A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

The day after attending the funeral, the wife couldn't wait to find Director Tian's contact information and wanted to invite him to dinner at home.

Everyone thought that since they were old friends, it would be easy to succeed. However, after contacting many people, the wife couldn't even get Director Tian's phone number.

Song Tingting's initial elation turned into a face of sneer and sarcasm. She said, "They have connections and backgrounds, and they're afraid we'll take advantage of them. I should have known better than to make such boasts to my friends. If they knew we couldn't hire Director Tian, I wonder how they'd laugh at me."

Sha Yanyao glanced at Song Tingting impatiently and said, "Stop talking."

Gui'er discovered that Song Tingting and Sha Yanyao had always had an average relationship, and since being framed by Director Zhou, the two had become even more distant. However, Sha Yanyao still maintained his outward decency. Since there was no one watching Song Tingting outside, she went out all day to play mahjong and watch movies with a group of ladies.

The Sha family was living in poverty because Director Zhou extorted hundreds of gold bars from them and Jiangcheng stopped providing assistance. However, Song Tingting was not affected because she had financial support from her mother's family.

The lady and Sha Yanyao hinted to her to give some money, but secretly said that she was pretending to be deaf and dumb. If they said it openly, she would throw a tantrum and say that Sha Yanyao wanted to wipe out her family.

Dingxiang secretly gossiped to Guier, "I heard that the eldest young master and the eldest young mistress no longer sleep in the same bed. The eldest young master usually sleeps in the study."

Gui'er quickly said to her, "Don't talk about this kind of thing. If others hear it, they'll think we're gloating."

The crisis caused by Director Zhou was slightly relieved by the wife, but she started to urge Song Tingting to give birth to a baby with a stern face. Song Tingting was too embarrassed to say that they had not slept together, so she could only ignore her in frustration.

Gui'er knew that although Song Tingting was like a quail, she had become more and more like Mrs. Song in the past two years. She couldn't afford to offend her, so she avoided her. Even when Jinbao showed some sympathy for Sha Yanyao, Gui'er warned her, "You and I are both dependents. There are some things that we shouldn't interfere in. Big brother and big sister, even if your marriage is not harmonious, it is still a marriage between two families. Big sister's family is the richest in Jiangcheng. If you say something wrong and offend big sister, it will be bad for both of us."

Jinbao's stay or departure is also a big problem. Originally, Xu Wenjie wanted to arrange for Jinbao to engage in underground activities, but what Xu Wenjie said also made sense. Guier also wanted Jinbao to go to Jiangcheng with Manager Liu and be an apprentice in the pharmacy, but now Manager Liu has not been rescued.

Song Tingting didn't know why she disliked Jinbao even more than Guier. Although Guier had said before that sending Jinbao away now would arouse other people's suspicion, she didn't ask Jinbao to leave again. But she was sarcastic all day long, saying things like someone was eating free meals at home. In fact, she might as well be scolding Guier. Guier could only pretend not to understand.

After breakfast that day, Gui'er was about to take a rickshaw to school. As she was leaving the courtyard, she saw a woman rushing up to her and asking, "Miss, is there a girl named Jinbao in your house? This is my child, and it's time to take her away."

Gui'er was startled, then looked closely. The woman was about 40 years old, her hair tied in a bun, a few strands dangling at her temples. She wore a colorful satin cheongsam, neatly buttoned at the collar and slit to her calf. She wore a pair of black cloth shoes, the uppers slightly worn. Her face was heavily powdered, her eyebrows were narrow, her eyes slightly drooped, and her lips were painted dark red. She looked like someone who was not to be trifled with, and she smelled heavily of cosmetics.

When Ah Cheng saw her, he said in a panic, "Didn't I pay you the rent this month?"

Gui Er immediately understood that this woman must be the madam of the brothel where Jin Bao worked. She didn't want Jin Bao's identity to be exposed, as it would make the people in the mansion look down on her. She quickly said to the woman, "Please go back. Brother Cheng will come to you to deal with this matter later."

The woman smiled and looked Gui'er up and down. She said, "Miss, you don't know that although Jinbao is not very old, she is 17 years old this year. She is in her prime age to receive customers. Although the rent you pay is not cheap, I am still losing money. I have thought about it and decided that I should take her back. If that doesn't work out, you can buy her out. It's not expensive, 100 silver dollars will do."

Gui'er was stunned for a moment. She no longer had her monthly allowance. Although she had some savings before, the total amount was not as much as 100 silver dollars.

At this time, other people in the mansion began to notice this place and looked out curiously. The lady asked, "Who is it?"

Gui Er quickly said to the madam, "Boss, we need to think about this carefully. If I were to take out so much money at once, I'd need to raise some money. How about this? You go back first, and Brother Cheng will come find you. I'll sort it out for you within two days, okay?"

The madam was a well-informed person and could immediately tell that Gui'er didn't want anyone in the mansion to know about the mansion. She smiled, covered her mouth with a handkerchief and said, "Okay, I'm not that ignorant, but you have to hurry up, otherwise our Jinbao will be worthless when he gets older."

After she left, Gui'er pretended to be relaxed and said to the lady, "I don't know, it seems she was just passing by and asked for directions."

Afterwards, she took a rickshaw to the school. Gui'er calculated in her mind that the money she had left was just a few gold bars, a few silver dollars, and some coins and banknotes. If she really wanted to scrape together the money, it was not impossible. However, Wu Mingqiang was still locked up. Even if she called Sha Yanxiao to give her some money, there was no one to give it to her.

Gui'er asked Ah Cheng, "Do you have any good ideas? Is there any news from Little Brother Wu?"

Ah Cheng gritted his teeth and said, "This madam is so wicked! Jinbao isn't one of those girls who was sold to a brothel by her parents and raised there, relying on her for food. She was tricked into being sold to a brothel by her landlord at the time. At most, we paid a few dozen silver dollars for her. She's well-educated and has already started receiving clients. She should have made back her money long ago. But I heard that Jinbao was often reluctant to receive clients. When she saw that the person we were looking for was about the same age, she immediately said she would rent it to us. Now she's actually asking for a higher price."

Gui'er was also unhappy when she heard this, but there was nothing she could do. If this continued, Jinbao's life experience would become known to everyone, which would not be of any benefit to her returning to society.

After racking her brains at school all day long and still unable to come up with a plan, Gui'er was even a little discouraged. She wondered if she should borrow some money from Miss Shen to redeem Jinbao first?