Chapter 21 - Bluffing

Hearing that, if Song Yixiao still couldn’t figure out why the misfortune happened to her today, she could kill herself then, “It must be Madam Jin! I am sure of it!”

The news that the mastiffs went to the prince’s mansion was blocked deliberately. Now it had only been a few days since it happened. Without the people of the Prince’s mansion leaking the news, Song Yuan and Liu Zhenxi would never know about it and even the matter that Song Yixiao’s ankle was sprained again for it.

Song Yixiao recalled that the father of Madam Jin was Director in the Ministry of Personnel, who was in charge of official personnel promotion. If she was crippled and married to Liu Zhiyin, the Liu Family’s ruined reputation would be directly remedied. Despite that, what good did it do to the Song Family?

It must be because the Jin Family promised to help him rise that Song Yuan agreed on the proposed marriage.

Otherwise, even if he resented his daughter very much, he would never leave her to the Liu Family. After all, it was a slap in the Song Family as well!

“Madam Jin! You are such an evil!” Song Yixiao really hated the second young mistress in the prince’s mansion to her marrow now!

She pinched her palm harshly and held back her urge to fight with Madam Jin right away. Instead, she raised her chin and smiled with disdain, “What a good idea you’ve conceived! However, you only know that my ankle has been sprained again but you don’t know why, right?”

Before Liu Zhenxi answered, she continued saying, “It is because I was pushed accidentally and my ankle was sprained once when my mother brought me to the silk store to purchase cloth! And only one or two days after my sprain was recovered, I jumped off a tree and consequently sprained my ankle again. The one who caused my sprain in the silk store happened to be Duke of Yan, Jian Xubai!”

She sneered, “Highborn as Brother Jian is, he is a reasonable man, who felt terribly guilty of making me sprain my ankle! If it were not for the fact that his uncle hurried to ask him to return to Grand Princess’s mansion for his birthday party, he would have sent me back to the house of Prince of Hengshan! Although he only ordered his servant to escort me, he promised to visit me later when he was free! If he finds that the Liu Family use my sprain to plot against me like this, I don’t know what he will do. Or are you sure that you can keep me from telling him about this forever?”

Song Yixiao glanced at him with a scornful and yet arrogant look. She seemingly appeared rather confident. As a matter of fact, Jian Xubai was her last straw to clutch at now!

Luckily, Liu Zhenxi’s benign smile finally faded away, “How old is Duke of Yan? He was merely kidding! If he really cared for you, he would invite you to his birthday party.”

It seemed that he expressed his disbelief by saying so. Actually, he was flying his kite, which suggested his fear!

Surely Song Yixiao had sensed it. Instantly she calmed herself down and said sneeringly, “Mr. Liu, are you a bit muddle-headed now? You know what, I sprained my ankle at that time! Under the circumstance, if he didn’t care for me, he would not urge me to go back and rest well. Am I right?”

“Mr. Song?” Liu Zhenxi, with his countenance getting increasingly gloomy, stayed silent for a while and then looked at Song Yuan. Now Song Yuan was staring at his daughter with his eyes full of increasing disgruntlement and resentment. He said, “Like mother, like daughter. You are still a kid and yet…”

What he didn’t utter was “fool around with men here and there.”

Although he didn’t utter that, Song Yixiao had figured it out. In fact, she understood Song Yuan said so not completely out of his hatred for his daughter but Wei Mengying!

It was understandable that Song Yuan still held grudge against his first wife and even transferred his anger to their sole daughter. After all, Song Yuan and Wei Mengying were married for ten years and had only one daughter of their own. In spite of Madam Pang’s pressure, he hadn’t taken any concubine before they divorced. Undoubtedly, he was a good husband in the era.

However, Wei Mengying still divorced him and remarried for the reason that she couldn’t stand her mother-in-law’s maltreatment. If she married to a man beneath Song Yuan, he would feel better. On the contrary, she was married to a prince!

How could Song Yuan not become the laughing stock of the government officials and the people?

“My mother should feel sorry for you but what wrong have I done?” Song Yixiao understood her father’s feelings but after undergoing her previous life and hearing what Liu Zhenxi just said, she really couldn’t show any sympathy for her father. Instead, she thought indifferently, “Since he can’t revenge on my mother, now he vents his anger on me? Am I not a human being? Won’t I feel sad?”

She raised her head and smiled, “Father, don’t say that. If it were not for that Brother Jian injured me accidentally and offered to carry me back to his room for treatment, how would I be bold enough to acquaint myself with him?”

Obviously, again, she tried to indicate that there was something going on between her and Jian Xubai.

Song Yuan heard that and felt even more disgruntled by his daughter. Yet, Liu Zhenxi hesitated for an instant and tried to mediate with a cough, “Yixiao has just come back. And she had better take a rest first! We shall resume the conversation later.”

“He is my father anyway, who I will never resent! But do I have anything to do with the Liu Family? Mr. Liu, just conduct yourself well!” Song Yixiao was relieved with a sigh. If she was beaten and became a cripple, her life would be ruined even if she didn’t marry Liu Zhiyin!

Now she was not fully out of danger, but the presently pressing problem was solved!

