Leaving the estate, it was nearly the hour of xu (7-9 PM). The capital had a curfew from the second quarter of xu hour until the fifth watch of dawn. If they didn’t return to the city now, they’d have to wait until tomorrow morning.

Tingshuang helped Yun Chu into the carriage and asked softly, “Madam, you just agreed to treat Young Master Wu like that?”

Yun Chu nodded.

More than twenty years ago, the Wu family members fell ill and died one after another. In the end, only the youngest, Young Master Wu, remained. Madam Wu made the decisive decision to sell all their family assets and search everywhere for physicians to treat Young Master Wu. With nothing left to their name and nowhere to live, they moved into this estate.

This was an estate passed down from the Wu family ancestors and was the Wu family’s only remaining property at the time.

However, they were schemed against by a family surnamed Zou and had no choice but to sell their ancestral property at a loss. The estate had been renovated like an imperial garden, with ornate beams and painted rafters, pavilions and waterside gazebos, and precious flowers. If sold properly, it could have fetched at least thirty thousand taels of silver. In the end, Madam Wu only received twenty thousand taels.

After the Zou family acquired the estate, they immediately demolished the Wu family ancestral shrine, and the small grove was about to be burned down. With nowhere to go, Madam Wu came up with a plan—she would pretend to be a ghost to scare people away.

Sure enough, the Zou family was terrified and had no choice but to sell the estate at a loss. As for the Zou family’s fortune being affected, that was completely a coincidence.

Later, when a merchant took over the estate, Madam Wu brought the three or four-year-old Young Master Wu to play ghosts together, and they actually scared the merchant into illness.

Not only that, Madam Wu went out during the day to tell people in the surrounding area that the estate was haunted. Thus, word spread from one to ten, from ten to a hundred, and no one dared to take over anymore. That merchant’s family would occasionally send people to check, but they were scared away by the growing Young Master Wu. Young Master Wu didn’t even need to disguise himself—that face alone, plus the putrid smell of his festering body, was enough to frighten people unconscious…

“The Wu family mother and son are also pitiful people, having lived more than twenty years in darkness,” Yun Chu said. “This estate is ancestral property passed down from the Wu family’s old ancestors. I bought this estate and will use the money earned from the Wu family’s ancestral property to treat Young Master Wu—there’s nothing improper about that.”

Tingfeng spoke up, “But that divine physician charges five thousand taels of silver for a single pulse diagnosis. This estate would probably need three to five years to earn that much money, wouldn’t it?”

Yun Chu smiled.

Once the hot springs were opened, this winter alone could earn at least fifty thousand taels of silver. Paying Young Master Wu’s medical expenses would be nothing worth mentioning.

She considered herself no great saint full of compassion for all, but she would help others when within her ability. Perhaps it was precisely because of this—having formed many good karmic connections—that heaven allowed her to return to the age of twenty.

“Madam should also have your pulse taken once,” Tingshuang said, her heart aching. “Madam is still young. After curing your infertility, you could still give birth to another young master…”

As soon as the words fell, crying suddenly came from outside the carriage.

Yun Chu immediately spoke, “Stop for a moment.”

The coachman pulled the reins tight, and the carriage slowly stopped.

Tingshuang lifted the curtain, and Yun Chu glanced outside. They had already entered the capital. With curfew approaching, there were no pedestrians on the road, only the night watchman passing by.

The crying seemed to be coming from a small alley.

Without thinking, Yun Chu got down from the carriage and walked toward that alley. Tingshuang and the other maids quickly followed.

In the alley, there was only faint moonlight. A small white figure could vaguely be seen crouching in the corner of the wall.

The crying was coming from this small figure.

Yun Chu quickened her pace and soon saw clearly—this was a girl about three years old. Her long hair hung disheveled over her body, her head buried between her knees, her little shoulders shaking, emitting fragmented crying sounds like a cat’s meowing.

Yun Chu also noticed that the little girl wasn’t even wearing shoes.

Her heart softened, and she quickly picked up the child, saying gently, “How are you out here alone? Where are your parents?”

