Bai Yue remained rooted on the spot until doctor Sheng's silhouette disappeared. In her mind, she could still hear his words and the weight they carried.
"Fifth young miss?"
Bai Chen's manservant's voice snapped her out of her thoughts and she turned to him, giving a polite but very distant and cold nod.
What was his name again? Chong? Bong? Long? Ah! Long sounded quite right.
"What is it... Servant Long?"
It sounded right but the same couldn't be said for his face.
"Servant Chong?" she tried again.
"... It's Dong, fifth young miss. Dong Li."
Well, that certainly explained his expression.
"What do you want, Dong Li?"
She didn't want to sound rude but her toes were starting to freeze and her fingers weren't in a better state either.
At first, Dong Li planned to discreetly get some clues about what the doctor whispered to her but facing the young miss' stare, he felt his courage slip away from his body.
Most likely from his nose, since he had been sniffling for quite a while now.
Trying to act innocent like his master, he gave Bai Yue an innocent, wide smile. "Young miss, seeing you in a daze, I just felt worried about your health. The landscape around us is quite beautiful but in this cold weather, it isn't worth risking your health."
Bai Yue blinked. That Dong Li truly had Bai Chen as his master. That smile of his was as creepy as her second brother's.
"My eyes are hurting. Stop torturing your own face."
With that said, she left without looking at the man slowly making his way towards them.
Dong Li didn't immediately understand what she meant. Touching his face, he muttered, "torturing my face?"
He rubbed his cold cheeks.
"What does my face have to do with her eyes? Why are all the Bais so crazy?"
All of a sudden, a tall frame loomed over him and a big shadow stretched on the ground, entangling with his own.
Dong Li shivered. That presence. That shadow. He knew them all too well.
"Oh? I am crazy?" a familiar voice whispered darkly in his ear.
Dong Li turned on his heel with the same smile as before.
"Young master! Of course, you aren't crazy!"
Bai Chen snorted. His eyes were still red-rimmed and swollen but no trace of sadness could be seen on his face. If anything, he looked very happy with himself.
"I didn't! I really didn't!"
Even if he did, could his magnificent young master be compared with the rest of the Bai family?
"Then it seems like my hearing is not as good as I thought."
Dong Li chuckled nervously and had to suppress the need to squirm. "Wha- What are you saying, young master? How could your hearing not be perfect?"
"Yes, that's what I thought. Thank you for confirming. You will empty Concubine Xi's chamber pot for the next two weeks."
"... Yes, young master." Though he said that, Dong Li was crying a river inside. Scratch that, he was crying a whole ocean. Master, why do you want to ruin me as well? What about my promotion?
Bai Chen turned his head in the direction Bai Yue left.
"What happened?"
"I don't know, I was standing too far from fifth young miss and doctor Sheng."
Bai Chen sneered and called out in an icy voice, "Jiu!"
Following his call, a man dressed like a servant jumped down from the wall separating the inner court from the outer court. Their eyes met briefly before Bai Chen gave a sharp nod and started walking away to his own courtyard, Dong Li and the other man following him silently.
As soon as they entered the study, the man kneeled down in front of Bai Chen, his head down. When he spoke, his voice was monotonous.
"Master."
"Jiu, what did Bai Yue and doctor Sheng talk about?" As he said this, Bai Chen sat at his desk and leaned back in his chair, his eyes half-open as he looked lazily at the two men in front of him.
"According to the doctor, Bai Yue is traumatized. She agreed to the statement. He recommended her to go to Xiangqi village should she ever wish to run away."
Dong Li gasped out. A proper young miss from a noble family running away?! This would be a major scandal!
Jiu didn't seem to agree or even care about that and continued, "Master, Bai Zhang Wei and his wife are planning to have his niece take Bai Yue's identity and become a concubine in the Imperial Palace in her stead. Now, the doctor speaks about Xiangqi village. The timing seems off."
Dong Li gasped again. His young master was spying on Count Zhong and Madam Fu? Why? He never seemed to care much about them before! And that pair of mother and father wanted to abandon their own daughter?! How ruthless and scandalous!
Bai Chen hummed lowly, his fingers tapping on his thigh. Xiangqi village? Its location was actually quite close to the capital. Too close for the Bai family to feel at ease with an imposter in the Palace.
As for the timing being off and thus the possibility of someone spying on them, Bai Chen didn't take the threat seriously. The only point that did puzzle him was that it didn't take a long time for the doctor to arrive. With the nearest clinic being fifteen minutes away by foot, doctor Sheng couldn't come from there.
Why would a servant bring an unknown man to treat a concubine?
"San will investigate the doctor's background. Where did Madam Fu's servant find him?"
Jiu furrowed his brow, "I don't know. All I heard is that the doctor was doing his round."
"A wanderer then? Hn, what a clever and daring little servant. Bringing some unknown doctor to treat Concubine Xi."
"Should I dispose of him?"
A shiver crawled up Dong Li's spine at the sound of Jiu's voice.
"Jiujiu, can't you be a little less murderous?" Dong Li sighed. Although he was used to feeling the heavy atmosphere reigning in the study, he truly wished Jiu could be a little livelier. Why were all assassins like that? And young master, couldn't you find assassins that knew how to smile at least?
"Call me Jiujiu again and I'll wrap your innards around your neck and hang you."
"Jiu..." Dong Li gulped. "Jiu, I'm not asking much! All you want to do is to kill people all day round!"
"...So?"
"So!" At that moment, Dong Li, someone who had been serving his young master Bai Chen for years now and so was used to seeing all kinds of weird people and things, truly believed Jiu was missing several key parts of his brain. And their young master didn't even care about it! Instead, he was looking at them with a smirk, obviously used to their little arguments.
Dong Li deflated and finished in a tiny voice, "at least smile while doing so."
"...It's creepy."
"Alright you two, stop it," Bai Chen smirked. "Jiu, go back to your position. If you really want to kill Dong Li, please wait until he becomes useless."
"Understood." Then taking a glance at the manservant, "Guess it won't take long."
With that said, Jiu disappeared in a blur leaving behind a gasping Servant Dong and a still smirking Bai Chen.
"Young master, you and Jiu are bullying me."
"So? Are you angry?"
"I don't dare."
He really didn't! He wanted his promotion far too much!
"Young master, did you have fun with your play?"
The answer came with a lopsided smile and a pair of sparkling eyes. "No need to talk in past tense. This little play is far from finished."
"Really?"
A burst of laughter escaped Bai Chen. "How could it be so simple? A good play needs suspense, actions, love, and tragedy. This now was just the first part. Just treat the next few weeks as an interlude."
They just needed to wait.
Oh, and head to the ministry before his superior marked him down as absent.