Chapter 272: Landing on the Island

Chapter 272: Arriving on the Island

Chi Yu happened to run into the two maids just as they were knocking on his door. He casually asked a question and inexplicably received a packet of pastries. He looked at Meng Wan leaning against the doorframe, and only accepted the pastries with thanks after Meng Wan nodded.

Chi Yu carried the basin of water into Meng Wan's room. The two maids whispered to each other, "That young man is dressed so plainly, he looks like someone's personal servant, doesn't he?"

"He's quite handsome, but with that guy just now..."

"Exactly, going into the same room in broad daylight like that."

The two maids pursed their lips in disdain, finished distributing their pastries, and returned to their employer's quarters to report.

"A handsome young servant?" A young lady leisurely sipped tea, but unfortunately, the ship's pitching caused the delicate white jade teacup to spill its scant contents onto the table.

The young lady frowned in displeasure, her willow-leaf brows furrowing slightly before relaxing. "Oh well, it's better not to gossip about such trivial matters; it's a waste of breath. I heard Father say this year's arrival on the island has the most people ever. At the very least, they're merchants with fortunes of over a hundred thousand taels. I should socialize more with the ladies of their households."

The maidservant agreed, "Yes, miss. You finally managed to persuade the master to bring you along this time. You must seize the opportunity."

The young lady closed her eyes lightly. "Mother has already agreed to the Chen family's marriage proposal. This is my last chance."

Thinking of the Master from the Chen family, who had survived three wives, the young lady felt both repulsed and desperate. Her future was in the hands of her stepmother. This time, she had risked completely offending her stepmother and sisters to manipulate her way onto the ship to Cat Ba Island. It was her final opportunity.

Meng Wan returned to his room and opened the oil-paper wrapping, revealing several delicate pastries. He didn't know much about such things, so he couldn't tell what region they were from. He merely glanced at them and then tossed them, along with Chi Yu's portion, into the sea.

Over the next few days, the ship successively docked at various ports, picking up merchants and their families or servants. But they were almost all Annamese merchants; no more Yu people came aboard.

Meng Wan was still young. After Chu Ci's care, his cold finally healed, and he became more spirited.

Whenever he had the chance, he used his identity as a servant to fetch tea and water for Xia Yuan, using the pretext to gather information about the ship.

The first thing he discovered was that all the ship's laborers, including the helmsman, were mute.

Because his family had adopted Chu Ci, they all knew sign language. Whenever the laborers communicated, Meng Wan took note.

With this advantage, he did manage to pick up some miscellaneous bits of information.

It was said that the newly boarded Yu merchant, surnamed Shen, had brought his daughter aboard. She was only fourteen—likely the young lady who had sent the pastries the other day. A girl with some cunning.

That wasn't strange; what was strange was her father. According to rumors, he had suddenly gone mad in his room last night, smashing things until early this morning.

Since the Shen merchant was housed in a separate section of the ship's cabins, and the sea winds were strong, Meng Wan hadn't heard the commotion.

Another thing was that this Fu ship wasn't making its first voyage to pick up passengers. Cat Ba Island seemed to send a ship every three years. Besides new guests like Chen Zhenlong, there were also repeat visitors like the Shen merchant.

According to the laborers, more and more people had been going to Cat Ba Island over the years. Their ship had also been upgraded from an ordinary civilian vessel to the current Fu ship.

The information was too shallow, and nothing particularly useful could be pieced together. Meng Wan was still in the dark.

On the sixth day of the third month, during the warmest part of the afternoon, the Fu ship finally moored at the island's pier.

Meng Wan followed closely behind Xia Yuan as they disembarked. Around them, the sounds of Annamese conversations mixed with a few Yu people exchanging greetings, creating a scene that was orderly yet lively.

When they got off the ship, they had to present their jade tokens for inspection again. This time, there were no mishaps, and everyone got off smoothly.

Several stewards on the island received them, welcoming everyone warmly in Annamese.

Among them were men, women, and young male attendants. The men wore loose short shirts on top and comfortable long pants below, their hair coiled into conical topknots.

The women and young male attendants also wore cross-collared short shirts, but in more fitted styles that showed off their figures. Below, some wore tubular skirts and others wore trousers, mostly in shades of blue, green, and brown—simple yet elegant.

Ambo stood behind Xia Yuan and in front of Meng Wan, whispering a translation of the steward's words. "They said a lot of polite things. Seems like they know some of the people on the ship well. They said they'll take us to rest first, and then we can explore the island properly."

Meng Wan's mouth twitched. Ambo's translation was truly blunt and direct, plus he had even summarized it for them.

Ambo was also helpless. He was good at Annamese, but his Yu language skills were terrible!

Cat Ba Island wasn't too large. It had only one pier, and some steep, rugged areas were still undeveloped dense forests.

