Furious, Lin Yu marched toward the Shen family's courtyard.
"Yo! A meddler!" Several ruffians grinned sinisterly, blocking his way. "Friend, our master is the First Prince's steward. Best mind your own business."
"Who's your friend?" Lin Yu's eyes chilled, releasing a tyrannical aura that sent the ruffians flying, crashing to the ground unconscious.
Pushing open the half-closed gate, Lin Yu saw a portly middle-aged man in a green robe arrogantly eyeing a kneeling mother and daughter. Two Fourth Grade warriors beside him glared at Lin Yu.
The mother and daughter, disheveled and tear-streaked, clung together, sobbing softly.
"I'll pay their debt." Lin Yu tossed thirty taels of silver at Manager Chen's feet. "Take the silver and get out."
"Who are you, daring to interfere in the First Prince's affairs?" Manager Chen turned, sneering. "Have you asked who my master is?"
"Leave!" Lin Yu snorted. A狂暴的 (raging) aura surged, pressing Manager Chen and his men to the ground, unable to move.
He kicked the silver to Chen, withdrew his aura, and said coldly: "Take the silver, hand over the IOUs, and get lost. If I see you here again, you'll lose your lives."
"Yes, yes! We're leaving!" Manager Chen quickly took out the IOUs, clutched the silver, and fled.
Lin Yu gave the IOUs to the woman, saying gently: "Mrs. Shen, I came too late."
She looked up in disbelief, trembling as she took the IOUs and held them to her chest, weeping uncontrollably.
"It's you?" Lin Yu now saw her face clearly—she was the woman he'd seen at the pawnshop. So she'd been so desperate she pawned the hairpin Shen Chong gave her.
"Benefactor, have you met me?"
"Xuan'er, kowtow to the benefactor!" Mrs. Shen looked at Lin Yu in surprise, pulling over the eleven- or twelve-year-old girl, already pretty, to thank him.
Lin Yu felt bitter, whispering: "I... I was a friend of Brother Shen in the army. What... what happened to him?"
"My husband returned from the Southern Wasteland but was oppressed in the army until transferred to the First Prince's northern army." Mrs. Shen wiped her tears. "Recently, he was sent back dying, accused of desertion on the battlefield. The First Prince's military judge flogged him a hundred times and sent him back. I borrowed money for doctors, but he died. This debt is from his treatments."
"Brother Shen was skilled in battle and brave—he'd never desert!" Lin Yu shook his head. "Why was he oppressed in the army?"
She looked up: "He said brothers who followed the Third Prince back from the Southern Wasteland were all oppressed—demoted or sent to border garrisons, all unhappy."
"Who oppressed them?" Lin Yu's anger rose. Why mistreat brothers who'd risked their lives with him?
She shook her head: "He didn't say."
"All because of me—they were implicated by me." Lin Yu sighed. The only reason was him. These elite soldiers, his loyal followers, were being eliminated to prevent his comeback.
"Because of you?" Mrs. Shen paused, then suddenly rose to stare at him.
"All because of me. Mrs. Shen, I'm late. I... I am the Third Prince." Lin Yu gritted his teeth and revealed his identity.
"You're the Third Prince? The one my husband talked about daily?" She pointed at him, rushing forward like a madwoman to beat him. "Why? Why come now? He called your name till he died!"
"Shen Chong wielded a spear bravely, always charging first in battle. Brother Shen, I Lin Yu have failed you..." Lin Yu looked up, tears falling.
As she beat him, Mrs. Shen collapsed to her knees, took out a blood-stained white-cloth-wrapped tiger tally, and trembled as she held it out.
"This... is the tiger tally of the southern expedition's vanguard battalion!" Lin Yu recognized it at a glance.
Tears streaming, she said: "Your Highness, he held this till he died, shouting, 'Southern Army elites, forward for the prince! No return till victory!' Now I return it to you."
Lin Yu took the tally, his vision blurring.
The dashing vanguard captain on horseback with a spear surged in his memory.
And Mrs. Shen—though the pure gold tally could fetch more silver when melted, she'd pawned her hairpin instead, preserving it to one day return it to him.
Clutching the tally, Lin Yu vowed to seek justice after paying respects to Shen Chong.
...
On the southern outskirts of the capital, autumn winds sighed. Lin Yu lit incense, burned paper money, and stood before Shen Chong's grave.
The high-spirited man was now a mound of earth.
A hero who'd fought for his country, yet framed as a deserter and beaten to death—Lin Yu imagined Shen Chong's fury.
"Third Prince, what a mood you're in! Not in the mausoleum, but here?" A sinister voice sounded behind Lin Yu.
Turning, he saw a middle-aged man with sunken cheeks, a thin frame, and a mean face approaching, a mocking smile on his lips.
"Who are you?" Lin Yu eyed the gray-robed man coldly—he meant no good.
"Tu Qi, military judge under the First Prince. If I remember, this is the man I sentenced, flogged a hundred times, and sent back half-dead." Tu Qi pointed at Shen Chong's tombstone, laughing triumphantly.
"You?" Lin Yu glared. "Shen Chong was no deserter!"
"True, he was brave.可惜 (Too bad) he offended me. Even if he wasn't a deserter, I made him one." Tu Qi shook his head.