Li Yishu moved with delicate, measured steps until she stood before “Huo Ci,” then sank into a deep, graceful curtsey.
Every movement radiated the proud elegance of a young lady from a prestigious family.
Even though her family’s fortune had long been squandered by her gambling-addicted father.
But who could forget that her ancestors had rendered great service by supporting the founding emperor? They had known immense wealth.
Even though they had backed the wrong side and fallen out of favor with the previous emperor, being stripped of their titles and reduced to commoners, she couldn’t afford to lose face.
“Cousin, you had not returned, and Yishu was terribly worried, so I waited here specifically. It’s just… I am in deep mourning and must wear plain garments. It was my mistake to startle this young brother,” she said.
Finished speaking, Li Yishu pressed her lips together slightly and lowered her eyes at just the right angle.
From Jiang Xingyan’s standing perspective, this angle perfectly showcased the hint of stubbornness on her face.
And the helplessness of being utterly filial and pure, yet misunderstood by the vulgar world.
Jiang Xingyan could just imagine how heartache and moved Huo Ci would be seeing this.
Wouldn’t he severely reprimand the carriage driver, telling him to be less excitable in the future so as not to hurt the heart of the world’s most filial daughter?
Jiang Xingyan rolled her eyes, saying irritably, “If you know it was a mistake, why don’t you keep your distance? Dressed in mourning clothes, who are you trying to pay respects to until they die? Instead of staying home properly to observe mourning, you wander around late at night. Looking like death itself, anyone would be scared by you. Hurry up and apologize to my general’s driver!”
The perfect expression on Li Yishu’s face cracked for an instant. She stiffly maintained a final trace of a smile, asking incredulously, “Cousin, you—”
Jiang Xingyan looked down her nose at the still-curtsying Li Yishu, enunciating each word clearly: “Apologize. Now.”
The driver, confused and not understanding why the General was so angry, was about to demur—he was just a commoner, how could he let this young lady stoop to apologize to him?—but the words died in his throat under Jiang Xingyan’s sharp look.
Seeing her cousin was not joking and unsure what had angered him, Li Yishu remembered her aunt’s instructions. She could only swallow her pride and curtsey properly to the driver. “This young woman was reckless and startled you, young brother. I offer my apologies here.”
The driver cast a timid glance at Jiang Xingyan and, seeing she said nothing more, hurriedly waved his hands. “It’s nothing, it’s just my own nerves are too weak.”
Li Yishu straightened up, her gaze full of grievance as she looked at “Huo Ci.”
Two years apart, and Cousin is so harsh with me! It must be that wretched Jiang Xingyan who angered him, and he’s taking it out on me. The drivers sent out all heard; Cousin told her to get lost. It’s just a pity Auntie asked ‘her’ questions, and ‘she’ didn’t say a single word. ‘She’ was rewarded with caning, and even the two maidservants with ‘her’ were slapped. Thinking this, Li Yishu felt slightly better.
She was going to be Young General Huo’s wife! Compared to the endless wealth and honor, what was a little humiliation?
“General, would you require this humble one to subdue the vicious ghost?” Yun Chunfeng said, stepping out of the carriage.
Hearing this, Li Yishu, whose eyes had just begun to show irritation, froze completely the moment she clearly saw Yun Chunfeng’s face.
She had never seen a man of such peerless beauty.
An aura of immortality surrounded him. His skin was whiter than an iceberg snow lotus, his presence colder than a millennia-old glacier. The cloth covering his eyes lent a unique allure to the handsome lower half of his face.
He was even more captivating than her cousin.
If such a rare gentleman in this world also fell for her, should she choose Cousin, or should she choose him?
What a difficult choice.
“General? There is no ghostly aura here. Only a vile-hearted beauty with rotten lungs.”
Realizing Yun Chunfeng was talking about her, Li Yishu’s face flushed crimson, as if all the filth in her heart was laid bare before this man. She cast a pleading look toward “Huo Ci.”
She saw “Huo Ci” staring at her with icy cold eyes.
A panic seized Li Yishu’s heart, and she shivered. She hurriedly lowered her head and respectfully invited them in. “Cousin, please come in to dine quickly. Don’t keep Aunt waiting.”
Jiang Xingyan, holding Xiao Ya tightly, snorted coldly. “Oh? You’re even more attentive than the steward of my General’s manor. Someone unaware might think you’re employed here.”
With that, paying no mind to Li Yishu’s shame, Jiang Xingyan strode inside with Yun Chunfeng, not looking back at her once.
