Now that Yu Ping no longer had to stand in the cangue, Yu Miaomiao’s mood improved somewhat, and she set aside for the time being the matter of Zhù Ying having confined them all to the inn.
At dinner that evening, she said to Zhù Ying: “We still have some money in the account here at the inn, and I have a few pieces of jewelry I can pawn. Use the funds to bring some food and clothing to A’Ping. Get some wound medicine as well.”
Zhù Ying said: “Will Godmother not go herself?”
Zhang Xiangu said irritably: “You treat us like prisoners, and you still ask that?”
Zhù Ying shook her head: “Mother, what sort of talk is that? What prisoners?”
“You didn’t tell the innkeeper to keep watch over us?”
Zhù Ying put on a face of perfect innocence: “Ah? Would they even listen to me?”
Zhang Xiangu studied her suspiciously. Zhù Ying stared back with a baffled expression, as though Zhang Xiangu had said something nonsensical. Zhang Xiangu was so exasperated she jabbed a finger at her daughter’s forehead: “Oh, forget it, forget it — I can never see through you! Tomorrow, your Godmother and the others will go visit Official Yu. You come with me to the prison gates, and we’ll see if there’s any news of your father.”
Zhù Ying said: “All right.”
Yu Miaomiao said: “Check how much money is left in the inn account — take what you need.”
Zhù Ying said: “There’s no need just yet.”
Zhù Ying ate quickly. By the time she had cleaned her bowl, Huajie and Yu Miaomiao had only eaten half of theirs. Just then, the young inn attendant knocked on the door: “Young gentleman, someone is here to see you.”
The attendant’s voice was a little strange — carrying an uncharacteristic wariness. Xiao Ya went and opened the door. The attendant stood respectfully outside and said: “Young gentleman, is it convenient? A few people have come to call. They are people you have met before.”
Yu Miaomiao’s heart lurched at the words “people you have met before.” Deeply worried that another swindler had come to scheme against them, she set down her chopsticks and stood up, asking tensely: “Who is it?”
The attendant glanced at Zhù Ying, and only after she gave a nod did he say: “As you know, young gentleman — it is the child you encountered today. Her family elder has come along with her and her brother to apologize. They say they have something to report to you.”
Zhù Ying said: “Where are they?”
“Just outside the gate.”
Zhù Ying stepped toward the door to go meet them. Both Yu Miaomiao and Zhang Xiangu were very worried. Zhang Xiangu said: “Who are these people? Can’t they be seen in here?”
Huajie said: “Are these outside guests who we should not be present for?”
Yu Miaomiao said: “Then we’ll go to the inner room and make space for you.” With that, she began moving the dishes and bowls into the inner room together with Zhang Xiangu and Huajie, making up her mind to eavesdrop on the conversation.
Zhù Ying asked the attendant: “I suppose you have no room here where I could receive guests?”
The attendant said: “There is one — the main hall has plenty of tables — though I’m afraid it might not be convenient for you to receive them there.”
“Then please bring them in. There’s a child among them, so bring some tea and refreshments.”
The attendant agreed, swiftly cleared and tidied a table, then turned to usher the visitors in. He came back carrying a tray holding four small plates of pastries and a pot of tea, set everything neatly on the table before Zhù Ying, then stepped out and quietly pulled the door shut.
——
The group he brought in — an elderly man, a sturdy middle-aged man, and two children — now stirred and moved forward. The old man wore a silk robe; the sturdy man wore a new cotton jacket; the two children were the little girl from earlier that day and the small beggar boy from before — though the little wretch looked even thinner today.
The old man introduced himself as surnamed Li, and clasped his hands in a bow: “I did not know what great personage had come to our city. My disciple was blind and offended you — I’ve brought him to offer an apology. You two, come here! Kneel!”
The sturdy man lifted both children by the collar and pushed them forward in one motion.
The two children knelt obediently and said in unison: “We did not recognize you as a person of great ability, and we gave offense. We will never touch your things again.”
Zhù Ying also returned the bow with clasped hands: “Your Venerable Self is being so courteous, you’ll shorten my lifespan. Please, sit.” She picked up the pot and poured tea, then pushed the cup toward the old man. He looked at the teacup and took it, feeling a slight surprise in his heart. He had expected the two parties to engage in a veiled contest of “professional skills.” Yet this young person had deployed not a single trick — simply, in the most ordinary manner, poured him a cup of tea.
