Chapter 44: Upheaval in the Huang Family

The public discourse surrounding donations for road construction gradually began to ferment within the county town.

At first, many people merely dismissed this as a wild rumor, paying it little heed.

When the rumors were still unstable, a few individuals chose to believe them and began preparing funds for donation, only to be met with collective mockery from their peers.

This was because the majority of merchants, much like the former Master Huang the Sixth, firmly believed that Magistrate Wang would never lower himself from his scholarly dignity.

However, during a banquet filled with flowing wine and interlacing cups, Master Huang seemed to accidentally let slip a mention of a five-thousand-tael donation, and those merchants immediately caught the scent of opportunity.

Master Huang’s judgment undoubtedly served as a benchmark of authority among the other merchants. This authority was not written in official documents, nor was it some code of the underworld; it was entirely anchored in his formidable strength.

Consequently, numerous merchants concluded that regardless of whether the official government was reliable or not, following Master Huang’s lead to donate could never result in a loss!

After that banquet, the county yamen, usually quite peaceful, became as bustling as a bustling marketplace.

Not only the proprietors of all the renowned commercial houses within the city, but even the merchants from the various towns—as long as they fancied themselves to possess some wealth—hurriedly rushed over, eager to verify the truth of the matter.

Although most of them merely came to witness a spectacle and join the excitement, there were inevitably those who, like Master Huang, impatiently desired to establish a connection with Magistrate Wang.

Even if this so-called connection was nominal and could at best be used to bluff others.

...

The Yongshun County Yamen.

Assistant Magistrate Huang wore a gloomy expression as he watched a group of lowly peddlers and foot-soldiers freely wander through the yamen.

Seeing their superior maintain a stony silence, the other minor clerks did not dare to drive anyone away rashly.

In the past, even if these people were to catch sight of the lowliest clerk, they would immediately put on flattering and ingratiating smiles.

Otherwise, the person offended would not be just a single individual, but the entire interwoven network of the county yamen.

Now, although their smiles seemed no different from usual and they remained sufficiently humble before Assistant Magistrate Huang, one somehow felt that the relationship between these merchants and the government runners was undergoing a subtle shift.

Assistant Magistrate Huang watched with a sinister gaze as a fat-headed merchant stepped lightly out of the yamen. Clearly empty-handed upon arrival, the man had cupped his hands in farewell after parting with a massive sum of money and grain, yet his demeanor was that of someone returning fully laden with treasures.

He finally lost his composure.

He directly summoned Huang Luer, and suppressing his fury, said in a low voice: "Repeat it to me—how exactly did Old Sixth Huang make his guarantees back then?"

The fact that Assistant Magistrate Huang still called Huang Fu "Old Sixth Huang" clearly showed his temporary inability to accept the reality that the man had defected.

He had thought he had completely manipulated his so-called cousin, and that the other party would obey his every word.

Never had he expected that Magistrate Wang merely crafted a broken stele and promised him some empty prestige, and the man had impatiently changed his allegiance.

As a dignified assistant magistrate, a civil official ranking among the upper tier within the yamen, and the backing of numerous petty functionaries, he had been thus publicly and utterly humiliated.

Though he still did not know what Master Huang's ultimate objective was, nor how many favors Magistrate Wang had promised him in private, Assistant Magistrate Huang cared little for any of that now.

The only thing he cared about right now was how to make Master Huang drop dead as soon as possible.

Today's affair had completely enraged him; the man had to be eliminated to prevent future trouble.

Looking at the gnashing and blood-boiling head of the family, Huang Luer felt a chill run through his heart and dared not conceal anything. Trembling, he replied: "Sixth Master... that man showed no unusual behavior at the time, and everything unfolded just as Third Master guessed."

"Moreover, in the past few days, he really did go out to lobby the other merchants, urging them to band together and make a scene. That much cannot be false."

Huang Luer finished speaking, only to see the sallow face of Assistant Magistrate Huang first flush red, and then turn a bruised purple with rage.

Assistant Magistrate Huang was no dull-witted man, and he believed this trusted servant would never dare betray him.

His acute intuition perceived that all these sudden changes must have occurred when Master Huang accepted the invitation and entered the county yamen.

Although Assistant Magistrate Huang had not been present at the yamen that day and had not witnessed firsthand what transpired within, and while all the daily patrolling runners both inside and outside the yamen now answered directly to Zhao Jin and were beyond the assistant magistrate's jurisdiction, this did not mean that Assistant Magistrate Huang—who had operated in Yongshun County for many years—could not find out about certain events of that day.

Assistant Magistrate Huang’s eyes and ears remained densely planted throughout the yamen.

Though those hidden eyes could not see the light of day, they proved quite convenient at times when the reach of his authority fell short.

For instance, Old Man Ye and Magistrate Wang certainly would not have condescended to greet him personally, so who on earth had received Master Huang?

Huang Luer roughly guessed his master's thoughts, and terror gripped his heart even tighter, leaving him too frightened to prattle on.

Yet when Assistant Magistrate Huang fixed a gaze of immense pressure upon him, he finally broke under the strain and was forced to speak the truth.

Stammering, he said: "It... it was Ye Wenchang's final disciple, that child of roughly seven or eight years of age."

"Hmm?"

Assistant Magistrate Huang glared fiercely at Huang Luer. He had never anticipated that Magistrate Wang would assign Chen Ping to welcome Master Huang.

Could it be that Ye Wenchang and Magistrate Wang had grown so intimately close?

Although Assistant Magistrate Huang did not hail from the imperial examinations' mathematics lineage, he was well aware of Old Man Ye's renown; this was by no means a person he could casually harass.

