“Mo Zi has also disappeared.” The Emperor’s tone wasn’t surprised. In fact, when he had Zhong An go to the Chief Minister of Justice’s mansion, he had already guessed this would be the result. Yuan Cheng didn’t flee from punishment, but rather because he had granted the marriage between Mo Zi and Xiao Wei, the two decided to leave. Therefore, even with Mo Zi’s strong personality, she only verbally refused once, and Yuan Cheng’s words about this matter were more indifferent than he expected. Both were complying outwardly while opposing inwardly. He had thought it was their respectful compromise to imperial authority.
“Your Majesty, please issue a decree to this humble servant. I will go pursue them. Even if they’ve left the city, they won’t have gone far. Moreover, Female Official Song is skilled with boats and will certainly take waterways. As long as we send swift horses with urgent messages to strictly inspect all ports and waterways leading to Yuling, we will definitely find them and bring them back.” Zhong An observed the Emperor’s expression and discovered that although he was shocked, he wasn’t angry—this point was thought-provoking. Logically, the two fleeing brazenly right under the Son of Heaven’s nose was a provocation to the Emperor and should have provoked imperial fury.
The Emperor looked at Xiao Wei standing to one side. “Baiyu, do you—want to pursue?”
Hearing this, Zhong An wondered what this meant. Could it be His Majesty didn’t want to capture them?
Xiao Wei remained silent. From when this happened until now, his emotions had gone from shock to anger to pain, but uniquely there was no rage. What grounds did he have to be furious? She was unwilling to marry him—she had told him clearly. Her heart held Yuan Cheng—she never concealed this from him. It was his own wishful thinking, clinging to a chance hope, thinking that since most couples developed feelings over time, perhaps if he obtained her marriage to him, she could slowly come to like him. He told himself no matter how long it took, he would wait—wait for the day her heart pleased with him.
“Xiao Wei.” The Emperor interrupted his train of thought. “If you wish to pursue your own fiancée, I will not obstruct you.”
“…” His hands clenched beneath his sleeves, ten fingers digging into his flesh. In that instant, his heart became clear. Was this what they meant by how could a sparrow know the ambitions of a swan? If he couldn’t fly as high as she did, shouldn’t he also not forcibly pull her to roost on his branch? “Your Majesty, if Mo Zi truly does not wish to marry this subject, this subject will no longer force it.”
Zhong An breathed a sigh of relief. If one couldn’t think through this matter themselves, it was very difficult for others to say anything.
“Since that’s the case, let the granted marriage be as if it never happened.” The Emperor cut through this gordian knot so quickly because Mo Zi and Yuan Cheng fled together—that was an elopement. If he still insisted on keeping the original decree unchanged, Prince Jing’s Mansion and Xiao Wei would become laughingstocks. “However, while the marriage can be canceled, the matter of fleeing cannot be lightly forgiven. Xiao Wei, Zhong An, I command you to bring the two back. I want to personally ask them—I regarded them so highly, yet why did they do something that so violates my trust?”
Xiao Wei and Zhong An received the decree and withdrew.
After they left, the Emperor picked up a memorial on the table, opened it and read it again, then handed it to Eunuch Liu. “Burn it.”
Eunuch Liu received it with both hands and placed it in the copper basin, lighting the fire.
Flames leaped in the Emperor’s eyes, but his gaze was somewhat dazed. “Now I can only trust him.”
Eunuch Liu remained bowing with bent waist throughout.
The next day, just as the court was in an uproar over Yuan Cheng and Mo Zi’s escape, more unfavorable news arrived. The appraisers conducting the monthly routine inspection of the treasury discovered that someone had replaced the Water-Purifying Pearl confiscated from Prince Li’s mansion with a fake. The storage records showed that when Yuan Cheng was trying Prince Li’s case, he had removed it as evidence. On the day it was returned, the treasury keeper who handled it had resigned and returned to his hometown due to mourning obligations. Immediately, Yuan Cheng not only became a fugitive but was also crowned with the crime of treasure theft.
