Chapter 30: A Series of Twists and Turns
It was a beautiful autumn day, perfect for going out for a countryside excursion. The streets of Bianjing were bustling with people, bustling with activity, with a constant flow of pedestrians and wagons. Laughter, recitations of poetry, and the gentle sound of music came from the boats on the river.
“I can’t go on!”
Suddenly, a piercing cry of despair was heard.
A person was seen jumping from the bridge into the river.
A loud splash echoed.
Water splashed in all directions.
“Oh! Someone just jumped into the river! It’s a suicide!”
“Ah!”
On the bridge, there were immediate cries and exclamations, drawing the attention of passersby.
“Make way! Quickly, move aside!” A tall figure pushed through the crowd. The young man had a sense of justice written all over his handsome face. He reached the edge of the bridge without hesitation, preparing to jump.
“Clear the way!”
A hand grabbed the young man’s shoulder from behind and pulled him back.
“Oh, damn!”
The young man exclaimed in anguish, falling backward. He vaguely saw a figure swiftly passing by, landing with a single foot on the edge of the bridge before leaping. It was an impressively dashing sight.
“Ouch!”
The young man had landed on his behind. The pain made him grit his teeth, but he paid no attention to it. He bounced back up, approaching the bridge’s edge and peering down.
There was a man in his thirties vigorously swimming towards the struggling man in the river.
In the blink of an eye, the man reached the one struggling in the water, wrapping his arm around him.
“Who are you?” The man in the water turned around and paled suddenly, shouting in alarm, “Who are you?”
The man in the water remained silent, holding onto the struggling man and swimming towards the shore.
The man in the water became even more frantic, “Who are you? What do you want? Leave me alone! Let go of me, I don’t want your help.”
He suddenly struggled with all his might, and the situation became extremely dangerous.
This turn of events triggered another round of screams by the river.
“Damn it!”
The young man on the bridge couldn’t help but curse, rolling up his sleeves and shouting, “Don’t panic, I’m coming!”
As soon as he spoke, he heard a loud shout from behind, ” Don’t panic, I’m coming!” Another hand reached out from behind, grabbing the young man’s shoulder and pulling him back.
“Oh, damn! Not again!”
The young man fell backward once again. His eyes were now welled up with tears as he looked at a young man in a white robe who had just passed him, leaping into the air with remarkable agility.
“Ouch!”
The young man sat on the ground again, his hands covering his face as he cried, “This is really the worst day ever. If things continue like this, I really don’t want to live.”
This young man was none other than Zhang Fei, and the drowning man was none other than Li Si.
They had been in the midst of their suicide-rescue attempt, but then…
In the river.
Li Si, who was still struggling, saw another young man with a fair face swimming towards him, making him even more panicked. “Who are you again? Let go of me! I don’t want you to save me; just go, all of you.”
He tried to free himself from the grip of the large hands around him with both hands, while at the same time, he kicked fiercely at the young man approaching him. This created a spray of water, making it difficult for the young man to dodge, and he was kicked directly in the face.
But the young man quickly resurfaced, and in an instant, he was by Li Si’s side. He wiped the water from his face, grabbed the drowning man’s hair, and pushed him back into the water.
“Wu wu, help! Help!”
Li Si, held by the man, was completely powerless to resist. He raised his head and cried out for help, only to be pushed back into the water by the young man.
An act of goodwill had suddenly turned into a crime scene.
The spectators on the bank were left in shock.
There was a deathly silence.
“Enough!”
The man, who had come to his senses, saw that Li Si was barely conscious and unable to resist. He shouted and pushed the young man aside, then once again swam towards the shore while holding Li Si.
The young man seemed to have no ill intentions and helped the man rescue Li Si onto the shore.
Li Si glanced at the young man beside him, his face filled with fear, and he behaved obediently, making his way to the shore.
The man tossed Li Si onto the shore and then left on his own, disappearing without a trace, leaving without seeking recognition or fame.
“Sir! Brave sir!”
The young man called out several times, but it seemed that the man did not hear him and quickly vanished.
“This person is really strange,” the young man said somewhat regretfully, then approached Li Si, looking at him with curiosity. “Brother, why did you want to jump into the river and commit suicide?”
“Why did I want to jump into the river and commit suicide?”
