Chapter 9 "You didn't see me today, and neither did I..."
Shen Lingyue was half asleep when she sensed an unusual sound coming from beside her.
She opened her eyes and turned her head, only to see Yan Yi with her brows furrowed, breathing rapidly, and looking rather unwell.
It's like being trapped in a nightmare.
"Yan Yan?"
Shen Lingyue suddenly woke up, quickly sat up, called her name repeatedly, and gently pushed Yan Yi's arm.
Yan Yi suddenly opened her eyes, gasping for breath, her forehead covered in fine beads of sweat, and her face extremely pale.
It wasn't until she saw Shen Lingyue's anxious and concerned expression that she slowly woke up from that absurd dream.
Shen Lingyue got out of bed, poured her a glass of warm water, and took a clean handkerchief to wipe her sweat.
Yan Yi, however, disregarded all of this and hurriedly said, "I dreamt of Zheng Chunyun. She's not doing well at all after she got married."
"ah?"
Shen Lingyue didn't realize what was happening and thought Yan Yi was just having a vivid dream.
Yan Yi gulped down most of a glass of water and said to her, "It's not something that can be explained in a few words. Could you find me two charcoal pencils that I can use for drawing?"
Shen Lingyue was unaware of what was going on, but she still went out to find the shopkeeper and soon returned with the goods.
Yan Yi spread out a sheet of white paper on the table, thought for a moment, picked up a pen and drew the outline of a human face, then filled in the details of the facial features.
Soon, the face of a young man appeared, with broken eyebrows, small eyes, and a hooked nose; his appearance alone was unpleasant.
Shen Lingyue frowned. "Who is this?"
Yan Yi's mind was filled with recalling the man's appearance in her dream. Now that she had finally finished drawing, she breathed a sigh of relief.
She recounted her dream to Shen Lingyue in detail, a hint of confusion appearing in her usually calm and rational eyes.
“I have a feeling that this dream wasn’t something I imagined because of Zheng Chunyun’s experiences, but something that was destined to happen in the future…”
But that's so unscientific.
Shen Lingyue clapped her hands. "Of course it's not scientific, because it's a cheat system!"
She looked at Yan Yi with bright eyes: "So you're the real Heavenly Mother's daughter! I knew it! How could you transmigrate into a book so easily without some kind of cheat code!"
Yan Yi still couldn't understand it, but thinking about it was useless.
Perhaps Heaven couldn't bear to let Zheng Chunyun suffer such a calamity, so it used the two of them to foresee her fate?
She looked at the man's portrait, her expression grave. "I heard this man call Gu Yuan 'Second Cousin,' so he must be a relative of the Duke of Ling's family. If we can find out his identity beforehand, we can warn Zheng Chunyun to be careful." Shen Lingyue nodded. "I will have someone inquire about him."
Yan Yi took the warning letter again, looked at it, and shook her head. "No, I have to rewrite it."
She needs to recall more details from the dream to increase its credibility and make Zheng Chunyun take it seriously.
Yan Yi wrote several beginnings but was not satisfied with any of them, and a pile of crumpled paper appeared on the table.
Shen Lingyue could tell at a glance that Yan Yi was getting stubborn and persistent in her experiments, so she quickly advised her to calm down.
"Don't rush, don't rush. It's not like you're writing a thesis. You still have more than ten days. Take your time to think about it, and send it to me when you're done."
Shen Lingyue patted her chest and assured her, "I will definitely deliver the letter to her!"
*
Soon it arrived that the day of the wedding banquet at the Duke of Ling's mansion arrived.
Gu Yuan was to be adopted as a second son to continue the family line of his elder brother who had died in battle. This was a major event, and the entire Duke's mansion was decorated with a festive atmosphere. Almost all the dignitaries and nobles in the capital came to the banquet.
When Shen Lingyue and Zhao Lan arrived by carriage, they overheard others discussing that the Imperial Concubine had specially bestowed a jade ruyi upon Zheng Chunyun, which was now displayed in the main hall, so that guests who came to offer their congratulations could see it as soon as they entered.
