Ch48 - Tiger Cub

Mu Hanzhang waited for nearly two hours in the only inn in town until Jing Shao dejectedly came to find him. 

“What, were you not able to persuade him?” Mu Hanzhang pushed a bowl of rice toward him and told the waiter to bring two extra hot dishes.

When Jing Shao saw Hao Dadao just now, he was so overjoyed and wanted to persuade the man to leave with him. Unexpectedly, the man said he needed to chop the minced meat and would talk with him later. It was blistering hot in midsummer, and almost noon. Afraid that his Wang Fei would be hot, Jing Shao had Mu Hanzhang wait for him at the inn first. Jing Shao waited by himself for nearly two hours before he could have an in-depth talk with Hao Dadao. He originally thought he understood the other man very well: He was a descendant of a famous general with excellent prowess in martial arts and military skills – it had to be frustrating for him to be stuck butchering pigs in this small mountain village. Who knew that this person would just return Jing Shao’s clear intention to recruit him with a “why are you so meddlesome” expression.

“I’m getting by very well just butchering pigs and selling meat. Why would I want to go fight in life-and-death situations on the battlefield? Not going, not going!” Hao Dadao just said it like that, and drove Jing Shao out of the pork shop.

“If you want to obtain a good general, you must be patient.” Mu Hanzhang poured him a cup of water. “It’ll take the army a few days to go around the mountain. We can stop here for a while. Don’t be impatient.” 

Jing Shao raised his head and gulped down the water in the cup. “This water is so refreshing!”

Mu Hanzhang poured him another cup and told him that the water wasn’t boiled, but was from a well. It was water pumped directly from the well in the inn’s backyard. It was ice cold and slightly sweet. It was very delicious. “I’ve already booked a room in this inn.”

“Ah?” Jing Shao swallowed a mouthful of food and looked up at him. “Jun Qing, do you believe that even if I do go, I still won’t be able to persuade him?”

“When taking a wife, you have to follow the three books and six rites; it is similar when you’re trying to obtain a worthy person. You must be sincere and use the correct method.” Mu Hanzhang slowly drank some water. “But there’s a problem.”

“What’s the problem?” Jing Shao frowned and pondered.

In his previous life, in the 19th year of Hongzheng’s reign, a muddle-headed and greedy county magistrate had been sent here. He preyed on the people and wasn’t strict with his officials. One official molested Hao Dadao’s neighbor’s little daughter, and Hao Dadao was so angry that he killed that official with his butcher’s knife. The county magistrate wanted to arrest him, but the villagers petitioned on Hao Dadao’s behalf. The muddle-headed county magistrate drove the villagers away with his whip. Chaos erupted, and the officials killed two innocent people, which provoked a sudden rebellion.

At that time, Jing Shao had been defeated after attacking the king of Huainan. On his way back to the capital, he chanced upon this civil unrest. After leading the troops in quelling the rebellion, he was able to appease the people’s ire by executing the county magistrate in front of all of them. At that time, Hao Dadao had trained a group of villagers who hadn’t been able to fight before into a militia that could resist the soldiers. This made Jing Shao cherish his talents, so he petitioned the emperor for an imperial decree in which he offered the rebels amnesty if they enlisted; this way, he was able to bring Hao Dadao under his command.

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Looking at his foolish appearance, Mu Hanzhang’s lips couldn’t help curling up. “After eating, let’s go and buy some cloth to spread on the bed, and just put up with it for a night.”

“Why don’t we just have the servant change it out for new bedding?” Jing Shao wrinkled his brow. There would definitely be fleas in this kind of shabby inn in a small mountain village. What should he do if they bit his Wang Fei’s lustrous and jade-like skin? 

“It’s very dangerous to flaunt one’s wealth in such a place. It already wasn’t appropriate for you to give that hunter silver today.” Mu Hanzhang placated him as he raised his chopsticks to pick up some food from the dishes for Jing Shao.

“There are many hunters who come from the mountains to sell valuable wild deer in this town. There are often merchants who come to buy them. We can’t even be considered the richest people here.” Jing Shao picked up the bowl, wolfed down all the food in it, and stretched out his bowl to his Wang Fei again.

Mu Hanzhang glared at him, and then picked up more food with his chopsticks again. “The waiter said that it’ll cost a string of coins to replace the bedding, but it’ll only cost 30 wen to go to the fabric shop across the street and buy a new bed sheet.”

“Cough, cough…” When Jing Shao heard this, he immediately choked on a grain of rice. After talking about this for half a day, it turned out that Jun Qing just disliked wasting money! 

They went to the fabric shop to buy two bed sheets. All the market stalls were closed. Most of the people who came here for the market were from the nearby mountain villages, and had to leave early to get home before dark. So, by dusk, the streets were already very cold and lonely; even the stall which sold the minced meat dish was gone. The two were helpless, and could only go back to the inn to eat the rather expensive meals there.

The rooms in the inn were truly quite dirty and unkempt. Jing Shao looked at the bed in front of them, and felt that even if they spread out the new sheets they had, his Wang Fei still wouldn’t want to sleep on it. He might as well pick him up and take him to the roof, and spread the sheets out over the debris as a bed. He personally went to the waiter to buy new blankets.

“It’s cold in the mountains at night; if we don’t have a new quilt, we’ll definitely freeze.” Jing Shao wrapped his Wang Fei up well in the quilt. “This inn just does business like this. In such a far away place, there’s only this inn, so there’s no other way.” The two of them also didn’t lack money; why was his Wang Fei becoming more and more stingy?

