The Emperor continued, “By rights, before marriage, even betrothed men and women shouldn’t meet. I’m quite open-minded, am I not?”
At this point, talking back would only waste her energy. Mo Zi smiled and nodded in agreement.
“You girl—your mouth says yes, but your heart is probably saying all manner of improper things about me. Mo Zi, I know you want to find someone compatible on your own, but women must ultimately be more reserved. Besides, Xiao Wei is handsome and devoted to you. If you live with him, I guarantee it won’t be long before you’re completely enamored with him. In matters of marriage, there are the parents’ orders and the matchmaker’s words. Ordinary women aren’t as fortunate as you—most only discover their husband’s appearance when the veil is lifted on the wedding day. When I married the Empress, I had only seen her portrait.” Although Mo Zi felt this was a complete mismatch, the Emperor truly believed he had arranged an excellent marriage. He also assumed that Mo Zi and Yuan Cheng’s feelings were merely at an unspoken, hazy stage, and that neither had violently opposed his arranged marriage.
“Your Majesty, Mo Zi wouldn’t dare speak ill of you behind your back.” She submitted outwardly.
After the meal, before returning to the palace, the Emperor once again instructed that she must move out of Yuan Manor today, then left with Xiao Wei.
Mo Zi returned to the study with Yuan Cheng, not uttering a single complaint about anyone or anything. “You truly are prescient—the Emperor did indeed order me to move out.”
“I’m not that prescient. I merely thought from Xiao Wei’s perspective. If I were him, I wouldn’t want my fiancée living under the same roof as another man, even though he wrote a memorial defending you.” Yuan Cheng handed her the name list. “This is everyone.”
Mo Zi reviewed it and put it away, sighing. “This means that aside from Ming Nian, you won’t even have anyone to cook for you.”
“I can cook and do simple stir-frying myself. I won’t starve.” He had once lived through a long period of poverty.
Mo Zi was first startled, then remembering the upheavals he had experienced, immediately understood. “Someday let me taste your cooking—even plain steamed rice would be fine.”
Yuan Cheng smiled faintly.
When Mo Zi left the manor, there were three large carriages in total.
The guard leader, seeing four or five people on each carriage, was somewhat puzzled. “Lady Registrar Song is returning to Registrar Manor—why is she taking Yuan Manor’s people?”
Mo Zi had Luo Ying produce a stack of papers. “Because I rarely stay at my own manor, and Lord Yuan here is short-handed, I brought the servants and stewards from Registrar Manor over. These are the contracts they signed with me, stamped by the authorities.”
The leader examined them one by one. They were indeed living contracts signed with Registrar Manor, for terms of three to five years, all dated from over half a year ago. He glanced at Yuan Cheng standing in the main gate seeing people off, thinking that as long as this man remained, and since he had no reason to refuse the servants from Registrar Manor, he nodded and waved his hand. The guards moved aside to clear a path.
Mo Zi looked back at Yuan Cheng, smiled slightly and nodded, then turned to enter the carriage, telling the driver Zan Jin to proceed.
Halfway through the journey, they turned into the carriage road of a newly opened large tavern.
The Nanbu Guard captain, following with a hundred men not far behind, watched as these four carriages slowly entered through the gate and immediately grew suspicious. He was one of Xiao Wei’s childhood companions, and had been assigned to “protect” Lady Registrar Song, receiving special instructions from Xiao Wei.
Others thought being betrothed to the promising young general was a blessing earned over many lifetimes, but Xiao Wei had told him to be extremely careful not to let anyone escape. Though half-skeptical, his deep friendship with Xiao Wei kept him vigilant regarding Lady Registrar Song. He selected a small squad and headed to the tavern’s rear courtyard where carriages and horses were kept. Upon entering, he saw all the carriages present, with Lady Registrar Song and the young driver talking. After two quarters of an hour, several shop assistants carried out four large wooden containers of food and dishes, and Lady Registrar Song’s maid paid them silver.
So they were buying food. The captain watched Lady Registrar Song board her carriage, set his mind at ease, and continued following the convoy at a leisurely pace.
Not long after they left the tavern, a group of people emerged from the tavern’s main entrance. Leading them were Li Yan and Zhang Zhen, who had just been posing as stewards in the convoy, followed closely by Doulü and Huaying dressed as men, and behind them Wei An leading five or six others—all people who served Yuan Cheng. They were not simple servants at all, but skilled operatives trained by Lei Zhenmen, who normally did odd jobs and cooking at the manor.
Doulü mounted her horse and said to Li Yan and the others, “Though elder sister asked you all to look after Doulü, I know the situation is urgent now, and I don’t wish to be a burden to everyone. When we must travel quickly, we travel quickly; when we must eat dry rations, we eat dry rations. Doulü is not someone who cannot endure hardship.”
Li Yan praised her. “Little sister is like elder sister—both capable of holding your own. Indeed this journey requires urgent travel. Since Miss Doulü speaks thus, we won’t give special treatment. The sooner we leave Great Zhou, the less danger there is, and the more at ease we can make the Lord and your sister.”
Doulü’s gaze was resolute. “I will absolutely not burden anyone.”
Zhang Zhen also praised her. “What a fine young lady!”
The group headed straight for the south gate.
Meanwhile, the four carriages drove into Great Registrar Manor, immediately surrounded at every gate and the outer courtyard by Nanbu Guards. The captain personally watched Mo Zi and her party enter the inner garden, confirmed the security was tight multiple times, and only then felt assured enough to send someone to inform Xiao Wei. How could he know that with this golden cicada shedding its shell stratagem, though the main character hadn’t left, she no longer had any concerns?
Zan Jin entered the room. “Guards have been posted all around and at the gates. The outer courtyard has regular patrols.”
