Chapter 2: Soft and Hard Combined

  "First, you need to have the money to pay back. Now, I only earn enough each day for my master and me to eat. You can't kill the chicken to get the eggs, taking away our livelihood too, can you?"

  "Who owes you these few copper coins?" said Yao Baozi, who was standing beside him with eyes as big as bronze bells. "You owe us nearly 60,000 wen! Don't say a word, sell that old house to pay off the debt! Otherwise, it's not over today!"

  "Not for sale!" Lu Jinping said expressionlessly, "That old mansion is the only ancestral property passed down by my great-grandfather, it was bestowed upon him by Emperor Taizong himself, it's a symbol of my title, can't be sold! This was personally said by the Governor of Tongzhou. You all heard it back then too."

  Yao Pangzi had a violent temper, and when he heard that Lu Jinping was still stubbornly refusing to sell the old mansion, he became enraged. He swept his hand across the table, sending pens, ink, paper, and inkstones crashing to the floor. Then, he reached out to grab Lu Jinping's collar, but just as he did, Ye Qingqing's small hand shot out from beside him and grabbed his arm. With a swift kick, she struck his weak spot, causing him to yelp in pain and crouch down on the ground.

  "You wretched servant girl, how dare you raise your hand?" Old Zhang's head was spinning with rage, his white whiskers trembling wildly. "Kill this wretched servant girl for me!"

  A few thugs immediately punched and rushed to beat Ye Qingqing. Ye Qingqing's small body fluttered like a butterfly, dodging and weaving through the fists and feet of several people with ease, occasionally striking back, those who were hit would definitely cry out in pain and fall to the ground unable to get up, in an instant, all the thugs were beaten to the ground by her, unable to get up again.

  Lai Tou Zhang was shocked and quickly retreated several steps, pointing at Lu Jinping in anger: "You, you this cheap servant hit someone, do you care or not?"

  Lu Jinping was fearless and unafraid of them coming strong, precisely because her personal maid Ye Qingqing had martial arts skills and was quite good at it.

  When Lu Jinping's parents were still alive, although the family had declined, they still had some fields and even hired a guard to protect their home. Ye Qingqing started serving as Lu Jinping's book boy at the age of six or seven. Although she was small in stature, she liked to dance with guns and sticks. After discovering this, Lu Jinping's parents discussed it and felt that since their son was devoted to reading and had no time to learn martial arts, if his servants had some martial skills, they could better protect his safety. So they formally asked the dragon guard to teach Ye Qingqing martial arts.

  They didn't know that this Dragon Head wasn't an ordinary escort, but a top-notch expert in the Jianghu back then. Due to a family upheaval, he left his hometown and coincidentally became the guardian of the Lu family. Entrusted by the Lu family and seeing the young Ye Qingqing's intelligence and cleverness, he liked her very much and treated her like a daughter, carefully teaching her martial arts until Lu Jinping's parents passed away one after another. The Lu family had spent all their savings on medical treatment and could no longer afford to hire a guardian, so Dragon Head left and returned to his hometown. By then, Ye Qingqing had already mastered the true skills of Dragon Head.

  Lu Jinping glanced at Yao Paozi and the others lying on the ground, and sneered: "You were the ones who made the first move. My maid is loyal to me, why should I intervene?"

  "You! You scoundrel, you owe me money and won't pay back, and on top of that, you dare to beat people up! Come on, let's go find a place to reason things out!" Lai Tou Zhang shouted with spittle flying everywhere, saying he wanted to go reason things out, but standing there unmoving.

  Lu Jinping had already seen the two gatekeepers standing at the entrance of the prefectural government office next door, watching the commotion, but they didn't come to intervene. He pointed to the government office and said to Zhang, "Hey, that's the government office over there, the governor is inside, why don't you go talk to him about this?"

  Zhang and his men had gone to the yamen to accuse Lu Jinping last time, but were scolded by the governor and chased out of the hall by the bailiffs. They didn't dare go back to the yamen for this matter again. Hearing that, Lu Jinping was fearless, turned her eyes a few times, changed her iron-green face to a pitiful look, took two steps forward, and pretended to kneel down shakily.

  Yao Pangzi had already climbed up and saw the situation, hurriedly supporting him, anxiously saying: "Big brother, what are you doing? Why are you kneeling down to this little brat?"

  "No choice, can't win a fight, no one listens to complaints, what else can I do but kneel? My family is on the verge of not being able to afford food, and I was counting on him selling the old house to pay off my debt so we could buy rice and salt to make ends meet. He won't do it, so even if I die kneeling in front of him, that's just how it will be... after all, one way or another, our whole family is doomed..." As she spoke, she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to squeeze out a few tears, but not a single drop came out. She could only cover her face with her sleeve and wail."

