Chapter 8: She probably won't take the second nightmare to heart...
Meng Lingyao knew she was dreaming. She seemed to be floating in mid-air, watching everything in the dream from an outsider's perspective. She even knew that she was already married.
Wait, they got married?
With whom?
Filled with doubt, she saw herself with the hairstyle of a married woman, dressed in gorgeous clothes, and adorned with jewels.
Fortunately, at least she married into a wealthy family.
But for some reason, they hurried into the temple, almost running.
The three large characters on the plaque at the entrance of the temple are clearly visible: Ci'an Temple.
A monk tried to stop her, but Songlan brushed him aside.
Good woad!
Her gaze followed the fluttering hem of her skirt as it passed through the many temples and the deep bamboo forest in the backyard of Ci'an Temple, stopping outside a meditation room. The hem of her skirt paused for a moment before she suddenly pushed open the door.
With a creak, the door swung open.
In the serene Buddhist sanctuary, on the prayer cushions where one should be devoted to worshipping Buddha, Zhou Yizhi was embracing a beautiful young monk. Upon seeing her burst in, he calmly adjusted his robes, smiled, and took her hand, saying, "My wife, don't be angry. It's just a pastime. You're the only one in my heart."
Meng Lingyao felt a churning in her stomach and almost vomited.
"Yaoyao?" Madam Zhong pushed open the door and came in wearing an outer robe. Seeing her daughter sitting blankly on the daybed with her face pale and her long hair disheveled, she quickly hugged her and turned to instruct the maid, "Go and make some calming soup."
She noticed her daughter was late coming home, so she came over to check on her, only to find herself in this unexpected situation.
Meng Lingyao closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and finally came to her senses from the dream.
"Another nightmare?"
Meng Lingyao leaned against her mother's chest, weakly moved her head a couple of times, and then recounted the entire dream in detail.
As Madam Zhong listened, her brows furrowed more and more. Finally, she slammed her hand on the table. "These young masters are getting more and more outrageous! First there was Lu Heming, a hypocrite, and now there's Zhou Yizhi... They're simply, simply outrageous!"
Her chest heaved with rage, and she wished she could immediately grab a large knife from the storeroom and sever all ties with this scoundrel to clean up the mess.
Meng Lingyao drank the calming soup sip by sip, finally suppressing the nausea.
With Lu Heming's "precious work" as a precedent, she was much more accepting of dreams this time.
At least Zhou Yizhi in the dream didn't take anyone's life, right?
A feeling that was hard to describe as either laughable or absurd welled up inside her. Meng Lingyao twitched the corners of her mouth and even managed to call Songlan from the outer room, "Throw away that snow rabbit lamp."
Songlan paused for a moment, then quickly agreed, "I'll go right now."
When Madam Zhong saw the snow lantern, she asked, "What is that?"
"This was given to me by Zhou Yizhi today."
"Then it should be thrown away." Madam Zhong curled her lip, completely losing interest, and said with disgust, "The farther away the better."
Meng Lingyao vaguely heard the sound of the snow lantern shattering, as if she had thrown away a hundred taels of silver.
Zhou Yizhi's appearance clearly indicated that he was a regular visitor, and the monks of Ci'an Temple obviously knew the inside story as well, which showed that it was not a legitimate temple.
"well."
Meng Lingyao sighed, thinking that she should have used the hundred taels to buy a piece of jewelry instead.
Madam Zhong stroked her daughter's head and said affectionately, "Our Yaoyao is blessed. Even the heavens couldn't bear to see you suffer, so they sent this dream as a warning."
“Yes.” Meng Lingyao said solemnly, “Therefore, I must find the best husband in the world so as not to disappoint his great love.”
"Exactly!"
Madam Zhong smiled and changed the subject, "I haven't had a chance to ask you yet, why are you so late today?"
Mentioning this, Meng Lingyao's eyes lit up, and she perked up, recounting in detail what had happened at the Marquis of Weiyong's residence.
Upon hearing that Pei Xu had shot Lu Heming back with a single arrow, Madam Zhong couldn't help but clap her hands and laugh heartily, "Excellent! I've heard of Pei Shaoqing's archery skills before, and they truly live up to their reputation. Speaking of which, I saw him at the palace banquet last year; his appearance and demeanor were both top-notch, barely..."
Meng Lingyao slowly sat up straight and stared at her mother.
Under her daughter's gaze, Mrs. Zhong fell silent. "...It's a man, you could say."
