Chapter 24: Su Xian's Past, Looking for Someone to Enter the City
The next morning, Shang Yuwan and others followed Liu Niang into the rain.
Ji Suxian and Liu Niang, mother and daughter, were in the same carriage, walking in front.
After Xiao Tao woke up, she hid in Liu Niang's arms with a timid look in her eyes. She was a little afraid of strangers. Ji Suxian didn't think she was very popular with children, so she didn't care. She opened the car curtain and looked at the scenery outside without saying a word. But her eyes were always on Xiao Tao and Liu Niang who was comforting her softly.
"Don't be afraid. It was this lady who saved Xiao Tao. Xiao Tao should say thank you, right?"
Liu Niang gently patted Xiao Tao's back. Xiao Tao opened her watery almond eyes and grabbed the soft clothes on her body with her small hands. She looked at Liu Niang's gentle and encouraging eyes, and then looked at Ji Suxian who glanced at her from time to time.
"Thank you, thank you, sister."
The soft voice made Ji Suxian stunned.
Liu Niang hurriedly told her to change her words, "No, Xiao Tao, you called me the wrong name..."
"It's okay." Ji Suxian turned sideways and smiled, "Just call me sister."
As she spoke, Ji Suxian picked up a plate of mung bean cakes and a bag of dried meat wrapped in oil paper and asked Xiao Tao, "Would you like some?"
Xiaotao's eyes widened slightly, then she reacted and tilted her head back to look at Liuniang.
Liu Niang looked at Ji Suxian and saw her nod, so she lowered her head and said softly, "Take it. Sister is kind-hearted, so you must thank her sincerely."
Xiao Tao's face showed joy, her little cheeks flushed. She jumped out of Liu Niang's arms and walked quickly to Ji Suxian, pretending to kneel. Ji Suxian was startled and immediately reached out to hold her.
"That's not necessary. Take it and eat it. If it's not enough, I have more."
Liu Niang gave her a grateful look, and Ji Suxian just smiled. Xiao Tao was still young and didn't understand why Ji Suxian was different from the noble ladies she had met before, but her mind was only on the mung bean cake and dried meat. She stretched out her hands to take the mung bean cake and dried meat from Ji Suxian's hands, then ran back to Liu Niang's arms with a clattering gait.
"Mom, you eat it." Xiao Tao opened the oil paper first, smelled the fragrance of the dried meat, swallowed her saliva, but did not take a bite. She took out half of the dried meat and stuffed it into Liu Niang's hand.
Liu Niang agreed but just took it and didn't eat it.
Xiao Tao looked at Ji Suxian, then ran over and held the other half of the dried meat wrapped in oil paper in front of her.
"Sister eats, sister eats too."
Ji Suxian was stunned for a moment, then suddenly smiled and pushed the dried meat back, "Xiao Tao, eat it. Sister doesn't like this."
Xiao Tao blinked a few times, said "oh", and returned to Liu Niang with the dried meat.
Liu Niang's eyes were full of tenderness, and even the rough wrinkles at the corners of her eyes softened. At the same time, the guilt in her heart grew stronger and stronger.
Shang Yuwan and Xiao Qingxu's inference was correct. She stopped the carriage with Xiaotao in her arms and then followed them and refused to leave. It was indeed because of someone's orders.
Three days ago, Xiao Tao had a high fever that wouldn't go away. She had no one to turn to for help, and just when she was desperate, a noble person came to her. The noble person said that a group of people would be arriving in Luzhou City in a carriage soon, and asked her to take Xiao Tao with her and ask for help, hoping that they could find a way for her to survive.
Like ordinary women, Liu Niang was not very literate, but she knew that she had to repay a favor. However, the nobleman did not want anything and only said that if the matter was successful, he would use it as a reason to repay the favor and let them take another route to enter Luzhou City.
After Xiao Tao had eaten and drunk her fill, she gradually fell asleep. Her fever had subsided last night, but she was still a little tired. Liu Niang held her in her arms, lowering her head to hide her expression.
She wasn't as well-informed as the county officials, so she found it a bit strange, but for Xiaotao's sake, she had no choice but to take a gamble. Now that she thought about it carefully, that nobleman didn't seem like someone who would be easy to get along with. She wondered what his purpose was...
Ji Suxian noticed that Liu Niang was a little depressed and said, "According to your instructions, we should be there in half an hour, which shortens our schedule by half a day."
"Ah, yes, according to the direction I pointed, in half an hour, the young lady and the young lady will be able to go into the city to look for people."
