It was as if a massive steel nail had been driven from the ceiling, pinning her entire body to the ground. Lin Yuchan’s blood ran ice-cold throughout her body, her right hand still clutching that cursed jade button, trembling violently. For a moment, her mind went completely blank, only suddenly flashing to Sister Ma’s Beijing dialect tinged with the smell of braised meat.

“…Most likely a girl just born, umbilical cord still attached, floating in a basin of rotten kidneys and intestines…”

With a thunderous crash, Lin Yuchan’s emotions exploded. The invisible steel nail above her head was suddenly yanked out, the pain making her whole body shake. The air seemed to extend invisible hands that grabbed her heart and squeezed hard.

She lunged forward several steps and fished the infant out.

Her hands were ice-cold and dripping, her knees soaked in filthy water. Only then did she remember to scream: “Someone! Someone!!”

Filth dripped down. Lin Yuchan rushed to the adjacent room, dumped the infant into a water bucket and rolled her around, frantically wiping away maggots and sewage water, then pulled her out dripping wet. Seeing that her lips remained tightly closed, she pried open those tiny lips with her fingers and cleaned out the little mouth.

The “Lotus Pond Under Moonlight” had become a ditch of foul sludge, with dirty water spreading rapidly. Lin Yuchan tore open her outer garment, then removed her cotton undershirt. Fortunately, only a small portion was wet. She wrapped the infant layer by layer, exposing only a purple little face that had nearly suffocated.

The little face suddenly twitched, that tiny mouth opened slightly, and again came two “squeak squeak” sounds, completely unaware she had just walked through death’s door.

Lin Yuchan knelt on the ground crying and gasping, called out “Someone” again, then, smelling the stench, remembered to clean herself. The mountain spring water was ice-cold. Her pants were already stained with filth, so she simply took them off too, revealing her relatively clean cotton underpants, though these were also soaked through.

Miss Odalsky’s maid heard the screaming and thought she had encountered a mouse, laughing mockingly outside. After waiting a moment longer and realizing Lin Yuchan’s voice was wrong, she finally came in giggling.

“What’s wrong with you—Ah!!”

The previously elegant and charming “female interpreter” now looked as if she had been assaulted, disheveled, half-soaked, wearing only her undergarments, and at her feet lay a dripping wet infant wrapped in clothes!

Lin Yuchan’s teeth chattered, half from cold, half from panting. Bizarre images flashed wildly through her mind, none of which told her: In the Qing Dynasty, after fishing an abandoned infant from a cesspit, what should one do?

Instinct took control of her brain. Looking at the panicked maids before her, speaking in broken sentences, she slowly said: “I’m sorry, please go tell Miss Odalsky that I… I must go back today. I’ve made her come for nothing, I’ll make amends another day… Oh, and is there a doctor or medical office nearby…”

Forget about “ladies’ diplomacy,” forget about thirty taels of silver worth of public funds; she pushed it all from her mind, her heart containing only that purple little face.

Everything else could be done over. Life could not.

Unfortunately, several maids were also inexperienced. Lin Yuchan’s words went completely unheard as they screamed exaggeratedly like Westerners, at a complete loss, more frightened than Lin Yuchan herself, as if a vengeful spirit lay at her feet.

Lin Yuchan gathered her spirits, picked up the bundle from the ground, leaned against the wall, feeling dizzy for two seconds, suppressed the nausea in her throat, then pushed the door open and stumbled out.

The cold wind instantly chilled her to the bone. Her pants were wet, her clothes drafty, and her entire body felt like it had been ice-packed.

She didn’t know what to do, could only take one step at a time. The sedan chair Aunt Zhou had hired should still be here…

With a buzzing sound, voices suddenly erupted around her.

The girls’ screams had already attracted a crowd of onlookers. Today, Puzhao Temple has received many distinguished visitors in succession, first the official’s wife, then the Western nun. Villagers who came to see the excitement numbered in the hundreds and thousands. Dozens suddenly “diverted” over, rushing around her.

It was as if Lin Yuchan had a magnetic field around her. The crowd automatically kept one zhang’s distance, excitedly staring at the little purple person in her arms.

“So smelly, tsk tsk. Alive or dead?”

