Jun Jiuling

Old Lady Fang scrutinized Miss Jun.

It couldn’t be that she had truly achieved enlightenment after she died once. But her words had been very scathing.

Before, Miss Jun’s words were sharp, but it had been a clumsy kind of sharp, like blaming other people for her own failings.

“If you had the marriage contract, then, of course, we would have considered the matter more, and we might have been better able to respond,” she said calmly.

“A heart’s illness must be treated with heart medicine. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t have made the same, more appropriate response,” said Miss Jun.

{Ah,} said Old Lady Fang inside.

“So, you’ve thought it through. And the marriage contract, did they take it?” she asked.

Miss Jun expressed her agreement.

It was only natural for the Ning Family to take it; it would be more strange if they hadn’t. Old Lady Fang regretted her question right after she asked it; she felt that it was somewhat dumb. Either that, or she said it because she was scrambling for something to say.

Since she was already scrambling for words, that meant there was nothing more that could be said. Old Lady Fang stood up.

“It is already over and done with. You have dealt with this problem for a very long time; now, it’s like you have unloaded a heavy burden. You should rest well tonight; we can talk about everything else tomorrow.”

She did not wait for Miss Jun to answer her and directly left the room.

The servant girls and maidservant outside the door heard her footsteps and rushed to open the curtain.

Old Lady Fang had walked up to the gate when she stopped and turned to look at Miss Jun.

“Don’t wear those strange clothes again,” she said woodenly.

Miss Jun lowered her head to look at the coarse, old dress she was wearing.

These were the clothes she had made Liu’er find to show that she was poor, but could not be humiliated.

But you don’t need a dress to prove that you can’t be humiliated.

Miss Jun smiled and made a sound of agreement.

Old Lady Fang did not say anything else and left hurriedly among a throng of servants. She moved so fast, Miss Jun did not even have time to formally bid her goodbye.

“Young Miss.” Liu’er led several servant girls bearing a tiered lunchbox. “What are you doing standing outside? Are you hungry?”

“I’m sending off Old Lady,” said Miss Jun.

Liu’er made a sound of disbelief.

“Don’t mind her leaving,” she said. Her voice took on a more worried quality. “Young Miss, you must be very tired and hungry. Have something to eat, and then hurry up and rest.”

The extravagant showing off for her Young Miss, like she was the only person in the world, made Miss Jun smile. 𝘣𝘦𝘥𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝑚

In her previous life, she had always been surrounded by people who were good to her. She had never known a cold face, and had never faced a hateful sneer. Even when she was following her Master around to learn medicine, Master had never been disdainfully indifferent, but rather had a respectful disaffectedness.

Everyone had been fond of her and respectful, fawning to get her attention. Even that person…

Obviously, that person was her enemy, but until the moment she had wanted to kill them, all their good wishes toward her were like picking stars and fishing out of the moon [1].

Thinking of that person, the hands that hung within her sleeves clenched tightly, and she took several deep breaths to control her emotions.

All of the goodness ,respect and shrewdness she had seen before had been hidden under polite behavior; this was the first time she saw someone like this little servant girl who was so obviously stupid it was inviting disaster.

It was quite enjoyable.

Miss Jun patted Liu’er’s head.

“Okay,” she said.

……………………………………………………

When she heard Old Lady Fang had returned, Lady Fang personally came to the entrance to receive her.

“Heat up some water and prepare food,” she said. “Any talk can wait until Mother has washed up and alleviated her fatigue.”

Old Lady Fang leaned on her.

“There’s nothing that can be said,” she said. “Granny Zhou [2] is in Beiliu Town. We will know what happened when she has returned.”

Lady Fang helped her into the room. The room was warm as spring. Lady Fang took a hot hand towel from a servant girl and personally rubbed Old Lady’s hands.

“So the rejecting of marriage was true? What did Miss Jun say?” she asked.

When Old Lady Fang entered the room, all the maidservants and servant girls returned with her. Lady Fang pretty much knew what had happened already.

Old Lady Fang snorted and sat down on a chair.

“She spoke as if she were completely in the right,” she said. “Nothing interesting.”

Lady Fang paused with a teacup raised.

This was like Old Lady was the same as before, not believing and not caring about Miss Jun’s words. But then why would she have went and listened to her this time?

Old Lady Fang also had this thought when she finished speaking, and she also paused.

“I am tired, so I will go and retire. You wait for Granny Zhou to return,” she said. Without any more explanation, and without continuing on the topic, she took the tea and retired.

Lady Fang hurried to respond, calling the servant girls to wait upon Old Lady Fang to wash up. They followed after Old Lady Fang, while the courtyard lanterns gradually darkened.

“Lady,” a maidservant asked in a nervous whisper, “did she really back out of the marriage? Why did Miss Jun say that?”

Lady Fang shook her head.

“Old Lady said that we would know the details of what happened when Granny Zhou returned,” she said.

