Hidden Dragon in Qing Dynasty

Chapter 12 - Poor Hu Niu

From the looks of it, Hu Niu and A Chou had done quite a few things like flipping over walls. His physique was as strong as a gymnast's, and before Hu Niu could even make a sound, she landed safely on the ground.

"A Chou, throw the package down first …" Hu Niu lowered her voice and said, "Don't worry and jump, it's not even three feet lower than the wall in the backyard of our old home."

A Chou was much more timid than Hu Niu, he bashfully touched the wall and said, "Miss, I'm afraid!" She didn't dare to jump for a long time. However, in the end, she was unable to seduce the little miss. As a result, he clenched his teeth, closed his eyes, and jumped down.

This is bad, when the little girl jumped down from the wall, her left foot slipped and her posture changed. Now, not only her two feet hit the ground first, but definitely her buttocks.

With a whoosh, A Chou felt that he had fallen into a soft place, and there was someone puffing in front of him. When A Chou opened his eyes and looked at the dim light, he was stunned.

"Xiao... Shaw... "Xiao …" After calling the girl three times without finishing her sentence, she actually lost consciousness in the end. She wasn't hurt, she suddenly remembered that she was hugged by a man and fainted out of embarrassment.

The one who caught A Chou was Xiao Letian. He looked at this thirteen and fourteen year old yellow haired little girl with an embarrassed face, sighing and shaking his head. He thought to himself, 'Am I the bane of this girl?' Every time you see me, you faint?

At this time, Hu Niu was covering her mouth with her hands, her eyes were glistening. Seems like if she did not cover her mouth, she would cry out, and would cry out loud. The Mr. Xiao that she had been thinking about appeared in front of her like a magic trick.

He didn't know what had happened, but after half a month of suffering, at that moment, Hu Niu felt like jumping into Xiao Letian's embrace and crying.

Seeing that there was no one on the street, the fat storekeeper and the serving staff quickly took the maidservants from the Military Advisor's hands and brought them through the side door of the kitchen to the hotpot restaurant. Xiao Letian smirked as he looked at Hu Niu, "Sure, but the young miss of Fan family actually learnt to flip over a wall. This isn't a good girl, have you forgotten about it? "Later on, I will punish you to copy the ten times …"

Xiao Letian was originally just joking, but he didn't think that Hu Niu's eyes would suddenly stand on end, and her entire body started to emit the aura of a tigress.

"I didn't expect you to be such a person. I was blind, and misjudged you. You gave A Chou back to me, and from then on, neither of us will know the other … " Good heavens, Hu Niu actually held back her tears, her gaze cold to the extreme.

Aiya, this is exactly like her name suggested. Indeed, she's a little tigress. Why did she suddenly turn hostile? Xiao Letian was startled, I, who ran around the Hundred Miles Mountain Road, ended up complaining about it?

"This is not a good place to talk, let's talk inside the store first …"

"No, I'm just a girl, what's wrong with coming to your room? Did it say that in the Female Commandment? "Three from four?"

When Wuchang heard it, he immediately understood that it was all because of that joke of his. He really did not expect Hu Niu's rebellious thoughts to be this serious. Xiao Letian quickly coaxed, and even apologized as he brought Hu Niu in through the side door.

However, no one noticed that when Wuchang coaxed Hu Niu into the wok store, a pair of thief like eyes were staring at him from inside the courtyard wall.

Inside the private room of the hotpot store, Hu Niu told Yue Yang everything that had happened during the past half month of separation with tears in her eyes. Xiao Letian's nose was almost crooked from anger, his previous impression of the feudal school was instilled into him through books and movies.

The origin of the entire matter was still in the 110 thousand silver that had been stolen away. Manager Fan, who was also Hu Niu's father, was the actual Second Boss of Shanxi's Fan family, while his brother, Fan Ru, was the Patriarch.

The Shanxi Fan family had a deep history, and was once the strongest of the eight great families in the Jin Shang. In the past, the ancestor of the Fan family, Fan Yong Dou, had put in a lot of effort when the Qing dynasty entered. As a result, during her reign of power, the emperor personally received him in the Beijing and bestowed him with the status of a Royal Merchant. She even bestowed all of the Zhang Family's non-verbal businesses to him.

Later on, the descendants of the Fan clan were very promising as well. They interfered in the salt merchant's business and conducted copper trading with the Japan. However, after being in dryad for forty-eight years, Lady Fan had completely declined. Because of the large amount of losses she had suffered, Qing Government had taken away her title as Royal Merchant, and had sealed off all her possessions.

However, after more than a hundred years, when the Fan family's expenses had fallen, many of the descendants hoped to restore the clan's glory. From the early Daoguang's first year, with the support of countless other people, the clan's business slowly expanded, and they even established the current Guangde.

Hu Niu's father, Fan Lian, was the current Patriarch of the Fan family, Fan Ru's blood brother. Fan Lian was a very pure merchant. In his dreams, she did not want to restore her clan's Royal Merchant, because in his eyes, working with the imperial family was the most dangerous business transaction.

His brother Fan Ru did not think that way. His dream was not only to become a Royal Merchant, but he also hoped that more and more Confucian Scholars would appear in the clan, and in the future, more and more High Scholars would appear.

