Dong Ming sat in the bumpy carriage, couldn't help but feel some regret.
I didn't expect this horse carriage to be so simple and crude. If I had known it would be like this, I should have brought Ji Hong along when we went out.
She lifted the curtain of the car: "Yu Er, how long will it take us to get to Dingzhou?"
"Hurry up, hurry up!" Yu Er turned his head back and smiled ingratiatingly at Dou Ming, "We're taking a small path, if we took the main road, they'd be riding fast horses and would catch up to us in no time."
"Oh!" Du Ming's mood was a bit down, and he retreated back into the carriage.
At night, they stayed in a peasant's house.
Filthy and tattered furniture, dry and musty bedding, tea water with cigarette ash floating on the surface made Du Ming feel like he couldn't set foot in it.
She lay on the kang, closed her eyes and tried not to think about where she was. Her thoughts gradually turned to her maternal grandmother's home.
The eldest aunt would see herself as a lesson, the second aunt would protect herself, and the grandmother... used to be so fond of her, but since the grandfather was impeached, the grandmother seemed to have changed. Was it because the Dugu family didn't help? Would she still be pampered by her grandmother this time when she went back?
Dong Ming's heart was racing up and down, tossing and turning, he didn't know when he would fall asleep in a daze.
Or she slept uneasily in unfamiliar places, waking up suddenly and inexplicably.
The window was closed tightly, and the cold moonlight shot in from the bright tiles on the roof, casting a square of white light.
It sounds like someone is talking outside.
Dong Ming couldn't help but perk up his ears to listen.
"...No way, at least fifty taels of silver...Not to mention anything else, that crimson-colored Western-style embroidered jacket she's wearing is worth five taels of silver alone...And those cat-eye stone earrings on her ears..."
Dong Ming was suddenly horrified.
She is wearing a crimson-colored watermelon-patterned embroidered jacket with a pair of cat's eye earrings today!
Dong Ming instinctively felt that his surroundings were very unfavorable.
She quietly got up, her body soft and weak, and didn't even bother to put on shoes, just wore a pair of socks and tiptoed to the door.
The door is broken and tattered, it can't be closed tightly, standing in front of the door, you can easily see the outside scene through the gap.
The hall was unlit. The door was open, and moonlight shone in from outside, clearly illuminating Yu Er's shadow.
He was standing in the main room with two strangers, a man and a woman, talking. Due to the lighting, neither of their faces could be seen clearly, only barely making out that the man's build was exceptionally robust, standing there like an iron tower; the woman's figure was plump, her golden earrings on her ears flashing in the darkness. Like the eyes of two wild beasts, it made people feel a chill.
"Since you're so fond of those things," the woman said, her voice a little hoarse but with an inexplicable sinister tone, "I just want people! Fifteen taels of silver, not one more or less!"
"Old Second Auntie," Yu Er said in a discontented tone, haggling over the price in a low voice, "You're offering too little. That young lady is a precious gem, I had to use all my skills to trick her into coming with me. Look at this, I've even hired a carriage and bribed people, you should at least let me make back some of my expenses... Your price is too low... Can't you add a bit more?"
Na Mo's second aunt sneered, "She's already eleven years old this year. She can remember things now. I'll give you fifteen taels of silver, and that's only because of our family's relationship with yours... if it were someone else, even three taels would be too much..."
Having heard this much, Duan Ming still didn't understand.
It's all fake that Second Brother ruined Big Brother's recommendation and that she went to beg Grandma on his behalf!
This is ridiculous. I don't know what medicine he took, but he actually wants to sell himself off.
She suddenly felt a raging fire in her heart and wanted to scold Yu Erda as soon as she pushed open the door. But when her hand touched the door latch, the sharp pain from the rough door latch piercing her fingers quickly calmed her down.
Managed to escape!
She must make her escape before Yu Er discovers her!
No matter whether it's the Duan family or the Wang family, as long as they're in trouble, just lift a finger and they'll be finished.
Du Ming gritted his teeth and looked around hopefully.
There is only one window in the house, which also leads to the front yard outside.
She immediately decided to escape from the window.
She got onto the kang with a soft and weak body, took a deep breath, carefully pulled out the window latch, opened the window, but the outer window frame was nailed dead, no matter how she pushed and pulled, it didn't move at all.
It's all over! It's all over!
Dong Ming sat there with a blank mind.
It was unknown how long it took her to come back to herself.
Isn't that Second Aunt just asking for money? Can't you just give her the money?!
Thinking of this, she felt a sense of hope again and her energy was renewed.
She jumped down from the kang and opened the door with a bang.
Three people outside the door are chatting and laughing, full of harmony.
They heard the noise and looked over, all with surprised expressions.
Dong Ming was very afraid, but the anger that burst out from her heart dispelled the fear in her mind: "Yu Er, you treacherous thing, how dare you deceive me and sell me? If my great-uncle finds out, he'll have you torn to pieces! You just wait to rot in the official prison!" She shouted again: "Mo Er Gu, you're just doing this for money. I'll give you 500 taels of silver, no, 1,000 taels! Take me back and let my great-uncle thank you properly. Do you know who my great-uncle is? He's Wang You Sheng, the Governor of Yunnan. My uncle is Duan Yuan Ji, the Minister of Justice and Grand Secretary of the Wenhua Hall. My father is a scholar in the Hanlin Academy and the Vice-Minister of the Zhan Shi Fu..."
