Under the Microscope Episode 13 Recap
> Under the Microscope Recap
Grand Coordinator Li Shida arrived in Jin'an and was greeted by Commander Ma Wencai and Assistant Prefect Song. Li Shida stated that he had received Commander Ma's letter of criticism. With the tax season approaching and civil unrest erupting in Jin'an—which neither the county magistrate nor the regional inspector could control—he had to intervene personally before his scheduled report to the capital in ten days.
He clarified that his purpose was to resolve issues, not to assign blame, and inquired why the people of Renhua County had not dispersed. Commander Ma quickly blamed Shuai Jiamo and Feng Baoyu from Renhua County, accusing them of stirring up hatred and making unwarranted remarks about taxation, thus causing the unrest.
He intended to execute them on the spot, but Grand Coordinator Li rebuked him, stating that executions required reporting to the Ministry of Justice and could not be carried out arbitrarily. Assistant Prefect Song supported Commander Ma, citing the urgency of quelling the unrest. However, Grand Coordinator Li argued that appeasing the people by killing would only set a dangerous precedent for future incidents. Meanwhile, Shuai Jiamo and Feng Baoyu were imprisoned.
Feng Baoyu was surprised by Cheng Renqing’s timely arrival and questioned how he made it. Cheng Renqing explained that he had encountered Grand Coordinator Li's retinue on his way to the provincial capital. He revealed that Commander Ma had sent an impeachment document to the provincial capital long ago to undermine Prefect Huang and Inspector Liu. To silence Shuai Jiamo and prevent interference from Prefect Huang and Inspector Liu, Commander Ma had them transported to the provincial capital overnight.
Unexpectedly, this action led Inspector Liu to meet Grand Coordinator Li, which Cheng Renqing regarded as fate. When Feng Baoyu asked if Grand Coordinator Li would uphold justice, Cheng Renqing clarified that for high-ranking officials like him, right and wrong were secondary to personal gain. He then informed Shuai Jiamo that Li Shida was one of the officials who handled his father's case years ago, a case which had remained unresolved and troubled Li Shida for years.
Cheng Renqing instructed Shuai Jiamo, particularly, not to get bogged down in the minute details of the Silk Poll Tax during the upcoming trial. Instead, he emphasized the critical importance of focusing on land remeasurement, as this issue, particularly the widespread problem of undisclosed land which represented theft from the imperial court, was of utmost concern to Grand Coordinator Li, especially with Grand Secretary Zhang's reforms on the horizon.
Grand Coordinator Li later sought out his old friend, Record Keeper Fan Yuan, noting that Jin'an Prefecture remained largely unchanged after twenty years. He recounted how, two decades prior, when he was Secretary Li of the Ministry of Personnel, he and Record Keeper Fan had jointly investigated a case in Renhua involving the Silk Poll Tax. A flashback showed Secretary Li and Record Keeper Fan interrogating Shuai Duncheng, Shuai Jiamo’s father.
Shuai Duncheng explained the process of the Silk Poll Tax: collected by Renhua County, transferred to Jin'an Prefecture, and then to the Ministry of Revenue's storehouse. He clarified that because Renhua was a supplementary governance county sharing a storehouse, the transfer to Jin'an Prefecture was a mere formality on paper, without physical movement of funds, making embezzlement easy. Secretary Li confronted Shuai Duncheng with his signature on a document for 3,530 taels of “repair expenditure,” accusing him of embezzlement.
Shuai Duncheng admitted the money was for "repairing field rulers" but was in fact "hard-earned money" from wealthy households who paid to have their land acreage reduced. When questioned if he had evidence that he only accepted bribes and did not embezzle tax silver, Shuai Duncheng affirmed he did and requested a few days to provide it. Shuai Duncheng spoke of his love for arithmetic and his desire to teach his son the importance of admitting and correcting errors.
Back in the present, Grand Coordinator Li expressed his enduring respect for Record Keeper Fan. The next day, Grand Coordinator Li presided over a public trial in Jin'an Prefectural Office, with representatives from the public and local gentry in attendance, and Cheng Renqing invited to help clarify the case. Grand Coordinator Li produced the "Complete Works of the Silk Event," a book he had acquired, authored by Shuai Duncheng twenty years ago.
He stated that the book contained alarming details about land transactions where the actual acreage differed significantly from the registered acreage, exposing extensive "shortening rope and under-reporting land ownership." Magistrate Mao questioned the relevance of revisiting a twenty-year-old case. Cheng Renqing interjected, explaining that concealing land was not a one-time offense but an ongoing theft from the imperial court, accumulating massive losses over the years, thus necessitating a re-examination. Assistant Prefect Song then challenged the book's authenticity, questioning its provenance.
Cheng Renqing revealed that it was a dying wish from Assistant Magistrate Ren, a close friend of Shuai Duncheng, who had safeguarded the book for twenty years and mandated its public release. Assistant Prefect Song scoffed, arguing that with Assistant Magistrate Ren dead, anyone could fabricate such a story. Cheng Renqing countered by pointing out that the book also contained Assistant Magistrate Ren’s annotations from the past twenty years.
