Now, the three—Mo Zi, Bai He, and Xiao Yi—walked to the outside of Qiu Sanniang’s cabin.
“What’s all that noise outside?” Qiu Sanniang had been awakened.
“Miss, I… don’t know.” Because Qiu Sanniang had woken early, and the boat wasn’t as spacious as home, Lu Ju was somewhat flustered. One could hear the copper basin knocking against the kettle with clanging sounds.
“Where has that girl Xiao Yi run off to again? This boat is only so big—if she casually displays her tree-climbing skills for people to see, when we get to Prince Jing’s mansion later, won’t she be missing a pair of ears?” Qiu Sanniang, having been awakened, naturally had a temper upon waking. “Lu Ju, stop banging basins and smashing kettles. Hurry outside and see what’s actually happened—are we being robbed or have we hit a reef?”
“Miss, please don’t speak such inauspicious words.” Bai He quickly pushed the door open and efficiently helped Lu Ju clean up the mess.
Qiu Sanniang hadn’t yet changed clothes and sat on the bed holding a bundle of blankets, eyes half-closed. Only when she saw Mo Zi and Xiao Yi following behind Bai He did her eyes truly awaken.
“You three left me and Lu Ju behind to go watch the excitement yourselves, didn’t you?” Otherwise, how could it be so coincidental that they all came in together?
“It’s just a large town, far inferior to Luo City—what excitement is there to see?” Bai He was considerate of Qiu Sanniang and didn’t want her to see the hellish misery of the people on shore.
Mo Zi wasn’t as considerate as Bai He, or rather understood Qiu Sanniang too well. “The shores are full of refugees who escaped from Yuling, at least a thousand or more. Seeing our boat, children chased after us selling flowers to exchange for a few copper coins to buy a full meal.”
As expected, Qiu Sanniang’s expression didn’t change. She lazily acknowledged with a sound. When Bai He brought two sets of dress and skirts, she looked them over carefully and pointed to a plain-colored skirt with a stream-washed floral pattern base, paired with a wide-sleeved, waist-tied top and a vest embroidered all over with winter jasmine flowers.
“Luzhen is only two or three days’ water journey from Yuling’s Baihua Zhou, so escaping here isn’t strange. That they still thought to bring flowers to sell—Baihua Zhou is truly a place famed for flowers.” Qiu Sanniang perhaps understood the hardships of commerce, but she definitely wasn’t an extremely compassionate person. In all matters, profit came first. “With so many refugees, if the authorities have to manage their food and lodging, won’t rice and salt prices rise? What a pity we’re on this boat and can’t do anything, otherwise we could earn some silver.”
Mo Zi couldn’t believe her ears. Qiu Sanniang had originally planned to turn Wangqiu House into a brothel—she was open-minded enough to accept that, just felt it didn’t sound good for a proper young lady to engage in such business in this era. Later, learning that Qiu Sanniang had people smuggle contraband goods, equivalent to modern smuggling—at least it wasn’t drugs, so she let it go. Now this idea of profiting from war emerged, which she really found hard to bear. So many people were about to starve to death, yet this one was sighing over missing out on earning silver—truly…
“Mo Zi, you’re glaring at me with those big eyes again. What, you think I’m cruel?” Qiu Sanniang dressed herself. “If I don’t earn this kind of silver, someone else will. Besides, buying and selling, earning the price difference among rice merchants—what does that have to do with the starving refugees outside?”
“Miss, there’s a saying: the wool comes from the sheep’s back.” She should have controlled her mouth, but on this matter she couldn’t keep it shut.
“It’s not me directly plucking the wool.” Hearing Mo Zi talk back, Qiu Sanniang’s willow eyebrows twisted up. “Besides, even if no one plucks it, their days would be just as difficult. I could donate a hundred or thousand, but how many could that save? These days, what use is good intention? Without power or influence, doing one or two good deeds—can that change those poor people’s fate?”
