Lin Guangfu didn’t come alone. Standing beside him was a middle-aged man wearing a light silk jacket, fanning himself with a wooden fan. His face glistened with oil, and a pair of round glasses rested on his plump cheeks, the lenses reflecting the oily sheen of his nose tip, making his entire person appear gleaming and shiny.
However, he habitually hunched his back and craned his neck forward, his thin braid clinging to the curve of his neck and back, like a bent spine bone exposed to the outside.
He was nodding and shaking his head as he examined the government office’s courtyard walls, muttering: “…As I said, this phoenix bamboo is naturally a yin plant, but planted in the southwest corner of the courtyard, it regulates fortune and brings continuous advancement according to feng shui principles. And with this wall blocking the evil qi, this government office is truly a treasure basin that gathers qi… Hey! Stand aside a bit, you’re blocking the wealth position!”
Lin Guangfu hastily stepped back two paces, wearing a fawning smile on his face as he presented the “Daughter Transfer Document” with both hands: “Shopkeeper Wang, Master Wang, I’ve brought the person back. That… the price should still be calculated according to what we originally agreed, right?”
“Shopkeeper Wang” was still paying attention to the surrounding feng shui and ignored him.
Lin Guangfu approached closer: “Master Shopkeeper?”
Lin Yuchan had been knocked dizzy from the fall. When she opened her eyes, she saw the small characters on the “Daughter Transfer Document”: “…Unable to support, willing to give away my biological daughter, named Lin Ba Mei, to be adopted by others… born in a certain year of the Daoguang era, has a mole below the collarbone… priced at twenty taels of silver, name may be changed at will, when she grows up, marriage arrangements are at the discretion of the adoptive family, no regrets allowed…”
At the end was a small red handprint, obviously pressed by Lin Yuchan before she had “died from illness.”
She felt the world was truly surreal. A fifteen-year-old girl, in the bloom of youth, didn’t even have a proper name, and in the document, she was quantified as “one mouth.”
“Shopkeeper Wang” bent down to carefully examine her face and figure, then pulled out a pen from behind his ear and poked at her hair.
“The goods don’t match the description, too thin!” he said dissatisfiedly. “I originally thought your family’s feng shui was good and could raise a plump and healthy girl, but what is this now? No blessed appearance at all, not worth twenty taels anymore, fifteen at most!”
Lin Guangfu glared at his daughter resentfully and said through gritted teeth: “Why did she have to get sick?”
Then he raised his face with a pitiful expression: “Shopkeeper, please have compassion on this humble person. If our family weren’t truly unable to make ends meet, who would bear to separate flesh and blood? Ba Mei is the darling daughter I love most. In the past, she was robust and healthy, it’s just that she fell ill and became slightly thinner. Just let her eat a few full meals and she’ll fatten up again…”
“Eleven taels, no more.” Shopkeeper Wang didn’t look directly at Lin Guangfu, snorting through his nose. “In these times, which big-footed girl can sell for eleven taels? You should be content!”
“Mei zai” was Cantonese for maidservant. Lin Guangfu hurriedly said, “The feet can be bound, you can bind them however you want! She’s not afraid of pain! — It’s just that eleven taels is too little. This girl still has a younger brother who also hasn’t eaten his fill for a long time. Please take pity, Shopkeeper!”
…
Lin Yuchan rubbed her head and got up, coldly watching her biological father’s disgraceful bargaining performance.
Of course, the buyer wasn’t polite either. His name was Wang Quan, and from his tone he was the shopkeeper of a large tea shop. By rights, he shouldn’t be short of money, but he was equally calculating, picking out dozens of flaws all over her body, as if he wouldn’t want her even if she were given away for free.
Seeing that she had awakened, Lin Guangfu picked up a wooden stick from the ground like facing a great enemy, grinning ferociously through gritted teeth.
“Still want to run? Hmph, I’ve already reported to the government office. Even if you run to the ends of the earth, even if you run to the foreigners, others will only know you’re Lin Guangfu’s daughter and will send you back to my hands!”
This wasn’t a threat, but common knowledge. In the Qing Dynasty, children were the private property of their parents. Even if she escaped to work elsewhere, no matter who discovered her, they would enthusiastically send her back to her original family.
Even if she fled and became an illegal resident, if discovered by the authorities, she would become a criminal. The unlucky fellow who was publicly displayed and conscripted for “unauthorized departure from original residence” during the day was a perfect example.
The ethical values of the Qing Dynasty crashed down upon her. Lin Yuchan’s heart sank rapidly.
As long as Lin Guangfu didn’t die, she was property bound to this opium addict. To sell or kill as he pleased, not much different from a slave.
