Yunchu’s Vengeance - Chapter 51
Chapter 51 - Meeting the Little Princess
Coming out from the manor, it was almost the hour of Xu. Nighttime in the capital meant a curfew from the second quarter of the hour of Xu until the fifth watch, and if they did not return to the city now, they would have to wait until tomorrow morning.
Tingshuang supported Yunchu as she boarded the carriage, asking softly, "Madam, did you really just agree to cure Young Master Wu like that?"
Yunchu nodded.
More than twenty years ago, the members of the Wu family fell ill and died one after another, leaving behind only the youngest Young Master Wu. Madam Wu decisively sold all her family property to find doctors everywhere to cure Young Master Wu. They were penniless, without even a place to live, so they moved into this manor.
This was a manor passed down by the ancestors of the Wu family and also the Wu family's only remaining asset at the time.
However, a family surnamed Zou schemed against them, forcing them to sell their ancestral property at a fraction of its value. At the time, this manor was adorned like a royal garden, complete with carved beams, painted pillars, pavilions, waterside terraces, and rare flowers. If it were truly sold, it could have fetched at least over thirty thousand liang of silver, but in the end, Madam Wu only received twenty thousand.
After the Zou family acquired the manor, they immediately demolished the Wu family ancestral hall, and the small grove was also about to be burned down. With nowhere to go, Madam Wu came up with a plan: to dress up as ghosts and scare people away.
Sure enough, the Zou family was frightened out of their wits and had no choice but to sell the manor at a heavy loss. As for the Zou family's fortune being affected, that was entirely a coincidence.
Later, when a merchant took over the manor, Madam Wu brought along Young Master Wu, who was only three or four years old at the time, to play ghosts together, successfully scaring the merchant until he fell ill.
Not only that, Madam Wu went out during the day to tell the surrounding people that the manor was haunted. Thus, word spread from person to person, and no one ever dared to take it over again. The merchant's family would occasionally send people to inspect it, only to be frightened away by the growing Young Master Wu. Young Master Wu did not even need to disguise himself; that face of his, along with the rotting stench coming from his body, was enough to scare people into fainting...
"The Wu family mother and son are also pitiful people, having spent more than twenty years living in pitch darkness," Yunchu said. "This manor is ancestral property passed down by the Wu family's ancestors. I bought this manor with money earned from the Wu family's ancestral property, and using it to cure Young Master Wu is nothing inappropriate."
Tingfeng spoke up, "But that divine doctor charges five thousand liang of silver for a single pulse diagnosis. I'm afraid it will take three to five years for this manor to earn that much money."
Yunchu smiled.
Once the hot springs were developed, they could earn at least fifty thousand liang of silver this winter. Paying for Young Master Wu's medical expenses was not worth mentioning at all.
She did not consider herself some great, all-compassionate benefactor, but she would lend a helping hand whenever she was capable. Perhaps precisely because of this, she had formed many bonds of kindness, which was why the heavens allowed her to return to her twentieth year.
"Madam should also have a pulse diagnosis taken for yourself," Tingshuang said with a sour heart. "Madam is still young. After curing the infertility ailment, you can still give birth to another young master..."
As her voice faded, the sound of weeping suddenly came from outside the carriage.
Yunchu immediately spoke, "Stop for a moment."
The coachman tightened the reins, and the carriage slowly came to a halt.
Tingshuang lifted the carriage curtain, and Yunchu looked out. They had already entered the capital by this point, and with the curfew approaching, no pedestrians could be seen on the street, save for a night watchman passing by.
The weeping seemed to be coming from a small alleyway.
Without a second thought, Yunchu stepped down from the carriage and walked toward the alley, with the maidservants Tingshuang and the others hurriedly following behind.
There was only faint moonlight in the alley, vaguely revealing a small white figure huddled in the corner.
The crying was coming from this small figure.
Yunchu quickened her pace and soon saw clearly that this was a girl of perhaps only three years old. Her long hair was disheveled and draped over her body, her head buried between her knees, her small shoulders twitching as she emitted faint, cat-like cries.
Yunchu also noticed that the little girl was not even wearing shoes.
Her heart softened instantly. She hurriedly picked the child up and said softly, "Why are you outside all by yourself? Where are your parents?"