The little girl raised her face. Her palm-sized face made her eyes appear large and round, filled with tears that rolled down one by one. When she saw Yun Chu, she first stared with bewildered eyes, then immediately burst into loud wailing, burying herself in Yun Chu’s embrace.

Yun Chu was instantly flustered, “Don’t cry, be good. If you keep crying, you’ll become a little spotted cat.”

But the little girl cried harder and harder, unable to stop. Her tears fell on Yun Chu’s shoulder, soaking through her clothes.

Yun Chu’s heart inexplicably ached along with her.

The child she loved most was Xie Shiyun, but even when Xie Shiyun was injured and crying, she never felt this kind of pain like being cut by a knife.

She held the little girl, gently patting her back, walked out of the alley, climbed into the carriage with difficulty, sat down, and softly sang a song. The little girl gradually quieted in her arms.

Just as she was preparing to communicate, she saw those beautiful big eyes close—the little girl had actually fallen asleep in her arms.

Yun Chu’s heart was filled with tenderness. She said softly, “Tingshuang, you and Chen Bo go walk around nearby and see if any family is looking for a child. If everything matches up, bring them here.”

Tingshuang departed on her orders.

The carriage stopped at the roadside, leaving only Yun Chu holding the child, with Tingfeng and Tingxue waiting below the carriage, and a coachman leading the horse.

Just then, many people suddenly approached and surrounded the carriage completely.

Leading them was a matron in her forties or fifties. She stared coldly at the carriage compartment, “Go up and search.”

Four or five guards immediately stepped forward.

“What are you doing?” Tingxue quickly blocked them. “Inside is our family’s madam. Don’t be disrespectful to our madam!”

The matron’s face was cold, “A carriage stopped by the roadside late at night is abnormal in itself. What proper madam doesn’t return home late at night? Go up and search!”

Tingxue was nearly frantic with anxiety. Just as she was about to argue, a child’s crying suddenly came from inside the carriage.

Joy appeared on the matron’s face, “The princess is in the carriage!”

She shoved aside the two maids Tingxue and Tingfeng, helped herself up onto the carriage with the guards’ assistance, and violently yanked open the curtain.

She immediately saw the girl being held by Yun Chu. Taking a quick stride forward, she placed both hands under the child’s armpits and pulled outward.

The little girl had already been crying, and being jerked like this, she suddenly burst into even more intense wailing.

Yun Chu’s eyes darkened, “Let go.”

“You’re the one who should let go!” The matron glared with wide eyes. “You dare kidnap our princess—I see you’re tired of living. I don’t care whose madam you are, your days are numbered!”

With that, she held the child and pulled hard.

Yun Chu was holding the little girl’s waist. Seeing this, she didn’t dare use more force and quickly released her hands.

The little girl punched and kicked in the matron’s hands, crying breathlessly. Her originally tender white little face actually turned purple-blue.

“Quickly release the child!”

Yun Chu’s voice suddenly rose sharply, her presence fully unleashed.

The matron wasn’t frightened by her presence, but rather by the young princess’s purple-blue face—her legs went weak, and she quickly placed the child on the carriage’s soft cushion.

“It’s all right, don’t cry…” Yun Chu’s voice was extremely gentle. “Will auntie hold you?”

The matron’s face darkened, “What qualifications do you have to be our princess’s auntie…”

Before she finished speaking, the little girl stretched out her two short arms and wrapped them around Yun Chu’s neck.

Yun Chu placed her on her knees and pointed at the matron, saying softly, “Do you know this person in front of you? Is she from your household?”

The little girl only held onto her without making a sound.

Yun Chu raised her eyes, “If she says she knows you, I’ll let you take her away.”

The matron could hardly believe it—she needed a stranger’s approval to take away her own young mistress.

However, with the young mistress nestled so dependently in this madam’s arms, forcing the issue would be useless.

She spoke, “Our young princess cannot speak. According to Madam’s meaning, I can’t take the princess away today?”

Yun Chu was stunned.

This child couldn’t speak?

Wait!

She remembered—Yu geer had told her that he had a younger sister who couldn’t speak. Wasn’t Yu geer’s sister a princess?

The little girl was Prince Pingxi’s child?

But wasn’t Prince Pingxi’s child four years old? This little girl looked only about three years old…