Ren Yaoqi had also seen the figures in the bamboo grove earlier, but because of the distance and the obscuring bamboo shadows, she hadn’t seen them very clearly. Seeing Nanny Xu say she wanted to pursue them for a look, Ren Yaoqi nodded and let her go. Ren Yaohua also had her maid Wujing follow along.
“Who could those people have been just now?” Ren Yaohua frowned and murmured to herself. She often liked to frown, so despite her young age, there were always two raised lines at her brow, giving her beautiful, small face a serious expression.
Ren Yaoqi slowly walked toward the bamboo grove, and after thinking for a moment, Ren Yaohua followed.
Spring was almost over, and many new bamboo shoots that had broken through the soil had already grown patches of tender green young leaves. On the soft, damp earth were many round holes left behind when maids and servants had come to dig bamboo shoots earlier. They didn’t dig bamboo shoots purely out of gluttony, but because this small bamboo grove wasn’t large – it was merely decorative scenery, so the density of the bamboo required careful management and couldn’t be allowed to grow wild.
The soil in this small bamboo grove was very soft, and stepping on it would leave moderately deep footprints in the earth.
Ren Yaoqi looked down thoughtfully at two rows of recently left footprints.
“These must have been left by those two people earlier,” Ren Yaohua said.
The two sets of footprints were one large and one small, both in the round-toed style of embroidered shoes commonly worn by women, so they shouldn’t have been left by men. Since it wasn’t a secret meeting between a man and a woman, why did they run when they saw them approaching?
“Let’s go to Aunt’s courtyard first. We won’t figure anything out by guessing here,” Ren Yaoqi shook her head.
“Miss, there’s only Aunt Madam’s courtyard nearby. Perhaps those two people fled to Aunt Madam’s courtyard. We can pay attention and see who acts suspicious,” Xiangqin approached and whispered.
What Xiangqin said was quite possible. Ren Yaohua nodded and hurriedly led the way to Ren Shijia’s courtyard.
Several maids and servants stood in the courtyard chatting quietly. Seeing Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua enter, they hurried forward to pay respects. Ren Yaoqi’s gaze swept over them and found they were servants Ren Shijia had brought back from the Lin family. “Did anyone walk in just now?” Ren Yaohua looked over each of their shoes and found they were all clean without any traces of mud, so she asked.
The maids and servants looked at each other strangely upon hearing this. A slightly older servant said, “Responding to Third Miss, we servants haven’t seen anyone come in. Just now there were only us few in the courtyard.”
Ren Yaohua was somewhat disappointed.
“What brings Third Miss and Fifth Miss here?” the servant asked tentatively.
Ren Yaoqi smiled: “It’s nothing. We just saw someone walking ahead of us coming this way and thought it might be one of our sisters arriving first, so we asked.”
The servant quickly said, “Earlier, Eldest Young Madam and Fourth Miss came together. After seeing the young master, they’ve already returned.”
“Then we must have seen wrong. Is Aunt still resting? Can she see visitors now?” Ren Yaoqi asked.
The servant smiled: “Madam is probably still resting. This servant will lead you two misses to see the young master – he looks so spirited.”
Ren Shijia had only given birth to the child at dawn today, so it was normal for her to still be resting at this time.
The two sisters didn’t disturb Ren Shijia but followed the servant to see the baby. Once born, the child was handed over to a wet nurse who had been prepared beforehand and didn’t live with Ren Shijia.
When Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua went over, one wet nurse, four maids, and four servants were all keeping watch in the room. The child was still sleeping with his eyes closed, his palm-sized face wrinkled and pink-colored. Like a little monkey, it was hard to see where the spirit was, and it really couldn’t be called good-looking.
Everyone in the room spoke in gentle, quiet voices. Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua were also very careful not to wake the child.
At this moment, it seemed someone else had entered from outside. Ren Yaoqi turned her head just in time to see a medium-built young man with a square chin. Seeing the visitor, Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua hurried forward to pay respects, calling out: “Uncle-in-law.”
It turned out to be Ren Shijia’s husband, Lin Kun.
Lin Kun smiled and nodded, glanced toward the child, then said softly: “Newborn children tend to sleep a lot. In a while, he’ll be able to play with you.” His words seemed to worry that Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua might find the child boring.
At this moment, the child’s small face scrunched up, and he began crying in thin, delicate sounds, apparently having woken up.
Hearing this, Lin Kun strode over to the child and gently picked him up in his arms. Generally, people believed in holding grandchildren but not sons, yet the wet nurse, maids, and servants in the room seemed unsurprised by Lin Kun’s actions.
Although Lin Kun’s posture holding the child wasn’t very practiced, it was the correct way to hold a baby, presumably having received instruction from the wet nurse. He lowered his head, smiling gently at the child in his arms, his expression very tender.
The child seemed to recognize his father’s scent. After crying delicately a few times, he stopped crying without opening his eyes, making it unclear whether he was awake or not.
Lin Kun brought the child before the two sisters, smiling patiently as he explained: “He only opened his eyes once after birth and hasn’t been willing to open them since, otherwise you could see them too. Right now, only those eyes are somewhat good-looking.”
Although Lin Kun was joking about his son’s somewhat ugly appearance after birth, his words carried the joy of being a father.
