Set Sail

Early the next morning.

Jia Lian was still sleeping off his drunkenness, so Sun Shaozong naturally became the overall commander of the entire household. He first crammed the mountains of luggage and miscellaneous items into several large carts, then sent someone to the rear courtyard to invite the ladies to set off.

In the midst of his busy schedule, Sun Shaozong recalled Jia Lian's drunken remarks from that day and secretly inspected Lin Daiyu's luggage. Seeing that it was indeed as shabby as he had expected, he could not help but sigh.

As the saying went, "A prefect who served cleanly for three years still amassed a hundred thousand taels of silver." The Salt Administration Office was one of the finest lucrative posts in the realm—worth more than ten prefectural posts combined.

No matter how incorruptible Lin Ruhai had been, he should still have possessed at least a million taels of silver. Yet now, all that remained were these worthless odds and ends. Combined with Jia Lian's drunken confession that he had wronged Daiyu, the whereabouts of that silver became obvious.

"Why are you sighing, Shaozong?"

At that moment, Jia Yucun's voice suddenly came from behind him.

Sun Shaozong's heart skipped a beat. He hurriedly turned around and brushed it off. "Lord Lin was such an incorruptible official, yet he died so young. Is that not a pity?"

"Alas~"

Jia Yucun sighed as well and said sentimentally, "Brother Ruhai truly possessed talents capable of governing the world, yet who would have thought Heaven would begrudge such talent and take him from us so soon? Fortunately, he still had such distinguished relatives as Rongguo Mansion. Otherwise, it would be one thing if no one handled his affairs after death, but what was to become of my poor, lonely female student?"

Distinguished relatives were, in truth, relatives with a very high price tag!

Hearing Jia Yucun place such heavy emphasis on the words "distinguished relatives," Sun Shaozong knew that the old fox had also seen through the situation. Yet every word he spoke praised Rongguo Mansion, without the slightest flaw to pick at. He truly was crafty to the extreme.

Before long, an old maid came out and shouted, "The young ladies are coming out! All irrelevant persons, move aside!"

Sun Shaozong knowingly led Feng Xin off to one side. Yet thinking of Daiyu, he could not help feeling curious. When the ladies emerged and boarded the carriages, he craned his neck for a look.

Beside Ruan Rong stood a tiny, frail figure, thin almost to the point of wasting away. Yet her features remained exquisitely beautiful; even if Yan Liben had returned to life, he might not have been able to paint such loveliness.

For a moment, even someone like Sun Shaozong, who preferred the fuller type, could not help entertaining a few improper thoughts. He hurriedly recited the Heart Cleansing Mantra three times in his heart:

More than three years, less than ten!

More than three years, less than ten!

More than three years, less than ten!

Only then did he come to his senses, as though he had been struck over the head with a club.

The group of more than ten set out, those on horseback riding and those in carriages sitting within, making their way in grand procession toward the docks. When they arrived, local officials were already waiting to see them off.

It was not appropriate for Sun Shaozong to handle this in Jia Lian's stead, so he handed it all over to Jia Yucun—after all, quite a few of them had come to bid Jia Yucun farewell as well.

Sun Shaozong first settled the ladies, then arranged the luggage in their respective cabins. Finally, he gave his own cabin a simple tidying. When he emerged, he saw Jia Yucun still exchanging pleasantries with people at the dock, apparently composing some affected farewell verse. Left with nothing else to do, he began wandering around the deck.

The vessel appeared to be an improved tower ship, roughly twenty-five meters long from bow to stern and about sixteen feet wide. There were three levels of cabins above and below the deck, with a central rail running straight through the ship. The stern rudder could be raised and lowered, and there was also a sweep oar seven or eight meters long. It looked somewhat different from the passenger ships he had ridden on the Yangtze.

After asking the boatmen, he learned that the Grand Canal was unlike the Yangtze. It contained many shoals, and when the time came, the rudder would not only fail to control the ship's direction—it might even get stuck on the riverbed. Thus, the rudder had to be raised, and the sweep oar used to maneuver forward and backward.

He was leaning over the stern, closely studying the "live rudder," when someone suddenly patted him on the shoulder.

Sun Shaozong knew it was Ruan Rong without even turning around. Smiling, he said, "What, you couldn't stand being cooped up below any longer?"

Ruan Rong squeezed in beside him. She first peered curiously downward a few times, but did not see anything particularly remarkable. Then she looked up at him with a smile. "Do you want to know what Sister Lin said about you just now?"

It turned out that while Sun Shaozong had been secretly watching Daiyu, Daiyu had also quietly observed him.

Though he was intensely curious, would Sun Shaozong be foolish enough to show it directly?

Seeing that no one nearby was paying attention, he lowered his head and gave her cheek a quick peck. With a chuckle, he said, "Why should I care what she said? As long as you like what you see, isn't that enough?"

"You're awful! Then I won't tell you!"

Ruan Rong coquettishly punched him in the chest, but in the end, she could not hold it in. Grinning, she revealed, "In the cabin just now, Daiyu said you had the heart of a fox wrapped in a bear's hide. She even warned me to be careful not to be fooled by your appearance."

As she spoke, she could not help giggling.

A bear's hide and a fox's heart?

That little girl truly had a sharp, cutting tongue!

Still, the description was rather fitting. A transmigrator like Sun Shaozong had indeed stuffed his own "heart" into someone else's skin.

After the two chatted for a few more moments, a servant came looking for them. Jia Yucun had already boarded the ship, he said, and asked whether they should depart at once.

Sun Shaozong naturally wanted to get moving as soon as possible. At his command, the boatmen shouted work chants as they untied the mooring ropes, pulled up the gangplank, and took out several poles to carefully push the ship away from the dock. Only then did they raise the sails and head upriver.

Along the way, Sun Shaozong either drank and sang with Jia Lian, engaged Jia Yucun in lofty conversation, or occasionally found a chance to whisper sweetly with Ruan Rong. Yet he rarely ran into Daiyu.

It was the depths of winter, and bitter winds swept across the river. Lin Daiyu's delicate little frame simply could not endure it, so she stayed curled up in her cabin, writing poetry and prose or chatting with Ruan Rong to pass the time.

One afternoon.

"Ah~!!!"

Sun Shaozong let out a miserable scream, clamping his legs together in pain as he rolled straight off the bed and onto the floor. He made muffled whimpering sounds, drawing in sharp breaths again and again.

Ruan Rong was so frightened that her face went pale. She rushed forward to support him and asked anxiously, "Brother Sun?! Are you all right? Should... should we find a doctor?!"

Her concern had thrown her into confusion. The passenger ship was currently passing through a hilly region, with cliffs over twenty meters high lining both banks of the river. Where could they possibly find a doctor?

Sun Shaozong groaned for a long while before barely managing to raise his vein-bulging face. Forcing a smile, he said, "I'm... I'm fine. Just let me recover for a bit... Hiss~ I'll be fine after I recover. You... you should go back to your cabin first. The deck is noisy right now. If someone comes looking for me, you won't be able to leave."

The deck truly was filled with noise at the moment. It sounded as though two groups of people were hurling insults at each other.

Though Ruan Rong was worried about Sun Shaozong's "injury," she was also afraid of being trapped inside his cabin. Under Sun Shaozong's repeated urging, she finally left, looking back every few steps.

After she left, Sun Shaozong immediately locked the cabin door. Clutching his "tail," he hopped about like a rabbit—where was the imposing tough man from before?

Thanks to reader "Read Too Many Bad Books" for the reward!

Scatter flowers in celebration of "Read Too Many Bad Books" becoming this book's first helmsman!