Chapter 99 Make Way

It was not the academy's break time that day. Xiao Que was still in class, reluctant to take leave like the noble ladies who had received invitations. Meng Taotao was also studying hard at home. None of Si Li's right-hand men from the manor could go with them, in case the flower banquet started too late and Ah Xiang would have to take over the afternoon business. After thinking it over, Si Li simply asked Ah Zhu, a new girl who had come to live with them, to go with them.

Most of the young lady's maids were of the same age or one or two years younger. Ah Zhu was only ten years old and it was really not suitable for the job, but since she didn't have anyone suitable, she didn't care about it. Si Li led the extremely nervous Ah Zhu to the carriage that the Jian family came to pick up people.

"Sister, you have a smile in your eyes, but what's the good news? But why are you wearing this dress? It makes your beauty look a little less." As soon as she got into the car, she was greeted by a friendly complaint. It was Jian Qingya who came to pick up Si Li. She was neither too formal nor too friendly. Jian Qingya was already engaged. She had received the invitation and did not plan to go to the flower show again. She declined early. This time she came to see Si Li off.

In order to attend the banquet today, Si Li specially borrowed someone to do her makeup. Her already pretty eyes and eyebrows were embellished with makeup, and even Jian Qingya, who she often met, was dazzled.

She turned away and looked at the little girl who was trembling with fear and sweat on her forehead following Si Li, without saying much. After a moment, she returned to her old ways, holding Si Li's hand and muttering, "Mother liked that moon-colored satin dress at first sight. The light blue color suits you best, it's expensive and decent. If you don't wear it this time, there won't be anything more suitable to wear in the future."

It was because it was too expensive that she couldn't wear it to the banquet. Although Si Li understood that the Jian family did everything for her own good and wanted to pile all the good things on her, she still couldn't help but sigh in her heart.

After all, she was a guest at the banquet, not the host, so how could she only care about herself? This was something that the original owner secretly heard Mrs. Si teach Si Tang when she was a child. Thinking of this, Si Li smiled silently. After all, Mrs. Si was the only daughter taught by Master Ji, and she knew all the rules and what to do. However, she did not tell the original owner anything when she went out for the first time when she was a child, which frightened the original owner at the banquet and made her lose face. From then on, she was unwilling to go out.

Si Li held Jian Qingya's hand, smiled faintly, asked Ah Zhu to hand over the wooden box, and changed the subject, "Look at the snacks I prepared. This is for you. Remember to take it back and share it. I thought that if I had someone deliver it once, you would have to send someone else to deliver the message, so I just asked my sister to be the messenger."

Her intimate gesture made Jian Qingya feel comforted. It was a good thing that her little cousin did not treat her as an outsider, so she stopped talking about the previous topic and opened the lid of the wooden box that Si Li handed over to her.

The wooden box was specially made by Ah Quan through the connection of Tang the shopkeeper. It was made much later than the glass box. One was kept as a gift box of a lower grade than the glass box, and the other two were taken out by Si Li this time. The box was painted with the scenes of spring flowers, autumn moon and four seasons. Meng Taotao made a slight change to the previous painting, and it looked like the box was carved with rivers and mountains and four seasons, and the cycle of reincarnation was all festivals.

The aroma released after the carved wooden box was opened was also quite amazing. "It smells like meat, like sugar, and a little bit like taro. What is this?" Before Si Li could answer, Jian Qingya became worried again. "Didn't we have a glass box before? Why did we use this? How can a wooden box be as dazzling as a glass box?"

The noble ladies were all thinking about competing with each other for novelty and surprise, so they ordered glass gift boxes and asked Si Li to secretly deliver them to the mansion. However, after selling them for so long, at least eight or nine out of ten would appear at the banquet. One glass box was a treasure, but two or even more were not rare.

At the flower fair, many noble ladies took food or food boxes from Wanglaiju. As the shopkeeper, Si Li naturally had special privileges. When new products that had never been sold were released, it was impossible for anyone to outdo them. Moreover, Si Li knew clearly that the focus of everyone's discussion was Wanglaiju. Even if she took a paper tube, it might become a new trend.

"I have asked people to take note of the customers who have bought the glass boxes from Wanglaiju. Most of them are the guests of honor at this flower banquet. Do you think they will be able to resist showing it off?"

After Si Li finished explaining softly, Jian Qingya understood what she meant. She covered her mouth and chuckled, "You are quite accurate in your calculations. Did you specifically throw out this bait before the flower banquet so that everyone else would be there to help you?"

