Chapter 24 "Evil Woman"
The spring breeze lifted up half of the Xiang bamboo curtain, and Feng Linzhi, holding up her apricot-red Xiang skirt, quickly climbed the wooden ladder.
The ebony steps creaked, startling a pair of green-feathered birds from the beams.
"Sister Liu?" She lifted the beaded curtain and looked out, only to see her brother Feng Linyu leaning against an antique display cabinet playing with a white jade paperweight.
A rustling sound came from behind the folding gauze screen. Liu Yueli came out with her hair held up, and her light gauze sleeves swept a few crabapple petals onto the table.
Feng Linzhi was stunned: "Why is my brother here?"
"Didn't you promise Wuqi to help look after Miss Liu?" Feng Linyu casually put the paperweight back into the jade pen holder. "But you, where have you been? Why are you sweating all over?"
"Brother, you don't know!" Feng Linzhi grabbed her brother's silk sleeves, and the pearl strings on the forbidden steps swayed. "That Luo Zhaohan actually dared to say that he wanted to confront her face to face, and even cursed Sister Liu to pretend to faint..." She suddenly fell silent because she saw that the tips of Liu Yueli's ears were red as if blood was dripping.
Liu Yueli's fingertips gently stroked the folds of her Xiang skirt, and her eyes seemed to sweep over Feng Linyu: "Maybe the charcoal brazier in the attic is too strong." Before she finished speaking, Feng Linzhi had already dragged her out the door: "Let's ask the princess to make the decision!"
"Wait a minute, sister." Liu Yueli held her wrist, tears filling her eyelashes. "Although sister Zhaohan treats me badly, the kindness of my adoptive father and mother in raising me is greater than heaven after all." She suddenly choked up, and the handkerchief in her sleeve was stained with rouge - it was from when she was hurriedly touching up her makeup just now.
Feng Linzhi stared at the red mark and suddenly remembered Luo Zhaohan's words: "If she tries to shirk responsibility, she will definitely use the kindness of raising her as an excuse."
A strange feeling suddenly flashed through his mind, but he was dizzy with the sweet fragrance of cassia bark on Liu Yueli's body.
"Sister is just too kind-hearted!" She stamped her feet, "That vicious woman overturned a stone to threaten me in public. I won't be able to swallow this anger if I don't punish her!" Before she finished speaking, she suddenly saw Liu Yueli staggering and holding onto the door frame.
Feng Linyu quickly stepped forward to support her: "Are you hurt?" His fingertips just touched the silk ribbon around Liu Yueli's waist, and then he restrained himself and put it back into his sleeve.
Liu Yueli sat down on the embroidered cushion, revealing half of her snow-white ankle: "It's okay."
Feng Linzhi couldn't wait any longer and turned around to call the maid.
Liu Yueli hurriedly grabbed the hem of her skirt and said, "My dear sister, just consider this my filial piety." Her tears fell perfectly on the lotus embroidered on her lapel. "If the incident gets out of hand, your father will be embarrassed in the court."
"Father will take care of the affairs of the court!" Feng Linzhi suddenly shook off her hand.
The bead curtain rustled, startling Liu Yueli so much that her fingertips trembled - when did this idiot become smart?
Suddenly, there was a crisp sound of cloud boards outside the window, it turned out that the flower viewing banquet was about to begin.
Liu Yueli took the opportunity to stand up and said, "We can discuss this matter later. Don't let me spoil your pleasure."
She moved lightly, but the restraints on her waist caught the silk sash of Feng Linyu's jade pendant. As Feng Linyu leaned over to untie the knot, Liu Yueli suddenly whispered, "Thank you for your help just now..." Her breath, as sweet as orchid, brushed against his ear.
The young man's fingers trembled slightly, and the jade pendant fell to the ground with a clang.
Feng Linzhi turned around and saw this scene, and her heart began to beat fast.
I always feel like something is wrong. What's going on?
Feng Linzhi suddenly woke up from her trance, her expression suddenly turned serious. She shook her head and advised in a hurried tone, "Sister Liu, if we are tolerant of a cunning and shameless person like Luo Zhaohan, it will only encourage his arrogance."
"Don't worry, I will definitely stand by you and support you firmly. And there's also the princess. She has always hated evil and hates villains like Luo Zhaohan. She will definitely support you without hesitation."
