Chapter 17 Unsolvable Original Release Network

  He Huan's stern words and severe expression caused Tao's face to turn from white to red, and for a moment she forgot her tears. He Jing had never seen his elder sister speak like this before, and could only stare at her with wide eyes in shock.

  "I... I..." Mrs. Tao regained her composure, tears streaming down her face as she sobbed and said: "I've said all I can say, done all I can do. If anything happens in the future, don't blame me!" With that, she turned and left.

  He Huan didn't chase after him to explain, but instead pulled He Jing back and said: "Jing brother, maybe big sister shouldn't have shown her face, but think carefully, if everyone doesn't do anything and just passively waits, can the days get better on their own? Big sister believes you will definitely become a high school champion, but before that, we all need to eat and wear clothes, Auntie is old, and Uncle's body is not good, should our whole family just wait stupidly for silver coins to fall from the sky?"

  He Jing walked away in a daze, quickly catching up to Tao Shi. He Huan watched his back disappear at the gate of the courtyard, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples. She had calculated everything just to return to Shen Jinglun's side, but unexpectedly, a Xie San appeared out of nowhere.

  "Thank you, San." He Huan repeated these two words to himself, suddenly opening his eyes and hastily rushing out of the west wing, finding Bai Miao in the kitchen and whispering a few sentences to her.

  Bai Shang listened to He Huan's instructions, her face showing hesitation, but ultimately nodded and agreed. She took off her apron and walked straight out of the He family gate, hurrying towards the Shen family home.

  Bai Miao hadn't walked far when a black shadow appeared in the night, following her like a ghost. Bai Miao was unaware of this and followed He Huan's instructions to sneak to the side door of the Shen family. She whispered with the gatekeeper for a long time before the door creaked shut. She looked around nervously, and the black shadow quickly hid behind the wall.

  After half a cup of tea, the door creaked open and out came a little girl about seven or eight years old. Bai Miao was taken aback, seemingly quite surprised. After hesitating for a moment, she bent down to talk to her. The dark figure watched them from afar, smiled slightly, then retreated several steps into the darkness.

  Bai Mian was on his way to report back to Shen's family when He Huan called out to Zhang Bo and asked him if he had any leads on Xie San's identity.

  Zhang Bo said with a difficult expression that he and his wife had been working for the He family all their lives, and they didn't know any street thugs. After saying this, he also reminded He Huan that people like Xie San were not easy to mess with.

  He Huan's face sank and she didn't speak. She had heard Shen Jinglun say before that most of the catchers in the government office were from poor families. In the northwest corner of Jizhou City, there were many bandits, but also many catchers. Although the hope was slim, she might be able to start from this aspect.

  Seeing that it was already very late and the curfew was about to start, He Huan could only instruct Zhang Bo to go to the yamen early the next day to find Lin Zhen, first to ask him if he had caught the people who intercepted the horse carriage, and secondly to casually inquire whether anyone in the yamen had heard of the name "Xie San".

  Zhang Bo stood with his head bowed, silently listening to He Huan's words. When she finished speaking, he said in a low voice: "Big sister, the old lady entrusted me before she left..."

  "It's Auntie Lao Taitai." He Huan corrected bluntly, "You should know that you two are the servants of the He family, not the dowry of Auntie Nainai."

  Zhang Bo hesitated for a moment, just about to speak, when He Huan preempted him: "Don't mention that Aunt is currently at Qing Song Guan, even if she were at home, her age is advanced and it's not suitable for her to overexert herself. Take the incident of the past few days as an example, I think pawning the screen my mother left me was also for the sake of having silver at home to buy rice and grain. This small matter doesn't need to disturb Aunt." She sighed and continued: "You are all old people in the family now, you can't not know that the situation at home is no longer like it used to be, it's not as simple as just adding more chopsticks or people."

  Zhang Bo listened to He Huan's nagging, his expression subtly changing. She was clearly hinting that if the two of them couldn't tell who was in charge, she would have no choice but to sell them off. For a moment, he felt flustered and also somewhat indignant. They had served her grandfather, and even Wei Shi had been polite to them...

  "Zhang Bo, if I remember correctly, your aunt is three or four years older than you. If this were an ordinary family, you would probably have great-grandchildren by now."

  He Huan spoke in a very calm tone, but Zhang Bo's hands and feet turned cold. The couple had no children, and if they were to leave the He family, they would probably starve to death on the streets. If He Huan could send Wei Shi to Qing Song Guan, couldn't he deal with them? After all, Wei Shi was He Huan's own grandmother, and no matter how much she stirred up trouble, in the end, they were still one family. But Zhang Bo and his wife were just servants of the He family, what qualifications did they have to speak ill of their masters? Moreover, given Wei Shi's temper, if she really made a fuss, she might not even protect them.

