Chapter 477: An Old Acquaintance

She quickly handed over the IOU, saying with a fawning smile, “It’s all my fault, my old eyes are dim, I must have had shit for brains…”

Lin Ming took the IOU and chuckled. “Your eyesight is just fine. I just dropped a Delong banknote, and didn’t you help me pick it up?”

The procuress gave a dry laugh. “Yes, yes.” With extreme reluctance, she handed the banknote back. Lin Ming took it, glanced at it, and said, “This doesn’t seem to be my note. Mine was for five hundred taels…”

The old procuress nearly collapsed and was about to fall to her knees and beg when Lin Ming broke into a smile. “My mistake, it is this one. You can go.”

As if granted a pardon, the procuress scrambled away.

Lin Ming helped the woman to her feet. “Hurry and pack your things. Here are five taels of silver. Find a boat tomorrow, go find relatives or friends wherever you can, and get out of this place quickly…” Tears fell from the woman’s eyes like broken strings of pearls. She knelt and said softly, “Yes… thank… thank you for your grace, my lord. I will never forget it…”

Just then, the moonlight shone on her face. Lin Ming was stunned and blurted out, “Con… Concubine Su!”

Cummins was taken aback. The woman’s body trembled. She slowly raised her head, glanced at them, then quickly lowered her head again. “My lord, you have mistaken me for someone else…”

Cummins studied her carefully. The woman wore a blouse with small blue plum blossoms and a water-red silk skirt that covered her small feet, which were truly no more than three inches long. Her black hair was loosely tied in a Suzhou-style knot, half-hanging over her shoulder. Her fair, melon-seed-shaped face featured two delicate, dark eyebrows that seemed to hold a smoky haze. Cummins found himself somewhat mesmerized. No wonder Elder Mei was so obsessed with the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai. Her face was one thing, but her delicate and pitiful appearance was truly something else!

“Concubine Su!” Lin Ming was greatly astonished. The pair of shallow dimples at the corners of her mouth, her slightly furrowed brow, the small mole on her right cheek—it was all the same as before. Who could this be but Gao Shunqin’s concubine, Su Ai!

Su Ai was indeed an old acquaintance of his. When Gao Shunqin had disappeared, he had been tasked with investigating the case, and Su Ai had been one of the suspects. The Gao family’s first wife had secretly given him several hundred taels of silver, wanting him to torture a confession out of Su Ai and frame her as an “accomplice,” or at the very least, beat her half to death. Fortunately, Su Ai had been sensible enough to bribe him with her life’s savings. Lin Ming, always having a soft spot for beautiful women, had gone easy on her, and she had been spared the worst of the suffering. This had forged a sort of connection between them.

Gao Shunqin’s case eventually became a cold case. Lin Ming had smoothed things over with the Guangdong officialdom, gaining both money and favor. He naturally stopped asking about Su Ai’s whereabouts. He never expected that, three years later, they would meet again in such circumstances!

How the world changes, so full of vicissitudes! Lin Ming’s face turned pale in an instant. The memories flashed through his mind: investigating the case with his sister-in-law, interrogating the “suspects” at the Gao residence by night, following the trail to Macau, his sister-in-law’s disappearance… It all came back to him vividly, yet it was also like a fog, a blank space where he couldn’t recall anything clearly. Such strange twists of fate. Su Ai had been just a passerby in his life, yet his own subsequent experiences were so deeply connected to this woman, and now they met again here…

He stared at her face, trying hard to suppress the myriad of feelings in his heart. “I am Lin Ming, a probationary Baihu of the Jinyiwei…”

Su Ai seemed to be sleepwalking. She looked at him with dull, lifeless eyes. Suddenly, as if pricked by a needle, she collapsed to her knees, covered her face with her hands, and let out a great wail, her body trembling uncontrollably as tears streamed through her fingers.

This commotion startled the people in the courtyard. Residents in the other rooms peered out of their windows, and those who were still awake craned their necks, whispering among themselves. Lin Ming quickly said, “Concubine Su, our meeting here is also fate’s will—this is no place to talk. Please pack your things, and we’ll go somewhere else!”

Cummins was completely bewildered, confused by their crying. He stood there like a fool. Hearing Lin Ming’s words, he instantly came to his senses. They were in an unfamiliar place, in the middle of the night. What kind of scene was this? He quickly said, “Let’s go back to the boat to talk.” Then he instructed the escort, “Pack up the things on the ground and lock the door to this room.”

Lin Ming had been at a loss. He was not the master of the salt boat and had no right to bring a woman back without permission. Although he knew people in Zhaoqing, he couldn’t disturb them in the dead of night. Cummins’s words saved him. “Master Kang is right,” he said hurriedly. “Whatever there is to say, let’s go back to the boat first!”

Back on the boat, Suo Pu was somewhat surprised. Lin Ming explained the whole story. Suo Pu thought, so they’ve run into an acquaintance! He had read the Guangzhou station’s report and knew about the relationship between Su Ai and Pei Lixiu. He had originally read it as just an interesting story, never imagining the protagonist would appear before his very eyes.

However, this encounter alleviated some of his suspicions. He smiled and said, “In that case, we’ll see this good deed through to the end. But it’s inconvenient for her to travel upstream with us. Tomorrow, we’ll send two escorts to take her to Guangzhou and hand her over to Pei Lixiu.”

