EWRN - Chapter 13
Chapter 13: Hand in Hand to Jiangnan (II)
The two walked hand in hand to the riverbank, where pleasure barges and boats of all sizes were moored on the wide expanse of water.
At the ferry crossing, a boatman saw Huo Jinyu's large retinue approaching. Seeing that Huo Jinyu and Yan Xi were dressed like they were either rich or noble, he hurried forward to greet them.
"Would the esteemed guest and his lady like to come aboard my humble pleasure barge to admire the Jiangnan scenery? My barge is four stories high, the size of four ordinary boats. You could say it's one of the finest at the Jiangnan ferry crossing," the boatman, who looked to be around thirty, said with courteous respect.
Huo Jinyu nodded, signaling for the boatman to lead the way. A crowd of guards escorted the pair to the side of the man's pleasure barge.
The barge was indeed tall and imposing, its exterior magnificent and not in the least bit petty. It was inlaid with gold and adorned with silver, a truly fine sight. Huo Jinyu nodded in satisfaction. This was in line with her imperial stature. "This is the one!"
With a wave of Huo Jinyu's hand, a guard from behind immediately took out a silver banknote and placed it in the boatman's hand. The boatman thought to himself that he truly had a keen eye; he hadn't misjudged them. Taking the banknote, the boatman called for the girls on the barge to come out and receive the guests.
Just as Huo Jinyu and Yan Xi had taken but a few steps onto the barge, they heard a commotion from outside.
"This is the pleasure barge this young master has taken a fancy to! On what grounds did you let those two paupers on board! This young master has plenty of money! Zhang San, Li Si, get those two beggars off for me," an arrogant male voice rang out from outside the barge. It was immediately followed by the sounds of fists and feet. The same male voice spoke again, "Who are you people? How dare you lay a hand on the men of the Prefect's eldest son?! Are you tired of living?!" Huo Jinyu frowned and started walking back outside. Yan Xi followed closely behind to watch the excitement.
"Who is causing a ruckus in front of my pleasure barge?" Huo Jinyu said slowly as she strolled out.
"What do you mean, your pleasure barge? This is the barge this young master has rented for a year! You, get the hell out here for this young master!" A young man in green robes, leading a group of more than forty men, surrounded the barge as he bellowed.
Hearing the word "hell," Huo Jinyu's expression instantly darkened. The aura she exuded nearly made the green-robed man fall to his knees.
The young man steadied himself by leaning on a servant boy, barely managing to stay on his feet.
"Boatman, is this true?" If this barge had truly been rented by this young master, the boatman should not have been taking on other customers.
"I've been wronged, esteemed guest! This scoundrel is the eldest son of the current Prefect of Yuan'an City! He relies on his father's doting to run amok in the city! And no one can do anything about him. He forcibly commandeered my humble barge a year ago, and this scoundrel and his gang of thugs have been causing trouble by the river and in the city every day. My barge hasn't had any income for almost a year! I've been getting by on my family's savings. I only thought to receive you today because I saw this scoundrel wasn't here! Otherwise, my family's savings would be completely gone!" The boatman was a grown man, yet he knelt down and cried out loudly. He had clearly latched onto Huo Jinyu, who in his eyes was either rich or noble, as his last straw to clutch at.
"The Prefect's eldest son?" Huo Jinyu looked at the green-robed man, whose legs were trembling slightly, and murmured the words with a half-smile.
"What? Scared now? Quick… quickly get the hell… out for this young master!" the green-robed man stammered.
"Insolence!" Huo Jinyu shouted. "Do you know who I am! How dare you speak to me this way? In my presence, you are not worthy of calling yourself 'this young master'!" Huo Jinyu actually quite enjoyed this game of playing a pig to eat a tiger. Perhaps being reborn had changed her in many ways.
"Who the hell do you think you are? This young master wouldn't be afraid even if the King of Heaven himself came!" The green-robed man was certain the King of Heaven wouldn't appear. He had said this line not ten, but at least seven or eight times before.
Huo Jinyu wasted no more words. "Beat them!" she commanded.
The guards had long been cracking their knuckles. To dare insult their sovereign, to dare insult the master who paid their salaries and gave them rewards—they must be tired of living. Beat them! They must be beaten! Beaten viciously, within an inch of their lives!
Twenty guards swarmed forward, felling many of the thugs without even drawing their blades. The fifty-odd thugs were like a disorderly mob, and in no time, they were all on the ground. The green-robed man was also beaten black and blue, lying on the ground wailing incessantly, not forgetting to curse loudly. All sorts of profanities escaped his lips, causing the surrounding commoners to point and gesture. Huo Jinyu's beating was, one might say, a good beating, a brilliant beating, a spectacular beating.
Huo Jinyu ordered her guards to tie up all these scoundrels and throw them into the ship's hold. She walked past the dumbfounded boatman and led Yan Xi back onto the barge. The boatman quickly followed, ordering his crew to set sail. As for how the Prefect would deal with this later, that was beyond what a humble boatman like him could consider. Since the esteemed guest on board wasn't worried, what was there for him to worry about?
The pleasure barge slowly started to move, leaving the crowd of onlookers behind on the shore. A few sycophants had already run off to inform the Prefect of the matter.
