Тhis timе?
Could thеrе hаvе bеen a "last timе"?
Zhоu Shaojin аsked, "You just wаlkеd аwау likе that—won't Unсle Chi mind?"
"What's there to mind?" Jiуing rеpliеd somеwhаt unhарpilу. "Isn't hе Сhеng Ziсhuan? Нow could suсh а trivial mаtter trouble him?" Тhen she tuggеd at Zhou Shаоjin, sауing, "Lеt's gо, lеt's go! What аrе we stаnding hеrе for?"
Zhоu Shaоjin still hеsitated.
Jiуing sаid, "Do уou know what hаppenеd lаst timе? Old Мadam Guo suddеnlу dеcidеd tо аttеnd а wеdding banquеt аt the hоme оf a long-dеcеаsеd cоllеаguе of the old mаster's in Lai'an, claiming thе journey wаs long and inсonvеniеnt, and insistеd that your Uncle Chi escort her. Your Uncle Chi readily agreed, but just before leaving, he suddenly said he would take me along. At the time, I didn't understand your Uncle Chi as well as I do now. I thought he had changed his ways, seeing how I was cooped up at home and practically growing moss, and had softened his heart, deciding to take me out for a stroll. I was so excited I even made a few new outfits and happily went with him to Lai'an..."
As she spoke, her chest heaved with anger.
Zhou Shaojin quickly asked, "What happened next? Did someone bully you?"
"Who would dare bully me!" Jiying spat out a curse through gritted teeth. "Everyone thought I was your Uncle Chi's concubine!"
Aren't you?
Zhou Shaojin nearly blurted it out.
She hurriedly covered her mouth.
Thinking of her earlier suspicions about Jiying, she felt ashamed.
Jiying, assuming Zhou Shaojin was merely shocked, didn't suspect a thing and continued, "Do you know why Old Madam Guo insisted on dragging your Uncle Chi to Lai'an? It was for a matchmaking session. Your Uncle Chi knew perfectly well what was going on but kept me in the dark. I was like a fool, running around at his beck and call. He knew people misunderstood me but never explained. I must have been cursed for eight lifetimes to end up as Cheng Zichuan's maid..."
Zhou Shaojin felt embarrassed.
Jiying looked somewhat awkward herself.
It wasn't quite proper to speak about Zhou Shaojin's uncle like this in front of her.
She quickly changed the subject, saying, "Let's go to the tea room, let's go to the tea room."
Zhou Shaojin didn't want to stay there either. She smiled and said, "I need to let my companions know, so they don't worry and search for me everywhere."
Jiying nodded.
From the direction of the stage came the clanging of gongs and drums—the opera had resumed.
Fortunately, Zhou Shaojin had become familiar with the maids and matrons of Cold Green Mountain House over the past few days. She quickly found someone to pass a message to Cheng Jia and Gu Shiqigu, then went with Jiying to the tea room.
Two matrons were tending the stove in the tea room. Though they didn't recognize Jiying, they knew Zhou Shaojin and eagerly stepped forward to greet her.
Zhou Shaojin tipped the two matrons a few hundred coins and asked them to brew tea for her and Jiying.
The matrons were adept at reading situations. Knowing many young ladies had visited the household that day and seeing Jiying dressed in fine attire, they assumed Zhou Shaojin and Jiying wanted a private place to talk. Smiling, they thanked her, brewed two cups of tea, and served two plates of snacks. Excusing themselves to check if anyone near the stage needed hot water, they picked up two large copper kettles and left.
Once inside the tea room, the sound of gongs and drums suddenly faded, bringing a sense of quiet to Zhou Shaojin's ears and lightening her heart.
She sat down to drink her tea.Jiying, however, couldn't sit still. She paced around the tea room, looking around, and somehow managed to dig out a small bowl of broad beans.
She said excitedly, "Second Miss, shall we roast some broad beans to eat?"
Zhou Shaojin saw that the beans were seasoned with five-spice. She asked curiously, "Can these beans be roasted and eaten?"
"Why not?" Jiying laughed. "When we were little, my father would often roast five-spice broad beans for us in the brazier. They were much tastier than ordinary beans. But every time the beans were buried in the brazier, when they were done, they would pop and crackle, scattering charcoal ash all over the room. It took a lot of effort to clean up, which made my mother so angry she wouldn't let us roast anything in the brazier. My father had to do it behind her back every time."
Was she trying to recapture that feeling rather than just eating roasted five-spice broad beans?
Zhou Shaojin smiled.
Jiying lifted the copper kettle off the stove, used tongs to take out some charcoal, buried the beans in the charcoal ash, clapped the dust off her hands, and said with a laugh, "Alright, we'll have broad beans to eat soon."
Thinking of what Jiying had just said, Zhou Shaojin asked, "Since Old Madam Guo specially took Uncle Chi to meet a potential marriage partner, why didn't it work out?"
In her view, Cheng Chi was tall, handsome, gentle in temperament, and had earned scholarly honors. If he wanted to marry, it shouldn't have been difficult at all.
Jiying curled her lip disdainfully and said, "Back then, your Uncle Chi was already quite old and still only a scholar. Others saw someone like me, a 'chamber maid,' by his side. Would parents who cared about their children still marry their daughters to your Uncle Chi?"
Zhou Shaojin gave an awkward laugh.
"That's why your Uncle Chi is a very cunning person," Jiying said, her expression gradually growing distant and wistful. "But that time, I happened to run into Jiao Ziyang..."
Jiao Ziyang—it sounded like a boy's name.
Zhou Shaojin's curiosity flared up, and she quickly asked, "Who is Jiao Ziyang? Did you know him from home?"
Jiying remained silent for a long while before nodding gently.
There's a story here!