Liu Niang was hoping for a lucky break. Perhaps the nobleman knew that the young lady and the young lady were coming to Luzhou City to look for their families, so he wanted to help them and let them enter the city as soon as possible?
Ji Suxian looked at the sleeping Xiao Tao, paused, and asked her, "It's very hard, right?"
Liu Niang was stunned and didn't understand for a moment.
"Carrying a baby in your belly for nearly ten months must have been very tiring for your spine, your limbs, and your internal organs."
The miserable state of Liu Niang's abdomen that Ji Suxian saw yesterday was unavoidable for noble women to suffer from similar or identical symptoms after getting married. They would ask doctors to prescribe medicine and apply ointments for them. Some of them could not regain the fair and tender skin of their youth no matter how they took care of themselves. Therefore, they would be despised by their husbands and could only watch their husbands bring concubines into the house one after another.
Liu Niang was just an ordinary woman, and her difficult situation can be imagined.
"...Slave, I am not miserable." Liu Niang responded with a smile. She felt something strange in her heart, but she couldn't tell what was wrong.
"My mother and mother-in-law both said that all women in the world live like this, and we are all the same."
Liu Niang did feel a bit hard during her ten months of pregnancy, and she always felt a sense of inexplicable grievance in her heart. But when she saw that the women around her were used to it, she felt that she shouldn't be so pretentious.
"..." Ji Suxian frowned slightly and smiled at Liu Niang, with a hint of bitterness in her voice. She asked hesitantly, "Don't you regret it?"
"ah?"
"To give birth to a child, one must carry the baby for ten months and work day and night."
Ji Suxian asked the question that had been on her mind for a long time: "Do parents in this world regret it?"
Liu Niang was surprised when she heard this. "Why would you regret it?"
"Xiao Tao is everything to me."
“…”
In an instant, Ji Suxian's head buzzed and she remembered a lot of things.
Rough hands, flying spit, violent shoving, and two small bags of wheat passed between people's hands.
And that shrill voice that had haunted her for decades.
"I can't sell it! I can't sell it! Xian'er is our child! She's the only one I have, I can't sell her!"
Ji Suxian didn't speak for a long time after that, and Liu Niang didn't know how to speak again.
The route that Liu Niang took them was much faster than the one they had taken before, and they arrived after two hours.
The southeastern city of Luzhou has frequent spring floods all year round, which is very different from Yanmen. It is still experiencing continuous spring rains, causing the water volume at the end of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River to increase day by day. Nearly half of the city of Luzhou is located in the lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. Other places are not so bad, but many refugees have gathered in the west and north of Luzhou City, most of whom are the elderly, the young, the sick and the disabled.
After Shang Yuwan and others entered the city, they sent people to find an inn that was still in operation. After renting the corresponding guest rooms, Bai Xiaoye and Cheng Yishui took the others to pack up their things. Lu Heying followed Xiao Qingxu to the guest rooms, while Shang Yuwan and Ji Suxian took Liu Niang and her daughter to have dinner in another room.
Xiao Tao was a bit timid, just like Liu Niang, so Ji Suxian patiently picked up some food for her and encouraged her to eat more. Shang Yuwan held Liu Niang's hand and thanked her repeatedly, saying that he would give her some money, but Liu Niang didn't dare to accept any of it.
"No need! The young lady and the young lady have done me and Xiaotao a great favor by saving them. I absolutely cannot accept their kindness!"
Liu Niang kept refusing, but Shang Yuwan forced it on her.
"You're welcome, Liuniang. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't know how long we'd have to wait before we could enter the city!" Shang Yuwan forcefully stuffed the purse into Liuniang's hands, a smile on his face. "Since Liuniang won't let my people escort you out, you should accept this money. Otherwise, what will we do if the child gets into trouble in the future?"
"I also have a young child at home, so I understand how Liu Niang loves and cares for her children."
Seeing Shang Yuwan's insistence, Liu Niang looked at Xiao Tao, who had let down her guard and started eating with big mouthfuls after being coaxed by Ji Suxian, and said, "Well, thank you very much, Madam."
"I should be the one thanking Liu Niang."
Shang Yuwan spoke nice words as if they were free, and after making sure Liu Niang and Xiao Tao had a good meal and drink, he personally sent them away.
"Bai Xiaoye."
After the people walked away, Shang Yuwan's expression gradually calmed down.
Bai Xiaoye responded and said, "I understand. I'll have someone keep a close eye on it."
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