"Help! Help!"
"Easy, easy… damn it, Li Qingshan, are you doing this on purpose?"
…
The tightly shut room was thick with the smell of medicine, accompanied by bursts of agonized howls.
Song Xingzhi lay face-down on the bed with his upper body bare, his fair back covered in bruises—purple and blue patches scattered across the skin. One look was enough to tell that whoever had done this had no mercy.
Li Qingshan, the guard responsible for watching over the village's main road, was applying medicine to his wounds with visible disdain, pressing harder amid his wailing.
"Shut your mouth, will you? Don't disturb the prince's ears."
Song Xingzhi lowered his voice but still couldn't stop his hissing and gasping. He clenched his fist and pounded the bed, grinding his teeth. "That little thief—whoever it is, they'd better pray I never find out. I'll kill them."
Li Qingshan chuckled. "Him? Maybe it's one of your romantic entanglements out there."
Song Xingzhi pounded the bed again, adamant. "Impossible. The beauties I court are gentle and considerate—they'd never do something like this. Whoever did this is vicious and has internal energy. Definitely not from this village. Must be those fugitives. No—we need to find this person fast."
Li Qingshan said, "If it really were those fugitives, wouldn't it be easier for them to just slit your throat? This was clearly done out of spite. You should think about who you've offended."
Song Xingzhi remained unconvinced. He firmly believed that someone as charming and dashing as himself couldn't possibly offend anyone—especially not beauties. His affairs with those lovely ladies were always mutual and affectionate. How could anyone be so cruel? It had to be those heartless bandits.
Li Qingshan: "You'd better think about who it could be. If it's bandits, we can defend against them. But if it really is one of your romantic entanglements, and it drags the prince into it…"
Song Xingzhi was certain he'd be in deep trouble. Just imagine—if his romantic affairs caused Qi Zheng to end up lying here like he was today…
He was dead.
Dead beyond dead.
Song Xingzhi bared his teeth and staggered to his feet, sitting cross-legged on the bed. He looked at Qi Zheng, who stood coldly by the window, and could already see his miserable fate upon returning to the capital.
His father wouldn't care about any of this—not the probing, not the results. Thinking of how his father usually handled things, he sucked in a cold breath and frantically grabbed his clothes, pulling out a bamboo tube from within.
The tube was only about the size of a thumb, utterly unremarkable, but Song Xingzhi handled it with the utmost care.
He opened the lid and looked inside—immediately, a buzzing sound emanated from it.
He let out a sigh of relief, and with his bruised face, he ground his teeth.
"You little thief—just you wait. I'll catch you."
**
"Achoo!"
In the tea garden courtyard, Song Jin crouched on the ground and let out a big sneeze. Then, she stomped on the large flower beside her—the one with the strangely overpowering fragrance—crushing it underfoot.
"What kind of nonsense flower is this?"
Growing this gaudy, it's either poisonous or it's poisonous. Crush it, crush it.
Song Jin ground her foot into it a couple more times before pinching her nose and standing up leisurely, stretching as she did. She looked at the person beside her, who was staring with his mouth agape.
Her foot still on the flower, she asked, "What's wrong?"
"…Miss." Wang Lao'er closed his jaw and pointed at the mangled remains of the flower under her foot, his expression hard to describe. "That was planted specially by Steward Jiang. He said it helps the tea trees grow better, and after the flowers bear fruit and dry, they can be sold—several hundred wen per liang."
Of course, something this profitable was expensive to buy and troublesome to grow. That one flower represented dozens of wen.
"Ah, ha." Song Jin looked at the crushed flower on the ground, then at the half-bloomed ones elsewhere, and made a face. "This thing can make money? Besides, since when did I know the tea garden had this?"
Wang Lao'er said flatly, "The madam knows. She came to see it last time."
Song Jin's foot suddenly felt heavy. She let out a dry laugh, moved her foot away, clapped her hands, and pretended nothing had happened as she asked, "The tea garden's been doing well lately, right? No troublemakers or wild beasts coming around?"
Wang Lao'er said flatly, "Speaking of that, miss, I need to settle accounts with you. That big tiger of yours—it's carried off eight chickens and two sheep from the garden this past while…"
Huanghuang normally didn't come down the mountain, but Shili Village happened to be right at the foot of the mountain, and since it was their own tea garden, she'd come by every so often to patrol and collect a little payment on the side.
This wasn't exactly good news. A tiger appearing could easily cause panic, so Niu Tielan had strictly forbidden her from coming down, and Song Jin had agreed readily enough.
But tigers could never fully obey orders—she still slipped down occasionally.
Fortunately, the law had mercy. Once in a while, her mother would turn a blind eye, and Song Jin couldn't push her luck too far. She could only secretly clean up after her tiger daughter.
"Here, compensation." She rubbed her nose and tossed over a lump of silver. "And for the flower too."
Wang Lao'er immediately brightened, carefully tucking away the silver.
Five taels of silver—eight chickens and two sheep came to only four taels and five qian. The rest was his "hush money."
Wang Lao'er said cheerfully, "The tea's grown well this year. Looks like half a tenth more than last year. The first batch of new tea has already been picked and fired. The merchant caravan will come by in a couple of days to collect it."
Their tea garden's tea trees were divided into four batches. The first two batches were ordinary tea trees with average taste and price, while the latter two were ones Niu Tielan had spent a fortune to acquire. After years of careful tending, their flavor had become quite good, earning some renown in the prefecture.
Song Jin walked through the tea garden, casually plucking a few tender buds and popping them into her mouth. They were a bit astringent and bitter at first, but quickly turned sweet, carrying a wonderful fragrance.
She picked another older tea leaf and held it between her lips. The bitterness was stronger, but so was that fragrance. Those unaccustomed to it wouldn't like it, but those who did would love it.
