Jin Shanyao knocked on the gate of the Zhao Residence, and it opened from within. The servant's eyes were full of expectation, but the moment he saw Jin Shanyao, it shattered completely.
He muttered, "It's not the young master, not the young master."
Seeing his distracted expression, Jin Shanyao rapped on the gate. "Go tell your master I know where his young master is." At those words, the servant's eyes flew wide open.
"Y-you really know where our young master is?"
Jin Shanyao gave him a cool glance and handed him the ox's lead rope. The servant had seen all sorts of people, but this was the first time he had met anyone as composed as Jin Shanyao.
She probably had real skills, so he didn't dare neglect her.
He called someone over to look after the ox cart, then led the visitors inside. Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci held Jin Shanyao's hands, their hearts uneasy.
They secretly looked around. The walls of the Zhao Residence were taller than the houses in their village, and its courtyard was bigger than the village head's. Even the doors and windows were painted vermilion, unlike those in Little River Village, where every household left its wood its natural color.
The two little tots had their eyes opened, but they were also a little sad. They couldn't say why; they just couldn't feel happy.
Hurried footsteps came from the courtyard, followed by a crowd of people pouring out. They saw that Jin Shanyao was a young girl of eighteen or nineteen.
Their expressions varied. The master of the Zhao Residence, Zhao Mingjing, asked urgently, "Miss, do you know where my son is?"
Jin Shanyao lifted her eyelids slightly and said nothing.
Zhao Mingjing stamped his feet in anxiety. "Do you know or not?"
Imitating a wandering fortune-teller, Jin Shanyao smiled mysteriously. "One divination to find a person costs a hundred taels."
"Beat her and throw her out..."
Zhao Mingjing's sharp shout made Jin Shanyao's heart skip a beat. How could this man turn hostile just like that? Before she could explain, she was shoved outside.
Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci were thrown out along with her.
The three stood outside the gate, looking at one another.
Meng Anci was the first to recover. He pattered forward and pounded desperately on the gate. "Let our ox out!"
Thump, thump, thump... "The ox, our ox!"
Jin Shanyao walked over to a stone lion, picked at its teeth, and sat cross-legged on the ground. She released her spiritual power and connected with the vegetation in the Zhao Residence to ask where the young master had gone.
A Guihua tree over a hundred years old stood in the courtyard of the Zhao Residence. Its branches were thick and full of life, and, relying on its age, it had sucked up all the nutrients around it. Just as it was enjoying the sunlight,
A clear voice rang out. "Did you see where the young master of the Zhao Residence went?"
The Guihua tree snorted softly. "Where did you little flowers and grasses come from, daring to speak to me like that? Call me Lord Guihua."
"To hell with your lordship!" Jin Shanyao slapped it with a burst of spiritual power. She was a thousand-year-old tree; how could she let a hundred-year-old sapling bully her? The blow sent the Guihua tree's flowering branches shaking wildly.
It finally opened its eyes to the world. The moment it felt the fluctuations of spiritual power, it came fully awake. "Calm your anger, High God! Calm your anger! I saw the young master. Concubine Liu took him away."
Jin Shanyao murmured, "Mm. Go on."
Go on how... that's all there is... The Guihua tree trembled violently. "High God, they left the residence. Why don't you ask the trees outside?"
Seeing that she could get nothing more out of it, Jin Shanyao sent her Divine Sense past the other vegetation and out of the residence. Following directions from other trees, she tracked them all the way to a warehouse on the outskirts of the city.
Inside the warehouse, the delicate, pretty young master lay on the ground, tied up like a zongzi.
Jin Shanyao withdrew her spiritual power. By then, Meng Anci and Meng Anzhi had gotten the gate of the Zhao Residence open again. Zhao Mingjing stood inside, looking down at her.
"Can you really divine where my son is?" He was truly out of options. Even a kidnapper ought to have sent a message, but three days had passed without a word.
Jin Shanyao beckoned him over.
Zhao Mingjing came closer, half believing and half doubting her. Jin Shanyao whispered, "A warehouse in the west of the city. The character 'Wang' is written on its door. There's a traitor in your residence. Don't let anyone know."
Zhao Mingjing's anxious eyes turned sharp in an instant. He gave Jin Shanyao a meaningful look, ordered someone to keep an eye on her, and went alone to the warehouse in the west of the city.
