Chapter 256 Traveling back from the modern times to the 11th year of the Republic of China

Yao Rong smiled and waved at Ye Heqi, motioning Ye Heqi to follow her closely.

The two had lived in the Ye Mansion for many years and were very familiar with the roads there. As soon as Ye Heqi saw the route Yao Rong was taking, he knew she was going to the side door.

That small door was opened to facilitate the servants to enter and exit and transport daily necessities. Ye Heqi seldom went there, but he also knew that there was a gatekeeper guarding it. There

was also a guard dog.

At night, the gatekeeper would rest in the wooden house next to it. As long as someone approached the side door, the dog would bark to wake up the gatekeeper.

Thinking of this, Ye Heqi's heart suddenly lifted up. He wanted to remind Yao Rong, but he didn't dare to make too much noise. He reached out and pulled Yao Rong's sleeve.

Yao Rong turned around.

"Dog?"

Yao Rong nodded.

Ye Heqi secretly breathed a sigh

of relief. Her mother knew that the dog dared to go through the small door, so she must have a plan to deal with it. It was the darkest time before dawn, the north wind was howling, the frost was biting, the sparse leaves of the sycamore trees were rustling in the wind, and heavy objects from somewhere were blown down by the wind, hitting the ground with a "bang", and bounced several times.

Ye Heqi's heart also jumped several times with "bang", "bang", and "bang", fearing that these noisy sounds would wake up everyone in the Ye Mansion.

It was so noisy.

She had never realized that the night in Peking was so noisy.

Finally, the long and winding corridor came to an end.

The lanterns hanging high emitted a faint light, indicating that the destination was close at hand.

Ye Heqi also saw the dog.

It lay on the ground, curled up in the wind, and it was unclear whether it was asleep or not, its tail twitched from time to time.

Suddenly, as if it had sensed something, it stood up abruptly.

Ye Heqi thought to herself that it was bad, but she did not hear any barking from the puppy. She turned her head to look at Yao Rong, with surprise and joy on her face.

Yao Rong smiled at her soothingly, pulled her around the puppy, and came directly to the door.

The door was only locked with a bolt on the inside. Yao Rong moved lightly, unbolted the bolt, and quickly opened the wooden door to a distance that was wide enough for one person to pass through.

The wooden door, which had been in disrepair for a long time, made a creaking sound while being pulled.

This movement was unavoidable, so Yao Rong could only speed up, pulling Ye Heqi out together, and then quickly closed the wooden door.

Just as Yao Rong finished this series of actions, the doorman rubbed his sleepy eyes and walked out of the wooden house.

He looked at the side door, which was nothing unusual, and then looked at the dog standing next to the side door with bright eyes.

"Strange... Maybe the dog hit the door or the wind was too strong... Hiss, the weather is getting colder and colder, I can't stand it anymore..."

The doorman stomped his feet in the cold, hugged his arms and shrunk his neck and retreated back into the house.

Outside, separated by a wall.

Yao Rong pulled Ye Heqi and ran all the way.

Seeing that Yao Rong ran out of the alley and didn't stop, Ye Heqi panted and asked, "Mom, where are we going?"

Everything happened so fast, so fast that the mother and daughter had no communication in advance, and Ye Heqi didn't know Yao Rong's specific plan.

"We can't stay in Peking any longer. The Ye family has a lot of connections in Peking. It's easy for them to find us and take us back to the Ye Mansion..." Yao Rong said as she ran.

She didn't say the second half of her plan, but Ye Heqi's idea coincided with hers: "Then let's find a rickshaw right away and let the rickshaw take us to the train station. We can find a scalper to buy train tickets to Shanghai."

"Okay, Shanghai is good, it's a big city."

After running for a while, Ye Heqi asked curiously: "Mom, don't rickshaws usually stop there? Why do we have to keep running?"

They were already some distance away from the Ye Mansion. Yao Rong slowed down her pace a little, and she had enough breath to say more.

"When I was a guest at other mansions before, I heard the ladies chatting about a concubine of a wealthy family running away with her daughter. They finally managed to get out of the mansion, but because the rickshaw driver recognized them and guessed from their words and actions that they might have escaped, he pulled them back and exchanged them for a large sum of money from the family."

This was not Yao Rong's fabrication, but it really happened in the original body's memory.

The rickshaw driver got the reward, but ruined the last hope of the mother and daughter...

When the original body heard about the mother and daughter again, the daughter had been forced by her father to marry a high-ranking official as the third wife, repeating her mother's fate; the mother was crazy all day in the back house, and her mind was a little unclear.

Ye Heqi suddenly realized that no matter how broad her horizons were as a time traveler, when it came to practical life experience, she still had to rely on her mother.

