The Return of the Seventh Young Lady-Chapter 197 - 196

Chapter 196

One of the lackeys said in a trembling voice when he couldn’t feel his master’s breath. The rest of the group turned pale upon hearing this. If the young master was dead, the Hua family patriarch would surely have them all killed in retribution.

"Capture them and take them to the Hua family patriarch! Otherwise, we’re dead!"

With that, the remaining assailants launched themselves at Mu Yingying and Lu Jiu. Now separated, the two were surrounded and attacked from all sides, making it even more difficult to defend themselves.

Amid the chaos, one of the thugs noticed Granny Ma hiding nearby and moved to capture her as a hostage. Mu Yingying, spotting this, turned pale.

"Granny, watch out!"

Mu Yingying shouted. She wanted to help but was blocked by her attackers, so she couldn’t go help Granny Ma in time. Just as the thug was about to reach Granny Ma, Lu Jiu rushed in to intervene in time, continuing to fend off the attackers. But as he fought, three more men surrounded him, attacking from all directions.

Lu Jiu deflected as many blows as he could, but he couldn’t block them all. A heavy wooden club struck his head from one side, causing him to stagger. The metallic scent of blood filled his nostrils, indicating a severe head wound.

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind, and forced himself to keep fighting until the last enemy was down. When the fight finally ended and the enemies had perished, Lu Jiu swayed unsteadily before collapsing.

"Lu Jiu!"

Mu Yingying rushed to catch him before he hit the ground. Seeing the blood on his head, her heart sank in an instant. She shook him gently, but he didn’t respond; he had lost consciousness.

"Lu Jiu!"

She pressed her lips together in worry, then decided to help him onto Hua Yuezi’s carriage, which was still parked outside the house. Carefully laying him on the mattress inside, she then climbed onto the driver’s seat and urged the horse towards the town.

"Move!"

She shouted to the villagers blocking the path. With a crack of the whip, the carriage sped away.

Once the commotion settled, the villagers rushed to help check on Granny Ma and clean up her house, which had been a mess due to the fight, feeling ashamed. Meanwhile, the mother and daughter duo, who were not far away, watched the departing carriage with pale faces.

"Mother...Hua Yuezi is dead. If...if the Hua family finds out we were the ones who tipped him off about Mu Yingying, will we be in trouble too?"

Bai Niu asked fearfully. She hadn’t expected the situation to escalate to the point of someone dying, especially not Hua Yuezi. The Hua family would not let this go easily.

"We’ll discuss it when we get home. For now, let’s leave,"

Da Shan replied in a low voice, equally tense. She quickly led her daughter back home. Once there, they hurriedly packed their belongings, preparing to flee the village to escape the crime. As ordinary village women, they couldn’t possibly contend with the powerful Hua family. Their only option now was to run!

...

..

.

After Mu Yingying brought Lu Jiu to the doctor in the town, while Lu Jiu was unconscious, she took the opportunity to settle everything at once. She began by contacting her people, believing they were not far from this town in their search for her.

As expected, the next day, her people arrived in this town as soon as they got the news. They were immensely relieved to find their young miss alive and immediately received orders to annihilate the Hua family in the town.

Three days later, a major incident occurred with the Hua family. It started from the officials came investigating them for corruption and bribery, leading to the entire family’s imprisonment. Ultimately, they were exiled as royal slaves to the border mines.

Meanwhile, the Bai mother and daughter, who had fled the village, encountered an unexpected calamity. They were ambushed by bandits, resulting in a tragic fate that neither had anticipated.

With everything settled, Mu Yingying had her people repair Granny Ma’s house, making it better than before. She then brought the still-unconscious Lu Jiu back to the house to recuperate. Initially, Mu Yingying suggested that Granny Ma come live with her in Qingzhou, but Granny Ma declined, preferring to spend her remaining years in her hometown.

Respecting her wishes, Mu Yingying provided Granny Ma with a substantial amount of money and ordered her people to bring enough provisions for Granny Ma to live comfortably for many years. However, even after dozens of days had passed, Lu Jiu showed no signs of waking up, causing Mu Yingying great anxiety, fearing he might remain in a coma forever.

Worried, Mu Yingying decided to take the unconscious Lu Jiu back to Qingzhou’s capital to seek help from the skilled doctors in the royal palace. Thus, Mu Yingying set off for the capital.

While Lu Jiu was in his deep slumber, it was as if he was trapped in an endless dream. In this dream, he experienced strange yet familiar events that seemed almost real. It was a tale of sorrow that shattered his heart into pieces...

At the Slave Market

Inside a small, cramped cage made of cold, rusty iron bars that reeked of filth and excrement, lay a fourteen-year-old boy. Curled up on a straw-covered floor, looking lifeless, his right cheek bore a large, grotesque scar from a burn, making him look both horrifying and hideous. His body showed signs of severe abuse, rendering his current condition pitiful to anyone who saw him.

"Water..."

His dry lips whispered for water out of sheer instinct, driven by his desperate thirst, despite knowing the merciless nature of the slave market owner.

"Close to death and still asking for water. What a useless brat,"

Although the young man’s condition seemed pitiful to those who saw him, the middle-aged woman standing outside the cage, known as Auntie Fang—the cruel, heartless owner of the slave market—looked at the boy with utter disdain.

Auntie Fang had kept the boy with the intent to sell him as a slave. To her, he was just another piece of merchandise, expected to fetch a few taels. But contrary to her expectations, the boy hadn’t sold and was now on the brink of death. Keeping such a useless child was a waste of food and water. It would be better to throw him out to die on the streets.

"Water..."

Despite the woman’s fierce gaze, the boy’s parched throat made breathing difficult, and even swallowing his saliva was an ordeal. A sip of water would alleviate his suffering significantly.

