Zheng Xi’s party was not a small one, and they had brought along a large cart, piled with things for Zhù Ying’s family: firewood, grain, oil, salt, chickens, ducks, a sheep, wine, clothing, bolts of cloth, and the like, along with two large food carriers — fully and abundantly loaded onto one big cart.

Jin Liang rode ahead on horseback to lead the way. The procession drew no small amount of curious speculation and watching eyes. Because they were heading in the direction of the Chen estate, most onlookers still assumed they were going to the Chen household.

The smile disappeared from Zhù Ying’s face. She watched this procession with a blank expression, inwardly a little guarded. She genuinely could not fathom why, now that the case was solved, a great personage like Zheng Xi would put on this kind of a show on her account. Something unusual is certainly going on. Zhù Ying suspected Zheng Xi had some scheme in mind.

Jin Liang dismounted and spoke to Zhù Ying with considerably more courtesy than before: “Sanlang, the imperial envoy has come to call on your family.”

Zheng Xi dismounted, came forward two steps, and said, “We meet again.”

Zhù Ying nodded. “Yes.”

She held her ground without any warmth; Jin Liang took no offense at her coolness. “Aren’t you going to invite us in to sit? Step aside a little and let them bring the things in.”

Zhù Ying looked toward the cart behind them — a large cart, with people both guarding and accompanying it — and asked, “What things?”

Zheng Xi said, “A gift in thanks.”

“What?” Zhù Ying was thrown off for a moment. “Thanks for what?”

Zheng Xi said, “You helped me break the case.”

Zhù Ying shook her head. “You could have worked it out yourself. There’s no need for thanks. As for coming inside — it’s dark in there. Do you really want to sit down?”

Zheng Xi said, “I do.”

Zhù Ying led the two inside and felt around until she found a candle and lit it.

By the faint candlelight Zheng Xi took in the room: bare walls, inner and outer sections separated by a hanging reed curtain; behind the curtain the faint sound of someone moving. In the outer room, a plank of wood lay on a bench with a rolled-up quilt on top of it. Looking around, there were only a few odds and ends of old household items — but everything had been kept perfectly clean and tidy, and these scattered odds and ends had been arranged with care. All of it together was not worth as much as one of the rings on Zheng Xi’s fingers.

Yet it was clean — tended with care, the look of people who were serious about living.

Zheng Xi ordered his people to bring in the firewood and grain; he was generous with his gifts and his subordinates were well-mannered, stacking everything very neatly. Zhang Xiangu heard from inside, nudged her husband, and called softly to him — but Zhū Shenhan was still in the grip of the fever. Zhang Xiangu couldn’t help but carry out a bowl of water. “Please, have some water.”

She had seen Zheng Xi once before, but had not seen him pass judgment; it was not until she had set the water on the table that she thought to give him a proper greeting. Zheng Xi spoke to her with great warmth: “Please don’t stand on ceremony. I have come to thank your son. This child is very clever. It was he who told me the case had something unusual about it, and that is why I was able to solve it so quickly. He has saved his father.”

Zhang Xiangu felt a light, floating sense of pride; her face could not hold back a smile. But aloud she said, “Don’t praise her — she’s young and can’t take it.”

Zheng Xi said, “She can. Doing well deserves to be praised, and I also mean to offer thanks.” Another attendant came forward and presented a tray of silver ingots and copper coins. Zhang Xiangu hadn’t seen this much money since the time Yu Miaomiao was deceived; she wanted to accept, yet felt uneasy, and looked at her daughter.

Zhù Ying said, “Mother, go and check on Father.” She took a fresh candle from the carrying pole and handed it to her, sending her off to the inner room to light it. Zhang Xiangu drifted lightly off, holding the candle, going through the motions of lighting it, then staring at the flame in a slight daze — could money really come this easily?

——

Zhù Ying was also thinking: could money really come this easily?

She glanced at the silver and coins on the table and said, “It’s too much.”

She was very different from their previous meeting; Zheng Xi observed the change in her with interest and said, unruffled, “Whether it is too much or not depends on whether the giver finds it worthwhile.”

Zhù Ying shook her head. “What I did was not worth this much in the first place. I wanted to get my father out — I wasn’t trying to help you. It is your generosity that makes you feel you owe something. If I were really to take all this, that would make me the one who doesn’t know her limits.”

Zheng Xi said, “At such a young age, why so calculating? To me it is not much — and you need it right now.”

Zhù Ying said, “I’d like to be that free-spirited too, but I’m afraid you’ll want to get something back from me in return.”