Nevertheless, she made a threat and showed her fearlessness before leaving sneeringly with a flap of her wide sleeves just in case her game of bluff would be seen through.

She didn’t lie in bed with sweat all over her body with her hands placed on her chest until she was detained in the Xieyue Villa.

“Your ladyship, what on earth did Master tell you?” Ms. Zhao and the others had been perturbed since Song Yixiao was summoned into the study alone but they found no opportunity to ask anyhow. Now that they closed the door and window and dismissed the irrelevant people, they all advanced to show concern for her, “How come your face looks so pale?”

“Liu Zhenxi was in the study too.” Song Yixiao, still panicked and resentful at the moment, couldn’t lift her arms or legs at all. After leaning against the cushion for a while, she said in a weak voice, “He has convinced my father to marry me to his son Liu Zhiyin!”

Ms. Zhao was dumbfounded and Ms. Bo also found it unbelievable, “Is Master Song insane? Now all the folks in the imperial city say that he doesn’t treat you well. How can he marry you to the son of the Liu Family? What on earth does the Liu Family promise to offer him so that he can ignore his dignity?”

“Liu Zhenxi said that they would surely be censured if I was healthy and my father married me to Liu Zhiyin!” Song Yixiao lifted her sleeves to cover her face and started to sob, “But hypothetically, I am crippled and Liu Zhiyin is willing to marry me, which will show the sincerity of the Liu Family to bury the hatchet and make a merry deed! In this case, no one will say that the Liu Family don’t educate their daughter well!”

“How can Master do this to you?” Ms. Zhao was greatly furious and instantly rose, intending to argue with Song Yuan, “You are his only legitimate child!”

“Come back!” Ms. Bo stopped her loudly in time, “If Master Song really loves her ladyship, why did he help the Liu Family to trick her ladyship into coming back? He must have made up his mind! You are merely a maid! What’s the point of your arguing with him? Don’t monkey around!”

As the trusted subordinate of Wei Mengying, Ms. Bo sensed the key point with savvy, “Why will you become a cripple? Do they try to use your sprain against you?”

Song Yixiao couldn’t help praising her intelligence in secret. She nodded her head, “Liu Zhenxi kept staring at my ankle when he said that. I guess you must be right! Otherwise, why did they force me to come back in the guise of my grandma’s faked illness?”

Then she said sobbingly, “My mother is worried that my sprain cannot be well recovered after I come here… Unexpectedly… Unexpectedly…”

“The news that the mastiffs ran into the inner courtyard of the prince’s mansion has been blocked since it happened!” Answering to her expectation, Ms. Bo was immediately enlightened, “So is the news about her ladyship’s sprain. It hasn’t been a long time since it happened. Master Song is in the house of the suburb area. How did he know about this?”

“Moreover, crippling her ladyship and marrying her to the son of the Liu Family only does good to the Liu Family. What good does it do to the Song Family? No matter how Master Song dislikes her ladyship, he doesn’t need to do this to his blood daughter?”

The ringleader was clearly revealed. “It must be the second young mistress! Her father, Jin Suke, is Director in the Ministry of Personnel, who is in charge of the promotion for officials. She must be behind this. Or why would Master Song agree to marry her ladyship to the son of the Liu Family?”

“You mean the arrangement seemingly targets at me but it is actually a plot against my mother? After all, Madam Jin hates me just because of my mother. Right?” What Ms. Bo said was exactly what Song Yixiao wanted to hear!

Then she immediately shouted and gave a worried look, “Oh my god! She is so cruel to me like this! If she wants to plot against my mother, what kind of evil thing will she do?”

Then she pushed the boat with the current and said anxiously, “You two, please do something! We cannot see my mother fall into her trap! Otherwise… Otherwise…”

While she was speaking, she seemed to choke with sobs and couldn’t continue talking. Then she started to cry.

Ms. Zhao hurriedly advanced to hug her and talk with her nicely while Ms. Bo was not in a mood. Sitting there with a frown, she fell into a trance.

Song Yixiao was very pleased and thought, “I have no idea whether Madam Jin only wants to vent her anger on me this time or try to take my mother and me down in one draft. Yet, Ms. Bo is mother’s subordinate anyway. She acts differently when it comes to taking down the enemy for my mother and me. Now I am really at risk so I must trick her into working for me once!”

However, whether taking advantage of Jian Xubai or guiding Ms. Bo’s thought, this act of saving herself couldn’t guarantee her safety for good!

Song Yixiao kept sobbing in her foster nurse’s arms, with her eyes getting darker, “Without doubt, the Jin Family and Liu Family must harbor evil designs towards me! If I want to find a way out, I have no other choice but to work on my father and grandma. The problem is that my father obviously vents his anger of mother on me. Otherwise, he would not agree to cripple me and marry me to the Liu Family even if he wants to rise!”

Therefore, “the only one breakthrough point can only be my grandma! Although Grandma may hold greater grudge against mother than father, she attaches more importance to father’s prospect and life. If father may come to no good end in order to let mother and me come down, grandma will not do it!”

With that, she was sure that she could convince Madam Pang to protect her. After all, she had conceived a lot of plans to handle her grandma.

The current problem was whether she would be allowed to serve her grandma since she was detained in the Xieyue Villa.