A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Gui'er was shocked and exclaimed, "This is impossible! My brother is wearing a military uniform. Who would dare to offend a soldier these days?"

Wu Mingqiang said indignantly, "If I could find out who this blind man is, I would kill him."

Sha Yanxiao asked Gui'er, "Did anything happen at home?"

Guier said, "You didn't come home last night. I told my father early this morning. He said he would go look for you and told me to do whatever I wanted. I took a rickshaw to go to school this morning."

Dali said, "It seems that the Marshal doesn't know about this matter. What are you going to do, Marshal?"

Sha Yanxiao remained silent.

Gui'er asked, "Brother, do you think it was the eldest wife's fault this time?"

Dali said indignantly, "Besides them, who else?"

Gui'er said, "Since that's the case, why not just go and explain this to Dad and see what his attitude is."

Wu Mingqiang said worriedly, "Is it safe to go out now?"

Dali volunteered, "I'll go to the barracks and ask the brothers to escort us."

Sha Yanxiao nodded in agreement and said, "Be careful on the road."

After Dali left, Gui'er couldn't help but look around the house. Although the outside looked shabby, the inside was neat and tidy, obviously renovated. Wu Mingqiang brought her a cup of hot milk and said, "Miss, have a drink of milk to moisten your throat. This is the house I bought. I deliberately left it alone from the outside to avoid attracting attention. I did put some effort into renovating the inside, but of course it's nothing compared to the Marshal's Mansion."

Gui'er had originally thought this was Sha Yanxiao's villa, but she hadn't expected it to be Wu Mingqiang's. She politely complimented him, "So this is Wu's house. It's quite unique. The crystal chandelier looks just like the one hanging at the Sincere Company in Shanghai. It's truly magnificent."

Wu Mingqiang beamed upon hearing this, and hurried to the kitchen to ask someone to prepare some food and pastries. Gui'er then realized that there were actually housekeepers and servants here, and quickly said, "No need, wait a minute, Dali Ge should be back with his men."

Wu Mingqiang smiled and said, "It's okay. It's the same if I let the young lady take it away and eat it later."

Not long after, there was a sudden noise in the yard. Everyone in the house became alert, and even those who were injured and bandaged immediately pulled out their guns.

Wu Mingqiang walked to the door and looked into the yard through the peephole. After looking for a long time, he waved towards the inner room. A woman in her 40s who was dressed very simply and looked like a cook in an ordinary family came out.

Wu Mingqiang said to her, "Go and take a look. If it's Dali Ge coming back, open the door."

The woman went and walked to the door, opened a small window, looked in, and opened the door.

Dali ran in and said to Sha Yanxiao, "Boss, everything has been arranged. On the way back to the Marshal's Mansion, we have arranged brothers with guns to ambush at commanding heights along the way. We will also have some people in disguise to monitor and control the road, and there will be 20 soldiers in uniform following the car." This arrangement can be said to be foolproof.

Sha Yanxiao took Gui'er's hand and said, "Let's go."

Everyone present stood up. Sha Yanxiao turned around and said to the injured people, "You don't have to come with me. Just stay here and recover."

The few Wu Mingqiang said respectfully, "Yes."

The journey back was very smooth. Guier even made a special observation and found that there were indeed one or two snipers stationed on some high floors along the road they passed by. They were just very secretive and could not be discovered by ordinary people.

As soon as they returned to the Marshal's residence, Sha Yanxiao took Dali to look for the Marshal. Dingxiang was startled when she saw Gui'er and said, "Miss, why are you back so early today? Did something happen at school?"

Gui'er just smiled. She didn't know how to start, so she turned on the radio and listened while waiting for Sha Yanxiao to come back.

An hour or two later, Sha Yanxiao and Dali returned, but they looked unhappy. Sha Yanxiao forced a smile and said to Guier, "I forgot you were still in school. Let Dali take you home first."

Gui'er wanted to ask the Marshal's reaction, but with so many servants in the room, it was difficult to tell her, so she just nodded in agreement.

After school, Guier went to the Zhenxiufang and told the shopkeepers Zhang and Liu about the incident. Liu said, "Sha Yanxiao is in trouble, so why did they have to bring you over? It's meaningless."

Shopkeeper Zhang said, "After all, he spends every day with Gui'er and has taken care of her for so long, so he has some affection for her. He's also worried that something might happen to her at home, so it's normal for him to take her to see him."

Shopkeeper Liu sneered and said, "A good girl like Gui'er will be liked by everyone she spends more time with. I feel that Sha Yanxiao saw that she was popular with people in the Marshal's Mansion and wanted to bring her along to block the attack, so that those who attacked him would be more cautious. Anyway, everyone knows who did it."

After hearing what Manager Liu said, Gui'er didn't know whether it was true or not, but if Sha Yanxiao really needed her help, she would actually be willing to help. After all, she had received a lot of care from him in the past two years.

Judging from Sha Yanxiao's expression after he came back from seeing the Marshal, I'm afraid things are not going particularly smoothly. Sha Yanxiao has no support from his mother's family. This time the conflict is between the wife with a Shanghai gang background and Sha Yanxiao who has no foundation at all. It's normal for the Marshal to be biased and want to smooth things over, but he's afraid that Sha Yanxiao will be in danger next.

Gui'er said to Shopkeeper Liu, "Shopkeeper Liu, do you have any good ideas for resolving this matter? From my personal point of view, this is just a family conflict, there's no need to cause any loss of life. Didn't Brother Xichen say that the Japanese will attack from Shanghai in a few years? If this continues, even before the Japanese attack, chaos will break out here."

Shopkeeper Liu was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "I didn't expect you to have such a broad perspective. What you said does make sense. We can't start a chaos among ourselves. These two brothers are the rulers of these two cities. If they start fighting among themselves, it won't be good for the people either. Let me think about it."

Shopkeeper Liu frowned and thought for a moment, then suddenly clapped his hands and said, "I got it. Have you read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms? Zhuge Liang gave Liu Qi a plan: Shen Sheng would perish within, while Chong'er would live in peace outside."

Gui'er thought about it carefully and there seemed to be such an anecdote. Liu Biao, the governor of Jingzhou, had two sons. He preferred Liu Cong, the son born to his second wife. Liu Qi, the eldest son of his deceased wife, was in danger, so Zhuge Liang asked him to garrison in other places, away from the administrative center, so that he could survive.

Gui'er suddenly realized and said, "You want me to persuade Sha Yanxiao to go somewhere else? But if that's the case, it's like asking him to give up everything here. I'm not sure he's willing to do that. He still has a group of brothers under him."

Shopkeeper Liu smiled and said, "I'm not asking him to give up, but to garrison Fengcheng. Fengcheng was conquered by the Young Marshal, and that's common knowledge. I believe the people he initially appointed were all his own trusted confidants. While the Marshal hasn't yet eliminated those he planted, they should quickly garrison there. When the two cities have equal military strength, Sha Yanxiao will be able to challenge the Marshal. If he doesn't want to hand over his military power, I guess Marshal Sha won't be able to do anything to him."