Chapter 127 Stunned
Lin Shiyuan got two horses and went to the farm with Xiao Pingfeng.
Halfway there, they saw a carriage from the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion coming towards them.
Peach Leaf drove her carriage, watching helplessly as the two people passed by her.
"Whoa—"
"Whoa—"
Both horses stopped. Lin Shiyuan tugged at the horse's head, signaling it to turn around and return to Taoye. Before he could speak, Taoye asked crisply, "Did Steward Lin go to the estate to find me?"
Xiao Pingfeng asked in surprise, "Wasn't Miss Taoye tied up? How did you get out?"
Tao Ye smiled mysteriously, her eyebrows dancing with excitement: "We'll talk about it when we get back. Perfect timing, I'm in a hurry to report to Miss."
The three of them returned to the city together.
This is the second time Lin Shiyuan has taken the right path and entered Yao Qingling's Mulan Courtyard.
He and Xiao Pingfeng waited in the courtyard; Taoye went into the inner bedroom first.
The man stood with his hands behind his back, gazing indifferently at the flowers and trees planted in the yard.
It was the height of summer, and the magnolia blossoms had long since faded. The lush, broad, dark green leaves provided good shade.
In the corner, there was another clump of banana trees, their broad leaves like a giant fan, and a black and white striped cat was fast asleep under the leaves.
Xiao Pingfeng was entering the inner courtyard for the first time and appeared reserved.
After all, he was a former bandit. He gained the favor of Madam Yao, was granted a household registration and allowed to become a respectable person, and even got the opportunity to work as a warehouse manager. This was something he had never even dreamed of before.
Before he became a bandit, he was just a farmer who had never even been to the mansion of a local gentry.
And now, he can actually enter the important area of the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion, just like the other important stewards!
Xiao Pingfeng glanced at Lin Shiyuan and saw that he was very calm and not at all nervous or reserved.
He wondered if Steward Lin had visited Madam Yao's inner courtyard before.
However, he used to be General Lin, living in a general's mansion, which is quite different from a peasant like him who has never seen the world.
While Xiao Pingfeng was having a lot of internal monologues, Tao Ye came out and said to the two of them, "Miss wants you to go in."
Inside the room, Yao Qingling moved from the inner room to the outer room and sat or lay on the chaise longue.
Despite the sweltering heat, her bed was covered with a mattress and a thin blanket, making it look hot to others.
Lin Shiyuan frowned slightly, thinking to himself that she really did crave coolness.
Xiao Pingfeng saw that Qing Ling's face was pale and she was sweating profusely, which showed that she was seriously ill.
He knelt down: "This servant deserves to die. I failed to do a good job and caused my master to worry."
Lin Shiyuan frowned and glanced at Xiao Pingfeng, but said nothing.
Yao Qingling waved her hand, telling him to get up: "Taoye just told me that this matter is also difficult for you. Now that you're one of my people, it's not surprising that they're hostile towards you. You've never been good at speaking."
Xiao Pingfeng hesitated, his face flushed.
He kept regretting whether he had said something offensive that angered them and escalated the conflict.
It was he who implicated Miss Peach Leaf and caused her suffering.
However, Madam Yao did not blame him or punish him; instead, she spoke up for him.
Yao Qingling asked someone to bring over stools and told everyone to sit down.
Besides Lin Shiyuan and Xiao Pingfeng, Taoye, Louyue, and Xiachan are also present.
These people were all her capable subordinates.
She is currently attending an important meeting.
Qingling's gaze swept across Lin Shiyuan's face, then looked at Taoye: "Now you can tell me how you escaped and explain everything that happened yesterday."
Everyone looked at Tao Ye with solemn expressions. Tao Ye shifted slightly, feeling a little nervous being watched by so many people, but the sense of accomplishment she felt after doing something gave her confidence.
The little girl, her eyebrows dancing with excitement, recounted everything she had seen and heard at the manor the day before, from being tied up by Yang Kuan and the others to having Xiao Pingfeng return to report the news.