After several days, some rumors circulated through the capital’s markets, saying that Nande’s former Prime Minister, now Great Zhou’s fugitive official surnamed Yuan, had collected six Water-Purifying Pearls. If he added the four from Fozhen Studio, the secret among them would be revealed. Regarding this secret, some said it was treasure, some said weapons, and others said it was a divine text that could unite all under heaven—speculations abounded. Soon these rumors spread wider and wider. Even when the head patriarch of the Min family came forward to clarify, saying the Water-Purifying Pearls were merely commemorations of their ancestors’ consummate craftsmanship with no secrets involved, it still became uncontrollable. The Min family was a great clan—the monk might flee but the temple remained. Several groups of people, targeting the six Water-Purifying Pearls and able to capture court criminals for merit and rewards, searched for Yuan Cheng and Mo Zi’s whereabouts even more actively than government soldiers. There were even clever ones who somehow learned that Young General Xiao was investigating this lead and secretly followed his group, hoping to reap ready-made benefits.
When Hua Zhou’s Cloud Eagle Society nearly turned over every inch of ground searching for people, five hundred li away, on the river surface outside Luo Zhou city, a fleet of cargo ships was leisurely proceeding.
“Today’s wine, buy today’s drunkenness. Tomorrow’s sun rises high, shining on…” Amidst the sound of work chants in her ears, Mo Zi wore a large straw hat on her head, sitting and leaning against the mast to sunbathe. Wave beating wave, waves beating the boat—feeling her body gently swaying, warm all through, so comfortable she felt drowsy.
“Brother Mo, we’re entering Orchid Flower Port.” The boatman in the lookout tower called.
Mo Zi immediately opened her eyes, pushed off the deck with one hand to stand, quickly climbed to the bow’s tip, and looking up, Luo Zhou’s largest port was indeed before her, and Luo City’s prosperity had not diminished in the slightest.
“Furl the main sail, half-lower the left and right small sails.” Mo Zi immediately turned to the main control room. She walked faster on the boat than on level ground, borrowing the boat’s rocking momentum, yanking ropes on the left, pushing poles on the right, as if dancing. That graceful figure was a bright sight on the ship.
Opening the speaking tube cover, she gave instructions downward. “Stinky Fish, reduce to stop, fold in the double-wing rudders, single-beat left on the tail rudder, slowly turn forty-five degrees to enter port.” Because Water Snake said Stinky Fish needed more practice steering, these past days Stinky Fish had been staying in the lower level.
When Stinky Fish complained about his bottom growing calluses, he would also badmouth his second brother, saying things like having a wife meant no brotherhood, even wooden snakes would wrap around fallen petals. Sometimes when Water Snake or Luo Ying heard this, the boat would get lively. Stinky Fish would squawk wildly, telling everyone he had neither father nor mother, and his second brother and sister-in-law were like tigers and wolves, making everyone on the boat laugh.
Water Snake and Luo Ying had married. Both were children of the rivers and lakes who didn’t follow conventional etiquette. Moreover, their relatives and friends were mostly on this boat. With Mo Zi presiding, Yuan Cheng representing the Thunder Quake Gate family elders, and Ming Nian conducting the ceremony, they set up several tables of wine. Everyone drank to complete intoxication, and from then on they were an enviably loving couple. Although Water Snake still had that wooden face most of the time, wherever Luo Ying appeared, even wood had feelings—like fine wood sleeping in deep mountain forests that only showed people the gentleness of its grain when meeting sunlight.
After instructing Stinky Fish, Mo Zi picked up a bamboo pole and went to the stern deck.
Old Guan nudged his mouth toward the right. “This young couple, one active and one still—truly well-matched.”
Mo Zi looked and saw Water Snake teaching Luo Ying to pole the boat. Luo Ying said something, and he chuckled.
She clicked her tongue in wonder. “If it were some days ago, you couldn’t beat me to death and I wouldn’t believe Water Snake could laugh.”
“Good men—you may not necessarily see it before marriage, but it shows after marriage.” Old Guan spoke as someone experienced, and caring about Mo Zi said, “The way I see it, for Brother Mo’s temperament, Master Yuan is also extremely good.”
