CH 72

Chapter 72: The Journey to Return

After seeing those three go out, Ren Yaoqi also turned around and went back to her room.

On the way, she could not help but think back to the appearance of the young man she had seen before this day.

Because of what happened to Dong Sheng, she could probably be sure that he was the Second Young Master of the Xiao Family.

There was no way to find out anything else for the time being, but based on his looks and temperament alone, he was indeed an extremely outstanding character.

She wondered if Xiao Jingxi would succeed in carrying out her plan. If things went the way she hoped they would, she wondered would Zeng Yu still be sent by the court to Yanbei.

With this in mind, Ren Yaoqi entered her and Ren Yaohua’s house. She was about to hear what Xiang Qin and Wu Jing whispered about not far from the doorway.

But when they saw Ren Yaoqi enter, they hurriedly bowed.

Ren Yaoqi smiled and said, “What’s all the commotion about? Where is Third Sister?”

Xiang Qin now was familiar with Ren Yaoqi. She felt that this young miss was a good-talking and good-tempered master, so she was no longer afraid of her: “Third Miss didn’t like the stuffiness of the house, so she went to go to Eldest Young Madam for doing embroidery, leaving the two servant girls to clean up the bed. Third Miss dislikes that the quilts prepared in the mansion smell of camphor, and asked the servants to exchange the quilts for the one on our carriage.”

After speaking, she leaned over and said in a low voice: “The slaves are gossiping about that white-clothed man. Fifth Miss, I heard that the man was arrested this afternoon.”

The man that Xiang Qin was referring to was the nun’s lover, but Li Tianyou should still be staying in the courtyard down the hill.

The other maid’s face turned red and she gave Xiang Qin a twist on the soft flesh of her waist: “How can you say this to Fifth Miss? You’re not afraid to stain Miss’s ears! If Matron Zhou finds out, she will have your skin uncovered!”

Xiang Qin cried out in shock and immediately hid behind Ren Yaoqi, “Fifth Miss has asked me, I can’t lie either! Besides, there is no one else here, so how would Matron Zhou know? If she knew about it, you would have told on her!”

Wu Jing was about to lecture her, but Ren Yaoqi laughed and said, “Forget it, Xiang Qin is just messing around, so don’t be so mean to her.”

“You’re protecting her, Fifth Miss!” Wu Jing stomped her foot. She glared at Xiang Qin and ran away.

Xiang Qin made a face at her back, and when she saw Ren Yaoqi looking over, she was hurriedly smiling curtly again.

Ren Yaoqi saw her playfulness and couldn’t help but smile too.

“Who was the person who was caught?” Ren Yaoqi asked after thinking about it. After all, it was related to Li Tianyou.

Seeing her question, Xiangqin said, “I heard it was a tenant farmer who emptied dung for Baiyun Temple every day. He lives at the bottom of the hill. A relative of the nun’s late husband had him tied up. But I heard from an old lady who had seen the scene from the courtyard next door, that the girl was a rare beauty, but the tenant farmer was already in his forties and had an ugly face. Although she was a monk, she was very spirited. She scolded her husband’s relatives and drove them out with a stick. The relatives then stayed in a small courtyard next to Baiyun Temple and refused to leave. They said that if Baiyun Temple did not give them an explanation, they would report the matter to the officials tomorrow. It’s only because it’s raining that they’ve stopped for the time being, but tomorrow there’s bound to be another fuss.”

Ren Yaoqi was relieved to hear that Li Tianyou was not involved, thinking about the words and actions of the women who were looking for someone at the temple before, that the tenant farmer must have been temporarily arrested to convict the nun.

Secretly she thought that she must let Li Tianyou leave here before leaving tomorrow, lest he dragged into other people’s property disputes in a daze.

People die for their money, birds die for their food. There are some people like that in this world. For those yellow and white things (means gold and silver), any dirty and wicked things will be done.

This night Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua slept on the same bed.

For the first half of the night, Ren Yaoqi felt Ren Yaohua who was sleeping on the outside of the bed was tossing and turning.

She was also a little uncomfortable sleeping with someone else. But she lay there with so many things on her mind that she ignored this uncomfortableness. So in the end she fell asleep in a daze.

When she got up the next day, Ren Yaoqi saw that Ren Yaohua’s eyes were a little green underneath.

After breakfast. When the two of them went out, Ren Yaoqi saw her yawning and asked with a smile, “Third Sister didn’t sleep well last night?”

Ren Yaohua turned her head and looked at her as if she was still in good spirits, glaring at her in a somewhat depressed manner, “You slept so well, snored all night, how could I sleep!”

Ren Yaoqi was stunned, she didn’t remember that she had the habit of snoring, wasn’t this a slander?