At the mention of Pei Lixiu’s name, Su Ai’s shoulders slumped, and tears rolled down her cheeks again. Seeing her haggard and beautiful face, Suo Pu quickly had someone bring water for her to wash up. “It looks like you probably haven’t eaten. Get some food for her!”

“Thank you, my lords. I’m not hungry. Please don’t go to the trouble,” Su Ai said. She seemed to be recovering from a serious illness, her body trembling. She managed a curtsy. “We are strangers who met by chance, yet you saved me from fire and water. I will serve you like a horse or an ox…”

Lin Ming said, “Why are you saying all this now? You look as if you’ve just recovered from an illness. Please sit down and rest. These two masters are not outsiders! Don’t be so formal.”

Su Ai sat down on a bench by the cabin wall. She felt as if she had just woken from a long dream. This man, with whom she had barely had any connection, had suddenly appeared and rescued her from the pit of fire… The workings of fate were truly inscrutable.

Lin Ming asked, “Concubine Su, after the case was closed, why didn’t you go back to the Gao family? And how did you end up here?”

Su Ai slowly shook her head. “Master Lin, the case was closed, as you know. But the Gao family would not have me. After my master’s accident, they nearly had me killed. I have no son or daughter to rely on. With my master gone, even if they had let me return, I would not have dared. I didn’t get any of my accumulated savings either. Fortunately, I had some savings of my own on hand, so I went to stay with a former friend.”

Her savings were limited, and she couldn’t just live off them. She had been raised to be a concubine since she was a child and knew nothing of business. As she grew older, she was unwilling to return to her former trade. Through her friend’s connections, she was married as a concubine to a merchant from Zhaoqing, and that’s how she came here.

“Why didn’t you go find Pei Lixiu back then?” Suo Pu suddenly asked. “Given your friendship with her, it wouldn’t have been difficult for her to give you a job at the Ziminglou or give you travel money to return to Nan-Zhi.”

“Is this master also an acquaintance of Miss Pei?” Su Ai asked weakly. “I originally wanted to find her, but at that time, the Australians were at war with the court. The Ziminglou was shut down, and Miss Pei’s whereabouts were unknown. Some said she had fled back to Australia; others said she had been taken away by a high-ranking official.”

She had calmed down by now, but her voice still hitched with an occasional sob as she told her story. “I must have been born with a hard fate. I brought misfortune to my parents when I was young. I finally escaped that pit of fire and entered the Gao residence, only to bring misfortune to Master Gao. Then I came to Zhaoqing, and after only a few peaceful days, I brought misfortune to my husband… I’ve been with two men, but I have no child, not a single person to rely on…”

At this, her eyes filled with tears that she couldn’t wipe away fast enough. The men couldn’t help but sigh in sympathy.

“…Just seven days after my master’s death, the first wife came to throw me out. I said, at least wait until he is properly buried and the first seven days have passed. I will naturally take my things and leave. The first wife said, ‘You were never part of this family, just something we bought. Not selling you off is already a great mercy.’ She threw me out on the spot! Without another word, they came into my room like robbers, took all my savings, clothes, anything they could grab, and drove me out…”

Su Ai was overcome with emotion as she spoke, her eyes welling up with tears again. She covered her mouth and sobbed for a long time before continuing, “It was the dead of winter, and a harsh wind was blowing. I had nowhere to go. I stood by the river, looking at the water, and truly felt there was no way out. I thought of just jumping in and ending it all. Fortunately, a kind person saw me and said a few words of comfort, which stopped me from taking that final step. I had hidden some silver and jewelry on my person, so at least I didn’t starve to death. I wanted to go back to Guangzhou, but I had no man to protect me and no travel money, so I had no choice but to return to this line of work…”

Suo Pu hadn’t been very sympathetic at first. He felt that not only had she fallen into disgrace, but she had twice become a concubine. Although there were elements of “having no choice,” he thought it was, frankly, just a case of preferring a life of ease, like her counterparts in the 21st century. But now, putting himself in her shoes, he realized her situation was different from that in the other world. In the 17th century, where could a lone woman find a foothold? He realized there were indeed too many things she “had no choice” about. He couldn’t help but sigh. “Since you’ve met Master Lin, I don’t think you need to continue in this line of work. Tomorrow, we’ll send you back to Guangzhou. Go and seek refuge with Pei Lixiu. The Ziminglou is doing even better business now. When you get there, she can find some kind of work for you—it’s better than selling your looks. How many years can you live on a meal like that?”

Seeing the doubt in Su Ai’s eyes, Lin Ming quickly made the introduction: “This is Master Suo. He is my… um… superior… Master Suo heard your sad cries, and his kind heart moved him to send me to check on you, which led to this fortunate encounter today.”

Su Ai knelt on the floor, curtsied, and said with a sob, “Master Suo must be a reincarnated Bodhisattva… May heaven bless you with sons and grandsons, wealth, and titles for generations to come…”

Suo Pu thought to himself that Lin Ming certainly knew how to be diplomatic! But the words were pleasant to hear. He made a gesture with his hand. “There’s no need for such ceremony. In that case, I will have two escorts take you back to the temple to pack your things. Rest for one night. Settle your rent tomorrow, and then we will make further arrangements.”