Fortunately, the French missionaries were quite learned, knowing some English and Chinese. They gestured warnings that this was normal scientific exploration, asking the young lady not to cause trouble unreasonably.
“Besides, this lady has already accepted money – she’s willing,” the missionary argued confidently. “We’ve photographed hundreds of plates in China, and your officials have given special permits. It’s all legal.”
The onlookers also erupted in commotion:
“Whose woman is this? Take her home quickly! These foreigners are photographing under orders!”
“It’s just a prostitute removing shoes – what’s there to block? Pay enough money and she’ll strip off her clothes too!”
Even worse: “You’re not from Tianxiang Tower – how do you know she’s unwilling?”
Everyone thought: if a man stood up to show gallantry, it would still be a romantic tale; but a young girl making a scene and empathizing with prostitutes – she couldn’t be respectable either.
The madam’s expression stiffened. She smiled apologetically at the foreigners while scolding Lin Yuchan: “Miss, you seem to be from a good family – don’t get involved in this. Where are your father and brothers?”
Lin Yuchan gritted her teeth lightly. She had no intention of reasoning with these spectators – she just wanted a quick resolution, addressing the source of the problem.
She waved at Su Minguan from afar. He couldn’t come over – if he did, it would become a “romantic tale” and he couldn’t clear his name even jumping into the Huangpu River.
“Two French gentlemen,” she quickly searched her mind for vocabulary, “surely you are humanitarians who practice liberty, equality, and fraternity?”
The afterwaves of Europe’s vigorous Enlightenment hadn’t subsided – these fashionable new terms were all French inventions.
The two Western missionaries straightened their chests and nodded: “But this has nothing to do with what we’re doing now…”
“Is Miss Ziyu human or not? Does she deserve basic dignity? If this were a French lady, would you dare make such demands of her?”
“This is different… she’s a courtesan, this is part of her work…”
“Miss Marguerite Gautier, by your standards, was also a courtesan.” The liberal arts student fearlessly fought magic with magic. “If a gentleman, relying on having paid money, could publicly make her undress for curiosity, would this be humiliation or honor?”
The Lady of the Camellias was published in 1848 and became sensationally popular in France. These two had read it and were momentarily speechless.
“This is completely different,” a white-bearded missionary was somewhat angry from embarrassment, ignoring his companion tugging his sleeve. “The Lady of the Camellias may have been a courtesan, but she was also God’s child with a noble soul…”
“While Chinese people are all heretics without souls equal to yours, unworthy of salvation?” Lin Yuchan smiled. “If so, why did you gentlemen cross oceans to come preach?”
The missionary’s face changed.
They had just blurted out a sentence, but her interpretation made it completely politically incorrect. If this reached church superiors, they’d face criticism and demotion at minimum.
The distant drums and gongs suddenly stopped, and the surroundings became so quiet that breathing was audible.
The crowd of onlookers was more shocked than if they’d seen ghosts. A teenage commoner girl dared to argue publicly with foreigners!
Those who feared trouble, sensing the situation, quietly left. If this caused a second “Qingpu Mission Case,” everyone would face collective punishment.
But Lin Yuchan felt confident. Missionaries cared about face, God was watching – they definitely wouldn’t beat her publicly. If it went to the authorities…
Foreigners had extraterritorial rights, so Shanghai County wouldn’t dare intervene. The case would likely be pushed to the Settlement Municipal Council’s autonomous court. Then respectable gentlemen from various countries would gather to hear how these two French missionaries forced a Chinese prostitute to publicly remove her shoes…
The thought was enough to embarrass France. The French Consulate would intervene to settle things peacefully.
At most, she’d get a scolding and lose some time.
The two missionaries probably thought of this simultaneously. Their faces turned as ugly as the green lanterns overhead, and no one spoke for a while.
Lin Yuchan pressed her advantage, fully exercising her imagination: “By the way, the North China Herald seems to enjoy reporting on Chinese-foreign conflicts lately…”
The missionaries’ faces turned iron-blue as they cursed quietly in French.
When they’d photographed people elsewhere, many subjects were quite reluctant, but most were timid and afraid, not daring to argue. Having accepted money, they half-heartedly agreed. When the negatives were developed showing bitter expressions, the missionaries weren’t even satisfied.
