The Heaven and Earth Society members also knew this wasn’t the time to fight desperately. Though exhausted, they reacted quickly, pushing open a small door beside the moldy Buddha statues and picking up small knives from behind the door.
At the same time, they discussed in surprise: “We didn’t reveal our whereabouts when crossing the river—how could the soldiers find us?”
Lin Yuchan’s heart sank. It couldn’t be Aunt Hong… no, Su Minguan had always hidden his identity from her, and when Aunt Hong was rowing, the river surface was completely quiet—there couldn’t have been any boats following.
Behind that door was a pigsty with more than a dozen fat pigs sleeping soundly. Everyone acted as if nothing was unusual, quickly retreating amid the pigs’ grunting sounds.
They were used to it, but Lin Yuchan was shocked.
This temple was indeed strange. Which Buddhist temple raised pigs?
Su Minguan leaned on her shoulder, frowning at the smell of the second senior brother. Seeing her confusion, he smiled bitterly.
“What’s the homophone for pig?” he hinted.
Lin Yuchan burst out laughing. Being obsessed with “overthrowing Qing and restoring Ming” to this extent was… truly persistent.
After the soldiers attacked, these fat pigs wouldn’t have a good ending. She hesitated for a moment, then took it upon herself to open the pigsty gate.
Su Minguan smiled as he watched her foolishness, presumably having endured these second senior brothers for a long time himself.
While watching, he was distracted, seriously counting the number of people retreating.
He suddenly called out softly: “Wait, we’re missing someone.”
His voice was weak, and the society members busy escaping, didn’t hear him.
Lin Yuchan immediately acted as a megaphone, calling out loudly: “We’re missing someone!—Ah, where’s that fake monk?”
The society members had various appearances, but only the fake monk’s bald head was shiny and very conspicuous. The members were used to seeing him and didn’t think it strange, but Lin Yuchan had hardly seen any monks since crossing over, so she paid particular attention.
When she said this, several people cried out, stopping in their tracks: “Yes, where’s Monk Mi? Hey, monk!”
Lin Yuchan thought it seemed that not everyone in the Heaven and Earth Society was a comrade with a firm revolutionary will. When facing great enemies, some ran faster than others.
But Su Minguan thought one layer deeper. He suddenly changed color and asked in a low voice: “After you were captured, did the authorities interrogate you about the location of society meeting places?”
Uncle Cheng thumped his chest: “Of course we wouldn’t say a word! Look at this scar—”
He also realized what was happening, his face darkening as he cursed: “Damn his mother, Monk Mi must have betrayed us!”
“We can’t take this route anymore—there must be an ambush.” Su Minguan raised his eyelids. “Climb over the wall from behind the temple.”
Everyone immediately turned around, Uncle Cheng shouting to Lin Yuchan: “Little shaman, don’t stand there dazed, come with us!”
Heaven and Earth Society members strictly observed the principle of “eliminating the strong to help the weak.” Even though they considered this little girl not one of their kind, even though they looked down on her in many ways, they wouldn’t abandon her during retreat.
Climbing over the low wall, there were large stretches of tidal flats and river ponds. Haizhuang Temple covered a considerable area, and Henan Island wasn’t as crowded as the city. From far away, they could see torches in the soldiers’ hands as teams of elite troops spread out to search.
The escaped fat pigs wandered around everywhere, occasionally tripping the soldiers and causing bursts of cursing.
Even Lin Yuchan, who had no fighting experience, knew that currently the only way out was to split up into small groups and quickly escape into the countryside, avoiding any encounter with the soldiers.
Someone rushed to Su Minguan’s front: “Minguan is seriously injured—I’ll carry you.”
Without asking, he squatted down to lift him. Su Minguan’s wounds were all on his chest and ribs. When someone suddenly touched them, stars exploded before his eyes, cold sweat burst from his forehead, and he nearly fainted. He struggled and rolled to the ground, desperately hugging a tree stump for safety.
Lin Yuchan couldn’t bear it and volunteered: “I’ll do it. I know where his injuries are.”
If someone thought carefully about this sentence, it implied three things: she had seen everything; she had also handled him; and he had been willing.
