Chapter 17 Tidying Up

“Mother, you don’t need to be so nervous. No one else can enter this place except me. If you want to leave, you have to hold my hand to get out.” He Caiwei said, looking at her nervously, watching her expression closely.

"Really? Those people really can't find us? Wait, wait, what about our things? Who knows if those people are locusts? What if they take all our things? We still have to hide those two little hens." He Yuping didn't care where they were; as long as those people couldn't find them, that was all that mattered.

As long as she couldn't find the mother and daughter, her daughter would be safe and sound. Suddenly, she remembered that she had just bought two young hens today, to lay eggs for her daughter, and there were also today's eggs and the old hen.

It's not worth it for those people to get it for free; she still needs to get her daughter to find the things as soon as possible.

“There’s no one outside right now. Why don’t we go out and pack up before hiding again? We can put all the things we bought inside, or we can stay here forever.” He Caiwei looked at her mother’s regretful and distressed face, and felt bad about the large sum of money they had spent. She decided to take the things back to prevent them from being wasted.

Now they could only hear Butler Hu's voice, but they didn't know if Butler Hu was in cahoots with the First Madam, or if Butler Hu suspected that the mother and daughter had stolen his things.

You see, there was a lot of that stuff; just one box of it would be enough to live comfortably for life. The stuff just vanished so mysteriously, of course they had to look for it.

"Let's go, let's take everything we've bought these past few days. I'll make it look like we don't live here anymore." He Yuping perked up immediately when she heard that she could get all the things back.

Now that we can retrieve everything, it will be easy to make the house look like it's uninhabited.

Then He Caiwei followed behind her mother and watched her, taking everything they had bought over the past few days, including food, household items, clothes, firewood, and stove ashes.

There were also the two chicks that had just been put into the coop and the vegetable leaves that she had thrown down for the chicks to peck at.

It was practically a locust swarm. Then, I carefully gathered some ash from behind, took the fan I used to fan the stove, and carefully blew some ash off all the tables, cabinets, and other furniture in the room.

After finishing all that, she remembered that there was still a row of vegetables that hadn't been dealt with. They had sprouted tiny green shoots over the past few days. What should she do with them?

"Daughter, what should we do with these vegetables?" He Yuping was a little worried. It would be a pity to dig them all up, but if they weren't removed, they would definitely be able to find traces of someone having lived here.

Seeing her actions, He Caiwei realized that her mother was no ordinary person. The scene was so realistically staged that if she hadn't lived here before, she would have thought that no one had lived here for a long time.

He Caiwei dug up a corner of the wall, found a pile of dry soil, then finely rubbed it all over the vegetable leaves, spreading it until it was about the same height as the seedlings. Unless you carefully dug around, you wouldn't be able to tell that vegetables had ever been grown there.

He Yuping carefully walked around the house again, then took a broom and swept away all traces of herself in the yard and the house before letting her daughter take her back.

When she returned for the second time, she finally had the time to see where she was, only to find that the things here were much better than those in her original room.

When she saw the television, she was completely incredulous. She had only ever heard of it from Mr. Qu, and it was only available overseas.

It's an extremely heavy and precious thing; it's easy to break if you accidentally bump or knock it. That's why Mr. Qu has never brought one back from his many trips abroad.

This is so big and so thin! The color and lines are so appealing. He Yuping turned to look at her daughter with pleading eyes, as if asking, "Can I try it?"

He Caiwei looked helpless, picked up the remote and turned it on. She had never turned it on before and had no idea if there were any programs available. After all, she didn't know where the electricity came from or whether it could receive a signal.

After He Caiwei turned on the TV, she found that there were many movies stored on it, but no live TV programs.

It seems that all those TV series and movies were downloaded onto the TV set.

"Wow, where are these people from? How come they're all so good-looking?" He Yuping saw the image on the TV screen, and the first thing she noticed was the face of a rather mature man.

"Want to check this out? This one's even better." Bai Caiwei switched the program to one featuring several young men doing street dance.

"They're too young, they look like they're only teenagers. I still prefer the one from before." He Yuping glanced at the boys dancing and thought they were all too young.

"Okay, which one do you want to watch? You can choose one here." For the next half hour, He Caiwei taught her mother how to use the remote control, and then her mother was glued to the sofa, not even noticing that she was hungry.

Having no other choice, He Caiwei went to the kitchen and prepared some food herself. When she brought it to the living room, He Yuping turned her eyes away from the TV and was startled when she saw what was on the table. She quickly reached out and grabbed her daughter's hand to check if she had been burned.

"My dear, why didn't you call for me when you were hungry? I'm so sorry, I won't do it again. How could I forget that my daughter was hungry? I'll call you next time if you're hungry. This is the first time I've seen something like this, so it's quite novel to me. I won't do it again next time." He Yuping saw her daughter's hands, which were still fair and tender, and breathed a sigh of relief. She was worried that her daughter might get burned or bump into something while cooking.

"It's alright, Mother. It's only natural to be excited when you see something for the first time. Mother, I think I know why we were exposed." He Caiwei suddenly remembered that the clothes they wore when they went to Mingqu Restaurant a few days ago were ones she had brought from the Qu family mansion. It must have been around that time.

"When? I make my face so dark that I don't even recognize myself when I go out every day, how could I possibly be exposed?" He Yuping found it hard to accept, after all, she was quite confident in her makeup skills.

“Mother, do you remember the day we went to the Mingqu Restaurant? The clothes I wore were ones I brought from the manor. Although you painted your face so that you didn’t resemble yourself at all, your figure and clothes were the biggest flaws. After all, you’ve lived in the manor for six or seven years, and the steward makes clothes for you every year. How could he not recognize you?” He Caiwei suddenly found her mother’s naive and innocent side rather endearing.

"That seems to make sense. Goodness, are you sure they won't be able to find us if we stay here?" He Yuping suddenly became a little worried.

"Don't worry, as long as I don't let them find them, they'll never find us in this lifetime. Now we need to think about how to leave here." He Caiwei didn't want to get entangled with those people. She just wanted to leave this place and start a new life in a new place.