Chapter 1659 - An Old Acquaintance

Even as she spoke, the madam hurriedly proffered the promissory note, her face contorted in an ingrating smile: "It's all this old woman's dim eyes that failed to see..."

Lin Ming took the note and laughed: "Your eyes seem quite sharp to me. I just dropped a Delong note, and didn't you snatch it up immediately?"

The madam gave a forced laugh: "Yes, yes." A thousand reservations, ten thousand reluctances, yet she handed back the note in her grasp. Lin Ming accepted it, glanced at it, and said: "Looks like this is the wrong one. Mine was for five hundred taels..."

The madam nearly collapsed on the spot. She was on the verge of dropping to her knees to beg when Lin Ming finally relented with a smile: "I was mistaken—it is this one after all. Off you go."

As if granted a pardon from the executioner's blade, the madam scrambled away into the darkness.

Lin Ming helped the woman to her feet and said: "Hurry and pack your things. Here are five taels of silver. Tomorrow, find a boat—it doesn't matter where it's bound—and seek out family or friends. Leave this place as quickly as you can..." The woman's tears fell like a broken string of pearls. She knelt down and said softly: "Yes... Thank... thank you, my lord, for your kindness. This humble servant will never forget it to her dying day..."

Just then, the moonlight fell full upon her face. Lin Ming started and blurted out: "Su... Auntie Su!"

Kang Mingsi was startled. The woman's whole body trembled. She slowly raised her head and glanced at them, then quickly lowered it again and said: "My lord has mistaken me for someone else..."

Kang Mingsi studied her carefully. He saw that she wore a blue floral-patterned cotton jacket and a water-pink silk skirt that covered her bound feet—truly no more than three inches long. Her black hair was loosely coiled in a Suzhou bun, trailing half over her shoulder. Her pale melon-seed face bore two dark brows like smoke veiling jade. Kang Mingsi found himself momentarily dazed. Small wonder Elder Mei was so obsessed with the "Eight Beauties of Qinhuai"—her appearance was one thing, but this gentle, delicate bearing possessed its own distinctive charm.

"Auntie Su!" Lin Ming was astonished. Before him stood a woman with a pair of shallow dimples at the corners of her mouth, slightly furrowed brows, and a small mole beside her right cheek. She still bore traces of her former grace and allure. Who could it be but Su Ai, the concubine of Gao Shunqin!

Speaking of Su Ai, she was truly an old acquaintance of his. When Gao Shunqin had vanished years ago, Lin Ming had been entrusted to investigate the case—and Su Ai had numbered among the suspects. Gao's first wife had secretly bribed him with several hundred taels of silver, wanting him to torture Su Ai into a false confession, either making her a "co-conspirator" or at the very least beating her half to death. Fortunately, Su Ai had understood which way the wind blew and offered up her private savings to secure his goodwill. Lin Ming had always possessed a tender heart toward women, and so he had stayed his hand and spared her the worst torments. The two of them could be said to share some history between them.

Gao Shunqin's case had ultimately become a cold case. Lin Ming had deftly papered over matters for the Guangdong officialdom, gaining both silver and goodwill in the process. Naturally, he had not troubled himself to inquire into Su Ai's subsequent whereabouts. To think that three years later, the two would meet again under such circumstances!

Truly, the world was full of vicissitudes and unpredictable turns! Lin Ming's face went deathly pale in an instant. Past events flashed through his mind with vivid clarity—accompanying his sister-in-law to work on the case, the night interrogation of "suspects" at the Gao residence, following clues all the way to Macau, his sister-in-law's disappearance... It was all so clear, yet also like fog, a blank—he could recall nothing with certainty. Such strange, fantastical twists of fate. Su Ai had been nothing more than a passing figure in his life, yet his subsequent experiences had been deeply intertwined with this woman. And now, here they met again...

He stared at her face, struggling to master the myriad emotions churning within him, and said: "I am Lin Ming, a probationary centurion of the Jinyiwei..."

Su Ai seemed like a sleepwalker, gazing at him with dull, lifeless eyes. Then, as if pricked by a needle, she crumpled to the ground on her knees. Covering her face with both hands, she broke into loud, heaving sobs, her whole body shaking and trembling, tears streaming through her fingers.

This commotion roused the residents of the courtyard. Guests in the other rooms peered out through windows, and curious idlers poked their heads out to gossip in whispers. Lin Ming hastened to say: "Auntie Su! Our meeting here must be fate. This is no place to talk. Compose yourself, and let's find somewhere more private!"

Kang Mingsi watched in bewilderment, his head spinning from the display of tears. Like a fool, he stood to one side listening to Lin Ming speak. Then he snapped back to reality—this was unfamiliar territory, and it was the middle of the night. What kind of spectacle were they making? He said quickly: "Let's return to the boat to talk." Then he instructed the escort: "Gather up the things on the ground. Lock up the room here."

Lin Ming found himself at a loss. On the salt boat, he was not the master. There was no way he could presumptuously bring a woman aboard. Though he had acquaintances in Zhaoqing, in the dead of night there was no way to disturb anyone within the city. Kang Mingsi's words came as a relief. He hastened to say: "Master Kang is right. Whatever needs to be said, let's say it back on the boat!"

When they returned to the boat, Suo Pu was rather surprised. Lin Ming recounted the whole story. Suo Pu found the coincidence quite remarkable—meeting an old acquaintance! He had read the Guangzhou Station's reports and knew of the relationship between Su Ai and Pei Lixiu. At the time, he had treated it as idle gossip and given it little thought. To think that one of the story's protagonists would now appear before his very eyes.

