The maid remembered hearing those words once before.
Back then, when her mistress had been forcibly kept at the Zhou residence by Zhou Liu-lang.
She had suggested seeking help from Old Master Zhang.
But her mistress refused.
“No need. I haven’t yet reached the point of having no way out.”
She had also said:
“I simply dislike placing my hopes… in the hands of others, that’s all.”
“Besides, everything right now is going just as I wished.”
Could it be… that everything now… is still going just as she wished?
“This time, it seems we managed to get through it unscathed,” Xu Maoxiu continued, “but I fear these people won’t let things rest so easily.”
Fan Jianglin nodded in agreement.
“Especially if they weren’t just here for money,” he said. “I’m afraid there may be someone behind all this, deliberately stirring up trouble.”
“Good people get taken advantage of, gentle horses get ridden into the ground! We should’ve beaten those thugs to death right there and then!” Xu Bangchui shouted, face red, eyes wide, fists clenched. “If I’d been there, I’d have flattened them with one punch! It’s not too late even now—if you ask me, we should hunt those bastards down and settle this once and for all!”
Xu Bangchui had a notoriously hot temper. That day, he and another brother had gone out to buy supplies. When he returned and heard what had happened, he flew into a rage, stomping and howling, furious he hadn’t been there to give those thugs a proper beating.
“Enough of that nonsense,” Xu Maoxiu shot him a sharp look and shook his head. “You have no sense of proportion. This is the capital—we kill someone, and we’ll be facing a lawsuit. Do you want to ruin the shop?”
That, too, was why he had insisted on bringing Xu Bangchui with him into the city—he feared that if anyone came looking for trouble again, Xu Bangchui’s recklessness would only make matters worse.
“Yes, we’d be dragged into a lawsuit,” Cheng Jiao-niang nodded and said.
Xu Bangchui lowered his head in frustration, fuming but silent.
“But,” Cheng Jiao-niang continued, “Seventh Brother isn’t wrong either.”
Xu Bangchui immediately looked up, his face lighting up with surprise.
“Right? I was right, wasn’t I? People like that should just be beaten to death!” he declared.
Cheng Jiao-niang nodded.
“Yes—beat them to death, and be done with it,” she said with a smile.
Xu Bangchui stared at her for a moment, but then his energy deflated.
“Sis, don’t try to comfort me,” he muttered, head lowered. “You can’t just go around beating people to death.”
Cheng Jiao-niang smiled as she looked at him.
“What’s wrong, brother? Don’t dare?” she asked.
That touched a nerve—his pride as a man. Xu Bangchui immediately snapped his head up, eyes wide.
“Who says I don’t dare!” he shouted. “I, Xu Bangchui, have slain no fewer than eight or ten Western bandits—what are a few street thugs to me!”
“Then go ahead—beat them to death,” Cheng Jiao-niang said calmly.
At this, Xu Bangchui started to feel something was off. He stared at Cheng Jiao-niang, eyes narrowing.
“You’re serious?” he asked hesitantly.
“I don’t joke around,” Cheng Jiao-niang replied with a faint smile.
Xu Bangchui’s eyes widened. Xu Maoxiu and Fan Jianglin couldn’t help exchanging a glance—both looking surprised.
Wasn’t she just trying to comfort Xu Bangchui by humoring him?
Then what was this?
“We can’t afford to get dragged into a lawsuit,” Cheng Jiao-niang said. “Which is exactly why… we have to make it clean and quick.”
Once the law got involved, they’d all be hauled into the magistrate. And what kind of place was that? What kind of place was a prison? A case like this—if the authorities wanted to make it big, it’d be big; if they wanted to play it down, it’d be small. Either way, it would cost time and money. Others might be able to afford that. They couldn’t.
But—what was she saying? That they should kill to avoid a lawsuit? That didn’t make any sense.
Xu Maoxiu felt like his brain was starting to short-circuit. Fan Jianglin and Xu Bangchui had simply stopped trying to think.
“So… what you mean is, we should escalate things?” Xu Maoxiu asked cautiously.
Murder wasn’t the same as a brawl. That would be huge.
“As long as something can be laid out openly for all to see,” Cheng Jiao-niang said, “then there’s nothing to fear.”
But still… this was murder.
Xu Maoxiu didn’t even know how to respond. He looked at the girl before him—no, the young lady—just fourteen or fifteen years old, with delicate features and graceful manners. She sat with poise, every movement, every glance, every smile perfectly composed, not the slightest breach of etiquette.
