leizi

Does the law not allow for compassion?

Is it you who is truly ruthless, or is it the law of Yan?

If those who enforce the law are not bound by the law, then what is the use of establishing the law?

Calm yourselves, please...

I must see this case through. And not only to dispose of Yu Cheng.

Back in Langyi, Deputy Minister Yu lost his way and resorted to half measures when faced with a corrupt but cunning magistrate. In pursuit of justice, this seems somewhat understandable.

Were it you or I, we may have made the same choice.

But what if the future brought us a more ambiguous case? What if, in the future, we found ourselves with ill intent?

Would it be easier to lose our way and resort to such measures in order to seize a good man in place of a bad one?

Indeed, it would make the execution of ill intent that much simpler.

The law of the land decides life and death. In the fulfillment of our duties, we may tolerate neither error nor deviation.

Deputy Minister Qingyan speaks with enlightening wisdom.

There is no margin of error before the law. The Grand Tutor taught me as much.

If my admiration for Deputy Minister Yu has brought shame to the laws of Yan... such would be a breach of my duty.

Now then, Deputy Minister Yu should be arriving momentarily.

Monitor Censor Jie Zhen, have you anything else to say?

The conversation having arrived where it has... Deputy Minister Qingyan raised the case, and so the right of adjudication naturally lies with her.

I admit you speak with reason and logic.

But I still ask the both of you to consider the impact that impeaching Yu Cheng may have, particularly in comparison to the impeachment of the Langyi magistrate.

And so, Deputy Minister, adjudicate.

What we call law is like lightning, looming over the heads and hearts of man.

All that is, is the Thunderlight.

If the thunder does not strike, then Lin Qingyan cannot function as Deputy Minister of the Central Judicial Office.

Under the shining sun, a sudden thunderclap startles the fowlbeasts into swift flight, and accumulated snow on the branches collapses in a flurry. Yet the pine tree remains tall and gains a few more shades of green.

At the foot of the mountain, the awaited guest steps out of his vehicle. He peers upward, unmoving for a long while.