CH 61

Chapter 61: Real estate in Jiangxia City

Gu Yu Qi and her party had not waited long by the roadside before they saw Chun Xing and Xia He come back first.

Chun Xing and Xia He told Liang Huai Yu and Gu Yu Qi what they had seen in detail.

Gu Yu Qi and Zhao Wu were not mistaken. They were indeed villagers from the nearby mountain village. Although their village was in the mountains, there was a large open space in front of the mountain. It used to be good farmland, but since the new Jiangxia City mayor assumed office, their vacant land had been seized by the government in the name of raising military horses. They had given each family a subsidy of one or two taels of silver. They also made them move to live in Jiangxia City. What could they do with one or two taels of silver in Jiangxia City? However, how could they reason with the government? Their fertile lands were destroyed and many were forced to leave their hometowns and go to Jiangxia City to make a living. There were only a dozen families left in the village and because there were elderly people in their families, they were unwilling to leave.

With no farmland, these people still needed to eat, so the boss among them had taken the risk and committed a robbery once and the people in the village had been able to eat for a few days. When everyone saw this, they felt that it was good. The government was stupid, so it would be better to learn a couple lines and go be a bandit up the mountains.

It was relatively smooth to begin with. However, when Prince Ding Yun Qing was sent to Jiangbei Camp for training, they began to attack the bandits around them. Those with a bad reputation were practically wiped out by Yun Qing. The few of them could be considered to have a good reputation among bandits. They only wanted money and would not kill, but they were forced into a corner and hid by taking advantage of the natural dangers here.

Liang Huai Yu knew that Gu Yu Qi intended on taking them in, but she was worried. Even if they were originally farmers, they had been bandits before. Wild unruliness was difficult to tame. For Gu Yu Qi, as a proper lady, to mingle with these kinds of people, her future reputation… Sigh, when she thought of this, Liang Huai Yu gave a long sigh. Gu Yu Qi had been expelled from the Marquis’ residence. What reputation? It was long gone… Now that they had all left the capital, it was better to look forward. Gu Yu Qi had persuaded her like this and she constantly convinced herself like this.

This daughter had been very different since she had fallen into the water at the capital. She could not guess what was on her daughter’s mind, but seeing the look on her daughter’s face, she also thought that maybe she could live a lifetime without the rules and regulations that bound her. It was not bad to be free to do whatever they wanted.

Seeing Liang Huai Yu’s worries, Gu Yu Qi explained, “Mother, don’t worry. They won’t cause trouble.” She told Liang Huai Yu her analysis. These people had been forced into becoming bandits. If their fields were not occupied leaving them with no means of living, they would still be honest peasants. Secondly, when they were caught, they had told their boss to go without thinking about themselves first. This proved that they were faithful and had warm hearts. Third, they were fully qualified to leave that mountain village and make a living elsewhere, but for the sake of the elderly at home, they insisted on staying in this remote place, which proved they had filial piety in their hearts.

Although they were bandits, both their loyalty and faithfulness could be useful.

After Gu Yu Qi explained it like this, Liang Huai Yu felt relieved. She could not help but look at her daughter more. If her father had been alive, who knows how happy he would be to have such a granddaughter.

It was a pity that he had been through a lot of battles and even though the enemy had no way to take him, insteading giving him the name of the god of war, he could not withstand lingering sickness.

Liang Huai Yu and the others waited for another hour*. Then they saw the men walking from the end of the road in twos and threes. They had changed their tattered clothes and although these were old clothes, they had been washed and starched very clean. The torn areas had also been carefully repaired with patches. Everyone’s face was filled with a little bit of apprehension. Behind them were many elderly people, women, and children who were following from far away. Seeing Gu Yu Qi and her party, the elderly, women, and children stopped and only dared to stand and watch from a distance.

[TL Note: The direct translation would be “the time it took to burn an incense stick”, but we shortened it.]

The boss was at the front and when he came to Gu Yu Qi, he cupped his fists to Gu Yu Qi, “Young Miss, I brought all my brothers. Three brothers have elderly who are sick at home and they really can’t leave, so they chose to stay.”

