by Ning er
These thoughts had manifested themselves in the old madam’s speech and tone, as she spat angrily, “Get up early to pay respects? Is there any yiniang who waits until it is almost noon before they come over to pay respects? Is she paying respects in the morning or in the afternoon? Or is it morning and afternoon all in one go? If Su yiniang thinks that an old woman like me doesn’t deserve your respect, then I’ll tell laoye, and let you stay in Feng He Yuan for the rest of your life!”
Su Qing’s face blanched at the old madam’s taunt. Her teeth bit down on her lower lip before she managed to force herself to smile, and pleasantly said, “What is laotaitai saying? This was all nubi’s fault, nubi just slept late last night and was late to wake up today! nubi won’t make this mistake again in the future. laotaitai, please don’t tell laoye about this!”
Yun Qian Meng saw Su Qing lower herself like that and also helped to plead for her case. She looked at Su Qing with warm eyes as she told the old madam, “zumu, Su yiniang already admitted her mistake. Please forgive her just this once!”
At Yun Qian Meng’s earnest plea, Su Qing raised her head in disbelief, sending a searching gaze towards Yun Qian Meng!
But Yun Qian Meng had already retrieved her gaze, and was smiling as she suggested to the old madam, “If zumu is worried that Su yiniang will make the same mistake again, why don’t you train her for two months? Every day, have her come and greet you at five o’clock in the morning, twelve at noon, then five o’clock in the evening again! What does zumu think about this?”
When Su Qing heard Yun Qian Meng’s suggestion, she felt like she almost couldn’t breathe. Her eyes were suddenly filled with burning rage as she almost wished she could burn Yun Qian Meng to death with her glare!
Of course this wretched little slut did not have any good intentions!
At first she only needed to pay respects every morning and night. But how clever! She wanted her to come to Bai Shun Tang and pay respects three times a day! And each of these times were planned so precisely; if it wasn’t the first thing in the morning, it was at lunch or at dinner. If she came at these times, the old madam would naturally hate her even more!
Su Qing racked her brains to think up a countermeasure, but before she could respond, Rui mama who had returned to the old madam’s side spoke first.
Rui mama only bent her waist and smiled towards Yun Qian Meng as she said, “da xiaojie might not know, but the old madam won’t be awake at five o’clock in the morning! If Su yiniang came at that hour, won’t it disturb laotaitai’s rest?”
At these words, Yun Qian Meng seemed a little embarrassed as she frowned. After thinking for a moment, she suddenly exclaimed happily, “zumu, how about this? Just let Su yiniang kowtow three times outside Bai Shun Tang, and consider that her greeting. That way, it won’t disturb zumu’s rest!”
When the old madam heard her idea, she nodded and smiled with satisfaction. She then turned and told Su Qing, “This is good! It will help cure your laziness and also teach you some respect. Go back first, remember to come pay respects at noon!”
Su Qing only felt strength leaving from her legs. Her body slightly swayed as she forced down her belly full of rage. Bowing with an unsteady expression, she turned and left the room.
When she was outside Bai Shun Tang, Su Qing’s expression suddenly changed. Looking gloomy as can be, she looked up at the blazing sunlight with eyes that were filled with a bone-chilling expression!
“furen, let’s go back!” Wang mama had been forced to stay outside just now and did not have a clue about what had happened inside. Noticing that Su Qing’s expression was not right, and afraid that the old madam’s people would catch sight of it, she rushed over to support her and planned to ask about the situation after they had returned to Feng He Yuan.
But Su Qing just pushed away Wang mama’s hand and steadied herself, coldly smiling as she said, “Go back? Go back to where? It’s already half past nine! In another hour and a half, we need to come and pay respects again! That old woman is just trying to torment me, but I won’t let things go according to her wishes so easily!”
Wang mama saw Su Qing’s expression and figured that she had definitely suffered under the old madam, and momentarily felt indignant as well.
Su Qing then swept a glance at the servant girls behind Wang mama and noticed that one of them was missing, so she asked quietly, “Did Lü He go to send Xue’er her lunch?”