“What was Old Lady doing when she went to see Miss Jun over there?” asked the maidservant, not comprehending.

If she didn’t believe or care about what Miss Jun said, then why would she need to go over to Miss Jun’s place in front of the other family members? Could it be that she didn’t know that the action was giving Miss Jun a lot of face in everyone’s eyes?

“Appeasement,” said Lady Fang. “Miss Jun is really looking for death.”

The maidservant scoffed.

“What’s more, she deliberately set out to frighten people,” she said. “She played that trick so many times; it would be weird if Old Lady believed her.”

Lady Fang smiled.

“No matter what, she is her granddaughter,” she said.

Seeing the lady’s face fuzzy and dark under the flickering light of the lanterns, the maidservant’s expression darkened.

“No matter what it was, the fact remains that she remains with our family after stirring up all that trouble,” she said in a low voice.

Lady Fang’s face was expressionless.

“This family is Old Lady’s. Everything within it is the way she wants it to be,” she said.

The night wind blew over them, bringing a thick chill.

Hot steam evaporated in the room. Two servant girls carefully brought over boiling water. Old Lady Fang’s eyes were closed as she reclined in the bath. Another two servant girls were softly washing her hair.

Why would someone, who obviously neither believed in nor cared about that girl’s words, go and listen to her this time?

Old Lady Fang’s thoughts subconsciously focused on this subject. When she had descended from the carriage, did a supernatural event occur, or did she really have some tenderness toward her own daughter’s daughter?

For some reason, this time, her iron and stone heart, which had been tempered and drilled, had shown a laughable melancholy.

Old Lady Fang frowned slightly. When the servant girls saw it, their motions became even gentler in fear of agitating her.

“Grandmother does not need to put on a show for them to protect me.”

Old Lady Fang’s ears suddenly rang with this sentence. She suddenly opened her eyes, seeming to see the girl’s calm face within the steam.

{To protect me.}

She said that she knew that Old Lady Fang did these things to protect her.

She knew that the Ning Family was someone she couldn’t provoke?

She knew that if her relatives did not lash out at her, then the Ning Family would have been the ones to teach her a lesson?

She knew that her reputation was so bad, the Ning Family did not even need to worsen it for everyone to spit on it until she drowned?

Did Old Lady Fang really see a ghost that actually said those three words? She could really understand those words, couldn’t she? Couldn’t she?

So, Old Lady Fang had been involuntarily drawn to visiting Miss Jun’s courtyard. She wanted to listen to what she had to say, wanted to investigate these questions further.

Old Lady Fang laughed, and once again leaned against the bathtub. The young servant girls added more hot water while she sat.

“Good,” she said. With the servant girls attending to her, Old Lady Fang exited the washroom.

She would not indulge her imagination any further. She would just wait until Granny Zhou brought back the news before saying anything more.

………………………………

That night, no matter how many people in the Fang Family slept poorly, Miss Jun was very well rested, probably because she was extremely tired. When she opened her eyes, it was already daytime.

The room was very warm. Although, it was a little dry, there wasn’t anything else unpleasant.

Miss Jun stretched out an arm to lift the curtain, and dawn’s light poured in through the glass window. A decorative vase next to the window was covered in an ethereal layer of light. The narcissus flowers arranged on the table were beautifully illuminated.

This small room was furnished lavishly and warmly.

“...why is the tea cold? Didn’t I tell you to use warm water?”

Liu’er’s voice filtered in from outside, arrogantly reprimanding the servant girls.

In all honesty, Liu’er and her young miss hadn’t lived very comfortably in the past. The Jun Family was a destitute household, but when they came here, Liu’er did not feel a shred of inferiority.

No matter if Liu’er had never enjoyed such things, if she were able to take pleasure from them now, then she enjoyed as she deserved.

This could be considered unmoved by favors or humiliation.

Miss Jun smiled. She got up and opened a lacquer box on a dressing table. Inside it, the banknote covered her golden hairpins and jade trinkets. This was the five thousand tael banknote that she got from the Ning Family yesterday.

This was money that truly belonged to her.

Five thousand taels could not be said to be a small amount of money. It was enough for a person to stably live out their life, but it couldn’t be said to be a large amount of money. It was enough for her to enter the capital, but not enough to guarantee that she would be able to get close to that person.

Not enough, far from enough.

Miss Jun placed the box lid back on, her finger caressing the gems studded in the lid.

Even a box for holding hair ornaments was decorated so sumptuously. It was evident that the Fang family had money.

The Fang Family had let the master and servant enjoy the wealth, but if they wanted to possess wealth for themselves, then it wouldn’t be that easy. Not to mention that right now, this Fang Family wasn’t particularly welcoming to the pair.

[1] Picking stars and fishing out of the moon: it means the actions, or wishes in this case, were futile/imaginary.

[2] Granny Zhou: in this case, Granny refers to an older servant. Something akin to a wet nurse.