Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Hearing Ying Lu’s excited voice, I already know she is once again holding the attitude of ‘scandalous romance is always everywhere’, makes sense, after such a classic scene of hero saving the beauty, the female lead raises her head to intently look at the male lead, in a trance but also exceptionally focused, coupled with the male lead being a one-in-a-million handsome gentleman, a masterful one at that, no matter who looks at it, they would think her spring heart is rippling waves.

But Liu Ru Xu is not your typical female lead, even though I am stood so far from her, I can still feel her face suddenly give rise to an unlikely look of indifference, in her eyes that have always been reflecting a cold light, there flashes a bit of deep yearning and confusion, tightly pursed lips pale and weak. I believe I know what this emotion is, it’s called……sorrow.

In everyone’s memories there are wounds buried, deep ones, shallow ones, healed ones, rotted ones. We are unable to do anything with them, unable to forget nor able to readily accept.

This is us, perhaps there are times, we are all the same.

Towards Liu Ru Xu’s strange reaction, Yuwen Rui’s expression remains unchanging, his pretty and handsome face still carrying a gentle yet distant smile, tall and slender body stood upright like bamboo, such a pleasing view is even able to cover up the fact that he did not even reach out to help Liu Ru Xu up.

I secretly spurn, not seeing him for so many days, he is indeed still the same. He still likes to put on an act, leading people around in circles, just like the Yuwen Rui I know, of course, he is also that immature, nonsensical, petty plus black belly Yuwen Rui. A nasty thought suddenly pops up in my head, there will be one day, I raise a beautiful snow-white little fox, hanging a long chain made of silver around its neck, then on days when the weather is nice, I will lead it out……walking the fox.

What life lacks, can indeed be fulfilled in imaginations.

I blink my eyes, continuing to observe the situation over there. The original deadlock of the scene is broken by that scholar-like male, his steps hurried and unstable as he comes to Liu Ru Xu’s side, extending his hand to her, voice shaky as he asks: “Young-, Young Lady Meng, are you alright?”

Only then does Liu Ru Xu snap out of it, her body making a very slight, almost unnoticeable, quiver. Her face once again masked with coldness, ignoring his hand, she indifferently says: “I have troubled Gentleman Guan, I am fine.” She gets up to face Yuwen Rui, respectful yet not warm as she says: “Many thanks to this gentleman coming to the rescue just now, Ru Xu is exceptionally grateful.”

I am thinking this Liu Ru Xu sure is capable ah, one second she is looking soulless, the next second she completely acts like nothing had happened, but at the very least she had told Yuwen Rui her name, right? Also, just now that male called Liu Ru Xu ‘Young Lady Meng’?

Yuwen Rui slightly nods, his voice cold: “Lady needs not be courteous.”

“They’re all just pretending to be cultured.” Ying Lu mutters, “Let’s go, let’s go, really, wasted so much of my time.”

I think to myself that Ying Lu truly is very blunt and cute, her words are very much one prick sees blood. I nod at her, “Sure.”

As I turn around, I find it so laughable, Yuwen Rui spent so much effort laying out the net to find me, but once I’m right under his nose, he is unable to notice this, from this, you can see that all those so-called ‘spotting you at one glance in the vast sea of people’, is but all a joke.

Mine and Ying Lu’s arrival at Pei Yu Court just happened to coincide with a chubby middle-aged man taking out a box, seeing his flushing cheeks and smile filling his entire face, I presume he has encountered a great matter.

Upon seeing him, Ying Lu smilingly calls out: “Shopkeeper Cui.”

​

Shopkeeper Cui joyfully walks towards her: “Young Lady Meng, you have come at such a coincidental time, the jade pendant you have sent in the other day has just finished its mending, this jade of Young Lady’s is indeed a rare treasure, I have entrusted people from other provinces to look through many different places before I could find a small piece, luckily the crack in the jade isn’t big, if not, even if I had to go find more, there would be nothing I can do.”

Ying Lu looks at Shopkeeper Cui in confusion, and says: “Shopkeeper Cui, what is this jade pendant you speak of?”

Shopkeeper Cui instead opens the box and places it in Ying Lu’s hand, “Young Lady please don’t joke with me, quickly see if the mending of this jade pendant is to your satisfaction, I have put a lot of care into this, Young Lady must definitely be careful next time.”

Ying Lu turns to look at me, baffled, “Ah-Lan?”

