He Danggui accepted the money with a smile and repeated the shopkeeper"s words, "Thank you very much. Good luck to you. Please take care!" She even copied the tone perfectly.
The girl in red snorted, shook her sleeves and went out of the tailor"s shop to the north. After her, He Danggui went out to the south. The girl in red walked a few steps, could not help looking back and only saw a yellow figure growing further and further.
"Hey, stop, stop, stop! You stop there!" The girl in red shouted petulantly.
All the people stopped to look at the girl in red, but the yellow figure became smaller and smaller. The girl in red was angry and ran so fast at once. When she approached He Danggui, she clasped the scapula of her left shoulder, then turned her right arm backwards, pushed her toward a small corner of the roadside and pressed her against the wall, although the target was smaller than her.
"Hey, why don"t you follow my steps?" The girl in red asked in surprise and anger.
He Danggui was clasped to the wall, her face was pressed against the cold wall and she was more surprised than the girl in red, "Why should I go with you?"
The girl in red hummed, "What are you going to tell my brother-in-law if you don"t take me back? Girl, you will be in trouble by then. My brother-in-law will divorce you and then kill you."
In fact, just now, He Danggui had heard the footsteps of the girl in red before she approached, and even felt her aggressive breath. But she didn"t want to fight without reason. Besides, it was not her turn to teach the rude girl a lesson, because the girl"s brother-in-law was here to do his job. Therefore, He Danggui was like a weak little sheep, bullied by a slightly stronger collie. She would not even bother to struggle, thinking to herself, "Let me see if you got anything new."
The girl in red thought He Danggui was silent because she was afraid, so she further threatened, "If you tell anyone, especially my brother-in-law, about my period and the mess on the dress, I"ll scratch your face!" The girl in red took a short sword from her chest, pressed the cold blade upon He Danggui"s face, maliciously rubbed it twice and whispered, "As long as my hand gently moves, your beauty is gone..."
He Danggui said nothing but looked at the sky.
The girl in red sneered, "From now on, I will ask you questions. If you tell a lie, I will scratch a line across your face until I make your face look like a painted one on the stage. We"ll see how you can seduce my brother-in-law with such a face."
He Danggui was very puzzled. Her appearance was just a 10-year-old child. Today, when she went out, she had the idea of pretending to be ugly deliberately, so she made her clothes and hair very rough. Early this morning, a fella in the grocery store thought that Gao Jue and she were father and daughter. How could this girl in red be hostile to her when they first met? And this girl insisted that she was Gao Jue"s concubine. Oh, heavens! How abnormal Gao Jue was to accept a 10-year-old concubine！
The girl in red asked again, "When and where did you know each other?"
He Danggui replied, "Almost half a month ago, on the mountain road outside the town."
The girl in red continued, "How is he going to do with you? Did he mention that he will take you home or give you a status?"
He Danggui replied, "No, not yet."
The girl in red asked, "Really? I found you had known his habit of only wearing black clothes. Are you buying cloth to make clothes for him? Have you ever made clothes for him? Have you two exchanged the token of love?"
He Danggui replied, "That is for me. If you don"t believe me, go back and ask the shopkeeper of the tailor shop. What I asked just now is my own size. As for your brother-in-law likes to wear black clothes, anyone who have eyes could tell his love toward black clothes. Anyway, I haven"t seen him wear different colors before."
The girl in red caught the information in her words acutely and asked, "So, you often stay with him? Have you ever seen him with other men, such as people with the surnames of Duan and Liao…?"
He Danggui replied, "No comment. They had said that anyone revealed their whereabouts would go to the jail."
The girl in red narrowed her eyes, "Don"t you want your pretty face?"
He Danggui replied, "Yes, you"re right. But your sword doesn"t seem sharp. Is there any better sword?"
The girl in red was nervous and stammered out, "What, what are you talking about…"
He Danggui was still pressed on the wall like a weak sheep, but revealed unhurriedly, "Your sword is taken directly out of your chest, and you don"t even have a scabbard. If this sword has a blade, your chest may have suffered damage a long time ago."
"You, what are you…" The girl in red couldn"t say a complete sentence for a long time and her cheeks got red. Suddenly, she took out a coil of hemp rope and began to tie He Danggui"s hands. She smiled smugly and said, "How dare you look down on me? Now I"ll let you see what I can do!"
He Danggui thought in her mind, "It"s true that people live in the same house have the same characteristics. Gao Jue carries rope with him all the time. His sister-in-law also carries the rope with her. Can the habit of tying people with rope be inherited?"
"Hey, I"ll show you something good!" The girl in red took out a porcelain bottle from her pouch worn at the girdle and lifted it to He Danggui"s nose with her hands shaking. He Danggui squinted with one eye curiously at the things in the bottle. After a long time, she looked up and asked with wonder, "What? Those are just c.o.c.kroaches. They are everywhere in the garbage. It"s worthless."
The girl in red didn"t believe that, "There are 3 c.o.c.kroaches. Aren"t you afraid? Hum, you must be faking. I"m going to pour them into your clothes!"
