Miao Chu

Chapter 67 Scream
Song Miao felt a chill run down her spine. She looked at the oil lamp she was holding and resisted the urge to blow it out immediately.

At this moment, two guards had already come out of the outhouse and stood by the door, very vigilant, and made a "shush" gesture to Song Miao.

Even if they don't remind her, Song Miao won't answer.

The person outside knocked on the door again, but received no response. Undeterred, they continued to knock.

This time, the person outside didn't call out "Miss Song," but instead said, "Miss, I'm not a bad person. I'm from the Liao family on the bamboo street up ahead. My surname is Deng, and I'm here to see Miss Zhu—call her over, she knows me!"

He urged again, "Her brother-in-law and my husband had an accident together. Tell her to come out!"

The voice was very urgent, and it definitely sounded like a woman. She kept urging me on while banging on the door and shouting, "Something terrible has happened! Hurry, we can't afford to delay!!"

Sun Lizheng's younger brother, Sun Er, was a compulsive gambler and had often associated with Song Dalang in the past. Even Song Miao knew of him.

Hearing that something had happened to him, although he didn't know if it was true or not, he didn't dare to delay at all and hurried back to call Zhu.

Hearing the commotion, Madam Zhu went outside and called out from afar, "Madam Deng, what happened to Old Sun's second brother!"

Through the door, Deng cursed, "You two rotten bastards went to a shady gambling den in the Sang family's brothel in the east of the city. They lost big and had no way to pay back the money. Now that the debtor has come to collect, they came to my house with two fingers and said that if they don't come up with the money by tomorrow morning, they'll chop off their arms as payment—and they're on their way to your uncle's house right now!"

As she cursed, she started to cry.

Zhu was startled and hurriedly went to open the door. Sure enough, Deng was standing outside, holding a lantern in her hand, with no one else by her side.

Madam Deng kept wiping away her tears, saying, "I really have no other choice. I wanted to talk to you and your husband, but I heard that he had taken up a post and left. I also heard that you came to Song Family Restaurant. I couldn't find your husband, so I had to come to you!"

Zhu hurriedly asked if they owed more money, and then asked several other people.

"My old Liao owes over eight hundred strings of cash. I don't quite remember how much your Sun Er owes, but it's always more, never less. Seven or eight hooligans came, armed with sticks and clubs..."

Upon hearing this, not only could Zhu Shi no longer contain herself, but even Sun, the head of the neighborhood, could no longer sit still. If it weren't for the people holding him back, he would have rushed out by now.

"Young Madam Song," Madam Zhu turned to Song Miao hurriedly, "Something has happened at home, I'm afraid I can't stay with you tonight!"

Song Miao knew the importance of the matter and immediately replied, "It's alright here, Auntie, go home quickly. If you need anyone's help, just call me and I'll be there for you."

As he spoke, he lit a lantern and put it on Zhu's head.

Zhu and Deng left in a great hurry.

As soon as the two left, Sun, the village head, immediately came out and paced anxiously around the room, cursing, "That bastard, why didn't he just die at the gambling table!"

He added, "My uncle and aunt can't possibly stand it. What if some scoundrel comes knocking on their door with his fingers..."

The guards in the room could all sense his unease and his desire to go along and check on things, but none of them dared to say anything.

The only person who knows the people here is Sun Lizheng. If he leaves, others may not be able to recognize all the people coming and going. But if we don't let him leave, after all, his family has encountered such a big problem, who can stop him?

Seeing this, Song Miao thought for a moment and said, "It's so late at night, Uncle Sun can't really help much by going alone. Why don't we talk to the officials and ask some of the patrolmen on duty to come and guard the place? With the patrolmen outside, those hooligans will have to think twice."

Sun, the village head, was also in a hurry and his mind was a complete mess. Upon hearing this, he immediately replied, "Exactly! Exactly!"

But after trying for a long time, he still couldn't figure it out.

Song Miao then chimed in, "Inspector Xin is not here right now. I wonder if any of the officials could offer some advice?"

"I'll send someone over!"

The acting squad leader didn't dare let Sun, the village head, leave, but arranging for a few patrolmen to go was effortless. He immediately called over a man, gave him clear instructions in front of everyone, and finally said, "Go quickly!"

The man turned and ran.

After the man left, the soldier said to Sun, the village head, "Old Sun, don't worry. Xiao Wang is fast and knows the patrolmen well. With them watching over things, it's more effective than if you go yourself. It won't cause any problems."

Sun Lizheng thanked him profusely, but remained absent-minded.

