Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Poisonous Woman
"It will bring bad luck if you pick up men from the street!"
"Don't be so kind. If he blackmails me later, won't that ruin my reputation?"
"Just now I saw the axle was neatly broken. It must have been tampered with secretly. Who knows if this man is the same villain?"
Chu Xian retracted her foot and sneered, "Huh, the emperor has such a desolate and barren land under his feet, a village infested with rats!"
"Sui Qing, go see if he's still breathing."
"Yes." Sui Qing squatted down and took the man's pulse.
"Miss, his life is not in danger, he was just...knocked unconscious by you."
"Oh, then let's go quickly. Since he's still breathing, why bother with him?"
Xianrong and Suiqing looked at each other, lowered their heads and followed the girl away.
The official road was muddy and slippery. Chu Xian was afraid of falling, so she walked in the dry ditches.
Suddenly, she stepped on a lot of broken bones. Chu Xian looked carefully and was immediately horrified. She actually stepped on a lot of children.
Some of those children were just white bones, some were still intact, and some had their limbs broken and were in a terrible state after being bitten by some wild beast. Most of them were baby girls.
"This dark ditch is so creepy."
The little maidservant Sui Qingchui hugged her arms tightly in fear, but still felt the cold coming from the soles of her feet.
There were piles of bones everywhere, and Chu Xian tried her best to avoid stepping on them.
However, the corpses and bones were so dense that there was no way to avoid them. She still stepped on a slender leg bone. She bowed apologetically and said, "I'm sorry, little sister."
Regardless of ancient or modern times, the world has always been cruel and unfair to women, without exception.
There were endless scattered bones in the ditch, and I didn't know where to start collecting the bones, so I just let them stay where they were so they could keep each other company.
The master and his two servants stepped out of the ditch and walked through the flowers and willows. After stopping and starting for two or three hours, Sui Qing finally realized something was wrong.
"Miss, the dowry farm is in the south. You've taken the wrong road."
The girl's dowry farms totaled seventeen, seven of which were located in the suburbs of Beijing. The dowry farm on Baiwang Mountain should be on the southern slope, but the girl inexplicably rushed all the way to the north.
Chu Xian broke off a willow branch and played with it carelessly.
"Follow me closely. After entering the manor, there will be no more slaves or maids. I am the maid Lin Shu."
The character "Chu" can be split into two parts: "Lin" and "疋". "疋" sounds the same as "Shu".
"I'll remember that." Sui Qing quickly changed her words.
"Yes, Lin Shu." Xianrong said nervously.
As dusk fell, a building with red mud walls and mulberry-shaped windows came into view.
The remaining rain wet half of the red mud wall, revealing a charming and shabby desolation.
"Miss...Lin Shu, where is this?" Xianrong bit her lips, feeling that they were burning.
"It's the eighteenth dowry farm. This farm is not included in the dowry list."
Chu Xian took off the felt hat and gauze veil that covered her face, took out a red porcelain bottle from her sleeve, lowered her head, dipped a handkerchief in the medicine in the bottle and rubbed it on her face.
When they looked up again, Xianrong and Suiqing looked at each other in surprise.
The girl's appearance was obviously different from before.
Although she is not ugly, she has an ambiguous and light beauty, as light as wind and smoke, and her eyebrows and eyes have no unforgettable stunning features. After turning around the screen, I can't remember the outline of her eyebrows and eyes.
"You should also apply some medicine, and remember to control your throat when speaking to cover your voice." Chu Xian handed the small porcelain bottle to Xian Rong.
She and Wan Ning often joked around in the city, so they had to hide a few things.
This disguise potion was bought by the Eighth Prince Yinsi as a new toy to help Wan Ning relieve her boredom because he was worried that Wan Ning would be wronged if she showed up in public.
No matter how big a hole Wan Ning makes outside, she doesn't need to worry. Mr. Ba will always be gentle and patient in cleaning up the mess for Wan Ning and support her.
Look at the fourth prince Yinzhen again, haha!
Chu Xian rolled her eyes in disgust. Ever since she came into this body in the 30th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, she had never seen the Fourth Prince.
Xianrong and Suiqing took off their veils and applied the medicine. After the master and servants had changed their appearance, Fang Ba stepped into the quiet farm.
Although it is called a manor, it has only five tiled houses in total. In front of the house, a shallow stream meanders through a sparse persimmon forest. In the backyard, there is a piece of thin land of about ten acres, where good and bad vegetables and fruits are planted.
