Long live Emperor Wu!

Chapter 4 Oh, it’s that person
Li Xiangyun felt even more heartbroken when he saw her like this. He turned around and grabbed the bundle that the maid had prepared, and said:

"Arou, take this. Here are some of my clothes and jewelry for emergency use. If you are short of money, you can come to me secretly and I will give it to you.

If they really go too far and hurt you, you can come to me and I will file a complaint on your behalf. "

She paused, cried and said emphatically:
"I will definitely look for you from time to time!"

Wu Rou looked at the package she had given her, and saw that the hand she had given it to her was pressing it hard, her eyes full of panic, as if she would be ashamed if she refused.

So she didn't refuse, and obediently took the baggage, carried it on her back, and left.

She had nowhere else to go, so she hurried back to the hill behind the farm before sunset and got back.

When she went back, the old woman was still weaving, and the rhythmic sound of pushing the loom was still there. But the moment she saw Wu Rou appear, she was obviously relieved and said:
"Go back quickly. They have been looking for you for several times, and I'm afraid they have already gone to the street to look for you. Fortunately, they respect me because I am older. The entrance to the cave is blocked by a loom and a water tank, so they swept it. I left without even seeing you."

Wu Rou silently took off all the things he was carrying and said with a lonely expression:
"Mother-in-law, please help me keep it. I have exchanged your cloth for copper coins. It is more than 200 yuan. I spent [-] on knocking on the door. My friend gave me some jewelry. You can use whatever you want to pay for it. Thank you, mother-in-law. help me."

The old woman said:

"I'm old. What do I need so much money for? It's useless. I'll keep it for Miss Yuan."

Wu Rou said nothing, lowered her head, opened the door and went out.

She suddenly appeared and disappeared again. No one knew that there was a hole in the old woman's house. They all thought that she was deliberately hiding from people and hid somewhere without being discovered, so they just opened it.

But a few days later, the Wu brothers came over.

"Where's Wu Rou? Get out of here!"

Wu Yuanqing was already in his 30s. As soon as he and his men entered the gate of the farm, he aggressively wanted to settle accounts and went all the way to the back hall.

Wu Rou never told her family that she had been out, fearing that they would say that she was messing around and then reveal what happened at the entrance of the cave.

So when brothers Wu Yuanqing and Wu Yuanshuang came, Yang was confused, with panic in her eyes. She took her three daughters to the yard and asked timidly:
"what happened?"

Wu Rou walked directly from the back to the front, stood still in the face of the anger of her two brothers, with a dignified manner, graceful manners, and the attitude of a noble aristocratic girl, and said:
"I'm here, what's wrong?"

When she was facing Tian Sanniang and the others, she could act violently and show no image, but facing these two people, she hoped that she would be extremely decent, as if only in this way could she save more dignity.

Wu Yuanqing saw that she was just like Yang, looking down on others with airs, and became even more angry. He stepped forward and slapped Wu Rou, saying angrily:

"Are you brave enough?! Go to the county government and file a complaint. Are you crying and saying that I abused you? It's a joke to the county government!
Do you know that family scandals should not be publicized? !How can you pretend to be so noble like you? You are not even as good as a slave. How can a slave still have some dignity? "

Wu Rou felt her eyes darken and her ears buzzed for a while. She couldn't hear the words in front of her clearly. She only heard what he said in the back, "Family scandals should not be made public."

Wu Rou touched her face, feeling as if a layer of skin had been peeled off, and it hurt.

She turned her head stubbornly and glared at Wu Yuanqing. Her eyes were single in front and double in back, as if they were born with hatred. The ends of her eyes were bright red, and she sneered and said:

"Brother, you have done everything. You are not afraid of being ugly in anything you do. What should I be afraid of?"

Wu Yuanqing was so angry that his chest felt tight. He slapped her again and slapped Wu Rou to the ground.

Wu Rou's eyes were filled with stars and she almost fainted.

Yang quickly ran over, held Wu Rou in her arms, and cried:

"Why are you so stubborn, girl? Can't you just say a few words?"

Then he raised his face and complained to Wu Yuanqing:

"You are now the head of the family. Why are you still having trouble with a child? What if you hit him so hard? What if he is beaten to death?"

Wu Yuanshuang, the youngest member of the Wu family who had been watching the show next to him, said in a frivolous tone, mockingly:

"She is not a child anymore, she is already thirteen. I told my eldest brother a few days ago that our sisters, who are so beautiful, need to find some good marriages and sell them at a good price."

When Yang heard this, his heart suddenly became angry, angry and anxious, and said:
"How could you do this?! They are your biological sisters. If you treat them like this, aren't you just insulting the face of the Wu family?! All of you who know well in the underground are going to be pissed off by you!"

She spoke hoarsely, vomiting blood every word, and felt completely exhausted after finishing speaking.

But the Wu brothers liked to see their mother and daughter like this. Wu Yuanshuang laughed proudly. Wu Yuanqing looked at the semi-conscious Wu Rou with a straight face, turned to Tian Sanniang behind him and said:

"You are also a waste! You don't even know when people run out! What do so many people do to eat!"

Tian Sanniang was trembling with fear. Unlike what she had said before, she would show off her power when her husband came. She lowered her head and responded repeatedly:
"It's our fault. Please punish me, head of the family. We must be careful in the future and never let her go out again."