Jin Shanyao was dumbfounded. What does he mean, keep an eye on me? I haven't gotten a single copper yet. Even if you drove me away, I wouldn't leave.
She curled her lip and plopped down on the ground. Meng Anci and Meng Anzhi sat on either side of her, their eyes drifting now and then to the old ox in the servant's hands.
Their ox had become a hostage.
About two hours later, Zhao Mingjing returned carrying a boy. He entrusted his son to his wife's care.
He walked up to Jin Shanyao and bowed respectfully. "Master, it was thanks to your help that I found my son." As he spoke, he led her into the study.
Zhao Mingjing personally poured water for the three of them and thoughtfully served the two children a plate of sweets.
"Master, you said there was a traitor in my household. Could you tell me plainly who it is? I'm willing to pay double."
Jin Shanyao shook her head. "I only take jobs finding things and people."
Zhao Mingjing pressed his lips together for a long while, then rose and bowed again. "Thank you, Master. If I'd been a step later, I'm afraid I would never have seen my son again."
Jin Shanyao smiled faintly without speaking. The crack in her inner core had grown a little smaller again. From this, she could tell that as long as she kept doing good deeds, the day her inner core was repaired was within reach.
Then she would be a golden ginkgo tree again.
Jin Shanyao took the hundred taels and led Meng Anci and Meng Anzhi out of the study by the hand. She faintly heard the Guihua tree complaining to the flowers and grasses that she was an old antique who knew nothing.
She had spent all those years holed up in a tree pit, growing only her spiritual power and not her knowledge. How did that saying go? "A... upstart from the countryside. Hahahaha..."
The laughter cut off halfway through. All the flowers and grasses curled their edges and shrank back.
Zhao Mingjing saw her staring at the Guihua tree and asked in puzzlement, "Master, is there something wrong with this tree?"
"This tree clashes with your fate. Cut it down." With that, she turned and left.
Zhao Mingjing had never been superstitious before, but after this, he thoroughly believed in ghosts and gods. Without another word, he called the servants over to cut down the hundred-year-old Guihua tree for firewood.
Jin Shanyao led the ox cart leisurely out of the city gate.
The drivers and villagers waiting outside the city recognized Jin Shanyao at once. They looked surprised to see her leading an ox cart.
"Little Aunt of the Meng family, whose ox cart is that?"
Leaning against a sack of rice, Jin Shanyao smiled. "I bought it. I made a little money selling herbs and spent it all on this." As she spoke, she patted the ox on the rump. The old ox mooed twice and quickened its pace for a couple of steps.
The villagers wanted to ask more, but she had already gone far away. The hired drivers would wait until the city gate closed before heading back.
Several people sat in an ox cart, chatting on and off. "Does digging herbs really make that much money?"
"Of course. A nephew from my maiden family makes his living in the mountains. If he finds something good, he can earn dozens of taels."
"That much? You're making me want to try."
"Don't even think about it. Money comes quickly in the mountains, but death comes just as quickly. Nine out of ten herb gatherers get hurt. That's not money we can earn."
"Oh my, look at the things on her ox cart, though. She bought quite a lot."
"Tsk, tsk... She doesn't know how to manage a household. No matter how much she earns, she won't save any of it. Just you wait and see. That woman will squander everything the Meng family's third branch has."
The sound of their chatter gradually faded into the distance.
Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci lay on the ox cart, looking up at the blue sky and white clouds and laughing aloud. The whole day had been like a dream. They had gone to a big city, seen so many houses, and even eaten meat buns.
"Sis, I'll make sure you and Little Aunt live in a big house someday too."
"As big as Master Zhao's?"
"Even bigger than his."
The two little ones looked at each other and giggled. Meng Anci had never had any notion about houses before. Only after entering the Zhao Residence did he realize how poor his own family was.
He would dig herbs and earn money, lots and lots of money. He didn't want to see a look like the one the ready-made clothing shop assistant had given him again. That look had made him uncomfortable all over.
"Little Aunt, how many taels is one copper?"
Jin Shanyao couldn't help laughing. The little cub still didn't know the values of money, so she said, "A thousand copper coins equal one tael. Why, Anci, do you want to learn arithmetic?"
Meng Anci's eyes darkened as he calculated that five copper coins could pay for one trip into the city, and two could buy a meat bun.
How many buns could a thousand copper coins buy? He couldn't work it out.