The Twelfth Day After Picking Up His Wife
There was a brief silence.
Then, from inside the room, came a sudden clap.
“Oh, so Shen Dog has been secretly watching me all along. No wonder you even know which eye of mine was looking at you.” Lu Ling sounded as if she’d just discovered something crucial.
She leaned closer to the bedside and asked, “Then does that mean Shen-girl has also been watching me this whole time?”
That question finally made Shen Wanxin turn over. Her eyes locked onto Lu Ling’s, and if looks could kill, they probably would have carved several holes straight through her.
Lu Ling, naturally, wasn’t afraid of death. “Shen-girl, since you like looking at me so much, you might as well do it openly from now on.”
“I’m not afraid of you looking.”
“Boring to the extreme.” Shen Wanxin pressed her lips together and turned her back again.
Perhaps she really couldn’t outargue her, so she simply stopped talking.
Lu Ling didn’t actually want to anger her too much, so she coaxed, “Rest first. We’ll eat dinner together tonight. Don’t even think about pulling anything funny.”
“I’m not in the mood to go looking for you in the dark at night.”
The last time she had gone searching in the dark, it had been for a lion-cat that had abandoned her.
In Lu Ling’s eyes now, Shen Wanxin was that cat. Ready to bolt at any moment.
How could she let her get away with that?
“Yunshui Mountain Villa is halfway up the mountain. There are only two roads in and out, and both are heavily guarded. If you really try to escape, the terrain around here could kill you at any moment.”
“Besides, your old injuries still haven’t healed.”
Only then did her tone soften, without her quite noticing.
“At the very least, wait until you’ve recovered. Then I’ll arrange a proper livelihood for you so you can earn money and buy back your indenture contract.”
At those words, Shen Wanxin finally began to look seriously toward her future.
She sat up and asked, “How long will it take for my injuries to heal? And what kind of work will you arrange for me?”
Lu Ling didn’t hide anything. “At least a hundred days. Haven’t you heard the saying that injuries to the muscles and bones take a hundred days to heal?”
“As for the work, it’s simple. You know martial arts, don’t you? Then you can go to Chenxiang Escort Agency and be an escort. My mother’s escort agency is a little special; the pay is fairly high. A third-rank escort gets five taels a month, a second-rank escort gets eight taels, and a first-rank escort gets at least twenty taels—if you can become a first-rank escort.”
“I believe you’ll be able to pay off my five hundred taels within three years.”
As she spoke, Lu Ling even bent down and smiled like a spring breeze. “I believe Miss Shen will rise to first-rank escort very quickly. After all, you’ve got quite a grip when it comes to pinching me.”
Unlike her earlier fierce, threatening look, the Lu Ling before her was much gentler. Her clear face looked almost like the warm, approachable older sister next door.
Shen Wanxin wasn’t used to it and looked away. “That would be best.”
The moment she said that, Lu Ling couldn’t help but feel delighted. “So you’re agreeing?”
“You’ll rest properly for a hundred days?”
“Yes!” Shen Wanxin nodded, slightly puzzled. She only had to behave herself, and Lu Ling was that happy?
Was this person really that easy to please?
“If I can repay the five hundred taels within three years, will you let me go without conditions?” Shen Wanxin asked carefully.
Before, even her testing had never been this soft; more often than not, she would simply raise her claws.
Lu Ling promised without hesitation, “I swear! And there’s no need for me to keep you tied up here anyway.”
“You understand this too: to me, your identity is always a risk. Who knows whether, before you lost your memory, you offended someone from the Xu Prince’s Manor? Even though the Xu Prince’s Manor has now been condemned by His Majesty, that doesn’t mean the Xu Prince had no old followers.”
“To be safe, don’t leave Haicheng lightly before your injuries heal.” At this point, she sighed worriedly. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to protect you.”
Shen Wanxin’s expression stilled. After a moment of hesitation, she asked, “Why do you want to protect me?”
When she asked that, something seemed to ripple faintly in her heart.
“It’s simple. Because I’m kind.” Unfortunately, Lu Ling’s flippant joking tone smoothed over everything.