Li Si, who had been completely exhausted, suddenly seemed revitalized upon hearing these words. He scrambled to his feet from the ground, looking around anxiously and bewilderedly, and said, “Why did you save me? Why did you save me? I want to jump into the river!”
As he spoke, he rushed towards the river.
Everything happened so quickly that even though there were many people around, no one reacted in time.
“Wait!”
A shout was heard, and a person rushed over, blocking Li Si’s path.
“Get out of the way!”
An anxious Li Si pushed the person in front of him into the river, but as he got a clear look at the person in front of him, he suddenly exclaimed, “It’s you.”
With a loud “damn it,” Zhang Fei finally fell into the river as he had intended. However, his posture was a bit more awkward than he had imagined, at least much more so.
Li Si sat dumbfounded for a moment, then plopped down on the ground again, muttering to himself, “What should I do? What should I do?”
He couldn’t carry on with the act any longer.
Suddenly, he rolled over and threw himself on the ground, pounding the earth with his fists while wailing loudly, “I just wanted to die, why is it so difficult? Why is it so difficult?”
The young man on the shore, on the other hand, was indeed a righteous man. He hurried to the riverbank, ready to go into the water to rescue Zhang Fei who had fallen in.
But then he heard Zhang Fei, who was in the water, anxiously shouting, “Brother, don’t come down, I’m a good swimmer.”
Upon hearing this, the young man decided to stop.
After a while, Zhang Fei managed to make it ashore. He approached the emotionally distressed Li Si and said, almost on the verge of tears, “Brother, please don’t cry.”
His voice was choked up.
The feeling of being like brothers in adversity was almost overflowing from the scene.
Li Si looked up and saw Zhang Fei standing in front of him, soaked and out of breath. The water droplets on Zhang Fei’s eyelashes even reflected a glint of anger. Zhang Fei clenched his teeth and said, “Brother, there’s no obstacle in this world that can’t be overcome. If you have any difficulties, please tell us. Maybe one of us can help you.”
As he spoke, a uniform and synchronized sound of footsteps was heard.
Zhang Fei looked up and saw that the people around them were all stepping back to avoid being implicated.
Were they for real?
Only the young man approached and nodded repeatedly, saying, “Yeah! Yeah! Why on earth were you trying to commit suicide? Speak up, maybe we can help you.”
Li Si blinked, then suddenly rolled over and sat on the ground, crying out while sobbing, “I’m really miserable! My wife was taken away by someone, and I couldn’t protect my family’s ancestral land!”
This had originally been a simple charade they had concocted, but they never expected so many things to happen.
It had become so thrilling.
Truly, life was sometimes stranger than fiction!
Fortunately, they had managed to bring the situation back on track. As Li Si continued to cry miserably, he intermittently recounted the story of how he had been wronged by Chen Yuteng, who had taken both his wife and land.
Zhang Fei listened attentively while keeping an eye on the reactions of the onlookers.
Truly, human emotions were varied!
Among the onlookers, some shook their heads and sighed, some were silently angry, and others seemed to take pleasure in the misfortune of others.
Zhang Fei no longer needed to act, because he was genuinely furious now. He clenched his fists and was about to speak when he saw the young man beside him also clenching his fists and expressing outrage, saying, “This is unacceptable! This Chen Yuteng has gone too far. Brother, don’t be afraid; I’ll go with you to confront him.”
Damn it! Where did this extra cast member come from, and why is he stealing the lines of the protagonist? Zhang Fei wished he could kick the young man off the stage, but for now, he could only go along and say, “The young man is right. Such tragedies should not be allowed to go unchecked.”
With that, he quickly turned to Li Si and said, “Brother Li Si, please stop crying. I will help you reclaim your wife and land.”
Whoosh! All eyes turned to Zhang Fei.
The young man hastily asked, “This brother, are you going with us?”
Zhang Fei snorted, “Yes, but I’m heading to the Kaifeng Prefectural Office.”
“The Kaifeng Prefectural Office?”
The young man couldn’t help but ask, “May I inquire which high-ranking official’s son you are?”
He seemed to be someone who understood the situation well!
Report to the authorities was a dead end, wasn’t it? It would be better to confront Chen Yuteng directly.
How exhilarating that would be!
