Chapter 95 The Great Escape of Grandfather and Grandson: Escape Successful!
The articles by human social observers are widely circulated, and the paper wedding dress is no less so.
In a courtyard in a county town in Shanghai.
The girl came in carrying a stack of newspapers. The old lady, wearing an apron, looked at her granddaughter's expression and knew that there must be an article by her favorite author today, but she didn't know which one it was.
"There are two of them."
The girl smiled, revealing eight teeth. She had heard magpies chirping earlier that day, but hadn't paid much attention to it. However, when she flipped through the newspaper, she discovered that two of her favorite authors had published articles at the same time.
"That scholar who wrote about female students' employment before, and Paper Wedding Dress who wrote about a melon and hasn't had a new work since, they've both popped up today!"
The old lady, who was about to lean back on the soft pillows, suddenly stopped, and her original intention to listen to the audiobook turned into reading the article.
Which author are you planning to read first?
The granddaughter understood her grandmother's meaning and handed over the scholar's article. This author didn't just pile up dry data, but his background in statistics was there. She still wanted to take a look at the article by the woman in the wedding dress first.
She learned the title "Lady" from a little fish. Twenty years later, when the woman became Zhang Erya, she was called "Little Gentleman" because she was polite when she didn't fight the Zhang family. She pretended not to hear it, but secretly hoped that she would be called "Lady Queen".
In her time, she was always addressed as "lady" upon reaching adulthood. Here, she had never heard of this title, nor did she wish to regard the common form of address for men as any kind of honor.
When the girl saw this passage, she immediately thought of the female tutors her family hired when public schools didn't accept girls. Those neatly combed ladies were proud of this title, and the girl had never realized anything was wrong before this passage awakened her.
"If you're not in a hurry to see it, give it to me first, and I'll take a look together?"
Grandma's words interrupted the girl's reverie. Seeing the old lady's eager expression, the girl cautiously grabbed the newspaper in her hand, moved to the farthest chair, and quickly began to read.
The two articles were about the same length, and the grandfather and grandson read at roughly the same speed. After they took turns reading them—
"you say……"
The grandmother hesitated before looking at her granddaughter, and saw the same meaning in the other's eyes.
"These two authors must know each other."
The girl said with certainty that she had no explicit evidence, but a feeling told her that the two articles were definitely related, but she didn't know what their relationship was.
The two didn't dwell on the topic for too long—mainly because they didn't know each other and couldn't urge each other to finish the manuscript in person, so saying more wouldn't have made a difference.
"These people selling smoking cessation drugs are so desperate to make money, aren't they afraid of being drowned in the Huangpu River?"
The old lady said with a look of disgust, "This is not just something I said in anger. Something like this really happened back then, but it was kept under wraps so it didn't get out."
The girl, sensing the hint her grandmother had given, began pestering the old woman to tell her stories. The grandmother, remembering their escape plan and wanting to teach her granddaughter a lesson, didn't refuse.
"That was when I was little..."
My grandmother was the only girl in the family when she was a child, and she was extremely loved. The family raised her like a baby from the Northern Palace, so they did not bind her feet.
What is the Beigong baby?
The girl asked with some curiosity. She was the one who was neglected at home, and she had used all sorts of tricks and schemes to keep her feet bound. But at home, in order to avoid being noticed, she still had to wear specially made shoes that made her feet look like those of a woman with bound feet.
"This is a line from the Strategies of the Warring States period, which says that this woman remained unmarried until old age to support her parents..."[1]
As Grandma spoke, a nostalgic smile appeared on her face. The family had arranged a happy and carefree life for her, and her brothers and sisters had no objections. But everything is predestined, and there is nothing one can do about it.
"When I was young, I was mischievous and often dressed up as a boy to go out and play..."
The granddaughter glanced at her grandmother in surprise. Her grandmother was known for her impeccable manners and poise even before the fall of the Qing Dynasty. The palace maids all praised her for her excellent etiquette. She never expected her to be so lively in her childhood.