Because of this incident, everyone in the room felt uncomfortable.

After returning to her room, Song Miao simply lay down fully clothed, unable to fall asleep, only managing to rest with her eyes closed.

***
Everyone here was on tenterhooks, and even Liao, the head of the household, was equally unsettled after returning home from Master Wu's residence.

He tossed and turned in bed, finally falling asleep, only to be woken up by his wife.

"A messenger has come from the south of the city, urgently looking for you!"

Liao, the head of the household, suddenly stood up and felt a sharp pain in his waist. It took him a while to recover, and he quickly threw on a coat and hurriedly went out.

Upon seeing him come out, the messenger immediately said, "Boss, something seems off at Nanxun Gate. The lookout saw several unfamiliar faces come in this afternoon, then disappeared in the blink of an eye, only to reappear in the evening, just wandering around the area."

"Didn't anyone report it?"

"No, I went to look for them specifically, but they said they hadn't heard anything. The business owners are afraid something might happen, so they didn't dare to make a decision on their own. They just called me over to ask the manager how to handle it."

"Tell everyone to disperse first," Liao said without hesitation. "Clean up the place and make sure no one notices anything amiss."

"And the commission for the past few days..."

"They can cover it themselves at the venue."

For Liao, the leader, "I paid for it myself" was just a sentence, but for those below him, it meant many days of work were for nothing.

The messenger hesitated for a while, but dared not object. Finally, he agreed and hurriedly left.

But before Liao could go back to his room and lie down, another servant came in to report that something had happened in another neighborhood in the east of the city.

"Zhang Laizi brought a few strangers, saying he wanted to gamble at the door. The guard at the door looked at them and thought one of them looked familiar, like a constable from the yamen—he had just seen him when he was in jail last time..."

If Liao could have dismissed the first messenger as a coincidence, now that it was the second, he was on high alert.

He ordered the man to go back and disperse the crowd, while also urgently summoning his men and instructing them to inform all the neighborhoods in the city to close down their businesses for the next couple of days to avoid trouble.

Seeing that everyone had been sent out, he summoned two trusted confidants and said to the first one, "Go to Nanxun Gate and tell them not to assume I don't know. Tell them to do some messy things in that house. If they don't cause a scene, I can still protect them a bit. But if they make a big fuss, I won't be able to protect them anymore!"

The man hurried off.

He then said to another, "Tell Diao Zi not to make a move yet, lest we attract attention."

Having received the order, the confidant also hurriedly left.

After sending all these people away, Liao the Master was still not at ease.

Today, he had originally arranged for Diao Zi to lead a group of men to capture the Song family's daughter from Suanzao Lane.

Five or six strong men shouldn't be unable to capture a young woman. Once she's sent to the Wu family, he won't have to worry about anything else.

He found those imperial students troublesome and didn't want to provoke them, but to Master Wu, they were nothing.

When the aggrieved party is gone, we can say whatever we want about this house.
If the question really came to the Song family's daughter, Master Wu would help cover for her and wouldn't let her say anything bad.

But who would have thought that such an unexpected event would happen tonight?

I hope I'm just overthinking it, and even if something does happen, it's just a problem at one or two venues, and not that they're targeting me.

After being delayed outside for half a day, when Liao returned to his room, he found his wife not asleep, but sitting at the table with a worried look on her face.

As soon as her husband entered, Liao's wife said, "Honey, I think we should just give up those places and leave them alone..."

"What are you nagging about now? You don't know anything about what's going on outside, so don't interrupt!"

"I'm not being long-winded, but this isn't a business run by good people. Why would anyone want to do something bad?"

“Our own business is doing just fine, we can live comfortably on that alone, why bother living on edge every day, having to do this every few days? You're not as young as you used to be, how can you withstand this kind of stress? Your back isn't good, and you have a shoulder injury, ever since you started…”

Liao's wife was about to continue counting when Liao's husband, already quite impatient, sneered, "Why are you meddling in other people's business? What do you mean by 'inciting others to do bad things'? If a gambling addict wants to gamble, even if I don't run this place, he'll still find somewhere else to gamble. Rather than letting others profit from it, I'd rather get the money myself."

"Besides, do you think I could have opened this business without these venues?"

"You now wear gold and silver, eat and drink the best food, our son even hired someone to teach him, and our daughter is so young, she can wear new clothes whenever she wants. Do you think this kind of life is something you got for free?"

