Chapter 54: Narrow Road
Chapter 54: Narrow Road
The semi see-through muslin fabric of the veil hat reached her ankles, but it was still difficult to hide her graceful posture.
Women in town weren’t so fashionable as to wear veil hats; only the noble women in the capital paid particular attention to this.
Her hand, which was holding on to the servant girl’s forearm, was as delicate as jade, slender and beautiful. Looking at it, one would wonder how rich people could raise such hands.
After she got out of the carriage, she entered the Rejuvenation Hall without stopping for a moment. However, all the people around were stunned and could not return to their senses for a long while.
The appearance of such a person in this barren town was just like a female celestial descending from heavens.
“Which daughter is she? Qin Family?”
“I don’t think so. The Qin Family’s young miss isn’t so noble!”
“Is it Lu Family then?”
“Doesn’t seem so either.”
The two largest families in town were the Qin Family and Lu Family. The former was a town’s landlord, connected by marriage with a wealthy merchant, and had a great deal of wealth; the latter was the family of the county magistrate, who could cover the whole sky above Qingquan Town with one hand.
Naturally, the young misses of these two families were incomparably honorable. Ordinary folks actually had no chance to see them, but somehow, they felt that this young miss couldn’t be someone from the town.
Of course, there were also people who had seen the young misses of the Qin and Lu families. They could tell that the difference was like clouds and mud. Young Miss Qin and Young Miss Lu were simply not enough to carry the other party’s shoes.
Such a grand personage entered the door of the Rejuvenation Hall, which led people to think highly of the Rejuvenation Hall. This medical hall had put people to death before, and yet there was still such a noble personage who was willing to come to their door. Was she stupid, or was the Rejuvenation Hall really capable?
“Is your owner here?” The young miss entered the lobby and asked the dumbfounded Shopkeeper Wang.
Shopkeeper Wang practically stuttered. He had lived most of his life, but he had never seen such a beautiful and magnificent young lady before.
The servant girl frowned with displeasure and said, “My young miss is asking you a question? Is your owner here?”
Young, young miss?
Was this person the Marquis Estate’s young miss, the young master’s twin older sister?
Heavens!
Can’t believe he would actually see such an extraordinary nobility in his lifetime!
Shopkeeper Wang quickly regained his senses. He broke into a big cold sweat as he said, “He’s here, he’s here. This humble one will hurriedly call the owner out.”
The young miss said faintly, “No need to hurry. Just let me know when I can go and I’ll see him myself.”
“Dare not, dare not!”
How could he keep the Marquis Estate’s people waiting? Anyway, Second Owner had nothing to do at the moment, so Shopkeeper Wang decided to take people to the study behind the lobby.
Shopkeeper Wang guessed correctly. The young miss did come to deliver the treatment fee, but aside from it, she also gave them a lot of silver as reward money.
The young miss was away when the young master was being treated, but she heard a lot of things afterwards and might as well know the course of events.
“My brother is very satisfied with the old physician and his little medicine girl. Let them come next time.” The young miss said before getting up and leaving.
The reason why the Marquis Estate’s young miss came to their Rejuvenation Hall in person was to express their gratitude to the Rejuvenation Hall’s brilliant physician for treating the young master of the Marquis Estate. It did not mean, however, that the Rejuvenation Hall was qualified to make friends with the young miss of the Marquis Estate.
Second Owner was a wise man. Knowing his own weight, and knowing that he couldn’t make friends with the other party at all, he didn’t make a futile effort to curry favor with her.
He politely responded to the young miss’ request and personally sent her to the entrance.
“Second Owner, you may return.” The young miss said leisurely.
Second Owner cupped his hands and didn’t turn into the Rejuvenation Hall until the young miss got into the carriage and headed away.
After the carriage had traveled a long way, the young miss suddenly looked at her waist and her expression changed slightly, saying, “Not good, my jade pendant is missing!”
“Is it the jade pendant the Marquis gave young miss? Wasn’t young miss still wearing it when you went out today? Why is it gone all of a sudden?” The servant girl was anxious as she looked everywhere, but she failed to find such a thing in the carriage.
The servant girl asked, “Could it be… Young miss left it in the Rejuvenation Hall? Today, we didn’t go anywhere except the Rejuvenation Hall.”
The young miss nodded thoughtfully and replied, “All right, you go back there and look for it.”
The carriage turned back and parked near the Rejuvenation Hall.
The servant girl entered the lobby, holding up her skirt.
Shopkeeper Wang couldn’t help but wonder upon seeing her come back. He asked, “Girl, why are you back? Is there anything else we can do for you?”
The servant girl said angrily, “My young miss’ jade pendant is gone! Have people look for it quickly!”
Hearing this, Shopkeeper Wang immediately became cautious, “May I ask, what does Young Miss Gu’s jade pendant look like? What kind of jade is it?”
The servant girl described, “It’s big, circular, and it’s a suet jade.”
Shopkeeper Wang immediately took the staff in the lobby to look around. The servant girl wasn’t idle either, and went to the study of Second Owner.
She remembered her young lady sitting there, maybe she left it there.
Second Owner was no longer there. She didn’t wait for Second Owner to come back and just went in, then she looked around for a while, but found nothing.
Immediately afterwards, she searched carefully in the halls and winding corridors, but still did not see the shadow of the jade pendant.
When she passed a wing room, she noticed that the door of the wing room was left unlocked. She hesitated for a moment before going in.
On the table inside, there was a shabby basket which was simply out of place here. There were some mountain goods in the basket, and there was also a tattered box.
The servant girl glanced at the box in disgust and suddenly found a pouch beside it.
When she opened the pouch, she vaguely felt that something was wrong. She poured out the contents of the pouch and scattered them on the table messily, some silver ovule ingots even rolling to the floor.
The servant girl didn’t pick them up, instead, her eyes were fixed on the jade pendant and the jade thumb ring that fell out together with the jade pendant.
After a while, she muttered blankly, “Isn’t this the young miss’ jade pendant and the young master’s jade thumb ring? How can these be here?”
Gu Jiao’s time of the month had arrived, so she made a trip to the lavatory. When she came back and entered the wing room, she saw a little girl rummaging through her pouch.
She walked into the room coldly, looked at the mess on the table and on the floor, and asked, “Did you do it?”
The servant girl looked up at Gu Jiao.
Gu Jiao was dressed like a village girl, and there was also a red birthmark on her face. The servant girl showed an unconcealed disdain on her face and said, “I did. What about it? Are these things yours?”
Gu Jiao clasped her hand and looked at her faintly, without a trace of guilt or fear in her eyes.
The servant girl was a servant of the Marquis Estate, and her food and clothing was no worse than that of a young miss in an ordinary wealthy family. Just how many people were intimidated by her whenever she went out? And yet, this lowly village girl dared to stare at her like that.
The servant girl said furiously, “Are you deaf? Didn’t you hear what I was asking you?”
Gu Jiao: “Heh.”
“You…” The servant girl was annoyed by her attitude, and said even more angrily, “You stole something from my master, but dare not admit it, am I right?”