A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

After Sha Yanxiao left, Gui'er thought that everyone would feel worried and anxious like her, but everything was calm. The Marshal still went out early and came back late every day, and he was always out for social engagements. His wife either went shopping, or went to that lady's house to play cards, or invited some noble ladies to come to their house to play mahjong.

At first, Gui'er thought that no one except the Marshal knew the inside story, so she didn't react much.

Until the eldest young master Sha Yanyao comforted her: "Gui'er, don't worry too much, my second brother will be blessed by heaven."

Gui'er then realized that the lady and the eldest young master knew about it, and that Butler Liu should also know about it, but they didn't seem to take it seriously.

After Sha Yanxiao left, Guier found that the originally strict family rules seemed to be gone. Everyone was minding their own business. Except for eating and meeting each other, they did whatever they wanted at other times. She first tried to go to the bookstore that Dali had taken her to before, without reporting to anyone in the family. No one stopped her or asked questions when she went out and came back.

However, Gui'er remembered what Sha Yanxiao said that there is no impenetrable wall in the world, so she bought a few books when she went to the bookstore, including several comic books of Water Margin and a very thick dictionary. She gave the comic books to the daughters of the fifth and sixth concubines, and the dictionary had other uses. She felt that she could not just leave the bag of money that Sha Yanxiao gave her like that. She had to think of a way to keep it, otherwise it would be known to others sooner or later, and she would not be able to keep the money.

She first counted the money Sha Yanxiao had given her. Wow, there were 50 silver dollars and 10 gold bars. It wouldn't be worth much in Shanghai, but it could buy a house in Sha Dashuai's hometown.

Her first thought was to deposit it in a bank, but Shanghai banks might not have branches in Jiangcheng, so it would be inconvenient to withdraw the money or return it to Sha Yanxiao. But she couldn't find a safe deposit box, so wouldn't that be like telling others that she had a lot of money?

So on the way to the bookstore, Guier passed by a daily necessities store and bought a very small and sharp knife. She left a part of the upper and lower parts of the dictionary, cut it into a hollow part in the middle with the knife, and smeared the hollow part with glue. It became a box for storing things. She put the bag of money neatly in it, and filled the empty space with crumpled paper, and then sealed it with glue. In this way, even if the book was picked up, the things inside would not shake or make noise. Although it was slightly heavier than the original dictionary, large books are heavy, and people who are not careful will not notice it. In order to prevent others from borrowing the dictionary, she specially bought the more obscure Kangxi Dictionary.

After doing all this, Guier finally felt a little relieved.

Now that she was a little freer, she could go out and see the lives of ordinary people in Shanghai. In fact, she had learned a little from the newspapers she had bought. In Shanghai, women could not only be sales clerks and teachers, but also female clerks in foreign companies, nurses in hospitals, and waitresses in some fashionable restaurants and cafes. The shopkeepers of small shops in the alleys of civilian areas were also female proprietresses, but there was usually a male shopkeeper as well. Even the haircutters and perm technicians in some hair salons in prosperous areas were all female, after all, their main service objects were wealthy ladies.

It can be said that Shanghai does provide independent employment opportunities for women, which is much greater than my hometown Jiangcheng.

Gui'er still wanted to go see it in person, but she was afraid of being criticized if she went out alone. So one day when she was playing with the children of the fifth and sixth concubines, she tentatively asked, "You finally came to Shanghai, don't you want to go out and play for a while?"

The fifth and sixth concubines quickly waved their hands and said, "Shanghai may be prosperous, but the Marshal said it's very chaotic and told us to just wait for him at home."

Gui'er thought that these two people were not favored at all, so why would the Marshal say that?

So she paid more attention to it, until one day in the middle of the night she heard a noise outside and the sound of two footsteps passing by the door of her room. She secretly opened the door and found that the Marshal had pulled the Sixth Concubine into a room that was not intended for living. Only then did she realize that although the Fifth and Sixth Concubines were not favored, the Marshal still slept with them.

Only then did Guier realize that she had been too careless before. Fortunately, she did not say the wrong thing in front of these two people. In fact, these two people were also competing secretly. Whoever could give birth to a boy might immediately reverse their status.

After that, Guier became even more careful and didn't dare to go out casually.

Until this day, Tong Yujun called and asked Guier to go to the movies. This was great news for Guier, so she agreed immediately. Then she went to look for the Marshal and his wife, but they were both away.

Gui'er thought for a moment and came to Sha Yanyao's room, knocked on the door, and someone from inside said, "Come in." Then she pushed the door open and went in.

Sha Yanyao was reading a book and was surprised to see Gui'er coming to see him. He smiled and said, "What's the matter with you, Gui'er?"

Guier said obediently, "My parents are not here, so I came over to tell my big brother that my classmate Tong Yujun invited me to the movies."

Sha Yanyao smiled and said, "Sister, you went out to buy books by yourself a few days ago, why did you come to tell me this time?"

Gui'er was stunned. Although Sha Yanyao rarely left the house, he knew everything about the family. She quickly said, "Going to buy books is near home. You should still let me know before going far away."

Sha Yanyao nodded, picked up a small copper bell from the table, and rang it twice. A housekeeper hurried in and asked, "What's the matter, young master?"

"Arrange a car for Gui'er. She wants to go out to see a movie with her classmates."

Butler Liu said in embarrassment: "But now we only have one car left. If you..."

Gui'er quickly said, "No, no, my classmate said she'd come pick me up. If that's not possible, I can call a rickshaw myself."

Sha Yanyao smiled and said, "Sister Gui'er is really sensible. You better be careful, things are not peaceful out there."

Guier nodded and said, "Okay, thank you for your concern, brother."

Soon Tong Yujun came by car to pick up Guier and went to the fifth floor of the Sincere Company to watch a movie in the cinema. The movie they watched was "Sisters" starring Hu Die, the most popular movie star at that time. Unexpectedly, although it was a black and white movie, it was actually quite good.

After watching, the two ran to the restaurant to have dessert. Guier took the opportunity to ask for Tong Yujun's home phone number, saying that they would make an appointment to play together later. In fact, she was thinking of using her as an excuse to get out later.

Gui'er also wanted to ask Tong Yujun whether her sister had a blind date with Song Xichen, but she was a little embarrassed to ask, so she could only talk about topics like movies.

Tong Yujun suddenly said, "Why are you dressed so poorly now that you're in Shanghai? You were fine just a few days ago, weren't you?"

Guier looked down and saw that she was wearing the velvet plaid quilted cheongsam that Song Xichen had given her. She had chosen it to be low-key and not draw attention to herself, but it was actually very warm and she liked it very much. She smiled and said, "It's not bad. I quite like this dress."