"Are you sure that bitch is named Ye Yunniang?" Xing Jinxiu gnashed her teeth as she spat out the name "Ye Yunniang."
"Confirmed with the doctor, it's her. She has a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter named 'Shushu'."
Bao Min, when talking to his subordinates, would sometimes say happily, "My daughter Shushu."
"He'd rather fancy a fickle widow than marry me." Xing Jinxiu clenched her fists. "Brother, I want Ye Yunniang dead."
"I've already sent people to arrange it. Good news will come soon." Xing Wenzhi had a plan as soon as he received the message.
"Brother, she can't just die. Death is too easy for her. I want her to live a fate worse than death."
"Fine."
Ye Yunniang, unaware that someone wanted her dead, was feeding Li Ping some pastries.
Cai Damei's illness this time had lingered on and off for half a month before she finally recovered.
During this period, Bao Shuyi had been under Ye Yunniang's care.
The little girl followed Ye Yunniang from morning till night, and after deducting the time spent caring for Cai Damei, Ye Yunniang had very little time left for her three sons.
Li Pan and Li An were older and not as clingy.
Li Ping was different. He could endure it for the first few days, but later he was miserable. Yet, Li Ping didn't say anything, just sat to the side staring at Ye Yunniang.
Ye Yunniang, entangled by Bao Shuyi, could only comfort her son with her eyes.
Once Cai Damei recovered and Bao Shuyi was returned, Ye Yunniang went to the kitchen and made Li Ping's favorite pastries.
She personally fed him the pastries and agreed to many conditions before finally placating the little jealous one.
After comforting her youngest son, Ye Yunniang took another plate of pastries to find her eldest and second sons.
Once everyone was appeased, Ye Yunniang, exhausted, lay down on the bed.
She needed to rest, to lie down properly.
She slept until dawn and opened her eyes.
Ye Yunniang blinked, looking out the window.
The sun was out!
She got out of bed and pushed the door open.
The sky had finally cleared!
After two more sunny days, Ye Yunniang grew restless and discussed with Cai Damei returning to Wanxia Lane to check on things.
They couldn't stay at the Prefect's residence forever.
Cai Damei agreed. Ye Yunniang found Luo Xin to arrange a carriage back to Wanxia Lane.
They left the Prefect's residence by carriage, turned a corner.
Ye Yunniang suddenly felt dizzy, sensed something was wrong, but by the time she wanted to shout "help," it was already too late.
...
Regaining consciousness, Ye Yunniang felt the wooden plank her back was against moving, and the surrounding smell was unpleasant.
Opening her eyes, she saw a wooden carriage roof.
"You're awake. Eat." A blackened cornbread bun was thrust in front of her.
Ye Yunniang followed the bun to look at the speaker, a woman in her early twenties with spirited phoenix eyes, who looked somewhat familiar.
"Next meal won't be for another three watches." The woman reminded Ye Yunniang that she'd go hungry if she didn't eat.
Ye Yunniang took the bun. "Thank you."
"No need." The woman lowered her head to eat her own bun.
Ye Yunniang didn't eat, instead surveying the inside of the carriage.
The ordinary, dilapidated carriage was crammed with seven or eight people, aged from seventeen or eighteen to twenty-six or twenty-seven.
Each person wore a numb expression, gnawing on their buns. Only the woman beside her seemed calm.
"Where is this?"
"On a trafficker's cart."
Traffickers? Ye Yunniang tightened her grip on the bun.
Did Luo Xin have a grudge against her? To sell her?
Thinking of the children at the Prefect's residence, worry surged in Ye Yunniang's heart. She wondered how they were.
In the rear courtyard of the Prefect's residence.
Luo Xin knelt on the ground. "It was my fault for misjudging people, harming Lady Ye. Please punish me, Sir."
"What you need to do now is not kneel and beg for punishment, but spare no effort to find Ye Yunniang."
"I will definitely find Lady Ye." Luo Xin stood up and went to investigate.
Bao Min took a deep breath and walked into the courtyard.
Cai Damei, holding Bao Shuyi, looked toward the courtyard gate. The hopeful look in her eyes faded when she saw who entered.
"It's my fault."
"I don't want to hear about whose fault it is. I just want to know where Yunniang is? Who kidnapped her?" Cai Damei blamed herself inwardly; she shouldn't have agreed to let Ye Yunniang return home alone.
"Luo Xin is investigating. We'll be notified as soon as there's news."
"I want to investigate too." Li Pan ran out.
Li An and Li Ping followed behind, also wanting to help search.
"You cannot go." Cai Damei couldn't bear the thought of losing another one.
"Grandma, I will definitely find Mother." Li Pan didn't want to just sit still.
"Grandma, we can do it."
"Grandma, I want to go find Mother."
"You're still young, don't cause more trouble. Staying home safely is the best help." Bao Min stated bluntly.
"Is it your rivals?" Having been involved with the yamen affairs, Li Ping knew Bao Min had many opponents.
"Under investigation." Bao Min couldn't be sure, but he had a suspect in mind.
...
Ye Yunniang learned from Wen Nuan that their current situation was dire.
It was quite a coincidence that Ye Yunniang and Wen Nuan had met.
Their first meeting was in a trafficker's den, their second on a trafficker's cart.
Last time, the traffickers mainly kidnapped children.
This time, the traffickers were mainly abducting young women and married women to the borderlands, to be smuggled into the neighboring country—Yan.
"Yan doesn't have terrain as good as ours; it's mostly mountains and grasslands. Living conditions are harsher, with more men than women.
Many traffickers risk transporting women to Yan for profit. Even a woman of average looks can be sold for twenty taels of silver."
"Is there any way to escape?" Ye Yunniang had no desire to be sold to Yan.
"Can't escape. The buns we eat and the water we drink are laced with a muscle-softening powder."
"How do you know all this?"
"Why didn't you warn us the food was tainted?"
"Are you in league with the traffickers?"
The women in the carriage who had been listening to their conversation fired off questions one after another.
"I'm not a trafficker."
"Then how do you know so much?"
"Right, you were captured after me." She didn't know any of this, so how could Wen Nuan know so much?
"If you were like me, sold every couple of years, you'd also learn how to deal with traffickers and extract information." Wen Nuan spoke lightly, but Ye Yunniang heard the despair in her words.
"Sold every couple of years? Can you lead us to escape?"
"I already said, our food and water are drugged with muscle-softening powder. Even if we escaped, look outside the carriage—endless wilderness as far as the eye can see. Not a soul in sight. Where could we run?"
"So we just accept our fate, to be sold to Yan?" Someone asked, unwilling.
"If not accept fate, then what can we do?" Wen Nuan retorted. Then she added another piece of news that made everyone's faces turn pale.
"The traffickers say many families in Yan practice wife-sharing."