Zheng Xi laughed — a genuinely pleased laugh. “First I have come to offer thanks, and second there are some things I’d like to ask you — to consult you, shall we say. I may ask quite a number of things.”

Zhù Ying said, “I don’t know very much.”

“I won’t be asking about the case. The case has been judged — there is no need to pursue it further. I would like to ask: how did you think to go to the burial ground? Did someone tell you? And how did you read the story that was written there?”

Zhù Ying thought to herself: this is more or less what I expected. Her mood lifted a little, and she became more forthcoming. “No one told me. My father had left home for several days without coming back, and when we heard something had happened, we came looking for him. The bailiffs were waiting at the prison gate to arrest family members of suspects, so I couldn’t see him. You’ve seen this room — turn the corner at the end of the street and you’re at the Chen estate. When I heard that Second Young Master Chen had gone mad and was talking about the ancestral tombs, I went to have a look.”

Zheng Xi gave a slight nod.

“What was happening at the burial ground — that was something I could read because of what my family does. We make our living putting on a show of the divine. We know exactly what we are — but from the outside, sometimes it still looks as though it might be real. Take just a couple of years ago: a wastrel in the county who wanted to dig into his ancestors’ savings called for me to perform a ritual at his place, and I saw it with my own eyes.”

Zheng Xi said, “A couple of years ago? How old were you then? Did you go with your parents? A family tradition.”

Zhù Ying said, “Don’t try to catch me in a contradiction. They sent me alone. Our family doesn’t do grave-robbing either; and I didn’t perform the full ritual — the wastrel just wanted me there to put his mind at ease.”

“He trusted you?”

That was genuinely strange. They were all charlatans — surely you would want a seasoned adult male or female practitioner, and even a supposed child prodigy would need an adult along as chaperone. To send this one child alone? Was there no monk or Daoist priest in the whole county? Jin Liang and the attendants all wore expressions of disbelief, though none of them spoke.

“I’m good at it!” Zhù Ying wanted to be done with them sooner rather than later. “Anyway, you’re not going to poach my clients, and I don’t intend to keep doing this for a living, so I’ll just be honest with you. Extend your hand.”

Zheng Xi calmly held out his left palm. Zhù Ying extended her right, then said to Jin Liang and one of the attendants, “If you would — you two, please hold out your hands as well.”

Four people, four hands, held close to the candle. Zhù Ying asked, “Can you see it? People are not alike — not in any part of them.”

Four hands: Zheng Xi’s were the most carefully tended; Zhù Ying’s were the youngest, her fingers slender but with a few small cuts and the beginning of calluses. Jin Liang’s hands were large and powerful, and his skin was a deeper color. The attendant’s hand was an adult man’s — somewhat dark but not as large as Jin Liang’s.

Zhù Ying said to Zheng Xi, “You probably won’t find this surprising. Look — where the calluses form tells you what work a person does. Someone who does heavy labor every day is different from someone who does none. Yours are from holding a brush, his are from holding that sword at his waist — and from using it often. A man’s hands, a woman’s hands, a farmer’s hands, a craftsman’s hands — each leaves its own marks.”

Zheng Xi said, “That’s right.”

“I can’t tell anyone’s fortune or fate. But as long as I pay attention to these things, and tell them their background and circumstances directly without explaining how I worked it out — I can hold people in awe. Take you, for instance: I’d tell you outright that you are a person of distinction. Add in a few vague words of good fortune after that and I have food on the table. There will always be a few where I happen to guess right about the future — those are counted as especially impressive, and sometimes people come back later to make an offering and give a little extra.”

Jin Liang said, “Just from looking at hands? There’s more that you haven’t said.”

Zhù Ying said, “I look at other things too, and not all of it can be taught. Look at that water vat — it’s just sitting there, and right now it’s about half full. You could move it, couldn’t you? If it were full of water, I couldn’t move it. A person is standing right there — we all see the same person. But some things, some people notice, and some people’s eyes just slide right past. Your strength goes into the water vat; mine goes somewhere else.”

Jin Liang was still working it out; Zheng Xi had already understood completely. It was just like back in the capital — why did Zhou You have such hostility toward Zheng Xi? Precisely because of this rather large gap in natural aptitude. Zheng Xi said, “Go on.”

Zhù Ying said, “That’s all there is to it. You managed to find the burial ground yourself — you must already know how this works.”

Zheng Xi said, “I read it in the case file — that was what they reported to me, that the ritual was performed at the burial ground.”

