Chapter 224: Redeeming Ruan Xiang
With her nose all red, Xu Shaoyin stopped her wet nurse and the butler. “There is no need to ask anyone to borrow grain anymore. We have money now!”
She handed over the coin pouch. “Here are five hundred coppers. I still have two bars of scented soap. It’s already been arranged that I will bring more to the cosmetics shop in two days. The proprietress, Madame Qin, said that any items I bring in the future will be sold on consignment. She won’t take any of the profit, only a ten percent fee for her trouble.”
The wet nurse counted the money and did a quick calculation. “These bath pods could sell for five hundred coppers? And Madame Qin only took five coppers?”
“That’s right. She practically didn’t charge me anything.”
Xu Shaoyin whispered to the wet nurse, “I see that Madame Qin is a trustworthy person, so I’ve decided that when I deliver the bath pods next time, I’ll bring one of the glass cups along for her to sell on consignment too.”
She had specifically inquired about the price of glass cups today. However, Madame Qin was only well-versed in cosmetics; items like hairpins, combs, vanity boxes, vases, and cups were merely things she sold on the side, and without seeing the object itself, she couldn’t give an exact price.
Madame Qin had said, “A couple of years ago, someone sold a glass cup for about four taels of silver. However, it wasn’t crystal clear like the one you described; it was just a dull, grayish cup.”
After a moment’s thought, Madame Qin had added, “If it truly is as you say—exquisite and transparent—it should be worth at least ten taels or more. I’ll ask around for you and give you an answer in two days.”
Xu Shaoyin had asked if it would be a bother, but Madame Qin had smiled and shaken her head. “No bother at all. Even if my cosmetics shop can’t sell it, you can just let me have it at a lower price. If my shop can have one or two fine vessels to display and enhance the setting, it will complement the aesthetics beautifully.”
Xu Shaoyin actually had a good idea of the market herself. Based on the transparency of glass as ordinary people knew it, the price Madame Qin mentioned was roughly accurate.
But the glass cups she had brought back were virtually unparalleled in this world; their value would undoubtedly double when the time came.
Shaoyin proudly declared to her wet nurse and the butler, “Don’t worry about the household expenses. I am the master of this residence, and I can definitely carry this burden!”
“However…” Having just finished her grand and ambitious speech, Shaoyin’s face flushed. “I need some money right now to take care of an important matter.”
Hearing this, the wet nurse didn’t say a word. She immediately opened the coin box and presented all the funds remaining in the residence.
Since Xu Shaoyin was in a rush to save someone, she didn’t offer too many explanations. Taking the money, she darted out of the house once more.
The moment the County Magistrate handed down the judgment yesterday, Feiyue Pavilion had been sealed shut.
The chefs, singing and dancing girls, courtesans, tavern attendants, and errand servants of the wine house were all driven out into the streets, completely bewildered and at a loss.
Those who had signed labor contracts had it relatively easy. They simply took their contracts to verify them with the court scribe, and once their wages were settled up to the current day, the matter was considered concluded.
Though they had lost their livelihoods, it was merely a minor setback and posed no great problem; they could still look for new work through the human trafficking agencies.
But those who had signed deeds of sale were in a wretched state. Having signed away their bodies, they were not free citizens, but slaves.
Even though Feiyue Pavilion was closed, they remained slaves, and right now, they were all locked up in the cells behind the county magistrate’s office, awaiting their fate.
Upon receiving the news, brokers from the trafficking agencies came by and bought up a few people.
Fan Shishi and Qin Hua were fine; they had signed labor contracts. Although the debt contract regarding Qin Hua breaking the mercury mirror hadn’t been fully resolved, with the authorities presiding over the matter, even if she was determined to have shattered it, she would likely only have to compensate a reasonable amount.
She wouldn’t have to face Manager Yue’s compound-interest method of calculation.
The two girls were still considered free individuals for now, though they had nowhere left to go.
But things were far more difficult for Ruan Xiang.
Among the four of them, she was the only one who had signed a deed of sale and lived as a courtesan.
Now, having lost her innocence and unable to return home, she was even locked up alongside other criminals.
Because of Ruan Xiang’s outstanding appearance and slender figure, some brokers had wanted to buy her.
But Ruan Xiang refused to comply and slammed her head against the wall.
The other courtesans in the same cell either tried to counsel her or mocked her: “If you had slammed your head and died earlier, you could have preserved your purity. What’s the use of slamming it now? You’ll only be ridiculed by others.”
“Put away your little bit of haughtiness and behave yourself. If we’re lucky, some poor family who doesn’t mind might buy us back to be a concubine or a maidservant… That would be much easier than being in the wine house anyway.”
