The Second Day After Picking Up My Wife
But how could a woman that beautiful have ended up in the hands of a small-time merchant, and been specially sold all the way to Haicheng, this remote, hard-to-reach place?
By all rights, even if she were the concubine of a disgraced official, a face like that should still have put her among the very best in Kyoto. She ought to have made a name for herself; it was impossible that no one knew her.
Or else she had been hidden away in some inner chamber.
Anyone with that kind of power would have had to hold an office of no small rank.
But after Lu Ling thought it over for a while, she still couldn’t come to any conclusion.
She only knew that the person selling this beauty had come to Haicheng with vicious intent, determined to make sure she would never rise again.
Her earlier guess that the Kyoto merchant could only find buyers in Haicheng now seemed probably right.
Thinking of this, Lu Ling withdrew her hand and glanced at the beauty on the couch. Those sharp phoenix eyes had gone unfocused; she couldn’t tell whether the woman had passed out or was forcing herself to cling to the last thread of consciousness.
Right now she looked frail, like a willow bent low in a storm, ruined by someone who had shown her no mercy at all.
Truly... pitiful.
A thought flashed through Lu Ling’s mind, and she reached out again to test the woman’s forehead.
This time there was no sudden attack.
She touched the beauty’s cheek easily; she only brushed it briefly with the pad of her finger before pulling back.
No matter how beautiful she was now, she felt like a piece of red-hot iron; if they dragged this out any longer, she really might not make it.
After a brief consideration, Lu Ling sighed. “Forget it. Since I’ve run into you, I’ll count you lucky.”
Mostly because the Kyoto merchant had been sleazy, and his words too frivolous; from the moment they met, she had wanted to beat him up.
He wanted to sell her a person, and yet he had put that person through this kind of torment.
He really didn’t know how to cherish a beauty.
“I, Miss, just happen to be someone who cherishes beauty.” Lu Ling muttered to herself.
She went to the basin, which hadn’t yet been overturned, soaked the towel and wrung it out, then walked back to the couch and placed it against the beauty’s forehead.
The cool touch, which eased the heat, made the woman’s fingertips tremble; then her eyes closed, and she was already unconscious.
Lu Ling noticed, but said nothing. After making a few simple arrangements, she turned and left the bedroom, then left the private room.
Just as she shut the door, Liu Yuer and the Kyoto merchant came up to greet her.
Especially the merchant, who rubbed his hands eagerly. “Miss, how was the inspection? Are you satisfied?”
“This piece of mine is top quality. Many gentlemen in Kyoto fought over her before; even a marquis wanted to bid on her at one point, but unfortunately he had a fierce wife at home, so he gave up.”
Every other word was “goods.”
He spoke of a woman as if she were a thing, not a person.
Even Liu Yuer couldn’t help showing an expression of disgust.
Let alone Lu Ling. Whether in modern times or in this era, the people she hated most were always this kind of feudal relic.
Even in modern times, when women already held up half the sky, there were still plenty of such feudal relics.
Much less in ancient times, where almost everyone was like this; they harmed one another and took it for granted. Even the law tolerated the breeding of crimes against women.
That was also why she hated the Great Chong Dynasty.
“Oh? Since even a marquis had his eye on her, why did you specially bring her to Haicheng?” Lu Ling shifted her gaze to her hand. The green jade agate ring on her index finger flickered with expensive light.
Having returned to the same topic, the Kyoto merchant, who had already learned his lesson from Miss Lu’s methods, quickly realized she was interested in the woman inside.
So he smiled confidently. “To tell you the truth, I’m sure Shopkeeper Yu has already told you the woman inside was the concubine of a disgraced official.”
“She’s only a concubine. No one will care.”
Lu Ling still stared at her ring and, following her own judgment, asked, “A criminal from what rank of official?”
“A Ministry of Revenue attendant official. He chose the wrong side and backed Prince Xu, so the Imperial Court exiled him.” The Kyoto merchant assured her, “Don’t worry; her husband already died on the road to Lingnan, so there’s no one left to speak for her.”
That was why he was so fearless.
Lu Ling felt there was no need to ask further. Whether he was really an attendant official would be easy enough to check later; conveniently, her father was currently in the middle of a five-year reassignment period.
The family had spent a great deal of money, just waiting for him to rise another step. So they could obtain any news from Kyoto.
But on second thought, her father would probably just remain where he was.
Because Haicheng was too special in the southeast, and in Haicheng, only the Lu family could truly dominate as a single household.
Even she didn’t want her softhearted, naive father getting involved in the muddy waters of the court, because recently she had heard that Kyoto was not peaceful. As for the details, she didn’t know either.
“Forget it. Tell me your price.” Lu Ling no longer wanted to waste time dealing with this merchant, who looked down on women.
The Kyoto merchant hadn’t expected Miss Lu to be so straightforward this time; clearly, she really had taken a liking to the woman.
