Volume 1 Chapter 22 Departure

  On the 18th day of the first month, the annual evil spirit is in the west. It is suitable for breaking ground, repairing graves, building and construction, recruiting son-in-law or daughter-in-law, traveling, seeking wealth, seeking medical treatment, and taboo for marriage, installing beams, moving into a new house, separating from family members, and receiving betrothal gifts.

  The sky had just lit up, and the gates of the Luo Mansion were all open. At the front was a jade-covered, pearl-decorated eight-treasures carriage, followed by two vermilion-wheeled, flower-adorned carriages, and then twenty or so black-lacquered, flat-headed carriages closely following behind, surrounded by three layers of guards inside and out, with the sound of horse hooves and rumbling wheels, noisily rushing towards the eastern postal road.

  The whole city of Yuhang was awakened. There were also early risers who hurried to the street, watching the commotion in twos and threes.

  "Look, it's the Luo family's carriage..."

  "How classy!"

  "Just past New Year's, where is this place?"

  "I heard it's going to Yanjing to see daughter and son-in-law!"

  Eleventh Princess sat quietly in the carriage, unable to hear the discussions outside, her hands tucked into her sleeves, her fingertips lightly tracing the icy yet smooth cut surface of the gemstone, but her heart was like turbulent river water that could not calm down.

  It was a blue sapphire the size of a pigeon egg.

  It was given by Wu Yiniang when she went to bid farewell last night.

  "There's only the things that Eldest Madam gave me in my house, all of which are accounted for and can't be touched. Only this blue gemstone was given to me by Old Master when I went to Fujian, nobody else knows about it... This time you're going to Yanjing, so far away, and I won't be able to follow you, take this with you, if anything happens you can exchange it for some silver to protect yourself. On the road, listen to Eldest Madam's words, don't provoke her anger, get along well with Fifth Miss, don't quarrel... Everything must be endured... everything must be done carefully..." By the end, tears were falling like rain, "I've come to understand too. You should visit here less often, only when Eldest Madam is pleased with you will you have a good future... All I ask for in this life is that you have a good ending..."

  Really understand?

  I'm afraid it's just unavoidable!

  At this point, Eleven felt her nose slightly sour.

  The fifth aunt had long lost favor, and when she was ill, the private house money was almost used up. This blue sapphire is probably what she left for herself to protect her life...

  "Auntie, don't worry, Mother has been very generous to me in recent years and even made new hair accessories for me. I'm not short of money... You can keep this!"

  Having already occupied this body with a guilty conscience, how can I still want her things!

  "But you, although you haven't come to see me often in the past two years, always came to pay your respects during Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, and Chinese New Year. You never missed a single one of these occasions. Whenever we met, it was only joy and no worries. Even if I'm foolish, my heart understands that you're afraid of being too close to me, making others feel uncomfortable... Now that things have come to this point, you still don't say anything to me... She cried like a pear blossom in the rain, "You've grown up and have your own ideas now. Since you won't speak, I won't ask either. Who knows if we'll ever meet again after you leave? I just want to tell you one thing from my heart: don't worry about me, no matter what happens, you must live on. As long as you're alive, it won't be in vain that I risked my life to give birth to you... You will have good days ahead."

  It was as if something had suddenly been thrown into her heart, stirring up wave after wave of ripples, shattering her hard defenses and causing the emotions hidden at the bottom of her heart to pour out... Her tears gushed out without warning.

  The fifth aunt wiped away her tears somewhat clumsily: "Don't cry, don't cry. This thing is useless to me now. As long as I behave myself, the mistress won't do anything to me. You're different, you're out in the world with no one to rely on... The things the mistress gives are all open and aboveboard, but if you have this for protection, who knows, it might just save your life. If you don't take it, how can I be at peace? Hurry up and put it away, don't let anyone see..."

  Eleventh girl sat dazed in the carriage, thinking of the scene when Fifth Auntie handed her the blue stone treasure, with a mix of emotions in her heart, unable to express what it felt like.

  She just knew that she owed Fifth Aunt too much...

  Amber gazed at Eleven, who remained silent, her heart in turmoil.

  Yesterday at noon, Mrs. Xu suddenly came and told them that Binju could also go with them!

  At that time, the house was filled with joy and excitement.

