The side room Shi Yin rented was extremely crude. Inside, there was only a large communal platform covered with a thick layer of straw, emitting wave after wave of a foul odor.
Yet even for a room as crude as this, she had traded half a *sheng* of millet.
At this current time, during the chaotic disaster years of the Great Jin Dynasty, once you left Chang’an, copper coins were terribly worthless—they weren’t even as valuable as melting them down into utensils.
For most people, grain was the hard currency.
Therefore, transactions were often made using silk fabrics or grain. Silver did exist, but it was rarely seen; ever since entering Qingzhou, Shi Yin hadn’t seen a single person use silver to pay for anything.
Moreover, commodity prices in Qingzhou were indeed much more expensive than those in Xuzhou.
After settling Rong’er and the others in, Shi Yin handed the horses over to the courier for inspection.
The courier had the duty of inspecting the horses, and if the animals suffered any damage or illness, the person riding them would be penalized.
Watching the courier circle the horses several times with a furrowed brow and no words, Shi Yin understood the situation somewhat, felt around in her pouch for a bag of five-*zhu* coins, and handed them over.
In these chaotic times, ordinary merchants disliked these five-*zhu* coins, but these government officials always found a way.
The courier weighed them in his hand and nodded, then finally stamped her travel documents and left.
Her pace had been hurried during this period; back in Xuzhou, they mostly stayed in the stables guarding their luggage, and the couriers rarely gave them a hard time.
Yet Qingzhou had suffered a disaster, with people starving to death in an endless stream. Commoners and officials alike resorted to any means necessary to fill their own bellies—something forced upon them by these times.
It was still two days’ journey from here to Changfeng Wharf, which was one day more than the projected itinerary, but fortunately they would arrive before the twenty-eighth.
Once they reached Changfeng Wharf, they could purchase supplies and rest up, giving them just enough time to wait for the official ship leaving for Black Mountain Island at the beginning of the month.
While Shi Yin’s journey was difficult, the Li family’s trek was truly miserable.
The Li family had set out on the second day after Shi Yin’s departure. They had to travel on foot to catch the boat at the beginning of November, leaving them with only a month and ten days of walking time.
Under such conditions, their journey was even more fraught with peril.
Old Master Li was truly too advanced in age, and on the very first day of the journey, he took a fall and passed away.
Li’s father, Li’s mother, and the rest of the Li family could only bury him hastily on the spot, without even a straw mat.
Able-bodied young men like Li Bi had their hands secured in wooden cangues, strung together in a single file line.
The women and children followed closely by their sides.
There were no children by Li Bi’s side, only his two concubines. By now, any contention or rivalry over rouge and powder was long gone, and they leaned on each other for support as they trudged forward.
The remaining children of the Li family could only rely on their tiny, tender feet, which had all developed blisters after just a few days.
There were three guards escorting them, positioned respectively at the front, middle, and rear of the procession, holding long whips and urging them along every step of the way.
In truth, they disliked escorting exiles of this sort. Because the Marquis of Wuwei’s entire family had been sentenced to execution by beheading, his collateral branches consisted of fallen lineages with no nobles to grease their palms or back them up, meaning there were no perks to be made on this escort journey.
Without perks, discontent naturally arose in their hearts, and human decency vanished entirely by the third day of the journey.
“Master! Master, save us!”
Li Bi’s two concubines had both been selected for him by Shi Yin, and both possessed exceptionally stunning looks.
“Let them go! Aren’t you afraid of being struck by lightning?! Let them go!”
With bloodshot eyes, Li Bi grabbed at his sleeves, trying to pull them back, only to be forced back by the long whips of the other two guards.
Concubines were regarded as quite lowly beings in the Jin Dynasty, little more than playthings.
Yet Li Bi had been raised under the teachings of the Li family’s scholarly tradition; violating a woman by force was the most disgraceful act imaginable.
The guards’ current actions drove him to the brink of a breakdown.
An extreme and humiliating disgrace continuously assaulted the self-esteem of the Li family.
The Li family couldn’t be counted as a prestigious aristocratic clan, but they did possess a family tradition of scholarship. Under the shelter of the Marquis of Wuwei, they had holed up in Wei County as a relatively innocent household—which was precisely why Shi Yin’s father had married Shi Yin off to him in the first place.
Li Bi was an old-fashioned, pedantic scholar, and though his younger brothers were somewhat fond of women and play, none of them were treacherous villains.
