Lin Yuchan ran wildly through the streets and alleys. Her “dear father” chased after her with a ferocious expression. The neighbors, crows, and sparrows in the alley all came out to watch the excitement.

Lin Guangfu had originally had a well-fed and clothed home, but unfortunately, after becoming addicted to opium, his savings were completely swept away. At first, he could still go to opium dens daily for pleasure, but later, he couldn’t afford the dens and could only smoke at home. Gradually, he couldn’t even afford high-grade Bengal “company earth,” only able to buy domestic earth opium with impurities, smoking himself into illness.

For that choking puff of earth opium, he first pawned his wife, then “sent away” several daughters. Naturally, his son had to be kept, but he wasn’t that attentive, often only getting up to find food when the child cried from hunger.

These past few days there hadn’t even been any food. As Lin Guangfu ran, he felt his legs growing weak. But he still pursued tirelessly.

He regretted that over these years, focused only on smoking, he had let his daughters grow up carelessly, especially Eighth Sister. When she reached the age for foot binding, he hadn’t had time to manage it, allowing her to develop into a big-footed girl, being laughed at and unable to marry was secondary, but hatefully, she could now run extremely fast. What karma!

He saw that Eighth Sister had silver in her hands. At least two taels. He didn’t care how the money came to be; anyway, he had seen it, so it should be his. With this money, he wouldn’t have to lie at home but could go to an opium den to enjoy himself, and could smoke the purest company earth!

Holding this belief, he ran faster and faster, while desperately thinking up curses like “unfilial” and “rebellious.” Seeing that it was a father disciplining his daughter, no one around interfered. Some even helped block Lin Yuchan, scolding: “A girl, showing herself in public and running around, how shameful!”

Lin Yuchan ran around like a headless fly, somewhat regretting her righteous choice earlier. Was the church’s seminary still recruiting?

But she no longer recognized where the church was. Suddenly, a stone-paved main road appeared before her eyes. Looking up, there was a great gate with giant drums standing at both ends, and several imposing characters in the center: Guangzhou Prefecture.

A row of gray-faced criminals was being pushed and shoved as they walked out. A group of idle civilians followed behind to watch.

Lin Yuchan squeezed into the crowd, darting about and squeezing behind the giant drums into a pile of miscellaneous items. The prefecture yamen entrance was chaotic, and no one noticed her for the moment.

Lin Guangfu had been watching her all along and stumbled after her, only to be pushed over by a yamen runner: “What are you doing? The prefecture yamen is an important place. Why are you acting wild?”

He glanced at the giant drum by the gate and sneered: “Want to beat the drum to appeal for justice?”

Lin Guangfu stared with his sunken eyes and shook his head reluctantly. That giant drum was crusted with dust, and all Guangzhou people knew it was just for show. Last time, a madman beat it randomly, disturbing the official, and got his legs broken with bamboo rods.

Lin Guangfu simply sat down with a thud in front of the hat shop across the street, gritting his teeth and cursing: “Cheap goods, let’s see how long you can hide!”

Lin Yuchan was very patient, gripping the silver tightly and facing off with her “dear father” across the street.

The several criminals brought out from the prefecture yamen had already been fitted with cangues and were taking their positions, preparing for public display.

Exactly like what Lin Yuchan had seen in “late Qing old photographs,” they were mostly disheveled and dirty, with heavy wooden cangues around their necks and iron chains connecting their hands and feet. Two guarding yamen runners held leather whips, lashing anyone whose posture wasn’t correct.

A yamen runner chief with a cigarette in his mouth leaned against a bundle of hemp rope, gripping the handle of his whip. Facing a crowd of curious civilians, he loudly read out each person’s crimes.

“…Li A’San, from Foshan, stole property worth eight hundred wen, sentenced to wear the cangue for public display for three days… Wu Yuliang, from Zhanjiang, left his native village without permission, to be exiled after a public display… Shi Ansheng, from Xin’an, committed smuggling crimes…”

Everyone looked dejected and weakly cried out, “wronged” and “spare my life.”

The watching civilians laughed and chatted, pointing and commenting.

Among the row of downcast heads in wooden cangues, Lin Yuchan suddenly saw a familiar face.