Wrapped up in the warm quilt, Mu Hanzhang rested his head on Jing Shao’s arm and looked up at the night sky in between the mountains. “When this battle is over, I want to set up some other business.” 

“Okay; I’ll take you to live in Jiangnan in a couple of years. It’s easy to do business there.” Jing Shao smiled and hugged the person in his arms. “Why do you suddenly value money so much?”

“I heard from Xiao Yuan that there’s been serious problems in the Ministry of Revenue in recent years. I’m afraid that the Treasury might have been empty for some time now. If it really has gotten to that point, even a few silver taels is indispensable.” Mu Hanzhang sighed. They had received a letter from Rui Wang yesterday which said that the matter of embezzlement from army funds was becoming bigger and bigger. He had secretly discovered that even the Count of Yongchang and the fourth prince were involved. If it was the fourth prince who had taken the silver all these years, that would be troublesome.

“Let’s worry about that later,” said Jing Shao, patting the head of the man in his arms. “Help me think of a way to persuade Hao Dadao.”

Hao Dadao’s ancestor was a powerful and important general of the previous dynasty. He led military operations with extraordinary skill, and the previous emperor also admired him very much. After the end of the previous dynasty, the Hao family ancestors refused to accept the new imperial family, and wound up occupying and ruling the Dahang mountain range. However, the mountain stronghold had declined in Hao Dadao’s generation, and he was now just earning a living as a butcher. 

Mu Hanzhang thought for a moment. “From what you’re saying, his ancestors opposed the imperial family. I’m afraid it won’t be easy to convince him to put himself in the hands of the imperial family as a general now. I’ll go with you for a look tomorrow and try to find another way.”

They slept on the roof that night. The summer nights were cool in the mountains, and covered with the quilt, they were very comfortable.

The next day, someone stopped them just before they arrived at the pork shop. Jing Shao was startled and immediately shielded Mu Hanzhang, pushing him behind him.

“Gongzi, you said yesterday that you would give me ten times the silver if I brought the tiger cubs back; you weren’t scamming me, right?” It was the hunter from yesterday, and he handed over a bamboo basket. 

When Jing Shao opened the bamboo basket, he saw something dark scratching around inside. “This is the tiger cub?”

“Otherwise? Do you think it’s fake?” The hunter grabbed the thing inside. “I went up to the mountain before dawn, but the other tiger cubs had already been taken away by something else. Only this one was left after it fell into a mud pit.”

Jing Shao looked at the dirty little ball and truly didn’t want it, but Mu Hanzhang had already bought cloth towels from a nearby stall to wrap around the small thing; Jing Shao could only pay the man the silver and send him away.

The little tiger cub’s face was revealed after the wet mud was wiped away with the cloth towel. Although it was still dirty, it was clearly a tiger. It was about a long, its eyes half-open as it cried listlessly, “Wawu, wawu!” 

“Oh! A tiger cub!” Hao Dadao’s plump wife was currently bringing out the chopping block. When she heard the tiger cub’s cries, she came over happily to take a look.

Mu Hanzhang glanced at her. “Does elder sister have some warm water in your house? This tiger cub must be washed first.”

“Yes, yes, I just boiled a pot of water for scalding off pig hair. Come with me.” The plump lady seemed very happy, and had Mu Hanzhang come in with her.

Mu Hanzhang gave Jing Shao a meaningful look before taking the tiger cub with him and going into the house with the plump lady. Seeing Hao Dadao, who was currently butchering pigs in the backyard, she said, “You go watch the stall first; I’ll help wash this tiger cub first, and then go.” 

Hao Dadao saw Mu Hanzhang and frowned slightly. He put down his butcher’s knife and walked out.

The plump lady, though fierce and tough, was not at all careless in her work. She quickly poured warm water into a basin and put the tiger cub in the water. “Come, time to take a bath!”

“Wawu!” The little tiger cub was frightened. It was just about to struggle, when it suddenly smelled the pig blood on her arm. It sniffed with its little nose, narrowed its eyes, which were only half-open because of the mud, to find the bloodstained area, then opened its mouth to lick it. It began to lick harder and harder, even opening its mouth to gnaw on that thick arm with teeth that hadn’t even all grown in yet. But the little tiger’s mouth was so small that it couldn’t even get around half the circumference of the woman’s arm. It had already completely forgotten that it was immersed in water.

Looking at her skillful movements, Mu Hanzhang asked, “Is elder sister fond of cats and dogs?” 

“Haha, I’ve loved these little things since I was a child.” The plump madam laughed. The young man in front of her was gentle and kind, and his voice was also gentle and elegant, so her fierce attitude softened. As she washed the tiger cub, she chatted with Mu Hanzhang. She also talked about how she had come to town as a child with her father to sell wares, and how there was a martial arts competition later for her hand in marriage.

“Surely it was big brother Hao who won the competition, and was able to marry such a beautiful wife.” Mu Hanzhang laughed and looked at Hao Dadao, who had come to the yard for the third time to fetch pork.

“Tsk, him?” The robust madam glared at her husband, who wasn’t far away. “He lied to my father that he was king of the Dahang mountains. He lied to my father and said that I would be able to eat and drink well with him.” As she spoke, she took a cloth towel and dried the washed tiger cub. It struggled discontentedly as it cried “wawu” non-stop.

“I heard from the villagers that the ancestors of the Hao family really were kings of the mountains before.” Mu Hanzhang took the washed little tiger cub and lowered his head to look at it. The yellow and black fluff was still wet. Perhaps it had eaten well with its mother tigress before. Even though it had been starved for a day, it was still quite round as it looked at Mu Hanzhang with a pair of round amber eyes. “Wawu!”