After I got into the drama, I led the plot astray

I walked out of the inn and went to the pawnshop holding a jade pendant that I had bought on the way and was not worth much.

After entering the pawnshop, I said I wanted to pawn a jade pendant. The waiter didn't understand what I said, but when he saw the jade pendant I handed over, he understood that I wanted to pawn something. When he quoted a price, I pretended not to understand and kept arguing with him. The noise in the shop was so loud that it attracted the shopkeeper who was sitting in the back hall to count the money.

The shopkeeper could understand some of Dayuguo's words. He explained to me that the jade pendant was worthless and could only be pawned for a few taels of silver at most. I burst into tears when I heard that and said, "My father is sick and has no money to buy medicine. This jade pendant is the last valuable thing I have. I bought the jade pendant for dozens of taels and you only pawned it for a few taels of silver. Are you so unscrupulous in doing business?"

The shopkeeper got so angry at my crying and scolding that he immediately asked someone to kick me out, saying it didn't matter if I was the boss or not, but I should not interfere with their business.

They threw me onto the street, and I just laid down on the snow and cried my heart out. It was as miserable as I could be.

People in Beixiang Kingdom don't like to go out much, so there aren't many people on the streets, but there are some curious people coming from all directions to watch the fun.

There was an old lady holding a handful of melon seeds, and she was talking a lot while cracking them.

A few other people who gathered around were also pointing and talking, but no one came to help me.

I couldn't understand what they were saying, but their faces showed signs of gloating.

I howled for a long time but no one paid any attention to me, so I had to crawl up tremblingly. I patted the snow off my body, and my pale face was bloodless. My beautiful face coupled with this miserable appearance made me look even more pitiful.

At this moment, a horse-drawn carriage came slowly and stopped at the music shop next to the pawnshop. The coachman jumped off the carriage and entered the shop. Not long after, he came out holding a guqin.

I can play the piano, but I don’t have a deep understanding of ancient musical instruments. But when I saw this guqin, I couldn’t help but exclaim: “What a great guqin!”

This is indeed a top-quality musical instrument. The body of the instrument is made of Jiaozuo wood, which is rare in the world, and the strings are made of silk spun by golden silkworms. The strings sparkle with a faint golden light in the sun. This musical instrument is worth a fortune.

The coachman walked carefully to the front of the carriage holding the guqin and said something to the carriage. Only a "hmm" was heard from inside. The coachman lifted the curtain and placed the guqin on the carriage.

When the curtain of the carriage was lifted, the people in the carriage inadvertently glanced outside the carriage and saw me standing in the snow in a red dress.

My long hair was as black as ink and half loose, and my bright red cotton skirt was covered in mud. But despite this, my face was cool and beautiful under the coarse clothes. Under the sunlight, I looked like a glowing fairy, and the people in the car were mesmerized by my appearance.

I was lost in thought as I stared at the guqin, then looked at the jade pendant in my hand, sighed deeply, and wanted to leave. But the man on the horse shouted, "Miss, please stay."

I looked up and saw that it was Prince Jun Lingfeng of Beixiang!

Jun Lingfeng got off the carriage, walked up to me, and asked with a smile, "Miss, do you recognize this zither?"

He spoke the Dayu dialect, and although his speech was halting, I still understood it.

I pulled the corners of my mouth and looked like I wanted to smile, but this smile was uglier than crying.

I said, "I was once the daughter of a county magistrate and learned the art of playing the zither, so I recognized this zither as the Jiaowei, one of the four famous zithers in legend."

When Jun Lingfeng heard this, he praised: "Young lady is indeed very knowledgeable. This zither is indeed called Jiaowei. It is a good zither that I have finally found after searching all over the world."

Jun Wuling looked at me again and asked, "Why are you so embarrassed, girl?"

When I heard this, tears as big as beans finally rolled down my cheeks. I choked and said, "My father was dismissed from his post by a traitor. He couldn't stay in Dayu any longer, so he thought of bringing me to Beixiang for refuge. But he caught a cold and has been bedridden for many days. Now we have very little money left, so I thought of pawning the jade pendant my mother left for me. But I didn't expect the pawnshop here to be so black-hearted and insisted that my jade pendant was worthless."

Having said this, I am already crying.

Jun Wuling took out a handkerchief from his sleeve, handed it to me and said, "Don't cry, girl. It's just a few silver coins. I have plenty."

Jun Wuling waved his hand and his guards came over immediately.

Jun Wuling said, "Give the girl one thousand taels of silver."

Without saying a word, the guard took out a stack of silver bills from his chest, pulled out a silver bill worth one thousand taels from it, and handed it to Jun Wuling with both hands.

Jun Wuling took it and handed it to me, saying, "Miss, this is a 1,000 tael silver note, please accept it."

When I saw the banknote, I said in a panic, "I, I don't want it. It's a lesson that my father taught me since I was a child. How can I accept your kindness for nothing?"

Jun Wuling impatiently stuffed the banknote into my arms and said, "It's only one thousand taels. If you want to repay me, come to Shuiyuefang tomorrow and play a song for me."

After Jun Wuling finished speaking, he turned around, got on the carriage without looking back, and left in a decisive manner.

I stared at the driving carriage for a long time with the banknote in my hand, then walked slowly towards the inn where I was staying.

After returning to the inn, I asked the waiter to call the doctor. As soon as the doctor arrived, Gongsun Wen came back.

He looked at the doctor puzzledly and asked me nervously: "Are you sick?"

I shook my head and said, "It's not me, it's you who is sick."

Gongsun Wen pointed at his nose in disbelief and asked, "How come I don't know I'm sick?"

I pushed Gongsun Wen onto the stool and said to the doctor, "My father is confused due to illness. Can you please take a good look at him?"

The doctor quickly sat down and put his hand on Gongsun Wen's pulse.

Gongsun Wen was so frightened by my calling him "Dad" that he almost jumped up. The doctor held him down tightly and said, "This man is indeed very ill. I suspect he has mania."

The doctor's words were translated by the waiter.

I almost couldn't hold back my laughter, then I covered my mouth tightly and said, "In that case, I'll have to trouble the doctor to prescribe a few more prescriptions for my father. Money is not a problem."

Soon, the doctor wrote out a prescription, charged us fifty taels for the consultation fee and the medicine cost, and said that he would send someone to deliver the medicine after he returned.

Fifty taels of medical fee plus medicine cost is certainly not cheap. These people must have known that I took one thousand taels of silver notes from Jun Wuling, and they wished they could dig a piece of flesh out of me.

After the doctor left, Gongsun Wen jumped up in anger, pointed at me and said, "When did I become your father?"

After scolding me, she looked at me belatedly and asked in horror: "You, why did you change back into women's clothes?"

I groaned, pulled him to sit on a stool, and said, "Sit down and I'll talk to you slowly."

Gongsun Wen sat down slowly and said with some hesitation: "You, you don't look good in women's clothes. It's better not to wear women's clothes in the future."