“Fished out of a cesspit? Probably a girl.”

“Who’s gone mad, fishing a baby girl out of a cesspit for no reason? Probably thought it was a boy at first, then panicked and grabbed her out when they realized their mistake?”

“This little widow fished her out? Then she wouldn’t be… tsk tsk…”

“Oh ho, doesn’t even want her clothes, shameless.”

“I think I saw the one inside, green colored, hahaha…”

“Couldn’t be hers… then her conscience kicked in… hee hee hee…”

…

Lin Yuchan walked forward one step, and the crowd stepped back one step.

She felt no need to ask, “whose child is this?” Even if her parents were among the watching crowd, their failure to come forward now was equivalent to abandonment.

The infant opened her mouth, crying without sound. Her hands and feet were ice-cold and stiff.

With her head blown clear by the cold wind, she suddenly became lucid. Lin Yuchan looked down at this little purple person.

She had never dealt with newborn infants. This was completely different from those round, plump, pink, and white, adorable human cubs she’d seen in diaper advertisements. This child was skin and bones, her face covered in wrinkles, uglier than a baby monkey at the zoo.

She was probably not yet a month old. She’d seen other families’ treasures at full-month celebrations, obviously more developed than this one.

Her parents might still have harbored some kindness, not killing her directly but sending her to the temple, though they had only secretly placed her in the toilet beside the temple, probably hoping the child would be blessed by Buddha and reborn into a good family in her next life.

Or… hoping the temple worker who cleaned the toilets would discover her?

Today with distinguished visitors burning incense, the toilets had been sealed off. The infant had probably been inside all night, tormented by hunger and cold, instinctively struggling to survive, using her tiny hands that could barely form fists to grasp that rotting wooden board in the cesspit, holding on through the night.

A dirty hemp robe suddenly flew from the crowd, an aged voice saying: “In broad daylight, shameless! Put it on!”

Lin Yuchan glanced at the ground. She was indeed shivering from the cold. The old man probably meant well, but that robe seemed to be crawling with lice.

She ran toward the temple’s main gate holding the infant. Behind her came aged cursing.

As expected, several monks chanted “Amitabha” in unison and blocked her outside the gate.

“Female benefactor, today our humble temple admits no idle visitors. We sincerely apologize.”

Lin Yuchan blurted out, “Someone placed this little one in the woodshed outside your wall. I think… they probably wanted the masters to adopt her. Buddha above, saving one life surpasses countless merits.”

The monks maintained professional composure, not looking directly at this disheveled “female benefactor,” only frowning. Hearing her words, they finally noticed the bundle of clothes in her arms, still emitting a faint, unspeakable odor, all showing disgust.

“This… boy or girl?”

An older monk asked.

Lin Yuchan said it was a girl.

The monk looked troubled: “This, men and women are different. It’s not that we don’t want to raise her, but a little girl raised among a pile of monks, what would happen to our reputation?”

Another monk said, “Even if we wanted to take her in, we have no wet nurse here!”

Lin Yuchan asked with a thread of hope: “Then, do you have cow’s milk?”

The monks again chanted “Amitabha” in unison, reproaching: “We all eat vegetarian food, where would we get cow’s milk! Female benefactor must not speak carelessly and damage our temple’s reputation!”

Finally, seeing her unstable emotions, a monk hurriedly said: “Halfway up the mountain are nunneries, Xuanmiao Nunnery and Dongxiu Nunnery. Female benefactor can ask there… Amitabha, female benefactor today saved a life which surpasses building a seven-story pagoda, you will surely have good fortune in the future…”

He was still rambling when Lin Yuchan ran downhill holding the little one.

Deep in the bamboo grove, there indeed were nunneries. Lin Yuchan knocked on doors breathlessly.

One directly slammed the door in her face, declaring, “We don’t run a foundling home,” then mahjong sounds resumed inside.

The other had a big lock on the door with two official seals. A sympathetic local explained that the abbess had caught an official’s eye and had been taken as a concubine two days ago.

The little purple person’s eyes were half-open, half-closed, her breath barely perceptible. Lin Yuchan held her, stumbling through the bamboo grove.