Chu Xian looked around, feeling happy.
The northern foot of Baiwang Mountain is mostly barren and dry land, with only seventeen or eighteen households sparsely populated, all of whom are Han civilians. The Banner people look down on this place, so it is perfect for her to relax here.
The servants who guarded the manor were the family of Bao Sanchun, her mother's companion during her lifetime.
I haven't been here for two years, but Old Bao has managed the farm in perfect order.
"Ladies, may I ask what you are doing here?" A tall and strong man with a curly beard, a square face and drooping eyebrows strode over, carrying a wooden bucket.
"Manager Bao, the three of us are the maids sent by the young lady to guard the manor. My name is Lin Shu."
"I'm Xianrong, and she's Suiqing." Xianrong put her hand on the sword at her waist and looked at the rough man warily.
"Steward Bao, this is the pair of cards the young lady gave me. Please check them. The young lady has asked me to take charge of the manor, and you will assist me."
Chu Xian took out half a sandalwood playing card from her sleeve, which had vermilion secret patterns and numbers printed on the edges.
The card was split in half and used as a token to verify the items and identity with the servants.
"The young lady didn't send any message in advance."
Bao Sanchun took the pair of cards with suspicion, turned around and went into the west wing. When he turned back, he had a smile on his face, and the two pairs of cards in his hand were perfectly matched.
"Ladies, please come this way. The manor is cramped, so please stay in the brightest east wing."
Chu Xian was about to go to the east wing when she suddenly saw a pretty girl in a pink summer cotton shirt sticking half of her body out of the kitchen.
"Father, the vegetable porridge is ready. I'll go and invite the refugees to have some."
Upon hearing this, Chu Xian stopped in her tracks, suppressed her rage, and gently dissuaded him, "Manager Bao, you can't go!"
Manager Bao forced a smile and bent over to explain.
"Miss Lin, what we are cooking today is all the broken rice we cleared out of the granary. It's worthless. Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda. Our girl has a kind heart. If she were here, she would definitely not bear to see the starving people everywhere."
"I am here to manage this manor on behalf of the young lady. According to the rules, you must first write to the young lady for permission. If the young lady finds out about this, both you and I will be in trouble."
"Before you get the girl's permission, you can go to the back of the house to pick wild chrysanthemums and make wild chrysanthemum tea for the refugees to cool down, but you can't give them any food."
"Ms. Lin, why are you so hard-hearted and unkind? You..."
Chu Xian patiently interrupted the indignant Bao: "Boss Bao, let me ask you, have you noticed that the bark on the persimmon tree in front of the yard has been stripped? Are those refugees still human? No, they are not."
"How ridiculous! I'll take you into the city right now to seek justice from the girl. How can they not be human? You are such a vicious person!"
Bao Sanchun was so angry that his face turned red and he blew his beard and glared.
"Manager Bao! Listen to me!"
"If I remember correctly, there are only 413 kilograms of wheat and 133 kilograms of sweet potatoes left in the granary. There are also 74 kilograms of peanuts, 36 kilograms of soybeans, and less than 50 kilograms of red and mung beans combined."
"There are also two pigs, sixteen chickens, and a yellow cow in the farm."
Bao Sanchun was dumbfounded. This Miss Lin actually knew all the trivial matters in the manor.
"Let me ask you again! How many refugees are there nearby? If we give all the edible food in the village to the refugees, how many days can they survive?"
"This... there are refugees everywhere in the mountains. I didn't count them carefully. I just wanted to make some porridge to help a few." Bao Sanchun shuddered and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
He calculated in his mind and knew that even if all the edible things in the village were given to the refugees, they would not last more than two days.
"Manager Bao! Do you know what it means to be guilty of possessing a treasure when a man is innocent?"
"Let me ask you again, if the refugees' hunger for your meager porridge becomes unsatisfactory, and they become convinced that there is food and treasure in the village, and attack at night, how will you survive?"
"If it were in the strict Fortress of Fortress, even if you let them eat meat and drink wine, it would be fine, but this is Baiwang Mountain, far away from the military camp in Beijing!"
Chu Xian wanted to beat this idiot to death with a stick. Fortunately, she came today, otherwise Bao Sanchun's whole family would have died because of their stupidity.
She held her breath and could not get angry or hold anyone responsible at the moment. She had to be patient and coax Bao Sanchun in a gentle voice to do his thing. They would settle the score together after they had survived the crisis.
