Zho LanLin had a strange look on her face as she watched the two men in front of her play a game of tug of war. ZhiYi was frantically trying to check if any of the monk's fingers were bent out of shape, while the monk was trying to brush the man away, blowing at his hand as if it was on fire. The baby was gaping at LanLin as if asking her to save him from the two.
Somehow, the scene seemed inappropriate, especially between a monk and a man in mourning, so LanLin coughed in her hand loud enough for them to hear.
"Sorry to disturb you, but I don't have all day." Zho LanLin started and grinned at the two frozen figures. "I guess the Shou's aren't that interesting. Do continue holding hands while I'll just- "
LanLin was making gestures of getting up and leaving when MingYu yelped,
"Wait!"
MingYu had pushed ZhiYi off of him. A curtain of flush draped over his skin as he took a shaky breath in. "We really want to hear about the Shou's. Please."
The monk's reddened hand was still distracting ZhiYi, but the man refrained from reaching out again.
Zho LanLin made a mental note that the two brothers, PingZe and ZhiYi, seemed to have developed a weird obsession with baldies. Shameless, the lot of them. Brushing that bit of information aside, for now, Zho LanLin snatched the wine bottle from a tray that was brought within her arm's reach and poured herself a cup. The waiter was looking at her with disgruntlement before he turned away.
The wine was for the neighbouring table, yet no one dared to say a word of protest. Zho LanLin's yardstick was resting against her thigh, visible to everyone who sat nearby. They had seen the stick in action enough times to know not to mess with her.
Smacking her lips contently, she turned her gaze back to the two men, who were looking at her expectantly.
"Miss Zho, about the Shou's," MingYu said encouragingly as he wiped the sweat-droplets of pain off his face. His fingers were still tingling, but they had regained their mobility.
"Yes, the Shou's. And just LanLin, I insist." LanLin drawled as she thought about that specific family in silence. "Well, they are still living and breathing, I hope."
"But I have seen the bodies," ZhiYi said, his brows knitted up in confusion.
"Did you see their faces?" LanLin probed. ZhiYi fell silent as he slowly shook his head.
"They were probably too disfigured to be recognisable." LanLin rubbed her uncombed mane, disheveling it even further. "It's an old trick, but effective."
"You hope they are still alive?" MingYu caught on the words and frowned. LanLin had said it so nonchalantly, he felt uneasiness crawling along the bottom of his stomach, making him shift in his chair.
"We are in Tiang'an. Criminal rates are off the roofs. It's the world of me before you, rich above poor." LanLin snorted as she idly touched her yardstick. "A family dropped from the rich and powerful to the level of a beggar overnight. There isn't much to expect, not from the people who have no experience living in these surroundings. Dying is just a waiting game here unless you have money."
"You- The Shou's didn't sell their daughters, did they?" MingYu cried out in horror. The image of the twins crossed his thoughts and his lips pulled into a tight line. If anyone even thought of selling his precious nieces, may god help them, MingYu would gut them with a dull knife!
"Depends on how you look at it." Zho LanLin was smiling with a carefree air. ZhiYi and MingYu exchanged worried glances but stayed quiet, waiting for LanLin to continue.
"They didn't sell their daughters, not the traditional way that is. Although mama Zhao would have loved to get her hands on the eldest one. Exquisite, that one." LanLin talked about the girls as if they were disposable. MingYu was growing irritated at her tone.
LanLin ran her eyes over MingYu, and she seemed to have read his mind as her smile turned into a grin. "In Tiang'an, a woman's body is an asset for sale, and the women themselves know this very well. They have to survive one way or the other, its just business. We treat everyone fairly in HuiXiang. But, if I may be honest, the Shou's made a terrible bargain with the girl. She would have been better left in our care."
MingYu brushed over ZhiYi's hand under the table for mental support. He was bracing himself for the upcoming news; he had a feeling it wouldn't be pleasant. ZhiYi seemed more cautious this time around and kept his hand still.
"What bargain?" MingYu couldn't help but ask.
"The polite way to say it is they married her off to TingZhu." LanLin's face hardened as she sat up straighter, her carefree air shifted to something sinister. "The richest family in town, very fortunate, were the words on the streets. From the bottom of a barrel right up to the top of the food chain."
MingYu let out a breath he had been holding in and chuckled lightly. "You made me think the worst!"
"Well, if I had to choose between locking myself in a brothel or staring at Hsu LiChen for the rest of my life, I'd rather be a prostitute." Zho LanLin's cold words sent chills down MingYu's spine and his smile dropped.
"He is a famous piece of shit with a money rod stuck up his rear-end. He walks like he owns the entire city. Hsu LiShit, the Emperor of Tiang'an and TingZhu."
"But, she married the rich. It couldn't be that bad." MingYu tried to think positively. Just because the husband was a prick didn't mean living in wealth wasn't better than being poor.
"He is right, LanLin. At least she gets to live in comfort." ZhiYi added.
"If you said that to Shou YueQin, she would punch you in the gut. Her beloved sister would become nobody's fourth wife. The only one within that household with working brain cells, unfortunately." Zho LanLin snorted loudly, but no one in the teahouse seemed to care. In Tiang'an, there were no customs or etiquettes. It was quite refreshing to MingYu.
"Isn't she the younger of the two sisters? So the one married off was Wei LiXue?" ZhiYi asked.
Zho LanLin waved her hand dismissively in the air as she drained the last drops from the wine bottle.
"Married off, sold off, forced into marriage - they are all interchangeable in her circumstances. If I were her, I would have run off with any man the moment the opportunity arose, too."
Ran off? MingYu's eye twitched. Now they had a runner to hunt down. How could they find her? Who was he supposed to make amends with this time, anyway?
"It has been the talk of the town for a week now. The Hsu's made sure the Shou name was dragged across the dirt and back again. They even sent a flashy notice to the city and declared to everyone that LiXue was now officially divorced out of the Hsu household for being an indecent woman." LanLin shook her head in disgust. "That guy is a real piece of work."
"So you believe she ran away?" ZhiYi asked quietly.
Zho LanLin seemed torn. Her eyes looked hazy when she said with a soft voice, "It's difficult to say. I wouldn't believe it about her, but in the end, I didn't know her that well."
"Where do they live now?" MingYu wanted to see how they had lived to flee from Wu TianLan's clutches.
"I can take you there, it's on my way to Huixiang." Zho LanLin said as she rose from the table and picked up her yardstick.
A foreboding air seemed to hang over them as the two men stood up. MingYu was dreading this punishment before he even knew what it was about. ZhiYi gave him an encouraging nod as he placed his hand over MingYu's back and guided him out.
LanLin stopped at the stone steps of the teahouse and turned back to the two men. Her posture had now become guarded as she gave the two grave looks.
"I must warn you though, the Shou's might not be home. The last anyone has seen of the Shou's was when the notice arrived in Tiang'an, almost a week ago."