These words startled Shen Congxin. She seemed to have never seen Jiang Yaojie so serious before. She stood there for several seconds, hesitating for a while before finally hiding in her previous spot.
Jiang Yaojie had already quietly arrived at the front door of Mo Xue's house. He gently pressed his ear against the door and heard intermittent sounds coming from inside.
"Oh, son, don't blame your sister, it's all your mother's fault for being incompetent. We really can't afford to offend the Shen family!" An old voice slowly entered Jiang Yaojie's ears.
"Mother! Do you think Master Shen will spare us after he finds out?" a slightly angry male voice asked.
"But... what can we do? The deed is done, and your sister has brought back silver. That silver is enough for you to marry a wife and buy land!" the old voice said again.
"Then you're not going to care about your sister's life or death! Mother, why are you so confused!" The man's voice rose a few decibels as he spoke again.
Jiang Yaojie was so engrossed in listening at the door that he completely ignored the people around him. Just then, a middle-aged man walked over, frowned at Jiang Yaojie's strange behavior, and asked, "Who are you looking for?"
The sudden sound startled Jiang Yaojie, and the sounds inside the house stopped abruptly. Then, footsteps approached from afar.
Jiang Yaojie broke out in a cold sweat, but he still pretended to be shocked and slurred, "Uncle, is this Rouge Lane?"
"Huh? What did you say?" It was obvious that the man hadn't heard Jiang Yaojie's words clearly.
"I mean, is Rouge Lane here?" The tone remained ambiguous.
Just then, the door to Mo Xue's house opened, and a pale-faced, thin man, not much taller than Jiang Yaojie, stared at Jiang Yaojie warily.
"Zhao Erhu, why have you changed so much?" Jiang Yaojie asked the man.
"What Zhao Erhu, Zhao Ermao, who are you?" The man did not lower his guard at all, but instead looked at Jiang Yaojie with even more suspicion.
"Here? Isn't this Rouge Lane?" Jiang Yaojie asked, feigning a blank expression.
"This is Rouge Lane! You've got the wrong place!" the man said irritably, pointing to a sign not far from his house before slamming the door shut.
The middle-aged man who had been standing there mistakenly thought Jiang Yaojie had come to the wrong place and said enthusiastically, "This is Rouge Alley, Rouge Flower Alley is next door!"
"Uncle, thank you!" Jiang Yaojie thanked the middle-aged man and then turned to walk forward.
As they passed by where Shen Congxin was hiding, Jiang Yaojie pointed ahead without making a sound, and Shen Congxin nodded in understanding.
Jiang Yaojie breathed a sigh of relief as he walked out of the alley. He cautiously peered into the alley from the entrance. Fortunately, the middle-aged man was no longer there, and Shen Congxin's figure gradually became clearer.
"How was that? You scared me to death just now!" Shen Congxin patted his chest and said with a worried look.
"What's there to be afraid of!" Jiang Yaojie said, feigning composure. In reality, only he knew that his legs had been trembling and weak the whole way back, and it took him a long time to recover after walking out of the alley.
“I overheard some of it. It must be your stepmother who’s behind this! Just now, when I heard Mo Xue’s mother and her brother talking, I heard something about how the Shen family is not to be trifled with! However, I’m not sure if Mo Xue was forced into this or what…” This time, Jiang Yaojie remembered his lesson from last time and didn’t say it outright.
Shen Congxin didn't show any expression, making it impossible to guess what she was thinking. She simply nodded and asked Jiang Yaojie, "So what do we do next?"
“Let’s go to your house and steal the stuff!” Jiang Yaojie said in a low voice.
Shenfu.
Jiang Yaojie and Shen Congxin hid to the side and secretly observed. At this moment, the gate of the Shen residence was locked, and it was impossible to enter through the gate.
"Are there any other places?" Jiang Yaojie asked.
“Yes, there is a secret cave behind the Shen residence. Nobody knows about this place. Whenever my father goes out to do business, I sneak out to play. This place has not been discovered by anyone so far,” Shen Congxin said with a hint of pride.
"Wait a minute, you said there's a secret cave?" Jiang Yaojie immediately grasped the key point of Shen Congxin's words.
"Yes...yes, is there anything strange about it?" Shen Congxin asked, frowning.
"Then why didn't you escape through this secret cave?" Jiang Yaojie asked, puzzled.
"This..." Shen Congxin was speechless for a moment. She frowned and leaned against the wall to think carefully.
She felt saddened by the fact that she had been forced into marriage, as if she had always been led by the nose by Mo Xue. After all, they had grown up together. Although Shen Congxin was the master and Mo Xue was the servant, Shen Congxin had never mistreated Mo Xue. When they were young, she would share all the good food with Mo Xue. When they grew up, she would even break her rule and secretly give Mo Xue some of the finest fabrics so that Mo Xue could make clothes for her.
The thought of those pleasant memories made Shen Congxin's heart ache.
"Miss Shen, what's wrong?" Jiang Yaojie turned around when Shen Congxin didn't answer him, only to be met with her preoccupied expression. Jiang Yaojie thought he had said something wrong again, so he quickly asked.
"Ah, no...it's nothing. Things were chaotic at the time, so I didn't pay any attention to that secret cave!" Shen replied absentmindedly.
"Does Mo Xue know about that secret cave?" Jiang Yaojie continued to ask.
“She…” Shen Congxin wanted to say “I don’t know.” But then she suddenly remembered the times she would sneak out to bring food to Mo Xue, and the words “I don’t know” were swallowed back down.
"I...I don't know. Because every time I sneak out, I bring back delicious food for Mo Xue, so...I'm not sure if she knows about this!" Shen Congxin said, biting her lip.
"Then let's go check out that secret cave first!" Jiang Yaojie saw Shen Congxin's conflicted expression and couldn't bear to ask any more questions, so he changed the subject.
Shen Congxin nodded, pointed to the wall on the left side of the Shen residence, and whispered, "It's over there!"
Jiang Yaojie led Shen Congxin carefully through the gate of the Shen residence and came to the back of the wall on the left side of the residence. Shen Congxin walked to a place with a stone slab and moved the stone slab aside with difficulty. A hole that was just big enough for a person to climb through appeared in front of the two of them.
Just as Shen Congxin was about to squat down and look inside, Jiang Yaojie pulled him up.
"I'm going in first. If you hear me call out, you'd better run, understand?" Jiang Yaojie whispered a reminder.
Shen Congxin nodded after hearing this. Although she wanted to stop Jiang Yaojie, she couldn't bring herself to say anything when she saw his determined eyes. She just watched helplessly as he was about to disappear into the cave.
A few seconds later, Jiang Yaojie's voice suddenly came from inside the cave.
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