“Mom, you don’t need to be so nervous. No one can enter this place except me. And if you want to go out, you have to hold my hand to leave,” He Caiwei said, watching her mother closely, nervous about her reaction.
“Really? Those people really can’t find us anymore? Wait—wait! What about our things? What if they’re like locusts and take everything? What would we do then? And those two little hens—we need to hide them too!” He Yuping didn’t care where this place was, as long as those people couldn’t find them.
As long as they couldn’t find the mother and daughter, her child would be safe. Then she suddenly remembered the two young hens she had just bought that day—they were meant to lay eggs for her daughter. And there were also the eggs and the old hen from earlier.
It would be such a waste to let those people take everything. They had to get their belongings back.
“There’s no one outside right now. Why don’t we go out, pack everything up, and then come back to hide? We can bring all our belongings in here… or even just stay here forever,” He Caiwei said. Seeing the pained expression on her mother’s face at the thought of losing everything—and remembering the large amount of money they had spent—she decided it was better to retrieve everything rather than let it go to waste.
So far, they had only heard Steward Hu’s voice. It was unclear whether he was working with the First Madam, or whether he suspected the mother and daughter of stealing his things.
After all, there had been quite a lot of valuables. Just one chest would be enough to live comfortably for a lifetime. Now that everything had mysteriously disappeared, of course they would search for it.
“Let’s go, let’s go! Take everything we bought these past few days. I’ll make it look like no one has been living here,” He Yuping said, immediately energized at the thought of getting their belongings back.
Since they could retrieve everything, making the house look abandoned would be easy.
He Caiwei followed behind her mother as she swept through the place like a locust swarm—taking everything they had bought over the past few days: food, clothes, daily necessities, even firewood and stove ash.
She didn’t even leave behind the two little hens that had just been put in the coop, nor the vegetable leaves she had thrown in for them to peck at.
Then, carefully, she grabbed some ash from the back, took the fan used for fanning the stove, and lightly dusted the tables and cabinets with ash, making everything look aged and unused.
Only after finishing did she remember the small vegetable patch out back. After a few days, tiny green sprouts had already appeared. What should they do about that?
“Daughter, what about these vegetables?” He Yuping frowned. It would be a pity to dig them all up, but if they left them, it would be obvious someone had been living here.
Watching her mother’s actions, He Caiwei realized that her mother was far from simple. The way she staged the scene was incredibly convincing—if she herself hadn’t lived there, she would have believed the place had long been abandoned.
He Caiwei dug up some dry soil from the corner of the wall, crushed it into fine dust, and sprinkled it over the vegetable sprouts until they were covered to the same height. Unless someone carefully dug around, no one would know vegetables had been planted there.
He Yuping then carefully inspected the house one more time, sweeping away any footprints in the yard and inside before letting her daughter take her back.
It was only when she returned for the second time that she had the leisure to look around properly. She quickly realized that everything here was far better than what she had in her original room.
When she saw the television, she was completely stunned. She had only ever heard about such a thing from Master Qu—supposedly only available abroad.
It was said to be bulky and fragile, easily damaged. Even after traveling abroad many times, Master Qu had never managed to bring one back.
But the one here was so large and so thin. The colors and design were so pleasing to the eye. He Yuping turned to her daughter eagerly, her expression clearly asking, Can I try it?
He Caiwei sighed helplessly, picked up the remote, and turned it on. She had never used it herself and wasn’t even sure if it would work—she didn’t know where the electricity came from, nor whether it could receive any signals.
After turning it on, she found that the TV contained many movies, though there were no live channels.
It seemed everything had been downloaded directly onto the device.
“Wow! Where are these people from? Why are they all so good-looking?” He Yuping exclaimed as the screen lit up—the first face she saw was Hu Ge’s.
“Want to watch this one? This one’s even better-looking,” He Caiwei said, switching to something featuring Wang Yibo.
“Too young. He looks like he’s barely in his teens. I prefer the one from before,” He Yuping said after a glance, finding Wang Yibo’s face too youthful.
“Alright, then pick whatever you like from here,” He Caiwei said.
Over the next half hour, she taught her mother how to use the remote. Soon enough, He Yuping was glued to the sofa, so absorbed that she didn’t even notice her hunger.
Left with no choice, He Caiwei went to the kitchen to prepare some food and brought it into the living room. It wasn’t until the aroma reached her that He Yuping finally tore her eyes away from the TV.
Seeing the food on the table startled her. She quickly grabbed her daughter’s hands, checking for burns.
“Oh my, why didn’t you call me when you were hungry? I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I won’t forget again. How could I neglect my daughter’s hunger? Next time, you must call me. It’s just that I’ve never seen something like this before—it felt so novel. It won’t happen again.”
Seeing that her daughter’s hands were still fair and uninjured, she finally relaxed.
“It’s fine, Mom. It’s normal to feel curious seeing this for the first time. But I think I know how we were exposed,” He Caiwei suddenly said, recalling something.
“Around when? I even disguised my face so well every time I went out—how could we have been exposed?” He Yuping found it hard to accept; she was confident in her makeup skills.
“Mom, remember the day we went to Mingqu Restaurant? The clothes we wore were taken from the Qu residence. Even if your face was completely unrecognizable, your figure and those clothes were the biggest giveaway. You lived in that household for six or seven years—how could the steward not recognize them? He personally had your clothes tailored every year.”
He Caiwei suddenly found her mother’s occasional naivety a bit endearing.
“That… actually makes sense. Darling, are you sure that if we stay here, they really won’t find us?” He Yuping asked, suddenly worried.
“Don’t worry. As long as I don’t let them find us, they’ll never be able to—ever. Right now, we need to figure out how to leave this place,” He Caiwei said. She had no interest in entangling herself with those people. All she wanted was to leave and start a new life somewhere else.