Though the room was already in complete disarray, Old Madam Qi had sharp eyes. She paid no attention to how the Zhao family girl and the Fang family girl had fought, but immediately spotted the garment on the ground.
A man’s garment, which she vaguely remembered Jingchen having worn before.
Old Madam Qi’s expression immediately changed, and Fu Rong beside her also noticed it, inconspicuously glancing toward Shen Xiling, who was covered in injuries from Zhao Yao’s attack. That orphan girl had probably also noticed everyone was looking at that garment—her face, already scratched with several bloody marks by Zhao Yao, was now deathly pale.
Fu Rong’s face remained calm and unruffled, but she let out a quiet laugh in her heart.
Tsk, what an unexpected delight.
Old Madam Qi had the old women beside her take both Shen Xiling and Zhao Yao away. From the direction they headed, it appeared they were going to the old lady’s Rongrui Hall.
Zijun and the other maids weren’t allowed to accompany Shen Xiling. They watched helplessly as she was taken away but were blocked by Old Madam Qi’s old women from following. Now they could only remain guarding the mess on the ground, looking at each other speechlessly, at a loss.
Fengshang kept covering her face and crying softly, while Zijun couldn’t help but secretly wipe away tears. Shuipei felt both panicked and distressed, lamenting that their young miss had always been well-behaved and proper since entering the Qi mansion—she didn’t know what misfortune had befallen them to encounter such a wretched affair.
After thinking for a moment, she suddenly seemed to remember something. Her eyes lit up as she hurriedly got up from the ground and ran toward the door. Seeing her like this, Zijun quickly grabbed her and asked: “What are you going to do?”
Shuipei turned back, her face showing urgency but also joy in her eyes, answering: “To find Madam! The young master said that if anything happened to young miss, Madam would protect her.”
When Yao Shi hurriedly arrived at Rongrui Hall, it was already half an hour later.
As soon as she entered, she saw the old lady sitting on the bed-couch in the hall drinking tea, with Fu Rong sitting beside her massaging her shoulders. Both Yao’er and Wenwen were kneeling in the hall below—the former had disheveled hair and was sobbing intermittently, while the latter kept her head lowered without speaking, her expression unreadable, neither crying nor making a sound.
Qi Third and Qi Fourth were also there, both sitting in chairs to the side with expressions as silent as cicadas. The entire hall was perfectly quiet—even a pin dropping would be clearly audible.
Yao Shi surveyed this scene and roughly understood the situation. After entering the hall and paying respects to Old Madam Qi, she sat down on the other side of the bed-couch as the old lady intended, feigning a relaxed manner as she asked: “What’s happening here? Why are both Yao’er and Wenwen kneeling?”
Though Yao Shi asked this, she had actually already heard the general situation from Shuipei before coming—knowing that Yao’er had gotten into a dispute with Wenwen over the cheating incident at the study hall. However, Shuipei had been somewhat panicked when telling her, so the account wasn’t very clear. Yao Shi felt she should still listen to the old lady’s version.
Zhao Yao, kneeling below in the hall, naturally assumed her aunt had come to rescue her when she saw Yao Shi arrive. Feeling quite pleased, she instinctively crawled forward on her knees toward Yao Shi, but was swept by the old lady’s cold glance and immediately shrank back in fright. Shen Xiling showed no reaction—she probably hadn’t expected anyone to stand up for her and continued keeping her head down in silence.
Old Madam Qi placed her teacup on the small table, looking somewhat weary as she said: “I’m rather tired—Rong’er, you tell your aunt about it.”
Hearing this, Fu Rong respectfully replied “Yes,” then turned to greet Yao Shi before saying with apparent difficulty: “Sigh, there’s really nothing much to say about this matter—it was just the two sisters playing around and getting carried away.”
