Chapter 5
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Chapter 5: Be Good to Her If She’s Good, Be Bad If She’s Bad!
Ma Qiaosheng had worked at Sanqiao Post Station most of his life, starting as a lowly guard and climbing to station chief. But a poor post stayed poor. Year after year, he’d watch southern peach orchards and northern sweet springs feast on meat and broth while he nibbled pickled vegetables.
That changed over ten years ago when his distant cousin Tan Wang from the Capital took charge of exiling prisoners to Linzhou. Only then did Ma Qiaosheng start secretly enjoying meat.
Linzhou, on Zhao Kingdom’s northern border, constantly battled invasions from the ambitious Cang Kingdom. Endless wars demanded steady supplies and people. Tan Wang’s duty was escorting exiles from the Capital and nearby regions to Linzhou—sometimes one trip a year, sometimes nonstop journeys.
Exiles got just enough rations to survive. But when silver reached those in charge, like Tan Wang, things changed. He partnered with supply points along the route, not just for cheaper goods but to pocket leftover funds.
Sanqiao Post Station was the first key stop. Tan Wang didn’t need to spell things out—a nod about prisoners’ backgrounds told the seasoned guards how to squeeze more from them.
Multiple exile groups headed north yearly. Tan Wang spent freely to secure these lucrative Capital assignments. Sanqiao Post Station bled the \"fat sheep\" once, Lushi Village bled them again, over and over until prisoners grew thin and guards grew fat—a happy arrangement.
This time, Tan Wang arrived unexpectedly at Sanqiao Post Station without his usual advance notice. Ma Qiaosheng was thrilled, especially hearing that among the exiles was Kong Fangqiu—last year’s disgraced minister of revenue. Ma Qiaosheng could hardly contain his joy.
Last year, floods in He Township, Fengzhou, left corpses choking rivers and starvation everywhere. Court-allocated relief funds vanished. If the rescue team hadn’t scrounged emergency supplies after spotting the fraud en route, Fengzhou wouldn’t have survived the delayed reinvestigation. Chaos would’ve erupted, with refugees swarming not just Fengzhou but even the Capital to the south.
Besides Cang Kingdom’s invasions, this was last year’s biggest scandal. Stationed near the Capital, Ma Qiaosheng knew the corruption probe had snared Kong Fangqiu.
Kong Fangqiu shouldn’t have been the final culprit, but after months in jail with no new leads, his exile to Linzhou meant the case was closed—for now.
That made him the perfect fat sheep to slaughter. The harsh exile journey broke any pretense of poverty. And as the first stop, Ma Qiaosheng wouldn’t let that pretense last a moment.
Sanqiao Post Station’s big windfall this year hinged on the ex-minister. Kong Fangqiu’s name practically meant \"money.\"
At Kong Fangqiu’s mention, Ma Qiaosheng rubbed his hands eagerly and ordered Liu Lao Wu to fetch Zhou Xiao, the station’s best extortionist.
Only after shouting did Ma Qiaosheng notice his cousin’s face held no profit-driven joy—just grim tension.
When Ma Qiaosheng pressed him, Tan Wang’s brief explanation drained the joy from Ma Qiaosheng’s face too.
Sanqiao Post Station stood near the Capital, yet he’d heard nothing about the palace banquet seven days prior—where the Crown Prince was exposed as a woman disguised for eighteen years!
Worse—Tan Wang had been ordered to escort the Deposed Crown Prince, who now waited in Ma Qiaosheng’s backyard!
Ma Qiaosheng paced his room, bewildered.
How should he treat the Deposed Crown Prince? Good treatment might draw the Palace or princes’ anger. Bad treatment might offend her mother—deposed but still in the Palace, pregnant with who-knew-what future ruler…
A burning-hot potato! And could they still squeeze money from Kong Fangqiu?
\"Wait—wasn’t the Crown Prince sent to Fengzhou for disaster relief? I mean—the Deposed Crown Prince?\" Ma Qiaosheng’s narrow eyes bulged.