  At this thought, Zhang Bo's attitude immediately softened, and he respectfully said that he would go to the yamen to make inquiries early the next morning.

  He Huan was very satisfied with his attitude, nodded and ordered him to retreat. Zhang Bo listened to her calm tone, vaguely feeling that she was different from before, but couldn't say what was wrong. He didn't dare to look up at her, secretly using the corner of his eye to glance over, only to see a white skirt covering her feet, above her knees, her hands clasped together, naturally hanging on her thighs. Zhang Bo didn't dare to continue looking up, he only noticed that her originally rough hands seemed to have become white and slender, her originally dark gray nails had been carefully polished, with a soft glow.

  "Is there anything else?" He Huan asked in a low voice.

  Zhang Bo suddenly came to his senses and hastily bid farewell.

  Waiting for Zhang Bo to leave, He Huan lowered her head and looked at her fingers. These days, she soaked her hands in warm water with added vinegar every day, which was taught by the housekeeper of the Shen family, because Shen Jinglun liked beautiful and clean fingers. However, today's He Huan took care of her hands not for him, but simply hoped that in any small aspect, she could maintain her best state. She didn't know when this habit was formed, perhaps it was a result of being influenced by him silently over the past year or so.

  Half an hour later, Bai Zhi returned from the Shen family. When He Huan learned about it from her mouth, she was surprised to hear that Zi Zhu had sent a 7 or 8-year-old maid to deliver the message. According to the rules of the Shen family, young maids were not allowed to run around alone at night.

  "What does that little girl look like? What are her characteristics?" He Huan's voice rose a few degrees.

  Bai Mian thought for a moment, shook her head and couldn't say why. He Huan furrowed his brow in deep thought for a long time, staring blankly at the candle flame.

  The next morning, He Huan woke up at the crack of dawn again. She washed and tidied herself, and as she walked out of the west wing, she saw He Jing watering flowers under the corridor. "Jing-di," she called out softly.

  "Big sister." He Jing hastily put down the water scoop and turned to greet her. When his eyes met He Huan, he was taken aback for a moment. He Huan wore a light gray pleated skirt with a narrow-sleeved jacket of the same color system on top, and the clothes were only 30-40% new, which was the old clothes that He Jing was used to seeing, but unlike in the past, her ears had two small flowers, the hem of her skirt had tassels, and her hair was carefully combed, although she only wore a simple wooden hairpin, but her black hair looked shiny and soft under the morning light, making her smiling face look even more radiant.

  "Big sister, are you going out later?" He Jing lowered her eyelids.

  "What's wrong with not going out today?" He Huan turned her head to look at the bright red sun. She liked the refreshing morning, which made her feel that life was full of hope.

  He Jing looked at He Huan again, and saw that the sunset glow fell on her long eyelashes, leaving a shallow shadow on her face. Suddenly he thought of it, these days his elder sister was still wearing old clothes, but her daily dress seemed to be carefully matched every day. He originally thought it was because she had to go to the Shen family to see guests, now it didn't seem like that. "Elder sister, you said there's nothing happy happening, so why bother dressing up?"

  "There's nothing exciting, so we should dress up and make ourselves happy, don't you think?" He Huan replied casually, her eyes falling on the potted plants in the corridor, bending down to pick up the water scoop on the ground, slowly watering the flowers with a small scoop, asking in a low voice: "Jing brother, did you think about what big sister said last night?"

  "En." He Jing nodded, staring blankly at her movements. He felt the whole house was dull and gloomy, but he had ignored everyone's objections and planted these few pots of flowers anyway. He had always known that his older sister didn't say anything because she loved him so much, but he believed she must think he should be spending time reading books instead of watering flowers. But at this moment, as she helped him water the plants for the first time, her movements were so natural and elegant, as if it was an extremely ordinary thing to do.

  "Sister, don't you think I'm wasting time reading books every day by playing with flowers and grass?"

  He Huan stopped what he was doing and smiled, "Maybe in the past, but not anymore. Looking at these tender green leaves, my mood naturally improves; with a good mood, reading becomes twice as effective, this is great."

  "Really?" A smile spread across He Jing's face.

  "Of course it's true. If we can sell the screen smoothly today, let's buy some more flower seedlings and plant them in the courtyard. Who knows, maybe they'll bloom before long."

  "Sister, are you really going to call in Huang Zhanggui from Yongji Pawnshop?"

  "Yes." He Huan nodded, "What's wrong, did Auntie say something?"

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