The entire dock is a place where the Eight Immortals show off their magical powers, with vendors having silver tongues that can bring the dead back to life and performers showcasing more extraordinary skills than elsewhere.
Among them were also dressed-up women, like butterflies, holding handkerchiefs and shuttling through the crowd of men. Xie Wan knew that these were the prostitutes from the brothels along the river with their colorful signboards, mostly northern girls who lacked cultural refinement and were much more brazen than those talented and beautiful southern girls in the Huixian Alley.
But these people are not ordinary people who can be trifled with, if you don't have a few coins in your pocket, and you recklessly flirt, the turtle slaves hiding in the crowd with good kung fu skills will rush up and beat you half to death for taking advantage of others.
So, there are also people who play tricks on others, often thinking that with a few dollars in their pocket, they can get a beautiful woman for a night. But the result is that they end up losing both money and face, and even getting beaten up or blackmailed. Whether you can tell true from false depends on whether you have the ability to discern it, or if you're lucky enough to encounter genuine goods.
However, I heard that the kilns along the river have also been standardized nowadays. Those who do business properly have unwritten rules, allowing people who are used to the wind and moon to see through and distinguish between true and false, thus avoiding those who play tricks from disrupting the market. But what exactly is unclear, it should be much better in terms of atmosphere.
Apart from these, there aren't many other good family women. If there are any, they're either traveling theater troupes or those who bring their families to perform and sell their skills. The rest also include local women carrying baskets to sell melon seeds, peanuts, and small goods.
Most of them are short and stout men with a rough appearance, looking fierce. Many of them look like they've been through the struggles of life.
There were also some who were slightly weaker, probably sailors or laborers. They mostly gathered in groups of three to five, staring at the buttocks of passing women and making jokes while uttering profanities. Although they too were mostly from poor backgrounds, because they relied on the boatmen's guild for a living, these laborers gradually formed a group similar to that of street rascals and lost their original innocence as common people.
Then they saw the weak and powerless people being bullied, saw those holding hands with colorful small flags or wearing dragon-shaped waist cards, their expressions immediately became serious again.
People who dress neatly but don't have any special features are often grain merchants. These people become the primary targets of extortion by local hooligans.
The people in the gang were not obvious, and those who wore a dragon head plate on their waist only clearly marked them as members of the gang. However, they were just low-ranking leaders responsible for dockside affairs. Xie Wan couldn't recall the name, but along the way, she had always been able to take advantage of the convenience of being unnoticed as a child and detect vigilant eyes darting back and forth in the crowds.
The Boatman's Guild is in charge of the entire Grand Canal's boat transportation, and it's also a semi-official gang. Without mentioning how vast their influence is, just look at this dock, where all sorts of people are mixed together, and none of them seem to be good eggs. Yet, they coexist peacefully, which is quite admirable management.
Xie Wan had no intention of getting in touch with the helmsman of the boatmen's guild, she just needed someone to introduce her to the people in the guild. As long as they could take over this deal and safely transport the grain for her, that would be enough.
She watched the acrobatics with Luo Xiang and others, then watched the street performers. After giving a few coins to the little beggars who came up, she walked in front of the ring toss stall.
All the way she noticed that someone in the crowd was patrolling the entire dock, but didn't know that she had already fallen into someone else's sight tracking.
On the left side of the dock, in a two-story wooden building, there are eyes watching from the window. They stare intently at her, who has her hands tucked into her sleeves and is holding several ceramic dolls wrapped in wicker rings.
"What kind of person is she?"
Someone next to him replied: "It seems that they are merchants from outside Beijing who have come to do business in the capital. The old man is her father, and the one next to her is her brother."
"Merchant?" Those gloomy eyes narrowed, "Ordinary girls who see these despicable scenes, which one isn't scared and wanting to go back? Look at her, from head to toe, not even an eyebrow moved, this composure is something that ordinary men can't even possess.
"Take another look, isn't she being protected by those people around her? And that father of hers you mentioned, every time he does something, he has to ask for her opinion in a low voice, with such a humble and respectful attitude. Is there such a father in this world who is so submissive?"
The people around him were immediately speechless.
He hummed a sound, rotating the iron ball in his hand, and his gaze turned back to the window. "Go check again. It's the end of the year, don't let it be someone sent by the Duke of Protection for a secret visit."
The people beside him heard this and immediately beckoned over a few others, who quietly went downstairs.
Shen Tian threw ten hoops and got a big red ceramic golden boy and a ceramic winter melon. Luo Ju only got a ceramic spoon in the shape of a fox.
Both of them presented their spoils of war to Xie Wan, who was watching from the sidelines with his sleeves rolled up.
Luo Sheng looked around and said: "Should we head back? It's getting late."
Xie Wan had also seen enough and was about to leave, so she let Shen Tian take a piece of porcelain and turned around to prepare to return to the mansion.
Just a few steps away, a palm-sized object suddenly fell in front of her feet. Xie Wan couldn't avoid it and stepped on it with the sole of her foot.