This time it was a shopkeeper; next time it might be a brothel madam. At least this shopkeeper seemed to have no disgusting intentions toward her.
With this thought, she quietly watched the show until both parties negotiated the price to fifteen taels. Lin Guangfu received the silver, his eyes lighting up. Though it was a hot day, he seemed cold, his legs alternately bouncing on the ground.
“Ba… Ba Mei, from now on, you’ll be a maidservant of the Qi household. You must take care of your health and be obedient…”
He absentmindedly gave instructions.
“I understand.” Lin Yuchan coldly interrupted. “Don’t forget to find your son.”
Fifteen taels of silver for fifteen years of nurturing grace. This congenitally deficient body would henceforth have a different owner, and throughout the entire process, she had no opportunity to resist.
Lin Guangfu nodded happily, stuffed the silver into his chest, and upon leaving the door, ran in the direction of the opium den.
Wang Quan spat contemptuously, then turned to see the bailiff beside him. His face immediately creased into a smile as he handed him a small paper package containing tea, saying with a grin various pleasantries about “hard work” and “troubling you.”
Then he ordered Lin Yuchan: “What are you standing there, stupidly for? Let’s go!”
Su Minguan waited at the crossroads outside the government office.
He had let the Jardine Matheson taipan go first while he responsibly “waited a moment.” After waiting for a long time without seeing Lin Yuchan come out, he had no choice but to idly read the reward notices posted on the wall.
Suddenly, he saw a skeletal opium addict emerge from the small door, running very fast, leaving behind a gesticulating figure.
Then Lin Yuchan walked out. However, she wasn’t alone—several big men were escorting her, including one greasy man wearing glasses who kept urging her to walk faster.
The last to emerge was the bailiff. He took out a brand-new tea package from his sleeve, tore off the outer layer of oil paper, held it under his nose to smell, and smiled with satisfaction.
After the bailiff left, Su Minguan casually stepped forward and bent down to pick up the paper that had wrapped the tea.
The paper surface bore the shop’s name: Defeng.
Below was a line of small advertisement text: Thirteen Hongs trading house export tea, large quantities and high quality, specially supplied to foreign countries…
“Thirteen Hongs?” Su Minguan suddenly gave a cold, quiet laugh, crumpling the oil paper into a ball. “A third-rate little shop also dares to call itself Thirteen Hongs.”
The Thirteen Hongs were a legend of Guangzhou.
For over a hundred years from the Kangxi to Jiaqing reigns, Guangzhou had been the Qing Empire’s only foreign trade port, known as the “Southern Treasury of the Son of Heaven.” All foreign trade business was monopolized by several merchant houses holding official licenses. These merchant houses numbered exactly thirteen and were called the Thirteen Hongs.
This was Guangzhou’s most glorious era. These shrewd Cantonese merchants, though ranked at the bottom of the traditional Confucian social hierarchy of “scholars, farmers, artisans, merchants,” controlled the economic lifeline of European and American firms in the Far East, accumulating wealth that could rival nations. They were fluent in foreign languages, thoroughly familiar with foreign political situations, and most of the Western jewels and treasures in the Forbidden City were procured by them. Even foreign merchants had to show them respect for the enormous Eastern wealth they represented.
A poem said: Foreign ships compete to emerge as official merchants, the Cross Gate opens toward two oceans. Five-silk and eight-silk Canton silk are fine, silver money piles up in the Thirteen Hongs.
When prosperity reaches its peak, it easily becomes illusory. With the rise of the British East India Company and the steady advancement of foreign merchant power, the Thirteen Hongs found business increasingly difficult. Combined with the government’s escalating exploitation and several inexplicable natural disasters and human calamities, the seemingly glamorous merchant houses one after another became insolvent, turning into tottering empty shells.
The Opium War became the final straw that broke the Thirteen Hongs. After the Treaty of Nanjing was signed, the Qing government was forced to open multiple ports for trade. Guangzhou no longer held a monopoly on foreign trade, foreigners could freely choose business partners, and the Thirteen Hongs were no longer necessary, dissolving and going bankrupt one after another, falling beside the Pearl River.
Coveting the vacuum left by the Thirteen Hongs, countless ambitious merchants moved in to fill the void. Master Qi Chongli was one of them.
He started from scratch with savings of one hundred taels of silver, made his fortune selling tea to foreigners, accumulated vast wealth, established his own business, and named it “Defeng.”
The scale naturally couldn’t compare to the Thirteen Hongs of the past. But in the current Guangzhou business world, everyone boasted falsely, with every family claiming to be inheritors of the Thirteen Hongs. After all, the real descendants of the Thirteen Hongs were either dead or gone, with no one left to refute the claims.
