Underneath A Thousand Skies ✔️

19 Favoring Qie Over Wife (19)

On the side yard between the second and third door of the wangfu, Bai Mei Lien had just finished eating her lunch.

As she wiped her mouth with a handkerchief, she tilted her head and asked Bo Yu who was standing a few feet behind her, "Where is wang ye? I heard that he doesn't have to go to court today."

Bo Yu took a step forward and carefully said, "Mistress, nubi heard that wang ye has chosen to spend the day in the zhengfang."

Bai Mei Lien's hands stilled. She couldn't disguise the pain in her eyes as she asked, "Is this true?"

Before she married Zhao Cheng, she had already prepared herself to share him with another woman. After all, she was only a concubine. He couldn't dote on her too excessively.

But...for her heart to hurt this much...

Bai Mei Lien's hands squeezed her handkerchief until her fingers became white.

"Mistress, what nubi says is the truth. Nubi has also heard that wang ye brought a physician to check wang fei's health. Wang ye seems to greatly care for wang fei."

A single teardrop trickled across Bai Mei Lien's left cheek, but she quickly wiped it away. Bo Yu, acting as if she hadn't seen anything, suggested, "It seems that the weather is particularly good today. Why don't nubi accompany mistress for a walk around the koi pond? It would be good for mistress' health."

Bai Mei Lien nodded. She couldn't just stay here in her courtyard and wallow in her sorrows. She lifted a hand for Bo Yu to help her stand up. After smoothing out the non-existent wrinkles in her dress, she said in a soft voice to her personal maids, "Come, accompany me to the koi pond."

...

Back in the zhengfang, the yahuan took out the empty meal boxes and left Song Jia flipping the pages of Meng Zi as she lounged in the sitting room.

After eating lunch with her, Zhao Cheng had returned to his study for some unfinished official business. He told her before he left that he will eat dinner in the zhengfang, making Song Jia feel slightly worried. Was it her turn to be eaten now? He was her husband, so she couldn't resist his advances. But Song Jia was disinclined to sleep with a man who was also doing intimate things with another woman. In the end, she decided to do other 'methods' that would satisfy him as well.

Just as she was about to go back to her bedchamber to take her daily afternoon nap, a sweaty Minglan burst into the room and exclaimed, "Wang fei, not good!"

Song Jia frowned. Minglan had a cool and calm temperament, so seeing her this nervous meant that something big had happened. She put down her book on the table and said, "Calm down first. I'm sure it's not so serious that you have to frighten yourself to death over it."

"Ruolan..." Minglan put a hand to her heart and tried to catch her breath, "Ruolan pushed Bai shufei into the koi pond!"

Pa! Song Jia slapped the table, startling Minglan into jumping in the air.

She gritted her teeth as she thought, I forgot that my fellow co-transmigrators had warned me about this deathtrap! Didn't they say, 'if you have a lake or a pond in the estate, don't get near to it at all costs'? It's the fastest way to meet King Yama! [1]

After she was done cursing the koi pond, she glanced up at the trembling Minglan and asked, "Has sister Bai been pulled to safety?"

"Answering wang fei, Bai shufei has already been taken by wang ye back to her courtyard and a physician has been called over. But Ruolan..." Minglan's eyes became red and she directly knelt to knock her head on the floor, "Wang fei, nubi is certain that Ruolan is innocent, begging wang fei to save Ruolan!"

Song Jia stood up and pulled Minglan to her feet. "Don't say anything anymore, I know what to do."

Furthermore, she didn't think that Ruolan was the one who did it. She was a kind-hearted yatou, which meant that someone else behind the scenes had framed her. And it wasn't only targeted at Ruolan either. Ruolan was Song Jia's personal maidservant, and she tried to kill Bai Mei Lien, Zhao Cheng's favored concubine. If her master had not instructed her to do it, why would a mere slave-servant try to take the life of a woman who wasn't even connected to her?

Song Jia swished the sleeves of her vermillion dress and walked past Minglan, "Escort me to sister Bai's courtyard. How could I, the qin wang fei of the wangfu, just let this kind of matter in the houyuan pass me by?"

Hmph, wanting to scheme over me? You're still several centuries too early!

[1] Actually, his Chinese name is King Yan or Yanluo.