She glanced lightly at the two kneeling in the hall below, her eyes seemingly showing worry and pity as she continued: “Yesterday at the study hall, both sisters were punished by Teacher Wang for some reason, so they were probably feeling upset. Today they got into a scuffle, but things went a bit too far—everything else is nothing serious, except…”
This first half, which downplayed the major incident and minimized the minor one, greatly satisfied Zhao Yao who was kneeling below. Though she normally found Fu Rong quite disagreeable, hearing her now conceal the cheating matter made her think Fu Rong was being sensible. However, the sudden “except” in the latter half made her heart leap to her throat, fearing that Fu Rong might not handle praise well and turn against her at this crucial moment.
Fortunately, Fu Rong didn’t care about Zhao Yao’s existence at all, considering her merely a noisy and insignificant person.
The one she cared about was Shen Xiling.
After Fu Rong’s “except,” her gaze seemingly casually swept toward the long fur coat on the ground. Following her glance, Yao Shi noticed there was a man’s outer garment lying on the floor of the hall.
At first glance, Yao Shi didn’t recognize it as Qi Ying’s clothing, so she was somewhat puzzled, not understanding how a dispute and fight between two young girls could involve a piece of clothing. She looked confused and asked: “This…”
As soon as she spoke, she saw Wenwen, kneeling below, shrink slightly and bury her head even lower. Feeling increasingly strange with an ominous premonition, she heard Fu Rong say: “Aunt doesn’t know—this clothing should be Second Brother’s, but this morning, Sister Wenwen was found sleeping wrapped in it…”
Yao Shi was shocked to hear this. Looking more carefully at the garment, it did seem familiar—it truly appeared to be Jingchen’s.
Immediately, Yao Shi understood everything.
She had originally thought she only needed to come mediate a fight between two young girls, never expecting there was such a case behind it. Though Yao Shi was gentle-natured and disliked conflict, she was actually clear-eyed and sharp-minded. She had long seen that the old lady intended to promote Fu Rong and wanted her to become her grandson’s wife. Now, seizing upon this garment matter, the old lady’s real intention wasn’t the superficial issue—she wanted to use this incident to deal with Wenwen and clear the path for Rong’er.
Because Yao Shi came from a minor official family background, she had never been favored by Old Madam Qi in her youth. Only in recent years, thanks to Jingchen’s achievements, had she as his mother gained some face before the old lady.
Normally, Yao Shi truly wouldn’t want to interfere in matters the old lady intended to handle personally. However, more than half a month ago when Jingchen left Jiankang, he had specifically entrusted her to look after Wenwen. Her son was naturally aloof and rarely asked her to handle anything—she couldn’t very well mess up this one thing he had entrusted to her.
Moreover…
Yao Shi glanced at Shen Xiling, who was kneeling with her head down. Though she kept her eyes downcast, her body was trembling slightly, probably unable to bear these invisible humiliations. At this moment she was enduring everyone’s piercing stares, and after all, she hadn’t done anything truly outrageous. Yao Shi felt sorry for her.
Very well, she would interfere in this matter.
As she was considering what to say, she saw Qi Le, who had been sitting to the side, suddenly jump up and run to his grandmother’s bed-couch, pleading with a downcast face: “Grandmother, the sisters have been kneeling for a long time. Why don’t you let them stand up to speak—they’re both girls and both injured. How can they keep kneeling? Please don’t make them kneel anymore…”
Though Old Madam Qi had reached the benevolent age of enjoying grandchildren, she truly only doted on the two legitimate grandsons, Qi Yun and Qi Ying. Qi Ning and Qi Le were concubine-born and weren’t much favored by her, so Qi Le’s pleas naturally couldn’t move the old lady.
Seeing his grandmother’s stern face remaining unmoved, Qi Le pressed his lips together, stepped back, and said in a smaller voice: “Then… could grandmother at least let Yao’er stand up first? We’re currently discussing Sister Wenwen and Second Brother’s matter, which has nothing to do with her…”
His voice grew smaller and smaller, probably feeling somewhat guilty toward Sister Wenwen in his heart. But… there was no helping it. He had grown up with Zhao Yao after all, so he was naturally closer to her. Now that Zhao Yao was in conflict with Shen Xiling, he would definitely protect the former.
Zhao Yao normally didn’t think much of Qi Le, but at this moment he was the only one speaking up for her, making her feel gratefully toward him. She secretly decided that once this ordeal was over, she would never be distant from him again.
