Chapter 15: No Debts Owed
My palm felt warm.
I looked down and saw a hand warmer. It was red copper, with a lid intricately carved with entwined chrysanthemums, smooth and round, flat and unadorned. Two characters were engraved on the body in small seal script: Yue Ming.
He still said nothing.
Seeing him about to turn and leave, I said, “We merely crossed paths on a boat; we have no deep friendship. You don’t need to be so kind to me. I’ve told you, I never like to owe anyone.”
A thin layer of rashness settled in his eyes.
That rashness was like a veil he deliberately wore.
He echoed my words, “I merely lent you some silver. You don’t need to take it to heart. I once said that even if we meet by chance, we should help each other in times of danger.”
I still insisted on giving him the silver.
He looked up at the sky and asked, “Do you know who bribed my servant boy on the boat?”
Snowflakes landed on his shoulders. He brushed them away and said, “My Fifth Concubine colluded with the horse caravan and bribed my personal servant boy. They tampered with the goods the Qin Family was transporting to the two barbarian regions, and simultaneously sent assassins to ambush me on the road, disguised as robbers. If this plan had succeeded, even if I died, I would have been disgraced. My father would have let my second brother, born to the Fifth Concubine, manage the household. It might even have endangered my Mother, leaving her no peace in the manor. She never fought with anyone in her life. Yet, conflict never left her.”
“What happened then?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Then?”
Snowflakes fell on his face. There was a cool satisfaction in his eyes, as if he had just brushed away something dirty.
“They all died.”
So, he had accomplished such a significant matter without me realizing it.
No wonder when I visited the Qin Manor last time, everyone there looked at him with fear in their eyes.
I couldn’t help but shiver in the cold wind.
As Wu Bi said, Qin Mingxu was quite ruthless.
Perhaps, because his mother was not adept at internal family struggles, and his father had many concubines. From a young age, he had to protect what he cared about, and had no choice but to be this way.
“Do you still feel you owe me now?”
He looked at me and said, “If not for your identification, allowing me to eliminate the threat in time, it would have been a very close call. You helped me so much; a mere sum of silver is nothing.”
The wind rustled the trees by the roadside.
The cold moon seemed to shatter, pouring down densely.
He calmly told me so much about his family matters to quell my sense of indebtedness.
I didn’t know what to say.
He waved his white robe and mounted his horse again.
The horse’s hooves trod on the white snow, on the moon’s shadow.
He said, “This year, the Imperial Court has sent Lord Liang from the Ministry of Revenue to Jiangnan to select Tribute Tea,” and then he left.
Holding the hand warmer, I got into the horse carriage.
Upon returning to the manor, dinner had already passed.
The Old Madam had specially ordered duck soup and stuffed rice balls to be kept for me.
The lights in the North Courtyard were already out.
Many people had left the Cheng Residence, and it suddenly felt empty.
Xiao Yin had gone to sleep.
I called He Hua to sit and drink soup with me, but she insisted on not doing so. After I finished eating, she quickly ate something while sitting on a stool and then served me to wash up.
The snowy night was exceptionally quiet and bright.
I lay on the couch, tossing and turning.
Through the curtain, He Hua softly asked, “Second Young Mistress, can’t you sleep? Would you like me to light some incense?”
I shook my head and said, “No. I don’t like the artificial scents filling the room. Stay and talk with me.”
“Alright.”
We spoke in hushed tones about some matters in the manor.
I asked her when she came to the Cheng Residence. She said ten years.
I said, “It seems Shopkeeper Wu also came to the Cheng Residence ten years ago. Are you familiar with him?”
“No… not familiar…”
Her tone changed.
“Today, I saw that child was very cute. Why would you bear to let someone else raise him?”
She choked back a sob, “Second Young Mistress, I am a woman divorced by my husband’s family. It’s not good for him to be with me. In the future, how many scornful glances will he endure? The woman at the tea stall is my maternal aunt. I entrusted her with raising him. I work here every month and give her all my monthly silver. I always think… that the child can have a better life.”