However, his plea went unanswered, only making Auntie Fang grow angrier at his audacity to ask for water. A useless child like this wouldn’t receive any mercy from her; letting him stay until now was already more than enough.

"Someone, throw this brat out. It’s useless to live here. Let him die outside. If he dies here, it’ll bring bad luck to my establishment,"

Auntie Fang ordered. Two burly men stepped in and dragged the boy out of the cage. They tossed his body onto the cold street like a discarded dog amidst the chilling air.

The snow outside began to fall more heavily. The boy, weak and severely injured, wanted to crawl away but could only lie there, breathing faintly on the icy ground, awaiting death in a pitiful state.

’Will I really die like this? Why is my life so worthless?’

The boy, named Ke Jiaren, lamented silently with himself. The biting cold seeped into his bones, making it nearly impossible to endure. The relentless snowflakes from the sky were beginning to cover him. As he lay there waiting for death, devoid of hope, he saw a carriage approaching and stopping near where he lay.

The normally expressionless and cold face of the boy broke into a faint smile of joy. In his heart, he fervently wished for the person in the carriage to come and rescue him from the biting cold. He struggled to stay conscious, focusing on the small figure approaching him. As the girl’s face became clearer in his eyes, he finally succumbed to unconsciousness.

"Miss, please get back into the carriage. It’s snowing heavily outside, and you’ll catch a cold," a maid holding an umbrella hurriedly followed her young miss out of the carriage, which bore the Mu family manor’s crest.

The one who had alighted first was Mu Yingying, the five-year-old seventh young miss of the Mu family, while the maid was named Su Su. As Mu Yingying’s carriage passed by, she had noticed a young boy lying unconscious in the heavy snow, prompting her to order the coachman to stop and check on him.

"He’s severely injured. Why is he lying here like this?"

The boy’s body, lying on the stark white snow, showed signs of heavy abuse, and he was thin and frail, as if he hadn’t eaten for days. This sight filled Mu Yingying with deep sympathy. She reached out to see if he was still breathing.

Despite the faint breaths, it was a sign that he was still alive... 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"He must be a beggar from around here. Miss, please don’t concern yourself with him. We should return to the carriage and head back to the manor. If the snow gets any heavier, our journey will be much harder," Su Su said.

The boy’s condition led Su Su to misunderstand that he was just a street beggar. In Qingyun City, such people were common. Su Su thought he might have stolen something and was beaten severely as a result. Intervening with such individuals brought no good for her young miss. With the snow intensifying, delaying any further could complicate their return to the Mu Manor.

However, Mu Yingying did not share Su Su’s thought. Even if the boy was a beggar as Su Su said, she couldn’t ignore him. She had to help him. If she let him die like this, she would regret it deeply later on.

"How can we leave him unconscious here on this freezing ground? We need to help him, at least get him treated for his injuries,"

Mu Yingying’s voice was filled with worry and compassion. Su Su sighed deeply. Her young miss was a kind and naive girl, always compassionate towards others. Even a dying beggar in the street compelled the Seventh Young Miss to rush through the snow to help him.

Su Su felt that her mistress was too kind heart, to the point that she sometimes forgot to think about her own health after exposing herself to the cold for too long.

"Let’s take him to the nearby medical clinic,"

Mu Yingying didn’t only talk but moved to help lift the boy into the Mu family’s carriage. Reluctantly, Su Su followed, assisting her young miss in carrying the boy. Once Mu Yingying made up her mind to help someone, Su Su, as a maid, had no choice but to comply.

"To the nearest clinic," Mu Yingying instructed the coachman after successfully getting the boy onto the carriage.

"Yes, Miss,"

The coachman nodded in response. The Mu family’s carriage then started moving, heading for the closest clinic.

The Mu family’s carriage moved slowly and laboriously along the main road. The wooden wheels wrapped in black rubber crunched against the white snow all the way. Due to the heavy snowfall that day, people stayed indoors, and the surroundings were deserted. Even street dogs sought shelter to keep warm. Why then was this boy abandoned on the street in such a pitiful state?

Mu Yingying pondered. What kind of narrow-minded, cruel person could commit such a heinous act?

The little girl looked at the unconscious boy in front of her. Despite the ugly scar on his face, she didn’t feel disgusted. His breaths were growing fainter by the moment; if their journey was delayed any longer, he might die right there in the carriage.

"How much longer until we reach the nearest clinic?"

Mu Yingying asked her maid anxiously, her small hands frequently checking the boy’s breathing to ensure he was still alive.

Su Su, who was asked, leaned out to ask the coachman and then turned back to answer her young miss, "Just two more blocks, Miss."

Mu Yingying nodded in understanding and tucked the blanket around the boy more securely to keep him warm.

Su Su looked at the boy’s disfigured face and then asked her young miss curiously, "Miss, don’t you find him repulsive?"

"Why would I?"

Mu Yingying frowned, her big round eyes innocent, not understanding why her maid would ask such a question.

"Well, he’s so ugly and filthy. How could you not be disgusted? Who knows if he’s ever bathed," Su Su quickly covered her nose after speaking.

Ke Jiaren’s dirty appearance made Su Su shudder with disgust. Her gaze at him was filled with disdain and repulsion.

Seeing her maid’s reaction, Mu Yingying immediately scolded her, "No matter what condition he is in, he is still a human being like us. Why should we despise him?"

Su Su was at a loss for words after hearing that. If her young miss did not despise the beggar before them, how could she dare to do so? Yet, she couldn’t shake off the feeling of disgust in her heart.

After about fifteen minutes, the Mu family’s carriage stopped in front of a medical clinic. Despite the cold weather and heavy snowfall, the clinic was bustling with people seeking medical attention. The cold weather likely weakened their bodies, making them more susceptible to illness, hence the crowded clinic.

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