A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Chapter 371 The Marshal Looks for Director Shen and Leaves the Antique

After hearing what she said, Gui'er also became worried. Except for Sha Lili, all the Marshal's daughters looked like him, with ordinary looks. Now Taohua has grown up to be so beautiful, which is a kind of resource in itself. Given the character of the Marshal and his wife, they have raised Taohua for so many years, and it is unlikely that they will let her get married when she is old enough.

Not to mention the Marshal and his wife, I'm afraid even the third concubine would not agree. As long as Taohua is around, she can still receive a few dollars of monthly allowance from Taohua. If Taohua gets married, she will no longer have this kind of benefits. She will definitely not give up until she takes the opportunity to make a fortune.

She said to Taohua, "Don't worry for now. I'll go find my second brother and feel him out. He's still prestigious in the army. If he shows up, the Marshal will probably be wary."

After hearing this, Taohua seemed to see some hope and nodded.

When they returned to Sha Yanxiao's yard, Sha Yanxiao had not come back yet, so Guier turned on the radio and listened to the broadcast while eating snacks.

At this moment, she heard a commotion in the yard outside. Turning around, she saw Wu Mingqiang walking in carrying a wooden box. Guier smiled and said, "Brother Wu, long time no see. What are you holding?"

Wu Mingqiang saw Gui'er was stunned for a few seconds, and said shyly: "Miss Gui'er, I just came back from Shanghai and brought you a record player."

Guier had seen pictures of record players on the Internet before, but had never seen one in person, so she was very curious.

Wu Mingqiang brought the record player into the house and asked the servant to bring a hammer and chisel to pry open the wooden box. Record players were considered very rare and valuable items in that era, so they were packed very tightly.

After prying it open, Wu Mingqiang took out the record player and placed it on the table. At this time, a large group of curious servants and maids had gathered in the room, and everyone was looking at this new toy they had never seen before with curiosity.

After Wu Mingqiang took out the record player and debugged it, he took out a stack of vinyl records from the box, took out one, placed it on the record, put down the needle, and then cranked the hand crank next to the record player with his hand. Clear and pleasant singing came out, and the tone was very good. Everyone showed surprised expressions.

Gui Er also liked it very much and said to Wu Mingqiang with a smile, "Thank you, Brother Wu."

Wu Mingqiang scratched his head a little embarrassedly and smiled.

"What are you doing here?"

Sha Yanxiao returned, and the servants and maids gathered in the living room hurried back to their respective posts. Sha Yanxiao glanced at the record player on the table and said to Wu Mingqiang, "Are you back?"

Wu Mingqiang quickly stood up and said, "Yes, Young Marshal, I just came back from Shanghai. I knew that the young lady would be back for the New Year, so I bought her a little toy to entertain her."

Gui'er was so curious about the record player that she didn't even bother to greet Sha Yanxiao. Sha Yanxiao looked at Gui'er, smiled dotingly, and said to Wu Mingqiang, "Come with me to the study."

Then the two of them went to the study, leaving Guier alone in the living room to study the record player.

After a while, Wu Mingqiang came out and left. Sha Yanxiao came over and sat down next to Guier and said, "Is it fun?"

Gui'er nodded. Sha Yanxiao stroked Gui'er's face and said, "Why do you look thinner? Is the food in Nanjing bad?"

Guier then realized that in Nanjing, not only did she not have any snacks, she also didn't eat much. This was because, to save money, her wife had the kitchen cook very little. Sha Yanyao, a man, could eat two bowls of rice at each meal, while women could only eat one. Her wife herself didn't eat much either, so she always said, "For an old man like me, half a bowl of rice is enough. You little girls don't need to eat more. You're not doing hard labor."

Thinking of this, Gui'er felt quite aggrieved, but she didn't want to cause discord between Sha Yanxiao and Sha Yanyao, so she said, "Maybe the food in Nanjing isn't to my liking, so I eat less."

Sha Yanxiao immediately ordered the kitchen to cook according to Guier's taste every day, and to make more snacks so that Guier can have them whenever she wants.

Gui'er thought about what Taohua had said and wanted to bring it up with Sha Yanxiao, but she didn't know how to start, so she asked, "Brother, why are you sending Wu Mingqiang to Shanghai? Didn't we sell out all our properties in Shanghai a long time ago?"

Sha Yanxiao said, "Indeed, but we still have some money and belongings in the bank, so I asked him to look after them. Also, Director Shen left behind a large amount of property after his death, and Big Brother hasn't found it, so I asked Wu Mingqiang to go look for it."

Gui'er was very surprised and asked, "Can you find these? What are they?"

Sha Yanxiao smiled and said, "Director Shen's hobby is collecting antiques. Almost all the antiques we found at the Ji family were given to Director Shen by my father as a betrothal gift. After he passed away, they all disappeared. My father was so angry that he made me find them at all costs."

Gui'er also laughed. The Marshal failed to gain anything and ended up losing a handful of rice. It seemed that if Miss Shen had married Xu Wenjie from the beginning, it would have been a good thing. At least she wouldn't have had such a hard time later. But now Miss Shen had divorced Sha Yanyao. No matter what happened to the Shen family's property, it was not the Marshal's turn to ask about it.

Gui'er asked Sha Yanxiao doubtfully, "Didn't Miss Shen divorce my eldest brother? Can we still take their family property? Even if we find it, it won't belong to us."

Sha Yanxiao smiled and said, "When my eldest brother and his wife divorced, my father asked my mother to tell Mrs. Shen a condition: our family would give her 20 yuan, and any property found in the future would belong to our family."

Gui'er tilted her head and thought for a moment before saying, "This is clearly an unfair treaty. Will Miss Shen and her mother agree to it?"

Sha Yanxiao shook his head. "Mrs. Shen agreed because they couldn't find it either. She only knew about the antiques we gave to Director Shen as a betrothal gift and didn't know how many other antiques there were, so she signed it easily."

Gui'er suddenly remembered that Mrs. Shen seemed to have said before that the Sha family still owed them money, but the lady was dragging her feet on paying. Sha Yanyao had no choice but to use his own savings to pay a small part, and asked Gui'er and Miss Shen to tell her that she would make up the rest later. At that time, Gui'er just thought it was alimony given in the divorce, but it turned out that there was such a secret.

She said, "If this batch of antiques is found, the betrothal gift we gave alone should be worth 20. If this batch of antiques cannot be found, then father will lose money, right? How could he do such a loss-making business?" Guier knew that the Marshal was a man who would take advantage of others.

Sha Yanxiao smiled and said, "You really understand our father. In fact, he already knew the approximate location of the antiques and had clues to follow."