"Then how long do we have to run?"

"It's almost dawn." Yao Rong looked at the sky, which was already showing a streak of white, "Go around this alley and go to the street."

Ye Heqi's thoughts turned quickly, and she made up a reason in a moment: "If someone asks us, we will say that our grandmother is sick and we have to catch the earliest train to go back to visit our relatives."

Yao Rong's eyes curved: "Okay, let's do it."

When the streak of white gradually spread into a morning light, Yao Rong and Ye Heqi also came to the street.

Some breakfast shops were already open for business, and there were a few pedestrians wearing thick clothes walking on the street, so Yao Rong and Ye Heqi did not look out of place.

"Madam, Miss, where are you going?" A sharp-eyed rickshaw driver pulled his rickshaw up to the two of them.

Ye Heqi said calmly, "To the train station. We are rushing back to my hometown to visit my grandfather."

The rickshaw driver did not suspect anything and smiled as he let them get on the rickshaw.

After getting on the rickshaw, Ye Heqi held Yao Rong's hand tightly, her eyes constantly looking around the still half-asleep city, and she felt that she was also half-asleep and half-awake. It was not

until the three big red characters "Train Station" came into her eyes that she felt as if she had suddenly woken up from a dream.

"Mom, we're here."

Ye Heqi's voice, and even her body, were shaking.

***

Last night, Old Lady Ye was very angry with Yao Rong.

Originally, Old Lady Ye wanted to explode on the spot and ask the housekeeper to drag Yao Rong and her daughter to kneel in the ancestral hall. She would end the punishment when they realized their mistakes.

But Madam Ye kept persuading her, and the doctor came quickly, so Old Lady Ye did not mention it for the time being.

After a night's sleep, she felt a little better. With Madam Ye's help, Old Lady Ye ate a bowl of porridge and ordered someone to bring Yao Rong and Ye Heqi over.

This time, Old Lady Ye learned her lesson. In addition to her and Madam Ye, there were a bunch of servants in the room. As long as Yao Rong dared to disobey her like she did yesterday, she would have someone push Yao Rong to the ground.

As a result, the servant went for a while and ran back sweating profusely: "Madam, the lady and the young lady are not in the house..."

"I asked Cuihuan, who serves the young lady, and Cuihuan said that she didn't see the young lady this morning..."

Madam Ye's face changed slightly, and she thought of the worst possibility: "You go again, go into their room, and see if their valuables are missing?"

"And the rest of you -" Madam Ye ordered the other servants in the house, "Go out and search every room in the Ye Mansion, and then ask the two gatekeepers at the main entrance and the side to see if they found anything this morning."

A quarter of an hour later, the servants who went out to inquire about the news returned to the house one after another.

Listening to their words, Madam Ye's face turned from blue to white, and then from white to blue.

In the past, when Old Madam Ye went out to attend banquets, she also heard that a concubine of a certain family had escaped.

But the concubine was not a proper master, and it was normal for her to want to escape after being mistreated.

Who would have thought that the two masters in the mansion would actually escape!

If this were to get out, their Ye Mansion would become a laughing stock in all of Beiping.

Thinking of that scene, Old Madam Ye couldn't help but cover her chest.

"Quick! Go and call the doctor!" Madam Ye ordered Wang Ma.

Wang Ma ran out in a hurry, but she was thinking: No wonder when she invited the doctor last night, Madam asked her to spend more money and let the doctor stay in the Ye Mansion for two days before leaving...

Madam Ye almost couldn't breathe, but she couldn't faint at this time, so she forced herself to say to the housekeeper next to her: "Quick! Go to the train station to find someone, and after finding them, lock them all in the woodshed!"

***

The Ye Mansion was in chaos, and the two people who caused this situation were hiding in an empty alley.

Yao Rong was experienced. Long before she ran away, she had already hidden all kinds of valuables close to her body. She only put some change and clothes in her bag, and the clothes she wore were also the most ordinary ones.

Ye Heqi also had this awareness, but she didn't do it well enough.

Yao Rong helped her adjust it a little.

There is no way. These days, things are so chaotic and there are all kinds of people on the train. If you accidentally show off your wealth, you might get into trouble.

Even if Yao Rong is not afraid, it is better to avoid such unnecessary troubles when you go out.

"Okay, let's go buy tickets." Yao Rong said to Ye Heqi.

Ye Heqi nodded in agreement.

They first found a scalper and bought two second-class tickets to Shanghai. Seeing that there was still some time before the departure, Yao Rong and Ye Heqi went to buy some steamed buns, sweet potatoes and eggs for their breakfast and lunch.

Just after they finished eating a steamed bun, the train pulled into the station.

