Chapter 195: The Way of the World

In the alley, no one noticed Zhou Shixiang and his party. The women knelt silently on ground strewn with fallen bricks, while several men stood with arms folded, pointing and muttering in low voices about something.

Since ancient times, the trade in human beings has always had its organizers. Zhou Shixiang barely suppressed his fury and resolved to get to the bottom of this, to root out these scoundrels running amok in the city.

To that end, he signaled his personal guards to quietly surround both ends of the alley, lest the traffickers inside hear anything and flee.

Though the Taiping Army had risen from banditry and, in its early days, had used the same coercive tactics as bandits, there was one red line Zhou Shixiang had never crossed: becoming a trafficker in this age of chaos, a trafficker of women!

Whether in his past life or this one, he did not need to think to know what end awaited a woman sold like livestock — nothing more than being paired off as some old man's wife, or becoming a plaything for lust, or, worst of all, being thrown into a brothel to become a tool with body and soul destroyed.

Zhou Shixiang opposed the Qing — opposed the alien Tartar caitiffs — carrying the banner of Han courage, performing the great deed of refusing to be slaves to the Tartar caitiffs.

True, constrained by circumstances, the Taiping Army had also committed many acts that destroyed homes, but it had never done this thing of defiling women.

Of all the common folk they had ever swept up, Zhou Shixiang had strictly forbidden his men from the vile acts of killing a husband to seize his wife or killing a father to seize his daughter.

All were taken into the army: the strong into the front camp, the old, weak, women, and children into the rear camp. In wartime they did not see one another; in idle times families were allowed to reunite.

Thus, though his hands were stained with the blood of not a few innocent commoners, Zhou Shixiang had never felt guilt. To reforge Han courage in this chaotic age of Ming-Qing transition, to strive to save Han civilization from ruin, some sacrifice was unavoidable.

But the scene unfolding before his eyes now was something he had never anticipated, and something beyond what he could tolerate. It only made fury surge through him, made him rage beyond measure.

Investigate — he must investigate. No matter who was involved, they would be executed without pardon!

Zhou Shixiang gritted his teeth and swore inwardly.

In the alley, the men had not the slightest inkling of what was happening outside. They merely gestured back and forth, the buyer apparently finding the price too high, the seller pitching hard, extolling at length the virtues of the woman about to be sold.

The women being sold only knelt there quietly, never once raising their heads to look around. Even when the buyer came over to inspect one, she only struggled a little, reacting passively with a touch of shyness.

Before long, perhaps because the buyer truly felt the woman he wanted was satisfactory, he nodded his assent and drew from his bosom a cloth-wrapped object, which he handed to the seller.

The seller was a man in his forties, dark-skinned, with a slightly hunched back. After taking the buyer's item, the seller felt it over with his hand, a satisfied smile spreading across his face.

Without another word, he walked over to a young woman of about eighteen or nineteen and said, "Woman of the Song family, this military gentleman has taken a fancy to you. Go with him."

From the front camp?

Zhou Shixiang's heart sank hard. He had feared this business might involve men of the Taiping Army, and sure enough, what he dreaded came to pass — there really were men from the front camp mixed up in this.

"Mm."

The girl of the Song family trembled slightly at his words, but she did not struggle or resist as Zhou Shixiang had expected, nor did she scream or refuse. Instead, she calmly rose from the ground and cast a glance at the man, who was not wearing a military uniform.

The man, seeing this, did not know what to say. He rubbed his hands together and blurted out, "Don't be afraid. Just come with me, and I'll see you never go hungry."

"Mm."

The girl of the Song family answered in a voice barely audible, then said nothing more. The man, however, grew all the more delighted, wishing only that he could take the girl back at once and have his way with her.

The deal done, the seller made no fuss. Smiling, he said to the man, "Very well, that settles it. Take the girl with you. If she should miss her family later, I'd trouble you, military gentleman, to make things convenient."

At these words, the woman instinctively raised her head to look at the man. The man grinned and waved a hand.

"Of course.

Since the girl's come with me, I'll naturally look after her family a bit. Don't laugh at me, but though Tie Niu is only a petty banner officer, I get along well enough in camp.

I may not have much else, but food I do not lack — they won't go short."

The seller clasped his fists in salute, and the petty banner officer called Tie Niu stepped forward, took the Song girl by the hand, and started off. The Song girl followed a few steps, then suddenly stopped, turned back to the seller, and said, "Third Master, don't short my father and mother."

Third Master's jaw twitched. He held up the cloth-wrapped object and shook it. "Rest easy. I, Niu San, take only a small half. The rest goes to your family."

Knowing Niu San's character, the Song girl said no more. Silently, she followed behind Tie Niu and vanished into the night.

Two personal guards quietly came forward to ask Zhou Shixiang whether they should seize Tie Niu, but for some reason Zhou Shixiang gave no order. He only stared fixedly at the seller called Niu San's hand.

By the dim light of the alley's single torch, he could see clearly: what Niu San held wrapped in cloth was no gold, silver, or valuables, but two flatbreads.

Two flatbreads. One woman.

Zhou Shixiang fell silent. What silenced him was not so cheap a transaction, but the woman's willingness to be sold. A sale of a person with no violence whatsoever, a woman who sold herself willingly — what did that mean?

After the buyer and the sold woman had disappeared, the companion behind Niu San sighed and said, "The Song girl, at least, has found a way to live."

Niu San shook his head. "In times like these, even with a way to live, how long can you live?"

"One full meal counts as one. Live one more day, count one more day. The Song girl was a good girl too. Pity she aimed high but fate was thin — to end up like this in the end." Niu San's companion clearly felt great pity for the Song girl, his words full of lament.

Niu San had seen too much of this sort of thing, and his heart had naturally hardened. He only said flatly, "In times like these, what use is aiming high?

Can it be eaten? Can it buy food?

You think Old Song wanted to sell his girl like this? He had no choice but to sell.

Look at things now — do we have any way to live? The food handed out grows less by the day.

Who knows when this city will run out of grain. If it truly runs out, people like us, heh heh..."

"Third Master, don't frighten me." The companion was badly shaken by the inscrutable look on Niu San's face.

"Frighten?" Niu San's mouth quirked up, but he said no more. "Forget it. Let's not speak of this. Not another word. You lot, don't linger here either. Go to the army camp and bring more men over. So many poor souls — the more we can sell, the better. Save them from starving to death."

"Aye!"

The men hurriedly assented and went off separately to contact buyers. Before long, only Niu San and the still-kneeling women remained in the alley.

No one knew how much time passed before Zhou Shixiang's body finally stirred. He did not go in, but turned and walked away, as though what had just happened had never occurred.

Thanks to Hall Master winwoooo for the reward. Thank you!