Liu Yueli's fingertips traced the lotus-embroidered cuffs, and she sighed softly like the mist of early spring. "How could I not know Sister Linzhi's feelings? It's just..." She suddenly pressed her chest. "From the day I left the General's Mansion, I swore never to see Luo Zhaohan again."
The copper bells in the corridor tinkled in the wind, but Feng Linzhi felt a buzzing in her ears - Luo Zhaohan had guessed that Liu Yueli would refuse, and even her expression was accurate.
"But she was the one who was wrong in the first place!" Feng Linzhi suddenly gripped the celadon teacup, causing ripples to form in the Biluochun teacup. "If Sister Liu keeps giving in, that vicious woman will think we're scared!"
The red coral necklace on Liu Yueli's wrist suddenly broke, and the pearls and jade rolled all over the ground.
She hurriedly bent down to pick it up. When the young master of the Feng family bent down, he smelled a whiff of frankincense, and when he raised his eyes, he saw the beauty's drooping snow-white neck.
"My sister was reckless." Feng Linyu gathered the coral beads in his palm, rubbing his thumb over one of the dark patterns. "Miss Liu was walking on thin ice when she was in the general's mansion. It's only natural that she doesn't want to look back on the past."
These words were like a key, instantly twisting out tears in Liu Yueli's eyes: "Master Feng, you will understand."
When she took the beads, her fingertips brushed against his palm, which startled Feng Linyu so much that his ears turned red - this was the person Xie Wuqi held dear to his heart, and now she was flirting with him.
I couldn't help but feel secretly happy!
Feng Linzhi stared at the clepsydra on the table, and the dripping sound of the copper kettle suddenly became piercing.
Seeing Liu Yueli and her brother's clasped hands just now reminded her of Luo Zhaohan's words, "Fox Charmer." She suddenly grabbed the teacup and drank it all in one gulp. The cold tea made her throat bitter. "If Sister Liu truly has a clear conscience, why would she be afraid of a face-to-face confrontation?"
Liu Yueli's hand on the embroidered handkerchief suddenly tightened. She looked at Feng Linzhi's stubborn eyes and her heart trembled.
"Sister Linzhi." She suddenly started coughing violently, and the scarlet spots on her handkerchief startled Feng Linyu so much that he knocked over his teacup. "My body... cough cough... I really can't stand it anymore..."
Feng Linzhi stared at the bloody stain and reached out her hand as if possessed by a ghost: "Let me see this handkerchief."
"Nonsense!" Feng Linyu snatched the blood-stained handkerchief away. "Miss Liu is already so ill, and you're still pressing her!"
The Xiang bamboo curtain was crackling in the strong wind, and Feng Linzhi stared at Liu Yueli's pale face and pressed forward step by step.
Liu Yueli suddenly staggered and held onto the rosewood table.
"Sister Liu, this is..." Before Feng Linzhi finished her words, Liu Yueli leaned back like a willow in the wind.
Feng Linyu rushed forward and embraced the slender waist, but saw that the person in his arms had closed eyes and blue lips as if she had really fainted.
"Sister, have you had enough of making trouble?" Feng Linyu scolded harshly.
"Pretending to faint?" She was so angry that she was shaking all over. "I've been speaking up for you for so long!"
"Enough!" Feng Linyu glared at her. "Yue Li has been weak since childhood. How could she pretend to be sick?"
The words stopped abruptly, and I saw a clarity in my sister's eyes that had never been there before.
Feng Linzhi suddenly recalled Luo Zhaohan's sneer in the pavilion when he'd said, "Maybe she's just pretending to faint." She yanked open Liu Yueli's collar, revealing fresh bite marks on her snow-white neck—exactly the same as the ones on her brother's.
"What a loyal and heroic woman!" Feng Linzhi threw the rouge box at the screen, and the celadon cracked like her shattered trust after the rain.
When she turned and rushed out of the attic, the golden thread around her waist broke and pearls rolled all over the stairs.
The corridor twists and turns, and Feng Linzhi runs wildly with her skirt lifted up.
As he passed the lotus pond, he startled a bird and realized his back was soaked with sweat. The boasts he had made in front of the princess just now turned into sharp swords hanging over his head.
"Miss Feng, please stay!" The old woman guarding the yard tried to stop her, but was pushed away by her.
The vermilion lacquered door was wide open, and the Tingxue Pavilion was empty, with only half a cup of leftover tea on the stone table still steaming.
"Where is she?" She grabbed the maid's collar and asked, "Where did the princess go?"