The monthly silver the Cheng Family gave to their servants was quite generous.
Yet He Hua was extremely frugal.
She didn’t wear cosmetics or adorn herself with hairpins, and even when the maidservants and servant boys pooled money to buy dried chestnuts and other common snacks, she didn’t participate.
It seemed all her money was saved for her child.
“You gave birth to a child, you have offspring, so why were you divorced?” I asked in surprise.
Her voice cooled down inch by inch.
“If a husband changes his heart, he can find a way to divorce his wife, no matter what. I was married for two years and served my in-laws without fault. Yet my husband, along with my mother-in-law, fabricated charges of my promiscuity and immorality. The accusations were detailed, like clear evidence of guilt. After they expelled me, within a month, he married a new woman.”
“He Hua, Shopkeeper Wu is also unattached now. Last time, on Guanyin Mountain, when we encountered robbers, I saw how he…” I said slowly.
He Hua softly pleaded, “Second Young Mistress, please don’t mention it. I am not worthy, not worthy.”
Her words were already very urgent.
I suddenly realized that He Hua’s indifference was merely a facade. She was such a self-deprecating and timid woman. Her previous marriage had left her with too many wounds that could not be healed.
She couldn’t hold her head up.
Her only weapon was to pretend not to care.
She wore a frosty expression on her face year-round.
Marital fate was a woman’s biggest gamble in life.
The moonlight reflected on the bed. I sighed, and didn’t fall asleep until the second watch.
The twelfth lunar month arrived quietly amidst the flying snow.
During the New Year Festival, business at the counter was quite brisk.
People also came from the Huizhou tea gardens to collect funds.
Additionally, gifts for various parties needed to be prepared.
Many people came and went in the manor.
The Old Madam suffered from a cold ailment in her legs and rarely went out. All major and minor matters were left to my discretion.
Even though there were old precedents for everything, I was still overwhelmed with tasks.
However, I always remembered one most important matter: the Imperial Court was going to select merchants for Tribute Tea again.
Wu Bi said that in previous years, it was Lord Zhong. Lord Zhong had some friendship with Master Cheng and showed him considerable favor. Since the second year of Wanli, Cheng Family tea had been selected as Tribute Tea, and it had been chosen every year since.
That day, I heard Qin Mingxu say that this year it was Lord Liang from the Ministry of Revenue. I wondered what kind of person he was.
Regardless, Cheng Family Tribute Tea must not be lost under my watch.
One day, I was in the courtyard reading “Twelve Chapters on Managing Wealth by Tao Zhu Gong”.
The winter plum blossoms in the courtyard bloomed defiantly against the snow, exuding fragrance in the cold.
“To know people: discern their good and evil, and your judgment will not be in vain. To use people: assign tasks according to their talents and abilities, and they will be reliable. To seize opportunities: store wisely when the time is right, and you will not suffer losses. To organize: keep goods neat and tidy, captivating customers. To be decisive: hesitation leads to no achievement in old age. To be welcoming: interact with courtesy and righteousness, and customers will flock to you. To be stable: abandoning the old for the new is a great illness for merchants…”
As I read, I silently memorized and pondered.
“Second Young Mistress—”
Wu Bi walked in from outside.
“What is it?”
“I heard that merchants are flocking to the official residence where Lord Liang is staying. Everyone else has already started taking action. Should we also prepare some generous gifts…”
I looked up and asked, “Has Lord Liang accepted gifts from others?”
Wu Bi said, “He has.”
“Oh?” I put down my books and stood up.
Wu Bi said, “It is said that Lord Liang accepts gifts from everyone! Since everyone is sending them, wouldn’t it seem disrespectful if we didn’t? How about we ask the Old Madam to write a letter to Lord Zhong, to mediate…”
I pondered for a moment and said, “We will not send gifts. Nor will we write a letter.”
Wu Bi became anxious, “Then, Second Young Mistress, what should we do?”
Just then, a servant announced that an official had arrived.
I quickly went out of the manor to greet him.
The official said, “Who is the person in charge of the Cheng Residence? Please accompany me.”
