In the afternoon, when Zhou Shaojin returned from the Cold Jade Mountain Room, Shi Xiang told her that the socks had been delivered to the Small Mountain Osmanthus Courtyard: “…Miss Ji Ying accepted them and even gave me two pieces of gold-threaded handkerchiefs.”

A single gold-threaded handkerchief would cost several taels of silver—Ji Ying was quite generous with her gifts.

Zhou Shaojin snorted coldly in her heart, feeling that this way they were even with each other.

Unexpectedly, early the next morning, Ji Ying had someone deliver crystal cakes and assorted tofu pudding, and had the little maid who delivered them relay a message: “…The crystal cakes were bought from the Drunken Immortal Tower, and the assorted tofu pudding was from the South Market Tower.”

Zhou Shaojin never ventured outside her inner chambers, so she knew neither the Drunken Immortal Tower nor the South Market Tower. But from what the little maid said, she could guess that the Drunken Immortal Tower was famous for its crystal cakes and the South Market Tower for its assorted tofu pudding.

The little maid was just running an errand, and Zhou Shaojin didn’t want to make things difficult for her. She had Shi Xiang accept them: “…Pour it all into the slop bucket.”

“Such good things…” Shi Xiang felt it was rather a waste.

The crystal cakes were crystal clear like beautiful jade, with a touch of red on top that added a playful charm—one’s mouth would water just looking at them without even tasting. The assorted tofu pudding had ample ingredients—pickled vegetables, shredded meat, day lily flowers… its fragrance was enticing.

She observed Zhou Shaojin’s expression and said, “How about we give them to the night-duty women? It would at least be a favor to them.”

Zhou Shaojin said nothing.

If Ji Ying thought this counted as apologizing to her, then so be it.

Shi Xiang breathed a sigh of relief, rewarded the items to the night-duty women, and received profuse thanks from them.

The next day, Ji Ying again sent a maid with turnip cakes and duck blood vermicelli.

Zhou Shaojin still had Shi Xiang throw them out.

This time Shi Xiang didn’t ask Zhou Shaojin and rewarded the delivered items to the women who came to prune the flowers and trees at the Fragrant Rue Residence.

On the third day, Ji Ying sent osmanthus duck and champion beans.

On the fourth day, she sent soup dumplings and boiled dried bean curd strips.

On the fifth day… it alarmed Zhou Chujin.

Zhou Chujin summoned Shi Xiang to question her.

Shi Xiang naturally didn’t dare hide anything and told her everything in detail.

Although Zhou Chujin didn’t approve of Ji Ying deceiving Zhou Shaojin this way, seeing that she admitted her mistake when she was wrong showed some integrity and forthrightness. Thinking that Zhou Shaojin usually stayed cooped up at home all day, it might be good for her to experience more things. So she pretended not to know and let her handle it herself.

This continued for seven or eight days. Suddenly, Ji Ying sent over a small dog.

It was a newborn pug, about palm-sized, with snow-white fur and big, dark, glistening eyes. A bright red silk ribbon was tied around its neck with a small bell attached. It nestled in a bamboo basket lined with crimson felt, tilting its head and barking at Zhou Shaojin in a tiny voice: “Woof, woof.”

Zhou Shaojin’s heart immediately melted into a pool of water.

She picked up the puppy and saw a note beneath the basket that read: “If you pick up the puppy, it means you’ve forgiven me.”

Zhou Shaojin was both angry and anxious. She handed the puppy to Shi Xiang and said, “Take it away for me.”

Shi Xiang had no choice but to carry the puppy out.

Zhou Shaojin lowered her head to embroider the forehead band.

The sound of the puppy whimpering came from the courtyard, like a child crying.

Zhou Shaojin felt as if she were sitting on pins and needles. After embroidering a few stitches, she finally couldn’t bear it anymore. She called Shi Xiang in and asked, “What’s wrong with that puppy?”

