“Gege is staring blankly at Master’s letter, look!” Xicha said to Nianxue, holding a feather duster.
"What did the letter say? Usually, the mistress only glances at it and replies quickly. Why did it take so long this time?" Nianxue was following behind Xicha with a rag, wiping the furniture again after Xicha had dusted it. This was something the two maids did every day after serving Lanqin. Sihua and Siqi's nature was still unknown, so they were put outside to do some rough work such as serving tea and water, tending to the flowers and plants, and washing clothes and sheets. The two maids were still quite well-behaved, but after the Huanbi incident, Nianxue was more careful than before.
"Could it be that the letter contained something unpleasant that worried the princess?" Xicha whispered.
"Ouch~" As soon as she said this, someone pinched her back, and Xi Cha cried out in pain. However, this cry did not attract Lan Qin's attention.
"You jinx! What nonsense are you spouting? Who is our master? He has highly skilled guards by his side, and the Thirteenth Prince is with him too," Nianxue said angrily, glaring at Xicha.
"I won't dare to do it again, okay?" Xi Cha didn't dare to anger Nian Xue and quickly begged for mercy.
The two maids were so engrossed in their bickering that Lanqin, still leaning against the couch by the window reading the letter, didn't notice that Madam Song and Madam Geng had reached the door. Seeing that neither mistress nor servants had noticed their arrival, the two maids tiptoed up to Lanqin and scoffed, "What are you looking at, little sister, so intently?"
Nianxue and Xicha immediately noticed that Madam Geng and Madam Song had entered, and quickly bowed to them.
Lanqin was also startled from her reverie, pouting as she said, "Master took in a girl in Yangzhou." After saying that, she casually placed the letter on the couch.
Geng and Song exchanged a glance and then sat down next to Lanqin.
"Look at this girl, is she jealous?" Madam Song was several years older than Lanqin and Madam Geng, and often teased them like little sisters. Lanqin used to think that Madam Song was a quiet and reserved older sister, but since the three of them formed an alliance, she discovered that Madam Song was actually very talkative and could make jokes.
"I think so, our Princess Lanqin is just jealous!" Madam Geng said with a smile. They both knew that the Fourth Prince was corresponding with Lanqin.
"Don't you get jealous?" Lanqin playfully sniffed at Geng Shi and pouted.
"Alright, you two are always arguing. Lan'er, tell me quickly, what kind of person has Master taken in? Are you really sure?" Madam Song asked.
"I don't know either, anyway, we took in a girl named 'Butterfly'. Let's ignore him and go check on the tomatoes in the yard. A whole bunch of them ripened last night." Lanqin deliberately changed the subject. She knew that telling Gengshi and Songshi wouldn't make any difference; she would wait for Fourth Master to come back and tell them.
"This girl is still feeling uneasy." Seeing Lanqin suddenly stand up from the couch, Madam Song pulled them both by the sleeves and led them outside, smiling as she spoke to Madam Geng.
"It seems there's more to this than meets the eye! Lan'er, why don't you tell us who this woman is that's causing our Lan'er so much unease?" Geng Shi teased.
For them, whether the Fourth Prince takes in another woman or not doesn't really make a big difference. In the inner quarters, having one more or one less woman has virtually no impact on women who are not favored.
Judging from this state of mind alone, Lanqin knew that she was ultimately different from the two of them. In order not to make Song and Geng feel bad, Lanqin said, "Alright, I'll tell you two sisters. Anyway, I have nothing else to do."
So, Lanqin, Songshi, and Gengshi sat under the eaves by the window, where they usually liked, and talked about the Ding Die'er that Fourth Master had told Lanqin in recent days.
After listening, Madam Song fell silent, and Madam Geng also fell silent.
"What do you two think about this?" Lanqin asked, tilting her head after she finished speaking.
“To say that the master is the kind of person who would casually accept women is an overstatement. There are countless beautiful maids in the inner quarters alone, such as Nianxue and Xicha, who are both quite good-looking, and Huanbi is also very attractive. I think it is unlikely that the master would be moved by Ding Die’er’s beauty,” said Madam Song.
"Is it because you feel sorry for her?" Geng asked. "Does Master think there's something strange about what happened to her brother?"
"I'm not going to say anything more. Anyway, we're all here, so it's none of his business. If he wants to take in Die'er and Cui'er, that's his business." Lanqin pouted deliberately and then stood up and ran to the yard to check on the growth of the tomatoes.
Song and Geng smiled at each other, then stood up and walked to the small vegetable garden in the yard to admire the fruits of their labor with Lanqin.
Lanqin's thoughts were actually similar to Geng's, because the Fourth Master only mentioned it briefly in his mind and didn't voice his suspicions. He also teased Lanqin a bit by deliberately mentioning more about Ding Die'er.
Our Comrade Si Si just wanted to see Lan Qin's anxious little face, didn't he?
Meanwhile, Fourth Master and his entourage had already left Yangzhou and were heading to Hangzhou, the next prosperous and wealthy city in Jiangnan. Ding Die'er naturally did not follow, and Fourth Master did not actually take her in. As planned, he sent Ding Die'er and her child out of Yangzhou. As for the strange events that occurred in Yangzhou, Fourth Master did not have the time or authority to deal with them, but he still wrote a secret letter to someone stationed at the Su-Wan camp, ordering him to send someone to investigate the matter secretly.
After seeing off the Fourth Prince and his entourage, Cao Yin finally breathed a sigh of relief. The cold-faced prince was indeed difficult to serve. Another person who breathed a sigh of relief was Zhang Shoucheng, the Prefect of Yangzhou. He had intended to invite the Fourth Prince to his residence for a private chat, but the Fourth Prince had hurriedly packed his bags and left after arranging Ding Die'er's affairs, giving him no chance to meet him.
Zhang Shoucheng secretly sent people to search for Ding Die'er's whereabouts, but after searching around, they found that her family was gone and the house was empty, and even the old woman was nowhere to be found.
Zhang Shoucheng suspected that the Fourth Master had secretly sent people to kidnap Ding Die'er and her child, but he had no evidence and dared not stop the Fourth Master from questioning him about the matter. So he had no choice but to send a message by carrier pigeon to report everything that had happened to the person behind the scenes.
When the Fourth Prince and his entourage were almost at Hangzhou Prefecture, the secret guard responsible for relaying messages returned. The Fourth Prince asked him if there had been a reply, and the guard shook his head. The Fourth Prince chuckled to himself.
Little thing, are you really jealous? How dare you not reply to your master's letter?
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