Yu Feng was rather confused. “Master, what did Old Madam Cui mean by that? At first, she said she supported you and Eldest Miss Cui, but then she said those things?”
Shen Xiabai replied, “She was worried that I might hold a grudge against A Chu and mistreat her, only for her to wipe out the entire Shen family with a bowl of poison.”
Yu Feng: “…”
“Not to mention, this subordinate thinks Eldest Miss Cui really could do something like that.”
“Master, do you truly… not hold it against her?” He was afraid the future mistress might send him off to the afterlife along with his master.
“…” Shen Xiabai turned his head and shot him a sideways glance. “Has your brain rusted?”
When the master and servant arrived at Chu Garden, it was completely quiet. Shen Xiabai lingered in the courtyard for quite some time, yet no one came rushing out to welcome him.
“Master, why are you just standing there instead of going in?” Yu Feng asked. “Are you waiting for Eldest Miss Cui to invite you inside?”
Shen Xiabai glared at him. “Next time, you don’t need to come along.”
“...Master, this subordinate was wrong.”
He wanted to marry a wife. One of the old madam’s attendants had told him that, by convention, one of the maids serving the future mistress would become his wife.
There was only Xing’er serving the future mistress. If he did not come along, how was he supposed to develop a relationship with her?
The master and servant climbed the steps, making quite a commotion, yet no one came out.
“That’s strange.” Yu Feng scratched his head. “Where’s Xing’er? She’s gone too?”
Shen Xiabai pushed the door open and went inside, only to find the room already deserted.
Yu Feng froze. “Master, did Eldest Miss Cui run away, or was she kidnapped?”
“Could it be that she doesn’t want to take responsibility for you and simply fled?”
Shen Xiabai raised a foot and kicked him. “Go look for her.”
He stood in the room and surveyed it, searching all the places Cui Yunchu treasured most. In the end, he discovered that her storybooks were gone. Only then did the tension in his heart finally ease.
She had run away on her own.
At the same time, Yu Feng’s words began circling in his mind again.
“Master…”
“Get out.”
Yu Feng shuddered violently. His legs went weak, and his hair nearly stood on end as he stumbled backward several steps.
Shen Xiabai’s expression was grim. All sorts of chaotic guesses had already surfaced in his mind.
The question Cui Yunchu had asked him the day before suddenly came back to him as well. Could she truly have been unfaithful?
“Master…” Yu Feng forced himself to speak in a low voice. “A message was just delivered from the residence. Eldest Miss Cui went there to keep Dowager Shen company.”
“…”
Shen Xiabai’s panicked heart immediately settled. The chill in his expression softened by several degrees, and he gave a faint hum.
Yu Feng quickly glanced at him, then lowered his head again and hunched his shoulders.
“You should have said so earlier.” Shen Xiabai glared at him.
The corners of Yu Feng’s mouth twitched.
His master’s earlier command to get out had abruptly reminded him of a vicious dog turning around to bite.
At the Shen residence, Xing’er stood behind Cui Yunchu with bundles of belongings, large and small. Cui Yunchu looked at Dowager Shen, smiling as brightly as a flower.
“I said some time ago that I would come visit you, but I was afraid of disturbing you, so I kept putting it off.”
Dowager Shen was beaming as well. “It’s enough that you came. Why did you bring so many things? You’re being too formal.”
“Go and take those things down. It must be tiring to carry them all this way.”
Cui Yunchu: “…”
“No, no, they’re not heavy.” She tightened her grip on the bundles around her.
The old maid smiled too, her expression utterly sincere. If not for that sincerity, Cui Yunchu might have mistaken her for one of those wicked palace matrons.
“Eldest Miss Cui, don’t be so polite. Our old madam often speaks of you. She’s very fond of you.”
Cui Yunchu’s lips pulled into a straight line. She smiled somewhat stiffly, enduring the pain as she removed the bundle and handed it over.
“Well then…”
“Oh my, this is quite heavy. I wonder what treasures Eldest Miss Cui has brought for our old madam.”
The rest of Cui Yunchu’s words immediately caught in her throat. Her smile became utterly false, and it no longer held the bright charm of a blooming flower.
Dowager Shen smiled and said, “This child is so courteous and sensible. I like her already.”
Cui Yunchu gritted her teeth. “It’s only right. It’s only right. I’m glad you like them.”
Sob, sob, sob…
“Miss Xing’er, you can hand your things over to this old servant as well. Don’t tire yourself out carrying so much.”
Xing’er glanced at her mistress and clutched the bundle in her hands tightly. The old maid tugged at it twice, but could not pull it free. Everyone’s eyes turned toward them.
Only then did Xing’er turn her face away and reluctantly let go.
The old maid carried the items back to Dowager Shen’s side.
Dowager Shen smiled as she looked over, but then froze.
The old maid also sensed that something was amiss and exchanged a glance with Dowager Shen.
When giving someone gifts, they should be placed in exquisitely wrapped brocade boxes. At the very least, there ought to be paintings, porcelain, or something of the sort.
Why had Cui Yunchu brought several large bundles? They did not look like gifts at all. Rather, they resembled the luggage of some impoverished relatives who had come to mooch off the family.
As if they had fled from a disaster.
Dowager Shen realized that she had been imagining things. Looking at Cui Yunchu again, she saw a smile as lovely as a flower, without the slightest flaw.
Perhaps she had misunderstood. This girl had a lively, unconventional temperament. Maybe she simply did things differently from others.
