Chapter 84
Chapter 84
“Concubine Mother, this servant will check whether the pastries you requested are ready in the small kitchen.”
While Shengsheng and Zhiyu’s mother stared at each other, the young maid spoke and hurried away.
Zhiyu and Meiren Liu sensed something strange. These two had been looking at each other for far too long.
“Daughter, lend this little maid to your mother.”
Xiyuan Duanmu recovered, rose, and dragged Shengsheng into the inner room.
Zhiyu and Meiren remained behind, staring at each other.
Meiren’s face drooped. “Has our Chief become so lovable that everyone wants her? My life is so bitter. Love rivals everywhere…”
Xiyuan pulled Shengsheng all the way inside.
Once they were alone, she turned with poorly concealed excitement, still gripping Shengsheng’s hand.
“Pretty girl, tell this lord: are you from the modern world?”
Her burning gaze locked onto Shengsheng.
Shengsheng appeared perfectly calm, but inwardly she wailed.
What the meowing hell? Shengsheng, you idiot, could you not restrain yourself? Why did you expose your identity as the comic-relief woman?
It was too late to deny it.
After pressing her lips together, Shengsheng decided to preserve what remained of her character.
“Yes.”
Xiyuan’s grip tightened painfully around her wrist. Then she threw back her head, laughing and crying at once.
“After all these years! I finally found someone from home! Hahahaha!”
Remembering the papers, Shengsheng formed a suspicion.
“Senior, in your previous life, were you perhaps…?”
She did not finish, but Xiyuan understood.
“That’s right! This lord was a man in my previous life. A pure one!”
Shengsheng stared.
The unnecessary details could remain unspoken. Truly.
“But…” Xiyuan’s spirits fell. “Who could have guessed that after lightning struck me, I would open my eyes in bed with my legs apart, giving birth?”
Sorrow covered her beautiful face, inspiring tenderness.
Her crude words did not match the image at all.
“Damn it, I nearly lost my mind. It hurt, I was terrified–so this is what childbirth feels like. Do you understand what it means for your–”
“Stop, Senior!”
Shengsheng hurriedly interrupted before she could describe anything unspeakable.
“We may come from the same world, but no one else can know. They would call us demons and burn us alive.”
Xiyuan nodded. “Don’t worry. I understand. I know where the line is.”
“Only…” A blush colored her pale face. She twisted coyly. “Little sister, how old were you in your last life? If we were close in age, could we perhaps…?”
Her face and mind plainly operated on different levels.
Remembering the greasy predecessor’s little stories, Shengsheng would rather die than become her Lü Bu.
“Me? I was over sixty in my previous life.” She smiled with perfect seriousness.
Xiyuan fell silent. “I see. You lived a long life.”
Shengsheng answered politely, “Reasonably long. Had I not transmigrated, my grandson would probably be your age.”
Xiyuan Duanmu fell silent.
“No, no. Please call me Little Yuan. How could I take advantage of an elder?”
Hearing herself addressed as elderly again deepened Shengsheng’s smile.
“Grandmother, you don’t know how stifling this wretched place is. I lost the freedom to urinate standing up, gained two troublesome weights that get in the way when I sleep, and while I have an adorable daughter, the lawful wife is vicious. As for that Jiang bastard, he dared force himself on me when his equipment isn’t even as impressive as mine was…”
Shengsheng coughed.
“Xiaoyu and the others are waiting for you to eat.”
Only then did Xiyuan remember. She slapped her forehead.
“Look at this useless brain.”
When they emerged, Zhiyu was already seated, staring hungrily at the food.
“My precious eldest daughter, eat.” Xiyuan stroked her hair lovingly.
Zhiyu might not have been conceived by the soul now inhabiting this body, but Xiyuan had physically given birth to her. She treasured the girl like her own eyes.
“Will you not eat…?” Xiyuan sat, glanced at Shengsheng standing nearby, then immediately rose again.
Respecting the elderly and caring for the young was engraved in the bones of their people.
Shengsheng lowered her gaze and spoke softly.
“Concubine Mother should eat. How could a servant share her master’s table?”
Hearing Xiyuan address Shengsheng respectfully filled Meiren with happy bubbles.
As expected of her Chief. How mighty!
She had entered for only minutes and already conquered Zhiyu’s mother.
Zhiyu did not notice her mother’s honorific. Something else concerned her.
So Shengsheng still could not sit and eat with her?
How irritating. Even the food tasted worse.
“Another bowl?” Shengsheng asked when Zhiyu emptied hers.
Zhiyu nodded instinctively. “Yes!”
Xiyuan extended her bowl too. “Me too!”
Shengsheng took both to refill them with porridge.
They truly were family. What appetites.
Zhiyu had met Siran Ming in Yong and Weiqing Song in Zhen.
After she returned to the Jiang family, the lawful wife, Madam Jiang, urged Dehuai Jiang to marry Zhiyu to a wealthy merchant as his second wife.
The merchant was over fifty, with countless concubines and at least ten sons. Every one waited for him to die so they could fight over the inheritance.
If Zhiyu married into that household, the concubines alone would devour her alive. They would never leave her a path to survival.
Such was Zhu Kingdom. Unlike Yong, it showed women no tolerance and treated them with extreme cruelty.
Dehuai remembered that Zhiyu had failed to seduce any powerful figure at the Spring Banquet. He already despised Xiyuan’s branch of the family and agreed to Madam Jiang’s plan.
Anticipating Zhiyu’s refusal, Madam Jiang sealed the mother and daughter’s courtyard and planted her own people inside. Zhiyu could not have escaped even with wings.
Marriage to the merchant seemed certain.
But Madam Jiang had failed to anticipate that the emperor of Yong sent hidden guards to protect Zhiyu.
After seeing her situation, they reported it to Siran.
Siran could not interfere directly in the household affairs of a Zhu general.
But he possessed another method.
He sent a formal marriage proposal to the Jiang family.