Chapter 97 Chapter 97 Bullying the King

After several days of sweltering heat, a sudden downpour began.

There were few people in the shop at the time, and everyone was busy tidying up the clothes and fabrics that had been hung up in the backyard, so they all forgot about the flowers at the entrance.

Yu An braved the rain to carry the potted flowers inside, and in no time, her hair and shoulders were soaked.

She straightened up, carrying two pots of flowers, when an umbrella appeared above her head. Upon closer inspection, she was caught off guard by those clear, dark eyes.

"The flowers can be left outside, why bother going out in the rain to find them?" he said, taking a flowerpot from her hand, and then the two went inside.

"The rain is too heavy. I'm afraid it will hail and kill them."

She neatly arranged the flowers on the ground, then wiped the rain off her face.

Her wet hair clung to her temples, and her face was glistening with moisture, making her eyes appear even more watery.

Ji Jinghe swallowed hard. "Flowers are not as precious as people."

After he finished speaking, he went out and brought back two pots of flowers, making one trip after another.

Yu'an stood to the side, recalling her days at Tantuo Temple...

More than a year later, her relationship with Ji Jinghe changed again.

Leaving aside whether he would have stooped down and done something servile for her a long time ago, even a year ago, he wouldn't have done such a thing.

"Don't get caught in the rain anymore. Rainwater is bad for your health," he advised again.

Yu An nodded, noticing that his royal blue robe had a large wet patch on the shoulder, and instinctively picked up a dry towel from the counter and reached out to wipe it.

Ji Jinghe stood frozen in place, letting her wipe him.

Knowing that he was staring at her, Yu'an's face flushed, and she wiped her face haphazardly afterwards.

"Help me finish wiping it."

She had just put down the towel when the man suddenly blurted out such a shameless remark.

Yuan:......

Just then, Baozhu entered the room and saw Ji Jinghe there. The atmosphere between the two was different, so she quietly went upstairs.

Ji Jinghe gave a forced smile, then seriously picked up a towel and began wiping himself.

"Why are you here? It's not time to go off duty now," Yu'an asked.

Ji Jinghe: "I had little to do today, so I came back early. But it started raining on the way, so I thought I'd come and visit you."

She thought for a moment, but couldn't think of anything to say, so she said, "It's raining heavily now, let's wait until it stops before we leave."

"I'm afraid that won't work; there are still some things to take care of at home."

As soon as he finished speaking, the person who had turned to pour tea looked up at him.

Ji Jinghe smiled. "It's fake."

Yuan:......

When did he learn to be so unreliable?

Yu An: "Was it you who ordered five sets of clothes from me that day? When the servant saw me asking him if it was you, he was so scared that he threw down the money and ran away."

As if knowing she would ask this, Ji Jinghe didn't pretend to be confused and only asked, "Did he leave the Ji family's address so that you could find out it was me?"

Yu An nodded, "Is she a new recruit in the manor?"

Ji Jinghe: "I came from the southwest with you. My family died in the war, so I was an orphan."

“He was efficient in the military, but a bit too honest. When we sent him here, we didn’t give him a single instruction, and he just sold me out like that.”

He wasn't really complaining; it was more like he was telling Yu'an a joke.

Yu-an also enjoyed it, liking his friendly way of talking about trivial matters, and listened with great interest.

"It's not that other kids are honest, it's that you're too cunning. You should learn from them and be more simple and pure."

Ji Jinghe smiled and nodded, "Yes, I should listen to you."

His tone was so tender that it almost made people have a false sense of reality.

The moment their eyes met, Yu An's face gradually burned. She didn't know what to do next, but Li Ji'an suddenly entered from outside the door, disrupting everything.

"Uncle," she called out, standing up as if she had done something wrong.

Ji Jinghe also quickly stood up.

Li Ji'an recognized Ji Jinghe, paused for a moment, and looked at Yu'an.

"He came here to take shelter from the rain."

Yu An's explanation had a hint of "protesting too much."

Li Ji'an said "Oh," placed the lunchbox on the table, and greeted Ji Jinghe.

"This is the meal your aunt made for you. She asked me to bring it to you."

Yu'an: "Thank you, Aunt."

Li Ji'an looked at the person standing to the side and carefully examined him from head to toe.

In the past few days, he always sat at the tea stall, but Yu'an didn't talk to him, so he was too embarrassed to greet him.

"Come on, we've prepared some food and drinks at home today. We're just killing time anyway. If you don't mind, come home with me for a meal. It's right next door."

Ji Jinghe's tone was somewhat unnatural, "Today, placing things empty-handed is impolite, I'm afraid it's inappropriate..."

"What's the big deal? You left me a huge ingot of gold back then, and I haven't even properly thanked you yet. A meal is nothing."

Without saying a word, Li Ji'an pulled the person away, and Yu An breathed a sigh of relief.

It wasn't until Chen brought the food from the backyard that Yu'an realized Li Baozhong was also there today.

Chen said, "Don't worry, your maternal grandfather won't make things difficult for anyone."

Yu An: "Grandmother, I didn't say that."

"Is that so?" Chen smiled at her. "But I saw your expression when I said that."

The grandfather and granddaughter exchanged a few jokes, then called Baozhu over and they ate together.

Ji Jinghe would still come every other day, but instead of sitting at the tea stall, he would usually be pulled into the pharmacy by Li Baozhong or Li Ji'an.

