A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

After Taohua left, Guier anxiously waited for Song Xichen to come back.

Usually, Song Xichen would go out for social events until midnight, and when he came back, Gui'er would have already fallen asleep.

Today, when Song Xichen returned home, he found the little girl sitting obediently in the living room waiting for him to come back. He couldn't help but feel a little happy. He walked over, touched her head and said, "Why aren't you sleeping yet? You have to go to school tomorrow."

Gui'er hurriedly and attentively made tea for Song Xichen and helped him take off his coat.

Song Xichen also noticed something was wrong today, frowned, and smiled: "Do you have something to ask of me today?"

Gui Er gave him the brewed tea and, after checking that the servants had all left, she cautiously said, "I heard that the young lady is getting engaged to Young Master Liang. Is that true?"

Song Xichen nodded and said, "The Liang family is indeed pushing very hard."

Gui'er quickly asked, "Are you sure you're going to get engaged?"

Song Xichen smiled and said, "Why are you suddenly concerned about this?"

Gui Er smiled cautiously and said, "I don't think that dandy young Master Liang is worthy of the young lady."

Song Xichen thought for a moment and said, "As for him, his personal reputation is indeed not very good, but he is also the legitimate eldest son of the Liang family. He helps his father manage several pawnshops. He is a capable person."

Gui Er quickly said, "It's useless if a person has good abilities but bad morals. He will definitely not treat the young lady well."

Song Xichen asked, "How do you know he won't treat you well?"

Gui Er blurted out, "He's not even engaged yet, and he wants Taohua to be his concubine. How can he be a good person?"

Song Xichen asked, "Is this true? Did Taohua tell you?"

Gui Er knew she had let the cat out of the bag, so she quickly shut up. After a while, she continued, "Taohua is only nine years old, and she really doesn't like this Young Master Liang. Young Master, could you please help and ask him not to be a concubine?"

Song Xichen touched his chin and said, "I haven't heard of this. I think Liang Zhenbo told his sister about it himself. My sister is just too kind... Wait, do you know what a concubine does now?"

Gui'er was stunned for a moment. She didn't expect Song Xichen to have the time to think about these things. She could only stammer, "I think I know."

Song Xichen smiled, picked up Gui'er and placed her on his lap, and asked her, "Then will you be my concubine?"

Gui Er was so anxious and embarrassed that she didn't dare to move from her seat on Song Xichen's lap. Suddenly, an idea struck her and she said, "If Master can help me get Taohua so that she doesn't have to be Master Liang's concubine, then I can agree. But I have to wait until I grow up, at least until I finish middle school."

I am still several years away from graduating from high school. When that time comes, I will have an education, have grown up, and have saved some money. If things really don't work out, I can run away.

Song Xichen touched her little face and said, "Are you negotiating terms with me? I am the master of this family."

Gui'er quickly grabbed Song Xichen's big hand and said, "Guier knows that the young master loves her the most and will never bully her."

These few words were like a kitten's paw gently scratching Song Xichen's chest, making him feel itchy and powerful, and his heart melted.

Song Xichen took great pains to control the corners of his mouth that were about to turn away and said, "Okay, let me understand the situation first."

Gui'er finally felt a little relieved.

A few days later, Guier heard that Wu Ma's daughter Xiaolian had gone to the young lady's courtyard to work as a personal maid.

Gui'er was very surprised. How could this be the result?

Before asking Song Xichen, Aunt Zhang told her the reason.

Aunt Zhang smiled and said, "What do you know, little brat? The Liang family is also a wealthy family. Seriously speaking, our young lady will definitely have a maid as a dowry when she gets married. I heard that the Liang family wants our family to send a maid as a concubine, and they also want to let that maid go to serve Young Master Liang after the marriage is arranged. How can Taohua be so young? Xiaolian is always thinking about climbing up the social ladder. She always wanted to be the eldest young master's concubine, but the eldest young master didn't agree. This time, she is arranged to be in the young lady's room. As long as the Liang family agrees, she will be a maid as a concubine. If she is lucky enough to give birth to a son, she can be promoted to a concubine. Aunt Wu didn't think twice and quickly agreed."

Gui'er knew that this must have been arranged by Song Xichen, but she felt that this method was only to solve the immediate problem. Taohua, as the lady's personal maid, would also have to go to the Liang family as a dowry. If she was caught in such a situation, she would be easily harmed by Young Master Liang. The best way was to prevent them from getting married.

But Gui'er couldn't think of a good solution for the time being, so she had to do this for now. Taohua happily heard the news and gave Gui'er a handkerchief with an osmanthus pattern embroidered by her herself. It was very delicate and Gui'er liked it very much.

As time went by, the engagement date between the Liang and Song families was finally set, two months later. After that, Young Master Liang had closer and closer contacts with the young masters and ladies of the Song family.

Early this Sunday morning, Song Xichen took Gui'er and said that he wanted to take the young lady to the restaurant on the second floor of Wing On Department Store for a buffet.

When I got on the car, I found that the lady who followed me was not Taohua, but Xiaolian.

Gui'er felt something was a little strange, but she didn't want to show it, so she thought about finding Taohua to ask what was going on after she came back.