Aboard the pleasure barge.
Huo Jinyu and Yan Xi ascended to the top deck, which was open to the sky. In the center of the deck, two cushions were placed around a square, low table.
Huo Jinyu and Yan Xi sat by the low table and dismissed the barge's serving girls. The two sat in silence, a tacit understanding between them as they admired the river scenery of Jiangnan. Perhaps because it had rained the day before, the river was shrouded in mist. The water was vast, dotted with boats, and from the distance, one could faintly hear the sounds of scholars and beauties reciting poetry. It was truly worthy of being called the misty, rainy Jiangnan.
By now, the barge had sailed some distance from the shore, and the crowd on the bank was gradually dispersing. At that moment, a black-clad figure rushed out from the crowd. To the astonished gazes of the people on the shore, the figure leaped lightly, landed on the river's surface, tapped his toes, and leaped again, hopping across the water toward Huo Jinyu's pleasure barge.
On the barge, Huo Jinyu was pouring tea for Yan Xi when a black-clad man climbed up from the outside, landing beside her. He handed an envelope to Huo Jinyu.
Earlier that morning, Huo Jinyu had instructed the captain of her guards to investigate the whereabouts of that blacksmith shop and to deliver the results to her by letter.
The results were clearly written in the letter: The blacksmith shop was in the west of the city, its full name being Zhai's Blacksmith Shop. The owner's surname was Zhai, and his given name was Yao. According to the aunt of the second great-aunt of Zhai Yao's neighbor's cousin-in-law, his father had given him that name hoping he would bring glory to the blacksmith shop and honor his ancestors. (Huo Jinyu: Why do I need to know this?)
Zhai Yao had divorced his wife. It was said the woman had an affair with the neighboring carpenter, Wang Fugui. Wang Fugui's business was doing well, so the woman felt he had better prospects than Blacksmith Zhai. After the divorce, Wang Fugui actually took that trollop in as a concubine, which suggested the woman must have been quite beautiful.
Zhai Yao never remarried after that, which showed that the head of the Zhai family blacksmith shop was a man of deep affection.
…
Huo Jinyu's brows furrowed as she read. Although she had instructed them to investigate the blacksmith shop down to the smallest detail, she hadn't said to record every piece of neighborhood gossip.
The black-clad man stood proudly to the side, mentally calculating how much merit he would earn for this investigation and how large his reward would be. After all, he had written down everything he could possibly find out! It filled more than ten pages of letter paper!
After flipping through a few more pages that detailed Zhai Yao's life from childhood to adulthood, she finally reached the information Huo Jinyu truly wanted. Seeing this, her brow relaxed.
The letter read: According to your subordinate's informant, Wang Zecong, the only apprentice at Zhai's Blacksmith Shop, who was persuaded with fifty taels of silver, Zhai Yao seems to have forged an extremely hard iron armor. However, it consumed too much iron ore, and the success rate was not high enough…
Huo Jinyu didn't bother reading the rest of the nonsense. A high rate of scrap iron? A low success rate? A few more attempts would naturally solve that. After all, in her previous life, Zhai Yao's armor had met the needs of an army of several hundred thousand. This was what she, Huo Jinyu, wanted! Now, all she had to do was recruit this person for her own use!
As soon as Huo Jinyu had started reading the letter, Yan Xi had tactfully moved to the other side of the top deck. As the emperor dealing with state affairs, Huo Jinyu would surely not want outsiders to overhear. The barge was large enough that even with Yan Xi's martial arts training, she couldn't hear the conversation between Huo Jinyu and the black-clad man over the howling winter wind on the deck.
Huo Jinyu handed over a few silver banknotes and said in a low voice, "Find a way to buy this man's loyalty. It doesn't matter how much silver it costs. This blacksmith is very important to Us." Although Huo Jinyu knew it would likely be difficult to succeed, given the example from her past life. She could have sent someone to assassinate Zhai Yao right now, then rushed toward the imperial city to "rescue" him, and everyone would be happy. But, she wanted to drag things out for a few more days to spend time with Yan Xi. For some reason, being with Yan Xi always made her feel at ease and happy, even though her beloved consort always wore a cold expression.
The black-clad man took the silver banknotes and his orders, then disappeared into the vast river mist in a few flashes.
Yan Xi was still standing at the edge of the top deck, gazing northward. Huo Jinyu called for a maid to bring up a pot of fine wine. She poured two cups, then walked over to Yan Xi's side. Yan Xi's gaze was profound, as if she could see past the mountains and rivers of Jiangnan all the way to the Northern Kingdom.
"Is Xi'er homesick?" Huo Jinyu asked, moving closer.
"No, I was just thinking of the Northern Kingdom," Yan Xi said faintly.
"One's kingdom is one's home." Huo Jinyu handed a cup of wine to Yan Xi, and the two of them savored the fine wine while facing the river.
After a long moment, Huo Jinyu said in a low voice, "You will go back."
A strong gust of wind blew past, scattering the words. Yan Xi thought she had misheard and paid it no mind.
It was only much, much later that Yan Xi understood. That day, in Jiangnan, upon that pleasure barge, the words that person had spoken were not scattered by the wind. One by one, they became reality.
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