Hearing Su Qing’s question, Wang mama carefully nodded, but asked with a bit of worry, “furen, the ancestral hall might be clean, but er xiaojie is a precious daughter of the xiangfu, always living a life of luxury from birth, how can she endure that kind of destitute lifestyle? Lü He told me before she went that, just after these few days, er xiaojie has already lost a lot of weight!”
Hearing this, Su Qing’s eyes flashed with a tender expression. However, knowing that the old madam was paying close attention to her, she had to watch her step at all times. She couldn’t make any more mistakes, otherwise, not only would she be unable to help Xue’er, she might even be punished to go in there herself!
After thinking for a while, she still couldn’t feel at ease about Yun Ruo Xue, so she whispered a few things into Wang mama’s ear. Wang mama carefully listened while nodding her head. The master and servant exchanged a few more whispers before they finally separated.
Su Qing saw that it was almost noon, so she left Wang mama behind and brought a few of the yatou with her into Bai Shun Tang. Just as she stepped into the courtyard, she saw Rui mama standing guard at the doorway. As soon as they saw each other, she had planted herself at the door, blocking Su Qing’s path!
“What does mama want?” When Su Qing saw that even a mama dared to stand in her way, she was immediately angry. But, one had to pay heed to the owner before beating a dog. She could only forcefully hold back her rage and ask in a pleasant manner.
Rui mama was an old maid that had followed the old madam for a long time. She had clearly seen the suffering that Su Qing had caused to the old madam many years ago, and was very clear about Su Qing’s insidious two-faced nature. She naturally would not be fooled by Su Qing’s amiable mask!
Rui mama only remained expressionless and solemnly said, “laotaitai asks Su yiniang to kowtow here in greeting.”
A glint of hatred flashed across Su Qing’s eyes. As quickly as it had come and gone, it still didn’t escape the sharp-eyed Rui mama’s attention……
But Rui mama did not change her tone or expression and continued to urge her, “yiniang should quickly kowtow! laonu still needs to return to serve lunch to laotaitai!”
Su Qing tightly grit her teeth and gripped her fists. Still, without a choice, she could only slowly kneel under Rui mama’s close watch, and, on the paved limestone path, kowtow in Rui mama’s direction three times.
Rui mama didn’t waste any time on pleasantries and, without a word, quickly turned to leave. She hadn’t even spared a proper glance at Su Qing, causing her to tremble in rage before returning to Feng He Yuan under the yatou’s support.
Wang mama returned to Feng He Yuan and notied that it was unusually quiet. Feeling that something was up, she quickly entered the main room. She saw that Su Qing had a wet handkerchief on her forehead and was lying on the bed with an ugly expression. Terrified, Wang mama immediately rushed forward and grasped Su Qing’s hand, asking with concern, “furen, what happened? Why are you so angry?”
Su Qing’s eyes showed a violent light, as she hatefully said, “Today’s grudge, I will definitely return tenfold to Yun Qian Meng and those people!”
However, Su Qing’s words had just fallen when Lü He had run into the room in a panic. She pointed towards the door while yelling intermittently, “furen… furen……”
Wang mama saw Lü He’s useless appearance and stepped forward and gave her a slap before angrily saying, “What are you doing? Can’t you see that furen is feeling ill? You actually dare to make such a big muss, do you not want to live any more?”
Lü He suffered a slap for no reason and felt very wronged. She momentarily forgot the reason she had come, and only clutched at her burning cheeks as she cried.
Su Qing saw that she had run over instead of carefully taking care of Yun Ruo Xue at the ancestral hall and momentarily felt panicked. She didn’t care about her own body and immediately sat up, asking sternly, “Quickly tell me what happened!”
At the moment, Su Qing’s body was emitting waves of cold. Her chilling expression frightened Lü He to the point where she retreated a few steps before stammering, “furen, da xiaojie suddenly went to the ancestral hall!”
“What?!” Wang mama momentarily lost control and shouted out. Realizing her impropriety, she hurriedly shut her mouth and looked at Su Qing. Then, noticed that Su Qing had already gotten up, she hurried over to stop her, saying, “furen, your body is not well, let laonu go instead!”
But Su Qing shook her head and commanded, “Help me change into the pale blue skirt. Lü He, come over here to help me do my hair!”
