The yamen runner was startled. That young man surnamed Su had been unloved by both father and mother, and for three whole days, no one had come to collect him. Now, who had suddenly appeared?

“What relation are you to him?”

Su Minguan had already publicly admitted he was all alone. Lin Yuchan thought for a moment and said, “His betrothed fiancée.”

After speaking, she lowered her head, timely hiding the expression of “I don’t even believe myself” on her face.

The yamen runner was suspicious, spat out the tobacco in his mouth, looked her up and down for a while, and said: “Let me go ask him.”

“Wait…”

Lin Yuchan quickly ran a few steps forward to block the yamen runner. “Sergeant…”

She felt in her sleeve and pulled out the two-plus taels of silver, obediently presenting them.

“Sergeant, please do us a favor. Is this enough for bail?”

Two taels of silver could feed her for several months and could also save a life.

She had transmigrated too hastily, her values still in the twenty-first century, making the choice easy.

As for herself… she was going all in. If Heaven truly wanted to take her, it wasn’t something a few taels of silver could solve.

The yamen runner was startled, his cold smile freezing on his face.

The so-called “bail money” was just a pretext for officials to line their own pockets. The amount was indefinite—the more, the better.

As for “bandits,” though the charge was serious, it wasn’t non-negotiable either—the bandit leaders’ heads were already hanging outside the city gates, so what did these small fry matter? Even if he sent them to the capital, what benefit would he get?

Though silver had depreciated in recent years, this gleaming small piece was still worth a month’s expenses for his entire family.

The yamen runner sucked his teeth: “Little girl…”

Lin Yuchan had expected him to ask “where did you get so much silver” and had prepared her story, but unexpectedly the yamen runner didn’t ask a single question. He quickly pocketed the silver and broke into a tobacco-scented smile.

“Why did you take so long to come? Be careful, your husband beats you when you get home.”

Lin Yuchan felt somewhat relieved. The yamen runner’s relaxed attitude was telling. Su Minguan was indeed just making up numbers, with no solid evidence for conviction.

She played her part, looking aggrieved: “I secretly borrowed this money, which caused some delay—to tell you the truth, sir, this was an arranged childhood engagement by our parents. Su Minguan finds me quite annoying and has never been willing to look at me properly. By the way, if you ask him whether he’s engaged, he’ll deny it to his death. He might even pretend not to know me.”

“Hahaha!” The yamen runner laughed knowingly. “If you can’t bear even this little grievance, how will you manage after the wedding?”

He picked tobacco leaves from between his teeth with his finger, pointed to the space in front of the prefecture yamen across the way, and ordered: “Wait there.”

Lin Yuchan sat at the yamen entrance until afternoon. The weather gradually became stuffy, clouds lowered, and the air seemed thick enough to wring hot soup from.

She wasn’t too worried about the yamen runner going back on his word. This sergeant collected money so skillfully, showing that “paying to redeem people” had become an industry.

The Qing Dynasty was truly doomed.

People came and went at the yamen entrance—some respectably dressed guests, some vendors carrying loads for delivery. Occasionally there were soldiers hurrying past, carrying large swords and long spears, looking imposing, though their actual fighting ability was unknown.

Not long after, Su Minguan was pushed out, his wrists just freed from the cangue, still bearing red marks.

As expected, he looked completely baffled and continued arguing hopelessly: “I don’t have a fiancée…”

The yamen runner, having taken money to do the job, saw it through to the end. He pushed Su Minguan down the steps with one hand, laughing: “This girl has feelings for you. Be more proper in the future and don’t let me catch you again!”

Su Minguan couldn’t stop himself, stumbling forward five or six steps, and when he looked down, found himself nose-to-nose with Lin Yuchan.

“No… who is this…”

He didn’t recognize her. No wonder—at the time, he thought he’d encountered a zombie and hadn’t dared look closely.

He quickly stood at attention, covering the red marks from the wooden cangue on his neck with his left hand while smoothing his disheveled hair with his right. When he raised his arm, he discovered that after days of prison torture, his clothes were truly disheveled. Lacking a third hand, he could only let the two tattered front panels flutter in the wind, exposing several whip marks on his chest.

He simply embraced his dishevelment completely, stopped covering up, cupped his hands, and bowed to Lin Yuchan in his unkempt state.

