Hart wasn’t so polite either. He surveyed the clerks kneeling in a circle around him, then looked at the timid little maid before him, picked up a cup of freshly brewed oolong tea, and took a sip to calm his emotions.
He recalled several years ago when he followed the British consular team to China. The ship had stopped in Bombay, where local rajas led crowds to welcome them, taking turns kissing the feet of the consular team members.
He was only nineteen then, an inexperienced trainee interpreter who had never seen the world. Seeing a little black child crawling over, he was so frightened he jumped up, causing the child to eat a mouthful of dirt.
Due to this breach of etiquette, the child was hung up and beaten, his screams still ringing in Hart’s ears.
He had resolved to “follow local customs” from then on. Let the locals do whatever they wanted.
Seeing Hart seemed to calmly accept this, Lin Yuchan couldn’t help but silently curse: “Imperialist remnant.”
She reluctantly bent her waist.
But her gaze looked toward a certain row of shelf gaps by Hart’s feet, as if suddenly discovering something. Her eyes widened, and she drew a light breath.
Nearby, Kou Laicai’s face changed.
That was where he hid his silver! All the money stolen from tip jars was there! If this little girl’s gaze dropped another foot, she’d see it!
Kou Laicai’s head heated up. Without thinking, he thrust his buttocks out. With a loud crash, the shelf behind him shook violently, and tea cans immediately collapsed like an avalanche, pouring down toward Hart’s back!
“Aiyaya—”
Everyone cried out in alarm. Hart quickly jumped out of the grand master’s chair. His several attendants were quick-eyed and nimble, loyally protecting their master by rushing up to hold the shelf. Tea cans smashed onto the attendants and fell to the ground in heaps. Along with several account books from the counter, a plate of loose silver, and that little bird piggy bank, everything tumbled to the floor.
Lin Yuchan naturally didn’t need to kowtow either. She quickly dodged to one side and very perceptively grabbed a broom to sweep up the broken tea leaves on the floor.
“Do you have needles growing on your buttocks?” Hart’s attendant roared angrily. “If you’d hit our master, we’d want your head!”
Wang Quan’s face was ashen as he crawled on the ground collecting tea cans, his lips trembling as he apologized: “This fat fool has always been stupid and prone to causing trouble. This humble one will beat him severely!”
Kou Laicai knelt on the ground, kowtowing continuously, mumbling, “Spare my life.”
Hart was startled and very displeased. Curling his lips, he kicked aside several tea cans on the ground and ordered his attendants: “Prepare the carriage, return to the office.”
Wang Quan scrabbled the account books from the mess and asked tremblingly: “Your Excellency, those… those accounts… this humble one can explain again… we really didn’t falsify anything…”
“No need.” Hart’s tone was quite gentle. “Your… this maid has already explained everything clearly to me. I won’t prosecute you. If local officials forcibly retain tax payments in the future, directly appeal to customs – this official isn’t afraid of offending people.”
What followed would be wrangling between customs and local forces. There was no need to make scapegoats of these innocent shops.
Customs had foreign powers backing them – they weren’t afraid of local officials.
Hart spoke in Chinese, but Wang Quan was as confused as if he’d heard foreign language, asking incredulously: “You… are you serious?”
Hart’s mind was no longer here. He simply said “Mm,” and as he was about to board the carriage, suddenly turned back and asked unexpectedly: “Oh, there’s something this official forgot to ask. Someone told me that smuggling coolies has been rampant in the city recently. You have wide connections – do you have any leads?”
Wang Quan was startled, shook his head, and smiled: “Your Excellency must have misheard. The pork we eat comes from nearby farmers selling into the city – no smuggling needed.”
Hart stared at Wang Quan until his smile became increasingly awkward, then nodded and pointed at Lin Yuchan with a smile: “Shopkeeper, this maid of yours is quite clever. This official is in need of a quick-thinking interpreter. If she’s interested, she can come find me at the customs office anytime.”
Defeng Trading House lowered its door boards. Wang Quan sat slumped in the grand master’s chair, still shaken, watching several clerks clean up the shelves.
Kou Laicai trembled as he crawled on the ground picking up tea cans.
Wang Quan suddenly barked: “You, come here.”
Before Kou Laicai could stand steady, he received a hard slap.
“Worthless! Better to raise char siu than you! Usually, I tolerate your stupidity, but today you nearly crushed the official! I could tell from your face that you’d bring financial ruin when I first saw you. If not for your father’s begging through connections, I wouldn’t have let you work here. Look what you’ve done today! Defeng Trading House will be ruined by your hands sooner or later!”
After this tirade, Wang Quan still wasn’t satisfied. He ordered clerks to slap Kou Laicai several more times and announced: “Get lost! Don’t come tomorrow!”
Kou Laicai was wretched and introverted, never popular. The clerk gloated – none spoke up for him.
Kou Laicai regretted it so much he kept hitting his own head, crying repeatedly: “Shopkeeper, I didn’t mean to offend the official, it was… it was…”
He suddenly pointed at Lin Yuchan, his eyes flashing with venomous light, gritting his teeth: “It was this little bitch who pushed me! She touched me, that’s why I couldn’t kneel steadily!”
His resentment was real. It was all her fault – why did she have to look around, why did she have to look toward that corner? Why couldn’t she just close her eyes and kneel like everyone else?
He rushed forward, wanting to hit Lin Yuchan. Normally, others would watch with amusement as he chased and beat her.
But this time, Wang Quan kicked him and scolded: “Hurry up and pack your things!”
Then he pointed at Lin Yuchan: “You come here, I want to ask you something.”
Wang Quan had always treated this Lin Eight-Sister as free labor, rarely speaking more than three sentences to her. Even when she could draw inferences and organize shelves more neatly than before, he just thought she was more meticulous. Girls should be meticulous.
Even when she occasionally said surprising things, helping with accounts and calculations faster than the bookkeeper, he firmly believed she was just showing off cleverly, scheming to attract his attention.
But what happened today? What kind of bewitching performance did she put on to fool the foreign official away?
He wasn’t present at the time and couldn’t imagine any possible scenario.
Some clerks speculated that the foreign official seemed to know her from before, and today’s leniency was purely giving her face as a favor – Wang Quan scoffed at this. Never mind that this servant girl was a skinny, charmless big-footed girl, even if foreigners really fancied her, in businessmen’s eyes money was dearer than fathers – how could they possibly forgo pursuing huge tax payments just to win a beauty’s smile?
Other clerks were more pessimistic, thinking foreigners seeing a woman actually working in the shop were so disgusted they didn’t want to stay long, which was why they left hastily, but would definitely return to cause trouble for Defeng Trading House later.
Wang Quan brought Lin Yuchan to the small tea room, sat down himself while making her stand, put on a fierce expression, and said bluntly: “How did you know our reports submitted to customs were altered? Who told you?”
Lin Yuchan answered unhurriedly: “I accidentally overheard you discussing it with Mr. Zhan.”
She had a good memory and paid attention to details. Recalling conversations she’d heard in the trading house – how Wang Quan complained about heavy tax burdens, how Mr. Zhan would “work overtime” at regular intervals, and the various “donations” mentioned when Old Master Qi received the prefect…
Also, when copying numbers at the guild hall, she occasionally heard “friendly competitors” chat about how hard-earned silver was all exploited away by officials…
Each time she heard fragments, she could piece together conclusions that were pretty much on target.