Original subtitles

[English subtitles are available]

[Under the Microscope]

[Episode 7]

-Hurry. -Hurry.

-Hurry. -Hurry. There's no water.

Hurry up.

-Hurry! -Hurry!

-Hurry. -Hurry.

-Hurry. -Hurry.

Hurry.

-Hurry. -Hurry up.

Did you trap them both

in the warehouse

to burn to death?

Originally you wanted to

create the scene of an accidental fire?

Yes.

If we do away with the both of them,

we'll be able to get rid of all the trouble.

But it's not too bad now either.

I can just kill them again.

Stop!

What?

If you attempt to kill them again now,

it will take on

a completely different meaning.

What's the difference?

Now that the Archives caught fire,

if they're found dead outside,

it'll just make it obvious to others that

there's something fishy about this.

I have a way

to make the bodies disappear without a trace.

As long as Shuai Jiamo's body

is not in the library,

Inspector Liu

will definitely be suspicious.

Then I can just kill them,

and put their bodies back in.

That's a good idea.

There are so many people outside fighting the fire.

We can

sneakily smuggle

their bodies back in

without anyone knowing.

That's right.

Tell me then.

Do you have any ideas?

I do have one.

Pray tell.

I need his

cooperation.

Inspector Liu.

We just checked everywhere earlier.

The ruins only have a lot of ash left from the paper

and some remaining wooden structures.

There were no bodies to be found.

Lu Feilong is such a fool.

Don't worry, Magistrate Mao.

I've settled everything.

When you two

left yesterday,

it was Shuai Jiamo

who voluntarily asked to stay behind?

Yes.

We asked him to eat.

He didn't leave,

and was still in a daze.

The paper on the desk was completely blank.

We even asked him

about the progress,

but he didn't answer.

Gentlemen,

who else saw Shuai Jiamo after that?

Probably just the old official

who looks after the library.

Magistrate Mao.

Go.

Bring Zhang over.

Every day at sunset,

the Archives need to be locked up.

[Archives]

When I went to lock the door today,

I saw the two scribes saying that

Mr. Shuai was still in the library.

Zhang,

was there anyone else besides Shuai Jiamo

in the archive library?

There was another

young master called Feng Baoyu.

Later,

they started to quarrel.

They quarreled?

What did they quarrel about?

My hearing isn't too good,

so I couldn't really hear clearly.

Something about the fish-scale map not making it in time,

and how to explain to people about it,

not to implicate them, things like that.

I reminded them it was time to lock up.

But that young master got angry

and chased me out.

They said

they were working for Inspector Liu,

and that if I kept nagging,

and ended up delaying important matters,

they would hold me accountable.

After being chased out by them,

I was still worried,

so I came to check.

This fire

was all my fault.

Zhang, after the fire,

did you see

Shuai Jiamo and Feng Baoyu?

I really have no clue.

Inspector Liu.

Shuai Jiamo

promised to find out

the truth behind the silk poll tax.

But he got into trouble,

and we only have a blank piece of paper.

As for Feng Baoyu,

he bet all of

his money on

Shuai Jaime's victory.

But he realized that

Shuai Jiamo didn't make much progress,

and got extremely anxious.

He then came to the Archives

to urge Shuai Jiamo to stay up and go through the documents.

And so,

he ended up getting into an argument with him.

This was the both of them

pushing the blame onto each other.

You're talking as if

you actually saw what was going on.

Were you there too?

I'm from Zhuge Village.

The banquet that you

and the others attended earlier

was organized by me.

I've also been on standby near the banquet,

and never once left.

Cut the crap.

Get to the point.

Well, I don't know

what exactly happened

afterwards either.

Maybe as the both of them

were arguing,

they accidentally knocked over a candle,

and caused this terrible disaster.

Then where would they have gone afterwards?

They probably fled.

You should know that

it was the Archives of Lanxi County

that got burnt down.

At worst, they could be sentenced to death for it.

Of course the both of them

would have fled for their lives,

why would they stay here

to await death?

These deductions of yours

are mere speculations.

Let's take my deductions as incorrect

for now.

If both of them

had nothing to do with the fire,

then they would be innocent.

Why did they run away then?

They could have stayed where they were.

Or they could have

gone directly to find you, Inspector Liu.

I'm afraid...

Inspector Liu, do you have

any other opinions?

Smart idea.

Master Fan.

I’m glad I didn't fail you.

Even in such a rush,

you put up such a good show that

even I almost believed it.

If you want to cover something up,

just bring something else up.

