Doctor Xie and Shopkeeper Tong both dared not prescribe any medicine for Li Xiaoxiao. But Li Xiaoxiao refused to leave.
“Mama Mao said that Magistrate Meng’s illness was treated by Doctor Xie, so she insisted that I come here. Even if you think my illness is difficult to treat, you should at least try, right? You can’t just drive me out like this, can you?”
Doctor Xie was taken aback. “You’re from the county magistrate’s residence?”
Li Xiaoxiao nodded. “Yes. I’m the kitchen maid who tends the fire at the county magistrate’s residence. I heard that the doctors at Huichun Hall are highly skilled, so Mama Mao recommended that I come here.”
Doctor Xie and Shopkeeper Tong exchanged troubled looks. When Magistrate Meng had first arrived in Miyang County to take up his post, he had been seriously ill. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Huichun Hall had pulled him back from the brink of death. After the county magistrate recovered, he had even sent over a plaque bearing the words “Miraculous Hands Revive Spring.”
Now that a maid from his household had come to them for treatment, could they really drive her away and risk offending Magistrate Meng?
Shopkeeper Tong pulled Doctor Xie aside, and the two discussed the matter at length. They then asked Li Xiaoxiao about her symptoms again. After confirming that, aside from chest pain whenever she exerted herself too much and a tendency to sleep excessively, she had no other symptoms, they decided to prescribe a formula mainly intended to warm and nourish the body.
It might not be particularly effective for recuperating from internal injuries, and it might not cure her, but it would not do her any harm either.
The prescription contained nourishing herbs such as red dates, dangshen, astragalus, atractylodes, and angelica. One dose cost forty-five copper coins. Including the consultation fee, Li Xiaoxiao spent three hundred and fifty copper coins in one go. Adding up all the small amounts she had spent on food along the way, she had now gone through nearly five hundred copper coins.
Doctor Xie handed her the prescription. “After you finish these medicines, come back for another consultation. If there is a noticeable improvement, I’ll change you to another prescription.”
Li Xiaoxiao happily gathered up the large bundle of medicine and nodded vigorously. “Doctor, besides taking medicine, is there anything else I can eat that will help me recover faster?”
Doctor Xie’s expression was complicated. “If you can eat it, anything will do. But if you can get some meat and other nourishing foods, the effect will be better.”
Li Xiaoxiao let out an “Oh.” “So I need to eat more meat. I understand. Thank you, Doctor.”
She turned around and walked away with the medicine on her back.
Liu Zhi had not returned yet, so she probably had not finished shopping. Li Xiaoxiao carried the medicine toward the shop called Jinxiu Pavilion.
What a coincidence. A few days ago, she had just learned the character “Jin” in “Jinji Brokerage,” so she could recognize all three characters in the shop’s name.
Before she even reached the shop, she saw a crowd gathered around it, pointing and whispering. Mixed in among their voices was Liu Zhi’s faint crying.
Li Xiaoxiao frowned and pushed her way closer.
She saw a burly man gripping Liu Zhi’s small hand tightly, his face full of anger. “Your mother merely said a few words to you, and you stole money from the family to come buy things. Is this a shop that poor people like us can afford to enter? Come with me!”
Liu Zhi was scared out of her wits, but she was small and weak and simply could not break free from the man’s grip. She could only cry repeatedly, “Who are you? What are you doing? I don’t know you.”
But the more the man heard, the angrier he became. “Er Ya! Don’t think that pretending not to know me means I won’t punish you. The fields at home haven’t even been turned over yet, and we haven’t chopped enough firewood. Mother is so worried that she can’t even eat, so she sent me to the county town to find you. Hurry up and come home with me!”
As he spoke, he dragged her away.
Liu Zhi struggled desperately. “No, no! I really don’t know you!”
A passerby frowned slightly. “Is that her brother?”
Another person said, “Yes, that’s her brother. They’re from Taoye Village, the same village as my maternal uncle. I went to my grandmother’s house during the Dragon Boat Festival and saw her there.”
