Chapter 341 Whatever You Play, Just Play

Chapter 341: No Matter What You Play, It's Still a Game

"Who's making a racket outside the door?" Meng Wan asked Widow Dai.

Widow Dai was furious but couldn't take it out on anyone in front of Meng Wan, her face flushed red with suppressed rage. "Just a bunch of goddamn bastards. You sit tight, Master, I'll go out and deal with them!"

Running a whole yard full of kids, Widow Dai was tough as nails and strong as an ox. She squared up her sleeves and marched out ready to scrap, storming off in such a fury that she didn't notice Meng Wan following behind her.

Xiao E had been teaching the children to weave sleeping mats from sorghum straw—summer was coming and it'd be heating up soon, and the kids ran hot and were prone to heat rash. The babies would be even worse off if they overheated.

Seeing Meng Wan head out, he hesitated a beat, then followed.

Huang Zheng always said Meng Wan was their family's savior and deserved nothing but respect. Though Xiao E was scared of fights and shouting matches himself, he still worried Meng Wan might get roughed up by those lowlifes.

The Charity School was at the end of the alley. A big stone slab stood out front, facing the street, wiped spotless, not a speck of dust on it, with big characters carved into it by a craftsman, reading "Charity School." Look closer and there were two smaller characters underneath—"Meng Wan."

Meng Wan wasn't the kind of saint who did good deeds and kept his name out of it. He'd shelled out the cash and put in the effort—these kids all owed him one.

He had the ability to help these children, but it wasn't like he was raising them for free. Once they turned eight, every single expense was written down, and when they grew up, they had to pay it back to the school to keep it going.

Life's full of ups and downs—you never know what's around the corner. Meng Wan was a planner through and through—you never knew when this reputation might come in handy.

But the current problem was that before he could reap any return on his investment, someone had already gotten ideas about the Charity School.

"You heartless bastards! Give me back my Hei Niu!" A middle-aged woman in patched clothes sat wailing at the school's entrance. Her brown pants were already so filthy you couldn't even tell what color they were, and now caked in dirt from the ground, they looked even worse—hard to even look at.

This clearly wasn't her first time. Folks nearby heard the wailing and came out to gawk, and a decent-sized crowd had gathered at the school's door.

Widow Dai's face went dark. "Who stole your child? You two are the ones who didn't want your own perfectly good kid and dumped her at the school's doorstep! In the dead of winter, in the middle of the night, scared someone might see you—you damn near froze that poor kid to death!"

The neighbors all knew the story, and someone chimed in to set the record straight: "That's right, you're the ones who abandoned the child. I remember—you and your old man even swiped a bundle of firewood when you walked past our place."

"Unbelievable nerve on these people! If you can't afford to raise a little one, fine, but she was six years old—old enough to know her own parents—and you just up and dumped her at the school! What the hell is wrong with you people?"

Times were tough these days, and people did give kids away when they couldn't afford to feed them, but that was always out of desperation. Kids weren't kittens or puppies—they were your own flesh and blood. If you've raised a kid for years, you'd at least see them through to grown—who could bear to just toss them out?

The woman wasn't having it, trading insults with eight people at once. "What the hell are you all yapping about? My Hei Niu was snatched! If you don't give her back, I'll go to the authorities and find the Great Magistrate—we'll see if they still refuse to return my child!"

"Report to the authorities?" Meng Wan understood what was happening. In truth, this sort of thing was unavoidable—there were always greedy people who wanted others to raise their children, then shamelessly demanded them back.

But as the saying went, kids weren't cats or dogs—they couldn't be abandoned without harboring resentment.

The woman turned and saw Meng Wan. Her shifty eyes traveled from his strikingly handsome face to the jade hairpin in his hair, then to his blue robe with embroidered or woven kingfishers and willow branches so lifelike they seemed real—clearly worth a fortune. Further down were his thick-soled short boots in a color she couldn't name, but somehow they looked both unassuming and perfectly fitted and comfortable.

She swallowed hard, realizing this was a wealthy man.

"F-fine, I don't have to report it." Her eyes grew brighter and her tongue looser. "I gave you such a big daughter of mine—even marrying her off would fetch twenty... no, fifty taels of silver!"

The woman scrambled up from the ground, thinking she'd found their weakness, jutting out her grimy chin. "If you don't want me going to the authorities, then pay me the bride price! Otherwise, why should my fourteen-year-old daughter be yours for free?"

Widow Dai was astounded by her audacity and spat at her viciously. "You shameless madwoman! You don't even know how old your own child is—Hei Niu is only eleven! You abandoned her without a care, and now you have the nerve to come demanding a bride price?"

"Pay up! If you don't, I'll be here every day!" The woman had latched onto the fact that the school had money. The more Widow Dai protected the child, the more the woman thought she had them over a barrel.

Meng Wan watched her tantrum like one would watch a monkey show, then suddenly smiled. "Fifty taels isn't really much of a sum. If I give it to you, will you truly sell the child to the school?"

