Chapter 277 Cleaning Up the Mess
The Xu caravan burned two tents, injuring two people, but the cargo remained unharmed. The Li caravan suffered no casualties, but one camel died and half the herd ran away. These two caravans were experienced traders, and while the will-o'-the-wisp fire caused them to panic for a while, they quickly calmed down, abandoning some of their belongings and quickly retreating back to the Gobi Desert, where they hid for the night.
"Shopkeeper Yu, how's your caravan doing?" asked the head of the household, Li Da, with a weary look on his face. "I'm so sorry, but the ghost fire is so evil. We were already struggling to protect ourselves, so we couldn't help you last night."
Sui Yu expressed her understanding and said that she had no right to blame anyone. She repeated what she had explained to Zhang Shun before, telling them that the ghost fire was not something from ghosts or gods and that the fire could be extinguished by covering it with sand.
"In the next few days, we are going to look for camels. I wonder if Master Xu and Master Li will go ahead or are willing to wait for us for a few days." Sui Yu asked.
"We also want to go look for camels," said Li Dadang.
"I'll let my people help you find camels. If you need us in any way, just let me know, Manager Yu." Boss Xu still had some sense of morality. If they could only share the good times but not the bad times, no one would be willing to travel with his caravan in the future.
Sui Yu thanked him and instructed, "We'd better not start a fire before we leave here."
"If we stop making fires, there will be no more ghost lights?" asked the head of the family, Xu.
Sui Yu nodded. It was March and the wind outside the pass was bitingly cold. It was impossible for the phosphorus fire to spontaneously ignite at this temperature.
The two heads of the family looked at each other, and seeing that Sui Yu's words were convincing, they chose to believe her for once.
After Sui Yu took Zhang Shun away, the head of the family, Xu, wondered whether he should also let the younger generation learn some words. He was fifteen or sixteen years older than Sui Yu, and he had no idea what she was talking about ghost fire and phosphorus fire.
Sui Yu returned to her tent. Xiao Chunhong brought her some bean cakes and half a bowl of water and said, "You can't make a fire. You can only eat and drink cold food. Master, chew it for a while before swallowing it."
Sui Yu took a sip of water and held it in her mouth to warm it before swallowing it. She looked around and saw Qingshan and Liuyaer counting the goods, Xiaoxi and Aniu counting the food and grass, Gan Da and Gan Er carrying the burned Ding Quan back, Li Wu counting the camels, and the others took their dry food and went out with the Song family's servants to look for camels.
Sui Yu took a bite of the bean cake and asked, "Where's Green Bud?"
"She's gone to look for camels too. I've arranged for Sancao to go with her. They won't get far." Xiao Chunhong swallowed a mouthful of bean cake, went into the tent to fill a bag of fried rice, and said, "Master, I'm going out to look for camels too."
"Wait for me. We'll go out together later. Don't act alone." Sui Yu instructed. She pointed to the next tent and said, "Go check out the situation."
Song Xian heard her voice coming out. She had been out of the customs twice and in twice. Thanks to Sui Yu, her trade routes had been smooth sailing for the past three years. But the sudden accident and the servants with evil intentions last night were such a heavy blow that she was at a loss and felt uneasy.
Sui Yu looked at her, and from her expression, she could tell that Song Xian was in a very bad condition.
"Eat something." Sui Yu said.
Song Xian pinched her eyebrows, took the fried rice handed to her by Xiao Chunhong and sat down.
At this time, the sun was rising in the east, and the vast desert was filled with soft golden light. The sound of the wind was mixed with the sounds of wooden whistles of varying lengths. Flocks of birds flew by in the sky, and the whole place was peaceful. The panic of last night seemed to have disappeared along with the night.
Song Xian chewed a mouthful of fried rice, forced herself to swallow it, and choked until her eyes turned red.
"Drink some water." Sui Yu handed over the bowl.
Song Xian waved her hand, "It's okay."
"How is Uncle Dong?" Sui Yu asked.
"He can survive." Song Xian said firmly, "I stuffed two slices of ginseng into his mouth last night, and just gave him two more slices. He can survive."
"As long as everyone is fine," Sui Yu said.
Song Xian wiped the corners of her eyes and whispered, "I told him he was stupid last night. Even if a few camels and more than twenty bolts of silk were lost, so what? It wouldn't drain my family's wealth. I can afford the loss. But if something happens to Uncle Dong, who can I rely on?"
"I guess he just couldn't get over it." Sui Yu said.
"Forget it, I won't say anymore." Song Xian waved her hand. She returned the fried rice bag to Xiao Chunhong and said to Sui Yu, "Go ahead and do whatever you want. I'll be here to watch over you."
Sui Yu was beginning to worry about the Song family's servants. She had always considered them loyal and capable. They'd been a bit cold toward her caravan, but they kept a close eye on their own. They kept both the cargo and the camels safe, so Song Xian didn't need to worry about them. So Sui Yu trusted them to guard the goods. After what happened last night, she'd expected her own servants to take advantage of the chaos and escape, but she hadn't imagined the Song family's servants would do anything bad. She hadn't expected these people to abandon their loved ones for the sake of wealth.
