I struggled to lift my head, and a wave of dizziness swept over me. In the ravine, a few winter persimmons still hung sparsely from a persimmon tree, not yet fallen, set against the azure sky like cinnabar.
“Madam, how are you?”
I turned my face and, to my astonishment, saw Cheng Huaishi looking at me with eyes full of concern.
He had not returned all night. How could he be here?
He helped me up. “I returned to the residence today around the beginning of the noon hour. Before I even entered the gates, I heard someone say you had met with trouble on Guanyin Mountain, so I hurried here at once. I was still one step too late.”
He tore off a strip from the sleeve of his robe and bound my wound.
The beginning of the noon hour… That was barely an hour ago.
How could the people at the residence have known I was in trouble?
I asked, “Who told you?”
“A young clerk from the shop, called Heidou. He usually follows Shopkeeper Wu around…”
Before he could finish, we heard a rustling sound.
It seemed someone was coming down along the slope.
Cheng Huaishi seized my hand and led me deep into the woods to hide.
Those masked men searched all around, then followed the river at the foot of the mountain and gradually moved farther away.
After pondering for a moment, I said, “The people who struck today wanted both Second Master and me dead.”
At these words, Cheng Huaishi’s brow stirred.
“I know a small path into the city. We’ll circle back that way.”
Cheng Huaishi held my hand with one hand and pushed aside the brambles in the forest with the other as he led me west.
When we reached a cliff, he carried me on his back and crossed it step by step, each movement steady and deliberate.
Amid the whistling mountain wind, in the peril of our escape, he shielded me with the utmost care.
Lying on his back, I asked softly, “Is Miss Xun safe?”
His back stiffened. He said, “I’m sorry.”
Only after a long while did he explain, “Last night, I thought something had happened to her. Remembering Lord Xun’s entrustment from back then, I hurried over. Miss Xun had been taken away by the constables of Huai’an Prefecture. When I arrived and asked what had happened, it turned out to be a misunderstanding. Miss Xun was released at once. I immediately rushed back, I…”
So he had gone to Huai’an Prefecture after being absent all night.
He hesitated for an instant, and his hurried steps came to a stop. I heard his low, heavy breathing.
“While I was out running about, whenever I thought of Madam, I felt uneasy. Madam… did not sleep well last night, did you?”
A sour ache surged up to the tip of my nose. I said, “If something like this happens again, I’ll go with you.”
He hurriedly said, “There will be no next time.”
The sun slowly slanted westward.
He took a winter persimmon from his robe and handed it to me. “Have you ever eaten Yangzhou winter persimmons, Madam? I loved them most when I was little. Winter persimmons are sweeter than autumn ones. I suppose it’s because they’ve endured the cold.”
I took it, bit into it, and said, “When I was little, Mother brewed persimmon wine. I secretly took a sip and was drunk for an entire day.”
“And then?” he listened attentively.
“Then Mother found me under the table and carried me back to bed. She didn’t scold me. She only said that with many things in this world, before one has tried them, one always wants to try. But once one does, one discovers they are not at all as one imagined. So in all things, one must think first of the worst possible consequence before attempting them.”
He smiled. “When my elder brother and I did wrong, Mother would say the same. My elder brother climbed a tree to pick persimmons for me and fell…”
He suddenly stopped speaking and fell silent.
It was as though some thorn-covered truth lay right before us.
Draw near, and one would be pricked.
Silently, he weighed it in his heart the entire way.
At dusk, we returned to the city.
I discovered the direction he was carrying me in was wrong.
At the end of the road was the yamen.
I understood what he meant to do and hurriedly called out to stop him. “You mustn’t!”
He said, “This matter may have to do with Elder Brother and Sister-in-law. You were the one injured, and you were the one frightened. If the authorities investigate and find it true, then whatever punishment falls upon them is of their own making. You need have no scruples.”
I climbed down from his back and grabbed hold of him.
Hesitation and pain intertwined across his handsome face. “It is precisely because I cannot bear to believe it that I want to investigate clearly. Right and wrong, black and white—there will be a verdict in the end.”
“I have a way to resolve this. Second Master only needs to return to the residence with me,” I said firmly.
What happened today could not be brought before the authorities.
That the Old Madam would be heartbroken was one thing. That the Cheng brothers’ internal strife and the disharmony in the household would damage the family’s reputation was another.
More importantly, at present, we had no solid evidence in hand. Those thugs had not been caught. So long as the Eldest Young Master and his wife stubbornly denied everything, no crime could be pinned on them. If things went poorly, they might even frame Wu Bi for it, or turn around and accuse the second branch of slandering him in order to monopolize the family estate.