Wu Yuanqing said:
"Throw her into the woodshed and starve her for three days! Just watch so that she doesn't die. If she dies, I want you to pay the penalty!"

"Yes Yes Yes……"

After that, the two of them were leaving.

Wu Shun, who had remained silent, shouted at his back:

"Brother, big brother..." It seems that just shouting like this more often can awaken the kindness in their hearts.But Wu Yuanqing just turned his face, glared at her with disgust, and left.

……

……

Wu Rou, who was imprisoned in the firewood shed, lay quietly on the pile of firewood with her eyes open and did not move for a long time.

She didn't know how long it had been, but she suddenly sat up and started looking around the room.

I found a few thick sticks in the pile of firewood, waved them in my hand, and threw them away, as if they didn't think they were enough. Finally, I dug out a stone brick on the wall under the pile of hay.

Her arms were shaking when she grabbed the brick with her slender fingers, but she exerted enough strength, gritted her teeth, and held the stone brick against her arm, trying to smash it down.

She bit her naturally red lips, which turned white, but she still couldn't bear to do it. Finally, her eyes flashed, and she suddenly threw the stone brick aside and said angrily:

"Why should I hurt myself?! When I turned around and raised my broken arm to complain, they must have said that it was Tian Sanniang who did it. I couldn't avenge myself and even broke an arm. Am I crazy?!"

Wu Rou panted violently, got up from the ground, looked out through the crack of the woodshed door, and shouted:
"let me out!"

There happened to be two women sitting under the thatched hut outside the door chatting. They heard Wu Rou's shouting and ignored him at first.

In the end, it was Wu Rou who had the impression that they were talking. One of them stood up, walked to the door of the woodshed, bent down, leaned into the gap in the door panel, looked in, and followed Wu Rou's face and said:
"Miss Yuan, please stop making trouble. The master has said that he will starve you for three days. Today is only the first day. How dare we let you out? We will secretly stuff you with some water and dry biscuits in a while, and you will cooperate. Cooperate and spare us slaves."

Wu Rou stopped talking after hearing this. She opened the crack of the door to catch the light and saw her back under the thatched shed again.

The waiting woman became anxious and said:

"Go on, is Duke Kui really so powerful?"

"Of course, I heard that he is a popular figure around His Majesty, which is different from our old prince, although they were both heroes who followed the great ancestor to raise the army in Taiyuan.

But our old prince was close to Emperor Gaozu, and later Emperor Gaozu became the Supreme Emperor and didn't care about anything.Although His Majesty also values ​​him now, he has always been sent abroad and has never been promoted.

The Duke of Kui, Liu Hongji, has always been with His Majesty. He is now the general of the auxiliary state. He wants to serve as an official and return home, but the emperor is reluctant to do so. "

When Wu Rou heard "the famous man beside the emperor", her first reaction was that this person was older than the governor of Bingzhou, so she subconsciously asked:

"What's wrong with him? Is he coming to Bingzhou?"

The two people who were talking turned their heads and looked in the direction of the woodshed. They saw a few rays of light shining through the dark crack in the door, reflecting an eye.

They were stunned for a moment, and then calmly adapted to this absurd scene:
The master was locked in the woodshed, holding the door open and chatting with the two slaves.

Some people listened and some asked. The woman who spoke became more enthusiastic and quickly turned her head and said:
"Yes, the mansion has been very lively these days. It is decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations to welcome distinguished guests. He said that Duke Kui wanted to visit his hometown again and wanted to come to Wu's house to visit. He had already sent a letter in advance. At the beginning of September Arrive in eight.”

Wu Rou didn't know the time at all and asked:

"What time is it now?"

"It's the first day of the new year." The woman replied.

Wu Rou silently recited:
"The first day of junior high school, it's the first day of junior high school now." Then he left Chaimen and sat back on the haystack, thinking about things and keeping silent.

……

……

In September, the ground was covered with fallen leaves and the weather was getting colder. However, they had already given Tian Sanniang their winter cotton clothes to buy food in the first half of the year, and now there was nothing left.

Yang asked Tian Sanniang if the Wu brothers wanted to freeze them to death. Tian Sanniang just smiled playfully and said in a sinister manner:

"I don't know. The master may have forgotten it. He may be able to remember it in a few days, or he may not be able to remember it. How dare we slaves ask.

Madam, you are from the royal family of the previous dynasty, so you must be able to grab some random things and it will be enough for your family to feed you for a year. If it doesn't work, you can search again to see if there is any jewelry. Take it out and I will change it into some cotton clothes for you. . "

Yang glanced with disgust and stopped talking.

She knew in her heart that just as her eldest daughter said, the Wu brothers were becoming more and more excessive towards them.

She was also dissatisfied, but there was nothing she could do.

What's ridiculous is that they have to take care of the food expenses of the people in the farm, and they have to do their own laundry.

Wu Rou counted the days silently in her heart, and the day before Liu Hongji arrived at the Wu family's mansion, she suddenly asked:
"Aniang, do you know Liu Hongji, Duke of Kui, and how is his relationship with Aye?"

"This name sounds familiar..." Yang raised her eyes and thought for a while, but seemed unable to remember who it was for a while.

Wu Rou reminded her: "They said they were the ones who raised the army with Aye to support Emperor Gaozu."

Only then did Yang react and said:
"Oh...it's that person."

(End of this chapter)