Lu Baichuan's family continued their journey towards the coastal city. During this time, they did not hear any more rumors about treasure. The journey was relatively smooth, and Gou'er had the opportunity to experience all the fun things that Jiang Jiuniang had mentioned.
With the treasure hunt temporarily over, the family could finally relax and enjoy their trip. They would stay in each city for a few days to experience the local customs and traditions, and bring back some local specialties. If they found any that could be preserved for a long time, they would send a portion to the capital so that the Sun family could also taste them.
The letters home were still written by Gou'er, describing the local customs and people he had encountered along the way. During this time, Xiangxiang had grown up a lot and could now sit up and play by herself, babbling as if she wanted to learn to speak.
Ever since Xiangxiang started babbling, Gou'er has had an extra task every day: telling her stories and teaching her pronunciation. He's always very serious about it, regardless of whether his little sister can understand it or not.
Xiangxiang is a smart child. Seeing her brother teaching her so patiently, she followed suit. Although no matter what Gou'er taught her, she could only say "ah ah ah," it didn't affect her happy mood.
The siblings' relationship grew better and better. For a long time, Xiangxiang only wanted her brother to sleep with her; otherwise, she would rather keep her eyes open than sleep.
This made things convenient for Lu Baichuan and Jiang Jiuniang, as they didn't have to worry about their daughter making them sleepy at night, while Gou'er was going further and further down the path of becoming a nanny.
They were living a peaceful and happy life, but things were quite difficult for the retired emperor and his family.
I don't know if it was because they felt too safe following Lu Baichuan before, but nothing happened along the way. However, ever since they set off on their own, all sorts of problems have started to emerge.
They either got an upset stomach from not being used to the local food, or they fell ill from the change in environment. They also encountered bandits, and although their bodyguards were very capable and protected them well, they were still quite frightened.
More importantly, they wanted to help the poor people along the way, but they were cheated and lost a lot of money.
The story goes like this: I saw an elderly couple begging on the street. When I asked them, I learned that their son had died and they only had two young grandsons left. They were too old to raise the children, so they had to beg, hoping that kind people would give them some money to support their two grandsons.
The retired emperor had gone out for a trip with the intention of helping the people. Upon hearing what the other party said, he was immediately filled with sympathy and gave them thirty taels of silver without saying a word, telling them not to beg anymore and to go back and raise their two grandsons properly.
The two were deeply grateful and left after expressing their sincere thanks.
That evening, the Emperor Emeritus spoke of the matter to Consort Liu, feeling deeply moved. He then felt that he had done a good deed by saving a family along the way, and slept soundly through the night with sweet dreams.
The next day, Consort Liu wanted to eat some local snacks, so the two of them went out to buy some. As a result, they saw the old couple begging on the street again.
The retired emperor was very depressed. Thirty taels of silver was not a lot, but it was enough for an ordinary family to eat and dress warmly for many years and raise two children. What was wrong with this old couple that they would come out to beg again?
Unable to understand, he went up to ask them. When the two saw him, they were instantly moved to tears, crying so hard they couldn't speak. The first thing they said was that thirty taels of silver were gone.
When the Emperor Emeritus asked what happened, the man said he was robbed on his way back. He guessed that the Emperor Emeritus had seen him giving them money, and they were robbed before they even left the city.
The retired emperor was furious. He sent people to investigate, but they found no clues. So he secretly gave the old couple another fifty taels of silver. This time he made sure no one was around before giving it to them, and told them to be careful on their way back so they wouldn't be robbed again.
After all that commotion, the Emperor Emeritus lost all interest in shopping and only sent servants to buy some snacks for Consort Liu. The two of them walked back to the inn in very low spirits.
On the third day, the Emperor Emeritus decided to accompany Consort Liu to purchase some items before setting off for the next city. On the way, he saw the old couple again, but they were not begging. Instead, they were humbly handing a money bag to a man in a small alley.
The man was very rude and took the money and left.
The old emperor thought this was the man who had robbed the two elders, and was about to rush over to uphold justice for them when he heard several busybodies whispering, "This man is really despicable. His son dares to treat his father like this, yet the other man is still willing to give him money!"
"Who can argue with that? The old couple from the Cao family are lucky. They always seem to run into suckers who give them a large sum of money, while we honest people who live our lives are so poor we have to scrimp and save!"
"Damn it, we can't live like this anymore. Why don't we just go beg on the streets? I reckon we can buy a big courtyard house by the end of the year!"
...
The two great traitors, the Emperor Emeritus and Consort Liu, who were talking to someone nearby: ...
From what these people were saying, he could roughly tell that the fierce-looking man was the old couple's son, but why were the old couple giving their son so much money?
Seeing the Emperor Emeritus's face, which looked as if he had swallowed a fly, Consort Liu took the initiative to ask a few elderly women who were chatting nearby, "Is that man the son of those two old ladies?"
"Absolutely! It's a real tragedy. If I had a son like that, I would have strangled him in his infancy. Only those two old hags could spoil him like that and turn him into such a spoiled brat."
An older woman spoke in a rather unpleasant tone; it was unclear whether she was frustrated with someone's lack of progress or had some personal grudge, but she seemed quite resentful.
Consort Liu immediately became interested, squatted down and said, "Tell me about it!"
The older women were very welcoming and told the story of the Cao family.
Cao Qi was the elderly couple's seventh child and only son, whom they spoiled rotten. They not only exploited their six daughters to raise him, but now that their son is addicted to gambling dens and taverns, the elderly couple not only fail to educate their son, but even go to the streets to beg for money to earn for his drinks and gambling, keeping nothing for themselves and giving it all to their son to play with.
"Oh dear, you have no idea how utterly depraved this family is! To get that bastard to the gambling den, those two old sluts abandoned their daughter-in-law who had just given birth and took their newborn granddaughter to sell for money. They gave the money to that bastard, and he spent it all that very night."
"My daughter-in-law cried so much that she hurt herself, suffered a massive hemorrhage, and passed away a few days later."
"That's not all. Instead of giving their daughter-in-law a proper burial, they sold her to another family for a ghost marriage, made a fortune from it, and then gambled it all away in no time for that bastard!"
The retired emperor, standing nearby, was utterly astonished: "Arranging a ghost marriage for my daughter-in-law? Isn't that inappropriate?"
Putting aside the issue of arranging a ghost marriage, the daughter-in-law's status alone shouldn't be used for such a thing, right?
The old woman sneered and said, "That's the viciousness of that old slut. She directly wrote a letter of divorce on the grounds that her daughter-in-law couldn't give birth to a grandson, making sure that her daughter-in-law had nothing to do with her family, and then she sold her off."
Consort Liu's eyes widened: "Don't the daughter-in-law's family care?"
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