That's true. Si Li looked back at her innocently, "I'm just doing business, and I'm selling food when the flower fair comes. I don't expect the Princess of Yue to favor me, so why should I compete with them?"

Jian Qingya had already seen through her hypocrisy and said, "If you didn't care, you wouldn't have to go. But you took the time and effort to make this wooden box and made new cakes to bring. Do you think I haven't heard about the Prince of Yue?"

Si Li's eyes flickered for a moment, "Friends no more."

"Oh."

Jian Qingya was about to say something else when the carriage that had been moving slowly forward suddenly stopped. She stopped smiling and asked, "What's the matter?"

The driver was worried outside, "Miss, the carriage of the Si Mansion is on the opposite side and refuses to give way."

Si Lili lifted the curtain and looked out. The carriage was in an alley, a place the original owner had never seen before, let alone recognized. The alley was not narrow, and two smaller carriages could pass side by side. Their carriage had already pulled to the side, but the car on the opposite side was still parked in the middle of the road, not giving way at all.

It's Si Mansion's car, so the chances of them coming here to cause trouble are 99%. Si Li pressed her forehead and said, "Sister, let's go back and take another route. It will be bad if we miss the time."

Jian Qingya, who was just about to let the driver drive the car over to teach them a lesson, paused and wilted, "You're right, let's get down to business first."

Madam He, who had come to the alley to block the carriage of the Jian family, was sitting in the carriage, already imagining proudly that she would get off the carriage to negotiate with the unruly young lady later, or that the young lady would swallow her anger. The food that the young lady brought to the flower banquet seemed to have become the best gift she could bring to the young lady. Just as she was thinking, she suddenly heard the sound of wheels, and the panicked voice of the coachman who was guarding outside the carriage came in, "Madam, they, they retreated, what should we do?!"

Nanny He had thought of all kinds of responses, but she had never thought that the Jian family and the eldest daughter would just leave without saying a word. When two cars were competing for the road, everyone in the capital knew that the party that retreated would lose face, so why didn't the Jian family want to save face at all?

Her doubts were destined to be answered by no one. After changing the route, Si Li arrived at the gate of the Yue Palace not too early, but fortunately not too late. Ah Zhu got off the carriage first, and Si Li walked down slowly with her skirt lifted. After changing into gorgeous clothes, she also felt a little uncomfortable. No wonder Minister Xiao asked Xiao Qi to start adapting in advance.

Si Li was recalling the essence of etiquette that Meng Taotao and Xiao Qi had shared with her respectively, and she didn't notice the sudden silence around her.

The girl had her hair tied up in two buns, and a silver-threaded headband with tiny jade beads on it, making her look elegant and lively. On her ears were two small green flowers, which, upon closer inspection, were made of green jade the size of rice grains. They swayed as she walked, as if bringing a spring breeze in the winter.

She was lively and pretty in a way that was appropriate for her age, but also had a low-key luxury. The apricot dress woven with a hundred flowers was exactly the fashion this year, and she wore a rabbit fur cape on the outside. The fur was piled on her cheeks, making her cheeks shiny and bright, a good complexion that others couldn't achieve even with powder. Her bright and beautiful appearance made her capture everyone's attention as soon as she appeared. There is a poem that says a beauty is like a jade sword and a rainbow, but in her case, she is both a sword and a rainbow.

The shocking feeling brought by this stunning glance made this beautiful woman not be included in the comments of literati and poets about the beauty of the capital, but she was still passed down by word of mouth many years later.

Si Tang, who had just got off the carriage, looked at Si Li, whose clothes and jewelry were all of the best, and her eyes became red with jealousy. She tugged at a brocade skirt made of flowers that she had finally dug out from the bottom of the box. The apricot color had become dull due to being stored for so long, as if she was completely eclipsed in front of Si Li.

With a smile in her almond eyes, she looked around, and those who were frightened by Si Li's appearance came to their senses. When they looked at the carriage the girl got off, they looked back and forth between the carriage of the Jian family and the carriage of the neighboring Si Mansion. They were clearly from the same family, but they went their separate ways. Could it be that this famous Miss Si was actually being ostracized by her stepmother?

Si Li noticed the hateful look in the opposite direction only after getting off the carriage. The carriage with the Si Mansion emblem was different from the previous one. The vermilion lacquer outline showed the identity of the person in the carriage as a member of the Si Prime Minister's Mansion, and it was quite imposing.