Shi Xiang wiped the sweat from her forehead and said, “We sent it back. Before long, Miss Ji Ying sent it over again. Going back and forth like this, I can see that the puppy’s spirits aren’t very good anymore…”

“How utterly despicable and shameless!” Zhou Shaojin chided, yet she couldn’t bear to let the puppy fall ill because of the dispute between herself and Ji Ying. She had Shi Xiang bring the puppy inside.

The puppy struggled to climb out of the basket and rubbed against Zhou Shaojin’s feet.

Zhou Shaojin put it in the basket, but it climbed out again.

Shi Xiang said, “This puppy is probably hungry.”

Zhou Shaojin had never fed a dog before and asked, “What does it eat?”

Shi Xiang thought for a moment and said, “I remember that a few days ago, one of the women who came to prune our flowers and trees was transferred from an estate. Let me go ask her.”

When that woman heard it was a dog being raised by Second Young Miss Zhou, she naturally didn’t dare say what dogs on the estate ate. Considering that the dog must be very precious, she figured she should just say the best things: “…It’s a puppy, so it should drink some meat broth and eat some fine grains and such.”

When Shi Xiang returned, she had the kitchen simmer some meat bone broth for the puppy and soak some polished rice in it.

The puppy ate with great relish, getting it all over its mouth.

Zhou Shaojin casually cut a bib for it.

Shi Xiang and the others all competed to sew the bib for it and offered suggestions: “Other people’s watchdogs all have names. We should give it a name too.”

Seeing the dog as a snowy white ball, Zhou Shaojin laughed and said, “Then let’s call our dog ‘Snowball.’ What do you all think?”

Everyone said it was good and began calling it “Snowball, Snowball.”

Snowball looked left and right, then lay down in the basket to sleep.

Everyone thought it was very adorable and laughed heartily.

Zhou Shaojin felt the room had become much livelier.

But when she returned from the Cold Jade Mountain Room, Shi Xiang and the others tearfully told her, “We don’t know what happened to Snowball? It suddenly got diarrhea. We already went to fetch a physician, but the physician said he could only treat people, not dogs, and told us to quickly send the steward to find someone who could treat sick dogs. The steward still hasn’t returned with news, and Snowball is already lying motionless in the basket.”

Zhou Shaojin felt as if her heart was being gripped by something.

She hurried back to the room in just a few steps.

Sure enough, Snowball lay motionless in the basket. When Zhou Shaojin called to it, it raised its head to look at her, whimpered twice, and then collapsed weakly again.

Tears came to Zhou Shaojin’s eyes as she asked, “What did the steward say?”

Shi Xiang wiped away tears and said, “He said our household has never kept dogs and doesn’t know who can treat sick dogs. He can only ask around slowly.”

By the time they found someone, Snowball would be dead!

Zhou Shaojin tenderly held Snowball in her arms.

She rarely formed close friendships with people, fearing the pain of eventual separation, let alone keeping pets like kittens, puppies, or birds.

Thinking of the instigator of all this, Zhou Shaojin couldn’t help grinding her teeth in hatred. She said to Shi Xiang, “Go tell Ji Ying that the puppy she gave me is sick and ask her to quickly find a way to get a physician to examine it.”

If anything serious happened to Snowball, she would never acknowledge Ji Ying again in this lifetime.

Shi Xiang’s eyes lit up when she heard this, and she said, “Oh my! How did we not think of that? Since Miss Ji Ying had the means to buy this dog, she must know how to raise dogs. I’ll go right now.” Before she finished speaking, she was already lifting her skirt to run outside.

Zhou Shaojin thought the same thing.

She paced back and forth while gently stroking Snowball’s fluffy back to comfort it: “It’s all right, it’s all right. The physician will be here soon. You’ll get better very quickly!”

Ji Ying arrived quickly—she got there before Shi Xiang had even returned.

Seeing Zhou Shaojin’s state, she was first stunned, then said, “When I bought it back, wasn’t it fine? How did it suddenly fall ill?”

“How would I know!” Zhou Shaojin glared at Ji Ying. “I told you to fetch a physician—did you fetch one?”