Zhang Fei angrily retorted, “Damn it! Right is right, wrong is wrong. What does it have to do with my family background?”
” Right is right, wrong is wrong!”
“Well said!”
“Nowadays, those wealthy landlords lend money at exorbitant interest rates, causing countless people to lose their homes and lives. Such cases are now widespread. If the government continues to turn a blind eye, our great Song empire would in danger.”
The crowd responded, and many of them were young scholars.
The young man whispered to Zhang Fei, “Brother, this lawsuit would not be easy to win.”
Zhang Fei smiled and said, “It may not be easy for others, but it’s not difficult for me.”
The young man hurriedly asked, “Brother, who are you?”
Zhang Fei replied, “I won’t hide it from you all. I am a pen-in-cap, Zhang San from Hanyang.”
“A pen-in-cap?”
The scholars who had shown sympathy for him earlier suddenly wore strange expressions.
It seemed that they weren’t on the same side after all!
Before the young man could speak, Li Si jumped in and said, “I don’t have the money to hire you.”
After being ignored for a while, he spoke quickly, as if afraid that someone would steal his lines.
“Li Si, please rest assured,” Zhang Fei suddenly raised his head and spoke loudly, “I, Zhang San, have diligently studied litigation for over a decade, solely to address injustices in the world. That’s why I help poor people with their lawsuits and do not charge a single coin.”
Li Si choked up and asked, “Is that really true?”
Seeing that Li Si had been struggling to shed tears, Zhang Fei sighed inwardly, bent down to help him up, and said, “Don’t worry, tomorrow I will go with you to the Kaifeng Prefectural Office and seek justice for you.”
Li Si looked fearful and said, “The Kaifeng Prefectural Office?”
Before Zhang Fei could respond, a scholar stepped forward and said, “Li Si, don’t be afraid. Tomorrow, I will go with Zhang San to seek justice for you.”
Even a pen-in-cap was willing to fight for justice. As proper Confucian scholars, they couldn’t accept being outdone in such a situation.
Several other scholars also stood up immediately, expressing their intent to accompany Zhang Fei to the Kaifeng Prefectural Office the next day.
“You guys…!” Li Si’s eyes welled up with tears, and he couldn’t speak.
This time, it was not an act.
The young man, seemingly influenced by the atmosphere, suddenly bounced up and said, “I’ll join you guys for the fun tomorrow.”
Zhang Fei stared at the young man, clearly infuriated. It was you, kid, who made this situation so complicated. He was about to speak when he suddenly glanced at the man standing behind the young man. He was a middle-aged man with a square face, a beard, and a tattoo on his left cheek. The man had a stern expression as he stood behind the young man.
The young man also noticed Zhang Fei’s gaze and turned around to see his father, exclaiming, “Dad!”
“You little rascal!”
Without hesitation, the middle-aged man raised his huge palm and slapped it towards his son. The young man, agile and smart, ducked, taking a quick step forward and leaping back into the river.
The middle-aged man took a step forward, standing by the riverbank, and shouted at his son, who was struggling in the water, “You brat, if you have the guts, don’t ever come back.”
After yelling, the middle-aged man turned and looked at Li Si, asking, “Did you ever consider whether you could repay the money when you borrowed it in the first place?”
Zhang Fei furrowed his brow upon hearing this, looking at the middle-aged man and thinking, “An astute fellow.”
The middle-aged man then glanced at Zhang Fei and walked away without another word.
The crowd erupted into a murmur of discussion.
“That’s right, he borrowed the money voluntarily in the first place. No one forced him to do it. It’s his responsibility to repay it.”
“If you think about it, that Mogul Chen was his savior. If he hadn’t lent him the money, he probably wouldn’t have survived until today.”
The scene was filled with contradictory opinions.
Human nature, huh!
Li Si couldn’t help but look anxiously at Zhang Fei.
Zhang Fei gave him a reassuring look. He had anticipated this kind of situation. It didn’t matter what they said, only that it was a topic the people were discussing. Zhang Fei said, “Don’t be afraid. You didn’t default on your debt; it was the other party who acted unscrupulously. He demanded your wife and even plotted to take your land. In any case, I will help you seek justice.”
More discussions arose in the crowd.
Zhang Fei didn’t pay any further attention to it because he had already achieved his goal. He left with Li Si.