When they arrived at the restaurant, Master Liang was already waiting there. It turned out that the young lady had come so that he could meet Master Liang. Master Liang also brought a small follower with him. The three of them stood behind their respective masters.

When Young Master Liang saw Xiaolian, his eyes lit up involuntarily. He stood there for several seconds and didn't even hear what Song Xichen said to him. It took him a while to come back to his senses.

Guier noticed that Xiaolian's clothes today were different from usual. Usually, servants wore solid-color coarse cloth jackets, black bell-bottom pants and straw sandals or cloth shoes. Xiaolian was Wu Ma's daughter, so she was a little better than the average servant. She wore tops with various patterns, but they were also made of coarse cloth.

Today Xiaolian wore a silk cheongsam with flared sleeves and a vest, which had exquisite embroidery. If a lady wasn't sitting and she was standing, others would have thought she was also a lady.

Faced with Young Master Liang's frivolous gaze, Xiaolian did not feel disgusted. Instead, she lowered her head with a little shyness and a smile.

Gui'er thought that if this person became Young Master Liang's concubine, she might compete with the young lady for favor. Forget it, as long as Taohua was fine, it would be fine.

Song Xichen exchanged a few pleasantries with Young Master Liang, then said, "Let's go get some food first." Turning back to Gui'er, he said, "You can get some food too. It's all paid for."

Guier nodded and went to find a plate to get the food. This buffet restaurant had quite a lot of food, including cream-roasted chicken, filet mignon, hamburger steak, grilled chicken, cheese baked noodles, stewed fish, cream cake, cheese sticks, milk, coffee, flaming ice cream, and so on.

Because Gui'er had eaten buffets in her previous world, she was familiar with the place and chose the dishes with ease. The servant and Xiaolian brought by Young Master Liang were dazzled by the dazzling array of delicious food. The servant kept putting food into his own bowl, which attracted the attention of the waiter standing next to him. Gui'er quickly moved away from him and pretended not to know him.

Xiaolian followed Guier closely, doing whatever Guier did, for fear of making any mistakes.

At this time, Master Liang suddenly squeezed over to talk to them: "Sister Gui'er, you look really good in this pearly white dress. Look at your thin face. You should eat more. This master will pick up a piece for you."

Gui'er said quickly, "Thank you, Master Liang. I can pick it up myself." She used her own bowl to avoid the big piece of greasy steak that he was holding, but she failed to avoid it and he put it in anyway. While she was doing so, her fork accidentally fell to the ground.

Young Master Liang said considerately, "I'll pick it up for you." Then he squatted down to pick it up.

Gui'er looked at Master Liang's head and suddenly found that there was a lot of worm-eaten hair loss on the back of his head and occipital bone.

The word "syphilis" suddenly popped up in Guier's mind. She remembered that she had read such popular science before: people with syphilis will have bald patches of hair that look like worms eating them.

This was the first time she had seen this in real life. She was so frightened that she was numb. She quickly moved one meter away and took a closer look. She found that this Young Master Liang did not have a flat head, but a slicked-back hair. The gaps between his hair could be clearly seen, indicating that his symptoms were very serious.

When Gui'er came to her senses, she found that Master Liang had been groping on the ground for a long time but couldn't pick up the fork. She was feeling strange, but when she looked down, she saw that Master Liang was pretending to look for the fork on the ground with one hand, while touching Xiaolian's calf with the other hand.

Guier hurried away, walked to another corner, picked up another fork, returned to the table where the young master and the young lady were sitting, and sat down at a table next to them.

Song Xichen and Song Tingting were chatting when they saw Gui'er coming back. He said to Song Tingting, "You can also go pick out some food that you like."

Song Tingting nodded meekly and got up to leave.

Seeing that there was no one around, Gui Er quickly said to Song Xichen, "Master, I noticed that Master Liang has lost a lot of hair. The shape of his hair looks a bit like syphilis."

Song Xichen asked, "What is syphilis?"

Guier then remembered that syphilis wasn't called that before. After a moment's thought, she finally remembered it and said, "It's venereal disease."

Song Xichen's expression suddenly became serious: "Did you see it clearly? How could you understand this?"

Gui Er had no choice but to start making up stories again: "A doctor came to my hometown village before. He said that Zhang San from our village had syphilis, so that's why his hair is like this. I think the shape of the hair loss on Master Liang and Zhang San's heads is very similar."

Song Xichen pondered for a moment and said, "I understand. When they come back, just pretend nothing happened, okay?"

Guier nodded.

Afterwards, everyone took their food and returned to their seats. The masters sat at one table, and the three servants sat at another. Song Xichen continued to chat calmly with Young Master Liang.

Young Master Liang was able to please everyone. He chatted with Song Xichen, complimented Song Tingting from time to time, and took the time to wink at Xiaolian.

Gui'er felt sick watching this.

After finishing the buffet, we politely said goodbye and went home.

After that, Young Master Liang was never seen coming to the house again. Soon, Guier heard from Aunt Zhang that the two families were no longer engaged because Young Master Liang had fallen seriously ill and had gone to Shanghai for treatment.