How could I possibly be confined in a cage?

Chapter 140 Plot

Having met Zhenhua and Xiaofuzi, Lü Peijun made some plans in her mind. Zhenhua had lived in the mountains since childhood and had his own set of survival skills, especially a natural affinity for small animals.

Xiao Fuzi lived in a place of great suffering and had seen countless deaths, so she had an unintentional indifference to life, but she had an extremely keen intuition about the good or bad of her surroundings, and her personality was like that of a hedgehog with its sharp quills showing.

Fortunately, both of them follow Qingru's lead without question. Whether they can become an ally is another matter, but they are certainly very protective of Qingru.

Well, they're still young, there's plenty of time to teach them.

She had met Qiushuang and Guiying, and even met Hongyu. The only one she hadn't met yet was Xin Wuhui, who had returned to his hometown. Through their words, she gained a deeper understanding of Qingru's hardships.

He sighed inwardly, realizing he still needed to speed things up.

When evening came, the Ping An Hotel delivered the banquet early, and the whole family enjoyed a lively reunion dinner. Even the servants who had just arrived each received a reward.

After a satisfying meal, everyone went to rest.

Lu Peijun called her two daughters to the main room again to discuss matters, but this time with guards protecting the house, she was no longer worried about being overheard.

Qiushuang and Guiying rested in the west wing, while Hongyu had gone back to work early, so only the two of them occupied the courtyard at this time.

"Sigh, how can there be such a person?"

Guiying, who was pretending to be asleep, asked upon hearing this, "Who are you talking about?"

“Lu Yanru, I originally thought Qingru was already a rare beauty, but look at her sister, she is so pitiful that I can’t help but feel sorry for her. With a face like that, it would be so convenient for her to do bad things.”

"Don't talk nonsense. She's a good person. Besides, Qingru is so beautiful, how bad could her sister be? And I prefer Qingru's appearance; she's so dashing."

"I was just saying. I just thought she looked so innocent, even if she committed murder, no one would believe it."

Guiying couldn't help but think of Yanru's appearance, and quickly shook off the strange thoughts in her mind, "Don't think like that, making more money is the important thing, do you still want to go back to your hometown?"

“I don’t want to go back. It’s been much better here than in the countryside. As long as Qingru doesn’t kick me out, I’ll keep working at her house.”

Guiying opened her mouth, but in the end, she didn't say anything. Everyone has their own ambitions. Anyway, she was going to earn money and go back. Not only did her aunt live in Woniu Village, but also...

Thinking of her second cousin's protection, Guiying was lost in sweet memories.

Seeing that Guiying wasn't responding, Qiushuang also felt it was pointless. She compared Qingru and Yanru in her mind, finding it hard to decide who was better. Finally, she came to her own conclusion: Yanru was probably more popular with men, while Qingru was more popular with women.

Actually, the two sisters never compared themselves to each other. As for their appearance, they had it since they were young, and after seeing it so many times, they didn't find it particularly special.

"Dad, are you saying that our great-grandfather's legacy is in Qingdai Mountain?" Qingru gasped.

"Yes, why are you so surprised?"

Qingru calmed herself down and told the two about her two discoveries of tombs in the mountains, as well as the story of the gold hidden in the coffin on the cliff face.

"That gold...could it be from our family? And not actually from the female bandit Liu Biyu?"

After hearing these words, Lü Peijun's heart was in turmoil. Fortunately, they didn't know the trick and had no idea how to enter the cemetery.

"No, that gold should belong to that female bandit. Your great-grandfather's tomb is inside the mountain. There wasn't much property inside, just some old family belongings."

Qingru breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. "If our great-grandfather's tomb is so well hidden, then the treasure of the Lü family must be even harder to find."

Lu Peijun said, "Of course, even I don't know exactly where it is hidden. I only know that the four companies need to merge before we can find out its exact location."

"Then let's..."

Thinking of this, Lü Peijun looked at Yan Ru and asked, "Can you get back the things you left at the Song family's house?"

"Yes, Song Yuanliang came to see me during the day today, and I asked him to bring all my things back."