At this point, a man wearing a short brown jacket standing behind the burly man also nodded. “Her father is the butcher from Taoye Village. He usually has some spare money from selling meat. She probably saw it and stole some.”
The two men both testified on the burly man’s behalf. It seemed this was merely an ordinary family dispute, and the onlookers quickly lost interest. The passerby who had spoken earlier even sighed.
“She stole money and came to the shop to buy things, then pretended not to know her own brother. This girl really doesn’t know any better.”
The other man chimed in, “She came to the county town with her mother a few times and then didn’t want to go back. She’s always thinking about coming to the shops to buy things. We’re farming families. What use do we have for those colored threads and handkerchiefs? Just a waste of money.”
The passersby looked at the handkerchiefs and colored threads that had fallen to the ground during Liu Zhi’s struggle and nodded, finding his words quite reasonable.
Liu Zhi trembled all over in terror and screamed, “Help…”
But she had only managed to make a single sound before the burly man clamped a hand over her mouth and picked her up.
“Keep screaming and Mother will beat you to death when we get home. Hurry up and come home with me!”
He gave the other two men a meaningful glance. They quietly picked up the handkerchiefs and threads that had fallen to the ground.
“Hey, Qiangzi, your sister dropped her things. Why are you walking so fast…”
Everyone assumed the two siblings had simply been quarreling and that the older brother was taking his younger sister home to discipline her. No one spared Liu Zhi another glance.
Seeing that no one was paying attention to her anymore, a vicious glint flashed in the burly man’s eyes. He chopped the side of his hand against Liu Zhi’s neck. Her eyes rolled back, and she passed out completely.
The burly man shifted his grip, hoisted Liu Zhi onto his back, and carried her away. After walking a short distance, he quickly turned into a secluded alley. The two men who had spoken up for him followed slowly behind.
Li Xiaoxiao followed unhurriedly. She watched as the three men took several twists and turns before finally stopping beside an ox cart loaded with straw. They pushed aside the straw, placed Liu Zhi inside, then loosely covered her with another layer. From the outside, there was no way to tell that anyone was hidden beneath it.
The man in the short brown jacket chuckled. “We’re pretty lucky today. This little girl is such a pretty thing. Once we get to the prefectural city, she’ll definitely fetch a good price.”
Qiangzi grinned. “Of course. Miyang County is poor as hell. The three of us have been wandering around here for several days, and this little girl is the only one worth anything. Let’s go. If we’re too late, we’ll run into the time when they distribute free porridge when we try to leave the city. The constables will all be there then. We’d better not be unlucky enough to run into them.”
The other two nodded. One went to lead the ox pulling the cart, while the other sat on the opposite side. They turned it around and were about to leave when they suddenly saw Li Xiaoxiao standing in the middle of the alley.
The three men were simultaneously startled. Who was this person? When had she gotten there? How had they not heard a single sound?
Qiangzi immediately jumped down from the ox cart and stepped forward. “Who are you?”
Li Xiaoxiao smiled without any warmth. “I’m your father.”
Qiangzi’s expression changed. He looked Li Xiaoxiao up and down, then glanced at Liu Zhi covered beneath the straw. He immediately noticed that the two girls were wearing the same clothes.
So she was a servant from the same household. She had actually followed them there without making a sound.
Qiangzi looked around at their surroundings. Since the three of them had deliberately avoided people and gone somewhere secluded, there was not a single person in sight anywhere in the alley. A smug and ferocious smile appeared on his face.
“You’re alone?”
He walked toward Li Xiaoxiao step by step, sizing her up as he went. The young woman before him looked fourteen or fifteen years old. She was tall and slender, with narrow shoulders and a slim waist. Although her skin was slightly dark, her features were very well-defined, and her eyes were as dark and lustrous as polished lacquer. If she could be kept out of the sun for a while and her skin lightened, she would definitely grow into a beauty.
A girl like this was even more valuable than the little one. He might as well take her along too.
