A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Gui'er felt that if this continued, the two of them might be beaten to death. She looked around, but didn't see the Marshal, so she didn't dare to intervene. While she was hesitating, Sha Yanxiao came over, looked at the two people on the ground, frowned, and said, "What's going on?"

The servants next to him told him: "The ninth concubine is having an affair with this guard." It turned out that this person was actually a guard in the Marshal's Mansion.

Sha Yanxiao looked around, but couldn't find the Marshal, so he asked, "Where's the Marshal?"

The left and right said, "The Marshal hasn't come back yet."

Sha Yanxiao said with a dark face, "Father is not here, so who decided to do this?"

Everyone around was silent. I just kicked you and hit you with a stick, but now no one admits it.

Seeing that no one spoke, Sha Yanxiao said, "Send them both to heal their wounds first, and then we can discuss this with Father when he comes back."

For some reason, the Marshal did not return home for dinner that day. Everyone waited until after dinner time, ate in the main hall, and then went back to the courtyard.

Gui'er was a little uneasy. She felt that both of them were seriously injured. If left alone, they might really die.

So he asked Sha Yanxiao, "Brother, what do the people who went to treat the Ninth Concubine say about their injuries? I think the man is seriously injured."

Sha Yanxiao was reading a newspaper. When she asked, he looked up and said, "I did ask them to arrange for someone to treat him. I don't know what's going on. Let's go and take a look."

As he spoke, he took Gui'er's hand and led him to the ninth concubine's courtyard. It was Gui'er's first time here. She usually went to the main courtyard, the third concubine's courtyard, and the fourth concubine's courtyard. She had also been to the eighth concubine's courtyard once or twice before.

She originally thought that all the concubines' houses were similar, with a courtyard, a small Western-style building, a small kitchen, a housekeeper, servants, and maids. She didn't expect that the ninth concubine's house actually had only two courtyards surrounded by a fence with some flowers planted inside. There were two maids and a servant. The servant was only twelve or thirteen years old and still looked like a child.

Seeing Sha Yanxiao coming over, the Ninth Concubine's subordinates panicked. Sha Yanxiao asked, "How is your grandmother's injury?"

The little girl lowered her head, not daring to look at him, and said softly, "I just fed you half a bowl of porridge."

"I asked if you were healing?"

"There's no medicine in the hospital..."

"Go ask the butler for it."

"Yes."

The maidservant left, and Guier walked over to see Ninth Concubine Qiuju lying on the bed, her face pale, her face bruised and red, her eyes swollen, and blood oozing from the corners of her mouth. She was almost unrecognizable, and she was completely motionless, looking as if she were dead.

Gui'er didn't dare to touch her. After a while, she slowly opened the eye that was not swollen. Seeing Gui'er, she showed a very surprised expression. She opened her mouth, but seemed unable to make a sound. She frowned and tried hard, and finally uttered a weak voice: "I didn't expect you to come to see me."

Sha Yanxiao next to him showed a surprised expression: "Do you know each other?"

Gui Er said to him, "Brother, you should know that I was initially saved by Young Master Song. This Ninth Concubine was Qiu Ju, the most popular prostitute on the brothel I was sold to at the time."

Sha Yanxiao asked doubtfully, "Isn't she the adopted daughter of that boss?"

Qiu Ju said sadly, "Gui'er is lucky. She was bought after just two days on the flower boat. Then she was rescued and brought to a good family's mansion."

"When I was seven or eight, my parents sold me to a brothel. I stayed there for ten years until I was 17, when I was sold to Mr. Liang from the pawnshop as his concubine. Mr. Liang often made me entertain many bosses, but it was better than being on a brothel. Later, he said he wanted to offer me as his daughter to the Marshal. As long as I kept quiet, no one would know, and I would be a glorious concubine."

"These days are the best days of my life. Marshal, you must believe me. I didn't commit adultery. That man was just my long-lost cousin. We didn't dare recognize each other for fear that if people knew about my past on the flower boat, I would be disliked by the Marshal."

Guier knew that this was definitely not true, because she saw with her own eyes the Ninth Concubine and that man having a tryst in the rockery. However, if she told the truth at this time, the Ninth Concubine would definitely die, so she chose to remain silent.

At this time, the little maid finally came over with a small bottle of medicine, poured out the powder from it and rubbed it on the Ninth Concubine's body, causing her to shudder in pain.

Sha Yanxiao asked, "Where is that guard?"

The little maid said, "It seems that he was locked up in the woodshed in the main courtyard."

Sha Yanxiao said to the servant in the Ninth Concubine's courtyard, "Go ask the housekeeper to find someone to apply some medicine to him, don't let him die."

After saying this, he pulled Gui'er out. Before they even stepped out of the fence, the maid who was taking care of the Ninth Concubine came out and said, "Young Master, the Ninth Concubine is having a hemorrhage."

Gui'er was startled. Why was she bleeding suddenly? Was it because of severe internal bleeding? She was about to turn around when Sha Yanxiao pulled her back.

Sha Yanxiao said to the maid, "What's the point of telling me? Go find the doctor at the Marshal's Mansion. I'm not a doctor."

The maid ran out timidly.

Later that evening, the doctor from the palace came to Sha Yanxiao's courtyard to report to him: "The ninth concubine has had a miscarriage."

Sha Yanxiao said expressionlessly, "Go talk to the Marshal. I can't handle this matter."

The doctor in the mansion left timidly, and Sha Yanxiao sneered.

Gui'er was completely confused and quickly sat down next to Sha Yanxiao and said, "Brother, what's going on?"

Sha Yanxiao sneered and said, "Father married her to expand the family and have more sons. This doctor takes the young concubine's pulse every month. I'm afraid he knew that the ninth concubine was pregnant long ago and allowed her to be beaten. Now that the matter has become a big deal, I don't know how it will end. I want me to take the blame and tell father about it."

Gui'er said, "Who started this? Father isn't here today. Even if he found out, it's not right to just hit her. After all, she's the one Father loves."

Sha Yanxiao smiled mysteriously and said, "You haven't been to your big brother's room much lately. His foot is almost healed."

Gui'er was puzzled: "What does this have to do with big brother?" Suddenly she realized, could it be because Sha Yanyao's leg was healed and the lady thought he could inherit, so she couldn't allow a new son to be born?

Gui'er was in a complicated mood, because she was the only one who knew that the Ninth Concubine was having an affair with someone else, so even if she was pregnant, it might not be the Marshal's. However, she still planned not to tell anyone. Now that the child was gone, there was no point in telling anyone, and it would cost two lives in vain. It was really unnecessary. In her opinion, having an affair was not a capital crime.

Sha Yanxiao patted Gui'er's head and said with an ambiguous smile, "Do you know who tipped off the Madam?"

Gui Er looked at him and suddenly remembered Ding Xiang had mentioned to her that the Ninth Concubine was having an affair. Suddenly she understood and said in surprise, "Could it be Ding Xiang?"

Sha Yanxiao smiled and nodded.

Gui'er was completely baffled. Dingxiang was usually quite a decent person, so why would she become an informer at this moment? She frowned and said, "Dingxiang did mention this matter to me, but I didn't want to get involved, so I changed the subject. Why would she do this? And she only heard it from hearsay, with no actual evidence."

Sha Yanxiao breathed a sigh of relief, took a sip of the tea on the table, and said, "Since I can't follow you to marry and become a concubine, I naturally want to do something meritorious so that the lady can arrange a good family for her. I told you before, she is restless, so just replace her."

Gui'er thought for a moment and said, "Brother Yanxiao, let's wait. If we replace her right after this incident, the Madam will notice and might even offend her. It's better to wait a while before we decide."