Chapter 4
As soon as Pingting entered the carriage behind, the stench rushed towards her. She immediately understood why Brother Fu said that she had received preferential treatment in the first two days - compared to the carriage just now, the carriage was really tattered and crowded, dirty and hot.
Seven or eight girls were squeezed in the carriage. Like Pingting, her hands were tied behind her back, and a ball of ragged cloth was stuffed in her mouth, and everyone was panicked in their eyes. Seeing that the girl who had the same experience was caught in, they all looked at Pingting with sympathy.
"Push in, and another one comes." Old Zhang pushed Pingting into the carriage and took out the rotten cloth from the other girls one by one. "It's already in the wilderness, so I won't tamper with you, otherwise the weather will be so hot that it will be suffocated to death. Let's stay honestly for me, hear it?!" Old Zhang shouted and left the carriage.
Pingting was pushed by Lao Zhang and finally found a corner to sit down.
"Cough cough...cough..." The carriage was shaking violently, Pingting's throat was itchy, and she coughed twice.
Pingting's discomfort came up again - the disease that she contracted with when she went to war with the young master this time has not been cured yet? Pingting frowned, closed her eyes and leaned her head against the hard wooden wall.
She felt a little more comfortable, and couldn't help but start thinking-
The Jing'an Mansion, the Jing'an Mansion where she lived since childhood, should have been in ashes?
Prince Su, no, he is already the newly ascended king. The king's mansion, which is holding heavy troops, is suspicious of the heavy force. Not long ago, the young master made another military contribution. The king finally couldn't help but set up a poison plan and accused the young master of rebellion on the night of the young master's triumphant rebellion. Fortunately, the Jing'an mansion was a little wary of the king so that he would not have no power to fight back.
Now, the young master should have planned his escape route.
I don’t know where they will escape secretly. It’s better to escape to a place where no one can guess, so that the pursuers won’t find them.
A low sob began to sound everywhere, and the girls who had just taken out the gag cloth sobbed for their misfortune. Pingting opened her eyes and looked around.
Not bad, they are all very beautiful. They should be the ugliest of everyone, right?
Human traffickers have always been to choose beauty, so they can be sold to nobles as concubines, because the price can be raised. Pingting remembered that the second brother Fu set a price for her was fifty yuan, and she smiled slightly - just what the young master rewarded her on weekdays was enough to make the second brother Fu drowned in the pile of money. If the second brother Fu knew who he had caught by a demon, he would not know what expression he would show.
"This sister..." A timid girl next to her touched Pingting's shoulder, "Are you also caught and sold by them?"
What a lovely little girl, no wonder she would attract human traffickers. Pingting nodded, "Yes."
"Are you afraid?"
"Not afraid."
The girl looked at her in surprise, "Aren't you afraid?"
Seeing that the girl was about to open her mouth to ask, Pingting, who had already had a headache, asked first: "What's your name?"
"My name is Xiaoqing. Where is my sister?"
"My name is Xiaohong." I casually gave myself a new name. I can't be sold under the name "Bai Pingting", which is not well known to everyone but is definitely not an unknown name.
"Sister, then..."
"Do you know where we are going now?" Pingting cut off Xiaoqing's question again - she wanted to seize the time to figure out the situation. She was not afraid, but was a little excited, as if she was going to follow the young master to fight and want to break the enemy's plan, but she was fighting alone now.
"I heard that fat man talk to that fierce man and that fierce man, it seems that he wants to sell us to Donglin."
The enemy country? Pingting's brows frowned a little tighter.
The young master defeated the Donglin Army on the border this time. Pingting’s plan to lead the enemy into the mountains and open the river and flood the road caused the Donglin Army to be defeated in a miserable way, resulting in a complete retreat. At that time, the young master was still smiling and said, “Now the whole army knows that we have a female military advisor. When I return to the capital, I want my father to reward you heavily. What do you want this time?”
If her identity was exposed in Donglin, the consequences would be...
Pingting has always thought about it. It seems that using the human trafficker's carriage and horse to escape the king's pursuit is useless. She wants to see when she has the chance to escape, can leave the human trafficker's carriage, and then rely on her legs to find the whereabouts of the young master.
After Pingting thought it through, her temples jumped up suddenly, and it hurt like something was pulling hard. Tiredness hit her whole body, taking away all her strength, and Pingting started coughing again.
"Ahem..."
"Sister..." Xiaoqing looked at her with concern.
"It's okay." Pingting finally stopped coughing, but found a smell of sweetness in her throat. Her heart sank - was it coughing up bleeding again?
In this way, how would she escape?
