At that moment, heaven and earth fell silent.
Yu Jin’s gaze fixed on Erniu like a sharp blade. Had Jiang Si not been present, he likely would have skinned the damned dog alive.
Erniu wagged his tail with an innocent expression. What’s wrong?
Jiang Si could barely contain her laughter. She quickly took a sip of water to maintain a neutral expression.
With his backside still stinging from the large dog’s bite, Yu Jin had no face to stay any longer. He asked with a dark expression, “Si’er, will it be inconvenient for you to go out in the future?”
Jiang Si smiled nonchalantly, “Something happened in the manor today, so Grandmother ordered us to stay at home quietly. If we need to go out, we must seek her permission first.”
“Shall I think of a way to help?”
“There’s no need. Today is the first day of Grandmother’s order, so it’s better to obey. In a few days, I’ll have my ways if I need to go out.” She paused briefly, looking at Yu Jin, “You needn’t concern yourself with the affairs of the Earl’s manor.”
If she couldn’t handle such minor matters within the Earl’s manor without relying on others’ help, she might as well give up on changing her loved ones’ tragic fates.
“Are you sure you don’t need my help?”
“I don’t. If you want to see me, find a way to notify Old Qin. He’ll pass the message to me. And stop climbing over the wall late at night. It’s improper.” Jiang Si glanced at Erniu with a teasing smile, “Even Erniu couldn’t stand it anymore.”
Yu Jin’s face darkened further. As he was about to leave, he suddenly remembered something.
“Si’er, don’t wander around aimlessly at night, even in your manor. Tonight, I saw a madwoman in your garden, admiring her reflection in the water pool.”
A madwoman?
Jiang Si couldn’t think of who it might be and quickly asked, “Did she discover you?”
“I don’t think so. I knocked her out, just in case.” Yu Jin felt this was a difficult question to answer definitively.
Watching Yu Jin and Erniu leave, Jiang Si stood by the window for a while.
Outside, the sky was dark, dotted with dim stars. The crescent moon hung like a hook, casting a cool light.
The late autumn night breeze had grown colder, carrying an uncomfortable chill.
Jiang Si leaned on the window, unable to shake off the gloom in her heart.
Winter was approaching, and her elder sister Jiang Yi had died on such a freezing winter day.
Her sister had been divorced and died ingloriously. When her mother-in-law, Duchess Wei of Anguo, disapproved of her returning home for the funeral, Jiang Si defied Wei’s wishes for the first time and went back to her family.
But the Dong Ping Earl’s manor showed no signs of mourning. The servants went about their daily tasks as if nothing had happened.
It wasn’t until she reached her elder sister’s former courtyard that she saw sparse traces of white mourning cloth.
Her father stood silently under the old peach tree in the courtyard, stroking its gnarled trunk.
The peach tree in her elder sister’s courtyard used to burst into full bloom every spring, gloriously beautiful. But that year, the old tree hadn’t flowered, only producing leaves. Now, only bare branches remained, unlikely to sprout again next year.
Since her elder sister had long since married out, no one had lived in this courtyard for a long time. No one remembered to cut down the old tree, and this dead old tree seemed to have long foreshadowed today’s ill omen.
At that time, she couldn’t help but think: that children without mothers are truly pitiful. If their mother were still alive, even though her elder sister had been a wife and mother for many years, their mother would surely have remembered to have the dead peach tree in her courtyard removed early on.
She didn’t blame her father but understood that men and women differ in their attentiveness to details. How could she expect a man who rarely set foot in the inner courtyard to remember to cut down an old tree in the neglected courtyard of his married daughter?
And now, Yan’er, who had also lost her mother, was crying loudly. The small child wailed heartbreakingly, her face flushed red.
Faced with his wailing granddaughter Yan’er, her father stood helplessly under the old peach tree, not daring to approach and comfort her.
At that time, Jiang Si had felt somewhat angry. She had rushed over to pick up Yan’er and comfort her. But after experiencing life and death, she understood her father’s feelings at that moment.
A young man losing his wife, a middle-aged man losing his son and daughter – her father probably felt he was an ill-fated person then, fearing he would pass this misfortune to his only granddaughter, Yan’er.
At some point, A’Man and A’Qiao had quietly entered the room.
A’Man was cleaning up the broken porcelain on the floor, while A’Qiao came to the window and draped a cloak over Jiang Si’s shoulders.
Jiang Si suddenly came back to her senses, her face as pale as snow.
“Miss, be careful not to catch a cold,” A’Qiao said softly, secretly sighing in her heart.
Over the past few months, she had been observing coldly and had long noticed the changes in her mistress, probably due to the great shock of the broken engagement.
Jiang Si clasped her hands together, her fingertips ice-cold, as she walked step by step towards the bed.
In this life, she would do anything to prevent her elder sister from repeating the same tragedy. If she truly couldn’t uncover the mastermind behind it all – a cold light flashed in the young woman’s eyes, colder than the dim moonlight.
Zhu Ziyu, the Zhu Shaoqin couple – she would kill them all if necessary, even if it cost her own life. Her elder sister had barely left the house after marrying into the Zhu family. Regardless of the motive behind the scheme, it could only have been those people.
Jiang Si lay on the soft bedding, slowly closing her eyes.
The night passed without incident, and dawn broke.
Early in the morning, A’Man returned with news.
“Miss, this morning a little maid found Old Woman Xiao sound asleep by the garden pool. The little maid thought Old Woman Xiao was dead and screamed in fright. When a group of people rushed over and woke up Old Woman Xiao, guess what she said?”
Jiang Si had slept surprisingly well last night. Now she was full of energy and clear-headed. Hearing A’Man’s words, she smiled and said, “Stop keeping me in suspense.”
A’Man stuck out her tongue and said excitedly, “Old Woman Xiao said she had been sleeping soundly in her room last night and didn’t know how she ended up by the pool. When the people heard this, their faces changed. Now it’s spreading all over the manor that Hong Yue’s spirit is unwilling to return to the netherworld, so she mysteriously led her mother there. They say the manor might become haunted from now on…”
Jiang Si listened silently, finally understanding who Yu Jin had encountered last night.
The rumors of haunting were beneficial to her. With some manipulation, it might make her future actions more convenient.
After all, if the manor was believed to be haunted, people wouldn’t wander around at night.
As Jiang Si had expected, when the news of Old Woman Xiao sleeping by the pool reached Old Madam Feng’s ears, it greatly disturbed her. She summoned Second Madam Xiao and berated her harshly.
In just a few short months, Madam Xiao had gone from a proud mistress of the household to a dispirited, browbeaten daughter-in-law. Only she could understand the bitterness of such a dramatic fall. Hong Yue’s death had left her feeling guilty and fearful, and she hadn’t slept well for days afterward.
The Dong Ping Earl’s manor was also shrouded in an invisible shadow, with people feeling uneasy amidst rumors of haunting.
On this day, Jiang Si finally received a message from Yu Jin: The person who had redeemed Yu’er had been found!
Seeing Jiang Si combing her hair into the simplest double-loop bun and putting on the clothes of a little maid from Haitang Residence, A’Man couldn’t help but ask anxiously, “Miss, are you going out alone?”