Yu Cong said, "Daren[1], this Wangchun House is the property of the Xu family, and the mastermind behind this case must be someone from the Xu family. The Xu family must have some kind of leverage on the old brothel keeper. Otherwise, she wouldn't have tried to kill herself."
Prefect Tan glanced at Yu Cong and pointed out, "The Xu family has deep roots in Xinping City. They're also close to the Song family. Now, the provincial administration commissioner of Shanxi-Gansu, Wang Xinhai, is a member of the Song family. If you consider bringing them down without sufficient evidence, you won't even be able to move them." However, given time, he would undoubtedly be able to wipe out the Xu family.
Yu Cong hated the Xu family so much that if the Xu family had not helped the tyrant Zhou in his oppression[2], the Dingbei army would not have been wiped out, and their 20,000 brothers would not have died in vain.
Prefect Tan continued, "The most important thing now is to find the missing children." If the children couldn’t be found, it would cause an uproar.
Yu Cong also knew that asking Prefect Tan to confront the Xu family was like forcing him to do things beyond his power. "What will Daren[1] do right now?" Yuxi had told Yu Cong to do everything at Prefect Tan's behest before he came over. When it came to Yuxi, Yu Cong still had some faith. Since his Madam said so, this Prefect Tan must be capable.
Prefect Tan replied, "If you want to find them, you must get the old brothel keeper to talk."
Under severe torture, the ever-stubborn old brothel keeper finally opened her mouth. But instead of telling them who the mastermind was, she confessed the whereabouts of the rest of the missing children.
It took several days to retrieve twenty-nine of the thirty-six missing children and seven more had left Xinping City. The brothel keeper said these seven children were the best-looking, so she sold them for a high price. The buyer was a Jiangnan businessman surnamed Fu, and it had been half a month since they were bought. It would not be that easy to get them back.
Although this saddened Yu Cong, he knew those children had been bought and had no detailed information on the merchant. Generally, it was not difficult to find a few children. So he bid farewell to Prefect Tan that evening.
Prefect Tan handed a letter to Yu Cong. "This is my letter to Madam. Don't overthink it. I'll send someone to inquire about this merchant named Fu and let you know as soon as I have any news. " If Prefect Tan had to say, it was fortunate that he found out in time. Otherwise, not even half of the children would not have been found.
Yu Cong cupped his fist in his other hand. "Then I'll have to trouble Prefect Tan with the rest of the missing children."
During this time, Yuxi had not been idle either. It was challenging to take good care of more than 400 children. So Yuxi started to sort out the helpers from the original Children Charity Home. She let the hardworking ones stay, dismissed those who were always lazy, and hired more than 20 people to help her. As long as they managed the children's food and drink well, they could keep them all healthy without worrying about anything else. But there were still a small number of children who were sick. These ill children could die young if they were even slightly neglected. After a few days, Yuxi lost a lot of weight. This outcome resulted from having only water and nourishing soup every day.
Yuxi didn't go out that day as she calculated the bill Han Dong had sent her. After checking it, she rubbed her forehead. The cost of the children's food was still manageable, but the medical expenses were not. Luckily, her mother had sent some money. Otherwise, it would be impossible to rely on her for everything.
When Mama Qu walked in and saw Yuxi's current appearance, she advised, "Madam, it's fine to support them financially for a while, but Madam can't go on doing this all the time! This is a bottomless pit." Like last year, when Madam helped those whose families were not doing well financially. She had no comment; after all, it was only for a while. But this was for more than four hundred homeless children; how could Madam afford to do this all the time?
Yuxi responded, "I simply want to help them, but I don't have that much money. This matter still needs to be resolved by the Imperial Court."
Mama Qu's mouth twitched. She was now in charge of the inner courtyard, so she was well informed and said to Yuxi, "Madam, not to sound demoralising, but how can the Imperial Court take care of these children if they can't even pay the pensions?"
Yuxi smiled a little as she said, "Let's wait for now, okay? No matter what happens, we can't abandon these children again." She could still support about a hundred or so of the children. It was just the rest of the hundreds that she was powerless to do anything about. Even if the Imperial Court couldn't solve it, it was still something for those generals in Yu City to worry about.
Mama Qu commented, "Since Madam married the General, there hasn't been a single day of relief." Ever since Madam married into the Yun family, Mama Qu had been plagued with countless worries.
Yuxi smiled. "That can't be helped." Married to a chicken, follow the chicken and married to a dog, follow the dog[3]. Yun Qing's situation did not allow her to be pampered and not care about anything! Besides, if she were allowed to be lazy, she wouldn't be able to. She still had to do something herself, and her heart was finally free of anxiety.
Zijin rushed in from outside and reported, ''Madam, Yu Cong has returned, and the children we were looking for have been found."
Yuxi looked at the impatient Zijin and couldn't help but sigh in her heart. No wonder Xu Wu said that she still lacked maturity. How could Zijin take over Xu Wu's responsibilities with such an attitude?
Seeing that Yuxi said nothing, Zijin repeated, "Madam, Yu Cong has brought the children back. Madam, please go out and have a look!"
Yuxi shook her head and said, "Let's go out and look."
When Yu Cong met Yuxi, he informed her, "Madam, only twenty-nine have been found, and seven are still missing. According to the brothel keeper, those seven children were bought by a merchant from Jiangnan." Those seven children must have gone to the fire pit[4].