Unlike the others, he wasn’t disheveled and dirty, just haggard in appearance, but his eyes were still bright. He gripped the edge of the wooden cangue forcefully, with several cuts on the back of his hands from broken stones, already scabbed over.

“Su Minguan,” the yamen runner spat tobacco at him and drawled, “Heaven and Earth Society bandit, after three days of public display to be sent to the capital—execution!”

The civilians exclaimed “Ah!” and repeated in low voices: “Execution!”

Lin Yuchan couldn’t believe it. Her ears buzzed lightly, and a series of images flashed through her mind: the gray earth in the stone pit, the pastor distributing porridge in front of the church, the bloody severed head of “bandit leader Jin Lanhe”…

This little brother, who had helpfully collected her corpse, who looked gentle and harmless, was also a “bandit”?

His name was Su Minguan.

In this great Qing Dynasty, the “bandit ratio” was too high!

Su Minguan forcefully extended his hand through the gaps in the iron chains, waving at the yamen runner, and said righteously: “I don’t know what crimes these brothers committed, but I, this humble person, am truly wronged. I merely helped someone collect a corpse and was confusedly arrested by you, eating stale rice for three days. Going to the capital to appeal is certain. The emperor is so wise, he will surely see that I, Su, am an innocent civilian caught up in this, and will certainly clear my name—I might as well appeal now. Hey, is there any kind of person to help me beat that drum…”

Although he was appealing, he wasn’t as dejected as the others beside him, nor did he bow and kowtow, but simply argued his case reasonably, defending himself.

As he spoke, he casually glanced toward the appeal drum and suddenly froze.

A small corner of clothing was visible behind the drum. The little girl was small in stature; one wouldn’t notice unless specifically looking in that direction.

He didn’t recognize her, though. Lin Yuchan had “returned from the dead,” and although she still looked sickly, she was quite different from her deathly appearance then.

He was just puzzled. How could someone be hiding behind the appeal drum?

Lin Yuchan was staring blankly at him, appealing, when suddenly their eyes met, and she immediately broke out in a cold sweat, her ears burning hot.

If she were discovered, she’d be finished. She hastily put her index finger to her lips and waved gently at him.

Su Minguan also reacted quickly, withdrawing his gaze with apparent indifference and looking toward a seemingly venerable old man in the crowd, continuing to chatter: “…Please judge fairly, sir. Releasing me would make everyone happy, and it would save the prefect trouble too, wouldn’t it…”

Lin Yuchan exhaled quietly and wiped away sweat.

The other criminals, lacking water and food daily, conserved their energy wherever possible; even their cries of “wronged” were quite perfunctory. Only Su Minguan was so talkative. The yamen runners had been standing in the street long enough to be bored, so they immediately retorted unceremoniously.

“Little rascal, keep making things up! The mass grave outside Wuxian Gate is filled with beheaded rebels. If you were a law-abiding citizen, what were you doing there? Everyone tells me, this Su Minguan collected corpses for rebels, making him an accomplice of rebels, right?”

The watching crowd laughed: “The sergeant is right.”

Su Minguan became somewhat discouraged and said loudly, “I wasn’t collecting corpses for rebels. I happened to pass by and saw a sick girl who had died there. As the ancients said, when the rabbit dies, the fox grieves, and all creatures mourn their kind. I hadn’t done a good deed in a long time, so I was possessed by ghosts and wanted to move her to Yizhong. I didn’t expect the girl to come alive halfway through, scaring me to death…”

The yamen runners laughed even harder: “Can’t rebels be female? Are you innocent just because you associated with a female rebel?—You say she’s not a rebel, so where is she? Find her for confrontation.”

Su Minguan paused and said, “I left her at the chapel on Zengsha Street in Nanguan. I don’t know where she is now.”

The yamen runner’s face darkened as he drawled: “You know the foreign masters have extraterritorial rights. Even if long-haired bandits hide inside, we can’t go in to search. Hmph, using foreigners as a shield, your intentions are punishable.”

The watching crowd said: “This man speaks nothing but lies. He’s a rebel without a doubt. The masters needn’t waste words with him.”

The crowd was indignant, all feeling that Su Minguan’s sophistry had too many holes and was simply insulting their intelligence.

Lin Yuchan was blocked behind thick layers of onlookers, her gaze passing through bundles of queues of varying thickness, sizing up that unlucky Su Minguan.

