Chapter 10: Arrival

They arrived outside the pier at the end of the hour of the Horse.

Ding Zhao noticed that two old women selling rattle drums were acting suspiciously. They wove through the crowd, approaching anyone seen carrying or wearing a nursing baby to hawk their wares.

Unsurprisingly, these two were likely sent by those who intended to harm Xiangxiang.

Ding Zhao whispered a few words to Mrs. Zhang. Mrs. Zhang grew nervous and tightened the straps securing the child.

Ding Zhao whispered, "Don't be nervous. Don't let them see anything unusual."

He reached out and pulled the cloth covering Ding Xiang even tighter.

One of the old women spotted them and jogged over. With a face full of smiles, she said, "Buy a little drum! Only twenty wen each."

Ding Zhao waved her off. "No, thank you. We already bought some in the capital."

The woman continued, "Fifteen wen each, much cheaper than the capital. Young man, take a closer look; these little drums are excellent."

The drums were exquisitely made; in the capital, they sold for twenty-five wen each, so they were indeed cheap. It seemed somewhat unreasonable not to buy them. But what was even more unreasonable was why such good drums were being sold so much cheaper.

Ding Zhao's suspicions were further confirmed. He took out money and bought the drums.

The old woman glanced at Mrs. Zhang's back. The child was wrapped in coarse blue cloth, with only a tiny slit left at the top, making the child's appearance invisible, though a medicinal scent wafted from the bundle.

She smiled and asked, "What a lovely child. How old is she?"

Mrs. Zhang smiled back. "Over two months old. Sigh, she has diarrhea; it's so pitiful that such a little one has to take bitter medicine."

The bundle was thick and wrapped in blue cloth, so based on the size, the child indeed looked like a two-month-old infant.

Ding Zhao handed over the copper coins and took the rattle drum.

Finding nothing unusual, the old woman moved on elsewhere.

The couple breathed a sigh of relief and went to a small noodle stall to eat. Previously, they had thought about asking the stall owner to help warm up some rice water to feed Ding Xiang, but now they didn't dare. They also couldn't change Ding Xiang's diaper; she would just have to wait until the boat set sail.

They were particularly terrified that Ding Xiang might cry from hunger or discomfort, so they patted her from time to time to comfort her.

The child was truly easy to care for; she didn't cry once until they were on the boat.

The two old women even followed them onto the boat to sell the drums, only leaving once the boat had departed.

More than two quarters of an hour later, after the couple saw no more suspicious people, Mrs. Zhang finally unstrapped Ding Xiang from her back.

Ding Xiang had soiled herself twice, leaving her bottom and legs messy; her pants and the swaddling cloth were wet, and her lower body was cold.

Ding Zhao and Mrs. Zhang were heartbroken. They hurried to wipe her small body clean with dry cloth, changed her clothes, and put in a fresh diaper.

Mrs. Zhang said, "Good girl, you've suffered so much."

Ding Zhao also whispered, "Xiangxiang is so good, so smart. The bad people are gone now. If you feel uncomfortable, you can cry a little."

Knowing she was safe, Ding Xiang pouted and let out a few whimpers, which served as a way of acting spoiled. She didn't cry; fortunately, her sense of safety outweighed her discomfort.

An elderly woman nearby, unable to watch any longer, shook her head and said, "How do they raise a child? They don't even change the diaper immediately when the baby soils herself. Tsk tsk, poor thing."

The couple did not dare to respond.

Mrs. Zhang carried Ding Xiang around the boat, searching.

She actually spotted a woman carrying a nursing baby, whose chest was quite large.

Mrs. Zhang stepped forward and smiled. "Sister, my body was weakened during childbirth and I have no milk. Could you feed my child a bit? Three times a day, ten large coins each time?"

The woman was very willing to earn the money, her smile radiant. "Of course! I have plenty of milk; my son can't even finish it all."

The man beside her was even more delighted, not expecting to earn money just by riding a boat. A seven or eight-day trip could earn him over two hundred wen.

