Now back to Mo Zi and the others. After buying things and eating a meal, they reunited with Qiu Sanniang and the others, returned to the boat, and began making preparations to depart again. Who knew that after Qiu Sanniang’s afternoon nap, the boat still hadn’t moved. So she called Mo Zi to go inquire.
Mo Zi went up on deck and saw the sky had clearly cleared, the river had no waves, yet boats large and small remained stopped at the dock, packed full. When she had first come ashore, she’d paid attention—clearly no boats had departed. Was everyone particularly fond of Luzhen and planning to stay a couple more days? Or had something happened, preventing them from leaving?
After walking around, strangely enough, not a single boatman could be seen, nor could she see Second Master Xiao and Stone Lei who were always wandering about. How strange—normally when she didn’t want to see them, they’d appear before her eyes, but now when she needed to find people, they were playing hide and seek. Thinking she should go ask Concubine Madam Wei, she climbed the stairs and walked toward the second floor.
Before she’d even turned into the corridor, the rosewood door by the outer corridor opened without warning and nearly hit Mo Zi. She jumped backward with a cry, calling out “careful, someone’s behind!”
The outer corridor was by the second-floor railing. With the door open, it blocked the passage. She peered out and only saw a pale pink figure rush out from inside the door, both hands covering her face as she ran into the corridor.
“Who was that?” Mo Zi muttered, reaching out to push the door only halfway closed when suddenly it encountered a great force and was pushed back, making her cry out again, “Hey, someone’s behind here!”
Also, this time the other party probably heard, because the door was pulled back.
Mo Zi breathed a sigh of relief, patted her heart, and walked past the door’s position, only to see Second Master Xiao glaring at her with a face full of menace.
“What are you here doing again?” he asked viciously.
“What do you mean ‘again’?” Having nearly been hit by the door twice, Mo Zi’s heartbeat hadn’t yet returned to normal. She spoke with her head high and chest out. “Since boarding this boat, this is the first time I’ve come to the second floor.”
Having finished speaking, her head also cleared. The trademark submissive gesture quickly fell into place—eyebrows softening into curves, face maintained fifteen degrees below the horizontal line, angrily glaring at those cloud-walking boots. “In reply to Second Young Master, Miss sent Mo Zi to ask Concubine Madam Wei when the boat will depart.”
If Xiao Wei weren’t certain his eyes were fine, he would have thought that maid’s earlier aggressive appearance was the sun being too bright, making him see things. However, knowing Mo Zi had a sharp mouth, her being that fierce didn’t surprise him too much. He slightly raised his sword-like eyebrows, quickly resuming his usual noble pride.
“You—did you just see the person who came out of the door?” A drawn-out “you,” very meaningful.
Originally if he hadn’t asked, Mo Zi wouldn’t have thought of it. But his strange manner instead aroused her suspicion. Recalling the earlier scene, that pale pink back, gorgeously dressed with a head full of pearls and jade—mm—it was someone’s cousin.
The corner of her mouth curved wickedly, her voice respectfully obedient, she replied thus: “The door was blocking, so Mo Zi didn’t see.”
“That’s best.” A tone that had to believe even if he didn’t, Xiao Wei added, “If anyone asks in the future, don’t give the wrong answer.”
“Mo Zi can’t say she’s good at other things, but her memory is fairly decent.” If people knew Miss Wei Six and Second Master Xiao, a single man and woman, had been alone together in a room—either Miss Wei Six would have to jump in the river and not live, or Second Master Xiao would gain a beautiful concubine.
“Go back and tell your miss that Luzhen is preparing to open relief porridge kitchens for the refugees. It’s extremely noisy outside the town, so it’s not good to leave right now. Wait a bit longer and we can go.” Xiao Wei said.
Oh? They really were opening granaries to distribute grain? Mo Zi was very happy. She looked up, smiled, curtsied, acknowledged with a “yes,” and left.
Her suddenly smiling like a flower seemed very inexplicable in Xiao Wei’s eyes. His final thought was that this maid called Mo Zi not only had a sharp mouth, but in that startling glimpse her appearance was also quite good. But he’d seen more than just one or two absolute beauties. With a turn, he’d forgotten it all.