A’Hao and A’Yue, who had replaced Doulü and Huaying, looked at Mo Zi. “Shall we go take a look?”
Mo Zi nodded. After the two left, she asked Zan Jin, “Are you confident you can get out to pass messages without alerting those people?”
When it came to martial skills, Zan Jin was now quite confident. “I’m confident.”
Mo Zi patted Zan Jin’s arm, completely trusting and entrusting him. “These next few days, message delivery depends on you. In a moment I’ll write a letter—help me deliver it to Fatty Shrimp and the others.”
Zan Jin grinned his agreement.
“What should I do?” Luo Ying couldn’t sit idle.
“You go to Yang Ling’s place and ask if he has a way to bribe the guards at the Ministry of Justice prison to let me see Yuan Cheng’s mother once.” Mo Zi assigned her a task.
Luo Ying didn’t understand. “Why see that woman? To silence her?!”
Mo Zi laughed awkwardly. “What are you thinking? If I visit the prison and she dies, the crime will be pinned squarely on Yuan Cheng and me.” Moreover, though Yuan Cheng’s mother was mad enough to even harm her own son, she was still his birth mother. This person absolutely could not be eliminated by her hand.
Luo Ying giggled, asked no more questions, and went to handle it.
Early the next morning, Yang Ling sent word that he had made the arrangements—they could go in to deliver a meal at sunset.
Mo Zi had people buy some good wine and dishes. When it grew dark, she quietly had Zan Jin take them out of the manor and come to the Ministry of Justice prison.
The jailer who let them in was not Yang Ling’s acquaintance—it was entirely a matter of bribes. As he led them down, he complained about how troublesome delivering meals was, and how if his superiors found out, he’d lose his job, and so on. That Great Zhou’s officialdom had begun to rot wasn’t news. Zan Jin first slipped him a hundred-tael banknote. He hemmed and hawed that it wasn’t enough for the brothers to buy drinks. After receiving three hundred more taels, his entire demeanor instantly changed—he smiled obsequiously, bowed and scraped, and said everyone on duty tonight was his subordinate, so they could speak freely.
Mo Zi said not a word, her figure almost completely blocked by Zan Jin, and she had changed into men’s clothing to avoid drawing attention.
Yuan Cheng’s mother was imprisoned on the lowest level—dark and damp, with a cell so small she could only take two or three steps. Perhaps because she knew martial arts, all four sides were iron bars as thick as a fist. A broken bowl lay before the bars, its filthy color making one unable to imagine what it had once contained, yet still attracting two rats that squeaked and stared at the visitors with ghostly red eyes, utterly unafraid.
Having received so much silver, the jailer would be senseless not to show tact. He remained outside the second gate, observing from afar without eavesdropping.
“Aunt Jiao, I’ve brought some food. Please eat slowly.” Mo Zi spoke to the figure beyond the firelight, then crouched down to push the wine and dishes through the iron bars.
Two gray rats scurried over, suddenly seized by two hands, smashed against the wall until their flesh and blood splattered. Jiao Niang’s gaze was icy cold. She slowly moved it from Mo Zi’s face to the food on the ground, sat cross-legged and began eating. Though imprisoned, her long hair was perfectly arranged without a strand out of place, her face was clean and bright, and her white prison garment was still neat.
Though she treated her son like a madwoman, at this moment she appeared as an elegant and dignified beautiful woman, allowing one to imagine how captivating she must have been in her youth.
Mo Zi sighed with regret. “To have merely loved the wrong man and missed your entire life—why such suffering?”
Yuan Jiao Niang looked at her coldly. “Who loved wrongly? I have no complaints or regrets. If we cannot be husband and wife in this life, I’ll wait for the next. If not the next, then the one after. Life after life, it’s my feeling, my will. What business is it of yours?”
Such obsession!
Mo Zi sighed deeply. “As a fellow woman, I cannot criticize you for loving so deeply that you want to follow him through countless lifetimes. That truly is your freedom, which no one has the right to interfere with, including your own flesh and blood.”
Jiao Niang suddenly looked up. “No wonder you can captivate men’s hearts—with that glib tongue, you almost fooled even me. I know you all think I’ve gone mad, that for a dead man I disregard everything, even using the flesh and blood I carried for ten months to exact revenge. But this child isn’t that man’s, nor one I wanted. Just because I gave birth to him, must I treasure him? His life was mine to give—can’t I take it back?”
“Whether you treasure or despise him in your heart is naturally up to you, but once he was born and separated from you, you have no right to demand his life. He is he, you are you—killing still requires paying with one’s life. It’s inconvenient for him to come now, so he sent me to convey a few words. Regarding this matter, he considers it repayment for your nurturing grace. Whatever the outcome, he bears you no resentment or hatred. Also, you were his aunt for a year—he says he can repay that debt once more, and asks whether you wish to live.”
Jiao Niang tore at the chicken meat with elegant movements, eating beautifully, but her words were merciless. “You need only convey one sentence to him: we’ll meet again on the road to the Yellow Springs.”
“I respect your choice.” Mo Zi prepared to leave.
“Are you saying this, or is he?” Jiao Niang’s voice drifted lightly over.
“What I say is what he says.” At this point, with such a close relative, drawing clear boundaries was not shameful.
As soon as Mo Zi returned to the manor, Luo Ying hurried up to her with a letter.
“Miss, half an hour ago, Sister Xiu had someone urgently deliver this.”
Mo Zi opened it and her face showed delight. “Wu You has started having labor pains—it’ll probably be tonight or tomorrow morning. What perfect timing! Coming back from the prison, my heart was in turmoil, worried that Jiao Niang would notice something.”
“I guessed it was Wu You going into labor.” Luo Ying also smiled.
Now, they only awaited the dawn.