But Qi Yue didn’t know any more of the story than that.

“I know,” she said casually.

This response made A’Jin even more excited, her voice choking with emotion.

“It’s good that Young Madam knows. Concubine and I have been thinking of Young Madam constantly. Seeing that Young Madam has finally recovered and even came out to receive Old Madam’s final instructions, Concubine and this servant are truly so happy that we offer incense before Buddha daily,” she said.

Qi Yue pulled at the corner of her mouth in a dry laugh.

“Let’s not talk about the past. What matters most is now, and the future,” A’Jin wiped her tears with her handkerchief and gathered her spirits to say, “Young Madam, Concubine asked me to tell Young Madam that you absolutely must not quarrel with the Prince anymore. This does Young Madam no good whatsoever—it only brings joy to enemies and pain to loved ones.”

This was advice for reconciliation, and Qi Yue nodded.

“Yes, I understand,” she said earnestly.

“The Prince has some peculiar aspects to his character,” A’Jin continued, sighing, “He wasn’t like this when he was small.”

When he was small?

“You’re even younger than him,” Qi Yue looked at A’Jin’s face, which was about the same age as A’Ru’s, and smiled.

A’Jin also smiled.

“I heard from my parents. Back then they served under the Marchioness, and my mother even took care of the Prince for a while,” she smiled.

This Marchioness must be referring to Great Madam Xie, Qi Yue speculated.

“Later, when the Marchioness passed away, the Prince was still small—only six years old, knowing nothing. Old Madam had people watch him carefully. It wasn’t until the burial that the Prince suddenly went mad,” A’Jin continued.

Qi Yue remained silent. Losing one’s mother was the most painful thing for anyone, let alone a six-year-old child…

This child must have developed psychological damage from this, she thought.

A’Jin sighed.

“After that, the Prince changed completely. He no longer liked talking to people or playing with anyone, always staying by himself. It wasn’t until the Young Marchioness married in that he gradually improved quite a bit, but his character remained eccentric,” she said.

Qi Yue nodded.

“So Young Madam shouldn’t grow cold toward the Prince because of this. It’s not that he treats Young Madam particularly badly—he’s like this with many people. Young Madam, you are husband and wife after all. As the saying goes, constant dripping wears away the stone. If you just treat him well, the Prince will eventually understand your heart,” A’Jin continued earnestly.

“Good, I understand,” Qi Yue nodded, matching her earnest expression.

Very well, she had decided. Before she could leave this place, she wouldn’t quarrel with this Prince anymore. She would endure him and yield to him, treating it all as a nightmare. Dreams always have a time of awakening, and when she woke up, who cared who anyone was?

A’Jin showed a relieved smile.

Like Cai Qing, A’Jin also didn’t dare stay long and hurriedly took her leave.

Here, Qi Yue told A’Ru about A’Jin’s words.

“Back then, Old Madam assigned me and A’Jin separately to you and Concubine Zhou, wanting us to serve well. She’s a single-minded girl who wholeheartedly follows what Old Madam said years ago,” A’Ru sighed.

“You’re the same,” Qi Yue smiled.

A’Ru was made to smile by her words too.

The next day, Qi Yue was washing up and preparing to eat breakfast when she heard a commotion outside—chickens flying and dogs jumping, people shouting and horses neighing.

“Don’t tell me another person with a story has come?” she said with the simple toothbrush in her mouth.

“Young Madam, Young Madam, the Prince has come!” two servant women shouted as they ran in frantically.

Qi Yue and A’Ru were overjoyed—this was truly a case of getting what you wished for delivered right to your door.

Following the servant women’s entrance, another page boy ran in.

“Young Madam, the Prince ordered me to give Young Madam a message,” he said loudly, without the slightest respect in his manner.

Qi Yue’s feet, which had been moving to greet him, stopped.

“The Prince says: You woman, stay in your room and don’t come out. He brought his brothers here to hunt and is just stopping by to rest. You woman, don’t come out and spoil his mood, or else you won’t be able to stay here either,” the page boy said. At this moment he was speaking for the Prince, so every word and gesture, including his expression, mimicked him closely.

A’Ru, Pozi Kang, and the two servant women all turned pale hearing these words.

Clearly this page boy definitely wasn’t crazy to say such things—these were Chang Yuncheng’s words, and he must have said them openly in front of everyone without any reservation…

This was no longer just disliking the Young Madam, but could be said to be trampling her mercilessly underfoot.

A’Ru immediately began crying, covering her mouth with her hand to stifle her sobs.

Qi Yue was also stunned by these harsh words. Only when she saw the page boy turn to leave did she come to her senses.