Putting aside his local prestige, Ye also had numerous disciples scattered across various regions; some had passed the imperial examinations to become erudite scholars of their time, while others had even cast off humble garments to take up official posts—heights no longer reachable by someone of his station.

Naturally, as Old Man Ye's final disciple, Chen Ping was a figure Assistant Magistrate Huang had to treat with a degree of caution.

The gloomy expression slowly faded from his face. Choosing not to take immediate action, he returned in silence to his family's ancestral residence to deliberate and plan for the long term.

The east side of the county town.

The ancestral residence of the Huang family, which occupied a good fraction of a street.

Assistant Magistrate Huang summoned his four paternal cousins of the same generation from the primary lineage of the Huang family.

Without superfluous pleasantries, the moment the five of them gathered, Assistant Magistrate Huang dropped a shocking piece of news.

"Huang Fu has betrayed the Huang family and defected to Magistrate Wang!"

Since he had already switched sides, the form of address used for him ought to be changed as well.

At these words, the several elderly men were slightly startled at first, and then all burst into derisive laughter. The eldest of the Huang clan even smiled and said directly: "Could the Third Brother be mistaken about the Sixth Brother?"

"In recent years, the Sixth Brother has provided nearly half of the family's expenditures."

"Though the Third Brother does not originate from the direct lineage, his loyalty to the Huang family is beyond doubt. If we were to wound the Sixth Brother's heart based on mere rumors and misunderstandings, that would hardly be conducive to family unity."

Seeing that his brothers not only lacked any sense of crisis whatsoever, but instead took it upon themselves to lecture him, Assistant Magistrate Huang shook his head in disappointment.

Fortunately, he had never pinned much hope on these brothers, who had lived in pampered luxury since childhood.

Summoning them here was merely a matter of routine notification to prevent internal chaos from erupting within the clan.

With absolute finality, he declared: "Huang Fu must have harbored rebellious intentions long ago; Magistrate Wang's recruitment is at best just a pretext."

"My mind is made up. We must eliminate this dog at once to eradicate future trouble. We can never allow the prestige of our Huang family to be squandered by him overnight!"

As soon as these words fell, the faces of the Huang family members all revealed strange expressions, as if they had anticipated this all along.

Ever since the elders of the previous generation had withdrawn from worldly affairs, although Assistant Magistrate Huang was not the eldest son of the family, his advantage lay in being a locally serving official who could offer the clan maximum protection; hence, he had naturally been pushed forward as the leader of the entire Huang family.

In the past, whenever Assistant Magistrate Huang uttered such impassioned rhetoric, regardless of their personal views on the matter, the others should at least have pledged their loyalty in return.

Yet they had all witnessed Master Huang's contributions to the family over the past few years, and to make such a drastic decision before even grasping the situation was altogether too rash.

Everyone present maintained a stony silence, watching quietly.

By this point, Assistant Magistrate Huang had truly become a commander with no troops left under his command.

"Thump... thump thump..."

A familiar set of footsteps approached, steady and unhurried, clashing heavily with the tense atmosphere of the scene. Upon recognizing the face of the newcomer, the other four men—aside from Assistant Magistrate Huang—scrambled to their feet and stepped aside to clear the path.

Master Huang walked forward, wearing an amiable, Maitreya-Buddha-like smile.

Times were no longer what they used to be. For the first time in the Huang ancestral residence, he straightened his back and stood before Assistant Magistrate Huang, entirely devoid of his past humility.

"Third Brother, be so good as to move aside!"

Master Huang glanced at the chair beneath Assistant Magistrate Huang's backside and said with a smile that did not reach his eyes.

By now, Assistant Magistrate Huang was utterly dumbfounded.

How had Huang Fu managed to break into the ancestral residence directly, without his permission and without any gatekeeper announcing his arrival?

And why were all four of his paternal cousins showing such utmost reverence to this collateral relative, Huang Fu?

Master Huang did not give Assistant Magistrate Huang much time to react. Seeing that he remained seated, his expression darkened, the cold sneer vanished from the corners of his mouth, and he stepped directly forward to yank Assistant Magistrate Huang down by the collar.

"Thud!"

Assistant Magistrate Huang, who had not been treated with such utter lawlessness for many years, was slammed violently onto the floor like a beaten cur.

Not only did his head suffer a scrape, seeping droplets of blood, but his face was also smeared with dust, reducing him to an extreme state of disheveled wretchedness.

Staring around in a daze as if waking from a dream, his mind spinning and thoughts tangling chaotically, the dual torment of psychological and physical shock left him with a splitting headache.

He simply could not comprehend: why would Huang Fu dare to treat him in such a manner?

Could it be that he felt no fear whatsoever toward him, a dignified imperial official of the court?

And why did his other paternal cousins fail to step in and stop it?

The moment Master Huang settled into the seat of the head of the family, his entire aura underwent a heaven-shaking, earth-fattering transformation.

It was as if a fat-headed, foolish pig had transformed in the blink of an eye into a ferocious tiger ready to devour men.

Under Master Huang's sweeping gaze, everyone lowered their heads in terror and trepidation, no longer daring to meet his eyes.

Seeing how easily he had cowed these good-for-nothing wine-sacks and rice-buckets, Master Huang twitched the corner of his mouth, revealing a cruel and ruthless smile.

"None of you need to be afraid," he said. "After all, we are brothers of the same flesh and blood!"

"However, Third Brother, as for your position as Assistant Magistrate, you had best abdicate to a worthier man as soon as possible and cease holding onto it."

"Third Brother, are you willing to listen to a brother's advice?"

Beneath Master Huang's playful and mocking smile, Assistant Magistrate Huang's collar gradually grew damp with cold sweat.