"What are you going to do with the people you catch?" Sui Yu asked.
"Kill him." Song Xian said without hesitation, "Don't try to persuade me."
"Why should I advise you? I'm not ignorant of right and wrong, and they're not my servants." Sui Yu ate the last bite of the cake and said, "I'll leave Qingshan and Liuyaer here. If you have any problems, send someone to find me."
Song Xian nodded.
After Sui Yu took Xiao Chunhong away, Song Xian sat for a while. She could afford the loss of property, so these were nothing. Thinking of this, she felt much calmer. What bothered and disturbed her most was the betrayal of the servant.
"Bring those four slaves who betrayed their masters here." Song Xian made up her mind. She couldn't stand this humiliation any more. She would rather lose money and kill them than give them a chance to live. She wanted to see who would dare to betray their master in the future.
"Chop the man up and throw the body into the desert to feed the insects, birds, and wolves." She ordered decisively. But that wasn't enough. She walked up to the slave, who was so frightened that he urinated but kept kowtowing and begging for mercy. With a smile on her face, she said, "Did you think I would leave you alive like Shopkeeper Yu did? I'm telling you, you've made a wrong bet. Not only will I kill you, but your wives, children, and mothers left behind in the border will also be killed. If you think life is getting better than it is now, then go and work as a laborer to earn money for me."
After that, Song Xian no longer listened to their pleas for mercy. She crossed her arms and said, "Kill them right here. Let me hear the sound."
Zhang Shun walked over, but he didn't get close. However, that didn't stop him from seeing the indifference in Song Xian's eyes. The man holding the knife didn't dare to kill because of their years of friendship, but she stared at him without blinking, with the indifference and disgust in her eyes getting worse and worse, forcing the servant to pick up the knife and chop people.
The heads were still there, but blood was all over the ground. After confirming that the four thieves were dead, Song Xian wiped the blood off the soles of her shoes, ordered people to throw the bodies farther away, and turned to go into the tent.
Zhang Shun didn't dare to look at it any longer, and neither did the Song family's servants. Everyone avoided his gaze in a trance, each busy with the things at hand.
"Master Song..." Liu Yaer's face turned pale with fear. She mumbled, "Master Song usually seems easy to talk to, but I didn't expect him to be so scary when he gets angry."
"We've been living it up for too long, forgetting that slaves are like livestock that can be traded. Oh, they're not even as valuable as livestock, because you can eat their meat after they die." Zhang Shun was also a little dazed. He looked up at the sky and said, "It's all our master's fault. She treats us like human beings, and that makes the other people who are treated like livestock want to be human too."
Liu Yaer rolled her eyes at him and said, "What are you doing? Go feed the camels."
Ten camels were burned last night. Two belonged to Sui Yu, three she rented from Song Xian, and five belonged to the Song family caravan. Aside from a female camel whose hump was severely burned, the others suffered only skin injuries. Animals are ignorant and fearless, and when in pain they roll over. Unlike humans, even after their hair was burned off, they still kowtowed to the gods and begged for mercy.
After half a day's work, the people who went out to look for camels brought back ninety-nine camels one after another. With the camels, everyone could ride them out much faster. By the evening, they had found seventy-three camels, including the nineteen camels sent by the Xu and Li caravans.
After Sui Yu came out from visiting the injured, she went to see the injured camel. The third child, whom she had raised with her own hands, saw her and made a "beep beep" sound with his lips sticking out.
"How is its injury?" Sui Yu asked. It was dark and she couldn't light a fire, so she couldn't see anything clearly.
"A large area of hair was burned off, but fortunately the skin is thick and the flesh is not hurt." Liu Yaer explained.
Livestock have strong resilience, especially those that can survive in the wild. This small injury is nothing to them. Sui Yu grabbed a handful of leftover fried rice from her pocket and fed it to the camels. After inquiring about the camel herd's condition, she left.
Lu Yaer was wolfing down a bean cake wrapped in meat sauce. Seeing Sui Yu coming over, she stood up and said, "Aunt, are there still twenty-one camels that haven't been found?"
"Right." Sui Yu took the burrito handed to him by Song Xian with a hand that hadn't been stained by the camel's saliva and said, "Let's rest tonight and look for it tomorrow morning. Our camels are all tamed. They are used to being raised by humans and can't run far."
Sitting down, Sui Yu smelled a strong smell of blood. She sniffed and was about to ask, but then she remembered what Song Xian had said that morning, that the man must have been killed. She paused chewing the biscuit and stood up again. She walked into the tent and overheard Xiao Chunhong mumbling to the other slave girls about Song Xian's murder of the thief slave.
Sui Yu cleared his throat and the voices inside stopped.
"I didn't rest last night and I've been busy outside all day today. I'd better eat and rest early." Sui Yu said.
