The mother and daughter guessed correctly. Butler Hu had seen their clothes by chance that day. Although their faces didn't look alike, they could still make out some resemblance from their silhouettes.
He had been keeping an eye on the neighborhood for the past few days, but the things he had painstakingly moved out disappeared without a trace overnight. His fourth aunt thought he had embezzled them and kept nagging him, even giving him three months to find them or she would report him to the police.
He was truly at his wit's end. He had been wandering around the area for some time, but the mother and daughter rarely went out. He had been wandering around for most of the day but had not been able to find any trace of them. In desperation, he could only knock on doors one by one to see if he could find them.
But he didn't consider that once he escaped the wolf's den of the Qu family, who would want to go back, let alone walk right into their trap?
Hu Yuexiang, the housekeeper, had just knocked on the door and turned to leave. The voice sounded increasingly familiar; it seemed like he had heard it somewhere before. However, he had heard many young men's voices before, but this one... no, that wasn't a man's voice.
Butler Hu suddenly stopped, wanting to go back but afraid that the person would run away, so he could only stand at a distance and squat there. He didn't believe that the mother and daughter didn't need to eat or go out.
No matter what, he had to find someone to take the blame for those things, and his third wife and her daughter were the best scapegoats.
Fourth Concubine's dislike for Third Concubine was always on display, so it was understandable that she would pin this matter on the mother and daughter.
But Butler Hu couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he tried. Three days had passed, and there was still no sound from inside the house. No smoke had come out of the chimney either. Didn't they need to eat? That couldn't be possible. He could only knock on the door next door.
"Who is it? What are you knocking for so late at night?" A low, hoarse male voice cursed as he opened the door.
Butler Hu was stunned when he heard the voice. It sounded like the previous voice, but it didn't sound like it either. Could it be that he had imagined it before?
"Who the hell are you? What the hell are you knocking on the door for so late at night?" The man cursed as he opened the door, only to find an old man standing there. He was so angry he wanted to kick the old man to the ground.
He just finished his night shift and had only been lying down for a short while. Who is this person?
"I'm so sorry, brother, I just wanted to ask where that mother and daughter next door went? I'm their housekeeper, and they haven't been home for several days. I wanted to ask if they live here?" Housekeeper Hu handed the man a cigarette and spoke kindly.
"What mother and daughter? Are you dreaming? No one has lived next door for years. Except for Uncle Lin who comes to clean occasionally, who would live here?" The man had been working the night shift recently and had no idea that anyone lived here. Besides, there was no movement from next door at all, so it didn't look like anyone lived there.
After hearing this, Butler Hu was completely stunned. Had he been hallucinating a few days ago?
The mother and daughter overheard the commotion next door. Earlier, He Yuping's voice had somewhat imitated the man's, which was why Butler Hu had confused their voices – this was He Yuping's intention.
The mother and daughter had just come out to check the situation, thinking that the housekeeper, Hu, would be less vigilant during the day, and they could try to sneak out. They had been staying here for so many days, and there had been no noise from next door except for a little noise in the evening. At other times, it was quiet.
Surprisingly, the mother and daughter had been living here for five or six days without anyone noticing that someone was living there.
What they didn't expect was that Butler Hu wouldn't give up so easily. Even with the man next door saying that, he didn't leave so easily.
Instead, he continued to squat on the corner of the wall across the street, carefully staring at the gate, trying to find something interesting out of it.
After He Caiwei came out of the space, she carefully ran to the door, carefully listened to the sounds outside the door, and then looked out through the crack in the door. She saw Butler Hu cowering there, so she quickly ran back.
"Mom, that Steward Hu is really persistent. He's still squatting across from us, watching us." When He Caiwei came back, she found that her mother had stopped watching TV and was now sewing clothes for her with a needle and thread.
“He won’t give up so easily. If he did, he wouldn’t be Butler Hu. Let’s just wait it out. We have food and drink here, so we can afford to waste time with him. Come and see the clothes I made for you. I think girls should wear the kind of ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress) that we make ourselves. Embroidered skirts are much better. Those princess dresses that foreigners wear seem a bit too flashy.” He Yuping knew, of course, that Butler Hu wouldn’t give up so easily, so when her daughter said she wanted to go out and take a look, she let her go.
Based on her understanding of Butler Hu, he wouldn't give up until he'd been stuck here for at least half a month.
"Mom, didn't I get you a sewing machine over there? Why don't you use it?" He Yuping only realized after living with her mother for a few days that her mother was truly an all-rounder.
She can cook, embroider, sew, do makeup, conduct reconnaissance, operate a sewing machine, and even learned to use an electric sewing machine very quickly.
“This dress was made with an electric sewing machine. I just embroidered some flowers and sewed on a frog button. Look at this, isn’t it pretty? I drew the pattern myself and made it.” He Yuping held up the little dress to her daughter and found it fit perfectly.
Wow, I've discovered a new skill! She can even draw her own design drafts. So even without this space, the mother and daughter probably wouldn't starve.
Just as her mother had said when she woke up, that if she ran out of money, she could earn it back, and she wasn't lying.
With her mother's skills, she could easily find work.
"Mom, is your dress finished? If it is, let's go to the kitchen and make some snacks. We can put them in the warmer for the journey. By the way, we haven't visited Grandpa Lin for a few days. I wonder if he thinks something happened to us? I wonder if he found his train ticket. It's so hard to take a train these days." He Caiwei sighed. Even during the Spring Festival travel rush, getting a train ticket wasn't this difficult in the past.
It's been over ten days, and I still haven't been able to buy a train ticket.
"I don't know. Oh well, since we can't stay here anymore, let's go live in the big courtyard. Let's send the house key to the buyer. They said they'd stay until the end of this month. If we send it now, they'll definitely be happy." He Yuping thought that since this place had been discovered, they definitely couldn't stay here anymore. She didn't want to live in fear every day; otherwise, how could she live?
"Fine, let's go to the big courtyard then, but how long will that person be squatting outside? It's annoying to watch." He Caiwei was getting a little tired of being here.
“At least half a month, you just wait and see. Don’t you want to stay any longer? Fine, let’s go see what’s outside this house. I see there are fields and orchards outside. Let’s see if the fruit is ripe, and if the things in here are edible. Should we ask?” He Yuping noticed her daughter’s impatience and quickly pulled her out of the room. Since arriving here, she had stayed in the room, afraid to come out, because she was afraid this was someone else’s place. If they didn’t let them hide here, they would have nowhere to go, so she hadn’t dared to leave the house.
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