Shen Wanxin returned to a blank expression. “Then I’ll keep my current assessment of Miss Lu. You really make it hard for me to believe you.”
With that, she lay back down, turned over, wrapped herself in the quilt, and sighed. “Please leave, Miss Lu. I want to rest.”
Lu Ling was left confused. How could her attitude change so quickly, hot and cold like that?
Only Aunt Wu, standing nearby, saw through it all. She could only sigh helplessly in silence; the eldest miss still didn’t understand what was in Miss Shen’s heart.
But thinking about it, Miss Shen didn’t seem like someone difficult to serve.
By the time Lu Ling stepped out of the room, she still hadn’t figured out what she had said wrong.
Still, at least she had managed to soothe her and make her stay obediently in Yunshui Mountain Villa, nowhere else.
“Keep what’s inside the villa under your hat. Don’t let it spread,” Lu Ling reminded Aunt Wu unhurriedly. For the people of Yunshui Mountain Villa, it was practically an imperial decree.
Those taken in here were all pitiful people: women sold by their families, elderly women abandoned by their sons, even old soldiers with lame legs whose pensions had been embezzled.
Unfortunately, she had always let herself relax too quickly.
By nightfall, she had only dozed briefly in her own room when Aunt Wu was already pounding on the door.
“Bad news, Eldest Miss.”
“Miss Shen is gone!”
“What?” Lu Ling looked as if she had been yanked awake from the dead. There was even a bit of water at the corner of her mouth. “That girl tricked me again!”
In the middle of the night, with no time to even tidy herself up, she threw on a padded coat and gathered everyone to search for her.
Haicheng’s public security was not great to begin with, and because the prefect’s official ships had sealed off the Lu family’s islands, the other docks were affected as well; the people who suffered most were the laborers and boatmen.
They were all common people at the very bottom.
When common people had no livelihood and no food, they were forced to take risks and go out to sea at night to make a living.
These things had happened before, but they also made it easy for criminals to blend in and take advantage.
So the stretch between the fishing villages and the mountains was the least safe.
Even though Yunshui Mountain Villa itself was very safe.
“Can it be confirmed that she didn’t run off?” Lu Ling’s head hurt just thinking about that woman.
Aunt Wu was equally anxious. “I only went to change the tea water. When I came back, Miss Shen was gone.”
“Eldest Miss, I’m truly sorry. I didn’t keep a close enough eye on her.”
“There’s no need to blame yourself. Miss Shen isn’t a slave; you don’t need to keep guard over her.” Ever since establishing Yunshui Mountain Villa, Lu Ling had refused to let the maids and older women inside call themselves servants.
Nor the younger ones, either.
She carried a lantern and had only taken one step out when an old man leaning on a cane came over and silently pointed toward a tree on the north side.
“Mute Uncle, she’s over there?”
The mute old man nodded, then turned and led her toward the banyan tree.
Sure enough, on the thickest branch of that tree sat a quiet, beautiful figure.
She was simply gazing up at the moonlight. She wore a padded coat exactly like Lu Ling’s; when the night wind blew, she unconsciously pulled the collar tighter around herself. Perhaps hearing footsteps, she said without turning around, “Miss Lu doesn’t need to watch me so closely. I only slept enough and felt like coming out on a whim to admire the full moon.”
Lu Ling signaled for everyone else to go back to sleep, then stood beneath the tree and leaned there. “Did you remember something?”
“If you did, maybe I can help you.”
Shen Wanxin said, “Before I’ve paid off the five hundred taels, I won’t run away casually.”
Lu Ling paused, then had no choice but to pout. “You don’t need to reassure me. For me, it’s actually a good thing if you remember. Maybe your family is rich and has a Yunshui Manor even bigger than mine. Then I can just have your parents pay for you.”
“Of course, I’ll have to collect a little interest.” The more she spoke, the more her merchant instincts showed.
Shen Wanxin lowered her head; from the tree, she could only see the top of Lu Ling’s head. She couldn’t see that face, but she could already imagine its carefully calculating, penny-pinching look.
