Chapter 213: Zhuang Brocade

Chapter 213: Zhuang Brocade

Those who came to Nakam Village, besides the parents of the lost children, included the Tribal Elder, the shaman, and the Headmen of various villages. Not all of them were fully aware of the truth, but now, without exception, they were all stunned by the sudden revelation.

Tan Wo had fooled them with a few words, and they believed him. Now, with the truth laid before them, they instinctively trusted Song Tingzhou’s words instead.

“Trade? How? Are we still selling cloth?”

“Dani’s mom weaves cloth. My Daya also weaves. It wouldn’t cost two taels of silver—two… two hundred coppers would be enough.”

Meng Wan helplessly pressed his hand to his forehead. “What can two hundred coppers do? It’s not even enough to cover the cost.”

The others were puzzled. “What cost? The threads are all spun by us. They don’t cost anything.”

Meng Wan gave a stiff, sarcastic smile. “Fine, I'll just pay you myself. That work for you?”

The people around were quietly eavesdropping on the shaman’s translation. They were self-reliant and kinda interested in earning big money, but not particularly motivated.

Meng Wan thought to himself: It doesn’t matter. Once they leave the village and realize money can buy more things they want, they’ll get into it.

“I don’t own any fabric shops, and I’m a complete outsider to this trade. But you can take your cloth outside the village and ask around at various fabric shops how much they offer. Sell to whoever pays the most.” Seeing that everyone was listening attentively, while the families were still reuniting and were still all worked up, he took this opportunity to instruct these innocent people.

“But it’s best not to sign any shady paperwork. If the offer is less than two taels of silver, come to the Song estate in Xiwu Prefecture and find me. I’ll negotiate with the shopkeepers for you.”

Meng Wan thought that since the Zhuang people had just experienced being deceived by one of their own, this would put them more at ease. But a few younger headmen hesitantly said, “Could you negotiate for us? We…” They didn’t speak the language well and were still afraid of being cheated.

Meng Wan explained patiently, “If you trust me, that’s great. I’m happy. But you can’t rely on others to handle outside dealings for you forever. What if I turn out to be another Tan Wo?”

They looked flustered. “No, we trust you.”

Meng Wan sighed. “People’s hearts are fickle. Tan Wo might have genuinely intended to help you in the beginning, but later his mind changed. So you need to handle things yourselves. Each village should at least send two people to learn Yu (the official language) and go out and do business. Then, all the Zhuang people should gather every month to go over the books. At least everyone should sell at similar prices, so no single village gets cheated.”

The Zhuang people’s greatest strength was their unity. Once everyone stepped out of the mountain villages and saw the outside world, one or two individuals with ulterior motives couldn't stir up any trouble.

The poor children were taken away by their parents. Wei Kai, who had worked for Tan Wo, and the Headman of Nakam Village would also face punishment from their own clan.

The Tribal Elder, the shaman, and a few old men in on it all voluntarily stepped down, and the younger generation took their places.

The Headman of Nakam Village was not a bad person, but his foolishness had inadvertently harmed his people. Before heading off to his punishment, he still said to his villagers, “Nongle’s son Nong Na went missing too in the mountains. Our villagers searched all night but couldn’t find him. Get more brothers to look in the forest.”

“Don’t worry about that. We’ll find Nong Na.”

After Yaxi went mad, she ran into the forest alone and happened to rescue the children who had been forced to ‘lose their way.’ They lived together in a cave deep in the woods.

The spot where these kids 'got lost' was right next to the dry well by Nongle’s house. To say he knew nothing—no one would buy that he didn't know.

Meng Wan hadn’t initially suspected Nongle, until the next day when Xue Sheng went down the well and brought up some human hair. That was when Meng Wan smelled a rat.

For the next two days, he secretly observed Nongle and indeed found him acting suspiciously.

After Dalun’s death, Nongle had been diligently and warmly helping Dalun’s family. That in itself was nothing unusual; it just showed he was kind-hearted.

But ever since Dalun’s body was moved into the funeral hall, Nongle had been trying to avoid it. The way he dodged it didn’t seem like mere fear of the dead, but more like he had something to hide.

After the villagers had left, only the shaman and two young headmen remained with them. These two headmen were the ones who had spoken with Meng Wan earlier. They still had questions for Meng Wan, but seeing he was busy, they were too awkward to bring it up.

They retreated from the mountain forest and returned to the dry well in Nakam Village. Xue Sheng jumped down without hesitation, startling everyone around, who had no idea what he was doing.

