"Baochuan always behaves well. Though he tried hard in the past, he is of weak character. He always tried to take to the woods, but now he turns independent." Qin Yunuan said as she took the boiled Biluochun Tea from nurse Liao. She touched the cover of the tea up, looking at the tea leaves up and down in the teacup. She felt startled a little when she suddenly thought that the tea leaves were sent here by the people dispatched by Su Chenghai especially.
"That's good," nurse Liao touched her chest and said in a sincere and happy voice, "The father and the son share the same mind. One day, if the master knows that the second young master is smart and clever, he will look at him with new eyes and do not believe the scandals outside. Blood is thicker than water. The second young master will have a good future."
As for this issue, Qin Yunuan could not help but frown. In the past, she thought that her father believed the words of Biddy Zhao because he was too sad and upset at that time. He thought it was Baochuan that caused the death of Concubine He. From the expression and response of his father, he seemed to have already known the tricks of Dou Qing'e, but he was contained by a kind of potential power and dared not to fight back. He still chose to be silent even when the issue was about to be revealed today.
It seemed that it was just fake that the master was obsessed heavily with He Lian. If he had been really into her, he would not marry Dou Qing'e. He just hated the mighty power of Dou Qing'e in this family and lost his dignity as a man, so he chose to vent his anger which he could find nowhere to release onto Baochuan.
This man paid the most attention to his official career. Qin Yunuan felt an inexplicable chill at her father. She tried her best to make his father pay much more attention to Baochuan, but now she found that her father regarded his official career more important than his children.
"Maybe," Qin Yunuan responded absently to the enthusiastic nurse Liao.
"Third Miss, you looked worried?"
Qin Yunuan took a deep breath and answered slowly, "I just realize suddenly that if I want to stay strong in this mansion, I should rely on myself instead of only depending on my father finally. You should not always tell Baochuan that he should play up to his father when you stayed with him. You need to tell him that he should live independently, and his hard work is not for everyone, not for me and not for making his father happy."
In this mansion was full of plots and each step should be finished carefully.
"Third Miss?" It was apparent that nurse Liao felt confused by Qin Yunuan's words.
Qin Yunuan smiled and did not explain more.
Maner pushed the door and came in with a basin of warm water where some dried lily flowers floated. Those dried flowers were kneaded into a ball, and then they bloomed after heated by warm water. It did color the gloomy mind these days of Qin Yunuan.
Qin Yunuan put her hands into the flower water as she was listening to the report of Maner, "Followed by your order, I gave Biddy Zhao more 20 tael of silver to let her bury her son quickly and leave the Royal City this night."
For the past Qin Yunuan, 20 teal of silver was an enormous figure. But today, she had opened her first embroidery store at the Baling City by collaborating with Boss Shen at the regions south of the River. The girls and ladies in the city loved its new-style samples and delicate workmanship. The share of this month added up to 120 tael of silver and was comparable to one month's expenses for decades of ordinary families.
"We are so lucky to find Biddy Zhao ahead of Dou Qing'e, but it is a pity that we haven't saved her lame son," Qin Yunuan felt regretful. It was an innocent human life.
After the son of nurse Liao, Huang Dashi, found Biddy Zhao who had moved the family many times, people dispatched by Dou Qing'e got there in a minute. Huang Dashi planned to move the biddy to somewhere safe first. But to his surprise, when he came back to her house, he found the hall of her house had already been burned up together with the pigpen aside. The husband of the nanny passed away a few years ago and she lived with her lame son. It was just few minutes later that her son was burned to death. However, Dou Qing'e had not predicted that her followers burned the sleeping incense when they set the fire, and the biddy had already been out of the house.
"Extermination can't kill conscience," Qin Yunuan sighed, "Dou Qing'e thought she could kill everything to cover her sin, but she did not think that Biddy Zhao who was very greedy could tell the truth after her son was killed."
The original plan of Qin Yunuan was different from reality. She knew that Biddy Zhao was greedy and she would tell the truth if she had gained sufficient money. Qin Yunuan planned to let Huang Dashi negotiate more with the nanny to come to an agreement. But to her surprise, before Huang Dashi provided the amount, Biddy Zhao agreed quickly. A sixty-year-old biddy must make up her mind determinedly after her son was killed at midnight. Though she could not revenge by herself, she still wanted to make Dou Qing'e feel bad. At the final moment, the nanny was stopped by the eyes of Qin Yunuan.
Even though Biddy Zhao told the whole thing happened in that year, Dou Qing'e could not be defeated easily by her power and family background. Qin Yunuan did not want to sacrifice a sixty-year-old biddy who had lost her son since she had reached her original aim.