Whenever he has time, he can sit there for an entire afternoon.

The relationship between the two families became closer for some reason, and even Shen Qiulan would come to visit her and Chen.

Days passed, and business gradually picked up. The person who had gone to Jiangling to investigate the matter returned.

Shou Kang Palace.

However, after waking up from her afternoon nap, the Empress Dowager heard Wang Wan'er waiting outside the palace gates, so she ordered someone to bring her in.

"Why have you been running around so much lately? Your child is so big now, don't you even think about your own marriage?"

Wang Wan'er hesitated for a moment. There were still many matrons and female officials in the hall. Feeling embarrassed, she immediately turned pale.

The palace servants seemed used to seeing the Empress Dowager's niece being reprimanded, and none of them were surprised, each busy with their own tasks.

Wang Wan'er gritted her teeth, bowed, and said, "Wan'er came today not to talk about anything else. It turns out that one of the servants in our household is in Jiangling and returned home to visit relatives. During their conversation, she met the midwife who delivered Chu Yu'an. That's when she learned that Chu Yu'an's birthday is on the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, not in the ninth month, which is the same month as the Princess's birthday. Chu Yu'an was just lying to you to curry favor."

She presented the Yellow Register that had been brought from Jiangling, saying, "Aunt, please look, this is her Yellow Register."

The person seated remained silent, and the hall was quiet for a long time until she felt a sudden chill run down her spine, at which point she finally spoke.

"Who taught you to say these things? Your father?"

Wang Wan'er swallowed hard. "My father never taught me these things; I found them out myself."

The Empress Dowager slowly skimmed the foam from her cup, her face utterly calm, and murmured softly, "I knew it..."

"So you mean that the servants in the Wang family mansion, while visiting relatives, happened to meet the person who delivered Chu Yu'an's baby, and then incidentally found her official records from the county magistrate, discovering that she was lying, right?"

The person sitting at the head of the table grew increasingly cold in voice.

"When did I ever say that Chu Yu'an's birthday and Yang'er's birthday are on the same day? How did you find out? Do you think you can just tell anyone who listens to me?"

The situation was completely different from what she had imagined. Wang Wan'er immediately knelt down and said, "Aunt, Wan'er has never had any disloyal intentions. Please see the truth."

"Then what do you mean by bringing this to me?" The Empress Dowager narrowed her eyes slightly. "Isn't it just to tell me that I've been deceived by that Chu Yu'an?"

"Then I'll get angry and give Chu Yu'an a good scolding, and you'll be satisfied, right?"

It's a simple trick; you don't even need to think about it to know.

“But Aunt, Chu Yu’an is deceiving the Emperor, Wan’er is not wrong.”

She just didn't understand. Things that were clearly meant to be good for her always ended up causing problems when they came to her.

Her aunt sneered and glanced at her sideways. "Compared to your brother, you've been troublesome since you were little. You're ambitious but have little ability. You're useless, yet you're always jealous of others. Tell me the truth, are you jealous because Chu Yu'an opened a shop?"

Wang Wan'er knelt on the ground, her back straight, completely unaware that she had done anything wrong, and just stared at her with a defiant look on her face.

She gritted her teeth and replied, "Yes."

The Empress Dowager sighed, "They have the ability to do business, can you? The Chu family is almost all dead, what about you? They have no father to rely on, they have to rely on themselves, and they even have to support a younger brother, what about you? Does the Wang family depend on you for support?"

“There are others…” Wang Wan’er said unwillingly, “Auntie keeps saying we are family, but every time I come to Shou Kang Palace, you favor Chu Yu’an. You clearly don’t care about me. Chu Yu’an gets all the benefits, and I get nothing. Auntie, dare you say you don’t favor her?”

As she spoke, she unconsciously raised her voice, gradually losing her elegance and grace. At such a young age, she displayed a shrewishness and unruliness that was not in her character.

How did the child she watched grow up become like this? Or was it all an act before, and now this is her true self?

She pointed at the person on the ground, whose eyes were red with anger, "You...you despise me, and don't you favor this member of the Wang family enough, right?"

"How much more favoritism do I need to show you before you're satisfied? Aren't I favoring you enough already?!"

"Not enough!" Wang Wan'er roared hoarsely.

"Not enough, not nearly enough. Compared to Chu Yu'an, we're far from it..."

After regaining some composure, Wang Wan'er managed to compose herself and hold back the tears welling in her eyes.

"Aunt, haven't you noticed how good you are to Chu Yu'an? Before, you were the one who loved me the most..."

When she was a child, she couldn't compare to Xu Jingshu, who was older than her, nor to Yan Rongxue. When Chu Yu'an, who came from the countryside, finally came along, she found that she was not as popular as Chu Yu'an.

Chu Yu'an was skillful with her hands and tongue. She knew the little tricks of people from the countryside of Jiangnan, tricks that these kids from the capital had never seen before.

Everyone in the capital liked her; even the discerning Yan siblings had a good impression of her…

She became isolated, and no one wanted to play with her anymore.

After much effort, they finally came up with a plan to snatch them away from Chu Yu'an, leaving her friendless, bullied everywhere, and all alone.

As she grew up, her beloved aunt fell in love with her former "arch-enemy," which she resented.

None of this would have happened if it weren't for Chu Yu'an.

So she has no regrets; she just wants to see Chu Yu'an trampled under her feet.

Because she had tried her best, the result told her that only one of them could be good.