The banquet was lively in the flower hall. Lord Luo had come to meet the Duke of Ying. Luo Chengzhang and Lord Luo entered the study for a private discussion.
After hearing the news, Lord Luo was shocked. “The Duke of Ying and your late sister-in-law… Is this confirmed?”
Luo Chengzhang remained silent, but his attitude was clear.
Lord Luo let out a slow breath. “I must advise you not to offend the Duke of Ying. When I was in the capital, I heard that Mongolian tribes invaded last month. Governor Lu has already suggested recommending the Duke of Ying as the Xuantong General again. The Emperor is gravely ill, and Wang Yuan controls the cabinet. Whatever Governor Lu says goes now…”
Luo Chengzhang frowned upon hearing this and couldn’t help but say, “If it weren’t for his status, why would I have to swallow my anger!” He sighed again, “Let it be. It’s all in the past now. She’s been dead for over ten years. For the sake of the Luo and Gu families’ reputation, I can only keep it secret… He claims Yining was raised by her mother and rarely seen by others to conceal her identity.”
“It’s best to endure these things,” said Luo Chengwen, who had more experience navigating officialdom than his younger brother. Call him hypocritical if you will, but he knew to seize any advantage before him.
“Since the situation can’t be changed, you might as well treat him with courtesy from the start. It could even earn you a favor from him. A favor from the Duke of Ying is worth more than fifty thousand taels of silver.”
Lord Luo only regretted not knowing earlier. Considering his brother’s temperament, he could only sigh.
“When you go out again, act as if nothing happened,” Lord Luo adjusted his clothes and reminded Luo Chengzhang before leaving.
In the flower hall, Luo Huaiyuan was respectfully conversing with the Duke of Ying. Wei Ling, however, was thinking only of his daughter. After exchanging a few words, she had been led to the inner room. He felt he hadn’t seen enough of her and was responding somewhat perfunctorily. Unable to see what was happening in the inner room from the flower hall, he wondered how his daughter felt and whether she was willing to go with him.
Wei Ling felt he had acted too suddenly.
Arriving with elite troops would inevitably give the impression of using force, and his appearance wasn’t particularly kind or gentle. He worried he might have frightened the girl.
Wei Ling sipped his wine slowly. Regardless, he was determined to take her with him today.
In the inner room, Lin Hairu finally met Yining.
She held Yining’s hand, unwilling to let go, and examined her with tears in her eyes, feeling she had grown thinner. “Your father wouldn’t let me see you, and I didn’t know your situation in Luming Hall. I was so worried I couldn’t eat or sleep! Do you need anything? I’ll have someone send it to you. You’ve always been sensitive to cold. Do you have enough braziers and bedding?”
She then gritted her teeth and said, “Your father is so foolish, being deceived by that heartless beast…”
Her words caused the nearby Chen Shi, Concubine Qiao, and others to glance at her repeatedly. Concubine Qiao even coughed awkwardly. Lin Hairu looked at her and said, “Is the concubine displeased?”
Concubine Qiao stood up and bowed, “This concubine has a throat problem and has disturbed madam’s peace.”
She had been waiting to see the young lady from the Duke of Ying’s household, but no one had appeared. With Lin Hairu occasionally throwing barbs at her, though not too harmful, she felt uncomfortable with her thin skin. Concubine Qiao excused herself, claiming illness.
Lin Hairu insisted that Yining sleep with her, but Yining politely refused. Seeing how much Lin Hairu cherished her, she thought for a moment and then took out a stack of banknotes from her sleeve. Nothing was as convenient as this.
Yining held the warm banknotes, still bearing her stepmother’s body heat, and clutched them tightly. She had worried too much about her.
Intending to return quietly to Luming Hall, Yining encountered a few servant girls on the way. Thinking she had gone far, they whispered behind her back, saying some unpleasant things. On any other day, servants daring to gossip about their masters would have been slapped. Yining simply stopped, turned back, and calmly asked them, “Which household do you serve?”
The servant girls lowered their heads and fell silent. Yining approached them step by step and said, “Say what you were saying to my face. Let me hear it. Why not let the matron in charge of you listen as well?”
The girls hurriedly knelt and begged for forgiveness. Gossiping about masters behind their backs would surely get them expelled if the matron found out.
Meanwhile, Wei Ling was about to look for Yining, but she was no longer in the inner room when he arrived. He walked out with his guards and saw Yining standing in front of those servant girls by the pavilion in the courtyard. He heard what she said and thought she might let the girls off, but to his surprise, she called one over and slapped her across the face.
With a crisp sound, the girl involuntarily turned her face, her whole body trembling. Yining coldly said, “No matter how down and out a master may be, it’s not for you to gossip about!”
Yining had had enough. She had suppressed so much frustration over the past few days, and it had finally reached its breaking point. She didn’t hold back with that slap, and the girl’s face quickly reddened. The girl, being thin-skinned, teared up from the blow. The Seventh Young Lady was known for her good temper; she didn’t know she could hit people too!
“What’s there to cry about!” Yining said coldly. “Stand up and tell me which household you’re from.”
