Chapter 35 Chapter 35 It was thrown straight at the man's face.
When Leng Cuizhu returned home and had dinner with Leng Zhen, Leng Zhen suddenly handed her a letter.
“A woman I don’t know delivered this to my house yesterday, saying it was for you.”
She opened the envelope, picked up the letter, and looked at it again and again: "I can't understand many of the words... Leng Zhen, take a look."
Leng Zhen took the letter and pondered for a moment: "Chen Xun wants you to visit his residence, saying that other girls will also be coming."
"Mother, you won't go, right?"
Leng Cuizhu was indeed not very interested in this.
But Yin Yuan wouldn't let her go, and Leng Zhen didn't want her to go either, which only provoked her rebellion.
No matter how bad Lord Chen's scheme is, it won't actually eat her.
“Just take care of yourself,” she replied. “You have to take all the medicine you’re prescribed on time; it was all bought with money.”
“In a few days, I will have to take you to the doctor to get rid of the parasites. You can’t find the place by yourself. If you were more good-natured and remembered things, I wouldn’t have to worry so much. Sigh…”
“I thought you would be better now that you’ve grown up, but it’s still the same. In fact, the messes you’ve made are much bigger than when you were little, and they can’t be fixed no matter what…” she kept muttering, as if in a dream.
She said it on purpose, knowing that Leng Zhen would feel guilty about it.
However, everything she said came from the bottom of her heart, and not a single word of it was a lie.
Leng Zhen pursed her lips and remained silent.
The Chen residence was much smaller than the Yin residence.
Although it's called a mansion, it's actually just a bunch of small courtyards put together, with narrow, winding paths leading to secluded spots.
Even while walking along the overgrown path, you might occasionally see a few tabby cats hopping out in search of food.
“My lady, you’ve finally arrived,” Chen Xun said, sitting on the cushions in the banquet hall. He gestured for her to sit down. “Come, my lady, try this. I just had the servants heat up some red date and goji berry soup. And here’s some rose sorbet.”
"I remember my wife said before that she doesn't like drinking tea, so there is no tea or tea leaves added to these dishes. Please rest assured, my wife."
She gave a slight curtsy: "It's kind of you, Lord Chen, to remember this."
She only tasted a little of the red date and goji berry soup and the rose ice cream. They were indeed delicious, but she cared more about other things.
"Where are the other girls?" She pursed the light pink rouge on her lips and tucked her hair behind her ear.
"Oh, this?" Chen Xun chuckled, rubbing his forehead. "Mi Mi has already gone to the door to meet her. She'll be here in a bit. Please wait here, my wife."
"My lady, have some more!" He pushed several porcelain bowls in front of Leng Cuizhu and gazed at her intently.
Today she wore her hair in a low bun, with a few begonia flowers pinned to the side, and her white jade earrings jingled.
She felt uncomfortable being stared at, so she did as Chen Xun suggested and drank a few more sips of soup and ice cream.
She really didn't want to drink anymore, so she started a conversation: "...I wonder what the relationship is between that Miss Mimi and you, sir?"
“Mimi, I met her on the street before. She was selling herself to bury her father, so I bought her.”
"To be honest, this child is really filial. His father has been dead for several months and his body is rotting, but he is still thinking of selling himself to bury his father. Sigh, if it were me, I would just put my dad in the vegetable garden to compost. Since he's already rotten like that, I might as well use him to grow some cabbages."
"Oh...I see."
Chen Xun stayed with her for a while, then got up to go greet the guests, telling her to stay in the banquet hall and not go anywhere else.
He left the hall with a few servants and disappeared around the corner.
Leng Cuizhu was the only one left in the hall.
She looked around and, finding nothing else to do, picked out a strand of hair and started braiding it.
Suddenly, she frowned.
The hand that was braiding the hair loosened and slid down to cover her lower abdomen.
It seems that eating soup and ice cream together caused an upset stomach.
She felt uncomfortable sitting there, so she got up, clutched her stomach, and went outside for a stroll.
The roads outside the hall were intricate and winding, and no servants ever passed by.
She figured the Chen residence wasn't large, and she should be able to run into servants after walking a few steps, so she could ask them where the latrine was.
Unexpectedly, she got lost after only a few steps.
Going south is a dead end.
Going north is also a dead end.
Going in any direction leads to a dead end.
After several attempts, she stopped in her tracks, bewildered: "This place is far too eerie..."
She couldn't help but suspect that the land on which Lord Chen's residence was located was originally a mass grave or something, filled with such heavy resentment that living people who entered couldn't find their way out.
She wandered back and forth along the path several times, completely exasperated, and leaned weakly against the wall when she suddenly heard a familiar voice.
The voice came from behind.
She turned her head and glimpsed the two of them through the crack in the wooden window in the wall.
"I don't know you."
Yin Yuan leaned on his cane, his face expressionless.
"Oh, my lord, we just met a few days ago. My surname is Jiang, and my name is Jiang Mimi. Have you forgotten me?"
"I don't remember it at all."
Jiang Mimi turned her gaze and smiled calmly.
"My lord, you certainly have a short memory."
"I think your mistress might remember me, after all, she stared at me with a strange look that day. If she remembers me, I'm sure you'll remember me soon too."
Yin Yuan was stunned for a moment.
"That depends on whether you have the ability."
Leng Cuizhu eavesdropped for a long time but couldn't glean any cause or effect from it.
What's the meaning?
Her mind was in turmoil.
She leaned against the wall and listened for a while. Seeing that the two were about to leave, she quickly lifted her skirt and walked away to find Gong's place.
Before she could find it, her stomach pain stopped.
"...It seems it really was those two bowls of snacks that were the problem." She muttered, rubbing her stomach. "But they were indeed quite delicious."
