The “Female Bodhisattva” had boundless powers, making Master Qi bleed five hundred thousand taels in one night. Lin Yuchan’s lips curled slightly upward—too bad she couldn’t share this with Su Minguan.

She witnessed this farce in a daze, calculated in her mind, and said to Mr. Zhan: “You’d better hurry home and prepare to find another job. The Qi mansion’s tea business probably won’t be viable for a year or two.”

As for herself—

Last night, in his parting words, Su Minguan had advised her to save money quickly to buy her freedom and leave Defeng Trading Company.

He hadn’t told her to escape. Because in the Qing dynasty, as a runaway slave living as an illegal resident, one’s life was cheaper than a dog’s.

He thought she only had two paths: “redemption” or “escape.” But now it seemed he also had things he couldn’t calculate.

After the mob dispersed, Lin Yuchan made up her mind, suddenly quickened her pace, and slipped into the Qi mansion through a small door.

Snatching chestnuts from the fire—this was the moment.

Everyone in the mansion was in chaos. The usually well-trained servants had become scattered sand, frantically organizing firefighting. With limited water basins and buckets, those not carrying water didn’t dare go far, standing nearby as cheerleaders, putting on a show of desperately protecting their master.

Master Qi was furious in the central hall, hitting anyone he saw and smashing anything he could grab; Young Master Qi hid in his study refusing to show his face; Shopkeeper Wang was ashen-faced flipping through account books, figuring out how to raise five hundred thousand.

These wealthy merchants of the late Qing had long begun leveraging business dealings. Though they seemed to possess vast assets, they also had considerable debts. They couldn’t produce huge amounts of cash on the books—when urgently needing money, they had to either borrow or sell assets.

When Master Qi’s anger subsided slightly, he gritted his teeth and asked Wang Quan: “Who leaked the information? How was the coolie barracks discovered? Are the bodyguards I hired all dead?!”

Wang Quan felt such regret in his heart. The coolie barracks connected to the tea roasting workshop, which Master Qi had repeatedly warned must never be opened to outsiders. If he hadn’t been clever, trying to “catch Su Minguan in a trap,” leading the wolf into the house, how could it have come to this?

But he couldn’t take responsibility himself, could he? He had meant well! Catching a traitor!

His mind was a tangled mess, with the pile of disasters from recent months flashing before his eyes like a revolving lantern.

How had he become so bewitched as to let a stranger into the workshop?

…

Wang Quan recalled the moment Su Minguan first appeared at Defeng Trading Company. The letter of introduction from Jardine Matheson & Co., the draft from London Chartered Bank, impeccable professional knowledge, his perfectly appropriate pickiness after getting the tea samples, and Lin Yuchan’s casual remark: “Even if he becomes suspicious and doesn’t come, your business won’t suffer any loss…”

Wang Quan suddenly raised his head, squeezing bitter smile lines from his oily face, his eyes behind the glasses brightening.

There was one person who seemed insignificant but was like a thin thread connecting this entire chain of schemes.

“Lin Ba Mei,” he pretended to suddenly realize, saying to Master Qi, “that girl—she conspired with the thieves and stole the key to the tea roasting workshop! It must be her!”

The coolie trafficking scandal had spread throughout Guangzhou. The authorities passed the buck to Master Qi; Master Qi passed it to Wang Quan; but Wang Quan wasn’t a salted fish to be slaughtered at will—that pot could continue to be passed.

He wept and wailed, filled with grief and indignation: “I only thought that girl was honest and capable. Who could imagine that people’s hearts are separated by their bellies, that she would do such traitorous things, betraying her master from within! This humble servant deserves death for poor judgment, but I treated her well, only having her do odd jobs daily. That day when the master ordered Western food from Taiping Restaurant, I even gave it to her out of pity…”

Master Qi had never heard of this Lin Ba Mei person. After asking a few questions, he scolded: “Wang Quan, Wang Quan, you brought women into the tea shop—no wonder bad luck has fallen on us! I thought you were so clever in business, but you’re utterly confused about internal affairs. Stupid!”

