With their hands behind their backs, Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci made three or four rounds inside and outside the house, but couldn't find a single leak.
How strange. When had their house been repaired?
After warming up the food, the three of them enjoyed another filling meal.
Afterward, Meng Anci and Meng Anzhi lay over the kang table, reading.
Meng Anci said, "Sis, the academy taught us the Standards for Students today. I'll teach you."
Meng Anzhi held a finger in a bowl of clear water, with a hollow reed floating in it. "No, thanks. Auntie taught me how to take a pulse today, and I need to practice until I can do it.
"I still haven't memorized the prescriptions for treating Qi stagnation and liver depression, either."
Ever since Meng Anci had entered the academy, their aunt had been teaching her alone to read. She wasn't teaching her beginner texts like the Three Character Classic or the Thousand Character Classic, but prescriptions.
"Anci, you were bullied at the academy today." It was a statement of fact. Meng Anci didn't deny it. He scoffed, "Just a few little brats. They're nothing to worry about."
Meng Anzhi nodded. Her younger brother could shut up the entire village, which showed he was no ordinary opponent. She had worried too much.
Half a shichen later, Jin Shanyao came in, hauled the two little cubs off the kang, and tossed them into the courtyard to catch the wildcat. The wildcat was nimble, and after months of trying, neither of them had managed to touch a hair on it.
Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci gritted their teeth, determined to catch the wildcat and wipe away their past humiliation.
But... everything remained the same.
The second branch of the Meng family.
Wang Guihua and Meng Hongyi lay on the kang, chatting. "They caught the killer in that murder case everyone's been talking about lately. Guess who gave them the clue."
Wang Guihua rolled her eyes. "I'm not guessing. I just want to know what we're eating tomorrow."
"Honestly, you lazy woman, you don't like using your brain one bit." Meng Hongyi tugged his pillow under his neck. "I heard a fortune-teller divined it. Guess who that fortune-teller was?"
"Meng Hongyi, what's wrong with you? It's the middle of the night, my stomach's growling with hunger, and you keep asking me to guess this and that. I guess you and our son have been sneaking food behind my back."
Meng Hongyi sat bolt upright. "Bullshit! Whatever food I've had, I've given to you and the children. When have I ever sneaked a bite?"
He lay back down as he spoke and reached over to tug at Wang Guihua, insisting she look at his face. "That poor relative of Third Brother's family. She was the one who divined it."
Wang Guihua went still. "Jin Shanyao?" she asked uncertainly.
"Right, her." Meng Hongyi glanced out the window and lowered his voice. "I heard the yamen rewarded her with fifty taels of silver."
"What? That much?" Wang Guihua perked up and sat up, her eyes shining. "Matchmaker Gao said Jin Shanyao brought back a whole bunch of food boxes, with dishes from the Top Scholar Tower. If I go butter her up a little, do you think our family might get a share?"
The more Wang Guihua talked, the more excited she became.
"Don't go yet. That woman's uncanny. Eldest Brother ran into a ghost today, and I suspect she had something to do with it."
Meng Hongyi pulled Wang Guihua back down and gently stroked her back. "I heard Eldest Brother muttering Third Brother's name, saying he'd never dare set his sights on the two children again.
"I'm warning you, don't go causing trouble during this time and end up bringing Third Brother back."
Wang Guihua spat. "Diao Siniang is no good. Those two children are Meng blood, no matter what anyone says, yet she just had to egg Eldest Brother on to sell them."
At the thought, she shoved Meng Hongyi away. "You're no good either."
"All right, all right. I tell you something in confidence, and look at you, pulling that face. Go to sleep." Meng Hongyi turned over impatiently.
The next day, Jin Shanyao watched Meng Anci enter the academy, then took Meng Anzhi to the Top Scholar Tower. The stable hand spotted her from a distance and hurried over to meet her.
"Miss, give me the reins. I'll park it for you."
Jin Shanyao waved a hand. "No need. Go ask your shopkeeper if he buys roe deer."
"Roe deer?" The stable hand looked at the ox cart, then at Jin Shanyao. He was truly baffled... Was this young lady rich or not? If she was poor, she could afford to eat at the Top Scholar Tower.