“I want to marry someone who puts me first in everything.” Meng Lingyao snorted lightly. “Pei Xu… I can tell from half the capital that he’s the kind of person who only cares about his future and his family.”
Madam Zhong smiled and pulled her to sit down, then took a comb and began to style her hair. "Alright, alright, if our Yaoyao is going to marry, let her marry a devoted lover."
Her mother was warm and fragrant. Meng Lingyao nestled on her lap, found a comfortable position, and fell asleep again without realizing it.
In the main courtyard, Meng Yan stepped into the house under the cover of night.
As the year drew to a close, the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, responsible for sacrificial rites, entered its busiest time of the year. Meng Yan's superior, Xiang Liao, the Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, was just over forty and in the prime of his life, leading by example and working late into the night every day. Meng Yan, a few years younger than him, was naturally ashamed to go home at the appointed time and could only keep up with him.
To everyone's surprise, when they quietly pushed open the door, the room was completely empty.
"Master, Miss is in a bad mood today, so Madam has gone to keep her company."
Meng Yan sighed at the empty bed, wide awake, and picked up his zither to play a piece called "The Lone Goose Flies South".
"Master," the old servant said, suppressing a laugh as he handed over the calming soup, "Madam wants you to rest early."
Meng Yan took the ginger soup and said quietly, "Was my playing bad?"
"It's good, but... it's a bit too bleak."
Lord Meng wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep all night; the Dali Temple was also brightly lit until late into the night.
When Yue Meng entered, carrying a food box in one hand and a bundle in the other, Shen Xiaoshan was staring blankly at the torture instruments on the wall.
"Change into these." Yue Meng tossed the bundle over. "This is what the master specifically instructed."
Shen Xiaoshan opened the box and saw it was a set of men's clothing; his ears immediately turned red. Yue Meng teased him deliberately, "If you want to continue wearing women's clothes, that's fine too. I also have a pomegranate-colored dress I bought for my sister..."
"No, no need! This set is enough." The boy grabbed the clothes and rushed into the inner room, almost tripping over the threshold.
A sneer came from the other end of the line. Jian Su's face was blindingly white under the light. He was holding a file, and there were some reddish-brown stains on the hem of his clothes, which looked like bloodstains. "You're quite eager."
"What do you know?" Yue Meng laid out the food from the food box one by one. "That Miss Meng is truly a remarkable person, kind yet quick-witted. If it were any other young lady, she would have thrown away this hot potato long ago."
The sound of dressing came from inside. Shen Xiaoshan poked his head out and whispered, "Miss Meng is a good person."
"Did you hear that?" Yue Meng raised an eyebrow at Jian Su. "I told you Miss Meng is a good person."
Jian Su gave a noncommittal snort and said, "Reckless."
"Pah, you can't expect anything good to come out of a dog's mouth." Yue Meng was still not giving up, so he moved closer to Pei Xu, who was flipping through the files: "Sir, please be the judge, isn't Miss Meng beautiful and kind-hearted?"
Pei Xu paused slightly as he flipped through the pages, without even looking up, and asked in a calm voice, "Are you very free?"
"No, no." Yue Meng quickly waved his hand and took a few steps back. "I'll go to the dungeon and interrogate that steward surnamed Lu again."
The candlelight flickered and then suddenly went dark; the wick had burned too long. During a break while the servant trimmed the candle, Pei Xu put down the scroll and closed his eyes slightly.
The line between being quick-witted and reckless is very thin.
Although he felt that Miss Meng's behavior was inappropriate, he would not allow his subordinates to arbitrarily judge a woman.
only--
The image of the girl's resentful eyes when he gave her those instructions inexplicably appeared before my eyes.
She probably won't take it to heart.
Well, we're not related, he was just being nosy.
As the water clock dripped past midnight, Shen Xiaoshan fell asleep curled up on the bench. Jian Su, having found a blanket somewhere, roughly tossed it onto her. A few mumbled murmurs came from under the blanket, "Sister..."
"He's had a tough life too," Yue Meng sighed softly.
Pei Xu put down his pen and looked out the window at the swirling snow.
It's time for a change of events.
In just one night, Lu Heming went from being a highly sought-after young talent in the capital to a lawless prisoner.
"At the morning court session this day, Minister Pei presented evidence of the Lu family's crimes of forcibly seizing farmland and disregarding human life, even bringing up the case of Lu Heming driving several members of the Shen family to their deaths! His Majesty was furious and immediately dismissed the Lu family faction from their posts, and Lu Heming was also imprisoned to await trial!"
