The Spinster Only Want Gold

“Aish, don’t move!” “Don’t hit me, you are the one who should not move!” Two men in black kneeling at the back of the line, whispering and scolding each other.  “Shhh! The two of you, keep quiet!” The other man in black in front of them whispered. He shut them up without turning his head so he will not be noticed by their master in front, who is now about to explode in anger at any time. ‘’Look at the master! If she hears you, both of you will be dead.’’ The two shuddered at the thought of it. They knew how scary their master could be if she wanted to. Everyone is kneeling at the assembly hall of the Xuyuan guild. A large guild built in Xinzhou. They are all summoned in a rush. Whether they have a mission or not they are ordered to come back to the guild.  The atmosphere is so tense. It feels like winter even when at the moment, the sky is blue and the sun shines at its peak. No one dared to move. No one dared to stand from their kneeling position. This is not the time to use their eloquent skills to get on their master’s good side or even tease her which they do occasionally. Han Suyin, the master of the guild seated at the elevated stage of the hall. Her eyes closed. At glance, she looked so calm but a dark and gloomy air surrounded her. Pa! Everyone jumped in shock. Something just broke apart and that’s the table in front of Suyin. The teacup placed before on the table was shattered into pieces.  That was so scary! My heart jumped for that in a moment! Master is scarier than those mountain wild beasts! I just lost my soul, where am I? Suyin is not only leading a merchants’ guild. Groups of assassins are under her command too.  And now those deadly assassins are trembling in her presence. ‘’Li’er how well we are doing now?’’ Suyin finally spoke. Far from her violent actions just a minute ago, she calmly asked and smiled at her right-hand woman. When she smiled everyone became relaxed. Ah! Master’s anger perhaps was released already. One of the assassins thought while nudging his comrade beside him who seems very lost at the moment. ‘’Brother, we survived. Brother?’ He whispered. “Brother?’’ Yun Li adjusted her thick small round eyeglasses as she spoke. ‘’Master, we earned 3 million gold coins last month but unfortunately, since we lost the gamble. We lost worth 4 million gold.’’ Suyin smiled so wide. Not every smile means happiness and for that smile, there’s a trace of coldness on it.  She lost and she couldn’t believe it. She was certain she would win, that's why she gambled everything she had.  The gamble was very risky in the first place but the price is too hard to ignore and too huge to refuse.  The 20 million gold and the Swan Valley are too tempting to resist. The Swan Valley is the largest plantation of medicinal herbs throughout the country. If she won the bet, the valley would be hers. They said the 3 million gold was not enough so I also bet the guild. I can’t believe I lost! I’ve been gambling for how many years now! I gambled with all kinds of opponents head on but I had never faced these kinds of opponents.’ Suyin's smile froze, gritting her teeth as a bunch of these thoughts rushed inside her head. Yun Li coughed twice to bring her back to reality only to speak another heartbreaking words. ‘’Master, the letter of new guild’s owner arrived today saying that he desires to take over the guild tomorrow.’’  Ouch! So I will be kicked out tomorrow. My luxurious life will surely be gone. My properties. My businesses. My delicious food and my precious gold.  Suyin would need to leave the guild after becoming its owner for less than ten years. As the guild master, all the assets attributed to the guild should be given away once she was kicked out. But thankfully, Suyin is smart enough to save gold and properties not attributed to the guild. However, these are not enough to suffice her fat greed. I wanted to cry! Suyin staggered to walk toward the exit, the wooden door of the meeting room adorned with intricate phoenix carvings.  If I knew I wouldn’t become the guild master for so many decades, I wouldn't have to spend half of a million gold hiring a professional sculptor to carve those expensive phoenix carvings! Her eyes narrowed as she mentally calculated how much she spent building and improving the guild. Ah! Those teacups I shattered are worth a thousand gold each. The table I broke is worth three thousand gold! Just what did I do? One of the assassins kneeling on the floor earlier led her outside the meeting room through the wooden carved door.  ‘’Master, don’t worry. We all know you can still get back the guild you built for less than ten years, sooner or later. For now, you should have a rest.’’ He thoughtfully said while leading her through. Suyin didn’t have time to reply when he silently and swiftly left her side. ‘’Aiya, those assassins indeed can rival ghosts for suddenly appearing and disappearing. I should mentally take note of that. There’s no way I could make a mistake to differentiate the two.’’ Suyin was thankful for his words and accepted them. She agreed that she can get back to the guild no matter what happened. It is not merely for her selfish reason. It is for how the guild means to her.  14 years ago, she was expected to grow as a fine flower. An expectation to a usual noble girl like her. Sadly, some girls were not born as a flower who should only bloom to become beautiful. Marriage?  Love? Can it be eaten? Suyin’s first thought when she heard about her engagement. It was supposedly a marriage from a young master she never met. ‘’After the marriage, what will happen?’’ She looked at her grandfather. Her clear eyes reflected his face void of emotion but she knew deep inside her grandfather was hurting. She doesn’t know what happened to her grandfather and her grandmother’s marriage. She only knew it was a very sad story. ‘’Then I don’t want to take this engagement.’’ ‘’Han Suyin!’’ Her grandfather wanted to rebuke her but he only managed to say her name. Even he doesn’t know what will happen to her after marriage. ‘’Grandfather, you know how selfish I am.’’ She smiled at him. She stood from her seat beside him. And walked in a carefree manner passing by the wooden door leading to the courtyard.  After a few steps, she looked back again to her grandfather. She put both of her hands at her back and smiled at him. ‘’Grandfather, I’ll find out first if marriage is the only happiness a woman could achieve.’’ She continued her breezy walk, swaying both of her hands while humming a song she heard before from her playmates. She looked like walking under the bright sunny weather while the sky was cloudy and gray. Her grandfather sighed as he looked at her unbothered but seemingly fleeting figure.  Little did he know, that was the very last moment he could see his granddaughter. Two figures were discreetly following a young girl hopping here and there consecutively to the food stalls around the market. They are so happy to have finally spotted a lonely girl without a companion. No one knows how many days they spent already trying to find another girl to kidnap. She was the perfect target. Young and healthy. If they can catch her she could be one of their products to sell at the slave market. One girl is equivalent to a hundred silver coins. But they could earn more if her...ahem....face was a little more desirable. Just...a little more. The girl seemed quite smart but at the same time she looked like was not. It was almost a day following that girl. It was also almost a day of thinking and planning on how to lure the girl to a desolate alleyway. But it was as if their wish was heard. As they followed her, the girl headed in the direction where fewer and fewer people come and go. Gradually, they walked closer to the girl as people became lesser.  Far from what they expected, the girl went to an alleyway by herself without any companion. She was walking carefreely as if she was going for a walk to a peaceful garden full of flowers where bees and butterflies fly around. A great fun place to play for a girl like her. The two men laughed at how dumb she is. "Brother, look at that child she doesn't know the road she's walking is a place full of traps." "This girl is dumb to realize that." He grinned thinking how easy the target was this time. They came closer to the girl but she remained unbothered.  They walked deeper to a more desolate place. Once they were assured no one could see them, they surrounded the girl to scare her. "Young lady, are you lost?" The first man asked, smiling at her showing his crooked teeth. ‘’We can help you find your way back home.’’ The other man encouraged her. His smile was soft and he looked so kind. A normal girl will likely trust his words. The girl stopped walking and faced the two men. She was holding tanghulus in both of her hands she bought from a food stall earlier. She brought one stick in her mouth and bit it.  ‘’Here, I bought some for the two of you.’’ She offered the tanghulus in her other hand. ‘’There’s no need to repay me. The pleasure is mine.’’ And she gave her sweetest toothy grin. The two men found the girl strange. How could she act so normal around them, they are totally strangers! She should at least show any hesitation to approach them but instead she casually offered her food. And it seems like the tanghulus she bought was actually for three people. ‘’Oh come on, my hand already feels numb. Go and get your tanghulus. They are very sweet, a little bit sour and crunchy.’’ Crunch. Crunch. ‘’See?’’ As she munched her tanghulus while still offering the tanghulus in her other hand. Unconsciously, they accepted the tanghulus and made their own bite. Crunch. Crunch. ‘’I knew it! You would also love tanghulus.’’ She squealed and the two men nodded. No one spoke for a while as the three people munched their own tanghulus.  Suddenly, the girl clapped and dusted off her clothes. She was done eating. ‘’I’m waiting.’’ She blurted out. What is she waiting for? They thought. They still couldn’t speak. They are done by the girl without realizing it. ‘’I’m waiting for you to kidnap me.’’ She said it sounds like a matter of fact. ‘’What!?’’ They were flustered. ’A girl waiting to get kidn*pped? Seriously?’ How did the girl find out they were there to kidnap her? ‘’Uhmm, the truth is you’re not the one who first found out about me, I am the one who found out about the two of you.’’ “Phew. You don’t know how I worked hard to search for you.’’ ‘’Wait, little girl. Are you saying you are looking for us?’ ‘’En.’’ She searched her bag and scanned through it looking for something. She took out a paper and showed it to them. It was a letter of notice that can be seen posted around the capital. It contained a warning about the slave traders who kidnap young boys and girls to sell them as slaves. ‘’What? How? Why?’’ They are both speechless. They’ve never met a young girl like her before. She was the strangest girl they had ever seen in their lives. ‘’Just take me with you.’’ ‘’Are you sure?’’ ‘’En.’ ‘’Why?’’ ‘’I want to disappear and run away from a marriage I never wanted.’’ Now they met a girl willing to be kidn*pped. They didn’t know what to do. Either to kidnap her or leave her alone. ‘’How about we start from a sleeping powder? And oh, how about the rope? You should tie my arms, hands, and feet. Don’t forget to gag my mouth so I can’t speak and scream or whatsoever. You can put me in a cart, box, sack, or wrap me in a cloth. In that way, people won’t be suspicious once we exit the capital gates. Hmmm, what do you think?’’ She is crazy! What kind of girl would actively suggest many ways to kidnap her?  In the end, they are helpless. They should be the ones to force her. For the first time, they are forced to kidnap a girl.  At 13 years of age, the young miss of the Han clan disappeared. The engagement was canceled and never brought up again. Suyin was sold as a slave to a merchant at Xinzhou. It was hard for her at the very beginning since she was used to being served rather than serving others. But she can’t complain or else she would starve. She should be polite even though she was being insulted. She learned to kiss the feet of her superiors so she could rise among the ranks. If she didn’t dare to rise she would not survive. Her master saw her potential and started to bring her whenever there were business transactions and activities brought up. Strangely, she saw thrill and excitement in those events. Once she fully grasped the trust of her master, she started to see gold and precious gems and the power that comes from it. No wonder her master’s greed exceeded more. Gradually, the greed grows in her heart too. She felt attached to it. And realized… ‘’Grandfather, marriage is not the only one that can complete a young girl’s heart there’s another happiness that called wealth.’’ At that moment, she vowed to reach that kind of stature. It will not come from her clan’s wealth but the wealth she accumulated by her own hands. That’s where the thrill comes from. “Master! Master! Master! Teach me how to do business.’’ She one day asked her master. She thought she would receive support and encouragement just like what he usually did to her. However, he only scorned and ridiculed her. ‘’How could a woman run a business? That is a ridiculous idea!’’  That hurt her a lot. But she smiled and thought about the enormous wealth she had seen. ‘’Master, one day I could make it.’’ She maintained her smile and her eyes became clearer. She decided to leave her servitude under her master. She walked out carefreely while humming a song she used to sing. A song she heard from her playmates back then. Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! Fly and Be Free Little Bird La di da di da La di da di da