I walk up and carefully observe that jade pendant, and can only see it has a golden braided knot, and is approximately the size of the bottom of a bowl, an entire body of lake green, irregular cloud like patterns distributed inside the jade. Hollow areas carved into the jade to form a [female] phoenix, such craftsmanship extremely exquisite and delicate, the phoenix is even more so lifelike as though wanting to soar through the skies, no matter how one looks at it, this jade pendant is no ordinary object. I squint my eyes, this jade pendant is a little familiar, I am certain I have seen it somewhere before, but, exactly where?

“Shopkeeper Cui, this jade pendant isn’t mine.” Ying Lu shakes her head as she says this after taking a look at the jade pendant.

Shopkeeper Cui sees that Ying Lu does not seem to be joking, and immediately says in confusion: “How could that be? The one in charge has clearly noted this as the Meng family’s young lady from the east (side of the city)ah?”

I half lower my eyes, I think, I pretty much know what is going on here now.

At this time, several people enters the doors, before they had even approached, the sound of someone’s surprised cry is heard, “Ah, Young Lady, that’s your jade pendant!”

I look towards the newly arrived people, thinking to myself Cao Cao’s speed really is getting quicker and quicker, before it was speak of him and he will arrive, now, just think of him and he will arrive (playing with the saying – 一说曹操，曹操就到 / yī shuō Cáo Cāo, Cáo Cāo jiù dào = speak of Cao Cao, and here he comes – the Chinese equivalent of speaking of devil). The new arrivals are precisely the Liu Ru Xu trio we had just seen before. Liu Ru Xu appears to be a little angered right now, intently staring at the box in Ying Lu’s hand. She suddenly looks at the young man next to her coldly, the means of questioning is evident without any spoken words.

That young man’s face instantly turns red, taking long strides to Shopkeeper Cui’s side, “Manager Cui, this jade is the young lady of the Meng family’s, how could you give it to this lady from heaven knows where?” His words were spoken with haste, further showing his displeasure and questioning.

Manager Cui’s face darkens, “Say that again?”

The young man’s face turns livid as he says: “This jade is the young lady of the Meng family’s.” He extends his hand to point at Liu Ru Xu, then furiously looks at Ying Lu, continuing to say: “I don’t know why this lady must impersonate another to get the jade pendant, but does lady not find it shameful to be taking someone else’s thing?”

Shopkeeper Cui already has his eyes widened, unable to speak, yet the man is still deeply conscious of being righteous as he continues to condemn, “The ancients have a saying: taking something that is not yours does not make it your own. Could it be that lady doesn’t even understand the meaning of being human?”

I see Ying Lu’s face instantly flush red, then the pair of hands holding onto the box starts to slightly tremble.

“I didn’t think that there is actually someone who came to Pei Yu Court to find a chance to swindle, this must not be lady’s first time either, could it be that you don’t even know how to write the word shameful?” The young man gets more excited the more he speaks, his words also growing increasingly venomous, “I didn’t think that in this very day and age, there is still someone like you lady, I see that lady’s appearance isn’t bad, but why must you do this kind of thing?”

Ying Lu unconsciously bites onto her bottom lips, eyes filled with fury as well as the wronged feelings of being misunderstood by a stranger.

“Enough!” Shopkeeper Cui loudly shouts, “Do you know who you’re speaking to right now?!”

The young man coldly harrumphs, “Shopkeeper Cui, I will not hold back on her just because she’s a lady, people like this are simply our Yun Mi’s-“

“Pa.”

After the sound was heard, everything falls to silence.

Shopkeeper Cui widens his eyes in shock, Liu Ru Xu and San-er were also stunned, Ying Lu had even forgotten her anger. As for that young man who spoke out of turn with no virtue, he is currently holding half of his face as he blankly looks at me, seeming to have not registered what had just happened.

I smile at him without any warmth, stretching out the right hand I had just hit him with: “My mother has said, animals should not roam the streets during the day, should I run into one during the day, then I should not hold back in hitting it.”

The young man’s anger starts fuming within a second, but I interrupt him with my flat voice again, “My mother has also said, the reason animals are animals, is because they don’t know human language, telling me not to show sympathy for animals, because it is indefinite whether one little gift will have it reaching for a yard after advancing by an inch, forgetting its own status.”

I take a step back, using an extremely puzzled voice to ask Ying Lu, “Young Lady, so Young Master has another younger sister ah, and the Meng family has another young lady aside from you, don’t know if it is your older sister or younger sister?”

