She paid the doctor for stitching up the wound on the boy’s forehead, then returned to the “employment agency” and bought the boy. When Ye Tang returned to Hedelin House, it was already dark.
Hans, who should have been waiting for Ye Tang, did not look pleased. He had already heard about Ye Tang publicly “kissing” a boy in front of everyone—while a flood of manpower poured into the “employment agency,” merchants had swooped in on Hope Road to buy up servants on the cheap. They planned to ship these servants overseas as cargo.
When the merchants heard the commotion outside, they all rushed out to watch. They happened to catch sight of Ye Tang with the two sisters, Claudia and Gloria.
Anna Rochel always wore tall, white fashionable wigs when she went out to hide her increasingly balding scalp. The merchants did not recognize her at first. It was only when the famously beautiful Claudia and Gloria called Ye Tang “Mother” that they realized the old hag who had been sucking on a little boy’s mouth was Hans’s wife.
Hans had only just mended things with his wife that morning. How could he bear to argue with Ye Tang again that evening? Besides, Cinderella had not yet entered the Hedelin House.
Mocked by his peers, Hans felt as if he had swallowed a fly. Now, facing Ye Tang, who had truly brought back a pretty little boy, Hans had a hundred thousand words of blame and complaints in his heart but did not know if he dared to voice them.
“My love, you’re back? You came back so late; I was so worried about you…”
Worried about her? More like worried about his own reputation, right?
In Soho District, everything spread fast—including the speed of rumors.
Ye Tang had a clear conscience and was not afraid of what Hans had heard outside. She was even less afraid of Hans divorcing her on grounds of her “infidelity”—in fact, if Hans would divorce her over something so trivial, she would go out right now and have someone set off signal fireworks to celebrate.
“Is that so, dear? Thank you so much for worrying about me.”
His wife was clearly thanking him, yet Hans detected a sarcastic undertone.
“By the way, dear, what’s that at your feet… a cage and… a little tree? What’s in the cage? Where’s Cinderella?”
Hans instinctively moved his right foot away from the pigeon cage. The moment Ye Tang mentioned Cinderella, he felt he had lost face.
—After her mother Ivy died, Cinderella’s emotional state had been extremely poor. At first, she threw herself on her mother’s bed and cried. After her mother was buried, she went to her mother’s grave every day to cry.
To soothe Cinderella, Hans asked what she wanted. Cinderella mumbled something about the first tree branch that had touched his hat.
Cinderella’s request was so bizarre that it sent a chill down Hans’s spine. He began to suspect that Ivy, who raised and sold pigeons, was actually a witch disguised as a pigeon girl. From there, he concluded that Ivy must have been a witch—otherwise, why would he, a man like him, end up with a lowly pigeon girl like Ivy and even let her give birth to Cinderella?
Ivy must have passed on her witch’s mantle to Cinderella before dying, which was why Cinderella had become so strange and mumbling.
If Cinderella was a witch, he could not send her to be a little noble’s mistress. After all, if the noble discovered Cinderella was a witch, she would surely be executed. And as her father, he would likely be implicated by his daughter.
…But wait a minute?
If Cinderella really was a witch, wouldn’t that be even better? She could use witchcraft to firmly capture the noble’s heart and climb up step by step. That way, she might not only become the noble’s mistress but even his wife! And bear the noble’s children!
Delightfully imagining life as the noble’s father-in-law, Hans agreed to Cinderella’s request and brought her back the first tree branch that had touched his hat—a small beech tree branch.
This made Cinderella’s behavior look even more like that of a witch.
She went to her mother’s grave three times a day to cry, and each time, her tears dripped precisely onto the beech tree branch. The rootless beech branch grew every day and soon took the shape of a little tree. At this point, Hans was determined: he had to bring Cinderella home and cultivate her into a useful pawn.
Cinderella was obedient at first. When Hans told her to go, she went.
To help Cinderella the little witch properly advance in the secret arts her mother had mastered, Hans dug up that miraculous little beech tree and packed up all the pigeons that Ivy had cared for with Cinderella during her lifetime, taking them all away together.
Since he still needed to persuade Anna Rochel and get her permission for Cinderella to enter Hedelin House, Hans had Cinderella stay in a roadside inn first after arriving in the capital.
Of course, Cinderella’s luggage was also temporarily stored in her inn room.
It was then that Cinderella saw the little beech tree peeking out of the sack and the dozens of pigeons crammed into one cage.
Cinderella let out an extremely shrill scream.
