Zi Yang

  Every now and then, Mo Wen and Lao Wu would ask the surrounding shops about the army's whereabouts to make sure they were heading in the right direction.

  At noon, the two of them had a snack at a food stall in the northern part of the city, buying two bowls of hot congee to eat with the buns they had brought.

  Don't ask, he knew the truth of "sitting and eating empty mountains", so he was very frugal on this road. This time, he stopped to eat only in order to chat with the kind-hearted stall owner. The food stall owner had been setting up his stall by the roadside for years, so he must be well-informed and knowledgeable.

  "Excuse me, brother, did you see a group of barbarian soldiers passing by here with stolen grain and women a few days ago?" Mo Xun asked the hemp-clothed vendor in his thirties.

  "I've seen you before, you're from around here, aren't you? You went north, didn't you?" the stall owner asked. "Little brother, where did you come from?"

  "South." Mo Wen was ambiguous.

  "Are you from Jin State?" asked the stall owner.

  "What makes you ask this question?" Mo Wen heard the words and broke out in a cold sweat, he and Lao Wu were now deep in the tiger's lair, and it was hard to avoid suspicion.

  "The Zhao state government had long since issued a proclamation, forbidding the use of barbarian language, and requiring barbarians to speak the national language." The vendor clapped his hands and stamped his feet, it was cold in winter, even at noon.

  "Thanks for the reminder, to be honest, my servant and I... My brother and I are indeed from Jin, but we didn't sneak in, someone sent us a name card to enter the city." Mo asked worried that the other would report them, hastily speaking out to explain.

  The stall owner didn't say much, nodded after hearing this and didn't speak again.

  "We two brothers have just arrived at your esteemed place, ignorant and unknowing. Elder brother is kind-hearted, do you have any words of advice for us brothers?" Mo Wu asked.

  "Don't show off your wealth, or you'll be robbed by the locals. Whatever they fancy, they can just take away, and we Han people can't resist." The stall owner said kindly.

  "We've fallen on hard times, where's the money?" Mo Wen asked again with a tense tone.

  "Isn't this wealth?" The stall owner pointed at the two people's bundles, which were all filled with dry provisions.

  Don't ask how I suddenly understood. At that time, ordinary families had two meals of thin porridge every day. So many dry rations were indeed not something that poor people could afford to bring.

  "Thanks for reminding me, big brother." Mo Wen stood up and handed three coins to the stall owner.

  "Thanks little brother, in the future if you meet a Chinese person, try to avoid them if possible. If not, bow your head and give way to avoid trouble." The stall owner took the three small coins, two of which were for the porridge, while the third was an unasked-for reward.

  Mo asked the stall owner to make a bow, and with Lao Wu carrying his bundle, they prepared to leave. Suddenly, he thought of something, "Excuse me, brother, how much silver would it take to buy a woman in Zhao Guo?"

  "If it's a young woman, three taels of silver are needed; for the elderly and children, several dozen copper coins are required, as it varies from person to person." The stall owner replied.

  "Thanks for the advice, big brother." Mo Xiong took Old Fifth and left the food stall.

  "What's wrong?" asked Lao Wu, as Mo Xun had been sighing ever since they left the food stall.

  "Nowadays, buying a cow or horse also requires nearly ten taels of silver. In these chaotic times, human life is as cheap as grass, not even worth as much as livestock." Mo Wu shook his head and said, the woman's low price was beyond his expectation.

  Lao Wu could only follow with a sigh.

  The further north they went, the harder it was to get news, because there were more forks in the road. At the fork in the road, there was no one to ask for information, and they could only proceed along one of the forks. When they arrived at a city or village with people, they would ask again. If the villagers had not seen soldiers escorting horse-drawn carriages and women, the two of them could only turn back and take another fork in the road. This back-and-forth journey might be hundreds of miles long and require several days on foot.

  Mo Wen had never been so exhausted before, his feet were blistered as if he was walking on needles. Old Wu felt sorry for Mo Wen and suggested buying a horse to ride, but this suggestion was rejected by Mo Wen. The people of Zhao State lived harder than those in Jin State, there were few people riding horses on the road, and the two men's current attire did not attract attention, once they rode horses, they would be pointed at, besides, he was also worried that the horse would be taken away by the Hu people, the Hu people's lawlessness had already been seen by him in recent days, he saw with his own eyes that the Hu people ate things from Han people's shops and food stalls without giving silver money.

  Half a month later, the two ran out of dry rations and could only continue searching by buying dry rations along the way. Due to previous delays at home nursing wounds and mourning for her deceased mother, they were delayed on the road for more than half a month. The news became increasingly difficult to gather, but fortunately, Lin Ruochen was wearing red clothes that day, which left some impression on the people along the way. Although much time was wasted, the two never lost each other.

  However, later on, something unexpected happened. Although the people along the way remembered seeing Hu soldiers, they had not seen those captured women.

  "Old master, the two towns are less than ten miles apart. How come people in the town ahead saw Madam, but she disappeared when we arrived here?" Laowu asked Mo Xiang in a rush.

  "There are many people and prying eyes here, the barbarians won't eat humans in this place, she must have changed her clothes. I've had you running around with me, it's really been hard on you." Mo Wu said with a hint of apology, for more than half a month, the two had gone through hardships, not to mention the exhaustion from rushing along the road, due to being in an unfamiliar place and not knowing the geography, they had missed their lodgings several times and slept out in the wilderness, as a result, both of them had lost a lot of weight.