“Mo Zi…” Why are they about to quarrel again? Bai He’s heart cried out in alarm.
“That’s not necessarily so. If Miss were willing to convert her tens of thousands of taels dowry to ready silver, saving a thousand lives would be a small matter.” There were also the gold-painted boxes in the trunks containing hundred-thousand-tael banknotes and pearls worth two hundred thousand taels each that could support tens of thousands of refugees in rosy good health, gaining several pounds. However, she’d keep these words in her belly. Though momentarily unable to control her mouth in anger, she couldn’t drive Qiu Sanniang crazy over this and also trap herself in an unknown predicament.
“Hmph—” Qiu Sanniang gave a cold laugh. “You’re quite generous giving away your master’s things, but you’ve forgotten your own worth. If not for me, right now you’d be the same as them, pitifully chasing people to buy flowers.”
“Miss, don’t be angry. Mo Zi is just momentarily agitated. Yuling has fallen as a nation, families destroyed—she herself escaped from Yuling. Seeing those Yuling common people, of course she feels sad and upset.” Seeing the situation turning bad, Bai He immediately and decisively came out to mediate between both sides. “Mo Zi, don’t let anger confuse you. Those refugees are hard to look at, and I also want to help them, but this matter simply isn’t something we can manage.”
“Who says it can’t be managed?” Qiu Sanniang’s sharp fingernails pointed right at Mo Zi’s nose, huffing seven or eight times in anger. “She’s planning to smash out this young miss’s dowry to buy people meals. Truly a remarkable maid.”
“Miss, that was Mo Zi joking with you.” Lu Ju came to help, gripping Mo Zi’s sleeve tightly, words bitten to the tooth roots. “Mo Zi, isn’t that right?”
Mo Zi didn’t know what had come over her. From calling to stop the boat onwards, then hearing Qiu Sanniang’s words, she kept losing her composure. Her mind clearly knew being impulsive was wrong, but once she smelled the floral fragrance seeping into the cabin, she couldn’t control her mouth. Indeed, disaster comes from the mouth. She had thoughts of leaving, but confrontation wasn’t the way to accomplish it.
“Mo Zi?” Lu Ju grew anxious. Seeing her dazed as if unable to come back to herself, she really pinched her arm hard.
One could say that this pinch jolted Mo Zi awake.
She lowered her shoulders and half-closed her eyes. “Yes, Miss. Mo Zi was just joking.”
She had submitted, but Qiu Sanniang wasn’t so easily appeased. She said coldly, “You made such an interesting joke with me, cheering me up quite well this early morning. How about this? Since you’re so heartbroken that those Yuling people have no food, share their hardships—don’t eat for these three days either.”
When Qiu Sanniang was angry, she didn’t strike people, but that didn’t mean there was no punishment. She was now punishing Mo Zi with three days of no meals.
“Miss.” Bai He wanted to plead for Mo Zi.
But Mo Zi readily agreed. At this point, having already compromised, there was no use further provoking Qiu Sanniang. Better to accept the punishment and dissipate her anger.
“Then you may leave.” Qiu Sanniang also said to Bai He and Lu Ju, “You two leave as well.” The three were good sisters, while she alone was the villain.
Mo Zi smiled slightly, bent her knees in courtesy, and withdrew.
After all three had left, Qiu Sanniang saw Xiao Yi staring at her and said irritably, “What? Are you competing with Mo Zi over who has bigger eyes? One after another, opposing me—is that it?”
“Miss, that money-making idea really isn’t very good. If you saw those people outside, you wouldn’t have said such things.” It had nothing to do with loyalty or not—Xiao Yi just honestly expressed her thoughts.
“I just said it casually, I didn’t actually earn that silver. If Mo Zi spoke like you do, wouldn’t that have been the end of it? She came at me glaring first, making me irritated to look at, and didn’t speak directly with me—what sheep’s wool, then dragging in the dowry, all sarcastic and strange.” Mo Zi didn’t know that when her expression was cold and stern, she exuded a kind of noble air that made people look up to her.
