A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Gradually, Gui'er felt that something was wrong. Why did it seem that everyone who was chattering away before seemed a little sleepy? The daughters of the fifth and sixth concubines simply fell asleep on the dining table. A young lady from a wealthy family would never behave like this.

Even the lady who was so dignified and the fourth concubine who claimed to be a lady from a noble family were yawning now.

Today, all the women in the mansion came out to worship. Although Gui'er did not bring Dingxiang with her, the mistress and concubines each brought one or two maids. While they were eating, the maids were waiting outside. At this moment, all the masters in the house were asleep, and no one came in to serve them.

Gui Er felt something was wrong, so she just pretended to be asleep on the dining table, just like the daughters of the fifth and sixth concubines, while listening to the noise outside.

After a while, Guier heard the door of the dining hall open and the sound of someone coming in.

I only heard someone say, "Hurry up and get everyone out of here."

Then there were sounds of moving. Gui'er was lying headfirst on the dining table. She quietly looked under the table and saw several people wearing monks' cloth shoes carrying the people out of the house.

Gui'er was extremely scared and was thinking quickly in her mind. It was obviously impossible to stand up and run away now. Judging from the size of the shoes, the other party was an adult man, and there was no sound of any maid outside, so he might have been taken care of.

At this time, Guier was also picked up by someone, and that person was holding Sally in his other hand.

Gui'er quietly half-opened his eyes outside and saw the maids brought from the Marshal's residence lying in a mess in the corridor. He recognized one of them as Meixiang, from the Fourth Concubine's Courtyard. She lay facedown on the stone steps at the entrance of the dining hall in a strange position, her eyes open. A deep knife wound ran across her neck, and the blood had stained a large area of her white shirt red. Her throat had been cut.

Gui'er broke out in a cold sweat. At this time, she and Sha Lili were thrown onto a cart. Except for the front, the left, right and back of the cart were surrounded by high boards. It looked a bit like the carts usually used to transport things. Her head hit the tailboard and it hurt, but thinking of Meixiang, Gui'er gritted her teeth and said nothing.

The daughters of the fifth and sixth concubines were also thrown onto their cart. The others were in a deep coma and had no consciousness.

Gui'er was getting anxious when she suddenly heard someone say, "Okay, move everything out."

Then the sound of wheels was heard, and their cart started to move. Gui'er was carrying the daughter of the fifth and sixth concubines, who became a shield for her. Although she felt a little breathless, she could still observe through the gaps in the cart that it was several young and strong nuns from the temple who had packed the women of the mansion into several carts and were pulling them down the mountain along the path on the temple mountain.

Gui'er wanted to run, but the cart she was on was in the middle. Although the number of people on the other side was not large, there were people watching in front and behind. It would probably take a lot of effort for her to just push away the daughters of the fifth and sixth concubines. She might be caught as soon as she got off the cart, and then she would end up like Meixiang.

Thinking of this, Guier decided to take a long-term view.

I wonder what's going on with Sha Yanxiao and the others? As long as they're still here, they should come to save me. After all, these are all the Marshal's wives and daughters.

Gui'er reached into her pocket. It didn't cost much to burn incense and worship Buddha at the temple today, so Gui'er only brought a small amount of change. Suddenly, she thought of throwing her wallet on the ground to leave a clue for Sha Yanxiao.

Just as she took out her wallet, Guier hesitated again. The wallet was too conspicuous. Even if no one noticed that she had lost it, the person pulling the cart behind her might pick it up if they saw a wallet on the road.

Gui'er felt around and took out the small gold necklace that Sha Yanxiao had bought for her before. There was a heart-shaped pendant on the necklace, which could hold a photo. She had never put a photo in it since she bought it. This morning, Sha Yanxiao said that the whole family was going out today and asked Gui'er to dress appropriately. However, Gui'er had already given her set of pearl jewelry to Taohua, so she wore this necklace with a heart-shaped pendant.

In order not to attract attention, Guier took great pains to pull the heart-shaped pendant off the chain, and threw it on the road through the gap in the cart. Guier deliberately watched through the gap in the cart, and only threw the pendant down when the cart was pulled to an uneven ground with puddles and grass.

Then I held my breath and waited nervously.

Fortunately, the group didn't notice and the cart continued to move forward.

Gui'er then had another idea. She tore the necklace chain into several pieces. The metal necklace was particularly difficult for a child to pull. Fortunately, when Sha Yanxiao bought it, he considered that it was too heavy and would be uncomfortable for the child to wear around the neck, so he chose a thinner necklace. Gui'er used all her strength and finally tore it into three or four pieces for her.

After that, Gui'er felt it, and every time she came to a turn, she would throw a little bit down through the gap in the cart.

After about an hour or two, Guier didn't know how far they had walked, from the dirt road on the mountain, to the bumpy gravel road, to this slightly flatter stone road. Guier thought they might have entered the city. They had only walked for such a short time, it couldn't be another city, they should still be in Jiangcheng.

Guier had lost all her necklaces when she was halfway through the walk. She had no choice but to quietly tear off a piece of cloth from the sleeve of her clothes. However, she found that the custom-made clothes were really well made, with very dense stitches. Children had little strength and could not tear them apart at all. In the end, she had to tear them off with her hands and then with her teeth.

The sound of fabric tearing was quite loud, and Guier's heart was in her throat. Fortunately, their cart was quite noisy, and there were several people on the cart. They were tired after pulling for so long. Guier heard someone complaining about how heavy it was, because it was so far.

Gui'er threw the cloth from her clothes into the gap of the cart.

A piece was thrown away every one or two kilometers. Fortunately, the cuffs of Guier's clothes were connected. After she tore off the cuffs, she rolled the fabric inward, making it look like a three-quarter sleeve. Otherwise, if someone found out that her clothes had become tattered, she would definitely be exposed.

Guier tore the two cuffs into three or four pieces with her mouth and threw them away. Just when Guier was worrying about what to throw away next, the car stopped.

Guier quickly stopped what she was doing and closed her eyes. Then she heard the sound of a door opening, and then people were transferred from the cart into the house. It seemed that this was where they were hiding.

Just as Gui'er was hesitating, the fifth concubine's daughter who was pressing on her was carried away. Gui'er didn't care about anything else and quickly stuffed her wallet into her sleeve. Then she was also picked up. This time the person who moved her was obviously not as strong. He carried her on his shoulders and walked a little shakily.

Guier took advantage of the shaking to throw the wallet in her sleeve into a bush on the side of the road.

The other party didn't notice, but Gui'er was also worried that it was thrown too far and Sha Yanxiao wouldn't be able to find it.