“Miss, I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else. I don’t remember being engaged. If you’ve redeemed the wrong person, you can still catch up with that sergeant.”

His words were polite, but his tone was cold, with wariness flashing in his eyes.

Lin Yuchan coughed once and said softly: “Quinine.”

Su Minguan fell silent, his long eyebrows twitching once as he quickly looked her over, hiding the surprise in his eyes.

“Where did you get the money? Why…”

He didn’t finish the second half of his sentence, but the meaning was obviously “Why would you spend such a huge sum to save me?”

Lin Yuchan remembered that day at the mass grave when he had spoken gently and softly to her as a corpse.” Now seeing a living person, he instead put on a stern face, acting extremely aloof.

She smiled: “You don’t need to worry about that. Just consider it good people getting good rewards.”

“However, little sister,” he suddenly remembered something and said seriously, “we should make things clear in advance. You saved my life, and I, Su, am deeply grateful for this great kindness, but I’m poor and have no plans to marry at the moment…”

Lin Yuchan smiled: “That’s good then.”

Su Minguan: “…How much silver did you use to redeem me?”

Lin Yuchan said generously, “You saved my life, so why would you need to repay this money? But I advise you to quickly find proper work and save some property, so you won’t have no one to bail you out when you’re wrongly accused in the future…”

Su Minguan’s expression suddenly darkened imperceptibly.

He said coolly, “I have proper work. I’ll repay the money.”

Lin Yuchan found it incomprehensible: “Then, when they asked if you had an employer earlier, why did you shake your head?”

Su Minguan seemed to lose interest, his eyelids drooping as he asked politely: “Little sister, what’s your name? Where do you live? I’ll escort you back.”

Lin Yuchan was at a loss for words. She didn’t want to answer this kind of soul-searching question at all.

Suddenly her heart stirred. She would still need to get by in this strange Guangzhou City in the future. This person, before her, could be considered a life-and-death friend—surely he could help her with a small favor?

She asked: “Do you know if there’s anywhere… hmm, that hires female workers? Just room and board would be fine…”

If she could earn money, perhaps Lin Guangfu wouldn’t be so eager to sell her.

“Female workers?” Su Minguan was somewhat unfamiliar with this concept, though the three words “room and board” were easy enough to understand. “You don’t have anywhere to live?”

She quickly nodded.

The corner of his mouth turned up slightly as he said softly: “Can I not repay your money?”

Lin Yuchan: “…”

What was this about? His mind worked fast.

Maybe he did have connections and could introduce her to a job?

Su Minguan: “Come with me.”

Scattered raindrops suddenly fell from the sky. Dark clouds suddenly covered the row of shops on the road in front of the prefecture. A long shadow emerged from the sudden darkness—a hurried rickshaw, its wheels rolling over the stone road with a tapping sound.

A servant-like person held an umbrella, swinging his queue as he ran alongside.

A foreigner sat in the cart with thick ginger-yellow hair that swayed left and right with the rolling wheels, like a cat perched on his head.

He held a walking stick and frequently pulled out a pocket watch to check, calling from afar: “Stop! Stop!”

Several vendors, packing up their stalls, scattered to avoid him. Su Minguan turned to look, his expression darkening slightly.

The foreigner jumped down from the cart, his ginger-yellow hair dancing in the wind.

“Manqua, where have you been?” The foreigner strode straight toward Su Minguan with his walking stick, asking anxiously, “You’ve been absent from work for four days. Do you think my business is child’s play? Only today did someone tell me you were detained by the authorities. What crime did you commit exactly?”

The servant timely held the umbrella over the foreigner’s head to protect him from the rain.

Having heard all this, Lin Yuchan was completely petrified. Guangzhou Prefecture in the Qing Dynasty was much more internationalized than she had imagined. In just three short days since her arrival, she had already met three Englishmen with different accents, all gathered in Guangzhou.

The wealthy merchant spoke English directly, and to Su Minguan at that!

Su Minguan pressed his lips together, his expression unreadable.

He probably thought Lin Yuchan was frightened by seeing the foreigner. He smiled helplessly and softly introduced: “This is Mr. Jardine, the taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., my… employer.”

Lin Yuchan’s eyes widened: “Jardine Matheson… & Co.?”