Zhù Ying said: “You are a person of some years. It would be better not to bother with a child like me. I myself don’t know the proper etiquette and can’t find any other door to knock on, so this is the only way I could invite you here.”
The old man said: “The old man won’t pretend to be ignorant either. Young gentleman, I know something of your origins — are you here on account of a family elder?”
Zhù Ying nodded: “Your Venerable Self knows all.”
“I know nothing, I know nothing. I’m old, not what I was in my youth. I know a bit about the rules of the road, no more than that. They ran into someone beyond their ability and lost — so we accept that. As for anything else, we know nothing at all.”
Zhù Ying asked directly: “Are you really so hard-hearted that you cannot pass along a message for me?”
“Not to deceive you, young gentleman — I have heard a thing or two about the trouble you and the great Madam encountered. On the surface, we may all seem to be on the wrong side of the law, but we are not the same kind at all. They are swindlers; we are thieves. Even among thieves there are those who scale walls, those who work the ground, those who work in darkness — none of us knows everything about the others. If you have other means, young gentleman, feel free to use them. The old man truly knows nothing. I only ask that you spare my disciples.”
Zhù Ying smiled: “After all, this is a proper city — everyone has their codes. Back in our small place, with fewer people and less money, going it alone still means starving.”
The old man said: “Young gentleman is a person of great ability — you understand everything.”
Zhù Ying said: “It is just the pressure of survival. I lost my money and still need to eat — fortunately I have a few skills. Well, I won’t press Your Venerable Self. Everyone’s circumstances are difficult.”
The old man was just about to thank her when he heard her say: “In that case, let’s go dig out some rat holes. There’s plenty of grain in rat holes.”
“Ah…”
Zhù Ying said: “I’ve been wandering the city these past few days — I don’t know if I’ve read things correctly. The third house on West Gate Street, the sixth door on the second alley of East Market, and the small tavern in South Town with the green-painted pillars — tell me which of these belong to Your Venerable Self, so I don’t accidentally intrude on your territory. That would really be a case of the great flood sweeping through the Dragon King’s own temple.”
The old man’s expression turned ugly: “When the old man was about your age, young gentleman, I once heard someone speak of a divine figure in the official service — supremely skilled at reading tracks and tracing signs. Counting back, that man would have been sixty at the time, which means it’s been close to a hundred years now. I wonder if…”
Zhù Ying smiled and waved her hand: “I don’t have such a distinguished origin. I figured things out for myself just to scrape together a meal, and happened to stumble upon the right answer by chance. As for these few places — if none of them are yours, Your Venerable Self, then I’ll just go help supplement the family income.”
The old man stood up, bowing with clasped hands and smiling ruefully, offering concession after concession: “Young ancestor, have mercy. I’ll carry the message — that’s all.” All three of those locations were his hiding places. One was known among people in his trade, but the other two were unknown even to his own disciples. If this young smooth-faced person were to truly raid his rat holes, his half-lifetime of thievery would have been for nothing! This white-faced young person had spotted him as a thief who could be pushed around, and yet dared not go directly after the swindlers who had made off with several hundred strings of cash in a far larger operation!
Zhù Ying also stood up and said: “Your Venerable Self, you misunderstand again. I am not here to make things difficult for you. I have looked around, and this city is going to have a storm brewing before long. After this storm passes, you will be the only one who can endure in this place for the long term — it was precisely for this reason that I sought to make a request of you.”
The old man said: “Young gentleman, I’ll carry the message. As for anything beyond that — please don’t tell the old man.”
Zhù Ying’s tone was deeply resigned: “Your Venerable Self truly… Alas! How about this — I owe you a favor. If you ever need something in the future, or need to find someone, I’ll do my best to help.”
The old man’s earlier look of suffering had been largely theatrical, but after hearing her promise, his expression at last returned to something genuine — that of a proper family patriarch. He studied Zhù Ying carefully for a moment, as if weighing her worth, and finally nodded: “Very well. I’ll only carry the message. What they do after that is none of my concern.”
