He Caiwei thought that she and her daughter would live a peaceful life until they went south.
Who would have thought they would encounter such an unexpected person? That day, the mother and daughter had finished the rice and flour they had bought a few days earlier. It just so happened that there was a market day in the village on the outskirts of the city, so they thought of coming here to try their luck and see if they could buy some half-grown hens. Anyway, they would not be leaving for another two months, so they could raise two half-grown hens to lay eggs for their daughter to eat.
Who knew that shortly after arriving at the village market, they would run into Madam Zhang Sumei.
He Caiwei was somewhat surprised when she saw her. Didn't the book say that after leaving the Qu family, they went to a small town called Heping Town? How did she end up in the village market, and the clothes she was wearing looked even more shabby than the two of them who were deliberately pretending?
He Caiwei saw them first, reached out and tugged at her mother's sleeve to let her see.
He Yuping remained quite calm. After negotiating the price and buying her things, she continued shopping until they met again half an hour later. He Caiwei admired her mother's composed demeanor.
After leaving the market, the mother and daughter bought ten catties of rice, ten catties of fine flour that had undergone three processing steps, two clucking hens, twenty eggs, and an old hen that had already been slaughtered. They walked home from the market with a blank expression, and only collapsed after closing the door.
"Phew, that was close. Luckily, I had the urge to do it to you today, otherwise you would have been exposed." After returning, He Yuping was glad that she had suddenly come up with the idea to make her daughter ugly. Otherwise, if they had been recognized, given the First Madam's unforgiving nature, the two of them would have been skinned alive.
"Mom, you were so calm just now, why are your legs going weak now?" He Caiwei looked at her mother, who had collapsed on the ground, with amusement and reached out to take the two lively little hens. She walked towards the chicken coop in the backyard.
The idea of buying young hens didn't just come to them today, so they prepared the chicken coop well in advance.
"Mom, throw the leftover leaves from the vegetables you bought today over for these little hens to eat." He Caiwei only remembered after putting the chicks down that she hadn't prepared any food for them.
“Hey girl, tell me how she ended up here. Didn’t we hear they were going abroad? Why didn’t they leave? It’s fine if it happens once or twice, but if we run into each other every time, who knows when they might recognize us? Maybe we shouldn’t go to the village market anymore, so we don’t run into them.” He Yuping didn’t want to cause trouble or let those people bother her.
"Maybe it's because we don't have the money. I heard that going abroad requires taking a plane, and plane tickets cost a lot of money. Why don't we pack up and ask Grandpa Lin to help us find out if there are any train tickets? We can leave quickly, since the houses have almost all been sold." He Caiwei and the others went to the neighborhood office these past few days, and the houses have been sold one after another. The two larger courtyard houses that remain are still unsold because the prices are a bit high.
The mother and daughter had 3,640 silver dollars from selling their house. Banks weren't very safe these days, but they had a lot of these silver dollars, and it would be very heavy for them to carry them all.
“If you’re leaving, then you can leave the remaining two houses to your Grandpa Lin to handle…” He Yuping was thinking that if the two houses hadn’t been sold before he bought the train ticket, he could just hand them over to Uncle Lin. Once they were settled, he could write them a letter and transfer the money over.
Before she could finish speaking, there was a knock on the door. The mother and daughter were startled. As He Yuping walked over, she asked, "Who is it? It's lunchtime, and you're just dropping by."
Her voice was very low, sounding somewhat like a man's. Out of caution, she didn't open the door immediately, but waited for his reply.
"Hello, may I ask if Madam He Youyou lives here?" Butler Hu had been wandering around this area for many days and found someone whose figure was very similar to their third concubine. However, she hadn't seen anyone else since she entered this alley, so she thought she would knock on the door and ask if such a person lived here.
Both mother and daughter were startled when they heard Butler He's voice.
“Never heard of it. The people living here all work in textile factories or soap factories. These courtyards are empty during the day. There's no way a lady would live here.” He Yuping suppressed the trembling in her heart and spoke in a steady, low, husky male voice.
Actually, her heart was pounding in her throat. She didn't know when she had been exposed, or if these people were waiting nearby to ambush her.
"Excuse me, I'm sorry to have bothered you," said Butler Hu, and then walked away. Hearing the footsteps fading into the distance, the mother and daughter were truly terrified this time.
The two of them didn't dare to speak in the courtyard. Instead, they helped each other into the main room, closed the door, and quietly began to plan once they were back in their room.
"We definitely can't go out today. I'm afraid he's watching us from outside. I wonder if he believed what I said earlier? I just can't figure out where I gave myself away." He Yuping was a little anxious. She absolutely dared not go out now. Her fighting skills were not good enough to beat a man at all. She also had to protect her daughter, so she absolutely could not take any risks.
"Mother, there's something I've never told you... I..." He Caiwei didn't know how many years He Yuping had studied or what her thoughts were. But right now, she couldn't think about anything else. She didn't dare to imagine what would happen if those people found out about her and her mother.
After all, if someone wants to prevent these people from leaving, they can drug everyone in the mansion, knock them unconscious, and then burn them alive. You can't expect them to have any conscience.
“Honey, this isn’t the time to talk about that. We need to find out if there’s a hole behind us or how we can get out of here safely.” He Yuping couldn’t listen to her daughter’s ramblings. All she could think about was how to ensure her daughter’s safety.
“Mother, I have a place here where we can hide. As long as we don’t come out, no one can find us, but…” He Caiwei was still a little scared.
"Where? If you can hide there yourself, then hide there now, and leave the outside to me." As soon as He Yuping heard that there was a place to hide, she immediately grabbed her daughter's little hand and asked excitedly.
She didn't want her daughter to get hurt. So what if her daughter was captured by those people? As long as her daughter wasn't captured, she didn't care if she died.
“Mother can go too.” He Caiwei didn’t know what to say, so she simply stopped talking and took her daughter’s hand and entered the space. He Yuping, who was suddenly in a different place, was startled and held her daughter’s hand tightly, not daring to relax for a moment.
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