Chapter 188: Sister Jiao

Just as the transmigration team was fully preparing for the summit.

Around 10 in the morning, at the Min King Shrine east of the city.

The Min King Shrine is also called Zhongyi Temple, and its main worship is the king of the Min Kingdom during the Five Dynasties: Wang Shenzhi.

The Min King Wang Shenzhi is a household name throughout Fujian. This gentleman served for twenty-nine years, protecting the borders and bringing peace to the people, lightening corvée and reducing taxes, rewarding industry and commerce, and encouraging land reclamation. Within three years, the people had no worries about food and clothing. He gathered refugees, and those fleeing chaos from the Central Plains followed him into Min, clearing forests, cultivating mountains, and building waterworks, bringing great order to Min for a time.

Government offices through the dynasties have often repaired the Min King Shrine, the most recent being over twenty years ago during the Wanli Era. On ordinary days, the shrine's incense fire is vigorous, and foolish men and women often come to worship.

A middle-aged woman, at this moment, was passing through the messy incense, candle, and melon-fruit stalls in front of the shrine gate, walking inside.

This woman had rough skin, an ugly appearance, and a worried, bitter brow and eyes; her face wore no powder or rouge. Judging by her looks, she was around thirty years old, wearing a blue cloth skirt, a thin bamboo basket hooked on her arm, dressed entirely as a serving woman.

After stepping through the ancestral hall's main gate, on whose wall were engraved the four large characters "Shao Yue Kai Jiang," the woman walked the whole way with her head bowed, following behind the bustling incense guests, passing through the front courtyard, the sacrificial gate, and the rear courtyard, arriving at the main hall.

After patiently waiting for a time, the woman got her turn at a prayer mat.

Taking incense sticks from the bamboo basket, the woman began to face the serene-looking, purple-robed, black-bearded divine statue of the Min King overhead, completing a series of rituals: offering incense, kneeling, kowtowing, and praying reverently.

Finally, the woman sincerely and earnestly shook a wooden lot from the lot container.

After rising, she took out a handful of copper coins, carefully counted some out, then stuffed the remainder back into her bosom. Next, the woman took the copper coins and the bamboo lot to find the Daoist priest outside the hall who interpreted lots.

"What matter does the benefactress seek?"

"I seek fortune, good or ill."

The next moment, the woman respectfully handed over the copper coins and bamboo lot, and the Daoist then gave the divination interpretation: Ze Huo Ge, withered seedling meets rain, a top-tier superior lot.

Upon hearing the divination verse "Travel is beneficial, trade takes the prize, illness gradually improves, seeking fame shall be fulfilled," the woman was overjoyed. After a profuse stream of thanks, she then turned around and left the Min King Shrine.

Heading south along Stone Slab Street in front of the Min King Shrine, before long the woman arrived at Caishikou by Mule and Horse Bridge. But the closer she got to Caishikou, the more a trace of unease and fear revealed itself on the woman's face, which had previously relaxed considerably. And the further she walked, the slower her steps became, until she nearly stopped at the end.

Just then, a figure suddenly rushed out from an angle and grabbed the woman's arm.

The woman, about to cry out in alarm, fixed her eyes on the person and let out a huge sigh of relief: "Jiao Er, you death-seeking wretch, you scared me to death!"

The newcomer was a young man in his twenties. This person wore a half-worn parrot-green lined silk robe, a soft cap on his head, and a pair of thin-soled quick boots on his feet, his sleeves rolled up, the standard attire of a ruffian and idle loafer.

The idler, his face full of anxiety, said: "Sis, hurry up a bit, don't make the two Great Lords wait any longer!"

As he spoke, the idler grabbed his elder sister's arm and hurried forward.

The woman had originally wanted to struggle and pull away, but after thinking of the lot she had just drawn from the Min King Shrine, she sighed inwardly and let her younger brother lead her into a restaurant by the roadside.

It was not yet the hour when the restaurant received guests, so there were only a few tables of customers inside. The idler Jiao Er brought his elder sister to the second floor, passing between two tables of men in blue robes. Smiling apologetically left and right, Jiao Er pushed his sister into a private room.