The both of them heard her orders and immediately started to work. In just about five minutes, Su Qing brought them along to rush towards the ancestral hall.
On the way, they saw that Rui mama, the old madam and Liu Han Yu were all heading towards the ancestral hall. Su Qing had no choice and could only pay her respects to the old madam and follow behind them!
Currently, in the ancestral hall, it was unusually lively. Quite a bit of food had fallen onto the mats in the ancestral hall. Yun Ruo Xue was just glaring directly into Yun Qian Meng’s eyes, pointing at the food on the floor and scolding, “You jinx, you cursed your mother to die when you were born, and now you come to spoil my lunch? Why don’t you just die?!”
Yun Ruo Xue dared to scold her older di sister so loudly only because the ancestral hall was usually one of the most remote places in the xiangfu. And at the moment, only she and Yun Qian Meng were in the ancestral hall; these words would probably never spread to the old madam or her father’s ears!
However, Yun Qian Meng was already immune to that level of swearing. She instead lightly smiled as she looked at the spilled food. There was some Eight Treasures Wild Duck, Kung Pao Wild Rabbit, Soy Marinated Quail, Oyster Sauce Sirloin and Pheasant Swallow’s Nest. All of these were premium dishes which would make anyone drool!
But this was the ancestral hall, a place for peaceful and abstinent self-reflection. For Yun Ruo Xue to gorge herself with such a big feast here, it was evidently enormously rude towards the ancestors!
Yet right now, she still didn’t know how to restrain herself and even wanted to argue with her about it. It could be seen that Yun Ruo Xue was just an empty vessel that had a good appearance!
However, since Yun Ruo Xue was being unkind, Yun Qian Meng didn’t feel any particular need to hold back!
Yun Qian Meng counted the time that Rui mama had gone to invite the old madam and reckoned that they would arrive soon. So, she kindly raised the plates in her hand and said, “meimei misunderstood me! jiejie was just worried that meimei can’t get used to the plain food in the ancestral hall, so I asked zumu to prepare and send over some delicious vegetarian food! I didn’t expect to interrupt meimei’s meal, it’s really jiejie’s fault! Why don’t you have some of jiejie’s food. You absolutely can’t starve yourself, that will be disrespectful to our anscestors!”
As she spoke, Yun Qian Meng walked forward carefully without stepping on the spilled food and came to the table by Yun Ruo Xue’s bed. She opened the lunchbox and arranged the vegetarian food on the table before placing down the chopsticks. Then, she smiled and moved to Yun Ruo Xue’s side, intending to help her over……
But Yun Ruo Xue was currently in a foul mood. When she saw that Yun Qian Meng was making a decision for her, she suddenly moved and forcefully pushed Yun Qian Meng aside……
Crash! The food arranged on the table fell onto the floor noisily. Yun Qian Meng’s arm had also knocked against the edge of the table; a trace of fresh blood dripping onto the ground from the wound!
Woosh! Right at this moment, the large doors to ancestral hall had suddenly been pushed apart. Yun Ruo Xue raised her head to look, but only saw the old madam rush over with an angry face. Without questioning, she had immediately given Yun Ruo Xue a huge slap, sending Yun Ruo Xue to the floor with her face slanted to the right, momentarily stunned into silence!
The old madam didn’t spare her another look and immediately moved to Yun Qian Meng’s side and tenderly helped her up, lifting her sleeves to inspect the wound/
Seeing the finger-long cut on Yun Qian Meng’s spotless white skin, the old madam’s rage intensified as she immediately shouted, “Are you all dead? Quickly go and find a physician! If anything happens to da xiaojie, none of you need to stay around any more!”
Nobody dared to delay as they all rushed outside in a flurry……
Su Qing saw her own daughter get slapped and had immediately rushed beside Yun Ruo Xue. Seeing her daughter’s swollen cheeks, she felt the pain of a mother and tenderly pulled the still dazed Yun Ruo Xue into her embrace.
Mi mama and Mu Chun also rushed beside Yun Qian Meng with crying expressions. Carefully lifting her arm, they urgently took out a handkerchief and helped her wrap up the wound.
