In Yangzhou, there was a human trafficking business known as ‘raising thin horses’. Daughters from poor families who grew up well, at the age of seventeen would be handed over to be cared for by a rich family. They would be taught about the four arts: zither, calligraphy, painting and cooking. These lessons would be taught to educate them to maintain the peace of the family as a concubine.
A scholar’s biggest worry when marrying a concubine was his jealous wife, especially if that concubine became the husband’s favourite, whereas if a man had taken a Yangzhou thin horse as a concubine, then this jealousy could be avoided.
These skinny horses were divided into three classes according to the following categories: beautiful, smart or stupid. If the girl was beautiful and smart with a prominent character, the caring family would have taught them how to pick a yangin [a stringed instrument], to play the flute, to recite poetry, writing, painting, to play ‘go’, backgammon and dominoes. Aside from being trained on how to dress themselves up, they would be taught etiquette, walking and sitting positions. More importantly, they would have had to study the romance guide book ‘Ruyi Jun Zhuan’, which would have instructed them on methods to win men’s affection and how to satisfy them.
The woman named Zhai Lanye mentioned by Zhou Fei was a very well-known thin horse. A few months before, she had met Zhou Xian while relaxing on a boat. After a song played on yanqin and a chat with two cups of tea, Zhou Xian had immediately fallen in love.
“Since your young master treasured her, why not marry her? It was not a big deal for him to have a concubine outside.” Jinxia asked.
Zhou Fei sighed: “How could the young master not want to? The problem is if you want to marry her, you have to pay one thousand five hundred taels of silver. Where would the young master get that much money?”
“One thousand five hundred taels of silver!” Jinxia chuckled.
“The family saw that the young master could not afford that much silver, so they began to open up Miss Zhai’s availability to other bidders, but Ms. Zhai really loved the young master… She had cried a few times over this problem. This matter troubled the young master everyday, until there was no other choice: he said that he would go home and ask to sell some lands to raise the funds.”
“Your young master had one hundred thousand taels of silver from the river repairing funds, but he would have rather sold his lands to raise the necessary funds?” Jinxia massaged her forehead, “Was he really that honest?”
“Master said,” Zhou Fei recalled, “that money could not be touched, not even a penny: if someone touched it then the basic nature of life would be lost.” The shadow of Zhou Xian trembling when he said that appeared before him, he had never seen him so miserable, someone who had tied himself between death and freedom, alive in suffering.
“The basic nature of yourself?” Jinxia thought about it, but she didn’t understand. “Money is the nature of life.”
Zhou Fei shook his head, he also didn’t understand.
After leaving the prison, according to the address Zhou Fei gave her, Jinxia went to the eastern side of Yangzhou City and found a large residence with a green roof and white walls. The big, red painted door was tightly closed with a copper ring knocker on the door. She had been knocking on the door for half a day, but no one had opened it.
On a bright day like that, climbing over walls seemed a bit risky. Therefore she walked slowly around the outer wall of the residence. Zhai’s residence property was quite large, everything was neatly arranged in every corner, a blue stone path curved along the perimeter of the wall and green willows lined up following the road. It was the middle of spring, with willow trees branches flying in the air, causing Jinxia’s nose to itch.
She inspected the surroundings of the residence until she reached the side door, which was also closed tight. Jinxia furrowed her eyebrows: there was a beggar sitting under a tree, scratching his body not too far from her and there were no neighbours in sight for her to ask any questions.
There was no other way… Jinxia tried again to approach the door and started knocking.
After a few knocks, she heard some movements inside: it seemed like there was someone, so she knocked even harder this time.
A creaking noise was coming from the house and she could hear another strange sound, which seemed like a heavy breathing. Although she couldn’t see through the door, such a noise couldn’t be ignored and it was giving her goosebumps.
Having the instinct of someone who knows martial arts when encountering danger, Jinxia took a few steps back.
As soon as the door opened, two giant monsters appeared: their bodies were all black and they were showing off their white teeth. Jinxia was shocked, on instinct she made a few steps back again, almost turning back and jumping up a tree.
