In the guest hall of the front courtyard, the guards of the Old Gu Family were eating and drinking.
Constable Ma was drinking wine and eating at while saying: "You guys don’t know how accommodating Gu Jin’an can be, he gave the brothers thirty taels of silver joy money. After the brothers returned to the governnt office, his servants even brought workers from the Futai Building to deliver three banquet tables for us. One was given to the squad leaders, one to the brothers cleaning the road, and one to us."
This Constable Ma was Constable Xiao Ma, a cousin of Squad Leader Ma, who had helped during the Prefecture Examination in the Ritual Room, and after the examination, ca back to guard the Old Gu Family.
He wasn’t originally stationed at the Old Gu Family but was assigned to the Tong Vice Magistrate’s place. However, Zhang Sanjin recently made a contribution, and the Lord Magistrate saw him in a new light, giving the easy task of guarding the Vice Magistrate to Zhang Sanjin, so he was transferred to guard the Old Gu Family.
After receiving the joy money, Constable Ma mocked Zhang Sanjin: "That brat Zhang Sanjin is envious to death and secretly sent Little Qiangzi to find out how much joy money I got? Ha, I directly slapped the silver on the table, thirty taels, did you see it clearly! It startled Little Qiangzi so much that his eyes bulged out."
"Hahaha, Brother Ma sure has luck, one trip is worth a year’s salary." The constables guarding the house with Constable Ma said, flattering him.
Constable Ma felt very comfortable inside, but his cousin told him that recently Zhang Sanjin was being favored by the Lord Magistrate, so he shouldn’t go too far. Constable Ma took out two taels of silver and had soone order a simple banquet table to be sent to the Tong Vice Magistrate for Zhang Sanjin and his n.
"Let them share so joy too, so they won’t say I’m stingy." Constable Ma said.
"Hey, I will take care of it right now." A small constable took the silver and left the house to order the banquet.
"Brother Ma is generous and righteous, truly magnanimous." The fellow constables at the table said.
With a good mood from hearing flattering words, Constable Ma was happier, but he hadn’t been happy for long when a maid ran in hurriedly and said, "Lord, Lord, sothing bad has happened!"
Constable Ma frowned and said, "Why the panic, I’m doing great, what’s happened? Is it that crazy bunch at the Old Gu Family causing trouble again?"
The maid said, "It’s... it’s Gu Chengxian! He, he, he hit the wall and is lying on the ground motionless, probably dead."
The maid was responsible for watching over Gu Chengxian, Gu Youlu, and Qian Guangzong, the father and son prisoners who had venereal disease. When she strolled to Gu Chengxian’s yard and was calling into the house, she heard a thud, like sothing hit the wall.
The maid was startled, thinking Gu Chengxian had fallen, so she continued calling into the house, but Gu Chengxian never responded.
The maid felt sothing was wrong, hurriedly opened the window, and saw Gu Chengxian lying in a pool of blood.
"There was so much blood, it was like a river," the maid said fearfully, urging Constable Ma and the others, "Lords, hurry and take a look, this old woman will go find a sack to collect the corpse."
The maid was convinced Gu Chengxian was dead, and after speaking, went to find a sack.
"What bad luck! Can’t the people of the Old Gu Family settle down? I only had eaten half of my banquet." Constable Ma cursed with anger, but if Gu Chengxian was dead, they couldn’t just ignore it. He had to get up and called the constables, "Let’s go take a look, if he’s dead we’ll report it to the Lord Magistrate, if he’s not dead, we’ll let him live a few more days."
For soone like Gu Chengxian, who had a venereal disease, it was all just a matter of waiting out the days—life or death didn’t really matter, so the constables weren’t nervous.
They didn’t know Gu Chengxian was faking it all along.
Gu Chengxian had the disease and bribed Elder Lin and Gu Changfa to put sothing in the Prefecture Examination’s provisions. Knowing Magistrate Gu wouldn’t let him go, since he was bound to die anyway, he would make sure to take the constables with him.
All this ti, he had suffered a lot of mistreatnt from the constables and he had to vent this anger.
Constable Ma and his team ca to the courtyard where Gu Chengxian was detained but didn’t enter rashly. Instead, they had a constable put on old clothes, then a sack, covering him securely, to check if Gu Chengxian was really dead.
"Shiqi, be careful, poke him with a stick, see if he’s really dead, and don’t touch him, he’s been stinking these days, the venereal disease seems to have worsened." Constable Ma instructed Liu Shiqi.
"Hey, Uncle Ma, don’t worry, I understand." Liu Shiqi, quite young, had just joined last year, and did all the hard and heavy work.
He entered the room, didn’t approach Gu Chengxian, poked him with a stick, and seeing no movent, gritted his teeth, extending his hand to test Gu Chengxian’s breath, quickly pulling back for fear of infection, saying, "Uncle Ma, he, he really seems dead."
"What do you an ’seems like’?" Constable Ma frowned and said discontentedly: "Check again."
But Liu Shiqi was scared; he had just gotten married, and didn’t even have a son yet. How could he bear contracting a venereal disease?
Yet Liu Shiqi was more afraid of losing his job, so he had to probe again for Gu Chengxian’s breath, and, finding none, happily said: "Uncle Ma, it’s confird, really dead, you can co in and collect the corpse."
However, Liu Shiqi didn’t know, Gu Chengxian wasn’t dead at all, he just held his breath, pretending to have no breath.
Constable Ma relaxed at this.
"Lord, Lord, the sack is here." The maid brought a very large sack, handing it to Constable Ma.
Constable Ma handed the sack to a constable beside him: "You take the sack inside, and have Shiqi bring Gu Chengxian to the courtyard, and after the Lord Magistrate’s instructions, it’s estimated they’ll burn him in the courtyard."
The venereal disease couldn’t be moved elsewhere, it’s best to burn on the spot.
"Yes." The constable put on old clothes, wrapping himself like a dumpling, took the sack inside, and with Liu Shiqi, after a bit of struggling, lifted Gu Chengxian onto the sack, dragged him out of the room into the courtyard.
Yet, just as they dragged Gu Chengxian into the courtyard, he suddenly sprang up, spitting at the constables.
Seeing this, the maid rolled and crawled towards the courtyard door: "Run, this bastard isn’t dead, he’s pretending, wanting to infect us with venereal disease!"
Constable Ma quickly shouted: "Retreat, retreat, don’t let his saliva get on us."
He reached to pull those nearest to Gu Chengxian, Liu Shiqi, and another constable, dragging them back.
Gu Chengxian’s face was covered in blood, staring at the constables with a twisted look, continuing to spit at them.
When he found he couldn’t spit on them, he charged at Constable Ma, laughing wildly: "You bunch of lowlife dog slaves, mocking this young master, laughing at for having a venereal disease, today this young master will let you taste this venereal disease!"
Gu Chengxian’s mad, desperate appearance of dragging everyone down with him scared all the constables.
Constable Ma was terrified, but being the leader of the constables, in a critical mont, suddenly drew his knife, slashing toward the charging Gu Chengxian.
With a cracking sound, he cut Gu Chengxian to the ground.
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