Because his tone was gentle and he didn’t put on the airs of an elder, Ren Yaohua couldn’t help but agree: “I heard Nanny Zhou say that children aren’t very good-looking when they’re first born, and their crying sounds like cats meowing. But after a few days, when their faces fill out, they become good-looking.”
Hearing this, Lin Kun’s lips curved slightly upward, and he nodded: “Mm, Third Miss is right. Then I’ll refrain from disliking him for now.”
Ren Yaohua couldn’t help but giggle, and her favorable impression of this rarely-seen uncle-in-law greatly increased.
A servant ran in happily, bowed, and said: “Son-in-law, our miss has woken up. The first thing she said was that she wanted to see the young master. This servant will carry the young master over for the miss to see.”
It turned out Ren Shijia had awakened.
Upon hearing this, Lin Kun smiled and asked: “Has she eaten? The old nanny said it would be best for her to drink a bowl of medicinal porridge after waking up.”
The servant shook her head: “Miss said she wanted to see the young master first.”
Lin Kun handed the child in his arms to the wet nurse behind him and shook his head somewhat helplessly: “I’ll go check on her. After she drinks the porridge, you can bring the child over.” This last sentence was directed at the wet nurse.
The servant should have been someone Old Madam Ren had sent to look after Ren Shijia. Seeing that Lin Kun still remembered to care for his wife at this moment, she was also pleased in her heart and didn’t oppose Lin Kun’s intention, instead agreeing: “Son-in-law is right.”
Before leaving, Lin Kun gently asked Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua, “Your aunt can’t be exposed to drafts for now, so the room isn’t well-ventilated, and you might not be comfortable. You don’t need to see her today – I’ll tell her that you came.” Though these were words of refusal, they sounded considerate to the listener.
Since Ren Shijia had just awakened because she was concerned about her newborn son, Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua wouldn’t be so tactless as to disturb her at this moment, so they nodded in agreement.
Lin Kun left again with the servant.
Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua stayed for a short while before rising to take their leave.
Walking to the door, they saw the servant who had left with Lin Kun earlier had returned – she was coming to carry the child over for Ren Shijia to see.
After the two sisters emerged, Ren Yaohua said: “Uncle-in-law is a very good person.” It was rare for Ren Yaohua to so directly praise someone with kind words.
However, Ren Yaoqi just smiled without commenting either way.
A person’s character might not have just one side. She had only met Lin Kun a few times and couldn’t easily judge this person.
After the two left the courtyard, they found that Nanny Xu and Wujing, who had earlier gone to pursue those two suspicious people, were already waiting outside the courtyard.
“How did it go? Did you find anyone?” Ren Yaohua walked over and asked quietly.
Nanny Xu sighed and shook her head: “We searched all around but didn’t discover any trace of those two people.”
Ren Yaoqi had already anticipated this result. Hearing this, she wasn’t disappointed and nodded: “Perhaps they were just two people being lazy and slacking off. Since we can’t find them, let’s forget about it.”
Although she said this, as soon as she returned to the main room of Ziwei Courtyard, Ren Yaoqi called Pingguo over: “Did you find out?”
Pingguo stepped forward and said quietly, “This servant took the measurements of those two pairs of feet to find Liu Nanny beside Eldest Young Madam. Liu Nanny found the measurements that everyone in the inner courtyard had submitted when making summer garments this time. The smaller pair of feet matched the measurements of many maids in the residence, so they couldn’t be identified. For the larger feet, because the shoe size was quite large and there was also a slight difference between the left and right foot sizes, this servant was able to investigate.”
Ren Yaohua looked at Ren Yaoqi in surprise: “When did you send her to investigate this? You can identify people from two rows of shoe prints?”
Ren Yaoqi smiled: “When I was looking at those footprints earlier, I roughly measured them with my own feet and found the size was quite large, and the two feet seemed to be different lengths. That’s when I secretly instructed her to go find the eldest sister-in-law. You were walking ahead and didn’t hear.”
Ren Yaohua glanced at Ren Yaoqi and turned to ask Pingguo: “Who was it?”
Seeing Ren Yaoqi nod to indicate she should speak, Pingguo said quietly: “There are about twenty servants in the residence with large feet, mostly from the outer courtyard or rough-work servants. In the inner courtyard, there are only six, and three people match approximately the foot size of that pair. Only one person has different left and right foot measurements – the cook in Aunt Madam’s courtyard, who people call Sister-in-law Wen. Afterward, this servant went to Aunt Madam’s courtyard again. That Sister-in-law Wen indeed only returned after you left, and today she was wearing a blue jacket.”
“It’s someone from Aunt’s courtyard?” Ren Yaohua frowned.
Ren Yaoqi remembered that Sister-in-law Wen she had seen in Ren Shijia’s courtyard who prepared medicinal meals. She was from Jiangnan and had been found for Ren Shijia by Great Aunt Fang’s family.
Ren Yaoqi had previously suspected that this Sister-in-law Wen’s timing in discovering something suspicious about Ren Shijia’s previous miscarriage was too coincidental, and she had been recommended to Ren Shijia by the Fang family. Now it seemed this cook should have some connection to Concubine Fang.