“Alright,” Gu Yu Qi smiled and nodded. Ten was not bad. “In that case, you should sign this contract,” Gu Yu Qi gave Run Ying a look. Run Ying immediately took out the slave contract she had written while they had waited.

Those bandits obviously had not expected Gu Yu Qi to do this. They looked at each other in dismay. They did not know a single character, what was written on that stack of paper the little girl held? In the end, they all looked at their boss.

The boss gritted his teeth, took over the slave contract, and read it over. In the village, he was the literate one. What Gu Yu Qi wrote on the slave contract was what she had said before, not a single one was amiss. His heart settled, “We’ll sign it. Hope Young Miss will hold true to her words.” In fact, he was also gambling. Gu Yu Qi had let them go after catching them. This showed that although the Young Miss in front of him was not very old, she had an open heart.

Gu Yu Qi’s ten taels of silver had seemed to give him hope. He did not want to be a bandit all his life, but his brothers and their families in the mountains needed to eat. Now Gu Yu Qi was giving him a chance to make money as an honest citizen, so how could he give up so easily? It was just three years, and they would be rewarded with one to two taels of silver every year. After three years, if they did well and Gu Yu Qi wanted them to stay, she would give 50 taels of silver! Where could such a good thing be found, it was like a pie in the sky. Either way, they had already reached the point where they had become bandits, what risk was there for them to take?!

The boss was the first to write his name. Gu Yu Qi glanced at it. The name was quite elegant, Zhang Lan. It really did not match the image of his bearded face!

Others saw that Zhang Lan had signed and they all breathed a sigh of relief. They were used to following Zhang Lan’s lead so whatever Zhang Lan did, they followed suit without hesitation. They did not even ask a question about what was written in the contract, Gu Yu Qi felt very satisfied. What she wanted was this absolute loyalty. Although these men had not seen the wider world, they had done very well at this point.

The others were illiterate but Run Ying had prepared ink pads. This little girl had become habitual at managing accounts so as long as it was related to ledgers, it was her treasure and she carried it all by her side. Her bag contained all the four precious stationary items a scholar required.

Seeing that everyone had signed the slave contract, Gu Yu Qi smiled with satisfaction, “Okay, let’s go. We have to hurry today and reach Jiangxia City by evening. Let’s go into town and splurge today, we’ll stay at an inn!”

When Gu Yu Qi said this proudly, it made the commoners very happy. They were bandits from new families who had naturally never lived in a place like an inn. They dared not even enter the city. Now that they had changed their identities, it was a pleasure to be able to stay at an inn. As for the others who had been travelling for days in the rugged outdoors, avoiding towns on the way and sleeping in the wild, for Gu Yu Qi to suddenly say they would stay at an inn, what everyone thought of was a hot bath! Everyone was used to being in the General’s residence and the Marquis’ residence. That was to say, along the way, being only able to wipe themselves down with cold water had worn everyone out.

So when Gu Yu Qi said this, everyone cheered. The elderly, women, and children from the village watched from a distance. Although they did not know what Gu Yu Qi and the others were talking about, they saw that their relatives had joined the ranks of the distinguished people with no fear on their faces, instead laughing happily. They were also relieved and waved goodbye to Gu Yu Qi and the others.

Gu Yu Qi asked Chun Xing and Zhao Wu to ride ahead first to explore Jiangxia City, and see if there were any announcements about her.

Gu Yu Qi calculated the time. It had been ten days since she left the capital. In Jiangnan, the spring flood should have begun. With this spring flood, the two great rivers running through the entire Qi dynasty empire, the Heng River and Hun River would be flooded at the same time. After the flood came the plague and the Qi dynasty would enter an eventful autumn. Yun Ke would also embark on his journey in seizing the throne.

Jiangnan was where the roots of the Liang family were. So Gu Yu Qi discussed with Liang-shi and Liang-shi had already sent a letter back to the Liang family’s old house to first test out the views of the patriarch.

