get there, you'll discover that the people Yuan Ling is going to tie up and behead are all people you know."
"People who came to your house to pay new year's greetings, who came to your house with gifts when you had a birthday. People who bought candy for you to eat, and slipped you little silver fish-shaped coins."
"They'll be shackled, shouting desperately at you: Twelfth Sister, Twelfth Sister, save us! Twelfth Sister, Twelfth Sister, go plead with your father, go plead with Sixth Sister. Twelfth Sister, you can't abandon us!"
Ye Suijin gave a cold laugh: "Twelfth Sister Ye, what will you do?"
Twelfth Sister truly didn't know that aside from being amazing, her sixth sister's mouth was also so eloquent and demonstrative.
The sour and caustic words made her angry.
But she was actually angry because she realized she couldn't handle the scenario her sister had described.
She clenched her fists, sweat beading on the tip of her nose.
"Not talking anymore?" Ye Suijin taunted. "Weren't you chattering away just now?"
Twelfth Sister glared.
Ye Suijin said, "If you want to go, then go. After this trip, if you can face it, if you can help, come back and continue studying. In the future, I'll keep a position for you in my prefect's yamen."
Twelfth Sister was stunned.
She really did find studying the law interesting, more and more interesting the more she learned. She hadn't actually thought about what she could do with it after learning.
After all, even her teacher didn't know.
So it turned out that if she learned well, she could also follow her sister like her brothers did, working under Sixth Sister?
Drawing a salary, having status, being respected or feared by others.
But Ye Suijin's tone shifted: "However, if you go and can't accomplish anything, if you only drag Yuan Ling down and hinder him, then when you come back, stop studying with Chen Ling. Reel in your heart, talk about betrothals and getting married. Cousin Fourth will prepare a generous dowry for you. In the future, raise children, be an obedient daughter-in-law, staying by the stove will suit you just fine."
Twelfth Sister's eyes widened again.
Ye Suijin glared back at her.
From childhood till now, among siblings she had never lost at a staring contest, what was she afraid of with this little Twelfth?
"I..." Twelfth Sister clenched both fists, steeled herself, "I'm going!"
A flicker of laughter appeared in Ye Suijin's eyes.
But the laughter quickly vanished, and she tapped the desk with her fingers: "Since this is the case, I will start giving you your first lesson on this matter now."
Twelfth Sister: "Huh?"
Ye Suijin looked at this fool: "It was Yuan Ling who told you to come find me, right?"
"Yes," Twelfth Sister nodded. "Magistrate Yuan said he wouldn't agree to take me without your permission."
Ye Suijin gave a cold laugh, looking at her like an idiot.
Twelfth Sister was apprehensive: "Is something wrong?"
Ye Suijin said, "You must have caught Yuan Ling preparing to leave and directly asked if you could come along. Yuan Ling didn't have to tell you he was going to Deng Prefecture. He could have just said 'on official business' and dismissed you. With your upbringing, you certainly wouldn't have kept pestering him to ask 'what official business', right?"
"So why did Yuan Ling spill the beans and tell you everything about his trip to Deng Prefecture?"
"Who are you? What position do you hold? On what basis do you know these things? Yuan Ling is such a principled person that he refused to let you be a clerk in court. How could he suddenly be willing to tell you everything? As an official of his seniority, how could he not come up with some excuse to deal with you?"
Twelfth Sister was stunned.
"But, but why would Magistrate Yuan..." she didn't understand. "I'm just a child, what's the significance in this?"
"Are you an ordinary child?" Ye Suijin said. "You're your father's daughter, you're my and Third Brother's little sister."
"If he takes you along, keeping you by his side, Yuan Ling will have an extra protective talisman."
Twelfth Sister couldn't believe it: "Even if some of our clansmen did commit crimes, it wouldn't go so far as to... right?"
"Whether or not it will go that far depends on how great the interests at stake are," Ye Suijin said.
"Throughout history, imperial emissaries sent from the capital to inspect local areas, who were 'killed by bandits' along the way, burned to death in inns that mysteriously caught fire, arrived at their post only to die inexplicably in the brothels, reputation utterly ruined - there have been too many cases."
Twelfth Sister stared blankly: "But can I really play such a big role?"
"You can't," Ye Suijin said. "But I, your father, and your brothers can."
"Without you, if Yuan Ling was plotted against and murdered somewhere in the rural countryside... it wouldn't take much, just one or two families, two or three families working together could accomplish it. Then they would all come cry and wail to their ancestors, and in the end, it's very possible that public outcry would prevent any legal repercussions, and everything would be covered up."
"Poor Yuan Ling wouldn't have anyone to seek justice and avenge him either."
"But with you there, if anything happened to you, even if they dared to harm a single hair on your head..."
"Myself, your father, your brothers - we wouldn't care if they were surnamed Ye or not, or if they were even in the same clan registry as us. We would slaughter them without mercy."
Now Deng Prefecture and Tang Prefecture all knew that when Ye Suijin said "kill", she never joked.
Twelfth Sister was stunned for a long time, lowered her head, and after a long time, suddenly raised her head: "I'll go!"
"Since it's so dangerous, you still sent Yuan Ling. Because this matter had to be done, right?"
"Since this is the case, I'll go."
"I don't have much skills either, I just got a good rebirth. Since Yuan Ling looks up to me, I'll go to make him a life-saving talisman."
"In the future, this matter will be written in the local records, leaving behind the three words 'Ye Twelve' for later generations to see, and I will be satisfied."
Ye Suijin looked at her for a moment.
She got up, walked to a cabinet, opened it and looked inside, took out a short saber slightly shorter than the usual wide blade.
"Take it." She handed the short saber to Twelfth Sister, "Tell Yuan Ling I promised."
Twelfth Sister took the blade with both hands: "Sister Six, can I really work by your side in the future?"
"Then you have to be capable." Ye Suijin said, "Those around me do not keep idlers, nor tolerate mediocrity."
Twelfth Sister grasped the saber: "I see."
Twelfth Sister came out of the study and saw Duan Jin standing under the corridor.
"A Jin." She walked over, "You're looking for Sister Six? She's not in the room, you can go in now."
Duan Jin was originally standing in the corridor staring blankly at the courtyard, startled by her, turned his head to look, and saw that saber: "Huh?"
Twelfth Sister: "What is it?"
Duan Jin took it and looked it over.
Twelfth Sister said: "Sister Six gave it to me."
Duan Jin said: "I've used this blade before. This was the young master's practice blade when she was little. Later I used it for a period of time, but I grew taller, so I switched to a longer saber."
Twelfth Sister said: "It's mine now. Go on in, I still have things to do."
She walked away in haste.
But Duan Jin did not go in with his usual vigor.
He hadn't slept well last night, and even had dark circles around his eyes.
He lingered in the corridor for a long time, until the impatient Ye Suijin inside: "A Jin? Why don't you come in?"
She had heard Twelfth Sister chattering away with him, and Twelfth Sister had left. But where was Duan Jin's shadow?
Duan Jin had no choice, steeled himself against the numbness in his scalp, and went in.