Aunt Zhou finally found her, running and panting, immediately scolding with heartache: “Why did madam pick up a child for no reason! There are so many baby girls thrown in cesspits, every day, could you rescue them all? Everyone pretends not to see and moves on! Each has their own fate, why fight against Heaven?”

Lin Yuchan said wearily, “But I happened to see her. Call it fate.”

How could she watch a living little person suffocate in yellow and white excrement? She’d probably have nightmares for life.

Aunt Zhou supported her as they slowly walked up, frowning at the smell on her.

“Fine, fine, now it’s all ruined. The clothes ruined, madam’s important business ruined, came for nothing today, and now we have to find a doctor for this little one…” she nagged. “Madam talks about finding someone to adopt her? Ridiculous, maybe someone would want a boy, but a money-losing girl, only a fool would spend money to raise her. Government foundling homes? They’ve been full long since the Taiping troubles started, haven’t taken new ones… Speaking bluntly, even human traffickers who sell girls into fire pits only pick those six or seven years old when kidnapping. Give them a baby not yet a month old, they wouldn’t take her even if you paid them!”

Going around and around, the meaning was that the madam had picked up a burden no one would take!

While talking, they had returned to Puzhao Temple’s entrance. The curtains were drawn again, Mrs. Pan having finished her incense burning was coming out with her entourage.

Across from the Buddhist temple under the big tree, Miss Odalsky was still elegantly disrupting proceedings. The Bible story had reached Noah’s Ark. The monks were helpless with her.

Suddenly, the watching children scattered. A group of servants rudely dispersed the crowd.

Then Mrs. Pan’s small sedan stopped nearby.

Several beautiful maids came arm in arm, laughing and chatting, saying to Miss Odalsky: “Don’t stop, continue talking. We want to listen too.”

Miss Odalsky was somewhat puzzled, unable to figure out what the Chinese were up to this time. But having preached for many years and encountered all kinds of strange things, she adapted to circumstances and continued her lecture.

Lin Yuchan watched from afar. The Western nun had indeed caught Mrs. Pan’s attention.

Official wives maintained dignity and wouldn’t rashly leave their sedan chairs, so she sent her maids to get a general idea and repeat it back to her.

According to the original plan, this was when she should appear, chat with the maids, and complete this final step of making connections.

But now…

She was disheveled, half-soaked, holding a dying newborn infant, still emitting an unidentifiable odor…

She gritted her teeth and decided to make one last effort.

“What are you doing? Get away!”

As soon as she approached those maids, servants rudely drove her away, roughly shoving her shoulder.

Lin Yuchan: “I…”

“Don’t you see the Third-Rank Imperial Consort’s sedan chair?” the servant scolded, turning to ask another, “Didn’t they say all the beggars were cleared out beforehand? How is there still one here?”

Lin Yuchan: “…”

What it meant to depend on clothes for appearance was demonstrated live.

Miss Odalsky finally noticed the inconspicuous, dirty figure in the distance, put down her Bible booklet, and exclaimed: “Isn’t that Lucy? Poor child, were you robbed?”

The watching maids thought the Western nun had finished speaking and dispersed in a crowd to report back perfunctorily.

The sedan bearers squatted down and tied their leg bindings. Servants cleared the way with whips, driving away idle people.

Lin Yuchan blackened her face and smiled bitterly.

Things having reached this point, forget it. Find another way.

She approached Miss Odalsky and showed her the little purple person in the bundle.

After enduring a minute of screaming, she calmly recounted the little purple person’s origins, then said, “I need some sugar water.”

Distant water couldn’t quench immediate thirst—finding breast milk or cow’s milk would take too long. Neither Miss Odalsky nor Lin Yuchan had child-rearing experience, but Lin Yuchan remembered seeing a foreign movie about a runaway child who found a baby, and they wandered everywhere, depending on each other. Later, when money ran out and they couldn’t afford formula, they could only give the infant sugar water—not a very healthy approach, but it could sustain life.

Fortunately, those two children were eventually rescued. A heartwarming ending.

Lin Yuchan looked at the child in her arms, not knowing if she would have the same luck.

Miss Odalsky’s carriage had ready sugar cubes, originally for her to drink tea on the road. She hurriedly had them brought, mixed with warm water and stirred vigorously. The small silver spoon that usually moved gently was now used like an egg beater, making hysterical tinkling sounds.

