Chapter 9 — Hoa Mi Revenge of Vengeance

The moment the bottom board closed tightly, the nightingale's screams fell silent. It perched bewilderedly on the bronze bar, its iridescent feathers ruffled and then slowly closed. Blue eyes rotated around, as if searching for something. Found it. Its eyes were locked on an invisible direction. It is no longer the West Court anymore, nor is it the main court. But in the suburbs, Lieu alley, the mansion is thirty miles away. That is the direction of Tham Thanh Van and Tham Thua An. From this night on, every breath of luck that this bird sucked in was taken from the Tham family's father and son. We emptied the ashes in the wine gourd into the drainage ditch in the corner of the yard, flushed it clean, and brought the wine gourd back to the kitchen. Xuan Vu was standing waiting at the full moon gate, her ten fingers intertwined. As soon as she saw me step out, she almost rushed forward.
“Successful?”
“It was successful.”
“That bird, is it still calling?”
I glanced at the nightingale in the cage. It was quiet again, once again burying its head under its wings, closing its eyes.
"It's still calling. But from tonight onwards, what it's calling is someone else's lament."
Xuan Vu tugged on her braid, the corner of her mouth curled up. I don't laugh. Because it's not yet time to laugh. Changing the talisman is just the first step. The real debt must wait until the day when Tham Thanh Van is most pleased, standing in front of everyone and paying him fairly. Three days later, the news arrived. It's not that I can wait, it's that Tham Thanh Van himself brought it back. That afternoon when he returned to the Su family's courtyard, his face was very unsightly. His usual gait that always carried the wind became heavy and dragging, his hand constantly caressing the jade ring on his thumb.
“Miss, what's going on?” Venerable Sun graciously came forward to welcome him, offering tea with both hands.
“What happened at the dock.”
Tham Thanh Van's voice was a bit dry.
"This morning the silk shipment departed from Huzhou. When the boat passed through Taihu Lake, it encountered strong winds and waves."
"The boat capsized, all the goods sank to the bottom of the lake."
The tea cup in Manager Ton's hand almost fell.
“Is it all sunk?”
"It's completely sunk. It took the boat crew a whole day to pick up people, and not even a single loss of goods could be salvaged."
I held a bowl of green bean soup and stood right at the door of the room, listening to this entire conversation without missing a word. The Taihu waterway is the most important transportation artery of To Gia silk shop. Having been traveling for decades, the boat has never capsized. It's a nightingale. The old amulet has burned, the new amulet has worked. The five-colored nightingale is currently exhausting Tham Thanh Van's fortune. The first bite has arrived. I approached with a bowl of green bean soup, a look of moderate sadness on my face.
"Miss, the goods have sunk, what about the security deposit? Did you sign a risk contract with the merchant ship?"
Tham Thanh Van took the bowl of soup and took a sip, put the bowl down and shook his head.
"This shipment is a temporary additional order, following an old relationship, so no contract was signed."

