Lu Zhidao descended from the sky, hitting the ground and lunging toward the old man in a single motion.
The old man remained entirely oblivious, his hand still tucked inside his robe. Lu Zhidao deftly seized his wrist and, without hesitation, wrenched it backward. The old man’s aging, brittle bones let out a series of audible cracks, and he began to wail in pain.
Lu Zhidao watched with a cold eye, unmoved.
“What are you doing! Let go, quickly…” Chu Ning rushed forward to pull at her.
“Stay back,” Lu Zhidao warned, increasing the pressure. She turned to the old man and demanded, “What is in your hand?”
Hearing this, Chu Ning assumed Lu Zhidao had detected something suspicious and obediently took a step back.
Due to the pain, the old man’s palm flew open uncontrollably. Whatever he had been clutching fell out, hitting the ground with a crisp, metallic clink.
Lu Zhidao cast a wary glance out of the corner of her eye, only to find that rolling on the ground were… three copper coins.
They didn’t look much like hidden weapons.
Lu Zhidao blinked hard, confirming that they were indeed just ordinary coins. She had no choice but to let him go silently.
Rubbing his wrist, the old man shouted with surprising vigor, “Copper coins! Don’t you recognize them?” Having said his piece, he hurriedly bent down to gather the scattered coins.
Lu Zhidao pressed her lips thin, turning her head away as if nothing had happened.
“What was that about?” Chu Ning stepped forward and asked in a whisper.
Lu Zhidao scratched her head awkwardly. Before she could speak, the old man straightened up and cursed, “What is wrong with you?”
“Come! Follow me to the magistrate’s office!” The old man grabbed Lu Zhidao, intending to drag her outside, clearly unwilling to let the matter drop.
Chu Ning hurriedly stepped in to block him. “Elder, elder… this is my companion. She likely mistook you for someone else; it’s a misunderstanding.”
Even as she said it, Chu Ning wasn’t entirely sure if it was a misunderstanding. She looked toward Lu Zhidao with doubt, only to see her give a slight, sheepish nod.
Left with no choice, Chu Ning apologized to the old man. “Elder, please don’t take it to heart. I apologize on her behalf…” She finished with a respectful bow.
The old man didn’t say anything more to that, but he gave Lu Zhidao a fierce glare. “Hmph.”
Turning back, he put on a different face, smiling as he pulled Chu Ning a little distance away. Lowering his voice, he said, “A fine girl like you shouldn’t hang around with idiots.”
“She’s just a bit wooden, she’s not a bad person,” Chu Ning explained for her.
“I’m only letting her off the hook for your sake,” the old man said, pressing the three copper coins into Chu Ning’s hand. “Take this.”
“No, no, no, I didn’t help you write that letter for money.”
“Keep it. It’s a small token of my gratitude. Hiring someone else to write would cost money anyway.”
After several refusals, Chu Ning finally decided that obedience was better than politeness. She accepted the three coins with a blush.
The old man walked off contentedly with his letter, not forgetting to shoot one last dirty look at Lu Zhidao before he left.
Chu Ning returned to Lu Zhidao’s side and looked up at her helplessly. Lu Zhidao felt embarrassed under the gaze; she scratched her head, awkwardly shifted her eyes, and pursed her lips in a show of defiance.
She was being stubborn, but in her heart, she knew she was in the wrong. She only hoped Chu Ning wouldn’t keep pestering her about it.
Chu Ning understood that the woman was just worried about her, so she couldn’t bring herself to blame her. Instead, she teased with a smile, “The way you jumped down was very handsome.”
Lu Zhidao pursed her lips, neither confirming nor denying, but her heart felt much lighter.
“I originally wanted to go out, but I happened to meet that elder. He received a letter from his child and wanted to reply, but he’s illiterate, so I helped him write it,” Chu Ning explained cheerfully. “I accidentally earned three copper coins.”
She then held her hand out in front of Lu Zhidao’s eyes, intentionally lining the three coins up in her palm. Then she snapped her hand shut and turned to head out. Lu Zhidao followed silently behind.
“Where are we going?”
“To pawn the jade.”
They quickly found a pawnshop. Just as Chu Ning was about to enter, Lu Zhidao reached out and blocked her path.
“I’ll think of another way.”
Chu Ning looked up at her and said seriously, “I don’t dare use your ‘ways’ anymore.”
Lu Zhidao stood her ground, blocking the way. Even she couldn’t figure out why she was being so stubborn about this one thing.
The two of them stood at the pawnshop entrance, neither yielding an inch, facing off for quite some time. It wasn’t until the shopkeeper grew annoyed that they were blocking other customers and came out to shoo them away that they moved further off, still staring at each other.
“Fine,” Chu Ning said, raising her hands in surrender. “We’ll both take a step back.”
“How?”
“You return the stolen silver, and I won’t pawn the jade.”
“But then we have no money for the boat.”
“Didn’t you say we could think of another way? We have hands and feet; it shouldn’t be hard to earn some money, right?” Chu Ning looked at her and jingled the three coins. “Besides, there are no pursuers here. We can stay for a short while.”
“But the mission is to go to the capital.”
“Does your mission specify when we must arrive?” Chu Ning asked pointedly.
“No.”
“Then it’s settled. I’m not in a hurry, so why are you?” Seeing her still hesitating, Chu Ning continued, “It won’t take much time.”
Lu Zhidao pondered for a moment. She felt that this was making a simple matter unnecessarily complicated, and she was a bit reluctant. She had never felt that “borrowing” a bit of emergency cash from people who didn’t need it was a big deal.
“If you don’t want to, then fine. We’ll each mind our own business,” Chu Ning said, seeing through her thoughts.