The old woman didn't notice the girl's gaze; she was only focused on recalling the incident—it happened in the village, and it was quite a coincidence. The old woman had only visited four times in total, but each time she encountered a turning point, and it was only when she could no longer be kept in the dark that she learned the whole story.
That family consisted of only two people: a widow and her husband's unborn child. This combination was definitely disadvantaged at the time, but the woman, with her ruthless nature towards others and herself, managed to raise her son and find him a good woman he liked. She was just waiting for her daughter-in-law to enter the family and start a family, after which her suffering would finally come to an end.
The first time the old lady went to the village, she happened to see a widow seeing off a couple and a young man with a smile on her face. She asked the villagers and learned that it was her daughter-in-law's family who had come to "test the waters" at the door. Once they passed this test, the marriage was settled. The old lady felt it was fate and even gave a piece of silver as a congratulatory gift.
When she went there a second time, the widow's house, where the wedding was supposed to take place, had no festive atmosphere whatsoever. The windows and doors were sealed shut, and the widow she met had lost a lot of weight and her eyes had dimmed.
The old woman used her wealth to unlock the villagers' memories, only to learn that the widow's son had offended someone while buying wedding items, was forced to smoke opium, and was tied up at home by the widow to quit smoking.
When he visited for the third time, the widow was nothing but skin and bones, but her face was full of joy—she was too addicted to smoking to quit, so she sold her house and bought smoking cessation medication for her son.
When she returned for the fourth time, the house was completely empty. The old woman searched the entire village but couldn't find any trace of the mother and son. Later, she learned that the smoking cessation pills were fake, and that the son knew he would only squeeze his mother dry if he lived, so he threw himself into the river. When he was pulled out, he was swollen to the size of a giant.
The widow buried her son and then disappeared without a trace. Later, the old lady saw the widow in the local tabloid. She was dressed as a maid and went from the house of a so-called drug for quitting smoking to the house of an opium dealer. She was sentenced to beheading for committing more than ten murders. However, because she disfigured herself, she was not known by her name, age, or past. In the end, she was thrown into a mass grave as a nameless, faceless, and faceless person.
The tabloids vehemently condemned this indiscriminate killing, but those whose families had been destroyed by opium and who had reached the end of their rope were suddenly opened to a new world—they were going to die anyway, and these opium sellers weren't innocent either; killing one was enough, killing two would be a bonus.
That period was incredibly tense. Opium sellers boasted of their excellent protection, but they couldn't withstand the overwhelming tide of the people. The speed at which opium was handed over couldn't keep up with the speed at which people were killed. Some even took the initiative to switch their targets to loan sharks, casino operators, and brothel owners in the spirit of doing good deeds. If the government hadn't issued timely notices, who knows how things would have turned out.
The old woman later went to the village again. The villagers all said that the widow died after seeing her son's body, but there was a larger new grave next to the son's grave.
"Because of this, the opium dens in our area were closed for several years, and later they didn't dare to sell this stuff openly anymore."
The old woman said nostalgically that she didn't understand any grand principles. In her view, with opium dens everywhere and the constant relapse of smoking cessation drugs, it was just a matter of not killing enough people. When the opium sellers realized that their own necks could be chopped off, life would be better.
The girl felt that the old lady's ideas were a bit extreme and was about to argue with her when the maid came to knock on the door. A moment later, the girl sat down at the table with a letter in her hand.
Who sent it?
Grandma, though old, had a gossipy smile on her face, while her granddaughter's face fell like a bicycle seat.
"My father."
The old lady instantly lost all hope.
The girl looked at her grandmother's face, which was stretched into an eggplant shape, and opened the letter while suppressing a laugh. Then her expression froze. After a while, she slammed the letter onto the table and burst into tears.
While coaxing her granddaughter, the old lady squeezed her eyes shut and struggled to read the words on the letter. After reading it, she was furious—had her son been kicked in the head by a donkey? How could he possibly marry off his fourth mistress to a chain smoker?!
I even bought smoking cessation pills to ensure I would never touch opium again. The scholars have said that there is no other way to get addicted to this stuff except through forced withdrawal!