The little maid stuttered in fear: "He went to the pavilion in the west courtyard!"
Feng Linzhi's vision went dark.
The princess must have taken people to cause trouble for Luo Zhaohan!
Something bad is happening!
At this moment, in the pavilion in the west courtyard, Luo Zhaohan put down the Ru kiln Tianqing cup and tapped the stone table with his fingertips.
The sun's shadow had moved from the carved window lattice to the edge of the hanging flower door. Feng Linzhi had not arrived yet, but the sound of hurried footsteps could be heard in the distance.
At the end of the corridor, a group of girls in brocade clothes came out. The one leading them wore a filigree gold phoenix hairpin on her head. She was Princess Yinzhen of Prince Duan's Mansion.
Luo Zhaohan slowly stood up, her pomegranate-red skirt sweeping across the bluestone steps. The injustices of her past life surged through her heart. She raised her hand to straighten the gold-emerald hairpins at her temples—in this life, no one would dare to throw dirty water on her.
On the other side of the lake, on Guanlan Pavilion, several young men in fine clothes were leaning on the railing and gazing into the distance.
"Isn't that Princess Yinzhen?" The blue-shirted boy nudged his companion. "Look! Brother Liu's little hot pepper is in there too!"
The man called Brother Liu leaned forward, the mutton-fat jade pendant on his waist clanging against the railing. "How did that devil of mine get involved?"
"I'm afraid there's going to be some good show." Sun Honglei suddenly chuckled, his bony fingers stroking the edge of the wine cup.
Before he could finish his words, the sound of porcelain breaking suddenly came from downstairs.
Everyone looked over and saw that Princess Yinzhen had already led her men to surround the pavilion. Luo Zhaohan stood alone on the stone steps, her skirt rustling in the autumn wind.
"Brother Hong Lei, where are you going?" Seeing the young man in black clothes turn around and go downstairs, the young man in blue shirt hurriedly asked.
Sun Honglei waved his hand without even turning his head, his dark cloak rippling around the corner. "It's so lively, I have to see it up close to appreciate its beauty."
Luo Zhaohan was leaning against the pavilion pillar peeling lotus seeds when he suddenly heard the tinkling of jewelry.
Looking up, I saw a silver-red brocade at the end of the flower path, and a golden-threaded pheasant embroidered with a bird flapping its wings in the sunlight, ready to fly.
The girl, surrounded by noble ladies, had cinnabar burning on her forehead, and her pomegranate red agate forbidden steps swayed slightly with her steps, and each step was placed in the center of the lotus pattern on the bluestone slab.
"Princess, it's her." The low voice of the maid who led the way came mixed with the chirping of cicadas.
Luo Zhaohan threw the lotus seeds into the green jade dish. When he stood up, his wide sleeves overturned the teacup, and the Biluochun tea left dark marks on the stone table.
"Your humble servant Luo Zhaohan greets the princess."
As she bent her knees, she caught a glimpse of the oriental pearls adorning the toes of Princess Yinzhen's shoes, which were as big as longans. These were treasures presented as tribute by foreign countries last year, and there were only three of them in total.
The pearl-studded brocade belt suddenly caught her eye, and Yinzhen lifted her chin with his armor: "Did the princess wake you up?"
Luo Zhaohan maintained his saluting posture.
The noble ladies' jeers startled the swallows from the eaves. Some deliberately crushed lotus seeds on the ground, while others covered their lips with their round fans and whispered, "Look at how deceitful they are, but they are not what they seem."
"General Luo is a man of steel..." Yin Zhen suddenly raised his hand, and the golden bracelet on his wrist jingled. "What a shame he raised such a vicious daughter!"
She poked her finger at Luo Zhaohan's heart, "Forcing the orphan girl away and forcing her to marry, do you think the capital is your Luo family's training ground?"
A gust of wind swept across the lake, blowing the loose hair on Luo Zhaohan's temples across the back of Yinzhen's hand.
The ladies suddenly fell silent - they saw that this "evil woman" was actually smiling, and the dimples at the corners of her lips were filled with golden sunlight.
"Look at this icy skin and delicate bones." Chao Yinzhen hooked his fingertips under Luo Zhaohan's chin, his peacock blue sleeves brushing over her earrings. "Who could have imagined that she was so filthy inside?"
The ladies in the room pushed and shoved each other, accusing:
"Miss Liu has been slandered by you!"