Given Assistant Magistrate Ren's extensive official writings in Jin'an's Archives, his handwriting could be easily verified. Assistant Prefect Song dismissed Shuai Duncheng's reliability, claiming he had mental issues. Cheng Renqing defended Shuai Duncheng's renowned arithmetic skills, while Commander Ma likened the book's accuracy to beautiful writing that could hide "bad thoughts." Cheng Renqing then requested the "Complete Works of the Silk Event" from Record Keeper Fan.
He highlighted a specific transaction from the seventh month of the thirty-eighth year of the Jiajing reign: a land sale between the Fei and Zhao families in Tongyang. Shuai Duncheng had measured 120 mu but recorded only 110 mu in the fish-scale map register after receiving "repair expenditure." The transaction amount was 600 taels. Cheng Renqing instructed Magistrate Fang to retrieve the corresponding deed tax records and fish-scale map registers from the Archives.
Magistrate Fang confirmed he had already prepared them. The official records matched: 110 mu and 600 taels. Assistant Prefect Song attempted to discredit this by suggesting Shuai Duncheng could have seen the records beforehand and exaggerated his claims.
Cheng Renqing then revealed that the seller, the Fei family, was Commander Ma Wencai's mother's family, and the buyer, Zhao Bingxin, was the nephew of Zhao Haogu, a famous classical scholar who served as the Chief Examiner for the Fengxing provincial examinations that year—the very next month.
Cheng Renqing explicitly stated that Commander Ma's maternal family sold 120 mu of land at half price to the Chief Examiner's nephew just before the examinations, which Commander Ma passed, while Cheng Renqing himself failed due to an alleged cheating incident. Commander Ma vehemently denied the accusations, calling them slander against his family and his teacher. Cheng Renqing presented the official records, forcing Commander Ma to admit either government fraud or his own examination cheating.
Grand Coordinator Li, recognizing the gravity of the evidence, declared his intent to report the matter to the imperial court, emphasizing its impact on the reputation of Fengxing's scholars. He warned Commander Ma, a metropolitan graduate of the second category, that examination fraud was a capital offense that could lead to the implication of his entire clan. Commander Ma was then escorted away. Cheng Renqing informed Commander Ma that his actions were driven by justice, not personal animosity.
Assistant Prefect Song, undeterred, questioned Shuai Duncheng's integrity again, stating that as the original plaintiff in Shuai Duncheng's case, he knew the truth. He recounted that Shuai Duncheng, despite his arithmetic skills, was coerced into taking bribes to fund treatment for his "slow" son, and then fabricated the "Complete Works of the Silk Event" out of resentment before committing suicide.
Cheng Renqing challenged this narrative, reminding Grand Coordinator Li of Shuai Duncheng's promise to provide evidence before his death, which never happened, and questioning why loving parents would commit suicide and abandon their young child. Assistant Prefect Song dismissed this as the irrational act of a guilty criminal. Cheng Renqing then produced Assistant Magistrate Ren's coroner's record for Shuai Duncheng and Liu Yue'er.
The record stated "no ash in their mouths," indicating they were already dead before the fire, implying they were murdered. Assistant Prefect Song quickly claimed they were drunk and then burned. Cheng Renqing seized on this slip, asking how Assistant Prefect Song knew they were drinking. Assistant Prefect Song, flustered, claimed he read it in the coroner's report.
Cheng Renqing immediately exposed his lie, stating he had invented the detail about the coroner's report because Assistant Magistrate Ren would not have recorded such an irrelevant fact. He pressed Assistant Prefect Song, demanding to know how he knew they were drinking, suggesting he was present at the scene.
Cheng Renqing then connected Assistant Prefect Song's past role as the revenue office clerk, his complicity in the land fraud with Shuai Duncheng, and his knowledge of every transaction in the "Complete Works of the Silk Event," presenting him as the prime suspect for the murders. Cheng Renqing commanded Assistant Prefect Song to look into Shuai Jiamo's eyes and deny his involvement.
As Shuai Jiamo slowly approached Assistant Prefect Song, he was overwhelmed by a cascade of memories: his father, Shuai Duncheng, refusing to continue his corrupt work, feeling deep regret, and declaring he would no longer betray his conscience. He remembered his father discovering Renhua County paid 3,530 more taels in Silk Poll Tax annually, and confronting Assistant Prefect Song about how the land concealment by wealthy gentry caused immense suffering.
Assistant Prefect Song had scoffed at his concerns, reminding him that he was already implicated and threatening his "stupid son's" fate. Shuai Duncheng had defiantly stated that his son was not stupid and he would rather raise him honestly than continue to accept ill-gotten gains.
He recalled his father documenting all the evidence of land measurement discrepancies, believing it would prove his unique "Art of Gathering Projected Steps," and writing a heartfelt confession as a preface to the "Complete Works of the Silk Event," intending to expose the corruption. His father had told him to remember the number "3,530," explaining it encapsulated his life's deeds.
Shuai Jiamo also remembered a joyful moment of his parents sharing a drink, and his own childish request for some, which his father promised for when he grew up. Then, the horrific scene of the fire consumed his house and parents, with Assistant Prefect Song standing outside, calling him a "dummy" for not understanding, and urging others to save the house while ignoring the people trapped inside. Overwhelmed by these traumatic recollections, Shuai Jiamo collapsed to the ground.
