Mo Zi struggled to open her eyes. After adjusting to the darkness, she borrowed the moonlight filtering through the paper window to make out her surroundings.
Old wooden crates were piled against one wall. The shelves held miscellaneous items in disarray. They hadn’t been cleaned in so long that a thick layer of white dust covered everything.
This truly was a genuine storage room! Mo Zi wanted to sit up, but the slightest movement made her gasp in pain, so she simply maintained her prone position. That vicious beating—though she had escaped seven or eight strokes by feigning unconsciousness, the first dozen or so strikes had landed solidly. The Old Madam clearly wanted to make her speak first before engaging in dialogue with Qiu Sanniang. The matter of interrogating her tonight would not be publicized. However, no matter how she thought about it, she still couldn’t quite grasp what this old lady was thinking. So what if she knew Qiu Sanniang was doing business? In these times, among the wealthy nobility, those whose maternal families had some assets and owned estates and shops—wasn’t that perfectly normal? At most, Qiu Sanniang simply hadn’t informed her elders, but she had no obligation to announce it to the whole world, did she?
Unable to understand the logic in all this, and with her body aching, she was just drifting off to sleep in a daze when she heard sounds outside the door. Then the window lifted, and a shadow nimbly jumped in.
“Miss.” The shadow was named A’Hao, supposedly the one with fairly good medical skills.
“A bit later and I would’ve been asleep.” Mo Zi forced a smile. “Do you have any good medicine, the kind that feels cool on the skin?”
A’Hao’s figure paused. “The injuries on Miss’s body should be treated with blood-activating medicine. Since it activates blood circulation, it will inevitably generate heat. How could it be cool?”
“Not necessarily. White flower oil has a cool sensation on the skin and also promotes blood circulation and reduces bruising—it’s no worse than red flower oil. Right now my back is burning hot. There’s no rush to activate blood circulation; it’s better to reduce the temperature first.” When people are drowsy, they tend to reveal their true selves. Mo Zi had let slip about white and red flower oils.
“…” Flower oil? What kind of flower oil could have such uses? A’Hao’s thirst for knowledge was strong, but the shackles binding her thoughts were even stronger. “Miss, A’Hao doesn’t have white flower oil or red flower oil, only medicine for external injuries—homemade and somewhat crude, but it works fairly quickly. Would you like to try it?”
“Having something is better than nothing, and I trust your medical skills. Look at you—every day when you’re not following me, you’re reading medical books. You must have gained considerable insights. Let me ask you, do you consider yourself more reliable than those quack doctors selling miracle pills?”
A’Hao’s form paused again. “Should be more reliable.” If she didn’t know that this master sometimes spoke erratically, she would think Mo Zi was looking down on her.
“Then I’ll trouble you. Don’t tell me how badly I’ve been beaten—I can still deceive myself that this is a minor matter. Otherwise, I’m afraid I won’t be able to withstand the reality and will truly faint from embarrassment.” It hurt so much! If not for her strong character, crying out for help would be all too easy.
“Miss already fainted once just now.” A’Hao slowly approached.
“That’s different. Those people have nothing to do with me, so feigning unconsciousness isn’t embarrassing.” Mo Zi struggled to sit up, biting her lip hard.
A’Hao was stunned for the third time, but this time she didn’t respond. She stepped forward to help Mo Zi remove her cotton robe, lifted her undergarment for a look, and frowned. Even by moonlight alone, she could see the back was covered in patches of blue and red with bright red spots—just one more stroke away from having the skin split and flesh torn open.
“Miss should have fainted earlier.” She had originally wanted to intervene, but before leaving Deer Antler Alley, Mo Zi had instructed that unless there was danger to her life, they should not act rashly—unless she called out for help. She had lifted roof tiles to watch from above and saw Mo Zi being beaten. Understanding Mo Zi’s meaning in not making a sound, she could only forcibly restrain herself.
