The punishment of the female imperial court

"Tuk-tuk-tuk."

The bamboo stick kept hitting the wall, making crisp sounds, stirring up wisps of mist in the alley and adding a bit of winter chill to the Longyuan City which had not yet awakened.

Suddenly, the bamboo stick did not touch the wall, but felt like clothes.

The owner of the bamboo stick squatted down, holding on to the wall, and touched a warm face, a young woman.

"Girl, are you okay?" The hoarse voice seemed to be rubbed by rough stones.

Yu Qiansi frowned and used all his strength to open his eyes a crack, and suddenly saw a strange face.

There were two black holes on the face, and the skin around the eye sockets spread into the eye sockets like shriveled tree roots.

Combined with the mist surrounding her and the strange voice, it felt like a ghost was walking around.

As if she heard the silent surprise of the woman in front of her, the blind girl smiled and said, "Are you injured? Can you still walk?"

Yu Qiansi nodded, then she remembered that she couldn’t see.

"Yes. The little beggar in the city said that you know some medical skills. I can pay you some silver and ask you to help me make some medicine."

Thinking of his own impoliteness just now, Yu Qiansi's tone became more respectful: "Excuse me, how should I address you?"

"There's no such thing as a name. Everyone calls me 'blind woman'."

Yu Qiansi glanced at the blind woman's neck under her tattered winter coat and said, "Then I'll trouble you."

"What do you mean by you and not yours?" The blind woman shook her head, not knowing what she was thinking: "If you are uncomfortable, just call me 'Mo Niang'."

Yu Qiansi stood up with the help of the wall and followed Mo Niang into the yard.

"Miss, have you lost your servants?" After the blind woman entered the room, she pointed accurately at the bamboo chair on the left. When she heard the creaking sound of the bamboo chair, she put down her bamboo stick, took three steps to the left, turned right, took out medicinal wine and other things from the cabinet, and turned around to put them on the small table next to the bamboo chair.

"how do I say this?"

"The girl speaks very nicely, and has a delicate complexion, but she is wearing beggar's clothes, and she even sprinkled swill on them. Is she hiding from her enemies?—"

Mo Niang's hand touched Yu Qiansi's wound, and she heard a suppressed scream.

"——This wound?" Mo Niang was stunned, "It was actually an arrow."

The wound already showed some signs of cracking, but it was still covered with a layer of smelly black mud, and some moss underneath.

This made Mo Niang curious and she wanted to see what the wound looked like.

"I'm sorry, my enemy is a bit difficult to deal with. If you..." Yu Qiansi's face was pale, he forced a smile, and just as he was about to stand up, he was pushed back.

Yu Qiansi knew that she couldn't see him, so he slowed down his voice and said softly, "I'm not playing hard to get, but I understand your concerns. My origins are unknown, and if I were a bad person, I would indeed bring endless troubles."

"Officials and bandits, in my eyes, it's all fate." The blind woman said, taking a clean cloth and wiping it carefully with medicinal wine. At the same time, she slowly said: "But I don't believe in fate."

Yu Qiansi's whole body tensed up in pain. He clenched his teeth and took a long time to calm down before realizing that the life that Mo Niang had just mentioned was not that life.

"Do you often save people?" Yu Qiansi tried to divert attention and asked through gritted teeth. "When I'm in a good mood, I like to do good deeds." Mo Niang snorted and pointed at Yu Qiansi, her finger almost poking her eyes: "You are lucky, I am very happy today."

"Aren't you afraid of becoming Mr. Dongguo?"

Mo Niang raised her head and laughed, her hearty laughter echoing in the low house. After a long while, she lowered her head and continued to clean the wound: "These are the only things in my house. If someone really wants to take them, it's not worth arguing with him for a few broken copper coins. I'm blind and I saved people. He took the things, so he wouldn't kill me, right?"

"You are quite open-minded."

The wound was finally cleaned, and Yu Qiansi breathed a sigh of relief. He did not realize that there was anything wrong with what he had just said. He just felt a burning pain on half of his back. He thought that the moss failed to block the dirty mud and infected the wound.

Mo Niang laughed heartily again: "You are right, young lady. As an old woman, I am good at this, I can take things easy!"

As she spoke, she pointed to her dark eye sockets. Yu Qiansi apologized and looked at Mo Niang in front of her, who could only express her emotions through her mouth. She felt a little sad, but also more admiration.

Mo Niang patted her on the shoulder and said, "Okay, take a rest. Give me the money and I'll go get some medicine. Don't worry, I go to buy medicine all the time, and no one will ask me about it."

Yu Qiansi quickly handed the entire purse to Mo Niang, who poured the money out onto the table and stuffed the purse back into her arms, only picking up a small piece of silver and copper coins from the pile.

After Mo Niang left, Yu Qiansi leaned back in his chair and looked around. Although the house was shabby, it was kept very clean and tidy.

All the items had their corners wrapped in cotton cloth, and wooden wedges were placed under the tables and chairs, just like the bamboo chair under him, which was neatly fixed in place.

Yu Qiansi shook her head. She couldn't tell what Mo Niang did for a living from the furnishings in the room. It looked more like an old inn.

As I was thinking about it, I heard the sound of Mo Niang's bamboo stick.

So fast? I didn't pay much attention when I came here. Is there a pharmacy nearby?
Mo Niang came back humming a tune, came in and threw her a bag of hot meat buns, then went out again, sat under the window, lit a fire and boiled medicine, it was very lively.

"Mo Niang, what do you do when you are in a bad mood?" Yu Qiansi asked outside the window while eating a meat bun.

The skin on her neck was visible, and Mo Niang was not very old, but her hands were dry, rough, and gray, like someone who was used to exerting force.

She calls herself an old woman, but she is familiar with historical allusions and speaks like an educated person.

Mo Niang laughed again, remembering what she had just said, "Do a good deed when you are in a good mood," and she thought that this woman was particularly interesting.

"An old woman does everything." Mo Niang was waving the palm-leaf fan in her hand and accidentally touched the medicine stove, almost burning herself.

"Living or dead, as long as someone wants me, I am willing to do it." She threw away the palm-leaf fan and tore off a piece of her clothes to fan the fire: "Before, I was the one who prepared the meals for the people guarding the charity cemetery in the surrounding area. One round trip a day, no delay! But now it's not possible, and I don't like it anymore."

"Let me do it." Yu Qiansi stood up and moved to the window, picked up the palm-leaf fan on the ground, and thought about what she had just said: "Because you are afraid of death?"

"What's so scary about the dead? I'm afraid of the living!"

Mo Niang leaned against the wall and said stealthily, "It's easy to deal with people who died of illness in a foreign land, but there are always some troubles for those who died suddenly. Dealing with these things is also easy to get into trouble. For example, the town outside Longyuan City near the imperial mausoleum, the one with a wooden bridge! The people in that town had a dispute over how to build a bridge over that river before."

Yu Qiansi paused the palm-leaf fan in her hand. She had been to that town two days ago.

Perhaps it was because Mo Niang was talkative, or perhaps she was in a good mood today, but until Yu Qiansi finished drinking the medicine and sat back in the bamboo chair in a daze, Mo Niang was still telling her about a murder case that had happened in the town.

After taking the medicine, she felt warm all over, and the meat buns she had eaten earlier turned into a soft song, which slowly made her fall asleep. (End of this chapter)