"Some of the victims were so hungry that they even traded their own children for food. Some were so hungry that they chopped up their parents to feed themselves. Are they still human?"
"No, no, no, they are not human, not human." Bao Sanchun was sweating profusely.
"How many times have you delivered porridge to the refugees?"
Chu Xian saw five or six porridge buckets that had not been cleaned yet lying under the eaves, and closed her eyes in despair.
"I started delivering porridge at noon the day before yesterday, and delivered it...six...six times." Bao Sanchun shivered.
"Now that things have come to this, tomorrow morning, you will go and gather the women and children from the disaster-stricken area. Everyone in the village will immediately change into tattered, coarse linen clothing, without any jewelry or hairpins."
"Have the nearby families provided free porridge?"
"It's all...it's all been donated. Let's all discuss and do something...something righteous. If we don't follow the crowd, we'll inevitably be criticized and looked down upon."
Chu Xian was suffocating, sucking the dregs and sipping the vinegar, like a fence-sitter with no opinion of her own! She was really going to be killed by Bao Sanchun!
"Xianrong and Suiqing, starting today, you two will take turns on night patrol. Bao Sanchun, have each family send a male adult to patrol together until the court has properly resettled the refugees."
Chu Xian held her forehead helplessly, a splitting headache coming on: "Sui Qing, go pick up that man on the roadside."
The situation in Gyeonggi was unexpected. She wanted to kidnap the vicious man back. If he couldn't survive this life-and-death crisis, she could use his life to threaten the bandits lurking in the dark.
If she died, she would tear him into pieces and die with him.
Chu Xian changed into a mulberry-colored hemp shirt and turned back anxiously.
"The rest of you, come with me and build a porridge shed in the open space in the yard!"
"Ah? Girl, didn't you say that we can't give out porridge? Why do we have to set up a porridge stall?" Xianrong was confused.
"We are now in a difficult situation and have no choice but to provide relief. If we stop providing porridge, the victims will surely complain and even bring disaster upon themselves."
"They have eaten our refined rice porridge and have concluded that we have no food to give away."
Foolish Bao Sanchun, if she had used hard-to-swallow brown rice or wheat bran to make porridge instead of refined rice, she wouldn't have had to take such a risk.
If they are really hungry victims, they can eat tree bark, weeds, and soil, and brown rice and wheat bran are even more delicious in their eyes.
"Why is it wrong to give out porridge now, and wrong not to give out porridge either? It's really like a small amount of rice is a favor, and a large amount of rice is resented. Aunt... Lin Shu, let's hide back in the city immediately."
Xianrong stamped her feet anxiously.
"No hurry. If we leave, all the people around here will die."
"Xianrong, go on night patrol. There are bound to be bandits disguised among the refugees, trying to take advantage of the situation. Be careful."
Chu Xian looked up at the sky. A cold moon was struggling among the horizontal clouds, casting a sickly cold light. She sighed dejectedly.
If her guess was correct, there must be an ambush on the way out of the mountain, and they had been caught in a trap.
I don’t know if I can survive the life-and-death crisis tomorrow.
"Yes." Xianrong jumped out of the wall with her sword in hand.
Just after midnight, Chu Xian was so tired that she was panting. The skin on her palms was rubbed off and she was gasping for breath in pain.
In less than an hour, Xianrong drove away seven or eight refugees who were robbing at night.
"Girl, the person has been brought back."
Sui Qing came back leisurely carrying a torn sack.
"Lock him up in the woodshed and don't let him die."
"Girl, the stone bridge that you must cross to get out of the mountain collapsed at some point."
Chu Xian was silent for a long time after hearing this.
"Miss, this young man is not a refugee. He has a pass. Please take a look." Sui Qing held the pass found on the man in front of the girl.
Chu Xian took the pass with a fixed gaze, glanced at it, and coughed awkwardly twice: "In that case, after he wakes up, we can throw him back to the official road."
Sui Qing was shocked: "Ah, throwing it again?"
Chu Xian picked up the porridge spoon and gritted her teeth, "Throw it away."
Now this village is full of dangers. If the man is left here, he will inevitably lose his life.
"Ahem...Vile woman! How dare you!"
A weak and clear low roar of anger suddenly came.
The author has something to say:
----------------------
[Starry Eyes] Please collect, thank you~
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
