When He Yuan opened his eyes, a team of physicians were hovering over him. He quickly pushed them out of the way and rushed outside. It was dark. Damn!
"Second miss! What happened?" The head servant from before rushed outside too. "You've been asleep all day, you can't rush out like that as soon as you wake up. It's cold outside, what if you catch a cold?!"
Staring at the night sky, He Yuan shook his head and followed the servant back inside. After the physicians monitored his vitals for some time, they all left and the servants brought in his dinner.
He Yuan sighed as he ate. He had come on the exact day Cao Luomei was reborn, the same day Wan Ruo tried to sell Cao Luomei to the traffickers. He'd rushed outside thinking he'd have a chance to stop Wan Ruo but who knew he'd spend all day receiving the realm information?
"Where's my mother?" He asked the head servant.
The teenage girl pursed her lips and her eyes darted around, looking for a way to avoid the question but seeing that He Yuan was still focused on her, she said hesitantly, "In confinement."
He Yuan sighed again. As expected, it was too late. The plan to sell Cao Luomei had fallen through and Wan Ruo was already confined in the isolation courtyard.
"What was my father's reaction when I didn't wake up all day?"
The head servant girl bowed her head. "The master sent the physicians over saying that Cao Luomei was almost sold off today and is very scared so he had to watch after her in order to calm her down."
"But she wasn't sold off anyways," Another servant girl said angrily. "Second miss was unconscious all day and he didn't even bother to come take a peek to know whether she was dead or alive!"
"Hush!" The head servant said to the other one angrily. "Second miss, you can't blame the master. Eldest miss was really scared and it was even the madam that... Anyways it's good that she's okay."
He Yuan stared at the head servant. Whose personal servant was she? It was true that Cao Luomei went through an unfortunate ordeal and it was normal for the 'little girl' to be scared. Well at least in the eyes of others.
But Cao Yuemei was Cao Long's daughter too. If he couldn't leave Cao Luomei by herself then he would've carried her in his arms and come to check on his second daughter. Cao Long had no excuse, he just didn't care for Cao Yuemei.
"Leave," He Yuan said to the head servant. "I don't want you to be my maid anymore." With someone like this around, who made it seem like Cao Yuemei was unreasonable for demanding her father's attention, it was no surprise that the leaser had fallen deeper and deeper in the dark.
The head servant's eyes widened. "Second miss what do you mean? What did I do wrong?!"
"Do I need a reason to send you away? I just don't like your face." He Yuan was quite relaxed doing this because everyone was already beginning to know Cao Yuemei for her tantrums. Doing something like this would only make them think it was her trying to seek attention.
The head servant huffed in silence before turning around and leaving. What could she do? Cao Yuemei was her master.
He Yuan looked at the two servant's left. "What are your names?"
"Wu Bai." The one who spoke up earlier said and the silent one lowered her head and muttered. "Wu Hong." They were sisters.
He Yuan nodded and had them clear the table and prepare him for bed. He kept his eyes on the ceiling all through the ordeal. He was still very uncomfortable.
[Better get used to it. You'd be spending quite some time in this realm.] 888 said with a chuckle.
He Yuan glared at no one in particular and dismissed the servants when he was tucked in bed. He finally had time to himself to think through everything.
Honestly speaking, he disliked Wan Ruo very much. He could tolerate a lot of things but the fact that she sold Cao Luomei off to courtesan traffickers who later forced the girl to become a child prostitute at age ten, was a big No for him.
So he wasn't going to interfere in the beef between Cao Luomei and Wan Ruo. The girl deserved her revenge for all she went through in her past life and for the fact that Wan Ruo repeated her actions in this life.
He was not a saint and just because Wan Ruo was connected to the leaser didn't mean he was obligated to help her unconditionally.
If Cao Yuemei wanted him to save her mother, he would have to disappoint her. If he had been able to stop Wan Ruo before she made that move in this lifetime, then there would've been a chance.
But now, it was too late. She already crossed one of his moral bottomlines so there was no going back for her.
Where Cao Luomei went wrong was being driven by jealousy and taking out her anger on Cao Yuemei and her little brother. He Yuan felt a headache coming on.
On one hand, he pitied Cao Luomei and found it difficult to blame her. The girl had spent eleven years, right from when she was five, in a courtesan house and had died when she was sixteen.
So she had a narrow view of the world and this could be seen on how she treated the people around her the same way she was taught to treat patrons in order for them to like her. Pleasing and fawning.
On the other hand, he pitied Cao Yuemei and her little brother even more as the both of them were just collateral damage in the war between their mother and half sister.
He Yuan felt a bit torn. What kind of realm was this?! After tossing for some more time, he finally decided. He was going to avoid Cao Luomei altogether. Cao Yuemei and her brother were stuck in the shadow of Cao Luomei and her own brother which inhibited their own growth.
So he was going to make sure Cao Yuemei grew up out of Cao Luomei's shadow. That would be quite easy because he wasn't a child and Cao Luomei's childish antics would have no effect on him.
Cao Luomei's loss of favour had come from her constant throwing of tantrums. If he stayed low until he was able to take her and her younger brother away from the Cao family altogether then all would be fine... Right?
888 materialized and shook his head at He Yuan. "You're making a decision from a place of sympathy and not clear headedness. It would fall through."
He Yuan frowned. "What do you mean?" His decision seemed quite reasonable to him.
888 only smiled. "You'll see" And then he was gone.
He Yuan slept off pondering what exactly 888 meant by his words.