The Young Man Returns Chapter Fifteen: The Truth Revealed

Early morning.

The sky gradually brightened; the wind and snow ceased, and silence returned to its original stillness.

An elderly woman, clad in a blue cotton robe, knelt long in the parlor.

Her legs had long since gone numb, her head heavy and dizzy. Since the previous midnight, she had remained on her knees, several times tempted to give up but ultimately gritting her teeth to endure.

Today, Li Shuyao wore a white cotton jacket and black cotton trousers, presenting a somewhat capable appearance.

Her hair tied in twin ponytails, she squatted by the doorway, cracking melon seeds. The discarded shells formed a small mound. She glanced occasionally toward the fragile figure inside the parlor, a flicker of regret crossing her face.

Yiheng approached from afar. Li Shuyao hurried to meet him. “Brother, how is Clerk Wu? Has he not woken yet?”

“I gave him a dose of herbal medicine last night. After drinking it, he is unharmed. But the blow from last night was too great; I fear he is unwilling to awaken, unwilling to face everything.”

“Brother, could you persuade Aunt Liu not to continue kneeling? I heard from the servants that she has been kneeling since midnight yesterday. If she keeps this up, her health will surely suffer.”

Yiheng shook his head helplessly. “Only the one who tied the knot can untie it. You should bring your father here; only he can unravel the pain in her heart.”

At that moment, the county magistrate arrived with the assistant magistrate, walking from the courtyard. Seeing Yiheng and Shuyao together, a trace of joy brightened his face.

“Yiheng, you are truly formidable. In just two days, you found the thief who stole the official seal. I cannot fathom it—the thief was none other than one of our own.”

“Father!”

Shuyao pouted, tugging at the magistrate’s collar, coaxing, “Father, Aunt Liu has been kneeling since midnight yesterday. Could you not pity her?”

The magistrate raised his eyes, resting them on the wavering figure in the parlor. “That Clerk Wu stole my official seal. According to the law, he should be executed. Moreover, he is a government official—his crime doubles. How could I ever pardon him lightly?”

“If you truly execute Clerk Wu, I fear Aunt Liu will not survive.”

“I am an official appointed by the court and the guardian of North Gu City. How could I bend the law for private reasons? If others find out, my face would be lost; I would shame the court’s trust and betray the faith of the people.”

With that, he swept his sleeve and strode toward the parlor.

“Brother, do you have any way to help Aunt Liu?” Shuyao asked, looking at Yiheng three steps away.

“Let’s go in and see first,” Yiheng replied, then entered the parlor.

Ahem.

The county magistrate sat on the grand chair in the parlor, gazing down at Aunt Liu kneeling long and said:

“Aunt Liu, why must you do this? It was Clerk Wu who stole the seal. You have committed no crime. Why do you persist in kneeling here?”

“Sir, it was I who stole your official seal, not Clerk Wu. He is innocent,” Aunt Liu pleaded in distress. She tried to move her feet but nearly collapsed from poor circulation until Shuyao caught her.

She begged bitterly, “I took the seal. It has nothing to do with Clerk Wu.”

“If you say you stole it, then tell me where the seal is now!” The magistrate slammed the table.

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“Th-the seal is…” Aunt Liu was too flustered to speak.

“Aunt Liu, if you know where the seal is, say it quickly. If it is returned, your father will surely be lenient,” Shuyao encouraged from the side.

“I stole the seal and gave it to Clerk Wu. As for where he gave it—some gambling house owner in town—I do not know.”

“At this point, you still want to clear Clerk Wu’s name? Aunt Liu, I really don’t know what to say to you,” the magistrate shook his head in disappointment.

“Since you admit to stealing the seal, explain clearly how you did it.”

Aunt Liu spoke up: “That day, my master was reading in his study. Taking advantage of his inattention, I pulled out the latch on a window, then, under cover of night, opened the window, climbed into the study, and stole the seal from the secret compartment.”

“Is that so?”

The magistrate took a key from his pocket. “This key was found by Yiheng among the chrysanthemums outside the study. He went to the Liu locksmith’s shop to inquire. The locksmith said the key was indeed made for Clerk Wu. I tried it myself; it opens the secret compartment.”

He looked coldly at Aunt Liu’s feet. “Moreover, the footprints among the chrysanthemums are not those of a woman. How do you explain that?”

Aunt Liu clung to the magistrate’s leg, weeping bitterly. “Sir, please spare Hao’er’s life. It was I who planned the theft; he was merely an accomplice.”