Zhù Ying said: “Your willingness to carry a message is already a great help to me.” She then invited the old man’s group to drink their tea, and let the two children eat the pastries. The old man observed that Zhù Ying was still a half-grown young person, the traces of youth not yet gone from her face, and that his own two disciples were not much older. He thought to himself: you can’t compare one person to another without feeling the difference — my two disciples are clever enough, but set against this young gentleman, they fall far short!
Yet such a capable young gentleman had still been swindled out of money — proof enough that no one is all-knowing and all-powerful. He was a seasoned old thief, normally sharp and vigilant to an extreme degree. He had been slightly contemptuous of Zhù Ying at the start, precisely because he had learned that this household had been swindled out of two hundred strings of cash, and had taken her to be merely ordinary — it was only because Zhù Ying had tracked down his people that he had been compelled to come at all.
Their code of conduct held that if you had once failed against a person, and neither party bore the other any deep enmity, you must thereafter keep clear of that person and never move against them again. If they came to your door to confront you, you had to acknowledge the wrong.
What he had not expected was that Zhù Ying had been able to locate precisely where several of his hiding places were — a sign of considerable skill! Turning it over in his mind and reviewing what he had heard about them, this young gentleman had come bringing women of the household, which meant in all probability it was the women who had been swindled, and the young gentleman had come out to deal with the aftermath.
Hmph! What a wasteful woman! Nothing but a burden! the old thief thought. If the women hadn’t been swindled, the young gentleman would never have started searching for the money. And if the young gentleman had never started searching for the money, they would never have come to trouble him and sniffed out his hiding places.
Damn it all! Now he had to scramble to find a proper new place as quickly as possible — these few locations were no longer usable!
——
After the old thief left to find the swindlers and pass along the message, the women in the room came bursting out.
Zhang Xiangu spoke first: “What have you gone and done again? Have I not told you over and over? You must not get involved in disreputable business! What have you been doing? Hmm? If you’re going to take the crooked path, what have all my years amounted to? Tell me! What is all this about the wrong side of the law?!” The thought of the silver her daughter had given her, and then hearing those words — wall-scaling thieves, ground thieves, swindlers — made Zhang Xiangu feel as though she could die on the spot! A spirit-medium and charlatan, though looked down upon, at least meant working with her own labor and smiling at people while they paid her and gave her food — it was still far more respectable than killing, robbing, stealing, and swindling!
Zhù Ying said helplessly: “I don’t even have a door to stand in, let alone a proper one or a crooked one.”
Zhang Xiangu was half-convinced and half-doubtful.
Yu Miaomiao’s heart was equally unsettled, but she said: “Sanlang, two hundred strings of cash is a great deal of money, but it is not worth you taking risks.”
Zhù Ying said: “I know what I’m doing.”
Zhang Xiangu was alarmed: “Last time you said you knew what you were doing, you went and found a thief-master. This time you say you know what you’re doing again — what are you planning now?”
Yu Miaomiao was about to say something but did not dare reprimand this adopted son of hers. With a heart full of worry she retreated to her room to think it over: I misjudged her — Zhù Ying is not gentle and quiet at all, she is quite violent, and her mind is full of schemes! I fear I have no hold over her, and Huajie is a retiring and timid young woman who would probably struggle to manage her too. What am I to do? I only wanted a dependable son-in-law to look after me in my old age — how did I end up with a lawless chaos demon in my house?
Zhang Xiangu pulled her daughter back into the room to talk: “What do you think you’re doing? I had no idea I had raised such a capable person! You!” She gritted her teeth and pushed close to her daughter, speaking in a low, fierce whisper: “You’re a girl — not truly a boy — you can’t be throwing yourself this recklessly into danger just for the sake of a daughter-in-law, can you?”
Zhù Ying said with exasperated amusement: “There you go again, thinking off down the wrong road. We’ll have to go our separate ways sooner or later. The great Madam has no nephew to depend on, and we can’t leave with peace of mind either. Are we really going to become her son-in-law for good? Mother — don’t you know what your own child is?”
“That’s true — find the money for her, then let her rely on her nephew. Though, can the money really be found?”
Zhù Ying said: “More or less.”
“You truly haven’t taken the crooked path?”
