Just like an egg, a shell-thin layer of jade separated open. Inside was milky white, but the luster was entirely different. Under the lamplight, it was as beautiful as clouded skies.
Mo Zi was extremely astonished in her heart. She was too familiar with this color and luster—so familiar that what others might seek their entire lives, she had given away, acted as intermediary for, and been gifted, handling it many times.
Peeling away the jade shell and pinching it between two fingers, the white color receded and a Guanyin riding clouds emerged, presenting yet another kind of compassion.
Water-purifying pearls—they seemed to have a special affinity with her, always within her field of vision, even though she had never harbored any extravagant hope of obtaining them.
According to rumor, the Min family had recovered four water-purifying pearls, while Yuan Cheng originally had three, and three more were unaccounted for. From what she now knew, at least one was in Jin Yin’s hands, but he had always wanted to collect them, so there were likely others. Yuan Cheng had one. She now had two, and didn’t yet know if there was one in the other ear bead. If there was one in this pair of her ear beads, then did Doulu’s ear beads also contain them?
Having finished this thought, she began examining the second ear bead, but quickly discovered that this time there was no smoky-colored circle in the middle, but rather a small complete circle at the top. She already somewhat understood Min Fifth’s methods. He used the natural jade color patterns and confused them together with his seams, then polished them with some kind of Min family technique. Although this jade wasn’t expensive, such artistry and craftsmanship—in her eyes, just the shell alone was priceless.
Using the previous method, she carefully cut and ground open the jade. Inside wasn’t a water-purifying pearl, but rather a gold ball the same size as a water-purifying pearl. To extract the gold ball, she would have to break the outer jade, which made her hesitate. What made her decide was discovering there were characters on top of the gold ball.
Four characters: Mozi, my daughter.
Her eyes immediately reddened. At this point, the identity of Min family granddaughter was one hundred percent confirmed.
Taking out the gold ball, there were also characters on it, carved in relief. Although curious about how this ball had been placed inside the jade shell, she read the characters first. Those characters were so small the naked eye couldn’t see them clearly. Using a crystal lens, it took over a shichen before she could read the general content.
It was a letter.
The letter read: Mozi, my daughter, I don’t know how old you will be at this time, but I pray to heaven to bless you with lifelong peace and health, that you may meet a good person who will treat you like a pearl or treasure. My child, my Zi’er, looking at your small face, I imagine you wearing a red wedding veil—will you laugh at your mother’s greed? Your father says the ball is small and there’s no more room to write. So I’ll say one more thing—I’ll wait for the next life to become your mother again, and will definitely watch you with children and grandchildren filling the hall, while you complain about this white-haired old granny.
A letter from mother to daughter, read fifteen years later, still conveying overflowing love. Mo Zi wiped away her tears again and again. She also discovered a line of characters above, writing her birth date and hour along with Min Fifth’s generational rank, as well as her name as a daughter of the Min clan.
Left hand holding the water-purifying pearl, right hand holding the gold letter ball—two generations of genius master craftsmen, two kinds of supreme craftsmanship, from great compassion to the tender love of deep emotion. Her hands seemed to hold two mountain peaks, her heart so heavy, yet unable to describe the shock and emotion.
The next day, Mo Zi didn’t tell Min Zhen and the others about her discovery. As she had said, whether or not to acknowledge this Min family kinship still required careful consideration. Although it might truly be because of blood relations that she still found the Min family people quite agreeable, it didn’t mean she was willing to give up herself. Moreover, under current circumstances, she didn’t have the leisure to consider this matter.
After entering Daqiu waters, the ship’s speed slowed down because there were many places with treacherous mountains and evil waters, and many water bandits, so navigation required extra care. At this time, the advantage of following the fleet became even more prominent. Because generally water bandits had few ships and few people, they simply didn’t dare provoke these twenty large vessels.
However, just one day’s distance from the national capital’s inland waterway, when everyone thought they had already entered safe waters, that night they encountered a large group of water bandits.
Mo Zi was playing flying chess with Yang Qiao, whose health had recovered, while Miao Shi watched the excitement and did needlework at the side, when suddenly the cabin violently shook.
Yang Qiao’s game piece really flew up, whooshing into the wall and bouncing up to the ceiling.
Miao Shi pricked her hand, not even having time to suck her finger before crying out in alarm, “What happened?”
“No need to panic.” Mo Zi could judge. “This was impact caused by the ship suddenly stopping and sharply turning. We shouldn’t have hit a submerged reef or anything. I’ll go take a look.”
Yang Qiao held her back. “I want to come too. You’ve worked hard all along the way. I wish I could help somehow.”
But Miao Shi pulled Yang Qiao back. “Young Madam, your health has just improved somewhat. Don’t catch cold from the night wind again. We’re completely ignorant about sailing ships. Letting those who understand concentrate on their work is actually helping them.”
“Besides, haven’t you already been a great help? Don’t worry, once we reach shore, there will be many places that need you.” After Mo Zi finished persuading her, she couldn’t delay and immediately went up on deck.
Xiao Wei, Zhong An, and Wei Jia hadn’t gone to sleep yet and were gripping the handrail looking out.
Seeing Mo Zi arrive, Xiao Wei said, “The Zuo family’s lead ship caught fire, and there are sounds of fighting. It seems they were ambushed.”
Mo Zi hurriedly gazed into the distance. Three li away, firelight flickered faintly, and someone was shouting themselves hoarse.
“Tonight dark clouds cover the stars and moon, no wind, no waves—it’s good weather for an ambush.” The river surface was pitch black where one couldn’t see one’s hand, and she could smell smoke. Seeing the somewhat blurred lights on the main ship ahead, plus the excessively choking smoke smell, an ominous premonition suddenly arose. She looked up and shouted, “Chouyu!”