Meng Yan's eyes were dark and swollen, but his spirits were high.
Meng Lingyao put down her teacup, ignoring the few drops of tea that splashed onto the back of her hand, and asked, "Really?"
“It’s absolutely true. There are witnesses and physical evidence; the Lu family can’t deny it.” Meng Yan stroked his beard and sighed, “As expected of Yaoyao, she was born extraordinary; even a dream omen foretold her…”
He took out a tortoise shell from his sleeve. "Let me cast a divination for you and see if some little deity has been brought to our family."
"Go away, go away." Madam Zhong pressed his hand down. "What nonsense are you spouting? Yaoyao was naturally my daughter in her past life too."
Meng Lingyao nodded with a smile.
Seeing her smile, Meng Yan smiled too. He coughed lightly, moved closer to his wife, and lowered his voice, "Madam, Yaoyao is in a much better mood now. Tonight... shouldn't you go back to your room to sleep?"
Meng Lingyao burst out laughing, "Alright, the true colors are revealed."
Mrs. Zhong pinched her daughter's cheek.
Not wanting to bother her parents any further, Meng Lingyao tactfully said goodbye.
For several days in a row, no one went out, but news from outside kept coming in.
"It turns out that the servants in the Lu family's mansion in the capital are replaced every few days, and they all suffer greatly. Several young maids who didn't dare to speak out before have now gone to file a complaint against Lu Heming. He's truly a beast in human form!"
"He's not the only one in the Lu family. A girl from a collateral branch of the Marquis of Weiyuan's mansion married into the Lu family. She's actually Lu Heming's cousin. Not only does he keep a mistress, but he also allows his concubine to bully his wife at will. It's clear that the family's morals are corrupt!"
"And another thing, the tavern that was renamed 'Zhuangyuanlou' because Lu Heming frequented it is now completely ruined."
...
After hearing all the news, Meng Lingyao breathed a sigh of relief.
Thus, Lu Heming is finished, and there will never be another Shen Yuniang.
The people sent to Wu County to investigate returned weary from their journey. They had uncovered a great deal, but before they even reached the capital, the Lu family had already collapsed.
Life is truly unpredictable.
"You've all worked hard. Go to the steward and collect your reward. The New Year is almost here, so stay home and rest well."
"Thank you for your kindness, Miss."
The head servant took the slip of paper approving the reward money and left. Cang Dian rushed in from outside, "Miss, Shen Xiaoshan is here."
Shen Xiaoshan followed the doorman in. He had changed into a clean indigo robe. Upon seeing Meng Lingyao, he immediately knelt down and performed a deep and respectful salute.
"Get up quickly." Meng Lingyao rubbed her forehead and waved for Cang Dian to help her up. "Is everything alright at the Dali Temple?"
"Everything is fine."
Songlan chimed in, "That's for sure. You haven't come back these past few days; we thought you'd forgotten about us."
"How could that be? How could that be?" Shen Xiaoshan hurriedly pulled out a piece of silver from his pocket and presented it with both hands, "I still owe Miss silver."
Meng Lingyao asked in confusion, "Where did you get the money?"
"Thanks to Miss, I found a job at the Dali Temple. This is my advance payment for the month's wages..."
Meng Ling did not take it. "You're new to the capital, keep this money for your expenses." Seeing the boy's eyes redden, she said gently, "Do your job well, and come to me if you have any difficulties."
At first, I helped him with some selfish motives, but after spending so much time together, how could I not have developed any feelings for him?
Shen Xiaoshan wiped his face, nodded emphatically, and chatted with Songlan and Cangdian for a while before leaving.
This time, he did not look back.
After seeing Shen Xiaoshan off, Meng Lingyao lazily leaned back against the window. The two nightmares had severed two of her marriage prospects. Even though she had escaped the disaster, she still felt empty inside and couldn't even muster the energy to play with her favorite cosmetics.
"Miss." The doorman hurried over and brought a letter. "It's a letter from Miss Xie."
On the letter sprinkled with gold dust, Xie Chengyu's handwriting was flamboyant and elegant: "The hot spring water is so smooth and nourishing, if you don't take good care of yourself before the New Year, how can you outshine all the beauties in the first month of the lunar year?"
Meng Lingyao clicked her tongue lightly, then immediately made the decision, "Pack your bags, we'll leave tomorrow!"
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