Wang Quan repeatedly bowed: “Yes, yes, yes, this humble one was soft-hearted for a moment, couldn’t bear to hear the little girl’s crying, so I kept her. It was my fault…”

Master Qi had a belly full of depression with nowhere to vent, and casually said, “Beat her to death.”

For these big capitalists who didn’t treat human lives as precious, killing you meant killing you—did they need to pick an auspicious day?

Wang Quan was startled: “This girl is expensive…”

“Beat her to death! What’s the point of keeping her? To continue betraying us from within?”

Lin Yuchan didn’t know any of this. She heard the head matron arguing with someone: “…Selling people is fine, but I need to review the list! Those capable workers must be kept! Qiu Lan mustn’t be sold to a brothel—her marriage is already arranged!…”

Lin Yuchan rushed back to her dormitory.

Xiao Feng sat on the bed, bent over, picking corns from her feet.

With deformed small feet, the servant girls had heavy workloads and walked frequently. Friction points often developed corns that had to be picked out. For any small-footed girl, skillfully and quickly picking corn was an essential ability.

The other servant girls had heard that the Qi mansion was besieged by violent mobs. Though also panicked, seeing the fire was still far from their rooms, they were all resting individually, hoping the head matron would come late to conscript workers so they could have a day off.

Seeing Lin Yuchan’s tense face with eyebrows so furrowed they couldn’t unfurl, they couldn’t help laughing.

“Haha, Big Foot Girl is scared!—Don’t worry, even if the fire spreads here, you run the fastest!…”

“The master is going to sell all of us to raise money,” Lin Yuchan said expressionlessly. “Those of us who do rough work will mostly be sold to ‘that kind of place.'”

All the girls in the room suddenly raised their heads. Xiao Feng’s hand shook, and she grimaced in pain.

Being a servant to others was already lowly enough. The only fate lower than this was those prostitutes who leaned against doors selling smiles.

Regardless of their looks or market value, being beaten was routine. The lucky ones, when old and faded, would be randomly matched with poor, diseased men; the unlucky ones would contract filthy diseases, and within months, their flesh would rot, not even getting a coffin.

The servant girls worked diligently daily without fault. According to custom, master families wouldn’t easily sell them to dirty places—it would damage their virtue.

But today’s situation was extraordinary. It was said Master Qi had violated serious government laws, and the mansion was in chaos…

Lin Yuchan’s alarmist words suddenly seemed quite realistic.

Lin Yuchan: “I’m going to find the indenture contracts. Is anyone coming?”

She openly packed her things, continuing under the servant girls’ shocked gazes: “Right now, everyone in the mansion is busy fighting fires—no one will mind our whereabouts. If we wait, there won’t be a chance. Sister Xiao Feng told me before that all the mansion’s servant girls’ indenture contracts are in the study behind the head steward’s bedroom.

“We’re sisters—I only ask one thing: don’t inform on us. Even if you do, no one will remember your loyalty. If I die because of this, I’ll become a vengeful ghost and settle accounts with you.”

After speaking, she walked quickly out the door without looking back.

Launching mass movements also required attention to safety. She wouldn’t provide comprehensive door-to-door service like last time when rescuing the coolies. Having thrown out the harsh words, they should fend for themselves.

She vaguely heard the servant girls in the room saying skeptically:

“Impossible, the master is a virtuous gentleman—how could he sell us?”

“My family is gone—where else can I go besides the Qi mansion?”

“Don’t worry, she can’t escape. There are guards at the gate—she’ll probably be dragged back for a beating.”

…

Lin Yuchan picked up a water basin from the roadside, pretended to join the army fighting fires in the embroidered towers, grabbed some charcoal ash from the ground to blacken her face, then pretended to fetch water while gradually moving toward the other side of the Qi mansion’s garden.

Suddenly, there were urgent footsteps beside her.

Xiao Feng’s shoes weren’t properly worn, her foot bindings showing inside and out. With each step, her eyebrows furrowed.

“Ba Mei, I… I still have my mother and siblings at home.”

Some servant girls had already lost their families and had nowhere to go besides the Qi mansion. Xiao Feng was different.

With relatives still alive, even if they sold her a second time, they wouldn’t sell her to that kind of place, would they?

