Four Harmonies and Good Fortune

Chapter 331 A Necessary Choice

Cai Zheng saw through Xu Huaiyi's thoughts, so he laid out the food he had brought and poured two bowls of wine.

Seeing Xu Huaiyi take a sip, Cai Zhengcai said, "Haste makes waste. Things have to be done step by step. In time, we'll do what we did with Daming Prefecture and uproot them completely."

"Then you will be able to return to your post at the Dali Temple."

Xu Huaiyi shook his head: "I'm fine anywhere." He didn't think the Dali Temple was necessarily any good. He was doing well in the Ministry of Justice now, as long as he could do what he was good at.

The two ate and talked. Cai Zheng received Wang Yan's letter and rushed over. Although he had deceived Xu Huaiyi, he did not feel much guilt.

Someone like Xu Huaiyi didn't want to get involved with the Wang family, so it was actually a good thing that neither side knew about it.

Furthermore, Wang Yan sent him to help Xu Huaiyi; they shared the same goal. If anything went wrong, Wang Yan would also use his connections. He knew Wang Yan; he would never throw Xu Huaiyi out to take the blame in a critical moment.

That's good. He would prefer someone like Xu Huaiyi to return to the Dali Temple and realize his ambitions.

……

In Bianjing city, by late at night, more than half of the entertainment venues had been cleared away, and even the wrestling arena, which had previously been crowded with people, was deserted, with only a few ragged people lying on the ground "treasure hunting" under the moonlight.

These people can find a few coins left behind by onlookers every day.

A man from the wrestling arena kicked a loafer who had crawled under the gong frame. The loafer immediately cried out and crawled out.

Seeing the unfamiliar face of the idler, the man frowned and asked, "Where are you from?"

The idler was in his early twenties, thin and small, with filthy hair and oversized clothes with several patches on them, clearly secondhand.

Startled by the shout, the idler dropped the few copper coins in his hand to the ground. He hurriedly tried to pick them up, but the man stepped on the back of his hand. He cried out and pulled his hand back, and the few coins fell to the man's feet.

The man glared at him and said, "I'm asking you! Where did you come from?"

The idler spoke in broken Mandarin: "North...north."

The man spat. "Anything dares to come to Bianjing, thinking they can make money just by coming here?"
The idler huddled to the side, trembling, his eyes still fixed on the man's feet.

The man said, "This is our wrestling platform, so the silver found down there is naturally ours too."

The idler opened his eyes wide and stammered, "The manager just said... we can take half."

“That’s them,” the man sneered. “A newcomer like you has to hand over all your money today, or if you dare to come tomorrow, I’ll break your legs.”

After the man finished speaking, several people gathered around him. They were all guards of the wrestling platform and were not short of money. But who wouldn't want something for free?
"Understand?"

The idler dared not refute and hurriedly said, "I...I understand."

The man lifted his foot and ordered the idler, "Pick it up, wipe it clean, and bring it to us."

The idler had no choice but to comply, placing the silver coins one by one into the man's hand, his eyes filled with bloodshot veins and longing, yet he dared not resist in the slightest. The man was very satisfied and kicked the idler again: "Come back tomorrow with this shoe print, and tell him I let you pick up money here."

People who come to the entertainment district are charged 150 coins, but these idlers can be let in when the entertainment district closes. They clean up the entertainment district and pick up the things that have fallen on the ground. When they leave, they give the gatekeeper 10 coins. These people save a lot of manpower and also attract a lot of vagrants.

While the men were laughing and joking, one of the idlers glanced at the mule carts. The carts were all carrying women. The ones with carriages were carrying the female performers who went on stage, while the ones without carriages were carrying people doing odd jobs. Feng Erniang was huddled among them.

The idler's eyes lit up, but he remained calm and quietly watched the mule cart's movements.

The mule cart moved forward, with several men following beside it. Their sharp eyes kept glancing at the women inside. The women were used to this situation and simply didn't look up, drowsily huddled together for warmth inside the cart.

The mule cart stopped several times along the way, and the men following it took turns relieving themselves, chatting and laughing as they relaxed.

Once they arrived at their lodgings, they could rest for a long time before coming out again at dusk. After a day's work, they were most relaxed and didn't even look at the woman in the cart.

Feng Erniang was squeezed to the side of the mule cart, which actually allowed her to stretch her arms and legs more easily.

The guards chatted idly along the way. Halfway there, the car jolted, and Feng Erniang was almost thrown off. Looking at the ground, Feng Erniang felt a surge of emotion.

This was much lower than the high platform used for wrestling; she could almost jump over it with a lift of her foot. The guards didn't care, and the women around her were all drowsy. It was the best time to escape, but Feng Erniang still changed her mind.

Actually, the day she saw Guo Xiong and Guo Chuan, she was forced to jump off the high platform.

She knew those people were deliberately trying to harm the Guo brothers.

Thinking of this, Feng Erniang hugged her legs, but she had no choice. In order to save her brother, she could only obey their orders.

The mule cart finally stopped, and the women got off one after another. Feng Erniang followed along, but was stopped before they reached their lodgings. When Feng Erniang tried to speak, she was slapped across the face.

With a loud "thud," everything went black, and he staggered and fell to the ground.

Feng Erniang covered her face, her ears ringing. She stared blankly at the steward.

The steward, his face grim, cursed, "Why didn't those two come today? You useless whore, you can't even hook up with a man. If they escape this time, I'll throw your brother into the mountains to feed the wolves. Didn't you say you didn't want to be a prostitute? You don't have to be one anymore, you can be sold to a brothel to serve people."

As he spoke, the man took a whip and began lashing Feng Erniang with it. The whip was thin, so it wouldn't cause too much damage, but it could still inflict extreme pain.

Feng Erniang was enduring the pain and felt she was about to die when she heard a voice say, "Hey, stop hitting her! Stop hitting her! If you kill her, we'll lose money!"

Feng Erniang recognized her; she was a matchmaker, and many of the women here were brought here by her.

“Beating them to death is nothing,” the steward said coldly. “These women are very cheap this year. The women who came from the south a few days ago were originally going north, but something happened in Daming Prefecture, and they all ended up in brothels.”

The matchmaker couldn't help but feel sorry for her. She glanced at Feng Erniang and thought she was quite pretty. She was about to persuade her again when the manager gave her a look, so the matchmaker stopped trying to persuade her.

This woman had already made her plans, and the matchmaker didn't bother to find out the details. Normally, she wouldn't even speak, but because of all the bad luck she'd been experiencing lately, she wanted to do some good deeds.