She had never encountered such extraordinary big dogs before but that was not the time to admire them for sure. Both of these dogs were growling continuously and at such close proximity that they were making people feel they would soon be eaten alive.
Jinxia wanted to take out her knife but she’d just remembered that she didn’t carry it from the start, hence she was trying to see if there were things that could be used as a weapon to protect herself. After a while, she found a broken willow branch. She held a bunch of leaves in her hand, but her martial arts abilities were not good enough to fly these leaves like daggers, therefore they were useless to her at that moment.
Approaching her steadily, the evil dog with a death aura looked at Jinxia as if he was seeing a bowl of meat.
“You move aside.” said a voice behind her.
At the same time, a sprig of a jujube tree with an irregular branch protruded out, stretching out in front of the big dog. After knocking it twice on the ground, the two large dogs lowered their heads while groping, and they backed up at a slow pace.
Jinxia turned her head and saw the old beggar, not exactly too old: judging from the face, he was at least thirty but not forty years old yet, his hair was mostly grey and he had a half black and white beard.
“Uncle, you’re so clever! Teach me…”
The old beggar smiled as he looked at her, “No need to praise me, let’s solve the problem before our eyes.”
While talking, he tilted the jujube tree branch toward one of the big dogs, who started to whimper all of a sudden and then lay paralyzed on the floor.
When he was about to do the same trick for the other dog, from inside the residence they heard a loud scream: “Stop! You ignorant people, don’t you know the rules? How dare you hurt my big master’s family dog, are you tired of living?”
Jinxia walked forward, the person behind the door was the family’s servant, his beard covering his mouth. He looked at them in anger. Only one dog was down, so the servant quickly called the other dog and got him inside.
“Raising such evil monsters in the city, what’s your name? Who’s your master, report him to me. You even dare to bite an officer on duty. I will report you later, do you want to fight against the court?!?” Jinxia pulled out her plate. As soon as she opened her mouth, her voice was louder than his, she was almost screaming, “You’re the one tired of living!”
When he saw the police plate, the servant was stunned, he looked at Jinxia and at the old beggar from head to toe, saying with suspicion, “Are you also a police officer?”
“Misunderstanding, it’s a misunderstanding, I just happened to be passing by.” The old beggar explained.
Jinxia went to the servant and said in a clear voice, “I’m a constable, Liu Shanmen from the Capital, here on duty to investigate a case. Please let me meet with your master and also with Ms. Zhai: I need her help with the case.” She put on the serious face of an officer on duty, she wasn’t afraid of the giant dog anymore.
The servant was alerted by her movements and rushed to close the door leaving just a small gap, saying to Jinxia, “I’m sorry officer, my master and the lady have gone far out of town, please come back another day.”
As soon as he finished talking, he shut the door tight.
“Hey! Hey! When are they coming back? Open the door and speak clearly! You really have some guts, how dare you leave an official outside!”
Jinxia ran forward, but then she heard the sound of the door being locked. Feeling annoyed, she kicked the door with violence.
“Young lady, no need to waste your energy, the Zhai landlord who lives in this residence is the brother-in-law of the Yangzhou prefecture. You are just a lowly constable, you can’t touch him.” The old beggar said, standing behind her.
Jinxia turned her head, she saw the old beggar stroking lazily the big dog still laying weak on the ground. She didn’t get to see what great trick he used, but he could make the dog bow to him.
She approached him and crouched down to look at the dog, feeling surprised she said, “What type of dog is this? It looks really fierce.”
“These dogs come from the West, their race is Tibetan Mastiff. This type of dog is really fierce and strong, especially when fighting. Even if they’d meet with a tiger, they won’t even budge.” The old beggar sighed, “Don’t know how the landlord of Zhai’s residence was able to bring home these dogs. Just a few days ago, one of them hurt a few of my brothers.”
“People are injured, but you’re not reporting them to the officers?” Jinxia asked in surprise, but then she realized, “Brother-in-law of the Yangzhou prefect… Can you teach me how to tame this dog?”
“Do you want to become a beggar?”
“Of course I don’t want to.”
“Then, I can’t teach you.”
