Zhù Ying said daylight would bring a plan — but except for her, no one else in the house was able to sleep.

Zhang Xiangu was the first to follow her into the room. She latched the door behind her, pulled her daughter down to sit beside her on the bed, and took on the look of someone who intended to have a “long talk.” Zhù Ying said: “I know what I’m doing. I’m not planning any reckless moves.”

Zhang Xiangu nodded: “I know! I always said we don’t need to depend on Madam to get by. These past days, all she’s been asking about is her nephew’s business. Your father doesn’t even know if he’s dead or alive yet! We’ve been paying our share of the room and board — we don’t owe her household anything! Worst case, we take these clothes off, put our old clothes back on, and each go our separate way!”

Zhù Ying said: “I was never planning to spend the rest of my life with her either.”

Zhang Xiangu said: “Just walking away — it feels a bit heartless. Those two women are alone on the road with their valuables — they’d be like a piece of meat just sitting there. And your father, that wretch — who knows if he…”

Zhù Ying said: “I have a plan.”

“What plan? Tell me. I’m your own mother — you have to tell me.”

Zhù Ying rolled her eyes inwardly and thought: I’ll never fall for that again. When I was little I shared my honest thoughts with you — and then what?

She said: “Nothing’s certain yet — if I say it out loud, it’ll jinx it.”

Zhang Xiangu kept pressing. Then there was a knock at the door — Huajie had come to smooth things over between mother and daughter.

Both Zhù Ying and her mother had an excellent impression of Huajie. Zhù Ying said to her politely: “Elder Sister, come in and sit.”

Zhang Xiangu said: “Oh, Huajie, it’s not aimed at you.”

Huajie said: “Mother has been running into one piece of bad luck after another — her heart is anxious. And yet she can’t just leave without trying to help, which is why she keeps pressing. She hasn’t forgotten Sanlang’s safety, and she certainly isn’t suspecting any underhanded motives either. We’ve seen people who genuinely meant to cause harm and take lives.”

Zhù Ying said: “It’s nothing.”

“Then… what are your plans?”

Zhù Ying said: “Elder Sister, go back first and reassure Godmother — tell her not to rush off. Think about it: back home, even with Official Yu helping her, how long did it take to manage all her properties and affairs? Even if she went back now, when would she finish? Unless she sold at a loss — and what would that even bring in? By the time she raised the money and came back, who knows what state Official Yu would be in.”

Huajie got nothing out of her, but went back and told Yu Miaomiao everything. Yu Miaomiao said: “In the end, they’re still their own family. Sanlang isn’t a bad child, but…”

Huajie said: “From what I can see, Sanlang likely has some real idea, but just can’t say it to Mother.”

The daughter-in-law and mother-in-law went again to knock on Zhù Ying’s door. Zhang Xiangu hadn’t left yet, and so all four were gathered in one room again. Yu Miaomiao lowered her posture considerably: “Today we all went through something difficult and everyone’s spirits are low. Sanlang did try to warn me that those people didn’t look right — it was my own anxiety that made me not pay attention, and so I lost that sum of money. It won’t happen again. Things are already as they are — two heads are better than one, and three are better still. Sanlang, if you have any ideas, just say them out. We’ll work on them together, so we’re not all pulling in different directions and tripping each other up.”

Zhang Xiangu too had no workable plan of her own for rescuing her husband, and seeing Yu Miaomiao look so meek and conciliatory, she also asked her daughter: “Sanlang?”

Zhù Ying said: “Tomorrow I’ll go out first and look around. See if there’s a way to get that money back.”

But this single statement drew protests from both Zhang Xiangu and Yu Miaomiao simultaneously. The two women achieved the effect of many voices speaking at once. One said: “Are you trying to get yourself killed?! Who do you think you are, tangling with those local strongmen?” The other said: “You’re so young — you may not be able to pull it off, and you’ll only waste time. And even if you found them — with us all caught up in a lawsuit right now, we couldn’t make a public fuss. Would they willingly hand the money back? If it got out and reached Master Huang’s ears, we’d have offended him too… it won’t do, it won’t do.”

Damn it! You’re both exactly the same! You coax someone into sharing their honest thoughts, then turn around and tell them their ideas are ridiculous — you just have to have them “corrected.” She had thought Yu Miaomiao would at least be a little different from her own mother — turns out, not at all! Having just been swindled out of their money, they could still act as if they themselves saw through everything.

