Song Chuyi wasn’t particularly capable. Everything she had obtained and fought for now was entirely thanks to her experiences from her previous life. She possessed the ability to foresee the future that ordinary people didn’t have. But having reached this point, her previous experience couldn’t help her much more—with her abilities, she could only go this far. Later on, she had already been thrown into an abandoned, dilapidated courtyard to barely survive. Song Chuning spoke to her and showed off to her less and less, until later Song Chuning didn’t even have the inclination to torment her anymore.
She had no other channels to know what was happening outside, barely clinging to life until the day she died. Starting from Lu Bingyuan’s matter, she was already no different from all other people in this world. Perhaps there were still some small matters she knew about, but there were far more that she didn’t know. She could only rely on herself to explore bit by bit, walking toward an unknown future on her own.
The next day Song Chuyi indeed didn’t make a fuss to disturb Old Madam Song. She kowtowed three times in the courtyard as her farewell, gazing at the gray, misty sky that only revealed a bit of pale dawn light, and sighed softly—the lamps inside the house had all been lit. She knew Old Madam Song was awake. When people grow old they fear death, and Old Madam Song was also afraid. She always said she saw her mother in her dreams. But Old Madam Song feared parting in death even more, afraid she wouldn’t live to see the day Song Chuyi returned. Entangled by Yulan, she tremblingly got up and opened the window, watching Song Chuyi’s retreating figure gradually disappear from view, her eyes suddenly becoming moist.
Song Chengru actually returned from morning court in time to catch Song Chuyi before she left and called her over, handing her several letters: “If you encounter any trouble on the road, take these letters to find people. You’re clever—I don’t need to tell you which letter is for which person.” He rarely reached out to touch Song Chuyi’s head and smiled: “I don’t have much else to instruct you about. Have a safe journey. When the weather improves in April or May, come back early. Your grandmother won’t say it, but she’s hoping for you in her heart.”
Song Chuyi pressed her lips and quietly agreed, then heard Song Chengru’s voice sound above her head again: “This time your uncle has been dispatched to Jiangxi. It’s quite chaotic there now, so I’m afraid he won’t be able to return to the capital for a while. I’ve said everything I should to him. When you return to Jinzhong, also mention it to Old Madam, and have her write him a letter.”
Cui Yingshu had always been less smooth and calculating than Cui Shaoting, someone who wholeheartedly thought of the common people. Even though he was a dignified Vice Minister of Works, he didn’t refuse to personally make a trip to Jiangxi. But post-disaster places were the hardest to go to—one misstep and you might easily go and never return. If there were achievements, that was as it should be. But if there were problems, the local officials and common people would also shift all their anger and blame onto you.
Song Chuyi understood Old Master Song’s meaning and readily agreed: “I understand, Grandfather. I’ll tell Maternal Grandmother and have her write to Uncle to advise him.”
Song Chengru couldn’t help but once again sigh at his granddaughter’s intelligence, calling out loudly for Fifth Master to come to his side so he could instruct him on matters to pay attention to on the road. Yin Yunduan took the opportunity to pull Song Chuyi aside: “Still the same old words—be careful on the road. Away from home, it’s better to have one less matter than one more. Let your Fifth Uncle take the lead in everything. Don’t you dare become the first bird to stick its head out.”
Yin Yunduan actually had somewhat of a mother’s manner. Song Chuyi saw that Song Yi was also looking earnestly toward her and Song Yan, so she smiled gently at the two of them and nodded to show she understood.
By evening they finally caught up with boarding the boats. The front boat carried Fifth Master, Song Yan, Qin Chuan, Lin Hai and others. The rear two-story boat was where Yu Shi led several young ladies in residence.
Yu Shi was somewhat uneasy. Before leaving she had also heard about the river pirate troubles and asked Song Chuyi somewhat hesitantly: “A Yan and the others on one boat, us on another boat—if something happens and we can’t look after each other from front to back, what do we do?”
Cui Huaying was leading Cui Huayi to look at the furnishings in the cabin. The boat they were taking this time was much larger and more luxurious than when they came to the capital. After looking around once, they felt the space was spacious and couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief—when they came, the boat had been terribly cramped. The two of them had practically vomited the entire way and had both lost a full circle of weight.
Just as they were about to return and tell Yu Shi about it, they heard Yu Shi say these words and couldn’t help but exchange glances—what did she mean by “if something happens”? What could possibly happen when everything was fine? They were returning to Jinzhong and had even specially hired an escort agency for protection. What could happen?
Chen Mingyu also waited anxiously in Old Madam Chen’s room, somewhat agitated as she waited for news to be delivered.
Old Madam Chen glanced at her and expressionlessly admonished: “I’ve taught you countless times—you must remain calm in all matters.”
They were waiting for news from the water route. They hadn’t thought of it before, but later heard the master from Huangjue Temple mention that on a certain stretch of road to Jinzhong, river pirates were causing serious trouble. Even the local authorities couldn’t handle them. They killed and plundered, doing everything, stopping at nothing.
The court couldn’t do anything about these people either. Every year they dispatched people to suppress the bandits, but every year the river pirates still made grand disturbances—these displaced people had perhaps tasted the sweetness and deeply felt that being river pirates was more comfortable than being ordinary commoners. They all held the idea of enjoying each day as it came and simply refused to accept amnesty.
Old Madam Chen originally hadn’t wanted to do such a thing, but after the incident at Qingxu Temple, she also had no choice but to develop the desire to kill Song Chuyi and be done with it.
Her being alive was truly too troublesome. This young lady was already quite familiar with the Imperial Grand Heir, her maternal aunt was Princess Duanhui who had been raised by the Empress, and now even the Empress quite liked her, giving her rewards identical to Chen Mingyu’s. If there really came such a day in the future, this Song Chuyi would be a formidable rival.
Better to silently eliminate her while her wings weren’t yet fully grown—how many matters had arisen because of this Sixth Young Lady Song? Even Master Yuanhui had lost his life and reputation of so many years because he read her fate. Regardless of whether this was because Song Chuyi’s fate itself was this ominous or whether the Song family had dealt with Yuanhui for her sake, in any case this Song Chuyi’s importance was considerable and she wasn’t easy to deal with. Now a ready-made opportunity had presented itself.
Chen Mingyu obediently agreed and stepped forward to massage Old Madam Chen’s shoulders, unable to resist some worry: “Grandmother, that group of monks from Huangjue Temple wants to use our hands to eliminate Sixth Young Lady Song.”
Old Madam Chen opened her eyes and glanced at Song Chuyi. She could think of this point—this was very good, much more progress than before.
“Walk the night road too many times, and you’ll eventually meet a ghost.” Old Madam Chen laughed coldly: “They shouldn’t think they can use us all as fools. Since they came to find us first in this matter, both sides must exert effort together. Dreaming if they want us to charge ahead alone!”