A piece of Japanese incense

"Let me go first." Tian Xiang raised her hand gracefully and spoke in a calm tone.

On the way home, the four of us were still immersed in the girls' stories, and we were silent all the way:

Zhang Yanmei was sold to the Bai family as a slave by her own brother. She was raped by Bai Xuan when he was drunk. After he sobered up, he despised her ugly face and threw her into Qianyanfang for punishment...

He Jiaojiao and Li Ru were coveted by Bai Yan during an outing. Bai Yan tried to force herself on them, but they were stabbed in the chest by the two of them. They were then beaten until one of them broke his leg and the other was disfigured...

Song Xier, her brother accidentally bumped into Bai Xian, and was given to Bai Xian by her parents to ward off evil...

Guo Yiqiu, whose father supplies spring clothes for the Marquis's mansion, was arrested and imprisoned because his clothes were torn while hunting. In order to save his father, he gave himself to Bai Yan...

Every detail is jaw-dropping...

The setting sun slowly sank into the horizon, and my mood also sank into the endless twilight, just like the last ray of afterglow was quietly swallowed up by the night, and my heart also lost its former glory.

Every step I took felt like I was walking in invisible mud, difficult and heavy, and my heart was filled with unspeakable depression.

"Stop! Stop the car!" Yu Tuan yelled as he got out of the car, and angrily tore the paper off the notice wall: "Post it! Post it! Post it! I told you to post it!"

Yuzhu grabbed her and dragged her back to the car, with wanted posters scattered all over the floor: "Yutuan, don't attract attention, let's go back home quickly."

"I just can't stand these idiots in the government!"

"Yutuan!" Yuyi covered her mouth.

I lifted the car curtain and said, "Yuzhu, stop picking it up, let's go."

My eyes swept across the densely packed notice wall, which was covered with various notices and official documents. Old information was covered by new ones, just like the accumulation of historical memories.

The edge of a piece of paper was slightly curled, and the color gradually faded from bright, but the handwriting was still clearly visible: Huang Shuzhu, female, 17 years old, more than 6 feet tall, with a pretty face and a mole in the left eyebrow...

"Yuzhu! Tear that one off and show it to me!" I pointed at the missing person notice excitedly.

"It turned out to be her! Yuzhu, we have to go back!"

I rushed into the side room impatiently and found the woman lying on the couch: "Are you Huang Shuzhu!?"

The woman hunched her body, her shoulders unconsciously raised, almost touching her ears, and her chest rose and fell as if being pushed by an invisible wave.

"Girl! You scared her!" Yuyi hurried in and hugged me from behind.

Huang Shuzhu leaned over the bed and began to dry heave, gasping weakly.

"Huang Shuzhu, what happened on the night of the Lantern Festival?" Yu Tuan asked impatiently without waiting for her to calm down.

Huang Shuzhu had drops of cold sweat sliding down his cheeks, and his back was also covered in sweat from fear. His clothes were soaked, and he was shivering while holding onto the quilt.

After comforting her for a while, seeing that she was still terrified, we had no choice but to discuss it and wait until she calmed down before asking her about the details.

In just two days, the tailor shop had already made thirty dresses of the same style in different colors and sent them to Zhichunzhili.

When I went there again, the girls had changed into bright clothes.

"Miss Zhi, isn't this color too flashy?" Tian Xiang shyly lifted the hem of her light green skirt.

"No, look, Yutuan and Yuyi are also wearing like this, but Yuzhu hasn't come yet, and his is green!" I smiled proudly.

"We'll go visit the neighbors with Weidingxuan's cakes in a while and tell them that our girl has rented this place!" Yutuan coquettishly hugged Qiao Yanxin and swayed back and forth briskly.

"We need to visit again? Wouldn't that be more eye-catching?" Tian Xiang was a little worried.

"Our girl has taken a fancy to a shop on this street, so she rented a house here to prepare for the event. What's so strange about that?"

"Opening a shop?"

"It must be an excuse!" Yu Tuan embraced Tian Xiang again: "The young lady took into consideration that the sisters can't stay in the house all the time, so everyone changed into uniform clothes and kept a low profile. Even if someone saw us, they would just think we were the young lady's maids."

Looking at their faces that suddenly understood, I once again praised myself for my clever arrangement, and then expressed my inner thoughts:

"I really want to open a shop. If you sisters are homeless, you can run this shop to make a living. In this way, I only need to invest money, and I can sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labor at home, waiting for the wealth to roll in like water and fall into my pocket!"

I was intoxicated by the joy of hearing money rolling in with every breath because of the proper investment...

Yu Tuan raised her hand first: "What kind of shop do you plan to open, young lady? I can be in charge of the cashier! I love counting money the most!"

Yuyi put down her hand and came to me: "She can only yell! Girl, you should come to me!"

"You only know how to make mistakes! I am the most reliable one, because I am the one who manages the seals for the girl!"

"I am also in charge of the girl's embroidery building!"

……

Yutuan and Yuyi started arguing again, and the atmosphere in the house suddenly became warm and lively, with laughter and joy. When every sister heard that I was going to open a shop, they all volunteered.

Huang Shuzhu leaned against the door frame. Although she was wearing a pink dress, her face was still pale and colorless, like a skeleton.

"Xiao Zhu, you finally got out of bed! Are you feeling better today?" I reached out to her wrist. Her fingers were pale and slender, like glass beads that would slip from her hands at any time, so fragile that people dared not touch them.

"Miss Zhi." Her voice was as thin as a thread. She took my hand and walked into the room. Her steps were as light as a feather. Every step seemed so difficult, as if the gravity had suddenly doubled.

She sat back on the bed, her body bent like a taut bow. "On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, I was dressing in my room, getting ready to watch a lion dance performance. My grandfather hurriedly called me out of my boudoir, took me to the woodshed in the backyard, and hid me. He then spread some straw on my head, locked the door, and left."

"When I was found and dragged to the front yard, my mother and the others were tied up with hemp ropes, and Bai Xian was beating my grandfather. When my father saw me being found, he knelt on the ground and begged the bully. During the struggle, Bai Xian accidentally fell down, with blood on his forehead. After he stood up, he took out a dagger from his arms and stabbed my father..."

She burst into tears and sobbed.

I continued her words, "Your mother tried to run to your father, but was tied up by Bai Yan's men with hemp ropes. Your grandfather, in desperation, said something that angered Bai Yan, and in his rage, he stabbed your grandparents with a dagger. Is that right?"

She closed her eyes tightly, as if unwilling to look back: "That's about it..."

"What then?"

"I was knocked unconscious, and when I woke up, my hands and feet were tied up and I was imprisoned in a side room of the Bai Mansion."