The old beggar swung the branches of the jujube tree, preparing to leave. She looked at the Tibetan Mastiffs’ eyes, then she looked at the tightly shut door one more time. In the end Jinxia stood up and chased after the old beggar.
“I’ll treat you to eat… no, to a drink.”
“Why, do you want to flatter me?”
“You have such great skills, why are you a beggar?”
“In this world, you know, there is such a kind person who’s got the power to turn even the most skilled people into beggars.”
“I still don’t know your name, how should I address you?”
The old beggar was about to stroke his beard, imitating a dignified person’s gesture but found the action to be a bit arrogant, therefore he said, “I’m just an ordinary person, for some reason faith brought me here. I travelled around places, the name does not need to be questioned.”
Jinxia looked at him blankly, “Uncle, according to the Ming Dynasty’s law, a refugee must return to his homeland. People like you with no clear origins and no family can be directly sent to the defense group at the border to work.”
“Ahem, Ahem, you, young lady, judging from your face, you seem very friendly, but once you open your mouth, those words are rubbish. Women who talk like that, often chase others away.” The old beggar brushed off the fur in his hand, laughed and said, “I’m not a person without an origin. The Supreme Leader of JinYiWei, Lu Bing, you must be familiar with him. According to the family position, my position would be equal to his, and his son can be counted as my grandchild.”
“……”
Jinxia was bewildered for a moment, but then laughed a little and said, “What a coincidence, your grandchild is here. Senior, do you want me to bring you to see him?”
“……”
Inside the clinic building.
Under the guidance of the physician’s assistant, YangYue helped Yang Chengwan sit down on a chair, after that he stood and patiently waited. Lu Yi was sitting in the back on a flowery-patterned chair opposite from him. His eyes were examining every corner of the clinic, adorned with calligraphies and paintings hanging on the wall.
If searching for a well-known physician to visit his father’s leg was a mere courtesy, accompanying him to his examination session showed that Lu Yi had an unusual level of concern. The reason behind Lu Daren’s great attention toward his father made YangYue a little surprised.
After waiting for him for a while, the physician Shen Mi entered the room while wiping his hands.
Shen Mi promptly washed his hands in the bronze wash bin, then sat next to Yang ChengWan. He was not in a rush to examine Yang ChengWan’s leg, but instead, looked with attention at his face, then reached out to take his pulse.
YangYue didn’t have to tell him anything, because after checking his pulse, he knew exactly which area on the leg was hurting. He rolled up Yang ChengWan’s pants and inspected his old scars, pinching the leg with his finger. Once done, he frowned: “This bone was not joint correctly a few years ago, if it were to be healed, it would’ve had to be broken again and then reconnected. This is not a difficult process… The problem is that you are at an old age, to reconnect the bones, you need to at least take a rest for three months and also to keep your body temperature and blood circulation flowing well, so that there would be no blood clots occurring, Are you willing to do it?”
YangYue’s heart tightened: breaking a bone and reconnecting it, it would surely be an extremely painful process, but that stage could be easily passed by his father… However, not being able to walk for three months and having been assigned to come to Yangzhou to investigate a case, how would his father manage to work?
At this point, Yang ChengWan opened his mouth and said, “Thank you doctor, my age is indeed old, and I also do not want to experience extreme pain a second time, I think it’s better…”
“Senior!” Lu Yi got up and interrupted him, “Three months of rest is not a problem. I will ask Liu Daren to allow you on a leave for six months.”
Yang ChengWan was going to refuse and was about to say something but Lu Yi already knew what he was going to say, “If Senior considers this to be inappropriate, I can also ask for a transfer warrant. I could transfer you to the *Beizhen Department so that you won’t have to worry.”
*[Beizhen Department = A JinYiWei department, TN]
“You can’t, you shouldn’t, you absolutely should not…” Yang ChengWan hurriedly replied.Lu Yi chuckled, “If Senior really doesn’t want to, then be at ease and treat your injuries. Actually, this is my father’s order, and it’s not only about treating your injury, just consider it as you agreed because of Yan Yuan, so that I don’t have a difficult time explaining the situation to my father.”