“I did!” Ji Ying said. “He’ll be here right away.”

Zhou Shaojin’s heart eased slightly.

Ji Ying was also somewhat anxious and came over to touch Snowball’s back.

For a moment, neither of them knew what to say. One held the dog and walked around the room, while the other sat uneasily in the grand master’s chair waiting.

About half an hour later, Shi Xiang ran in.

“Second Young Miss, Second Young Miss.” Her face showed joy. “Someone who can treat Snowball has arrived.”

Without a word, Zhou Shaojin and Ji Ying went out to meet them.

The person who came was a somewhat sleazy-looking old man, about sixty years old, wearing a rough cloth short jacket in autumn fragrance color. Led by the maid who had previously delivered things to Zhou Shaojin, he stood in the courtyard, fawning and grinning at Zhou Shaojin and the others.

Could this person be reliable?

Zhou Shaojin looked toward Ji Ying.

Ji Ying also had some doubts, but she still said, “He was recommended by the person who sold the dog. His name is An Da. When dogs in Jinling City fall ill, they all look for him.”

Zhou Shaojin made a sound of acknowledgment and handed the dog in her arms to Shi Xiang, telling her to take it over to An Da for examination.

An Da then asked about Snowball’s condition. When he heard Shi Xiang say that this morning Snowball had drunk a bowl of meat bone broth, he let out an exaggerated cry and said, “This pug just weaned—how could you feed it meat broth? It’s like a newborn baby and can only have light, bland things. If you have goat’s milk or something like that to feed it, that would be even better.”

Everyone was very surprised.

Zhou Shaojin’s body stiffened even more.

So it was she who had caused Snowball to be like this.

She felt terrible inside.

Ji Ying saw this and gently patted Zhou Shaojin’s shoulder, asking An Da, “What should we do now?”

“I’ll first feed it some of my ancestral medicine. For the next three days, it can only be fed plain congee.” An Da said with some uncertainty, “After three days, I’ll come for a follow-up examination. If it’s better, it won’t need more medicine. If it’s not better, I’ll try changing its medicine.”

Everyone’s hearts were in their throats.

Shi Xiang led An Da to give Snowball its medicine.

Zhou Shaojin looked at the listless Snowball and couldn’t help choking up: “It’s all my fault…”

Ji Ying comforted Zhou Shaojin: “You fed it meat broth because you wanted what was good for it. Who knew it couldn’t have meat broth… Besides, surviving a great disaster means there will be future blessings. Snowball will surely be healthy and live a long life from now on!”

Zhou Shaojin wasn’t so optimistic.

After seeing An Da off, she held Snowball and silently groomed its fur.

Snowball made comfortable whimpering sounds.

Zhou Shaojin finally showed a bit of a smile.

Watching this, Ji Ying felt very uncomfortable. She said apologetically, “I originally wanted to give you a puppy to make you happy. I never expected it would turn out like this. I’m truly sorry. When I go back later, I’ll have people search around to see if there are others in Jinling City who can treat sick dogs and find them all to examine Snowball. I think there must be an expert among them who can cure Snowball.”

“Let’s let An Da treat Snowball for a couple of days first!” Zhou Shaojin said. “Constantly changing physicians for Snowball isn’t necessarily a good thing either. But just in case, we should also look for people who can treat dogs.”

“Yes!” Ji Ying nodded. Thinking that Zhou Shaojin still had to go copy scriptures at the Cold Jade Mountain Room tomorrow, she said, “How about I help you take care of Snowball tomorrow? Don’t you still have to copy scriptures?”

Zhou Shaojin hesitated somewhat.

Ji Ying quickly said, “Please let me do my part! Otherwise, I’ll always have this weight on my conscience.”

Zhou Shaojin looked at her face full of guilt and suddenly thought of the child she never had in her previous life.

Snowball was also a life—if something happened to it, Ji Ying would feel terrible inside too, wouldn’t she?

Zhou Shaojin gently nodded her head.