Coming out of the medicine shop, the two headed straight for the silversmith's.
No sooner had they reached the door than the warm-hearted elder woman they had met that day happened to step out from inside and spotted them at once.
"Oh my! Sister, you've finally come!" the woman called out in a bright, carrying voice, stepping forward with concern. "So many days gone by and my old heart's been pounding, worried sick that you'd run into some trouble."
Before she even finished speaking, her gaze fell upon the bulging bundle behind Lin Wu. She lowered her voice and leaned in closer. "By the look of things... sister, are you headed off on a long journey?"
At those words, Lin Wu's eyes reddened instantly, her lips quivered a few times, and for a moment she couldn't utter a word—only faint sobs escaped her. She instinctively pulled Lin Jing closer to her side.
Lin Jing, startled by her mother's reaction, tilted her little head in vague confusion, then scrunched up her small mouth and began to sniffle, her eyes welling with tears, tiny hand clutching tightly at Lin Wu's hem.
Seeing this, the elder woman immediately pieced together about seven or eight parts of the situation.
"Ah, this..." she sighed, her face full of sympathy, and at once took hold of Lin Wu's arm. "Don't just stand at the door—come, come in and rest your feet a bit." She ushered mother and daughter into the silversmith's shop, swiftly fetched two small wooden stools from the corner, and pressed them to sit down.
"I'm so sorry, Grandpa He, for taking so long to come back," Lin Wu said, raising her slightly reddened eyes and offering repeated apologies to the old silversmith.
"No matter," the old silversmith said without looking up, continuing his work as he teased, "If you'd delayed any longer, I might have just kept these bracelets for myself—you'd be the one losing out."
Lin Wu was coaxed into a small laugh by these words, and the mood lightened somewhat.
The elder woman beside her, unable to hold back any longer, clutched Lin Wu's hand with eager concern. "Good sister, what on earth has happened? Oh, so this must be your little girl? She looks so sweet. But you look far too young—how is the child already this big?"
"Ma'am, I'm already twenty-two years old," the sixteen-year-old Lin Wu replied without blinking an eye, in a soft, measured voice.
She took a deep breath, as if trying to steady her emotions, and continued. "I also have you to thank for your earlier advice. As luck would have it, that day I sold my herbs to the medicine shop and got a few coppers. I figured that in a few days, I'd need to attend my nephew's full-month celebration, and I couldn't very well show up in tattered rags and bring shame upon my little aunt—her husband's family are respectable people, after all. So I gritted my teeth and went to the used-clothing shop to get myself a proper outfit."
"That makes sense." The elder woman nodded.
"Who would have guessed," Lin Wu's voice dropped, trembling, "That the moment I got home, my mother-in-law caught sight of it. She pointed at my nose and cursed me—words too awful to repeat."
She didn't spell it out, but the shame and indignation on her face told the elder woman everything she needed to know—accusations of a widow not knowing her place, of harboring outside intentions.
"She tried to snatch the clothes away, saying she wanted to save them for her younger daughter-in-law to wear to the full-month feast, and that I... that I was bringing bad luck by showing up at a joyous occasion so soon after my husband's death."
"Outrageous!" the elder woman burst out in indignation. "And when she forced you to pawn your dowry to have bracelets made for that gift, she wasn't worried about bad luck then?"
"I refused to let the clothes go no matter what, so she cursed at me day after day, and even... even struck Jing'er, and wouldn't give us anything to eat. I just can't go on like this anymore." She gently gathered the confused Lin Jing into her arms.
Lin Jing had been listening with great interest, and when she heard her own name mentioned, she nodded along even though she didn't fully understand, patted her little belly, and mumbled softly, "Tummy's hungry."
"After only a few days, they're already tormenting you like this—what would they do later on?" The elder woman slapped her thigh in anger.
"What chilled me most to the bone," Lin Wu lowered her voice, trembling with lingering fear, "was that I remembered what you said and kept my guard up. And I happened to overhear my mother-in-law discussing with my brother-in-law that once my dowry ran dry, they'd marry me off to whoever just for the bride price, and worse—they'd sell Jing'er to a human trafficker!"
"Heavens above! How can people do such heartless things? They're giving you no path to survive!" The elder woman gasped in shock.
"I truly have no way out anymore," Lin Wu choked out. "So I've resolved to risk it all—pack up what I can, take Jing'er, and head to Lingzhou to try my luck, searching for my older brother who's been out of contact for so long. If I find him, everything will be simpler with his help. If I don't... at least it's better than staying home and letting them mold me and crush me as they please, until I'm devoured alive."
"Ah!" The elder woman let out a heavy sigh, her face full of pity and helplessness. "But you have no definite news of him—how much suffering will you face on the road!"
"I've thought it through," Lin Wu wiped the corners of her eyes with her sleeve and tried to steady her voice. "Luckily, I've heard that Lingzhou isn't too far from here. If worst comes to worst and I can't find any kin, I'll find some quiet place to settle there—taking in laundry, doing mending, or selling a bit of homemade noodles. I imagine I can scrape together a living. But staying here is absolutely out of the question—too easy for them to find me. If they drag me back, the days ahead... I dread even thinking about it."
