In the narrow alley, a nicely dressed little girl was deprived of her necklace, bracelet, pearl sachet and all the other valuable ornaments by a maid. Instead, she was made to put on poor clothes.
Song Yixiao, neither crying nor screaming, with her almond eyes wide open, was curious and yet tame, just letting the woman with heavy makeup put her into a carriage.
Her unusual cooperation made the woman frown. After putting her into the carriage, the woman turned around to talk with the maid who was tearing the pearls off the sachet, “Is there anything wrong with your lady? She is eight years old anyway. Why doesn’t she make any noise after hearing that we are selling her? In this case, the price…”
“You don’t know about her. This lady doesn’t like talking, who is not liked by the elder lady and master. Otherwise, how dare I sell her before the new mistress stays in the family for one year?” Upon hearing her talk of the price, the maid hastened to hold the sachet into her chests, explaining hastily, “There is absolutely nothing wrong with her! The previous mistress, aka, her birth mother, is a well-known beauty, or she would not be married to a prince!”
“A prince?!” The woman with heavy makeup shouted in a low voice and interrupted her, “You just said that her birth mother is the wife of a prince?!” She couldn’t help stamping her feet, “Are you insane? I thought this girl was neglected with no mother attending to her. Now you are telling me that her mother is not only alive but also a wife of the eldest son of an official clan? How dare you sell her to a brothel? Even if you dare to sell, I don’t dare to buy her. Give the money back to me! Take the girl wherever you want. Don’t get me into trouble!”
The maid said hastily, “Don’t! It’s not me but the new mistress who wants to sell her. Hence, how can she not take care of the aftermath? Moreover, the girl is only eight years old. After you buy her, shouldn’t you present her in public in a few years? As a saying goes, a girl changes fast in appearance before reaching womanhood. By then, even if her face contour can still be recognized, who dares to relate her to the Song Family, a respectable family here?”
She continued to threaten the woman, “Besides, she has seen your face! She can recognize people at her age. If you don’t take her away, you will be in big trouble once the issue is disclosed. And the new mistress will just be fine, for she is pregnant now.”
“What bad luck for me!” The woman flew into a rage and wanted to grab the money bag, “Give the money back to me! Your new mistress wants to get rid of the first daughter of the family. My buying the girl is a great favor for your new mistress, so she should pay me instead. How dare you ask me for money?!”
The maid would never agree on that. They grappled with each other for a while. In the end, they were afraid to arouse others’ attention, so they decided to meet each other halfway. The maid returned half of the money to the woman, “You’ve taken great advantage! Listen. If this girl doesn’t get famous all over the nation after growing up, it must be because all the men have died!”
“Ask your new mistress to deal with the aftermath well! Otherwise, we will be doomed before she grows up!” The woman fetched the money and got into the carriage while lifting her skirt hem. The moment she went in the carriage, she was shocked!
The tea and pastries in the drawer were taken out and placed on the small table.
The pretty girl sat there, holding her chin and eating the pastries selectively. Upon seeing the woman get into the carriage, she spat the kernels casually and said sneeringly, “You do know how to live a life. Even I can have these pastries only when my mother was still in the Song Family!”
The woman was startled for a while and then pulled a long face. She raised her hand to pat on the girl’s hand when the girl was trying to fetch another pastry, saying with a sinister smile, “Hmm! Now you put on a lady-like look! It’s too late! Your stepmother has sold you to me. No matter how respectable you were, from now on, you are fated to belong to the brothel… Put the things away for me! Now! Hurry up!”
“Or I will tear you apart!”
Her intimidation that always worked on girls was now useless to Song Yixiao. The girl just leaned backwards and said smilingly, “The maid who just sold me to you is my foster nurse, Ms. Zhao.”
“Today the one who brought me out knowingly is my stepmother’s trusted subordinate, Ms. Wu.”
“Why?”
“Because Ms. Wu was hit in the back by someone not long ago. Now she must be rather happy to have taken the beating. I bet that she will find a place and hide away until she has no other choice but to go back and cry about me being abducted so as to postpone finding me!”
Song Yixiao looked sideways at the woman who was getting more and more shocked. She smiled with her dimple well showing, “It was Ms. Zhao’s husband who beat Ms. Wu! And they did this because of my order!”
The woman was astounded in awe, “What… What did you just say?!”
“Don’t tell me that you don’t know the Wei Family in the south of the city!” Song Yixiao touched the back of her hand, which had been slapped, and stared at the woman smilingly, “That’s my grandmother’s home… Now you shall escort me there, claiming that Ms. Wu has sold me to you and that you don’t want to see such a highborn girl like me fall to the brothel; yet, you are afraid that I won’t be safe if you return me to the Song Family. Therefore, you ask me about the address of my mother’s own family and then send me there with courage… In this case, you will not only get a sum of money as reward but also the Wei Family and my birth mother, who is the second wife of Prince of Hengshan, will owe you one!”
She hedged with her smile getting cold, “Today, if I am not sent there before dusk, you and my stepmother will be convicted of conspiring together to kidnap me!”
After saying that, she didn’t care about the woman’s countenance but closed her eyes for a rest, “That’s all I can say. Think about it yourself.”
She didn’t try to fake something. Instead, she felt really exhausted. Anyone would feel the same if undergoing the same thing. In her previous life, with her mother remarried to another man, she was not loved by her father or grandmother. What’s worse, her stepmother kept making trouble for her. Finally, when she turned 16 years old and could get married to escape from the miserable family, she was sexually harassed by the nephew of her stepmother and even got wrongfully accused of seducing her cousin. As a consequence, she was put into a pig cage and drowned in the river… When she woke up, she returned to the year when she was only eight years old. Sorting out her memories over the past eight years only was an overwhelming burden for an eight-year-old girl’s body!
“Gee!” Song Yixiao just occupied the mastery seat for a rest, thinking with great pleasure, “This life, it is your turn to try the feeling of being unable to argue back!”
Who would believe a highborn lady should sell herself to a bawd!
The young lady, who was only eight years old, really expected to see the faces of the Song Family after the Wei Family came to them for criticism!