Si Tang only glared at her twice before being dragged behind her by Madam Si. She did not come forward to cause trouble like she did the last few times. Si Li stared at Madam Si's face, smiled, and perfunctorily saluted, "Mother, sister. It's a coincidence today that we can go in together. On the way, I even ran into the family car. Could it be that they left something behind and sent someone to deliver it in a hurry? They didn't even want to give way. Mother was busy with the flower banquet, and now the servants in the mansion are disobedient."

Isn't she just a malicious person? She would do that too. Even the word "mother" might make Mrs. Si suffer.

Si Tang was forced to suppress the urge to speak out. The maids who came with the Si family mother and daughter were so scared by Si Li that they dared not speak out for their master for a long time. If they shouted back, it would be confirmed that they were disobedient, but if they didn't shout back, it would seem that they weakened their influence.

Qinglian, who was standing in the crowd, took advantage of the shelter to quickly raise her head and glance at the opposite side. Her former master was radiant and high-spirited, but she was no longer a maid who enjoyed good food and drink by virtue of her title as a eldest lady, but had become a second-class maid whom she used to look down upon.

Ever since she was captured and released by the Jian family last time, she lost Si Tang's trust and was fined one month's salary. She watched helplessly as the little girl who passed by stepped on her head.

Qinglian couldn't tell whether she felt more regret or resentment. She could hear the mockery in Si Li's words while pretending to be affectionate with her sister. She felt happy when she saw Si Tang clutching her handkerchief tightly after being scolded by Si Li. But when she looked at Si Li who was being watched by everyone, she saw that she was the little girl who had endured her humiliation in the past, but now she seemed like a different person. She couldn't help but wonder, if she hadn't found a way to stay in the mansion and followed Si Li away, would she be the one who was proud of following Si Li now?

Si Li had no time to notice the little girl's thoughts in a crowd. Seeing that Madam Si and Si Tang did not move, she stepped forward and tried to hold Si Tang's arm affectionately, "Let me see what snacks you have prepared. My cooking skills have never been as good as yours, but it's all thanks to my diligence. This time, the food I prepare will surely amaze everyone."

Si Tang dodged her hand and stumbled before he stood up. The words Si Li said about not being as good as Si Li and being diligent were all what she had said to Si Li before. Now, in public, being mentioned like this, if the snacks she brought out later were not as good as Si Li's, she would be embarrassed.

"Stop joking. It's getting late. Why don't you sisters go in and find a place to have a good chat?" Madam Si held back her anger and pushed Si Tang towards Si Li. Si Tang tried to control her expression so that it wouldn't be too distorted by her mother's pinching, and finally managed a smile, "Yes, yes, sister."

The last two words were almost squeezed out from between her teeth. Those who knew her could understand that she was talking about sister, while those who didn't thought she was calling her enemy.

But Si Li doesn't care.

Since Si Tang and Ji Shi were so flexible, she had a lot of fun. Anyway, she had to give face to the host and not cause any trouble in the Yuewang Mansion. Si Tang must have come with a purpose, unlike her, who had nothing to worry about and was burdened by the reputation she had built in the past. She was a complete stranger to the social circles in Beijing, so she had to keep it to herself if she couldn't move freely.

After admiring for a moment the gnashing teeth look on Si Tang's face as he blocked the gazes of the people around him when he approached, Si Li abruptly withdrew and turned back to say goodbye to Jian Qingya who was still in the carriage with a smile. Jian Qingya hid behind the curtain with her shoulders shaking, and it was obvious that she had been holding back her laughter for a long time when she saw the expressions of the Si mother and daughter.

When she turned around again, Si Tang had already regained her gentle and delicate appearance as a noble lady. She timidly held her sleeve and said, "Sister, shall we go?"

Si Li pulled back her sleeves, raised her eyebrows and smiled, "Sister, why do you have to take away the maid's job? I can go by myself, but you and mother should come in quickly, so as not to miss the time."

She walked ahead, and because of her aura, she carried a strong sense of entitlement, which did not seem impolite, but made Si Tang and Madam Si behind her seem to be deliberately delaying. For a moment, the guests getting on and off the carriages in front of the Prince of Yue's mansion all cast strange looks at her, and whispered constantly. Being stared at like this, Si Tang felt uncomfortable.

After many twists and turns, she still seemed to be Si Li's foil. Si Tang looked up at Si Li's back, and the resentment in her heart almost burst out.