The two of them were earnestly concerned for Yun Qian Meng. Seeing the relatively large wound, they were extremely worried. The most important thing for a woman’s body was to have spotless and flawless skin. Even though their young miss had only injured her arm, it was still damaging to her beauty. If it left a scar, it would be considered a physical defect; making it difficult for her to find marriage in the future!
Yun Qian Meng saw their pained expressions and thought that they were only feeling injustice for her. Who would have known that the master and her servants had completely different thoughts?
However, to Yun Qian Meng who had already passed through a path raining with bullets, this matter was just a piece of cake. After Mi mama and Mu Chun had finished dressing her wound, she let down her sleeves and worriedly clutched the old madam’s arm. She pointed to the food that had fallen on the mats and explained, “zumu, don’t get angry! This was Meng’er’s fault, it was Meng’er’s mistake! I didn’t think that meimei would be having her lunch, so I had startled her! zumu, please don’t be angry any more. If zumu’s health is affected, Meng’er cannot atone for this mistake!”
The old madam was already heaving in anger. Hearing Yun Qian Meng’s explanation, she only felt that Yun Ruo Xue was nothing good, exactly like her mother!
As the old madam glanced at the dishes that had fallen onto the mats, her face suddenly turned ashen. She shouted abruptly, “Mi mama, properly support da xiaojie!”
Everyone was shocked by the old madam’s sudden imposing shout. Mi mama also immediately moved over and carefully helped Yun Qian Meng up.
The old madam then walked before Yun Ruo Xue and said with a cold smile, “Your father punished you to reflect in the ancestral hall, but you were actually enjoying yourself with a feast here! Showing such disrespect to our ancestors, are you deliberately provoking our ancestors to punish us? No wonder your father has yet to rise to a noble rank, turns out it was because he was raising an ingrate like you! He really wasted his affection on you! I can’t believe that the person holding him back was his own daughter!”
The old madam’s words were like knives that sharply stabbed at Yun Ruo Xue’s face. All the color drained from her face as her eyes suddenly filled with terror!
How could she have expected that just having her usual favorite meals in the ancestral hall would be elevated into an obstruction of her father’s political career by the old madam?
She also couldn’t figure out why there were no problems over the past few days. But today, at lunch, Yun Qian Meng had just happened to barge in. And the yatou standing guard at the door had not given her any warning!
She also only pushed Yun Qian Meng a bit, how was it enough to cause her to fall, let alone inj
ure her arm?! And all of this just happened to be seen by the old madam!
Yun Ruo Xue was completely baffled. She really didn’t understand, really didn’t know anything. She only felt that she was being wronged, only felt that she was being treated with the greatest injustice. Her grandmother must be making things more severe just because she didn’t like her!
Yun Ruo Xue was somewhat regretful now. She shouldn’t have acted out on a whim and push Yun Qian Meng just because there was no one around in the ancestral hall.
She was completely speechless and didn’t know how to start to explain.
Su Qing saw that her daughter had been shocked silly. She could only kneel and beg the old madam, “laotaitai, you’ve accused er xiaojie wrongly! er xiaojie has always been obedient and sensible, how could she do something like sneaking food? This must be the servants fault for coercing her, dragging er xiaojie into harm! laotaitai must investigate carefully and can’t wrognly accuse er xiaojie! Besides, now that everything in the fu is handled by Liu yiniang, we don’t even know if she has been docking food from er xiaojie. laotaitai, please investigate clearly!”
Hearing Su Qing’s explanation, the servants that were standing behind her immediately began to fear for themselves. In particular, Lü He, who was tasked with sending her the food, felt the color in her face drain away!
Liu yiniang who was suddenly dragged into the mud by Su Qing also suddenly had an ugly expression. She only urgently looked at the old madam, worried that she would really investigate her. After all, as Su Qing had said, she really did reduce Yun Ruo Xue’s food!
However, the old madam only laughed coldly after she heard this. She then retorted, “She pushed Meng’er down, how is that not looking down on her older sister? Meng’er is also the eldest di daughter! Where else can you find a concubine’s daughter that will dare to treat their older sister like this? Su yiniang, you really taught your daughter well! With such horrible morality and conduct, how are we supposed to pair her off in the future? Won’t she just cause the xiangfu to lose all its face?”