She doesn't usually eat snacks, and even if she does, she saves them for Leng Zhen. Since becoming a mother, she has always felt ashamed of her cravings, and she can't bring herself to ask for even the things she really likes.
Actually, even after becoming a mother, you can still eat what you like and wear what you want.
The idea that maternal love is selfless is just an excuse to brainwash women into sacrificing themselves.
And what about the saying "Women are inherently weak, but become strong when they become mothers"... Where are women weak?
Moreover, is it necessary to belittle someone before praising them to death?
The girls Leng Cuizhu has met over the years have all possessed their own unique resilience, regardless of age.
As for the men around me... to put it nicely, they're still childlike at heart; to put it bluntly, they're overgrown babies, regardless of age. Each has their own incompetence.
She finally met a passing servant and hurriedly asked, "Um... do you know where the banquet hall is, and how to get there?"
"Oh," the servant nodded, "I know, madam, I'll take you there."
She breathed a sigh of relief and followed behind the servant, tying her handkerchief to the belt around her waist. When the wind blew, the pink gauze handkerchief wrapped around the pearls and jade, trembling with her steps.
It really does depend on the people who live under this roof.
The servant led her for a while, and she felt that the road in front of her was becoming more and more familiar. Upon closer inspection, she realized that it was the same road she had come from, and she even recognized the little tabby cat that was sleeping in the middle of the road.
When she entered the banquet hall, Yin Yuan was sitting in the seat she had just been in.
I gently stroked the rim of the porcelain bowl in front of me.
She turned and left.
Yin Yuan: "Stop."
She quickened her pace, but after only a few steps, she was grabbed and pulled back by the guards in blue.
I was forced to sit down.
"Who is here that you're so obsessed with? Why did you insist on coming?"
The man sat right across from her, just inches away.
"Nobody."
The guard's hands had clearly left her shoulders, yet she still felt immense pressure controlling her, pressing her down little by little.
The pressure made her bones crack and pop all over her body; it hurt terribly, but she couldn't pinpoint the source of the pain.
"Are you short of money?"
She hung her head dejectedly and remained silent.
The guard took out a stack of silver notes from his cloth bag, with a face value of one thousand coins, and placed them in the center of the table.
Another stack was placed on the table.
She turned her head away.
Outside the hall, a cluster of camellias bloomed, their fiery red blossoms swaying in the wind like a heart brimming with blood.
Another stack.
...
Until a small mound forms on the desktop.
"don't want?"
She remained silent.
The man's hand gripping the cane was so tense it was stiff.
"Then give me back everything I've spent on you."
She simply came to the Chen residence alone without telling him.
Yin Yuan was about to adopt the posture of severing all ties with her.
“Every penny you spend on them is a gift from me, and I have the right to make you and them pay it back.”
"them?"
"What are you imagining now, my lord?" She stood up. "Do you think I came here today to meet some illegitimate man?"
“Alright, if they are richer than you, I will definitely consider it. At least they won’t be like you, constantly filled with suspicion and anxiety.”
"What's wrong with me suspecting you?"
As if he had thought of something, Yin Yuan raised his hand to wipe the thin layer of sweat from his forehead. Unfortunately, there was no sweat on his forehead, only a pair of tightly furrowed brows and stray gray hairs hanging down to his forehead.
He had no choice but to withdraw his hand, looking up at the roof and sighing, "...Alright, I won't suspect you anymore, this matter is over."
"Let me go out for some fresh air."
"And what about your husband?" she sneered. "Did you come here today to meet some women?"
How could you say that?
Yin Yuan replied, "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have come."
She walked away, and he got up with his cane and followed her step by step.
She went to the window to welcome the new flowers, and he followed, standing on the other side of the window.
The guard beside him understood, and after leaving the banquet hall, he picked up a bunch of brightly blooming hibiscus flowers from somewhere and handed them to Yin Yuan.
Yin Yuan held flowers in one hand and leaned against the window frame with the other.
The pale red hibiscus in her arms still bore the morning dew, its fragrance enchanting.
"This flower, it's just like you."
She lowered her brows and focused her gaze, accepting the heavy bouquet of hibiscus flowers, her fingertips gently twirling the petals.
"The hibiscus is beautiful, but it can't withstand the frost." The man's tone became lighter. "So, don't suffer the frost for the sake of temporary freedom. There is a world of difference between wildflowers left unattended by the roadside and delicate flowers in pots."
"You need to have the ability to distinguish between gains and losses."
Yin Yuan is always like this, sometimes good and sometimes bad.
She used to only see his good points and forget all his bad ones. Now, she realizes that she has forgotten so much that she has basically nothing left.
She and Yin Yuan spent more than a decade together, eventually becoming a pair of resentful lovers.
When he gazed at her, she lost herself, completely absorbed.
Indeed, she never lost her freedom; her soul was always free. She felt unfree because she freely chose not to be free.
At first, it was for a man, but she was disgusted and relegated to a lower position.
Later, there were two.
"Yeah?"
She stared at the fading sunlight outside the window, clutched the bouquet in her arms tightly, and turned to hurl it at the man.
In an instant, petals and dew splashed, and all the weight slammed into the man's face.
The fragrance enveloped his entire face.
Yin Yuan turned his head to the side, his face covered in dew, with green calyxes clinging to his cheeks.
The bright red, most delicate petals bloomed completely, scattering across the ground, with a few petals resting on his shoulder, fluttering to the ground in the wind.
-----------------------
The author's note: The hibiscus is beautiful, but alas, it cannot withstand the frost. — Yu Qian
You have never lost your freedom; you have always been free. You feel unfree because you freely chose not to be free. — Sartre
[Upright-eared rabbit head]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