Zhù Ying was stumped.

Jin Liang suddenly said, “Wait — then the money purse…”

“I’ve had things stolen from me too.”

“And I’ve been beaten!” said Jin Liang. “And I haven’t heard that makes anyone undefeatable!”

“Who is? I sit and watch at the market fair — watch, you understand?” Zhù Ying said to Jin Liang. “Once you’ve watched and understood, everything else falls into place. We have to be a little nimble with our hands to begin with — slipping someone a different fortune stick when they come to draw lots, so you don’t have to deal with an inconvenient result — if you apply yourself, it can be learned.”

Zheng Xi asked, “Is this something passed down in your family?”

Zhù Ying said, “If the family had skills like that, things would be easier.”

The time available was not enough for Zhù Ying to say everything; Zheng Xi had already grasped the essential point and did not wish to press further. What interested him was Zhù Ying’s abilities. If filial devotion alone had not quite been enough to move him, then these abilities — which he genuinely needed at this very moment, and the owner of which was standing right before him — certainly were.

He drew a sheet of paper from his sleeve and handed it to Zhù Ying. Zhù Ying took it and looked: two provisions were written on it, one concerning witchcraft and one concerning grave-robbing. She finally understood why the grave-robbers had endured brutal torture rather than confess. As long as they weren’t killed on the spot, the mastermind was Chen Wei, and they still had a chance of surviving. Grave-robbing — that was a definite death sentence.

Zheng Xi asked, “Do you understand it?”

“Yes.”

Zheng Xi asked, “You’ve never studied the law?”

Zhù Ying shook her head.

“Then you don’t know when you might unknowingly break the law — or when your family might find themselves imprisoned again?”

Zhù Ying thought inwardly: even if I knew the law, there are some things that cannot be avoided. Like the prefect trying to hand me over to a short-lived general.

“Are you content with that?” Zheng Xi asked.

Zhù Ying’s heart beat a little faster. “What exactly are you trying to say?”

Zheng Xi continued: “In this case, you encountered me by chance. Other than me, who are the people you would normally deal with? Clerks? Minor officials? Constables? Do you want to spend your whole life dealing with people like that? Day after day, no end to it, only ever dealing with people of that sort? Is that the life you want to live forever?”

From the inner room came a soft sound — a rustle — as Zhang Xiangu rose to her feet. Apparently thinking she hadn’t disturbed anyone in the outer room, she sat back down.

Zhù Ying had heard it too. She thought for a moment and asked, “Are you still — is this the same thing you said a few days ago? You want me to follow you to the capital to serve in an official capacity?”

Zheng Xi nodded. “Of course. This is only an opportunity — whether you take it is up to you. You know where I am.”

“What would I do? And what would you want me to do for you?”

Zheng Xi gave a light laugh. “Afraid I’ll try to get something back from you?”

“I’d be dragging a whole family along with me — if you felt at all short-changed, I’m afraid there would be too much to pay back.”

“Whether short-changed or not depends on whether the giver finds it worthwhile.”

From the inner room came the sound of a cough. Zhù Ying said, “You’ve read the case files — you should know our family has no household registration, no roots. Dead, we wouldn’t make as much noise as an ant. Even an ant clings to life — we can’t afford to be careless.”

Zheng Xi said, “Household registration? A single sheet of paper will do it. Am I really worth less than a county yamen clerk?”

The coughing from the inner room grew louder. Zhù Ying glanced back, then said to Zheng Xi, “I need to think it over.”

Zheng Xi nodded. Zhù Ying looked at the silver and coins on the table but did not say anything more about returning them. Zheng Xi was thoroughly satisfied.

He went out, mounted his horse, and once they had ridden out of the alley Jin Liang said, “That boy — what a combination of boldness and arrogance.”

Zheng Xi said, “It suits me.”

He was very pleased with how the day had gone. Zhù Ying had as good as agreed; now he could simply sit back and wait. The money he had spent he did not begrudge in the slightest. If this small sum could recover for him a capable person to take back to the capital and help him make a name for himself at the Court of Justice, the return was more than worth the investment.

Jin Liang started to say something further, but Zheng Xi said, “She has already worked it out in her own mind — she has already come around internally. She needs to bring her parents around, but she doesn’t want to say so outright. She’s leaving room for them to come to it themselves.”

Zheng Xi was confident. He had first produced the legal provisions — both awakening Zhù Ying to what she lacked, which was formal learning and the official system, and demonstrating how she was stumbling along blind in the dark and squandering herself in the process. He had also displayed his own capabilities and learning, showing that he could offer Zhù Ying guidance, and open a door for her.