"Him? Does he have that ability?" It's not that Lü Peijun looks down on him, but if he can't even protect the person he loves, what chance does he have of protecting her?

Yan Ru didn't dare to make a guarantee, "It should be possible. That maid knows about my relationship with Song Yuanliang but has never brought it up. Instead, she has always protected me. Now that I'm leaving, she should be able to keep my things safe. Besides, I've hidden them well enough that she won't recognize them."

How did you hide it?

“I cut the suitcase open from the inside, sealed the jade pendant inside, pressed it tightly with layers of fabric, and then embroidered flowers to cover it up. As long as I didn’t burn the suitcase, he would never find it.”

Thinking of this, Yan Ru suddenly felt a chill and said, "By the way, Father, you once said that I should hand over a jade pendant to Master Song, but he kept testing me to see if I knew about the Double Fish Pendant, and he even gave a long account of the Double Fish Pendant's origin. Does he know something?"

"Don't be anxious. Rest assured, I spread that news to mislead people. I had a premonition that things would go wrong, so I released the news and fabricated the story that the Pisces Pendant could bring the dead back to life. In reality, I didn't want Hayakawa to get his hands on it. If our Lu family really can't protect this wealth, it's better for it to be taken by our own people than for it to fall into the hands of the Japanese."

Because they had said during the day that they would wait for Song Yuanliang to bring the things back, the three of them secretly returned to the south of the city, fearing that they would not find Song Yuanliang when he came looking for them.

At this moment, Song Yuanliang did indeed sneak into the small building while there were few people around. Fortunately, no one was there at the moment, so he dared not light the lamp and just searched according to his past memories.

"Who?" A voice suddenly came from the darkness, startling Song Yuanliang.

"Are you... Du Juan?"

With a "whoosh," Du Juan lit the flint, and a faint light appeared, allowing her to see that the person who had come was Song Yuanliang.

"Young Master." Du Juan's hair was disheveled, and her eyes were filled with fear and helplessness. As soon as she saw Song Yuanliang, she immediately knelt down. "Young Master, please save me, please save me."

Confused, Song Yuanliang quickly helped her up, "Tell me properly, what happened?"

Du Juan didn't dare to get up, and subconsciously shook her head, but quickly swallowed back her sobs, "Young Master, look."

Dujuan rolled up her sleeves and unbuttoned her coat, revealing a dense network of burn marks—each one a bleeding, cigarette-scalded scar. Dujuan wept:

“Ever since Miss Lü left, the master has taken his anger out on me, thinking that I didn’t serve Miss Lü well enough. He found a man from the outer courtyard to rape me, and he also had those old women torture me. Do you know the ways those old women torture people? Needle pricks, burning, drowning, they can come up with all sorts of tricks. I was afraid of dying, so I ran away when they weren’t paying attention. I know the master sealed off the small building, and no one comes here. Young master, please let me out.”

Du Juan sobbed uncontrollably, her words failing her comprehension. Song Yuanliang quickly agreed, thinking she was a pitiful person and he should help her if he could, especially since she had previously covered for him and Yan Ru.

“Get up. Let’s take Yanru’s things and leave. Now that she’s free and has even climbed up to Commander Guo’s influence, my father won’t do anything to her. Let’s go.”

"Okay." Du Juan seemed to have grasped a lifeline and hurriedly got up to pack her things. "Everything here is exactly as Miss Lü left it. I know where her things are."

Du Juan truly understood this better than Song Yuanliang, so he helped Du Juan pack her things and then climbed over the low wall of the outer courtyard into the outer study.

"Can you get over it?"

"Okay." Du Juan said resolutely. She was joking; staying meant certain death. At this moment, her will to escape was stronger than anyone else's. She would cross even a mountain of knives, let alone a low wall.

Song Yuanliang took Du Juan to the outer study, had her change into the clothes of the servant A Quan, and then immediately took her out.

"Stop! What are you holding?"

Song Yuanliang was startled and turned around, only to find Master Song staring at him with a gloomy expression.