Page 50 - WTP Vol. VIII #4

“Master Ju. They claim a dragon is getting their children!”
Ju stared down at Zi-Fang with a cold sense of dread. With a casual turn of head, he noted the two soldiers guarding the doorway did not appear to have over- heard Zi-Fang’s words. Wei was the most progressive kingdom of China. Under the direction of Confucian scholars, Wei officials, even at this tiny outpost far from the capital, were learned and logical and did not believe in dragons.
Ju looked out the door of his office into the court- yard filled with ceramic pots containing plants. He was putting in a garden, watered with tiny canals
he had dug from the nearby river. His house was a delightful villa, not at all like the peasant house in which he had grown up—built on clean lines with tile roofs and whitewashed walls. The tiny villa was his as part of his new position as the emperor’s mag- istrate. He was in charge of solving local disputes, enforcing local laws and responsible only to the em- peror himself. Ju was grateful for his new position. Traditionally, such promotions were doled out in parsimonious bites to men of great families—rarely to sons of peasants. It was his amazing luck that had gotten him this far, but as every Chinese knew, luck was capricious. If rumors of dragon stories got out, Ju could lose it all.
“A dragon?” Ju kept his voice very low. The rest of his guards, he presumed, were outside practicing with their new crossbows under the direction of Sergeant Tian.
“Yes, sir.” Face down on the floor as any proper assis- tant would be, Zi-Fang’s voice was muffled.
Ju had spent weeks cleansing his late predecessor’s staff of both the lazy and the incompetent. Zi-Fang had been a pleasant surprise. He had been recom- mended by one of the great masters who had studied under the honored Confucius himself. Zi-Fang was honest and hardworking which was the reason Ju had assigned him the problem of why the tax payments from the Zhang Sui River Valley had dropped. Ju almost envied the boy, as this was the type of case he had enjoyed before his promotion.
Within weeks, Zi-Fang discovered that the revenues were dropping because the population was declin- ing. Farmers were leaving the valley, and naturally,
Zi-Fang had gone off to interview them.
Both men had assumed that the cause would be a plague, bandits, or some other calamity. Ju, a tiny bit envious, had been left to deal with charts and reports for several weeks until Zi-Fang’s return. Now, studying the young man’s bowed head, Ju leaned forward to mutter, “What is your proof? Did you see this dragon?” Ju flinched. He had not meant to sound so sharp.
The boy’s ears, which were all Ju could see, flushed bright red. “No, master.”
“Your pardon, Zi-fang. I spoke too sharply. My tongue is unruly. Finish your report.” The boy’s explanation was ridiculous, but Ju needed to remember that Zi- Fang was not stupid. Something real was amiss.
Zi-Fang, cheeks still pink, straightened up onto his knees and squared his shoulders. “I know it sounds like some foolish tale mumbled by old men in their cups, but the heads of four families, all men in their prime, gave the same excuse.”
Ju felt a surge of energy even as he admired his as- sistant’s confidence. It had taken courage to return with such a tale. Zi-Fang was right to report such a story. Something in the kingdom was out of order. “Inform Sergeant Tian to have my horse and soldiers ready tomorrow morning. I will investigate this so- called dragon of Zhang Sui Valley.”
His clerk kowtowed and began to back towards the door.
“And Zi-Fang.”
The young clerk’s body stiffened in the doorway. “Yes, sir.”
“Well done. Arrange for a horse for yourself as well.”
“Yes, sir.” Zi-Fang’s face remained polite and calm as befitted a Confucian scholar, but his shoulders relaxed.
~
Far away from Ju’s office in Zhang Sui’s great temple, Red Flower cringed against the corridor wall as the head priest stomped past. She knew better than to even breathe until he disappeared towards his quar- ters. Everyone had been walking as silently as worms
43
Master Ju’s First Case
s.e. pruitt