Since they dared to do such a thing, they must have made thorough preparations.
We had to make them spit it out themselves.
Cheng Huaishi followed me back to the residence, half-believing and half-doubting.
Hehua and Wu Bi had already returned early.
Those masked men had come for Cheng Huaishi and me. Seeing that they could not find us, they did not linger to entangle themselves further.
They had suffered some superficial wounds, but nothing serious.
I ordered Wu Bi to go to the shop and summon the young clerk, Heidou. As expected, he had already disappeared. He had not even wanted his monthly wages. Presumably, someone had promised him an even greater benefit.
Relying on my memory, I drew the faces of those villains on paper. They had been masked, with only their eyes exposed.
Once the drawings were finished, I handed them to Wu Bi. “Go find a few people who resemble them. Roughly similar will do.”
Wu Bi nodded.
This time, I had to seize their handle firmly in my hand, so they would never dare harbor evil intentions again.
The afterglow of the setting sun dyed the wandering clouds red. Before long, those clouds transformed into magnificent evening霞, as though entrusted by the wind—some strolling slowly, some hurrying along, turning into a thousand different shapes.
The Eldest Young Master, Cheng Cangshi, came out of a brothel, humming a little tune.
When he reached a narrow alley, I blocked his way.
“Elder Brother—” I called.
His features were five parts similar to Cheng Huaishi’s, only his face was not as sharply defined as Cheng Huai’s. His face was round and smooth, just like the manner in which he had once served as an official—slippery and evasive. Do nothing, offend no one. Greedy, yet cowardly.
When he saw me, he was startled, but he soon composed himself and said lazily, “Why are you here?”
I said coolly, “Where does Elder Brother think I should be? On Guanyin Mountain? In the underworld?”
He coughed twice. “What nonsense are you spouting!”
I said, “Elder Brother, today I went to Huiming Teahouse to collect the accounts and encountered bandits…”
His eyes began to flicker. “They must have been robbers after money. Second Young Madam is only a woman; in the future, it would be better for you to go out less.”
“Elder Brother, those bandits have already been caught—”
“How… how is that possible…”
I stared into his eyes.
“From Elder Brother’s words, it sounds as though you know them.”
“Do not speak nonsense,” he snapped.
I clapped my hands, and Wu Bi dragged over several people, all with their hands bound. Their faces were masked, with only their eyes exposed.
In but an instant, those people were shoved back into the carriage, which then drove off into the distance.
Cheng Cangshi’s face had already turned deathly pale.
Without betraying anything, I said to Cheng Cangshi, “If Elder Brother does not know them, then I can only send them to the authorities. I hear the newly appointed Prefect Geng used to be a harsh official…”
I walked straight ahead. He grabbed me. “Sister-in-law, Sister-in-law, don’t. You can’t do this. We’re one family, one family…”
“One family?” I said coldly. “Elder Brother only remembers we are one family now?”
He shook his head. “It was all your elder sister-in-law’s idea… Tch, that troublesome woman. I said long ago it mustn’t be done, mustn’t be done… Sister-in-law, look, you are safe and sound now. Let this matter be as though it never happened, all right?”
I stopped.
“It is not impossible—unless you agree to one thing…” I paused.
He hurriedly said, “I agree, I agree.”
“Unless Elder Brother writes down the entire affair from beginning to end, so that I may have a clear account—”
He looked at me hesitantly.
I continued walking forward. “Then let us go to the prefectural yamen. In any case, if Elder Brother is unwilling to write it here, once we reach the yamen, after the beating boards and torture clamps have been used, you will have no choice but to write. According to the Great Ming Code, hiring murderers to kill is punishable by one hundred strokes of the rod and exile three thousand li…”
“I’ll agree.” He gritted his teeth. “Only, you must keep your word.”
“Very well.”
As I expected, compared to the Eldest Young Madam, Cheng Cangshi was far easier to deal with.
He was timid, and had only just suffered the loss of his official post. Now that he had done something so fratricidal, his conscience was already guilty. Upon seeing those masked men who resembled the culprits, six of his seven souls had fled.
I put away the confession he had written and returned to the residence, heading toward the Old Madam’s rooms in the northern courtyard.
Before I even entered, I heard the Eldest Young Madam’s voice coming from within.
“To think Mother trusted her. Who would have known she was secretly drawing funds behind Mother’s back to fill the coffers of her natal family? She went to reconcile the accounts today and still has not returned by now. Could it be that she has secretly sent someone to deliver money back to Dongchang Prefecture again?”
So she thought I was dead and had hurried over to lodge a malicious complaint.
I smiled and stepped through the door…