\"Yes,\" Tan Wang nodded. \"She uncovered the relief fund fraud from Fengzhou to the Capital, exposed the dam corruption, and finally implicated Kong Fangqiu.\"
\"So they’re mortal enemies!\" Ma Qiaosheng hunched his neck, muttering.
Tan Wang’s gaze darkened. This feud ran deeper than just one family.
Ma Qiaosheng had lived his whole life at Sanqiao Post Station, too simple-minded to grasp complex politics. A few words left him panicked.
But Tan Wang had no choice. Trapped on this knife’s edge, he trusted Ma Qiaosheng’s lingering family loyalty.
\"Kong Fangqiu’s sentence came months ago. Normally, they’d leave after winter. The Deposed Crown Prince’s case forced this sudden assignment.\" Tan Wang frowned, his scar twisting. \"This mission’s treacherous—not just the exiles. Guards have been bribed and threatened by multiple factions. No unity anymore. Reaching Linzhou safely seems unlikely.\"
This was an unexpected turn for Ma Qiaosheng, and he paused in shock. \"Did that mean you also…?\"
\"Yes,\" Tan Wang saw the worry in the old man\’s eyes and spoke frankly. \"Those threatening me didn\’t demand anything complicated. They just wanted me to act as before, to walk the exile path exactly like I always did.\"
\"Same as before?\" Ma Qiaosheng was slow to understand, but the earlier words jolted him. \"Threaten?\"
\"They didn\’t say it outright,\" Tan Wang replied with a bitter smile. \"But they revealed my connections in the Capital, my dealings along the route, past actions during exiles, and even the person I hid in Linzhou. Don\’t worry, Uncle Ma. The strong and the weak are worlds apart; they only want obedience. If I don\’t resist, it won\’t harm you.\"
Ma Qiaosheng grasped it fully now. He didn\’t even ask if the threat knew about his ties to Tan Wang—anyone who knew that much must know everything.
\"Is the one ordering you around Master Xu from the Ministry of Justice\’s prison office?\" Ma Qiaosheng thought hard.
Tan Wang shook his head. \"I don\’t know. But it doesn\’t matter. Right now, I can only try to act as I always have.\"
Walk the same path, make the same deals, and take the same decisions.
So, when the Deposed Crown Prince jumped down the mountain to save someone, Tan Wang did as usual: he secured a rope around his waist before following. He also gave injury medicine to the suicidal woman to reduce prisoner deaths during the escort, just like before. If Master Xu hadn\’t signaled him when the Deposed Crown Prince threatened suicide with a rock, Tan Wang wouldn\’t have given extra medicine or used the carriage to bring them to find Liu Lao Wu early.
Acting like before wasn\’t easy.
\"Uncle Ma, I\’m telling you the truth today to ask a favor,\" Tan Wang stood up and bowed respectfully. \"If I don\’t return from this trip, please find someone to explain everything to her in Linzhou. It\’s not that my heart changed—it\’s fate playing tricks.\"
Ma Qiaosheng sighed and helped him up, barely thinking about his own risks.
If things went as usual at Sanqiao Post Station, money would still be squeezed out.
Stablehand Tian Hu was called into the room after Ma Qiaosheng and Tan Wang talked for a long time. He was briefed on the exiles\’ identities and how wealthy each \"sheep\" was.
Soon, this information reached Aunt Tian\’s ears through her tactic of steamed buns stuffed with big chunks of meat.
This trip north to Linzhou had a fifty-person group. Unlike before when Tan Wang led, the highest official now was Xu Lv from the Ministry of Justice\’s prison division, with ten guards including Tan Wang.
The exiles totaled thirty-nine people across six families. The most special were the Deposed Crown Prince and Deposed Crown Princess, of course. Then came families tied to the Deposed Crown Prince: the former Imperial Uncle Marquis Xuan Ning\’s family, the Qin Taifu family who once taught the Deposed Crown Prince, and her old nanny\’s family. It was clear these three ended up here because of the Deposed Crown Prince\’s secret of pretending to be a man.
