"Xiao Qi! My Xiao Qi!”
(T/N: Xiao Qi - Little Seven)
Xiao Qi was her own younger brother. She was the second daughter of the four surviving children. Although there were many concubines and bed-maids in her father’s backyard, her mother still gave birth to seven of them. However, in addition to the elder sister who married, there was also another elder brother whose whereabouts were now unknown after poisoning. Three other siblings were killed shortly after they were born. Xiao Qi was the youngest brother. Although he didn't die, he was still in bad health because of fetal poisoning. The last time, when Ouyang Qingming was picking slaves, he saw that Xiao Qi was too thin and weak, so he didn't pick him up.
That was why Ru Yue deliberately said that she couldn't stand Shen Xiangwan and wanted Xiao Qi to go with her. Originally, Shen Xiangwan thought that the mother and son should be together, so that she could take care of both of them. However, after hearing that Xiao Qi was not doing well, Xiao Wan’s mind drifted to when Ru Yue said that she wanted to be a part of the Courtesan House. How could Shen Xiangwan not have thought of the possible reason for all this!
"Did you discuss it all with the steward that you want to use the terms of your entry to the Courtesan House in exchange for Xiao Qi's comprehensiveness?"
"Yes, I also promised to follow that steward for the first time..." Ru Yue bowed her head. The angry Shen Xiangwan almost slapped her to death. "You, you, you, uh….. why do you think of using your body at every turn, how old are you, ah? How old do you think you are? And how old the steward is, huh? He is old enough to be our grandfather.” Shen Xiangwan was annoyed with her, but her eyes were red.
Ru Yue was also red-eyed, "Miss, you have redeemed me from that place. This body, in fact, has to be ruined sooner or later. If we can make good use of it, we might as well use it earlier in exchange for the safety of our family."
"I forbid you to say that again. Don't treat your body so cheaply. What's wrong with us even if we're slave? We also have to be different slaves." Shen Xiangwan roared, she hated Yueyue for not fighting for herself, but also couldn’t help but love her for her righteousness and sacrifice to protect her master.
Ru Yue was grateful to her but also felt helpless. At that moment, she began to tell the whole truth of the matter in a low voice, "Xiao Qi is originally a weak and fragile child. It’s originally hard to support and raise him and now, as a servant, it’s inevitable to run errands on his weak and short legs every day. After continuously running errands for a period of time, he couldn't bear it anymore… Yesterday, after running that errand, he laid in the bed for half a day without moving. I couldn't turn my eyes and went to check him. His small body was very cold."
"Xiao Qi shouldn't be a slave, my Xiao Qi..." Shen Xiangwan collapsed weakly on the ground, and her small face was full of anxiety and panic.
Ru Yue looked at her with a pale face and tightly bit her lips, thus covering them with blood marks. She knew better than anyone how important Xiao Qi was to her lady and the miss and how deep their sibling's bond was.
"Miss, don't be like this. Let's think of another way, we will surely be able to protect Xiao Qi."
Hearing this, Shen Xiangwan's expression faltered and she immediately wiped away her tears.
"Yes, yes, it should be this way. Ru Yue, I swear that I will never panic and shed tears easily again. Only the weak would cry helplessly like this. You're right. I want to guard my Xiao Qi and protect you. So, I’m going to make it impossible for others to bully us in this backyard..."
The eight years old fatty had only one thing on her mind at this point: guarding her important family members.
But in order to guard, one had to have authority. Moreover, she had to beg someone to protect Xiao Qi.
"Steward Li, who is in charge of Xiao Qi’s group of young servants, actually, values some of the young girls' bodies that he has his eye on. However, besides that, if you can give some good things, then he can also let go of Xiao Qi or can even give some other profit. It's just that we don't have any nice objects right now... "
Shen Xiangwan's eyes brightened. "Yes, gifting. The world is full of greedy people. If there is a large sum of money or a good item, my Xiao Qi won't have to suffer anymore. I'll think of a way to do this. There will be a method, there will certainly be, ah!"
"Xiao Jie Jie, let's think about it together." Ru Yue looked at the young lady who was distressed over the matter and further looked at her, who shook her little fleshy hand, separated from her and turned around.
"Good things, good things..."
Shen Xiangwan, who was demonized by the good object, kept repeating the words all the way.
As she walked, she again heard someone slamming not far away, as well as, low spiteful sounds.
She frowned and quietly hid in the shadows to look. It was also hell, there were actually two minions fighting around a small child again in front. The only thing that was different from the previous case was the clothes of the little child on the ground. His clothes didn’t look like the clothes of lackeys in this house. Looking at the fabric, it looked a bit like the fabric worn by the masters.
