Chapter 151: [Father-In-Law’s Story 26] An Opportune Encounter
Chapter 151: [Father-In-Law’s Story 26] An Opportune Encounter
Fu Lai firmly stood in front of the unknown girl and quickly extended out both arms to block her way, but due to the fact that the other party was a woman, it wasn’t appropriate to come into any contact with her, so he could only use his body as a barrier.
Just kidding, his master was still inside the carriage, so as the good and loyal slave that he was, he definitely couldn’t allow anyone to disturb his master’s ‘affairs.’
“Let me through! I remember that you’re my brother-in-law’s servant. Is my brother-in-law inside the carriage!? Let me through, I want to see my brother-in-law!”
Fu Lai stood rigidly in front of the carriage, “Miss, you must’ve identified the wrong person. The people inside the carriage are my lord and madame. My madame also doesn’t have any sisters, so please don’t even try to seek profit by pretending to be their family!”
This time, his lordship had distinctly explained to him that they were travelling incognito; therefore, his name and identity must never be attached to the situation. As such, Fu Lai had been on extreme alert ever since they traveled on the road.
Although Fu Lai knew that his lordship had an original partner who had tragically died of a grave illness, he vaguely remembered that that person had a younger sister. Even if the lady in front of him was indeed the sister of his lordship’s deceased wife, with the current boisterous commotion she had displayed, he wouldn’t admit to it.
Moreover, although his lordship’s ex-wife’s clan was in dire straits, they were still public officials. How could they be coincidentally here and patiently waiting for his lordship. With just a glance, he could immediately tell that this beggar-like woman was a deceitful con-artist.
The woman shook her head, “No, that’s impossible. My sister has long since passed away due to an illness. My brother-in-law has never remarried all these years. You must be speaking nonsense!”
“Hey, little lady. How can you curse people like this! Our family madame is in good health as of now! How dare you claim she died of illness!”
At the same time this was happening, Chu Jiao casually raised the window screen.
“Fu Lai, don’t be rude.”
Chu Jiao’s eyes and eyebrows were full of spring at this moment. Although only a small half of her face was out in the open, her clear facial features made the people who saw her exclaim in admiration from her gorgeousness.
“Yes, madame!”
The master had finally spoken. As such, Fai Lai respectfully stepped to the side.
Chu Jiao first glanced around the surroundings from the corners of her eyes. They were still on the official road, but a group of refugees had gathered on the side road, secretly whispering and looking curiously over at their direction.
She then took a closer look at the woman standing in front of her.
The woman looked to be about the same age as her and was also twenty-eight years old. She had a goose egg face covered in dirt and dust. A body dressed in coarse hemp. Her hair was tied unkempt in a bun and she had bleak-looking eyes, however, one could still see her pretty figure and appearance. At this moment, her face openly carried a mix of joy and anxiety as if she were expecting to see whether the person inside the carriage was the ‘brother-in-law’ that she spoke of.
Although Chu Jiao didn’t intently listen in on the conversation that had just happened between the two, she still heard a small portion of it and had a firm guess about the identity of the girl in front of her.
Chu Jiao’s mind churned before she revealed a gentle smile in front of the girl, saying, “Little lady, don’t worry. If you have anything to say, you may take your time.”
“I understand that you are eager to find your relative, but I’ve only been recently married to my husband here, and we are both each other’s first partners, so you must’ve identified the wrong person.
“However, since we are both women, if you are suffering from any difficulties, feel free to share them with me, and we will definitely help you however we can.”
Chu Jiao’s words were simple and straightforward. She had set the woman’s misleading words straight with a clear explanation and even magnanimously extended a helping hand, making it impossible to criticize.
When the woman saw Chu Jiao, she stopped shouting and a shocked expression suddenly appeared on her face.
Lin Wenyue’s tear-stained face was meant to be shown to the brother-in-law inside the carriage.
She had a good memory. Although she was young when her sister had gotten married, she still remembered the busy servant’s, Fu Lai’s, face.
