Chapter 5

The onlookers dispersed, and Meng Zhou walked against the flow, turning his gaze toward the imposing, old-fashioned general's residence.

The red paint had peeled off the pillars at the entrance, green weeds grew in the cracks between the steps, and two neglected loquat trees stood in the courtyard, their fallen leaves covering the ground.

Meng Zhou silently apologized to Jiang Yao. He was wondering whether selling Jiang Xin would raise six thousand taels when he turned and came face-to-face with someone familiar.

Meng Zhou: !!!

There was no telling how long Chu Huaiyin had been standing there watching. Meng Zhou froze with one foot half raised. It was not just the lying-remembering how he had moaned in front of Chu Huaiyin that night made his ears redden.

I'm a respectable man. Please don't get the wrong idea.

The interest in Chu Huaiyin's eyes had turned into something difficult to describe after hearing Meng Zhou's speech. He really was rather foolish, not worth further attention. No one understood Emperor Tianyuan better than he did as his son. Attempting to resolve this through Emperor Tianyuan was simply asking for trouble, stupidity beyond measure.

Losing interest, Chu Huaiyin signaled for Ji Yang to settle the matter and prepared to leave. He had come here on a whim and happened to expose a little swindler, who would ordinarily have been well worth teasing. Unfortunately, he liked clever people.

"Prince Huai, please wait!" Seeing Chu Huaiyin turn to leave, Meng Zhou called out to him in a moment of impulse.

Chu Huaiyin paused, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"Please keep today's events confidential, Prince Huai."

"Hmm?"

Meng Zhou hesitated, then simply spoke plainly. "His Majesty attends to countless affairs every day. What I said earlier was merely a stopgap measure. I had no intention of troubling His Majesty over such a trivial matter."

I'm buying time to raise the money. Please don't let it slip when you're chatting with your father.

Although Meng Zhou did not think Chu Huaiyin was a gossip, it was better to be safe.

Both of Meng Zhou's ears were red now. He did seem rather shameless. Someone of such high rank had overlooked his lies, yet here he was making one demand after another.

I underestimated him.

Chu Huaiyin turned around, neither agreeing nor refusing. The image of Meng Zhou solemnly declaring that his name was "Zhang Zhou" that night unexpectedly surfaced in his mind, and he ground his teeth.

It would have been one thing if this were someone irrelevant, but once he took the man seriously, being deceived no longer seemed so easy to brush aside.

Chu Huaiyin stared at the faintly flushed tips of his ears. His gaze drifted down out of habit to that pale, slender neck, then suddenly seemed stuck there with paste, clinging fast and impossible to pull away.

He closed his eyes briefly. A certain sensual scene rose in his mind, and the accusation he had been preparing would not leave his mouth. Instead, he suddenly said, "I do happen to have some money to spare."

Meng Zhou's eyes brightened slightly.

After a moment of chagrin, Chu Huaiyin put on a stern face. "But will you be borrowing it as 'Meng Zhou' or 'Zhang Zhou'?"

Meng Zhou saw a threat on Chu Huaiyin's face: "A worthy man does not accept food offered with contempt."

He wanted to ask why it had to be someone named Zhou. Couldn't Jiang Xin, the owner, borrow it? He glanced at Jiang Xin, who lay there like a dead pig, and the loan agreement already prepared beside them, then silently swallowed his question.

After reading through the agreement, Meng Zhou's gaze stopped. His delicate brows drew together slightly, and one cheek unconsciously puffed out. He seemed rather dissatisfied with its terms.

-If Meng Zhou could not repay the loan in full within one year, he would have to agree to do one thing for Prince Huai, no matter how great or small.

Chu Huaiyin raised an eyebrow. Meng Zhou could only turn to him now, and these terms were already generous enough. He had no fear that Meng Zhou would refuse. Yet seeing Meng Zhou's troubled expression, he felt that making a concession would not be such a bad thing either...

"Could you add another thousand taels?"

Meng Zhou had considered it at length. When you already had debts, another would not hurt. Six thousand taels was a loan, and so was seven thousand. Now that a sucker had finally appeared who could improve his living conditions, he would be letting himself down if he did not fleece him bald.

Chu Huaiyin gave a faint laugh. He had still underestimated the thickness of his skin. "Certainly," he said readily.