Today was the first time encountering such resistance, even deploying equality and fraternity tactics…
The missionaries, despite their silver tongues, felt their vocabulary inadequate.
After a long while, the madam carefully spoke up.
“Foreign gentlemen, still taking photographs?”
Some onlookers also whispered: “What she said makes sense. Foreigners can’t just bully people arbitrarily.”
Actually, Lin Yuchan’s talk of liberty and equality, mixing Chinese and English, was understood by no one present – they thought she was speaking pure foreign language.
Since she was a girl who spoke foreign languages, that was different – she probably had some background.
Having a background, her arguing with foreigners wasn’t unreasonable troublemaking.
Moreover, the foreigners had gone silent, and the spectators’ mental scales slowly tipped.
Someone boldly said, “Don’t photograph anymore. Foreign gentlemen, have mercy – don’t ruin the prostitute’s livelihood.”
Lin Yuchan slowly exhaled. Fortunately, the “spectators” retained humanity and could distinguish right from wrong.
She turned to the “mama,” not knowing how to address her, so she said directly: “Return the money.”
The madam quite readily produced the silver dollars from before. Actually, her agreement to the photography was mostly from fearing foreign authority, and money was secondary. If Miss Ziyu’s feet were seen publicly today with photographs preserved, her value would plummet. Tianxiang Tower would suffer greatly, and this courtesan championship would be worthless.
The French missionary grimly took it back and began packing photography equipment.
Muttering: “Chinese people are too conservative, hopeless. Such cruel, backward customs have defenders – a woman no less! This country is too dark.”
Miss Ziyu didn’t dare speak throughout, only sobbing softly. Hearing Mama decide to return the money, she quickly put on her shoes, came before Lin Yuchan, bowed deeply, and hid behind the maids and lackeys.
Lin Yuchan didn’t linger, quickly withdrawing.
Su Minguan stood behind an artificial mountain, waving at her. She rushed over, keeping her accomplishments and fame hidden.
Only then did she feel her heart beating wildly, looking up and grinning foolishly.
“So fucking awesome,” she gasped and swore, “they ran away!”
Looking down, she noticed Su Minguan’s right hand had been at his waist the whole time, only now relaxing and dropping.
She whispered in surprise: “You weren’t carrying…”
“How would a commoner dare?” He conjured a handkerchief from his waist like magic. “Wipe your sweat.”
Cold sweat covered her forehead – she wouldn’t have noticed without his reminder.
She wiped the sweat and put her hat back on, her overflowing joy settling seven parts.
“Lucky you met missionaries, not sailors. Otherwise, you’d have suffered,” Su Minguan’s eyes held a hint of laughter, but he deliberately maintained a stern face to lecture her. “If it went to Settlement court and they detained you for a year and a half, let’s see how you’d cry then.”
Lin Yuchan smiled shamelessly: “I’m not afraid – I’d ask Mr. Rong to be my lawyer.”
Su Minguan: “Can you afford his fees?”
“Mr. Rong owes me a favor. I saved him two thousand taels of silver.”
“Don’t speak too confidently – I’ll ask him for those two thousand taels tomorrow.”
“He’s not in Shanghai.”
“That’s even more convenient.”
The two bantered nonsensically and suddenly burst into laughter together.
Yu Garden had excellent feng shui, with several clear springs cascading over stone platforms, chiming melodiously. The sharp night wind shuttled through the Taihu stones, worn smooth and gentle, bringing only silky coolness to their faces without cutting harshness.
Suddenly, an abrupt female voice nearby: “Oh my, searched everywhere – here you are!”
Lin Yuchan quickly stopped laughing and turned to see the Tianxiang Tower madam, now holding an expensive gilded hand warmer, radiating prosperity from inside out, her face written with joy.
“Thanks to the young master and miss helping to plead our case earlier, my girl avoided public embarrassment. This old woman thanks you here!”
The madam was also one to repay kindness. After settling the courtesan, she searched around for a while before finding the girl who had confronted the foreigners, now talking with a young man.
Lin Yuchan felt no goodwill toward the madam, responding coldly with a “mm,” then discovering the key point in her words –
“Young master?”
What did this have to do with the young master? He did nothing but watch the excitement!