The road connecting the pier was wide. On both sides were tall trees Meng Wan had never seen before. The ground was paved with a mix of cobblestone and gravel, gray in color, hard and waterproof.

A Yu merchant asked the Annamese steward leading the way, "The road wasn't like this last time I came. Was it newly paved in recent years?"

The island's steward, who presumably also spoke the Yu official language, answered without hesitation, "It was paved last year with gray powder our Island Lord obtained from Yu. Now the road is impervious to rain, and vehicles travel smoothly and quickly."

"Gray powder? Is it the paving method from Hexian County in Lingnan?" Someone had already guessed what it was.

The steward looked puzzled. "I wouldn't know."

Some merchants said, "Not many people in Yu know about gray powder. It's no surprise that a steward like him wouldn't know." Merchants traveled far and wide and were well-informed, so knowing about rare things was normal. The gray powder was monopolized by the government offices in Xiwu Prefecture. Those who traveled that route had seen it.

"I heard that last year, Brother Gui made a fortune in the capital with those fruit preserve jars from Lingnan."

"Brother Zhang is joking. That was just small change. I heard that in Yangzhou, you..."

Meng Wan, at the very back, occasionally caught snippets of discussion about Hexian County and Xiwu Prefecture, but he didn't even bat an eye.

Xia Yuan glanced at him casually, and couldn't help but admire his calm demeanor. After all, as the owner of Zhen Guan Workshop, Meng Wan's wealth was probably among the top in this gathering of rich merchants.

Not far from the pier, they were ushered into sedan chairs. There were no carriages on the island; only human-carried sedan chairs made of bamboo poles, with soft cushions and open on all sides.

Meng Wan, as a servant, was not entitled to a sedan chair. He had to follow on foot.

The wealthy enjoyed comfort. Chen Zhenlong, with his moderate wealth, had six servants with him. The richer merchants had even more.

A large crowd of servants trudged along behind them, some who knew each other gathering in small groups to chat.

The island's climate was even hotter than Lingnan. Meng Wan had come ashore wearing a thin cotton jacket. After getting off the ship, he realized it was too heavy, and a thin layer of sweat soon beaded on his forehead.

He raised his hand to shield his eyes from the blazing overhead sun. A nearby young male attendant saw this and, blushing, handed him a folding fan.

Another attendant beside him stared incredulously, muttering under his breath, "Are you crazy? That's the young master's fan! It costs fifty taels!"

The attendant who had offered the fan fixed his eyes on Meng Wan's fair, flushed cheek, and said guiltily, "I... I just wanted to lend it to him to block the sun."

Meng Wan: "..."

He smiled and politely declined, "Thank you for your kindness, but I'm just a servant. How could I use your master's belongings? If it gets you punished, that would be my fault. Please put it away."

The attendant was moved. "You're so kind. It's fine, my young master won't..."

Chi Yu clenched his fist and stepped between them, snapping, "Put it away! I said my brother doesn't need it, understand?"

The Shen household's maidservant suddenly understood, "Ah, so this Xiaoyu is always looking after that young man. So they're brothers?"

But everyone's eyes went to their starkly different skin tones, and doubts lingered. How could these brothers look so different?

From Meng Wan's side, Chu Ci quietly handed over a small folding fan for him to block the sun. By now, he had gotten used to looking after Meng Wan.

Just as Meng Wan was growing increasingly impatient from the heat, a large complex of buildings finally appeared ahead on the road.

Annam is close to Yu, and has even been occupied several times in the past, so its architectural style is similar to Yu’s. Overall, it appears to draw heavily from traditional Yu fortification concepts, with details incorporating local Annamese culture—a product of the fusion of the two cultures.

Meng Wan looked at the various small courtyards before him, finding them increasingly familiar. They were basically the same as the courtyards in Lingnan. If not for having spent several days drifting at sea, he would have thought he hadn’t even left the country.

The outermost houses had no courtyards; they were built directly along both sides of the road, all small structures, presumably for the island servants, packed densely in a vast expanse.

Further up was a slope, and seeing that they still had a long stretch of stairs to climb, Meng Wan’s face fell.

“Brother, let me carry you up!” Chi Yu said from beside him, full of brute strength.

Meng Wan climbed the stairs weakly. “I’d love to let you carry me, but if your brother-in-law finds out, you know the consequences, right?”

Thinking of Lord Song’s cold face, Chi Yu shuddered even under the blazing sun, then quietly stepped back and said nothing.

After climbing the stairs for almost another half hour, they finally reached a large platform. The platform was enormous, broad on both sides, and in the center stood a magnificent Taoist temple.

Meng Wan estimated the temple to be at least ten meters tall. On the left and right sides of the large platform were short paths, leading to courtyards of various sizes behind.

Maybe seeing that everyone was exhausted, there were no further activities. The island’s stewards led everyone to their accommodations.