That was the Far East’s largest conglomerate, Jardine Matheson Holdings, listed on both the Singapore and London stock exchanges, with investment assets worldwide, including Land Securities, Mandarin Oriental, Maxim’s, Häagen-Dazs, Mannings, 7-Eleven, Yonghui Supermarket…

However, the current Jardine Matheson & Co. should still be in its wild growth youth period, having earned its first fortune from opium smuggling and then participating in various investments and dumping in China.

Taipan Jardine was not old, his whiskers on both cheeks trembling wildly. He looked unable to contain himself and showed no signs of the future “Eastern Buffett.”

Lin Yuchan: Mixed feelings.

Su Minguan glanced at her expression and stood to meet Jardine.

Even facing the foreigner, his expression remained cold, and his back was straight.

“It was a misunderstanding. I was just released.” He paused and politely added, “Thank you for your concern.”

Lin Yuchan felt a bit weak in the knees, momentarily thinking she was dreaming, her mind full of “failing to recognize Mount Tai.”

Su Minguan also spoke English.

And his pronunciation was pure, even purer than Taipan Jardine’s Scottish English.

When she had just discovered her transmigration, Lin Yuchan had even found comfort in her misery, celebrating that, compared to the ancients, she at least had advantages beyond her time. She could speak proper foreign languages, making the good-natured pastor directly offer her a seminary position. At worst, she could work as an interpreter and wouldn’t starve to death.

Now it seemed she had thought too simply.

This “ancient person’s” English completely outclassed most twenty-first-century college students!

But then again, anyone who could work at a foreign trading house must be professionally talented in foreign languages. This was part of Guangzhou’s unique regional culture.

Taipan Jardine was quite displeased, rubbing his head and grumbling complaints for quite a while: “Good thing you solved the problem yourself without making me deal with Chinese bureaucrats—that would be suffocating. Come back with me quickly, you still have lots of work to do… Hey, who is she?”

He pointed at Lin Yuchan.

Su Minguan didn’t answer immediately, slowly turning toward her and mouthing three words:

“Room and board.”

A hint of provocation flashed in his eyes, meaning: Are you coming or not?

Lin Yuchan suddenly understood why, when he was wrongly accused by the authorities of being a bandit and facing execution, he could still calmly waste words with the yamen runners in the street.

Even without her meddling to redeem him, Jardine Matheson & Co. would have eventually gotten the news and intervened to fish out this employee who had been absent without leave.

They probably wouldn’t even need to give two taels of silver. Could the authorities not show deference to foreigners?

But… why had he refused to publicly acknowledge his identity, insisting he was unemployed?

In any case, Lin Yuchan’s temples throbbed with a feeling of being deceived.

Having refused the British pastor’s kind invitation, she thought she had shown enough integrity. Who would have thought that just out of the wolf’s den, she’d enter the tiger’s mouth—her “life-and-death friend” was a comprador.

Why was it so hard to love one’s country in this era??

Seeing her expression, Su Minguan understood and gave a slight cold smile, no longer giving her time to hesitate.

“I’m going back to work,” he said. “Little sister, until we meet again.”

Lin Yuchan steeled herself: “Wait.”

At the beginning of her transmigration, she had been unwilling to get involved with foreigners. She just wanted to survive on her own and focus on waiting for the Qing Dynasty to collapse.

But now the situation was worse than she had imagined. At home, an opium-smoking father was watching like a tiger, ready to take her life at any moment.

So perhaps integrity could be set aside for a while?

Before she could say a second sentence, someone called her from behind.

“Hey, little girl.”

A foul tobacco smell drifted downwind. It was the yamen runner who had taken her money earlier.

Lin Yuchan whipped around, surprised: “Calling me?”

The yamen runner was all smiles, beckoning her closer and saying quietly: “The redemption money for that Su fellow—that foreigner already paid it earlier. Come with me, I’ll return those two-plus taels of silver to you.”

Was there such good fortune? Lin Yuchan was overjoyed. The Qing government did charge according to services rendered—quite principled indeed.

Who would have trouble with money? She turned back to Su Minguan: “Wait for me!”

Following the yamen runner through two doorways, she unexpectedly tripped and her forehead struck the ground hard. Stars exploded before her eyes as someone pressed her hands firmly behind her back.

Lin Guangfu had just recharged at the opium den and was full of inexhaustible energy.

Unable to contain his excitement, he bowed and scraped to the yamen runner: “Thank you, sergeant. My rebellious daughter was making a scene—sorry you had to see that.”