Chapter 188: Chapter 170, Who is Daohua?_1
“Elder sister, where exactly did you and the Little Prince go tonight?” On the way back to the Li Residence, Yan Wenxiu still couldn’t help but ask with concern.
Daohua: “…We didn’t go anywhere special, just casually looked at the street lanterns.”
Yan Wenxiu took a deep look at Daohua: “Although the Little Prince is familiar with our family, he is still an outsider. In the future, without me or Wenkai to accompany you, it’s better not to go out with him alone.”
Daohua knew she had been somewhat reckless tonight, so she obediently nodded her head: “Big brother, I was wrong, and I made you worried. Rest assured, from now on, no matter where I go, I will let you know in advance.”
Seeing this, Yan Wenxiu didn’t say more.
After returning to the manor, when her aunt and uncle heard about Daohua and Xiao Yeyang getting separated from everyone during the lantern viewing, they also took her aside for a talk.
Knowing she was in the wrong, Daohua listened humbly to their teaching, being as docile as she could be.
Mrs. Fan laughed: “Alright, this girl has a sense of propriety. Getting separated from everyone tonight was probably unexpected; let’s not scold her anymore.”
Daohua nodded repeatedly.
At that time, when she saw Xiao Yeyang hurrying away with De Fu, her first reaction was to catch up. By the time she caught up with them, she was already quite a distance from her older brother and the others. She thought about going back to tell them but was afraid that Xiao Yeyang wouldn’t wait for her, so, she could only keep her head down and follow him.
Li Xingchang: “Even so, you must remember this lesson. Although the security in the provincial capital is good, it’s not guaranteed to be without pickpockets.”
Daohua: “Uncle, aunt, Daohua understands. I will definitely not make the same mistake next time.”
Li Xingnian smiled: “Alright, we’ve all been out playing for a day and everyone’s tired. Go back and rest.”
Upon hearing this, Daohua immediately pulled her two cousins out of the room.
Seeing Daohua’s hasty retreat, the adults in the room all laughed.
“This girl, she usually acts like a little adult, but the moment she makes a mistake, she immediately shows her true colors.”
“She’s just a child, after all. Who isn’t afraid of being scolded?”
…
On the sixteenth day of the first month, Daohua and her siblings stayed home all day and spent quality time with the Li family.
On the seventeenth day of the first month, the three siblings set off on their return journey to Xingzhou, accompanied by Li Xingnian.
The gate of the Li Residence.
After saying goodbye to the members of the Li family one by one, the siblings boarded the carriage for their journey home.
Watching the carriage gradually disappear into the distance, sisters Li Zixuan and Li Zixin looked on with reluctance.
Mrs. Fan smiled: “Are you that unwilling to let go of Daohua, that girl?”
Li Zixin immediately came forward and linked arms with Mrs. Fan: “Mother, cousin is so much fun to be with, it’s never boring. And she knows so much.”
As she spoke, she started counting on her fingers, “She can garden, make wine, and even concoct rouge and face powder. The nourishing creams she brought for us are even better than those sold at Guixiu Pavilion.”
“And she’s good at math!”
Li Zixuan chimed in.
Li Zixin immediately nodded: “Exactly! Cousin is so quick with the abacus, even faster than our big brother. Oh, and she can do mental calculations faster than big brother too.”
Mrs. Jian laughed: “Daohua does have a clever mind. If only she were a boy.”
Mrs. Fan quickly said: “What’s wrong with being a girl? I think it’s great that Daohua’s a girl; having such a delicate yet sharp and intelligent daughter, I’d wake up smiling from my dreams.”
The group continued chatting as they walked towards the interior of the manor.
…
“Ah, time flies too fast, the next thing you know, the academy is about to start again.”
In the carriage, Yan Wenkai lifted the curtain, his face filled with reluctance as he looked at the busy streets.
Li Xingnian laughed: “You’ve had plenty of days to play, it’s time to settle down and return to your studies. Next year, next Chinese New Year, your uncle will invite you to the provincial capital again for the Lantern Festival.”
Yan Wenkai immediately clapped and cheered: “Great, great, little uncle, you can’t go back on your word!”
Li Xingnian gave his nephew a stern look with a smile, rebuking him: “When has your uncle ever gone back on his word?” After saying that, he glanced at the somewhat sleepy Daohua and lowered his voice.
“Keep it down, your aunt said that the three girls talked into the late hours of the night. Let your sister sleep for a while.”