"How dare you covet such a handsome man like Master Xie!"
"What a tactless thing..."
Luo Zhaohan lowered his eyes and stared at a piece of gold foil stuck in the cracks of the bricks. It was the gold foil that had just fallen off the forehead of a noble lady when she was excited.
Seeing her like this, Chao Yinzhen suddenly felt bored. He threw away his hand and took the handkerchief held by the maid: "Go back to your general's mansion. This princess is dizzy just looking at you."
The fingertips that had been wiped three times with the handkerchief were flushed red, and when Chao Yinzhen turned around, the golden steps left an afterimage in his hair.
The noble ladies followed her out the door, their pomegranate skirts brushing against Luo Zhaohan's knees, leaving their collars stained with the fragrance of agarwood.
"Princess." Luo Zhaohan suddenly clapped his hands and chuckled, "What a sharp knife."
Chao Yinzhen turned abruptly, only to see Luo Zhaohan slowly standing up, the silver bell on his waist tinkling, "Did you all know that Liu Yueli has a scar on her left wrist?"
The room was completely silent. In the shadows of sunlight streaming through the window lattice, Luo Zhaohan traced with his fingertips: "Three inches long, shaped like a centipede. Last year on the night of the Qiqiao Festival, Xie Wuqi fell off his horse while drunk."
"Shut up!" Chao Yinzhen dug her nails into her palm. She remembered the injury Feng Linzhi had shown her the day before—clearly her right wrist, and she'd said it was from a venomous snake bite while she was gathering herbs.
Luo Zhaohan shook out a piece of letter from his sleeve, with the Xie family emblem printed on it with wax: "On the fifteenth of last month, Master Xie wrote in his letter, 'Yue Li, my love, please don't scratch the scar.'" The gold-sprinkled letter paper fluttered onto the green jade brick, revealing the twin lotus flowers painted on the corners.
The ladies gasped. The Minister of Rites' daughter suddenly covered her lips and said, "That day I ran into Miss Liu wrapped in gauze."
"Nonsense!" Chao Yinzhen raised his foot and crushed the letter, the golden peony on the tip of his shoe stained with ink. "You must have copied Master Xie's handwriting!"
Luo Zhaohan stroked the jade pendant at her waist. "My Lady, please compare it with the engagement letter sent by Master Xie the other day." She suddenly took two steps closer, her earring sweeping across Chao Yinzhen's pale face. "Do you think he mentioned you, my Lady, in the love letter he sent to Miss Liu?"
The room was filled with trembling pearl hairpins. The daughter of the Minister of Revenue suddenly remembered something: "On the night of the Lantern Festival, Miss Liu said she wanted to go to the White Horse Temple to pray for blessings."
"This princess remembers!" Chao Yinzhen suddenly grasped the curtains by the window, "That night, Master Xie said he was going to the Ministry of War to stand guard!"
Luo Zhaohan chuckled softly. She pulled a golden melon seed from her purse. It was the token of love Liu Yueli had pawned. "There's a peach orchard on the hill behind the White Horse Temple. The keeper loves to collect golden melon seeds."
Chao Yinzhen suddenly grabbed the teacup on the table and smashed it to the ground.
"Princess, please calm down!" The noble ladies all knelt down.
Chao Yinzhen's gold-embroidered deerskin boots made short rubbing sounds as they rubbed against the bluestone slabs.
When she turned around, the hem of her peony-shaped skirt swept across the stone steps, and her armor inlaid with rubies almost poked Luo Zhaohan's nose: "This princess is saving your face. If you refuse to leave——"
"My princess, are you going to send me out in a sedan chair carried by eight people?" Luo Zhaohan suddenly interrupted her, his fingers entwined with the faded imperial sash at his waist. "It's a good opportunity to let all the coachmen outside see that the roof of the carriage at General Fuyuan's mansion is still leaking."
Several ladies covered their mouths with their round fans and laughed secretly.
Chao Yinzhen's face turned pale, and the jade bracelet on his wrist clattered against the stone table. "Do you think I don't dare?"
"Of course, my lady," Luo Zhaohan suddenly reached out and pushed aside the swaying armor in front of him, revealing the frayed edges of his sleeves. "But since you are leading these noble ladies as knives, you must be careful not to cut your hands."
"What are you talking about!" The purple-robed girl suddenly slammed the table and stood up, the feathers of the golden hairpin in her hair trembling. "We are just speaking up for Sister Liu!"
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