"Mother, does Grandmother really have connections here? Why have we been waiting for so long with no movement?"
Su Xiaobao propped his chin on his hand, bored, his obsidian eyes sparkling.
Su Xiuer yawned and shrugged, "I don't know. Mother shouldn't be so unreliable."
Actually, even as Su Xiuer said this, she had no confidence in her heart.
Her mother spent her days fishing, tending to flowers, sleeping, and drinking; she was indeed not a reliable person.
"Sigh!"
The mother and son sighed heavily in unison, shifted their positions, and continued to space out.
Suddenly, a thin and agile young man darted out from nowhere. Like a monkey, he snatched the pouch from Su Xiuer's waist and ran.
Su Xiuer reacted, drew the butcher knife hidden in her bundle, and threw it at the young man.
She hadn't expected the young man to have some skill; he narrowly dodged it.
A cunning rabbit has three burrows. The pouch didn't contain all of Su Xiuer's silver, but it was the hard-earned money she had saved coin by coin from butchering pigs.
Earning money is not easy; blood and sweat money must be protected even in death.
Without much thought, Su Xiuer picked up Su Xiaobao and chased after him.
Su Xiuer ran extremely fast, carrying the child as if she weighed nothing.
The young man's legs kicked up sparks on the ground, just enough to avoid being caught by Su Xiuer.
Behind a large tree not far away, a middle-aged man was quietly observing the scene.
He turned, took a corner, and entered a private room in a teahouse.
Duan Zhenzhu sat by the table, gently fanning herself. Seeing the man enter, she slowly looked over.
The man thought of Su Xiuer throwing the butcher knife, and he still felt a lingering fear.
He bowed slightly and reported to Duan Zhenzhu.
"Miss, that pig butcher woman is indeed fierce, and just as Young Master Wei described, she possesses immense strength. If the thief we found wasn't the most skilled pickpocket in the Capital City, he would have been caught the moment he made his move."
"I've troubled you, Wei Lang," Duan Zhenzhu said, sipping her tea with heartache, not truly taking Su Xiuer seriously.
Although she had her second steward personally watch Su Xiuer since last night, she hadn't even glanced at Su Xiuer from beginning to end.
She had only imagined Su Xiuer's appearance in her mind.
Immense strength meant she was undoubtedly a stout, broad-shouldered, ugly woman with a face as large as a plate and a mole on her lip.
Although she felt it was unnecessary, she still cautiously asked casually, "Do you know why she went to the Princess's Mansion?"
Wang Quan, the second steward of the Duan Mansion, recalled the events and continued to bow as he answered, "I was standing far away, but I saw clearly. She held a chipped jade hairpin and said she was looking for someone. The Princess's Mansion gate closed, and it hasn't opened since."
Cui Juan, standing behind Duan Zhenzhu, spat, "Miss, she's just wishful thinking. A lowly peasant woman from the countryside, holding a broken hairpin, dares to try and extort the Princess's Mansion. Does she really think the Princess's Mansion is a rural temple? If it were our Duan Mansion's gatekeeper, she would have been beaten out long ago."
"Indeed, it's laughable," Duan Zhenzhu said, disdainfully fanning herself lightly. She looked up at Wang Quan, her tone turning cold, "Proceed according to the plan. Be clean about it, don't dirty the Capital City's ground."
"Yes," Wang Quan replied, turned, and quickly left the teahouse, heading towards the eastern suburbs of the city, completely unaware that the Princess's Mansion gate, not far away, had opened again.
This time, it didn't open just a crack, but two women of exceptional appearance and outstanding temperament, with an aura greater than that of noble ladies, emerged, along with a handsome young man.
Chun Tao looked around, unable to find the beautiful older sister Dong Song had mentioned. She frowned and looked at Dong Song.
Dong Song anxiously scratched his head, "Aunt Chun Tao, when I closed the gate, I clearly told her to wait. I don't know how she disappeared. Perhaps she got impatient. It's my fault; I should have let her into the manor first."
"Knowing what you know now" is priceless, and besides, Dong Song was young. He hadn't met the Princess before, so it was normal not to recognize the Princess's old belongings.
Chun Tao withdrew her gaze.
Dong Mei said anxiously, "I wonder what the relationship is between that young lady and the Princess? Sister Chun Tao, what do we do next?"
"Search," Chun Tao said with firm eyes, brooking no argument. "Since she appeared at the Princess's Mansion gate with the jade hairpin, she must know news of the Princess. We must find her, no matter what."
Ahead was a ruined temple, and to the left, a fast-flowing river. There was no escape.
Fang Qing, Fang Qing, bent over and panting, stared at Su Xiuer, who was relentlessly pursuing him.
"Damn woman, you're desperate. It's just a pouch, why are you chasing so hard!"
After running for so long, he had nothing in his hands and was almost dead from exhaustion.
This damned woman, carrying a child, hadn't even broken a sweat and looked relaxed. It was truly bizarre.
Su Xiuer first put Su Xiaobao down, drew her butcher knife, and pointed it, approaching Fang Qing step by step.
"You know I'm desperate, yet you still dared to rob me. It seems your eyes aren't just bad, you also need a beating."
The butcher knife gleamed coldly. From Fang Qing's perspective, Su Xiuer looked very much like a female executioner.
Fang Qing's eyes flickered. He swallowed, reached into his pouch, grabbed all the copper coins, and scattered them everywhere. Finally, he threw the empty pouch directly at Su Xiuer and turned to run, "Here, take it back!"
