A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

By the third day, Gui'er had been spending every day surrounded by the sounds of suona and chanting, and she was beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed.

As soon as she woke up in the morning, Dingxiang ran over to Guier and said, "Miss, Miss, there is some big news."

Guier asked boredly, "What's the news?"

Ding Xiang said with a gossipy look on her face, "The young lady's uncle ran away in the middle of the night yesterday."

Gui'er was stunned for a moment: "Why are you running?"

Ding Xiang said, "I'm not sure. We didn't see him today. The young master and the steward looked everywhere for him, and the young mistress's maid was missing too. Everyone guessed that the young uncle didn't dare go to Shanghai, so he took the money and went home first."

Gui'er felt something was wrong. Even a three-year-old wouldn't believe this excuse, right? He could just tell the host family directly instead of going to Shanghai. This was his sister's funeral.

Gui'er asked, "So what does brother say now?"

Ding Xiang said, "The young master is busy presiding over the funeral now, so we can only send someone to find him."

Gui'er shook her head. It seemed that this was a useless and prodigal son.

After breakfast, Guier took Dingxiang to the mourning hall to burn incense. Today was the last day of the wake, and the funeral would be held tomorrow. Sha Yanxiao said that if Guier didn't want to go, she didn't have to go. Guier thought that since it had come to this, she had to follow the etiquette carefully to avoid giving people a chance to talk.

Sha Yanxiao had been guarding for three or four days, constantly greeting guests, and he was tired. There were not many people in the mourning hall at this time, so he pulled Guier out from a corner, strolled around, and got some fresh air.

Walking outside, even though he was dozens of meters away from the mourning shed, he could still hear the sound of chanting. Sha Yanxiao stretched himself and sighed, "Oh, I didn't expect keeping vigil would be so annoying. I'm almost bored to death."

Gui'er asked him, "I heard that my uncle left without saying goodbye. Have you found him?"

Sha Yanxiao frowned and said, "We're still looking. Those people with the surname Ji are really worrying."

Gui'er quickly comforted him, "Master Uncle is an adult now. If he wants to leave, let him go."

Sha Yanxiao sighed and said, "It would be fine if he just went home, but the problem is that he also took Ji Yiru's four dowry girls away with him. He didn't tell anyone about it. If something happened outside, it would affect our family's reputation."

As he was speaking, the manager came over and said, "Master, Director Song is here to see you."

Sha Yanxiao raised his eyebrows, turned around and walked towards the mourning shed. Gui'er hurriedly followed him. When they arrived at the mourning shed, they saw Song Xichen leading four crying women standing there. When Gui'er got closer, she found that they were Ji Yiru's four personal maids.

Sha Yanxiao asked, "Director Song, what's going on?"

Song Xichen coughed and said, "One of my men was on patrol today passing by Chun Man Lou and heard a commotion there. He went inside and saw four girls who said they were servants from the Marshal's Mansion and had been forced to come there."

Sha Yanxiao's expression changed, and he asked the four maids, "What's going on?"

The four maids wiped their tears and spoke intermittently, each saying a few words, until they finally made the matter clear.

It turned out that before Ji Yiru's younger brother left last night, he found the four of them and said that he was their former master. Now that his sister had passed away, they could either go back with him to their parents' home, or stay in the Marshal's Mansion and they would definitely be buried alive. They were afraid of being buried alive, so they had to go with him. As a result, their young master took them to a maid's house and asked them to rest. After letting them drink a bowl of tea, they all fainted. When they woke up, they were in Chunmanlou. The madam said that they had been sold and they were unwilling to receive customers. During the argument, a passing patrolman heard the noise and came in to ask questions. They hurriedly claimed to be maids in the Marshal's Mansion and were rescued.

Gui'er was speechless after hearing this. How could such a ridiculous thing happen?

The surrounding guests, even the chanting monks and Taoist priests, were all whispering. Sha Yanxiao's face flushed and paled for a long time. After a while, he smiled and said to Song Xichen, "These four are indeed my late wife's maids. My brother-in-law left without saying goodbye yesterday, and we were looking for him, so we didn't notice this. Thank you, Director Song."

Song Xichen nodded and said, "Since you are from the Marshal's Mansion, then you can stay. But they said they would bury you alive with the dead... This is a new era."

Sha Yanxiao said angrily, "Director Song, you don't suspect me of doing such cruel things, do you? You can imagine that it was my good-for-nothing brother-in-law who said that to trick them into following you."

Then, he turned to the four of them and said, "Now that your young lady has passed away, you were indeed members of the Ji family in the past. If you are willing to return to the Ji family, you can find your young master when the time comes. I will give you money and send you and him back to the Ji family. If you want to go out and be independent, I will give you five silver dollars. If you want to stay in the Sha Mansion and continue to be a maid, that's fine too. It's your choice."

No one dared to choose the option of following their young master. If they were sold to a brothel, that would be troublesome. When Ji Yiru's 20-odd servants were choosing, many chose to take five silver dollars and go out on their own. However, those were men, strong and powerful, all of them had been thugs, so they were not afraid of not being able to survive outside. These maids had been with the young lady since they were young, and they didn't have to do heavy work. They were delicate and timid. Even if they had money, they probably wouldn't be able to live independently outside.

Sure enough, the four of them looked at each other for a moment, then knelt down and said to Sha Yanxiao, "Young Marshal, please give us a way out. We are willing to be maids in the Sha family."

Sha Yanxiao nodded and said, "Well, today is your young lady's last day of vigil. Go wipe off the powder on your face and go to keep vigil for your young lady. That will be considered as fulfilling the duty between master and servant."

After hearing this, the four maids blushed and lowered their heads to wash their faces. Only then did Guier realize that they had thick makeup on their faces. It must be the makeup that the brothel owner put on them so that they could receive customers.

Not long after Song Xichen left, Gui'er heard a commotion outside. A man was being pushed and staggered into the mourning shed. Gui'er took a look and saw that it was Ji Yiru's brother. And the man who was escorting him in was actually Wu Mingqiang.

Wu Mingqiang stepped forward and said to Sha Yanxiao, "Young Marshal, is this the man you're looking for? My men found him smoking in a big opium den."

Sha Yanxiao's face turned pale. He walked forward and kicked his brother-in-law in the chest. The man was thin and defenseless due to smoking opium. He screamed "Ah" and retreated more than a meter before falling heavily to the ground. Then he instinctively got up trembling.

Sha Yanxiao walked up to him, pointed at him, and said, "Look at you for doing such a shameful thing. Your sister's body is still warm, and you just walked away. You even sold all her close friends to brothels. How shameless!"

The man seemed a little unconscious. He was kicked and his forehead was sweating profusely. He just covered his chest with his hands.

Seeing that he didn't say anything, Sha Yanxiao became even more furious and raised his foot to kick him again. Gui'er hurried forward and hugged Sha Yanxiao and said, "Brother, forget it. He is your uncle after all. It will be troublesome if something bad happens to him if you kick him." Everyone also hurried forward to dissuade him, and Sha Yanxiao gave up.