Although in this urgent moment of not being able to attend to everything, people might not parse the words carefully, Su Minguan still felt his glorious image had been greatly devastated. His gaze was like knives, sending her stern warning after stern warning.
Unfortunately, it was too dark for her to see.
He gritted his teeth and leaned against Lin Yuchan’s arm, feeling wronged, softly directing the members to disperse.
“Uncle Cheng, you and I take four people, deliberately expose ourselves, hold back the soldiers, and cover the others.”
Lin Yuchan’s heart trembled as she said in a low voice: “You can’t do it!”
Injured like this, if it were modern times, he’d need immediate medical attention and at least a month in the hospital.
“A’Mei, you come.” He acted as if he hadn’t heard, having her support him as they passed through the temple’s final mountain gate. The low wooden archway hadn’t been walked through in who knows how many years, standing precariously among a pile of weeds and shrubs. A large banyan tree hung down countless streamers, concealing a narrow flight of steps that passed through the archway and stopped at a small river channel. Quiet water flowed meandering and branching, flowing into the black night.
A small wooden boat was tied to the shore.
“Get on.” Su Minguan commanded without explanation. “This waterway goes directly to the Pearl River, with farmland on both sides. Find a safe place to wait until dawn, and when the ferry opens for business, immediately cross the river. The soldiers only know this is a meeting place for male society members—they won’t expect a girl. Even if they see you and question you a few times, I believe you can handle it.”
Lin Yuchan was shocked and speechless.
“Su Minguan, what do you mean by this?” A surge of anger came from nowhere, making her voice slightly hoarse. “I won’t drag you down! Your group of brothers and uncles are all sick and disabled now—having an extra helper doesn’t cost you wages!”
Su Minguan’s face was cold. The slight genuine emotion from just now seemed to be swept away by the tide, and he became again the cunning, unfathomable young merchant master. He pressed his hands on her shoulders, pushing hard without any tender feelings for the fairer sex. Lin Yuchan didn’t want to wrestle with an injured person and stepped back to the stern step by step.
“Miss Lin, a word of advice: in the future, don’t act so impulsively as you did today. Find ways to save money to buy your freedom and look for opportunities to leave Defeng Trading Company. You understand some foreign languages, don’t you? If you have difficulties, don’t be afraid to ask foreigners for help—they owe us Chinese too much. Helping you wouldn’t be charity, it would be atonement. Also… oh right, don’t tell anyone you know Heaven and Earth Society people. Don’t say you know me either. Just pretend I’m dead.”
Lin Yuchan listened with pursed lips, suddenly feeling an ominous premonition—was this “a word” of advice? This rambling was almost becoming a short essay!
She felt a bit guilty and asked softly: “You… what are your chances of escaping?”
Su Minguan smiled obscurely and said coldly while backing away: “So concerned about me?”
Her mind heated up, and she instantly forgot that “word of advice,” impulsively jumping toward shore.
“I can’t just stand by and…”
Su Minguan suddenly raised his gun, pointing it at her chest.
Lin Yuchan raised the oar to block in front of her: “…I’m leaving, I’m leaving.”
He raised an eyebrow, turned the gun barrel aside, pulled the trigger, and the gunpowder bullet hit the banyan trunk directly. There was a series of sharp cracking sounds as the banyan tree crashed down, smashing the rotten wooden archway and blocking the narrow path, blending with the surrounding trees and shrubs.
A calm voice came from behind the jumbled wood and grass.
“Miss Lin, farewell.”
With the giant tree fallen, in the night, unless one looked carefully, no one would discover that there had originally been an exit here.
Lin Yuchan stood there stupidly, tears and snot flowing from the gunpowder smoke.
The soldiers’ shouting voices grew ever closer, and distant firelight covered the starlight.
Su Minguan didn’t retreat immediately. Footsteps lingered for a moment, and when he didn’t get her response, he suddenly laughed softly.
“Hey, she left fast.”
Lin Yuchan calmed her emotions, gripped the oar tightly, and went downstream with the current.
Just as Su Minguan had said, the soldiers only set ambushes and attacked near Haizhuang Temple, not deploying too many troops to sweep the surrounding villages. After all, those eagerly seeking merit in bandit suppression were the masters in the government offices, while the real soldiers holding guns and bleeding only wanted to collect pay, answer roll call, and go home to sleep.
