A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Every two days after Gui'er was adopted as an adopted daughter, the manager of the Marshal's Mansion brought three maids for Gui'er to choose from. One was in her 30s, one was fifteen or sixteen, and the other was eighteen or nineteen. They told Gui'er to pick one to be her personal maid, and the other two would stay and serve her. Gui'er looked at Juxiang, who was eighteen or nineteen years old. She was tall and had a silly smile, a bit like Ah Xiang who had hanged herself in the Song Mansion before, so she chose her.

In addition, he also gave her this month's allowance, a full ten silver dollars. Gui'er looked at it and realized that this was the same amount of pocket money that Sha Yanxiao had given her last time. She turned to look at Sha Yanxiao, who smiled and said, "I've raised you like my own daughter."

However, Gui'er was still depressed for several days, mainly because she was worried about her romantic life.

However, the Marshal's Mansion was too large, and the Third Concubine's residence was relatively remote, farther away than the main house, so she had to take a car to get there. The day after the peach blossom ceremony, Sha Yanxiao went to see it on his way to pick up Gui'er from school, and found that the conditions at the Third Concubine's place were indeed not very good. There were only two or three servants in the courtyard. There should have been five, but the Third Concubine gave two of them to her daughter as a dowry.

Taohua went to the third concubine's room. It seemed that the Marshal's Mansion did not assign her a personal maid. Although she was an adopted daughter, she still had to work because of the lack of manpower. When Gui'er went to see her, she was boiling water to make tea. Gui'er suddenly understood the third concubine's little thoughts. Because she was not favored, there were few people serving her in the room and the Marshal would not care. She had no money to hire someone from outside. By adopting an adopted daughter, she could have one more person to serve her, and the monthly salary given to the adopted daughter by the Marshal's Mansion would also be under her control.

However, Taohua was very satisfied. She said that now she was much better than before. At least she was a young lady, and the third concubine also allowed her to take classes with the teacher together with other young ladies in the mansion.

Gui'er didn't know whether Taohua was telling the truth, because the third concubine had been sitting next to her with a smile on her face while they were chatting. Gui'er didn't want to ask if her monthly allowance had been deducted, so she had to say some nice things, saying that the third concubine was a good person and would definitely treat Taohua well, and then left.

Now, except that Gui'er goes to the main hall to eat with the Marshal's family three days a week, there is no other change in her life. The only difference is that now after dinner, she will occasionally follow the lady to sit in her room. Only then did Gui'er find out that Sha Yanyao lives in the same courtyard with the lady. In other words, in the Marshal's Mansion, children from each family live with their biological mother. So when the lady asked Gui'er to live with her, she actually had the intention of winning her over, or wanted to have another child.

Although Gui'er didn't know the purpose of doing this, she was the legitimate mother of the Marshal's Mansion after all, and she felt that it was always right to build a relationship with the lady. When she met the eldest young master Sha Yanyao when she went to the lady's courtyard, she would chat with him. He looked very much like the Marshal and looked very majestic, but his conversation was very gentle and his way of dealing with people was similar to Song Xichen.

She would occasionally visit Sha Lili, and the Fourth Concubine would treat her warmly and would occasionally suggest that she move in with her, though Guier would always find excuses to decline. Sometimes she would run into Sha Yanwen at the Fourth Concubine's place, and they would chat for a while, both tacitly agreeing not to mention the opium-smoking. The Fourth Concubine must have known this, as she would occasionally send something over to her.

Sha Yanxiao was very surprised and said, "I didn't expect a girl like you to be so popular."

Gui'er smiled bitterly and said, "It's not that I'm popular, it's just that Brother Yanxiao has a lot of face." Sha Yanxiao was very pleased to hear this.

The days passed one after another. One day, Gui'er had just returned from school and was sitting in the living room doing homework. Sha Yanxiao was reading a newspaper beside him. Butler Zhang walked in and said to him nervously, "Young Marshal, Chief Song of the Police Department is here to visit you, but he's being stopped outside by the guards."

When Gui'er heard that it was Song Xichen, she was extremely excited. He was finally back. He had been away for several months.

Sha Yanxiao felt a little annoyed by Gui'er's excited expression. He crossed his legs and said, "We don't usually interact with each other. What did he want to talk to me about? Did he tell me?"

The housekeeper said, "No, I just said I have something urgent to talk to you about."

Gui'er knew that Song Xichen was actually looking for her. Seeing that Sha Yanxiao was reluctant to see him, she tried to sneak away. Out of the corner of her eye, Sha Yanxiao saw Gui'er hunched over and about to slip away. He quickly stepped over and grabbed her, saying to Butler Zhang, "Please bring him in."

After Butler Zhang left the house, he turned around and said to Gui'er, "Don't do anything rash. You're the daughter of the Marshal's family now. If you get too close to a man outside, it will be very troublesome if my father finds out."

Soon, Song Xichen was brought to the young marshal's courtyard. Gui'er jumped for joy when she saw him. She ran up to him and said, "Young Master, you're back."

Song Xichen picked up Gui'er and spun her around before putting her down, saying, "I just got home and heard that you and Taohua came to the Marshal's Mansion. My father advised me to go to the school to find you tomorrow, but I was afraid that something might have happened to you, so I came here directly." It turned out that Song Shichang did not tell him the truth, probably because he was too embarrassed to say it.

Sha Yanxiao's face was not looking good, and he said coldly: "I wonder what Director Song wants to talk to me about? Can we go inside and talk first?"

Gui'er also noticed that the servants in the courtyard were staring at them, so she quickly pulled Song Xichen into the house. Song Xichen asked, "Why did you leave so suddenly? Did someone in the mansion bully you?"

Guier sighed and told the whole story in one breath.

The more Song Xichen listened, the gloomier his expression grew. He pulled Gui'er aside and said, "My mother isn't such a vicious person. Someone must have instigated this behind the scenes. Don't worry, I will give you justice. Come back with me now."

Gui'er smiled. Although she felt relieved that Song Xichen did not try to smooth things over, she could no longer go back to the Song family.

Sha Yanxiao sneered from the side, "Director Song, are you kidding me? Gui'er has been adopted as my father, Marshal Sha, and is now the daughter of a wealthy family. And you still want to take her back and make her your personal maid?"

Song Xichen was stunned for a moment and said, "What's going on?"

Sha Yanxiao said proudly, "Gui'er is quite capable. There was an assassin at our party before, and she was the first to spot him. She blocked the attack with her own body and saved my life. My family is not one to repay a favor, so my father adopted her as his adopted daughter. Now she has the same food, clothing, and living expenses as my other sisters."

Song Xichen was very surprised when he heard this. He quickly turned Gui'er's body over and carefully examined her. He found a small piece of tape on her ear. He gently stroked Gui'er's ear and asked, "Is this the injury you suffered back then?"

Guier nodded. Actually, it is almost healed now and the stitches have been removed. But in order to make the wound heal better, she will put a piece of tape on it to protect it.

Song Xichen said sadly: "If I hadn't left, you wouldn't have left the Song family, and you wouldn't have encountered such a dangerous thing."

After hearing this, Gui'er felt a mixture of emotions.

The two sat in silence for a few seconds before Song Xichen broke the silence and said, "I came here rashly just to see if you were okay. Now that you're okay, I'm relieved. If you have any problems in the future, feel free to come to me. Bye."

Gui'er quickly stood up and wanted to see Song Xichen out, but was stopped by Sha Yanxiao.

Sha Yanxiao smiled and said, "Director Song is thoughtful. If you want to see Gui'er in the future, just come to me. Butler, please show her away."