Lin Yuchan followed Wang Quan to the Qi residence located outside Xiguan.
A folk saying went: Eastern elegance, Western beauty, Southern wealth, Northern poverty. This described how within the small city, customs, prosperity, and poverty all varied greatly.
The Xiguan area was where Guangzhou’s nouveau riche gathered, with rows of neat and new large houses standing in formation. The Qi residence was the largest and most spacious among them.
Above the granite-inlaid main gate hung a bright plaque reading “Sharing the Nation’s Worries,” signed by Ye Mingchen, Governor-General of Liangguang. The hardwood door was half-open, with another sliding door behind it made of Borneo ironwood as thick as a teacup opening, its vertical boards carved with elaborate antique floral patterns.
A concealed small door was opened in the wall. A young servant stood guard at the entrance, greeting Wang Quan with a smile: “Shopkeeper.”
Wang Quan asked: “Is the master at home?”
The servant answered: “The master went out visiting and hasn’t returned.”
Wang Quan nodded with satisfaction, turned back and ordered Lin Yuchan: “Why aren’t you coming in quickly!”
Lin Yuchan obediently entered, wondering inwardly why Wang Quan bringing her to the Qi residence seemed to deliberately avoid the master.
The courtyard was deep with an unknown number of sections. Sunlight poured down from the high skywell, divided into small blocks, illuminating the complex, wooden, carved decorations on the window frames with sharp and rich detail. The water-polished azure bricks were mirror-bright, with azure cloud alleys on both sides of the main house, their threshold windows inlaid with beautifully patterned colored glass.
No television drama could recreate such a luxurious layout. Compared to this, those “X Family Courtyards” that Lin Yuchan had visited in her previous life were like affordable housing.
Guangzhou was where East met West, at the forefront of new trends. These colored glass pieces were imported goods that wouldn’t have been out of place as artistic masterpieces even in contemporary Europe.
However, the owner of this house seemed to have limited taste—Lingnan-style heavy carved redwood tables and Western high-backed chairs and Western cabinets were mixed together, with every corner radiating the words “showing off wealth.”
Next to the supermarket where Lin Yuchan worked in her previous life, there was a redwood furniture city. Later, the owner went bankrupt from stock speculation and fled, leaving the furniture to be sold off cheaply by employees. Furniture originally priced at ten to twenty thousand yuan was all labeled with price tags of hundreds or thousands, piled together with an air of arrogance.
—Much like the current appearance of the Qi residence.
The servants were well-trained, walking quickly along the walls, all uniformly dressed in gleaming silk shirts. Occasionally, elegantly made-up female family members would lean on railings to look out, but upon seeing strange men from afar, they would quickly hide from view.
Lin Yuchan glimpsed a broom in the corner and very diligently picked it up to start working, making Wang Quan feel the money wasn’t wasted.
However, Wang Quan snatched the broom away and glared at her fiercely.
“Stupid thing, what if you sweep away the wealth qi by random sweeping! Someone come, take her to wash up and dress properly.”
Lin Yuchan immediately sensed trouble and asked alertly: “What do you want me to do?”
Wang Quan looked at her strangely, as if wondering why an object bought with money was being so troublesome.
“How many times must I say it?” he said impatiently. “Serving the young master is your good fortune. Say more and I’ll slap your mouth.”
Lin Yuchan: “…Young master?”
Wasn’t she brought to work as a maidservant?
Where did this script come from?
Current survival was the priority, and the “path of favored servant” wasn’t acceptable. She didn’t plan to cling to moral principles.
But Lin Yuchan quickly recalled that among the various female family members she had seen in the residence, those who looked like concubines were without exception all small-footed, hidden within wide skirt hems and almost invisible, only revealing the edge of their embroidered shoes when walking slowly, appearing delicate and beautiful.
But to Lin Yuchan, who was accustomed to seeing normal feet, their pairs of golden lotuses seemed very unreal, making the entire person look like porcelain dolls.
As for the working maidservants and servants, most also had small feet—in Lin Yuchan’s understanding, ancient women with bound feet should all be unable to walk properly; yet these small-footed women were still nimble and quick when working, only often walking pigeon-toed, preferring to sit when possible rather than stand, indicating that walking was indeed quite inconvenient.
Regardless, if she were to serve the young master, these natural feet would need to be “improved.” Wouldn’t that make her disabled?
Not to mention, she was only fifteen years old physiologically, and with malnutrition, her current figure resembled an elementary school student.
…Too perverted.
Wang Quan suddenly turned around, pushing aside a young servant who was bowing to him, took off his glasses and vigorously wiped them with his clothing.
“Aiya, speak of the devil and he appears. The young master is here.”