HCB Chapter 417 Meeting
Chapter 417 Meeting
Hearing Ruyi mention Yunhu, Qiu Niang calmed down. Ever since she moved to the villa, she had many speculations in her mind.
At the beginning, Xiao Ran only said that Uncle Li took Chen'er away, and the grandfather and grandson lived with old friends in Yizhou, and he would take her to see them when he had the chance.
But she hadn't seen Uncle Li in the villa for many days, and Chen'er wore plain clothes all day, so she had a bad feeling, but she didn't want to ask rashly for fear of irritating Chen'er.
At this time, there was a layer between Chen'er and everyone else. He no longer had the dependence of a child, as if he had grown into an adult overnight.
It was not until she met Master Yun at the villa that she could no longer hold back her curiosity and asked about Uncle Li.
Young Master Yun told her the truth. Upon learning the news of Uncle Li's death, she could not help but burst into tears. After being caught by Chen'er, the little man who had been like a wooden man for a while finally threw himself into her arms and cried with her.
Since then, she clearly felt that Chen'er's attitude towards her was no longer so distant, and he began to slowly show her his childish side, but she knew that the innocent and lively Chen'er would never come back.
Young Master Yun can enter and leave this secret villa at will, and his attitude towards Chen'er is very respectful. The most important point is that the person Young Master Yun follows is His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan, so the old friend of Uncle Li and Chen'er mentioned by Xiao Ran should be His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan...
"Miss Cousin?"
Seeing that Qiu Niang had not answered for a long time, Ruyi called her again, and even had a guess in her mind that made her excited.
"You say, this 'old friend'... could it be the young lady?"
Although Qiu Niang wanted to confirm Ruyi's guess, she directly asked Yun Hu the same question and got a negative answer.
"It's not Xiao Ran."
Seeing Ruyi's smile immediately fall, Qiu Niang shook her head and smiled bitterly. She was also equally depressed when she learned from Master Yun that the "old friend" was not Xiao Ran.
Just as she was about to ask Master Yun further, he looked mysterious and was unwilling to reveal anything. He just ordered two of his men to escort her all the way, which aroused her curiosity.
Originally, in order to hurry on her way, she was going to ride a horse, but Ruyi was worried and insisted on following her, so she changed to a carriage, thinking that Ruyi, who couldn't ride a horse, would stay in the carriage. But the little girl insisted on staying outside with her, and she didn't want to go in even though her face turned red from the cold.
When Master Yun's men saw that the carriage had been changed, they wanted to drive it.
She thought that with one less person in the carriage, the carriage would go faster, so she decided to drive herself and let them follow on horseback.
She is not a flower in the warm room. She can ride a horse and drive a car. She will never forget the skills Xiaoran taught her.
She remembered Xiaoran once told her that it was difficult for women to survive in this world, so they should learn more knowledge and skills in case they might need them at some critical juncture.
Thinking of this, Qiu Niang slowly turned her gaze towards Ruyi who was sniffling, and suddenly spoke:
"I'll teach you how to drive."
Ruyi's eyes suddenly widened, suspecting that she had heard wrongly. As a little maid, she actually had the opportunity to learn how to drive a carriage?
When my father was in charge of purchasing things for the Luo family, he learned how to drive a horse-drawn carriage and was very proud of it for a long time. Can I be like him now?
"You have to learn how to ride a horse when you go back." Qiu Niang added.
Ruyi was finally sure that she had not heard wrong. She felt a surge of warmth in her heart and the excited blood rushed to her face. She no longer felt cold.
"Come on, hold the reins firmly..."
Along the way, Ruyi learned to drive a horse-drawn carriage under Qiu Niang's guidance.
Moreover, since Ruyi was a beginner, he whipped the horse too hard several times because he did not control the intensity, causing the horse to run wildly and finally arrive at the Chui Mine earlier than expected. When he reported this to the mine supervisor, a rare flash of surprise flashed across his dark face.
The message was delivered that two girls would come to the Chui Mine today, and he was asked to take them to meet a group of newly exiled prisoners. However, he did not expect that the two girls would arrive half an hour earlier than the agreed time.
"Bring people in!"
When she stepped into the Chui Mine again, Qiu Niang felt a little more emotional.
Although she was forced to perform labor service at Chui Mine last time, here, Xiao Ran took her to teach Tang Tianyi and his men a lesson, and asked her to go to Dongfeng Station to collect materials for making gunpowder, and to help the two villages of Hexi and Hedong complete the labor service of building a lime road. They mined stones and burned lime together... Every single thing is an unforgettable memory in her life.
Following the officers who came to greet her, Qiu Niang soon saw the mine supervisor of Chui Mine, the middle-aged man with a dark face.
"follow me!"
The person who was greeted by the higher-ups turned out to be someone from Hexi Village who had been to Chui Mine before. The mine supervisor was surprised but his face remained expressionless as usual.
Qiu Niang and Ruyi followed the mine supervisor and walked up the mountain. She remembered that it was the area where stone was mined. She was even more confused. She really didn't know if she knew anyone who was mining in the mine, so she asked:
"May I ask who the mine supervisor wants me to see?"
The mine supervisor raised his brows slightly when he heard that. It turned out that the higher-ups sent someone here without telling him who he wanted to meet. In that case, there was no need for him to leak the news in advance. He could just take the person to the place.
"Since the young lady has come to the mine despite the severe cold, can't she wait for a moment?"
These words aroused Qiu Niang's curiosity to the extreme. She could not help but quicken her pace, hoping to meet the "old friend" that Master Yun mentioned as soon as possible.
Qiu Niang has been here for more than two months and is familiar with the terrain everywhere, not to mention the quarrying area where she stayed the longest.
If Qiu Niang had not considered the mine supervisor's face and was afraid that Ruyi would not be able to keep up with her on this rugged mountain road, she felt that she could walk ahead of the mine supervisor and become the leader.
In less than an incense stick of time, they arrived at the quarrying area, where a group of exiled prisoners in prison uniforms were shivering in the cold wind.
Each of them carried a bamboo basket half a person's height on his back, which was filled with limestone blocks that had just been mined from the mountains. If they moved slowly, they would be whipped by the overseers.
The mine supervisor's dead fish eyes scanned the surroundings, quickly locked onto the target, and then walked over with Qiu Niang.
As the distance shortened, what came into Qiu Niang's eyes were two figures in thin prison uniforms. Because they were facing away from her and the bamboo basket covered their figures, Qiu Niang was still unable to determine their identities until -
The mine supervisor untied the long whip that was rolled into a ball from his waist and swung it at the two men!
"what!"
Only two screams were heard at the same time, and it was obvious that the two voices were one male and one female, and they were full of panic.
Because of the whipping, the two men's bodies shook instinctively, causing several stones in the bamboo baskets on their backs to slide uncontrollably, which then broke their body balance, and finally they fell on the gravel ground in a very embarrassing way.
The weight of the stones in the bamboo basket behind him caused him to fall on his back on the ground, so Qiu Niang could immediately see the faces of the two people. A sense of absurdity suddenly arose in her heart, but it was quickly dispelled by the cries for mercy from the two people on the ground.