Li Yishu gritted her teeth secretly. Had Cousin eaten gunpowder?
He just met me and made me apologize to a driver. I accepted that. Now he openly compares me to the servants. I have my pride too!
Wait… Could it be Cousin is jealous?
The more she thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed. The gloom in her heart vanished, replaced by a maidenly shyness coloring her cheeks.
As long as Cousin has me in his heart, I’m willing to do anything.
She chased after them, her heart full of joy.
Unexpectedly, Yun Chunfeng turned abruptly and flashed a hooked smile at her.
Instantly, extreme terror surged through Li Yishu.
It was a dread and fear emanating from the depths of her soul.
She halted abruptly, her heart seeming to stop for a beat.
Countless images reeking of blood seemed to flash through her mind.
But she couldn’t grasp a single one, only feeling that the peerlessly handsome man before her was more terrifying than a demon crawling out from hell.
“Young lady, don’t come too close. This humble one fears he might not be able to resist… dismembering you.”
A chill shot straight to the crown of her head.
Li Yishu shivered violently.
Why did that sentence sound so familiar?
When she regained her senses, “Huo Ci” and Yun Chunfeng had long disappeared around the corner.
“Walking so fast with covered eyes… is he truly blind or not!” Li Yishu muttered, her heart still pounding with fear.
…..
Huo Ci lay on the bed, not daring to meet the eyes of Xiafeng and Dongyang.
It was all his fault for forgetting his mother’s threats, getting caught, making Xia and Dong suffer those slaps for nothing, their faces swollen. A-Yan would surely blame him even more now.
Xiafeng and Dongyang were utterly speechless.
Ever since the young master’s soul had switched into the young lady’s body, they, who hadn’t been beaten for a long time, had returned to their nightmarish existence.
They had initially worried the young lady’s body couldn’t take it.
But after learning the beatings the young master brought upon himself would only damage his own body, they couldn’t be bothered to care.
Now, that troublemaker was back. Life in the inner residence was likely going to be even harder.
The several of them sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts.
BANG!
Matron Yuzhu barged in with others. Ignoring that Huo Ci had just been beaten, they hauled him up, pressed him onto a square stool, and began washing and dressing him.
Huo Ci gasped in pain but couldn’t struggle free.
“The Young General has specifically requested you come to the main courtyard to accompany the young mistress for the meal. Don’t be ungrateful. You’d better weigh your words carefully—know what should and shouldn’t be said!” Yuzhu shot a meaningful glance at Xiafeng and Dongyang. Huo Ci understood immediately.
Gritting his teeth, he endured it, letting Yuzhu roughly dress him in an official-green Shu brocade breast-binding garment, a smoke-blue, gold-speckled floral and bird-patterned Luo gauze gansi jacket, paired with a moon-white pleated skirt.
His waterfall-like black hair was pinned up with a shankou crown and various fresh flowers. A pearl the size of a thumb was pasted between his brows.
Huo Ci was long numb.
He had to admire his mother’s exhaustive efforts, all to brand A-Yan deeply in his mind as extravagant and decadent, ensuring she never could redeem herself.
If Cousin were here, she would definitely help him!
He had been seized for caning as soon as he returned to the manor and hadn’t had time to see Cousin yet.
In his despair, he actually began to pin many hopes on Li Yishu.
Following Yuzhu all the way to the main courtyard, Huo Ci’s heart tightened nervously.
“Cousin, it must be inconvenient for you to have Xiao Ya with you in the military camp. Why not leave Xiao Ya with Yishu? Yishu can stay in the guest house and take good care of Xiao Ya. If Cousin is worried, you can just come see us every day when you return.”
Huo Ci couldn’t quite put his finger on what was wrong, but it felt strange.
As he entered, Li Yishu immediately rose from her seat, walked over, and linked arms with him intimately. “Oh, Cousin-in-law, I already said it’s a family dinner, yet you still dress so elaborately. It makes the rest of us look plain and ashamed to be seen.”
Huo Ci very much wanted to break free but feared refuting his cousin would make her suspicious of Jiang Xingyan. He stiffened not moving.
Lifting his head, he saw Jiang Xingyan looking at him with a mocking gaze.
He subconsciously withdrew his arm.
Li Yishu gave a bitter smile. “Cousin-in-law, please don’t blame me. It’s just Yishu hasn’t seen you for so long, I was only focused on joy and forgot I am in mourning. I am truly unworthy of touching such fine clothes as yours. Cousin, you mustn’t blame Cousin-in-law. All fault is truly Yishu’s.”