Chapter Thirty-Five: I Only Got Greedy When I Saw the Rice, That’s All

"Where is Chunying?" Zhang Huilan asked, sitting up in a daze.

Bai Mianmian pressed her hands over her eyes, looking too lethargic to even open them. "I’m her mother, so if she goes missing, you come looking for me?"

Zhang Huilan: "..."

Feng Cuihua glanced at the two of them and muttered, "Could she have gone to the latrine again? Her stomach has been upset; she’s made quite a few trips throughout the night."

"Mother Zhang, hurry up. Don't let someone fall into the latrine," Bai Mianmian quipped.

Zhang Huilan was indignant. She hadn't meant any harm, but the way Bai Mianmian kept snapping at her felt deliberate. "Er’ya, I’ve said it before, I have done nothing to wrong you..."

"Are you still not going to look for her? Are you waiting for the officials to scold us?" Bai Mianmian had no interest in hearing lectures. She rolled out of bed, pulled on her shoes, and headed out.

The soldiers were distributing dry rations, a clear sign that they were being sent back home this morning. She decided to grab her steamed bun first.

"Do you think that little girl is in trouble?" Feng Cuihua whispered while eating her bun. "I don't mean anything by it, but we share a room, and if something happens to her..."

If the girl couldn't be found, the three of them would be dragged out for interrogation again. In truth, that was exactly what she was expecting.

"What do I do? She’s not in the latrine! I’ve checked everywhere I could think of, and I can't find a trace of her!" Zhang Huilan ran back, panicked.

Bai Mianmian glanced at her, unimpressed. "Do you think we are more useful here, or the officials?"

"The officials don't exactly look like they’re in the mood to help us search," she noted. She had already considered this. She noticed that the officials' faces were grim today. She had guessed the root of the problem: who could feel at ease seeing a pile of furniture suddenly appear at the city gates? Especially when those pieces of furniture were hiding people inside. It was only the local officials' restraint that kept them from being shackled and interrogated. Most of them probably hadn't slept at all last night.

"Er’ya, we are fated to be together after all..."

"Don't. Don't drag me into this. Stop causing me trouble." Bai Mianmian was determined to stay out of it. Feng Cuihua had kept her head down ever since she returned, acting as if she were blind and deaf.

Zhang Huilan had no choice but to seek out the soldiers. At first, the guards assumed the girl was just bold and playing around, but their composure shattered once they discovered footprints near the stacked manure buckets by the latrine.

Those who had already boarded the transport carts were ordered back down.

The bewildered crowd was herded back into their rooms. Bai Mianmian and the other two were suddenly the center of attention!

Xu Jingyi questioned them repeatedly, asking the same few questions: What was their relationship with her, when exactly did she go missing, and did she exhibit any peculiar behavior?

The interrogation was sparse today. The protagonist was absent, as were the mild-mannered civil official and the two bearded men. Despite the smaller audience, Feng Cuihua didn't gain any more courage; she couldn't complete a single coherent sentence from start to finish. Zhang Huilan and Bai Mianmian, however, were forthcoming with everything they knew.

Song Chunying's uniqueness became apparent through their accounts. They didn't even need to lie.

"May I ask, have you all seen the portrait of the villain from the previous incident?" Bai Mianmian asked suddenly, leaving Zhang Huilan shocked and panicked.

Xu Jingyi shifted his gaze and pulled a sheet of rice paper from his tunic.

Bai Mianmian raised her sleeve to wipe her face. "May I wash my face?"

"I’ll fetch you some water." The burly man on the right vanished like a gust of wind.

Xu Jingyi unfolded the portrait, and the others crowded around, their eyes darting between her face and the drawing. She removed her makeup in front of seven pairs of eyes. After several days, the color of her brows had faded, the blush was light, and the lip tint had vanished. Without a reminder, anyone seeing her would just think the girl was vain but clumsy, painting her face like a clown. It was an eyesore, painful to look at. But upon closer inspection, one could see the beautiful contours beneath, unhidden by any disguise. Washing her face made no difference.

"That day..."

She recounted how, after sending her younger siblings to work, she had hoped to find a job for herself, how she was abducted, how she was rescued, and how her savior had the eccentric requirement that she help extort the cellar—and finally, why she ran and how she escaped. Her story was filled with such raw, weeping emotion that it would move any listener to tears.

"I know no one will believe me, but I truly only had a change of heart when I saw that coarse rice. I just thought, with such good grain, why should those people be the ones to eat it? How many children in the city's shantytown have never tasted anything good? How many orphans in the Earth Temple outside the city have never tasted a grain of rice!"

"Did you see the person?" Xu Jingyi tucked away the paper. They didn't care about her inner journey.

"I suppose I did." Bai Mianmian frowned, her eyes bright. "He was dressed in white, wore a bamboo hat, and had a deep, pleasant voice."

Everyone: "..."

That certainly counted as seeing him.

"I’ll go find a sketch artist." At this point, she knew better than to say too much. Working awkwardly with the artist, they produced a full-body portrait of a hero. The features were elegant sleeves and an exquisite, veiled hat. The drawback was that it was impossible to tell if the subject was human or a ghost.

"You really didn't see him take action?" the bearded man who had fetched her water asked, unwilling to give up.

Bai Mianmian pursed her lips and shook her head with deep regret. "I think he’s a good person."

"..." Who could say otherwise!

"Can I go home now? I swear, the worst thing I’ve ever done was stage a rice-fueled insurrection."

Xu Jingyi remained silent, exchanging looks with the other generals. In the end, she was provisionally declared innocent. In reality, they were just letting the tiger roam to see if she was truly as innocent as she claimed.

"Hurry up."

They set off again, well past midday. Compared to the heavy supply carts from before, this journey was swift. By the time darkness fell, the convoy stopped at the city gates. The entire county had been taken over by the Zhao family’s forces; opening the gates required nothing more than a command from Zhao Zheng.

In just two days and one night, the corruption within the county had been exposed. Tongming County had been turned upside down.

All the families who had been notified were waiting at the county office, including Bai Mianmian's grandparents.

"Why didn't you just die out there? The fields at home aren't even finished being planted! Not only did you ignore the farm work and go running wild, but you also wasted our time! What kind of sin did our Bai family commit to give birth to such a debt-collecting demon like you!"

Old Woman Bai was genuinely angry. She had been busy with the fields and then busy searching for the three siblings. Furthermore, she saw the crowd—townsfolk, villagers, officials, and soldiers—and was certain that Bai Mianmian wouldn't dare talk back or lay a hand on her.

"What are you doing?" Old Village Chief Zhang moved quickly, catching Old Woman Bai’s wrist. "The children have been through enough. Whatever you have to say, say it when you get home."

"Village Chief, I respect you as our leader, but how can you side with such a disgraceful, insolent wretch? Our Bai family has never done a wicked thing for generations. How can you just watch as we are tormented and ruined by such a monster!"

Old Woman Bai grew more animated as she shouted, eventually sitting on the ground and slapping her thighs, wailing about her miserable fate. She claimed how well her family had treated the Bai sisters, and how Bai Mianmian had returned their kindness with vengeance, attacking her elders and stealing the family's money.