The last two families included the Wei family, exiled to Linzhou a third time after passing Sanqiao Post Station twice before. The other was the big \"fat sheep\" this trip: the Kong family, with nineteen of the thirty-nine exiles, all from the former Minister of Revenue\’s household.
Tian Hu squatted by the stove, eating a bun stuffed with stewed meat that Aunt Tian made for him. Greasy and chewing fast, he chattered about the Kong family\’s two donkey carts. He also wondered why the Deposed Crown Prince and Qin family, once nobler than the Kongs, were called \"lean sheep\" by Tan with nothing to squeeze.
Why else? It was just like those plays where good people suffer and bad ones get away with everything!
Tian Hu talked on but noticed no sound from beside him. He tilted his head and saw Aunt Tian wiping tears by the stove.
\"What\’s wrong, Auntie? Don\’t worry. Even if some are lean sheep, the Kong family is plenty fat. Zhou Xiao will squeeze lots out of them, so we\’ll get our share,\" Tian Hu couldn\’t figure why she cried, guessing she feared too many poor types meant less money—she really needed it.
Squeeze, squeeze that corrupt official dry!
\"Auntie\’s not worried, just zoned out and got smoke in my eyes,\" Aunt Tian wiped her face roughly and smiled at Tian Hu. She stood and patted a pile of black bread loaves. \"You said to brush on sour water? Just brushing the surface won\’t do. Watch Auntie show you.\"
Tian Hu saw Aunt Tian pour out stinky vegetable water and heat a griddle red-hot. She soaked the black bread loaves in the sour water till they reeked inside, then roasted them dry on the griddle to seal in the smell. She didn\’t stop there—once dry, she tossed the hot loaves back into the sour water and did it all again.
\"Tian Hu, they need to be hungry,\" Aunt Tian said. \"Hungry enough to eat more of this, eat enough to suffer more. Then what you offer them later will fetch a better price. When starving, people shove even mud into their mouths. But they\’re human—after that, they feel sick, disgusted with themselves. If someone gives them real food then, it\’s like a miracle. Tian Hu, you be the miracle workers, and you\’ll get a better price.\" She threw the twice-soaked black bread loaves back on the griddle and looked at Tian Hu, smiling. \"Right?\"
Tian Hu: \"…\"
In the half-light of the stove fire, his kind, simple aunt looked scarier than Liu Lao Wu, who\’d taught him how to squeeze \"fat sheep\" with a grim face back when he first learned.
Must be his eyes playing tricks.
\"Auntie, Zhou Xiao won\’t be back for a while. We can send the bread later,\" Tian Hu swallowed the bun he\’d held in his mouth and pointed at the leftover meat and buns. \"Why not rest and eat some?\"
\"I won\’t eat,\" Aunt Tian shook her head.
But this time, it wasn\’t because she stuck to her rations.
She had no time.
Earlier, when Tian Hu suggested brushing sour water on the black bread, she thought it too much. Now, she wanted that stink locked in deep, so those evil ones tasted a fraction of He Township\’s pain.
Aunt Tian stared blankly, stirring the bread loaves that smelled worse as they blackened on the griddle. She wasn\’t seeing the dark bread but…
Bodies bloated white in floods, wastelands after the waters, thirst quenched by muddy sludge, starving people cramming mud-covered worms into their mouths. Her poor daughter giving birth in ruins to a child with nothing!
Why should those who hurt Fengzhou He Township again and again ride comfortably on donkey carts with stolen wealth for white flour, meat, and fish? Yet the one who brought them fire, food, ways to clean water, led them up mountains to find acorns for flour, built a wooden hut for her daughter and grandchild, gave clothes, blankets, and medicine—he went with nothing, chewing black bread mixed with bran on the same road as those villains…
The world was unfair!
Aunt Tian wasn\’t a judge in this life or a recorder in the next, but she knew her own good and evil.
Good to the good, and bad to the bad!
