Chapter 18 Arriving at Mengru County

Fu Yanting quickly fastened his collar, stood up and pushed open the carriage door.

As the carriage door opened, a faint scent of grass wafted in.

Chu Chenyin followed behind him, looking out, only to see towering mountains in front of her.

The clouds floated, the mountains overlapped, the peaks met, stretching endlessly.

When the morning glow shone, the clouds surged, shimmering with a faint golden light.

Chu Chenyin was amazed by the scene before her, this must be the Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains painting from ancient times!

She couldn’t help but get off the carriage and walk down to the foot of the mountain, looking up at the endless hills, she felt refreshed.

Fu Yanting came up behind her, “This place is not as good as Zhanyang County, which is by the lake, here are all mountains, trees and medicinal herbs are very famous, later we will find a place to stay, we can go to the market to buy some.”

Chu Chenyin nodded, she looked at the beautiful scenery in front of her and couldn’t help but feel a sense of regret.

Soon, these mountains will become a wasteland due to earthquakes and droughts.

Speaking of which, humans are really insignificant, like grains of sand in a sandpan, a gentle breeze will blow them away.

She returned to the carriage and followed Marquis Fu and Madam Fu to Mengru County.

Mengru County is located among the mountains, with more than ten villages surrounding it.

Some villages are at the foot of the mountain, some are at the top of the mountain.

Ancient times were not like modern times, many places had roads built, villagers living on the top of the mountain had to climb stone steps to get home.

Marquis Fu and Fu Yanting, in order to avoid attracting attention and to make it easier for everyone to run away, chose to stay at Qing’er’s house at the foot of the mountain.

Qing’er, Madam Fu’s dowry maid, whose surname was Zhang, grew up in these mountains, but because there were many daughters in her family, she was sold to a human trafficker by her parents.

The human trafficker took her to the capital and sold her to the Qu Mansion, where she became Madam Fu’s personal maid.

Because the capital was far from Mengru Town, her parents thought she had been sold to a brothel, and they had never asked about her for all these years.

Qing’er brought them to her own home.

Qing’er’s family had been farming for generations, and they had built a brick house with the money they earned from selling grain.

In a farming family, a brick house was already good, many were mud houses or thatched houses.

Marquis Fu and his children had been fighting wars for many years, they had even eaten raw meat, so they didn’t care about these things.

“Father, Mother! I’m back!” Qing’er called out to the house.

Soon, an old woman came out of the house.

The old woman’s hair was slightly white, she held a cane and walked out tremblingly, “Who’s back?”

Qing’er strode forward and pulled her, laughing, “Mother, it’s me, Qing’er.”

The old woman raised her eyes and looked at Qing’er carefully.

She hadn’t changed much from before she was sold, “You are Qing’er?!”

Qing’er nodded, tears streaming down her face.

The old woman was overjoyed, holding her face and looking at her again and again, “Qing’er, you’re still alive!”

Qing’er wiped her tears, “Mother, I’m still alive, I was sold to the capital and worked as a maid for a merchant.”

She pointed to the Fu family behind her, “They are the master and mistress of the merchant family where I work.”

The old woman looked at them in confusion, “Why are the master and mistress at our house?”

Marquis Fu replied, “Our family is going to visit relatives in a distant place, so we came here to stay for a while.”

The old woman suddenly realized, “Stay for a while, okay, but I don’t know if the master and mistress will mind.”

Madam Fu quickly said, “We don’t mind, it’s good to have a place to stay.”

After hearing this, the old woman politely welcomed them all in, then pulled her daughter, whom she hadn’t seen for a long time, and they reminisced for a while, the mother and daughter cried and cried.

Chu Chenyin followed them into the house.

Zhang’s house was not big, but it was enough to live in, Chu Chenyin and Fu Yanting had one room, Marquis Fu and Madam Fu had one room, Fu Jianghong, Qing’er and Qing’er’s mother squeezed into one room, Fu Xingcheng, the coachman and Laifu squeezed into one room.

After everyone rested, Chu Chenyin slowly learned about the Zhang family.

It turned out that the old woman of the Zhang family had given birth to four daughters, Qing’er was the youngest, her father had always wanted a son, so when Qing’er was about ten years old, he secretly sold her.

He used the money from the sale to build this brick house.

However, after a few years, Qing’er’s mother still hadn’t given birth to a son, her father left his wife and daughter and left home, marrying the famous Bai family’s daughter in the county, saying that he wanted a son.

But they had been married for more than ten years and still had no children.

But Qing’er’s mother had turned white as a result, although she was only in her fifties, she looked like an old woman in her seventies.

The other three daughters had already married, so the empty house was only inhabited by Qing’er’s mother.

Qing’er’s mother was very happy to have so many people in the house suddenly, she cooked all the food she could find.

There were cornbread and white flour, as well as sweet potatoes.

But that was all they had.

Chu Chenyin couldn’t bear to see it, she took some rice and a chicken from her space and secretly gave them to Fu Yanting.