A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

The next morning, when Gui'er was about to leave for the Zhenxiufang, Ji Yiru called him and said, "Sister, we are going to the Guanyin Temple to pray for a child today. You should come with us."

Gui'er didn't want to get involved in their affairs, so she smiled and said, "I still have to study. Something like praying for a child shouldn't be something a couple does together. I'd be in the way."

Sha Yanxiao also said: "Yes, my sister still needs to study, let's go together."

Ji Yiru didn't give up. She walked over and took Gui'er's hand, saying, "It's rare for school to have holidays now. How can we study every day? We should relax more. Besides, after we go to worship, we still have to go sightseeing in the surrounding area."

Gui'er felt something was amiss. Normally, if Ji Yiru had a chance to spend time alone with Sha Yanxiao, she would even send the servants away. Why was she so determined to take her along this time? She smiled and said, "Sister Ge rarely goes on an outing, so I won't bother her."

As he was about to pull his hand back, he found that Ji Yiru was holding it tightly. She smiled and said, "Sister, go ahead, go ahead."

Sha Yanxiao frowned and said to Gui'er, "Then you go too."

Seeing Sha Yanxiao say this, Guier smiled and said, "Okay then."

Ji Yiru went to pack her things happily. Actually, she didn't pack much, but she looked very busy, walking around. She also called the four maids and asked them to bring more things. Gui'er turned around and saw Dingxiang looking at her eagerly. Thinking that they usually didn't have much free time and it was rare for them to leave the house, she said to Dingxiang, "Dingxiang, do you want to go? If you do, come with us."

Dingxiang responded happily, but then seemed to hesitate to speak. Guier was puzzled, but at this time the car had come to pick them up, so Guier had to get in first.

Because one car couldn't accommodate them all, Sha Yanxiao arranged a sedan for the maids. Ji Yiru was uneasy and said, "Why don't we ask my personal maid to come sit over here? There are too many people over there, it's too crowded."

Sha Yanxiao rolled his eyes at her and said, "This is against the rules. Let's just leave it as it is."

Guier always felt something was strange when she looked at the two of them.

Guanyin Temple was originally located in the suburbs of Jiangcheng, and they soon arrived. When the abbot saw Sha Yanxiao, he hurried out to greet him, clasping his hands together and saying, "Amitabha, the young marshal's two visits to our temple in such a short time have truly brought honor to our humble abode."

Sha Yanxiao nodded and said, "We came here specifically to pray for a child."

The host immediately arranged for them to burn incense and kowtow. Gui'er did not go to burn incense, but wandered outside the hall. At this time, Dingxiang quietly walked up to her and said, "There is something wrong with the young lady."

Guier asked her, "What's wrong?"

Dingxiang took out the two silver dollars he had given her and returned them to him, saying, "I followed your instructions and was about to approach those maids when I discovered that the young master had already arrested one of them for questioning. He should have figured it out by now."

Gui'er was surprised and said, "If my brother has already arrested my sister-in-law's maid and is questioning her, why do they seem to be fine?"

Ding Xiang said, "The young master was captured while the young lady was away. I wonder if the young lady knew about this."

Guier asked, "Do you know what they found out?"

Ding Xiang shook her head and said, "I don't know, but the young master came back from the interrogation with a face as black as the bottom of a pot. I guess it's not a good result."

Gui'er glanced at Ji Yiru's maids. They were all standing at the door of the store waiting for the two of them, and did not notice that they were whispering here.

Gui'er wondered, if the results of Sha Yanxiao's interrogation weren't good, then why had she come here to pray for a child? This morning, Ji Yiru had been acting out of character, insisting on dragging her along. It was quite unusual, and she had a vague feeling that something was amiss. She said to Dingxiang, "You don't need to approach her maids now. Just try to keep your distance from them."

Ding Xiang said, “Yes.”

Not long after, Sha Yanxiao and Ji Yiru came out of the main hall. Sha Yanxiao said to them, "Let's take a walk on the mountain. It's a good opportunity to have an outing."

Guier said happily, "Okay."

Sha Yanxiao asked Dali to take some cookies to Guier. It turned out that he had prepared some, but Guier felt that everything was abnormal and did not prepare anything.