Zhao Lan took her daughter and went to see it with the crowd. She said to Shen Lingyue, "It seems that the palace also knows that Chunyun has been wronged. With this imperial ruyi, her days in the Duke of Ling's mansion will not be too difficult."
Shen Lingyue twitched the corner of her mouth but didn't say anything.
Yan Yi also saw the jade ruyi in her dream—but it was in Gu Yuan and Qin Zhengzheng's room.
She followed Zhao Lan to the backyard to pay her respects to the Dowager Lady and the Duchess of Lingguo Mansion.
Lady Lingguo warmly took Shen Lingyue's hand, her eyes full of affection and admiration.
"The daughters of Minister Shen are all well-educated. Look at their appearance and demeanor, no wonder they were betrothed by the Emperor."
Zhao Lan smiled and nodded, "Madam, you flatter me. It is all thanks to the Emperor's great kindness."
When Shen Lingyue thought of how, in Yan Yi's dream, these two seemingly kind and gentle elders forced Zheng Chunyun to kneel in the Buddhist hall to chant sutras every day, and to pay her respects morning and evening and serve her, the dignified wife of the heir apparent was treated worse than a first-class maid.
Again, when Gu Yuan accused Zheng Chunyun of being unfaithful and having an affair, he punished her with family law and private punishment without distinguishing right from wrong, starving her to death in a dark and sunless dungeon.
Shen Lingyue pretended to be shy and broke free, hiding behind Zhao Lan. She used her wide sleeves to cover herself and kept wiping the back of her hands with a handkerchief.
She doesn't want to be praised by such a heartless old woman!
The auspicious hour has arrived. Firecrackers are going off outside the gate, accompanied by a joyous procession of musicians playing instruments and singing. It's time for Gu Yuan to return with his bride.
The guests rushed to the wedding hall to witness the ceremony.
"Hey, which bride did Young Master Gu go to pick up?"
"Of course, it goes without saying that he was saved by his savior."
The two well-informed ladies in front of me gossiped as they walked.
"I heard that Qin Zhengzheng is an orphan who lost both her parents. Young Master Gu specially bought her a house in the capital and arranged for her to recognize a general surnamed Qin under the Duke of Ling as her adoptive father and mother, so that she could rely on her maternal family. Tsk, he really arranges everything properly, for fear of making his beloved feel wronged."
"Sigh, I feel so sorry for Miss Zheng. How will she live in the future..."
Shen Lingyue walked behind and listened silently. It seemed that everyone knew the truth behind this marriage.
Upon arriving at the main gate of the Duke's mansion, on the left was Gu Yuan, riding a tall horse, returning in high spirits to fetch his bride. Behind him followed a bridal sedan chair and a long procession, creating a lively and impressive scene.
The sedan chair coming from the right was from the Zheng family. There was only the matchmaker leading the procession and two maids following beside the sedan chair. The wedding procession was sparse and looked even more desolate and shabby compared to the procession on the other side.
After entering the door, step over the fire basin and pay homage to heaven and earth.
Gu Yuan and Qin Zhengzheng held hands with a big red flower, their deep affection seemingly impossible to conceal even through their veils.
On the other side, the person who was marrying Zheng Chunyun was a large rooster tied with a red ribbon.
Zheng Chunyun was still holding the memorial tablet of Prince Gu Lin in her arms.
The guests standing around watching the ceremony felt that today's wedding banquet was inexplicably strange and odd, and even their smiles of blessing carried a hint of awkwardness.
This banquet was totally worth it; I won't have to worry about running out of things to talk about for the next three months.
Finally, the ceremony ended, the bride was led to the bridal chamber, and the banquet could begin.
Halfway through the meal, Shen Lingyue made an excuse to leave the table, quietly slipped away from the crowd, and went to the backyard.
With no one around, she took a piece of paper out of her pocket.
This is a map of the Duke of Ling's mansion that Yan Yi drew from her dream. She found the right direction and headed straight for Zheng Chunyun's new room.
