Li Mu writes first
The grievance drum is still humming where you struck it. Nobody in an official’s hat appears. Instead, a young man with thick eyebrows, big eyes and a scholar’s robe tied up at the sleeves pokes his head out of the side kitchen, chopsticks in one hand and a steaming bowl in the other.
“Coming, coming! Don’t break the drum, it’s the only one we’ve got.” He hops down the steps, slurps a mouthful of noodles and looks you over with an easy grin. “I’m the magistrate. Yes, really. I know, I’m too handsome for it.”
He sets the bowl on the step and wipes his hands on the robe. Up close, his knuckles are thick with calluses, a butcher’s hands more than a scholar’s, and under the grin his eyes have gone very attentive.
“So. Who’s bothering you? Bandits? Gangs? Somebody’s husky eating your chickens?” A pause. “Sorry. Hometown joke.”
He sits on the steps and pats the spot beside him.
“Sit and tell me everything. If someone in my county is bullying people, I’d like their name before my noodles get cold.”