Lady, Wait - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

On the road to Jizhou, we didn’t dare draw too much attention. At night, we slept in rural inns, and when we were hungry, we ate dry rations.

During those two years with the Xiao Family, I had seen just how extravagantly Xiao Yue lived.

When he was bored, he would scatter pearls around the courtyard for fun and tease the pretty maids at home.

The cooks would spend ages preparing a dish, only for him to take two bites and refuse to touch it again, complaining that it lacked novelty.

Every night before bed, the maids had to warm his bedding until it was fragrant, soft, and cozy. If there was even the slightest hint of chill, he would be displeased.

Yet now, Xiao Yue drank tea that cost one copper coin for three bowls without a word, gnawing on hard, coarse-grain flatbread.

He could enjoy wealth and luxury, but he could also endure a life of hardship and wandering.

I had to admit, I saw him in a new light.

Along the way, we passed through counties and prefectures suffering from famine. When we stopped to rest at a teahouse, ragged commoners stood waiting outside.

Across the street, a waiter from a restaurant carried out a bucket of kitchen slops. Six or seven people immediately rushed forward and pooled their money to buy it.

They could not even wait to take it home and divide it up. They grabbed spoons and began fighting to eat it on the spot.

Halfway through, someone ate too much, someone else too little, and another scuffle broke out.

A frail woman cried, “Leave me one bowl! Just one bowl! I paid too! The child at home is starving, barely clinging to life!”

But the passersby hurried past, and not one of them paid her any attention.

In years of disaster and famine, there was no shortage of suffering people like her.

“Xiao Dao, I want to help her,” Xiao Yue said with difficulty, pinching a bit of broken silver between his fingers.

I tucked some meat into my flatbread, took a few bites, and shook my head. “Even if you give her money, she won’t be able to keep it.”

Xiao Yue’s shoulders sagged slightly. A little lost, he said, “I was born and raised in Lin’an. The farthest place I ever went was the capital. My elder sister is the emperor’s favored noble consort, and her favor has never waned. I thought the poorest, most miserable person under heaven was the lame groom in my family’s stables.”

He had grown up in the wealthy lands of Jiangnan, a land of fish and rice where even beggars had the right to be picky.

There was one thing Xiao Yue had once said that was true: even the beggars in Jiangnan dressed better than I did.

“It’s not your fault.” I patted Xiao Yue on the shoulder and, after thinking for a moment, said, “When you were rich and powerful, you never bullied the common people. That’s enough.”

“Enough? That’s enough?” Xiao Yue leaned his forehead against my shoulder, his body trembling slightly.

After a long while, he lifted his head. His eyes were completely red as he suppressed his emotions and said, “Xiao Dao, I want to enter officialdom. For the wronged souls of the Xiao Family, and for these common people driven from place to place.”

That wish was rather grand.

Looking at his thin face, I sighed inwardly and only said, “All right.”

We quietly followed the woman to a ruined, filthy alley reeking with stench.

After she went inside, I tossed the bundle I had been carrying over my shoulder into the courtyard wall.

Inside were flatbreads we had bought from a shop, with some meat hidden among them.

As we left, Xiao Yue asked me, “Xiao Dao, they’ll survive, won’t they?”

No. They would die soon.

And not just their family. When summer came, disease would break out in that filthy alley.

At that time, the authorities would send people to seal off the entire street. Once everyone inside was dead, they would set a fire to burn the corpses clean and cut off the plague.

I looked at Xiao Yue and answered, “They will. They definitely will.”

Xiao Yue let out a breath of relief. At last, a trace of joy appeared in his lifeless eyes.

“Everything will be better once we reach Jizhou. Then I’ll go study, and you can settle down in Jizhou, Xiao Dao,” Xiao Yue said, hope in his voice. “Uncle Qi watched me grow up. He’ll definitely treat us well.”

But neither of us expected that I would nearly lose half my life in Jizhou.