Ji Yang presented the red ink paste and watched Meng Zhou neatly sign and press his fingerprint onto the agreement. His gaze shifted slightly, and sure enough, he caught a fleeting smile on his master's face. His back teeth ached. Tsk, of course he would be pleased. He had clearly come to preserve the Jiang Clan's ancestral residence, only to stumble upon Meng Zhou and saddle him with an enormous debt. After all that, it amounted to gaining a Meng Zhou for free.

Chu Huaiyin put away the contract of indenture-no, the loan agreement-and took charge of everything. "I'll have someone handle this. You needn't concern yourself with it."

Last time, in the darkness of night, he had made a similar promise, and A-Juan had returned home the very next day.

Meng Zhou nodded. His obedient, trusting manner pleased Chu Huaiyin immensely.

Yet at that moment, Meng Zhou was thinking that he could not casually let the gambling den lead slip away. Could the people who had lured Jiang Xin to the gambling table and those who had tricked Jiang Yao into spending all her savings have been the same group?

The breakthrough he had searched for in vain had arrived.

Hauling the half-dead Jiang Xin off the ground, Meng Zhou took his leave of Chu Huaiyin and walked straight into the general's residence, slamming the heavy, half-peeled doors shut with a bang.

With "family matters to attend to," it would naturally have been inappropriate for an outsider like Chu Huaiyin to watch. He could only look on as Meng Zhou closed the doors without leaving so much as a crack.

"Master?"

"Let's go."

Jiang Xin was still young, but he had already grown taller than Meng Zhou, fully meeting the Jiang Clan's physical requirements for its men.

The servants remaining in the general's residence were all old, weak, sick, or disabled. Most were veterans who had retired after battlefield injuries or soldiers' widows. As a result, when the gambling den's men had pinned Jiang Xin to the ground, not a single person in the residence had been able to fight.

Splash-

A bucket of water poured down over Jiang Xin's head. Meng Zhou nudged him with his foot. If he had not shown some remorse at the end, Meng Zhou would not have bothered with this little nuisance.

Uncle Liu, the steward of the general's residence, was now sixty years old. He had watched Jiang Yao marry and the master and young master march off to war, until not one of them remained. When Jiang Xin began visiting the gambling den, he had tried to persuade him otherwise and even scolded him in his anxiety. But although Jiang Xin agreed readily enough to his face, the moment someone egged him on, he forgot everything.

With his face stern, Meng Zhou bore some resemblance to his uncle Jiang Yi. Uncle Liu secretly wiped the corner of his eye. For a fleeting moment, he seemed to see Jiang Yi returning victorious from battle and disciplining an unworthy junior in the family.

Jiang Xin shook his head and sat up groggily. Through his blurred vision, he saw someone before him who looked remarkably like Jiang Yi, whom he had never been able to defeat as a child.

His eyes widened. Shuffling forward on his knees, he clutched his older cousin's thigh and burst into tears. "Boo-hoo, you're finally back! I'm the only one left in the general's residence, and our cousin doesn't come anymore either. I can't do this, I'm scared... boo-hoo..."

As he cried, his face suddenly turned ashen. He remembered that he had already gambled away the general's residence, and Jiang Yi and Jiang Yao were even less likely to return.

Meng Zhou pushed at Jiang Xin, who resembled a lifeless gray statue. "All you know how to do is cry! Take a good look at who I am."

"Y-you're Meng... Meng Zhou?"

"Get up and have a match with me."

"A match of what?"

What else would they compete in at the general's residence besides martial arts? Meng Zhou had taken a look around. Apart from the worthless weapons, most of the belongings had been squandered away.

Meng Zhou nearly laughed in anger. Turning, he knocked Jiang Xin flat in a few moves and looked down at him. "Never mind that you can't shoulder the responsibility of the entire residence-you've even neglected your martial training! You still dare call yourself a Jiang? Dozens of people in this household depend on you to eat, yet you don't even have the strength to chop firewood. Are they all supposed to live on air?"

Jiang Xin flushed scarlet. Who said he lacked the strength to chop firewood? He sprang up from the ground and threw a punch at Meng Zhou with all his might.

Meng Zhou dodged with the motion, caught his arm, and pressed it down. Jiang Xin went face-first into the ground.

