Chapter 8 — The Husband and Little Uncle Fake the Disaster, My Sister and I Clean Up the Marquis' Palace

I pulled out the real notebook from under my sleeve and shook it in front of him.

"Go back and tell the Tieu family's father and son. The books are really with me, not a single page is missing. If they send people again, the next time what will be filled with officials will not be blank papers."

The coachman waved his whip and the carriage passed between the three people. Tieu Ngoc Xu leaned against the car wall, laughing so much that his shoulders shook.

“When did you change?”

"Last night. The real book was sewn into a double cotton shirt, the fake book was placed in the sleeve."

“How did you know they would block the way?”

I watched the trees outside the car door quickly retreat, my voice cut off by the wind.

"Because the people of the Tieu family have never let anything worth leaving leave. People are fine, things are fine, they all feel that they belong to them."

Tieu Ngoc Xu was silent for a while.

“So where do we go now?”

“Jiangnan.”

“What happens when we get to Giang Nam?”

I let down the car window curtain and turned to look at her.

“After that, just let them wait.”

We were on the road for twelve days. During those twelve days, Tieu Ngoc Xu learned how to bargain with the tea shop owner, and I learned how to distinguish on the official road who was truly a traveling merchant and who was a detective who received money to follow. After we cut off the third group of detectives, Tieu Ngoc Xu asked me.

“Why haven't they given up yet?”

“Because the things in that notebook are enough for the entire Tieu family to be beheaded.”

“How much did you end up recording?”

I closed my eyes and turned back the memories of the last three years of my previous life from the beginning.

"Every piece of dirty money the Xiao family received, every road they walked, every big tree they clung to, it was all in there. Not a single thing was missed."

Tieu Ngoc Xu took a cold breath.

“How do you know?”

I can't tell her how I know. I can't say, in my previous life, I spent three years at the Marquis Palace working as an ox and a horse, serving tea and pouring water, tidying up the study room, and tidying up the letters going back and forth. The Tieu family's father and son thought that a housewife like me didn't understand those things, so they never took precautions against me. They didn't know, my father was a clerk at the Ministry of Health, and I grew up surrounded by books since I was a child. The things they thought were so hidden that not even a drop of water could leak out, in my eyes, were like being spread out right on the table. The driver was outside knocking on the car wall.

“You two ladies, ahead is the ferry wharf.”

I lifted the car curtain. The canal stretched across before our eyes, the water surface was so wide that we could not see the other side. On the dock, there were more than ten boats parked, porters shouted slogans to deliver goods, boat women squatted at the head of the boat washing vegetables, kitchen smoke flew out from the boat's cabin, blending into the dim gray sky. Tieu Ngoc Xu jumped off the carriage, stood by the ferry wharf, and took a deep breath.

“Smell it?”

“Smell what?”

“The taste doesn't have anything that belongs to the Tieu family.”

I burst out laughing and jumped down. The coachman helped us move the trunk onto the boat, I paid him another ten taels of silver. He finished putting away the money, looked at us, and wanted to say it again. The driver rubbed his hands: "You two ladies, there is something I don't know whether I should say or not."

“If you shouldn't say it, don't say it anymore.”

He choked a bit, but finally spoke.

"The day you two left the Marquis Palace, the Great Master sent someone to follow me all the way. I didn't accept his money, but I'm afraid he will find someone else."

I nodded: "I know." The coachman drove the empty horse cart back, the sound of the horse's hooves echoing on the paved road, getting farther and farther away. The boat captain pushed the boat away from the dock, the bamboo pole touched the water, the boat body shook slightly, slowly leaving the dock. Tieu Ngoc Xu stood at the stern of the boat, watching the wharf become smaller and smaller.

"Tell me, will Tieu Thua Duc chase you to Giang Nam?"

“So what do we do?”

I took out the notebook sewn inside the cotton shirt and flipped to the last page. What was written on it was not Tieu family's dirty money, but Tieu Thua Duc's own. That part he thought his father didn't know.

"Wait until he comes, I will give him a big gift."

Giang Nam is much greener than we imagined. Not the gray blue like in the capital, but the green that filled our eyes, covering the sky and earth. The water is green, the fields are green, even the air carries water vapor, inhaling it makes your lungs feel heavy. We bought a small courtyard on the edge of town, with three main rooms, a courtyard, and a pipa tree in the yard. Tieu Ngoc Xu said this tree does not grow well, the fruit will definitely be sour. When I say sour, it's sour, but it's sweeter than the fruit in Hau Phu.