He gave the two men behind him a glance. They immediately understood and moved forward, surrounding Li Xiaoxiao.
Li Xiaoxiao swung the bundle of medicine over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow. “What? Planning to gang up on me three against one?”
Qiangzi grinned. “Little girl, how about we take you somewhere fun?”
She pointed at Liu Zhi, who was still buried beneath the pile of straw. “Are you planning to take me there the same way?”
Qiangzi took two steps closer, a leering smile on his face. “Of course not. As long as you behave and listen…”
His hand suddenly shot toward the back of Li Xiaoxiao’s neck.
She leaned forward slightly, easily dodging his grasp. In the next instant, she seized his arm, twisted her body, and sent him flying over her shoulder.
Qiangzi’s entire body seemed to lose all weight as he was flung high into the air before crashing to the ground like a dead pig with a tremendous thud.
“Aah!”
A miserable scream tore from his throat. His limbs convulsed as tears and snot streamed down his face. It felt as though all four of his limbs had been crippled, leaving him unable even to crawl.
The other two were startled. One stepped forward to help Qiangzi up, while the other looked around before pulling a piece of firewood as thick as an arm from a low wall on one side and swinging it viciously at Li Xiaoxiao.
She turned sideways and grabbed his right wrist. With a slight exertion of force, there was a sharp “crack,” and the man’s wrist bent directly into a right angle.
He let out an even louder scream than Qiangzi. “Aah~!”
The remaining man had been about to help Qiangzi up, but seeing this, his face filled with terror. His hands and feet went weak, and his legs trembled uncontrollably.
“No, no, no. Don’t come any closer.”
He could no longer care about Qiangzi or the man in the short brown jacket. He backed away step by step. After retreating three or four meters, he turned around and fled for his life.
Li Xiaoxiao clicked her tongue twice, picked up the piece of firewood from the ground, and threw it at the back of the man’s head. The wood flipped several times through the air before striking the fleeing man’s head with a “thud.”
The man pitched forward and fell to the ground, motionless.
Qiangzi and the man in the short brown jacket, who had recovered somewhat, looked at Li Xiaoxiao as though they had seen an evil ghost from hell. Sweat poured down their faces as they rolled and crawled to their knees, desperately kowtowing.
“Spare us! Heroine, please spare us! Heroine, please spare us!”
Li Xiaoxiao walked around the two men several times. “You want me to spare you? Then tell me, what are you going to pay for your lives?”
Qiangzi and the man in the short brown jacket’s eyes lit up. They immediately took out every bit of money they had on them and presented it with both hands.
“Heroine, this is everything we have. It’s all here. Please spare us.”
Li Xiaoxiao took their money pouches, poured out the contents, and weighed them in her hand.
“How much money is this altogether?”
Qiangzi nervously glanced at the silver in her hand. “Altogether, altogether eighteen taels, and more than a hundred copper coins.”
Li Xiaoxiao sighed. “Only eighteen taels? What about her?” She pointed at Liu Zhi on the ox cart. “If you sold her, how much silver could you get?”
Qiangzi exchanged a glance with the man in the short brown jacket. Realizing there was an opportunity, they hurriedly said, “A pretty girl like this, if she can be sold to the pleasure houses in Huaiyang and raised as a shouma, can fetch several hundred taels of silver! Heroine, as long as you don’t kill us, we can work together. We’ll split the money from selling the girl fifty-fifty! No, no, we’ll split it sixty-forty. Sixty-forty. We’ll take forty, and you take sixty, Heroine.”
The man in the short brown jacket nodded vigorously.
Li Xiaoxiao was shocked. “Several hundred taels?! That expensive! How many have you sold before?”
Seeing that Qiangzi had been the one answering all along, the man in the short brown jacket assumed that Li Xiaoxiao was interested in this business. Afraid that Qiangzi would steal his chance to shine, he immediately spoke before Qiangzi could.
“We’ve only sold five or six. First, pretty young girls are hard to find. Second, we haven’t been doing this for very long. Before this, we mainly abducted and sold young women.”
…
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