Chapter 12

Chapter 12

After I received the gold beads, the Wang Clan specially sent several armored guards to escort me all the way home.

Considering how many eyes and ears there were at home, I deliberately led the Wang Clan guards to the northern part of the city. With a small portion of the gold beads in my pouch, I bought a three-courtyard residence on Ox Tail Lane through a broker.

Though the area was where the lowest rank of gentry gathered, it was quiet and elegant. And with the Wang Clan’s carriages following close behind me the entire way, all imposing and grand, everyone around us kept their distance. Neighbors shut their doors. One young woman even stumbled and fell by the roadside in her haste to avoid us.

I was extremely satisfied.

Once I had the door locks and keys, I tucked the remaining gold beads into my pouch and swaggered back to the Nan Mansion, intending to bring Xiao Mei with me to our new home.

Fortunately, apart from the handkerchief, Mother had also left me Xiao Mei. The handkerchief was gone, but I still had Xiao Mei!

At that thought, all the sorrow I had felt at the Wang Clan’s residence was swept clean away.

The moment I entered the Nan Mansion, I began calling for Xiao Mei from the front courtyard to the back. I shouted until my voice nearly split, but there was no reply.

These past few days, everyone in the Nan Family had been running themselves ragged over Nan Jinxiu’s wedding tomorrow. Naturally, no one paid any attention to me.

The unease in my heart grew stronger and stronger. I went straight to my legitimate mother, who was adding to Nan Jinxiu’s trousseau, and demanded without preamble, “Where is my Xiao Mei?”

Ever since the matter with Wang Yu, Madam Nan had been rather tolerant of me. This time, her expression was still gentle and mild. “Xiao Mei? She didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“The Prefect of Baling took a concubine. She asked to go of her own accord. She left three days ago…”

At those words, stars burst before my eyes.

“How could she possibly have asked to go? She said she would wait until I was married and let me support her for the rest of her life!”

In response to my raw, helpless roar, Madam Nan spoke in a tone of pity and sympathy. “Silly child. She went from a house-born maid to the concubine of a prefect. What extraordinary fortune that is. Who in this world would be unwilling to be a master and choose instead to remain a slave?”

“No. No. You’re lying to me!”

I stormed back to my room, grabbed the gold beads, and ran out.

By then, the Chen Family’s betrothal gifts had arrived. Pigs, sheep, cattle, bolts of celebratory red silk and fabric lined the way from the main gate all the way into the inner courtyard, piled up in well over a hundred carrying loads.

Everywhere I looked, red silk covered the ground, gauze and brocade spilled down, a display of wealth beyond words.

Yet all I felt was terror.

This brilliant, brocade-lined maw had already swallowed Xiao Mei. Next, would it be my turn?

Ba Commandery bordered Chuzhou.

In more than ten years, I had never once left Chuzhou. Like every other young lady born and raised here, I had taken it for granted that I would live on this not particularly fertile stretch of land. I had never planned to leave.

But I had no choice.

I had to go and get Xiao Mei back.

When night had fully fallen, I took the remaining three hundred gold beads and used the stringed coins I had saved up to bribe Xiao Luzi, one of the mansion’s carriage drivers, into taking me to Ba Commandery overnight.

The carriage jolted through the entire night, and I suffered nightmares the entire night as well.

At noon the next day, we arrived at the Yu Mansion. I saw the vast courtyard packed with mansion soldiers, spears and halberds standing in a bristling forest. I had only taken two steps forward when the tip of a long spear was thrust beneath my throat.

“Who goes there?”

Facing that gleaming spearhead, I swallowed. “Nan Jinping requests an audience with the prefect… No, I request to see the prefect’s newly taken concubine.”

“Ha. Now that’s rare.”

The soldier withdrew his spear and laughed to the men behind him. “A little plaything has come looking for another plaything. Isn’t that something new?”

The crowd, of course, burst into roaring laughter.

Seeing how casually he spoke and laughed, I could tell he clearly had some standing. I hurriedly pressed a gold bead into his hand and pleaded in a low voice, “My lord, I have gold. As long as you bring the concubine to me, this gold bead is yours!”

The man pinched the bead between his fingers, and his gaze instantly turned unreadable.

I told Xiao Luzi to wait for me in the carriage, then followed the soldier into a dark alley not far away. The moment I turned around, he seized me by the hair and slammed me hard against the wall.

“Speak! Where is the gold?”

No matter what, I never could have expected that a soldier of the Governor’s Mansion in Ba Commandery would dare rob someone openly right outside the gate. How was this a soldier? He was clearly a bandit!

This was all the proof one needed of the chaos under Yu Mu’s rule.

Half my face struck the cold, hard bricks, sending a piercing pain through me. All I could do was beg again and again. “My lord, my father is the Magistrate of Yunshui County. As long as you help me find Xiao Mei, I will give you even more gold!”

But the man did not listen at all. One rough hand groped over my body, and before long, he found the pouch. He poured the gold beads into his coarse palm and toyed with them, greed written all over his face.

I knew then that I had run into a real brute. I turned to flee, but the soldier seized me by the throat, his eyes lewd and vicious. “How would a young lady from an aristocratic family be traveling alone?”

“Tell me. Who exactly are you?”

He squeezed so hard I could barely breathe. I had no choice but to bring out the strongest rescuer I could think of. “To tell you the truth, I… I am actually Wang Yu’s beloved concubine…”

“Heh. Still trying to lie to me?”

“He gave me all that gold. Look at the pouch. It has the Wang Clan’s crest on it…”

No matter how illiterate that soldier was, he still recognized the Wang Clan’s crest. Seeing his expression shift, I threatened him. “If you take the gold, then so be it. But if you dare defile me and he finds out, he will surely have your head displayed before the crowd!”

The intimidation the Wang and Xie Clans held over commoners was beyond question.

The instant he hesitated, his grip loosened. I quickly shoved him away, lifted my skirts, and ran for the mouth of the alley!