The corners of her lips couldn’t help but lift a little. “Then I’m afraid I’ll disappoint Miss Lu.”
“I don’t seem to have parents.”
Lu Ling was a little surprised. “Did you remember something?”
“No. It’s just that, as far as I can recall, I never had the shadow of parents by my side since I was young.” Shen Wanxin’s tone was light. “So probably not.”
As for her—someone with both parents, and a mother who was apparently very rich—that was simply unimaginable.
Lu Ling had only thought she was remembering something; instead, she had stepped right into a pit.
She felt awkward enough to say, “Sorry. I didn’t know. I spoke carelessly.”
Shen Wanxin hadn’t expected her to lower her head like that; it was completely different from her earlier aggressive attitude.
She lowered her eyes and thought for a long while. Perhaps she was thinking of what this Miss Lu had done to her; both the good and the bad. But it was clear that aside from being profit-driven, her nature wasn’t bad.
Only, with their interests tangled now and the indenture contract still in Lu Ling’s hands, it was natural for her to be extra cautious around her.
But one small detail right now made Shen Wanxin change her mind. She broke her silence and said, “Before I remember anything, may I stay by Miss Lu’s side as a guard?”
Lu Ling almost blurted out that you can’t even use force; but after finally getting this beauty to soften and take the initiative to come closer, it counted as her lowering her guard a little.
Maybe this would reduce a lot of trouble in the future. If luck was good, they might even become friends.
“Fine.” She didn’t refuse. “But you have to stay obediently by my side, finish the remaining medicine, and other than that, I have no further demands of you.”
“Thank you,” Shen Wanxin said quickly.
The two fell silent, tacitly admiring the moon, though the moon tonight wasn’t especially round.
After all, the moon on the fifteenth is rounder on the sixteenth.
Under the moonlight, the two quiet figures seemed to melt into the glow.
After sitting there for a quarter of an hour, Lu Ling took the initiative to turn and say, “Good night.”
“Good night.” Shen Wanxin asked again, “Can I start work tomorrow?”
“Sure. I’ll draft a contract, and you can sign it then.” Lu Ling said, “I won’t short you a single day’s wages.”
At this point, Lu Ling understood that Shen Wanxin intended to take the lawful route to redeem herself.
Then she definitely wouldn’t run off casually.
Besides, where could she even go, all alone with no relatives or friends? She might even have trouble finding food.
Life wasn’t easy for women these days.
Even in Haicheng, with Lu Ling’s support, many women still faced the risk of starving to death at any moment.
Thinking of that, Lu Ling pressed her lips together. She always felt she was overestimating herself.
With no real strength, yet she still dared to dream of the grand, noble ideal of helping the world once she rose.
“It’s late. I’m going to sleep first. I still have to go down to the docks to inspect things tomorrow.” This time, Lu Ling didn’t linger.
She left Shen Wanxin sitting there by herself.
Watching her leave, Shen Wanxin could already feel the trust she was being shown.
Even though, from the moment she left the room, there had been an old man watching her from the shadows, like a hunting dog in the night.
After thinking for a while, she came to a conclusion: “Yunshui Mountain Villa is not simple.”
As for Lu Ling, she slept until noon, pushing the meeting she had agreed to with Water Manor back by a full two hours.
Normally, she was always on time for formal occasions.
But today, the moment Lu Ling woke up, she was still half-bewildered.
It seemed that after relaxing last night, the instant her head hit the pillow, she had completely let down her guard.
“Aunt Wu, no need to dress me up too much. Keep it simple,” she instructed while getting dressed.
Aunt Wu and the others were long used to her rushed ways.
They worked quickly and dressed Lu Ling neatly, finally inserting a bamboo hairpin at an angle into her hair.
That was Lu Ling’s habit.
As long as she wasn’t meeting some high-ranking official, she was almost too lazy to fuss over an elaborate face of makeup when dealing with the people below her.
She usually went out bare-faced as well.
When Lu Ling pushed open the door, she happened to run into Shen Wanxin, who for some reason had already been leaning against the pillar in front of the door with her arms folded, as if she had been waiting for a long time.
