Chapter 59 Yulang, our family's injustice is more unjust than snow falling in June...
Feng Shisan slammed his sword down, "As long as you don't look down on me, Young Master Shisan, that's fine."
Xiao Ma changed into new clothes, tied his hair up high, and stood up straight, looking every bit the dashing young man of the capital. Xiao Ma walked a few steps in front of the group with a smug look on his face, raising his eyebrows proudly, waiting for praise.
"Look at you," Ji Fang blinked, "if you go to Shiyage, you're sure to get a drink."
Feng Shisan was too lazy to look, but couldn't help stealing glances. He felt a pang of jealousy, but he had to admit that Xiao Ma exuded an air of nobility. When they were practicing swordsmanship, everyone was covered in dirt and grime, and you couldn't tell anything except for their human form. How come Xiao Ma looked like a completely different person after changing his clothes in Rongdu? They say clothes make the man, but yesterday Ajiu wore the same new clothes when she met the emperor. It was just that the swordsman had turned into a spirited young man, while Xiao Ma looked exactly like a rich young master. If he really went with him now... people would just think he was... Xiao Ma's... henchman.
Knowing that Lou Cangyu was lying down, Xiao Ma deliberately circled around his bed. Lou Cangyu pulled down the blanket, opened his eyes a crack, then closed them again and turned over, ignoring him. Xiao Ma knew he had seen him and hummed a little tune triumphantly.
Just past noon, Xiao Ma arrived at the entrance of the main hall. Pei Bi saw him from afar and thought he was blind. He knew Xiao Ma was going to the money exchange on business, but he didn't know Xiao Ma thought the Emperor had summoned him again. "A dappled horse and a thousand pieces of gold, a young man in the presence of the Emperor, enjoying himself immensely."
"Go to the money exchange and get some silver." Pei Bi said, amused and exasperated. "Isn't this outfit a bit too formal?"
"When we travel within the capital, we are the face of Xingguo Ward. Naturally, we must make sure our image is as presentable as possible." Xiao Ma dusted off his clothes. "And the money exchange shouldn't underestimate us either."
Pei Bi shook his head helplessly, "The bank values money, not face. No matter how well you dress, they won't give you more money. Fine, dress as you like."
Behind Pei Bi, two sword servants carried a square redwood box, about a foot in size. Though the box wasn't large, judging by the weight the servants were bearing, it weighed at least a hundred pounds. A hundred pounds of gold must have been personally secured by Pei Yuan; for Pei Bi to accompany them, the box likely contained silver. Pei Chong had only been in Rongdu for a few years, yet he had amassed a fortune sufficient to support generations of his descendants, and was still able to return to the capital with a considerable amount of money. It seemed that weapons were indeed a profitable business; no wonder the Imperial Workshops were struggling so desperately.
Xiao Ma remembered his parents saying that the Ma family was extremely wealthy, and his grandfather's accumulated wealth was enough to feed ten generations. Xiao Ma was so hungry that he could smell meat on his arms—so how could we be so poor?
Mother sighed, "Who told me I couldn't leave? Leaving aside your Ma family's possessions, I still have seven or eight trunks of my own dowry and valuables. When I married into the Ma family from Jiangnan, they were a wealthy household, and the dowry was lavish. To save face for us, my family prepared twice as much dowry as my sisters, including trunks and trunks of the finest Suzhou silks—the colors were more vibrant than the clouds at sunset, so beautiful they were blinding." Mother spoke with eyes full of longing, as if she could truly see it all. She hadn't even had the heart to take them out to make clothes yet…
Seeing her father's sunken eyes filled with sorrow, her mother quickly changed her tone, saying, "Money is just an external thing; being alive is the most important thing. At least the three of us are still alive and well, it's just a pity..."
"What's a pity?" Xiao Ma pressed.
Let's not talk about it anymore. Mother rubbed the corner of her eye, then turned around to make wild vegetable soup again.
"What a pity for your grandfather." Father's eyes were red, and his sorrowful expression seemed to recall the past. He suddenly turned Xiao Ma's face and said, "Speaking of which, your grandfather never met you. If he knew that the Ma family had an heir, he would feel gratified in heaven."
Xiao Ma was born on the road to exile, opening his eyes to find himself in the desolate land of Lingnan. Lingnan was incredibly poor, except for one thing that was abundant, growing all over the mountains and fields. His father said it was called lychee. Besides lychees, when hungry, they could only eat wild vegetables. Lychees were tastier than wild vegetables, so he ate and ate until he got a sore throat and nosebleeds, until he felt like vomiting just looking at them. His parents picked the fruit, saying that it was sweet and juicy, and if they could bring it back to Rongdu to sell, they would definitely make a fortune.
