“What if my belly keeps getting bigger?”
Gu Ying calmly sipped her tea, the corner of her lips curving coldly. “Mrs. Liu will not live to see Auntie's belly grow big.”
Aunt Zhao swallowed hard, startled by Gu Ying’s words. Yet she found it thrilling that Second Miss was finally standing up against the domineering Mrs. Liu. If Liu lost favor and was discarded by the elder master, she could take the chance to move up in status!
The two happily ford an alliance.
After sending Aunt Zhao away, Gu Ying looked up at the dark night sky. The snow was falling heavier and the wind was howling. It was so similar to that winter when Gu Min had died.
She stood in the snow for a while before going back to her room and taking out so clean sheets of white paper.
Yanzhi ca running back, shaking the snowflakes off her head. She said, “Miss, shall we rest for a bit?”
Gu Ying stood at the desk, staring intently at the white paper laid out. She raised her hand and bit down hard on her finger. Blood beads quickly erged.
Yanzhi was shocked. “Miss, why are you biting yourself like a dog? So much blood, it worries to death!”
Gu Ying smiled. “It’s late and quiet. I want to give Gu Jia a big gift.”
Having said that, she wrote the four blood-red characters for “Vengeful Spirit Seeking Life” on the white paper with her blood.
...
This was the first good sleep Gu Ying had after her rebirth.
She woke up the next morning still in her maiden chamber from her youth.
Her heart settled back into her chest.
It was just getting light outside. In the vast Gu manor with its carved beams and painted rafters, the exquisite pavilions and towers, the servant girls were orderly walking about their morning tasks.
Gu Ying sat up and opened the embroidered pink bed curtains. Yanzhi ca in with the daily dicine balls that every young miss in the manor had to take. She chattered on, reporting all the news she had gleaned from the various courtyards.
“Miss, Old Madam is already fretting herself to distraction over those rumors outside. She didn’t sleep all night and now has three more wrinkles on her face!”
Gu Ying got out of bed and slipped on her embroidered shoes. She went to sit at the table and stared at the pitch-black dicine ball. “What about Mrs. Liu?”
Yanzhi smiled sweetly as she recounted in an orderly fashion, “Mrs. Liu is even more distressed. Early this morning when she heard Eldest Miss was raving mad in the ancestral hall, screaming for rcy from Sister Min, she was so frightened she didn’t even eat breakfast. Ignoring Old Madam’s objections, she went to the hall herself. But after Eldest Miss was scared out of her wits by us all night, now her mind is hazy. When she saw Mrs. Liu’s face she let out a shriek that frightened all the servant girls. Everyone is now saying Eldest Miss is possessed. Old Madam is Buddhist and can’t stand talk of evil spirits, so she imdiately had Mama Li drag Eldest Miss out of the hall to see a doctor. But it’s not so simple - Mama Li secretly sent her son Steward Wu out of the manor, though who knows who he went to find.”
Who could he be going to find?
Mama Li was Grandmother's trusted confidante, and Steward Wu her only son. He had always covertly handled affairs for Grandmother.
When Grandmother encountered incidents, there was one person she always looked for.
That was the eminent Daoist Master Qingfeng of the Qingyun Daoist Temple. He specialized in exorcising evil spirits and all kinds of occult arts.
However, Gu Ying was relatively satisfied with this outco. She didn't want Gu Jia to die imdiately. She still wanted to see Gu Jia marry Jiang Yin and watch the couple sink into the mire, never to rise again in this life.
"Let her live for now. She still has to attend the winter hunt in five days."
Yanzhi pointed at the dicine ball in the box. “Miss, will you still take this beauty tonic then?”
Gu Ying picked up the dicine ball and sniffed it.
Every young miss in the manor took this stuff. Mrs. Liu had Dr. Liu specially concoct it for them, claiming it could nourish the skin for beauty and leave the girls with creamy white complexions and naturally fragrant bodies.
This was sothing she had grown used to eating in her last life. Even now the sll was still familiar.
But she didn’t dare touch it anymore. After all, in her previous life after eating these beauty pills, her nses had never been normal. The Jiang family had cursed her as a barren hen who couldn’t lay eggs... How could the pills not have contributed?
Now she was almost of marrying age yet still hadn’t had her first period. There must be sothing wrong with the dicine.
“I won’t take it anymore,” she said lightly. “Let Mrs. Liu bear the consequences of what she sowed herself. It’s best to leave these things for her own daughters.”
...
After breakfast, a ssage ca from Yongshou Hall saying the young misses of each courtyard need not attend the morning and evening rituals today.
Gu Ying had wanted to bring up moving her younger brother to Twilight Snow Studio, but the matter was dropped for now.
She took Yanzhi with her and walked around Yongshou Hall. It turned out Old Madam had made the first move, taking Mrs. Liu to visit the Jiang family early in the morning to discuss Gu Jia's marriage to Jiang Yin, in order to stop the rumors swirling around the capital.
Gu Ying gazed at Cangwu Pavilion where Gu Jia lived. All those miserable and hopeless mories flashed through her mind.
Now, their fates were reversed. Gu Jia was about to beco Jiang Yin's wife.
She felt extrely gratified, yet also vaguely complex.
"Miss, this servant is truly happy this ti." Yanzhi's eyes grew moist and she couldn't help dabbing at her tears. "In the future, our days in the Gu manor will surely get better and better."
"Mm." Gu Ying drew her gaze back and squeezed the little maid's hand. "We're going out today," she said with a smile.
"Ah? Going out?"
Yanzhi was shocked. The young miss wasn't thinking of looking for Young Master Jiang again, was she?!
Gu Ying said lightly, "To West Market."
Yanzhi's little face instantly wrinkled. Wasn't Young Master Jiang's residence in West Market? Back then she had even gone to West Market to secretly deliver letters for the young miss...
The more she thought about it, the more anxious Yanzhi felt, as if clumps of her hair were falling out.
Gu Ying didn't think too much of it. She just wanted to attend the winter hunt in four days and now that she had a good bow, she still needed a fine saddle. It was a nice day today so she thought she'd go out to West Market and choose one.
She had a carriage prepared and waiting at the back gate of the manor.
First she went to Muffeng Studio to watch Gu Ning eat. When Cui Ling brought in the dicine, she only said it was hot and that she would feed her brother herself later.
Cui Ling was too lazy to serve Gu Ning. Feeding him dicine was like going to battle each ti. If soone wanted to help her, she was more than happy to hand over the task. After all, the proper daughter of Second Wife didn't have much standing in the manor and couldn't say much either. She was also a bit dull, relying entirely on First Wife.
Not like her - the cherished daughter raised in indulgence by Mama Liu. She didn't look up to Gu Ying one bit.
Thus, she wheedled yet another pair of fine earrings from Gu Ying before sauntering off, highly delighted.
Once Cui Ling left, Gu Ying's expression turned icy cold as she rcilessly poured the black dicinal broth into the flower pot.
Gu Ning stared blankly at her. The previous two tis, he had thought his sister was just pretending to be a caring sister in front of the manor's elders and servants.
From this mont on, he fully felt his sister had changed.
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