After dining, each one left the dining hall to go to their courtyard.
"Darling wait! Mother forgot to tell you something"
Ming Shu turned to her mother and waited for her to get close enough.
"What is it, Mom?"
"A few days from now will be Old Madam Wang's birthday. Although we are not as close as before, the older generation still keeps contact. We will attend with Mother... Do you want me to call you a seamstress?"
"That's unnecessary, Mom. I am sure Grandma will want to choose my clothes... you know how she's"
"You are right haha. Well, it will lessen the things we need to do. Sigh, I hope we can find out why Wang younger generations pulled away from us..."
Sighing one more time, her mother bid her goodnight and left.
Going back to her chambers, Ming Shu couldn't agree more with her Mother. She really hoped to find and solve whatever issue was between them.
-----------
In another part of the Manor, Lady Ye and Yunning were dining together.
Lady Ye opened a motherly smile to Yunning.
"It's been a long time since we did this"
"Yes. I missed having meals with you Mom"
"It surely didn't look so. See you happily playing fake house with that w*ore Lifen and her little b*tch is quite disgusting. Sometimes I thought you forget who birthed you"
Ming Yunning saw the still intact perfect motherly smile in her Mother's face even when she uttered such vile words. The good mood she had completely vanished. She thought because they had been together for a long time, her mother would leave the unpleasant topics aside and focus on her.
She lowered her head and pretend to eat. 'I don't know why I still delude myself thinking Mother can accept be part of a happy family'. Sadness flashed through her eyes, but it completely escaped Lady Ye's perception.
"Mom you are my mother no matter what I do. Don't compare yourself to them"
"Yes, I am. I had to spend nine months suffering with you inside my belly. I like to believe that my daughter won't be a white-eyed wolf"
"En"
Losing her desire to talk further with her Mother, Yunning focused on her food. Just as she finished a knock came, and a maid appeared.
"Mistress I came to report"
Yunning threw a questioning glance to her Mom.
"What? Don't you want to know why your fake family exclude you today?"
Although uncomfortable on how Lady Ye called her loved ones, she indeed was curious to why she and Zigui couldn't attend the dinner today.
Seeing that her daughter didn't protest, she waved her hands to the servant.
"You can report now"
"Mistress, unfortunately, this servant couldn't get close enough to hear what they said. But this servant heard about the anniversary of Old Madam Wang. It will be a few days from now... oh, Madam Ming-"
Lady Ye threw the knife that was in her hand to a spot close to the maid. The knife grazed the maid's cheek and nailed in the ground behind her.
"Which Madam?"
The maid's body trembled and she kneeled in front of her Mistress.
"No Madam. Li Lifen commented how bad her relationship with the Wangs are"
A smile appeared in Lady Ye's face. It gradually became larger with each piece of information she remembered. And once she looked at her daughter the smile grew even more pronounced.
"Yun'er my baby, listen to Mother, tomorrow you will..."
————
The next day, laugh filled one of the rooms on the 'Red Lotus'. Two young men were chatting over a bottle of wine.
"Your Family is amazing... hahaha I can't even begin to imagine the all rigid Minister of Justice becoming flustered with his daughter silence... hahaha too funny"
A young youth with red robes pound hard his hand in the table while his laugh filled the place.
"What's even worse is that my little princess accepted! She'll be now susceptible to the gaze of the beasts of the government"
"Do have more confidence in Xiao Shu. I'm sure she will surprise us all in the near future... alas, if only my sister was like that"
"I'm sure that the little Princess will surprise you too... I don't know if it will be a good one though"
The other youth smirked at the red robe youth. He thanked all the gods that neither of his lovely sisters were troublemakers like the red robe's sister.
"Sigh, don't mention, please. Seriously, I deeply envy your family you know? Close to you, my family is like a wild pack trying to kill each other to be the Alpha"
"His Highness please refrain yourself for calling the Imperial Family a pack"
"But it's the truth. The only sibling I have a good relationship is Jinghua. The others or don't know about me or are trying to kill me"
The youth wearing the blue robe had his smile completely disappeared with the mention of the red robe youth's assassination attempt.
"... did your highness find out who sent the men last time?"
"Consort Huang or Zhao Song... they use the same people so is difficult to know which one was. What I'm curious about is how they found out about me"
Different from the blue-robed man, the red one still maintained a slight smile on his face.
"Maybe some servant of the day you went to Si Family betrayed you or escaped the pursuit. It's not uncommon you know?"
"Maybe. But since they sent me such a lovely present shouldn't I return the pleasantry?"
"Oh? What do you have in mind?"
"I heard my lovely brother is rather close to Wang Miss. I thought I should meet her, and there's a perfect opportunity a few days from now"
The smile on the red youth turned into an enchanting curve while his eyes emitted bloodthirsty. Licking his lips he couldn't wait for the mayhem on the poor Old Madam's birthday.