Yao Rong and Ye Heqi immediately followed the crowd and got on the train.

The second-class ticket is two yuan more expensive than the third-class ticket, so most of the passengers here are dressed more brightly.

Yao Rong and Ye Heqi sat in their seats.

When the train finally started, Ye Heqi's back, which had been stretched straight, immediately relaxed, and a relaxed and comfortable smile appeared on his face.

"Mom, this is my first time traveling far away." Ye Heqi whispered.

From modern times to the Republic of China, this was her first time taking a train.

Yao Rong said, "This is my second time. The first time was when I went to Beijing from my hometown to join the Ye family."

Ye Heqi asked, "Mom, are you afraid?"

Yao Rong found it funny.

Wouldn't it be more appropriate for her to ask Ye Heqi this question?

"Don't be afraid. I think it's better than staying in the Ye Mansion."

Ye Heqi's eyes narrowed: "Well, don't be afraid, mother. We agreed that you protect me in the Ye Mansion; outside, it's my turn to protect you."

Yao Rong smiled and corrected Ye Heqi's words: "I am no longer the me who held your hand every time I went out two months ago. Now we are in a relationship of mutual protection."

Ye Heqi nodded: "Yes, it's mutual protection!"

Since she recovered her memory, she has been deeply trapped in the gap between two eras. She can neither accept the arrangements of Old Madam Ye calmly nor completely resist the arrangements of Old Madam Ye.

She tried to fight back, but her attempt failed, and her resistance was not taken seriously.

Just when she was at a loss, her mother pointed her to the third way.

- Give up the comfortable life in the Ye Mansion and rush towards an unknown destiny.

This is a path she had never imagined before.

Ye Heqi didn't know what was waiting for her ahead, nor had she figured out what kind of job she would do to make a living after escaping from the Ye Mansion, but she felt that

her mother, a student, had the courage to burn her boats after learning Chinese for two months and reading "Women's Newspaper" for a month.

Then how could she, a teacher who had lived in modern times for fifteen years, perform worse than her mother?

She is a time traveler after all!

"Mom, I will work hard. Your life after escaping will not be worse than staying in the Ye Mansion no matter what." Ye Heqi assured Yao Rong.

Yao Rong touched Ye Heqi's braided hair and said softly, "As long as we are united as mother and daughter, our lives will get better and better. Even if we encounter many difficulties in the beginning, I will be happy in my heart."

The two of them ate some more food, and Yao Rong let Ye Heqi take a nap first, and she would take another nap after Ye Heqi woke up.

Iron trains these days are really hard to ride, but fortunately the journey from Peking to Shanghai was smooth, and the train did not have to stop for repairs due to any breakdowns. Before Yao Rong and her friends finished their food, the train finally arrived in Shanghai.

Shanghai is completely different from Peking.

Peking is conservative yet fashionable, with courtyard houses and tall Western-style buildings interlaced.

In Shanghai, one can hardly see one-story bungalows. The pedestrians coming and going are dressed in a more modern and fashionable way.

It was already dark when they got off the train, and Yao Rong and Ye Heqi planned to find a hotel nearby to stay overnight to rest and recuperate before considering the subsequent arrangements.

***

Old Madam Ye and Madam Ye waited in the mansion for a whole day before the housekeeper and his party returned.

Old Madam Ye was lying on the bed with a wet towel on her forehead, looking extremely weak.

As soon as she saw the housekeeper, regardless of Madam Ye's obstruction, Madam Ye immediately threw off the quilt and sat up, leaning her head to look behind the housekeeper, and said angrily: "You have been gone for a whole day and didn't catch anyone?"

The housekeeper's mouth was bitter: "To answer the old lady, when we arrived at the train station, three trains had already departed, heading for Shanghai, Nanjing and Tianjin respectively. After that, we stayed at the train station, but didn't see the young lady and the lady. Maybe... maybe the young lady and the lady took one of those three trains and escaped."

Madam Ye reached out to support Madam Ye: "Mom, should we report to the police?"

"Report to the police?" Madam Ye was so angry that she slapped Madam Ye's hand away, "You think our Ye family is not shameful enough, right?"

She did not hold back at all this time, Madam Ye felt pain but did not dare to show it on her face.

Mrs. Ye supported the bed with her right hand, her expression changed several times, and suddenly she said: "Such a big thing, we must inform Fu Guang. Write a letter to Fu Guang and ask him to find a way to return to Beiping again."

"The New Year is coming soon." Mrs. Ye emphasized, "Let him bring Wen Cui and Yao Zu back together. If that woman Wen Cui still refuses to come back, then she will never have to enter the gate of our Ye Mansion again."