By noon, Xin Er ca running to call Mo Yan for lunch. Mo Yan put down her book and asked off-handedly, "Has Mo Yonglu left?"
"Not yet, he saw that we were about to eat and went to wait in the courtyard," Xin Er said in an even tone, obviously able to treat this estranged uncle with indifference now.
Mo Yan nodded and guessed as she walked outside what Mo Yonglu could insist on seeing her for.
Outside the study, Mo Yan imdiately noticed Mo Yonglu standing in the courtyard. Likewise, Mo Yonglu also saw her but did not approach, his gaze filled with a deep plea that made Mo Yan feel sowhat choked up.
Despite feeling choked up, Mo Yan still did not want to pay attention to soone who had once hurt her family. She didn’t directly shoo him away with a broom, which was already considerate of her, seeing that he had the sense not to make a scene. But judging by his deanor, it was clear he wouldn’t give up easily. If she did not send him away, he would likely keep waiting there.
As Mo Yan had anticipated, Mo Yonglu truly was persistent—he was still there when she woke up from her nap, having eaten nor drunk nothing all morning, leaning against the corner of the wall, barely able to stand.
It was impossible to ignore soone standing like a pole in the yard. In a fit of irritation, Mo Yan said to Mao Tuan standing beside her, "Go scare him off and get him out of here."
Scaring people was Mao Tuan’s favorite activity. It howled excitedly and charged at Mo Yonglu.
Mo Yonglu’s face filled with terror as he watched Mao Tuan lunging at him. He wanted to run, but his feet might as well have been rooted to the ground. The next mont, he was knocked down by a strong force, and a tiger’s paw, larger than his own hand, raised a gust of wind as it swiped towards his chest.
In the mont when Mo Yonglu thought he would die under the tiger’s claws, the oppressive weight on him suddenly lifted. Groggily sitting up, he realized the chill across his chest ca from his torn clothing.
Mao Tuan’s strike was precisely asured; that swipe seed fierce but did not injure him, though the feeling of sharp claws grazing his skin still scared a cold sweat out of Mo Yonglu.
She thought such a fright would have him beaten and ready to leave, but when Mao Tuan backed off, Mo Yonglu, using the wall to steady his trembling body, stood up but still refused to leave.
"Mao Tuan, throw him out," said Mo Yan, not giving Mo Yonglu a chance to speak, and instructing Mao Tuan directly.
Mao Tuan, although tempted to tease this rare human toy a bit longer, saw the command of her master as paramount. It pounced on Mo Yonglu again, bit the cloth around his waist, and started dragging him out.
However, Mao Tuan ultimately did not manage to throw Mo Yonglu out. Clinging desperately to a tree in the courtyard, Mo Yonglu’s waistclothes were torn into a large hole but still, he would not let go.
Mo Yan eventually couldn’t bear to watch anymore, and after letting Mao Tuan release its grip, she called Mo Yonglu inside.
Looking at Mo Yonglu standing there crookedly, humbly not daring to sit down and speak, Mo Yan said coldly, "What exactly do you want?"
Mo Yonglu lifted his head to look at the woman emanating an air of estrangent and suddenly felt her sowhat unfamiliar, struggling to recall what she looked like back in Mo Family Village. What he could be certain of, though, was that she was not the sa person compared to then. Even the dignified aura she exuded without being angry was significantly different.
As he continued to look, Mo Yonglu’s expression grew distant. Of similar age, both bearing the Mo surna, yet they had walked towards completely opposite destinies; one nobly unattainable and increasingly dazzling, the other like the mud beneath one’s feet, trampled upon by anyone...
The more he thought, the more distressed he felt. Ignoring the tears welling up in his eyes, a look of determination flashed across his worn face. Before Mo Yan could react, he knelt down with a heavy thump, "Yan girl, I have no right to ask anything of you, but for the sake of sharing the sa surna and ancestor, please help . I’m truly at my wit’s end. Even if you want my life soday, I will have no complaints."
Mo Yan stood up abruptly and stepped aside to avoid his kneeling, her complexion quite unwell, "What are you doing? Do you think I will help you if you kneel?"
Regardless of how little she cared for the people of Lao Mo’s House, the man before her was still an elder, and she could not bear the weight of an elder’s knees, nor did she want to be responsible for shortening his life.
Yet Mo Yonglu kept kneeling and did not move, his eyes reddening in his aged face, "Yan girl, I found Erni. She was sold to an unclean place. I want to redeem her, but I have no money. No one is willing to lend a loan with interest. I have no way out, I truly have no way out!"
As he finished, he choked up and began to weep, his already withered face marked by deep sadness.
Erni? Mo Erni?
Mo Yan was taken aback, never expecting to hear news of Mo Erni again.
Having encountered her by chance at the Cloth Shop last year, she only knew that Mo Erni was serving the young miss of the Lin Family. After the Lin Family was seized and their property confiscated, she lost interest in their fate and cared even less about what happened to Mo Erni. To her surprise, Erni had been sold to a brothel.
That made sense; after all, the Lin Family had been taken down, and naturally, their household servants would not have good days ahead. Those who were not enslaved were fortunate enough to not be significantly tied to the Lin Family, so they could return ho; but those who were enslaved beca masterless servants, like Zhao Dafu and the others, and beca property of the Court, to be allocated and sold by the Court.
It seed Mo Erni had been unlucky and bought by soone from a brothel. After all, she was a young girl of about seventeen or eighteen, not unpleasant to look at. The price offered by the Court was more economical than buying elsewhere, so it was normal that she was noticed by soone from the brothel.
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