“In this matter, you’re less experienced than I am.” A’Hao seemed to start applying medicine. Mo Zi’s whole body trembled, feeling as if an iron plow had been dragged across her back—the pain was searing. “Feigning unconsciousness requires perfect timing. Too early and people will be suspicious. Too late and I’m the one who suffers. Think about it—I’m a maid. Though I’m not thick-skinned and coarse-fleshed, I’m not exactly delicate either. With that kind of beating stick, a pampered young lady could only take three or four strokes, a sturdy male servant thirty strokes, a female servant twenty strokes. I counted to ten—just right.” However, after feigning unconsciousness, she was still hit a few more times.
“Miss also has the delicate constitution of a wealthy young lady.” A’Hao believed that Mo Zi sometimes displayed an extremely noble bearing.
“What kind of young lady am I!” Mo Zi shook her head to correct her. “Perhaps I didn’t suffer poverty as a child, but my father was a craftsman, and so am I. I’ve survived to this day with my own two hands. You can say I have some pride in my bones, but delicate? I’m not qualified.” She didn’t want to be delicate, nor could she be delicate. Because she would suffocate herself alive.
After applying medicine to Mo Zi’s wounds, A’Hao handed over a golden pill. “Miss, this is an internal ginseng elixir to replenish blood, energy, and vitality.”
Mo Zi didn’t ask further questions and obediently took it. Looking up to see A’Hao staring at her as if lost in thought, she asked what was wrong.
“…Aren’t you afraid it’s poison?” She was this person’s sworn retainer, but she also knew Mo Zi was an extremely cautious person who, until now, still chatted casually with her and A’Yue but had entrusted them with very few serious matters.
Mo Zi looked at A’Hao for a long while and sighed. “I’ve been too obviously guarded against you and A’Yue, haven’t I? Actually…”
“Sixth Miss hasn’t done anything wrong. The two of us weren’t personally trained by Miss, and we’ve only been following you for a short time. Moreover, we’re sworn retainers—Miss doesn’t need to be too close to us.” A’Hao put away the medicine bottle. “This medicine isn’t poisoned.”
“I know. Even if it were poisoned, you’d definitely have the antidote. If you didn’t give it to me, I’d snatch it.” Yuan Cheng said not to get too close to them—that was prudent. A’Hao said there was no need to get too close to them—that was resigned acceptance. Mo Zi only took these as reference opinions; what she actually did followed her heart. “You didn’t come right after me but stayed there to listen a while longer. Do you know what that old lady is plotting? How does her daughter-in-law’s business conflict with the Xiao family, that she’s interrogating me like this?”
“Does Sixth Miss know that according to Great Zhou law, members of the imperial family and nobility are not permitted to engage in commerce?” A’Hao said.
“That’s what they say. But although Prince Jing’s mansion is a noble family with a different surname, only the Prince and Princess Consort cannot conduct business. The other two branches of the Xiao family aren’t subject to this restriction. Especially the third branch—they run grain shops and recently opened a tea house and medicine shop, no different from merchants.” Where there are policies from above, there are countermeasures below.
“The third branch hasn’t been able to come up with money for the past two months. Third Master Xiao saw that there were increasingly many refugees from Yuling, so he purchased a large quantity of grain at high prices and transported it to the prefectures neighboring Yuling, planning to resell it. He didn’t expect that once the disaster relief was released and His Majesty ordered the granaries opened, not only did he fail to profit from this disaster, he actually lost money.
“As for the tea house and medicine shop, Third Master wrongly trusted the stewards. The goods were stolen through collusion between insiders and outsiders, and he couldn’t recover the capital either. The Old Madam told the Princess Consort that they could use the family rule forbidding women from conducting business outside to pressure Qiu Sanniang, replace you, and have stewards from the Prince’s mansion take over. When Sanniang gives birth to a son in the future, these properties will naturally be passed to him, and they’ll belong to the Xiao family. This is the long-term plan. The immediate goal is to use the favor of allowing Sanniang to continue operating behind the scenes to make her produce private funds to cover the losses to the common household funds over these two months. It sounds like although Prince Jing’s mansion has a substantial family fortune, ready cash is insufficient, with monthly income and expenses roughly breaking even. Antiques and precious treasures can’t be used as silver, and income from land and fields comes seasonally. I also heard…” A’Hao paused.