“Stop right there,” she called out with raised eyebrows.

The page boy was startled and stopped.

A’Ru grabbed Qi Yue’s sleeve, shaking her head through her tears to stop her.

Qi Yue took several deep breaths and put on a smile.

“You go back and give the Prince a message from me too,” she said with a smile.

The page boy was stunned for a moment, hesitated, then lowered his head.

“Please speak, Young Madam,” he said.

“I’m sending him three words,” Qi Yue smiled at him while extending her hand, “Go, you, mother’s, place.”

Chang Yuncheng’s page boys were all trained personally by Chang Yuncheng, so like their master, they spoke and acted cleanly and efficiently. He accurately conveyed Qi Yue’s message to the Prince.

Chang Yuncheng sat on the ground, wiping a bow and arrow. Around him seven or eight men either stood or sat on the ground, playing with various weapons and laughing loudly. The front courtyard was filled with noise.

“What did she say?” Chang Yuncheng didn’t hear clearly and frowned as he asked.

“Go you mother’s place,” the page boy said loudly again.

The noisy voices suddenly fell silent, and everyone looked in this direction.

“Go, you, mother’s, place?” Chang Yuncheng repeated, “Three words?”

He snorted with laughter.

“Can’t count.”

The page boy nodded, clearly agreeing with this assessment. Seeing Chang Yuncheng wave his hand, he quickly and tactfully withdrew.

The courtyard resumed its clamor.

“Hey, this phrase sounds somehow strange to me,” one man said quietly to another, “Don’t you think it sounds familiar?”

“Familiar?” that man frowned and said, repeating it several times in his mouth before nodding, “It does seem somewhat…”

“Go you mother’s…” the first man repeated several times in his mouth, then suddenly said this phrase.

The two men looked at each other.

“‘Mother’ and ‘mother’s’ are different, and ‘place’ and ‘of’ are also different—they don’t mean the same thing,” that man said.

“Ah, enough. You’re being idle and thinking nonsense,” the other man, who had been tilting his head thinking, suddenly came to his senses and said impatiently, shaking his head.

True enough, the first man scratched his head and laughed. The two continued examining their respective weapons.

But just then, Chang Yuncheng, who had been sitting on the ground, leaped up.

“Bitch,” he cursed under his breath and strode toward the back courtyard.

The others stared blankly at Chang Yuncheng’s figure disappearing through the back courtyard gate.

“Vile servant,” Chang Yuncheng kicked open the door, “Are you cursing me?”

Qi Yue was watching A’Ru cover her eyes with a towel when this shout suddenly startled both master and servant. They then looked toward the man who had entered the room.

This man wore a crimson narrow-sleeved brocade robe, belted with jade, his face dark as he looked over.

“Prince!” A’Ru cried out in surprise and joy, her voice thick with nasal congestion from crying.

Qi Yue looked Chang Yuncheng up and down with a half-smiling expression.

“What does ‘go you mother’s place’ mean?” Chang Yuncheng looked at her and asked coldly.

Qi Yue grinned at him.

“Young Madam, Young Madam,” A’Ru shook her head at her through tears, full of pleading.

Don’t you want to go back? If you want to go back, you need to bow your head and admit your mistake.

Qi Yue stopped smiling, bit her lower lip, and swallowed the words she wanted to say.

“Prince, I know I was wrong,” she gritted her teeth and looked at Chang Yuncheng, squeezing these words out through her teeth with a serious expression.

“Prince, Young Madam regrets day and night. Prince, please calm your anger,” A’Ru also quickly kowtowed and said.

So this woman knows many tricks—she did this just to make him come over. How hateful that he couldn’t stand provocation and fell for it again.

Chang Yuncheng snorted coldly, said nothing, and turned to leave.

“Prince, I know I was wrong. Please give me another chance,” Qi Yue hurried after him calling out.

Chang Yuncheng had already stridden into the courtyard. Hearing these words, he turned around and saw this woman looking at him hopefully.

“Remember,” he pointed at her, “What I say counts. Don’t come out to disgust me again, or else you’ll be sorry.”

Qi Yue held onto the door and stopped, watching the man stride away and disappear at the courtyard gate.

“Go you mother’s!” she finally spat and cursed.

A’Ru was still kneeling and crying in the room.

“Get up, why are you crying? I don’t believe that without this bastard boy, I still can’t go back,” Qi Yue pulled her up and said.

“Young Madam, don’t antagonize the Prince. Speak nicely to him—don’t rush things,” A’Ru wiped her tears and said.