  "Can't afford to open a pot at home?" Lu Jinping sneered, "Wipe the greasy stain on your mouth before saying that. You don't even know how to act. The land my family sold back then was all bought by you people at a very low price, don't think I'm unaware of it. You instigated me to sell our property to bribe and borrowed usury from you with our old house as collateral, this is instigating someone to commit a crime! --- This account you have to explain clearly, I can have a good talk with you, if you want to be reckless, then I'll be reckless too!"

  Zhang and Yao heard this, their faces slowly disappearing with a pitiful expression, stood up straight, viciously staring at Lu Jinping, gritting their teeth: "We have ways to make you bow your head, the old house is sold, don't believe it? Just wait and see! — Let's go!"

  After saying a few harsh words, Zhang turned around and walked forward, while Yao and the other thugs scrambled to their feet and followed behind him.

  As he walked a short distance, Yao suddenly saw a notice on the wall of the enclosure, with a stout and waist-round servant standing guard beside it, and his heart skipped a beat.

  This notice was posted by a retired official from the capital, seeking a famous doctor to treat his beloved daughter who is critically ill. The retired official's surname is Gao, and he used to be a fourth-grade official in the Ministry of Personnel. After retiring, he did not like to live in the capital because it was too noisy, and instead preferred to live in Tongzhou Prefecture, which is not far from Mount Hua. He bought a house here and settled down. He has no sons, only one daughter, who is the youngest concubine's child, and he loves her dearly. A few months ago, she contracted a strange illness, and many doctors were invited to treat her, including even the imperial physician from the palace, but none of them were able to cure her.

  As the young mistress's life hangs in the balance, Old Man Gao has no choice but to post a notice seeking a renowned doctor who can cure his daughter's strange illness, including Taoist priests who perform rituals. As long as they can cure his daughter's illness, there will be a generous reward; if it is a young and unmarried man, as long as he is willing, he can be taken in as a son-in-law to inherit the Gao family business.

  This condition is too generous, because the old man had been an official in the Ministry of Personnel, and being able to become his son-in-law was no different from ascending to heaven for ordinary people. Therefore, many doctors and Taoist priests came to treat him after seeing the notice, among whom were not a few young men who went there with the intention of marrying into the family.

  Unfortunately, none of these people were able to cure Miss Gao's illness. Old Master Gao had a violent temper and was full of official arrogance, although he had retired, his violent temper had not changed, and he scolded and beat those doctors and Taoist priests who could not cure the disease, and even had several incompetent doctors and Taoist priests sent to the government office for punishment. As a result, no one dared to take down the notice again.

  Yao the fatty saw the notice and his eyes lit up as he thought of a plan to deal with Lu Jinping, and immediately leaned in close to Zhang's ear and whispered a few sentences.

  Zhang's bald head nodded repeatedly, saying: "Good! This method is good. That little rabbit is too unreasonable. Let's teach him a lesson. This time he has offended Old Lady Gao, even the Governor himself won't be able to protect him completely! Haha, you guys hurry up and take care of it!"

  Yao Pangzi agreed and hurried back to call over a maid, who was about the same height and age as Lu Jinping's maid Ye Qingqing. After deliberate dressing up, her attire and clothes were identical. Yao Pangzi instructed her on what she had to do. Then they waited in a small alley not far from Lu Jinping's stall.

  Finally seeing Ye Qingqing leave, Yao Baozi quickly let the little maid follow him out and head towards the notice posted by Old Man Gao.

  Yao Pangzi walked ahead, followed by the little girl. Yao Pangzi approached Ding and said with a smile: "Brother, I have something to ask you, is it convenient?"

  "What's up?"

  "It's like this, I learned a bit of medicine from elementary school and also understand some folk remedies..."

  Yao Pangzi spoke slowly and deliberately, yet with a flattering tone. Just as the host turned around to talk to Yao Pangzi, a young maid quickly stepped forward, tore down the notice from the wall, and ran off with it.

  Jia Ding hadn't realized it yet, but Yao Baozi waited until he had run a distance before pointing at the maid and saying, "Huh? Why did she tear down the notice?"

  That DIng only then discovered, loudly shouted, pulled legs and chased. The little girl had already run to the front of Lu Jinping's word stall, stuffed the notice into Lu Jinping's arms, and then rushed into the small alley where Ye Qingqing had entered earlier.