The group wandered aimlessly on the mountain. Ji Yiru didn't walk side by side with Sha Yanxiao, but slowly walked two meters behind him, occasionally scolding her maids for being too far away, saying they were lazy and not serving their master. Sha Yanxiao didn't say anything, just occasionally looking back at him, and then pulling Gui'er forward.

Soon, they came to the edge of a cliff. Sha Yanxiao walked to the very edge and looked down. He pointed at a small house at the bottom of the cliff and said to everyone, "Look, someone actually built a small house in such a remote place."

Gui'er walked forward and looked for a long time before she spotted a nondescript blue brick house in the dense woods. She smiled and said, "Brother, you have a really good eye. I searched for a long time before I found it."

Sha Yanxiao smiled, turned around, waved to Ji Yiru and said, "Yiru, come over and take a look too."

Ji Yiru forced a smile and said, "No need. There's nothing fancy about a small wooden house."

Sha Yanxiao said with a smile on his face: "It's not a cabin, come and take a look."

Ji Yiru didn't smile at this time, but just shook her head mechanically. While looking at Sha Yanxiao's expression, she stepped back to her four maids. Gui'er found that the expressions of her four personal maids were also extremely nervous, even frightened.

At this time, Dali, who was walking at the back of them and following them from a distance, suddenly walked forward and appeared behind them. Ji Yiru turned around and suddenly saw her. She was so scared that she screamed "Ah", and the maids also screamed with her. The five of them hugged each other tightly.

Gui'er was confused and asked, "Sister-in-law, what's wrong with you?"

When Ji Yiru heard Gui'er calling her, she looked at Gui'er and suddenly her eyes lit up. She swooped over, grabbed Gui'er's hand, and pulled it back, shouting, "Gui'er, Gui'er, Gui'er." The force was so great that Gui'er felt as if she was caught by a big eagle.

Sha Yanxiao took a step forward and grabbed the two of them. Ji Yiru screamed again and looked at Sha Yanxiao in horror.

Sha Yanxiao said calmly: "Let go, you're hurting her."

Ji Yiru then slowly let go and retreated to where his maids were standing.

Sha Yanxiao glanced at Gui'er and said boredly, "There's actually nothing to see on this mountain. Let's go back."

Ji Yiru and her maids breathed a sigh of relief when they heard this and immediately smiled again.

Guier looked at Dingxiang, and she also looked relieved. It seemed that something was about to happen, but it didn't happen.

The group returned to the car and drove slowly back. Ji Yiru suddenly said to Sha Yanxiao, "Yanxiao, I haven't seen my parents since I attended my uncle's funeral. I want to go see them."

Sha Yanxiao looked at Ji Yiru thoughtfully. Ji Yiru quickly avoided his gaze. After a few seconds, Sha Yanxiao smiled and said, "Okay, it's my duty."

Ji Yiru heard this and breathed a sigh of relief.

The car drove to a place a few miles away from the city gate. At a fork in the road, Guier saw many snack stalls on the roadside. One of them was selling soup dumplings. Guier hadn't eaten it for a long time and couldn't help licking her lips.

Sha Yanxiao saw it and said with a smile, "Do you want to eat? Then let's go downstairs and eat."

Guier said happily, "Okay." Then she got out of the car with Sha Yanxiao and Dali.

Ji Yiru was still sitting in the car. Gui'er asked her politely, "Sister-in-law, aren't you going to come down to eat?"

Ji Yiru looked around mechanically, forced a smile and said, "I don't want to eat, you guys go ahead."

Sha Yanxiao took Gui'er and Dali to a bun stall, ordered two baskets of steamed dumplings, and each of them ordered a cup of soy milk, and started eating.

Seeing Gui'er eating with gusto, Sha Yanxiao looked at her lovingly and said, "Is it delicious?"

Guier smiled and nodded, saying, "It's delicious."

"Bang, bang, bang." Suddenly, a loud noise was heard. Everyone present was startled and looked towards the place where the noise came from. It turned out that the car that Gui'er and the others were riding in was hit by an out-of-control truck. It rolled over twice on the ground and then fell on the ground with all four wheels facing up in the air in the wilderness beside the road.