"Ninth master, are you alright? This little one will wait on you, ah!” A sissy woman squeezed out these words from her mouth. She was saying nice words, but out of the blue, she pinched her hands on the little baby's legs.
Another slightly skinny man mercilessly slapped hard on the little boy, "Ninth master ah! You have a lot of dirty things on your body, this slave will pat for you, ah!"
The little baby curled up in pain on the ground and slightly shrunk back, but during this time, he didn’t make even a small complaint.
"The slaves have served the Ninth Master here today. Master, you take care of yourself."
After abusing the master, the two lackeys got up and left the cornered child aside. They picked up the wine bottles and the like from the side and turned to leave.
Shen Xiangwan frowned secretly. She was not on duty today. She just walked away at will and actually ran into a lot of dark things. Thinking about the old days at home, and then look at this house...this big family was really similar.
She didn’t want to get close to the little boy in front of her. However, the little one was slowly sitting up at that moment.
That little face was pale and thin, and his eyes that were somewhat like Xiao Qi’s, were numb and lifeless. It was heartbreaking to look at those eyes. A string in her heart seemed to be touched by something. And after seeing the shining wrist beads on his wrist, she no longer entangled.
With light and gentle steps, she walked forward and helped and slowly supported the baby up.
The little boy just let her help him, but his clenched lips and shivering body told her that he was afraid.
"You need some medicine."
Shen Xiangwan took a deep breath and looked around before further adding, "Do you remember the way back?"
The small child's large eyes slowly fell on her, and finally, he hesitantly pointed to the left.
"Let's go."
Shen Xiangwan wanted to help him back.
But after just one step, cold sweat broke out on the little child’s face.
Moreover, his left leg kept trembling all the time.
She tightened her eyebrows and leaned down to pull up his left trouser leg.
There was an extremely deep scar on the small, weak left leg. It was covered with pus and even, on closer inspection many maggots were writhing on it. The purplish flesh was continually discharging white pus...
Shen Xiangwan’s stomach was in distress. Suddenly, she tightened the grip and clenched the child’s hand, leaned over, and carried him to the nearby yard on the left side.
Judging from his stature, the little child should be about the same age as her.
However, carrying him on her back felt like she was carrying a baby. He was so light that she wondered whether the child was only thirty jin.
(T/N: In ancient China, the jin was equal to 604.79 grams (1 and 1/3 pounds). Traditionally, it was divided into 16 liang. In modern China, the jin is a metric unit, equal to exactly 500 grams (1.1023 pounds) and divided into 10 liang.)
To the left, there was a small courtyard in the remote and secluded area nearby.
There were only three rooms in total, and when she entered the courtyard there was no one inside.
The scene in the courtyard was dilapidated. There was a broken bowl placed in the corner.
The walls were leaking air everywhere. Looking at the condition, she estimated that even minions would live in a better courtyard than this.
Putting the little child on the black quilt, Shen Xiangwan turned around and fetched clean water to clean his wound.
The fragment of the broken bowl in the corner was used by her to cut rotten flesh and pick pus cells for him.
From start to finish, the baby's body trembled in pain, but he didn't make a sound. Shen Xiangwan didn't mean to be merciful, so she immersed herself in picking pus and blood, and cleaning up the wound for him. In the end, after applying the medicine and wrapping it up, the little boy’s entire body was as if it had been fished out of the water.
However, even so, the baby opened his eyes wide and grinned at her in a flattering manner.
Shen Xiangwan pulled a face. Her expressions were not good, and she just put away the fragments, water basin, and all the tools for debridement.
"During this period of time, you should try to protect the wound. I will quietly drop by with food for you. Where are your...minions? Forget it, don't need to reply. Looking at the situation, I know there is no decent servant to take care of the young master.”
Before she got up, her eyes darted to the wrist bead on the child’s wrist. It was a string of beads made of green jade. The color of those three beads was excellent. However, if looked closely, one could also see an extremely deep scar beside the beads on his wrist.
It could be seen that this wrist bead had also been calculated and thought of snatching by someone.
When the little child saw her eyes aiming at his wrist beads, his original silly smile converged and turned stiff, and he buried his hands behind his back in a panic...
It's a sensitive and fragile little thing!
"I'm leaving. Remember, it's ok to be bullied a little. As long as you're alive, you have a chance to turn everything around."
She didn’t want to talk too much, but she still advised him before leaving.
Behind her, Xiao Jiu (Small Nine) looked at the leg injury and then at Shen Xiangwan, who was walking away. He suddenly bit his lip, raised his hand, and then rigorously took the wrist beads bracelet off his wrist.
"You come back, this...I'll give it to you!"