She seemed to have made up her mind, her tone growing firmer. "Better to gamble now and go out there—at least I'll fight for a way to live."
"That's right." The elder woman sighed and nodded.
Lin Wu let out her own sigh, her face etched with worry, and pulled out half of a split tally, offering it to the old silversmith.
The old silversmith took the tally, reached into the wooden box behind him, and set the pair of small silver bracelets on the scale. The beam rose steadily: "There—a full six qian, not a hair off."
"Grandpa He's craftsmanship is naturally excellent," Lin Wu said, placing sixty coppers on the counter.
The old silversmith pocketed the coins, pondered for a moment, and stroked his beard. "When you reach Lingzhou, you can make careful inquiries at the major merchant houses or guild halls—you may uncover some clue."
Hearing this, Lin Wu's eyes brightened, and she thanked him repeatedly. "Thank you so much, Grandpa He—this advice is truly a gift of timely aid."
The elder woman beside her studied the pair of small silver bracelets. "Since you don't need them anymore to save face for your mother-in-law, why not give them to your little girl to wear? They look about the right size, more or less." Bracelets made for a small child were naturally cast a bit larger.
Lin Wu looked embarrassed and said quietly, "I was planning to pawn them. First, we need traveling money; second, I worry that a child wearing them will attract attention and bring danger on the road."
"Sensible enough—you've thought it through well," the elder woman agreed with a nod, though she added with some worry, "But those pawnshop owners are the sharpest of the sharp. If you bring in these brand-new fine bracelets, the manager is sure to nitpick and might not even accept them at five hundred coppers."
"Cash matters most—it can't be helped if we take a loss." Lin Wu sighed.
The old silversmith spoke up, "If pawned they must be, then let it be me who takes them. For six qian of pure silver bracelets, I'll give you six qian of silver."
"How could I possibly accept that!" Lin Wu waved her hands again and again. "Grandpa He, you've already helped us so much—I can't let you take a loss on top of it."
"What loss?" the elder woman cut in with a laugh. "He's already earned his workmanship fee—he can turn around and earn another fee on the next job!"
"The old master's skill is worth money—that's a separate matter," Lin Wu insisted.
"Your silver is good quality," the old silversmith added gently. "I'm not losing anything."
After much persuasion from the two of them, the pair of silver bracelets finally returned to the old silversmith's hands. Lin Wu took the heavy six hundred coins, her eyes slightly reddened, and bowed deeply to the two of them. "I truly don't know how to thank you both..."
"Don't do that," the older woman quickly steadied her. "Life is hard for a woman traveling alone—take every care on your journey."
Lin Wu nodded earnestly.
"If you're looking to join a merchant caravan, you must choose carefully—find one that's honest and dependable," the woman added, still worried.
At this, a look of embarrassment crossed Lin Wu's face, and she gave an apologetic smile. "To be honest, ma'am, the farthest I've ever been is the county seat. Heading east like this, I'm really at a loss. I'd even been muddle-headed, wondering whether I should hire a cart by myself or find a convoy..."
"Oh, my silly sister!" the woman clapped her hands. "Hire a cart alone? Not only would the cost be sky-high, but with you a widow and a child, if you ran into bandits on the road, you'd have no one to turn to for help, no one to cry out to! You must find a proper merchant caravan—safety in numbers, that's the solid way."
Lin Wu quickly said, "So that's the trick! Thank you for pointing that out, ma'am—otherwise I'd have been walking into ruin with my eyes wide shut. I thought it'd be just like going from the village to the county seat, where a hired oxcart could take us right to the door."
Hearing this, the woman couldn't help but laugh. "What nonsense you speak! Even just getting to Lingzhou is over three hundred li. With all the uphill and downhill stretches, the food and fodder for people and animals on the way—even with a caravan, you'd be hard-pressed to make it in seven or eight days. Which oxcart driver would take on such a job?"
Lin Wu thanked the old silversmith and the older woman once more, solemnly, before taking Lin Jing's hand and stepping out of the shop.
"Both the granny and the grandpa are good people," Lin Jing said, looking up while clutching the strap of the little pouch on his chest. The kind people he'd met since entering the county seat had gradually faded the fear he'd felt on first arrival.
"That's right," Lin Wu said, leading Lin Jing toward the main street, though inside she felt anything but certain.
The journey was far harder than the older woman imagined. They had no official travel papers, so not only could they not find a caravan to Lingzhou—they couldn't even stay in a proper inn for the night.
Without official papers, everything—lodging, crossing rivers, entering cities—was blocked at every turn. And such documents could only be issued by the village head based on household registration, stamped with the county court's seal.
It was precisely because she had no valid identity papers that the road ahead was so treacherous, forcing her to rack her brains and spin this entire story from thin air.