As for her brother-in-law, she had only seen him from a distance at the wedding banquet and never had the chance to see him again. She merely recalled that he was an extremely handsome man.
The Lin family had suffered a full reversal in their fortune. Originally, they assumed that after Lin Wenyuan married into the Shen Family, they would be able to receive assistance from their -in-laws. However, they didn’t expect that the Shen Family simply did not show them the slightest bit of concern for their situation. Though their son-in-law, Shen Zhen, would often send gifts over during the holidays, he had never offered any assistance in the officialdom.
Later on, after Lin Wenyuan died of illness, the two families gradually broke off contact with each other.
In the past few months, there had been great shifts happening in court. First was the matter of donating to become an official to supplement the disaster relief, then it was collecting the owed silver back to the national treasury. The Lin Family had already been long beaten helpless by these big and dangerous waves. The Lin Family children had also borrowed silver from the national treasury during their officialdom and had been selling whatever they could find, even putting their residence up as collateral, just to gather enough capital to clear their debt and avoid being thrown into prison. However, the clan leader had also decided to relocate their family away from the capital because of this and return to their ancestral residence to redevelop once again.
Lin Wenyue was also overconfident that because she was a lady from an official family and her friends had also gotten married to good households with decent statuses and wealth, she would also share the same ending, often fantasizing about what kind of excellent man her future husband was going to be.
But at this moment, she had to relocate with her family and go back to a remote town filled with country people, so how could she be willing.
Yet, it didn’t matter even if she was unwilling.
She still had to be transported in the carriage that was going South.
Lin Wenyue felt really unreconciled. She dearly missed the capital, the prosperity, the excitement over there, and her previously rich and carefree life.
As such, she took advantage of the night to escape her sealed fate.
She desperately wanted to escape back to the capital and seek the help of her brother-in-law.
Her brother-in-law loved her sister so much, he would definitely help her, wouldn’t he?
But the young lady, who was sheltered all her life, didn’t know how dangerous the world truly was, and so, she was targeted by a group of refugees the next day.
All the silver and jewelry on her body were greedily snatched away. The leader saw that she had also possessed good looks and had even planned to sell her to traffickers in exchange for more silver.
Lin Wenyue was terribly afraid. She wanted to escape, but she was being watched closely, and she was also very weak. In just a few days, she had already suffered unspeakable misery that outweighed all the troubles she had faced before.
Today, when she had encountered Shen Zhen’s carriage, she originally thought it belonged to a stranger and was worried that she would escape the tiger’s den just to enter into the wolf’s den. But when she saw Fu Lai, she immediately became ecstatic.
Sure enough, God was taking care of her!
Brother-in-law was her hero who fell from heaven!
But why was there such a beautiful woman sitting in her brother-in-law’s carriage!?
And, what this beautiful woman said had surprised her.
Could she have truly identified the wrong person?
No, it couldn’t be.
Brother-in-law wouldn’t have married another person!
Lin Wenyue was still having an inner battle with herself when Shen Zhen, who was waiting inside the carriage, grew impatient.
In a blink of an eye, he seized Chu Jiao’s waist and brought her back into his strong arms. When the window screen silently fell down, it obscured Lin Wenyue’s entire view of the carriage’s interiors.
He felt that he had the worst luck of all. It took a lot of effort to finally get to cuddle his little girl until he encountered people who have once again disrupted his merry time.
Moreover, this person was also related to his previous marriage.
He hoped that his little girl wouldn’t get angry.
Although Shen Zhen was an upright and proper man, he had never touched his first wife. However, he had heard the emperor say that women would always mind the fact that their man was once the possession of another woman. Even if their mouths said that they did not care for it, on the inside, they felt annoyed and bothered by it to death.
And so, Shen Zhen felt a little nervous.
Towards the busybody sister of his ex-wife, before he had officially even met her, unhappiness had already started to brew in his heart.
Translation status of advanced chapters:
4th and 5th world Completed
6th world Ongoing