"You can leave," Qingyin thought, "but I'll leave a little 'surprise' for the Taoist priest and my sisters. I hope they'll like it." She sat in the carriage comforting Aunt He, who was crying her eyes out.
"Don't cry, Auntie. With Granny Wu and Xiaoyue here, everything will be alright."
Granny Wu and Xiaoyue are a grandmother and granddaughter who fled from Shunlin. Aunt He was sold into a brothel. She knew the hardships of the poor and took them in because she felt sorry for them. As a result, she gained a pair of the most loyal servants.
When they went to the Taoist temple, Aunt He insisted on placing the two of them by Qingyin's side. Qingyin couldn't refuse her, so she had no choice but to accept them. After hearing what Qingyin said, Aunt He's worried expression relaxed slightly. With the help of Granny Wu and Xiaoyue, she wiped away her tears and put the savings she had accumulated over the years into Qingyin's hand.
It was quite heavy. Aunt He had few belongings and no dowry. Qingyin knew that this was Aunt He's savings. She looked up at Aunt He.
Aunt He stroked Qingyin's little face, her eyes filled with loving tenderness. "Rou Rou, it's my fault for not having a good status, that you were born into my womb. And I didn't give you a pretty face. Rou Rou, your father isn't a good person, but he's not too bad either. If you suffer, write to your father. He won't ignore you. If you're hungry, don't worry about the money, have Granny Wu go and buy some..."
At this point, Aunt He choked up a little, not wanting to appear too immature in front of her daughter, so she held back her tears.
Qingyin didn't reveal the redness in Aunt He's eyes, but simply buried her face in her arms and hugged her tightly for a while before getting into the carriage under the urging of the guards in the front yard.
The carriage was extremely simple, with only a long bench and a narrow berth, just big enough for an eight or nine-year-old child to stretch out and lie down. Xiaoyue was three years older than the original owner of this body, and at twelve years old, she was already almost 1.65 meters tall. Qingyin was a little envious. Compared to her current small, dark-skinned body, Xiaoyue was thin but not skinny; she had a strong, muscular build. Qingyin glanced at the 1.7-meter-tall Granny Wu who had just entered, her eyes filled with extreme envy for their genes. The beauty pill could provide the body with the necessary nutrients to reach the height this body was supposed to grow to, but it wouldn't exceed that height. Based on her bone age, Qingyin roughly estimated that this body could only grow to 1.6 meters, and she envied Xiaoyue and Granny Wu even more.
Xiaoyue, who was being watched, was dressed in a simple blue maid's outfit. Her face was ordinary, but the corners of her mouth were always turned up. She was a straightforward and optimistic person. She was a little nervous. She had been serving Aunt He with Granny Wu and was not very familiar with the second young lady. She asked in confusion, "Is the young lady hungry? Granny Wu and I brought some pancakes. You can eat them."
"Is Miss hungry?" Granny Wu asked nervously. She and her granddaughter squeezed onto a bench and busied themselves opening her warmed bundle. This time, she had made several hot meat pancakes in the kitchen and, fearing they would cool down too quickly, had specially wrapped them inside the bundle.
Afraid of speaking too late, Qingyin quickly said as soon as Granny Wu opened the package, "I'm not hungry, Granny Wu and Sister Xiaoyue, don't open it. I just thought of something else."
Because the carriage was swaying, Qingyin lowered her head to relieve the pressure. When she looked up again, she saw Wu Mama and Xiaoyue with distressed expressions.
The poor little lady is only nine years old and has to leave her mother's side. She doesn't know when she will be able to go back. Is she homesick? Waaah, Granny Wu and Xiaoyue are on the same wavelength. No wonder they are grandmother and granddaughter. They think exactly the same thing.
Qingyin knew they had misunderstood, but she was too lazy to explain, and this reason was quite good.
— — — — — — — — — — —
After Qingyin left, An Shi, Lin Heyu, Daoist Wude and the others were unlucky. Qingyin specifically asked the system to give them a one-month unlucky aura.
In the past few days, the Lin family has witnessed all sorts of bad luck for the masters. They choked on their water, tripped and fell while walking, and were hit by bird droppings when they went out. Although none of them were fatal, they all suffered a great loss and hid in the courtyard, afraid to go out. Lin Shengxi even saw An Shi and Jiang Shi being hit by bird droppings several times, which disgusted him. Although he himself also fell flat on his face, he became much less friendly towards An Shi and Jiang Shi.
The Taoist temple Qingyin went to was a relatively remote nunnery on the outskirts of Anqing County, called Xiaoyao Taoist Temple. The temple was founded by the daughter of a scholar, whose real name was Xiao Shiya. Later, for various reasons, she entered the temple and changed her name to Yu Xuanzi. She specifically took in widows and orphans, and had a good reputation among the people for this. Lin Shengxi was not too heartless and would not deliberately make his daughter suffer a terrible death, so he found a person with a good reputation for this.
However, the journey was quite long, and the swaying in the carriage, warmed by the sun, made Qingyin, who was better but still a little tired, fall asleep without realizing it. Granny Wu gently carried the young lady to the bed. There were no blankets in the carriage, so Xiaoyue took out a thick coat from her bundle and covered Qingyin with it. After finishing their tasks, the two of them leaned against each other and also dozed off.
As dusk approached and the sun began to set, the carriage finally arrived at the Xiaoyao Taoist Temple.
Lin Shengxi had given advance notice, and the people who were to pick up Qingyin had also stepped forward. They were all older, robust women in Taoist robes, except for the leader, a pretty young woman in her late twenties with sharp eyes. She looked somewhat fierce when not smiling, but became approachable when she did. A guard who appeared to be the leader spoke briefly with the woman in charge, then knocked on the sedan chair. The sound woke Qingyin and Granny Wu, and they realized they had arrived at the Taoist temple.
Granny Ma wanted to pick up Qingyin, but Qingyin stopped her, so she had to lead her carefully down the steps.
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