"How much of your stuff have you pawned?"
The old lady lifted the girl's face and asked seriously, "Nowadays it's fashionable for women to marry late, but once the engagement is made, you have to prepare for the wedding. If you don't hurry up and leave, you might not be able to run away later."
"We've already sold 40% of the items that are hard to take with us. Moving the things from the old house would be too much of a commotion, and we haven't found suitable buyers yet."
The girl realized something was wrong and tried to suppress her sobs as she answered.
"I'll handle these. You should sell what you have as soon as possible. Have you bought the ship tickets yet?"
The old lady pondered what other connections she could use while quickly asking the question.
"I bought it, but I thought I had time, so I bought it for two months later."
No, it's too late.
"Take this letter to the Zhou family and ask for the nearest ship ticket."
This favor was originally intended for my son, but that good-for-nothing even arranged the marriage without informing me first, so he probably wouldn't care about such a small thing.
"Within three days, get rid of everything that can be disposed of, and sew some valuables into our clothes. When we leave, we can only carry or ride on a single suitcase that won't hinder our movement."
The old lady had experienced fleeing famine, but back then she only traveled overland from the northwest to the southeast, and the whole family was together. They could carry anything that could be transported by large livestock. But now they had to travel to a foreign land in secret and travel light.
"Don't bring bank drafts or silver notes; those things are useless abroad. Just deposit your money in a bank. I remember that Citibank and HSBC allow you to withdraw money overseas." [2]
The old lady thought for a moment and then shook her head:
“We can’t deposit it all. They might see that we’re not from their country and try to steal the money. We’ll deposit some in separate places, carry some with us, and put some in a box. Later, we’ll buy two pairs of platform shoes and hide two small gold bars inside.”
"We also need to see if we can buy a gun... Never mind, I'll handle that. You go see if you can buy some easy-to-hide weapons like daggers, the kind that can boost your health bar..."
The old lady spoke slowly and deliberately, and her granddaughter nodded repeatedly. Both of them knew that this was a race against time. If they succeeded, they would be free to leap across the vast ocean; if they failed, they would either marry someone else or be imprisoned. The old lady had come to the mansion to escape the summer heat, but in reality, she was being exiled after failing in her power struggle. Being caught and brought back might not necessarily be fatal, but it was certain that she would never be able to leave the mansion for the rest of her life.
after a while.
Dressed rather bulky for the temperature, a grandmother and grandson carrying a small suitcase boarded the cruise ship. The ship's horn sounded, and a large plume of black smoke shot into the sky. As the ship left the shore, a large group of people rushed out from around a nearby corner. The grandmother and grandson saw many familiar faces and waved to them with smiles—their family reacted quickly, but it was too late.
"It's a pity I didn't get to buy any local gossip today. The newspaper has published a new article about the 'Lady in Wedding Dress'."
The people on the shore appeared smaller and smaller as the distance increased, until the land became the horizon where the sea and sky met, at which point the girl sighed with some regret.
"Once you're not short of money, just contact your classmates and ask them to buy it for you and send it over."
Grandma breathed in the sea breeze and said with great open-mindedness, already thinking about what kind of business she could do abroad—at fifty-something, it was the perfect age to take risks!
The girl stopped worrying and turned to look expectantly into the distance—she didn't know what the future held, but no matter what, it was better than marrying a chain-smoking man with syphilis.
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Author's Note: Once I start writing about the reactions from all sides, I can't control the word count. I'll keep it simple in the next chapter and can't drag it out any longer.
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Without any inspiration, what else can the protagonist do?
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[1] Beigong Ying'er: "Strategies of the Warring States, Qi Strategies IV": "Is the daughter of Beigong Ying'er well? She removed her hair ornaments and remained unmarried until old age to support her parents. This is all due to the people's filial piety. Why does she not come to court now?" (It is about the filial daughter, but it was later used by women as an excuse not to marry).
[2] In 1916, HSBC had a branch in Beijing, Citibank had a branch in Tianjin, and there was also a private branch in Shanghai.
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