“Give up, A’Ru. With this type of person, if you speak nicely to him, heaven will strike you with lightning,” Qi Yue said, sitting down angrily at the table.

“Young Madam, your cooking is delicious. Why don’t you go to the kitchen and make something for the Prince…” A’Ru thought for a moment and suggested.

Qi Yue snorted and interrupted her.

“Dream on. He doesn’t deserve it,” she said.

Before long, there was commotion in front, and Chang Yuncheng’s group left. As darkness fell, the manor returned to quiet, though this quiet was somehow different from previous days.

The harsh words the Prince had his page boy tell the Young Madam spread through everyone’s ears in the manor overnight.

Everyone knew the Young Madam had come here in the middle of the night, but they hadn’t expected the relationship between the Prince and Young Madam to be this bad.

“It seems the Young Madam can’t go back,” the servant women gathered together and sighed.

“What is the Young Madam doing now?” everyone asked each other.

“She must be hiding in her room crying,” Pozi Kang said without thinking, “Yesterday she didn’t even come out for dinner—Miss A’Ru brought it to her.”

“Today was better. I just saw,” a servant woman carrying a basin of clothes walked over, “Young Madam ate her meal and went to the back courtyard to walk off her food.”

“She wasn’t crying?” everyone asked hurriedly.

“No crying—she was even smiling,” that servant woman said.

“Just forcing a smile,” everyone sighed and shook their heads.

A male servant squatting outside the courtyard gate repairing a bench had said nothing. At this moment he stopped his work, shouldered the bench, and walked away. No one paid attention to him, and even if they noticed, they wouldn’t care.

Qi Yue picked a pomegranate from the tree.

“It’s perfectly ripe,” she smiled as she split it open, splashing juice all over her face and hands.

“Oh my, let this servant do it,” A’Ru said anxiously, “This stains and won’t wash out.”

She hurriedly wiped with her handkerchief.

“The pleasure of eating lies in personal participation. If you do everything, what pleasure do I have left?” Qi Yue smiled, sitting down under the tree and offering A’Ru half.

A’Ru didn’t take it and pulled Qi Yue up.

“It’s cold now. Don’t sit like this. I’ll get a cushion for Young Madam,” she said.

Qi Yue nodded and said good.

“While you’re at it, bring a bowl. Let’s shell a lot, then eat them by the handful,” she smiled.

By the handful—what would that look like? A’Ru gave Qi Yue a reproachful look and turned to go.

Watching her leave, the smile on Qi Yue’s face gradually faded. She looked up at the sky and sighed heavily.

Loneliness—perhaps before long, she would suffocate to death in her own loneliness.

Footsteps sounded behind her.

Qi Yue thought A’Ru had returned and turned around, but saw an elderly male servant.

“Young Madam,” he said somewhat anxiously, “This old servant was cleaning the courtyard and disturbed Young Madam.”

Qi Yue smiled, recognizing this as one of the household’s rough servants. With the weather getting colder, dead branches and fallen leaves multiplied overnight.

“Good, you clean up,” she said and lifted her feet to walk away.

Passing by the old servant, she hadn’t taken more than a few steps when she heard the sound of wind behind her, followed by severe pain in her neck and shoulder.

A sneak attack with a club…

This was Qi Yue’s last thought.

A’Ru, carrying a cushion and holding a bowl, walked toward the back courtyard. Hearing a servant woman loudly call out that Third Young Master had come, she couldn’t help but stop and frown.

This Third Young Master—why had he come again, and at this time…

Chang Yunqi walked straight over and saw A’Ru’s expression.

“Sister-in-law…” he asked directly, “Is she alright?”

“Thank you for asking, Third Master. Young Madam is very well,” A’Ru said with lowered head.

Well, my foot, Chang Yunqi thought silently, seeing the maid’s eyes red and swollen—clearly her mistress wasn’t doing well either.

“Where is sister-in-law?” he asked.

“In the back courtyard,” A’Ru said.

Chang Yunqi’s expression changed slightly.

“How could you leave her alone outside?” he frowned and scolded, “What if she can’t think straight…”

If this were before, A’Ru really wouldn’t have dared, but now…

Before she could speak, Chang Yunqi pushed past her and hurried toward the back courtyard. A’Ru quickly followed. In just a few steps they reached the courtyard gate. Before she could announce their arrival, Chang Yunqi began shouting loudly.

“Yueniang!”

This cry was filled with terror. A’Ru couldn’t help but shiver. Looking at Chang Yunqi running like a madman, and then beyond him, she saw a person hanging from the old pomegranate tree.

A’Ru felt her body go weak, her throat making a muffled sound, and she collapsed to the ground.