Chapter 152: Saved 02

Chapter 152

When Gong Xiaohua awoke again, she found herself in a dim thatched cottage. Aside from the crude wooden bed she was lying on, the only other visible furnishing in the cottage was a dilapidated trunk. Although the thatched cottage was simple, it had been kept very clean.

"Sister Gong, you're awake," she suddenly heard a child's voice say from beside her left ear. She turned her head to look and saw a gaunt little face sitting on the inside of the bed, with a pair of sleepy big eyes looking at her joyfully.

Gong Xiaohua took a careful look at the child next to her who was almost emaciated to the bone, recognizing him as the child she had met in prison: "You? Are you Xiao Hao'er?"

"I'm Xiao Hao'er. Sister Gong, are you still in pain? Hao'er will blow on it for you," he said, preparing to bend over to help her, but Gong Xiaohua stopped him.

"Xiao Hao'er, sister is not in pain," she said.

"Oh, is sister hungry then? My mother told me that when sister wakes up, I should give her some congee."

"Sister is not hungry either. Is it just you at home? Where are your father and mother?" Gong Xiaohua looked around the cottage, where there was only her and Xiao Hao'er, and asked in puzzlement.

"Mother went to the mine to work and won't be back until night. Father died," Xiao Hao'er said, unable to conceal his low spirits when he uttered the last sentence.

Gong Xiaohua had not expected that his father was no longer around. She raised her left hand and stroked the top of his head, apologizing, "I'm sorry, Hao'er, sister didn't do it on purpose."

"It's okay, I know sister didn't do it on purpose."

"Such a good child. Are you home alone every day?"

"Mm, usually when mother goes out to work, I stay home to practice reading and writing. When I get tired, I go for a walk by the river."

"If you get bored, go do what you like. You don't have to keep sister company all the time."

"Hao'er is not bored. Hao'er wants to keep sister company."

As night fell, Hao'er's mother returned from the mine. Before even entering the cottage, she could hear the sound of her son laughing heartily from inside, something she had not heard since her husband died.

"Miss Gong, you're awake," Hao'er's mother said as she came in from outside.

"Mother," Xiao Hao'er stood up and respectfully addressed his mother.

"Madam."

Gong Xiaohua struggled to get up to bow to her, but was stopped by the other party: "Don't move, you still have injuries. If you don't mind, just call me sister-in-law directly." Fôllôw new stories at novelhall.com

"Yes, sister-in-law. Thank you for saving my life this time."

It took the Second and Third Princes of Wei two days to be found, then Wei's troops searched for another three or four days but found no trace of Gong Xiaohua before finally withdrawing back to Wei, leaving only Qin's secret guards and escort team members to keep searching, sending homing pigeons back to the capital.

Upon receiving the message, Qin Chuyuan rushed over day and night, arriving at the northernmost part of Ye Country within seven days, running who knows how many good horses to death along the way.

Orders also came from the court for the local government to cooperate in the search, insisting on seeing the person alive or the body dead.

When they arrived at the scene of the incident, they kept searching along the river, staying up for days and nights. There was no trace of her, and Qin Chuyuan's eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep. It wasn't until several days later that they found a unique ruby bracelet at a pawn shop in a town dozens of kilometers downstream.

On this night after Xiao Hao'er had fallen asleep, his mother came to Gong Xiaohua and said, "Miss Gong, there is something I want to discuss with you."

"Sister-in-law, please go ahead."

"When we were exiled, my husband didn't make it. But I know it was because those people didn't want him to live. He didn't want to implicate us mother and child, so he starved himself to death."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you still remember that time you were injured in prison?"

"Injured?" She had been injured shortly after coming here, she wasn't sure if it was that time.

"Yes, that time when someone kicked you onto the steps and you suffered a serious head injury."

"I remember that, so the culprit was looking for you guys?" It turned out to be the first time after she came here.

"Yes. They were looking for something important and thought my husband had hidden it on us, so they broke into the prison at night. Coincidentally you happened to catch them, so you were beaten until severely injured. Fortunately you were fine in the end."

"What important thing?"

"It was an account book." After speaking, she went to a hidden corner, took out a cloth package, and opened it to reveal a yellowed sheepskin scroll.

"The culprits weren't wrong that time. This account book really was on us, but they didn't expect that it was a sheepskin scroll, and I had sewn it into Hao'er's clothes."

As she spoke, Hao'er’s mother handed the sheepskin scroll to Gong Xiaohua.

Gong Xiaohua accepted the sheepskin scroll and unrolled it. The scroll was not big, densely filled with records of extra silver earned by troops near the capital in recent years and where it went, as well as silver given to certain high officials in the capital.

"Miss Gong, I have an inappropriate request."

"Sister-in-law, please go ahead."

"My husband was falsely accused because of this account book. He served as an official for over a decade, always working diligently without any corruption or crime. My health cannot hold out much longer, but Hao'er is still young. His life should not be like this. I am giving this sheepskin scroll to Miss Gong, hoping that after you return to the capital you can hand it to His Majesty, to pardon my son of the label of traitor's child. Please also take care of Hao'er for me, rewarding him with a bowl of rice to eat will do, until he can be self-reliant."