After listening to Su Qing's story, Xu Lanyin sighed. Her departure from Gu Wangchen was more difficult than hers, and she had lost more.
Xu Lanyin poured her another glass of warm water and asked, "How do you want me to help you? First of all, I won't form an alliance with you."
Sympathy is one thing, alliance is another. Those who choose alliances should be more cautious.
Su Qing smiled bitterly and said, "I still have the reputation of knowing myself. Now I am just a helpless woman who can be blown down by a gust of wind, with a premature baby less than a month old. I have no great ability and no one to rely on. Why should I ally with you? I have suffered so much, and I have thought it through. I just want to live well and raise Qian'er. I don't say that I want him to be a talented person, but I must not let him become like his father. Alas, if I didn't have this child, I would go out and become a nun to accumulate blessings for my next life."
The ambitious reborn heroine wanted to live a low-key and peaceful life, and even wanted to become a nun. The stimulation she experienced in this life was even greater than in her previous life.
It seems that not every reborn heroine will have a prosperous life.
If Su Qing had asked for help with household registration, Xu Lanyin would have helped her unconditionally. This was a pitiful woman, and the child was even more pitiful.
Xu Lanyin was still interested in the "reason for being moved" and asked, "What is the reason you said that makes me moved?"
Su Qing took off the package and opened it. Inside was a set of cotton-padded jacket and trousers for a child, tied up with ropes to look like a silk-wrapped rabbit.
Carrying this thing on her back all the time was like wearing a cotton-padded jacket. Xu Lanyin felt hot for her and wondered if she had any prickly heat.
Su Qing opened her cotton-padded jacket and trousers again, revealing two small wooden boxes wrapped inside. She then fished out an oil-paper roll from one sleeve of her jacket. She then opened the oil-paper roll and the small wooden box, revealing a roll of banknotes, ten gold bars, and a gleaming red gold hairpin inlaid with jewels and embroidered with a swallow's head.
Xu Lanyin's pupils shrank because the hairpin was too familiar.
She calmed down and casually picked up the hairpin and said, "This hairpin is really beautiful."
She turned the hairpin and observed it carefully. On the surface, it looked very similar to the one Zhao Wu gave her, but upon closer inspection, there were still differences. It was not as delicate as that hairpin, and it did not have the "Ying" character on it.
When she saw that there was no "Ying" in the name, her heart sank again, and she secretly thought that she had almost made a big mistake.
Xu Lanyin put the hairpin down and said with a smile, "This gold hairpin is very special."
Su Qing smiled and said, "Here are eight thousand taels of silver in banknotes, one hundred taels of gold, the secret Yanshang hairpin, plus the two hundred taels of silver and a few pieces of jewelry that Xiaohe has on her. That's all I have. What I ask for is a household registration for me and my son, to protect us from bullying, and to keep our true identities secret. That's all. If Madam Zhao can do it, take as much as you like, or all of it."
But in her heart, she thought, I bet you're not that greedy. A woman who's been with Gu Wangchen for so many years would be pissed off by greed. I also bet you wouldn't bully an orphan and a widow, wouldn't take all that silver and gold. Take that hairpin, and maybe we can both fulfill our wishes...
The requests Su Qing raised were easy to fulfill, but Xu Lanyin was left feeling both amused and annoyed. After all, she was a concubine's daughter, lacking much instruction and experience. Even after her rebirth, she still wasn't considered magnanimous.
Xu Lanyin deliberately said, "You've revealed all your wealth. Aren't you afraid that I'll get greedy and take it all?"
Su Qing said firmly, "If I didn't even trust Grandma Zhao on this point, I wouldn't have come to you for help."
Xu Lanyin nodded, picked up the golden hairpin as she wished, and said, "I am quite curious and want to know the secret of this Yan Shang hairpin."
Su Qing was secretly delighted when she saw Xu Lanyin actually pick up the hairpin. She said, "This hairpin is a fake. I had it made at a silver shop in another city. I don't know where the real one is now."
Xu Lanyin became even more confused and asked, "There are fakes and genuine ones. What's your intention in giving me this fake?"
Su Qing's sallow face flushed slightly as she said, "Grandma Zhao must have heard of Wen Zhuo'an, the fourth son of the Duke of Qing's mansion. Rumor has it that he jumped off a cliff to commit suicide for me. It's true, he had some connection with me before he died."
I thought to myself, I'm sorry, Mr. Wen, I have to ask you for help if I want to tell you about that. The dead can't talk anyway, so I have the final say on what's going on between you and me.
Xu Lanyin was bewildered by the lies Su Qing told her, and the words in her heart made her laugh so hard that she hurt inside. Wen Xiaosi had been used like this; even if he hadn't died, he couldn't speak.
Xu Lanyin struggled to suppress her smile and said seriously, "I've heard the rumors too. They say that the Fourth Master Wen was deeply in love with the Second Miss Su, but her family betrothed her to his eldest brother, Wen Zhuofeng. He couldn't compete with his eldest brother for the woman, and couldn't accept this reality, so he ran to the West Mountain and jumped off a cliff to commit suicide for love."
Su Qing's face turned even redder as she said, "The rumors are a bit exaggerated. He and I share the same fate. We were both forced to stay home by our families, and since we were both in Pingnan County, we spoke a few times. It's possible that Fourth Young Master Wen was a little attracted to me, but I wouldn't dare say he was in love with me. I'm not sure if he jumped off the cliff to commit suicide for love, but the Wen family and Madam Su spread such lies intentionally. They just wanted to make sure that both Young Master Wen and I would never have a peaceful life. Under such circumstances, of course I didn't dare marry Young Master Wen. I had to resort to trickery to escape that marriage and marry Gu Wangchen." She laughed self-deprecatingly and said, "As a result, this marriage was even more thorny and left me with wounds. I had to flee quickly."
She thought sadly that marrying Gu Wangchen would be worse than marrying Wen Zhuofeng. At least Wen Zhuofeng had never thought of killing her, and never wanted her money. If she had been smarter in her previous life, had she been more considerate of Wen Zhuofeng, and had used more gentle words to persuade him, she wouldn't have died so early, right?
Su Qing was thinking about her past life, but her expression was sincere. Xu Lanyin nodded, indicating that she agreed and understood her statement.
Su Qing continued, "Before Fourth Master Wen died, he showed me a hairpin with a swallow-shaped hairpin. He said it was left by his mother, and Mr. and Mrs. Wen Yan had been looking for it..."
Xu Lanyin deliberately said, "I heard that the eldest master and mistress of the Wen family died when their child was very young. How could a child's things be hidden from the head of the family, Wen Yan and his wife? If they wanted to find it, they should have found it long ago."
Su Qing was stunned and thought to herself, I can't tell you that I don't know if Wen Yan has been looking for this hairpin, but maybe Wen Yan's people found this hairpin on Wen Zhuoan's remains after he fell to death in his previous life?
Su Qing's thoughts drifted back to her previous life. One day, Second Madam Wen came to ask Wen Zhuofeng about the hairpin. Wen Zhuofeng was furious and said it was the hairpin left by his mother. He rushed to grab it, but failed and fell to the ground...
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