107 Chapter 107
Little Women
The young woman didn't say anything. Gui'er shouted from behind her, and she was so scared that she knelt on the ground, trembling all over.
Cheng Mu said, "Don't be afraid. We won't hurt you. We're just asking a few questions."
"Mercy...mercy..." The little woman seemed to murmur these two words.
Wanli and Li Yan exchanged a glance, and Cheng Mu instructed them, "Make a bowl of sugar water."
Li Yan went to pour water. Cheng Mu asked the young woman to sit down and talk, but she didn't dare to sit down.
Cheng Mu asked directly: "Your husband said you are a crazy woman, is that right?"
"I'm not."
"Will your man beat you if he can't find you?"
The young woman trembled and remained silent for a while, her eyes looking towards the inner house with disappointment. "I just want to see, I want to see her..."
"Who are you looking at?"
She remained silent, and Cheng Mu probably understood, "It's not us?"
Thinking of Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi, Cheng Mu's heart tightened. She stopped asking questions and her tone became stern. "If you linger in front of our house again, or follow us secretly, you will be reported to the authorities!"
Guier dragged the person out.
He dragged her out of the alley and onto the street, "Remember! Go back to your home and don't come here again!"
The young woman stood there in a daze for a long time, turned around a few times in a daze, and walked out of the city with a look of despair.
Gui'er followed quietly in the distance.
Cheng Mu asked Wanli to call Mu Yun back.
They hadn't spoken to each other alone for days, and there was always a strange and awkward atmosphere lingering around, but the matter of Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi came to mind and quickly diluted this feeling.
Mu Yun came back quickly, and Cheng Mu was sitting in the study in boredom.
"Auntie, what's the matter?"
Cheng Mu raised her eyes and saw Mu Yun, and her heart began to panic. "I picked up Xiao Qi from the tiger's den in Yanyun Mountain. Xiao Liu, where did you get him from?"
"The shed west of the city. What happened?"
"Where is the little woman from yesterday, and what is her situation?"
"To the northwest, the house is the ancestral home. There's no one in the family, young or old. They're a butcher, and the house is bare." Mu Yun recalled, trying to be objective. "My sister-in-law went to talk to that woman, but what's the problem?"
"Maybe she..." Cheng Mu's groundless guess was a little difficult to express, "She can see something from Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi." Just looking at the appearance, she saw an old friend through the charm.
Mu Yun did not doubt Cheng Mu's judgment, "Let me find out."
Cheng Mu said, "I have asked Gui'er to follow her."
Mu Yun paused for a moment and said, "Then I'll go ask around."
Cheng Xi thought for a moment and said, "Go ahead."
When Mu Yun arrived at the house where he bought the sheep, he found that the butcher's door was very lively. There was red silk hanging in front of the door and two tables of wine were set up in the house. After asking, he found out that the butcher was having a banquet today.
After finding out where his former wife's parents' home was, Mu Yun went there again.
In the shanty town in the west of the city where the poor live, there's a house with a locust tree in front of its door.
In less than an hour, after Xiaoliu and Xiaoqi had their lunch break, Guier and Muyun came back.
Gui'er was holding a wet person.
"She drowned herself in the river outside the city. Luckily, I was not far away and fished her out."
It was so cold, and both of them were soaked. Cheng Mu didn't bother to ask questions, "I'll boil some hot water for you to wash up, and you find her some clothes to change into."
Mu Yun helped Cheng Mu light a fire and boil water. After the water boiled, Cheng Mu scooped the water into a wooden barrel, threw in a few slices of ginger and boiled it for a few minutes, then added brown sugar and stirred it until it dissolved.
Mu Yun carried the bucket and Cheng Mu carried the teapot, and the two of them walked to the door of the main house.
Gui'er took out all the women's clothes that she didn't want to wear. She was broad-skinned, and the little woman was thin and short. She could just roll up her sleeves and tie her belt around her waist and they would barely fit.
I wiped it with hot water, soaked my feet, and drank some brown sugar ginger tea to dispel the cold, and I felt much better.
After Gui'er finished packing, she came out and went to the study to find Cheng Mu.
"Where is she?" Cheng Mu asked.
"Falling asleep." Guier sat down, very satisfied with her new men's clothes, and tried the sitting posture with a big horse and golden sword.
"Did she say why she was upset?"
"Nothing." Gui'er put her arms on the table and shook her legs. "Ask her when she wakes up."
"The river water is freezing, and it would be troublesome if you got a cold. I'll ask Mu Yun to get some medicine and ask a doctor to see you all."
After a while, Mu Yun came with a doctor.
After checking Guier's pulse, I couldn't find any symptoms for the time being, so I just asked her to boil the medicine I brought back and drink it for two days.
Then he brought the doctor to examine the young woman.
The doctor said that she was deficient in both Qi and blood, and had a weak body, low spirits, and a poor foundation. She was far from being Gui'er, and needed to be taken good care of.
Gui'er said innocently, "Doctor, there's something wrong with her. Can you tell? Is it serious?"
"Some people have liver qi stagnation, which suppresses the spleen and depletes the heart qi, leading to mental disorder and confusion. It's not serious. I will prescribe a dose of Lily and Rehmannia Decoction."
The doctor opened the medicine box and took out a pen and paper to write down the prescription.
Cheng Mu paid the medical fee and asked Mu Yun to send the doctor back and get the medicine back.
Gui'er said she wanted to take a nap too, so Cheng Mu went to boil some medicine.
In the past, these household chores were all done by Yu. A few days ago, Nanny Zhu came to help. Gui'er is a person who never has to sit idle, and there are two children... Although Wanli and the others are responsible for cooking, they cannot always be at my beck and call for washing clothes, sewing, boiling water, and even making medicine. The most important thing is that there are differences between men and women, which is very inconvenient. Cheng Mu also doesn't want to do these things every day. She sat in front of the stove and thought, it's time to hire someone.