“I don’t do things without dignity. Mother — sleep.”
Zhang Xiangu, even if she did not quite believe it, had no other option. The city was still in an uproar over the sorcery case, and she did not dare go out to shake her bells and perform spirit-calling rituals to earn money. She went to her room in a sullen mood to sleep, stewing in her own frustration.
Zhù Ying slept soundly through the night. The others continued their sleeplessness.
Early the next morning, the old thief-master came in person to deliver his report: “Young gentleman, the old man has no face — they would not give me this courtesy.”
Yu Miaomiao, listening from the inner room, felt an inexplicable sense of relief. But then she heard Zhù Ying say: “You have gone to great trouble. What I promised you still stands. Would you care to have breakfast together? There’s something worth watching shortly.”
The old thief-master waved his hands repeatedly: “I dare not, I dare not — I still have business to attend to.”
Zhù Ying said: “It would be a pity to miss it. If you don’t watch now, standing to one side and peeking later won’t be much fun, will it? Never mind, I won’t bother with breakfast either — let’s go.”
The old thief-master’s plan had been exposed, but he did not even blush, and smiled: “The old man is a thief — of course I only do things that aren’t aboveboard.” He simply refused to walk alongside her. Not only that, before leaving he still asked: “Young gentleman, what is this about?”
“I’ve lost a mouse of mine. I have to go catch it back.”
“Young gentleman is joking again — when a mouse runs off, isn’t that exactly what you’d want? And you’d go and catch it back?”
“It’s a cash-mouse.”
The old thief-master did not believe she had the ability to manage it, and smiled as he left the inn — yet he did not walk far. He followed at a measured distance, watching as Zhù Ying twisted and turned through the city’s streets and alleyways, wandering this way and that. In a moment of inattention she had led him into a small lane off East Gate Street. The old thief-master followed her around the corner, and then suddenly his heart froze: she had actually found the place?!
The place Zhù Ying was heading to was the very residence of one of the swindlers. The old thief-master knew this, but had absolutely never told Zhù Ying, and had in fact forbidden his subordinates to tell her. Yet somehow Zhù Ying had truly found it. Did she have an informant? That couldn’t be — she had only the one person. Evidently she had not only intended to raid his own rat holes, but these people’s as well. And yet she was alone — let’s see what she can do!
Zhù Ying arrived at the door, gave a polite knock, said not a single word, and left. She wandered idly for a while, then arrived at another door and did the same thing. By the fourth house she knocked on, still no one had come out to meet her — yet the old thief-master who had been trailing behind her was intercepted by two men: “You conniving thief-master, so you’ve sold us out!”
The old thief-master put on a suffering face: “It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me! If I were selling you out, I wouldn’t do it this way! She found it herself! How do you think I was willing to carry the message in the first place? Somehow she just got hold of my own hiding places. You must each have one or two locations that no one else in the trade knows about, yes? She’s already found those too, in all likelihood. I’ve been busy finding new hiding places and moving my things these past two days! Take this old man’s advice: we have encountered a hard nut this time. Accept the loss — don’t be stubborn, or you’ll suffer a great misfortune. I’ve heard that the imperial envoy has expressed a willingness to let some people with criminal records earn merit by cooperating. Think carefully about what you’ve done. If you offend her further and she brings people to hunt you down — can you escape? It’s hard to give up easy wealth, but don’t risk your life for money. On this one job you’ve already made a thousand strings of cash in total — take the loss and avert the disaster. What harm is there in returning her few strings of cash?”
He pleaded earnestly for a good while. The other party finally loosened their grip. A middle-aged man with a dark-purplish complexion glared at him for a moment, then the old thief-master stared back without flinching. The dark-faced man then followed along behind Zhù Ying for a stretch, and it was only when she headed toward a fifth location that his composure began to crack — this was one of his secret residences, unknown even to his own associates.
The dark-faced man rushed ahead of Zhù Ying and cut her off before she could knock: “Young gentleman! Young gentleman, I’ve been looking everywhere for you! A few days ago I pawned a painting and calligraphy scroll at your place. I’ve now raised the funds to redeem it, but you were not at home. Please return so that you may prepare the piece — my people will bring the money to redeem it at once!”