“Eldest Miss, it’s almost lunchtime.” Her tone even sounded a little teasing.
For some reason, Lu Ling actually felt her old face go hot. “I don’t always get up this late; this time was an accident.”
Shen Wanxin nodded solemnly. “Maybe the medicine has a calming effect.”
She seemed to be giving Lu Ling an excuse, which only made Lu Ling feel even more embarrassed.
Fine! She’s getting back at me. She’s definitely getting back at me for yesterday, when I played the domineering CEO and lifted her chin.
Still, it didn’t really hurt.
“Cough. When I get back, I’ll give you the villa’s formal employment contract. Three copies in total, and one will have to be filed at the yamen.”
Shen Wanxin had come precisely for the contract Lu Ling had mentioned last night. She immediately straightened up and cupped her fists. “Yes, Miss!”
That posture made the people behind her, including Aunt Wu, exchange confused looks.
Wasn’t this the girl the eldest miss liked?
Weren’t they practically half master and half servant already?
How had she suddenly become a guard?
Yunshui Mountain Villa already had plenty of guards; it certainly didn’t lack one.
Could this be one of the masters’... little hobbies?
Of course, they didn’t dare gossip too much. They could only follow the two masters’ lead and cooperate.
Without another word, Lu Ling got into Wang Xianglan’s carriage.
Wang Xianglan glanced at her. “Miss, don’t worry. I sent my fifth brother to the docks early to spread the word.”
At the appointed time, Lu Ling still hadn’t shown up.
Wang Xianglan knew at once that the eldest miss was probably going to oversleep again, so she had asked her younger brother, who worked as a steward at Yunshui Mountain Villa, to go notify everyone.
“Thank you. That was a huge help,” Lu Ling said with relief. “Otherwise, my image would have been ruined.”
At that, Wang Xianglan opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end said nothing.
Even if Lu Ling worried like this, in truth no one would hold it against her; on the contrary, they respected her from the heart.
After Lu Ling got into the carriage, she even leaned out the window and called back, “Hurry up and get in. Didn’t we say we’d go to the docks together?”
Shen Wanxin quickly climbed aboard and sat beside Lu Ling. Today she wore a long robe with no embroidery at all; it was plain and clean, and her tied-up hair made her look like a graceful young gentleman.
“Whose little young master is this?” Lu Ling leaned in to tease her. “Look closely; isn’t she mine?”
As soon as she said that, Shen Wanxin shot her a glance and silently moved farther away.
It was as if she were saying: Mother told me not to play with idiots.
Lu Ling, who had just been rejected, awkwardly drew her hand back and curled her lip. “Tch, you don’t get jokes at all. You’re just a block of wood.”
“Shen Wood!”
And Shen Wood even nodded in agreement. “Yes, Miss.”
Lu Ling: ......
The Lu family’s dock was located in deep water. Many large ships came and went here, though today they were all moored by the water.
Just as the Lu family carriage arrived, the nearby official workers from Water Manor immediately blew their conch shells to announce that the eldest miss had arrived.
Before the carriage had even stopped, the once-quiet dock, where only the sounds of floating ships could be heard, suddenly burst into motion as over a hundred figures sprang up.
“The eldest miss is here.”
“We haven’t had work for several days. I hope the eldest miss can arrange some jobs for us.”
“If there were jobs, I’d already be on one of the crews. Would it still be your turn?” The workers started arguing almost immediately, their tempers flaring as though they were about to fight.
The boatmen already worked under great pressure; once they came ashore, they couldn’t keep their emotions bottled up and were liable to explode at the slightest spark.
What was more, they hadn’t had work for several days. Although the eldest miss still paid them daily wages according to the contract, they never felt secure in their hearts.
They were all hoping the docks would get work again soon so they wouldn’t be taking money for nothing.
Of course, taking money for nothing was nice, but in the long run, only if the dock business could continue steadily would they have good days ahead. So immediate gains no longer seemed that important.