With her head covered in blood, and having just endured ten strikes of the staff for perjury, Ruan Xiang looked incredibly frail, as if she might stop breathing at any moment. Furthermore, her face appeared ruined.
The brokers took one look and ultimately abandoned any thoughts of buying her.
When Shaoyin went out today, she had first gone to the authorities to scout for information. Upon learning that Ruan Xiang was suffering terribly in the cells, she was instantly consumed by regret.
She cursed herself for not being more relentlessly persistent with her questions yesterday.
She handed over fifty coppers, asking the bailiff at the door to pass a message along: “Please tell Miss Ruan Xiang in the cells that I am going back to raise the money to save her right now!”
After that, she had hurried to Madame Qin’s cosmetics shop to check the prices of the bath pods and glass cups.
Having sold the bath pods, she rushed home, grabbed the money, and ran straight back to the magistrate’s office to redeem her.
To the authorities, this was called purchasing a domestic servant or a slave.
After all, those in the cells had signed deeds of sale and held slave status; they could only be bought and sold at the whim of others.
Shaoyin was terrified that Ruan Xiang might lose all hope and attempt suicide again, and she was equally afraid that someone might beat her to it and buy Ruan Xiang away.
Given Ruan Xiang’s current state, if she didn’t know that a place like Xingxia Manor existed in the world, she would surely see no hope for the future. If she were bought by someone else, it would likely mean instant death for her.
If she wasn’t tormented to death by others, she would take her own life.
Spurring herself onward at a frantic pace, Shaoyin arrived at the magistrate’s office and immediately sought out the bailiffs and the court scribe. “Bailiff brothers, I want to redeem someone! I want to redeem Ruan Xiang, who was brought in yesterday!”
The scribe flipped through his ledger, his brow furrowing. “I’m afraid she won’t be easy to redeem…”
Shaoyin’s heart leaped into her throat. “Why? Has Ruan Xiang… is she dead?”
The scribe shook his head. “No, not that…”
“Then why? Was she bought by someone else?”
Shaoyin felt a slight sense of relief. As long as she was alive, it was fine. Even if she had been bought by someone else, Shaoyin could just track down her whereabouts and buy her back.
No matter how high the price, she would redeem Ruan Xiang.
However, the scribe shook his head again. “No, not that either…”
Even with Shaoyin’s gentle temperament, she was growing frantic now. “Then, scribe brother, please just tell me, what on earth happened to Ruan Xiang?”
The scribe let out a sigh. “She smashed her head last night, and we barely managed to talk her down, thinking she had finally seen reason. But today… just half an hour ago, she actually managed to find a shard of broken pottery from somewhere and slashed her own face!”
Shaoyin listened intently. “And then?”
The scribe said with a tone of immense pity, “As a dancing girl, her fingers have never dipped into raw spring water; apart from dancing, she doesn’t know how to do a single thing. Now that she has ruined her face, she is completely useless.”
The scribe looked up at Shaoyin. “Therefore, I must inform you that if you buy her back, she will likely be of no use to you.”
Shaoyin was so exasperated she wanted to punch someone. “I’m not redeeming her so she can be useful to me! She did me a great kindness, and she shouldn’t have to suffer this ordeal!”
Shaoyin said crossly, “Just tell me how much money it takes. I will pay it immediately, so please release her!”
The scribe brother looked at the price that had been crossed out and re-set in the ledger. “Originally, when that face of hers was intact, she could easily have been worth forty or fifty taels of silver. Now… ten taels of silver will do.”
Shaoyin was stunned. “Ten taels?”
It only required ten taels?
She had brought out all the money from the house, and had even carried two glass cups with her.
In the past, whenever someone went to Feiyue Pavilion to buy a person, even an ordinary courtesan would cost sixty or seventy taels, and if it were a singing or dancing girl, it would inevitably exceed a hundred taels.
The scribe nodded. “Have you thought it through? A disfigured dancing girl—are you buying her or not?”
“I want to redeem her!”
Shaoyin refused to use the word “buy” when it came to Ruan Xiang, firmly insisting that she was redeeming her.
She handed over the money, and a few moments later, Ruan Xiang was led out.
Ruan Xiang’s injuries were far more severe than the scribe brother had let on. A long gash ran across half her face, and her arms and legs were slashed as well.
Supported by the bailiffs as she came out, Ruan Xiang’s legs buckled the moment she saw Shaoyin, and she nearly collapsed.
Shaoyin rushed forward to catch her. “Ruan Xiang!”
Ruan Xiang pitifully raised her blood-streaked face, letting out a bleak yet grateful smile. “You actually kept your promise and came to redeem me, I thank you deeply… I slashed my face, hands, and feet—how is it? I’m not worth any money now, right? It shouldn’t have made things too difficult for you…”
Shaoyin’s throat suddenly choked up.