She didn't even have time to lower her head, and there were already four or five tall and sturdy men in front of her. The leader, a man with a whisker-like beard, was wearing an extremely elegant slant-collared, embroidered satin robe with tight sleeves, his eyes fixed intently on her.
Luo Xiang and the others immediately surrounded her in the middle, and their bodies emitted a tense atmosphere that was easy to sense.
The people of the boatmen's guild. These words suddenly popped into her mind.
But what did the people from the boatmen's association want with her?
Her mind was racing, and she found that the people around her hadn't noticed them much. The dockworkers who had been living on the docks for years were the ones who knew the most about the boatmen's union. Since they didn't seem to care, it seemed that this group of people's intention to make things difficult wasn't very obvious.
She had never dealt with gang members before and was unclear about their way of doing things, so she could only guess their intentions from these reference objects.
She smiled with a hint of embarrassment.
The whiskers didn't move.
She bent down and picked up the Longjing tea brand from under her feet.
"What a beautiful sign, unfortunately it's been trampled and got dirty, I'm so sorry." She took out her handkerchief, carefully wiped it clean, then handed it over with both hands, "Uncle, I apologize."
Her bright smile carried a hint of apology, like a child who had done something wrong trying to appease an adult.
But she was just a kid after all...
Luo Yan saw her like this, his tightly furrowed eyebrows moved almost imperceptibly.
It's the end of the year, and no one wants anything to go wrong. He had only wanted to scare her a bit, to see if she would reveal any weaknesses, to figure out if she was really working for the Duke, but he hadn't expected her to be so heartless, as if she didn't even know that death existed, and instead tried to curry favor with him.
If she were a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old girl, she would have been thrown into the river long ago.
If it were a boy about her age, he would also be thrown onto a cargo boat with several days' worth of food on his back.
Although it's hard to offend the Duke of Guo, ignorance is no excuse. The master has said that as long as no one dies, there's nothing to fear.
But she was a young girl, and she looked very innocent.
Luo Dui Fu doesn't understand the meaning of cherishing talent, he can torment a young girl like this and also make his fellow Taoists ashamed.
"Uncle?"
Xie Wan tilted her head, let out a soft cry, and stretched out her hand a little further.
He stared at her with wide eyes, his mustache twitching slightly.
He had a certain presence on the dock, and ordinary people would avoid him when they saw him, even if they didn't call out "Seventh Master" in respect. But she didn't dodge or retreat, looking like she really wasn't afraid, and when she saw him, her eyes didn't show any particular surprise, as if she didn't even know who he was. If someone had a guilty conscience, how could they not be afraid of him?
Forget it, he still has to mix in the rivers and lakes. If it gets out, who will stab him with a knife on his boat? Then he won't have to stay in the gang for this life.
He glared at her, snatched the sign from her hand and strode away.
The sound of heavy breathing came from all around them, and Luo Xiang and his friends were so scared that they almost fainted.
"Hurry up and go, girl!"
Xie Wan was supported by them as they walked out of the dock, and the heart that had risen to her throat also gradually fell back into her stomach.
She wasn't fearless, she just made an educated guess about the situation and bet that they wouldn't dare to cause trouble at this time.
The end of the year is not only the time for officials to assess their performance, but also a crucial moment that affects the operation of the waterway association next year. They will not make things difficult for her at this time. Although I don't know why they targeted me, I was still frightened. If they really take action, our group of people simply have no power to fight back, which is very unfavorable.
She had something on her mind and didn't regain her composure until she got back to the noodle shop and onto the bus.
Luo Yanhu returned to the wooden building and reported what had happened truthfully.
"She should just be a slightly curious ordinary little girl, and nothing seems out of place. Moreover, even if the Duke wants to send someone to investigate secretly, he wouldn't send a little maid like you."
A faint snickering sound came from the dark corner of the room, and then a hand swiftly pulled open the window. The sunlight shone on a handsome face with sharp features.
"He has been guarding the border for many years, and is well-versed in military strategy and tactics. What move can't he make?" After finishing speaking, he pulled the window shut again: "I have to return to the mansion now. You go and keep an eye on them, see where they've gone. If there's nothing suspicious, don't bother coming back to report to me."
He obeyed orders and went downstairs with his queue cut off.
Xie Wan returned to the inn and had a bowl of hot soup under Yu Xue's service. He kept Luo Sheng, father and son, and Wu Xing Shen Tian.
"I paid attention today and found that the management around Jishuitan is surprisingly well-organized. At first, I thought it was taken care of by the boatmen's guild, but after thinking about it again, I felt it wasn't. All the docks and ports have soldiers stationed there, so how come Jishuitan, as a major dock in the capital, doesn't even have one soldier? I know that the government has someone specifically in charge of grain transportation, do you know who it is now?"
In her past life, she never thought about this matter, so she didn't pay attention to the information in this regard. Now that she knows, she feels very lacking.
