A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Then he pulled Guier out without saying anything.

After leaving the yard and seeing no one else around, Gui'er said to her, "Lily, I don't mean to criticize you, but your father is seriously ill now, so don't be so ostentatious. If people find out, it won't be good to gossip about you."

Sha Lili said nonchalantly, "I knew you would be so cautious and helpless, hiding away. I came here specifically to enlighten you."

Gui'er said in surprise: "Enlighten me?"

"Yeah, my mom said that too. She said you're a nice person, but you've been getting a little close to my second brother lately."

Guier smiled bitterly and said, "Need I tell you? We live in the same courtyard."

Sha Lili shook her head and said helplessly, "You still can't see clearly. Now that father is dying, with the tempers of Madam and Big Brother, they might still want to fight. Look, my mother has already called my two uncles to help in order to avoid getting involved with either side. This way, at least Madam won't dare bully us. To be honest, our courtyard has already received the money."

"Really? Then what about the other courtyards..."

"Hush, don't tell the other courtyards. Madam is actually trying to win over them by doing this. Besides, she gave our family more than expected. I guess the amount distributed to the other courtyards will be less. Maybe they won't give anything at all."

Gui'er didn't know there was such a thing. She smiled and said to Sha Lili, "You definitely didn't come here to drag me to see the scarves. Do you have anything to say to me? If you have anything to say to me, thank you in advance."

Sha Lili smiled and said, "Oh, I don't think you're completely stupid yet. You're a teachable kid. I just wanted to remind you that the eldest and second brothers are secretly competing with each other. You're definitely close to the second brother, but you should also make some contact with the eldest brother, so that Madam doesn't have an excuse to accuse you of taking sides."

Gui'er suddenly realized that she had rarely visited the eldest wife's house recently. It turned out that to outsiders, she had already taken sides. She bowed politely to Sha Lili and said with a smile, "That's a wake-up call. I'll go and pay my respects to Mother right away. Thank you for reminding me."

"You're welcome. We're all family, and we've always had a good relationship. Besides, no matter who's between the eldest and second brother, he's still my brother. If the second brother secures his position as the commander-in-chief in Jiangcheng and Fengcheng in the future, you'll have to say something good for me then, so that I won't be in vain reminding you now."

Gui'er quickly said, "Of course, but it seems like none of you in the hospital visit your father very often. Is that okay?"

Sha Lili sighed and said, "Ever since my mother fell out of favor, she and the Marshal have been maintaining a superficial respectability. In order to please him over the years, my mother said that she almost endured nausea. My father is a tyrannical, unpredictable, mean and ungrateful man. Who could like him? I think even the lady rarely goes to his room now. She just sends my eldest brother to keep an eye on him for show. After all, we have two uncles in the courtyard, so she doesn't dare to do anything to us. On the contrary, those ignorant people will probably suffer."

Gui'er sighed, not knowing what to say. Considering the Marshal's character, it was no one else's fault for the consequences.

Sha Lili said, "Since we are free now, why don't we go to the main room to pay our respects to the Madam?"

Guier hesitated for a moment and agreed.

When I arrived at the main courtyard, I found that the servants were busy inside, either mowing the lawn or planting flowers. There were even craftsmen renovating the pavilion in the courtyard.

Manager He was commanding them in a commanding manner: "Hey, those flowers you planted are over there. Dig up the chrysanthemums here and plant peonies instead. Workers over there, hurry up! The Madam can't stand the noise."

Gui'er felt strange. The Marshal was seriously ill, so it was reasonable not to start any construction in the mansion. She smiled and greeted Steward He, "Hello, Steward He."

When Steward He saw that it was Gui'er and Sha Lili, he stepped forward, bowed, and said with a smile, "So it's you two young ladies. What can I do for you?"

Sha Lili smiled and said, "We just happened to run into each other in the courtyard. I remembered that I hadn't paid my respects to my mother for several days, so I came over to pay my respects to her."

Steward He said with a smile, "You two young ladies are so filial. Madam is chanting sutras in the Buddhist temple."

Gui'er asked curiously, "Manager He, is this courtyard going to be renovated?"

Steward He glanced at the second floor and lowered his voice, saying, "Because of the Marshal's incident, Madam feels that things have been going badly lately. She must be thinking that the Feng Shui of the mansion is bad, so she specially asked Master Jin to come over and take a look. He said that this would be beneficial to Madam's health."

Upon hearing this, Sha Lili immediately said, "Mother is truly far-sighted. My mother and I have been saying that things have been going wrong lately, but we've been at our wit's end. We never thought there would be such a solution. We'll definitely ask Jin Suanzi to take a look later."

Gui'er never believed in such things. Besides, it was the Marshal who was ill, so what was the point of her repairing her own yard? However, she was too embarrassed to say it out loud, so she smiled and walked into the house with Sha Lili.

Miss Tian and Jin Bao were both sitting on the first floor. Miss Tian was bored, smoking a cigarette and listening to music on the radio. Jin Bao was holding his son awkwardly, not knowing what to do.

Seeing them come in, they immediately perked up. Jin Bao stood up to greet them and said with a smile, "Since you two ladies are here, you should come and stay for a while. The Marshal is in such poor health now, and it's not easy for us to go out and play. It's so boring staying in the mansion." Then he turned to his maids and old women and said, "Hurry up and get some fruits and snacks to entertain us."

Miss Tian rolled her eyes at her and ignored Gui'er. Instead, she walked over and affectionately took Sha Lili's hand, pulling her to sit next to her. She said with a smile on her face, "Sister Lili, I heard that your brother-in-law is planning to open a factory in Hong Kong. Is that true?"

Sha Lili smiled and said, "Hey, these are men's affairs. I don't ask about them. But I heard that there is such a thing. Some of his uncles have gone there to explore the area. I just don't know what the market is like over there. They say it's easy to get to the sea and it's a British place. As long as we manage it well, it will be easy to do business."

"Really? Well, it's good to have connections. Unlike your brother, who works hard for the government, it's dangerous and the income is slow, and he gets a fixed salary. What can he do? He relies entirely on other people's filial piety, and he might even be caught. Can you ask your son-in-law if it's convenient for us to buy shares? We're all family, and we can make money together, and the risks will be less for you."