## Chapter 12: Weighing Anchor and Setting Sail
When the second crow of the rooster sounded, Shi Yin and the children were already up.
Opening the window, a sharp, cold autumn breeze blew in, raising a layer of fine goosebumps on her arms.
“Lidong is next month,” Shi Yin murmured to herself, her heart filled with worry about this journey.
“Mother,” Chengzhou raised his little face, feeling somewhat frightened at heart after all.
“Mother~” Ronger was still innocent and ignorant, knowing only that snuggling close to her mother’s side was the safest place in the world.
Shi Yin squatted down and pulled the two children into her embrace: “Mother is here, let’s set off.”
The eastern horizon showed only a streak of pale white, not yet fully bright.
After settling the one tael of silver for yesterday’s lodging with the innkeeper, the three of them carefully tied up all their belongings and placed them on the handcart.
The two children wrapped themselves tightly in sheepskin mattresses and sat quietly in the cart.
Shi Yin pushed the handcart, making a creaking sound all the way toward the northwest wharf.
There were almost no pedestrians on the road, save for the occasional civet cat darting out from a corner of the wall.
Ronger continued to doze off in her brother’s arms.
Meanwhile, Chengzhou’s hand, hidden beneath the sheepskin, tightly grasped the crossbow.
When the drum for the *mao* hour chimed leisurely, Shi Yin and the children were already standing on the wharf.
As the sky here gradually revealed an orange glow, port officials dressed in official robes arrived one after another.
Shi Yin located the chief port official and handed over her travel documents.
The chief port official used a pair of triangular, upturned eyes to size her up from top to bottom, then asked, “From Wei County? Your journey was certainly fast.”
Shi Yin nodded: “The Lady of the Shi clan granted the grace of voluntary exile, and my late father had many colleagues and old friends, so we received a great deal of accommodation. We were able to change horses and ride at the post stations along the way, which is why we could arrive a bit early.”
“The Lady of the Shi clan?”
Looking at the name Shi Yin on the documents, the port official knew she was someone with a bit of backing, and immediately allowed them to board the ship promptly.
However, Shi Yin said, “I must trouble the officer for some accommodation. I still have an old acquaintance sending over a few items; might we wait just a moment before boarding?”
The chief port official waved his hand: “No matter. Once all the goods are fully loaded onto the ship, you must board immediately. Do not delay the departure time.”
Shi Yin nodded in thanks, then looked out expectantly for Manager Lü.
The cold wind from the Bohai Sea was strong, carrying a trace of white mist, which, combined with the orange glow of sunrise, looked somewhat surreal.
The official ship was a three-masted vessel moored at the wharf, with two thick wooden planks connecting the wharf to the hull to facilitate traffic back and forth.
A crowd of coolies pushed single-wheeled barrows piled high with sacks, shuttling back and forth across them.
From time to time, several neatly dressed stewards directed laborers to carry wooden boxes sealed tightly with nails into the hold.
The cabins on the ship were reserved for officials and dignitaries, while exiled people like Shi Yin had to make do on the open deck.
Before long, several other exiled families also arrived at the wharf one after another.
Some of them were escorted by bailiffs and guards, and by this point were already ragged in appearance; others were in voluntary exile and could still maintain a semblance of dignity.
Yet every single one of them wore a grayish complexion, laden with sorrow and distress.
Lü Cheng did not let Shi Yin wait too long.
He arrived alone driving a mule cart carrying the grain Shi Yin had requested.
“Young Mistress Shi, the items you wanted have been brought to you.”
The gloom from the day before was gone from Lü Cheng’s face; he had recovered the usual slickness of a merchant proprietor, smiling with a modest and amiable expression.
The stone in Shi Yin’s heart dropped, and she stepped forward with a faint smile, saying, “Many thanks to Manager Lü for keeping your promise.”
She smoothly handed over the silver wrapped in hemp paper.
Lü Cheng weighed it in his hand and asked, “Are the subsequent items you’ll need all written inside?”
“Yes, I must trouble you to take the trouble of searching them out. If they are difficult to find, there’s no need to force it.”
Lü Cheng’s expression added a hint of solemnity: “I can only help you this one time. Frequent trade on Heishan Island cannot be done, and I hope you will take good care of yourself from now on.”
