But towards this maidservant's words, Bai Mei Lien showed a rare look of seriousness.
"Then I will greet wang ye together with wang fei. Wang fei has always treated me very well, I need to be present for wang ye to see that both I and his child are being taken care of."
Bai Mei Lien was truly grateful to Song Jia. Other than that, she also wanted to see Zhao Cheng.
The servant looked at the anxious mamas and the two parties conversed for a while before agreeing, "Mistress must be very careful, nubi will also support you."
Having said so, they helped Bai Mei Lien get out of the bed. Her stomach was now a bit bigger, making her suffer from ankle cramps all day long. After she was dressed with the waist tie positioned higher because of her swollen belly, Bai Mei Lien went out of her courtyard with her large entourage behind her, alert for any rustle of leaves in the wind [1].
When they approached the main gates of the estate, Bai Mei Lien found to her surprise that wang fei was still not there. She looked dubiously at the sun that was already high in the sky. Could wang fei have overslept?
Then, all the various mamas and servants around her bowed their heads to a particular direction.
Bai Mei Lien turned around. She saw a slim and perfect figure slowly approach them, wearing a skirt with folds on end, with golden silk threads criss-crossed at the hem. The beizi that she wore were embroidered with numerous butterflies in Su style, and her hair was bundled together on the top of her head, secured by a hairpin which had small rubies hanging on its other end.
Her eyelashes were dark and thick, her lips red. When she smiled, it seemed as if the sun had peeked from behind the clouds, dazzling in its own right.
Bai Mei Lien shook herself from her daze and softly smiled, bending her knees, "Nu gives greetings to wang fei."
Song Jia immediately stepped forward to stop her, "Sister Bai, with our relationship, etiquettes like these are not needed."
She wiped the sweat that had trickled down her forehead nervously. Why is this girl so timid? With the way the master and mistress of the house gave her so much favoritism, shouldn't she be a little more arrogant now? If she bowed and suddenly had an accident, wouldn't Zhao Cheng blame her?
Good people, ah, they gave her more of a headache than evil ones.
The servants around them no longer blinked at this kind of interaction between the main wife and the favored concubine. In other houses, such a meeting like this would surely result in swords drawn and bows bent, but in the third prince's estate, wang fei and Bai shufei were competing on who could be nicer to the other instead.
"Wang fei, how could nu accept such generosity..."
"Sister Bai, you are always too polite towards me, it makes me very sad."
"Wang fei, nu does not mean to, nu is very grateful to wang fei..."
"Sister Bai does not need to feel gratefulness, such care between sisters is naturally a matter of course..."
"Wang fei..."
"Sister Bai..."
"..."
After several rounds of niceties, the battle was finally over just as Song Jia was ready to admit her defeat.
Why is this girl such a tough nut to crack?! Song Jia couldn't help but mentally cry tears of blood. Dealing with insults, she was very confident about, because she liked to watch a lot of television dramas where words could be used as weapons, killing a person without a single drop of blood.
But towards this "No, you go first" and "No, please, after you" kind of fight, Song Jia was very weak towards it. She was the type of person who would take a yard after being given an inch. When in her life did she encounter a bizarre way of fighting such as this?
The two of them stood side by side as they waited for Zhao Cheng's arrival. Occasionally, Song Jia would cover her mouth with her hand, yawning loudly. She casted a look full of longing towards the direction of the zhengfang, cursing her husband in her mind a couple of times for choosing such an unfriendly time of the day to return. She thought he wouldn't be back for at least a couple of months because of the distance between the north and the capital, so she stayed late last night to read a book.
Towards Song Jia's disgruntled look, Ruolan and Minglan lowered their eyes to their noses, their noses to their hearts, pretending not to see. Comparing Bai Mei Lien's excited gaze to Song Jia's sleepy appearance...ai, let's just continue to play dead.
It wasn't a long time before they heard the sound of hoofbeats, steadily getting closer and closer. Song Jia straightened her posture, lifting a hand to sweep back the strands of her hair that escaped. Her expression also became similar to Bai Mei Lien's look of impatience, as the sooner she welcomed Zhao Cheng, the sooner she could go back to her bed.
The main gates of the estate opened, and as Song Jia glanced along, her eyes were held by a black, moving speck which gradually resolved itself into the semblance of a man on horseback, galloping furiously. She watched him as he drew nearer and nearer, the dust flying from his horse's hooves, his figure motionless, his eyes fixed on hers.
Fixed on...eh? Song Jia looked behind her, wondering if Bai Mei Lien somehow stepped back. But no, there was no one there.
When he was barely an arm's breadth away, his horse shied at the sight of her and was suddenly swung around with a powerful wrist.
[1] Slightest sign of disturbance or trouble.