There had been no reply yet which made Liang Huai Yu feel very uneasy and uncomfortable. Could it be because she had divorced Gu Huai Zhong and given up the position of being a first ranked minister’s wife, and Gu Yu Qi had been expelled from the Marquis’ residence that the Liang family was not ready to accept the mother and daughter? Then should the prescription be given or not? Although Liang Huai Yu could not tell whether the plague Gu Yu Qi mentioned would really come or not, seeing her daughter speak so decisively, she naturally chose to trust her daughter. Anyway, she would always stand by her daughter’s side. So if the plague really came, then the prescription in her hand would not only save the entire Liang family, but it could also save hundreds of thousands of people in Jiangnan because the plague broke out from the banks of the Heng River and Hun River, then spread across the country. Jiangnan was south of the Hun River. Gu Yu Qi’s current location was Jiangxia City by the Heng River.

Liang Huai Yu wanted to use the prescription to repair the relationship between herself and the clan. When General Liang was alive, their branch had been very important to the entire Jiangnan Liang clan and their words carried immense weight. However, since the death of General Liang, her mother had also died of illness and Liang Huai Yu was the only one left. Moreover, Liang Huai Yu was female and after she married, it was likely her name had been removed from the family tree.

She had divorced Gu Huai Zhong and although she had not been cast aside, a century-old family like the Liang family who had been entrenched in Jiangnan for many years would naturally have no room in their family for women with a damaged reputation. So she had not asked for herself to return to the Liang family, but she wanted to give Gu Yu Qi an identity. If Gu Yu Qi could change her surname to Liang and be accepted by the Liang family, then her future status would not be so underestimated. It would be at least a hundred times stronger than now. It was just that when she thought of her own situation in the clan, she felt a headache. She had already practically followed the rules, but it was just that after practising martial arts, she liked to travel around. For this reason, she had been criticised by the elders and patriarch of the clan. It was just that they saw her father as the god of war in the Qi dynasty so they did not point it out in front of Liang Huai Yu’s face. However, they still made the seven or eight aunts in the family find her mother from time to time and tell her to restrain her.

Fortunately, her mother took care of her. On the surface she agreed with them, but in fact, she was very indulgent. That was why Liang Huai Yu had a life completely different from other daughters in aristocratic families. Otherwise, when she was a young girl, she would have been imprisoned in a tall residence. The reason why Liang Huai Yu was able to accept Gu Yu Qi leaving the Marquis’ residence and travelling the world together was also inseparable from this. If it was a mother who had been born as a daughter of another aristocratic family, how would she have let her daughter be expelled from the Marquis’ residence by her father?

A rebellious daughter must have a mother who was somewhat unreliable. Gu Yu Qi and Liang Huai Yu were a very unreliable mother and daughter in the eyes of people from this era.

***

In the evening, Gu Yu Qi and her party arrived at Jiangxia City.

Gu Yu Qi had come here in her previous life, but in this life, she was still stunned by the towering city wall in the evening light.

Jiangxia City was the gateway between the north and south. It had been the battleground for military strategists since ancient times. From the front, the city wall was built very strong and magnificent. When the Qi dynasty began, the Jiangbei Camp was stationed near Jiangxia City and the Heng River was behind Jiangxia City. It divided the Qi dynasty empire into two halves, north and south. The largest ferry port on the Heng River was just outside Jiangxia City. It seemed to be a port of trade between the north and south, and was very crowded. The wall had been fortified several times and was even more majestic.

Gu Yu Qi’s decision to enter Jiangxia City to rest was not at random. She had calculated the time and the spring flood should already have started. If she remembered well, in two days, the Heng River east of Jiangxia would flood. The river embankments in the section near Jiangxia City and Jiangbei Camp were extremely strong, however, the river embankment at the east was really disappointing. She was afraid that in these few days, the Heng River waters would rise and flow very quickly. They could not cross the river now and once a flood occurred, there would be a large number of refugees pouring into Jiangxia City. It would be dangerous to be stationed outside the city, so the safest place was Jiangxia City.