However, this actually dispelled some of his earlier suspicions. He smiled: "In that case, let's help Buddha all the way to the Western Paradise. But having her travel upstream with us would cause too many inconveniences. Tomorrow, send two escorts to take her to Guangzhou and deliver her to Pei Lixiu."

At the mention of "Pei Lixiu," Su Ai's shoulders heaved and tears rolled fresh down her face. Suo Pu noted her haggard expression and immediately called for someone to bring washing water. He added: "It looks like she hasn't eaten. Get her some food!"

"Thank you, sirs. I'm not hungry—please don't trouble yourselves." Su Ai seemed as though she had just emerged from a grave illness. Her body trembled weakly. She managed a curtsy with difficulty. "You gentlemen are strangers passing by, yet you have saved this humble servant from fire and water. I would serve you as an ox or horse..."

Lin Ming said: "What are you saying such things for now? I can see you look as if you've just recovered from illness. Hurry and sit down to rest. These two lords are not outsiders! Please don't stand on ceremony."

Su Ai lowered herself onto the bench by the cabin wall. It felt as though she had just awakened from a fever dream. This man, with whom she had scarcely any real connection, had suddenly materialized here and pulled her from the pit of fire... The workings of fate were truly beyond words.

Lin Ming asked: "Auntie Su, after the case was closed, why didn't you return to the Gao household? And how did you end up in such straits?"

Su Ai shook her head slowly: "Lord Lin, the case was closed, as you well know. But the Gao family would not have me back. After the master's disappearance, they nearly had me killed. I had no son or daughter to rely upon. Even had they permitted my return, I wouldn't have dared go back. The private savings I had accumulated over the years were never recovered. Fortunately, I still had some money concealed on my person, so I went to stay with an old friend—a former sister in the trade."

Her savings were limited, after all—she could not live on them forever. She had been trained as a "thin-horse" courtesan since childhood and knew no other craft. As she grew older, she was unwilling to return to the entertainment trade. So, through the introduction of a friend from her past, she became a concubine to a merchant from Zhaoqing—and thus came to this city.

"Why didn't you seek out Pei Lixiu when that happened?" Suo Pu suddenly asked. "Given your friendship with her, whether it was finding you a position at Ziming Tower or giving you travel money to return to South Zhili, neither would have been difficult."

"Is this gentleman also an acquaintance of Miss Pei?" Su Ai said faintly. "I did want to find her. But at that time, the Australians and the court were at war. Ziming Tower was sealed by the authorities, and Miss Pei's whereabouts were unknown. Some said she had fled back to Australia; others claimed she had been taken by some high official in the capital."

She had calmed down now, though occasional tremors of grief still colored her voice as she continued: "I suspect I was born under an ill star. When I was small, I brought death to my parents. After much hardship, I escaped from the entertainment world and entered the Gao household, only to bring death upon Master Gao. Then I came to Zhaoqing. I hadn't enjoyed many peaceful days before I brought death upon my second husband as well... I've been with two men, yet I have no children to rely upon, no support at all..."

At this point, tears streamed unceasingly down her face. Everyone present sighed in sympathy.

"...No sooner had my lord been in the ground for the first seven days than the first wife came to throw me out. I begged her to at least wait until the burial and the end of the mourning period. I told her I would naturally take my things and leave. The first wife said: 'You were never part of our family—just a plaything we purchased. By not selling you off, we're already showing you heaven's mercy.' She drove me out on the spot! Without a care in the world, she barged into my room like a bandit and seized everything I owned—my savings, my clothes, anything she could carry—and threw me out into the street..."

Su Ai's grief overwhelmed her once more, and tears welled in her eyes. She choked back sobs for a long while before continuing: "It was the dead of winter, with a bitter wind blowing. I didn't know where to turn. I stood by the river, staring at the water. At that moment, I truly felt there was no way forward and no way back—I thought I might as well jump in and end it all. Fortunately, some kindhearted soul noticed me and talked me down from the edge, or I'd have taken the road to oblivion. I'd concealed a bit of silver and jewelry on my person, so at least I didn't become a starving corpse. I wanted to return to Guangzhou, but without a man to accompany me and without sufficient travel money, I could only take up this trade again here..."

Suo Pu had not felt much sympathy for her at first. He had thought that falling into the entertainment world was one thing, but becoming a concubine twice—though there might be "no choice" in the matter—was really no different from her twenty-first-century counterparts who were simply lazy and unwilling to work. But putting himself in her position now, he recognized that her circumstances were quite different from those in the other time-space. In the seventeenth century, where was there any place for a lone woman to stand? When he truly considered it, there were simply too many instances of "no choice." He sighed:

"Now that you've encountered Lord Lin, I don't think you need to subsist on this trade any longer. Tomorrow, we'll send you back to Guangzhou. Go and seek out Pei Lixiu. Ziming Tower's business is bigger than ever now. Once you're there, they'll find you some sort of work—better than trading on your looks. How many more years can you keep that up?"

Seeing the doubt in Su Ai's eyes, Lin Ming hastened to introduce him: "This is Master Suo. He is my... hmm... superior... Master Suo heard your weeping, and out of the kindness of his heart, he sent me to investigate. That's how today's strange reunion came about."

Su Ai sank to her knees and said between sobs: "Master Suo must surely be a reincarnation of the Bodhisattva... May Heaven bless you with descendants, prosperity, noble rank, and ten thousand generations..."

Suo Pu thought to himself that Lin Ming certainly knew how to play his cards. But the words were pleasant enough to hear. He raised his hand slightly: "No need for such formality. Very well then—I'll send two escorts to accompany you back to the temple lodging to collect your luggage. Rest there tonight, settle your room charges tomorrow morning, and then return here for further arrangements."

(End of Chapter)