Chapter 965: It's Not That Easy to Die
Did you have any idea how thick a stack of over a hundred indentures of servitude would be when piled together?
You couldn't tear that with bare hands to save your life. At best, he could only manage to slightly twist and fray the edges of the indentures. To tear them completely, he'd need the "Qilin Arm" of a thirty-year bachelor.
Zhu Piaoling clearly didn't possess such a "Qilin Arm." He tugged and pulled, but the papers wouldn't budge.
He stopped, panting heavily. "My heavens," he gasped, "trying to look cool turns out to be a skilled craft."
He was about to try again when Li Daoxuan stepped over, took the stack of indentures, and spoke in a low voice: "Stop trying to show off! If you give them their freedom here, they'll most likely be bullied again when they return home, and their ultimate fate won't be good. We need to use these indentures to maintain control, bring them to our territory, and then grant them freedom. That's the responsible way to help them."
"But..." Zhu Piaoling protested, "they were trying to kill themselves! If they die, then everything is lost."
"If they were truly so eager to die," Li Daoxuan retorted, "they would have done so seventeen or eighteen times over when they were first sold into the Pear Garden. Do you think someone with a weak spirit could master all four arts of music, chess, calligraphy, and painting?"
Zhu Piaoling’s eyes widened.
A sudden realization struck Zhu Piaoling: the Heavenly Lord was right. The way girls were trained in the Pear Garden—the beatings, the verbal abuse, the starvation, all sorts of elaborate psychological manipulation and humiliation—if they could endure that, how could they be people who would easily seek death?
Li Daoxuan replied softly, "They simply wanted to use the pretense of suicide to attempt an escape by swimming. They didn't anticipate the suction beneath the massive ship, which pulled them under, nearly costing them their lives for real."
Now Zhu Piaoling understood. "Ah!" he exclaimed, "These women, seemingly so delicate and fragile, possess such sharp minds."
Li Daoxuan smiled. "You know Zhou Daya from the News Department, right? She's now a war correspondent in Henan. She might seem delicate and frail, but how brave is she? She even captured the news about the Rushing General's 'green hat' scandal. Never underestimate the women of the brothels."
Zhu Piaoling stopped tearing.
He smoothed out the indentures, placed them back in the box, and turned to the women. "Um, ahem... I am, after all, just a humble and lowly steward. I can't make these decisions. I'd love to tear up these indentures, but I wouldn't dare. The higher-ups would kill me."
The women exchanged glances, speechless.
That was quite disheartening. With a murmur, the women dispersed.
Silence temporarily settled over the ship. Several women gathered around Xue'er and Chen Yuanyuan, escorting them into the cabin to change into dry clothes.
Li Daoxuan's hero's attire was also soaked. He personally didn't care if his clothes were wet or not, as he didn't co-sense physical sensations, so he wouldn't feel uncomfortable. However, the Gao Family Village Militia wouldn't have it. In their eyes, the Heavenly Lord's physical manifestation was utterly sacred, and they couldn't allow him to remain damp.
A group of soldiers ushered him into the cabin, where an orderly brought clean clothes. In no time, he was once again impeccably dressed and looking dashing.
Zhu Piaoling, meanwhile, braced himself. He instructed his personal guards to keep a close watch on the women by the ship's railing, preventing any attempts to jump overboard and escape.
This time, they were truly under strict surveillance. After changing, Xue'er and Chen Yuanyuan returned to the deck and saw the "minions of the monster" rigorously guarding the ship's rail. They knew their chance to escape was gone and could only wait patiently.
After a long while, Anqing dock was reached!
The Black Pearl hadn't come to Jiangnan just to pick up women; it was there to provide support for the Wanli Sunshine. As soon as it docked, the militia marines from the Black Pearl disembarked. They formed a neat square formation on the pier and saluted Shi Kefa, Jiang Cheng, and Tie Niaofei, who had come to greet them. "Reporting!" a marine declared. "Xiaolangdi Militia Marine Third Battalion, with all one hundred and fifty soldiers, is here by order to support the front lines. The ship also carries provisions, gunpowder, and bullets for the front. Please inspect."
Shi Kefa was overjoyed. "Excellent!" he exclaimed. "We are severely short of troops here; your arrival is truly a godsend."
After speaking, his gaze turned to the bewildered women still on the Black Pearl. "Who are those women dressed in such bright, colorful clothes?" he asked.
Zhu Piaoling jumped down from the ship, chuckling. "They are unfortunate women from brothels, rescued by order of the Heavenly Lord," he explained. "They're just transiting here for a few days of rest. When the Black Pearl returns, I'll take them back to Shaanxi."
Shi Kefa nodded. "I see," he murmured.
Zhu Piaoling whispered, "These women have some tricky ideas, wanting to escape. I can't quite pacify them. Does Lord Shi have any good suggestions?"
Without a moment's hesitation, Shi Kefa laughed. "That's simple enough! Let them temporarily stay with the women we rescued from pirates last time. They'll soon learn whether we are good people or villains."
Zhu Piaoling was delighted. "That's an excellent idea!"
Two hours later...
Over a hundred brothel women, led by Shi Kefa's men, arrived before a large manor within Anqing Prefecture city. The manor was rather old, the ancestral property of a local gentry family. After their fortunes declined, they put it up for sale, and Shi Kefa acquired it.
Currently, it housed eighteen women who had been "bought back" from pirates.
As Chen Yuanyuan and Xue'er walked into the large manor, a sense of panic began to settle in. They knew that opportunities to escape were greatest while they were moving; once they stopped, it meant their chances of escape were gone.
But the "minions of the monster" watched them closely, leaving them no further chance to "commit suicide." They could only sigh inwardly at their turbulent fates and, along with the other women, entered the ancient manor.
The grand gates and vast courtyards gave them the feeling that once they entered, they would never be able to leave again.
They truly didn't know what kind of treatment awaited them. They genuinely feared that upon entering, they would witness the monster engaged in some terrifying act.
Unexpectedly, upon entering, they had barely reached the main courtyard in the front when they were met with a remarkably harmonious scene. Over a dozen women were busily working in the yard. Some were carefully unwinding silk from cocoons, while others were weaving the extracted silk into cloth.
The brothel women collectively froze.
Chen Yuanyuan and Xue'er, in particular, almost thought they had entered the wrong place.
"Huh?" Xue'er asked, her curiosity piqued. "Is this actually a silk reeling workshop?"
The eighteen women, seeing the new group arrive, assumed they too had been rescued from somewhere, and immediately greeted them warmly: "New sisters!"
"Have you also fallen on hard times somewhere?"
"Oh, they truly are good people, rescuing unfortunate women like us wherever they find them."
Their enthusiastic chatter, all at once, left the brothel women completely baffled.
Xue'er, being the most assertive among them, quickly stepped forward to quiet the babbling and asked, "Sisters, how did you all come to be here?"
The eighteen women explained, "We are from a coastal fishing village. Pirates raided our village, killed all the men, and then captured us, taking us onto their ships. While on our way back to their pirate lair, we encountered the giant ship. The gentlemen on board intervened and bought us back."
"Bought back?" Xue'er and Chen Yuanyuan's hearts tightened. So these women had faced the same plight as them.
Comments