Hearing this, Yan Wenkai stopped talking and focused on the view outside the carriage.
Daohua really was feeling drowsy. Last night, her cousins said they couldn’t bear to let her leave, insisting on sleeping together. Not wanting to reject them, she agreed.
Thus, being used to sleeping alone, she suffered from insomnia. It was in a dazed state that she managed to doze off only when it was nearly dawn.
The carriage swayed back and forth, putting Daohua into such drowsiness that she simply leaned on Wang Manman and fell asleep.
“Bang!”
In the middle of the journey, Daohua’s neck stiffened from sleeping so deep she forgot she was in a carriage, and rolled over as if she was in bed, which turned out sadly, as she fell straight off the seat.
“Miss!”
Wang Manman was startled and hurriedly helped her up.
Daohua grimaced as she sat up, her drowsiness completely dispelled, and she looked around the carriage, noticing it was just her and Wang Manman, “Eh, where’s uncle, big brother, and fourth brother?”
Wang Manman replied, “The young master wanted to buy some ink and paper, so the second uncle took them to pick some out in the store.”
Daohua lifted a corner of the carriage curtain and saw, indeed, their carriage was stopped outside a bookstore.
Lowering the curtain, Daohua moved her body around before leaning on Wang Manman’s shoulder again, preparing to doze off for a while longer.
However, the previous fall had given her a mental shadow, and no matter how she closed her eyes, she just couldn’t fall asleep anymore.
“How come they haven’t come back yet?”
After waiting for a bit and seeing that no one had returned, Daohua lifted the carriage curtain again and stuck her head out to take a look, noticing people on the street were running towards something up ahead.
The coachman servant replied, “Someone ahead has been beaten, and the fourth master seemed to have gone to watch the excitement.”
Daohua frowned, “Someone is being beaten again?”
She had just seen a peddler being beaten on the Lantern Festival, and here it was happening again today?
The security in this provincial capital really wasn’t that great!
At that moment, Li Xingnian’s servant came running over, “Miss, the master and the others are waiting ahead for you, he told me to catch up with the carriage.”
Daohua nodded her head, put down the curtain, and the carriage slowly started moving.
Before long, the carriage stopped and the door opened, and Li Xingnian with the Yan brothers crawled inside.
“These days, nothing is safe; those who escort the cargo are often robbed,” Li Xingnian shook his head and sighed.
Yan Wenkai followed up, “That person is quite pitiful, a grown man, if he hadn’t been driven to a dead end, he definitely wouldn’t have cried so miserably in front of all these people.”
“Sob sob~”
The suppressed crying sounded inside the carriage, Daohua revealed surprise, “How heartbreaking, just how brutally was he beaten?” As she spoke, she couldn’t help lifting the curtain to look outside.
At this moment, the people who had been doing the beating had already walked away, leaving only the beaten person and a handful of onlookers.
“Alright, stop looking, let’s go!”
Li Xingnian patted the carriage door, signaling the coachman to start moving.
“Wait a moment!”
As the carriage passed the beaten man, Daohua suddenly lifted the curtain, half of her body leaning out, “Brother Xiaoliu?!”
Xiaoliu at this moment was in a state of extreme despair.
Because he had lost the merchandise, the Escort Team couldn’t repay the huge loss, and Qin Wu along with the others had been thrown into jail, and if they couldn’t come up with the ransom money, they would be exiled.
But the ransom was over a thousand taels of silver, even if he sold himself, he couldn’t gather enough.
These days, he had been running around the city like a headless fly, and today he had finally stopped the creditor on the street, hoping to plead for mercy to release Qin Wu and the others first, to give them some time to scrape together the silver.
Who knew, before he could say a few words, the other side ordered his men to savagely beat him up, and before leaving, threatened that if the silver wasn’t ready in three days, his brother would be exiled.
Three days…
Such a short period of time was crushing him to the point of breaking, and just then, he thought he heard someone calling him.
Xiaoliu looked up bewilderedly.
Then he saw a carriage stop in front of him, and a little girl in brocaded clothes jumped down from the carriage and swiftly walked towards him.
“Brother Xiaoliu!”
Xiaoliu just stared blankly at the fairy-like little girl in front of him, forgetting how to react for a moment.
Daohua waved her hand in front of Xiaoliu, “Brother Xiaoliu, do you remember me? I’m Daohua!”
“Daohua?” Xiaoliu uttered, still dazed, “Who is Daohua?”
Daohua: “…”