“Since you’ve come, stay for a meal and keep me company for a while. Zilan and Xiabai are busy most days, so this courtyard of mine is terribly quiet.”
“Exactly,” the maid beside her chimed in with a smile. “Old Madam has been hoping that Second Master will marry soon and bring home a daughter-in-law to keep her company.”
Dowager Shen shot the maid an annoyed look, then smiled.
Cui Yunchu’s heart was bleeding.
If she had known this would happen, she would never have come. She could have gone to…
Forget it. Yunfeng was pregnant, and that fellow Xiao Yi probably would not even let her through the gates of his residence.
As for Tang Qingwan’s place… she did not want to go there.
“My grandmother often complains that I’m too noisy. If you don’t find me bothersome, Dowager Shen, I’d be happy to keep you company.”
Dowager Shen was even more delighted. “Your grandmother has so many granddaughters around her. She truly doesn’t know how blessed she is.”
She asked a few questions about Old Madam Cui’s health, and Cui Yunchu answered each one carefully.
“Your grandmother is a good person. I hope she enjoys a long life.”
Cui Yunchu was surprised. “Are you and my grandmother old acquaintances?”
There seemed to be a momentary flicker of melancholy in Dowager Shen’s expression. She shook her head slightly.
“No. We merely happened to meet at a banquet once and exchanged a few words.”
“Oh.” Cui Yunchu nodded.
The two families had a blood feud. Even if Dowager Shen was broad-minded and understood the importance of keeping matters separate, choosing not to take out her resentment on her grandmother, she still should not have treated her with such warmth. Cui Yunchu found the whole thing indescribably strange.
Dowager Shen received her enthusiastically, serving her tea, fruit, and all manner of refreshments. From time to time, she would mention stories from Shen Xiabai’s childhood, and Cui Yunchu listened with great interest.
The more attentively Cui Yunchu listened, the happier Dowager Shen became. It showed that Cui Yunchu truly liked her son.
“So he was already so stiff and serious when he was little,” Cui Yunchu remarked.
“Wasn’t he?” Dowager Shen laughed. “As a child, he was stiff, quiet, and disliked having people follow him around. He was like an old scholar—completely lacking in charm.”
Cui Yunchu propped her chin in her hand as she listened to Dowager Shen. In her mind, Shen Xiabai’s face appeared automatically, now attached to a tiny body with the same stiff, solemn bearing.
“…”
A big-headed baby.
Cui Yunchu shuddered and immediately sat up straight, startling herself with the image she had conjured.
Dowager Shen said, “I thought he would remain that way for the rest of his life. I never imagined he would meet you.”
That day in the palace, she had already seen through her son’s flustered feelings.
This was the first time a girl had ever managed to stir up so many emotions in him—making him angry and irritable, wanting to vent his temper yet unable to stop glancing around for her. He was the very picture of a clueless young man.
Cui Yunchu lowered her head shyly without saying a word.
Dowager Shen patted the stool beside her, signaling for Cui Yunchu to sit next to her.
Cui Yunchu hurried over at once, making Xing’er beside them grin helplessly.
Thank goodness they hadn’t even exchanged betrothal gifts yet. Miss, couldn’t you show a little restraint?
But then again, there was hardly anything less restrained than carrying a load of things to someone’s home to seek refuge.
Xing’er racked her brains, trying to figure out how to get those things back without anyone noticing. But seeing her own young mistress so bashful and flustered, she was already nearly fooled senseless.
Ever since she and Lord Shen had acknowledged their feelings for each other, her young mistress’s clever mind seemed to have regressed.
Dowager Shen said, “I’ve told you what he was like as a child. Now you tell me what he’s like when he’s with you.”
Cui Yunchu replied shyly, “Shameless. Such a scoundrel.”
“What?”
Cui Yunchu suddenly came to her senses. With an awkward smile, she waved her hands repeatedly. “Oh, that’s not what I meant. I mean, he…”
Sneaking over her wall in the middle of the night and always saying such shameless things?
Cui Yunchu scrunched up her face. Dowager Shen covered her lips and laughed. “If it’s inconvenient to say, then don’t. Don’t worry—I’ll give him a good scolding when he comes back.”
“…”
Dowager Shen beckoned to the older woman beside her. The woman immediately stepped forward and presented a brocade box. Dowager Shen gestured for Cui Yunchu to accept it. “This is a gift for our first meeting. Take it and play with it. I hope you won’t find it lacking.”
“Thank you, Dowager Shen.” Cui Yunchu accepted it without the slightest hesitation, not even bothering with a polite refusal. Xing’er, watching from the side, wished she could cover her eyes.
Cui Yunchu took the brocade box, and her gaze swept over the few bundles of belongings beside her. Her happiness vanished in an instant.
“What do you think of that folding screen? Do you like it?”
“Huh?” Cui Yunchu pulled herself back to the present and blinked.
The older woman beside them smiled and said, “That folding screen Second Master gave Miss was moved out of Dowager Shen’s courtyard.”
Dowager Shen added, “If you like it, I also have some ornaments that match the screen. You can take them with you later.”
“…Wasn’t that something from the storeroom?” Cui Yunchu’s mind stalled.
So that was what that boy had told her.
“Ah… yes, it did come from the storeroom. It’s good that you like it.”
“I like it very much.”
Cui Yunchu felt terribly awkward.
Dowager Shen actually knew about it. Would she think Cui Yunchu was hopelessly shameless?