With that, he put away the items and helped Shi Yin carry the two large sacks of grain onto the handcart.
Shi Yin smiled without a word, thinking in her heart that there was a long way to go in the future.
These two sacks were bulky, and once placed on the cart, they firmly blocked the outer side, just right to protect Ronger on the innermost part of the handcart.
Compared against these sacks, the four *dou* of grain Shi Yin herself was carrying looked practically inconspicuous.
Shi Yin lifted the cart to test its weight; it was much heavier, but the polished wooden wheels rolled very smoothly, and pushing it did not feel too heavy.
Walking to the end of the wharf, the gangplank leading to the hull sloped upward, requiring considerable strength to push the handcart up.
Chengzhou hid the crossbow on the cart, carried Ronger down, and helped his mother push the cart.
Ronger obediently held the lamb’s tether and followed step by step behind them.
Lü Cheng had originally intended to leave, but seeing the hardworking figures of the mother and children, he sighed helplessly: “Since I came to deliver goods, how can I stop just short of this final stretch?”
He immediately stepped forward two paces and helped them push the handcart onto the deck.
“Manager Lü! Thank you truly so much.”
Shi Yin instantly felt a weight lift and repeatedly expressed her gratitude.
“You should have bought a single-wheeled barrow; they are light and convenient, and even a woman can push them. Your two-wheeled cart is quite heavy by itself, and loading it with cargo makes it even more cumbersome. When disembarking, remember to go down backward, and find a wooden pole to prop it up as you slowly make your way down.”
Shi Yin felt a bit ashamed; she indeed did not know how to push a single-wheeled barrow, which was why she wanted to save effort by buying a two-wheeled one, forgetting that the wharves of this era were not like the large ports built flush with the ship’s height from her past life.
When one thought about it, the Changfeng Wharf was not small either; its terrain was high and vast, with deep waters and steep banks, and the three-masted official ship pressed tightly against the shore embankment, making the slope of the connecting gangplank nearly thirty degrees. Although moving up and down was not easy, it was already quite convenient for this era, whereas many places required small ferry boats to navigate back and forth and climb up and down.
As Shi Yin had inquired, both Changfeng Wharf and Heishan Island were deep-water wharves, and goods were transported up and down using single-wheeled barrows without the need for ferry boats, which had made her careless—completely unaware that other people’s single-wheeled barrows were in a completely different weight class from her two-wheeled cart, and that her own strength was no match for theirs.
“Along this journey, it is truly thanks to the assistance of kind people like you that the three of us could safely reach Changfeng. Such great kindness is hard to put into words, and Shi Yin thanks you here.”
Shi Yin executed a proper bow, from the bottom of her heart rejoicing in her good fortune along the way.
Lü Cheng waved his hand: “The times are chaotic; you still need to be extra careful.”
Shi Yin knew that henceforth she would have to act even more prudently.
Lü Cheng helped them find a sheltered spot in a corner near the bow of the ship, then disembarked and left.
Shi Yin stacked the grain at the very back and tipped the handcart over so that the wheels faced inward, just right to partition off this spot and form a small dwelling place.
Inside, the sheepskin mattress still served as a pallet to lie on, and as Ronger lay upon it, the gentle rocking of the large ship actually made her feel somewhat more comfortable.
Chengzhou was not prone to seasickness either; only Shi Yin felt a slight discomfort, though it did not reach the point of dizziness.
However, the family right next to them was the complete opposite. Before the ship had even set sail, they could no longer bear the slight rocking of the hull, and several of them clung to the ship’s railing, unable to move.
They were likely also criminals in voluntary exile—a family of eight looking disheveled, yet still barely managing to maintain a shred of dignity.
The wife of that family, with two daughters, leaned conveniently against the outer side of the handcart Shi Yin had tipped over, taking up a foothold in the triangular space enclosed by the handcart and the ship’s hull, which saved them quite a bit of trouble.
The man and an old grandfather, along with three young boys, sat on the outer perimeter, their faces currently pale as chalk, mustering their spirits to look around.
People were coming and going on the ship in a flurry of activity. However, a moment later, the puntsman stood at the bow and raised his voice in a sharp, resounding shout:
“All people and goods on the shore, board the ship completely! Draw up the anchors and retract the planks at once—WEIGH ANCHOR AND SET SAIL!”