It was worth noting that among the group, the women and the “xiaoge” were assigned to the right side, while the wealthy merchants with their servants were led to the left side of the platform.

Chu Ci and Chi Yu were never going to let Meng Wan go alone. Chi Yu tore off the headband wrapped around his forehead and walked openly to Meng Wan’s side, drawing stares from everyone.

But his appearance was still too deceptive; the two stewards took him aside to verify his status, and only then let him into the xiaoge group.

Under the shocked or curious gazes of others, Meng Wan smiled and gave Chi Yu a thumbs-up.

The servants and distinguished guests naturally stayed in different places. Young ladies, young masters, madams, and young husbands took their personal servants and stayed in independent small courtyards.

The rest, like Meng Wan who were on their own, were uniformly assigned to different courtyards.

Meng Wan and Chi Yu were originally assigned to a small courtyard shared by over twenty people. With so many crowded together, it was easy to imagine how uncomfortable it would be.

Just as Meng Wan was about to bribe a junior steward with silver, a maidservant who had been sent by the Shen family with pastries suddenly ran over. “Our family has few women in the household, and the courtyard is pretty empty. The young lady sent me to ask if you two would like to stay with us.”

Thinking of Lord Shen, who had suddenly gone crazy, Meng Wan didn’t hesitate and readily agreed.

The only female family member of the Shen family who came was Miss Shen. She brought two senior maids and four junior maids, so not many in all. But this Miss Shen was quite sociable—she actually “took in” more than a dozen people into her courtyard, both young women and xiaoge.

Meng Wan and Chi Yu were assigned to one of the small rooms. Meng Wan suddenly laughed.

This Miss Shen was truly interesting. If you said she wasn’t clever, she wouldn’t have used food as a stepping stone on the boat to test others. If you said she was clever, then such little tricks would be all too obvious. Businessmen who had made great fortunes, except for a few lucky ones, were mostly shrewd; how could they not see through her intentions?

“Husband, should I ask the steward to swap for a larger room for you?” Chi Yu was tall, and with two beds in the room, there was hardly any room to turn around.

Meng Wan placed the bundle he was carrying at the head of the bed. “It’s fine. More people make it livelier. Let’s just settle like this. At least it’s more comfortable than on the boat.”

“Oh, then I’ll tidy things up. You should get some rest.” Chi Yu was good at fighting and hunting, but he was terrible at delicate tasks. By “tidying up,” he meant shoving all their luggage directly under the bed.

“There’s dirt underneath!” Meng Wan couldn't stop him in time.

Chi Yu said indifferently, “It’s fine, husband. There’s a layer of cloth; nothing inside will get dirty.”

What else could Meng Wan say? “At least take out the food!”

He rescued several large packets of lotus root powder, brushed off the dirt, and sacrificed a bedsheet he had brought to rewrap them.

If the living conditions were poor, that could be endured, but food was a matter of life and death.

It was still early, so Meng Wan sent the one who had caused trouble, Chi Yu, outside to find a place to air the bedding.

As soon as Chi Yu went out, he was surrounded by a crowd of young women and xiaoge. The shy ones just stole glances at him, while the bolder ones went up to strike up a conversation.

“Are you really a xiaoge?”

Chi Yu pulled down the collar of his clothes without hesitation, revealing a small Adam’s apple that was barely visible. “What else? The steward just stripped me of my clothes and trousers.”

His movement was too abrupt, accidentally pulling open half his robe, revealing his well-defined chest.

“Oh, what are you doing?” The xiaoge who had boldly spoken to him earlier said, while openly staring at his chest.

Ignoring the crowd, Chi Yu pulled his robe closed and thought of the task Meng Wan had given him. He spotted a large rock in a corner of the courtyard, didn’t care if it was dusty, and was about to spread the bedding over it.

A xiaoge stopped him. “Hey, big guy, can’t you see there’s dirt on that? Besides, that spot doesn’t get much sunlight. Hang it over here, I've got a rope.”

With the xiaoge’s help, Chi Yu finally aired the bedding. And because of his height, he could tie the rope higher, which earned him a warm welcome from many maids and pages.

Meng Wan was neat. He had fetched water and wiped down the room, but Chi Yu hadn’t returned yet. Then he saw Chi Yu busily and cheerfully working in the courtyard.

Looking up, he noticed Miss Shen, who lived in the main house, had also come out to watch the commotion. She was still young, and no matter how mature and steady she pretended to be, she couldn’t help her childlike curiosity about the commotion.

When she saw Meng Wan looking at her, Miss Shen gave a polite smile.

Meng Wan smiled back, then suddenly put down his water basin and walked toward her.

Since the young girl had kindly lent them the courtyard to stay in, he should at least go and thank her. Besides, Lord Shen didn’t seem to be a first-time visitor to Cát Bà Island, so perhaps the Shen family knew more inside information.