"Hua Lian beseeches you, Master, please take me in! I can do any kind of work, all I ask is for a place to settle down. As a mere woman, even if I had Silver, I couldn't survive! I'm afraid I wouldn't even make it out of the Capital before being robbed, only to meet a tragic end. I beg the Master to keep me!"
Hua Lian knelt in supplication, wiping her tears with a handkerchief, her frail shoulders trembling, her silent sobs making her truly pitiable.
Gu Chengyu sighed, acknowledging the truth in Hua Lian's words. In these times, life was hard enough for women, and for someone like Hua Lian, alone on her own, survival was even tougher.
Lichun did not come out from the main room; she was in Gu Chengyu's bedroom, listening to the conversation in the study. When she heard Hua Lian's plea to stay, her hand, which was folding clothes, paused. This Hua Lian is not naive, she thought; she plans to latch onto the young Master?
