Chapter 824: Chapter 824: Aren’t You Kidnappers?
Cui Sanniang hurriedly gave him a look, and Second Master Liu knowingly glanced at Xiao Lian Hua, then put the curtain down and continued to drive the carriage.
She raised a kind smile and comforted, "Don’t be nervous, we’re not bad people."
Cui Sanniang thought Xiao Lian Hua was afraid of them, worried the person might be scared, so she first calmed her down, hoping to soothe her. Once they reached Yangzhou, it would be their territory.
At that time, Xiao Lian Hua breathed a sigh of relief. When the curtain was lifted, she took note and saw that the carriage was about to pass through the city gate, and there was no one outside. It seemed they had avoided them.
Upon hearing Cui Sanniang’s question, she strangely replied, "Aren’t you traffickers?" Traffickers are bad people, and this woman with shaded eyes was quite strange.
At this moment, there was the shout of city guard soldiers outside, very close, as the carriage slowly moved towards the city gate.
Cui Sanniang panicked and quickly said, "Don’t speak nonsense." She reached out to cover the person’s mouth, but the person dodged.
Once the city guard soldiers were far away, Cui Sanniang relaxed her body, forced a smile again, and explained, "Of course not, young girl, did you misunderstand something?"
Xiao Lian Hua glanced at the few girls who were leaning against each other, asleep in the carriage’s belly, full of disbelief.
Cui Sanniang paused for a moment, then smiled and explained, "These girls are all pitiful ones without a home. They are young and don’t have a skill to rely on. It’s hard to survive in these tough times. We couldn’t stand it, so we thought to help them find a way out, teach them some skills, so they would have a livelihood in the future."
"Oh." Xiao Lian Hua was noncommittal. She listened to the sounds outside and asked, "Are we heading north out of the city?"
When she heard Xiao Lian Hua voluntarily include herself by saying "we," Cui Sanniang’s lips curled into a peculiar smile, "Exactly. Xiao Hehe, I’ll call you Xiao Hehe from now on. Where are you going? How about we give you a ride?"
Xiao Lian Hua turned her head to look at her, quickly calculating in her mind, feeling a bit uncertain, "Will you be taking a boat across the Yangtze River?"
Seeing her expression, Cui Sanniang didn’t know what she was pondering and slowly nodded her head, then tentatively said, "Could it be Xiao Hehe is also heading that way? That would be quite a coincidence. It’s not safe for you to travel alone, come along with us."
This statement moved Xiao Lian Hua. She lowered her head and began calculating. She couldn’t stay in Xuanzhou Prefecture now, and the person would definitely be guarding outside the city gate. She couldn’t get off here, or she would be discovered.
That person saw her trying to leave the city and heading north. If they followed her, she couldn’t outrun those big horses and would easily be caught.
This woman with shaded eyes seemed bad, but she had no other options. It was best to stay hidden in the carriage; that person shouldn’t expect it.
Weighing her options, being abducted seemed safer than being on her own. Xiao Lian Hua sighed a little; since it was this way, she could only go with it...
She raised her head again and nodded.
Cui Sanniang’s smile grew wider, thinking her words had reached Xiao Lian Hua, believing she was indeed a naive young girl traveling alone.
She placed the Bamboo Whip aside, picked up a handkerchief with "kindness" in mind, intending to show her gentle and amiable side, wanting to wipe Xiao Lian Hua’s face. But after a long look, she couldn’t bring herself to do it; it was truly too dirty.
Xiao Lian Hua watched her without blinking, with a bit of curiosity, wanting to see what she was going to do, making Cui Sanniang grit her teeth to wipe her anyway.
But Xiao Lian Hua turned her face to dodge, clearly refusing, "Stinks." The scent on this shifty-eyed woman’s body was too strong, like something heavily marinated in fragrance, it made her uncomfortable.
Cui Sanniang’s smile suddenly froze at the corner of her mouth, a wave of anger rising to her head. This little brat was as dirty as if she had crawled out of a mud pit, she didn’t even mind her stink, and yet she said she stank?!
Cui Sanniang held back forcefully to suppress the anger, looking at Xiao Lian Hua with frosty eyes.
Xiao Lian Hua looked directly at her, not showing a hint of fear, her big innocent eyes wide open.
Cui Sanniang had to put away the handkerchief, replacing it with a warm expression again, "No need to wipe then. But Xiao Hehe, you should wash your face and change clothes later on, okay? It’s fate that we met this way. Xiao Hehe, I spotted you in the street at first glance. Isn’t it fateful?"
Xiao Lian Hua looked at her strangely. Did spotting her and wanting to hit her count as fate?
Having said that, Cui Sanniang remembered the prior unpleasantness, recalling the sand Xiao Lian Hua threw in her face, and she felt a surge of anger. Yet, to keep the situation steady, she held it back, "It was a mistake on my part earlier, please don’t blame me, Xiao Hehe."
Xiao Lian Hua didn’t particularly want to pay her heed, but recalling she still had to sit in this trafficker’s carriage, she thought about it and politely said, "Thank you."
Cui Sanniang’s resentment eased quite a bit and hearing the commotion outside, knowing they’d passed the city gate and were safe, she couldn’t help but feel more relaxed.
With her own suspicions in mind, she began to inquire about Xiao Lian Hua, to see what she had learned, to test if she was as she suspected—a child of a noble family.
She first tentatively asked if she could read characters.
Xiao Lian Hua simply nodded.
Cui Sanniang’s heart leapt with joy, delving deeper, asking if she had studied poetry and literature.
Xiao Lian Hua nodded again, her eyes glancing outside, perked up listening to the happenings outside.
Cui Sanniang couldn’t contain her delight; it seemed she’d stumbled upon a treasure. She continued to ask if she had learned embroidery, which is essential for ladies from noble families. Confirming this would remove all doubts!
Xiao Lian Hua still perfunctorily nodded while calculating the distance passed, that person hadn’t found them, it ought to be safe by now.
Her body relaxed as she leaned into the carriage, now attentive to other matters, she noticed the few drowsy girls and stared unblinking, her eyes beginning to whirl.
The earlier urge to do something with this carriage, was it because of them?
Xiao Lian Hua tilted her head to think but couldn’t make sense of it. These traffickers had taken so many people. What would she do after escaping those bad people?
At this moment, Cui Sanniang was overjoyed and didn’t notice Xiao Lian Hua’s actions. Everything was going according to her expectations—this was a noble upbringing plan!
Her heart was filled with joy. Indeed, this was achieved effortlessly. Once groomed into a talented woman, the noble family youths would no doubt be enamored by her.
No, she had to keep a close watch on Second Master Liu; this one was different from any before. She was their ticket to turning their fortunes, and under no circumstances should she be spoiled!
At this point, she never imagined that while Xiao Lian Hua had indeed learned, she wasn’t lying, but was like one who knew bits and pieces yet understood none!
This was the story of how Xiao Lian Hua escaped one danger only to fall into another.
Switching the scene back to Guo Shun, as he galloped through Xuanzhou Prefecture City, he keenly sensed something was off with a little Beggar.
After judging the direction the little Beggar was heading and calculating the Shichen, he went to another place in the city, the Guo family’s teahouse, to tie up loose ends, wrote a letter for Guo Neng, and then set out of the city.