Yuxi looked at all the children in the yard. As she expected, these children were beautiful and charming; even the worst looked very pretty. Yuxi told Yu Cong with a heavy heart, "After they eat their fill, send them to Qingming Hall. As for the other seven children, I will find a way to get them back." Those people were truly heartless.
Wei Meiyun looked at Yuxi and raised her voice, asking, "Madam, did you send someone to save us?" Wei Meiyun's father loved her dearly and raised her to be brave, as she was his only child. Knowing that the adopters were up to no good, she tried to escape but, unfortunately, failed.
A noob translator, きつね, translated this noob translation. Please read this chapter at xin-shou.site. If you read this in another location other than site stated, it has been taken without the translator's permission. Please don't support this kind of act.
Yuxi looked at Wei Meiyun. This child looked very pretty with her willow eyebrows, almond eyes, and melon seed face. The reason why the travelling merchant did not pick up Wei Meiyun was because she caused trouble back then, and the brothel keeper locked her up. Otherwise, Yu Cong would not have been able to save her. Yuxi nodded. "I did!" Although it was discovered a little late, this matter could have become more serious if it hadn't been for her.
Wei Meiyun had been raised as a son since she was a child. Despite being only nine years old, she was wise beyond her years. She knew very well that their lives would have been ruined if Yuxi hadn't saved them. "Madam, I want to stay and repay Madam for saving my life."
Yuxi touched Wei Meiyun's head and said softly, "I don't need you to repay me, and there's no shortage of people serving around me." Although she liked Wei Meiyun's personality, she could not ask her to stay. She couldn't hire Wei Meiyun as a maid due to her identity. However, if she did, it might encourage others to make similar requests.
Wei Meiyun looked up at Yuxi and vowed, "Then I will repay you when I grow up, Madam."
Yuxi nodded with a smile. "Okay, I'll wait." Although she hadn't considered asking Wei Meiyun to repay her, Wei Meiyun's words still made her happy.
Yu Cong picked out three good-looking children and said, "Madam, they have seen the merchant surnamed Fu."
Yuxi made a sound of recognition and said to the children, "Follow me in." Unexpectedly, the art of painting, which she had thought useless, was actually so useful.[😌]
After the drawing was done, Yuxi had the three children look at it and ask, "Does this look like him?" When the few children said it did, she drew another one.
Before Yu Cong left, he remembered that Prefect Tan had given him a letter and immediately asked Zijin to pass it on. After receiving the letter, Yuxi commented, "This is too careless." Surprisingly, Yu Cong did not personally give Prefect Tan's letter to her in the first place.
Zijin said, "Maybe he was just thinking about the missing seven children, so he forgot about it for a while!" In the past, Yu Cong used to be playful and always smiled, but since the battle in the early spring, he no longer joked and laughed with everyone. Although she did not know Yu Cong well, seeing him like this made her feel a little sad.
Yuxi said nothing more but opened the letter to read it. This time the letter was mainly about the missing children but didn't say anything else. Yuxi was not disappointed either. It would have made her uneasy if Prefect Tan had told her everything.
After the two paintings had dried, Yuxi handed them over to Han Dong and instructed, "Give one of these two paintings to Prefect Tan and the other to Eldest Master Wu." Of course, there were also letters with the paintings.
Han Dong took the things and said, "I'll have someone deliver them."
In the afternoon, Mama Xi returned from the Children Charity Home and told Yuxi something: "Madam, Chen Shi is expecting. I heard that she was diagnosed on that day." The news that the Children Charity Home had lost some children had been blocked, and only some higher-ups knew about it. But these people were aware of the seriousness of the situation and didn't want to let the public know. As a result, Chen Shi was believed to have escaped being blamed.
Yuxi was also worried that the carers at the Children Charity Home were not paying attention to the children, so she arranged for Mama Xi to visit the place every day. Firstly, to see what was missing or if there were any problems so they could be dealt with in time; secondly, to play a supervisory role. Just like when Zijin went to school every day, it involved a supervisory role.
Yuxi asked: "How did you know?" She really didn't know about Chen Shi's pregnancy. She was as busy as a spinning top these days, so she had no time to pay attention to Chen Shi.
Mama Xi said, "Didn't Chen Shi originally run the Children Charity Home? Now that Madam has taken over it, many people think it's strange, and of course, they will start asking questions. The Fu family said that Chen Shi's spirit was not good because of her newly discovered pregnancy, so they gave this errand to Madam." Typically, a pregnancy that hadn't reached three months wouldn't be announced to the public. The Fu family couldn't care less about these taboos at this time in order to cover up their shame.
Yuxi didn't think much about it and commented, "They can only hide this matter from the subordinates, but they couldn't do the same to the higher-ups." The person who was most affected by this matter was not Chen Shi but Fu Tianlei.
Footnotes Full List
- title of respect toward superiors
- Chinese idiom: aid and abet an evildoer; abet the wicked
- a well-known Chinese phrase: Once a woman has committed herself to a man, she should be faithful to him no matter the circumstances
- living hell
- Imagine if you had studied more, Yuxi. You could be the first yamen sketch artist!
きつね's Musing
Zijin is physically strong and skilled in martial arts. However, her judgement and her ability to stay calm are still lacking. I think these are what Xu Wu was referring to. If she doesn't improve these traits soon, someone she really cares about will get hurt. But how can you train such things except through experience, right?
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The Rebirth of Han Yuxi