This is a common strategy used by lawyers.

How are the two of them now?

They have both been smuggled out of

Lanxi County by Lu Feilong,

and will be secretly detained on the way to Tongyang.

Once the arrest warrant

is sent out to all the counties in Jin'an,

Lu Feilong will then turn them in

to the county office of Tongyang County.

Why do you have to send them to

Magistrate Deng's,

instead of just doing it here in Lanxi?

They're fleeing after all.

Obviously they should flee for a distance before we catch them.

That makes it more believable.

Magistrate Mao.

Speaking of which, you'll need to do me a favor.

Write an extra note

giving Lu Feilong the status

of a constable.

It'll be easier for him then

to arrest people across the borders.

And then?

And then naturally Tongyang will transfer

the criminals back to Lanxi,

where they will stand trial.

Instead of going in such a huge circle,

it's so much more straightforward to just

kill them off at one go.

Speed,

doesn't necessarily mean it's ideal.

How dare you!

What I mean by this is,

such a big fire happening at the Archives

is a serious matter.

We can't hide it.

We will have to give the imperial court

an explanation for it.

Instead of burning Shuai and Feng to death,

why don't we just

let them take the blame for this?

Although it's a bit more troublesome,

but there are no loopholes in the process

and we can prevent any further troubles from happening.

I'll handle the paperwork.

Third Brother.

Sending these two guys so far away

through the night

without killing them or letting them go,

what do you think they're trying to do?

Just do what we're told.

Why are you asking so much?

When Big Brother comes later,

just follow his instructions,

and we'll be done with this.

Where am I?

Let's think of a way

to get these ropes off us.

Okay.

Big Brother.

Calm down, calm down.

Calm down, my foot!

This bastard

always comes up with bad ideas.

Let's not wait for the arrest warrant,

and just kill the both of them.

Just say that they resisted arrest,

and we had to kill them.

Big Brother.

Where are they?

They're tied up in the room.

Big Brother, they're here.

Where are they?

Where are they?

After them!

Let's give up on the ropes.

We won't untie them, let's just go.

Let's go.

Shuai!

Shuai!

Are you okay?

After them!

Let's go!

Let's go.

Baoyu!

Baoyu!

Stop rolling, Baoyu.

Sister!

Sister!

Shuai! Shuai!

It hurts.

What's wrong?

It hurts.

Baoyu.

Be gentle.

Wait, it hurts!

It hurts.

Have you seen-

Xiao Zhi?

Weren't you two

living in Renhua?

Why are you here in the mountains of Tongyang?

What are you doing here?

Don't be afraid.

Our old grudges are cleared now.

I'm not here for you today.

Let me ask you.

Just now, there were two

scholar-looking people

who passed by here.

Have you seen them?

Yes, we did.

They went down the mountain.

Let's go.

Actually, even without your land,

you can still come to work on my land as a sharecropper.

Why come to the mountains here to

try and cultivate barren land?

It's such hard work.

We don't need to you to worry about that.

I'd rather work for myself.

I find it pretty strange.

You say the two of them passed by,

and if they saw

such a big hut here,

wouldn't they come over and have a look?

Please leave now.

You're not welcome here,

and not a single person is welcome here.

Leave, leave!

Search!

Yes.

Big Brother.

There's an underground cellar here.

You can't go in.

The cellar hasn't been ventilated for a long time.

It's dangerous to just enter rashly.

Out of the way.

Let me do it.

Big Brother.

Big Brother, what's wrong?

Big Brother!

Are you okay?

Help him out.

Okay, hurry up!

Big Brother.

Slowly, slowly.

-Slowly. -Big Brother. Hurry!

Big Brother!

Slow down.

Slow down.

Big Brother.

Slow down.

I told you not to go in.

-Slow down. -Slowly.

Quick, come on out.

Slowly.

Baoyu.

Slow down.

Here.

Hang in there.

Why is Lu Feilong coming after

the two of you?

We were in Lanxi to investigate-

It hurts.

Slow down.

I owe Lu Feilong money after gambling.

A-an unlucky year.

Gambling idiot.

Father.

Hang in there.

Weren't you enduring it pretty well just now?

When Lu Feilong came,

you didn't make a sound.

Who would dare to make a sound earlier?

If I even made a squeak, we'd be dead.

I wonder who on earth

was the one who put such a huge trap,

it hurts so bad!

It was you guys!

It was us.

If we put that in the mountains,

it could catch us a wild rabbit or a wild boar,

giving us some meat to eat.

