Seeing the slap mark on her face and the fearful expression, the old woman was taken aback: "Aunt Yun, your face..."
Yi Ling’s eyes were reddened, she avoided eye contact and lowered her head in a pitiful manner: "I, I, I just carelessly bumped into a noble person."
The woman was stunned and ventured to ask: "Who is this noble person?"
Yi Ling slightly turned her head away as if she didn’t want to tell.
"Is it Lady Mu?" The old woman persisted.
Yi Ling suddenly widened her eyes, her pupils filled with surprise and panic: "You, you, how did you know..."
The old woman suddenly understood, shocked at heart. Indeed, Lady Mu was quite a proud figure. Even though she herself was from a small family, she showed her power by slapping Aunt Yun, a concubine of the Sun Family. What’s more, today was Madam Sun’s birthday party. Her blatant violence towards Aunt Yun was quite surprising since she was sure Aunt Yun would not reveal it.
What kind of background does this Lady Mu from a small family have that causes Aunt Yun to be so afraid of her?
Now the old woman was thinking about this and becoming more and more confident that there was some unspeakable secret between Yi Ling and Lady Mu.
"Oh dear, I was just guessing! I happened to pass by here just now and saw Aunt Yun talking with Lady Mu." The old woman laughed.
Aunt Yun looked at the woman and cautiously asked, "Then who are you..."
Seeing her cautious and frightened look, the old woman confirmed that she was an easy target. She became even more arrogant, lifted her chin, and gloated: "I am the nanny for Miss Sun, you can call me Granny Zhang."
She even dropped the polite self-address of "old servant" and directly referred to herself as "I".
Yi Ling pretended not to notice and acted surprised: "Could it be the Song family..."
Granny Zhang became more proud, seemingly satisfied with Yi Ling’s surprised look, as if she had never seen the world before: "Exactly."
Yi Ling displayed a surprised look on her face, but in her heart, she was puzzled. The Song family’s Missy? Which one?
Why would this unrelated Missy from Song family come to find her out of nowhere?
Just now, that old woman said she saw her with Lady Mu unintentionally. Could it be related to Ji Xinhe?
Yi Ling was lost in thought and began to speculate. She asked timidly, "May I ask, what did Granny Zhang come to look for me for?"
"Our Missy is free and bored now and would like to invite Aunt Yun over for a small gathering."
"May I ask, which Missy?" Yi Ling cautiously asked.
The old woman was about to answer, but she hesitated and said, "You’ll know when you get there!"
Yi Ling noticed how the previously arrogant old woman was now evasive and hesitant, and she felt she roughly understood now. It was said that Madame Song’s visit today was mainly for Miss Fifth of the Song family. It seems she is indeed in Sun’s house right now and hiding.
But why would she come to find her? 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦
Though filled with doubt, Yi Ling decided to visit. For her, the Song family was an unattainable existence, so she would not miss any chance to climb up in status.
——
The Sun’s residence was very lively today. Perhaps it was because Madam Sun had been suppressing her emotions under the control of Grandpa Sun for a lifetime. Now that Grandpa Sun had finally passed away, she could no longer restrain herself. She organized a grand birthday celebration and had nearly all the prominent families of Lian’an Town attending.
Even if they didn’t come for the Sun family, they may have come for the Song family.
As everyone knows, the Song family is the highest-ranking family in Yu State and everyone wanted to build a relationship with them. Moreover, the Song family was in the prefecture city, and had almost no intersection with Lian’an Town. Now, the head lady of the Song family had shown up in Sun’s house so naturally, everyone flocked to her.
The families that could not attend probably didn’t receive an invitation from Madam Sun.
For her birthday celebration, Madam Sun prepared the Mingxi Pavilion next to the Fushou Courtyard to host her guests. Situated near the mountains and by the water, the beautiful garden was filled with laughter and chatter. The men came to greet Madam Sun before moving to the front courtyard.
After seeing Yi Ling, Ji Xinhe left the pavilion to find Song Yalin and the others.
As soon as she entered Mingxi Pavilion, she saw Song Yalin surrounded by a group of people, talking. Many ladies were laughing and talking with her. She was holding a landscape painting in her hand, carefully appreciating it. People around were either genuinely or falsely complimenting it, some of the illegitimate daughters, like Song Yamin, also tried to bask in her glory.
Seeing this, Ji Xinhe shook her head with a smile and said, "Let’s forget it. Let’s go find a quiet place instead. They don’t need me to look after them."
Shulan and Xiaoyu nodded, and followed Ji Xinhe to sit down at a stone table by an inconspicuous flower bush.
"I’ll get some hot tea and snacks for the madam," Xiaoyu said.
"Okay." Ji Xinhe touched her slightly protruded belly. It was a rare day out, and she didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. On the contrary, she felt much relaxed. Seems like Marquis Mu usually overreacted. Just because she was pregnant, did he really think of her as a porcelain doll?
After Xiaoyu left, Shulan stayed with Ji Xinhe, "Madam, was it too impulsive of me to slap Yi Ling just now? This girl is full of deceit. Maybe she will use this slap to cause trouble, deliberately trying to make people aware that the madam raised her hand against her."
Indeed, Shulan’s words hit the mark. Yi Ling really did make a fuss after taking the slap.
Ji Xinhe just laughed nonchalantly, "So what if she tells people? Am I really going to care about having a fierce reputation?"
She didn’t care about it before she got married, and now that she even has a child, would she care?
Shulan nodded, "The madam is right. In that case, I should have slapped her twice!"
Ji Xinhe let out a soft laugh.
While they were talking, Xiaoyu came back with tea, but her face didn’t look good.
Xiaoyu was usually stable in personality and didn’t show much emotion, but Ji Xinhe could tell her mood had changed.
Ji Xinhe watched Xiaoyu pouring tea for her silently and asked, "What’s wrong?"
Xiaoyu raised her eyes to look at Ji Xinhe, pursed her lips, and then said, "The servants of Sun’s family were condescending. They were unwilling to give the refreshments, and they gave us old tea."
Shulan narrowed her eyes in anger, "Who do they think they are!"
Ji Xinhe, however, picked up the teacup casually and sipped, saying, "Forget it, you already know what kind of people the Sun family is, right? Why bother with them?"
Shulan, looking slightly agitated, said, "It just feels so unfair, given madam’s status, they are not even qualified to look down on you!"
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