“Yellow Sky”: Crisis for the Han Dynasty sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne

-

JavaScript is off/unavailable on your browser. You will not be able to experience this website as it was intended without JavaScript enabled.

“This is ridiculous!” Mister Jian chortled.
“You ridicule the law… do you intend to further defy it?” Cao Cao retorted.
“…Release me at once,” Mister Jian ordered. “My nephew is Jian Shuo! You lay a finger upon me, and-”
“Nobody is immune to the law,” Cao Cao interrupted coldly. “The punishment for breaking curfew is flogging… take him outside.”
Mister Jian struggled with the two nervous soldiers that took hold of him and cried, “No! No! You dare, and my nephew will-”
“I am doing my job,” Cao Cao said calmly as he took a multi-tailed whip from a nearby table. “A man that had broken the law has the audacity to suggest that I be punished for upholding it?”
“Don’t do it,” Mister Jian pleaded as he was dragged into a yard behind the cell block. “I’ll pay you… anything you want… don’t…!”
“Perhaps you’ll think twice before you assume that you’re above the law if you’re punished properly,” Cao Cao suggested. “I’ll do it myself.”
NO!” Mister Jian screamed as he was stripped of his main robe and tied to a wooden post with rough ropes, his face pushed against the splintered wood and his back exposed. “PRAY FOR MERCY! YOU’LL DIE FOR THIS!
“Will I now?” Cao Cao chuckled. “I think it is you that should pray.”
The soldiers winced as Cao Cao dealt lash after lash upon the back of Mister Jian, who howled, squealed, and - after the first twenty lashes - prayed that he would live to see Cao Cao pay for what he was doing.

“This is intolerable!” Jian Shuo sobbed as he paced back and forth in Wang Fu’s office. “This District Captain should die for this!”
“And what do I have him arrested him for?” Wang Fu asked plainly.
“…Does it matter???” Jian Shuo shrieked. “My uncle has no skin left on his back! He will never know what it is to sleep soundly again for as long as he lives! Why should this ‘Cao Cao’ not die painfully???”

“We can’t do a thing,” Cao Jie said angrily. “He was careful to gather witness statements and a confession of sorts that your uncle had indeed broken curfew… and the punishment was completely legitimate.”
“Not to me,” Jian Shuo retorted. “This is an affront!”
“It seems that Cao Cao has made the exact same proclamation,” Wang Fu said. “He cites the words of your uncle… claiming that he was ‘above prosecution’. That is, in Cao Cao’s words, an ‘affront’… citing the fate of Prince Kui as proof that ‘none should be above the law’.”
“Oh, that does it,” Jian Shuo chortled. “He’s obviously a partisan sympathiser… this is an unsubtle swipe at us: he did to my uncle what he would like to do to us, at the very least!”
“I don’t disagree,” Wang Fu admitted. “The problem is that he’s a little bit smarter than is my preference.”
“Dou Wu was smart, and we still got him,” Cao Jie suggested.
“Only because he became desperate and made mistakes,” Wang Fu replied. “No, this one is clever… his father, the Minister of Finance, is an appointed marquis, and adopted son of Cao Teng, who was a colleague of ours and a favourite of a former majesty. His friends and supporters include the heir to the influential Yuan clan and Kong Rong, a descendant of Confucius. He has been appraised highly by Qiao Xuan and Xu Shao.”
“But he’s a reputation for using whorehouses and drinking, and - as if to mock us - staying out after curfew!” Jian Shuo retorted. “How did he even get the job in the first place???”

<< Main Product Page

<< Previous Page

Next Page >>