She moved very carefully, adopting the posture of someone playing a video game, keeping her eyes and ears open, avoiding the maids and servants along the way, and successfully arrived outside the bridal chamber.
The window was half open, and she saw Zheng Chunyun sitting upright on the edge of the bed, her head covered with a veil.
"Miss, the second young master went to the room over there first, he should be here soon."
Zheng Chunyun's maid, suppressing her tears, tried to remain calm and comforted her.
From beneath the veil came Zheng Chunyun's calm and even voice, "You can go down now. I want to be alone for a while."
After the maid left, Zheng Chunyun was left alone in the room.
Shen Lingyue went around to the back window, which seemed to be a small room partitioned off for washing. She climbed in through the window, looked around, and finally stuffed the letter into the box where she kept her change of clothes.
Gu Yuan won't be coming over tonight. Zheng Chunyun will definitely be removing her makeup and taking a shower tonight, and then she'll be able to see her.
Done!
Shen Lingyue dared not delay and climbed out of the window again, being very careful not to make a sound.
She was about to return to the banquet hall along the same route when she turned her head and suddenly saw two stewardesses walking towards her from the opposite direction, looking flustered as if something terrible had happened.
Startled, Shen Lingyue quickly hid behind the flower bushes by the roadside.
As the stewardess approached, through the flower bushes, one could vaguely hear the two conversing in hushed tones.
"That's a gift from the Emperor... We need to retrieve it before anyone finds it... Otherwise, the whole family will be in big trouble..."
What imperial gift? Could it be that the jade ruyi bestowed by the Imperial Concubine has been lost?
Shen Lingyue was unaware of this part of the story; neither she nor Yan Yi saw it.
But soon, many more people arrived in the garden, including guards from the outer courtyard, who spread out in all directions, as if they were about to conduct a thorough search.
Shen Lingyue couldn't help but feel nervous; it would be difficult for her to return smoothly now.
Fortunately, she still had the map drawn by Yan Yi. While hiding from the guards, she came to a secluded rockery and crawled into a cave.
Let's hide here for a while, and once the guards are gone, we'll pretend to be lost and return to the banquet...
Shen Lingyue walked in the dark for a while, her hands reaching forward, when she suddenly touched a large object that was both hard and soft.
What the hell?!
She was so frightened she almost screamed, and all the ghost stories she had read in the past twenty years flooded her mind instantly.
"Shh-"
A pair of warm, large hands covered her mouth and nose, and a man's deep, warning voice reached her ears.
"Don't move, or I'll kill you to silence you."
Shen Lingyue, still with her hands outstretched, subconsciously touched them twice more upon hearing this.
Uh... no wonder it was both soft and hard, it's a pectoral muscle, hahaha...
silence.
Both of them fell silent.
The man seemed somewhat exasperated, "I told you not to touch me like that—"
The next second, something hard pressed against his side.
Shen Lingyue had pulled out her hairpin at some point, the sharp tip piercing her clothing, ready to go even further.
The man slowly released his grip, his body stiffening slightly. "Ahem, let's talk this out."
Shen Lingyue had calmed down. Her hand was steady as she held the hairpin firmly. She didn't say a word, just listened quietly to the sounds of the guards searching outside.
Only after the voices and footsteps had faded into the distance, and after waiting a while, did she threaten in a low voice: "You haven't seen me today, and I haven't seen you either, understand?"
The man readily agreed, "No problem."
Shen Lingyue pinched him again, "Turn around, count to one hundred, and then come out."
The man slowly turned around as instructed, "One, two, three..."
Shen Lingyue retreated step by step until her arm reached its limit, then immediately pulled back the hairpin and ran away.
When Pei Jinghuai chased after the artificial hill, he only caught a glimpse of a corner of clothing flashing past a few feet away.
"Runs faster than a rabbit..."
Something on the ground was reflecting light. He walked over, picked up a pearl earring, raised an eyebrow, and smiled enigmatically.
The Duke of Ling's mansion is quite lively today.
A note from the author:
----------------------
Moon Child: Running around the map in real life is so exciting!
Pei Er: What lecherous scoundrel is groping me!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