If there had been even a single hypocritical or truly wicked person among them, they wouldn’t have ended up in this current plight. After all, collateral branches closer to the Wei County Li family had rebelled against the Marquis of Wuwei and secured pardons for themselves.
Now, they had finally witnessed firsthand what it meant to have no ritual or moral code, what a treacherous villain was, and what—exile—truly meant.
When the two concubines returned, their clothes were already in tatters. They huddled close together not far away, burying their faces in their hands and weeping bitterly.
At this moment, Li Bi felt a profound and bitter sorrow, yet deep within his heart, a trace of relief quietly stirred—relief that Shi Yin, his wife, had not accompanied them into exile, alongside a lingering worry that she might encounter accidents traveling alone with the children to Black Mountain Island.
Though Shi Yin’s journey had been arduous, she safely reached Changfeng County against all odds.
Two days and three nights remained until early October.
Changfeng County’s post station was set up near the wharf, with a massive volume of couriers coming and going and frequent exchanges of various news.
Exiles like Shi Yin were not qualified to rent an entire room at the post station.
Fortunately, there were many inns surrounding the post station, so Shi Yin sought out the closest one and requested a superior room.
After the inn servant helped move all their luggage into the room, Shi Yin returned the horses to the post station. The courier carefully inspected the horses and completed the registration process, concluding the matter.
“Official, how have the wind directions been these past few days? Will the boat heading to Black Mountain Island at the beginning of October be able to set sail?”
As she asked, Shi Yin handed her exile travel documents into the courier’s hands.
The courier took them and examined them, feeling secretly astonished. The official dispatch regarding the exile of the Wei County Li family to Black Mountain Island had only been received the day before yesterday. Yet this young lady, traveling with two children, had arrived only two days behind the dispatch; she certainly wasn’t one to put on weak airs.
“The ferryman has looked at the skies and says the wind direction will be favorable these next few days. It should depart right on schedule on the first day of October. You can head down to the wharf before the *yin* hour on the first, and take this—”
The courier handed the stamped travel documents back to Shi Yin and continued:
“Hand this over to the dock master, and after exchanging it for your clearance paperwork, you can board the ship. If there are no accidents, it will depart promptly at the *mao* hour.”
The courier originally intended to turn and leave, but the identity listed on the documents—a collateral branch of the Marquis of Wuwei—ultimately made him pause. Pondering for half a moment, he offered a few extra words of advice:
“You’d do well to bring some extra millet and soybeans onto the island. Once the ships stop running in November, you won’t have any chances to trade for grain until the ships return next March.”
Shi Yin understood the courier’s kind intent and hurriedly expressed her thanks.
Returning to the inn, the sky had already taken on a slightly dusky hue.
Shi Yin’s tightly wound nerves finally relaxed a little. Looking at the sharp, sunken cheeks of the two children, she gritted her teeth and ordered two bowls of mutton soup with extra meat, a dish of winter greens, a plate of stewed pot-meat, two bowls of hollow steamed noodles, and a steamed cake at the inn.
For a mother and her two children, this was a sumptuous dinner.
Rong’er was finally able to eat the soft, easily digestible hollow noodles, while Cheng Zhou guarded a bowl of mutton soup and a bowl of hollow noodles, burying his face in them and eating with great relish.
Shi Yin took a bite of the steamed cake, a bite of the stewed pot-meat, and then sipped the mutton soup; a wave of warmth surged through her entire body.
The three of them ate with truly supreme comfort.
It was only a pity that the mutton soup didn’t contain pepper; it was only seasoned with Sichuan peppercorns and scallions to remove the gamey taste and enhance the flavor.
That stewed pot-meat resembled the roast pork of later eras, yet lacked the fragrance of cumin from future times.
Fortunately, that dish of winter greens carried a salty, savory flavor that cut through the greasiness and went wonderfully with the rice and noodles.
In previous years, or back in Chang’an, the spread they ate tonight would have been considered at best decent. But placed in this time and place, it could be called extravagant.
It cost at least an ounce of silver or a bolt of silk, or alternatively three *sheng* of wheat.
It was enough to cover an ordinary family’s food expenses for a whole week.
The innkeeper hadn’t encountered such a wealthy household in a long time, and gathering all that meat had taken quite a while.
Terrified that Shi Yin might run off, he kept watch right outside her door all through the night.
Pretending not to notice, Shi Yin carefully sealed the doors and windows, and slept with exceptional sweetness.