“I see that when Miss and Mo Zi bicker, Miss enjoys it more.” Xiao Yi had closely followed Qiu Sanniang all along and knew certain of her bad habits.
“I enjoy it less than she does. I punished her with three days of no meals, and she cheerfully left. Didn’t you see how her mouth stretched like that?” Qiu Sanniang imitated Mo Zi’s expression.
“That wasn’t enjoyment.” It was having no choice, right? “No one who can’t eat for three days would be happy.”
“I won’t let her eat meals—can’t she eat dishes? Besides, won’t Bai He and Lu Ju secretly save food for her?” She wouldn’t go hungry at all.
“Miss, why must you always mess with Mo Zi?” She could refrain from asking about other things, but this question had been in Xiao Yi’s heart for a long time.
“This time it was she who provoked me. Where is there such a good miss as me, letting her talk back like that, only punishing her with no meals?” And only on the surface at that. “She has no awareness of being a maid, but I have awareness of being a master.”
“Miss, what if Mo Zi comes from great wealth and nobility?” This question had also been there for a long time.
“So what? Haven’t you heard—a phoenix in distress is worse than a chicken. Since she signed the contract, even if she was a princess before, as long as I don’t release her, she must serve as my maid, pouring tea and serving water for me.” Qiu Sanniang actually had a clear understanding in her heart.
Before long, Concubine Madam Wei’s little maid came knocking on the door, saying the boat had entered the dock and asking Qiu Sanniang to go forward and disembark with them for a meal.
On the deck, Qiu Sanniang and Xiao Yi saw dozens of soldiers with weapons lined up on both sides of the gangplank, not knowing what had happened.
“What’s going on?” Qiu Sanniang didn’t see any refugees—the dock showed ordinary busy scenes.
“Just now naval soldiers came aboard wanting to search through trunks and boxes. Later, learning this was Prince Jing’s marriage-welcoming boat, it became like this.” Mo Zi was pushed forward by Bai He and Lu Ju to Qiu Sanniang’s side to “redeem herself through merit.”
Nothing else to say—after her insubordination, Qiu Sanniang’s punishment was actually light. Mo Zi secretly felt fortunate that back when she was about to die, she hadn’t encountered an unreasonable, violence-loving “life-saving benefactor.” It was lacking in ambition, but life wasn’t as easy and carefree as imagined, especially in this era—women could hardly move a step.
Qiu Sanniang glanced at Mo Zi. Her expression didn’t turn ugly. She acknowledged with a faint sound and let it pass.
Whether Mo Zi or Qiu Sanniang, these two were formidable characters who addressed issues, not people. One matter—once spoken about, punished for, and acknowledged—the two could still get along calmly afterward. All people of great spirit shared this quality. This was what people often called birds of a feather flocking together. Although the two had vastly different personalities, in having hearts higher than heaven they were exactly the same, far stronger than ordinary women. Such women were rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns, yet two had encountered each other, inevitably clashing sharply while also carrying appreciation.
“Sanniang, because these two days’ journey delayed quite a bit, Second Master has complained to me not a little.” Concubine Madam Wei came up from behind.
“Aunt Yu, I haven’t.” Xiao Wei heard every word.
“In any case, after today, this boat won’t stop. I’ll have to endure dizziness all the way back to the capital. Sanniang, if there’s anything you need, hurry and have your maids get everything ready in a bit, lest you miss this village and there’s no such shop ahead.” Concubine Madam Wei smiled kindly.
Miss Wei Six, supported by maids, had a deathly pale face and glanced at Xiao Wei.
Qiu Sanniang took Li Shi, who had just walked over, with her left hand and Concubine Madam Wei with her right, then turned her head to say to Mo Zi, “I don’t know what we need. You few go look around yourselves and return before the boat departs.”