Flowery Hair: A Maidservant

Chapter 8 Resale

At the Midu Bridge Canal Wharf, the flow of people was bustling. Passenger ships and cargo ships docked at two separate locations. By the time it was Meng Shu and the others' turn to disembark, half an hour had already passed.

Led by Xia He, the group waited in an open space, where Aunt Jushang was exchanging pleasantries with the steward from the Tang family who had come to pick them up.

Before long, the ship's manager arrived and joined them. Then, the two managers went to the ship to check the cargo. Ju Chang waved, and Xia He led a group of people onto several gray cloth carriages.

Meng Shu, impatient with the crowd, fell behind and happened to see a woman in her twenties looking frantically at Ju Chang. Before Meng Shu boarded the carriage, Ju Chang's old face was filled with shock and anger.

After passing the bustling docks, the carriage traveled at high speed for nearly an hour before stopping in front of a manor.

This is the Tang family's estate outside Lin'an, which is also temporarily used to house the newly arrived maids and servants. Xia He had mentioned in advance in the cabin that the new servants who joined the family this year would need to wash away their filth here, receive their clothes, and then learn the rules for seven or eight days.

After getting off the carriage, no one dared to look around, and Xia He still led the way.

Before they could even enter, Ju Chang bypassed the head of the manor and seemingly pointed to three people at random, without explaining why she had kept them. Meng Shu glanced at the three women who had been left behind and saw that they were of above-average appearance among the crowd. She quickly lowered her head and carefully moved behind the stool.

Unfortunately, Ju Chang still pointed to her.

The others, including Dunzi, assumed that Xiahe had kept them behind to do some errands, and a few of them were even a little envious. In the end, they could only follow Xiahe into the manor gate.

"The four of you come with me."

Ju Chang gestured for Meng Shu and the other three to get into a carriage. Then, she gritted her teeth, clutched her handkerchief, and boarded the carriage as well. In the corner of the carriage, a woman was wiping away tears, looking distressed.

Meng Shu vaguely remembered that the three older sisters in front of her were named Fu Zi, Chun Ya, and Zhao Di. They had spent half a month together on the ship, and they were all somewhat timid. At this moment, they were huddled in a corner of the carriage and dared not speak.

"Aunt Jushang, where are we going?" Meng Shu asked, a little uneasy, as she held the bundle on her arm.

Once Ju Chang got into the car, she closed her eyes to rest and showed no intention of answering.

Meng Shuxin's heart sank. This was extremely bad. At this moment, she couldn't care less about anything else. She forced herself to remain calm and quietly reached out her small hand to lift the gray curtain of the carriage window. She saw that the carriage seemed to be heading towards the city.

“We will kill any runaway slaves we can, so keep your petty schemes to yourself.”

Ju Chang didn't open her eyes, and her voice carried a hint of coldness.

Around late afternoon, the carriage finally stopped at a small courtyard at the end of the alley. When Meng Shu got out of the carriage, she smelled a fresh scent of mugwort. The Dragon Boat Festival was just two days away.

After entering the courtyard with Ju Chang and the young woman, Meng Shu and the other three were settled in a side room. A lock was then hung on the door. Ju Chang did not say a word from beginning to end, and then hurriedly left.

Chun Ya and the others were all fifteen or sixteen years old. Their slightly delicate faces showed even more panic as the three of them leaned against the window and shouted.

The young woman outside the door turned her back and squatted at the doorway, tears streaming down her face.

"Please, sister outside, have some mercy. I wonder where we're going to be sold?" Meng Shu felt cold all over. Even a fool would know that something had gone wrong by now. Ju Chang had probably gone out to find a buyer.

This seemed to be a spur-of-the-moment decision, probably because of the woman outside the door.

The woman was sobbing, not even raising her head, and naturally she didn't say anything to Meng Shu.

As night fell, Ju Chang brought in a basket of steamed buns. Seeing the girls huddled in the corner, she called out, "Your indentures are with me now, and you're not even registered in the Tang family's servant register. You can only blame yourselves for being somewhat attractive."

