Chapter 96 Are You Crazy?

Wen Ning's entire face was dyed red by the man's body temperature, hidden in the fur collar of the cloak.

Her long eyelashes trembled, and her slightly swollen lips were a little timid, as if softened by the heat: "I'm afraid, I'm afraid of being seen by others..."

His fingertips brushed the corners of her slightly damp eyes, and Xie Jinglan said with a hint of helplessness, "Who made Ning'er so beautiful? It always makes me feel so uncontrollable."

The fox fur collar covered half of the flushed face of the person in his arms, tickling her earlobes. Hearing this, Wen Ning avoided his gaze and whispered, "My Lord, shall we...shall we go back?"

Xie Jinglan's heart skipped a beat, a hint of joy flashing across her eyes. "Go back?" He lowered his head and leaned closer, his warm breath brushing against her ear. "Indeed, going back... would be more convenient."

The blush under the fox collar became even more intense, and her cheeks felt hot as if they were roasted by fire. Only then did she realize that he had misunderstood.

Her little hands waved hurriedly on his chest, "No, no! I want to go back early and stay with those girls tonight."

The smile on Xie Jinglan's face faded instantly, and his heart sank.

The person who was just in his arms was squeezing together with others in the blink of an eye?

Why would his sweetheart suddenly want to sleep with someone else?

"Why?" the man asked.

Wen Ning said, "I want to find a sister with a more down-to-earth personality to talk to more. Maybe I can get some news about Sister Yin'er."

When the man heard her serious reason, he realized that his mind was full of love and affection, and he had forgotten the purpose of this trip.

He grasped her soft hand against his chest and chuckled self-deprecatingly, "I was wrong."

…

Wen Ning and Yun Xiu followed a few maids and walked a few hundred meters west from Jiaziyuan. In front of them was a row of low bungalows.

The thatched roof was covered with a layer of gray snow, and the cracks in the wall were filled with balls of old cotton wool, which rustled when the wind blew.

In the plum garden not far away, a vermilion-painted corridor winds around the warm room, and the twined branch patterns carved on the window lattices glow warmly under the moonlight. The two places, one barren and one fertile, one cold and one warm, are so contrasting that one feels heavy in the heart.

The lights in the house were dim, and the girls were not resting.

Some were mending their frayed cuffs under the dim light of the oil lamp, while others were curled up in the corner of the kang embroidering handkerchiefs.

In the corner, there was a girl facing a cracked bronze mirror, dipping her fingertips in dried rouge and applying it to her lips bit by bit.

Even in this situation, the girl's love of beauty could not be hidden at all.

The youngest, Mo'er, moved the stool leg away, picked up the wooden basin on the ground and went to the well in the corner of the yard. There was a thin layer of ice on the edge of the basin, and her elbows trembled slightly from the cold.

"I'll wash some clothes too." Wen Ning picked up a half-dry blue cloth shirt from the bamboo basket and followed.

But as soon as her hand reached into the water, it hissed with a sound of cold. She bit her lip and blew air on her hand. As soon as the white air dissipated, the warmth was blown away by the night wind.

The well water was poured onto the bluestone slabs, and the splashing water soon solidified into fine ice chips.

She looked at Mo'er's red hands, and suddenly thought of the servants in the Marquis' Mansion, even the cleaning women. They had charcoal basins to warm themselves in in winter, and warm water to wash clothes. They had never experienced such cold.

The two men squatted by the well and rubbed their clothes. The soap foam in the ice water stuck to their hands, and soon they were so cold that their bones ached.

Wen Ning, while rubbing her clothes, asked casually, "Come to think of it, when I was in the palace a few years ago, I received a favor from a sister named Yin'er. I heard she was working here, and I wanted to come and thank her this time, but why haven't I seen her since?"

Mo'er paused and looked up at her, "Young lady, you also know Sister Yin'er?"

Wen Ning nodded.

"Sister Yin'er... is a good person," Mo'er bit her lip, "but it's a pity that she has a bad fate."

"What do you mean?" Wen Ning asked.

"Speaking of which, Sister Yin'er used to be the most popular person here. Every time His Royal Highness the Crown Prince came to the Plum Garden, he would specifically ask for her to serve him. The sisters in the courtyard all said that one day she might be taken away by His Highness to be a concubine."

"Who would have thought..." She sniffed, "Sister Yin'er actually committed suicide half a year ago."

Wen Ning's throat tightened, and her fingertips pinched a few folds on the coarse cloth.

The night wind, carrying the fragrance of plum blossoms, swept across the well platform, blowing the wet clothes to my arms, and making my blood freeze in my body.

"Mo'er...saw it with your own eyes?"

Mo'er nodded vigorously, tears welling up in her eyes.

"He took poison..." She didn't say anything else, just bit her lip and turned her face away, as if she didn't dare to recall the scene.

Wen Ning's breathing slowed, "Where is Sister Yin'er buried?"

"There's nowhere to bury servants like us. We simply wrapped him up in a straw mat and had two servants carry him to the mass grave outside the city before daybreak."

Wen Ning was silent for a moment before whispering, "Are there any relics?"

Mo'er glanced into the room. "The servants' belongings were pitifully few to begin with. After she left, the housekeeper had all her clothes and bedding burned, saying it was bad luck. However, there was a palm-sized booklet that I later found in the corner of the bed. I couldn't understand it either. Maybe it was one of those storybooks that Sister Yin'er loved to read."

Her cold fingertips paused on the well platform, and Wen Ning choked up and said, "That booklet...if you can still find it, could you give it to me? It would be a keepsake."

Mo'er nodded, her voice filled with a numb resignation. "Young lady, don't be too sad. We servants are always at the beck and call of thousands of people. We serve our masters when we're awake, and we have to think about our duties even when we close our eyes. Even if we break a bone from exhaustion, no one will feel sorry for us. Sister Yin'er... maybe she's tired of this kind of life."

The night wind was as cold as a knife, and it hurt when it scraped against my face.

Wen Ning didn't know how she walked all the way back to Jiaziyuan.

Her fingertips were already numb, and the hem of her skirt and cuffs that had just been wet by the well had already frozen into hard icicles.

Yunxiu followed behind her, urging her to go back to the house and change her clothes, but she acted as if she didn't hear him and moved forward step by step.

It wasn't until she bumped into a warm embrace and the familiar sandalwood scent surrounded her nose that she suddenly came back to her senses.

Xie Jinglan was in the corridor. Seeing her like this, his brows instantly twisted into knots. He reached out and touched her sleeve, and the hard ice chips pricked his fingertips.

"Are you crazy?"

There was anger in his voice, but he still took off his cloak and wrapped her up. "It's so cold, why are you running around dressed like this?"

Wen Ning was wrapped in a cloak with his body temperature and carried into the inner room.

Without stopping, the man ordered repeatedly, "Prepare hot water, boil ginger soup, and get clean clothes!"

The ginger soup was served quickly. Xie Jinglan half-forced her to hold the bottom of the bowl and watched her swallow it mouthful by mouthful.

When the bathtub was ready and the steam was thick, he carried her into the hot water, opened the front of the bathrobe and pressed her cold little feet directly against his abdomen.

"No! My Lord... No!" Wen Ning hurriedly curled up her toes and tried to break free, but the hot palm pressed her instep back to her abdomen.