He Danggui reminded her kindly, "They don"t like being bottled up and... they can fly." No sooner had she finished, a c.o.c.kroach climbed to the top of the bottle, soared into the air, and had a close contact with its owner who had caught it with dessert and cage, and finally stepped into the collar of the girl accidentally.
The girl in red stunned for a moment and began beating her chest and arms crazily. At last, she escaped by performing lightness. In He Danggui"s previous life, she always looked like "a big monkey climbing a wall" when she was performing lightness, but this girl"s skill was even worse than hers. And the girl could not hold this position for long. As soon as she flew over the crown of a tree, she would fall from the air like a deflated balloon. Finally, she narrowly grabbed a branch and swung back and forth.
He Danggui now understood why the girl had fallen out from a crown when they first met. It was not because she had failed to climb the tree but because the level of her lightness was too low.
"Masters, show me mercy please! Give me something to eat." A little beggar shook his broken bowl with two gaps and begged, "I haven"t eaten for two days. Please give me something to eat!"
An old man who sold sweat potatoes looked at the little beggar, hesitated, picked the smallest sweet potato from his oven, and put it shakily into the little beggar"s bowl. The little beggar repeated his thanks and ate up the sweet potato with skin before it got cold.
The old man squinted at him and asked, "Your accent sounds like a northerner for me. Why did you come to Yangzhou City to beg at such a young age?"
The little beggar licked his fingers as if he wanted to eat more, then he answered, "I came from Zouxian County, Shan Dong. There was a drought in my hometown, and the crops in the field could not grow, so I came here to escape the drought. But the beggars here are all ganged up to divide their territory, and no single beggar is allowed to beg. They didn"t want me to join them, and they would beat me if I went begging by myself. They also took my food away, so I didn"t eat for two days!"
The old man liked the frank way this little beggar talked, so he couldn"t help guiding him, "Young man, you"re new here and there are something you don"t know. Although the beggars in here are tough, there are few places they didn"t dare to control and you can beg at those places!"
"Really? You"re not lying to me?" The little beggar"s eyes widened.
The old man paused for a while, "Why would an old man like me lie to you? I will tell you where the places are, but you"re so young and you have strength. Why don"t you get a job after you are full?"
The little beggar nodded, "Of course, I will. Actually, I tried to find a job in many places during the past few days, but they all refused to hire me because I look dirty or too young. After I"m full, I will jump into the Grand Ca.n.a.l to take a bath and then try to find a job again!"
The old man nodded and pointed to the north. "There are Four Families of Yangzhou City. Among them, Wu"s Family and Luo"s Family are the most prosperous ones. They have more steamed buns than they could eat every day. You can go around the Hongpei Avenue and squat in Saqiao Alley, where a family pulls half a cart of the steamed buns away from the back door every morning."
The little beggar asked curiously, "Where do they take them?"
The old man shook his head, "I don"t know. But as long as you ask them for steamed buns, they will give you!"
The little beggar was very happy. He knelt down and kowtowed to the old man, then stood up and ran away. The old man looked at his back with a smile, then he picked up the fork and turned over his sweet potatoes and yelled, "Sweet potatoes. Delicious..."
When the little beggar ran to Hongpei Avenue, he saw that the street was nearly 10 times wider than the ordinary streets, and there were few people early in the morning. The whole street was quiet, and he began to feel timid involuntarily. He walked along the street for an hour and his legs were getting tired. Finally, there was a stone lion in the distance. He went closer to look, suddenly his legs were weak with fear. He thought in his mind, "Did the old man who was selling sweet potatoes point me a wrong way? It is not a place for the beggars like me to stay. Will the people inside think that I soil their ground and release the dog to bite me?"
The vermilion gate with the rivets in front of him could only be described as "huge". Even if he was 8 times taller than himself now, he could not touch the top. Above the gate hung a royal blue plaque. He could just recognize three of the seven or eight words: Luo, West, and Mansion. When he was looking up to read the plaque, a sudden sound came from the huge vermilion gate, and then a crack appeared.
The little beggar turned around and ran hurriedly. After hundreds of steps, he looked up again and saw another vermilion gate unexpectedly. He felt this one was even higher than the gate he had just seen. There were still two words "Luo and Mansion" on the plaque, but the word "West" became "East".
When he was going to go further to find the alley where the steamed buns were distributed, his shank had cramps because he ran too fast just now. Therefore, he had to sit on the ground with pain. Whether he rubbed it or not, he felt painful. At this time, a double-horse cart decorated with green curtain and yellow oiled paper ran on the avenue in the distance. The coachman drove very fast. How could he notice the little beggar behind the stone lion? ——
With a scream, the little beggar was. .h.i.t and flew far away. After climbing forward two steps, he lay on the ground without moving.
"Master, what should we do?" The coachman was terrified. A fair slender hand lifted the curtain, and a young man came out from the cart immediately.
The dark green gown he wore was embroidered with two circles of "卐" patterns with silver thread. An exquisite belt inlaid jade on his waist, and his black boots were green-edged with gold thread. His black hair was bound by a black jade crown. Under his slightly raised eyebrows, his eyes were s.h.i.+ning with the corners of the eyes up. With high nose and thin lips, he was even more beautiful than countless women.
"Take him into the Mansion."