Mu Yun brought back the Lily and Rehmannia Decoction.
"Why don't you let Wanli and the others do the boiling of the medicine? Where's Gui'er?"
Mu Yun took away the fan Cheng Mu was using to fan the stove. She said, "Mu Yun, go hire a maid."
"Hire someone? No such thing. Just go to the dental shop and buy it."
How could there be a maid doing housework in this era? Cheng Mu thought deeply and felt ridiculous. Although she was not used to buying and selling people as commodities, the only way to find a suitable and trustworthy one was to hold her bond and become her master.
Mu Yun called Wanli to boil medicine, and he and Cheng Mu went back to the study to talk.
"Is she very likely Xiaoliu's sister?" Cheng Mu sighed.
Xiaoliu is six years old, and she is at least ten years older than her.
Two years ago, she was sold to a butcher as his wife. She became pregnant two or three times but failed to keep the pregnancy. The butcher often beat and scolded her. Later, the neighbors heard that she had gone crazy and slept in the cattle pen. The butcher also treated her like an animal. Now the butcher has found a lover and is inviting him home with a wedding banquet.
She should know, otherwise why didn't she go home and go out of the city to commit suicide.
"What about her own home?"
Mu Yun also asked around and found out that Xiaoliu's biological mother died in childbirth while trying to give birth to a son. Her father sold all the children and used the money to marry another woman.
So she couldn't go back to either home.
"For Xiaoliu's sake, let's raise her first and then ask her what she thinks." Cheng Mu made a decision, "Don't reveal Xiaoliu's background."
Mu Yun agreed.
On this day, Master Zhuang went there.
In the evening, Mu Yun took Xiao Qi to deliver the funeral gifts, and Xiao Qi kowtowed several times in front of the coffin.
The Zhuang family members wept bitterly, holding Xiaoqi's hands, and repeatedly expressed their regrets before Master Zhuang left, saying that they had delayed him.
Xiao Qi was depressed the whole time after returning home, snuggling up to Cheng Mu unhappily, "Mom, did the teacher go to the place where Dad went?" "The teacher died of a cold due to old age, how did Dad die?"
His interest in his father suddenly piqued. "What does Dad do? What does he look like? Do I look like him? Is Dad good at studying?"
One lie requires countless lies to cover it up. And as children grow older, it becomes harder and harder to fool them.
Cheng Xi wondered, should I keep it a secret from them? If I had to tell them, when would it be appropriate to do so?
After two days of getting along, I realized that Huaihua was not a crazy woman at all.
After questioning, it was confirmed that Huaihua was Xiaoliu's biological sister. She was the first child in the family and was named because the locust tree in front of the door was blooming when she was born. The children born later did not have names.
She said Xiaoliu looked very much like her second sister, who died when she was this old. If her seventh sister could be alive, she would be about this age too.
From this we can know that her mother gave birth to another daughter shortly after Xiaoliu was born. That daughter was not as lucky as Xiaoliu. She drowned in the bathtub as soon as she was born.
After hearing her story, Gui'er was filled with righteous indignation. "That butcher is such a scoundrel! He drove me to the barn just because I couldn't sit still. He's such a scoundrel! Sister, why don't you take those scissors and cut off his penis?"
Huaihua was timid, and Guier's words scared her.
She stayed there for two days, had good food and drink, could take medicine, didn't have to do any work, and no one beat or scolded her. She had never had such a comfortable life before, and at one point she thought she was dead.
Whenever she wondered how she could live like this, she would ask Gui'er, "Sister, am I still alive?"
Gui'er said, "Live! From now on, you will be with us and live an upright life!"
Without waiting for Cheng Mu to ask her what her plans were, Gui'er asked Cheng Mu to keep the person.
She specifically went to Cheng Mu to talk about this, "She doesn't need much to eat or wear. If you keep her, she can help with the work, and you don't have to hire anyone else."
In the past two days, the broker brought two groups of people to the house, and the family knew that Cheng Mu wanted to find someone to do the work.
After looking at several people, I didn't find anyone I particularly liked, so the agent said I'd come back later.
People must buy one. Huaihua grew up in a poor family and did not live a good life after getting married. She had nothing good to eat and nothing good to wear. In other words, she could not cook rich meals, nor did she sew clothes delicately. She had never had the habit of boiling water to drink, and she had no good habits in cleanliness and hygiene. How could she do the housework?
Of course, Cheng Mu didn't tell Gui'er this. She was talking about Huaihua's identity. She was still a member of the butcher's family. "If someone finds out, you'll be sued. If you want to keep her, you have to think of a long-term solution."
Gui'er couldn't think of a solution, she just asked Huaihua if she wanted to stay here and work, which made Huaihua come over and kowtow to Cheng Mu, saying that she was willing to sell herself to Cheng Mu.
"You can't do it just by yourself. A woman must obey her husband. Your man must agree."
"He'll definitely agree," Gui'er said. "He's sold everything in his house to him. He'd love to get some money!"
Cheng Mu thought about it and gave Guier an idea.
That day, Gui'er picked up Huaihua's tattered clothes that she had not thrown away yet and asked her to wear them. She smeared soot on her face, borrowed a ferocious fat bodyguard from Mu Yun, and dragged Huaihua to find the butcher.
The butcher and the bride he brought in were having fun at home when Gui'er kicked the door open.
Huaihua was thrown into the house. The butcher was startled. Seeing that it was her, he grabbed a pair of tongs and raised them to hit her, "You still remember to come back? Where have you been these days?"
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