The night was deeply dark.
Chen Yulian took Zhang Yuner by the hand, walking briskly together along the main road, and before long they returned to their own courtyard.
The courtyard was not particularly spacious; it was an ordinary small yard. The front rooms facing the street were opened up to run a grain shop business, while the rear was enclosed by a circle of a dozen low, blue-tiled brick rooms used as bedrooms.
Although the rooms looked somewhat aged inside, they were kept exceptionally clean.
In this day and age, being able to afford this kind of setup with a shop in front and a courtyard in the rear could not be considered powerful or influential nobility, but it was still much better than those impoverished bottom-feeders who lacked food and clothing. It counted as a slightly well-off and substantial household.
Usually, their family of four plus Shen Xiuying, who helped with the bookkeeping, lived in these dozen rooms, making ends meet well enough.
"How did it go?"
Just as they stepped inside, a middle-aged man with a face full of worry greeted them. This man was Chen Yulian's husband, Zhang Maochun, who was also Zhang Qiang's father.
Zhang Maochun had run the grain shop on this street for many years, acting as a man of worldly and adaptable ways. Relying on the accumulation of these past few years, he had earned a fairly substantial family foundation and was a moderately well-known grain shopkeeper in this market street.
However, the people he could deal with on ordinary days were merely common folk of the marketplace or idle vagrants from various factions.
Now that Zhang Qiang had gotten into trouble with officialdom, those street ruffians he usually knew lacked the courage even to court disaster from the authorities. As for those truly powerful and influential lords, how could he possibly be in a position to speak with them?
His son's predicament left him with idle wealth yet nowhere to turn for help.
"Alas."
Chen Yulian pulled her daughter into the house, let out a sigh, and proceeded to recount the situation regarding Li Feng's arrangements inside the City Guard Office prison.
Zhang Qiang would not be subjected to major tortures for the time being, but the prison had cut off his food and water. If they wanted him to have meals, their own family would have to deliver them at night.
Hearing this, Zhang Maochun slumped into a chair, let out a long breath, and then cursed with a face full of resentment:
"Bah! I've told him countless times before to honestly stay in the shop and help me manage the livelihood, but he simply wouldn't listen! All day long he only knows how to fool around outside, idling his time away. If he were merely idling away time, that would be one thing, but he just had to be bold enough to let his lust get the better of him, completely unable to read the room, and dared to harass a pretty woman the moment he laid eyes on one."
"And now look at this! He actually went and harassed the newly appointed chief constable of the City Guard Office!"
"Bringing this kind of disaster upon himself now, it's all that beast asking for trouble. Even though Xiaofeng serves in the City Guard Office, he is ultimately just a white runner with no power or influence in his hands. How could he possibly have any say in the City Guard Office?"
Hearing this, Chen Yulian wiped the corner of her eye and defended Li Feng, saying, "Stop complaining as well. If Xiaofeng hadn't gone to the prison to plead for him, we wouldn't even have a way to deliver silver."
Zhang Maochun shook his head and was about to say something else when the door curtain was lifted and a young woman wearing a floral-print dress walked in, carrying a pot of hot tea in her hands.
The woman was around sixteen or seventeen, with a slender figure and a rather delicate appearance. She was none more than Uncle Shen's daughter, Shen Xiuying.
In her earlier years, she had spent a few years studying under a scholar, and nowadays she was hired by Zhang Maochun to help do some bookkeeping work in the grain shop.
"Sister Yulian, Brother Maochun, don't worry yourselves just yet. Have a cup of hot tea first. I heard everything about what you were just discussing outside. Right now, being able to preserve Qiangzi's life is already an unfortunate stroke of the greatest luck."
Shen Xiuying consoled them.
Although she spoke this way on the surface, she actually had other thoughts in her heart.
She had long felt that this person Zhang Qiang was utterly unprincipled on ordinary days, knowing only how to fool around outside all day long, and sooner or later he would stir up trouble.
And sure enough, after downing a few catties of cheap liquor, he had dared to casually harass a pretty woman. Now that he was locked up in prison, it wasn't entirely a bad thing; it would serve precisely to let him suffer through the prison's methods, ruthlessly curing that heaven-defying and ignorant temperament of his.
Perhaps after a while, once he got out of trouble and came out, he might actually grow a bit of sense and break these foul habits of stirring up trouble.
However, these tactless words were things Shen Xiuying would only think to herself; there was no way she would speak them aloud before her employers.
Chen Yulian took the hot tea and looked at Shen Xiuying before her. A thought stirred in her mind, recalling what she had just said to Li Feng in the courtyard.
"Xiuying, come, sit down and talk. Sister has a few words she wants to say to you."