In Yangzhou, there was a human trafficking business known as ‘raising thin horses’. Daughters from poor families who grew up well, at the age of seventeen would be handed over to be cared for by a rich family. They would be taught about the four arts: zither, calligraphy, painting and cooking. These lessons would be taught to educate them to maintain the peace of the family as a concubine.
A scholar’s biggest worry when marrying a concubine was his jealous wife, especially if that concubine became the husband’s favourite, whereas if a man had taken a Yangzhou thin horse as a concubine, then this jealousy could be avoided.
These skinny horses were divided into three classes according to the following categories: beautiful, smart or stupid. If the girl was beautiful and smart with a prominent character, the caring family would have taught them how to pick a yangin [a stringed instrument], to play the flute, to recite poetry, writing, painting, to play ‘go’, backgammon and dominoes. Aside from being trained on how to dress themselves up, they would be taught etiquette, walking and sitting positions. More importantly, they would have had to study the romance guide book ‘Ruyi Jun Zhuan’, which would have instructed them on methods to win men’s affection and how to satisfy them.
The woman named Zhai Lanye mentioned by Zhou Fei was a very well-known thin horse. A few months before, she had met Zhou Xian while relaxing on a boat. After a song played on yanqin and a chat with two cups of tea, Zhou Xian had immediately fallen in love.
“Since your young master treasured her, why not marry her? It was not a big deal for him to have a concubine outside.” Jinxia asked.
Zhou Fei sighed: “How could the young master not want to? The problem is if you want to marry her, you have to pay one thousand five hundred taels of silver. Where would the young master get that much money?”
“One thousand five hundred taels of silver!” Jinxia chuckled.
“The family saw that the young master could not afford that much silver, so they began to open up Miss Zhai’s availability to other bidders, but Ms. Zhai really loved the young master… She had cried a few times over this problem. This matter troubled the young master everyday, until there was no other choice: he said that he would go home and ask to sell some lands to raise the funds.”
“Your young master had one hundred thousand taels of silver from the river repairing funds, but he would have rather sold his lands to raise the necessary funds?” Jinxia massaged her forehead, “Was he really that honest?”
“Master said,” Zhou Fei recalled, “that money could not be touched, not even a penny: if someone touched it then the basic nature of life would be lost.” The shadow of Zhou Xian trembling when he said that appeared before him, he had never seen him so miserable, someone who had tied himself between death and freedom, alive in suffering.
“The basic nature of yourself?” Jinxia thought about it, but she didn’t understand. “Money is the nature of life.”
Zhou Fei shook his head, he also didn’t understand.
After leaving the prison, according to the address Zhou Fei gave her, Jinxia went to the eastern side of Yangzhou City and found a large residence with a green roof and white walls. The big, red painted door was tightly closed with a copper ring knocker on the door. She had been knocking on the door for half a day, but no one had opened it.
On a bright day like that, climbing over walls seemed a bit risky. Therefore she walked slowly around the outer wall of the residence. Zhai’s residence property was quite large, everything was neatly arranged in every corner, a blue stone path curved along the perimeter of the wall and green willows lined up following the road. It was the middle of spring, with willow trees branches flying in the air, causing Jinxia’s nose to itch.
She inspected the surroundings of the residence until she reached the side door, which was also closed tight. Jinxia furrowed her eyebrows: there was a beggar sitting under a tree, scratching his body not too far from her and there were no neighbours in sight for her to ask any questions.
There was no other way… Jinxia tried again to approach the door and started knocking.
After a few knocks, she heard some movements inside: it seemed like there was someone, so she knocked even harder this time.
A creaking noise was coming from the house and she could hear another strange sound, which seemed like a heavy breathing. Although she couldn’t see through the door, such a noise couldn’t be ignored and it was giving her goosebumps.
Having the instinct of someone who knows martial arts when encountering danger, Jinxia took a few steps back.
As soon as the door opened, two giant monsters appeared: their bodies were all black and they were showing off their white teeth. Jinxia was shocked, on instinct she made a few steps back again, almost turning back and jumping up a tree.