The servant girl finally broke down crying, constantly kowtowing and begging for forgiveness, saying she knew she was wrong.
Wei Ling watched the slender figure from afar, surprised that this little girl had such a temper! But then he felt a pang of sadness. If she were a normal legitimate young lady, who would dare gossip about her behind her back? If she were the young lady of his Duke of Ying’s household, who would dare slight her?
Yining coldly watched the servant girl until she had kowtowed twenty times. In the end, she didn’t do anything more to the girl and let her go. The other servants helped the slapped girl leave.
Yining turned to leave but heard someone call out to her. “Yining, wait!”
She turned back to find the Duke of Ying Wei Ling standing behind her, accompanied by a group of guards. He strode towards her, smiling as he said, “I saw everything.”
“So what if you did?” Yining said calmly, lifting her head. She didn’t care if she had been seen. Then she watched as the Duke of Ying slowly knelt before her. She stepped back instinctively, but Wei Ling merely removed a blade of grass from her skirt and helped adjust her hem. “Look, your skirt wasn’t properly arranged.”
Yining stared at the blade of grass in his palm, her gaze flickering.
Since he was the Duke of Ying, why would he act like this? Yining had never understood Wei Ling as a person, despite him being her biological father. Even for a girl raised by his side, he wouldn’t be this kind. Especially given his high status! “What are you doing?” Yining asked.
“You’ve grown so big, and I’ve only just learned of your existence,” Wei Ling said, noticing her slightly round eyes looking at him with that unfamiliar, questioning gaze. He found his daughter utterly adorable. His expression softened as he said, “I’ve always wondered what it would be like to have a daughter. Yining, let me take you away. From now on, no one will dare say anything about you, absolutely no one.”
Yining looked at Wei Ling’s face and noticed the mole at the edge of his eyebrow, identical in position to her own.
She suddenly felt a sense of kinship.
“Duke of Ying, the stone bricks are cold and will hurt your knees. Please don’t kneel,” Yining said. Although she couldn’t bring herself to call him father, her tone had softened.
“It’s nothing,” Wei Ling found this way of talking to her quite enjoyable. Otherwise, being so much taller than her always gave a sense of looking down on her. Being lower than her like this seemed to lower her guard a bit. “When I came, I wanted to ask your former father to let you leave. I knelt then too. After all, taking you away directly would be improper. Besides, I’m a martial artist, this is nothing.”
Yining almost thought she had misheard. Wei Ling had humbled himself before Luo Chengzhang just to take her away. She had always thought these noble families were all high and mighty. Yining had never understood these people in her previous life. She thought Lu Jiaxue was open-minded, but he turned out to be full of calculations and coldness. She thought Cheng Lang was just a simple child, but he disregarded women’s reputations and lived a wastrel’s life.
She sighed and looked at Wei Ling, saying, “I lost my mother when I was six months old, and the man I thought was my father isn’t my father. I don’t know how to stay in the Luo family anymore…”
In truth, Luo Chengzhang had disappointed her, even though she knew this father was quite muddleheaded. But she had always been extremely filial to him, yet Luo Chengzhang turned on her so quickly, showing no consideration at all. If it weren’t for Luo Shenyuan’s intervention, she might have been driven out of the manor by now. This was truly a case of changing face as quickly as turning a page.
Wei Ling saw her childish and cute appearance, but her eyes revealed a hint of coldness. He couldn’t help but sigh, “You can blame me too. If it weren’t for me, perhaps your mother wouldn’t have passed away so early…”
But Yining interrupted him: “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t exist either.”
Wei Ling looked up as his girl suddenly asked, “Duke of Ying, you say you want to take me away. When do you want to leave?”
Wei Ling suddenly raised his head, looking at Yining almost in disbelief. Then an indescribable joy welled up from deep within him.
“You… As long as you’re willing, we can leave anytime, the sooner the better,” Wei Ling said with a smile, letting out a long breath. “I think tonight would be perfect!”
Yining finally smiled a little, thinking her birth father was a bit too eager. “Please come tomorrow,” she said, curtseying slightly before walking back to Luming Hall.
Yining had given this matter deep consideration and hadn’t suddenly agreed to Wei Ling’s proposal. Indeed, there was no place for her in the Luo family anymore, and going with the Duke of Ying was the best choice. Moreover, she was now little Yining, and no one knew who she used to be, nor would anyone find out.
She would keep this secret deep in her heart. Even if she encountered those people again, she wouldn’t reveal anything. To them, she would just be the Duke of Ying’s recovered biological daughter, and no one would know who she was.
Wei Ling watched Yining’s small figure disappear into the distance, feeling somewhat excited.
He planned to carefully consider everything. Welcoming a daughter requires a proper ceremony. After all, he had only said he was taking in the Luo family’s adopted daughter and no one knew who she was!
Returning to the Duke of Ying’s manor with grand pomp would let everyone know he was bringing back his biological daughter. Then, no one would dare look down on this new young lady of the Duke of Ying’s household!
Wei Ling turned back, hands behind his back, and quietly instructed his guards to quickly prepare everything.