Father also went to see the officials and told them his idea: to send lychees to the capital by fast horse, sell them for gold and silver, and then buy ironware and farm tools to help displaced people reclaim barren mountains. In ten years at most, Lingnan would be on the road to prosperity.
The official looked at him like he was a fool, and after a long pause, blurted out: "You're trying to escape on a fast horse, aren't you?" When Father left, he received twenty strokes of the cane, his blood staining the autumn maple leaves redder than the leaves themselves. Father said, "If you can't even hold onto the wealth Heaven gives you, you deserve to be poor for eight lifetimes."
Xiao Ma was also curious and asked his father why he was so sure that people in the capital would like to eat this stuff.
Father groaned in pain, saying that people in the capital loved pursuing rare items like Suzhou silk, northern minerals, and treasures from the Western Regions… The more effort required to obtain something, the more valuable it was; they were afraid the item wasn't difficult enough to acquire. The lychees delivered by horses traveling a thousand miles a day without stopping, and the exhaustion of several horses and cartloads of people… once the hype started, the price went up. Father added, "Just you wait, sooner or later these lychees will be worth an ounce of silver per pound."
—One tael of silver? Little Ma cursed inwardly; that's enough to feed his whole family for a year.
One day, Father gritted his teeth and propped up his frail body, which was throbbing with pain: "Ma Lin, one day, we will return to the capital, Rongdu."
Ma Lin—Little Ma recalled the expression on his father's face when he called out his name. His eyes were wide open as if they were about to pop out. The injuries to his hips and legs were causing him excruciating pain, but when he called out "Ma Lin," it was as if he had an indestructible body of steel. He firmly believed that the descendants of the Ma family would definitely be able to return to the capital, to return to the capital alive.
Unfortunately, neither Father nor Mother lived to see this day. Medical care and medicine were scarce in Lingnan. Father's injuries were too severe to heal; after more than a month, he succumbed to his pain and passed away. Father was the pillar of the family, gentle and refined, learned and talented, humble and polite, and possessed a clever and insightful heart. Mother adored this elegant husband. It was because of Father that she willingly followed him here, enduring the hardships without complaint. On many hungry nights, when the family tossed and turned, unable to sleep, Father would get up, go to the yard to pick leaves, and play a tune for his wife and children. The melody was melodious and gentle; as Little Ma listened, his heart calmed, and he no longer felt hungry.
Not long after my father passed away, my mother went to wash clothes by the river one day. She accidentally fell in and drowned. According to the people who were with her, my mother was washing clothes when she suddenly stood up as if possessed, called out "Yulang" and then fell into the churning river like a fallen leaf.
Yulang, his father's name was Ma Yanyu, and his mother followed him in death. From then on, only Ma Lin remained of the Ma family in the world.
— Ma Lin, one day we will return to the capital, Rongdu. The Ma family has been wronged; you must clear our name and that of your grandfather.
—What does our grandfather do, and what did he do wrong?
During his recovery, his father gradually told Xiao Ma everything. He said that the Ma family had been engaged in extraordinary professions for three generations. These professions were related to the fate of the country and the people's livelihood. If they were done well, they would benefit the country and the people and be remembered for generations. If they were done poorly, they would bring disaster to the country and the people and be remembered for their infamy.
Looking at our family like this… Xiao Ma laughed awkwardly, “We’re definitely going to bring disaster to the country and the people.”
Before he could finish speaking, he received a slap from his father. His father had become as thin as a stick, and the slap left him panting for a while, making Xiao Ma's back teeth wobble.
"Our family's injustice is more unjust than snow falling in June." Mother usually dotes on Xiao Ma the most, and she can't bear to say a harsh word to him no matter how big a mistake he makes. This time, seeing him being beaten and grimacing, she didn't even lift her eyelids.
“Our Ma family,” Father said, calming his emotions, “owns a mint.”
—What is coinage? The State of Jin established the Salt and Iron Bureau, which held the economic power of the court, including the minting of coins. The Salt and Iron Bureau designated private workshops on behalf of the court to mint coins according to the court's policies and standards. The Ma family of Rongdu was deeply trusted by the court and minted coins for three generations without any mistakes.
The so-called wealth enough to last ten generations is the result of three generations of hard work and management. The father forced a smile and rubbed his son's swollen face: If the Ma family had gotten involved in minting coins and profited from it, their wealth would be far more than this. Ten generations? A hundred generations would be an understatement.
"What wrong has the Ma family done with their loyalty and integrity? How could they falsely accuse us of minting counterfeit coins?" The lady, a woman of noble birth, spat on the ground in her anger. "Someone must be jealous of our family's three-generation monopoly on coin minting and has plotted to frame us!"