Lin Yuchan nodded and directed, “Go together. Say we’re fighting fires. Others won’t easily suspect.”

While speaking, two or three more people joined them. The servant girls’ faces were deathly pale—for the first time in their lives, they were doing something brave.

The servants coming and going thought they had orders and indeed didn’t ask questions.

They carefully circled to the head steward’s study. The door was open—everyone had run to attend to the master and young master. Some concubine’s little dog had run out, happily carrying a ham.

Lin Yuchan: “Quickly go in and search! Any papers with writing, bring them all out and burn them at the fire scene!”

Knowing the servant girls were illiterate, this was the fastest method.

Many hands make light work. In moments, the room’s chests and boxes were scattered. Stacks of evil indenture contracts fell like snowflakes on the ground.

No time to examine them one by one. But sharp eyes had already found them.

“Ah, mine! This is my father’s handprint!”

Xiao Feng wept with joy.

But Lin Yuchan’s heart sank deeper and deeper, becoming increasingly frantic.

Lin Guangfu’s “daughter-giving document”—she remembered its appearance clearly. The paper quality was different from ordinary rice paper, and it had been blackened by opium smoke in several places. Having been pressed under the bed for several days, it seemed to have urine stains, too.

It wasn’t here.

At the same time, several fierce-looking old women in the distance were dragging wooden clubs toward her dormitory.

They’d been discovered.

Lin Yuchan broke into cold sweat, her whole body hot, and she had trouble breathing.

She desperately tried to calm herself, kneeling to check page by page—

Could it be that her indenture contract was kept separately? At Young Master Qi’s place?

Xiao Feng urged: “Ba Mei, let’s go! If you don’t leave, I’m leaving!”

Lin Yuchan: “You go. Don’t worry about me.”

Xiao Feng tiptoed away in panic, accidentally knocking over the tea jar on the table, spilling fragrance everywhere.

Lin Yuchan suddenly realized.

Since her indenture contract wasn’t here, there was another possible location.

She moved like a startled rabbit, leaping up and running quickly outside.

The deepest gap in that high wall was getting closer and closer—

Still several meters from the gap, suddenly a concubine came running on small feet, grabbing her shoulders and shaking, her willow eyebrows inverted, incoherently angry: “My jade bracelet is missing! Hey, servant girl, did you steal my bracelet? Which ungrateful, cheap slave stole my bracelet?”

Lin Yuchan’s mouth was faster than her brain, immediately saying: “I saw a guard steal jewelry and run out of the mansion. Madam, don’t panic, I’ll go help you get it back!”

Then she turned around and openly jumped out through the gap.

Many people across the street were watching, looking at the black smoke coming from the Qi mansion, pointing and commenting with schadenfreude, and cursing back and forth with the bodyguards and guards by the wall.

Suddenly seeing someone jump over the wall, everyone was startled and quickly backed away. When they saw clearly it was a young girl, they relaxed and pointed at her with relish, contemptuously saying: “Look, look, someone’s abandoning their master and fleeing.”

Several guards heard this and quickly gave chase. Lin Yuchan had already turned into an alley, quickly looking back.

Xiao Feng and the others hadn’t escaped yet. Small feet were a hindrance.

But she had no time to care.

She hadn’t slept all night, and fatigue surged into her limbs like a tide. Forcing herself to stay alert, she headed straight for Defeng Trading Company.

The angry crowd’s first stop had been smashing the tea shop. She saw the shop’s door panels askew, the counters inside in chaos, all the canned and bagged tea from the shelves had vanished, tea chests and baskets were all open, and tea leaves were scattered everywhere on the floor. That little brass bird money box was smashed on the ground, empty inside.

The small tea room’s lock had also been pried open. Fortunately, it was an imported foreign lock that had held the fort for half an hour of fierce pounding before gloriously sacrificing itself, not dishonoring its mission.

By then, the tea shop’s clerks had finally rushed over to protect the shop, fighting desperately to defend the small tea room. Inside were cash, account books, and important contracts—if people had seized them, Defeng Trading Company’s business would be finished.

Now, several guards stood dejected outside the storefront. Two or three clerks inside were silently cleaning up.