He had long known Qingzhu Tower’s original business was nothing respectable. Even if it now flew the banner of having washed their hands clean, it probably still had private dealings on the side.
Those officials’ wives in Zhangzhou Prefecture had simply been tricked by others.
“Since the young lady has spoken, then I, Wu, will name a price.” The Kyoto merchant raised one hand, finally intending to ask an exorbitant sum.
Even Liu Yuer sucked in a breath beside them. Was this filthy thing planning to demand five thousand taels? He had just raised both hands; how greedy could he be?
Although Miss wasn’t short of money, giving it to him would be far too wasteful.
“Five taels.”
Who would have thought that after putting on such a show, the merchant would actually name an absurdly low price.
This time even Liu Yuer was stunned; once she reacted, she somehow felt angry instead. It felt like they were being toyed with.
Lu Ling, however, remained calm. “Oh? What made you change your mind, Manager Wu?”
The Kyoto merchant bared yellowed teeth; or rather, he stopped pretending. His expression turned vicious as he retaliated. “I won’t hide it from the young lady. The reason I’m only asking five taels is not just because this slut made me run all over the place on the way here, but also because people from Prince Xu’s residence ordered that this woman must be made to live a fate worse than death.”
As he spoke, he looked shamelessly around this so-called elegant room. “Qingzhu Tower is really not much different from Kyoto’s pleasure houses. It seems I’ve sold her in the right place after all. I’m sure that person will be pleased too.”
As soon as he said that, Liu Yuer was about to step forward in anger to object.
Lu Ling stopped her with a look. She thought there was no need to explain at all; scum like this saw everything through filthy eyes.
She no longer wanted to see this person, but she also wasn’t going to let him leave so easily.
So she said, “Deal.”
That one word stunned Liu Yuer completely. She couldn’t understand what the young lady was doing right now.
Wasn’t she usually the most protective of those suffering sisters?
What was going on today?
While Liu Yuer was still baffled, Lu Ling changed the subject and said in a cool, heavy voice, “Before that, please have Manager Wu compensate me for the renovation costs of this private room; not a bit more, not a bit less. Five thousand taels will be enough.”
As soon as those words fell, the Kyoto merchant, who had just been pleased with himself, froze. He instantly wore an expression of disbelief. “I didn’t do this; why should I pay!”
Lu Ling’s smile carried only coldness. “Before we sign a contract, the deal isn’t complete. So the losses to the private room must be deducted from Manager Wu’s pocket.”
“What! There’s no need to go this far. We’re all merchants; everyone knows how this works. Besides, you’re satisfied with that goods. You can easily squeeze silver out of that goods, so why are you asking me for compensation?” The Kyoto merchant was shocked and angry. “How about I set the price at five thousand and five taels, knock it down to five taels, and we call this deal settled?”
Such childish talk. So fickle.
But it was also talk backed by confidence.
That confidence came from the fact that Da Chong’s commercial law was a mess, and loopholes were easy to exploit. So merchants here shared a certain consensus in the gray areas, an unspoken rule. As long as everyone followed it, they could make money.
But this Kyoto merchant had clearly misjudged Haicheng’s rules.
They had all been personally drafted with the Lu family’s participation, then backed by officials who stood to profit, including the yamen. As the saying went, local methods: as long as they fit the local order, they were law. It all depended on who had the right to interpret them.
Lu Ling continued, “You already fixed the price at five taels, and now you’re backing out. Doing business this inconsistently makes you hard to trust.”
“It’s very simple; Haicheng is a place that values the law, especially commercial law. This is a port contract jointly established by the Zhangzhou Prefecture yamen and Haicheng, with official backing.”
“If you don’t believe me, you can take a trip to the yamen and experience Haicheng’s commercial law for yourself.”
“But as you said, we haven’t signed a contract yet. Let’s just settle on five taels.” The Kyoto merchant only felt that he had been careless. He hurriedly changed his tune, thinking he might still be able to muddle through.
Who would have expected Lu Ling to say, “Under Haicheng’s commercial law, if a verbal contract is made in the presence of a third party, it is valid.”
As soon as those words fell, Lu Ling shot Liu Yuer a look.
Liu Yuer seized the chance to vent her anger. “Manager Wu, business isn’t done like this. If you go back on your word, you should at least look at whose turf you’re on.”
“If you don’t believe it, you can report it to the authorities. As long as your dealings are clean, I’m sure Magistrate Lord won’t make things difficult for you.”
That was a pointedly knowing remark. Back then, Liu Yuer had only wanted to do a little shady business, which was why she had sneaked around. Now she didn’t care about performance or quotas anymore.
She wanted this bastard who bullied women to get what was coming to him!
