A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Gui'er was very surprised when she heard this. She originally thought it was just a matter of a servant getting promoted in an ordinary house, but she didn't expect it to be so tragic. She thought of Taohua's talk about the Marshal's harassment of her. It seemed that she had to find a way to get Taohua out of the Marshal's mansion, the sooner the better.

On the way back to the Marshal's Mansion after finishing work at the Zhenxiu Workshop, Gui'er felt bored and didn't want to go back. Ah Cheng noticed that her face was not right and asked, "Miss, you don't look very happy."

Gui'er sighed, "There are too many things that bother me." She turned her head to look outside and said to Ah Cheng, "Brother Ah Cheng, please take me to Wing On Department Store. I'll go shopping."

Ah Cheng sent her to Wing On Department Store. After getting off the car and walking into the mall, Gui'er started wandering around aimlessly. The mall was filled with a wide variety of goods, but she had no interest in them at all. Thinking back to the first time she followed Song Xichen to Wing On Department Store, everything seemed so luxurious. Now she couldn't even muster any interest. It seemed that she had no confidence in this world.

"Brother, since you're here, why don't you help me settle the bill?"

"You're like this again. You're already married, why are you still acting like a child?"

"Come on, okay."

Gui'er suddenly heard a very familiar voice and turned around to see that it was Song Xichen and Song Tingting. She was holding her brother's hand and rocking back and forth. Her belly was deflated, probably because she had given birth.

In this situation, Gui'er didn't know whether to go up and say hello. After all, Song Tingting was her former sister-in-law, and she felt quite embarrassed.

While she was hesitating, Song Xichen saw her.

"Gui'er, come over to the mall."

"Hello, Brother Xichen, hello, Miss Song." Gui'er had no choice but to bite the bullet and greet them awkwardly.

Song Tingting ignored her and kept shaking Song Xichen's arm.

Song Xichen was a little embarrassed and took out a few silver dollars from his pocket and handed them to her.

Song Tingting grabbed the silver dollars, took out two or three of them and handed them to the salesperson at the department store. The salesperson gave her the change enthusiastically. Then she picked up the large and small packages on the counter, turned around and said to Sha Yanxiao, "Thank you, brother. I'm leaving first, brother." Then she walked out in a flash without even looking at Gui'er from beginning to end.

Song Xichen looked at her back, sighed helplessly, and smiled at Guier apologetically.

"Why are you alone today?" Song Xichen looked around.

"I just came out of the Zhenxiu Workshop. I didn't want to go back home, but I had nowhere else to go, so I wandered here."

"I heard what Shopkeeper Liu said. It's normal for you to feel stressed. Why don't we go to the second floor to eat something before going back."

Guier readily agreed.

When they arrived at the dessert shop they used to go to often, Song Xichen ordered her favorite cream cake.

Guier looked out through the glass window on the second floor, but saw that Song Tingting did not go far, but walked into a restaurant holding a man's hand.

She pointed with her finger, and Song Xichen turned his head and saw Song Tingting. He sighed: "Family disgrace should not be made public, but I really can't do anything about my sister."

Gui'er smiled and consoled him, "It's hard to say what fate is. They broke up peacefully, so let it go. Maybe she's happier now. She was really depressed when she was in the Marshal's Mansion with the Madam's strict control."

Song Xichen sighed, "Although my parents were angry at their lack of ambition, they still bought them a place to live outside. When they had a child, they sent servants and nannies to take care of it. They acted like children, spending their days in debauchery and having fun. My father asked the boy to learn business management, but he refused. He just wanted to ask for rent from the shops at home. My parents saw that they were not doing their jobs properly, so they naturally refused. They just ignored it and asked for money from home when they needed it. My parents did have a monthly allowance, but it was always spent before the middle of the month. Then they would find ways to ask for money from the family, even asking the second and third concubines, which made my mother lose face."

Gui'er never expected that Song Tingting, who used to be such a noble and proud young lady, would become like this. She couldn't help but sigh in her heart and could only comfort her insincerely: "Little girl, when she grows up, maybe she will figure it out and learn to make progress."

Song Xichen gave a wry smile, then suddenly remembered something and said to Gui'er, "Last time you asked me to help investigate the leader of Qingfeng Village. I did find out a little bit. I discovered that Qingfeng Village claims to be a stronghold. In fact, that stronghold is very close to the mine that Sha Yanxiao currently oversees. Previously, they were responsible for guarding the mine and running the cavalry for the Marshal. They also opened casinos and pipes on the street, but they were still legal at the time. They didn't engage in murder, robbery, kidnapping, or other heinous crimes. They didn't look like bandits at all. I'm wondering why they suddenly started committing crimes around the time I took office?"

Gui'er also found this very strange. Qingfeng Village helped the Marshal to look after the mines, so didn't that mean they were his subordinates? Then the head of Qingfeng Village would be the equivalent of Wu Mingqiang today. It seemed reasonable to give the Marshal's illegitimate son to them to raise, so how could they suddenly become bandits?

An idea suddenly occurred to her, and she quickly asked Song Xichen, "Brother Xichen, doesn't your family also run a mine for the Marshal? When did that start?"

Song Xichen thought for a moment and said, "It started this morning when I was little. My father was from a local business family. When the previous Marshal was in office, he supposedly entrusted the mine to the Song family, only paying a certain percentage of the revenue each year. Later, Marshal Sha took over Jiangcheng and took back one of the mines, handing it over to the head of Qingfeng Village for management. Later, when the young Marshal returned to the Marshal's Mansion, he took over that mine."

After hearing this, Gui'er nodded and said, "I see." It seems that the Song family is still very powerful in Jiangcheng. She always thought that Mrs. Song used her to win over the Marshal to get this mine.

A very scary thought suddenly came to her mind, but it had not been confirmed yet, so she didn't want to say it out loud.

Gui'er and Song Xichen chatted for a while before going back.

Today is not the day to have dinner with the Marshal, but Gui'er came back a little later than usual. As soon as she entered the house, she saw Sha Yanxiao already sitting in the living room, and the food was already served in the dining room.

Gui'er quickly said to Sha Yanxiao, "I'm sorry, brother, I came back late today."

Sha Yanxiao gave her a meaningful look, then smiled and said, "Where did you go to play?"

Gui'er smiled. Ah Cheng was Sha Yanxiao's man, so she couldn't hide anything from him. She told him the truth, "After leaving Zhenxiufang, I felt a little bored, so I went to Yong'an Department Store for a while. I happened to run into my former sister-in-law and Director Song, and we chatted for a while."