"Master, there won't be another ghost fire tonight, right?" Xiao Chunhong asked.
"No." Sui Yu reassured her, "Everything that could be burned was burned last night. Just sleep peacefully tonight."
Both the people and the animals were tired, even though they were all very nervous, but once they lay down and closed their eyes, their thoughts immediately became confused.
After a good night's sleep, at dawn, Sui Yu confidently handed the camp to Song Xian to guard. In terms of killing the chicken to scare the monkey, Song Xian was better than her. Human life is indeed easier to control than human heart.
Camels carry camel bells, and as long as they are not dead and are willing to move, the camel bells will never stop ringing. In the desert where there are no trees to block the shelter, it is not difficult to find camels by following the sound of the camel bells.
The camel bells rang slowly, and the frightened camels that had run away came over on their own initiative. Sui Yu whistled while riding on the camel. She took out a handful of hay from the bag on the camel's back and threw it on the ground. The wind blew the hay towards the hesitant camel. After it finished eating the hay on the ground, Sui Yu blew the wooden whistle again. This was the whistle for daily feeding.
The camel not far away seemed to finally remember that it had a master, and it immediately strode over.
It took another day and a half to find the remaining twenty-one camels.
"Uncle Dong has recovered. Aside from having trouble eating and drinking, his life is saved." Song Xian finally smiled and said, "Let's stay for two more days. Once his injuries have healed, we can leave."
"Does he still want to go to Dayuan with us?" Sui Yu asked.
"No, I plan to leave him in Ruoqiang to recuperate. I'll leave two people with him, and I'll pick him up when I come back," said Song Xian.
"That's fine. He's really not in good health for a long journey." Sui Yu pinched his brows and discussed, "Why don't we leave a tent, some food, and two people to take care of him? When Uncle Dong's injury gets better, they can go to Ruoqiang on their own, or return with the caravan heading east. If it were just you and me, I wouldn't mind leaving two days earlier or later, but with the Xu and Li caravans, I'm afraid they won't want to stay any longer."
Song Xian was silent for a moment. She was in the same situation Sui Yu had been in two years prior. With the exception of Old Uncle Dong, she was suspicious of all the servants. But Sui Yu was right. The caravans were going through the customs to buy and sell goods, and both wanted to be first in line, so there was no time to lose.
"Okay, I'll choose two people to stay." Song Xian made the decision. "Now my caravan will be ten people short."
"Divide the tasks among everyone so that there are enough people." Sui Yu said that after this incident, she had learned her lesson. She would assign responsibilities to the servants, with some responsible for firewood and food, some for water and cooking, some for unloading goods and setting up camp, and some for tying, feeding and guarding camels. This way, it would be easier to hold people accountable if something went wrong.
But he couldn't be too blunt. That afternoon, Sui Yu gathered all his servants and began, "During the turmoil the other night, I thought one of my men would abscond with the money. It seems I was being too mean. I remember your kindness. This time, except for Ding Quan, who suffered a burn on his scalp, the rest of us are unharmed. To celebrate and thank you all for your hard work, I'll give each of you a 200-coin reward, which I'll share with you when the profits are divided."
Xiao Chunhong led the cheering, and everyone's face was filled with smiles.
"We are now sworn brothers. You are loyal to me, so I should trust you. Starting tomorrow, I will divide the caravan's affairs into several parts. You will each be in charge of certain tasks, and everyone can choose the ones they are good at. The caravan is mine, and yours. We must unite as one and run the caravan even better. Even if we encounter emergencies in the future, such as broken pottery cauldrons, no one to watch the goods, or food and grass catching fire, we must prevent them from happening again." Sui Yu looked at the twenty-two slaves with an encouraging look and asked, "Is this all right?"
"No problem." Gan Da was the first to speak. "I'll be in charge of guarding the cargo. I'll oversee the unloading and loading."
"That's fine with me," Zhang Shun said. "I'll be in charge of guarding the food and fodder, and I'll also be in charge of purchasing it from now on."
Others also spoke up and took on their tasks.
"Okay, if anything goes wrong in the future, I'll find the person responsible." Sui Yu shook his finger and said with a smile, "Don't let me find fault with you."
Green Bud stood not far away and listened attentively. After the servants had dispersed, she came over with her hands wrung, sighed, and said, "Aunt, it's so hard. Walking is hard, but I think it's even harder to take care of the servants."
"Learn slowly. I've been learning slowly too. This is the fourth year since I founded the caravan. Today, I feel like my caravan has finally taken shape and people's hearts are coming together." Sui Yu kicked the sand in a good mood and said, "I think winning people's hearts is either about winning them over with virtue or establishing authority. Your mother and I each follow our own path. Her father definitely won people over with virtue in the past, and the servants have that in mind. Since she can't surpass her father in this regard, she chooses to intimidate people with her power. So you don't have to follow her path. She plays the bad guy, and you play the good guy."
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