The sickly son died young? After the marriage exchange, I will bring prosperity to his entire clan f

Chapter 505 The Second Daughter of the Yu Family

The next day, Xiangyang deliberately went out and, as expected, encountered Madam Yu again.

The haggard Mrs. Yu didn't say a word, simply greeted Xiangyang and left.

When Xiangyang deliberately turned back, he made a detour and stopped the two children.

"You two have been following me, are you planning to do something bad?" Xiangyang deliberately tried to scare the two of them.

The two girls looked thin and small. When they heard Xiangyang say that, they waved their hands anxiously.

"No, no, we just... we just wanted to ask you for help, sister."

"You know me?" Xiang Yang couldn't admit that he had already discovered the two of them, so he directly tried to get them to talk.

The older one quickly spoke up, "I am Yu Zhaodi, and this is my younger sister Yu Pandi. Our father works in the yamen. Our mother was invited by the county magistrate's wife to help out at the mansion some time ago. We saw my older sister from afar, so we know each other."

"You are the lady's personal maid."

Xiangyang was quite surprised to see that the girl was so articulate. “You speak without missing a single word, but I am just a lowly maid. How can I help you? Your father works in the yamen. If there is anything, you can just ask your father to find someone to help you. Wouldn’t that be faster?”

Upon hearing this, the two immediately lowered their heads.

"How about this? This alley is too busy with people, so let's buy some food and I'll take you out of town for some fun. We can talk outside the city."

“No, no, that won’t do.” Yu Zhaodi waved her hands repeatedly. “The uncles guarding the city gate all know us. If they let it slip in front of my father, we’ll get a beating when we get back.”

Seeing her frightened look, Xiangyang felt a little sorry for her. "How about this, I'll take you to a teahouse, and we'll have a private room to talk slowly."

The two shook their heads again.

"Sister, can you come with us somewhere? We know a place where there's no one."

"Okay, let's go."

After several twists and turns, the two led Xiangyang to the outside of a secluded house. Yu Zhaodi looked at the dog hole with some difficulty and said, "Sister, this dog hole is a bit small. It seems like you can't squeeze through."

"Is this the place you're talking about?"

"Yes, there's no one here."

Xiangyang looked at the two of them with a puzzled expression.

Yu Pandi explained in a low voice, "This house was the private residence of the former county magistrate. He used to keep one of his mistresses. After the county magistrate died, the mistress left, and the house became empty. There is no one in it now."

Xiang Yang was surprised, a glint of light flashing in his eyes. Was there an unexpected surprise?

"You two come here to play?"

“When we have nowhere else to go, we come here,” Yu Zhaodi explained.

After confirming that no one was inside, Xiangyang picked up the two people, one in each arm, and with a light touch of his toes, carried them over the wall and into the courtyard.

"Wow, sister is amazing! I knew I could have made the right choice by asking her." Yu Pandi was overjoyed.

Yu Zhaodi quickly covered her mouth, "Stop shouting! What if someone hears us and comes to check? They might find us."

“Yes, yes,” Yu Pandi replied softly.

Xiangyang led the two of them inside. The house had three courtyards. It had been uninhabited for some time and was covered in dust. However, because the owner had left in a hurry, he hadn't taken many things with him.

Yu Zhaodi led Xiangyang to a side room, saying, "Sister, let's talk here."

Xiangyang went inside and found it very clean. "Do you two often stay here?"

The two exchanged a glance and nodded.

“When our father beat our mother and she cried and made a fuss, and we had nowhere else to go, we would come here to live.”

Xiangyang felt a pang of sympathy. "Would your mother beat you?"

The two shook their heads, and Yu Zhaodi explained, "Mother won't hit us, but Mother... Mother will ignore us and be very cold to us, which makes us feel very uncomfortable."

Xiang Yang was momentarily at a loss for words, "What did you want to say to me today? What kind of help do you want from us?"

Yu Zhaodi and Yu Pandi immediately knelt on the ground and kowtowed to her.

Xiang Yang quickly stood up and reached out to help the two girls up. "You don't need to kneel before me. If I can help you, I'm willing to."

Being children, the two women immediately stood up. Before Yu Zhaodi could speak, Yu Pandi said, "Sister, we want you to talk to Madam about buying us as maids."

“My sister and I are not young anymore. My sister is ten years old and I am eight years old. We can do a lot of things.”

Xiangyang wondered what it was about, but he was surprised to hear such a request. "Your father is a yamen runner, and your family has a stable income. Your family should be well-off. Why would you think of selling yourself into slavery? Do you know that if you sell yourself into slavery, you will lose control of your own life and death?"

Officials often had extra income to make, so their families were generally better off than many others.

Furthermore, unless life becomes extremely difficult, a normal person wouldn't be willing to sell their children; it's not something to be proud of.

Both of them lowered their heads. After hesitating, Zhao Di reached out and unbuttoned her clothes, revealing a patchwork of blue and red wounds, some fresh and some old, which looked quite horrifying.

Even Xiang Yang, a skilled fighter who had witnessed brutal scenes, was shocked. She opened her mouth, but felt that she couldn't even make a sound.

"Sister, if we don't sell ourselves into slavery, we won't be able to leave that home, and we'll probably die under the whip."

Yu Pandi, her eyes red, said, "Sister, our lives are very hard now. We may still suffer after we are sold into slavery, but at least we won't be beaten by our own family. We won't be heartbroken."

Xiangyang hurriedly helped Yu Zhaodi put on her clothes, "Tell me, what happened?"

“Dad likes to drink, and Mom tries to stop him when he drinks, but… but my stepmother doesn’t care, and she even scolds Mom for being nosy. After they start arguing, Dad gets annoyed and then he beats the two of us.”

"Doesn't your mother care?" Xiangyang thought of Madam Yu's meek and obedient appearance. She seemed like a kind person. Could it be that she didn't care about her own daughter?

Yu Zhaodi shook her head. "When Dad hit us for the first time, Mom would intervene, but after Dad hit us all at once, she stopped intervening when he hit us again."

Xiangyang finally understood what it meant when a person was speechless—that they couldn't speak.

Were you beaten from a young age?

Yu Pandi shook her head. "We weren't beaten before, but after we had a stepmother, Dad started to dislike us. He would hit us a couple of times when he was unhappy, but he wouldn't hit us hard."

"But later the county magistrate died, and my father became very cruel to us. He said that if it weren't for the two of us causing trouble at the yamen that day, he would have gone with the county magistrate."

Xiangyang couldn't understand. "Why did you say that?"

“Just because the county magistrate went out and my father didn’t go with him, he got very angry and now he beats us whenever he’s unhappy.”