  She still remembers Miss Eleven's smile - not the kind of warm and gentle smile that makes people feel like spring breeze, but a smile as clean, clear and bright as the sky after a spring rain.

  In the flash of insight, she suddenly understood.

  It turns out this is Miss Eleven's genuine smile from the bottom of her heart.

  Her heart was slightly pained.

  Only in front of someone she trusted would Eleventh Miss behave like this!

  So after passing on the message, she voluntarily sent Mrs. Xu out of the house, wanting to avoid the joyful atmosphere that was about to arrive in the house.

  Who knew, after walking out of the Green Jade Building, Mrs. Xu grabbed her hand and smiled brightly as she examined her for a long time. After gazing at her for a long time, she said something that made her heart skip a beat: "Jade has grown up and become beautiful. But you must also remember, your current status is thanks to whose kindness!"

  Mother Xu wouldn't say something like this for no reason.

  She thought about it and her back felt a chill.

  No one knows what really happened at Yenching. What was the real intention of the mistress when she took them there? If something were to happen between the mistress and the young lady... not to mention outsiders, if something were to come out, she would probably be the scapegoat!

  The carriage was quiet inside, but the sound of the horse's rapid galloping outside came in clearly. Eleventh Miss closed her eyes to rest, but she felt very stifled.

  After the carriage had traveled for more than two hours, it slowly came to a stop. A woman surnamed Jiang who was sitting next to Madam asked Eleventh Young Mistress: "Miss, do you want to use the restroom?"

  Eleventh Sister lifted the curtain and saw a simple tea house by the roadside, which was already surrounded by Luo's family guards. Several stout women were using dark-colored coarse cloth to surround the tea house.

  "It's a bit cold outside, but we can't help it. Let's just make do for now and wait until the next time slot, Miss!" Jiang mom consoled Shiyi Niang.

  Eleventh saw Mrs. Dai coming down from the carriage with the help of Mother Xu and walking towards the tea house.

  "Thank you, Mother!" Eleventh Princess smiled and thanked Jiang's mother, then put on her veil and got off the carriage with the support of Amber.

  She had just gotten off the carriage, and Wu Niang, who was sitting in front of her on another carriage, also got off with the help of Zi Wei.

  Two people looked at each other with a smile across the white gauze curtain and walked towards the tea house.

  The tea house is divided into two parts. The outer part is a shed made of bamboo, and the inner part is a small room.

  The two of them stood in the shed for a while, and then Madame Yu was helped out by Mrs. Xu. Seeing that both Wu Niang and Shi Yi Niang were properly wearing their veils, she nodded slightly and smiled: "On the road it's not like at home, you all have to be careful."

  Two people kneeled down and bowed in response to "yes".

  The old lady got on the horse cart, and Eleventh Sister let Fifth Sister go first. After Fifth Sister came out, she went in.

  The house is divided into two rooms, front and back. The front room is a small tea room, the back room has a stove, and a red-lacquered toilet is placed in the center of the family's tea room.

  The eleventh girl endured her discomfort and solved her physiological problem, then walked out of the tea house to wait for Amber, and the two got back on the carriage.

  Before long, the sound of gentle laughter and whispers came from the direction of the teahouse. The eleventh daughter lifted the curtain of the carriage and saw that behind them, Du Juan, Du Wei, and the little maidservants of the fifth daughter, Zhuo Tao and Sui Er, had entered the teahouse, chatting and laughing together.

  A bit like a service station on the highway...

  The girl's mouth corners slightly curled up, and she smiled.

  Then they heard Jiang's mother say: "Girls, be careful not to make fools of yourselves."

  The little maids either stuck out their tongues or made a face, and finally quieted down.

  It was about half an incense stick's worth of time before the carriage started again.

  After noon, their carriage arrived at Hangzhou Prefecture, but did not enter the city. They went around the city to the north and reached the dock.

  There was already a three-masted red-painted large sailboat waiting there, and the staff had set up a passageway with a canopy, assigning rough-handed women to stand on the prepared red-painted gangway ready to serve them aboard.

  The carriage stopped in front of a vacant lot, and a man in his thirties led an old man with white hair and beard, as well as a handsome young man in his twenties, to come forward and pay their respects to the madam. The madam spoke a few words to them through the curtain of the carriage, and then the old man and the young man retreated respectfully from a distance.