But if she was rich, she had come to sell a roe deer.
The stable hand stammered out an agreement and turned into the Top Scholar Tower. Soon, the shopkeeper came out with a smile to greet her.
"Master Jin, why are you standing outside? Please, come in."
Only after Jin Shanyao had left yesterday had he learned that a divination master had visited his establishment. What a misstep, what a misstep! He should have waived the entire bill and asked her for a divination.
Jin Shanyao smiled. "We've already eaten breakfast. We just came to ask whether you buy roe deer."
Without even looking at the ox cart, the shopkeeper said heartily, "I do. Master Jin, if you have game in the future, feel free to bring it to me." The game wasn't important; he mainly wanted to get to know Jin Shanyao.
Jin Shanyao lifted the roe deer with one hand and passed it to the shopkeeper. Caught off guard, he dropped it on the ground. He hadn't expected Jin Shanyao to be so strong when she looked so slender and frail.
The shopkeeper summoned a servant to take the roe deer to the kitchen, then fetched five taels of silver and handed them to Jin Shanyao.
He smiled and said, "Roe deer meat goes for fifty wen a jin. Yours weighs ninety-three jin, so that's 4,650 wen altogether. To make the accounting easier, I'll give you five taels of silver."
Jin Shanyao feared owing karmic debts most of all. She took out 350 wen and handed it to the shopkeeper, smiling. "If we're going to do business together for a long time, it's better to keep the accounts clear."
The shopkeeper held the copper coins and nodded awkwardly. "Yes, Master, you're right."
Jin Shanyao bid the shopkeeper of the Top Scholar Tower farewell and drove the ox cart to the spot where she had parked yesterday. Qin Baitang was taking down the window shutters. When he saw them approach, he smiled and nodded by way of greeting.
Jin Shanyao planted her cloth banner on the ox cart, sat cross-legged on the cart bed, and scanned the passersby.
Meng Anzhi copied her. The big one and the little one had exactly the same expressions and movements, like thieves searching for someone to target.
Out on the street, someone suddenly hollered, "Master! I found the master who went into the county yamen yesterday!"
As soon as the words were out, a crowd came rushing over.
Jin Shanyao was nearly knocked over. Bracing herself against the ox cart, she called out, "Line up! If you don't line up, I won't see you." The moment she finished, the crowd promptly formed two lines.
Those seeking divinations took up half the street, while a dozen or so people were there for treatment, most of them beggars or poor folk.
With so many people, how long would it take her to see them all? No, she had come to repay a kindness, not to make money telling fortunes in the mortal world.
Jin Shanyao came up with a plan and addressed the people in line. "For divinations, I'll only locate people or objects. I won't divine anything else. I'll do only one divination a day, and see three patients a day, then stop."
When she had checked her Spirit Core the night before, she had found that her merit hadn't increased. Presumably, Li Dequan hadn't gone to dig up the child's corpse.
Though she had explained her rules for divinations and treatment, most people were unwilling to leave. Perhaps the master would be in a good mood and perform an extra divination.
The woman at the front jabbed the person behind her with an elbow. "Didn't you hear the master say she'd only do one divination? Stay farther away from me. That dead-pig stink all over you is suffocating me."
The rather plump woman wore a greasy apron. Displeased, she said, "Do you own the road? Get your divination and mind your own business. What's it to you where I stand? Are you getting it done or not? If not, make way for me."
The first woman wanted to keep arguing, but feared angering Jin Shanyao and missing her chance at a divination.
"Master, my husband has a mistress. I've looked for a long time, but I still don't know where she's hiding. Please divine it for me."
Jin Shanyao gave her a cool glance. "Ten taels."
"What? Ten taels of silver? Are you crazy? Yesterday you charged Li Dequan only one wen for a divination. Do you think I'm easy to bully, so you can ask the sky for a price?"
Jin Shanyao gave her a brief glance. "If you don't want a divination, leave the opportunity to the people behind you."
The woman spat. "Ten taels of silver? I could have Zhang Banxian divine my fortune twenty times for that. A master, you say? I say you're nothing but a money-grubber."