She had never encountered such extraordinary big dogs before but that was not the time to admire them for sure. Both of these dogs were growling continuously and at such close proximity that they were making people feel they would soon be eaten alive.
Jinxia wanted to take out her knife but she’d just remembered that she didn’t carry it from the start, hence she was trying to see if there were things that could be used as a weapon to protect herself. After a while, she found a broken willow branch. She held a bunch of leaves in her hand, but her martial arts abilities were not good enough to fly these leaves like daggers, therefore they were useless to her at that moment.
Approaching her steadily, the evil dog with a death aura looked at Jinxia as if he was seeing a bowl of meat.
“You move aside.” said a voice behind her.
At the same time, a sprig of a jujube tree with an irregular branch protruded out, stretching out in front of the big dog. After knocking it twice on the ground, the two large dogs lowered their heads while groping, and they backed up at a slow pace.
Jinxia turned her head and saw the old beggar, not exactly too old: judging from the face, he was at least thirty but not forty years old yet, his hair was mostly grey and he had a half black and white beard.
“Uncle, you’re so clever! Teach me…”
The old beggar smiled as he looked at her, “No need to praise me, let’s solve the problem before our eyes.”
While talking, he tilted the jujube tree branch toward one of the big dogs, who started to whimper all of a sudden and then lay paralyzed on the floor.
When he was about to do the same trick for the other dog, from inside the residence they heard a loud scream: “Stop! You ignorant people, don’t you know the rules? How dare you hurt my big master’s family dog, are you tired of living?”
Jinxia walked forward, the person behind the door was the family’s servant, his beard covering his mouth. He looked at them in anger. Only one dog was down, so the servant quickly called the other dog and got him inside.
“Raising such evil monsters in the city, what’s your name? Who’s your master, report him to me. You even dare to bite an officer on duty. I will report you later, do you want to fight against the court?!?” Jinxia pulled out her plate. As soon as she opened her mouth, her voice was louder than his, she was almost screaming, “You’re the one tired of living!”
When he saw the police plate, the servant was stunned, he looked at Jinxia and at the old beggar from head to toe, saying with suspicion, “Are you also a police officer?”
“Misunderstanding, it’s a misunderstanding, I just happened to be passing by.” The old beggar explained.
Jinxia went to the servant and said in a clear voice, “I’m a constable, Liu Shanmen from the Capital, here on duty to investigate a case. Please let me meet with your master and also with Ms. Zhai: I need her help with the case.” She put on the serious face of an officer on duty, she wasn’t afraid of the giant dog anymore.
The servant was alerted by her movements and rushed to close the door leaving just a small gap, saying to Jinxia, “I’m sorry officer, my master and the lady have gone far out of town, please come back another day.”
As soon as he finished talking, he shut the door tight.
“Hey! Hey! When are they coming back? Open the door and speak clearly! You really have some guts, how dare you leave an official outside!”
Jinxia ran forward, but then she heard the sound of the door being locked. Feeling annoyed, she kicked the door with violence.
“Young lady, no need to waste your energy, the Zhai landlord who lives in this residence is the brother-in-law of the Yangzhou prefecture. You are just a lowly constable, you can’t touch him.” The old beggar said, standing behind her.
Jinxia turned her head, she saw the old beggar stroking lazily the big dog still laying weak on the ground. She didn’t get to see what great trick he used, but he could make the dog bow to him.
She approached him and crouched down to look at the dog, feeling surprised she said, “What type of dog is this? It looks really fierce.”
“These dogs come from the West, their race is Tibetan Mastiff. This type of dog is really fierce and strong, especially when fighting. Even if they’d meet with a tiger, they won’t even budge.” The old beggar sighed, “Don’t know how the landlord of Zhai’s residence was able to bring home these dogs. Just a few days ago, one of them hurt a few of my brothers.”
“People are injured, but you’re not reporting them to the officers?” Jinxia asked in surprise, but then she realized, “Brother-in-law of the Yangzhou prefect… Can you teach me how to tame this dog?”
“Do you want to become a beggar?”
“Of course I don’t want to.”
“Then, I can’t teach you.”