She only encountered scattered patrol soldiers. She wore Aunt Hong’s clean clothes and, at first glance, looked like a local farm woman—the soldiers didn’t even look at her.
By dawn, sunlight filled the riverbank, and over a hundred boats emerged like bamboo shoots after rain. The people began another ordinary, busy day.
People gradually spread rumors, saying that last night soldiers had gone to Haizhuang Temple to “suppress bandits,” disturbing nearby residents so they couldn’t sleep well.
Lin Yuchan boarded the ferry and silently listened to people chatting, finally hearing someone ask: “So, did they catch any bandits? Was the Jin Lanhe ghost broken?”
“What bandits? It’s just ghost hauntings!” answered a night watchman who was sitting in a barber stall on the ferry boat, enjoying the services of a comb removing lice and bamboo picks cleaning ears, shivering all over with pleasure. “You didn’t see—the soldiers kicked down doors and broke into houses, demanding money and food!”
The listeners laughed contemptuously, not forgetting to lower their voices: “If they’d caught some big shot, they’d be rushing back to celebrate their victory by now. Would they take it out on us common people?”
Another person analyzed knowledgeably: “Actually, those society members were eliminated long ago. Now, when soldiers shout about ‘suppressing bandits,’ they’re just cheating silver and rations from their superiors.”
Someone said, “Exactly. Our Great Qing has been stable for ten thousand years—where would so many bandits come from?”
But the tone sounded like sarcastic reverse talk. Everyone laughed awkwardly and concluded: “Don’t discuss national affairs.”
Lin Yuchan let out a soft breath. Her twisted internal organs from the night slowly returned to their proper places as she looked back at the black smoke from Haizhuang Temple’s spire.
Maybe Su Minguan was fine. But he could never again appear in the bustling markets of Shangxiajiu with straight back, puffed chest, and quick strides as before.
The tragedy of clever people was that they might think their fate wasn’t controlled by heaven, but their destiny was like a scorching bullet, lying dormant in the barrel, destined to fly somewhere. The only thing they could choose was when to pull the trigger.
Lin Yuchan first went to Aunt Hong’s small courtyard—it was Aunt Hong’s sister who answered the door. Lin Yuchan reported she was safe and ran away before Aunt Hong could chase out to return the money.
Then she returned to the Qi mansion. Today’s commotion had stirred the entire city, with soldiers on every street. The Qi mansion’s steward counted people every morning at dawn. If he discovered her missing and made any announcement, she would immediately be labeled a bandit accomplice with nowhere to escape.
She had to return first to answer roll call.
Before even reaching Xiguan, she felt the atmosphere was wrong. The streets were packed with people.
This was usually a high-end residential area where shabby common people rarely passed through. Today, it seemed like a charity soup kitchen had opened, with poorly dressed civilians flooding the streets and alleys, shouting.
Moreover, many people held hoes and shovels in their hands, looking aggressive as they headed straight for the Qi mansion’s main gate!
All of the Qi mansion’s guards and bodyguards were in formation, holding up clubs and loudly scolding, standing in a row outside the mansion gate.
The people cursed in crude dialect—”the rich are heartless” and “profiteering merchants give back lives” were mild; “damn your whole family,” “eat shit,” and “screw your mother” came one after another, with some throwing dirt clods over the walls.
Lin Yuchan was stunned.
Revolution? So fast?
What surprised her even more was that the one leading the cursing with great enthusiasm was none other than Kou Laicai, who had been thrown out just days ago!
She saw that he was no longer hunched over or cowering. Surrounded by hundreds and thousands of masses, he jumped and cursed: “Our Great Qing is being ruined by these heartless profiteering merchants! They do black-hearted business, accumulating so much gold and silver treasure while we can only eat chaff and swallow vegetables, being trampled under their feet! Everyone charges in together and brings out Master Qi’s treasures and Master Qi’s concubines!”
The crowd roared in agreement, cursing loudly, but no one charged forward, waiting for someone to take the lead.
A middle-aged man in a long robe with a round face came running hurriedly down the road—it was Accountant Zhan from Defeng Trading Company. Seeing this situation, he waved his hands repeatedly with a worried face, calling: “What are you doing? Let’s talk nicely…”
Lin Yuchan grabbed him and pulled him away: “Mr. Zhan! Don’t go over there first!”