With his face pressed against the ground and his features twisted, Jiang Xin could not speak. Jiang Yao had also liked using this move. He suddenly remembered the terror of being at the mercy of the Jiang Clan siblings.

Meng Zhou released him. "If you still remember your surname, don't make Uncle Liu beg on the streets with you at his age."

Jiang Xin suddenly clung to Meng Zhou's thigh again, sobbing and sniveling. By family seniority, he was Meng Zhou's elder, yet he cried without the slightest concern for appearances. He had taken over as head of the Jiang Clan without really understanding what he was doing, frightened and helpless. After Jiang Yao died in particular, he felt utterly alone, with no one to rely on. Even as he spent his days in constant dread of ruining the Jiang Clan, he could not resist temptation and kept running to the gambling den.

After Meng Zhou's words, he felt as though he had found someone to rely on again and cried his heart out. At last, he was no longer alone.

Meng Zhou moved his leg helplessly. Why does a grown man love crying so much?

"Uncle Liu, pull him off."

Uncle Liu answered, "Yes," and only through their combined efforts did they manage to pry Jiang Xin off Meng Zhou's leg.

"Will you gamble again?"

"No!" Jiang Xin shook his head. He had learned his lesson. From now on, as long as he lived, the residence would stand, and even if he died, the Jiang Clan must not fall. The gambling den was not actually fun; he had only sought brief indulgence and something to cling to. Now that Meng Zhou had come, he had someone to rely on. A firm strength grew through his limbs and body. How could he possibly go back to the gambling den?

Somewhat satisfied, Meng Zhou counted five hundred taels from the banknotes Chu Huaiyin had given him, his expression cold. Under Jiang Xin's expectant gaze, he handed them to Uncle Liu.

"Repair the residence and buy a few guards. Being pinned down and beaten in front of the general's residence-aren't you ashamed? Have a physician examine all the elderly people here, whether they're ill or not."

Uncle Liu accepted the banknotes with trembling hands. Many of the elderly servants were plagued with injuries and illness. They had no money to see a physician and dared not ask for one, fearing they would burden the Jiang Clan, so they could only endure. He knew Meng Zhou had borrowed this money from Prince Huai, and gratitude and sorrow tangled in his heart.

"Would this little money be enough for good guards?" Jiang Xin sniffled.

Meng Zhou slapped him on the head. "Did I tell you to hire ready-made ones? Buy some teenage boys and train them yourselves! Are all the retired soldiers here just for show? Listen to Uncle Liu in everything."

Kneeling on the ground with his hands over his head, Jiang Xin said, "Yes, yes, yes!"

Meng Zhou straightened his clothes and glanced at the large patch of his robe soaked with tears, utterly speechless.

"I have things to do. I'm leaving."

Jiang Xin looked at Meng Zhou longingly. "When will you come again? How can I find you?"

"If you need anything, find me at the Court of Judicial Review. Don't go to the Meng residence."

Before Jiang Xin could understand that "don't go to the Meng residence," Meng Zhou had already disappeared through the doorway. Uncle Liu helped Jiang Xin up, briefly explained the situation in the Meng family, and sighed. "Young Master Meng hasn't had an easy time either." But the Jiang Clan's circumstances had been little better, and neither had the energy to concern themselves with the other. He had never expected that, in the end, Meng Zhou would be the one worrying over the Jiang Clan.

Jiang Xin's eyes reddened. He had not known much about all this before, only that he had never seen Meng Zhou again after his older cousin died. "I'll kill Meng Fushan for her!"

Uncle Liu hastily stopped Jiang Xin. "Young Master! The urgent task is to restore the Jiang Clan, so Young Master Meng has nothing to worry about behind him and can count on our help when needed."

Jiang Xin took several deep breaths and calmed down. Yes, he had to grow strong enough to protect every member of the Jiang Clan. He drew a long spear from the rack and, with his face beaten into the likeness of a pig's head, gritted his teeth and began training fiercely without a moment's pause.

Uncle Liu felt deeply comforted. The Jiang Clan still had two members of the younger generation; they would not disappoint Old Master Jiang... Putting aside his reflections, he took Meng Zhou's banknotes and carried out his instructions one by one.

Author's note: Math question: Chu Huaiyin and Meng Zhou both thought they had come out ahead, so who actually lost out?