She put the basket on the ground and sat down in the old wicker chair under the window.

"Don't even think about escaping. There has never been a live escaped slave in the Great Zhou. Even if word gets out, you are not considered servants of the Tang family."

Seeing that the four people still didn't move, Ju Chang didn't say anything more and simply called Liu Niang in to take the steamed buns back.

Before long, an old woman dressed in crimson silk arrived. Liu Niang, who was outside the door, carried an oil lamp and accompanied her inside. By the dim light of the lamp, the old woman looked at each person and said with a sneer, "Why is there a young one here? We don't want one in our establishment."

Ju Chang personally carried the oil lamp closer to Meng Shu and explained with a smile, "Although this girl is only ten years old, she is beautiful and still a virgin. She is good at reading and embroidery. You should raise her for a few years and teach her well. Who knows if she will regain her former beauty?"

Jiao Niang was the most sought-after courtesan at Chunfeng Tower four years ago.

The old woman was clearly more interested after hearing the words "girls of a virgin scholar". She pointed at Chun Ya and the other two and said, "These ones are easy to deal with. The youngest one here will need to be raised for at least four years. We don't know what her aptitude is. Our Chunfeng Pavilion can only offer thirty taels. Since this is our first time dealing with them, we'll offer forty taels for the rest."

When it came time to negotiate the price, Ju Chang visibly breathed a sigh of relief and went out with her mother-in-law.

Meng Shu was squatting on the ground, tears streaming down her face and dripping onto the cold floor. She gripped the dagger hidden in her sleeve tightly, her heart filled with sorrow.

Am I really going to be sold into a brothel? If this is my fate, I might as well die.

Just then, a loud "bang" suddenly came from beside me.

Meng Shu looked up in astonishment and saw Zhao Di opposite her, resolutely slamming herself against the wall behind her with all her might.

A few drops of splattered blood landed on Meng Shu's face.

The change came suddenly. With Chun Ya and Fu Zi's terrified screams still ringing in her ears, Meng Shu subconsciously wiped the warm blood from her face before belatedly realizing: Zhao Di had taken her own life.

When Jushang heard the noise and rushed over, Zhaodi was already dying. As she lay dying, her eyes were half-open and half-closed, as if she wanted to try to see the world clearly, but then she slowly closed them helplessly.

The hands that were once tightly clasped slowly loosened as life slipped away, and soon there was no sound.

Leaving aside the chaos in the courtyard, that night Meng Shu and the other two were tied up in a carriage and taken to Chunfeng Tower.

She was so frightened by Zhao Di's death that she developed a high fever when the cold wind blew at night. Meng Shu felt her body going from hot to cold, and when she was thrown into the woodshed, her vision went black and she fainted.

Two flowers bloom, one branch each.

In the village on the outskirts of Lin'an, in the afternoon, Dunzi and the others were each dragged around and thoroughly scrubbed, their hair even being rubbed twice with scented soap.

Dunzi had never felt so relaxed. He heard from the older sister on the estate that a piece of soap with jasmine flowers was worth five hundred coins, and he secretly thought that the Tang family was very wealthy.

Could it be that they use golden rice bowls to eat from?

When it was time to line up for the clothes, another group of people entered the courtyard. The woman leading the group said they were also newly purchased servants, but this group was mostly men.

It wasn't until dark, after Xia He had arranged the rooms, that Dunzi finally had a chance to ask Meng Shu where she had been assigned.

Naturally, no one could answer her.

When Meng Shu opened her eyes again, a day and a night had passed.

She felt her eyelids were incredibly heavy, and she had no strength left in her body. Looking around, she realized she was still in the woodshed, but now she was on a mattress, and the smell of medicine filled the air. In the corner, a girl of about fifteen or sixteen was squatting on the ground, looking at a medicine pot.

Hearing the noise, the man quickly poured a bowl of medicine and handed it to her.