“But…”
“Lu Zhidao! Why are you being so indecisive?!”
“Fine. A step back each.” Lu Zhidao had originally been worried that the girl, having always lived in comfort, wouldn’t handle poverty well. But seeing her so fearless—even starting to look down on her indecision—Lu Zhidao simply nodded in agreement. She figured if Chu Ning regretted it later, she could always go out and rob someone then.
But she didn’t dare say that out loud; she just plotted silently, intending to coax the girl into keeping the jade safe for now.
Chu Ning was also being cautious; she kept a close eye on Lu Zhidao to make sure the stolen money was actually returned.
When they arrived outside the house of the person who had been robbed, Lu Zhidao confirmed one more time, “I’m really returning it?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t regret it.”
“I won’t.”
“Go further away.”
Chu Ning obediently took a few steps back.
“Further.”
Chu Ning had no choice but to retreat around the corner.
Lu Zhidao turned and moved toward the window of the house. She peeked inside and saw the owner sitting in the room, sighing and groaning. Realizing this wasn’t exactly a wealthy family, she felt a twinge of guilt.
She untied her handkerchief and saw three silver ingots inside. Stealing a glance at Chu Ning and waiting for her to look away, she took the smallest ingot and tucked it into her waistband.
She thought it was better to be safe than sorry; there would always be a time when money was needed. But then, fearing Chu Ning might discover it, she didn’t feel safe with it at her waist. She leaned down as if to wipe her shoe and casually dropped the silver into the shaft of her boot.
Taking the remaining two larger ingots, Lu Zhidao weighed them in her hand and tossed them straight through the window toward the owner’s head.
“Ow! Which wicked brat did that!”
Hearing the cursing from inside, Lu Zhidao took off running. She reached the corner, grabbed Chu Ning, and fled as if for her life.
Originally, Lu Zhidao was leading the way, but as they ran, she began to feel something pressing against her foot. Every time her right foot hit the ground, it throbbed with pain.
The silver shard she had hidden in the boot shaft had somehow slipped down to the bottom. Lu Zhidao didn’t dare put weight on her right foot; every step was a gingerly tap. As she tried to keep running, she looked like a picture of “crippled but determined.”
“Mumu,” Chu Ning pulled her to a stop. “Are you lame?”
Lu Zhidao looked around to ensure no one was following before stopping.
“No.” Lu Zhidao tapped her toe on the ground, not knowing how to explain. “Let’s go.”
“Are you really okay?”
“I’m fine!”
Chu Ning looked at her with worry, but Lu Zhidao refused to say a word, limping forward. She could no longer worry about anything else; she just wanted a chance to get the silver out when Chu Ning wasn’t looking. But Chu Ning stayed by her side, even starting to discuss their finances.
“How much money do we have now?” Chu Ning asked.
“Eight hundred wen.”
“Incorrect!”
Lu Zhidao was suddenly flustered, thinking she had been found out. Her heart leaped into her throat. Hesitating, she decided that confession was better than being caught. She began to stammer, “I was thinking…”
“Eight hundred and three wen,” Chu Ning interrupted with a smile, pulling out her own three coins.
“Right… right.” Lu Zhidao let out a massive sigh of relief, subconsciously tapping her toe.
“How much are we missing?”
“Toll fees are expensive. We need at least three taels per person.”
Chu Ning lowered her head in deep thought. “Then we’ll have to save up for a while.”
“It’s fine. It’s easy,” Lu Zhidao said with great confidence, despite the silver digging into her foot.
Chu Ning, however, felt no such confidence. She spent the walk thinking about how to earn money, only to realize she didn’t know how to do anything.
As they passed through the market, Chu Ning paid close attention. She saw someone at a stall selling scholars’ fans. She had an idea and picked up a fan to inspect it.
“If you like it, buy it,” Lu Zhidao said generously. While the girl looked at the fans, she tried to bend down to fish the silver out of her boot.
“Are you very rich?” Chu Ning asked, suddenly turning around with a fan in hand.
“No!” Lu Zhidao stood up straight instantly, waving her hands to clear herself, her face remaining expressionless.
Chu Ning smiled and stood on her tiptoes to whisper in her ear. Lu Zhidao didn’t dare move, letting the warm breath brush against her ear. She was frozen as if her pressure points had been struck. Then she heard the girl’s mischievous, lowered voice: “I can paint better than him.”
Lu Zhidao stood there like a fool, feeling guilty and a strange, inexplicable nervousness. Previously, even when facing opponents many times stronger than herself, she had never been this flustered. Seeing that Lu Zhidao wasn’t reacting, Chu Ning gave her a gentle push; she had no time to worry about her now.
“I know what to do.” After saying that, Chu Ning bent down to look at the fans on the stall. After picking through them, she chose the cheapest one—a blank fan with no writing on either side. It was exactly three wen.
She used the only three wen she had on her to buy the blank folding fan.
Lu Zhidao didn’t care about anything else anymore. She just wanted a chance to get that silver out of her boot. The sharp silver repeatedly ground against her skin, and the pain grew worse. She limped all the way back.
Seeing the limp get worse and worse, Chu Ning asked with genuine concern, “Should we go to a clinic?”
“No need!”
“Are you sure? Don’t hide your illness from the doctor; don’t worry about the money.”
“I’m fine.” Lu Zhidao gritted her teeth, trying to walk normally, but the sole of her foot was numb with pain. It felt as if every step was being taken barefoot on sharp stones.
With great difficulty, they made it back to the inn. Lu Zhidao plopped down and immediately crossed her legs, finally getting a bit of relief.
Chu Ning set the fan aside and sat down next to her with a worried look. “Take off your shoe and let me see.”