A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Jin Bao gave a wry smile and said, "I don't know whether to call you stupid or kindhearted. Now is the time for everyone to find their own way out. Your brother is right. We should spend more time with the Marshal. Besides, we are actually competing against each other right now."

Gui'er smiled and said, "Why are we arguing? We're all family. Besides, I wanted to take a leave, but when I got home from work today, I saw that the servants in my father's yard were all standing there with nothing to do. He himself was quite energetic and didn't need our care at all."

"That's not what I said. I heard your eldest brother and his wife were discussing asking Butler Zhao to hand over the account books. Anyway, the reason I ran out to find Cheng Gang was because they called Butler Zhao to the main courtyard to discuss something and kicked me out. I wanted to ask Miss Tian to leave too. Your eldest brother even gave her money so that she could go shopping for clothes, but Miss Tian was just too shameless to leave and insisted on staying in the courtyard. I couldn't do that. After all, I wasn't the principal wife, so I had to obey and come out."

Gui'er comforted her, "Since they've asked you to leave, it must be something fishy. Wouldn't it be better if you stayed out of it? At least it's safer. You just need to take care of the two children. My eldest brother won't let you down anyway."

Jin Bao smiled and said, "That's true. I'll go back to our courtyard first."

Gui'er said with her, "I should go and say hello to Mom too. She must have been very worried about Dad these past few days."

Jin Bao said in surprise: "Ah, if you are to win the favor of the Marshal and his wife, you are indeed very considerate. But the smoothness of others seems to be fake, but you are sincere."

Gui'er smiled and said nothing. In Jinbao's heart, she still regarded herself as a little girl who knew nothing about the world, not knowing that she had grown up in the family fights.

The two of them were talking as they walked towards the main house. As they reached the main house gate, they happened to meet Zhao Zongguan coming out.

He saw Gui'er and Jinbao, bowed with a smile, and said, "You two are back."

Jin Bao asked curiously, "Manager Zhao, how did your conversation go?"

Manager Zhao smiled and stammered, "This, that..."

Seeing that he was in a dilemma, Gui'er said to Jinbao, "Let's go in quickly. I have to greet Mother. If it's too late, she might want to rest."

Manager Zhao breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile, "Then you two can go in quickly. I'll take my leave now."

The two of them entered the main courtyard, and Guier ran to the lady's room to pay her respects.

The wife was obviously in a bad mood and said impatiently, "I heard that you've been very busy lately, working as a nurse in the hospital. How come you have time to come to my place today?"

Gui'er said calmly, "I went to see my father when I came back today, and he was just like yesterday. I thought my mother would be worried, so I came to see her. I hope she can relax."

The lady curled her lips, noncommittal, and continued, "What did your brother say? He should have told you to spend more time with the Marshal. Now every room is racking their brains to get close to the Marshal and see if they can get some advantage. They only know their own ulterior motives, but no one has considered that as the mistress, with the Marshal in his current state, all the burden falls on me, and there is no one to share the burden."

Gui'er said quickly, "How could that be? My brother is worried that someone with ulterior motives might take advantage of Father's current condition to cause trouble, so he's focusing even more on military and political matters. He also told me to visit Father more often when I have time, so I can show him more filial piety. But I see you've made all the arrangements, Mother. Although our hospital has sent some capable people over, they're clumsy and can't help much. Too many people would make the environment noisy and disturb Father's rest. So I thought just asking how he is every day would be enough. Of course, if Mother needs anything, I'm always available to help."

After hearing this, the lady's expression brightened slightly. She asked, "Did your brother really only ask you to care about your father and said he was busy with official duties, and didn't say anything else?"

Gui'er knew she was worried that Sha Yanxiao would come and fight for the family property. After all, Sha Yanxiao had an army and held administrative power over both Jiangcheng and Fengcheng.

She smiled and said, "My brother didn't say anything else, but he said that luckily mother is here in the mansion and can take charge of the situation. If he were here alone, I'm afraid it would become a mess."

The lady was very pleased to hear this and said with a smile, "That's right. If I were here, the concubines would be less likely to act recklessly. At least they wouldn't dare to do anything out of turn in front of me. Go back and tell your brother to work with peace of mind. I'm here for you. You're a filial child. When you were little, you said you wanted to learn medicine so you could treat the people in the mansion in the future. Unfortunately, your father fell ill before you could finish your studies. You don't have to ask for leave. Go back to the hospital and work as usual. I'll arrange for trustworthy people to take care of your father in the mansion. There's nothing to worry about. Go back and rest early."

Guier said good night to her ladyship and left.

The moon was already high in the sky at this time. The yard of the main house was still some distance away from her own yard. Seeing that it was getting late, Gui'er wanted to go back and rest quickly, so she took a shortcut and walked over from the rockery.

Normally she didn't go there because there were several places where people could hide. Maids and servants would usually go there for secret meetings or to whisper. She had encountered maids whispering there several times. She felt that these maids were quite pitiful. They didn't even have a place to talk privately. In order not to disturb them, she rarely passed by there.

It's so late today, there shouldn't be anyone there.

She walked quickly across the stone bridge of the rockery. When she was about to walk out of the rockery, she suddenly heard footsteps.

"Dad, why did you suddenly ask me to come here so late at night?"

"Nothing, I just saw that you're young and I was worried that you might act rashly. And now there are so many outsiders in the courtyard, it's not convenient to talk, so I specially called you out to chat."

"Dad, don't worry. The Marshal trusts me very much."

"What's the point of trusting him? He's already confused now. What he promised one second ago won't count the next. I think you should give up on getting engaged to Miss Gui'er. She doesn't want to, so why force it and only make the Second Young Master dislike you?"

Gui'er finally recognized who was behind it. It was Manager Zhao and his adopted son Zhao Yingwu. She didn't dare to go forward. She looked around and saw a crack in the rock where she could hide someone. She tiptoed in.