Chapter 735 — The Bond Receipt
CHAPTER 735
The Bond Receipt
The thin man’s name was Nie Liyan, and he said it as if it were a ruling.
“Inspector Nie Liyan, of the Imperial Clan Court,” Nie Liyan said. “Any contest held under the Long name may be audited by this court. This inspector has come to audit.”
The Long house ran the Empire’s justice, and the Clan Court was where it judged its own. By the third morning, the whole practice ground knew the inspector had come, and nobody at the rail was arguing about odds.
A writing desk had been set up at the foot of the ring. Nie Liyan sat at it with the contest register open and turned the pages with one finger. He had a long, pale face and never looked up while he read.
Ke Lianshu stood beside the desk with his hands folded, bowing whenever a page turned.
He reached the last page, turned back one, and laid a finger on a single line.
“Tally one thousand one hundred and seven,” Nie Liyan read. “Shi Feng. 4 Mark. Deity Transformation. Sponsor, none. Remarks, entered in error.” He looked up at last. “Which of you is this?”
Shi Feng raised a hand from the rail.
“Me,” Shi Feng said. “Good morning, Inspector.”
Nie Liyan glanced at the plain robe and the empty belt where a sponsor’s seal should hang. His contempt was clear.
“The princess’s contest is for men of standing,” Nie Liyan said. “A candidate must be sponsored by a house, a sect or an official, or come at the princess’s own invitation. You have none of these. A mistake has no standing before the court. If the name isn’t right, the words won’t follow.” He dipped his brush. “This inspector rules that tally one thousand one hundred and seven is void. The candidate must withdraw before his bout.”
The rail stirred at once.
“Void? He beat Huangfu Lie!”
“That’s the Clan Court. You don’t argue with the Clan Court.”
At the far end of the rail, Tang Mingyu laughed out loud.
Ke Lianshu bowed to the inspector, then to Shi Feng, then to the inspector again.
“Master Shi,” Ke Lianshu said unhappily. “The court’s right to audit is very old. This humble steward has no answer. I’m deeply sorry.”
Shi Feng didn’t look upset. He looked interested.
Shi Feng thought: an inspector didn’t come in person just to correct one clerk. Somebody wanted him removed in public. He’d make them explain it.
He reached into his sleeve and brought out a folded slip with a red seal on it.
“Inspector,” Shi Feng said. “Before you write that down, may I show you a receipt?”
“This inspector has no interest in receipts,” Nie Liyan said.
“It bears the household’s seal,” Shi Feng said. “If the register matters, this does too.”
He unfolded it and held it up so the rail could see it.
“‘Received of candidate Shi Feng, tally one thousand one hundred and seven, five hundred thousand, held as the candidate’s bond, returned in full to the final recruits,’” Shi Feng read. “Sealed by the Phoenix Tail Pavilion. Chief Steward Ke Lianshu.”
“The household took my money as a candidate,” Shi Feng said. “The receipt says so. Chief Steward Ke didn’t take a shop payment or a fine. He accepted a candidate’s bond, under the pavilion’s seal.”
He folded the receipt and held it between two fingers.
“So there are only two ways to write this, Inspector,” Shi Feng said. “Either I’m a candidate, and my bout goes ahead. Or the princess’s pavilion took half a million from a man it knew wasn’t one. There’s a word for that. Which would you like in the Clan Court’s record?”
The practice ground went very quiet.
Nie Liyan’s brush stopped above the paper. A drop of ink gathered at its tip.
“You suggest that this inspector accuse a Long princess of fraud,” Nie Liyan said slowly.
“I suggest you don’t,” Shi Feng said. “That’s why I showed you the receipt.”
“Then the matter must be put to the—” Nie Liyan began.
“Inspector Nie,” Long Caili said.
The voice came from the highest gallery. It wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be.
Every head turned. The gauze screen had been drawn back, and Long Caili sat at the gallery rail in a dark fox-fur cloak and a pale gauze veil, with Shen Yaoqing standing one step behind her chair.
“I don’t take money by fraud,” Long Caili said.
That was all she said.
Nie Liyan stood up. He set down his brush, stepped back and bowed deeply toward the gallery.
“This inspector was misinformed,” Nie Liyan said. “The bond is a candidate’s bond. The candidate stands.” He drew one neat line through his own ruling. “The court thanks Her Highness for her clarity.”
He closed the register, handed it to Ke Lianshu with both hands and walked back to his carriage without looking at anyone. The carriage rolled out through the gate.
The rail breathed out.
“He made the Clan Court take it back!”
“With a receipt! A receipt!”
“Weren’t you listening? The princess did it. He just handed her the knife.”
“Her brother is the First Prince. What did the inspector expect?”
“…I’m keeping my receipts from now on.”
Shi Feng put the slip back in his sleeve and patted it once.
Ke Lianshu came over to the rail, wiping his forehead with a silk handkerchief.
“Master Shi,” Ke Lianshu said, bowing. “This humble steward apologises for not thinking of the receipt himself. He wrote it.”
“You put the truth on it,” Shi Feng said. “That was enough. Keep the register just as clear.”
Cheng Mobai leaned in on his other side.
“They wanted the error thrown out where everyone could watch,” Cheng Mobai said quietly. “So the rest of us remember who audits whom.”
Shi Feng didn’t reply. He was looking at the gate the carriage had gone out by.
A Clan Court inspector answered to the Long house. Somebody in the Long house had wanted him gone before he reached the ring, and the princess had stopped it with one sentence. He didn’t know who. He meant to find out.
“Bout seven,” Ke Lianshu called from the ring steps. “Master Shi Feng against Young Master Tang Mingyu. Please take the ring.”
Across the stone, Tang Mingyu had stopped laughing. He came up the far steps with a gold abacus strapped along his left forearm, eighty-one beads in nine rows of nine, and every bead was already glowing.
“No receipt will help you up here,” Tang Mingyu said.