The mother and daughter had guessed correctly. Butler Hu had accidentally seen their clothes that day. Although their faces didn’t look very similar, he could still recognize a resemblance from their outlines.
Over the past few days, he had been keeping an eye on the area. The things he had painstakingly moved out had vanished overnight without a trace. The Fourth Concubine believed he had embezzled them and refused to let him off, even giving him a three-month deadline—if he couldn’t find the missing items, she would report him to the Public Security Bureau.
He truly had no choice. During this time, he had been wandering around the neighborhood, but the mother and daughter rarely went out. After searching for most of the day without finding any trace of them, he had no option but to knock on doors one by one, hoping to locate them.
But he failed to consider this: after escaping the wolf’s den that was the Qu family, who would ever want to go back? Let alone walk straight into a trap.
After knocking on the door and turning to leave, Butler Hu suddenly felt that the voice he had just heard sounded familiar—like he had heard it somewhere before. But he had heard many young men’s voices… this one… no, that wasn’t a man’s voice.
He abruptly stopped. He wanted to go back, but feared they might run, so he stayed crouched at a distance, determined. He refused to believe the mother and daughter didn’t need to eat or go out.
No matter what, he needed someone to take the blame for the missing items. The Third Concubine and her daughter were the perfect scapegoats.
The Fourth Concubine’s dislike for the Third Concubine was obvious every day. Blaming this matter on them would make perfect sense.
Still, no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t understand—three days had passed, yet there had been no movement inside the house. No smoke from the chimney either. Didn’t they need to eat? That couldn’t be right. So he decided to knock on the neighbor’s door.
“Who is it? Why are you knocking so late at night?” A hoarse male voice cursed as he came to open the door.
Butler Hu froze when he heard it. It sounded similar to that earlier voice, yet also different. Had he imagined things before?
“Who the hell are you? Knocking in the middle of the night—are you asking for trouble?” The man opened the door, saw an old man, and nearly kicked him down in anger.
He had just finished a night shift and had only lain down for a short while. Who was this guy?
“Sorry, sorry, brother. I just wanted to ask—where did the mother and daughter next door go? I’m their steward. They haven’t returned home for days. I was wondering if they’re staying here?” Butler Hu slipped him a cigarette and spoke politely.
“What mother and daughter? Are you dreaming? That place next door’s been empty for years. Only Uncle Lin comes by occasionally to clean it. Who would live there?” The man had been working night shifts lately and had no idea anyone had moved in. Besides, the place had been completely silent—nothing like somewhere people lived.
Hearing this, Butler Hu was stunned. Had he been hallucinating a few days ago?
Meanwhile, the mother and daughter inside had heard everything clearly. Earlier, He Yuping had deliberately imitated this man’s voice when speaking, which was why Butler Hu had confused the two voices. That had been her intention all along.
They had just been planning to go out and check the situation, thinking that in broad daylight Butler Hu might be less vigilant, giving them a chance to slip away unnoticed. After all, they had been staying here for five or six days, and the neighboring house had shown almost no activity—only a bit of movement in the evenings, otherwise it was completely quiet.
What they hadn’t expected was that despite staying there for several days, no one had noticed them at all.
But what they also hadn’t expected was that Butler Hu wouldn’t give up so easily. Even after hearing the neighbor’s explanation, he didn’t leave. Instead, he continued squatting at a corner across the street, staring intently at the courtyard gate as if he could burn a hole through it with his gaze.
After coming out of her space, He Caiwei carefully crept to the door, pressed her ear against it to listen, then peeked through the crack. She immediately spotted Butler Hu lurking outside and quickly ran back.
“Mom, that Butler Hu really won’t give up. He’s still squatting across from us watching,” He Caiwei said when she returned, noticing her mother had stopped watching TV and was now sewing clothes for her.
“He’s not the type to give up easily. If he were, he wouldn’t be Steward Hu. Let him wait—it doesn’t matter. We’ve got food and drink here; we can outlast him. Come take a look at the clothes I made for you. I think girls should wear traditional ruqun or embroidered skirts from our own country. Those Western princess dresses feel a bit too flashy,” He Yuping said calmly.
She knew very well that Butler Hu wouldn’t give up easily. Letting her daughter go out to check earlier had been intentional.
Based on her understanding of him, he wouldn’t leave without waiting at least half a month.
“Mom, didn’t I get you a sewing machine? Why aren’t you using it?” After living here for a few days, He Caiwei realized her mother was incredibly capable.
She could cook, embroider, make clothes, do makeup, investigate, operate sewing machines—even electric ones she mastered immediately.
“I did use the sewing machine for this. I’m just adding embroidery by hand—just three decorative knots. Look, does it look good? I designed it myself,” He Yuping said, holding the small skirt up against her daughter. It fit perfectly.
Wow—another hidden skill. She could even design her own patterns. Even without this special space, the two of them probably wouldn’t starve.
Her mother’s earlier words—if there’s no money, we can always earn more—were clearly no lie.
With her skills, finding work would be easy.
“Mom, is the outfit finished? Didn’t we say we’d go to the kitchen to make some snacks? We can store them in the warmer for the journey. Oh right, we haven’t visited Grandpa Lin in a few days—do you think he’s worried about us? I wonder if he managed to get train tickets yet. It’s really hard to get one these days,” He Caiwei sighed.
Even during peak travel seasons in the past, it had never been this difficult to get a train ticket.
It had already been over ten days, and they still hadn’t managed to buy one.
“I don’t know. Forget it—since we can’t stay here anymore, let’s move to the big courtyard. We’ll deliver the house keys to the buyer. We originally agreed to stay until the end of the month, but if we return it early, they’ll definitely be happy,” He Yuping said.
“Alright, we’ll go to the big courtyard then. But how long is that man going to keep squatting outside? It’s so annoying,” He Caiwei complained, feeling cooped up.
“At least half a month—just wait and see. Don’t want to stay here anymore? Fine, let’s go take a look outside the house. I think there are fields and an orchard out there. Let’s see if the fruit is ripe—and whether we can eat it,” He Yuping said, noticing her daughter’s impatience and quickly pulling her out of the room.
Ever since arriving here, she had stayed inside the room, not daring to go out, afraid it might belong to someone else. If they were driven out, they would have nowhere to hide—so she hadn’t dared leave the house at all.