“What else did you hear?” Mo Zi thought to herself that many who appeared wealthy weren’t actually generous.
“The Master withdrew thirty thousand taels of silver from the common funds to fill a military salary gap. It seems to involve factional disputes. The Old Madam didn’t say much, but from her tone, this silver won’t be recovered.
“Later, the Old Madam specifically mentioned Hongyu, saying that the family’s men were mostly naval generals. If they controlled a shipyard, how could they fail to expand this business? Now that government shipyards and private shipyards must cooperate, even warships might be entrusted to private family shipyards—this enterprise would definitely prosper the family and clan. Tomorrow, the Old Madam wants to beat you into submission and make you confess about Qiu Sanniang’s business dealings. Because if Qiu Sanniang doesn’t admit it, the Xiao family can’t gain any benefits. Actually, in my view, Jin Si’s testimony isn’t important—you are what’s important, Miss.” This was the cause of it all.
Scholars, farmers, artisans, merchants. Merchants ranked last. At the top of the Great Zhou pyramid were those representing the landlord class. This wasn’t from a textbook, but Mo Zi’s profound realization through this incident. People like the Old Madam and Princess Consort—their dowries were all land, estates large and small numbering about ten, and they neither conducted other businesses nor deigned to do so. Prince Jing’s mansion itself had vast fiefdoms with over a thousand tenant farmers. When nobility became too closely associated with merchants, it invited ridicule. Therefore, although the Xiao family’s third branch ran shops to earn daily living expenses for the entire family, they weren’t particularly favored by the Old Master and Old Madam.
Third Master Xiao was also ashamed of this and never publicly claimed which shops belonged to the Xiao family, operating them all under family servants’ names. But when the estates submitted their annual accounts, that was an extremely important occasion—not only would the Old Madam inquire, but the Old Master would personally receive the estate stewards, rewarding those who deserved rewards and praising those who deserved praise.
In their eyes, only the silver submitted from these accounts was presentable and could be properly recorded as part of the Xiao family fortune with complete legitimacy.
In the Qiu mansion, one didn’t feel there was anything wrong with doing business. In Prince Jing’s mansion, doing business—especially a daughter-in-law doing business—could not only be made into a big issue but could also be exploited for profit. A married woman follows her husband. Dowries were a woman’s private property, but truthfully, women who didn’t contribute their dowries to their husband’s family were truly rare in these times. A woman’s dowry either went to her husband or her son, ultimately escaping the fate of adding bricks and mortar to the husband’s family. Otherwise, why would prominent families insist on matching social status when marrying? If the daughter-in-law’s property remained the daughter-in-law’s, why must they marry a wealthy daughter-in-law? Wasn’t it because they took it for granted that when contribution was needed, it should be contributed outward? And they cloaked it in the grand guise of ethical propriety, carrying it out openly and righteously.
Despising it, yet coveting it. This was the upper class’s attitude toward merchant families. There was no helping it—the landlord class held the greatest power.
“Looks like I’ll still see tomorrow’s sun.” Mo Zi laughed self-deprecatingly. She hadn’t asked A’Hao to rescue her because she was waiting for her good master. “A’Hao, make a trip to Momo Knowing Courtyard and tell Third Madam that if she doesn’t come tonight, I’ll assume she’s tired and needs to conserve her energy. If she doesn’t come tomorrow, I’ll expose her. After all, this vicious beating isn’t easy to endure. I’m timid and physically weak—I can’t withstand much torment.”
A’Hao quietly agreed and leaped out through the window.
A thread of moonlight, cold and clear.
In this drama, she wasn’t the protagonist. She was merely someone waving the banner. She could shout, she could remain silent—that was all.