Chapter 270: Cat Ba Island

Chapter 270: Cat Ba Island

Meng Wan and the others were originally heading in the same direction as the Tang merchant, but he had Chi Yu and the servant veer off course a bit, speeding up to overtake the merchant's convoy. Only once he couldn't see the carriages behind them anymore did he call out, "Chi Yu, there seems to be a small path ahead. Steer the cart into that path and hide it."

Xia Yuan's servant had no clue why, but followed anyway.

"Lord Xia, I'm taking you to see something fun." Meng Wan jumped off the cart, all eager.

Xia Yuan warned, "Meng Fulang, our job is to focus on finding news of the Crown Prince."

Meng Wan assured him, "Lord Xia, rest assured. Just a quick look. If nothing's up, we'll head back, and then we can proceed with peace of mind."

Feng Chu nodded at Xia Yuan. "My lord, Meng Fulang has a point. Let's observe and then decide on the next step."

Even if Xia Yuan didn't trust Meng Wan, he sure trusted Feng Chu. Leaving the servant to mind the cart, the group followed Meng Wan forward till they got to a low hill up ahead.

Meng Wan confirmed that from this spot he could clearly see the merchant's convoy. He pushed aside some dry grass and flattened himself on the ground.

Chu Ci did the same, like he'd done it a hundred times before.

Xia Yuan hesitated, then copied them and got down too. So they all lay there on the hilltop, silently waiting.

After about the time it takes to finish a cup of tea, the merchant's convoy appeared at the foot of the mountain not far away. Just as they were about to pass this road without any unusual activity, Meng Wan picked a dry blade of grass, twirled it in his fingers, and muttered, "Maybe I'm just being paranoid."

The moment he finished speaking, Feng Chu was the first to notice something wrong. "My Lord, the driver of the front carriage just fell off."

Chi Yu also reported, "The ones in back have all dropped too. Fulang, were they drugged?"

Meng Wan kept his eyes fixed on the convoy, replying in a low voice, "Remember that little thief who swiped your pouch yesterday?"

Although the distance to the convoy was still great, Chi Yu also whispered like Meng Wan. "Didn't see him this morning. Probably took off at dawn, scared I'd beat him."

Back in his own territory, Meng Wan wouldn't have given it a thought, but in a strange place he got paranoid, checking out every detail around him.

"This morning when I went to the back kitchen to cook, I took a good look around. The horses and carts that Tang merchant brought were all tied up at the inn's entrance. In the inn yard, there were two carts and two horses that belonged to us. One more horse could've been that foreigner's, and that was it. Looked everywhere, didn't see any other rides. The closest town is at least a six-day trip from here. How could that guy have walked here?" Meng Wan reasoned step by step.

"Sure, there are other possibilities—maybe he's from a nearby village, or related to the innkeeper, who knows. But if we think worst case, this gets interesting."

Meng Wan pointed at the chaos down the hill. The merchant's men had realized something was wrong but it was too late. The horses had bolted, and no one had come out of the carriage to check, suggesting they had all been subdued. "Out here in the middle of nowhere, a bunch of fat sheep shows up—who'd let that go?"

This time Xia Yuan said nothing. Everyone did as Meng Wan said and stayed put, waiting for further developments.

Sure enough, no sooner had the merchant's convoy been taken out than a dozen bandits swarmed in from behind, each wielding a large blade. Regular people weren't allowed to make swords like that—those weren't something ordinary folks could get their hands on.

They first circled the convoy carefully, and once they were sure the merchants were helpless, they climbed into the carts with their blades still dripping. When they came out, the blades were dripping with blood.

Xia Yuan, an imperial official, couldn't help frowning. "They're not just after money—they're killing too?"

Meng Wan smiled faintly. "Lord Xia, why would they leave witnesses to come after them later?"

"Do they have accomplices in the rear?" Xia Yuan implied he wanted to help—Feng Chu under his command could easily handle these dozen or so bandits.

Meng Wan watched a bandit crawl into the biggest carriage, a glint of satisfaction in his eyes. "Probably not. Lord Xia, go ahead."

Those bandits worked fast. Even as fast as Feng Chu was, by the time he took them down, only five of the merchants were still breathing.

They had a job to do, not to haul bandits all the way to court. Feng Chu went down the line and broke their necks right there.

Meng Wan said calmly, "All dead now. Let's head back to the inn and check for more. Better finish them off so we don't have problems later."

Xia Yuan agreed, so they headed back to the inn.

