Chapter 141 — Terror
Purple Streets of Chang'an Page 1 of 2
Sitting in the jolting carriage, Dou Ming could not help but regret her decision.
She had never imagined the carriage would be this crude. Had she known, she would have brought Ji Hong along.
She lifted the curtain. "Yu Er, how much longer until we reach Dingzhou?"
"Soon, soon!" Yu Er, driving the carriage, turned his head and gave Dou Ming an ingratiating smile. "We're on the back roads. If we took the main road, their light cavalry would catch up with us in no time."
"Oh!" Dou Ming, her spirits somewhat dampened, drew back into the carriage.
That night, they took shelter in a farmhouse.
The filthy, dilapidated furniture, the dry, musty bedding, and the tea with soot floating on its surface made Dou Ming feel she had nowhere to set her feet.
She lay down on the kang, closed her eyes, and tried hard not to think about where she was. Gradually her thoughts drifted to her grandmother's house.
Her eldest aunt would surely scold her again the moment she saw her, and her second aunt would defend her. Grandmother... in the past, she had truly doted on her to the depths of her heart, but ever since Grandfather had been impeached, Grandmother had seemed not quite as fond of her as before. Was it because the Dou family had not helped? Now that she was going there, would Grandmother still pamper her as she once had?
Dou Ming's heart was in turmoil; she tossed and turned, and who knew how long it was before she drifted into a muddled sleep.
Perhaps because it was an unfamiliar place, she slept fitfully and suddenly woke with a start for no reason at all.
The window shutters were tightly closed. Cold, clear moonlight streamed in through the skylight in the roof, casting a patch of bright radiance.
It seemed someone was talking outside.
Dou Ming could not help but strain her ears to listen.
"...No, that won't do. Fifty taels of silver at the very least... Quite apart from anything else, that rose-red zhuanghua beizi with the passionflower pattern she's wearing is worth five taels... and those cat's-eye earrings in her ears..."
Dou Ming's hair stood on end.
Today she was wearing a rose-red zhuanghua beizi with a passionflower pattern, and a pair of cat's-eye earrings!
Instinct told Dou Ming that her situation was extremely perilous.
She crept up softly and noiselessly, her body limp and weak, and without bothering to put on her shoes, pulled on a pair of socks and tiptoed to the door.
The door was so broken and battered it could not close properly at all. Standing before it, one could easily see the scene outside through the cracks.
No lamp was lit in the main hall. The door stood open, and moonlight poured in from outside; Yu Er's silhouette was clearly visible.
He was standing in the main hall talking with two strangers, a man and a woman. Because of the light, their faces could not be made out; one could only just distinguish that the man was exceptionally burly, standing there as solid as an iron pagoda, while the woman was round and plump, the gold earrings on her ears glinting on and off in the darkness, like the eyes of a beast devouring its prey, sending a chill down one's spine.
"Since you fancy those things," the woman said, her voice somewhat hoarse yet carrying an indefinable sinister viciousness, "I'll take only the person! Fifteen taels of silver, and not a single coin more!"
"Second Aunt Mo," Yu Er haggled in a low, disgruntled voice, "you're giving a bit too little. That girl is a young lady of good family; it took me no end of trouble to trick her into my hands. Look, I've hired a carriage, greased palms, and you must at least let me recover my costs, no? Your price is really too low... at the very least, add a little..."
That Second Aunt Mo gave a cold laugh. "She's eleven years old this year. She already remembers things. I'm giving you fifteen taels of silver only out of consideration for my master's friendship with you. Anyone else, and I'd think three taels too much..."
Hearing this much, how could Dou Ming fail to understand?
What nonsense about her second cousin ruining her elder cousin's letter of recommendation, and sending her to plead with her grandmother—all of it was a lie!
This Yu Er, for some reason or other, was actually going to abduct and sell her.
In an instant, a blazing fury flared in her heart, and she pushed at the door, wanting to give Yu Er a fierce scolding. But when her hand touched the door bolt, the sharp pain from the rough wood piercing her finger brought her quickly to her senses.
She had to escape!
Before Yu Er noticed, she had to get away!
Once she was free, either the Dou family or the Wang family could crush him with a single finger.
Dou Ming gritted her teeth and looked all around.
There was only one window in the room, and it opened onto the main courtyard outside.
She immediately decided to escape through the window.
Her hands and feet weak, she climbed onto the kang, took a deep breath, and carefully drew the bolt of the window shutter and opened it, only to find the lattice outside nailed shut; no matter how she pushed and pulled, it would not budge.
It was all over, all over!
Dou Ming sat there, her mind a complete blank.
How long she sat thus, she did not know, before she came back to herself.
That Second Aunt Mo wanted money, didn't she? Then she would simply promise her money!
At this thought, hope revived in her, and strength returned to her limbs as well.
She jumped down from the kang and flung open the door with a bang.
The three people outside did not know what they had been saying, but they were all smiles and amiability.
At the sound, they looked over, all wearing expressions of astonishment.
Dou Ming was terrified, but the rage surging up from her heart dispelled her timidity. "Yu Er, you treacherous wretch who betrays your master for profit—you dare to trick me and sell me! When my grandfather learns of this, if he doesn't have you torn limb from limb by five horses, he'll have you sliced to pieces by a thousand cuts! Just you wait to rot in the cells of the yamen!" Then she shouted again, "Second Aunt Mo, you want nothing but wealth. I promise you five hundred taels of silver—no, a thousand taels! Send me back, and I'll have my grandfather thank you properly. Do you know who my grandfather is? He is Wang Yousheng, the Grand Coordinator of Yunnan. My uncle is Dou Yuanji, Grand Secretary of the Wenhua Hall and Minister of Justice. My father is a Scholar of the Hanlin Academy and Vice Minister of the Zhan Shi Fu..."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk!" Second Aunt Mo cut Dou Ming off with a laugh, waddling over on her round body. In the moonlight her tiny bean-like eyes glittered with a cold light, bereft of the slightest warmth. "Little girl, I never would have thought that with such noble blood in your veins, your head would be so empty." With that, she turned to Yu Er and, with a smile that never reached her eyes, said through lips thickly smeared with crimson rouge, "Yu Er, you've played me false. You told me she was a rich man's daughter, but you never said she was someone we know. You've put me in a fine fix!"
Yu Er, who had been all smiles a moment before, now seemed to shrink in on himself. He rushed to defend himself: "Second Aunt, I didn't mean to keep it from you—we were so busy haggling over the price just now that some things simply didn't get said in time..."
"Yu Er, may you die a miserable death!" Dou Ming could not hold back her curses. "Where's Shang'er? Is he in this with you? After all the kindness my second cousin showed him, after all the trust my second aunt put in you, and you go and do something so monstrous. Aren't you afraid heaven will strike you dead?"
"Cousin, I had no choice in the matter." Yu Er gave a careless smirk. "If there's anyone to blame, blame your own bad luck. When the immortals fight, it's the little devils who suffer!"