Chapter 13: Arriving at the Execution Grounds
Lin Shuang composed herself and soon reached the main road.
A family in the village raised an ox and would take their ox-cart to the market on market days to ferry passengers, earning about twenty copper coins a day. However, they had already left for the city.
Lin Shuang wasn’t set on taking any particular cart. The villagers knew her situation and might not be willing to let her on. So, she waited by the roadside for carts from other villages. When one stopped, she hoisted her basket and got on.
But the cart driver was in a hurry. Just as Lin Shuang had placed her basket on the cart, he impatiently cracked his whip to urge the ox on. She missed a step and pitched forward, about to hit the corner of the cart.
A pair of young hands quickly reached out and pulled her up, helping her regain her footing.
The other people on the cart also hurriedly shouted, “Don’t be in such a hurry! She’s not on yet—”
Seeing that he had nearly caused a disaster, the cart driver quickly stopped the cart.
Only then did Lin Shuang get on.
There were already five people on the cart. One woman was holding a sickly-looking child, and next to her sat a young girl of about fifteen or sixteen. She was the one who had just reached out.
They were all thin and shabbily dressed, clearly living in poverty.
She quickly thanked the girl.
The other girl smiled shyly. “You’re welcome. It was nothing.”
The woman next to her was probably her mother. She looked at the basket of yams and asked, “Going to the city to sell yams?”
“Yes,” Lin Shuang replied.
“You’re so lucky, digging up so many at once.”
“Oh, it was just a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse.”
“How much are you selling them for per catty?” the woman asked.
“I don’t know,” Lin Shuang shook her head. “An elder in my family is sick, so I’m planning to take them to an apothecary to trade for some medicine. Auntie, do you know the market price for this fresh produce?”
Hearing that the yams were for trading for medicine, the woman instantly lost interest in prying. She thought for a moment and said, “You should be able to get five or six copper coins.”
The young girl next to her chimed in, “If you go to an apothecary you don’t know, they might try to lowball you… People from our village who gather herbs to sell usually go to the Everlasting Peace Apothecary in the north of the city. The owner there is honest, and the prices are fair.”
Lin Shuang had already planned to go to the Everlasting Peace Apothecary. The shop had a good reputation, and in her past life, the Qin family’s Benevolence Hall had always considered it a thorn in their side.
To Lin Shuang, the enemy of her enemy was a friend. She had a favorable impression of anyone who was at odds with the Qin family.
She nodded her thanks and said she would go to the Everlasting Peace Apothecary after entering the city.
The young girl was clearly happy that she had taken her advice.
They exchanged names, and Lin Shuang learned that the other girl was from Lower Sun Slope, a village past Whitewater Village, and her name was Wang Chun’er.
The woman had already turned to talk to someone from her own village, her voice full of excitement. “I heard the yamen is going to execute those five bandits from Mang Mountain today. Since we’re here, let’s go and watch.”
“That’s great news! Where are they being executed?”
“At the market square. It’s been there for the past few days, they haven’t moved it.”
“We can go shopping after we’re done watching.”
Wang Chun’er looked at Lin Shuang and asked, “Are you going to watch?”
Lin Shuang had hurried to the city with the yams precisely because she was worried about Jiang Huaizhen. “Yes, I am,” she replied.
“Maybe we’ll run into each other there,” the girl said, her eyebrows curving into a smile.
Lin Shuang smiled back. “Maybe so.”
In less than half an hour, the ox-cart entered the city. After bidding farewell to Wang Chun’er, Lin Shuang shouldered her basket and walked toward the Everlasting Peace Apothecary.
As soon as she reached the shop, an apprentice saw her from afar with the basket of yams and hurried over to help her put it down. “Miss, where did you come from? Carrying such a heavy basket, you must be exhausted.”
Lin Shuang rubbed the marks on her shoulders. “I took a cart, so I only walked for a little while. It’s nothing. Do you buy these yams?”
“Yes, yes, we do.”
He had already gotten a rough look at the goods in the basket when he helped her lift it. Compared to what other villagers brought, the quality seemed much better.
“But this is fresh produce, so it’s heavy. It can’t compare to the dried version.”
“I know. It’s just that my family is in urgent need of money, and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to process it properly and affect its medicinal properties, so I thought it would be better to just sell it to you,” Lin Shuang said.
“Of course, of course,” the young apprentice said with a smile. “It’s cleaned quite well. I’ll go and tell the shopkeeper.”
Lin Shuang quickly asked for the time.
The young apprentice looked at her knowingly. “Are you going to the market square to watch the execution, miss? It doesn’t start until the third quarter of the Hour of the Horse(11:00 AM to 1:00 PM). It’s just past the Hour of the Horse now. You’ll be just in time if you go after we’ve weighed this.”