The sugar water was served in a porcelain cup, fed bit by bit into the infant’s mouth.

That purple little mouth sucked urgently, using all her strength to draw from the cup’s edge.

The porcelain cup was small and delicate, painted with bright floral patterns. Miss Odalsky usually held it by the handle with her pinky raised, feeling the tea inside wasn’t enough for one sip. Now covering the infant’s face, it was almost as large as her little cheek. The sugar water spilled as it was fed, only a small portion going in.

Lin Yuchan waited nervously. Fortunately, she didn’t choke.

She didn’t know if this infant had other ailments or disabilities. In the cold outdoors, there was no way to unwrap and examine her.

She asked Miss Odalsky quietly: “Do you know of any church orphanages that take newborn children like this?”

Miss Odalsky was also nervous, her hand supporting the infant’s neck trembling constantly, rigid wrinkles showing on the back of her hand.

“You know I don’t deal with children, so I haven’t been involved in abandoned infant matters… but I know several pastors who run an orphanage at Tushawan in Xujiahui, half a day’s journey from here. I just don’t know if this poor angel’s health can last that long—she looks frostbitten…”

Lin Yuchan said decisively: “No time to waste, let’s go quickly.”

Miss Odalsky hesitated: “But what you asked me to do today…”

Lin Yuchan: “First to the orphanage.”

Miss Odalsky immediately ordered the carriage prepared.

Just as they got in the carriage with the little infant, suddenly gongs sounded on the mountain road, bamboo groves swayed, and a team of over ten government runners came puffing up.

Their clothes bore the words “Songjiang Prefecture.” They carried leather whips and wooden clubs, their official boots making slapping sounds on the mountain path.

The watching crowd scattered.

The runners looked up at the Buddhist temple and clasped their hands in prayer; looked at the “Western nun” under the big tree, curiously examining her Western dress. Finally they darkened their faces and walked straight toward Lin Yuchan.

“Someone reported a madwoman improperly undressing, disrupting public decency, and corrupting morals.” A pimply-faced runner swaggered over, his eyes examining Lin Yuchan from top to bottom, his gaze lingering on her chest while sneering coldly. “Looks like this is the one. Men, seize her!”

Lin Yuchan’s vision darkened as she retreated several steps.

“I… someone reported?”

Which nosy onlooker was so enthusiastic—she cursed them to develop eczema all over next year!

Aunt Zhou and several maids also panicked, working up courage to say: “This lady was saving a child, she’s not insane!”

They babbled out the cause and process. “Officer, have mercy, this is a matter of life and death, don’t punish her.”

Miss Odalsky also poked her head out of the carriage, holding up the little purple person, loudly explaining to the runners.

But she spoke English, which everyone treated like buzzing bees, ignoring her.

Miss Odalsky was about to argue further when Lin Yuchan suddenly rushed to the carriage window.

“Please take the carriage and go, get the infant to the orphanage.” She said quickly. “Leave the maids with me to give me moral support and witness. Also, if you see any chapel or monastery on the road, please call out whoever is inside—anyone—and ask them to come up the mountain to help me.”

The little purple person breathed weakly. Just moments ago, she was still smacking her lips; now she had no strength even for that. Eyes closed, mouth closed, her chest forcefully concave, over and over.

Miss Odalsky didn’t hesitate long and nodded.

“God bless you, you’ll be fine.”

The carriage sped away. The soldiers didn’t dare block foreigners.

Lin Yuchan and several maids were left surrounded by the runners.

A group of runners pointed and commented on Lin Yuchan, making crude jokes and laughing mockingly.

“Hahaha… Everyone else throws children in cesspits; she does the opposite, fishing them out. Where did she learn this, hahaha… I’ve lived thirty years and never seen such a stinking female bodhisattva, hahahaha…”

“Still have to detain her, though. A female bodhisattva who dares pick through cesspits probably dares come with us to the jail too, right? Don’t worry, our women’s prison doesn’t stink like toilets.”

Someone came up to grab Lin Yuchan. She said loudly: “What law of the Qing Dynasty did I break by removing one outer garment to wrap an infant?”