Then he had drawn out Zhù Ying’s own ambition. Having ambition was no bad thing — any boy without ambition was the one to be looked down upon.

Zheng Xi was confident in himself: nothing could go wrong. However bold and capable the young peddler might be, there was already a corner of that heart that had yielded to him. Only when a person had thought it through and genuinely come around inwardly could they be of real use. What did it matter if on the surface she remained bold and arrogant? Zheng Xi rather liked that kind of boldness and arrogance. What use would a mere yes-person be to him? A yes-person could only follow the wind — never be relied upon for anything of real consequence.

——

The moment Zheng Xi’s party left, Zhang Xiangu came bursting out. She bolted the door first, then pulled Zhù Ying to sit at the table. “What is going on? What does this official want? Why does my heart feel so unsettled?”

Zhù Ying said, “It’s nothing. He’s summoning me to assist him, promising to start me as a low-ranking official, with the possibility of a proper post if things go well.”

Zhang Xiangu nearly slid off the stool and was on the verge of shrieking: “What?!” From the inner room Zhū Shenhan seemed startled, gave a muffled grunt, and then fell quiet again.

Zhù Ying glanced at the inner room, her expression full of helpless resignation. She knew what Zhang Xiangu was worried about. But what of the consequences of refusing Zheng Xi? Whether it was witchcraft or grave-robbing, this case was not yet formally closed — the “demon Daoists” still had to be escorted to the capital for review! In this window of time, if Zhū Shenhan were re-arrested and shoved into a prison cart to be taken to the capital, with his injuries from the flogging already this severe, a few more harsh beatings might well kill him.

Her hand of cards was too thin. Once Zheng Xi chose to spit back out what he had swallowed, Zhū Shenhan would be the first to suffer. What was written on that sheet of paper Zheng Xi had shown her — whether witchcraft or grave-robbing — once you were entangled in the case, there was no good outcome.

And if Zheng Xi were dead, the person currently with any authority to speak locally would be Zhong Yi, which would be even worse.

There was no room to maneuver. She could only consent for now and take things one step at a time, at least until this case was fully concluded and her family had bought themselves a few more days of survival. Everything else — she’d deal with it later.

Zhang Xiangu lowered her voice to a hiss: “Have you lost your mind?! What on earth is going on?”

Zhù Ying said, “I was looking into Father’s case and ran into him. I told him what I had found. He thought I was useful and wants to take me along to work for him, promising me a post in an official capacity and the chance to become a proper official if things go well. My feeling is that he must have run into some difficult matter and needs someone to wade through muddy water for him. Otherwise, why would he want someone like me?”

“And you agreed?! An official? You — you — how could you dare? How could you even dream of it?”

This was something Zhù Ying did not like to hear. “Why wouldn’t I dare? He’s a capable man, and I am not lacking either — many of the things that came to light were things I figured out! Things his own people couldn’t manage! We are what we are —”

“We are what we are?”

Mother and daughter spoke the same words at the same moment and both stopped. Zhù Ying said, “We are what we are. Is there any path we walk that isn’t hard? I’m not going to keep working as a charlatan. I’ve heard that my older brother fell from a pole, was crippled, and died within days. I don’t want to keep going down that road. Even if I’m a peddler. And being an official is still better than being a peddler. The money we had saved is gone now.朱家村 has enemies waiting for us. The county has Yu Ping. This place isn’t peaceful either. Back at the relay station, he was already saying he wanted me to come with him — at that point Father’s case wasn’t settled yet, so I didn’t agree. What is there to fear now? I’d rather go with him to the capital.”

“He’s deceiving you! Becoming an official is nowhere near as easy as that! What woman has ever become an official?”

Zhù Ying said, “Now there is one.”

“You —”

“It’s Mother who raised me as a son all these years. I’ve gotten used to it — and so has Mother, I expect.”

Zhang Xiangu stared at her daughter, utterly at a loss for words, until at last she managed a single sentence: “You are beyond all law and reason!”

Zhù Ying heard this and thought it was actually a very fine phrase. “That would be ideal. If I could truly be beyond all law and reason, that would be something. I only fear I still can’t quite manage it.” Right now, wasn’t she still subject to Zheng Xi’s control?

Zhang Xiangu in her fury swept the silver and coins off the table with one hand. “This is throwing your life away!”

