Cuizhen's dream of becoming a noble lady was shattered.
An Chaoli never mentioned letting her go to Shengjing again, and her brother didn't stay either.
Looking at the mud walls on all four sides and the drafty windows, Cuizhen flew into a rage.
"I don't want this, I want to leave. Ah! Ah!" She fell off the bed in a fit of rage, trembling from the pain.
Hearing the noise, Yan's parents entered the room. They hurriedly helped Cuizhen up, saying, "Zhen'er, what happened to you... The doctor told you to rest and recover!"
Cuizhen kept crying, crying loudly, until she couldn't breathe.
Yan's parents assumed she was just reluctant to part with her brother and kept comforting her, but what pained Cuizhen was the disappointment of her unfulfilled hopes. She was back to having nothing.
Suddenly, she remembered something and looked at the small box in front of the bed, which contained the jewelry that An Yuan'er had given her.
She laughed again: "I don't have nothing, I still have, I still have..."
She could still use these jewelry pieces to dress up as a beautiful and noble young lady from Shengjing.
When Yan's parents saw their daughter crying and laughing, they assumed she had lost her mind. They rushed to the town to find a doctor to examine her.
After Yan's parents left, Cuizhen closed the door, hid alone in the room, opened the box, and took out jewelry to adorn herself.
She had just finished putting her hair up and inserted a pearl hairpin when she heard someone forcefully push open the door.
She wondered: Why did my parents come back so quickly?
She leaned on the cane her brother had made for her before she left, and walked out while holding onto the wall.
She was startled; there were five or six masked men dressed in black.
The men in black ransacked her house, stuffing in all the valuables.
At that moment, Cuizhen had long forgotten her fear. She shouted, "These are my things, you can't take them. These are all mine."
The man in black ignored her and continued searching.
Cuizhen continued to shout, "Help! There's a thief! Someone help me!"
The man in black glanced coldly at Cuizhen, finding the woman utterly annoying.
Two small stones were thrown, and the man in black struck two pressure points on Cuizhen's body.
Cuizhen was unable to move or speak; she could only stare helplessly as the men in black took everything from her home.
When they found her room, her eyes almost popped out of their sockets, and she could only whimper and couldn't make a sound.
All the jewelry that An Yuan'er had given her was taken away. Cui Zhen wept, her heart filled with despair.
Soon, the items were almost all gone. Before leaving, the man in black glanced at Cuizhen.
Cuizhen trembled with fear. These bad people, they wouldn't want to kill her, would they?
The man in black reached out to Cuizhen, who was so frightened that she wet her pants, tears and snot streaming down her face.
But to everyone's surprise, the leader of the men in black only took the pearl hairpin that Cuizhen was wearing.
The man in black smelled the stench of urine and frowned in disgust. After looking around and confirming that everything had been found, the group disappeared from the Yan family's residence.
*
When Yan's parents arrived with the doctor, they found their house completely ransacked.
The two didn't even check for the loss of money; instead, they frantically shouted, "Zhen'er, Zhen'er!"
The two elderly people turned pale as they waited in vain for their daughter's response. Finally, they found Cuizhen hiding in a corner of the storage room, crying.
The two elderly people were finally relieved. They didn't mind their daughter's messy appearance and hugged her, saying, "Zhen'er was so scared. Let me hug you. It's good that you're alright, it's good that you're alright."
Cuizhen looked up and said excitedly, "Father, Mother, how can we be alright? Everything valuable is gone. All of it is gone."
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