Before they could get their heads together to look, Xue Sheng had already hauled a kid up on his back.

Nong Na's mouth was gagged, and his hands and feet were tied together. Such treatment of a small child made everyone furious.

"Nong Na, who tied you up and threw you into the well?"

"Could it be the headman of Nagan Village?"

"Are you stupid? The headman of Nagan Village just asked us to help find Nong Na. How could it be him?"

"Then who would treat a child like this?"

Meng Wan pulled the cloth out of Nong Na's mouth and, with a slight smile at the boy's furious eyes, said, "No need to guess. I had someone do it."

Nong Na had been kept in the well all night, scared and hungry. Crying, he shouted at Meng Wan and Xue Sheng in Zhuang language.

They had thought highly of Meng Wan, but now they saw him as someone who enjoys abusing children, and asked, bewildered, "Why did you do this?"

Song Tingzhou answered them in Zhuang, "Nong Na drugged the water we drank. His father must have told him to do it."

To be exact, the drugs were for Meng Wan. But Meng Wan had always been vigilant; his food was prepared by his own people, and only the water he drank was local.

After noticing Nongle acting suspiciously, he stayed on guard. He soon discovered Nong Na secretly adding something to the water flask in his room. It was not a deadly poison, probably a knockout drug made from some plant sap.

Since he only added it during the day, it was meant for him to drink when he got back at night, so it wouldn't mess up whatever he had planned for the night.

As for what that was, it would soon become clear.

—Over in Nagan Village, at Dalun's place.

Dani Mei and her mother sat uneasily in the yard. Dalun's funeral altar had been taken down, the two of them had tidied up everything lying around, and the chickens and ducks had been fed. With nothing else to do, they just sat around in the yard.

They didn't dare leave, even though they were hungry at noon, and just sat there all afternoon. When they finally heard hoofbeats outside, Dani Mei stood up urgently.

"It seems they're back!"

Before Meng Wan and his group had arrived, Dani Mei nervously went out to meet them.

"The guy's locked upstairs. Me and my mom never left even for a second!"

Meng Wan smiled and praised her, "Well done."

Without Xue Sheng having to do anything, Tao Eleven ran up the wooden stairs in a few steps and, within moments, dragged down a man tied up with cloth strips.

Nongle hadn't expected to be surrounded by so many people at Dalun's house. He kept his head down and stayed quiet until Nong Na called out softly, "Dad!" Then he suddenly looked up. "Nong Na! Are you okay?"

At a signal from Meng Wan, Xue Sheng released Nong Na. Nong Na ran to Nongle, glaring at Meng Wan with fierce wolf-like eyes, and said, "He made that guy grab me! I was in the well by the mountain, I could hear you looking for me, but I couldn't make a sound!"

When a kid gets wronged, the first thing he does is tattle to the grown-ups. But after he said that, Nongle barely reacted.

Dani Mei, standing nearby, seemed inspired by Nong Na and said to all the headmen, "This morning, after my mother and I returned from the funeral, Uncle Nongle was secretly hiding in my room, ready to knock me out and take me away!"

She only told them what happened, not how she got away and locked Nongle up instead. She just exchanged a knowing glance with Meng Wan.

The shaman was also puzzled. "Nongle, what did you want to kidnap Dani Mei for?"

No matter how much people asked, Nongle stayed silent like his mouth was sewn shut.

"You killed Dalun, didn't you?"

Meng Wan's words struck like a thunderbolt. Everyone looked at Nongle in disbelief—their kind and warm-hearted clansman.

Nongle slowly lowered his head. "I didn't mean to kill him. It was an accident."

Facing the shocked, puzzled, or hateful gazes of his clansmen, Nongle finally couldn't bear the psychological pressure and confessed the secret buried in his heart.

Neither Meng Wan nor Song Tingzhou had expected that, despite the Zhai stronghold being tightly controlled by Tan Wo, Nongle had actually made contact with his biggest rival, the Yu family.

"I asked Dalun to buy some Yunpian cake for Nong Na in the county town. I heard from a peddler that city kids all loved it. Nong Na was dying to have it, so I waited outside the stockade gate for Dalun. That's when I saw him returning in a carriage. Probably afraid of being discovered, the people in the carriage didn't take him all the way to the gate but let him off at a distance, still trying to talk him into something."

The people in the carriage were naturally from the Yu family. They had long known about Tan Wo's background and somehow found out that the Zhuang cloth sold in the Tan family shop was woven by the Zhuang people of the stronghold. They had been trying every possible way to get a piece of the action but never had the chance.

