Cui Yunchu ran all the way back to the back garden, her forehead covered in cold sweat.
"Miss, what's wrong?" Xing'er hurried over and supported Cui Yunchu.
Cui Yunchu immediately looked back behind her. Seeing no one there, she closed her eyes, bending over slightly as she panted heavily.
"Where is... Shen Xiabai?"
"Who?"
Cui Yunchu looked at Xing'er's bewildered face. Right, at this time, Xing'er didn't know that person yet.
"Miss, let me help you to the pavilion to rest for a moment."
Cui Yunchu shook her head and simply leaned against the wall, slowly crouching down. "Don't speak. Just let me catch my breath."
Xing'er fell silent. Cui Yunchu stared blankly at a spot in the garden.
Just now, he wasn't carrying a sword.
She was just jumping at shadows, but once bitten, twice shy.
"Xing'er, was I running fast just now?"
"...Yes, very fast."
Cui Yunchu forced a smile, trying hard to suppress the lingering palpitations in her chest.
"Eldest Miss Cui, I've finally found you! Hurry, Second Miss Cui has fallen into the water!"
Cui Yunchu stood up abruptly, her eyes turning cold as she looked at the maid who brought the message. She immediately hurried toward the garden. "She was perfectly fine, how could she fall into the water?"
The maid mumbled a few times but said nothing. Cui Yunchu frowned and cast a subtle glance at her, her peach-blossom eyes darkening.
The pavilion in the garden was crowded with people. Girls leaned against the railing, craning their necks to look into the water, occasionally letting out gasps and cries for help.
Yet, not a single person went down to save her.
"Eldest Miss Cui is here. You came at just the right time. Hurry and think of a way to save Second Miss Cui!"
Cui Yunchu walked over briskly and glanced at the girl who spoke. This girl's surname was Li, a lackey of Liu Wanting.
Cui Yunchu didn't reply. The girl continued, "None of the maids in the inner courtyard know how to swim. The male servants do, but Second Miss Cui is an unmarried maiden after all..."
"Shut up."
Cui Yunchu's gaze shot toward Miss Li, carrying endless chill. Her fierce and cold aura actually made the girl's heart skip a beat in fear. She immediately shut her mouth and looked away.
Liu Wanting looked troubled. "Eldest Miss Cui, Miss Li is just anxious. Why must you speak so harshly and hurt our harmony?"
Cui Yunchu had no time to pay attention to Liu Wanting's hypocritical words.
The crowd automatically parted to make way for her. In the lake, the strength of Cui Yunfeng's flailing arms was growing weaker, and she was slowly sinking.
Cui Yunchu stepped onto a bench, ready to jump in.
"Eldest Miss Cui!" Two girls grabbed her dress at the same time.
"I've already sent someone to the front yard to fetch a servant woman who can swim. The lake is deep, Eldest Miss should wait."
"Exactly. What would we do if you fell in too?" The girl who said this had red eyes and spoke with genuine sincerity, stomping her feet in anxiety. She was truly worried.
The other person was the girl who had invited Cui Yunfeng to play cards.
Being good friends with Cui Yunfeng, her worry was also not fake.
Just then, shouts rang out from the crowd. "Someone's here! They're here!"
"Hurry, jump in and save her!" The one urging was the girl who had just stopped her.
Cui Yunchu knew a bit of swimming, but she could only barely keep herself from drowning. Bringing another person along was a different story, but the situation had been urgent, so she could only try.
Now that a servant woman had jumped in, Cui Yunchu stepped down from the bench. Her eyes never left the person in the lake for a moment, filled with apprehension, fear, and panic.
Her hands tightly gripped the railing, her knuckles turning pale. It wasn't until the servant woman grabbed Cui Yunfeng's hand and dragged her up that her suspended heart finally settled a little.
There seemed to be a mocking laugh behind her. She turned her head and met the eyes of Miss Li, who was curling her lips in a sneer, looking like she was enjoying a good show.
The girl also met her gaze and awkwardly restrained her expression.
Cui Yunchu walked toward her.
"What... what are you doing?"
Cui Yunchu didn't speak. She reached out her hand toward her. Li Mengyu instinctively stepped back, taking a defensive posture.
Unexpectedly, Cui Yunchu's hands landed on her outer garment. Using brute force, she twisted her arm and directly stripped off her outer coat.
Although there were only girls in the garden, having one's outer garment stripped off was still very humiliating.
Cui Yunchu stepped toward the lakeshore where the servant woman had landed, but her low, cold, and ruthless voice drifted into the ears of Li Mengyu and Liu Wanting. "My second sister's fall into the water had better have nothing to do with you. Otherwise..."
She glanced back at the two of them and gave a cold snort.
The hand Liu Wanting used to wave her round fan slowly stopped. The smile on her face also froze slightly as she watched Cui Yunchu's retreating back.
For a moment, she actually felt an aura from Cui Yunchu that was even more chilling than Tang Qingwan's.
How could that be?
"Wanting," Li Mengyu tugged at her arm.
"What are you afraid of?" Liu Wanting scoffed lightly. "Tang Qingwan isn't here. What capabilities could a concubine-born daughter, raised by a concubine who relies on her looks to serve others, possibly have?"
She still remembered the score to settle with the Cui sisters from that day at the Eldest Princess's estate.
"But Old Madam Cui is also here today." Li Mengyu couldn't help but feel a bit regretful.
The Cui family was powerful, not someone she could afford to provoke. Unfortunately, a distant high official is no match for an immediate superior; her father worked under Liu Wanting's father, so she had to listen to Liu Wanting.
"So what if she is? Cui Yunfeng fell in by herself. What does it have to do with us?"
Liu Wanting cast a sidelong glance at the lakeshore, where Cui Yunfeng had already been dragged ashore by the servant woman and was held tightly in Cui Yunchu's arms. She waved her round fan and went back to sit in the pavilion.
Her father had said that the reason she was granted the title of secondary consort was to make her fight against the Cui sisters, to pit the Liu family against the Cui family. Since that was the case, she naturally had to fulfill her role.
"Miss, have some tea." Liu Wanting put down her round fan, took the teacup, and took a light sip. Her long eyelashes drooped slightly, and she was once again that dignified, gentle, and submissive Miss Liu.