The little girl raised her face. Her palm-sized face revealed eyes that were large and round, brimming with teardrops that rolled down one by one. Seeing Yunchu, she first stared blankly with innocent eyes, and then burst into a wail, burying herself in Yunchu's embrace to cry bitterly.
Yunchu was instantly flustered and busy. "Don't cry, be a good girl. If you keep crying, you'll turn into a little tabby cat."
The little girl only cried harder and couldn't stop, her tears falling onto Yunchu's shoulder until her clothes were completely soaked.
Yunchu's heart inexplicably ached along with her.
The child she cherished most was Xie Shiyun, but even when Xie Shiyun was injured and cried bitterly, she had never felt this kind of heartbreaking, knife-like pain.
She held the little girl close, gently patting her back as she walked out of the narrow alleyway, laboriously climbed onto the carriage, and sat down. Softly humming a tune, she watched as the little girl gradually quieted down in her arms.
Just as she was about to communicate further, she saw those large, beautiful eyes close; the little girl had actually fallen asleep right in her arms.
A wave of tenderness flooded Yunchu's heart. She said softly, "Tingshuang, you and Uncle Chen go walk around the neighborhood to see if any family is looking for a child. If all the details match up, bring them over."
Tingshuang acknowledged the order and left.
The carriage pulled over to the side, leaving only Yunchu holding the child, Tingfeng and Tingxue waiting outside the carriage, and the coachman holding the horse's reins.
At that moment, many people suddenly approached, surrounding the carriage tightly.
Leading them was a wet nurse in her forties or fifties, who stared coldly at the carriage cabin. "Go up and search."
Four or five guards immediately stepped forward.
"What are you doing?" Tingxue hurriedly blocked them. "Inside is our family's madam! Do not be rude to our madam!"
The wet nurse's expression was icy. "It's abnormal for this carriage to be parked on the roadside in the middle of the night. What respectable madam doesn't return home at night? Go up and search!"
Tingxue was nearly frantic with worry, and just as she was about to argue, the sound of a child crying suddenly came from inside the carriage.
A look of joy flashed across the wet nurse's face. "The Princess is inside the carriage!"
She shoved Tingxue and Tingfeng aside, helped a guard up onto the carriage, and violently yanked open the curtain.
She immediately spotted the little girl being held by Yunchu, rushed forward in a single bound, placed her hands under the child's armpits, and dragged her outward.
The little girl had already been crying, and being yanked like this, suddenly burst into an even more violent fit of weeping.
Yunchu's eyes darkened. "Let go."
"The one who should let go is you!" The wet nurse glared furiously. "How dare you steal our Princess? I see you're tired of living. No matter whose madam you are, your days are numbered!"
With that, she grabbed the child and pulled hard.
Yunchu was holding the little girl around the waist and dared not use too much force at this sight, hastily letting go.
The little girl kicked and thrashed in the wet nurse's grip, crying so hard she was out of breath. Her originally tender and white face actually turned a bluish-purple.
"Let go of the child quickly!"
Yunchu's voice suddenly rose, her aura fully unleashed.
The wet nurse wasn't scared by her aura; rather, she was so frightened by the little Princess's bluish-purple face that her legs turned to jelly, and she hastily placed the child back onto the soft cushion of the carriage.
"It's alright, don't cry..." Yunchu's voice was extremely gentle. "Would you like Auntie to hold you?"
The wet nurse's expression sank. "What qualification do you have to be our Princess's aunt..."
Before she could finish her sentence, the little girl stretched out two short arms and threw them around Yunchu's neck.
Yunchu placed her on her lap, pointed at the wet nurse, and asked softly, "Do you recognize this person in front of us? Is she from your household?"
The little girl only hugged her and remained completely silent.
Yunchu raised her gaze and said, "If she says she recognizes you, I will let you take her away."
The wet nurse could hardly believe it. She wanted to take away her own young mistress, yet she needed the permission of a stranger.
However, her young mistress was nestled so dependently in this madam's embrace that using force was utterly useless.
She spoke up, "Our little Princess cannot speak. According to Madam's meaning, does that mean I won't be able to take the Princess away today?"
Yunchu was stunned.
This child couldn't speak?
Wait!
She remembered: Yugeer had told her that he had a younger sister who couldn't speak. Could Yugeer's younger sister be none of other than the Princess?
Was the little girl the child of the Prince of Pingxi?
But wasn't the Prince of Pingxi's child four years old? This little girl looked to be only around three…