“What day in the past was ever far from death?” Zhù Ying said, patient and steady. “Working for each day’s meal, one meal at a time. A little earlier, the prefect was going to hand me over to someone — did you have a way out of that? Could you have made a scene? I’ve seen it clearly now: the higher you climb, the fewer people can look down on you and trample you. People can’t abuse me the way they abuse livestock! The way things are now — it’s good! This Seventh Young Master Zheng needs me for something, so we can make use of him in turn.”

“Can you match him in a contest of wits?”

Zhù Ying felt this was strange: “Why would I want to go head to head with him right from the start? I’m not tired of living yet. I still want to keep my life and have good days ahead. I want to live well.”

“How would you know the mind of these wealthy and powerful people — just opening your heart to them completely…”

“That man — his face is cold and his heart is cold. Even if you stoke a hot fire under him, you get no more than a pot of warm water. Fair dealing between us, each holding up our end — that is enough,” Zhù Ying said. “I don’t concern myself with his heart; I only answer for mine. He got one thing right: I am not content.”

Upon hearing that last sentence, Zhang Xiangu swallowed all the words that remained and went inside to tend to Zhū Shenhan.

Zhū Shenhan was still in a feverish sleep. Zhang Xiangu sniffled, went to the back, and boiled another dose of medicine. She woke Zhū Shenhan with a shake: “Come, take your medicine.”

Zhū Shenhan had sweated out some of the fever but was still foggy and murmured, “Don’t want it.”

Zhang Xiangu’s fury ignited. “Nonsense! It’s all money! Do you think it’s easy for the child to have scraped those coins together?! It’s all going into your mouth! And you still complain!”

Zhū Shenhan craned his neck and called out, “Sanlang — Sanlang!”

“She hasn’t done enough for you today already? What else do you need to burden her with?”

“What do you know!”

Zhù Ying came in. “What is it?”

“Nothing. You sleep! Haven’t you had enough distress these past few days? You old wretch, go to sleep!” Zhang Xiangu tucked Zhū Shenhan back into the quilt to keep sweating.

Zhū Shenhan went quiet. Zhù Ying propped up the door plank, folded the quilt in half — one half underneath, one half as a cover — and lay down. But sleep would not come; her mind was churning. She had already accepted Zheng Xi’s money and gifts, which meant she was committed to going with him. Going with him was not without its merits either. But the family couldn’t go on looking like this — they would have to pack some belongings: bedding for three people, a small trunk, a few sets of clothing, things needed on the road…

From inside came a faint murmur — Zhū Shenhan nudging Zhang Xiangu. “Old woman, are you asleep yet?”

Zhang Xiangu was also full of worries, and was gnashing her teeth inwardly. “What is it?”

Zhū Shenhan’s voice was very weak. “Do you know Qingfeng Temple? The one where the old — ah, never mind. When I first came here I stayed there for a few days. In the westernmost room, the one I slept in — under the bed, counting from the left bedpost inward to the third brick, that brick is loose. Underneath I hid two liang and three qian of silver, and half a string plus thirty copper coins. Go and take it. The family has no money left and I’m ill — there will be expenses. Don’t buy medicine anymore; if I can hold on, I’ll hold on — if I can’t, it’s fate. Don’t bother with a coffin either — find a patch of ground somewhere and bury me. That money — use it sparingly, you and the child…”

Zhang Xiangu said, “Why are you saying such things?”

“I’d been thinking — there was a deal I could have made, worth two and a half liang profit if it had worked out — I was going to save up. Sanlang is grown now — there will be expenses at that age.”

“Stop worrying! Sanlang already has a match — Auntie Yu’s son died, and she’s taken Sanlang on as a son-in-law with the daughter-in-law’s family…”

“Hah. Don’t try to fool me. The girl is only eight or nine years old — what father wouldn’t take his son along if raising him? Did you think I was truly that dull? Don’t worry. The child’s been raised this big — I’m not about to do her any harm now. We’ll go on raising her. It’s not as though we have any other children…” Zhū Shenhan’s voice grew more and more indistinct.

Zhù Ying turned over lightly. The door plank gave a small knock against the stool legs. Zhang Xiangu called out, “Sanlang?” Zhù Ying said nothing, pretending to be asleep.

The next morning Zhang Xiangu picked all the silver and coins up off the floor and put them away carefully, then took out a coin and handed it to Zhù Ying. “Go and fetch a physician. The old fool has a raging fever and I can’t even shake him awake!”

“All right.”