In her heart, Zhù Ying gave herself eight sharp slaps: Serves you right for having a loose mouth! Serves you right for forgetting the lesson! Have you got it fixed in your head for good now?

But it wasn’t the first time she’d been blindsided this way by her elders. Zhù Ying listened in silence, endured it, and said nothing. The two mothers pressed their instructions on her at great length, telling her not to get any strange ideas. Zhù Ying stayed silent the whole time. Both of them assumed she had taken it all in, and went back to their respective rooms.

Zhang Xiangu calculated: Tomorrow morning I’ll go to the prison gate and ask whether that wretch is really locked up in there. Surely I can’t have made this whole trip and not caught even a glimpse of one of my own family?

Yu Miaomiao calculated: Tomorrow I’ll talk Sanlang into going back home with me.

Neither of them slept well, and both rose early the next morning with dark circles under their eyes. Zhù Ying, on the other hand, had slept very soundly — she was already fully dressed and ready, and with a brief word of farewell, moved to head out the door.

Both mothers were caught completely off guard: “What are you doing?”

Zhù Ying looked at them silently for a moment: “Don’t go out — actually, never mind. Nobody listens to anyone anyway.”

Only then did both mothers realize she was absolutely set on going out to find the money. Yu Miaomiao still wanted to stop her; Zhang Xiangu was pulling out her trump card of weeping and scolding — but before she could deploy it, Zhù Ying slipped sideways and was gone! Where could they go to find her now?

A’Wang volunteered: “I’ll go!”

Zhang Xiangu was uneasy and wanted to go out too. Huajie said: “What if she comes back and then can’t find you, and then has to go searching again? There’s no end to it.” Zhang Xiangu didn’t even listen to Huajie and moved to leave the inn — only to be stopped by the serving boy: “Young master gave orders to keep an eye on the ladies. If the ladies go missing, he said he’ll hold this establishment responsible.”

This nearly drove Zhang Xiangu into a fury.

…………

Zhù Ying walked out of the inn and strolled about the prefectural city — wandering, taking in everything. She studied the street scenes, the pedestrians, the horses and carriages, even examined the paving of the roads. From time to time she stopped to ask the price of things from vendors on the side of the road, and poked her head curiously into little alleys in search of good food stalls tucked away inside. By the time dusk fell, she had covered barely half the city.

As night came on, she returned to the inn, only to find Zhang Xiangu and Yu Miaomiao sitting again like sisters, chatting amicably and putting their heads together.

Zhang Xiangu ignored her daughter and kept talking to Yu Miaomiao: “Everything here costs money — it might be better to give up this room and find cheaper lodgings…”

Yu Miaomiao said: “No! We can’t do that.”

“Madam, there’s a poor way of living and a rich way of living. Official Yu — even if he gets out — will have no income, and he’ll need to recover from his injuries, and that’s more money. We should be saving where we can.”

Yu Miaomiao said: “It’s not that I insist on keeping up this pretense of grandeur — it’s that this kind of front must not collapse! Swindlers are cowards at heart. If the interior is hollow, keeping up the outward show still gives them pause and makes them think twice about taking action. If even the front crumbles, you’re announcing to every swindler that you have nothing left of value — go ahead and walk right over me. People, you see, must either be genuinely formidable — or, if they’re not, at least put on a show of being formidable.”

Zhù Ying listened quietly. The three of them said nothing to each other. Huajie gave Zhù Ying a significant look, and the two of them moved to a quiet corner. Huajie asked: “You’ve been out all day — how did it go?”

Zhù Ying said: “Some leads.”

“You didn’t get into any disputes with anyone?”

Zhù Ying shook her head.

Huajie said: “Can you talk to Mother and Godmother properly? Stop brooding — there’s still real business to take care of.”

Zhù Ying thought: Better not. Open my honest heart again, and next time they’ll use it to poke me.

“Going to sleep — I’m tired from walking.”

The second morning she went out again — another day of wandering.

Passing the envoy’s headquarters, she found that Yu Ping and the others were no longer being displayed in public under their cangues. A quick inquiry told her they had been moved inside to custody, and that a physician had apparently come to see to their wounds. Zhù Ying brought this news back with her. Yu Miaomiao felt a slight easing of her heart. She was already more polite to Zhù Ying than Zhang Xiangu was, and by now had worked things out: Zhù Ying no longer believed in her — and no longer wanted to tell her the truth.

