Chapter 56: The Young Master on the Wall

From then on, Little Lin officially started working.

Having spent ten days in Pear Blossom Lane, he knew that An Chunfeng would sleep during the day after taking her medicine.

Therefore, after brewing the medicine and delivering it to the reception hall, Little Lin collected a tael of silver from An Chunfeng, locked the door, and went out to find a craftsman to build a stove.

Since he had decided to stay here for the long term, he resolved to do a good job. The first thing he needed to do was build a kitchen for the courtyard, rather than continuing to use just a single charcoal stove for boiling water and heating food.

Mistress An did not cook, but he could.

Although he could not match a professional cook in preparing every kind of poultry and fish, he was skilled at boiling porridge, kneading dough, and stewing soup, ensuring that Mistress An would not have to spend money to eat outside even for breakfast.

An Chunfeng readily agreed to this reasonable request. She was not a picky eater; she simply hated cooking.

Since Little Lin had such potential to be tapped, she naturally wouldn't let it go to waste.

Meanwhile, over at the Tang residence in Shuan'an Lane, Qin Mu was lying on top of the wall in a daze, his short legs dangling and kicking listlessly.

At that moment, he felt like a lifeless salted fish, having hung about in that state for several days.

Ten days ago, Yuanyang, the maid who served Madam Liu, was taken away by a human trafficker. He had followed them all the way to the main gate, feeling a mixture of satisfaction and a lingering distress in his heart.

The Tang family sold Yuanyang not only because they were short of money, but also to silence her.

After all, Tang Yuexi had been seized and locked away for several days. No matter how intact she was, in the ears of outsiders, she had lost her purity.

The Tang family kept the matter of Tang Yuexi's disappearance extremely tight. Apart from the few trusted manservants and pages who had helped the Tang father and son search for her, the other matrons simply assumed that the young mistress had returned to Madam Liu's maiden family outside the city to celebrate the festival.

Among the maids, only Yuanyang knew what had truly happened.

If Tang Yuexi wanted to shake off a lifelong nightmare, she had to send Yuanyang far away from the estate.

Upon hearing that she was to be sold, Yuanyang was utterly dumbfounded.

Having listened to Aunt Ping a few days prior, she had naively believed that as long as she protected Tang Yuexi, the Tang family would be deeply grateful to her.

She thought that as long as Second Young Master Tang took her in as a concubine and gave her an official status, she could continue living comfortably in the Tang household just like Aunt Ping.

She never expected that they intended to sell her to human traffickers.

Yuanyang wept uncontrollably. Aunt Ping offered false comfort, but it was merely adding fuel to the fire: "Oh, you poor, ill-fated Yuanyang. The mistress is as cold-hearted as they come. Look at how that woman surnamed An gave birth to a child, only to be driven away all the same for the sake of their reputation. What's the use of just crying? You'd be better off begging the Second Young Master. As long as he holds you in his heart, he will find a way to fix this."

Only then did Yuanyang wake up with a jolt. She knew all too well how the An woman had been driven away. Disregarding the unhealed bruises and bite marks covering her body, she stumbled to the main quarters to plead for mercy from Madam Liu.

To her dismay, Madam Liu refused to see her, simply sending out a few thick garments, a few old hairpins, and five taels of silver, claiming that since they had been mistress and servant once, she wanted to leave her with a token of remembrance.

As for Second Young Master Tang, he had long since taken his wife back to her maiden family. Not a single person stepped forward to put in a good word for her.

This meant they truly intended to drive her to her death.

Desperate and furious, Yuanyang felt utterly betrayed by the Tang family. Consumed by hatred, she directly threatened Madam Liu that if they forced her out, she would reveal everything the Tang family had done.

Shocked and enraged, Madam Liu hurriedly summoned Second Young Master Tang back.

Second Young Master Tang still held a shred of lingering affection and pity for Yuanyang, but seeing how perilous the situation was, he consulted with Madam Liu: "Mother, we cannot let Yuanyang carry on making a scene like this. If she goes outside and fails to keep her mouth shut..."

With a splitting headache, Madam Liu wrapped a headscarf tightly around her head and said viciously: "I originally planned to have the procuress marry her off to some rustic family in the countryside. But since she insists on wagging her tongue, send her to a place where people cannot speak!"

A place where people cannot speak?

Second Young Master Tang's heart skipped a beat. The rumors that Yuanyang had been locked in a dark room and violated after her return were not exactly secrets within the capital's inner circles.