Who knew you'd run into it?

T-then,

since your trap injured my leg,

you should get me a doctor.

We don't have money for a doctor.

If you don't mind,

you can stay here and recuperate.

Xiao Zhi and I will go forage for some herbs.

Father.

The food we have at home

might not be enough for so many people.

I have money.

I have money.

You can recuperate here.

If you want to treat it properly,

you'll have to go into the town of Tongyang County.

Come.

Shuai.

if others ask again,

make sure you don't say that

we are here in Lanxi to check the accounts.

And don't mention the fire in the Archives either.

Why?

You can never know a person's true intentions.

How would we know what other people

are thinking?

But the Chens saved us.

All the more we shouldn't tell them then.

We shouldn't put others into trouble.

I understand now.

My family has a shop in Tongyang.

Go there tomorrow morning with my letter

to get some money.

Then call a doctor here,

and also ask them

to send a letter to my sister.

When we fainted, we were still in

the Archives of Lanxi County.

How did we wake up in an old temple

in Tongyang County?

What is Lu Feilong plotting?

[Complete Works of the Silk Event]

[Complete Works of the Silk Event]

[Three thousand five hundred and thirty]

Father, what does three thousand five hundred

and thirty mean?

Remember this number.

All of my contributions and mistakes

in my lifetime are in this.

Shuai.

Shuai!

What are you thinking about?

Do you remember the book

I was telling you about?

I remember its title now.

It's called the 'Complete Works of the Silk Event'.

The number 3,530 was also written

on the first page of the book.

Why had my father been investigating this too?

With this fire,

I'm sure now that

this silk poll tax

also has something to do with my father.

What on earth was written in

the 'Complete Works of the Silk Event'?

Also,

I can remember how my parents looked like now.

[Tongyang]

I'm looking for Shopkeeper Zhao.

That's me.

This is a letter from Baoyu.

Please wait a moment.

I'll go get a doctor for you now.

You are Shuai Jiamo?

[Tongyang County Office]

My lord,

the patrolmen caught a wanted criminal.

Just hand him over to the Office of Justice to be dealt with,

don't bother me.

This man

is the one that's wanted in Lanxi County.

His name is Shuai Jiamo.

Shuai Jiamo?

Bring him here.

Yes.

What are you doing?

[Gives us 1,800]

You calculated wrong.

You know what I'm calculating?

This is a civil engineering math problem.

You are calculating

the storage capacity for the food storehouses.

This is to calculate the dimensions of the food supplies.

That's right.

Tongyang County's tax collection is coming up.

In order to manage all of the supplies smoothly,

we must determine the

storage capacity for the food storehouses.

The storehouse here

is shaped like a cylinder.

So we need to use the Cylindrical Method,

which is the square of the circumference,

times the height, divided by 12.

But at the top of the storehouse,

there is a canopy.

I don't know how to

calculate this section accurately.

[You'll get...]

I see.

At Jin'an's joint meeting the other day,

I witnessed this technique of yours

where you drew on the white wall,

and was quite impressed.

So I came back and tried to see

how I could apply it myself.

But alas, with my limited understanding,

there must have been some careless mistakes.

There are many careless mistakes,

and your understanding is indeed limited.

You are quite stupid too.

Since I'm under orders to arrest

you and Feng Baoyu,

How could I not

set up a spy

in the Feng family's shop?

Baoyu is recuperating in the mountain.

I came alone.

Tell me.

What on earth did you do

that Lanxi County had to send

a warrant notice to us overnight?

♫ The sun is setting in the west, hey ♫

♫ The sky is bright ♫

♫ I'm picking tea in the mountain ♫

♫ I'm waiting for you to come visit ♫

♫ Picking new tea ♫

♫ Preparing new tea ♫

♫ Drinking new tea ♫

♫ Hear me sing my tea-picking song through the mountains♫

Be gentle.

It hurts.

The song you just sang

was really nice.

Can you sing it again?

I’m not an entertainer,

why do I have to sing whenever you ask me to?

Bear with it.

It hurts.

I'll be gentle.

You're a man,

why are you complaining that it hurts?

If it doesn't hurt, and I say it hurts, that's being attention-seeking.

But now it really hurts,

so saying that means I'm being honest, okay?

Fine, since you're talking so much nonsense,

it seems like your condition isn't too serious.

All right.

When your friend

brings a doctor back,

we'll see if there's any

better medicine for you then.

You're saying,

Lu Feilong was the one who set fire to the Archives,

and you two were also abducted by him?