Zhou Shaojin probed, "Could he be your fiancé?"
Jiying didn't say anything.
Zhou Shaojin grew anxious and said, "Didn't you explain things to him?"
"How could I explain?" Jiying said, her eyes suddenly reddening. "As soon as he saw me, he ran away. I chased him for two streets but couldn't catch up." As she spoke, she suddenly began to cry. "That scoundrel Cheng Zichuan—I asked him to help me explain, but he didn't utter a word... I'll remember his 'kindness' to me for the rest of my life..."
Zhou Shaojin didn't believe Uncle Chi was that kind of person.
He would even stand up for a stranger like her, so how could he deliberately hurt Jiying's feelings?
Zhou Shaojin thought of Cheng Lu.
If someone in her past life had told her that Cheng Lu was deceiving her, she probably wouldn't have believed it no matter what.
She asked Jiying, "Did you never see that Jiao Ziyang again after that?""No." Perhaps feeling it was too undignified to cry in front of a twelve-year-old girl, Jiying quickly regained control of her emotions. She wiped her tears and said in a muffled voice, "Without your uncle's consent, I cannot leave Jinling City. And I can't possibly wander outside every day..." She paused here, her voice growing even more subdued. "Others might not know, but Jiao Ziyang should certainly know I'm in Jinling... If he truly cared, he would have come looking for me long ago. Why should I have to go explain myself to him?"
That was true!
Zhou Shaojin couldn't help but say, "Could it be that there's something wrong with that Jiao Ziyang, which is why Uncle Chi is acting this way?"
Upon hearing this, Jiying glared at her indignantly and said, "What could be wrong with Jiao Ziyang? What could possibly be wrong with him! I think the one with problems is your Uncle Chi! He's so old and still unmarried, constantly worrying his mother. Other men go out seeking pleasure, but him? He just stays holed up at home all day, never going anywhere. When people come to see him, he pretentiously claims he's not home..."
Zhou Shaojin felt quite awkward and was about to try to console her.
But Jiying suddenly paled, staring at the tea room doorway as her words abruptly cut off.
"What's wrong?" Zhou Shaojin asked, turning to follow Jiying's gaze toward the door.
Cheng Chi stood straight at the entrance of the tea room, one hand behind his back, the other hanging naturally at his side.
The afternoon sunlight slanted behind him, casting a golden glow around his silhouette, making his expression unclear.
"Uncle Chi!" Zhou Shaojin hurriedly stood up, instinctively straining her ears to listen for sounds from the opera stage.
Gao Huizhu's clear singing voice and the cheers of the women drifted in, sometimes loud, sometimes soft.
The opera over at the stage hadn't ended yet, so why had Uncle Chi come over?
Could Old Madam Guo not keep him? Or had he found an excuse to step out for some air?
As she wondered, Zhou Shaojin curtsied to Cheng Chi.
Cheng Chi walked in.
The golden light behind him vanished, revealing his handsome yet refined face to Zhou Shaojin.
Jiying abruptly stood up and backed away repeatedly until she was pressed against the wall.
Her defensive posture made Cheng Chi seem like some ferocious beast.
Zhou Shaojin looked puzzledly at Cheng Chi, then at Jiying.
Cheng Chi smiled slightly and said, "Why aren't you two listening to the opera?"
Just as Zhou Shaojin was thinking of an excuse, a "crack" sounded from the stove. A bean burst out and landed at Cheng Chi's feet.
"So you're here roasting broad beans!" Cheng Chi glanced at the split bean at his feet and smiled faintly.
Zhou Shaojin's face flushed bright red instantly.
Uncle Chi seemed to think of her as a child sneaking snacks.
"I..." she murmured, unsure what to say.
The broad beans in the stove began crackling loudly.
Zhou Shaojin's face turned even redder.
Cheng Chi chuckled and said, "Quick, take the beans out before they all burn."
"Oh!" Zhou Shaojin scrambled to grab the tongs.
Jiying seemed to snap out of her daze then and went to help as well.
Soon, all the broad beans were retrieved.
Cheng Chi then said to Zhou Shaojin, "They're performing 'The Garden Stroll' outside. Aren't you going to listen?"
Zhou Shaojin felt as if Jiying gently tugged at her sleeve.
She smiled and said, "I don't care for opera. Why did you come over, Uncle Chi? Don't you like 'The Garden Stroll'?"
Cheng Chi smiled and replied, "I was just about to leave. I didn't see Jiying, so I came looking for her."Jiying let out an "oh" and bid farewell to Zhou Shaojin.
Zhou Shaojin could only watch helplessly as Jiying followed Cheng Chi out of the tearoom.
She sat alone in the tearoom for a long time.
Judging by Jiying's tone, she should have been getting along quite well with Uncle Chi. Why, then, did she become so frightened upon seeing him?
Is Uncle Chi particularly fierce when he gets angry?
Zhou Shaojin thought for a moment and headed toward the opera stage.
On stage, the performance was in full swing, and the audience was completely engrossed, just as it had been when she left.
Zhou Shaojin asked Cheng Jia, "Why did Uncle Chi leave?"
"I don't know," Cheng Jia replied, her eyes fixed on Gao Huizhu, absentmindedly adding, "It seemed like something came up, so he left."
Zhou Shaojin felt uneasy.
She called Shi Xiang over and whispered, "Accompany me to the Hill of Clustered Cassia Courtyard."
Shi Xiang glanced at the opera stage and asked in surprise, "Now?"
※
Sisters, here's today's bonus update!
o(n_n)o
PS: Sisters, today is the last day of the double pink ticket event. If you have pink tickets, please show your support! Where "Jinling Spring" ranks on the pink ticket leaderboard this month depends entirely on you!
Please, I beg of you!
※ (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please vote with your recommendation and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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