Mo Zi now openly and forthrightly liked that man, so she didn’t blush. “Old Guan, didn’t you say you only know if it’s good after marrying?”
“Then marry me soon, and won’t you know?” Yuan Cheng came around. “Or better yet, double the happiness—hold another wedding celebration tonight?”
“What if after marrying I discover you’re not a good man? Wouldn’t I suffer a great loss? Better to slowly observe first.” Mo Zi smiled beautifully.
“Slowly? Half a year or one year?” This was striking the snake at seven inches.
Mo Zi pretended to think painfully. “Ten or eight years perhaps.”
Old Guan was startled and waved his hands saying, “Absolutely not.”
Mo Zi raised her eyebrows at Yuan Cheng. “What do you say?”
Yuan Cheng sighed and said two words, “I’ll wait.” This was what he had provoked by pretending to be a gentleman back then, so naturally he had to bear the consequences himself.
Mo Zi laughed heartily and said to Old Guan, “See, there’s another kind of good man—a man who will wait for a woman.”
Yuan Cheng smiled as he looked at her—rare and peculiar, she dared to say anything.
But when Mo Zi spoke again, she was serious. “Entering port today—shall we depart tomorrow night?”
“Rest for two days.” Even fleeing, Yuan Cheng wasn’t anxious. “I see you’ve been rushing these past days. The boat may not be tired, but people are.”
“What if people catch up—” Although her boat was already traveling very fast, two days gave her a sense of crisis.
“They won’t.” Yuan Cheng’s confidence didn’t know where it came from, always appearing so full.
Mo Zi glanced at the two large ships behind her—her entire foundation of confidence. “Fine, worst case we fight our way out.”
As the ship entered port, someone called, “Is this the Yajiang Freight Transport ship?”
Wei Qing, who had been waiting on another large ship, showed a smiling expression, descended the sampan to speak. “That’s right. Is this gentleman from the Salt Bureau?”
“Correct. Here’s the official document—look carefully.” The official handed over the salt extraction papers.
Wei Qing carefully received it, examined it thoroughly, then nodded. “Sir, it’s a total of six thousand dan. Please also count it properly later to verify accounts and stamp the receipt so we can report back to our employer.”
With a wave from the official, workers pushed wheelbarrows up to move cargo.
At this time, Yuan Cheng in elegant black robes with a tall cap, and Mo Zi in blue clothes with a small ear-flap hat disguised as his attendant, along with Zan Jin, Huayi and others, quietly descended the side ladder to go ashore.
Luo City was a place Mo Zi and Xiao Yi were accustomed to living. Having left for a year and a half, revisiting old haunts felt especially fresh. For Luo Ying who had never been here before, the north-south differences made her find it all the more interesting. What was originally procurement of supplies was slowed by the dazzling array of small stalls and shops. To let them focus on enjoying themselves, Yuan Cheng simply arranged to split up. Stinky Fish and the others went to order ship necessities, while he and Huayi and others purchased food ingredients and medicines, agreeing to meet at the port’s tavern at noon before dispersing.
“How unique!” Luo Ying held a double-sided flower drum hairpin. “I thought at the capital under the Son of Heaven’s feet things should be more refined, but unexpectedly items in a small Luo City shop are this special.”
“These things were all transported from Nande.” Mo Zi was knowledgeable. “Nande’s craftsmen are famously ingenious throughout the realm, emphasizing delicacy and novelty with wide-ranging materials—unlike the north which emphasizes noble elegance and stability with materials mostly being gold and jade.”
“Help me look—are there any men’s accessories?” Having bought her own, Luo Ying didn’t forget her wooden husband.
Mo Zi was just about to laugh at her when she suddenly heard someone behind her speaking to the shop owner.
“Shopkeeper, I have a jade pendant here. Can you look at it and give me a price?”
“I don’t accept used items. Miss should go to a pawnshop.” The shopkeeper patiently replied.
That voice wanting to sell the pendant was familiar to the ear.