The five survivors from the merchant's crew were scared out of their minds. Seeing Meng Wan and his guys didn't look like saints either, they were scared of being offed in a double-cross, so they quickly spilled who they were and why they were there.

Turns out their master was a merchant from Lin'an. That lecherous Master Tang had been invited to some place called Cat Ba Island, where he was to board a ship to buy mermaid pearls.

Although the Tang family owned a few shops in Lin'an, they were not exceptionally wealthy. Master Tang had his father and elder brother above him, so he couldn't squander money freely. Thus, he used the excuse of doing business, pulled out some household goods, and planned to sell them at the Beihai port before heading to the island.

"Who invited Master Tang?" Meng Wan sat in the empty hall of the inn, interrogating the merchant's servant and driver.

The merchant's personal attendant, with his pants still wet, answered every question. "Another local gentleman, of the same generation as our master. They were childhood friends, but later his family fell into decline. He left Lin'an and disappeared for twenty years. It was only last year that he reconnected with our master."

"Mermaid pearls... Cat Ba Island?" Meng Wan racked his brain but came up blank. He glanced at Xia Yuan, who also shook his head—neither had heard of such a place.

"What the hell? Where's the owner? Why am I passed out?" As Meng Wan was about to continue his interrogation, a male voice with an odd accent came from the backyard. It was the foreigner who had also eaten the tainted meat buns that morning.

The bandits were in a hurry to deal with their fat sheep and had no time for such small fry, so they had spared his life for the moment.

The foreign man, supporting his forehead, walked into the hall. At the same time, Chi Yu came running out of one of the ground-floor guest rooms in a fluster.

"Fulang, that little thief from last night really has been killed! He's in the room, his throat cut, blood nearly drained dry!"

The foreigner was bewildered. "What do you mean by 'killed'? Is it what I think? What the hell happened?"

Meng Wan pointed at the five men in front of him, who were so scared they had soiled themselves. "This inn is a den of thieves. That fat guy this morning has already been murdered."

"Den of thieves? Murdered?" These words were completely foreign to the foreigner.

"It means..." Meng Wan made a slashing motion across his throat. "Aside from us here, everyone else has been killed by the innkeeper and his wife."

The foreigner turned his head and saw the five slumped in their chairs. Sure enough, they all looked dejected, some injured, with large bloodstains on their legs and arms, their padded jackets slashed open.

A wave of numbness washed over him, and a thin layer of sweat broke out on his back. No wonder he had passed out—the food he ate that morning must have been drugged. He had thought it strange that meat buns were cheaper than vegetable buns sold outside.

"And now... ho ??y... I..." The foreigner babbled nonsense, even throwing in some words from his own language.

Meng Wan was quick-witted. "Are you speaking Annamese? Are you from Annam?"

The foreigner was taken aback. "My father is Annamese, my mother is from Yu."

The foreigner's name was Ambo. He had come to Beihai to find his mother's relatives here, but after searching from south to north, east to west, he still hadn't found them. The next place to look would be Qinzhou.

Meng Wan smiled sincerely. "Looking for someone? I might be able to help."

Temporarily securing this person as his translator, Meng Wan dismissed the remaining five men from the merchant's convoy. Ignoring their hesitant expressions, he smoothly appropriated the ill-gotten gains, only giving them one carriage.

If these five didn't return, they'd become refugees. If they returned, their master wouldn't let them off easily. But if Meng Wan had given them the goods left by the merchant, they would have surely divided the loot and the carriage and run away, even if it meant becoming refugees.

What Meng Wan didn't expect was that, afraid of being beaten to death by their master, these five actually sold the carriage midway and went their separate ways.

The inn was a permanent den, and the small village behind it was also unclean. When the bandits left behind to guard the place saw that the innkeeper and his group hadn't returned, they came to investigate. Without needing Feng Chu to act, Chi Yu dealt with them.

Meng Wan knew the principle of leaving no loose ends. He had Feng Chu and Chi Yu sweep through the village, rescuing seven or eight women and xiaoge who had been hidden there. They had suffered inhuman treatment; most of their families had been killed by the bandits. They had nowhere to go, some had even borne children of the bandits, and yet they could not bring themselves to die.

Meng Wan wrote two letters, left them the most dilapidated carriage, and the gold and silver jewelry the bandits had stolen. The money was hidden under the carriage floor. These women and xiaoge were dressed in rags, barely better than beggars—no one would bother robbing them.