These two different values made the two brothers argue for a generation, but no matter how much they argued, they couldn't argue. Fan Ru was the big brother, the well-deserved Patriarch, so of course people had to listen to him. But Fan Lian was the pillar of the family's business, seventy percent of the family's money was earned by him.

Until now, when both of them were in their sixties and seventies, yet they were actually getting more and more violent. In the beginning of spring, Fan Ru actually forced Fan Lian to kill his concubine, Hu Niu's biological mother.

"My uncle... "My uncle has been sick ever since the new year. The doctor said that he might not be able to keep the typhoid, wuwuwuwuwu …" Hu Niu cried as he recounted the story of the new year. "At that time, my father was running a business outside his mouth, and my eldest uncle and his wife were making decisions in the large courtyard, my mother had already begged several times, but they kept on insisting that it was impolite, saying that on the second day of the new year, they had already returned home once, and that they wouldn't be able to return home in that month, unless …"

"Unless my uncle dies …" Hu Niu could no longer hold back and leaned on the table and cried his heart out.

Xiao Letian casually hugged onto Hu Niu's shoulder. The little girl unceremoniously slipped into Xiao Letian's embrace, his snot and tears covering his entire body.

As Hu Niu continued to sob from time to time, Xiao Letian finally understood what the tragedy would be like. Hu Niu's mother, as a concubine, was quite bold. She actually took her daughter back to her mother's house without permission from the Patriarch.

This time, it's really a disaster. In feudal dynasty, not to mention a concubine, even a legal wife would want to return to Ning Xuemo. Without the permission of the master, would that woman dare to return to her parents' home? This was truly overturning the heavens, what's more, it was the crucial moment when Fan Ru was channeling his energy with all his might to return to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Hu Niu's eldest uncle, Fan Ru, aggressively brought the servant to Uncle Hu Niu's home to ask for her son. Originally, Fan Ru thought that her uncle should die, otherwise, this woman would not be so daring. However, she did not expect that because her uncle was in a good mood, her typhoid symptoms would be relieved by three points. It seemed that she was going to be better soon.

"Slut who doesn't follow the path of a woman, it's already a violation of family law to run away to your parents' home without permission, and now you even have the crime of deceiving them. You're simply lawless …" With Fan Ru's order, the tiger wolf like servant brought Hu Niu's mother home.

Hu Niu's mother knelt in the cold yard for an entire day and night, and that night, she fainted because of the cold. What was even more shameful, was that when Hu Niu asked her big uncle to treat him, she was rejected immediately.

"You want to lie to us Fan family a second time? "That slut knows how to pretend to be sick. There's no need to care about her. In two days, she'll be better …" Hu Niu was already close to tears and gasping for breath. I sneaked over the wall and used my own money to get a doctor. However … But when I brought the doctor, he couldn't even get through the door … In just one and a half months, my mother went from typhoid fever to tuberculosis. She coughed up blood all night long, wuu …. "

Xiao Letian's heart turned cold. He never thought that the feudal families would be cruel to this extent. Xiao Letian hugged Hu Niu tightly, she was trembling in his arms like a frightened little rabbit.

No wonder Hu Niu's personality was so extroverted, and even a little rebellious. So there was a reason behind it. Poor girl, how insecure you are.

"Alright, stop crying. Let bygones be bygones. Now let's talk about the crisis before us. Why did you jump over the wall and escape?" Xiao Letian asked.

"It's all because of that damn uncle of mine who killed my mother and now has set his sights on me. He … "He actually wanted me to marry a sixty year old man as his concubine …" Hu Niu was so angry that his face was completely red.

When Xiao Letian finished listening to Hu Niu's introduction, he was so angry that he almost passed out. How could there be such a shameless uncle as to give his own niece as a door bag?

So it turns out that Fan Ru, in order to recover his family's Royal Merchant identity, had somehow managed to get into a relationship with the manager of the Qing Xi Tomb. When he found out that the old lecher, Second Master Lian, was preparing to take in his sixth concubine, the eldest uncle had immediately thought of his rebellious niece.

After Fan Ru who was in Beijing learned that his brother had lost 110 thousand silver, not only did he not get angry, he even shouted and slapped his thighs. He finally found a good way to persuade his brother.

Fan Ru wrote a long letter to his brother. When Fan Lian saw his own blood related brother's shameless letter, he, who was originally just a little cold, instantly fell sick, he was completely furious.

Fan Ru and his daughter were not the only ones who were angry, Xiao Letian was completely furious as well. He wandered around the room like a trapped beast, and in a quarter of an hour, he was already gone. He seemed to have made up his mind: "Xiao Hexin, come in quickly. Let's go see the Manager Fan right now and let me see your abilities …"

Without waiting for Xiao Letian to finish speaking, three people wearing night clothes walked in, and the one leading them was Xiao Hexin. "Advisor, don't worry, I have the ability to be so clever in this regard, we just sneaked in once, there are no experts inside …"

Xiao Letian turned around and looked at Hu Niu, gently wiping her tears away with her palm, "Just you wait, tonight I will bring back good news for you …"