Cheng Xiangxiang stayed at the brothel for only two or three days before Hua Luan hurriedly came looking for her.
"Ah Cen! Ah Cen!"
"What's wrong? What's wrong?"
The magistrate's wife called out in a slightly anxious tone, urging Cen Ang to come out of the room and asking...
"Where is that child?" Hua Luan asked.
"Playing with Long'er at the Huo family's house."
Mrs. Cen asked her to sit down and have some tea before continuing.
"What's going on? Why are you in such a rush?"
"The prefect has issued an urgent order: his young lady has gone missing. She's seven or eight years old and is dressed exactly like that person."
"Then this is the prefect's child?"
"Um"
Hua Luan nodded, while Cen Ang's expression remained unchanged.
Let alone a prefect, she wouldn't even give a second glance to the prime minister's son. What did he do before? Everyone he dealt with was a member of the imperial family or nobility. What was a prefect compared to that?
"The Prefect's wife has already arrived in Pingyang County."
"Come on, come on," Cen Ang said to her while cracking sunflower seeds.
"Should I pick her up today?"
Hua Luan didn't want to talk much. She knew Cen Ang's personality. The prefect was really not a big deal to her. She only raised this child because Huo Xiaolong asked her to.
"OK"
Cen Ang nodded and said, "What's there to disagree with? After all, her own mother is here. It's not appropriate for her to see her daughter in a brothel. This isn't a matter of who's the higher or lower in rank."
"Do you want to go back with your aunt? Your mother..."
"Waaaaah! I won't go back! I won't go back!"
Hua Luan stood by, at a loss, watching the little girl who had just been following Huo Xiaolong picking up tank parts now lying on the ground wailing and even throwing a tantrum.
Cen Ang, who was following behind her, lowered his head and looked at his daughter meaningfully.
Without a doubt, it was she who taught her. Otherwise, young ladies from wealthy families would be taught etiquette and manners from birth. The daughter of a prefect would never do such a thing.
Unless... someone teaches her.
"whee"
Huo Xiaolong felt a little embarrassed by the stares, so he peeked out from behind a tree and smiled.
Cen Ang gave her a wink, meaning, "You taught this, so you're the one who needs to resolve this."
The little dumpling slowly moved forward, until it reached Cheng Xiangxiang, and said...
"Don't cry, your mother will come to take you home soon. Hurry back with Aunt Hua, otherwise your mother will worry so much if she sees you in a brothel."
Cheng Xiangxiang glanced at Huo Xiaolong, sat up from lying down, then stopped crying and said...
I don't want to go home.
"Why?" the little dumpling asked, squatting down beside her.
"I came to Pingyang County to visit my maternal grandparents."
"You yourself?"
"Yes!" Cheng Xiangxiang nodded.
"Why did you do it yourself?" Huo Xiaolong looked her in the eye, and the two children chatted casually.
“My grandparents said that if my mother wasn’t doing well, I should go back and tell them, and they would take her home,” Cheng Xiangxiang said, her eyes reddening as she clutched her handkerchief.
"Is your mother not doing well?"
"Yes! My father loves his new wife, and she even gave birth to my younger brother. My mother cries every single day."
"So you came?"
"Um!"
"But your aunt remembers, your family isn't in Pingyang County. Your maternal grandfather was the head of the Hou family in Biancheng, named Hou Fengnian, right?"
Hua Luan interjected, saying that the family background of the Prefect's wife was something all the wives of officials knew, and it wasn't exactly a secret.
"Yes! I went to the border town before, but the old gatekeeper said they went back to their hometown in Pingyang County."
Cheng Xiangxiang looked up at Hua Luan and continued speaking
"Auntie, I really don't want to go home. I don't want my mother to support my father's concubine anymore."
Hua Luan sighed deeply. The prefect's family was also a mess. He got the position of prefect of Beining Prefecture by relying on his wife's family, but then he turned around and favored his concubine over his wife.
Unfortunately, this matter was suppressed to the core. If Cheng Xiangxiang hadn't run away from home, probably no one would ever have known what the prefect had done.
She didn't want to make things difficult for the child, so she could only say...
"Then you stay here for a few days, and I'll bring your mother over in a few days, okay? I'll send someone to tell your maternal grandparents."
Cheng Xiangxiang nodded and said in a low voice
Thank you, Auntie.
Huo Xiaolong held her small hand and asked softly.
"Did you come all the way from Beining County by yourself?"
"Hmm," Cheng Xiangxiang replied listlessly, feeling slightly unhappy as she thought about her mother's situation at home.
"So far! You came all by yourself!?"
She's only seven years old and the eldest daughter of the prefect's family. She probably hasn't even left the manor by herself. How dare such a little girl come all the way from the provincial center to a remote border town by herself? She's incredibly brave!
"I paid the security company to escort me here."
"Then why don't you go to your maternal family?"
"I was just thinking of going when the kidnappers started targeting me."
"Then why didn't you say anything when you got here?" Huo Xiaolong, oblivious to the atmosphere, kept asking questions.
Cheng Xiangxiang blushed slightly and said
"I was scared that day... and then... I forgot about it these past two days..."
The happiest time of her life was during these few days, when she didn't have to do embroidery, learn endless etiquette, or read the rules and precepts for women that she didn't like.
Huo Xiaolong was somewhat speechless. Fine, what can you do? She's only seven years old. Although she talks about finding a match for him and such, she's still a child at heart.
"Let's go, little girl."
"ah?"
This title surprised Cheng Xiangxiang.
"Come on, little girl, let's change our clothes. Look at you, you're covered in dirt."
"Oh, oh, oh! Here it comes!"
"This is wonderful," Cheng Xiangxiang thought. "If only things could stay like this forever."
She envied Huo Xiaolong, a girl not much younger than herself, who didn't have to put on a stern face or act affectedly every day. Even if she didn't know how to play the zither, chess, calligraphy, or painting, or how to follow the proper etiquette for women, her parents and everyone around her would still cherish her.
In her mind, brothels were full of disreputable women, all of them vixens.
Miss Xiangxiang only found out when she arrived at the brothel.
It turns out that they were all acting against their will.
Beautiful girls, in chaotic times, are left helpless and alone; that is their greatest mistake.
She shouldn't be so beautiful, she shouldn't have been born a woman.
Fortunately, they encountered the brothel, Mother Cen, and the little dumpling who could heal them for life.
That's great...
If she hadn't married her father, what would her mother have been like? These past few days at the brothel, Cheng Xiangxiang met the proprietress of Huaxuetang. She was young and very efficient.
Her mother would probably be like that too, no... her mother has a very gentle personality, somewhat like He Yi, Huo Xiaolong's biological mother.
That's not right either. Huo Xiaolong's mother never spoiled her father, and her father was very obedient. He didn't even glance at the many beauties at the brothel.
Cheng Xiangxiang couldn't think of a way, but if there were a chance to do it all over again... she would rather not be born than give birth to her mother.
if you can……
I hope
My mother was happy all her life, undisturbed by trivial matters of the heart, and went out to see a wider world. The outside world is beautiful, and you deserve it.
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