“Here.” Chouyu was still in the lookout barrel.
“Immediately have people extinguish all lights on our ship. Ask Feixia and Shuishe to carefully watch for water ghosts on both flanks and hidden rudders. At any discovery, immediately sound the alarm and prevent water bandits from boarding.” Mo Zi ordered.
Chouyu immediately went to relay the command.
Before long, there wasn’t a trace of light on the ship.
Wei Jia wasn’t skilled in water battles and asked, “Without light, how can we see the water bandits?”
Xiao Wei answered for Mo Zi. “The wind on the river isn’t strong. The lead ship caught a small fire, yet we here can smell smoke and see fog—actually the other side is creating thick smoke, wanting to block mutual assistance between the ships. And they’re approaching under cover of darkness and thick smoke, so lamplight would guide them to us. If we extinguish the lights, although it’s difficult for us to see them, they equally can’t see us.”
“Let them approach. Our ship has many treasures—are we afraid of a few ships of water bandits?” Wei Jia said proudly.
Mo Zi poured cold water on him. “Both front and back are Zuo You’s ships. Where’s the need for us to worry blindly? Moreover, we don’t know how many ships they have. I don’t plan to serve as a suicide squad leader for others. Unless it’s life or death, tonight if we can hide, we hide.”
“Right, we can’t let others see those weapons. They’re our only magic weapon for winning by surprise and defeating many with few.” Xiao Wei’s thinking aligned with Mo Zi’s.
Wei Jia understood. “Then we’ll wait for them to board the ship—kill one if one comes, catch a pair if a pair comes!”
“If they still discover us, we can only use that method. However, I estimate before that happens, Zuo You’s people should be able to handle it.” Mo Zi said this with the confidence of twenty large river ships as foundation. But when she discovered that both the second ship from the front and the second from the rear of the Zuo family fleet were starting to catch fire, she was somewhat alarmed.
“I’m afraid this batch of water bandits is cunning, and Zuo You hasn’t yet grasped the method to deal with them.” Xiao Wei was equally worried. “If the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold. We can’t just watch them suffer excessive losses that implicate our ship. Mo Zi, what do you say?”
Xiao Wei was seeking her opinion? Mo Zi was actually thinking the same thing. “Indeed so. The enemy is in darkness, the Zuo family ships in light. At this time, the most useful method is to illuminate the enemy’s ships and the ambushing water ghosts.”
“Fire—arrows!” The voices of Xiao Wei, Zhong An, and Wei Jia rang out together.
Mo Zi meant exactly this. “However, once we use this method, we’ll also draw fire to ourselves. The water bandits will know our location and we won’t escape close combat. So we must prepare together.”
Thus, on one hand they concentrated the archers, binding oiled cloth to arrows, lighting them on fire, and shooting them outward in succession. On another hand, they brought Yang Qiao, Miao Shi, and others who couldn’t fight to one of the cargo holds below, while having all the ship workers prepare for water combat. Thirdly, they had the people in the core cabin ready to rotate the wheel oars at any time to escape the enemy’s pursuit. Lighting arrows on fire was effective—although they wasted quite a few at first, later they illuminated two of the water bandits’ ships. And Zuo You clearly understood Mo Zi’s intention and hurriedly had his people follow suit. Thus, the water bandits surrounding them had nowhere to hide, revealing over ten fast boats flying black sails. The boats weren’t large, winning in speed and lightness, moving silently on water. However, once they couldn’t remain concealed, these boats couldn’t compare with Zuo You’s large ships. This wave of turning passive to active attack led by the main ship enabled the ships being attacked at front and rear to regain control of the situation. The large ships connected head to tail and tail to head, their momentum boundless for a time.
But this batch of water bandits didn’t immediately flee in complete fear. They pulled their boats back slightly but sent out many water ghosts to swim toward the various ships.
“Brother Mo, over thirty people are coming toward us.” Feixia brought the news.
Mo Zi drew her small sword and summoned her people to jump into the water.
Xiao Wei reached out to stop her. “You can’t go into the water. Don’t forget, Uncle Zuo You is still watching. A woman following her father in commerce is one thing, going into the water to kill people is quite another.”
Zhong An also said, “Baiyu is right. If you go into the water and Zuo You finds out, he’ll definitely become suspicious.”
Xiao Wei unfastened the Yinyue sword, removed his outer robe, handed it to Wei Jia, and with his personal guards, jumped into the river. In critical moments, cohesion was unprecedented.
Chouyu watched from the side and said to Mo Zi, “Brother Mo, then I’ll lead our people.”
Mo Zi nodded and instructed, “Be careful, show no mercy.”
Chouyu laughed, did two three-sixty-degree flips in the air, and entered the water gracefully. Behind him, dozens of figures followed in succession.
For a time, the river surface churned with splashing water. It was too dark, the torches couldn’t illuminate that brightly. They only knew the fighting was intense but didn’t know who was winning or losing. For an instant it seemed like bloody water was visible, but in the blink of an eye it was muddy yellow waves, making hearts tremble with fear.
Zan Jin saw Mo Zi’s tension and comforted her. “Brother Mo, that kid Chouyu claims to be number one in the world for underwater skills. Dealing with water bandits is just a small matter—you don’t need to worry.”
Ding Gou also spoke up. “As for Xiao Wei, there’s even less need to worry. A general on water always has unique abilities.”
“This is my first time watching people fight in water. I just feel that in water it’s not like on shore—it’s not the person with good martial skills or great strength who wins.” Mo Zi’s heart was unsettled.
At this moment, the water surface gradually calmed.