The one chasing the little girl was a man around thirty years old. He caught up to her in a few steps and grabbed the fleeing girl.

“You still dare to run? Come back with me!”

Lin Hao saw the man’s fierce expression and couldn’t help but frown.

Chi Caiyun and Zhu Jiayu both had rather impulsive temperaments and asked in unison, “Who are you?”

Their past experience of falling into the hands of evildoers made them especially sensitive to this kind of situation.

A grown man grabbing a little girl on the street—what was he trying to do?

Faced with their questioning, the man’s fierce expression changed to politeness. “I’m her father. This girl bumped into you young ladies, so I’ll apologize on her behalf.”

“Is he really your father?” Chi Caiyun didn’t trust the man’s words and asked the little girl he was holding.

The little girl was only around eleven or twelve years old. Although she didn’t want to go back with the man, she didn’t have the courage to lie, and immediately nodded with a pale face.

“If you’re her father, why are you being so fierce?” Chi Caiyun asked the man with furrowed brows.

The man came from a poor background and didn’t dare offend these well-dressed young ladies, so he said good-naturedly, “This girl is disobedient. She’s dissatisfied with the family’s arrangement and ran away.”

“Arrangement? What arrangement?” Chi Caiyun pressed.

“Miss, this is a family matter…” The man cursed their meddling in his heart, and his face showed some displeasure.

Not daring to offend them was one thing, but poor as he was, he wasn’t these young girls’ servant.

Chi Caiyun had a spoiled temperament. Hearing this, not only did she not feel embarrassed, she actually got angry. “If you don’t want to say, fine. Just now your daughter bumped into me. Didn’t you say you’d apologize on her behalf? Words alone aren’t enough—pay up.”

Faced with the young lady’s outstretched, delicate white hand, the man was dumbfounded. “M-Miss, my family can barely afford to eat. Please be magnanimous and let this go…”

Chi Caiyun snorted coldly. “Don’t try to guilt-trip me. I’m not some ‘magnanimous adult.'”

The little girl seemed to have recovered her senses and said quietly, “My father wants to send me to someone else’s house as a child bride. I’m unwilling…”

Child bride?

Lin Hao and the others all frowned.

Given their backgrounds, they were naturally very far removed from such things.

Zhu Jiayu pointed at the little girl in shock. “How old is she? At most eleven, right?”

The man smiled bitterly. “She’s already twelve. That’s not young.”

“Twelve isn’t young?” Zhu Jiayu was about to say more when Chen Yi gently tugged her sleeve.

The man silently cursed these young girls for not understanding the hardships of life and tugged at his patched clothes. “Her mother died of illness. We went into debt treating her sickness and were left with five children. Da Ni is the oldest. The family is willing to give eight taels of silver as betrothal money. Da Ni would go as the proper wife, not as a slave or servant. As her father, I haven’t wronged her. If I don’t find a way out, the younger ones will starve to death…”

As the man spoke, he actually began wiping away tears.

Chi Caiyun had wanted to say that for just eight taels he was marrying off his twelve-year-old daughter, but after hearing the rest of the man’s words, she suddenly didn’t know what to say.

She instinctively looked toward Lin Hao.

That shared experience of hardship had given her deep trust in Lin Hao.

Lin Hao looked at the little girl with a gentle expression. “Is that true?”

The little girl shamefully lowered her head, her hands twisting together anxiously as she spoke haltingly. “But, but that family’s child is only seven years old, and he’s a bit simple-minded…”

She clutched the man’s sleeve and begged tearfully, “Father, please, I don’t want to marry a seven-year-old simpleton. I’ll work very hard. I can still wash clothes to earn money!”

Everyone’s gaze fell on the little girl’s hands. Even though it was this season, her fingers were swollen like little radishes—clearly from being immersed in water for long periods.

The man raised his voice. “How much money can you earn washing clothes from dawn to dusk? What about our debts? Are you just going to watch your brothers and sisters starve to death?”

The man was truly angry.

With his family’s savings exhausted and in debt, how could he alone support five children through his work?

“I, I’ll find a way to earn more money…” The little girl struggled, but her eyes showed compromise.

By now quite a few people had gathered to watch, and their comments reached her ears—most of them criticizing her for not being sensible.

Had she really done wrong?

The little girl wondered in confusion.

Seeing his daughter softening, the man’s tone also became gentler. “Silly girl, do you think money is so easy to earn? Your father, a grown man, can barely earn anything working nonstop. What can a little girl like you do? Listen to your father. When you go to the Li family, you’ll eat and drink well. Isn’t that better than the whole family having no way to survive…”

The little girl’s expression was conflicted. Her sparse eyelashes trembled, and tears fell. “I—”

Those words “I’m willing” felt like a mountain—saying them would crush her until she couldn’t breathe, but not saying them crushed her just the same.

Chi Caiyun couldn’t bear to watch anymore and said coldly, “Forget it, forget it. I’ll give you eight taels of silver. Don’t make your daughter become a child bride.”

Both the man and the little girl widened their eyes at these words, unable to believe such good fortune existed.

The little girl, who dared to resist her family’s decision, was naturally clever and spirited. She recovered before the man did and was about to kneel before Chi Caiyun.

A hand reached out and stopped her movement.

The little girl stared blankly at Lin Hao.

Had this gentle-voiced elder sister suddenly stopped her because she didn’t want her friend to give her money?

Lin Hao saw the little girl’s nervousness and smiled. “What a coincidence—my family’s flower essence shop is short of staff. If you’re willing to come, the monthly wage is five hundred wen, and if you do well later, it can increase. But if you come to the shop, you can’t take my friend’s eight taels.”

Five hundred wen a month meant six taels a year—certainly not low for such a young girl. But on the other hand, there were eight taels of silver in ready cash, which would be a huge sum for the little girl’s family.

Lin Hao wanted to see the little girl’s choice, and even more, she wanted to see her father’s choice.

Of course, afterward there would need to be an investigation of this father and daughter they’d happened upon, to see if the encounter was truly by chance.

“I… I want to work…” The little girl quickly glanced at the man, her face showing guilt.

She felt she was being very selfish.

But if she had five hundred wen every month, and only spent a tiny bit on food while giving the rest to her father, that could support her brothers and sisters too, couldn’t it?

Lin Hao looked at the man.

The man’s expression showed some conflict. He gathered his courage to ask, “Where is your family’s flower essence shop located, Miss?”

Lin Hao’s lips curved slightly upward.

It seemed this father wasn’t completely disregarding his daughter’s life or death.

“It’s on Wanqing Street. If she comes to work, we can sign an employment contract.” Seeing the man wanted to speak but didn’t dare, Lin Hao instructed Baozhu, “Take them to the shop to look. If they sign the contract today, she can start work tomorrow. If the family is truly in difficulty, we can advance two months’ wages…”

The father and daughter followed Baozhu away. Lin Hao and the others’ good mood for shopping had vanished, replaced by an indescribable heaviness.