Chapter 127 A Fateful Encounter. Lu Qing's mind was unusually foggy, so she sat down...

Lu Qing felt unusually dizzy and sat on the edge of the bed in a daze for a while. Suddenly, she heard a commotion in the side courtyard. It turned out that the Third Miss and her maid had returned from fetching water from the lake.

The maidservant went to the kitchen to fetch some hot water and brought it to Lu Qing's room, calling softly, "Is Miss awake?"

Lu Qing responded and opened the door for her.

The maidservant brought in water. "Oh dear, are you ill? You look so pale."

"Really?" Lu Qing reached out and touched her face.

"Where is your maid?" The little maid twisted out a handkerchief and handed it to her.

"She said she'd go get some medicine for me. She probably won't be back for a while." Lu Qing simply used being sick as an excuse.

The maidservant quickly helped her lie down and busied herself taking care of her. When the Third Miss heard that Lu Qing was sick, she also brought her breakfast. "There's nothing good to eat here, just some wild vegetable porridge and pickled vegetables. Please have some."

Lu Qing leaned against the headboard, "Your cooking is quite good; the wild vegetable porridge is delicious too."

The third young lady smiled and said, "I don't know how to cook anything else. The nuns don't eat meat, so we eat vegetarian food too. Therefore, I can only cook some simple dishes. I hope you won't find them offensive."

Lu Qing's gaze lingered on the Third Miss's face.

The young maidservant, who was already preoccupied, asked softly, "What are you looking at?"

"I'm a little curious, whose daughter are you, and why do you live here?" Lu Qing asked.

The third young lady was a little embarrassed. "I am the third daughter of the Fang family of Fuxian Lake."

"The Fang family of Fuxian Lake? Who is Fang Lansheng to you?" Lu Qing immediately became wary.

"You know my sixteenth brother?" The third young lady was very surprised.

"Are you siblings?" Lu Qing recalled Fang Lansheng's appearance; the two really did not look alike at all.

“No, we are cousins.” The third young lady clearly knew Fang Lansheng, and she was a little embarrassed. “Sixteenth Brother is the best-looking among our generation. He does look quite different from me.”

The maid quickly added, "Actually, our young lady doesn't look much like her peers."

The implication was so obvious that Lu Qing finally asked, as she had hoped, "You don't look like any of your peers?"

The third young lady blushed. "This...this...sisters from the same clan, it's normal that they don't look alike."

The young maidservant quickly answered, "To be honest, our young lady is the third daughter of the current head of the Fang family. However, our mistress listened to a fortune teller who said that our young lady would face a great calamity before she turned twenty and must stay away from home in a place with little contact with others to avoid it. So, the family sent our young lady to this island in the middle of the lake. When she was first sent here, she was only three years old and had a nanny to take care of her. Later, the nanny went back, leaving just the young lady and me. Isn't that strange? They say our young lady is their own flesh and blood, but they just left her here and didn't care about her anymore."

"No, our family often sends people to visit us and bring us things," the third young lady quickly explained.

The maidservant became even angrier upon hearing this. "Miss, don't you even look at what they're sending? Coarse cloth and vegetable seeds. Even when they're giving money, meat, vegetables, and pastries to the tenants, they're still considered decent. But the things they send us, even if given to the tenants, are looked down upon."

The third young lady blushed deeply. "Xiao Yan, please stop talking."

Xiao Yan looked at Lu Qing and said, "You be the judge, how can you treat your own daughter like this?"

Lu Qing listened quietly to their words, then asked, "Third Miss, what's your name?"

“My name is Fang Lanyue, Lan as in orchid, and Yue as in precious pearl,” the third young lady replied.

Lu Qing reached out her hand.

Fang Lanyue hesitated before placing her hand into Lu Qing's.

Fang Lanyue's hands were slender, strong, and rough, completely incomparable to Lu Qing's soft and delicate hands. Lu Qing examined her hands from all angles, but remained silent for a long time.

Xiao Yan looked at Lu Qing suspiciously, then at Fang Lanyue. The two, mistress and servant, were completely bewildered.

Lu Qing finally let go of Fang Lanyue's hand. "I want to see Madam Fang, but I don't know how to do it?"

Xiao Yan hurriedly said, "The Fang family is the largest cultivation family in Fuxian Lake. You only need to ask around to find out where the Fang family is."

Lu Qing nodded. "I want to ask Miss Fang for something, something so that Madam Fang will know I've met you when she sees it."

Fang Lanyue was taken aback. "I haven't seen Madam Fang in all these years, and she's never given me anything. I really don't have anything that would make her recognize me at a glance."

Xiao Yan had a sudden inspiration: "How about we paint a portrait of Miss?"

Lu Qing shook her head. "I can't draw."

"My young lady can. Her paintings are incredibly realistic."

Lu Qing thought for a moment, then said, "Alright."

Xiao Yan jumped up happily, "Miss, wait for me!"

Fang Lanyue was somewhat uneasy, unsure whether to stop him or not.

Lu Qing patted the edge of the bed. "Come sit down. Although nothing is certain right now, since we've met, it must be fate between us."

Fang Lanyue's voice trembled slightly, "What's your name?"

“My name is Lu Qing. My family isn’t a prominent clan, there aren’t many of us, and we spend our days dealing with plants.” Lu Qing stared intently at Fang Lanyue. Fang Lanyue didn’t seem disappointed; instead, she pressed on, “So, how did your sister get lost?”

Lu Qing said, "I was young at the time and was abducted."

Fang Lanyue said "Oh," and asked, "How old was she back then?"

"He must have been born not long ago," Lu Qing said, and Xiao Yan came in carrying some things: a pen, ink, paper, and a bronze mirror.

Lu Qing smiled and said, "Go and draw."

Fang Lanyue quickly drew a self-portrait in front of the mirror. Lu Qing looked at it and praised, "Have you studied painting? It's so lifelike!"

Fang Lanyue smiled shyly, "There used to be a nun in the nunnery who taught me for several years. I learned to read and draw from her. I usually just doodle on the ground with a twig when I had nothing else to do. Please excuse my poor attempt to imitate her."

"Is this nun still here?" Lu Qing asked casually.

"He passed away a few years ago," Fang Lanyue sighed. "So, my painting is rather haphazard, I hope you'll forgive my poor work."

Lu Qing carefully put the portrait away and was about to get out of bed. Fang Lanyue quickly reached out to help her, "You're still sick, lie down and rest first."

Lu Qing shook her head. "I'll be right back. You need to take good care of yourself."

Fang Lanyue trembled slightly with excitement, and for a moment she didn't know what to say.

Lu Qing summoned the Eyebrow Ruler, leaped up, and quickly disappeared.

Xiao Yan excitedly pulled Fang Lanyue along, saying, "Miss, if she really were your family, we wouldn't have to suffer here anymore."

Fang Lanyue covered her mouth, her expression agitated, and it took her a long time to calm down. "Xiao Yan, don't tell anyone about this. Let's just pretend nothing happened and wait for Lu Qing's news."

“Miss is right. But the way the Fang family treats you makes no sense unless you’re not a member of the Fang family.” Xiao Yan said, her eyebrows dancing with excitement.

Fang Lanyue took two deep breaths. "Stop talking, we'll just wait."

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Author's Note: Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 11:11:29 on October 18, 2020 and 18:04:11 on October 19, 2020!

Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: Flowing Clouds and Water (5 bottles);

Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!