Debbie gave a bitter smile. Although Chunhong was older than her and was her elder sister, she was much more naive than her.

"Without a travel permit and a deed of residence, where in the world can we find a place to stay?"

As a slave, Debbie had heard too many stories about the miserable fate of fugitives who could not go more than thirty miles without a pass and were stopped by officials and taken back to their masters' homes.

Chunhong bit her lip and remained silent. Their fate was doomed the moment they were sold by their parents. They would be slaves for the rest of their lives, and their life and death would be decided by their masters.

Debbie soothed him, "Just take it one step at a time. The wound on your forehead hasn't stopped bleeding yet. I'll go find some medicine."

She pushed Chunhong into the house and went downstairs to borrow medicine to stop the bleeding from the innkeeper.

Debbie was afraid of helping the young lady to harm others, and she also had to deal with the thieves and bandits in Danzhou, but she had no choice and no way out.

In the kitchen of the Yu family, after washing the pots and bowls with Song, Yu Jiao added water to the pot, went under the stove, and said to Song, "Aunt, you go and rest first, I'll boil some hot water."

Song wiped her hands and did not return to her room. She stood in the kitchen and chatted with Yu Jiao, "Meng Yan is right. Your marriage with Qi Zhe will be arranged after you reach the age of 15. It is time to choose a date and get married sooner. What do you think about this?"

Yu Jiao was not prepared for Song to bring up the topic again. She could roughly guess that Song was afraid that she would have some grudges because of Yang Jiyan's matter, so she said this to reassure her.

Yu Jiao smiled and said, "Let's wait until Fifth Brother takes the imperial examination before discussing marriage. We don't want to distract him during this period of time."

Seeing that Yu Jiao was willing and had no intention of avoiding the marriage, Song Shi was relieved and said with a smile, "You are thoughtful. Then wait until Fifth Brother finishes the imperial examination. Then I will invite a matchmaker and I will go to meet my mother-in-law and discuss this matter in detail."

Although Yu Jiao was bought in the beginning, she has redeemed her indenture and is now a free person. If the old man had not insisted on listing her in the Yu family's genealogy and indenture, Yu Jiao might have already left the Yu family.

Song really treated Yu Jiao as her daughter-in-law and did not want to neglect her family. If she really wanted to arrange a marriage, she should have hired a matchmaker and brought betrothal gifts to give Yu Jiao enough respect.

The water on the stove soon boiled. Song fetched some water and sent it to the east room for Grandpa Yu and Yu Zhou. Yu Jiao asked Song to take the remaining hot water and she boiled another pot for herself.

Song brought hot water for Yu Mengshan to wash up and left the kitchen.

Yu Jiao added some firewood to the stove. The warm flames warmed her cheeks, making her charming eyebrows look softer.

Yu Jiao really likes this feeling of being warm. The sunshine and the scorching fire have the power to drive away the haze in people's hearts.

There were footsteps coming from the kitchen door. Yu Jiao looked up and saw a tall shadow in front of the low wooden door of the kitchen. Yu Qizhe walked in slowly.

"But we need water? And we have to wait for a while." Yu Jiao said.

Yu Qizhe walked to the stove and sat down on the stool next to her. "I'll stay with you for a while."

Yu Jiao chuckled, "What's so good about making a fire?"

Yu Qizhe lowered his eyes to look at her, his dark blue eyelashes casting two thin shadows on his cheeks, "Staying by your side is never enough."

He will be leaving for Shengjing soon, and the two of them may have to be separated for half a year. Yu Qizhe originally planned to take Yu Jiao to the capital with him, but... he was afraid that he could not protect her.

Some time ago, he wrote a letter to Lu Jin, asking him to secretly investigate whether there were any missing baby girls or children living outside in the Annan Marquis' Mansion and Liu Ci Fu's Mansion.

The day before yesterday, Lu Jin wrote back to him, saying that there were only two legitimate sons and one illegitimate daughter in Liu Ci Fu's mansion, and no children were lost.

The Annan Marquisate had only one legitimate son, Gu Yun, and two illegitimate brothers; there had never been a girl born in the family.