Unfortunately, Old Madam Qi wasn’t easily fooled. She neither doted on Zhao Yao nor cared about Qi Le. Hearing this, she merely said indifferently: “Jingkang, this doesn’t concern you. Go sit down.”
Grandmother’s expression was very cold. Though Qi Le was eager to protect Zhao Yao, he couldn’t change the old lady’s mind. After hesitating for a moment, he could only slink back to his seat dejectedly.
Qi Le’s interruption diverted the conversation for a few sentences, but the atmosphere in the hall remained tense. Yao Shi secretly sighed, glanced at Old Madam Qi’s expression, considered for a moment, then smiled slightly and turned to continue the previous conversation with Fu Rong: “What big matter is this? Wenwen was brought home by Jingchen in the first place. Children naturally grow close to Jingchen—it’s perfectly normal.”
Fu Rong smiled with pressed lips without responding, while Old Madam Qi laughed coldly, glancing at Shen Xiling below and saying: “That Fang family girl is already twelve years old, isn’t she? Truth be told, she can hardly be called a child anymore.”
Seeing Shen Xiling’s small hands clench tightly upon hearing this, Yao Shi felt even more sorry for her.
She could actually see that the young girl might have some admiration for Jingchen, but she didn’t think there was anything improper about it. At such a budding age, it was natural for romantic feelings to begin stirring—nothing strange about it. However, having Old Lady Qi say this in front of everyone was truly too harsh for a young girl.
She was about to say something conciliatory when she heard the old lady continue: “Our Qi family bears the reputation of being Jiangzuo’s foremost noble house, so naturally everything must be done thoroughly and properly to avoid becoming a laughingstock. That Minister Fang did indeed have kindness toward Jingchen and should certainly be repaid, but beyond that, I don’t think there need be anything more.”
Old Madam Qi glanced at Yao Shi, then looked toward Shen Xiling: “Fang family girl, lift your head.”
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone’s gaze in Rongrui Hall focused on Shen Xiling. Seeing that she couldn’t steady the old lady, Yao Shi could only follow everyone else in looking over. She saw the thin young girl shrink slightly, then slowly raise her head.
When she lifted her head, Yao Shi was greatly shocked! She had originally thought Wenwen hadn’t been seriously hurt, never expecting Yao’er to have struck so viciously, scratching several bloody marks on Wenwen’s face and leaving purple fingerprints on her neck!
How could this still be called children fighting! Even ruffians causing trouble in the marketplace wouldn’t go much further than this!
No matter how gentle-natured Yao Shi was, seeing such a scene she couldn’t help but look reproachfully at Zhao Yao. Zhao Yao knew she was in the wrong and timidly lowered her head, not daring to meet her aunt’s eyes.
Old Madam Qi cared nothing about what happened to Zhao Yao. She only assessed Shen Xiling for a moment, a flash of contempt passing through her eyes as she thought this Fang family girl was indeed a beautiful child—but perhaps precisely because of this, she had developed improper thoughts she shouldn’t have.
The old lady snorted lightly, looking into Shen Xiling’s eyes and speaking slowly, word by word: “Child, you’re still young, and your parents unfortunately died early. There are probably many principles you don’t understand yet, with no one to teach you. Now that you’re being fostered in the Qi family, this old woman must bear the burden and can teach you these principles of human conduct on behalf of your deceased parents.”
Old Madam Qi spoke heavily, mentioning Shen Xiling’s deceased parents—each word piercing like thorns into the heart. Yet she herself was completely unaware of how cruel these words were to the girl, continuing her lecture: “People living in this world all have difficulties. As long as one has functioning ears and eyes, can see and hear, one inevitably develops greedy desires and longings—this is human nature and can’t be considered wrong. But after these desires arise, not all of them can be fulfilled. There are always some things you must see clearly and let go of—if you can’t see clearly or let go, and insist on clinging to these desires, that becomes foolishness, that becomes wrong.”
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**Author’s Note:** They’ll meet next update or the update after that.