Allure of a Country Maiden
Chapter 598 - 596

Chapter 598: Chapter 596

After retiring from the Government Office, Shen Chengyao had planned to return directly home. Strictly speaking, unless he had to check on the shop or inspect the crops on the farm, he would always go straight home. He was truly a henpecked husband, embodying an extreme of those loving husbands who are always dutiful to their wives.

Halfway home on his carriage, a woman suddenly darted out of the alley, almost going under the wheels of his carriage.

Another woman was chasing after her.

Seeing that his carriage almost hit someone, Shen Chengyao got off. The woman, seeing him get off the carriage, grabbed his clothes and knelt down crying, "Young master, save me! I don’t want to be sold to the brothel. Please save me!"

"Miss, please compose yourself! I could be your father, stop calling me a young master!" Shen Chengyao promptly pulled back his clothes. This was conduct unbefitting in such a public place, he thought.

The woman: ...

Don’t all men like it when women make them feel younger?

The older woman finally caught up, she gripped the girl’s arm, yanked her whole body towards herself, and immediately slapped her across the face. "You rotten girl, you dare to run!"

Seeing this, Shen Chengyao quickly said, "Stop! You can’t just hit someone like that!"

"She’s my daughter, why can’t I hit her! I can’t hit her, but you can?" The woman confidently retorted, with her hands on her hips.

Shen Chengyao: ...

Completely unreasonable!

"I’m not your daughter. Respected sir, save me. This is my stepmother. My father is no longer here, and she wants to sell me to a brothel to pay for her son’s wedding!" The girl covered her face and cried.

"What do you mean, my son? That’s your big brother!" The stepmother was furious at these words.

"I don’t have a big brother. He’s the son that you had with your ex-husband, and you brought him along when you married into our family!" The girl quickly explained.

Looking at this whole mess, Shen Chengyao was reminded of a time Xi’er had also come close to being sold to a brothel. This made him angry, so he said, "Lady, your current husband is no longer here. By law, you do not have the right to sell the children your predecessor left behind. Do so, and you’ll end up in jail!"

Listening to this, the crowd gathering around began cursing the wicked stepmother for planning to sell the daughter of the first wife to the brothel, and use the money for the marriage of her son who was born from a previous marriage. They called for her to be jailed, saying, "Has the world lost all sense of morality?"

"Throw this evil woman in jail! She can’t get away with this!"

"Yes, she’s absolutely despicable, a villain!"

...

Upon hearing this, the woman was a bit scared, but she still boldly argued, "When I married into the family, my son changed his last name. He continues the family line for your father. Your father didn’t leave a son behind, but now someone is there to carry on his line, so he can rest in peace. How can you not acknowledge him as your brother! If your brother doesn’t get a wife, will there be any descendants in your family?"

Having a son to carry on the family line was very important in the old days. ’’Who would know better than me,and the old saying goes, "Out of the three unfilial acts, the worst is having no descendants."

"Even if you need to arrange a marriage for your son, there’s no justification for selling off the daughter of the first wife!" Shen Chengyao frowned in reply.

Hearing this, the woman’s eyes shifted, and she said, "I won’t sell her! But I can’t afford to feed her, she’s grown so big! All I was thinking about was getting some money so my son could get married. That way, I could fulfill my duty to the ancestors. If I send her to a rich family to become a maid, I won’t even sign a life-long contract, okay?"

Shen Chengyao didn’t say a word. This was a feasible plan, but these were domestic matters, and he was reluctant to interfere too much. Besides, it was none of his business. So he said, "Miss, your mother isn’t selling you anymore. If she dares to sell you, you can file a complaint at the Government Office."

After saying this, Shen Chengyao intended to get in his carriage and leave.

Seeing him about to leave, the girl pulled at his clothes again, "Sir, please save me. As soon as you’re gone, my stepmother will sell me to the brothel again! Sir, help me. Robin Hood, buy me off and let me be your maid? I’m a peasant girl and I can do any kind of work. Please save me! I’ll work for you like an ox or a horse. I’m not afraid of being a servant, I just don’t want to end up in a brothel. I just want to live a decent life. Please save me. I prostrate myself before you!"

After speaking, she fell to her knees and kowtowed to Shen Chengyao. Her face was full of tears, giving her a heartbreakingly pitiful look.

Shen Chengyao quickly pulled back his clothes, avoiding her.

At this point, one of the onlookers shouted, "Sir, you’re obviously a dignitary, and your family must need maids. So you should save her, bring her back to be a maid and spare her from the misery of entering a brothel. Saving a life is the greatest of deeds!"

Upon hearing this, the crowd echoed, "Yes, Lord Qingtian, please save this poor girl. She’s so pitiful!"

"It’s always said that stepmothers are the most evil. Who knows whether this woman will sell the girl off to a far-off brothel! That would be a plight with no end in sight!"

"That’s right! Save her, your house must need maids!"

....

Shen Chengyao watched these people just talk without helping, leaving him in a difficult position. While he was hesitating, the girl grabbed his hand, "Young master, I can do laundry and cook. Please save me!"

Shen Chengyao quickly pulled his hand back then glanced at her hand. A moment of doubt crossed his mind before he hesitantly nodded, "Alright then!"

Upon hearing his words, the stepmother instantly laughed, "You sir are truly a benefactor, Lord Qingtian! My daughter is quite a capable worker. My only intention was to get some money to marry off my son. I didn’t really plan to sell my daughter. I’ll only take ten taels of silver from you in exchange for my daughter’s one year of service in your house. After a year, if you still wish to keep her, you can pay another sum. Is that acceptable?"

Preoccupied with something on his mind, Shen Chengyao absentmindedly nodded, and had a servant give the woman the ten taels of silver. Afterwards, she and the girl left.

"The girl said she was a peasant girl, but I suspect she was lying," Shen Chengyao added.

Aren’t there Thirty-Six Stratagems, one of which is the honey trap? He worried that if he continued to reject her, he would fall into some other stratagem. Hence, he decided to fight fire with fire.

Upon hearing this, Xiao’er thought to herself: This is such a setup! It’s all a setup!

"Father is quite cautious!" Jinghao praised.

"What used to be my profession? Farming! Who did I interact with the most? Farmers! So, when that girl claimed to be a peasant. But her hands were so soft and tender. I was the first one to not believe her!"

"Father, you noticed that the girl was a vixen, so you brought her home? But keeping a vixen at home, isn’t that asking for trouble?" Xi’er looked confused.

Hearing his daughter refer to someone as a vixen twice, Shen Chengyao lost his cool.

He glared, "What vixen? Where did you hear that!"

"Isn’t that what they say in storybooks? They always say that vixens are bad people!"

This response angered Shen Chengyao, "Who let you read those messy storybooks!"

"Father, didn’t you buy a few for me last time?"

Shen Chengyao: ...

It’s his fault, he won’t buy storybooks for the children again in the future! What kind of trash do they write!

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.