The woman saw a hint of concession in Meng Wan's words and was overjoyed, nodding eagerly. "What's there to doubt? As long as you hand over the money, I'll give you the child and never come looking again."

Inside the courtyard, a thin, dark-skinned girl who had been quietly listening wiped her tears and ran off. Several girls and young boys who were close to her went after her to comfort her.

Meng Wan caught this scene from the corner of his eye, and the barest hint of a smile tugged at his lips. He swung the expensive jade pendant at his waist and said to the woman, "I'm a businessman—I don't make losing deals. You say you want to sell the child, but what about the five years the school has already spent raising her?"

The woman was still dazed, her eyes following the jade pendant as it swayed left and right. Widow Dai was already frantic. "Master Meng, you can't agree to this! She won't keep her word—she's definitely trying to swindle your money!"

The woman grew anxious. "What do you mean I won't keep my word? As long as I get my fifty taels, I'll even move away if you want!"

Meng Wan said, "I don't care whether you move or not. Hei Niu has been at the school for five years, costing about eight taels of silver. If you pay back those eight taels and sign a deed of sale with me, I'll give you the fifty taels."

He then instructed Widow Dai to fetch paper and brush from the children's study room, wrote out the deed of sale on the spot, and told Chi Yu to bring out five large silver ingots of ten taels each. Fortunately, they had brought extra silver today for their shopping.

Meng Wan couldn't even hold all five ingots in both hands, so he had Chi Yu dangle them in front of the woman. She nearly lunged at them to lick them.

"See that? Bring me eight taels of silver, put your mark on the deed, and all fifty taels are yours." Meng Wan pressed the ink pad into her hand.

"I... I don't have that much silver at home. How about you give me the fifty first, and I'll cut off eight taels and give it back to you?" The woman was so fixated on the fifty taels she'd agree to anything.

"Naturally not. Do you think my money is something just anyone can take? If you don't produce eight taels of silver, get the hell out of the Charity School." Meng Wan narrowed his eyes as he spoke, his voice laced with ice that sent a chill down the woman's spine.

She was at a loss for a moment, her eyes unconsciously darting to a corner of the crowd, where a shifty-looking man was anxiously gesturing for her to agree, then miming that he'd go first to get the money.

The woman's confidence was restored. Afraid Meng Wan might change his mind, she eagerly rushed to make her mark, and clutching the deed tightly, she said her family was going to scrape together the money and would be right back. She refused to let go of the deed for fear Meng Wan would renege.

Sure enough, before long, her husband returned with the money—copper coins and bits of silver. Even if a few coppers were short, Meng Wan pretended not to notice. The woman handed the eight taels and the deed to Widow Dai, and Chi Yu gave the fifty taels to the couple.

With the fifty taels actually in hand, the husband and wife were beside themselves with joy, grinning wide to show their yellow teeth.

Not to mention Widow Dai's indignation—even the onlookers who had watched them extort fifty taels felt a mix of sourness and anger.

"Alright, everyone here witnessed it—it was the husband and wife who voluntarily sold their child to me."

Meng Wan took the deed, gave it a satisfied look, and handed it to Chi Yu. "Take this deed to the authorities and report them—tell them this couple has trafficked a person."

The grimy couple hadn't gotten far, still clutching the fifty taels and wondering where to hide them, when they heard Meng Wan say he was reporting them. Panic set in.

"We sold our own child—how is that trafficking?"

"The silver's already in our hands! You can't take it back now!"

They thought Meng Wan was just regretting the fifty taels and trying to renege.

Meng Wan couldn't be bothered to argue further. He simply had Chi Yu grab one in each hand and haul them off to the authorities.

About half the crowd at the school's entrance dispersed, but the rest actually followed along to the courthouse to watch the show.

Widow Dai was momentarily at a loss as to how things had turned out this way. She still didn't know who Meng Wan was. Ordinary folk, unless they had absolutely no other choice, didn't dare to court legal trouble. She didn't dare say Meng Wan had done wrong, but she was worried Chi Yu might get the short end of the stick going alone. She quickly untied her apron, tossed it to someone at the school, and hurried after them.

Xiao E asked softly, "Sister-in-law, should I have Huang Zheng go smooth things over?"

Meng Wan stood at the entrance admiring his name for a moment. "No need. Chi Yu will be back soon. Let's go inside and wait."

The children at the school were making dinner. They ate two meals a day, and the evening meal was earlier—they also went to bed early.

Whether Widow Dai was there or not, they went about their tasks—those tending the fire tended the fire, those cooking cooked. Clearly, Widow Dai had trained them well.

"Why aren't you stewing the meat you bought today? It'll go bad if you leave it out in this weather." Meng Wan noticed the children were still heating up corn buns and porridge. Beside the two woks sat two large basins—one filled with the fiddlehead ferns Xiao E had brought, the other with stir-fried potato slices.

"We set aside two pieces and cut them into slivers," a woman in her thirties said quietly.

She kept her head low, speaking softly and slowly. She didn't seem afraid of people so much as deliberately avoiding Meng Wan. But with Widow Dai gone and no one else in charge, she had no choice but to come answer.