Yes.

This Mao Panfeng.

Regarding the issue with the silk poll tax,

he should be disputing it in court

openly and honestly.

He's gone too far

with these sneaky tactics.

It makes him seem like he's guilty and weak.

So you'll let me go?

I can't let you go.

As the eight counties of Jin'an

have an alliance to help each other,

if I let you go,

that'll be akin to digging my own grave.

Why?

What a person wants to do

is different from

what he has to do.

I really wish that

I could discuss the silk poll tax issue

with you openly

from an arithmetic perspective.

But I can't,

because the silk poll tax

is disadvantageous to Tongyang County.

No matter how reasonable your arguments are,

I will have to do my best to oppose it.

We may be able to become friends,

but not right now.

I don't understand.

It's precisely because you don't understand

that I can air my grievances out to you.

Before I took up this position,

I was also full of hope and ambition.

I thought that since I’m the head of the county,

and the lord preceding over this land,

I could make the most of my abilities

and save the world.

But only when you really get to

sit in this position,

you will realize that

even just trying to manage this county properly

will exhaust all of your energy.

Take for example the junior officials

who work for me.

Their positions are passed down from generation to generation.

As for me,

I'm just an official that is expatriated here.

I have to rely on them, and guard against them at the same time.

If I take one slight misstep,

my reputation will be completely ruined.

I still don't understand.

Why don't you

draw it out on the wall for me?

You won't ever understand.

Anyway,

I won't let you go.

I will only detain you and transfer you back

according to the formal procedures.

If others ask,

I can only go against my conscience and say that

I know nothing about

what Lu Feilong did.

But I've already told you about it.

How could you not know?

As Xunzi once said,

water can carry a boat, but can also overturn it.

In Tongyang County,

I'm only a lone boat in the water.

If I go along with the current,

everyone will be fine.

If I go against the current,

I will drown to death.

So you don't know how to swim.

If I were as naive as you are,

how nice would that be?

Guards!

Take him away.

Move.

Do you want to know

the truth behind the silk poll tax?

The Archives in Lanxi County

have already been burned down.

What other evidence could you possibly have?

I've already thought of

a great idea.

Even without looking at

the Archives in Lanxi County,

we can still prove

the link between the provisions supplement

and the silk poll tax.

Fortunately, medicinal herbs were applied promptly.

Otherwise, you'd probably become a cripple.

The medicine I brought

will also help with your injury.

Brew it to drink every day,

and you will recover very soon.

Thank you.

You, take it.

The magistrate has ordered you two

to take good care of him.

You can't let him go,

and you can't let him

transmit any news outside.

Someone will come to take him in a few days.

What about Shuai?

I mean, Shuai Jiamo?

How is he?

You still have the time to care about others?

I'm leaving.

Okay, I'll see you off.

Just great,

you're a fugitive?

How dare you hide it from us?

I shouldn't have

let Shuai go alone.

He's just an arithmetic nut,

how could he complete the task?

Don't worry too much.

Since the magistrate sent a doctor

to take care of you,

and even left some money,

it means your friend

is probably fine too.

Don't worry and just focus on recovering.

No.

No.

I have to go to Tongyang.

What are you doing?

What are you...

You...

You...

What are you doing?

I just want to save my friend.

If you go down the mountain now,

your leg will be completely crippled.

The most important thing you should do now

is to make sure you recover from this injury.

I'll go brew the medicine.

Feilong.

Do you know what kind of people

I hate the most?

How long have you been with me?

People who don't put in effort into doing things.

Master Fan.

Magistrate Deng just sent us a document

saying that of Shuai and Feng,

one of them has been caught,

and the other will also be arrested soon.

Magistrate Deng is indeed one of us.

He doesn't dilly-dally in his tasks.

This time, I'll personally go to get them.

I'll make sure not to mess up.

Master Fan.

I’ll go get ready now.

As soon as they're brought back here,

we will begin the trial immediately,

and make sure they won't be able to dispute the charges.

No need for that.

We should have killed them off earlier,

then there wouldn't have been

so much trouble.

I had given you a chance to.

[Tongyang County Office]

This is truly a brilliant approach.

Working backwards from

the figures for conscripted labor to calculate tax revenue,

this is truly revolutionary,

and lets us see the full picture with something small.

The other day during the debate,

you tried to refute my argument by bringing up the porter fees.

That's where I got the inspiration from.

It's an honor for me then.

But while your algorithm here

sounds simple,

the actual calculation

will be a painstaking task.