The woman smelled unpleasant; Ding Xiang felt as though she hadn't bathed in days and concluded that the "nipple" would certainly be dirty. Despite being famished, she turned her face away, resolutely refusing the milk.

Mrs. Zhang had no choice but to carry her back, leaving the woman gritting her teeth in frustration.

Ding Zhao then used the large coins to ask the boatman to help boil some rice water.

Having eaten and drunk her fill, Ding Xiang smacked her lips—it felt wonderful!

The cabin was stuffy and smelled unpleasant.

Ding Zhao and Mrs. Zhang took turns carrying Ding Xiang around the outside of the cabin. In the afternoon, the sunlight was warm and the river breeze was cool. A few birds flying over the river chirped and circled above their heads.

Ding Xiang opened her little mouth into a smile, and while smiling, she drifted back into a dream.

These types of boats were mostly used by commoners with little money; they only sailed during the day and docked at night to rest and resupply. Passengers were often unwilling to spend money on inns on shore, choosing instead to live directly on the boat.

Ding Zhao and Mrs. Zhang had purchased passenger tickets and napped against each other. Fearing someone might steal the child at night, Ding Zhao wrapped Ding Xiang in a large cloth and tied her to his chest; even when he fell asleep, his hands remained tightly around her.

In this thick embrace, Ding Xiang slept peacefully and contentedly.

The weather had not been particularly good lately, with a few days of light rain, but the wind was not strong and there was no headwind. In the early hours of the Hour of the Goat on the second day of the ninth lunar month, the large boat arrived smoothly at the Linshui County pier.

Once on shore, the last bit of trepidation in Ding Xiang's heart drifted away with the wind.

She had completely escaped the clutches of the old demoness Xun, and she was no longer the Emperor's granddaughter, nor the daughter of Princess Dongyang and Consort Xun. For many years to come, she would live as a small peasant girl, farming and trading in the vast countryside, making all necessary preparations to fight the bad people.

Ding Zhao hired a donkey cart to go to Beiquan Village.

The cart had no canopy; it was warmer here than in the capital, and the warm sunlight felt extremely comfortable on her skin.

Ding Xiang squinted her eyes slightly, mentally rehearsing the names of the people in the capital related to her, as well as the switching plan she had overheard. The hateful face of Nanny Li surfaced in her mind—a black mole the size of a mung bean near her left eyebrow, and eyes that showed too much white when wide...

After finishing with the unpleasant thoughts of the capital, she pondered how to use her knowledge from her previous life to earn her first pot of gold.

Her adoptive parents were so kind, going to such lengths to lead her away from danger; her first priority was to repay their kindness and help this family live a better life.

In her previous life, Ding Xiang had majored in Fine Arts, entering a top-tier "985" university with the fourth-highest score in the city.

In truth, her academic subjects were excellent; the reason she had always studied art was a form of retaliatory spending of her parents' money.

Upon graduating from university, she joined a relatively famous studio to draw manga. She earned a good amount—two to three hundred thousand a year, which was considered a high salary even in the tier-one city where she lived.

However, it was exhausting. After working hard for eight years, she was diagnosed with a heart condition, and she no longer wished to overextend her life for money.

She took out her 1.2 million in savings, and after using every means to pressure her parents into each giving her 150,000, she bought a small 54-square-meter apartment in full. She didn't want to marry; living alone as a grown woman was enough.

She also spent over 80,000 on a luxury watch for her uncle, using it as a way to secure a job in the archives department of a state-owned steel company through "talent recruitment."

Before her maternal grandfather passed away, he had been a high-ranking leader in that company; her uncle was now in upper management, and her cousin also worked there. Her maternal family could be considered a steel dynasty.

Not being used to the sudden relaxation, and having no desire to date, Xun Xiang found various tasks to fill her time. Even if she didn't work overtime like before, she habitually went to sleep after midnight.

One thing was certain: she was absolutely not like most modern young people who spent vast amounts of time playing mobile games, which she felt was a waste of time and a squandering of life.