“You bunch of stinking brutes, all of you get back down and stand on your own decks.” Wang Xianglan got out of the carriage and immediately snapped her whip, lashing coldly at the group of rough-handed men. “If I see any of you take one extra step, you’d better watch out for this auntie’s whip.”
The moment Wang Xianglan stepped out, everyone quickly pulled their feet back and didn’t dare question her.
She was one of the eldest miss’s favorites.
And they really did have rather bad tempers and were prone to impulse. If they offended a noble, they’d be the ones to suffer. So Wang Xianglan’s action looked to them like it was for their own good. Naturally, no one complained.
Besides, for some reason, the eldest miss loved cleanliness. In particular, if the sailors’ hygiene was poor, they could be driven off the ship.
There were even three dormitory supervisors arranged specifically aboard ship: one in charge of hygiene inspections, one in charge of diet inspections, and one in charge of behavioral scoring.
If they failed the quarterly assessment, they could forget about boarding ships. They’d have to go home and rest for a month.
Having to stay home and do nothing was more unbearable to them than death.
So the workers of the Lu family, whether permanent or temporary, all looked very clean.
The dormitories even provided soap free of charge for everyone to use.
Permanent workers even had the benefit of being able to bring family members to eat at the canteen once.
After that, Wang Xianglan set up a wooden stool and waited for Lu Ling to get down.
After thinking about it, Lu Ling still asked Shen Wanxin to stay in the carriage and not come down. For some reason, when she looked at that beautiful face, she didn’t really want to let her appear in public.
Even Lu Ling found this possessive little impulse troubling.
“Or you could stay in the carriage?”
Shen Wanxin lifted her brows. “Miss Lu, have you ever seen a guard sit in the carriage like the master?”
Lu Ling: “No, I haven’t.”
But your face looks like you’re the master. Of course, she wasn’t going to say that.
“Don’t set a precedent.” Shen Wanxin reminded her solemnly, then got out and stood beside the carriage.
The moment she came down, all eyes turned to her at once.
Seeing that it was a handsome young gentleman, many people immediately showed gossiping expressions.
Only when Lu Ling got out and Shen Wanxin stood behind her, her gaze carrying its own cold edge, did she sweep her eyes over everyone with a look of disdain.
That made everyone lower their heads involuntarily, feeling an odd pressure.
Lu Ling hadn’t expected Shen Wanxin, on her first outing, to crush this group of grown men with nothing but presence.
She couldn’t help but smile with a little pride. As expected of the woman I fancy.
A lion-like woman.
Today she didn’t need to be called a cat anymore.
Once Lu Ling appeared, the captains of each ship quickly came ashore and lined up to wait for her speech.
Lu Ling drew her attention back from Shen Wanxin.
She coughed lightly. “Everyone, the dock business really has fallen by thirty percent recently, and we’re also facing fines of over a million taels. But don’t worry; the Lu family will hold on.”
“It’s just the same old thing.” Her tone sounded habitual, but cold.
Shen Wanxin’s brow twitched slightly, catching the hint of mockery in her words.
The captain of the great treasure ship ran long-haul routes; at once, eight people stood out. “Eldest Miss, the goods we’re transporting may get hammered by those red-haired foreign merchants overseas.”
“The red-haired merchants overseas aren’t like the merchants in our Central Plains. Even when selling black slaves, they skin people ten layers deep; let alone doing business. Once they find a weakness in us, they’ll definitely demand outrageous compensation!”
“Besides, their local officials are just as bloodthirsty, changing rules and regulations whenever they want. Their government treats merchants better than their own parents.”
Unlike their Central Plains, where merchants were treated like grass and could be casually looked down upon.
Just like the business that had lost thirty percent of its trade volume now; it was the government’s doing.
They paid no attention at all to the business environment.
Even so, Haicheng was already considered quite merchant-friendly.
Some inland merchants were either swallowed up by local gentry or came from gentry families themselves. Ordinary commoners rarely even had the chance to become merchants.
They were still common folk, and it was only with the Lu family’s protection and the prestige of the former navy that they could establish themselves in Haicheng.
