That Fair-Faced 'Sage' {Completed}

15. The Uncle In The South

.

The next few years went by like a harsh storm that blew on for days on end, and through Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall, LanFen and her mother faced one hardship on the other.

Despite all their work in the manor, Xu Liling had cut their meals to just one per day, and many times, they had to go and find work outside, when Xu Liling simply refused to give them any meals.

"Don't let them have any!" Xu Liling sometimes ordered the kitchen servants, before turning her disdainful eyes to Wang ShanMei and LanFen.

"I recall seeing several cobwebs hiding in the higher regions of the arches... You spend all your time studying instead of working, so I'll let you taste hunger for a few days!"

Whenever this happened, they had to do even more work outside, but finding work in Camellia City was not easy.

The Zhao Family constantly spread lies and found every opportunity to remind people that Wang ShanMei had been behind the Shadow clan attack.

Still, she and LanFen worked where they could, earning far too little for a considerably large amount of work.

Wang ShanMei was proficient at playing the *guzheng, so when things got particularly hard, she played at restaurants, taverns or teahouses, and taught LanFen to play it as well.

*Guzheng - Chinese harp

But she never let LanFen play in public, so whenever she played the guzheng, LanFen would go off and fetch wood or water, or do any other menial work they could find.

As if life wasn't hard enough, Zhao Mao and his cronies would come to their shed at least twice a month, make a mess, and then steal everything of value they could find.

The first night it had happened, Wang ShanMei had complained, as she protectively hugged LanFen to herself. "How can a successor do such a shameless thing?! Throwing stones on a person already down a well?!"

But Zhao Mao had just taunted them. "Aunty Wang, what do you mean? Doesn't this place belong to the Head family? I'm just 'Succeeding' a little earlier!"

Zhao Mao and his cronies proceeded to tear down the whole shed and take away the few tiny silver pieces they had managed to save.

After that, Wang ShanMei and LanFen had begun to bury anything of value behind the shed, then deliberately left a few precious pieces of bronze hidden within the shed, for Zhao Mao to 'steal' away.

"You're hiding things from me!" Zhao Mao accused, but as there was no way to prove it, he always left in a huff.

Meanwhile, Wang ShanMei also had to deal with several unwanted advances from the lewd male cultivators and some senior disciples.

After all, despite everything that had happened, she remained a strikingly beautiful woman, who most of them considered easy prey.

But even without her spirit power, Wang ShanMei was a force to be reckoned with, and anyone that approached her wrongly was rarely ever left standing.

In the end, their only option was to go and report her to Xu Liling, often twisting the story so they became the victims.

Xu Liling never looked too closely at the truth, because any opportunity to punish Wang ShanMei was considered a good opportunity!

"Just what use are you to the family, if you can't even please important guests?!" Xu Liling usually complained, while punishing her.

"Do you think you're still some prized Lady or something?! You and your Trash of a son go around looking proudly at people, when you have nothing to show for it!