Chun Xing and Zhao Wu joined Gu Yu Qi and the others outside the city gate. The city was still peaceful now, but the ferry port had stopped service because the river was rising too fast, so the ferries at night no longer crossed the river. Gu Yu Qi took everyone into the city. The defenders of Jiangxia City had now been replaced by people from the Jiangbei Camp. 

Strangely, when Gu Yu Qi and the others entered the city, the sky darkened immediately. Spring thunder rolled in the sky and lightning flashed in the dark clouds.

Before they settled down, bean-sized raindrops poured, dense and quick. It hurt when it hit them. Gu Yu Qi knew that when the heavy rain came, it would not stop for half a month. She originally wanted to cross the Heng River before the heavy rain came, but the will of man was inferior to the will of the heavens. She still did not calculate the time accurately enough and they had been delayed on the way so they arrived late at Jiangxia. Gu Yu Qi could not help but let out a long sigh, damn! Now they would be trapped here for a long time. Even if the rain stopped, the plagues would follow. Who knows how long they would be stuck here.

Delaying a few days was not a problem. The problem was that Yun Ke was just about to come! This made Gu Yu Qi very distressed!

She remembered clearly. In her last life, Yun Ke was sent to Jiangxia City because the plague spread from the banks of Heng and Hun River. So in a few days, this place would become an epidemic area! Aaaah, it would be the best if the ferry port opened tomorrow! Yet, the probability of this was very small. Gu Yu Qi also understood that with such heavy rain, the river would surge and tomorrow the ferry port will be closed. No one would joke around using their own life. Even if someone was willing to send them across the river for money, Gu Yu Qi would not dare to let her mother take the risk.

Gu Yu Qi’s heart right now was like a hundred thousand alpacas screaming; the sourness was indescribable.

She had finally gotten out of the capital and gotten out of that horrible place, far away from Yun Ke. The heavens sure had given Yun Ke enough face, using the pouring rain to leave her waiting for Yun Ke in Jiangxia City! What the hell was this?!

In her previous life, after she found the prescription, she desperately wanted to come to Jiangxia and give it to Yun Ke herself. Yet, because of the plague, the gates of the capital were closed and without a warrant from the Five Cities Horse Patrol, no one could leave the city. In this life, she avoided Yun Ke and ran away but was stopped in Jiangxia by the heavy rain. It really made her very speechless.

She had the prescription in her hand, but Yun Ke also had it. Damn, Gu Yu Qi secretly cursed in her heart. She could not even find something to blackmail him with!

When a girl with a plug-in met a man with a plug-in, Gu Yu Qi felt that she was born to be beaten by Yun Ke! This was so unlucky!

Zhao Wu braved the heavy rain to find an inn. After Gu Yu Qi and the others moved in, they were soaked all over. She immediately arranged for someone to boil water. It did not matter to her, but she was most worried about Liang Huai Yu. Liang Huai Yu had already passed away in her previous life by this time, but in this life she was still alive and well so Gu Yu Qi was very worried. All the time, she felt that she was cheating under heaven’s eyes, fearing that Liang Huai Yu would suffer an accident and leave her.

Hence, as long as it was about Liang Huai Yu, she was very cautious. Take crossing the river as an example. If she was alone, knowing that Yun Ke was coming, then she would fight using her life to cross the Heng River tomorrow because the longer it dragged on, the more dangerous it would be. However, with Liang Huaiyu now, Gu Yu Qi did not have the courage to take risks.

After taking a hot shower, Gu Yu Qi was still uneasy and invited a physician to look at Liang Huai Yu. Liang Huai Yu was baffled, wondering when she had become a person made of tofu in her daughter’s heart.

After everything was settled, Gu Yu Qi started a new plan.

She knew that the rain would never stop at the beginning. They would definitely be trapped in Jiangxia City. So they would just rent a courtyard tomorrow to live in to save money. Secondly, renting a courtyard was much more secretive than staying at an inn. Yun Ke was coming, but he did not necessarily know that she was in Jiangxia… Although the probability of this was very small… This was because Gu Yu Qi knew that the secret guards around Yun Ke were powerful. If he was determined to find her, she would be found wherever she hid. However, renting a courtyard was slightly better than staying in an inn. Even if something happened, it would not become known to all.