Some men appeared upright and respectable in human clothing, yet beneath their fine garments, they were beasts who refused to act like human beings.

Where there were people seeking outlets for their depravity, there would naturally be those who catered to such tastes by setting up secret rooms to keep female slaves in captivity.

However, Second Young Master Tang was not yet qualified to enter such circles; he had only heard tales of them and had no idea where they were located.

When the procuress arrived at the gate, Second Young Master Tang cryptically hinted that Yuanyang had gone mad and was babbling nonsense, stating that she needed to be silenced—preferably so she would never speak again.

Procuresses were thoroughly accustomed to such inner-courtyard affairs and readily promised to handle the matter properly.

The easiest way to make someone hold their tongue was to pour a dose of medicine down their throat to ruin their voice.

It was with a ruined voice, her body wrapped in cloth like a rice dumpling, that Yuanyang was carried out of the gates.

Qin Mu followed behind, watching with a forced smile on his face, while his heart churned violently, breeding an even deeper hatred: When his mother had vanished without a trace back then, could she have been sent away in this very manner?

Fortunately, his mother in this lifetime had left... though she was gone, when would he ever see her again?

Just as he turned to head back into the courtyard, he had a fleeting sense that someone was lurking by the opposite wall, watching him with furtive winks and grimaces.

Regrettably, his mind had been in turmoil at the time, and by the time he reacted and went out to look, there was no one left outside!

In his past life, Qin Mu had been a street urchin, so he recognized instantly that it had been a homeless beggar child specifically hired by someone to gather information.

He had done such work himself back then; unable to find steady employment as a shop assistant, he had relied on running errands to earn a living and support himself.

Who could possibly be looking for him?

In this lifetime, Qin Mu could think of only one person—it must be his own birth mother who had come looking for him!

However, ever since Yuanyang had been sold, the Tang residence kept its main gates firmly shut, barring anyone from entering or leaving.

Aunt Ping had changed; backed by Tang Pinshan's ambition to open a shop, she had uncharacteristically locked horns with Second Young Master Tang over silver in broad daylight.

With Madam Liu bedridden with illness, Mistress Qin spent even more time in the main courtyard.

Qin Mu was confined to the subsidiary courtyard and could go nowhere, let alone make his way to the main gate.

Therefore, aside from eating and sleeping, Qin Mu spent his entire day draped over the backyard wall, peering into the few feet of alleyway near the corner by the front gate, as that was the only place where passing people could be seen.

On the tenth day, he finally caught sight of a strange child appearing stealthily in the alley, only to vanish in a flash.

Throwing stones!

Qin Mu had long since prepared a pile of broken tiles, which he hurled vigorously toward the outer alley. However, the distance was too great and his strength too weak, so the tiles fell far short. With a clatter of impacts, they finished throwing without having drawn anyone over at all.

He even began to doubt whether his ability to attract his birth mother that day had simply been a stroke of divine will.

With no other choice, he had to resort to the underworld slang and signals of his past life.

Without fear of anyone coming to the subsidiary courtyard, Qin Mu pressed his fingers to his lips and whistled a crisp, rhythmic tune—three long blasts followed by two short ones—which echoed across the back wall of the Tang estate.

Before long, a grime-covered little boy emerged from the street corner, his crafty eyes darting around as he looked up at Qin Mu on the wall with pleasant surprise.

"Are you the young master of the Tang family?"

The little boy leaned against the wall and asked on tiptoe.

He had waited outside the main gate of the Tang residence for ten days, and had finally spotted this young master of the Tang family once more.

Qin Mu nodded. "Yes. Did my mother send you folks here?"

The little boy blinked, rubbed his nose with a dirty hand, and said, "Whether it was your mother or not, I wouldn't know. All I know is that the mistress's surname is An!"

Before his voice even faded— *Thud!*

The young master on the wall had vanished.

"Hey! What's wrong with you?" the little boy called out in a low voice toward the top of the wall.

"I'm fine. Tell me, where is my mother?"

With moss smudged across his forehead, Qin Mu clambered laboriously back up the wall. Overcome with excitement just now, his foot had slipped and he had tumbled down.

"Mistress An is on Chessboard Street!"

"Ah! Chessboard Street! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!"

Hearing that it was the renowned Chessboard Street in the North City, Qin Mu grew so excited that he tumbled right off the wall again!