There were two people in the private room. Judging by the temperature of the tea cups on the table, these two had been waiting inside for quite some time.

One of them was a big, fat fellow. This man was around forty years old, bald and eyebrowless, with a face full of brutish flesh and a large, fat build. He wore a front-opening black velvet vest on his upper body, a pair of baggy soft trousers below, his hairy belly openly exposed, and a palm-wide gold-thread pixiu-mouth belt wrapped around his waist — truly an imposing manner, domineering aura leaking out.

This man's name was Wu Shigui, known in the Edo as Lord Wu. His martial skill was high, and he was the underworld boss of the Mule and Horse Bridge area. Lord Wu ran a gambling den and a pawnshop at home, kept disciples and several dozen ruffians under him, and Jiao Er was precisely one of them.

And sitting beside Lord Wu was a plainly dressed middle-aged man in a plain cloth robe, with an utterly ordinary face.

After Big Sister Jiao entered the door and saw the fierce man Lord Wu sitting in the seat of honor, her legs immediately went half-weak, and she was about to kneel and salute. However, today Lord Wu was out of character. He swiftly rose, and before Big Sister Jiao could salute, he supported the thin, weak woman and sat her down in a chair.

"We're all neighbors on the street, seeing each other all the time whether we look up or not. Big Sister Jiao, no need for excessive courtesy." The usually fierce Lord Wu, at this moment, laboriously squeezed a trace of a smile from his face full of brutish flesh, speaking as amiably as he could.

At the side, Jiao Er saw his elder sister keeping her head down and not answering, the atmosphere growing awkward. He couldn't help but grow anxious and quickly smiled apologetically to smooth things over: "Many thanks for Lord Wu gracing us with his presence. Uh, my elder sister here has been worried sick about my nephew's illness lately, her mind somewhat distracted. Pardon the neglect, pardon the offense."

Lord Wu first gave a hearty laugh, then shook his head, and only then spoke to the woman who had kept her head lowered the whole time: "Sister Jiao, don't you think any more on it. It's just swapping out two worthless bottles, not some precious objects. As neighbors on the street, could I, Wu, possibly harm you?"

As Lord Wu said this, he casually lifted a silk kerchief from the tabletop, revealing two snow-white silver ingots underneath, and then looked at Sister Jiao with a playful expression.

The next moment, Sister Jiao slowly raised her head, revealing a face full of struggle and terror: "Lord Wu, betraying one's master to commit theft — if it comes to light, poor commoner households like ours cannot bear the consequences!"

"So that's what you were worried about." Lord Wu laughed loudly at this: "Sister Jiao, don't you be afraid. Those country bumpkins from Zhangzhou — how dare they run wild in our Fuzhou City? If there are any future troubles from this matter, let them all fall on me!"

After thinking a moment, Lord Wu leaned forward and said to Sister Jiao: "Once this job is done, you find some excuse to quit your work, take the reward silver, and go tend to your son's illness first. Once my nephew is well, at Shopkeeper Ma's Ruifu Zhai, how about I find you a sweeping and cleaning job? The monthly pay will only be higher, not lower!"

Seeing the terror on Sister Jiao's face gradually recede, Lord Wu's expression became increasingly genial and pleasant: "Take these twenty taels of silver with you right now. If the silver runs out and your nephew's illness still hasn't healed, come find me again. As neighbors on the street, could I just watch someone die and not save them?"

Just as Sister Jiao was still struggling internally, the mild-mannered, inconspicuous middle-aged man at the side spoke up with a slightly peculiar accent: "Enough, enough. With your son coughing like that, ordinary people can't cure him anyway. Here's what we'll do — you take the silver, and I'll send someone with medicine this afternoon. It'll take effect today, guaranteed cured within seven days. How about that?"

Sister Jiao's mouth fell wide open at that moment.

And Lord Wu, after a brief moment of stunned surprise, let out a "ho ho" laugh: "Sister Jiao, with Lord Song making a move, your son's life is as good as saved. This is a blessing cultivated in a previous life! Hurry and thank His Lordship!"