She instinctively felt this “revolution” didn’t seem right. If Mr. Zhan rashly showed himself, he’d also count as a “profiteering merchant accomplice” and might well be trampled to death by angry masses.
She pulled Mr. Zhan to a secluded spot and asked: “What’s happening?”
Mr. Zhan sighed heavily, his two mustaches drooping like seven-twenty, wiping sweat as he said: “Who knows! This morning someone suddenly came to make trouble, wanting to smash the tea shop, saying something about trafficking coolies. We quickly closed the doors, then heard someone was making trouble at Master Qi’s mansion, and the government sent people to investigate. The master and the shopkeeper are both at the government office answering questions! You tell me, we’re honest businesspeople—how could we traffic coolies? Ba Mei, are you coming from the mansion? What do the people in the mansion say? Is the young master there? I, I still have a wife and children—I can’t bear this accusation!”
Mr. Zhan was frantic, speaking incoherently. Lin Yuchan asked a few more questions and, combined with the discussions of the people on the scene, finally understood what had happened.
Yesterday, her “heroic deed” had freed most of the imprisoned coolies. Most of these people quietly returned home, and though they bore injuries and resentment, they didn’t dare seek justice, planning to swallow this bitter pill; but among them was one deceived young man who was originally a runaway son from a wealthy family with an official uncle. When he returned home disheveled, his clan investigated his whereabouts and said they couldn’t tolerate it—they would pursue this to the end.
So they assembled a group of village braves and local militia to seek justice from Defeng Trading Company. Other coolie trafficking victims saw someone taking the lead and gradually joined in. The momentum grew until they gathered about a thousand people—victims from this incident, victims from before, those whose family members had disappeared and suspected the Qi mansion of kidnapping, those who had been bullied by Qi mansion servants in the past, those who simply found the Qi mansion’s wealth offensive, and those fishing in troubled waters to steal things…
In a grand procession, they smashed the Defeng Trading Company’s storefront and then came to surround the Qi mansion, immediately blocking half of Xiguan’s roads. Nearby “friendly merchants” also sent people to watch the excitement, creating citywide turmoil, with the scene about to spiral out of control.
Master Qi woke up to hear that the coolies had escaped and was instantly dumbfounded. Not daring to confront the violent mob, he quietly slipped out the back door, planning to go to the authorities for reinforcements. After all, he was essentially “trafficking slaves by imperial decree”—without the authorities’ tacit approval or even support, who could do this kind of business?
Who knew the Guangzhou prefect would immediately turn hostile: “Good! So you’ve been illegally recruiting workers to go overseas, treating our Great Qing’s laws as child’s play! Guards, arrest him!”
Master Qi went from honored guest to prisoner in seconds, only then realizing he’d been used and discarded by the authorities, becoming a ready-made scapegoat.
Since ancient times, scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants—merchants were the lowest. When officials deigned to cooperate with you, if things went well, that was proper and expected; once things went wrong, how could it be the officials’ fault? You bear all the blame.
Master Qi had vast family wealth but unfortunately had no one who could speak for him in official circles. He could only accept his fate.
Of course, even the biggest problems could be settled with money. Master Qi knelt in the government office, swearing oaths and constantly raising the stakes, promising to donate five hundred thousand taels of silver in “military funds” before finally being released. He dejectedly took a small sedan chair back to the mansion to raise cash.
These five hundred thousand taels of silver finally bought a team of dutiful officials who waved broadswords to drive away the people: “Disperse! All disperse! You unruly people, if you don’t leave, we’ll arrest you all as bandit accomplices!”
Only then did the people scatter in confusion, leaving chaos behind.
The Qi mansion’s main gate had been smashed full of holes, several gaps had been broken in the surrounding walls, the stone lions, glazed tiles, and precious wood at the entrance had all been stripped away, and the embroidered towers inside the walls had been hit with torches, burning down several buildings. If Master Qi hadn’t paid those five hundred thousand taels readily enough and had been a moment later, it would have been a spreading fire with no salvation.
The heartless wealthy merchant had finally faced reckoning, falling into the vast ocean of people’s war.