Chapter Twelve: Childhood Sweethearts, A Fleeting Dream
As she spoke, her eyes suddenly turned cold. She grabbed Song Yiqiu's hand and looked at the red liquid seeping from the bandage on her palm.
His joking expression vanished, replaced by a hint of disbelief in his voice:
"Tsk tsk, someone actually managed to hurt you? The waters of this capital seem to run much deeper than the bandits of Longnan. It's fraught with danger, General!"
Song Yiqiu was amused by her silly antics and withdrew her hand:
"You're such a chatterbox. When did you come to the manor?"
Bai Mei proudly raised her chin:
"I've been infiltrating here for almost half a month! If I don't see you soon, with my skills, I'll almost be the head of the woodshed, okay?"
She picked up the broom she had used to hit Granny Wang, but her gaze drifted to Qingzhu, who had been standing quietly to the side, and she lowered her voice:
"General, is the young lady beside you... a normal person? Those two moves just now, the timing, strength, and accuracy, don't seem like something a real madwoman would do."
Song Yiqiu was slightly startled:
How did you figure that out?
Bai Mei raised an eyebrow, with a hint of pride:
"There are plenty of spies and people feigning madness to evade military service in the barracks. These little tricks might fool the women in the inner quarters, but they won't fool my eyes, honed from being surrounded by corpses."
Standing to the side, Qingzhu listened to the two's familiar conversation and a faint bittersweet feeling welled up in her heart.
Seven years... Has the young lady finally found someone she can completely trust?
Song Yiqiu didn't notice Qingzhu's subtle emotional change. She pulled Qingzhu close and solemnly said to Baimei:
"This is Qingzhu, the maid left to me by my grandmother. She is like a sister to me and is someone I can absolutely trust."
She then turned to Qingzhu, her expression becoming more serious:
"Qingzhu, Baimei's words make sense. You need to be more careful in front of others in the future when you pretend to be crazy, and you must not reveal any flaws in the slightest detail."
"Don't worry, I will find a suitable time to let you regain your senses 'naturally', but not now. We need to keep the enemy in the dark and keep our eyes open, so as not to alert them and let your mother or others do something bad again."
Bai Mei immediately patted her chest, adopting the demeanor of a big sister:
"Don't worry, Qingzhu. With me here, let's see who dares to bully you and the general. I am Bai, the invincible deputy general who has fought all over Longnan!"
Song Yiqiu sighed and helplessly corrected him:
"Yes, Miss."
"Oh right, miss, miss!"
Bai Mei chuckled, acting all serious.
Suppressing the complex emotions in her heart, Qingzhu greeted them politely and then spoke softly:
"Miss...Young Master Fu...he's come to annul the engagement, you..."
No one knew better than her the true feelings that the young lady harbored for that Langxing brother when she was young.
Childhood sweethearts, innocent and carefree, arranged marriage by grandmother...
All of this was one of the few bright spots in Miss's bleak childhood.
Upon hearing this, Song Yiqiu paused almost imperceptibly.
Images flashed through her mind of her past life, of being humiliated and abandoned, while Fu Langxing stood coldly beside Song Sangyu.
That hazy, youthful affection has long since been worn away by the despair of the past life and the clarity of this one.
She hesitated for only a moment, then a relaxed smile appeared on her face, and she patted Qingzhu's hand reassuringly:
"It's nothing. I'm just going to see an 'old friend.' It's perfect timing, I also want to see how much this Brother Langxing has grown in the past seven years."
Her tone was calm and even, as if she were talking about something that had nothing to do with her.
“White Plum,” she instructed.
“You’ve just arrived, so stay by my side for now, observe more and speak less. Qingzhu, you’ll stay with me and continue to ‘stay ill,’ but don’t act rashly like you did today.”
Adjusting the gold hairpin in her hair, she took a deep breath and spoke:
"Let's go to the front hall. Don't keep our guests waiting."
...
As Song Yiqiu stepped into the front hall, a delicate blue-and-white porcelain cup shattered at her feet, nearly cutting her ankle.
An angry roar came from inside the hall:
"I don't want to marry that filthy woman who's having an affair with the stable boy. What arranged marriage? I don't care for that. I'm breaking off this engagement!"
Song Yiqiu looked in the direction of the sound and saw Fu Langxing, the heir of the Yongyu Earl's Mansion, standing in the hall with a face full of anger.
Song Sangyu was gently holding his arm, her voice so sweet it could melt your heart:
"Brother Langxing, don't say that about my sister... She must have had her reasons, she was forced into it... If anyone's to blame, it's that audacious coachman, it has nothing to do with my sister..."
Fu Langxing's gaze softened instantly as he looked at Song Sangyu, and his tone also eased:
“Sang Yu, you’re just too kind. That shrew Song Yiqiu spent seven years on the frontier; she must have been incredibly horny. As soon as she came back, her true nature was revealed. She might have seduced that coachman herself!”
His attendant quickly whispered a dissuasion:
"Young Master! Be careful what you say! She is, after all, the legitimate daughter of the Song family..."
"The legitimate daughter?"
Fu Langxing snorted coldly, glancing disdainfully at Song's parents, who sat at the head of the table with embarrassed expressions.
"Isn't Sang Yu also a legitimate daughter? How come there's such a big difference between legitimate daughters? I want to see how shameless Song Yiqiu is, that she can still stubbornly refuse this marriage!"
"Who said I was going to stay here forever?"
A cold, clear voice suddenly rang out.
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound.
Song Yiqiu walked in gracefully from outside the hall, sunlight shining on her hair and casting a soft halo around it.
Seven years had passed since I last saw her, and she seemed to have been enlarged proportionally. Her baby fat hadn't completely disappeared, but the contours between her eyebrows and eyes were more defined.
He possessed a more resolute quality honed through hardship, and his physique seemed a bit thinner; he exuded an imposing presence even without anger.
Fu Langxing's gaze suddenly fixed on her, and he was momentarily lost in thought.
The woman before him was completely different from the somewhat timid little girl he remembered; an aggressive beauty made his heart skip a beat.
"Brother Langxing..."
Song Sangyu noticed his distraction and shook his arm uneasily.
Fu Langxing suddenly came to his senses, and his face involuntarily turned slightly red.
To cover his embarrassment, he deliberately turned his face away and spoke in an even harsher tone:
"It seems the environment on the frontier isn't too harsh! Look at your delicate skin, you must be treated like a princess in the army!"
Song Yiqiu seemed not to hear his sarcasm, and calmly pulled out a chair and sat down.
Bai Mei immediately and cleverly stood behind her, her eyes scanning the entire room warily, while Qing Zhu lowered her head and stood a little further away, still looking foolish.
After she sat down, she leisurely picked up the tea that the maid had just served her and gently blew on it.
An eerie silence fell over the entire front hall, and everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.
She could feel Fu Langxing's burning gaze fixed on her.
After a long while, she finally raised her eyes and looked calmly at Fu Langxing:
"What? After all these years, Brother Langxing doesn't recognize Yiqiu?"
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