"Hmph, hmph, hmph!" Mo Er Gu laughed and interrupted Du Ming's words, waddling over with her plump body. Under the moonlight, a pair of small eyes like beans sparkled with icy light, without any warmth. "Little girl, I didn't expect you to have such a noble birth, but your brain is so useless." She said, smiling insincerely at Yu Er with her thick, red-painted lips. "Yu Er, you've done something unscrupulous this time. You only said she was a thousand-gold missus, but didn't say she was an acquaintance. You're really making things difficult for me!"
Yu Er, who was originally smiling, now looked somewhat timid and hastily argued: "Second Auntie, I didn't intentionally not tell you - just now we were only discussing the price, there are still some things that haven't been said yet..."
"You're a good-for-nothing! How could you do this?" Dou Ming cursed, "And what about Shang Er? Is he in cahoots with you? I'm ashamed that my Second Uncle treated him so well and my Second Aunt trusted you, yet you've done something so heinous. Aren't you afraid of heavenly retribution?"
"Miss Bai, I'm also helpless." Yu Er chuckled nonchalantly, "If you want to blame someone, blame your bad luck. This is a case of the gods fighting and the demons suffering!"
In the midst of their quarrel, Mo Er's second aunt retreated a few steps and gave a signal to the man standing beside her who had been silent all along.
The man suddenly stepped forward a few steps, approached Yu Er, and without saying a word, pulled out a dagger and stabbed it into Yu Er's chest.
Not even a single hum was heard from the two connected machines.
He stared at the man in disbelief, then slowly turned his head and his gaze fell on Mo Er's body.
Dong Ming just came back to his senses.
She let out a shrill cry.
Just as the voice was about to escape her throat, Mo Er'niu covered her mouth with one hand.
Dong Ming struggled desperately.
Mo Er's hand was like a pair of iron pincers, and no matter how hard she struggled, she couldn't break free.
"It's not my fault, it's just your bad luck." She said gloomily, throwing back at him what he had just said about Du Ming, "We're after wealth, not good fortune. With this young lady's background being so impressive, we can't afford to take her in. We'll have to settle for you two being the star-crossed lovers instead."
Yu Er stared at Mo Er Gu with a gaze that was full of resentment, anger and despair... but her eyes eventually lost their luster under the menacing glare of the burly man's dagger.
Mo Er Gu ordered the man: "There's also one called Shang Er, should be around here too, tell the brothers to go find him quickly, can't leave any survivors." As she spoke, she took out a handkerchief and stuffed it into Dou Ming's mouth, who was already unable to struggle, then threw her on the ground. "Move Yu Er onto the kang, find someone to rape this woman, throw her next to Yu Er. Make it look like she was raped and murdered."
"No!" Dou Ming let out a loud wail, her voice sounding like a kitten's mew. For the first time, she felt fear as she saw the tall and imposing man calmly say "yes" and walk away with quick steps. She couldn't care about anything else anymore, and pulled out the handkerchief from her mouth, crawling on her knees to grab onto Mo Er'gu's hem: "Kill me, please kill me..."
She didn't want to suffer such humiliation before she died!
Mo Er'gu stepped back a few steps and pulled her skirt out of Du Ming's hand.
"Miss Duan, this is your fate!" She sighed, filled with a sorrowful tone that sent shivers down one's spine. "Who told you to reveal your identity? If you were just an ordinary rich family's daughter, did we have to meet like this? To think about it, I've suffered a great loss this time! Because of you, for the next three to five years, we'll probably have to hide and avoid trouble, our business will be ruined, and we'll have to rely on our savings..."
She was chattering on like a common woman, when the tall man walked in: "Second Aunt, that little brat hid in the haystack and said that Yu Er let him take a break there. I've already thrown him into the well in the back."
"Idiot!" Mo Er Gu scolded furiously, "What if someone finds out? Have you heard of eloping with a servant and the master ending up dead in the house, while the servant falls into the well? Quickly get the body out! And it's almost dawn, hurry up and call someone to take care of this!"
The burly man was trained like a son, but he didn't have any temper at all, and obediently responded with "yes": "I'll go do it now!"
Mo Er's face was slightly warm.
Suddenly, there was a sound of horseshoes outside.
Both of them were stunned.
A loud, rough male voice came from outside: "Mo Er Gu, is the person still in your hands? If someone speaks well, no one will. You'll wait for you and your lover Wang Lao Qi to go to the execution ground together!"
This is righteous!
It's Duan Gongyi's voice!
Tears streaming down his face, he wailed loudly.
She had never longed to hear Duan Gongyi's voice like this moment.
She had never been so grateful for Duan Gongyi's appearance as she was at this moment.
Mo Er and the tall man's faces changed drastically, revealing a look of panic and unease.
※
Book-reading brothers and sisters, thank you for your pink votes.
The competition is so fierce, never thought of being the first, but also unwilling to retreat without a fight, quietly writing articles, doing my best to update, just hoping that the number of votes can be more, and more.
~~~~(_
Today I opened the webpage and suddenly found that "Nine-layered Purple" is temporarily ranked first in the monthly ticket list, then I think I still have hope to get first place... o(n_n)o haha~
I call on all book-loving brothers and sisters to strongly support, check if you still have pink votes, and cast your precious and possibly crucial vote for "Nine Layers of Purple".
Thank you all!
PS: Update: Let's see tomorrow, I don't dare guarantee the update time!
※