  "Old man, you're wrong. I should follow you, why are we still looking?" Lao Wu sat by the side of the road watching passersby.

  "Find, if alive want to see people, dead want to see the body." Mo Wen's expression remained unchanged as he spoke, and the hardships along the way had not changed his mind.

  "Master, there's something I've been thinking about and can't figure out." Laowu shook his head.

  "Are you wondering why I must find her?" Mo asked with a bitter smile, he had also been asking himself this question during this time. The answer he gave to himself was that they were husband and wife who had gone through the wedding ceremony together, he still had Lin Ruoxuan's hair in his pocket, just like how Lin Ruoxuan had his hair too. This was a promise given to each other, as Confucius said, one must be true to their words, not speaking falsely.

  "Not that, I want to ask you, isn't the wedding night usually quiet and secretive? How come yours with your wife was like a performance, with blowing and playing instruments?" Old Five asked with a sly smile.

  "It's inevitable for two people to feel awkward when meeting for the first time. Playing the flute and blowing the whistle is to get familiar with each other." Don't ask, just answer truthfully.

  "Old man, you and your wife haven't done that yet, have you?" asked Lao Wu curiously.

  "How can we show our faces under the blue sky and white sun?" Mo didn't hesitate for a moment before answering Lao Wu's question.

  "You bookworms are so particular, if it were me, I wouldn't care about day or night. Now look what's happened, someone else has beaten us to it." Lao Wu said with a face full of regret.

  Mo Wen couldn't help but glance at Lao Wu, who had inherited his ancestors' loyalty and righteousness, but not their woodenness. After becoming more understanding, he had secretly watched the maidservants bathing more than once.

  "What shall we do now, Master?" Laowu saw Mo's displeased expression and hastily changed the subject.

  Mo Wen stood up straight and walked eastward, "Let's go back to town and ask around some more."

  The town was not big, and before long, the two of them had heard the news that the main force of the Huns had gone north with their grain and grass, leaving behind dozens of people who had taken over several dozen households in the east of the town to rest for a night. The next day, they took those women to the slave market located eighty miles due east of here, where most of the women captured by the Huns would be sold as goods.

  "Old lady, have you seen a young woman wearing red clothes?" Mo Xun asked an old man who was being relocated from his house.

  "I've never seen anyone wearing red clothes, but there was a girl who wore red pants and had beautiful eyebrows and eyes, living in my house." The old woman recalled.

  "Was she also taken to the slave market by the government soldiers?" Mo asked anxiously. Now, there was someone wearing a red robe alone, but no one wore red pants alone, so he confirmed that the old man's words were about Lin Ruochen.

  "We were all driven away at that time. When we came back, those officials and girls were gone." The old woman said with a shake of her head.

  Mo Wen heard this and let out a long sigh, cupping his hands together in respect towards the old woman and bowing slightly. "Thank you, ma'am."

  "What relation are you to her?" asked the old woman kindly.

  "The elder asked, and we didn't dare to deceive him. We are people from Jin State. This is my younger brother, and the woman wearing red pants is my wife. She was captured by the Hu people a few days ago, and we came to look for her." Mo Xun said.

  "Alas, those wicked barbarians, they're making trouble again. Ah, you've come just in time, wait a moment." The old woman said as she turned around and walked into the house. A short while later, the sound of quarreling came from inside the house, seemingly between the old couple.

  Mo Wu and Lao Wu stood outside, looking at each other in confusion, unsure what the old woman was trying to do or whether they should go in to stop her.

  After a moment, the old woman ran out of the house with a small cloth package in her hand and stuffed it into Mo's hand. "This was picked up from under my bed, it must be your wife's belongings, I'll return it to you."

  Mo Wen opened the bundle with a puzzled expression, only to find that it contained a hairpin. The moment he saw the hairpin, Mo Wen felt an overwhelming urge to cry. It was the very same hairpin that had been used to secure Lin Ruochen's chignon and red headscarf on their wedding day.

  Just as Mo was still grieving, a short and stout old man walked out of the house, holding a broom in his hand, shouting loudly at the old woman, "How do you know it's their stuff? Watch me not beat you to death."

  "Grandfather, don't get angry. This is indeed the wife's property. Today we'll return it to Grandmother and pay three taels of silver." Mo Xiang knew why the old man was blaming the old woman.

  Mo asked, and Old Five immediately took out the silver from his bosom and handed it over. This time, it was the old man's turn to be stunned. The hairpin had only a silver flower on top, while the rest of it was made of copper, and it wasn't worth three pieces of white silver.

  The old man naturally wouldn't decline, and three or four pieces of silver was a considerable amount for a farming family.

  The two bid farewell to the old woman and headed east, under the stars. By now, he didn't dare hope to meet Lin Ruochen in the slave market again, for Lin Ruochen was extremely beautiful and would surely be bought quickly once she arrived at the market. He only hoped to find the person who had bought Lin Ruochen and redeem her with a large sum of money.

  Spent the day wandering around the town, and at night with a moon, the two of them rushed out for eighty miles overnight. At dawn, Mo Wu and Lao Wu, covered in frost, saw the slave market that Zhao Ren had told them about...