Although his appearance was haggard and his hair stood up chaotically, he remained calm and composed. Against the backdrop of the dark, rough bandits around him, his features appeared even more refined, unlike an ordinary person.

The yamen runners naturally disliked this attitude and joked with each other: “This young man looks quite good. When he gets to the capital, he might catch some imperial consort’s eye and be taken into the palace to serve. But even then he couldn’t escape the chop, hahaha…”

The watching crowd laughed. A father pointed at him to teach his son: “Look, this is still a young man from a respectable family. Not learning properly leads to this fate…”

Among the civilian crowd was a hunchbacked old scholar who drawled as he educated everyone: “Actually, these criminals, if they were truly law-abiding villagers, would have relatives or friends vouch for them, pay a few taels of silver as bail, and would have been taken home long ago. Only these few lonely ghosts remain, without even a guarantor, so they can only be dealt with strictly and severely. This is the yamen’s way of doing business…”

The old scholar stroked his beard and suddenly turned to Su Minguan. Perhaps unable to bear seeing his bright future ruined at such a young age, he asked earnestly, “Young man, do you have parents or siblings? Have them come speak with the official properly. Once your innocence is proven, won’t that work?”

Su Minguan rested on the wooden cangue and smiled: “Thank you for your concern. I have no family.”

The old scholar hurriedly said, “Then friends would work too. In life, one always makes a couple of loyal friends, right? Whose family do you work for? Where is your employer?”

Su Minguan hesitated for a moment and said, “I have none.”

This was bringing disaster upon himself. The watching crowd concluded with regret: “So he’s a vagrant. What a waste of such good looks.”

Su Minguan rolled his eyes slightly, looked at the fellow sufferers beside him, tilted his head against the wooden cangue, and stopped talking.

The cangue display customarily ended at noon. The crowd had seen enough excitement; their stomachs grew empty, and they gradually dispersed.

Lin Yuchan glanced sideways and saw Lin Guangfu still glaring malevolently in her direction. However, his body was swaying left and right, shaking more and more violently, with strange expressions occasionally crossing his face as he reached to grab his own throat.

Lin Yuchan’s heart stirred: he was probably having withdrawal symptoms.

Sure enough, after another quarter hour, Lin Guangfu began pulling his queue, his face alternating between red and white, his teeth chattering loudly. He collapsed on a pile of wooden boards, twitching slightly, then vomited, making a complete mess of the steps in front of the hat shop.

Passersby walked around him with disgust.

The hat shop owner poked his head out from a pile of skullcaps, threw down a few copper coins, and scolded: “Opium addict, find an opium den! Don’t ruin my business!”

Lin Guangfu grabbed the copper coins, not bothering to thank him, hunched over, and ran madly toward the nearest opium den.

The displayed criminals had also been exposed long enough. Several yamen runners pulled the iron chains and led them back to prison. The chains clashed against each other, clanging noisily.

Lin Yuchan took advantage of the chaos to crawl out from under the appeal drum.

She gripped the small piece of silver in her hand and thought blankly: What should she do now?

Snatching the silver from Lin Guangfu’s hands had been purely instinctive. But her biological father was still alive. Defying him and leaving home was a serious crime. No matter where she fled, she would automatically become a fugitive. That unlucky criminal who had “left his native village without permission” was a precedent.

As long as the authorities questioned her once, her Qing Dynasty journey would immediately end. Carrying a fortune would only make her die faster.

Not to mention, she was a girl, making survival twice as difficult.

However, having come this far, she should at least try to struggle.

Separated from the prefecture yamen by one alley was the low prison entrance. The yamen runners first pushed the criminals inside, then filed in to unlock the prison doors.

Lin Yuchan gathered her courage and called out to the yamen runner who stayed outside. He had a string of keys hanging from his waist and should be a minor official.

“…Sergeant, sir.”

The yamen runner was chewing a wad of tobacco and turned around, asking indistinctly: “Who?”

Lin Yuchan endured the strange tobacco smell and carefully chose her words: “Sergeant, sir, someone just said that these criminals on display can have someone vouch for them and take them home?”

The yamen runner casually grunted: “So what?”

Lin Yuchan immediately said: “This humble woman has come to collect that… that Su Minguan.”