“Counterfeiting copper coins is a serious crime, and in severe cases, it can lead to the extermination of nine generations of one’s family.” Father was still shaken, and his face turned pale as he recalled the past. “Your grandfather took all the blame upon himself. I don’t know what he said to the Salt and Iron Bureau and the Three Departments, but in the end, he was the only one spared. Your mother and I were sentenced to exile in Lingnan.”
"If it's something our family would never do, then there must be a grievance. Why don't we beat the drum to appeal for justice?" Xiao Ma asked, puzzled. "It sounds like our family is a prominent one in Rongdu. We were just wiped out like this?"
"What do you know?" Mother grew angrier as she listened. "Your grandfather was a man of great stature. If even he couldn't accomplish this, he certainly couldn't have done it. He's already done everything he could by ending this with one person's life. At least the three of us are still alive. As long as we're alive, there's hope..."
"I don't understand!" Xiao Ma retorted stubbornly. Life in Lingnan was too hard, so hard that even wild vegetables couldn't be eaten every day. If it were his fate, he would accept it, but how could he, a son of a wealthy family in the capital, end up like this because of an injustice? He had lived a life without seeing the light of day since he was born, what had he done wrong?
"You should be content, young man." His mother felt sorry for her husband, who had exhausted so much energy. "Back then, there was a bloody crossbow case. Do you know how many people died?"
"I don't know, and I don't want to know." Xiao Ma picked up the bowl of wild vegetable soup with only a few strands floating on top and gulped it down.
"The Lu family of Tianhu Workshop, the number one weapons workshop in the world, had more than a hundred members. On the day of their execution, the execution ground was a river of blood." Mother seemed to see the tragic scene from that year, her brows furrowed as she could not bear to speak further. "It wasn't just one family; all the workshops in Rongdu suffered a great calamity, and there were almost no blacksmiths left in the world. Compared to them, our family was quite fortunate."
—The armory…the mint…one forging weapons, the other for minting coins…what a coincidence, no, it should be, what bad luck, all in one place. Little Ma wanted to ask more, but his cheek was still sore from his father's slap, and he was too angry to say anything more. He drank his fill of water, turned over, and went to sleep.
"What are you standing there staring at?" Pei Bi asked, somewhat displeased, seeing Xiao Ma staring at the mahogany box. "You've got your eye on it now?"
Xiao Ma snapped out of his daze, his body stiffening ramrod straight. "I've never seen this before, please excuse my rudeness, sir. Which money exchange shall we go to?"
"Which family?" Pei Bi chuckled to himself, thinking the young man was truly naive. "The Imperial Merchants of the Great Jin Dynasty, the Mei family of Gongcheng."
—Indeed, it is the successful money exchange, the Mei family of Rongdu.
The Mei family's money exchange had been operating since the founding of the Great Jin Dynasty for over a hundred years, with branches throughout the cities of Jin. It was renowned for its immense wealth and was even jokingly called "Jin's Treasure Bowl" by the late emperor because of its skill in accumulating wealth. When the head of the family, Mei Junhe, passed away in his prime, Xiao Ma vaguely remembered that when news of Mei Junhe's death reached Lingnan, the world was unstable at the time, and rumors spread that the court was taking the opportunity to nationalize the Mei family's property. Wealthy households and officials flocked to the branches of the Mei family's Gongcheng Money Exchange to withdraw their money, and a large crowd gathered at the entrance of the Lingnan branch.
When Mother heard the news, her thin face changed color. She pulled Father aside, and though her voice was soft, Little Ma, with his sharp ears, overheard her. Mother asked, "How could Mei Junhe just die like that? The money we deposited in his estate… can we still get it back? And what about that matter…?"
Father glanced at her briefly, and Mother didn't continue. Father's expression was resolute. "I believe Brother Junhe." Seeing that Xiao Ma was listening intently with his ears perked up, Father remained expressionless, as if he would find out about some things sooner or later anyway, and hearing it now would save him the trouble of explaining it later.
He climbed into the carriage and leaned against the frame. It was his first time in Rongdu, yet everything about it seemed strangely familiar, as if he had been born and raised there and had never left. It was like this: he had never been to the Gongcheng Money Shop, nor had he ever met anyone from the Mei family, but he had walked this road countless times in his dreams. Seeing Pei Bi resting with his eyes closed, Xiao Ma took out a faded, colorful string from his collar, with a gold and jade safety buckle as a pendant. He looked at it for a moment, then hid it in his pocket. Nearly twenty years had passed, Mei Junhe was gone, and could he really trust the descendants of the Mei family? Xiao Ma had no idea, but he had no other choice.
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