But the madam suddenly understood. Of course – when reasoning with the foreigners earlier, she’d thought a single girl wouldn’t meddle in such affairs. There must be a man behind instructing and supporting her, just inconvenient to appear. Now seeing this girl indeed wasn’t alone, with a hero rescuing beauty behind her, the madam felt she understood worldly affairs and judged people accurately, mentally giving herself praise.
So the madam smiled and nodded, giving Su Minguan extra courtesy, beaming: “Thanks to the young master’s compassion, saving my daughter from fire and water. Miss Ziyu especially ordered this servant to express gratitude. Here’s our business card – please honor us with tea when you have time.”
Lin Yuchan was left aside, even more shocked.
This madam seemed quite capable of handling things earlier – how did her emotional intelligence suddenly crash?
During the grand festival, the young master was clearly with a girl for “meeting at dusk” – regardless of their relationship, it was at least normal socializing. You insert yourself to invite him to a brothel? Am I invisible?
The madam’s emotional intelligence wasn’t low. With a quick glance, she saw these two were close but still had youthful, innocent expressions and maintained proper boundaries in their interactions – not like clingy couples. Probably siblings.
But observing their interaction, the female showed none of a girl’s proper deference and forbearance, while the male lacked an elder brother’s patriarchal authority. The madam made an even more precise guess – probably a legitimate daughter and concubine-born brother.
This emboldened her to offer the business card – a concubine-born brother drinking with courtesans was none of his sister’s business.
This madam had decades of experience and countless encounters, rarely failing in her judgment of people.
Unfortunately, these two were both somewhat abnormal. The madam inadvertently capsized while remaining unaware.
Su Minguan was also somewhat confused. The girl beside him had grown more robust lately – she shouldn’t be so small as to be invisible.
But not hitting smiling faces, he still arranged his usual commercial fake smile, accepting the incense-scented business card with both hands, flipping through it and smiling: “Not even offering a discount – seems insincere.”
The madam: “…”
“By the way,” he suddenly said again, “what’s this ‘Lotus Appreciation Society’ about?”
The madam paused, then smiled obsequiously: “As the name suggests – does this old woman need to be too explicit? Seeing young master is also a fellow enthusiast, this old woman could introduce you…”
“That’s unnecessary.” Su Minguan’s lips curved, but his voice was cold. “Just give me an address. I want to do some ‘business’ with them.”
Suddenly, shadows flashed wildly under the lanterns as a burly clerk crashed over, startling the madam into screaming.
“Gold… boss,” he bowed unsteadily to Su Minguan, breathing heavily. “The brothers searched hard! You… you must return quickly…”
It was a Yixing clerk.
Su Minguan’s expression instantly turned stern. He pulled up Lin Yuchan and pushed past the madam toward the garden exit.
Walking while asking: “Are the brothers still safe?”
The clerk, hearing his first question was about the brothers’ safety, showed gratitude and answered quietly: “It’s not bloodshed, seems like soldiers, but not quite… soldiers are all on holiday today… we’re too ignorant to understand, and no one can handle it, so please return quickly to take charge…”
Several people moved against the bustling crowd, quickly exiting the county town to reach the Settlement, where roads instantly widened. Lin Yuchan hailed a carriage.
The carriage was garishly decorated, originally for festival sightseeing. The driver was suddenly urged frantically, looking bewildered before remembering to whip the horses into a gallop.
Lights blazed along Suzhou Creek. Yixing Shipping’s red lanterns swayed in the wind, illuminating a row of soldiers standing at attention, half wearing Western uniforms and carrying foreign rifles – Settlement police.
Su Minguan jumped from the carriage, hastily smoothing wrinkles from his clothes.
“I’m the person in charge here. May I ask…”
A foreigner emerged from the crowd. His suit was immaculate, boots gleaming, his young, handsome face full of wariness.
Behind him, a Chinese attendant bowed while holding a tray with an impressive red-topped hat.
“Robert Hart, newly appointed Inspector General of Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs,” the foreigner announced in fluent Chinese. “I…”
He suddenly blinked, seeing the second figure jump from the carriage. Lin Yuchan wore a brand-new light red cotton jacket that was particularly striking under the lantern light.
Hart withdrew his surprised gaze, maintaining composure, and said sternly: “I’m here to inspect taxes.”