“Since you stole it together, confess the entire process truthfully.”

At that moment, Aunt Liu recounted the entire story of how the seal was stolen without reservation.

Originally born into a wealthy family as the cherished daughter of a great merchant, Aunt Liu had secretly pledged herself to a man and conceived a child. When her parents discovered this, they deemed it a family disgrace and cast her out in anger.

The man she loved, however, cowardly shirked responsibility at the crucial moment.

Poor Aunt Liu fell from the heights to the depths, forced to wander homeless.

Drifting endlessly, she arrived outside North Gu City on a stormy night, where she sought shelter in a dilapidated temple and gave birth to Clerk Wu with gritted teeth.

At that moment, a passing couple appeared. Knowing she was alone and powerless to raise the child, Aunt Liu reluctantly entrusted him to them.

After sending her child away, overwhelmed by despair, she found a rope in the temple and attempted to hang herself.

Fortunately, heaven had mercy; a kind passerby rescued her.

After many hardships and twists, she finally secured a position as a cook in the county government.

Fate is strange—no one expected that years later Aunt Liu would survive and return to North Gu City in such a guise.

Seven years ago, she happened to meet Wu Hao outside the county office and found a jade pendant he had dropped. The pendant was no ordinary trinket—it was the token she had left for her child.

Startled, she inquired carefully and confirmed through various channels that Wu Hao was indeed the son she had painfully abandoned.

But at that time, full of guilt and fear, she dared not reveal the truth and buried the secret deep within her heart.

Two years passed swiftly, coinciding with the death of Wu Hao’s foster father.

Unable to suppress her longing, Aunt Liu finally mustered the courage to visit Wu Hao’s home, tearfully disclosing her identity and the circumstances of the past.

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Yet the sudden truth struck Wu Hao like a heavy blow. Conflicted, he harbored resentment and resistance toward Aunt Liu, deliberately avoiding and disliking her, refusing to accept this newly appeared mother.

A few months ago, Clerk Wu, egged on by friends, ventured into the Drunken Flower Brothel.

There he met Shi Yun, a dancing girl whose every movement and smile exuded charm. Clerk Wu instantly fell madly in love.

Learning he was a county clerk, Shi Yun conspired with the madam to exploit his innocence and inexperience, planning to wring a fortune from him under the pretense of redeeming her freedom.

Since then, Clerk Wu spent nearly all his savings to win her favor.

Deeply ensnared, he ignored all warnings.

When his money ran out, Shi Yun schemed anew, urging him to try his luck at the gambling house, promising he could multiply his money tenfold or hundredfold.

At first, fortune seemed to smile upon him—he triumphed at the tables, winning a fortune.

But just as he was about to quit, fate reversed.

In one night, he lost not only all his winnings but even his house.

Debt collectors from the gambling house, with menacing thugs, stormed his home demanding repayment. Chaos erupted; furniture was smashed, and he cowered trembling beneath the bed.

Later, Clerk Wu confided that the gambling house owner, seeing he had no money, hatched a cruel plan. He urged Clerk Wu to steal the county magistrate’s official seal, promising that if he succeeded, all debts would be forgiven and fifty taels of silver given.

Faced with such temptation and desperate to redeem Shi Yun and escape North Gu City for a free life, Clerk Wu was lost to reason and resolved to steal the magistrate’s seal.

He confided everything to Aunt Liu, and together they meticulously planned the theft.

First, Aunt Liu, using her position as a cook, secretly copied the key to the magistrate’s secret compartment and had an identical key made at the Liu locksmith’s.

Seven nights ago, on a dark and windy night, Clerk Wu got the clerk drunk, wore his shoes, and quietly entered the study through the window whose latch Aunt Liu had removed in advance.

Using the duplicate key, he opened the secret compartment and stole the seal.

To frame the clerk, he secretly placed the marked dice he had found earlier under the bookshelf.

He also left footprints on the windowsill and among the chrysanthemums; Aunt Liu wiped away the windowsill prints, but the dice and the footprints among the chrysanthemums were not discovered by the constables until Yiheng’s return, when he found them beneath the bookshelf and in the chrysanthemum bushes.

...

As the truth unfolded from Aunt Liu’s mouth, everyone was stunned. No one had imagined that this seemingly simple case of a stolen official seal concealed such a turbulent and dramatic tale.

At that moment, a servant rushed in, breathless and anxious.

“Master, Clerk Wu has awakened. He says he wants to see you.”