"Travel to the nearest city of Qinzhou. There is a shop called Shijian Inn. Give the letters to the innkeeper, and they will send you to Hexian County in Xiwu Prefecture. There is a group of women and young men who have gone through similar experiences as you. They will help you."

After taking care of the rest, Meng Wan, using the several cartloads of goods left by the wealthy merchant, disguised themselves as a merchant caravan and took Ambo along. On the way, they dealt with a few more troublemakers, and finally arrived at Beihai Port at the end of the second lunar month.

As soon as they entered the port area, they saw rows of thatched sheds built by the Tanka people, who make a living by fishing and pearl diving, all of them experts in the water.

The port was bustling with people and horses, the waves crashing. Many boats were moored at the shore, mostly small fishing boats, but there were also medium and large merchant ships.

At the mooring points, passengers were disembarking or preparing to board. Along the embankment, some were stopping on horseback to watch, others were gracefully rowing boats into the sea. Faint fishermen's songs could be heard from the sea, like a vibrant painting.

Beihai Port was not the largest port in Lingnan, but it was definitely the most chaotic. It was a mixed bag of people; in other places, you wouldn't see a foreigner in a hundred years, but here they were everywhere.

However, there were few large merchants; most were small-time vendors taking chances to score a deal. Especially now that Yu and Annam had tense relations, large merchants wouldn't be so foolish as to come here knowingly committing offenses. If caught, it would be treason, and their entire families would be beheaded.

Xia Yuan had removed his white beard before reaching Beihai Port. Now his role was that of a wealthy merchant surnamed Tang, with Meng Wan as his attendant and Ambo as his hired translator.

The four cartloads of tea they brought were very popular. Meng Wan was a merchant by nature, and he thrived in this environment like a fish in water. Some foreign merchants even wanted to do long-term business with him.

He waved his hand grandly, indicating that everything was up to his master. Some even tried to poach Meng Wan for their own businesses. If Meng Wan stayed a few more days, he would have become a celebrity here.

Helplessly watching Meng Wan actually poaching business for their Zhen Guan Workshop, Xia Yuan had to quietly remind him, "Master Meng, now that we have arrived at Beihai Port, should we follow the original plan to find a chance to go to Taiping, or use Tang Pu's identity to go to Jipo Island?"

Meng Wan assumed a humble posture and replied in a low voice, "Better to have two plans. We'll take whichever route is more reliable."

He said that, but in fact, if there was another way to go to Annam without alerting the local officials, that would be best.

After selling off their goods properly, Meng Wan and his group rented a small house and began to wait unhurriedly. During the day, they arranged to rent a large ship, leaking information that they were going to Jipo Island. At night, they asked around for the location and origin of Jipo Island.

After a few days, they were surprisingly approached by another merchant who also wanted to go to Jipo Island.

The other party was from Changle County, Fuzhou Prefecture, named Chen Zhenlong. When young, he was a xiucai (a local scholar who passed the county exam). For unknown reasons, he later gave up further studies and turned to commerce instead.

"There are also several large ports in Fuzhou. I often sail with merchant ships, selling our Yu country's tea, ceramics, etc., overseas, and then importing spices, ivory, and such from foreign lands."

Chen Zhenlong remarked with a sigh, "Some small states are rich in jewels. I have brought some back for my family, but unfortunately, Lingnan is remote. Even if transported back, they don't sell as well as they would in Shengjing City."

Meng Wan had a lot to say on this topic, but he kept quiet, calmly playing the role of an attendant, standing aside listening to his master and the guest talk.

Xia Yuan had been an official for twenty years, with extensive experience and knowledge. He held his own in conversation with Chen Zhenlong.

But as a second-rank high official, he had no leisure to chit-chat with a merchant.

Xia Yuan purposefully steered the conversation toward Jipo Island. "Chen, my friend, were you also invited to the island by Guo Qixiu?"

The person Xia Yuan mentioned was the fellow townsman of the wealthy merchant surnamed Tang, who had invited him on this trip.

Chen Zhenlong was clearly taken aback. "Who is Guo Qixiu? I met a woman named Lina during a trip to Luzon. She had done business with me a few times, and this time she invited me to the island to buy jewels."

He had always wanted to do a jewelry business, but his family was too poor, so it was always out of reach. Lina's invitation suited him perfectly, so he planned to go and take a look.

Meng Wan's ears perked up. A person of a different gender, even a different country, inviting merchants to the island?