After traveling through time, I became the aunt of the loyal dog emperor

"I wonder if you can go with me to a place?" Shen Congyu, who was standing in front of him, was holding a shoulder pole in one hand and an oil drum in the other. He had a black eye from being beaten, and he was wearing a decent coarse cloth. He looked at Wan Ning with clear eyes and asked.

As the saying goes, you should not have the intention to harm others, but you should always be on guard against others. When Wan Ning heard that he wanted to go to another place by himself, she became alert instantly, and countless possibilities flashed through her mind. She thought: "Although I know some kung fu, two fists cannot beat four hands, and a gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall. What if Shen Congyu is in the same group with those people just now? If I go with him, I will be a sheep in the mouth of a tiger and be slaughtered. But looking at this little brother Shen, he doesn't look like a bad person. But then again, you can judge a person by his appearance, but not all bad people have words written on their faces."

Wan Ning waved her hand and refused, "Brother Shen, I have other things to do, so I'm afraid I don't have time to go with you anywhere else. Either we say goodbye and meet again, or you can tell me your story in short and I'm all ears, how about that?"

He suddenly seemed to come to his senses and quickly apologized: "It is Shen's fault for not thinking carefully and being rude. There happens to be a tea stand here, so why don't you go and have some tea while listening to me."

Wan Ning looked in the direction of his finger. The tea stand was only five or six steps away from them, so she agreed and walked straight to the stand to find a seat with a good view. Shen Congyu followed behind with his things. Then he asked for a pot of tea for Wan Ning and spoke.

"You may not know, benefactor, that old woman Feng and I were neighbors when we were young. She is only about ten years older than me."

"Ten years old? You can't tell at all." Wan Ning was shocked by the gap between the two. Thinking about it carefully, Mrs. Feng's face was covered with scars, her hair was messy with some white hair among the black hair, and she looked like she had been worn down by time.

"She wasn't like this before. When she was a neighbor, she was generous and gentle, and she often helped to look after the neighbors' young children. Speaking of which, I also benefited from her care in the past. My grandfather and father could go out to work without worry. Later, they opened an oil shop in the market and moved away from there." Shen Congyu told the story word by word, and a smile appeared on his face when he mentioned his previous life.

"Since Mrs. Feng was such a kind-hearted person before, why did she become such a shrew now?" Wan Ning couldn't help but ask.

Before Shen Congyu answered, he sighed, "Alas! Later, her mother died of illness, and her father was also a man without a strong opinion and could not accomplish anything, so her uncle decided to marry her to a family, and it was her husband whom you just met. Although the family was poor, they were managed by their mother-in-law, and her husband could go out to work, so they lived in peace. A few years later, her mother-in-law passed away, and many shops were closed due to years of war. There was less work to do, and her husband began to drink and gamble."

"Even after all this, you still have money to drink and gamble?" Wan Ning asked in surprise.

"He drinks and lives his life day by day, fantasizing about becoming rich overnight. It's all self-numbing. When he's sober, he'll take some money home, and more often he'll take things out of the house. If he can't find anything valuable, he'll make a move on Mrs. Feng. She's also scared by being beaten, and she has no livelihood and can only rely on this person, and she can't leave him. She probably did this this time because she's afraid of having to pay compensation, so she can only protect him and make trouble."

"Stockholm syndrome?" Wan Ning blurted out. This is a psychological condition in which a victim develops an emotional dependence on the perpetrator during the process of violence. When she heard Mrs. Feng's story, she looked embarrassed and the word instantly came to her mind.

Shen Congyu asked in confusion: "Benefactor, what did you say?"

"Nothing. I'm just curious, since her husband is useless and unreliable, why doesn't she find a job for herself? And why can't she leave him?"

Shen Congyu noticed that the cup in front of Wan Ning was empty, so he poured her another cup, and rubbed the aching wound on his face. After a pause, he explained, "My benefactor, you probably come from a wealthy family, and it would cost her to leave. Mrs. Feng is like this now, half because of her husband, and half because of life. There are not many jobs left for women in this market, and with the impact of the war for several years, there are even fewer. She is illiterate and has no skills, so she can only live on the little land at home."

"Seeing the women in the Nameless Palace, I only felt that life in this cold palace was miserable. I naively thought that I could find a way out by relying on my own hands after leaving the palace. I didn't expect that the life of ordinary women outside the palace was even more difficult. Although Mrs. Feng's behavior was hateful, this seemed to be her only way to deal with life." Wan Ning was full of thoughts.

"Benefactor, benefactor." Shen Congyu called out to Wan Ning twice when he saw her in a trance. When he saw her come back to her senses and look at him, he asked with concern, "What were you thinking about just now, benefactor?"

"I wonder how many women like Mrs. Feng there are in the entire Nanye City?"

"There are quite a few. There are more than a dozen households around Mrs. Feng's house alone, and their situations are roughly similar. To be honest, this is where I wanted to take my benefactor just now."

Wan Ning didn't expect that she was just a shrew and a scoundrel, and there was such a thing behind her. Her preconceived judgment did seem high and mighty. The entire Nanye City seemed to be thriving and developing, but there were still many ordinary poor people who could not work and had a hard time surviving. She didn't know whether the emperor cared about these people at the beginning, but Ziheng must care about them, and she should care about them as the princess of Chu State now.

She thought she should do something to be worthy of the support she received from the people of Chu State.

"Brother Shen, there's no need to call me benefactor all the time. It makes me seem distant." Wan Ning leaned forward slightly and said, "Just call me Su Wan Ning. Even though Aunt Feng insulted me like that, Brother Shen was able to repay evil with kindness. It's really admirable. Not only that, he was able to think of many sisters who had similar experiences, which is even more rare. Let me use tea instead of wine to toast Brother Shen."

Shen Congyu hurriedly raised the water cup in front of him and drank it all in one gulp. He coughed twice because he drank so quickly, which made him look even more honest.

"By the way, Brother Xiao Shen, what are you going to do now that you lost two barrels of oil today?" Seeing that he was dressed in rough clothes, he probably wasn't a rich man.

He scratched his head in embarrassment, smiled bitterly and consoled him: "It's just two barrels of oil, it's no big deal, I'll be back in a few days."

Although it sounds easy, the cost of the two oil barrels requires him to work hard for many days, going out early and coming back late. He remains silent about the bitterness, and his faint smile makes people admire him.

Wan Ning had already made a note of this matter, but she had other things to do today and had not yet prepared for it, so it was inconvenient for her to rashly go to West City to investigate the living conditions and difficulties of the crazy women. She decided to return to the palace first to tell Ziheng about this matter, draw the attention of the court, and then find a way to help them out of their predicament.

I used to think that being outside the palace meant freedom, but now it seems that the most important thing at the moment is not to send people in the palace out, or to select people outside the palace into the palace, but to let them each have their own way to survive.

After coming up with an idea, Wan Ning asked Shen Congyu, "Brother Shen, do you often sell oil on this street?"

Shen Congyu nodded: "On weekdays, people carry their poles and sell their wares from street to street. They usually come to this street at this time."

"I am inconvenienced today. I will come to Brother Xiao Shen to learn more about the situation when I have time. Su also wants to do something for them."

"Oh, Miss Su, don't worry. I will be waiting here every day at 12:00 am. You can come find me whenever you need."