Chen Yulian pulled Shen Xiuying's hand and probed tentatively:
"Xiuying, you should be turning sixteen this year, right? Sister has been pondering over finding a good match for you. Do you still remember Li Feng? The one you used to follow around running behind when you were little. He now serves in the City Guard Office, and he's quite steady and hardworking. He's a man with a secure livelihood. Sister is thinking this: you two know each other inside and out, so if you could make a pair, that would be simply wonderful."
While speaking, although Chen Yulian wore a smile on her face, she was secretly plotting her own little calculations in her heart.
In these words, she deliberately kept a trick up her sleeve, quietly concealing the fact that Li Feng was still merely a "white runner".
A girl like Xiuying had studied for a few years, so her pride and aspirations naturally weren't low. If she had laid all the facts bare right from the start, the other party would surely have harbored disdain in her heart and refused without even being willing to meet once.
It was better to be vague first, bring the two of them together to meet each other, and as for future matters...
Xiaofeng was a diligent boy in his work; sooner or later there would come a day when he was promoted to a formal runner. It wasn't impossible that he could even rise to become a chief constable like his brother-in-law. By the time that arrived, what she said today naturally wouldn't count as deception.
Upon hearing this, Shen Xiuying was slightly startled, a trace of unnaturalness flashing across her fair face, but she quickly recovered.
When she was outside the door just now, she had already heard the entire conversation between Sister Yulian and Brother Maochun. How could she possibly fail to hear that Sister Yulian had deliberately concealed the fact that Li Feng was still a white runner?
Li Feng truly had been exceptionally handsome when he was little, or else she wouldn't have kept following behind his coattails all the time. But now that she had grown up, she truly understood that in this world, one couldn't make a living relying solely on a good facade.
For a woman seeking something to lean on, she ultimately had to look first at the thickness of the family foundation, whether there was real gold and silver in the pocket, and only last at looks and appearance.
A bottom-tier white runner like him, relying on that bit of salary every month, couldn't even support himself, let alone the fact that he had a sister-in-law bedridden with severe injuries at home.
She herself had after all studied under a scholar for a few years, was literate, and possessed some charm. Even if she couldn't marry into those powerful and influential families, there were no knowing how many shopkeepers and merchants outside who wanted to marry her into their households to manage the inner quarters as a bookkeeper. How wonderful it would be to just write and do accounts every day.
As for marrying a precarious white runner like this who licked blood off the edge of a blade every day, wouldn't that ruin her entire life?
"Sister Yulian..."
Shen Xiuying lowered her eyelids slightly, a troubled look appearing on her face as she politely declined:
"Xiaofeng-ge is a good person, but I don't want to get married so early right now. Besides, having learned some literature and arithmetic these past few years, I just want to find a household in the future that has use for this craft, so I can help manage the accounts for the family. Since Xiaofeng-ge spends all day wielding blades and handling official cases, how could he possibly have any use for my skill with literature and bookkeeping?"
Though spoken tactfully, anyone with clear eyes could hear the meaning of rejection within these words.
Chen Yulian's expression stiffened, and for a moment she didn't know what to say.
Zhang Maochun at the side also chimed in: "That's right, Yulian. This girl Xiuying is exceptionally skilled with the abacus; she manages the accounts for our grain shop with absolute clarity, and in the future she's meant to marry a respectable, wealthy shopkeeper. Although the child Xiaofeng is good, he truly isn't a good match for Xiuying. You stop meddling blindly; you'll only end up wronging Xiuying."
Though he was persuading his wife on the surface, Zhang Maochun actually harbored a completely different set of calculations in his own heart.
In his eyes, this girl Xiuying was bright-eyed and spirited, had studied for a few years, and could do accounts; she counted as a rare and fine young woman.
When he had deliberately recruited Xiuying into his grain shop to manage accounts back then, he had secretly harbored a selfish motive.
He originally thought that if his own son could inherit the family business, he could just take advantage of this close proximity to help him cultivate more affection with Xiuying, and then in the future smoothly marry Xiuying into the family.
Who could have imagined that that bastard Zhang Qiang only knew how to idle around and stir up trouble outside all day long, never doing a single proper thing.
Xiuying was a proud and ambitious girl with a head on her shoulders, so naturally she looked down from the bottom of her heart on his son, who couldn't be helped up like mud on a wall.
However, now that Qiangzi had entered the big prison, grieving as Zhang Maochun was, deep down he also secretly harbored a faint glimmer of expectation: he only hoped that this unfilial son could suffer enough hardship in the big prison, and when he finally escaped and got out of prison in the future, he could truly turn over a new leaf and live an honest life.
When that time came, he would try to pull strings in the middle and see if these two kids could actually make it work.
Hearing her husband speak thus, Chen Yulian could only heave a helpless sigh and drop the matter entirely: "Sigh, you're right. It's just that Sister thought too simply. Let's consider this matter as if Sister never brought it up."
Shen Xiuying lowered her head obediently and said no more.
Before you continue