Even a rough person like Song Jin, who didn't know much about tea, could tell this year's flavor was better than last year's.
She smacked her lips. "Not bad, not bad. The price should be negotiable, it's just that—"
Wang Lao'er grew anxious. "Just what?"
Their wages were tied to the price. With a good harvest and good prices this year, their pay would be higher too, so he was worried something might go wrong.
Song Jin said, "It's just that the village is sealed off. Can the merchant caravan even get in?"
Wang Lao'er slapped his forehead. "Forgot about that. I'll go tell them to come a bit later."
Song Jin rolled her eyes. "Merchant caravan, merchant caravan. You think they'll come just because you say so? Pack up the goods and send them to my house. There's less hassle over there."
Wang Lao'er gave a wry smile. "That's true. Otherwise, why would it be a town? If we were stuck in some corner of Shili Village, how could we be so well-off?"
For Song Jin, the terrain of Shili Village suited her even better, so she just shrugged without answering and continued strolling through the tea garden.
It was high summer now, when everything was growing at its best. The tea branches were lush and tender, green grass spread across the ground, dotted here and there with red and yellow wildflowers.
Butterflies danced, bees buzzed around.
Among the swarm of small bees, a big, dull-looking bumblebee stood out conspicuously—like a big-headed fish swimming in water, slow and sluggish, yet somehow also remarkably fast.
It caught Song Jin's attention at once.
The more she looked at this big-headed bee, the more it seemed to move with a comical, same-side-same-side gait. She stared, and stared again, until the big-headed bee clumsily flew right in front of her face and stopped.
It really looked quite silly.
"Hey."
Song Jin tilted her head, deeply suspecting this bee wasn't too bright. She even considerately stepped aside a little to give it room.
Buzz buzz buzz.
Unexpectedly, when she moved aside, this dull bee moved along with her. She shifted again, and it followed again—like a tracking device locked onto her. It was quite amusing.
"Hey, where did this little thing come from?"
It was kind of cute, too.
Song Jin grew interested. She bent down to look at the fuzzy little creature, and seeing it staring right at her, she simply reached out, caught it, and brought it up to her eyes to examine with curiosity.
Round head, round body, twice the size of an ordinary bee, with an extra pair of wings, hovering steadily.
Song Jin pinched the bee and called out to the distracted Wang Lao'er: "Wang Lao'er, do you know what this thing is? Is it a queen bee you're raising?"
Though called a tea garden, it was actually quite vast—spanning several mountains. Planting only tea left things a bit empty, so they raised other things too.
Peach trees, plums, pears; chickens, ducks, geese, sheep; bees, pigeons…
Things that flew in the sky and walked on the ground—the only thing missing was something that swam in water.
But those were all managed by Niu Tielan. Song Jin only knew the general gist, so when she saw this dull-looking bee, she assumed it was some new breed.
This ancient world wasn't quite what Song Jin had imagined. There were many things she'd never heard of, so she figured this was one of them.
Wang Lao'er, roused by her call, came over. When he saw the dull bee, the corner of his mouth twitched in disdain. "My queen bees are all exceptionally clever. How could one be this stupid?"
Song Jin poked the dull bee. It stared at her without moving, unafraid even while pinched in her hand, and didn't even extend its stinger.
Wait—she wasn't even sure it had a stinger. Curious, she squeezed its pointed rear end.
"Squeak." The dull bee let out a sound like a mouse.
Song Jin's eyes lit up, and she squeezed again.
The dull bee squeaked again. Squeeze again, squeak again. Squeeze again, squeak again. Squeeze again, and—
Wang Lao'er watched with an exasperated roll of his eyes.
His young mistress could be sharp as a tack sometimes, and other times like a three-year-old child, wanting to fiddle with everything.
Like this—wasn't it just a slightly unusual call? Besides, round-headed bees were a dime a dozen, and they all squeaked.
Then Wang Lao'er suddenly remembered something. He leaned in close to Song Jin to examine the dull bee, then reached over and snatched it from her.
Song Jin was baffled but let go, warning, "Careful, don't kill it!"
The little thing was quite fun—she wanted to take it back to show her mother.
But Wang Lao'er ignored her, studying the bee intently—flipping its wings, inspecting its belly—until his expression turned serious.
Song Jin asked, "Why that face? Did it steal your honey?"
Wang Lao'er said, "…How could it? Something this dull, what could it possibly steal? I just suddenly remembered a type of bee, native to the Miao frontier in Lingnan. Body round as a ball, six wings, a cry like a mouse—called the Thousand-Mile Bee. It can track prey for a thousand li and was used as a scout in the old days."
Song Jin raised an eyebrow and looked at the plump, dull bee. "You're saying this thing… tracks people?"
She pinched the thing back—it felt soft and fluffy, with two round, glossy black eyes that looked utterly dopey. No matter how she looked at it, it didn't seem like something that would chase after people.
Song Jin said with certainty, "You must have seen wrong."
Wang Lao'er began to doubt himself too, since he'd only heard about it before, never seen it, and supposedly these bees had long since disappeared.
But then, looking at Song Jin's confident and assertive demeanor, another doubt crept into his mind.
He asked, "You haven't offended any big shots these past couple of days, have you?"
"Of course not."
Song Jin said without hesitation, full of confidence at first, but then she suddenly remembered what she'd done before going up the mountain, and she began to have her doubts.
"…Right?"
She pinched the dazed bee, and no matter how she looked at it, she couldn't see any connection between this thing and the legends.
But she turned, and it turned; she ran, and it ran; she ran again, and it ran again.
After several rounds of testing,
Wang Lao'er spoke up bleakly from the side, "Our tea garden is done for."
Song Jin: …
Whether the tea garden was done for or not was up for debate—she was probably done for.