It was sheer coincidence that they ran into Dalun, who hardly ever left the stronghold.

Nong Na hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but when the Yu family saw Dalun hesitating for so long, they raised their voices: "If you send your daughter to work as a weaver in my cloth shop, I'll pay her one tael of silver a month!"

That was a whole tael a month! Their clansmen couldn't even go through one tael in a whole year.

Tan Wo was from the Ganzhai stronghold and had brought his wife and children back once. Nongle had seen how much Nong Na envied the Tan family. He also wanted his son to leave the mountain stronghold.

So as soon as Dalun left, Nongle chased after the Yu family's carriage.

Even after making a deal with the Yu family, he never intended to kill Dalun. In fact, he had considered splitting the money with him afterward. But Dalun was way too stubborn. The Headman of the stronghold had forbidden anyone from speaking of the cloth dealings outside, and Dalun kept his mouth shut, refusing to reveal anything no matter how much the Yu family tempted him.

The moment Nongle brought it up, Dalun cursed him out and even threatened to tell the Headman. Nongle naturally didn't want the truth to come out, and they started fighting. Dalun was pushed back and fell onto a sharp stone used to mark the field ridges. He died within three breaths.

Nongle, scared and full of regret, fled.

He trembled at home, scared to death that someone would find out he had killed Dalun. But later, he only received the news of Dalun's death from his family, and no one mentioned that Dalun had been murdered. So he was half relieved.

But having done something wrong, he was always afraid of retribution. When he heard from Wei Kai that Meng Wan's husband was a high official from the prefectural city, he didn't know exactly what kind of official that was or whether he had jurisdiction over their stronghold, but he was just plain terrified.

Finally, on the day before Dalun's burial, he resolved to drug Meng Wan and Song Tingzhou, then sneak into Da Nimei's house, wait for her return, tie her up, and send her to the Yu family.

He and his son would take the money and leave, never to return.

Nongle stroked his son's thick, dark hair, so reminiscent of his mother. "Nong Na, your father will have to pay for Dalun's life with his own. In the future, go to your aunt's house in the Naolao stronghold."

Nong Na was old enough to understand in an instant. He grabbed Nongle tightly. "Don't go, Dad. Wherever you go, I'll go too."

Nongle patted his thin shoulders, holding back tears. "Nong Na, you're grown up now. I believe you can become the bravest man in the stronghold, just like the Headman of the Mujin stronghold."

If you do wrong, you have to pay the price. Even if Song Tingzhou didn't take him to the prefectural court, the stronghold's own laws wouldn't go easy on him.

The steadier Tao Ba took two bailiffs and escorted Nongle back to the prefectural office first.

Song Tingzhou and Meng Wan stayed in the stronghold until the end of the year before returning home.

Song Tingzhou took the latest household registry of the stronghold and went to the government office to prepare for the road repairs after the New Year. Meanwhile, Meng Wan, with a large batch of bamboo product orders and the still-recovering Wei Kai, who had just finished his clan punishment, got busy opening a new shop in the prefectural city.

Song Tingzhou's reputation with the real estate agents was good, and Meng Wan quickly selected a location.

"This shop is my gift to the Zhuang people, to thank you for your warm hospitality over the past two months." Meng Wan handed the deed to Wei Kai. It was a special official document, stating that the shop was not privately owned but given by Meng Wan to all the clan members of the Zhuang people, with Wei Kai holding the right of use for now.

Wei Kai, who spoke Mandarin the best and wasn't the dumbest of the bunch, was the most suitable candidate to run this shop.

The shop would specialize in bamboo products from the stronghold. Meng Wan's canned food factory would be the first big customer for this small shop, enough to cover a whole year's worth of crafts for the entire stronghold.

Of course—excluding the Zhuang brocade.

The Zhuang brocade was the special cloth that Da Nimei wove. Its workmanship was more difficult and time-consuming, making it a true masterpiece. Anywhere you look, from Xiwu Prefecture to the whole of Lingnan, there's no finer or more precious fabric.

Tan Wo, that short-sighted profiteer, had only gotten rich off the Zeng family's connections. How could a cloth merchant like him not realize how precious the Zhuang brocade was?

No wonder the rival Yu family looked down on him. Tan Wo only wanted the Zhuang people to work for him for a pittance, not realizing that the Zhuang brocade should not be confined to a small cloth shop. It should go beyond Xiwu Prefecture, beyond Lingnan, so that people elsewhere could see: we Lingnan folks are gifted and resourceful. We've got what others have, and we can make things they can't!