Although the young lady's behavior has been uncharacteristic these days, she doesn't think there's anything wrong with it. The young lady is already surrounded by wolves and tigers. If she continues to be preyed upon by others as before, she will probably be eaten to the point of having nothing left to her bones.
Whether it is Jiang Mingzhi or Zhou Suihuan, she is not a cold-blooded person. She treats those who are loyal to her sincerely.
But she doesn't have much money now, otherwise she could have let the people around her live a comfortable life for a few days.
Speaking of this, she thought of Lu Yun.
After all, she was no longer the Zhou Suihuan that Lu Yun was familiar with. It would not be easy to get her dowry back from Lu Yun. However, now they had a common goal. She could use the excuse of investigating the Zhou family's affairs to ask Lu Yun to allocate some money to her first, but she still needed to find a suitable opportunity.
Jiang Mingzhi couldn't help but smile bitterly when he thought about having to find a reasonable excuse to use his own money.
As her thoughts turned, she suddenly thought of something.
"Qingtang, it's a bit windy outside, let's go inside."
She didn't have many things, so the house was almost tidied up. She took a look at the furnishings in the room and nodded slightly.
The three main rooms are connected, and there is an ear room outside each of the three rooms. The corridors connecting the ear rooms are the left and right wing rooms. Outside the row of small windows in the main room, there is the scenery of colorful flowers in the yard. There is a round table with a Ruyi pattern of the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea in the middle room. Meals are often eaten here, but Jiang Mingzhi is used to eating on the kang table next to the window.
The left room and the middle room are separated by a semi-transparent Suzhou embroidery screen. This is the commonly used banquet room. The right room has a large stained glass window and is separated from the middle room by an antique shelf. In front of the window is a large drawing table with a pen holder, paper and inkstone. It is a semi-open study.
Jiang Mingzhi decided to ask someone to buy some paper, pens and books. She has always had the habit of reading, and this room is just right for it.
Qingtang brewed some tea and placed it on the kang table by the window in the left room.
She was just about to find Qingtang to ask about the death of Jiang Mingzhi's mother, Wang, when she heard the servant outside shouting, "The third young lady is coming."
The servant's voice sounded unfamiliar. Jiang Mingzhi looked through the half-open window and saw the servant standing in the yard with a broom in her hand, sweeping the mess left behind by Ping'er and Zhan'er after they moved their things.
Jiang Yushu was wearing a scallion-green skirt with a dark green jacket over it, and her hair was tied back with a green headband. While walking, she was thinking about something and stepped on the broom of the old woman, which startled her so much that she quickly apologized.
"It's okay." She opened her cherry lips and showed a gentle smile, which made the old woman feel a little relieved.
When Jiang Yushu entered the room, Jiang Mingzhi was already sitting on the big kang by the window. On the kang table, on the red lacquered tea tray with crabapple pattern, there was a pot of freshly brewed tea.
Jiang Yushu's eyes flashed. Could it be that her sister knew she was coming?
She took off her hood and handed the cloak to the maid, and Jiang Mingzhi discovered that the maid following Jiang Yushu had been replaced.
"Xuezhi, please get out."
Jiang Yushu gave an order, and the new maid named Xuezhi left the main room, holding her cloak. Jiang Mingzhi didn't even raise his eyelids and personally poured Jiang Yushu a cup of hot tea. "What's wrong? Do you have something to tell me?"
As soon as she finished speaking, the room suddenly became so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. These words were so intriguing that even Qingtang couldn't understand for a moment where the young lady came from.
Jiang Yushu already had something on his mind, and he was frightened after falling into the water, so his face was already pale. After hearing these words, he became even more pale.
She glanced at Qingtang and said nothing.
Qingtang understood and looked at Jiang Mingzhi. She was the eldest lady's person, so even if it was the second lady's opinion, she had to ask the eldest lady's opinion before making a decision.
Seeing Jiang Mingzhi nod slightly, Qingtang took the other maids who were serving the eldest lady in the room and retreated to the outside of the corridor.
Only the two sisters were left in the room. Jiang Mingzhi pointed to the seat next to them and said, "Don't you want to sit down?"
Jiang Yushu twisted the handkerchief in her hand, raised her head with some difficulty, and her eyes avoided Jiang Mingzhi.
"Eldest sister..."
She stammered, "I..."
"Why, I look like a man-eating tiger, and you stutter when you speak in front of me?" Seeing how scared she was, Jiang Mingzhi's mood changed from confusion to laughter, and he teased her in a self-deprecating manner.
"If you haven't thought about what to say, have a cup of tea and collect your thoughts before you speak."
As he said this, he handed the tea he had just poured to Jiang Yushu.
Jiang Yushu reached out to take it, and Jiang Mingzhi noticed with her sharp eyes that her palm was blood red, but she did not point it out. She vaguely guessed what Jiang Yushu was going to say to her.
Sure enough, Jiang Yushu held the tea, took a deep breath, and slowly said, "Eldest sister, I made that purse."
Jiang Mingzhi lowered her eyes and drank tea without saying a word. In the brief silence, Jiang Yushu felt as if a hundred years had passed. She looked at Jiang Mingzhi nervously, trying to find some different emotions from her calm face.
"Eldest sister!" Jiang Yushu suddenly knelt down, her eyes red and tears streaming down her face. "If I don't listen to Third Sister, she won't let me off easily. I really had no other choice but to give the purse to Eldest Sister."
Her voice became lower and lower, until only sobbing sounds remained. Jiang Mingzhi then slowly raised her head.
"That's all?"
"What?" Jiang Yushu didn't quite understand what her sister meant, and looked at her in a daze.
"I already know about this."
Although Jiang Mingzhi had known about this matter for a long time, she was still quite surprised that Jiang Yushu would come and confess to her in person.
But she didn't quite agree with this explanation.
If Jiang Yushu and I were not born of the same mother, I could still understand what she said. But she, like me, was a granddaughter of the Wang family. Even if she had lost her mother, she still had her maternal family. If she really didn't want to listen to Feng, she could have resisted. Why did she have to obey Feng's words? Could she be sure that Feng would show mercy?
"What do you think of the matter yourself?"
She looked at Jiang Yushu, her eyes less gentle than before and more sharp like a knife.
Jiang Yushu was stunned again. She was not too surprised that her elder sister knew about this. After she recovered, her elder sister was smarter than before. Her behavior at that time was too obvious, so she expected her elder sister to know about it. But her elder sister asked her what she thought about this matter now... What should she say to satisfy her elder sister's wishes?
She had just noticed that her elder sister didn't seem satisfied with her answer. She had originally wanted to ask for her elder sister's forgiveness. If she answered incorrectly again and made her elder sister unhappy, she would be self-defeating.
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