Translator – Xiao He Lian
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Chapter 6.1
However, it is said that after the Yunyang Marquis Mansion was sealed by the officials, Shen Zhen moved to Zhaoxing lane, located in the southernmost part of Chang’an City. Most of the people living there were lay people, and it was considered the place with the cheapest land rent.
When Shen Zhen came home, Shen Hong was drinking medicine from a bowl.
An momo stroked his back and said, “Hey, my little ancestor1(The little ancestors became synonymous with children who were willful and hard to serve/ please.Believe it or not, 小祖宗 is an affectionate term. You don’t call children whom you don’t love and take care of 「小祖宗」), we are not in a hurry. Slow down, slow down.”
Shen Hong wiped his mouth and raised his eyes, his eyes immediately lit up, “Third sister is back!”
She walked forward and touched Shen Hong’s hair lovingly.
Shen Hong was smart since he was a child, but he was born weak and sickly. Whenever winter came, he would turn into a small medicine jar. He would eat nothing in the morning, noon and evening, and would almost eat the medicine as food.
Shen Zhen raised her hand and pinched his thin face, and said: “After drinking the medicine, cover yourself with a quilt and sleep a little longer.” The courtyard where they lived was cramped and small, with only two rooms in total and it was not soundproof. In autumn, she could hear intermittent, weak coughs almost every night.
Even if she closed her eyes, she could still imagine Shen Hong bowing and covering his mouth with his two small hands.
Thinking of this, Shen Zhen covered him with a quilt and said softly: “Go to sleep.”
Shen Hong always took the words of his third sister in his heart and immediately closed his eyes, but a child is a child after all, and the art of pretending to sleep is really shallow. His eyelids trembled, and his long eyelashes trembled like butterfly wings.
Shen Zhen saw through it immediately and put her hand on his shoulder. Her tone was just like the eldest sister said to her one day many years ago, “I’ll wait until you fall asleep before leaving.”
Hearing this, Shen Hong frowned, turned over and grabbed one of Shen Zhen’s fingers.
After Shen Hong fell asleep, he heard the sound of weak breathing. An momo squeezed Shen Zhen’s palm and said, “Young Lady, follow me.”
***
Entering the room next door, An momo took out a square box and said slowly: “This is what the eldest lady asked someone to deliver at noon today. Please take a look at it.”
Shen Zhen took it and opened it slowly. Immediately, the blood all over her body seemed to freeze.
She seemed to hear the string that had been stretched in her heart for the past month break with a “ding”.
She is very familiar with the gold, silver and jade items in the box. These are all her eldest sister’s dowry…
As she watched, Shen Zhen’s tears fell.
An momo looked at Shen Zhen sobbing silently and couldn’t hide the sadness in her heart. Looking at these jewelry hand-picked by Marchioness, she couldn’t help but think back to three years ago – the year when Marchioness passed away.
That year, the Yunyang Marquis Mansion seemed to be possessed by an evil spirit.
At the beginning of the year, the eldest young lady fell into a river and was accidentally rescued by Li Di, a son of a poor family and was forced to marry into the Li family. At the end of the year, when the second young lady Shen Yao was discussing marriage again, she was attracted by the Uighur prince. She could not disobey the emperor’s order and had no choice but to marry into another country for the sake of peace.
Immediately afterwards, Marchioness contracted the epidemic and died suddenly…
An momo has been serving the old lady since she was fifteen years old. In the past thirty years, she has witnessed with her own eyes how the Shen family gradually became an aristocratic family of the Jin Dynasty.
But who would have thought that a little carelessness could lead to a disaster.
She knelt down, hugged Shen Zhen in her arms, put her lips to her ear and whispered: “Miss, let me tell you, instead of pawning all the things and not being able to pay back the money, it would be better not to repay it.”
Shen Zhen raised her eyes and said in a trembling voice: “Momo, what else did elder sister say?”
An momo nodded, gave her a “hush” gesture, and continued: “Tomorrow night, the eldest young lady will send you two siblings out of Chang’an. Hidden at the bottom of this box is a household registration. When you arrive at the gate of the city, remember to find an officer named Xu. The Marquis has been kind to him and he is a reliable man. There is a scar at the corner of his eye, which makes him easy to identify.”
Shen Zhen stared in shock.
Although she had reached the end of her rope, she never thought of escaping. After all, there were so many people staring at her. As the saying goes, there were wolves in front of her and tigers behind them, so how could she escape?
An momo saw what she was thinking and continued to whisper, “At that time, I will set a fire in the front yard to prevent people from entering the yard and Qingxi will pretend to be the young lady and stay to call for help. You and Hong’er should take advantage of the commotion and walk through the hole dug in the backyard. Once you leave the city, never look back. Never return to Chang’an again in this life.”
The more she listened, the more she felt that something was wrong. Shen Zhen said hurriedly: “What about momo? What about Qing Xi?”
“This old lady and Xi girl were originally slaves. Even if the government came, they wouldn’t do anything to us. They would just send us to be sold again. But the young lady is different from us. The loan document is very strange. We can’t see the Marquis, so we have no way of knowing the true story. If we sign the body selling contract at this time, it will be like a sheep entering a tiger’s mouth.”
She reached out and grasped An momo’s arm and just as she was about to speak, An momo shook her head at her.
She could guess every word Shen Zhen wanted to say.
An momo stretched out her hand and stroked Shen Zhen’sbrows and eyes, which were like distant mountains and smiled and reddened eyes.
She had raised this child from a crying baby to a tall and graceful child.
Sixteen years have passed so quickly.
She really couldn’t bear it.
An momo looked at her for a long time, as if she would never see her again, “I know that the third young girl has always been delicate. In the future, when you can’t stand it, you should still think of Hong’er.”
After a long time, Shen Zhen finally threw herself at An momo, sobbing loudly.
***