——

Zhù Ying fetched the physician. The physician took the pulse and said the usual things: one was the injury, two was the fever, with talk of wind and cold invading the body, and so on. He also said that Zhū Shenhan was no longer young and would need to convalesce properly going forward, not carry heavy loads and the like. He then wrote out a prescription.

Zhù Ying went with the physician to fill the prescription, came back and set the medicine to boil, and seeing that things in the room were in hand said, “Mother, I’m going out for a while. To get a few things together.”

“Get what?”

“Going to the capital — we need bedding and clothing. It’s turning cold; we’ll need winter clothes, at least two sets each.”

Zhang Xiangu gave a quiet sigh and gathered all the money together, saying, “I can’t manage you anymore, so be it. Once we left the Zhu family village, there was no going back.”

Zhù Ying said, “Who wants to go back to a pigsty?”

She pocketed the money and first bought three complete new sets of bedding, then several new sets of clothing, then a plain wooden vanity box with a small mirror for Zhang Xiangu — all loaded onto the carrying pole and brought back. The small room had a little less space now, and Zhù Ying still needed to go out again.

Zhang Xiangu said, “Everything will be more expensive in the capital — spend carefully!”

Zhù Ying said, “I have a sense of what I’m doing.”

Out again, she bought a folding reclining chair — she was not yet very tall; this would serve just fine as a bed and could do for a few days. Then she browsed a bookshop and bought several books; she ran her fingers over them, took in the smell of the paper, and smiled without meaning to. She also bought some paper and writing brushes, and carried them home along with the books.

Zhang Xiangu was startled. “What did you buy those for?”

Zhù Ying said, “Now I can read and study properly!” Everything else was secondary — this mattered enormously. A person who had studied was simply different from one who hadn’t. She hadn’t managed to find a complete set of legal texts, but she had bought a set of the same primers she had once envied Yu Miaomiao’s son for having and briefly been lent — now these were her own books at last.

Zhang Xiangu was still troubled at heart, but was swept up by her daughter’s energy and smiled despite herself: “This is your heart’s desire come true!”

Zhù Ying flipped through a few pages with delight and said, “Mother, I need to go out again.”

“Again? Now what?”

“To the inns, the market, the places where merchants from other areas gather — to listen for anyone who has come from the direction of the capital, to learn a little about what life is like there.”

“You’re forever running about like this — shouldn’t you report back to the imperial envoy?” At this point Zhang Xiangu no longer cared that the envoy had once struck her as a strikingly handsome man; her impression of the imperial envoy had turned rather poor.

“There’s no rush. When he sets off, we’ll catch up. Why go cluster around him beforehand? So the yamen staff can recognize us?”

Zhang Xiangu said, “Quite right!” She had nearly forgotten that the two of them had been working as domestic help in the prefect’s household. She was also worried that Zhou You might recognize Zhù Ying and expose her disguise. Zhù Ying said, “It doesn’t matter — if someone recognizes me, I’ll just say I was a woman dressed as a man.”

And so Zhù Ying spent half of each day going out to roam and the other half back home reading. Zhang Xiangu still had her retrieve Zhū Shenhan’s hidden money; on the fourth day Zhū Shenhan’s fever broke, and the injuries on his back began to scab over. Zhang Xiangu scolded him innumerable times as a “wretched hide,” and the husband and wife went on with their usual bickering — yet even in the middle of all that noise, Zhù Ying sitting in the outer room with her book could still manage to read.

Once Zhū Shenhan was a little better, he asked Zhù Ying, “How are things on the outside?”

Zhù Ying explained the decision to go to the capital. Zhū Shenhan was silent for a moment, then said, “Fine by me!” Zhang Xiangu started to scold him, but Zhù Ying said, “We’ll all go together.” Zhū Shenhan said again, “Fine!” Zhang Xiangu said, “What happened to ‘a person who leaves their home loses their worth’?”

Zhū Shenhan sighed in defeat: “We’ve lost our worth staying home too — better to go out and make something of ourselves! Sanlang has backbone — very good!”

Zhang Xiangu said, “If it weren’t for you —”

Zhù Ying said, “The prefect’s funeral is almost done. His son will soon be escorting the coffins home.”

Zhang Xiangu clapped her hands in delight: “Good!”

“People are out looking for someone surnamed Xu. What a pity — they say it was someone who lived here twenty years ago. If it were twenty days ago, I might try to find this person and collect a little reward money.”

Zhang Xiangu laughed and scolded: “You money-hungry thing!”

Zhù Ying said, “It’s the deputy envoy who is looking for someone.”

Zhang Xiangu said, “In that case, you can try.”

“All right.”