The stray dog Mulan happily ran over, charging straight through the broken door panels to find food in the kitchen. No one had the leisure to chase it away.

Passersby remarked regretfully: “We came too late. If we’d come an hour earlier, we wouldn’t have to pay for tea all next year!”

Lin Yuchan slipped into the shop. The clerks all recognized her and thought nothing strange.

She saw the small tea room’s lock was damaged, her face lit up with joy, and she directly pushed the door.

Those rabble who had nearly been sold as coolies, nearly failed to escape their cage, and nearly trampled Lin Yuchan to death, had finally inadvertently done her the biggest favor.

Liu Ershun urgently asked: “What are you doing?”

“The shopkeeper sent me to get something,” she answered without thinking while rummaging through boxes and cabinets. “He urgently needs it.”

Wang Quan should have already received the report. The guards pursuing her were just five minutes away.

The tea shop clerks didn’t know about the mansion’s troubles. They thought that after such disaster, the shopkeeper must have remedial measures, and needing some documents was normal—they all believed without doubt.

Lin Yuchan finally found it—Lin Guangfu’s handwritten “Daughter-Giving Document” with her delicate handprint.

Lin Yuchan quickly scanned it once, memorized “her” birth date and time, deeply moved.

Nearby was also a ridiculous “apprentice contract.” She grabbed them all.

A clerk behind asked: “Ba Mei, what are you taking these things for?”

Lin Yuchan didn’t answer and went straight out.

Liu Ershun finally sensed something wrong, dropped his broom, and chased after: “Hey, girl! Come back! What are you taking this for?”

Lin Yuchan looked around. A barber sat diagonally across, shaving a customer’s scalp.

The barber carried a shoulder pole through streets and alleys. One end held various tools—stools, cloth, knives, scissors; the other end hung a stove with a water basin kept warm. This was the so-called “barber’s pole—one end hot.”

The barber was concentrating on work. Lin Yuchan brazenly moved his hot water basin aside and stuffed the stack of papers in her arms into the stove.

Instantly, flames shot up three feet high. The barber was startled, his hand shook, and the customer’s head became bald in a large patch.

“Where did this unlucky girl come from! Hey! What trouble are you making!”

Lin Yuchan smiled: “Burning paper.”

The flames swallowed “Lin Ba Mei’s” name, the blackened edges spread quickly, and finally that small red handprint also turned into a black butterfly, falling into the barber’s hot water basin.

Having been in the Qing for so long, she had almost forgotten how to laugh wildly. But she felt her heart pounding, fingertips ice-cold, and the stagnant breath that had been hovering in her chest suddenly had its cork pulled and disappeared without a trace.

Burning the indenture contract made her an illegal resident. But an illegal resident was better than a slave.

She ran. The barber and customer chased behind, cursing. The tea shop clerks discussed among themselves and sent someone to chase.

Suddenly, several familiar faces appeared at the intersection. They were guards from the Qi mansion.

They asked everyone: “Have you seen a big-footed servant girl, about this tall?”

Wang Quan’s guards couldn’t find Lin Yuchan in the Qi mansion. The servant girls in her room unanimously said she had run away. The guards weren’t stupid and knew to come to Defeng Trading Company first.

The Qi mansion had today fallen like a phoenix landing on flat ground, thoroughly losing face. But their foundation remained, and deploying people in the city to find a little girl was still a sure victory.

They didn’t dare provoke officials, and the common people were angry, so they couldn’t touch them either; but searching for a mansion’s servant was nobody’s business.

Even if the indenture contract was temporarily missing, nearby residents all recognized her and were giving the Qi mansion guards directions.

Lin Yuchan steadied her breathing. One last hurdle remained.

The Qi mansion guards were thick and tall—one hand could twist her neck three times around. If caught, she could only die with grievances on the street.

In vast Guangzhou city, where was most suitable for hide and seek?

But her time was running out. The Defeng Trading Company clerk was already talking with the guards, then surprisingly pointed in the direction she had left.

The guards immediately gave chase.

Lin Yuchan turned and ran, thinking while running: if she were Su Minguan, which route would she take?

The answer seemed obvious.