Meng Wan saw that there were indeed two pieces of meat left on the cutting board, lean but only about the size of a palm each. Even if sliced into shreds and stir-fried into the two pots of vegetable dishes, one would be hard-pressed to pick out more than a few strands.

"Sister-in-law, maybe since Widow Dai isn't here, Yingniang doesn't know how much meat to cut?" Xiao E addressed the woman as Yingniang.

Meng Wan walked to the other end of the kitchen. He had gone to buy meat late, and all that remained at the stalls were ribs, marrow bones, offal, and the like, with only the occasional piece of lean meat.

He was in the mood for a big shared meal, so he rolled up his sleeves and decided to cook himself.

Xiao E, used to a frugal life and liking to keep busy with small tasks at home, began helping clean the offal.

Yingniang was taken aback. "Dear, please put that down. We've got it."

Just then, Yingniang looked up, and Meng Wan saw her face—the upper half revealed skin as fair and delicate as snow, but her cheeks were covered in scars of all lengths.

Noticing Meng Wan's gaze on her face, she quickly lowered her head again.

"Then I'll handle the cooking, and you all help me clean the meat thoroughly." Feeding thirty or forty kids in the charity school was no small job, but even during New Year's they never got this much meat. The kids were happy and excited as they worked.

"Is Yingniang the one who teaches the kids to read and write here?" Meng Wan asked Xiao E.

Xiao E had just sent his page to the tofu seller's stall to buy two slabs of tofu. Hearing Meng Wan's question, he told Yingniang's story—she was a pitiful soul, after all.

Yingniang used to work as a prostitute in a brothel. When her face got ruined, the brothel wouldn't keep her anymore. They took all her money and kicked her out. Huang Zheng, who was desperate to find a female teacher, happened to take her in and gave her a place at the charity school.

As Xiao E spoke, Yingniang was not far away, and Meng Wan could see she was tense. She seemed scared Meng Wan would look down on her for being low-class and unclean, and would cast her out as the brothel had done.

Meng Wan was thoughtful for a moment. "Yingniang, do you know how to play the qin?"

Yingniang didn't expect him to ask that, but hearing how gentle Meng Wan's tone was, with no hint of contempt, she replied respectfully, "I know a little, but it's nothing much. Please don't laugh at me, dear."

Meng Wan wasn't stuck-up at all. "I'll have someone buy a few qins later. You can teach the children in your spare time."

At Yingniang's surprised look, Meng Wan's eyes curved into a smile. "The more skills you have, the better. No amount of money beats having a real skill. If you couldn't read, you wouldn't have been brought here to teach."

Yingniang waved her hands, nervously smoothing her hair. "I don't dare call myself a teacher. I'll teach whatever you want, dear."

When Widow Dai and Chi Yu came back, they were both smiling. It had been a long time since she felt such satisfaction.

"Dear, you should have seen it! The great magistrate gave each of those two scoundrels eighty strokes of the cane, and warned that if they offend again, they'd be exiled to the frontier as soldiers!" Widow Dai announced loudly as she reached the gate, deliberately letting the neighbors hear of the couple's fate.

People had always known that murder was a capital crime, but who would have thought that selling one's own child was also against the law?

Chi Yu carried a heavy pouch. "Dear, the money is all back." Meng Wan had made a grand show of bringing people to the capital; unless the Changping Prefect was a fool who paid no heed to the world, he surely knew Meng Wan's background. Not only had the couple broken the law, but even if they hadn't, the prefect wouldn't have let them off lightly once he knew they had offended Meng Wan.

Moreover, the charity school enjoyed popular support. Meng Wan's benevolent deeds were tied to the prefect's political achievements, and the couple's troublemaking was a slap in his face as well.

Meng Wan handed the eight taels of silver he had extorted from the couple to Widow Dai. "Take this to Heiniu and let her save it up herself."

Widow Dai was taken aback, then remembered that Meng Wan had also demanded eight taels from Heiniu's parents. "Right, I'll go now."

She brought the money to Heiniu, who was setting dishes on the table, but Heiniu refused it, asking that it be used to buy cloth for clothes for the younger children.

At around half past three in the afternoon, the charity school was already filled with tantalizing aromas. The offal was boiled first, then sliced and served cold. Besides two stir-fried vegetable dishes, there was a large pot of braised pork ribs and two pots of marrow bone soup. After the bones were retrieved, freshly rolled noodles were dropped into the broth. There wasn't much noodles—each person got only one bowl—but it was fragrant enough to make one's head spin.

With so many children, Meng Wan had instructed Huang Zheng to enforce a rationing system: anyone who fought over food would be punished by going without. This rule had persisted to this day, and the children waited obediently in line for their portions.

Each child received a bowl of noodles, two corn buns, three pieces of ribs, a piece of marrow bone meat, and two scoops of greens. Their hands trembled slightly as they gripped their chopsticks. The moment a bite of food reached their mouths, they forgot to chew properly before hurriedly shoveling in the next.

At that moment, for them, it was the happiest time. No matter how their lives turned out later, they would never forget this fragrant meal today.