Yunxi finally understood that the epidemic her aunt had mentioned was fake.
Whether it was the physician or the servants being moved out, it was all staged for those who were scheming against the Prince of Pingyang's estate.
Yunxi’s gaze at Duoduo was complicated.
She recalled how, when she first agreed to go to the capital, her grandmother had slapped her.
At the time, she felt wronged and didn’t understand why her mother would do such a thing.
From childhood, she had been obedient, and her mother had always doted on her.
This was the only time she had made a decision on her own.
Yet her mother had struck her in front of so many people!
Moreover, after the slap, her mother hadn’t spoken to her for days.
Even when Yunxi, feeling aggrieved, humbled herself first and tried to apologize,
her mother refused to see her, shutting the door in her face.
It wasn’t until the day of their departure for the capital that her mother finally summoned her.
Yunxi remembered it vividly. When her mother saw her, her first reaction was to sigh.
Then, she instructed Yunxi to listen to her aunt in the capital and never to act on her own.
She also said that whenever encountering a problem, Yunxi must consult her aunt and never blindly follow her grandmother’s words.
At the time, Yunxi hadn’t taken it too seriously.
She thought her mother was being overly dramatic.
She wasn’t like Yunmeng, prone to causing trouble.
Her grandmother was an elder, and even though her aunt was the Princess of Pingyang, she still had to defer to her grandmother.
Now, Yunxi finally understood the meaning behind her mother’s hesitant expression back then.
In her grandparents’ eyes, the Pingyang estate was a symbol of immense wealth and status.
But where they couldn’t see, the estate was riddled with dangers.
How deep were the schemes of those targeting the Prince of Pingyang’s household?
To use such vicious tactics?
They weren’t content to harm just one person; they wanted to destroy everyone!
Yunxi then thought of her grandmother, who wanted nothing more than to leverage the Pingyang estate for the Su family’s benefit.
If her grandmother ever learned that the Pingyang estate wasn’t as she imagined, would she feel resentment?
The more Yunxi thought, the more terrified she became.
She felt as though she had fallen into a bottomless abyss...
“Ah!”
Suddenly, Yunxi felt a sharp pain in her hand and couldn’t help but cry out.
Looking down, she saw several silver needles sticking into her skin.
Startled, she turned to Duoduo, who flashed her a bright smile.
“Third Cousin, do you still feel unwell?”
Yunxi froze, not immediately understanding what Duoduo meant.
“You were in a trance just now!” Duoduo said, removing the needles from Yunxi’s hand.
In a trance?
Her?
The memories of what had just happened flooded back into her mind.
Yunxi shuddered.
Duoduo tilted her little head and took Yunxi’s hands in her own.
“Third Sister, don’t be afraid!”
“Father says the more fear you hold in your heart, the scarier what you fear becomes.”
“Humans are the most powerful creatures.”
“Don’t let fear consume you; learn to overcome it.”
“Once you conquer your fear, you’ll see it’s just a paper tiger!”
Yunxi clutched Duoduo’s hands, feeling an unusual warmth.
It was like sitting on a swing in her favorite season of spring, bathed in the warm sunlight.
“Duoduo, you know so many wise sayings!” Yunxi’s eyes were full of admiration.
Duoduo smiled, her eyes curving like crescent moons.
“Father taught me all of them.”
As Yunxi held onto Duoduo, the fear in her heart gradually dissipated.
Her reason finally returned.
“Princess, if the Pingyang estate is this unsafe, won’t my grandmother and I being here bring trouble to the household?”
Duoduo tilted her head in thought for a moment.
“Not for now, but later—I’m not sure.”
Yunxi then remembered that Su Xian had asked her to find out why her grandmother had come.
But now that she had been driven away by Yunmeng, how could she complete the task her aunt had given her?
Thinking of this, Yunxi shared her dilemma with Duoduo.
Duoduo’s eyes twinkled.
“In the next couple of days, no one can leave the estate—not even Grandmother.”
“If she isn’t in a hurry, it means what she wants to do isn’t too important.”
“If she is anxious, she’ll definitely find someone she trusts to do it for her!”
Yunxi’s eyes lit up.
But then, her gaze dimmed again.
Even if her grandmother entrusted the task to her, she wouldn’t dare leave the estate alone.
“Princess, what should I do?” Yunxi asked, her expression lost.
“Hmm, for now, do nothing! Just wait and see how things unfold.”
“Stick to what you promised Mother—try to coax Seventh Cousin and see if she knows anything.”
“I’ll talk to Mother later. I’ll ask her to keep Grandmother occupied, buying you some time.”
Duoduo speculated that her grandmother’s trip to the market was a pretext; the real purpose was to handle some business.
Nanny Li’s current situation had coincidentally tied up Grandmother.
Duoduo couldn’t help but feel curious. What could Grandmother urgently need to do after traveling all this way?
“Princess, it’s late. You should rest now. You still need to go to the Imperial Academy tomorrow,” Lyv Dou entered the room to remind Duoduo.
Yunxi was taken aback. “Didn’t Aunt say you had a day off tomorrow? Why do you still have to go?”
Duoduo’s face immediately fell.
“I’ve been punished by the Grand Tutor!”
Yunxi, rarely seeing Duoduo looking so deflated, couldn’t help but laugh.
Seeing her laugh, Duoduo smiled too.
“Third Cousin, that’s right—you should smile more.”
“Don’t bottle everything up inside. Keeping things hidden for too long will only cause trouble!”
Yunxi’s smile froze on her face.
“Was I sick just now in the way I was acting?”
Duoduo thought for a moment, not hiding the truth.
“If you stayed like that all the time, it could develop into an illness.
But since you’ve overcome it just now—it isn’t.”
Yunxi stared at Duoduo, then reached out and hugged her.
“Thank you, Duoduo!”
Duoduo paused for a second before raising her hand to pat Yunxi gently on the back.
Yunxi was a girl raised on her parents’ affection, never having weathered great storms in her life.
Suddenly traveling with her grandmother, she must have suffered plenty along the way.
A flower nurtured in a greenhouse cannot survive in the outside world.
Duoduo remembered Li Jin once saying that.
Since Third Cousin was a kind person, Duoduo was willing to lend her a hand.
“Third Cousin, if you ever face trouble, come to me. I’ll help you.”
“If I’m not there, you can go to Father.”
Duoduo felt Third Cousin’s body stiffen at the mention of her father.
She understood—many people were afraid of him.
She had been afraid too, at first.
Especially when Father didn’t speak and just stared straight at you, sending chills down your spine and making your legs tremble.
It was only after spending more time with him that she realized he wasn’t so frightening.
Thinking of this, Duoduo said very seriously to Yunxi,
“Third Cousin, my father is actually very easy to get along with!”