Hans had already gone downstairs by then. Busy with heading home to persuade his wife, he ignored his daughter’s scream, assuming she was just venting her emotions.
Who knew that when he returned to the inn after getting Ye Tang’s approval, not only had Cinderella barricaded herself inside and refused to come out, but she had also blocked the door with furniture.
The innkeeper would not allow Hans to break down the door, and Hans did not want to pay compensation to the innkeeper. In the end, Hans could not bring Cinderella back and could only hug the little beech tree and pigeon cage that Cinderella had thrown into the corridor as he returned to Hedelin House.
“Cinderella… she doesn’t seem ready to meet her new mother and new sisters yet.”
With a stiff smile, Hans explained, “I brought back these things she treasures first and set them out… I believe Cinderella will come around soon and follow me back to this home.”
“Is that so?”
Was Cinderella the type to act like that? Ye Tang recalled the original story of Cinderella.
The Cinderella in the original tale was a girl with strong mental fortitude and endurance, but also great initiative and decisiveness.
Avoiding meeting her stepmother and stepsisters did not seem like something Cinderella would do.
But fairy tales and reality always differed. At this stage, she had not actually met Cinderella in person, so she should not judge what kind of person Cinderella was.
“So, dear, what are you still doing here?”
Ye Tang feigned concern. “Cinderella is only a few months younger than Lia; she’s still a child. Suddenly facing so many changes, that child must be very uneasy, right?”
“What you should be doing most right now is accompanying Cinderella, who just lost her mother and is anxious about her new life, new environment, new mother, and new sisters. Isn’t that so?”
“No… I, uh—”
Hans wanted to retort, but Ye Tang stepped forward, took his hand, and said sincerely, “Dear, I don’t blame Cinderella. The child is innocent. But as her stepmother, if Cinderella doesn’t trust me, suddenly going to pick her up would probably scare her too…”
“You are her blood-related father. Compared to someone with no blood ties like me, Cinderella surely trusts you more. So, dear, you have to help me persuade Cinderella to come home soon.”
Ye Tang’s voice turned cold, and like a Sichuan opera face-change, she switched to a vicious and terrifying expression. “Otherwise, if word gets out, people will think I’m not letting Cinderella come home, won’t they?”
Hans was stunned. First, he saw Claudia and Gloria behind Ye Tang, then he noticed the seven maids and one boy Ye Tang had brought home.
Realizing that Ye Tang’s earlier words were for the others to hear, deliberately shaping her image as a virtuous wife and loving mother in front of people, Hans immediately understood that the latter sentence was what his wife truly meant—she was not as magnanimous as she claimed; what she cared about was always her own reputation.
“My love, you’re right.”
False emotions met false intentions. With a deeply moved expression, Hans gripped Ye Tang’s hand back and nodded. “It’s rare for you to think so much of Cinderella. I’ll go persuade her to come home right now!”
“Mm, dear, don’t worry about me, Dia, and Lia. During this time, you must properly accompany Cinderella until you persuade her to come home.”
Ye Tang’s subtext was: If Cinderella doesn’t come, don’t bother coming back yourself.
—Cinderella was innocent, but Hans was not. She was willing to support one more Cinderella, but she had no intention of living under the same roof as a scum like Hans.
If he could, Hans really wanted to bite his gums until they bled. But he also cared about his face.
With false emotion on his face, Hans said, “Alright, my love. I will definitely let Cinderella know how much her new mother ‘values’ her!”
Hans left, of course without taking the little beech tree or the pigeon cage.
Ye Tang shook her head, told the maids to close the door properly, then instructed them to bathe, change clothes, and settle the still-unconscious little boy.
“Dia, Lia. You two go have dinner first.”
While Ye Tang and her daughters were out, Mrs. Emma, the servant woman left at Hedelin House, had already prepared dinner. Claudia and Gloria were still growing, and Ye Tang did not want the two sisters to go hungry, so she told them to eat first.
“Mother, what about you?”
“I’ll put these things away and join you for dinner.”
As Ye Tang answered Claudia, she picked up the pigeon cage in her left hand and the little beech tree in her right.
“Then let me help Mama… cough, I mean Mother. It’s lighter for two people to carry!”
Gloria was still young and accidentally slipped into childish language that was not ladylike. Seeing Ye Tang pick up the little beech tree, she hurried over to help Ye Tang hold it.
“Then I’ll help you open the door! Mother and Lia are holding things; it’s inconvenient to open doors, right?”
Ye Tang would not refuse her sensible daughters’ help. The mother and daughters chatted and laughed as they headed to the backyard.