And yet, she was speaking of murder—as if it were nothing more than a comment on the weather!
Murder!
In that instant, Xu Maoxiu couldn’t help recalling the first time he ever saw her.
Not the time she came to thank him after recovering from illness—but earlier than that, in the dead of night, when he had been on the brink of death. Though he had seemed unconscious, unable to move, in truth, he could see and hear everything. Maybe that was what it felt like, being close to death.
He’d heard the sorrow and anger in his brothers’ voices, seen the blackness of the night sky. The pain that had once tormented him had faded—maybe dying like this wasn’t so bad. Maybe this was just fate.
“But illness is not fate. No illness is beyond cure.”
Someone had spoken, standing in front of him.
The voice was flat, slightly hoarse, but it had cut through the darkness like a blade.
He had lifted his head then, and seen her. Her face, bathed in the soft light of four lanterns against the night, was calm and clear.
“Please, speak,” he had managed to say, gathering his strength.
The next day, in the afternoon.
At the Cheng residence by the Yudai Bridge, the main hall was quiet. Cheng Jiao-niang had always had the habit of taking a nap during the day. Though it wasn’t summer yet, Ban Qin, who was sitting under the eaves doing needlework, was starting to feel drowsy too.
She yawned and glanced at the maid next to her.
The maid was holding a needle and thread, staring blankly into space.
Ban Qin was puzzled and had just opened her mouth to speak when the door was suddenly knocked—bang bang—twice, sharp and abrupt. The maid snapped out of her daze with a shudder, her face filled with fear.
“Who’s there?” she cried out sharply, the needle and thread slipping from her hands.
“It’s me, Ban Qin.”
A girl’s voice came from outside.
By then, Jin Ge’er, who had run over from the gatehouse, was already completely unbothered. There were three people named Ban Qin—two at home, one outside—and now he wasn’t the least bit confused.
“Is the Miss asleep?”
The maid sat down under the veranda, lowered her voice, and slid over a box of pastries.
“I brought some freshly made pastries for her to try.”
They could’ve been made at home too…
Ban Qin accepted them with a smile.
“You even made a special trip just to bring them,” she said.
“The old master and I will be going out in a few days, so I used this as an excuse to come see her,” the maid said with a smile.
Hearing this, the maid who had been sitting in a daze suddenly looked up.
“The old master is going out?” she asked, a bit flustered. “Where is he going? Is he leaving in the next few days? Will he be gone long?”
Both Ban Qin looked at her.
“Yes,” the maid replied, testing the waters. “Is something the matter?”
The maid sat back down, trying to mask her reaction.
“No,” she said with a shake of her head.
The two Ban Qin exchanged a glance.
“Miss’s still sleeping—why don’t you try some first?” the maid said with a smile, quickly changing the subject as she opened the pastry box.
Ban Qin went to brew some tea. The three of them sat under the veranda, and Jin Ge’er was given some pastries too, eating in the courtyard. They chatted softly and laughed a little, and the mood gradually relaxed—except the maid’s expression remained somewhat strange.
“What’s wrong?” the younger maid finally asked. “Is something bothering you?”
Was she unwilling to see Old Master Zhang leave the capital… afraid something might happen and there’d be no one to rely on?
The maid hesitated for a moment.
“Have you ever seen someone killed?” she suddenly asked.
Ban Qin and the younger maid jumped in fright.
Ban Qin shook her head, and the younger maid followed suit—but then her face froze slightly, a trace of fear surfacing.
Killing…
Suddenly, thunder rumbled across the sky.
In her mind’s eye, two figures engulfed in flames flared up like wild beasts.
The younger maid screamed and covered her ears.
Her scream startled Ban Qin and the other maid into screaming too. The three of them huddled together under the veranda in a flurry of panic.
“What’s the matter with you all?”
As the thunder rolled past, Cheng Jiao-niang’s voice came from inside the room.
The three maids turned to look and saw Cheng Jiao-niang standing at the doorway, her hair loose, a robe draped over her shoulders, her expression calm as she looked at them.
Distant thunder still rumbled in the sky, but the courtyard remained quiet—only the sound of water from the bamboo pipe tapping against stone could be heard.
Jin Ge’er climbed up from the ground, brushing the dirt off his clothes while picking up the pastries that had rolled away.
“Really, just a bunch of silly girls—scared half to death by a bit of thunder!” the young boy cried shrilly, his voice tinged with the frustration and embarrassment of having fallen because of their screams.
