Tu Hua returned to the Tu Residence. As soon as she stepped down from the carriage, she spotted a small figure lingering outside the gates.
It was a girl of about ten. Though her clothes were not made from the fabrics currently fashionable in the Capital City, they bore no patches, nor were they coarse hemp garments.
Her family seemed reasonably well-off, but she probably was not especially favored at home.
Tu Hua asked the maid beside her whether she knew the little girl.
The maid shook her head.
"Little girl, have you come to the Tu Residence to visit relatives?"
Unable to bear watching the girl agonize any longer, Tu Hua walked over and asked her gently.
The little girl probably had not expected anyone to approach her and ask questions. Tu Hua's voice startled her.
Once she had steadied herself, she blinked her clear eyes, which looked like black grapes.
She felt rather embarrassed about what she was about to say.
In terms of kinship, the little girl did indeed have a connection to Lord Tu.
Her mother was an older female cousin of Lord Tu's mother, though the two families had not visited each other for many years.
Only when word that Lord Tu had become an official in the capital reached their hometown did his mother's older cousin, who lived in the hometown's market town, begin mentioning this relative every day.
The little girl was called Qin Xiaowu, and she was the fifth daughter in her family.
Qin Father had always ignored his daughters, while Qin Mother was wholly intent on bearing a son.
The five girls had essentially grown up with the older ones raising the younger ones, each looking after the next.
Qin Grandmother had three sons, and only Qin Xiaowu's father had no