Without pausing to think how this gentleman knew of her child's illness, the next moment, Sister Jiao dropped to her knees with a "plunk" before Song Jia: "Great Lord, have mercy. This common woman doesn't want the silver, I only beg Your Lordship to act and cure my child."

Song Jia at this moment smiled faintly, reached out and took the bamboo basket Sister Jiao had brought in, then placed the two silver ingots from the table, along with a pair of celadon prunus vases less than ten inches tall, all together into the basket, and covered it with a piece of coarse cloth.

Bending down and stuffing the basket into Sister Jiao's hands, Song Jia said gently: "How could there be a principle of handling affairs without taking the reward silver? Only when you take the silver can we be at ease."

"Travel is beneficial, trade takes the prize, illness gradually improves, seeking fame shall be fulfilled" — these lines of the divination verse drifted through Sister Jiao's mind. At this moment, she finally hesitated no longer, and a trace of resolution gradually revealed itself in her eyes.

That afternoon, after watching her ten-year-old son swallow a few strange white medicinal tablets and then fall into his first peaceful sleep in many days, Sister Jiao knew that her leave time had arrived and it was time to go out to work.

Carefully hiding the pair of prunus vases at the bottom of the bamboo basket, Sister Jiao walked all the way to a shop entrance not far from home.

This shop's geographical location was not good — not at a street entrance, nor in a busy market, but in the middle section of a street.

Arriving at the door of this silk and satin shop named "Hengguangkang," Sister Jiao slightly adjusted her lapels, greeted the two broad-waisted and round-bellied men in blue at the doorway — who no matter how you looked at them did not seem like shop assistants — and walked straight inside.

Hengguangkang, this silk and satin shop that seemed to have no business, was, like most Ming Dynasty shops, laid out with the shop in front and living quarters in back.

Sister Jiao walked all the way through the front shop, through a second courtyard, and then, without a change in expression, passed by a dozen or so men practicing spears and staves in the backyard, and entered the firewood shed.

After emerging from the firewood shed, Sister Jiao, her head wrapped in a kerchief, sleeves tied up, carrying a broom and dustpan, began sweeping the entire courtyard.

By a little past four in the afternoon, Sister Jiao had finished sweeping the outer rooms and began carrying a water bucket, holding a rag and duster, to clean the master's study.

The shopkeeper of "Hengguangkang" was surnamed Zheng — the Zheng of Zheng Zhilong — and his name was Zheng Sancai.

Zheng Sancai was a cousin of Comrade Zheng Zhilong, within five degrees of kinship. This man was eloquent and persuasive, able to write and calculate, and deeply trusted by Zheng Zhilong. Thus he was assigned to the important location of Fuzhou, serving as the director of the Zheng Clan Pirate Group's Fuzhou Office.

Generally speaking, those who came to do business at Hengguangkang Silk Village were mostly not there to buy silk and satin, but to buy recognition flags. In recent years, ship owners who wished to pass safely through the Jinmen-Xiamen area would do best to buy a Zheng Clan recognition flag to be on the safe side.

Of course, recognition flags being such high-end consumer goods, naturally not many people bought them. So the official business that Director Zheng Sancai needed to handle each day was usually finished before ten in the morning.

Thus, every afternoon, Sister Jiao would thoroughly sweep the two large studies in the second courtyard and the backyard.

Today, Sister Jiao was especially diligent, carrying a water bucket in and out of the two studies, cleaning for quite a while. Twice during this, the wooden bucket in Sister Jiao's hands actually held no water, but instead held a prunus vase, covered with a rag on top.

On the curio shelves of the large study, there had originally been a pair of celadon prunus vases each. These two sets of porcelain were not particularly valuable items. They were just ordinary goods casually bought from the porcelain shop at the street entrance when the place was first decorated. Thus, prunus vases of the same style and specification could easily be found at the porcelain shop.

Sister Jiao's task today was to swap out one prunus vase from each of the two studies.

At dusk, Sister Jiao handed the two swapped-out prunus vases to the contact. At the same time, an inconspicuous procession, clustered around a green-bamboo sedan chair, also arrived before the back gate of the Fujian Xunfu Yamen.

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