Her words were breathtaking, gripping the reader's heart, and occasionally she would pause and ask Xiao Pingfeng, "Is that right?"
Xiao Pingfeng was tongue-tied and could only nod, "Miss Taoye is right."
"Just as Miss Peach Leaf said."
Lou Yue and Xia Chan looked at each other in disbelief. It was so dangerous that they had actually started fighting.
They actually dared to lay a hand on Taoye! She's the young lady's most favored maid!
Xia Chan asked, "Are you injured?"
Taoye shook her head: "No, not at all."
She moved her hands and feet, and apart from being strangled when she was tied up, she was fine.
Yao Qingling glanced at Tao Ye but didn't expose her.
If we're really talking about thrilling moments, what wasn't thrilling during the escape to the southwest and that night at Yongning Temple?
The little girl is all talk and no action, trying to make everyone admire her.
However, she was a head maid, and it was time for her to take her place.
Yao Qingling silently took a sip of water, and when she heard Tao Ye's words veer off-topic, she reminded her, "You still haven't told me how you escaped danger."
"Oh." Taoye scratched her head and continued.
"...Those people had nothing to do at night, so they gambled there. I was locked in the woodshed, where other people from the village were also locked up. They had a child watch over us."
—Among the bandits were also children, who had survived near-death experiences on their escape. They had been hiding in the Sparrow Mountain with Big Beard, just trying to make a living. Then Yao Qingling appeared and offered to lead them to a normal life. The children had lost their parents and had nowhere to go, and they longed for a stable life, so they followed Yao Qingling.
"Miss, do you still remember the nursery rhyme that was sung among the little beggars before?"
Qingling nodded and glanced at Lin Shiyuan again.
The nursery rhyme was ostensibly composed and sung by Lin Qiao, but it was actually written by Lin Shiyuan.
Taoye said, "I was singing in the woodshed. The child was attracted and wanted to learn from me. I asked him if he wanted to learn to read, so that he could compose his own music and write plays."
“I told him that this nursery rhyme was made up by a little girl who was about his age.”
Qingling glanced at Lin Shiyuan silently again; he remained expressionless and calmly returned her gaze.
"...The child untied my ropes, and I wrote his name on the ground with a stick of firewood. Then, everyone in the village wanted to do the same. The atmosphere got lively, and the child, being enthusiastic, untied them all."
"I wrote their names one by one. The teaching was going quite smoothly until Yang Kuan probably realized something was wrong. He came over and saw that we were all writing our names on the ground and the walls. He was dumbfounded."
Lou Yue, Xia Chan, and Xiao Pingfeng were all dumbfounded.
"That's it? They just let you go like that?" Lou Yue couldn't believe it.
But Yao Qingling knew the allure of learning to read.
She glanced at Xiao Pingfeng, who remained silent, his eyelids lowered.
Yao Qingling appointed Xiao Pingfeng, and dared to appoint Xiao Pingfeng because, in addition to being honest and upright, he was also literate.
According to him, before the flood, he owned a few acres of poor land in his hometown, and his family were farmers. But those few acres of land also caught the eye of the local gentry, who tricked his father into signing a land sale contract.
With their land gone, their whole family became tenant farmers of that gentry, forced to rent his land to support themselves.
From then on, his father said that he must teach his child to read so that he wouldn't be deceived.
They sold their only old ox and found a school for Xiao Pingfeng so he could study.
After that, the younger sister went to work as a maid in the household of a government official, and the money saved was used to support his studies.
He studied desperately, thinking that if he could pass the imperial examination and become a scholar, he could support his family.
Redeem the land, bring my sister home, and buy a cow.
However, when the flood came, the gentry and the official all fled.
He lost his family, and he didn't know whether his sister was alive or dead.
He dreamed of becoming a scholar and passing the imperial examinations, but in the end he became a bandit. How ridiculous!
Xiao Pingfeng is just one of many ordinary people at the bottom of society.
In this era, it wasn't just women who couldn't afford to go to school; for all the lower classes, going to school was an absolute luxury.
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