A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Although Gui'er asked Sha Yanxiao to take away all the valuable things in his room, in order not to attract attention, he only took away some gold, silver and jewelry, including the gold bars and jewelry left by Ji Yiru. Later, Gui'er went to his bedroom and took a look. Many of the gorgeous clothes, hats, leather shoes and bags left by Ji Yiru were not taken away. However, it was strange for a man to take away these things.

Gui'er said to him, "These things are not suitable to be given away. Brother, why don't you keep the one you like as a souvenir? I will convert the others into silver, and then I will send some to the servants in the courtyard if they need it."

Sha Yanxiao nodded and said, "That's a good idea. There's no need to keep a souvenir. She and I were just a couple who got along, and in the end, there was no love left."

Gui'er sighed and said nothing more.

The next morning, when Gui'er went to school, Sha Yanxiao took her there as usual. When they arrived at school, Sha Yanxiao hugged her and said, "Be careful here by yourself. If you can't stand it anymore, go find Wu Mingqiang and ask him to take you to Fengcheng to see me."

Gui'er nodded, feeling inexplicably sad.

After she got out of the car and walked into the campus, Sha Yanxiao turned around and left as usual, but this time he drove straight out of the city.

The next morning, Gui'er went to find Sha Lili to go to school with her. The people in the Marshal's Mansion were shocked to find that Sha Yanxiao had already gone to Fengcheng. They all wondered how he could have left so quietly this time.

Guier smiled and said, "Brother said this time is different from the past. The past were just routine inspections, but this time the bandit problem could be big or small, so we have to hurry up to make arrangements. Besides, didn't father say it would be in these two days? It's only in these two days." After that, no one knew what to say.

After that, Guier would take advantage of Dingxiang's absence every day to pack up and register Ji Yiru's high-end clothes, leather shoes, and bags in Sha Yanxiao's room one by one, as it was inconvenient for her to take them out.

She asked the elderly female maid who usually cleaned Sha Yanxiao's room to find an opportunity and secretly transport those things out of the crack in the remote courtyard wall of the Marshal's Mansion that she had discovered before. She then asked Manager Zhang of Zhen Embroidery Workshop to receive them there, and then entrusted Manager Zhang to help her sell them.

Gui'er always knew that Ji Yiru liked luxury. Most of her clothes were custom-made or imported, so they should be quite valuable. She didn't expect that just a dozen custom-made cheongsams sold for four or five hundred silver dollars, and hats, scarves, bags, and leather shoes sold for more than two hundred silver dollars. The total amount was enough to buy a farm.

Gui'er asked Zhang to call Song Xichen, took out 100 silver dollars and said to him, "This is part of the money from selling the belongings of Sha Yanxiao's late wife. I know our anti-Japanese cause needs money, so this is my donation."

Song Xichen and Zhang the shopkeeper were both surprised and said, "It's good that you have this intention, but what if Sha Yanxiao finds out that the money is missing?"

Gui'er said, "I told him in advance that I wanted to sell these things. As a child, I was bound to be cheated. It's only 100 silver dollars. He shouldn't blame me."

After hearing this, Song Xichen patted her head and said, "Okay, then I'll accept it. Are you having a good time in the Marshal's Mansion? Is anyone giving you any trouble with Sha Yanxiao without him?"

Gui'er smiled and said, "Not yet. I am still a master, and the people in the courtyard are all Sha Yanxiao's men. They won't make things difficult for me."

Song Xichen then nodded in relief.

Gui'er thought there were too many silver dollars and it was difficult to store them, so she only kept 100 silver dollars. She asked Zhang to exchange the rest for yellow croakers, and hollowed out a Kangxi dictionary, made it into a piggy bank, and hid it away. Fortunately, Dingxiang was illiterate and had no interest in reading, so she never looked through her books.

A few days later, Gui'er came back from school and was sitting in the living room doing her homework. The housekeeper said, "Miss, dinner will be ready soon." Gui'er nodded and put away her homework.

The servants were busy bringing in food when suddenly, a strange woman's voice was heard in the yard.

Gui Er was very surprised. She came out and saw that it was actually the Fifth and Sixth Concubines. She quickly said with a smile, "Fifth and Sixth Concubines, why are you here? I was just about to eat. How about joining in?"

The fifth and sixth concubines smiled at each other and said, "That's great. Gui'er's treatment here is really good. Unlike us, we don't even have a small kitchen. We have to go to the big kitchen to get food. Every time we get it to the yard, it's already cold. Eating it in winter will give you diarrhea."

Gui'er was actually very surprised by their arrival. These two people were usually like quails, never saying a word, as if they were afraid of being caught by others. Why did they seem to have bad intentions now?

Although the Fifth and Sixth Concubines didn't hold high positions in the Marshal's Mansion, they were still Gui'er's elders. She decided to wait and see what would happen, so she said to Dingxiang, "Go get some more bowls and chopsticks."

When the two of them sat down at the table, they took a look at the food on the table and shouted, "Oh my, look, it's worthy of being the Second Young Master's courtyard. One person can actually eat five dishes and a soup, and there are delicious dishes such as eight-treasure duck and sea cucumber. We usually eat them once every two weeks in the big kitchen."

Gui'er was startled, then quickly smiled and said, "Excuse me, my two concubines. When I ate alone before, I always had three dishes and a soup. But with my second brother away these past few days, the servants said that my appetite seemed to have decreased, so they prepared some exquisite food to entice me to eat more."

The fifth concubine pulled the sixth concubine's sleeve and said, "Listen, sister, even if you have no appetite, you can eat delicacies from land and sea. We don't even have this treatment."

Gui'er heard her sour tone and really couldn't understand why they came, so she could only smile and let Dingxiang serve them some food.

After the meal, Guier invited them to drink some tea and eat some fruit, thinking that it was time to leave.

The fifth and sixth concubines were walking around the house, looking around, opening the doors of the empty rooms one by one to look inside. When they reached Sha Yanxiao's door, the fifth concubine was about to open it again, but Gui'er quickly said, "Fifth concubine, this is my second brother's room. You're not interested in your stepson's bedroom, are you?"

The fifth concubine said nonchalantly: "Since I am his concubine, I am naturally his elder. It's no big deal for an elder to take a look." After saying that, she opened the door and went in. Gui'er was worried, so she had to follow her in.

When they entered, they didn't just look around. Instead, they examined each item carefully. One touched the quilt on the bed and said, "This is a Suzhou embroidery quilt." The next, they opened the wardrobe, touched the clothes and said, "They're obviously imported. Hey, Gui'er, why are there so many missing clothes? I saw your sister-in-law wearing many custom-made cheongsams, and they're not here."

Gui'er was glad she had taken the time to get rid of the more expensive custom-made cheongsams and other items. The rest were probably a few cheongsams, Western-style dresses, and coats she'd bought at Wing On Department Store or in Shanghai.

She smiled and said, "After my sister-in-law passed away, my brother got rid of most of her things so he wouldn't miss her. The ones that remain are the ones she loved to wear, so he kept them as a memento."

After hearing this, the fifth and sixth concubines curled their lips, picked up a coat and a scarf respectively, and put them on themselves. Then they rushed to the mirror and twisted left and right to look at themselves.

Although Gui Er didn't understand their purpose, she knew they were definitely up to no good, so she smiled and said, "You two ladies have really good taste. My sister-in-law loved these two when she was alive. She wore them until the last few days of her illness."

The fifth and sixth concubines were like being electrocuted when they heard this and quickly took off their things.