A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

A day and a night later, Song Tingting still refused to eat or drink. Gui'er was worried that she would get sick from hunger, so she advised her, "Miss, I know I'm putting you in a difficult position now, but can you please eat a little? Otherwise, if you damage your health, it will be very troublesome."

Song Tingting took a look at the porridge and steamed buns, and said hesitantly, "I can't eat it..."

Gui'er thought she was not used to such plain food. The next time the old woman brought her food, she stepped forward, bowed, and said, "Madam, please be kind and change the food to something better. Our young lady has a poor appetite to begin with, and she's been frightened. If this continues, she'll probably starve to death."

The old woman glanced at Song Tingting and said, "After all, you are a rich lady, you are not used to such plain food. But here we are not like in the city, where we don't have anything you want. Where can I get you something good?"

Song Tingting turned away in shame. Gui'er remembered that she still had some copper coins on her, so she quickly took them out and handed them to the old woman, saying with a smile, "We were caught off guard and nothing was taken away. We only have this change. Please have a cup of tea, Madam. Please help me."

After the old woman took it, she weighed it with her hand, forced a smile on her face and said, "Then I'll tell the kitchen for you." Then she went out.

The three people in the room breathed a sigh of relief. After a while, the old woman came in with a bowl with three eggs on it. She put the eggs on the table and said, "We don't have anything better here. These eggs are the best. Please make do with them."

Gui'er and Taohua took the eggs with many thanks, sent the old woman away, peeled the eggs, put them in the porridge and handed them to Song Tingting. This time Song Tingting finally ate it, and they both breathed a sigh of relief.

Another day passed. Gui'er suddenly heard a commotion outside. The door was kicked open with a loud bang. The Tiger Lord walked in with his men. He looked at the three people and said with a smirk, "You are so good, Song Mansion. You asked for 1000 and only gave 600. Do you think I am a farmer buying vegetables at the market? Can you bargain? It seems that if I don't send something back to your family today, your master and mistress will not take it seriously. Come on, chop off one of her hands first."

Song Tingting was terrified and screamed in fear: "Don't cut my hand, don't cut my hand."

Gui'er and Taohua quickly stood in front of the young lady.

When Tiger Lord's men stepped forward and were about to capture Song Tingting, a gunshot was suddenly heard outside. Everyone was stunned. Then several more gunshots were heard. Tiger Lord became alert and winked at his men, and several people went out.

Guier recalled that when she watched TV in the past, whenever there were gunshots outside, it must be the government bringing people to attack, so she hurried over to insert the bolt and moved a table to prop up the door.

Sure enough, after a while, there was the sound of people banging on the door, and also shouting and cursing: "Open the door, open the door, these three little hooves, you want to rebel, right?"

Then there was a burst of dense gunfire. The three of them held their breath, huddled together in a corner, and dared not even breathe.

When everything around her became quiet, Gui'er bravely walked to the back of the door and looked out through the crack. She saw several people lying on the ground in the yard not far from the door. One of them seemed to be Tiger Lord's subordinate.

Gui'er was just thinking about whether to open the door and go out to take a look, when suddenly a tall figure came into view. It was Song Xichen.

Gui'er quickly asked Taohua to move the table away. As soon as the door was opened, Song Tingting ran into Song Xichen's arms and burst into tears. Gui'er and Taohua looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief.

Afterwards, Song Xichen asked Dagang to drive the three of them back to the Song Mansion. In the car, Guier asked Dagang and learned that Qingfengzhai had attacked the Song family, looted a lot of property, and injured the master. Song Xichen had to endure the pain and use 600 taels of silver as bait to find the location of Qingfengzhai and bring people to suppress the bandits.

Gui'er couldn't help but secretly admire Song Xichen after hearing this. This Song Xichen is indeed a capable man.

When I returned to the Song Mansion, I found that everyone inside was busy. A considerable part of the front hall in the courtyard was blackened by the fire and was being repaired. Some of the servants were moving things, while others were tidying up the burnt flowers and plants in the yard. The scene was very busy.

When everyone saw the young lady coming back, they all hurried forward to greet her. The master and his wife also came out from the inner room. The family was reunited and everyone hugged each other and cried bitterly. Nanny Zhou hurriedly ordered the servants to give the young lady a bath, change her clothes, and prepare some delicious food. She also said that she would ask a doctor to see the young lady.

No one paid any attention to Gui'er and Taohua, so they came to Zhang Ma. Zhang Ma was very surprised to see them. She came forward and hugged them, saying, "Oh my God, please bless me, Bodhisattva! I thought you two would never come back."

Then she took out a few meat buns and a bowl of noodles with minced meat from the cupboard. "Eat quickly," she said to them. "Don't tell anyone else before they know."

The two hadn't eaten meat for two or three days, so they sat down and started to eat voraciously.

While they were eating, Aunt Zhang carefully asked them how they had been doing in the past few days. She asked in great detail, including what they had eaten for each meal, who they had met, and what they had said.

They both answered one by one. Finally, Zhang Ma was still worried and asked again, "So, the three of you have always been together and have never been dragged out by them alone, right?"

Gui'er and Taohua nodded in confusion. Aunt Zhang looked relieved after hearing this. She clasped her hands together and said, "God bless you, God bless you. You are so lucky that your bodies were not ruined."

Gui'er and Taohua finally understood what Zhang Ma meant. Zhang Ma said, "It's the Wu family in the north of the city. A few years ago, their daughter was abducted by bandits on her way home from school. Her body was raped, and she had to hastily marry someone. It is said that the family she found was very poor. She paid a large sum of money when she got married, but they still looked down on her. In the end, she was so depressed that she jumped into a well."

Gui'er said, "Then Miss Wu did nothing wrong."

Aunt Zhang sighed and said, "Who cares? If your body is dirty, it's dirty."

Gui'er felt vaguely uneasy.

After finishing her meal, she returned to the young master's courtyard and ran into Ah Xiang. Ah Xiang saw her and grabbed her hand, wiping her tears as she said, "It's great that you can come back. I thought you wouldn't be able to come back."

Then, like Zhang Ma, she carefully asked them how they had been doing these past few days, what they had eaten for each meal, who they had met, what they had said, whether the three of them had been together all the time, and whether they had been taken out alone.

Gui'er felt very disgusted, but she knew that in the old society only chastity was valued, so she had to patiently tell her again.

Ah Xiang was relieved to hear that they hadn't been raped, and then she said seriously, "Like the young lady from the He family in the north of the city. She was captured by bandits and raped in the mountain stronghold. The woman who had been promised a marriage didn't want her anymore, so she had no choice but to hang herself."

After hearing the other version of the young lady's experience, Gui'er was completely unmoved. She just said she was a little tired and went back to her room.