Su Xiuer let out a cold laugh.
Now, it was too late.
She had always believed that if someone was respectful to her by an inch, she would be respectful to them by a yard.
This thief had provoked her first, so there was no way she would just let it go.
Su Xiuer didn't even glance at the ground. She reached out, grabbed him, and, relying on her innate divine strength, lifted Fang Qing bodily and threw him heavily to the ground, landing two punches on his face.
Fang Qing was completely searched by Su Xiuer.
It amounted to over ten taels.
"You're quite well-off."
Su Xiuer weighed the small silver pieces in her hand.
Fang Qing's outer robe was stripped, leaving him in his undergarments. He knelt on the ground, his face bruised and swollen, crying profusely.
He had been stealing for many years and had never failed before. He hadn't expected to not only fail this time but also lose everything he had.
"Grandmother, this is all I have. Please spare me. From now on, if I see you, I'll definitely walk the other way."
"What a disgrace. It's just a little over ten taels of silver, and you're crying like this, a grown man. Get lost." Su Xiuer pocketed the silver and waved her hand.
Yan Qing quickly scrambled away in a panic.
Su Xiuer withdrew her gaze to look for Su Xiaobao.
While Su Xiuer was teaching Fang Qing a lesson, Su Xiaobao had been squatting on the ground, picking up the scattered copper coins.
Now, he was nowhere to be seen, only the pouch lay abandoned in the middle of the road.
"Xiaobao," Su Xiuer picked up the pouch and looked up, catching a glimpse of a figure flashing at the entrance of the ruined temple.
The ruined temple was truly dilapidated, overgrown with grass all around, and covered in dust everywhere.
Inside, the Buddha statue had collapsed.
Su Xiaobao, who had just disappeared, lay quietly beside the Buddha statue with his eyes tightly shut, his life unknown.
Seeing this, Su Xiuer knew something was wrong, but for Su Xiaobao's sake, she rushed over.
The moment she got close, she reached out to check Su Xiaobao's breathing.
Seeing that he was still breathing, she breathed a sigh of relief and held Su Xiaobao tightly in her arms.
With a loud "Rumble!"
The instant Su Xiuer picked up Su Xiaobao, it was as if she had triggered a mechanism.
A wooden cage descended from above, precisely trapping her and Su Xiaobao inside.
Outside the ruined temple, firelight also erupted at this moment, the flames growing fiercer, and the surrounding temperature rising steadily.
Su Xiuer's eyes darkened, and she tightened her grip on Su Xiaobao.
Someone had set a trap, deliberately intending to burn her and Xiaobao to death in the ruined temple.
She and Xiaobao had just arrived in the Capital City, and besides the Wei family, no one knew them.
It seemed the Wei family had set up this whole scheme!
First, they had the thief lure her here, then distract her, and then take the opportunity to drug Xiaobao and bring him to the ruined temple.
Step by step, they guided her to trigger the mechanism herself, trapping herself to die inside.
The person who could set up this trap must know her very well.
They would also need considerable wealth and connections.
Madam Zhao and Wei Tian couldn't have done this. Only Wei Mingze could have, perhaps he even colluded with people from the Duan family.
Wei Mingze was truly heartless. She thought that after taking the silver and writing the divorce letter, they would be even, but he ended up wanting her and Xiaobao's lives.
Regardless of how much genuine affection Wei Mingze had for her, Xiaobao had called him "Dad" for three years.
He had held Xiaobao while practicing calligraphy, taken Xiaobao to fly kites, and washed Xiaobao's face.
These interactions had truly happened.
Humans are not plants; how can they be without emotion?
How could Wei Mingze go this far?
She had underestimated the evil of human nature!
"Cough... Mother, it's on fire. You should run."
Su Xiaobao woke up coughing, slowly opening his eyes in Su Xiuer's arms.
Su Xiuer understood that this was not the time for sentimentality.
Whether for herself or for Xiaobao, she had to find a way to escape alive.
"Don't be scared, Xiaobao. Mother will take you out of here."
Su Xiuer gently stroked Su Xiaobao's face, placed him aside, picked up the butcher knife, and began hacking at the thick wooden bars.
The wooden bars were too sturdy; a single strike left no mark.
Crackling, the fire continued to spread. The arsonist, as if afraid the fire wasn't strong enough, poured two buckets of oil into the flames.
Wei Mingze, clad in an immaculate white brocade robe, stood under the layers of green shade in the distance, watching the rising flames with grief and sorrow.
He bit his lip tightly, so hard that it almost bled, but he didn't let go.
He didn't want this either, but Su Xiuer had forced him.
Moreover, last night he had only wanted Duan Zhenzhu to help drive Su Xiuer away; he hadn't expected Duan Zhenzhu to resort to murder.
So, how could ordinary commoners contend with nobles?
Nobles could take a life with a mere flick of their fingers.
"Xiuer, Xiaobao, being burned by fire must hurt. Just bear with it. I will erect a cenotaph for you and will never forget you in this life."
Tears streamed down, and Wei Mingze raised his hand to wipe them away.
With a loud crash, Wei Mingze saw the main beam of the ruined temple fall.
After the beam fell, the main structure of the house collapsed. With such a large fire, Su Xiuer and Su Xiaobao were beyond saving.
Wei Mingze turned and left sadly, walking in a daze towards the Wei Mansion.
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