A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

"There's no news from the Fourth Concubine's courtyard, but I think she must know about it, because she issued an order not to let anyone in the courtyard talk about it. I guess she was talking about this matter."

"There's no news from the Third and Seventh Concubines' courtyards either. The sisters in their courtyards all say they don't know what happened. But Miss, many of the servants in the mansion have made some guesses. Some of them are not quite right, but everyone knows that the Marshal suddenly went to the hospital, which is unusual."

"How's Eighth Concubine's life going? Have you heard anything?"

"In the Eighth Concubine's courtyard, the maids of the Xiang generation are not allowed to get close to her and can only do rough work. But I also went to ask around and heard that the Eighth Concubine is asking people everywhere for news about the Marshal, wanting to know what happened."

After hearing this, Gui'er concluded that everyone in the mansion preferred to mind their own business and did not want to get into trouble. Since Sha Yanxiao was on her side, she still had a chance of winning.

After that, Gui'er stayed in the Marshal's Mansion and did not go to the pharmacy. This was mainly because she was afraid that Duanmu Heng would come to find her, and she would not know what to say when he asked her.

Two days later, the Marshal was discharged from the hospital, and Sha Yanxiao took Gui'er's hand to see him.

Gui'er followed Sha Yanxiao nervously to the main courtyard. The housekeeper and the servants seemed normal. When she arrived at the bedroom, she saw the Marshal sitting on the edge of the bed with a bandage wrapped around his head. Apart from that, there was nothing different about him, he was not even thinner.

"Father, I brought my sister here."

Gui'er was still a little scared. She fell to her knees at the head of the bed, tears streaming down her face as she sobbed, "Father, I'm sorry. Does it hurt? I didn't mean it."

The Marshal turned his head and looked at her, his expression relatively calm. After a while, he asked, "Who told you that Taohua was here that day?"

Gui'er's heart skipped a beat. The Marshal was seeking revenge. She didn't dare to say it was the Seventh Concubine, so she said, "I had an appointment with Taohua to go shopping that day. We went to the Third Concubine's courtyard, and the servants said he came over here. I thought the main courtyard was close to the main gate, so I just came to find her. After we were done, we could leave from here together... I really didn't mean it, wuwuwuwu..."

No one spoke in the bedroom, only Guier's crying. She didn't know what the Marshal was thinking, but now she had no choice but to show weakness.

But the Marshal didn't say anything, so she just kept crying for about ten minutes. Her throat started to become hoarse and her eyes started to hurt.

"Father, my sister really didn't mean it." Sha Yanxiao couldn't bear it anymore.

"Oh, never mind. Stop crying. Look how heartbroken your brother is."

Guier breathed a sigh of relief and slowly stopped crying.

"Your engagement party was supposed to be held these two days. Now that I'm in this state, if I attend a formal event, I'm afraid I'll be laughed at. So..."

"Don't worry, father. I have already informed the Duanmu family that the engagement has been postponed."

The Marshal's eyes widened when he heard this. Gui'er knew that he was going to get angry again, so she quickly knelt down again, admitting her mistake and crying.

As expected, this time, the Marshal didn't get angry. Instead, he sighed and said after a long while, "Their family is very familiar with the Japanese. If we break our promise, it might not be good."

Sha Yanxiao said, "This is our territory. I think if we're too concerned about them, they'll think we're easy to bully. Father's injury hasn't healed yet, so postponing the engagement makes sense."

The Marshal was silent.

Gui'er secretly broke into a sweat. The Marshal was an egocentric person, and Sha Yanxiao was confronting him head-on.

"Where is that girl Taohua?" After a long while, the Marshal suddenly asked.

"Taohua was frightened and caught a cold and had a fever. She is resting in the house. She wanted to come over to kowtow and admit her mistake to father, but father is injured now and it would be troublesome if he got infected by her, so I didn't let her come." Guier said while carefully observing Dashuai's expression.

"Father, Taohua, this girl is timid and cowardly. She doesn't look like a lady from a noble family at all. I'm afraid she won't be able to be the face of our mansion in the future. It's better to let her go out and get married to avoid any more trouble." Sha Yanxiao said suddenly.

Gui'er's heart was in her throat. She didn't expect Sha Yanxiao to ask Taohua to leave the house at this critical juncture. The Marshal had already failed and was beaten up. Now he wanted Taohua to leave. Isn't that like scratching a louse on a tiger's head?

"Asshole, I raised her with great difficulty, and in the end, I let her out to be sold to an ordinary citizen. If this gets out, people will laugh at me. Even if you don't take her into my room, you have to find a useful family to earn back the money I spent on raising her all these years." The Marshal sat up suddenly and shouted angrily, sweeping the things next to the bedside table to the ground with a clatter.

The lamp fell to the ground and almost hit Guier. Sha Yanxiao quickly pulled her aside and avoided it.

The Marshal was breathing heavily, looking a little overwhelmed, and slowly lay back down.

Gui'er was at a loss. She didn't know whether she should speak up for Sha Yanxiao or try to reconcile him first.

The Marshal just lay there with his eyes closed, ignoring them.

Sha Yanxiao waited for a while and said, "Father is tired too, so you should have a good rest. We will go back first." Then he took Gui'er away.

It wasn't until they were outside the main courtyard that Gui'er dared to speak: "Brother, thank you for speaking up for me just now. However, at this critical moment, if you bring up the matter of Taohua leaving the house, father will definitely be angry. There's no need to rush it."

Sha Yanxiao glanced at Gui'er and said, "It's precisely because of the current situation that I should bring this up with Father. I know him better than you do. I wonder what he'll come up with when he recovers."

Gui'er thought that she still had to do something, so she asked Acheng to drive her to Liu's Pharmacy.

Shopkeepers Zhang and Liu hadn't seen Gui'er for a few days and were worried. When they saw her, they quickly pulled her into the inner room. Shopkeeper Zheng looked Gui'er up and down and asked with concern, "How are you? Are you okay? Did anyone from the Marshal's Mansion give you any trouble?"

Guier told him everything that had happened in the past two days.

Shopkeeper Liu sighed after hearing this and said, "I didn't expect the young marshal really loved you. I was a little worried when he took you away."

Gui'er smiled and said, "He's really good to me, but I don't know why he always gets into trouble with Brother Xichen. By the way, is Brother Xichen okay? Has he suffered any retaliation or anything like that?"

Shopkeeper Wu smiled and said, "That's not the case. He's been running around these past few days, investigating cases and catching thieves. He's no different from usual. Don't worry."