  Amber explained behind the eleventh girl: "The middle-aged man with the surname Tao is the general manager of the Luo family in Hangzhou City. The one with white hair is Cow Da Zongguan - he opened a small silk fabric store in Hangzhou Prefecture and took goods from the Luo family's general store. Every year during Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, and Spring Festival, he would go to pay respects to Madame, and following behind him was his youngest son Niu Jin, who managed the Cow family's silk fabric store."

  Everyone has left, but the tea is still hot. It seems that this Cow Big Manager is indeed a capable person...

  The eleventh girl nodded slightly and lifted the curtain of the carriage to continue looking outside.

  Just then, two sedan chair bearers carrying a sedan chair with a black oilcloth canopy came walking this way, followed by a slender woman in her forties, and seven or eight attendants wearing black clothes walked in front of and behind the sedan chair.

  "Ah, it's Madame Zhou, the wife of Governor Zhou of Hangzhou."

  As soon as she finished speaking, Eleventh Sister saw the old lady getting off the carriage with the help of Mrs. Xu and walking towards the sedan chair. The woman next to the sedan chair looked at her and whispered a few words to the person inside, and the sedan chair stopped. The yamen runners dispersed around it, and a forty-year-old woman wearing a blue embroidered skirt and a green flower on her head got out of the sedan chair. The two women bowed to each other from afar, smiling and holding hands together. After exchanging a few words, Mrs. Xu presented several boxes of gifts, and the old lady helped the woman into the sedan chair. Watching as the sedan chair disappeared into the distance, she turned around and instructed Jiang Mama a few things before heading towards the boat with Mrs. Xu.

  Jiang's mother first ran to the front of Wu Niang's horse cart and whispered a few words, then ran to the front of Shiyi Niang's horse cart: "Miss Shiyi, the old lady asks you to get off the carriage and board the boat."

  Eleventh Sister watched as Fifth Sister stepped down from the carriage with Ziwei's support, and she also got down from the carriage with Hupo's support.

  The two followed Mrs. Big behind her back and boarded the ship one after another.

  The boat is very large, with two decks. The guards and the rough servants live on the upper deck, while they live on the lower deck. The madam has four rooms, and she and the fifth daughter each have two rooms.

  In the big cabin, someone had already prepared steaming hot food.

  The mistress ordered them: “……We will set out half an hour later.”

  Neither of them was hungry, but they had a little snack along the way. However, they didn't dare to offend Mrs. Dai, so they both ate half a bowl. During dinner, heavy footsteps could be heard from time to time passing by the corridor next to the main cabin. When they put down their bowls and chopsticks, the sound was gone. Madam Xu went out to take a look and came back to report to Mrs. Dai: "The trunks are all packed."

  The old lady nodded and ordered Mrs. Xu: "Then set sail! Try to stay in Suzhou tonight."

  Mrs. Hsu answered and went away, soon came back with a message: "We can start in half an incense stick."

  The elder lady nodded and said to her sisters-in-law: "You must be tired from the journey too, go rest now!"

  The eleventh girl made a curtsy and backed away, but the fifth girl said: "Mother is also tired, why don't I help massage her legs?"

  "Don't worry!" said the old lady with a smile. "You're all on a boat for the first time, and you don't know if you'll get seasick or not. Just take care of yourselves."

  The fifth daughter saw that the mistress had made up her mind and smiled as she retreated.

  Luo Qiao was busy fetching water and serving the old lady, washing and resting. However, Xu Mama wanted to check the trunks with Shanhu and Daiyu.

  Eleventh Sister returned to the house when Dong Qing was also checking the boxes.

  Thinking that they had boarded the boat with Jiang's mother, she couldn't help but ask: "Have you all eaten yet?"

  Binju still had a joyful expression on her face from being able to go to Yenching, and immediately smiled: "No, we haven't eaten. However, none of us are hungry, as we ate some snacks along the way."

  Dong Qing also smiled and said, "Miss, don't worry about us. Jiang Mama said that after half a time, let us go to the small cabin - arrange food for us, and let each of us clear up our things in our own room first."

  The eleventh girl looked at the arrangement and everything was in order. She didn't say anything else, and let Binju and Qiujun serve her as she rested and slept well.

  I'm crawling on the grid... there's still one more watch tonight!