The runner sneered: “Say that kneeling to the prefect!”

Today, being the Double Ninth Festival, the on-duty runners were all bored. Hearing someone report a “woman undressing,” they swarmed like mosquitoes to the blood to see something fresh. Arriving to find it wasn’t as titillating as they’d imagined, but rather carrying a faint stench, they all felt displeased. What had been a minor or non-offense, they tried every way to find fault with Lin Yuchan.

When officers wanted to arrest you, they arrested you. Even if wrongly arrested, you had to endure it. Dare to complain, and they’d beat you with boards in court before releasing you, and others would only say you deserved it.

That pimply runner was showing mercy, covering his nose and calling Lin Yuchan aside to scold privately: “Are you woman mentally defective? Each family decides about their children. Don’t want to raise them, don’t raise them—what’s the big deal? Happens every day, only you make a big fuss! Performing for whom?”

Aunt Zhou suddenly became clever, realizing this pimply face was hinting how Lin Yuchan could escape blame, quickly chiming in: “Exactly, exactly! Our lady has been vegetarian and Buddhist for twenty years, gotten a bit obsessed, but she’s a proper person… Madam, you are too—when isn’t there a day without abandoned children? If you just pretended not to see, the gods and Buddha wouldn’t blame you. If you must blame someone, blame that child’s bitter fate. Let her go, and she can choose a good family next reincarnation…”

Lin Yuchan suppressed her explosive impulse, forced a smile, took the bundle from Aunt Zhou’s hands, felt around inside, and pulled out a handful of silver coins, about five or six yuan.

“I was thoughtless.” She said quietly. “Troubling you officers to make this trip for nothing, take this money for some tea.”

The so-called “corrupting morals” was just a catch-all crime designed to cause trouble. If brought to court, at most, she’d be scolded and driven out. After all, she had no father, brothers, or husband to lose face or suffer.

Except herself. If a common woman were summoned to court as a “suspect,” she’d lose all dignity, destroy all connections, and have no credibility left.

Since it was a catch-all crime, there was room for operation. These runners looked fierce and ready to arrest her, had been swinging chains for so long yet still lecturing—they were waiting for her to figure it out herself.

She quickly figured it out—spending money to avoid disaster, what’s the big deal?

Only this money was hard to part with, her nostrils flaring, eyes somewhat sour.

The carefully planned affair was ruined, the order lost, thirty taels worth of clothing wasted. She stood shivering in the cold wind, now having to spend money to appease people because her appearance was “unsightly.”

Getting money, the runners immediately changed faces, each becoming a caring big brother, earnestly lecturing her never to show her face in public, never to meddle in others’ business, never to associate too much with foreigners, never to undress carelessly in public places…

Lin Yuchan listened seriously. At first she was full of anger and grievance, then somehow suddenly understood and found it amusing.

Dozens of taels of silver to buy a life full of infinite possibilities was simply too good a deal.

Only slightly more expensive than “herself” had been originally.

When Shopkeeper Wang bought the wrong person, he beat his chest in frustration for days, but didn’t he also accept reality? Eating and sleeping as usual, business thriving.

What’s the big deal?

The runners were still giving her lessons in female virtue when her thoughts had already flown beyond Songjiang Prefecture, pondering how to get back up from where she fell, to encounter Mrs. Pan again.

She still had half a month. With time came opportunity.

Until she suddenly realized the runners who’d been lecturing her nonstop had suddenly all fallen silent. The small path by the Buddhist temple suddenly became crowded, a flock of hawk-like servants surging forward.

A small sedan stopped nearby.

Several maids accompanied a matron dressed in silk and satin who walked over. That pimply runner bowed to the matron.

“My mistress heard there was a dispute here. She also heard the cause and effect.” The matron looked at Lin Yuchan imperiously, as if she were just a street sweeper. “This is sacred Buddhist ground. My mistress came today to burn incense for her deceased master and young master, and doesn’t wish to see quarreling. She sent me to pass along a message—don’t make things difficult for this woman. Go on, go on!”

The runners withdrew obsequiously.

The matron called out to Lin Yuchan from a distance: “I hear you picked up a child? My mistress wants to see. Come here.”