The old beggar swung the branches of the jujube tree, preparing to leave. She looked at the Tibetan Mastiffs’ eyes, then she looked at the tightly shut door one more time. In the end Jinxia stood up and chased after the old beggar.
“I’ll treat you to eat… no, to a drink.”
“Why, do you want to flatter me?”
“You have such great skills, why are you a beggar?”
“In this world, you know, there is such a kind person who’s got the power to turn even the most skilled people into beggars.”
“I still don’t know your name, how should I address you?”
The old beggar was about to stroke his beard, imitating a dignified person’s gesture but found the action to be a bit arrogant, therefore he said, “I’m just an ordinary person, for some reason faith brought me here. I travelled around places, the name does not need to be questioned.”
Jinxia looked at him blankly, “Uncle, according to the Ming Dynasty’s law, a refugee must return to his homeland. People like you with no clear origins and no family can be directly sent to the defense group at the border to work.”
“Ahem, Ahem, you, young lady, judging from your face, you seem very friendly, but once you open your mouth, those words are rubbish. Women who talk like that, often chase others away.” The old beggar brushed off the fur in his hand, laughed and said, “I’m not a person without an origin. The Supreme Leader of JinYiWei, Lu Bing, you must be familiar with him. According to the family position, my position would be equal to his, and his son can be counted as my grandchild.”
“……”
Jinxia was bewildered for a moment, but then laughed a little and said, “What a coincidence, your grandchild is here. Senior, do you want me to bring you to see him?”
“……”
Inside the clinic building.
Under the guidance of the physician’s assistant, YangYue helped Yang Chengwan sit down on a chair, after that he stood and patiently waited. Lu Yi was sitting in the back on a flowery-patterned chair opposite from him. His eyes were examining every corner of the clinic, adorned with calligraphies and paintings hanging on the wall.
If searching for a well-known physician to visit his father’s leg was a mere courtesy, accompanying him to his examination session showed that Lu Yi had an unusual level of concern. The reason behind Lu Daren’s great attention toward his father made YangYue a little surprised.
After waiting for him for a while, the physician Shen Mi entered the room while wiping his hands.
Shen Mi promptly washed his hands in the bronze wash bin, then sat next to Yang ChengWan. He was not in a rush to examine Yang ChengWan’s leg, but instead, looked with attention at his face, then reached out to take his pulse.
YangYue didn’t have to tell him anything, because after checking his pulse, he knew exactly which area on the leg was hurting. He rolled up Yang ChengWan’s pants and inspected his old scars, pinching the leg with his finger. Once done, he frowned: “This bone was not joint correctly a few years ago, if it were to be healed, it would’ve had to be broken again and then reconnected. This is not a difficult process… The problem is that you are at an old age, to reconnect the bones, you need to at least take a rest for three months and also to keep your body temperature and blood circulation flowing well, so that there would be no blood clots occurring, Are you willing to do it?”
YangYue’s heart tightened: breaking a bone and reconnecting it, it would surely be an extremely painful process, but that stage could be easily passed by his father… However, not being able to walk for three months and having been assigned to come to Yangzhou to investigate a case, how would his father manage to work?
At this point, Yang ChengWan opened his mouth and said, “Thank you doctor, my age is indeed old, and I also do not want to experience extreme pain a second time, I think it’s better…”
“Senior!” Lu Yi got up and interrupted him, “Three months of rest is not a problem. I will ask Liu Daren to allow you on a leave for six months.”
Yang ChengWan was going to refuse and was about to say something but Lu Yi already knew what he was going to say, “If Senior considers this to be inappropriate, I can also ask for a transfer warrant. I could transfer you to the *Beizhen Department so that you won’t have to worry.”
*[Beizhen Department = A JinYiWei department, TN]
“You can’t, you shouldn’t, you absolutely should not…” Yang ChengWan hurriedly replied.Lu Yi chuckled, “If Senior really doesn’t want to, then be at ease and treat your injuries. Actually, this is my father’s order, and it’s not only about treating your injury, just consider it as you agreed because of Yan Yuan, so that I don’t have a difficult time explaining the situation to my father.”