As for the musk in the agilawood box buried aside the lotus pond, that was totally the speculation of Qin Yunuan. And after careful research of the account books by Concubine Chang, she found that after Concubine He joined the family, Dou Qing'e, who seldom used musk started to get fixed-shared musk every month till the death of Concubine He. As expected, Cui'e who had already been uneasy felt more restless. What's more, Qin Yunuan spread deliberately the scandals towards Cui'e and finally, Cui'e who believed in ghosts and gods turned desperate.
It says to know your enemy and to know yourself. You would have more opportunities if you could catch the weakness of rivals.
The moment Qin Yunuan finished the cleaning of her hands, she heard the report of the little maidservant Ting Xue that Concubine Li came.
Ting Xue was one of the two new maidservants who were dispatched to the Fuxi Courtyard when Qin Yunuan moved to the courtyard on that day. The other one was Tinghe. Both of them were sent here as second-class maidservants. In daily time, apart from Maner and Tong, she was very close to the two girls. Ting Xue was an honest girl with white and tender skin. But Tinghe….
Each time Qin Yunuan thought of the name, she would smile scornfully. She had taken precautions against her according to her experience in her last life. Qin Yunuan felt ridiculous about Qin Yunzhuang's stereotyped trick.
In Qin Yunuan's last life, It was Tinghe that played some tricks on the birthday gift that Qin Yunuan planned to send to Qin Zhi, which caused Qin Yunuan not to be allowed to get out of her room for half a year. But now, she was not the silly girl any more who was cheated easily by her half-blooded elder sister.
When Li Qiqi came in, Qin Yunuan was exactly wiping her hands with a handkerchief and smearing vanishing cream for moisturizing skin. Acute Li Qiqi saw the snow-white vanishing cream in a ceramic box on which red plum in the snow was drawn. She smiled, "Third Miss, you own many treasures. It must be very expensive for the vanishing cream which was generated in the regions south of the River and sent to the Royal City."
Li Qiqi walked forwards flexibly, totally unlike the weak body lying on the bed in previous days.
"Ha-ha, you do have a good taste," Qin Yunuan said as she let Maner offer a chair to Li Qiqi. The vanishing cream was actually generated in the regions south of the River and it was given to her by Boss Shen who came from there incidentally after she signed a contract with him. It was just a business gift but useful. "Yunuan does the embroidering throughout the year. So my hands turn coarse and they are not comparable to your hands as white and tender as cheese. That's why I care much about my hands," Qin Yunuan said and held the teacup. She smiled and said straightly, "Actually Concubine Li, you want to ask me that if the vanishing cream is from my cousin."
Li Qiqi stunned. In her heart, Su Chenghai was an unmentioned regret. In that year, she did not work in a brothel and was just a little girl following her master to sing for a living in a boite. At that time, Su Chenghai's mother, Qin, was seriously ill. His father Su Rian arranged Li Qiqi who was good at singing the north opera to come to the mansion for comforting Qin.
It was just at that time a blooming girl met a vigorous handsome young man. After the love seed was planted but did not grow up, Su Chenghai decided to follow highly-skilled Sun Miaoyang in thousands of miles away for learning medicine.
The only thing Li Qiqi felt regretful at was that she did not express her inner feeling. If she had been braver at that time, maybe all the things would have been different today.
"Su Chenghai pays much attention to you." Li Qiqi was upset like a pale flower and the somber sun and moon. Li Qiqi had to admit the fact of those words.
Qin Yunuan smiled, "My cousin stayed for a few days in the Royal City and the mansion was her first foothold, so he will pay more attention." Qin Yunuan's words were prudent. She did not deny the care from Su Chenghai, and she transferred the focus from herself to the whole Qin Family.
"No! Not really!" Li Qiqi suddenly got excited with tears in her eyes, "Not just in the Royal City. In Jianzhou, Su Chenghai had already cared much about you, and missed you every day."
At the moment Qin Yunuan felt stunned, Li Qiqi said sorrowfully, "I knew that when I was in Su Family. Do you know what his favorite snack is? It's Glutinous Rice Balls. Actually, such sweet snacks were seldom popular among men. Later, I recognized that you had shared the snack with him when he was in Qin Family. Each time he saw the snack, he would think about you. And at his study, there were many pictures of you, smiling or standing. He hadn't seen you for such a long time but he still could draw you delicately. He said that he met you in his dream and the picture was drawn according to his dream."
Qin Yunuan put down his teacup and saw the generally blushing face of Li Qiqi. She frowned, "Concubine Li, you are drunk before you came here? You are drunk."
"Drunk?" Li Qiqi reached her white jade-like wrist to hold her forehead, "I actually live a befuddled life. I have dreamt many times that I lived with Su Chenghai in Su Family. He is the guy in my dream but in his dream, there is only you. Third Miss, how can you deserve it?"