Old relationship. Do not sign a contract. Thousands of taels of silver goods were thrown straight into the Taihu River. In her previous life, Tham Thanh Van worked as discreetly as running water. Why did she make such a low mistake in this life? It's not that he made a mistake. But his luck has begun to leak. When fortune leaks, judgment also declines, things that were originally going smoothly will turn into thorns, and trustworthy people will become treacherous. That is the bravery of the Five-Colored Nightingale. The next half month, Tham Thanh Van passed without any waves or waves. First, something happened to his undercover business. I don't know exactly what the mission was, but from Xuan Vu's story, he hadn't returned to the To family's grand courtyard for three days. Every day he huddled in a tea shop on the street to discuss business with people. When he returned, his whole body felt like he was in a coma, and he spoke less than half. Then there was noise again from Lieu alley. Mother Vuong's news was extremely sharp. She said Bach To To had been crying in the courtyard for several days. The child fell ill, had a high fever that wouldn't go down, and invited two doctors to examine him but could not find the cause. Tham Thanh Van was impatient and secretly ran to Lieu alley two nights in a row. I don't stop him. Just keep running, the more aggressively you run, the faster the nightingale will suck. On the contrary, at the Su family's side, everything quietly changed for the better. The dyeing factory mixed the indigo blue color again, this time it was successfully colored right from the first batch, Master Trieu praised the color even more accurately than before. At the tea shop, the shopkeeper Luc negotiated a large order. Customers from Hangzhou proactively came to the door, specifically wanting to buy green star tea from the To family. The ceramic shop was two months in arrears, but the other party suddenly paid it off without missing a penny. When Manager Ton reported the work to Tham Thanh Van in the lobby, the expression on his face was extremely wonderful. He just stroked the brim of his hat and was only halfway through his words when he secretly glanced at me. In those eyes there was an incomprehensible shock. What's difficult to understand? It's difficult to understand why the To family's fortunes suddenly returned. It's difficult to understand why the things the Co family is involved in are constantly having trouble, while the stores that the eldest lady manages are all running smoothly. He is wavering. But I did not actively try to entice him. This type of person must be left to think thoroughly for himself. Tham Thanh Van discovered that the old talisman had disappeared. That evening at dusk, I was in the room comparing the dye factory's month-end accounts. The birdcage is still hanging in the same position in the yard. The nightingale sat quietly in one place, occasionally calling a few times, but the sound was no longer as clear as the day it first arrived. The cry was a bit hoarse, like there was sand stuck in his throat. When Tham Thanh Van pushed the door open and walked in, he didn't have anything in his hand. He didn't pay any attention to me, walked straight to the front of the bird cage, squatted down, his fingers along the edge of the bottom board. My hand pressed firmly on the table. He pried open the bottom board, turned it over, and glanced at it. Then stopped. From my perspective, his back is as tense as a string. He slowly closed the bottom panel, stood up, and reached for the dome of the birdcage. The guidance talisman that was originally glued to the inside of the dome has also been replaced. He peeled off the new talisman and took a look, his fingers clutching the edge of the paper, rubbing until the corner of the paper curled up. He turned around to look at me.
“Van Ngam.”
"What's up?"
“You touched the thing at the bottom of the birdcage?”
“What stuff?”

I raised my head to look at him, my expression calm as if I was asking him what he wanted to eat tonight. Tham Thanh Van walked to the table, spread out the new talisman, and slapped the book right in front of me. Cinnabar veins, two frames. One frame writes his eight characters, one frame writes my name.
"When did you change this talisman? Who did you find to make it?"
“I don't understand what you're talking about.”
I bowed my head and continued to flip through the book, the speed of my fingers turning the pages did not change.
“Do you know what you are doing?”
Tham Thanh Van's voice was low, carrying a cold and gloomy feeling that I had never heard before.
"Where did you know the origin of this bird? Who told you?"
"It's just a nightingale. Didn't Grandpa say it was a treasure from Linh Nam? What's so worth worrying about?"
Tham Thanh Van stared at me for a long time. The flame of the oil lamp danced slightly, his face became blurred at times, his complexion became extremely unsightly. His thumb pressed hard on the jade ring, rubbing it over and over again, until his jade face felt hot.
“Let me ask you again.”
His voice was stiff, like a cracked piece of wood, "Who gave you this talisman?" I put down the book, raised my head, and quietly looked straight into his eyes.
“You gave me a luck-seeking demon bird to drain the To family's fortune.”
“He raised the woman and his illegitimate child with the blood of the To family.”
"You arranged for your mother to live in the To family's grand courtyard. While eating the To family's meals, she pointed her finger and scolded me for 'not knowing how to lay eggs'."
"You stole money from the To family to buy a mansion for a woman outside."
"You cruelly planned to drive my Patriarch out of the main courtyard while he was sick and about to die, in order to clear the way for usurpation."
“You don't ask me how I know about these things.”
“Again, ask why a piece of paper was swapped?”
Tham Thanh Van's face was pale. Not the one that turns white with anger. It's the bewildering emptiness after being hit with a violent blow to consciousness. He took a step back.
“She—”
“That bird is now sucking your luck.”