The boat didn’t leave until the moon reached mid-heaven. The floral fragrance on both shores had been replaced by porridge fragrance—no longer the scent of despair. No one chased after boats selling flowers anymore. Children holding bowls as if holding the most precious treasure in the human world. Mo Zi sat on the deck, gnawing on the large white steamed bun that Bai He had openly brought out for her, eating more fragrantly than any other time. At that moment, she hadn’t yet thought that everything happening and about to happen on shore was inseparably connected to herself.
Five days later, they entered a large city’s dock to resupply. Second Master Xiao received an express letter at the postal office from his attendants left in Luzhen. That evening after dinner, when everyone was chatting idly, he mentioned the Luzhen county office’s situation to Concubine Madam Wei, which aroused Li Shi and Qiu Sanniang’s curiosity.
“What excellent official bonds.” Li Shi praised highly. “Without spending a single coin from the authorities, preventing the gentry from saying officials forcibly took silver, while also winning over the hearts of the Yuling people. This county magistrate is truly an extremely capable person.”
The provincial governor was the highest official of a province, so Xiao Wei was also very respectful toward Li Shi. “Madam Tang may have heard of this person. His surname is Jiang, given name Tao, a native of Yun Province, the youngest dual-degree metropolitan graduate from two years ago. The Emperor originally wanted to appoint him as third-place scholar, and his performance at the palace examination also showed great talent, but unfortunately—”
“Is Second Master speaking of that Jiang Tao who, due to his peculiar appearance, had no chance at third-place scholar?” Li Shi had indeed heard her husband mention him.
“Exactly. Two years ago he was assigned as a sixth-rank county magistrate. I didn’t expect it would be in Luzhen County. Now with his actions, our Great Zhou has one more pillar of capable ministers.” The Xiao family men all had loyal hearts devoted to serving the nation.
“Only I wonder if this time the Emperor still finds him ugly?” Qiu Sanniang pursed her lips and laughed directly.
This amused Madam Wei and Li Shi so much they couldn’t stop laughing, and the maids also laughed in a string of chimes.
Miss Wei Six’s seasickness had been severe these recent days. She almost never left her cabin, and was thus absent.
“Sister-in-law, you mustn’t speak disrespectfully of the Emperor.” Xiao Wei was quite serious.
Concubine Madam Wei continued laughing, saying, “It’s not really disrespectful. I think even the Emperor would laugh hearing it.”
“Since ancient times, third-place scholars are most romantic. If the Emperor appointed Jiang Tao as third-place scholar, I’m afraid those lords wanting to find a handsome son-in-law would take detours to avoid him.” Li Shi also joined in the fun.
Everyone laughed together again.
“What exactly does that Jiang Tao look like?” After finally finishing her laughter, Qiu Sanniang asked very curiously.
That Jiang Tao had a beard that wasn’t cleanly shaved, a large head, large eyes, an upturned nose, protruding ears, a woman’s cherry-small mouth, and as soon as he opened it, “this humble student this, humble student that,” putting on the pretentious airs of a sour scholar.
What rainy day tea pavilion idle chat among tea friends? That middle-aged scholar was most likely Jiang Tao’s advisor.
Mo Zi was so angry she huffed. She also blamed herself for not being more alert. People truly couldn’t be judged by appearances—that silly-looking big-headed fool actually had the learning of a third-place scholar. She should know that her understanding of third-place scholars only remained at the superficial level of people like Li Xunhuan. However, in these times becoming one of the top three wasn’t easy—not only requiring ten years of cold window study acquired later, but also being born from the womb as a handsome young gentleman.
Wait, none of this was the key point. The key point was that this person surnamed Jiang had concealed his identity and stolen her ideas. If she’d known early on that Jiang Tao was a county magistrate, she would have asked him for a consulting fee to console her empty-handed impoverished state.
Heavens, she might not be the most unlucky transmigrator, but she was definitely the one who absolutely couldn’t hold onto money.
Another opportunity, flowing away with the great river eastward—