She regretted it, but for the moment could think of nothing to be done.

Zhang Xiangu couldn’t help asking: “And your father? Just leaving him?”

Zhù Ying said: “I saw someone trying to ask questions outside the prison gates — they were seized by the soldiers on the spot.”

Zhang Xiangu’s brow knit with worry: “That’s bad.”

Yu Miaomiao and Huajie set about reassuring her. Zhù Ying said nothing, and on the third day went out to wander again as usual.

That afternoon, she finally made her way back to the West Street where Pan’s shop had been. The moment she turned onto the street, she was once again scrutinized by many pairs of eyes. She walked with a faint smile, making her way from memory to the front of Pan’s shop. The shop’s pennant had been taken down and the door was locked.

Even the beggar child from before was nowhere to be seen. Zhù Ying was in no hurry. She browsed through a few more stalls, asking about goods and prices. When she was passing by a small girl, she stopped. She held out a packet of preserved plums she had just bought and offered it to the child. The small girl startled and stepped lightly aside: “Wh-what do you want?”

Zhù Ying said: “Just offering it to you to eat. Take it — it’s a goodwill gesture either way. The one who missed his mark on me the other day — his mood can’t be good right now. If he hasn’t finished his apprenticeship yet, he’d have been punished and gone without dinner too. Pass it along for him to have something to line his stomach — that’s a kind thing to do.”

The small girl’s face changed dramatically, then quickly smoothed back into a look of perfect innocence: “You’re a rude one, boy! What are you even talking about?”

“The day before yesterday. This street. The beggar.”

“Pah! You’re the one who knows beggars!”

A ring of onlookers quickly gathered to watch the spectacle. The small girl, though dressed in plain cloth — her clothes had two inconspicuous patches but were clean and tidy, her hair neatly combed — looked entirely unconnected to the failed little pickpocket.

Zhù Ying withdrew her left hand that had been offering the snacks with regret, and held up what was in her right hand so the small girl could see. The small girl’s face fell completely! “That’s mine!”

She reached to her waist — her hand found a plain little pouch; she squeezed it and her expression curdled still further. She did recognize the beggar child who had tried to steal from Zhù Ying that day — and she herself was a nimble-fingered operator on this very street. Today she had lifted a few things from wealthy-looking passersby: two glass beads, some bits of silver, a jade pendant… all her take was in her own pouch. The pouch was still there — but what she now saw cradled in the small white-faced boy’s right palm was today’s entire haul. And inside her pouch, something now sat in the place where all of it had been — something that felt like a small stone!

The small girl opened her pouch and pinched it out to look. It was no stone — it was clearly a preserved plum.

The small girl trembled. The preserved plum rolled on the ground and came to rest at a distance. The small girl said: “I’ve run into a skilled hand today — I admit defeat! These are all my tribute to you. Please let me go. The one from that day — Master already punished him. He didn’t even get dinner.”

Zhù Ying said: “I have no interest in troubling you. We’re just outsiders here on business — we’ll be gone once the business is done. You know this territory well. I’m asking you to pass a message to Pan’s shop for me. I’m not the type to throw threats around — so I won’t say anything harsh. What happened is: they took an old, moth-eaten, worm-gnawed painting on consignment at my place a few days back. Tell them to come tomorrow with the money to redeem it.”

Having said this, she held the preserved plums and a hundred coins out to the small girl: “This is payment for carrying the message. Can you get the word there?”

The small girl nodded: “Done.” She took the preserved plums and coins like a well-mannered child. Zhù Ying passed by her, gave her two pats on the shoulder, and strode away.

The small girl instinctively tried to dodge — but didn’t manage it in time, and the two pats landed on her shoulder regardless. The onlookers laughed: “Girl, you’ve met a hard case today! Didn’t think this little pale-faced one had it in him.”

The small girl rolled her eyes in all four directions, then let out a sigh, and began tucking the coins into her pouch — then stopped. “It’s a…”

“What?”

The small girl bit the paper string on the packet of preserved plums, her fingers trembling ever so slightly as she pulled open the pouch’s mouth — and there, lying quietly inside her pouch, were all of today’s “takings” that had just been sitting in the pale-faced boy’s palm. The newly added payment wouldn’t even fit. The little white-face had put everything back into her pouch — and she hadn’t noticed even once.