Moreover, once the plague broke out, there would be people coming and going at this inn. How could they not have an independent courtyard by themselves?

The plague would last a long time. In other words, they would have to live in Jiangxia for a long time. Food was a problem. After the plague, bandits ran rampant all because there was nothing to eat.

So early the next morning, Gu Yu Qi sent everyone out to ask about renting a courtyard, and buy food, groceries, chickens, ducks and geese. Gu Yu Qi even asked Run Ying to buy rapeseed. She also made a grocery list and gave it to Li Lan, telling him to take his brothers out to buy things too.

Gu Yu Qi looked at her rapidly emptying purse. She was speechless. It was much better to stay at home. Everything was hard outside, everything cost money. Fortunately, she had been preparing for many years and had a lot of money on hand. Otherwise, there really was a feeling of eating oneself out of one’s home.

She had already asked the stores in the capital to stock up on food and herbs, so Gu Yu Qi knew that once the plague was over, she would be a real rich woman! It hurt to spend money right now, but after the plague, she would likely count money until her hands ached.

Liang Huai Yu also felt frightened when she saw Gu Yu Qi spending so much. She quietly asked Qiu Yue and the information shocked her. She knew that Gu Yu Qi had invested in stores in the capital, but she never asked. Today, she had to ask when seeing Gu Yu Qi let the money flow. Only after this inquiry did she know that her daughter was really strong… Those stores selling a disorderly array of things actually made so much money.

Liang Huai Yu was not an inexperienced person. Seeing Gu Yu Qi buying so aggressively and looking at the pouring rain outside, her heart moved. The plague Gu Yu Qi mentioned was about to begin.

Gu Yu Qi herself had run to the ferry port. Braving the heavy rain, she had surveyed the situation at the Heng River. Sure enough, just like in her previous life, the river water was no longer teal. Rolling from upstream, the water level was already very high and the speed of the flow was also terrifyingly quick. The heavy rain here in Jiangxia City had just begun and the river had already risen to such a degree. It was possible to imagine the kind of momentum this river would have in two days. The ferry port must be closed and the square near the ferry port was full of goods that were ready to cross the river.

Gu Yu Qi looked at the goods covered with tarpaulins. Her mind moved slightly and an idea popped up from the bottom of her mind.

It was easy to do things when one had money. Although Zhao Wu was the leader of the guards who relied on his fists to survive, his brain was also very useful. Otherwise, he would not have been chosen by General Liang to protect his precious only daughter. It only took him one morning to find a large courtyard with three entrances and three exits in the western suburbs of Jiangxia City. This courtyard was originally owned by a wealthy businessman in the city, but because he wanted to go home to retire, he put it up for sale. The asking price was not low. Zhao Wu went to see it and was very satisfied. It could not compare to the beauty and elegance of the Marquis’ residence and the Liang family’s residence, but it was rare to have such a good house in this kind of place. However, the owner of the house was only selling and not renting out, so Zhao Wu had to come back again to ask for instructions.

This time, it was not Gu Yu Qi who was in charge. It was Liang Huai Yu who decided to buy the house. This was because when Zhao Wu came back to ask for instructions, Gu Yu Qi was still squatting by the ferry port investigating.

Liang Huai Yu felt that she had been taken care of by her daughter along the way and there was a little regret at the bottom of her heart. She could see that her daughter was very worried about the heavy rain and Gu Yu Qi had also said that this heavy rain would not stop for about half a month. Heavy rain could cause flooding and the floods would be accompanied by the plague. It would take several months for this to all clear up. That was to say, they would have to spend at least three to four months here.

No matter how much money her daughter had, there would come a time when it would be all spent. She simply took out her own money to buy the house. Zhao Wu said it was pretty good and she believed in Zhao Wu’s judgement. So when Gu Yu Qi came back from the pier, Liang Huai Yu handed the deed to Gu Yu Qi with a smile. It actually startled Gu Yu Qi!