Song Yan was talking with Song Ci. Though he was clearly just a ten-year-old child who would only turn eleven in the new year, he possessed a peculiarly calm and steady bearing. Fifth Uncle Song couldn’t help but sigh again—the nephews and nieces from the second branch were all capable of maintaining their composure. Compared to them, even adults couldn’t help but lose some of their presence.
After he had talked for a while, he asked somewhat puzzled: “A’Yan, why did you check the roster against the names again just now? There are only so many people in total. Moreover, we have Steward Qin on this boat. He’s an old general who came down from the battlefield. With him here, what is there to worry about?” It wasn’t that he felt Song Chuyi and Song Yan were being meddlesome—he just felt it was troublesome to check three times a day like this.
Song Yan smiled, not putting him off with superficial words: “Fifth Uncle doesn’t know. Before we left, Grandfather, Eldest Brother, and my maternal uncle all specifically instructed that water bandits are rampant around Qiyuan Town. At the latest, we’ll be entering Qiyuan Town in four or five days. This route wasn’t peaceful to begin with, so naturally we must be more vigilant.”
It truly wasn’t peaceful. Song Ci stared dumbfounded at the three extra people on the roster, unable to help feeling anxious and flustered: “Where did all these people come from? Are they on our boat now or on your elder sister’s boat in the rear?” He was really getting urgent now, standing up to immediately rush outside: “There are all female family members in the back! This won’t do, this won’t do. We need to gather everyone together and do a thorough headcount before proceeding. Who knows what kind of people these infiltrators are? If they really are water bandits—”
If they really were water bandits, it would be disastrous. Thinking that the Cui family members were also staying in that boat in the rear, Fifth Uncle’s heart went cold.
Song Yan stopped him, speaking with sound reasoning: “Fifth Uncle, three extra people appeared—it’s not that three people are missing. If we check one by one and call people to identify them, with the escort guards also present, it will only become more chaotic. If you call everyone together now, it’s easy to alert the enemy.”
Song Ci’s eyes widened. He had never traveled far from home and was always called a bookworm by others. Having him handle such a thorny matter was truly rather difficult for him. But he was the only adult male in this group. By all rights and reason, he should shoulder this responsibility.
Song Yan knew how to deal with such good-natured, unscheming people. He softly explained all the serious stakes of the matter clearly to Fifth Uncle, finally looking at him with a sincere expression: “Grandfather has already made all the arrangements. When the time comes, the navy at Qiyuan Town will come to help. Fifth Uncle should just pretend not to know about this matter. But no matter who calls you, you absolutely must not leave this boat.”
Hearing that his father had made arrangements, Song Ci also breathed a sigh of relief. Although he wrote excellent essays, he was naturally not the material for officialdom. These years he had just been a compiler at the Hanlin Academy without advancing a single step. But he also edited books with sweet contentment, wishing his ears could hear nothing outside his window. Now seeing that Song Chengru didn’t entrust matters to him but instead entrusted them to the two children Song Chuyi and Song Yan, he wasn’t particularly upset either. Though he was somewhat slow, he also knew that these two children had both been personally raised and taught by Old Master Song and Old Madam Song. In the capital, they could still freely accompany Great Uncle and Grandfather in and out of the study to discuss matters—how much more so now that they had left home?
When Song Yan brought this up with Song Chuyi, she breathed a sigh of relief. After all, Fifth Uncle was an elder. If he made some mistake or didn’t cooperate, this matter, even if it could be accomplished, would probably require much more trouble.
Sitting beside her, Yu Shi couldn’t help worrying: “Xiao Yi, these are water bandits! Now that we know there are people of unknown origin on our boat, are we really not going to find them?”
If these water bandits started killing people on the boat and then coordinated from inside and outside with those water bandits outside, and they had reached the territory of Qiyuan Town—wouldn’t that be equivalent to going to their deaths?
“We’ll find them.” Song Chuyi saw Yu Shi’s worry. After all, Cui Huaying was returning to Jinzhong to await her marriage. If something happened on the road, a joyous occasion would truly become a funeral—no one wanted that. Therefore, she told Yu Shi with infinite patience: “Maternal Aunt, don’t worry. I’m about to tie them up right now.”
Right now? Yu Shi was somewhat disbelieving again. If people were missing, one could compare against the roster and read through it to see who individually was missing. But the current situation was that three extra people had appeared. Even if they identified each other, the Song and Cui families didn’t know those escort guards—how could they possibly investigate everything clearly?
Song Chuyi had absolutely no intention of putting her off. Smiling, she glanced at Qing Ying.
Qing Ying then stepped forward with clear articulation and clear logic to explain everything to Yu Shi: “Before boarding, we anticipated that someone might fish in troubled waters along the way, so we’ve been on guard all along. All the servants following from our household have been completely registered, and there are designated people recording their boarding and disembarking. Along the way, Li San and Auntie Li San have disembarked for the longest time and most frequently. Coincidentally, every time they disembark, when we count the people on this side, we discover one more person. Up to now, there are already three extra in total. If we haven’t guessed wrong, these people add one more each time the boat stops at a place. Gradually increasing like this, with our numbers already being large, and with people from two families mixed together in use, plus the escort guards, it becomes difficult to prevent and difficult to discover.”
But Song Chuyi had been prepared early on and had already begun making plans. There were even records of who disembarked at which location. Yu Shi’s anxiety lessened considerably. Holding Song Chuyi’s hand, she asked her: “Since you knew there were extra people when they came aboard, why didn’t you stop them on the spot?”
After asking, she also knew her question was somewhat redundant. If preparations had already been made, one could still control how the situation developed. But if they had stopped the people on the spot and made a scene, who knew whether those people might go mad and create other incidents?
“Then—then if you tie them up now, every time they reach a place, new people from their side will still come aboard. What if their cover is blown at that time?” Yu Shi was getting somewhat confused: “Moreover, are you going to tie up both Li San and Auntie Li San together? If you tie up both Li San and Auntie Li San, the people on that side will quickly discover something is wrong.”
This was also why Song Chuyi had tolerated the situation until now before preparing to tie people up. She needed time to figure out the pattern of how these people boarded the boat and how they identified each other.
Now, after these few days of investigation, she was perfectly clear about which people were the extra ones and where each of them currently was. It was time to negotiate terms with Li San and Auntie Li San.
These two were both clever people. Since they were working for silver, they certainly cherished their lives. Between life and silver, they would know how to choose.