When the Kyoto merchant heard that not only would he have to compensate them, he would also have to face the magistrate, he immediately looked like a mouse seeing a cat and grew panicked. “Who doesn’t know that the magistrate of Feng County is your father, that Haicheng is your family’s one-man rule? Miss Lu, if you’re not satisfied, I can just take my people and leave.”
“At worst, I won’t sell her.”
“Why go this far in messing with me? You want me to pay compensation and then threaten to report me to the authorities. If you want this deal, can’t we just keep things low-key?”
He couldn’t even understand where he had offended this Miss Lu. He had no idea that his contempt for women and violation of women had long since dragged him into the abyss of moral decay and crime.
But Lu Ling was no longer giving him a chance.
She raised her finger and pressed the alarm bell at the private room’s doorway. She had originally designed this alarm for fire prevention and security; once pressed, the guards she had trained downstairs would rush up.
As she withdrew her hand, she wiped her fingertip clean and said slowly, probing him step by step, “That’s not up to you.”
“You can choose not to do the deal, but right now I reasonably suspect you’re trafficking people, which is why you’re trying to avoid seeing the authorities.”
“Just now, when I went into the bedroom to see that young lady, I found that both her looks and her clothing were extraordinary. For all we know, she might be a wealthy young miss from some high-ranking family in Kyoto who was abducted here by you after running away from home.”
With that, Lu Ling lifted her chin, her gaze contemptuous. “How could I possibly believe your few words and conclude she’s only the concubine of a disgraced official?”
“You have no evidence and you’re still suspecting me!” the Kyoto merchant blurted out incoherently.
Lu Ling said, “Then let the authorities investigate. Wouldn’t that settle it?”
At that, the Kyoto merchant looked even more frightened and uneasy.
He knew nothing about Haicheng at all and had no idea what kind of commercial law existed here; the moment he heard the term, he had already lost his composure.
More than that, he had just gone back on his word, which was infuriating enough. So if Miss Lu insisted on accusing him of human trafficking and reporting him, it was entirely possible she was acting out of revenge.
But he absolutely could not see the authorities.
He quickly forced himself to calm down and tried to negotiate. “In that case, Miss, at worst I don’t want the money anymore; you can take the person.”
“After all, I’m only handling the work. We’re all in the same line of business, so I know very well how deeply people like us fear seeing the authorities. Please forgive me. If you want this girl’s deed of sale, I have that too.”
“Please show some mercy, Miss.”
As he finished, he straightened his back. Because if he had the deed of sale, Lu Ling wouldn’t be able to pin human trafficking on him.
When the time came to settle it in court, it wasn’t certain who would win. Neither side would come out ahead.
But when Lu Ling heard that there was still a deed of sale, she was a little puzzled. If he had one, why not just take it out?
Why was he panicking? Even if they went to the yamen, with a deed of sale he could prove the transaction had a certain degree of legality.
He didn’t need to toss the person at her like a hot potato. Unless he simply didn’t dare let the outside world know about this matter.
With that, Lu Ling’s suspicion flared up again.
Only then had the guards already rushed up from the stairwell; leading them were the Wang brothers, and twenty men in all gathered in a neat circle.
“Miss, what happened?” the Wang brothers asked nervously, looking around.
Seeing this, the Kyoto merchant grew even more nervous and couldn’t help shouting, “Miss Lu, are you trying to blackmail me?”
“I don’t want the money, and I don’t want the woman either. What more do you want?”
Hearing this, the Wang brothers assumed he was just another peddler who thought Qingzhu Tower was a pleasure house. This month alone they had already dealt with more than a dozen people who pretended to be doing business just to take advantage of them. Almost by instinct, the brothers both decided he was there to cause trouble and immediately threw a punch at him.
“How dare you insult our young lady? Are you tired of living?”
“Who in all Haicheng doesn’t know our young lady only does lawful business?”
“How can we let you slander her!”
Twenty people began shoving and pulling at one another in the corridor, crowding into a tight mass as they beat the merchant until he was darting about with his head covered.
Lu Ling didn’t even have time to stop them, and she knew the Wang brothers would control their strength and not actually beat him to death; they would only let him suffer a bit of flesh-and-blood pain.
So she stood aside and waited until the timing was about right before speaking. “Enough, stop hitting him.”
Before long, that Kyoto merchant surnamed Wu was black and blue all over, so badly beaten he could barely speak, and looked utterly awful.
Lu Ling finally softened. “Hand over the deed of sale.”
“This Wan Tong Bank banknote will count as settlement for this matter.” As she spoke, she took a paper banknote from the inner pocket of her sleeve and stuffed it into the merchant’s hand.
“As for the reason you’ve been babbling incoherently and unable to explain yourself, I’m not going to pursue it. You also know that Haicheng does all kinds of business and relies on cross-region trade; only...” She paused, and Lu Ling’s voice grew colder and colder. “Five taels is too insulting. I’ll give you a hundred times that amount; five hundred taels in total.”