“Are there a lot of people watching?” Lin Shuang asked.
“A lot. These people have committed many evils, and the government wants to make an example of them, so they’ve made it a big event.”
The shopkeeper was free now and called for another apprentice to bring a large scale. They hooked the basket and lifted the scale, one on each side.
After weighing it, he flicked the beads on his abacus a few times. “Forty-five catties after peeling. Six copper coins per catty, that’s two hundred and seventy coins. Is that alright with you?”
This amount was about what Lin Shuang had expected. She had watched them weigh it, so there was no problem.
Seeing the money coming in, she couldn’t be happier.
She mentally calculated that she would buy a few catties of flour later to make flatbreads to go with the porridge. Jiang Huaizhen would definitely like that.
Seeing her nod, the shopkeeper counted out the money from the drawer and gave it to her.
“These yams you found are all good. If you have more in the future, feel free to bring them here.”
“Alright. This is the first time I’ve come, and I chose your shop. I’ll definitely come back next time.” Lin Shuang stuffed the three strings of copper coins into her inner pocket, bid farewell to them, and walked toward the market square.
Feeling the money in her pocket and thinking that she might be able to dig up more herbs in the future, she couldn’t help but feel a thrill of excitement.
Her only worry was Jiang Huaizhen.
She had to execute five people in a row today. Would she have enough strength? Had she eaten the piece of yam she had wrapped for her this morning? Would it be enough to stave off her hunger?
With these thoughts, she passed by a steamed bun shop, counted out six copper coins, and bought three large steamed buns, hoping to give them to her before the execution.
There were many people on the street, all heading toward the market. Lin Shuang followed the flow of the crowd.
After about the time it takes to burn half an incense stick, she rounded a narrow alley. As she got closer, the sound of the crowd grew louder, coming through the walls.
When she passed the end of the alley, the scene opened up before her. A sea of heads bobbed in a lively crowd.
Behind the crowd were rows of vegetable stalls made of thatch, some of which were open-air. The vendors, taking advantage of the large crowd, were shouting at the top of their lungs.
And amidst this clamor, the most eye-catching thing was the newly erected execution platform at the market square.
On the platform, five disheveled men knelt in a row, their hands bound tightly behind their backs.
One of them had his head down, crying his heart out. Another stood up straight, cursing. The remaining three were hunched over, their eyes staring blankly at the ground, as if they were already corpses.
Behind the five men stood a young executioner.
Dressed in black with a red jacket, she was tall and slender. A red ribbon in her hair hung down by her neck, swaying gently in the wind.
This person was Jiang Huaizhen. She stood behind the condemned prisoners with her ghost-head saber, her thin lips pressed tightly together, her expression unreadable.
One of the condemned prisoners suddenly turned and cursed at the executioner behind him, his spittle landing on her black boots.
A buzz went through the crowd, thinking she would get angry.
She lowered her eyes, glanced at the filth, then looked away without any reaction.
The crowd immediately began to chatter. Some were recounting the crimes of the prisoners on the stage, while others were pointing and commenting on the fledgling executioner.
“Look at those delicate wrists! She probably can’t even chop a chicken’s neck cleanly.”
“Let’s hope she doesn’t get scared to death before she even starts.”
“I remember an executioner a while back who took eighty-one strokes to chop off one head. I bet that prisoner’s ghost won’t let him go.”
“Haha, the one whose blade got stuck in the neck bone and broke off—”
Some also defended Jiang Huaizhen. “This executioner has been here for the past three days. I’ve seen her. She’s not that bad.”
The wave of discussion washed over the execution platform. Jiang Huaizhen stood there, as if she could hear everything and yet nothing at all. The great saber resting on the ground glinted coldly in the afternoon sun.
Lin Shuang looked at the motionless Jiang Huaizhen on the stage. She had originally planned to give her the steamed buns before the execution, but seeing the situation, she could only wait until after.
But her face was a little too pale.
The curses of the condemned prisoners mixed with the laughter of the commoners, ringing in Lin Shuang’s ears. She couldn’t tell what Jiang Huaizhen was feeling at that moment.
At this time in her past life, she had already been sent to the Qin family, living in constant fear, with no time for anything else. How could she have thought about Jiang Huaizhen’s situation when she first started?
But later, Jiang Huaizhen had indeed endured and become the most famous executioner in all of Changping County. By that logic, this execution should go smoothly.
Her only worry was,
Was she, on the stage at this moment, afraid?
Her personality had changed drastically later on. Did it have anything to do with today’s events?
Lin Shuang clutched the steamed buns in her hand tightly.
She felt that her own feelings at this moment were no less intense than Jiang Huaizhen’s on the stage. She even felt as if she were the one standing on the stage, about to carry out the execution.