Think about it.

We will need to calculate the numbers

for each and every county,

and then merge it together and divide.

It's quite complicated.

It's not difficult. Leave the calculations to me.

It won't take long.

You're really such an arithmetic nut.

You're not even on guard at all.

Aren't you afraid that

I can prepare in advance

after getting to know your approach?

If you have a method of calculation

that makes more sense than this,

isn't it more interesting for us to

compare and discuss?

Shuai Jiamo.

Listen to my advice.

The key to reforming

the silk poll tax

was never

an issue of calculations.

It's an issue of benefits.

What do you mean?

No one will calculate

these details with you.

They're competing in terms of schemes,

and benefits are what they are after.

Even for me,

I can only discuss these things

with you in private.

Once we're in front of the officials,

no matter how good your arguments are,

I will never acknowledge it.

As you said,

my method of calculation is correct.

Why won't you acknowledge it?

Correct?

Do you know that

even though the Yellow Book of Tax and Labor

is the standard for recording population changes,

it has long become

a useless pile of paper.

The numbers inside are all hypothetical,

it's just a perfunctory effort for the court.

Basing your calculations on the Yellow Book of Tax and Labor

will never give you the correct results.

Then how does Jin'an Prefecture conscript laborers?

If the prefecture and county

really intend to conscript laborers,

they would compile a White Book of Tax and Labor

on their own.

The numbers inside are the real deal.

White Book of Tax and Labor...

But do you think

they will show you

the White Book?

In this world,

the human mind is more complicated than arithmetic.

No.

There's one type of arithmetic that is

harder to grasp than the human mind.

I still haven't figured it out to this day.

Which is that?

Magistrate Deng,

you must be quite familiar with

methods of measuring the fields.

As a magistrate,

it's common sense to understand how to measure fields.

Fields of land can be categorized by their shape into

rectangular, triangular, trapezoidal,

circular segments, and right-angled trapezoidal fields.

But there's another type of strange field,

that is extremely irregular in shape,

making it extremely difficult to calculate.

When I was a child,

I have a faint memory of my father

telling me about a solution for this,

called the Art of Gathering Projected Steps.

It allows you to work out

the solution in the blink of an eye,

which helps in tackling this type of irregular field.

Tell me more.

Unfortunately, I was too young then.

I only remember

having to draw a grid to calculate,

and taking the vertices of the field.

[Six Capitals of Renhua County]

[43 steps]

Unfortunately, I can't remember what it was.

I've been studying it for all these years

and did make some breakthroughs.

But I still can't figure it out.

Well,

measuring fields is my interest,

and also my job.

How about we face off against each other?

Okay.

This is Tongyang's

most famous irregular field.

How about this? Let's start.

[1, 3]

[Chord = 35]

[...by diameter of 5 steps...]

[...product of 98 steps.]

If you don't quickly dig in, the noodles will be soggy.

How remarkable.

I'm just fast at calculating.

But look, the method of calculation I used

is the same as yours.

If we use the Art of Gathering Projected Steps,

the time taken would be halved.

There are many mountains in Renhua County,

and this kind of irregular fields are everywhere.

The current method of calculation

takes too much effort and time.

If that Art of

Gathering Projected Steps of yours

will really let us calculate the area

in an instant,

it will be a great thing that will benefit the country

and the people.

It's unfortunate though,

I can't figure it out.

It seems that it can probably

only be written in

the Complete Works of the Silk Event.

Complete Works of the Silk Event?

It's a book written by my father.

It contains a lot of content,

but I don't remember it anymore.

I only remember

the number 3,530 repeatedly

appearing in the book.

3,530.

The silk poll tax?

Did you stir up the silk poll tax case

just because of this number?

Ever since I was young,

there was always

a question I had no answers to in my heart.

Why wasn't I home that day

when my house was on fire?

If it was really as Cheng Renqing said,

that my parents committed suicide to escape punishment,

then why did they

leave me here?

What happened to your parents

was truly regrettable.

But listen to my advice.

Don't be too obsessed with this.

When it comes to the matter of the silk poll tax,

the two of us are on opposing ends.

But people like you

with such a pure heart,

are rare to come by these days.

I really admire you.

But I've only been here for two years.

I don't know too much about

what happened in the past.

But Chief Bookkeeper Ren of Wancheng

is a local.

Maybe he knows a little about

what happened before.

You will need to pass by Wancheng

on your way back to Lanxi from Tongyang.

I'll write a letter.

You can go ask him.