After saying a few words, Liao, the head of the household, was too lazy to waste any more words with his wife. He said, "You've been getting more and more long-winded lately. Next month is Qingming Festival, and I can't spare any time here. You take Da Dong and Er Ya back to our hometown to sweep the tombs and repair that house. We'll return to Beijing after May."

Liao's wife was really unwilling, but she was used to being docile. Now that her husband had put a big deal of pressure on her by saying she was filial, she had no way to resist. She wanted to discuss it a few more times, but Liao's husband ignored her completely. When he got tired of listening, he got up and went to sleep in the next room.

Liao's wife was left alone, silently weeping. She was afraid that if she didn't return to her hometown, she would drift apart from her husband, and she was also afraid that if she did return, her husband would be out there having affairs and causing her a lot of trouble.

If she could choose again, she truly felt that even when she first arrived in Beijing more than ten years ago, things would have been better than they are now.

At that time, she was heavily pregnant but still had to do laundry, and her husband had a fever but still had to carry manure and urine. The couple had to stretch every penny to make ends meet, renting a dilapidated house that was cold in winter and hot in summer, and they saw spiders and mosquitoes every day.

But at least it feels reassuring.

***
At the end of Suanzao Alley, Diaozi and five or six of his brothers hid at the door.

"Are we really going to have to wait until dawn?" Someone yawned, tears blurring his vision. "Brother Diao, there's no one here, and the place across the street is our territory. Even if there are only one or two people, catching a young woman is as easy as catching a chicken in a cage. Why wait here?"

"Exactly!" one of the brothers, who was already exhausted, chimed in. "Diao Zi, you work for the boss and it's easy for you. We have to do hard labor every day. We have to work tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow I'll be on duty overseeing the place. If we finish early, we can go home and sleep early!"

Who likes being suddenly called out to work in the middle of the night?
Who doesn't want to sleep?
The five or six brothers were all full of complaints.

Diao Zi was starting to feel the strain, but still said, "Let's see..."

"What are you looking at? Didn't the proper wife leave already? There's only that young lady in the house, what else do you want to see?"

"How about I stay here and keep watch, and if there's any commotion outside, I'll give you a heads-up?"

The brothers below worked together as one, urging him on and on. Diaozi had no choice but to say, "Wait another cup of tea's time. If your wife doesn't come back by then, we'll take action immediately, before dawn."

Sure enough, after waiting for a while, the alley was pitch black, and not a single dog barked or a cat meowed.

This time, without anyone urging him, Diao Zi said, "Let's go—those with the gallows should go first."

Immediately, someone stepped forward, inserted a metal plate into the crack of the door, and twisted it back and forth. After a while, he whispered, "In addition to the bolt, there is also a lock inside. If you really want to open it, it will take at least half an hour."

"Then what do we do, force it open?"

"Oh no, if we force it open, it might cause a commotion and damage the door."

"Isn't there a window over there? See if you can open that window."

The man with the iron sheet and the awl immediately went to the window.

This time it went much more smoothly; the metal plate went in and slid smoothly to the bottom.

"There is a door!"

He called out softly.

So everyone gathered around.

The window wasn't big, but it wasn't small either; there was enough room for one person to squeeze in.

Sure enough, after a short while, using some unknown method, the window was gently removed.

The man dared not hold up a lamp, but instead groped his way inside, looked around, and whispered, "Hey, there's no one here. It's a place to store junk!"

"Then let's all go in from here."

Diao Zi gave the order.

So the one who pried open the window immediately climbed inside.

After entering, the person made a soft "thud" sound and then groaned.

"Be careful, don't fall!"

Diao Zi was second in line. He reminded him as he followed and squeezed through the window.

He had barely crawled in when a hand gently supported his shoulder and arm.

"No need to help me, I can stand steadily. Go help the brothers behind me!" Diao Zi tried to pry the other person's hand away.

But the man's hands were very strong, gripping his shoulders and arms tightly, making it almost impossible for him to break free.

The room was even darker than outside. Although it wasn't pitch black, you could only guess the person's head by looking at the moving black shadows.

Diao Zi frowned, about to curse, when he saw the next person, who had just crawled in halfway, being taken away by a pair of hands.

Only two people came in just now: myself and the person behind me who was trying to pry open the window...

Where did these hands come from?

Diao Zi was so frightened that his spine went cold, and his groin felt chilly. He opened his mouth, about to scream in surprise.

Many thanks to book friend 20220519221537353 for sending me a peace charm =3=
Thank you to the bookstore and my cat, Egg, for this little gift! :)

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(End of this chapter)