She was about to retort when she heard someone behind her say, “Who has been snoring all night?”

When both of them turned around, they saw Ren Yaoyu and Ren Yaoyin walking out from next door, looking at them with interest.

Ren Yaohua paused and pursed her lips, pointing at Xiang Qin beside her and saying in a light voice, “I’m talking about this maid. It’s fine on weekdays, but she loves to snore when she changes places.”

Xiang Qin glanced at her master and silently looked down at her feet.

No wonder when Matron Zhou had taught them the rules when she had first entered the house, she had said that all masters had no faults or flaws, and if they did, it would be their maids’.

Once again, Xiang Qin felt that the job of a maid was really not a good one.

Wu Jing looked at Xiang Qin with smirk.

The rain had stopped this morning, after washing the sky and making it particularly clear. With some morning light, it looked as like the sky and the earth had changed and become spiritually pure.

The sisters had gone to the Eldest Madam’s place to hear about the arrangements for their return today. But then they saw a servant rushing over to report something to Eldest Madam.

Ren Yaoyu was a little curious when she saw her in a hurry, so she raised her voice and stopped her: “You, come here.”

Ren Yaoyin recognized that she was a second-ranking woman in her mother’s courtyard, so she said kindly to Ren Yaoyu, “There must be something urgent to report, why are you stopping her? Let her go.”

Ren Yaoyu brushed her lips, “What urgent matters can there be when you’re out and about? It’s just today’s itinerary, I’ll ask first so I know what to expect.”

She ignored Ren Yaoyin and asked the old lady to tell her what was going on.

The servant stammered: “It’s because those things about white-clothed man happened, so things were a little noisy. This servant was afraid that it would delay the trip back to the mansion today, so she came here to ask the Eldest Madam.”

Ren Yaoyu became more and more curious: “What exactly is it?”

It was Ren Yaoyin who suddenly interrupted Ren Yaoyu’s pursuit of the root of the matter and said to her with a cold face, “Then why are you still dawdling here?

That woman was so pleased that she hurried away.

Ren Yaoyu was dissatisfied:  “I haven’t asked clearly yet! You…do you know what it is?” Ren Yaoyu asked suspiciously.

The embarrassment on Ren Yaoyin’s face flickered away, and she soon righted herself and said, “Eighth Sister, since she is there to report to the elders, perhaps there are some things that are not for us to hear. Why do you need to make things difficult for her?”

Ren Yaoyu hummed lightly, but left Ren Yaoyin behind and hurried towards the main room, muttering, “The more I am kept in the dark, the more I have to go and hear what is going on.”

“Eighth Sister!” Ren Yaoyin frowned and followed.

Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua both glanced at each other and followed suit.

When they reached the door they happened to hear Eldest Madam’s somewhat unpleasant voice: “How could such filthy things appear in this pure Buddhist place? It’s simply…”

When she heard the maid at the door report that several young ladies had arrived, the Eldest Madam’s voice stopped abruptly and only said to Matron Cao behind her, “Go and ask the monk of Yuanjing in the temple, they can be regarded as the master of Bailong Temple. Let them send someone to deal with it, and we will leave after the commotion outside has stopped. Instruct the people in the yard not to go out to find out the news. If you find those who like to get involved in the fun, they will all be sold out.”

Ren Yaoqi could not help but frown, what had happened at the Bailong Temple? Li Tianyou wouldn’t be involved in this, would he?

Although Eldest Madam did not want the Ren Family to get involved in such matters, she could not stop the curiosity of the maids and ladies.

So when Ren Yaoqi came out from the Eldest Madam’s place, she heard from Xiang Qin about what had happened.

It turns out that some relatives of the nun’s late husband were staying in a courtyard not far from Baiyun Temple and refused to leave, so this morning a woman from the nun’s late husband’s family and the tenant farmer who was said to be the nun’s lover were both found naked and sleeping together in a woodpile outside.

Now that woman was crying and looking for death, the family was in a mess, and they didn’t have the heart to trouble that nun anymore.

However, some people said that the aunt was so ruthless that she could even do such unethical things.

Ren Yaoqi sent a maid to see if Li Tianyou had left the place where he had stayed, and she came back to say that her uncle and his tenures had just left.

Ren Yaoqi was relieved.

It was almost noon before the Ren Family left the Bailong Temple. Sitting in the carriage, Ren Yaoqi listened to Ren Yijun asking about Qiu Yun’s visit to the second son of Xiao yesterday.

It was probably because they pay their respects in the middle of the rain yesterday, but Xiao Jingxi had actually met them. He even played a game of chess with Ren Yijun.

Xiao Jingxi was a very gentle man, but his chess style was extremely sharp and he defeated Ren Yijun with ease. Ren Yijun had a very good impression of Xiao Jingxi because of this.