Upon hearing this, Ying Lu’s face becomes calm, slowly speaking: “I am unaware when Brother had suddenly gotten another younger sister, to use my name to bluff, and, swin-, -dle.” She carelessly sweeps a glance at two particular people, and then looks at that young man, walking up to him, then sweetly smiles, “This gentleman’s words just now sure were interesting to listen to, but please forgive me for not understanding it, Ah-Lan’s words are correct, animals do not know human language, and I naturally do not understand the words of an animal.” She then raises her foot and walks towards Liu Ru Xu, passing the box in hand to her.

Liu Ru Xu tightly holds the box after taking it, seeing her carefully inspect the jade pendant, one can see how much importance it holds to her.

At this time, Shopkeeper Cui’s voice can be heard, “Guan Yue, you give me an explanation, exactly what is going on here?!”

Only now, was that young man hit with the realisation, evasively speaking: “I, I saw Young Master Meng bring Young Lady Meng, no, I mean this young lady here that day, Young Master Meng addressed her as ‘my younger sister’, so I thought she is the young lady of the Meng family, hence why the account book says Meng family’s young lady on it, who knew, who knew, I, Shopkeeper, I really didn’t know.”

“Didn’t know?!” Shopkeeper Cui is absolutely fuming, “Did you know that this lady here, is in fact Young Master Meng’s younger sister, Young Lady Meng, that is the Meng family’s young lady [of extended family]! Could it be you left your brain at home?!”

“Shopkeeper Cui, don’t be angry.” Ying Lu faintly smiles as she says: “Brother has told me since I was young, when a dog bites me, I cannot possibly bite onto its body of fur in return. This matter today is also of this reason, just don’t be like this next time, it will be difficult to not scare away some of your esteemed customers.” She turns to me, “Ah-Lan, it has been quite a while since we’ve left the estate, let us head back now.”

I obediently walk up to her side, “Yes.”

“I shall be heading back first then, I’ll come take a look again next time.” Ying Lu politely says to Shopkeeper Cui. When she passes by Liu Ru Xu’s side, she lowers her voice and says, “Rest assured, I have no desire for you possessions, because what I have, you may not have. And what you have, I may not necessarily not have either.”

Liu Ru Xu raises her head, her eyes seeming to be coated with a layer of frost, the muscles in her face slightly tightened. Ying Lu smiles, her words irrefutable.

“Oh right.” I suddenly smack my own forehead.

Ying Lu stops in her steps and looks at me, “What’s wrong?”

I did not respond to her, turning to run back to that Guan Yue’s side, smilingly saying to him: “Let me tell you oh, Young Lady [of extended family] is surnamed Liu.”

Guan Yue’s eyes reflects my smiling face, a pretty and ordinary face lit with an extremely sincere smile, but his pupils slightly shrinks, his attitude strange. I turn and leave, thinking to myself, men these days are indeed all not worth looking at, nor worth using, disgraceful!

Along the way back, Ying Lu had kept hugging my arm, happily laughing, “Ah-Lan, that one slap of yours is simply too wonderful! His face had even swelled up, five fingers printed on, hahaha, so funny, you really are so funny.”

All along, I keep my patience with her repeating herself like Madam Xiang Lin , in the end, I could not withstand it anymore, extending my right hand as I blankly look at my own palm, saying: “Young Lady.” (Madam Xiang Lin is a character from author Lu Xun’s The New Year Sacrifice, who loses her sanity after the loss of her child. and constantly tells and retells the story of her child’s violent death)

Ying Lu excitedly widens her eyes, “Could it be you’re going to teach me how to hit people?”

……I’ll hit you instead.

“My hand really hurts.”

“Ah?”

“Hitting people makes hand really hurt.”

“……oh.” Ying Lu’s voice is laced with quite a bit of fawning, “I’ll apply some medicine for you once we get back?”

I go silent for a few minutes, after not hearing her continue to talk about it, I say: “Alright.”

After returning to the estate, Young Master was not around, so I was pleased to have some free time, going back to catch up on my sleep, then getting up to eat dinner, and once again continuing to lie down and sleep, once I had woken up, it was already the afternoon of the next day, cheeks held in hand, I am feeling quite happy, it is rare for Young Master to not come bothering me, how great.

I slowly get up from bed, continuing to slowly move towards the kitchen, but halfway there, I come across a group of gossiping maids, and, their first sentence was explosive news to me.

Gossip Girl One says: “Did you lot know, Young Master brought Ke Ren out! Also, you lot will never be able to guess! Who Young Master is going to see today? The one Young Master is going to see is General Yuwen’s eldest gentleman, Yuwen Rui!”

I weakly rub my forehead, indeed, gossips can always throw someone off.