Lu Ling said, “Those are called capitalists. You don’t need to worry about compensation. When the time comes, I’ll have my mother send water escorts to seize their cargo, then give them a thorough lesson one by one. After that, they’ll know what it means to do business with integrity!”
By “seize their cargo,” she meant using the government’s protection and the loopholes in commercial law to suppress foreign merchants who didn’t understand Central Plains law.
By “give them a thorough lesson,” she meant making those overseas countries, which could change laws at any time for the sake of business, understand that while the Central Plains might not value merchants, outsiders still weren’t allowed to bully them. The old reputation of “though far away, they will still be punished” still carried considerable weight overseas.
And “doing business with integrity” meant doing business under her rules and the laws of the Central Plains.
It was through these loopholes that Lu Ling had balanced on a wire to build Water Manor and make it flourish.
The prefect’s involvement was only a temporary intervention.
Now she no longer had the prefect at her back.
Haicheng had already reached northward.
It was bringing northern power south to keep the local forces in check.
Though there was a certain sense of playing with fire, it was still better than being swallowed up by the government’s tyranny forever.
With Lu Ling’s assurance, the captains of the great treasure ships all relaxed.
After that came the captains of the smaller and medium ships asking questions.
Lu Ling answered them one by one, not only calming everyone down but also letting the workers breathe a sigh of relief when they heard that business would resume in ten days.
Now they wouldn’t have to worry that their families would end up like those fishermen, forced to go out at night because they were starving, only to vanish and die at sea.
There were also village heads from some fishing villages who came to look for Lu Ling and ask for help.
Lu Ling agreed to let the things the fishing villages hauled up be sold at the dock, and she would also set up five stalls for public welfare support so they could sell their own dried goods here.
Her Water Manor workers had fairly strong spending power.
The fishermen were deeply grateful for Lu Ling’s help.
But what they wanted even more was for the official ships to leave quickly and stop blocking their path to making a living.
Lu Ling even held a rare small meeting, organizing the dock stewards to weather the crisis together.
She told them not to stop exploring other channels to keep the business going; whatever method they came up with, as long as the goods were sold or the compensation reduced, she would count it toward their performance.
At the end of the year, they would all get a year-end bonus together.
For the stewards, that year-end bonus was the savings and lifesaving money their families would rely on for the coming year.
Everyone was racking their brains and putting in all their effort to bring in business for the dock.
This kind of top-down efficiency made Shen Wanxin look at Lu Ling a few more times, with some change in her opinion.
So she wasn’t just good at threatening people; her way of managing subordinates was also unusually deft.
Leaving aside whether the money would really reach the people below, this trust alone was enough to inject vitality into the entire dock.
This was the truth behind sincerity moving even stone and metal!
If the imperial court could be like this, maybe it wouldn’t... A vague thought flashed through Shen Wanxin’s mind. After a brief moment of confusion, she couldn’t help but shake her head and mock herself for what she was thinking.
Lu Ling had basically finished explaining everything.
This trip had been all about steadying everyone’s hearts.
As for Prefect Ye’s side, he had definitely already seen the letters from the northern aristocratic families, or else the people from those families themselves.
It probably wouldn’t be long before the docks were unsealed and the Lu family’s islands reopened.
But the Ye family definitely wouldn’t be convinced; they would surely make some underhanded moves in private, such as stirring up the common people and using the chance to disrupt the docks.
They would want her family’s dock to stay shut a while longer and suffer some losses before they were willing to stop.
TL Note:
Shen Dog (沈狗儿) = a teasing insult, literally “Shen little dog.”
escort agency (镖局) = a private convoy-protection business that guards goods and travelers.
water escorts (水镖) = armed guards who protect cargo on waterways.
red-haired foreign merchants (红毛商人) = a historical slur for Western/foreign merchants.
though far away, they will still be punished (虽远必诛) = a saying meaning enemies will be punished no matter how far away they are.
the moon on the fifteenth is rounder on the sixteenth (十五的月亮十六圆) = a proverb meaning the full moon is often fullest on the 16th day of the lunar month.
helping the world once she rose (达则兼济天下) = the ideal that once someone has wealth or power, they should help others too.