Pingting's body is actually not weak, but she contracted some minor local illnesses this time when she went to war. She didn't want to bother the young master, so she insisted on not talking about it, and returned to the capital all the way. Another incident occurred on the first night of her return. There were naturally many things that took a lot of attention, so it was no wonder that the condition worsened.
Pingting thought about it for a long time and sighed quietly, "Let's go to Donglin."
Pingting decided to go to Donglin with the human traffickers for the time being. After all, the king's order, who is now in charge of the Jing'an Prince's Mansion, only works within Guile Kingdom.
An enemy country is also a good choice - as long as the identity is not exposed.
A few days later, the convoy had arrived in Donglin.
Of course, the traffickers would not hawk in the remote villages on the border. Pingting followed them for a few days and went straight to the Donglin capital Moen. After entering the city, the traffickers drove the captured girls out of the car, washed them clean in the inn, and put on clean clothes.
After years of war, it is common to buy and sell people. Almost every big city has a market that specializes in buying and selling people. Pingting and others were brought to the market by human traffickers, and they stood on the stage as buyers to comment.
Pingting was the most inconspicuous among the people, and was ranked behind, which saved her from being uncomfortable. The silk dress she wore when she was caught had been stripped off by human traffickers for Xiaoqing to wear it to raise the price of the beauty.
"The beauty of the country of Reiko! The beauty of the country of Reiko!"
Thinking of his first maid in Guileguo Jing'an's Mansion, who was actually put here for sale, Pingting couldn't help but shake her head and smile bitterly.
No wonder some people say that life is unpredictable.
Pingting stood in the stands for a long time, and the girls who were arrested together had buyers. The one who bought Xiaoqing was a gentle scholar, dressed as a rich young man, but looked very kind. Xiaoqing was still scared and whined before leaving: "Sister! Sister!" She held Pingting's hand tightly and refused to let go.
But Pingting knew that a beautiful girl like Xiaoqing who was born in a poor family was lucky to be a girl in a wealthy family. If Pingting hadn’t been brought back to the prince’s mansion by the prince, she would have been starved to death by the roadside.
"Go, don't be afraid." Pingting patted Xiaoqing's hand and watched her go away.
Pingting was finally sold.
It seems that the beauty is not very good. The traffickers are very persuasive, and finally found a housekeeper who needs a rough girl and sold Pingting for a price of forty little money.
Pingting thought to herself: If the young master knew that he was only worth such a low price of "forty little money", he would be afraid that he would faint from laughing.
"This is the gate, remember the place?" Pingting was taken to a rich gate, bought her butler and pointed to the big plaque above and said, "You slutty girls can only enter and exit the small door next to you, do you know?"
Pingting looked up and recited the big words on the plaque, "Hua Mansion."
Fortunately, it was not Zhenbei Wangfu, otherwise Pingting would have run away.
King Chu Beijie of Zhenbei, the famous brother of the Donglin King, the first tiger general of the Donglin Kingdom - also the person who led his troops to invade Guile Kingdom and was eventually repelled by the young master.
"Well, it's not bad, I know a few words." Butler Hua nodded and brought Pingting to the small door I just mentioned. "This will be your new home in the future. Our master and lady are all very kind-hearted. If you work hard, you will definitely not treat you badly."
In this way, there was an ordinary girl in the Hua Mansion.
Pingting wanted to do the job of washing clothes. She couldn't believe that she had to wash so many clothes one day.
Although Pingting was a girl in Prince Jing'an's Mansion, her status was similar to that of the young master's sister. In addition to serving tea and fan to the young master, she just accompanied the young master to study, draw, play the piano. Have you ever washed her clothes? Even her clothes were left to the little girl below to wash.
"It's finally washed." Pingting took the clothes she had finally washed to the patio and hung them. Her fingers, which were usually tender, wrinkled. Her delicate eyebrows frowned slightly, but soon let go. "Pingting, Pingting, who told you not to work in the past? Now I know the girl's duty, right? I'll ask you to come back all the time." Pingting said self-deprecatingly, and two small dimples appeared on her cheeks. The black and white eyes shone with bright light, and a hidden temperament couldn't help but reveal it. Although she didn't have beautiful facial features, she faintly exuded a peerless beauty that others could not match.
If Brother Fu saw Pingting at this time, he would be stomping his feet and pounding his chest and regretted selling her forty little money.
Hua Mansion is really good to the servants. The housekeeper Hua knew that Pingting had a long cough and even grabbed some herbs for her. Although the medicine was not a rare and precious medicine, it seemed that it would be effective after taking two doses.
Chapter completed!