Chapter 61 Her Concealnt
“She’s really fast,” Qin Yunuan murmured and then stood up. With her dress tidied, she asked Maner to take Li Qiqi in.
The door opened again after a short while. With her hair tied into a loose chignon, Li Qiqi wore a bright red skirt and a matching coat with ruffles today. Instead of being an exquisite like other ladies, she ca out in full splendor of her beauty, which, due to her youth, made her look more attractive and charming. For those whose beauty was withering away like Dou Qing’e, it might be inappropriate to dress up in this way.
But what Qin Zhi wanted from Li Qiqi was her youth, wasn’t it?
“Concubine Li, you should have inford that you were going to pay a visit. Maner, serve tea for Concubine Li,” Qin Yunuan exchanged conventional greetings while pulling Li Qiqi onto the couch.
“No, no. Don’t bother,” Li Qiqi waved her hand with a smile. Having witnessed the sches in this family for long, Li Qiqi seed more obedient, which could tell from her eyes and brows. She smiled faintly and said, “Actually, I ca here for the sa old thing. I don’t know whether you rember it or not, Third Miss.”
“Oh? What thing?” Qin Yunuan avoided the keen eyes of Li Qiqi deliberately.
Li Qiqi choked for a while and then answered bashfully, “My sister in Jianzhou wrote to that the Su Family was not peaceful these days. White mourning cloths and paper flowers were hung outside the mansion. I guess young master Su may rush back any ti since sothing important had happened in his family. I want to see him again before he leaves the Royal City.”
As Li Qiqi said this, she bowed her head and sobbed. Her tears fell upon the handkerchief and blurred, like daisies blooming slowly.
“I rember that. I did promise you,” Qin Yunuan nodded, but her tone was not that sad, “Well, I will make arrangents half a month later.”
Li Qiqi’s eyes lit up suddenly. She looked up at Qin Yunuan, “Will you co together, Third Miss?”
Qin Yunuan’s lips quivered a little. She nodded, “Of course, I also want to see off my cousin. But Concubine Li, the wonfolk is not a safe place, and I never help anyone under no conditions. You have to rember that you own once and you have to return my favor.”
Li Qiqi nodded obediently with no more questions. However, as she got up, Qin Yunuan suddenly said, “Concubine Li, you slled good.”
Li Qiqi turned back confusedly. These days, she had learned many things of the Qin Family. That the Third Miss had a good nose since childhood was one of these things. Though her heart tightened a little, her smile was still as sweet as flowers in the spring. “Third Miss does have a keen sense of sll. I changed my bath wash recently, and master also likes the sll very much.”
“Oh?” Qin Yunuan sniffed again carefully and then asked, “Is it Ningxianglu?”
Li Qiqi’s eyebrows knitted and her hands were squeezing into fists unconsciously.
Qin Yunuan tilted her head and continued to ask, “Or maybe it is so kind of perfu made of bamboo leaves in the southwest area?”
Li Qiqi looked off into nowhere with her eyes unfocused and her hands rubbing blindly in the front. Then, Qin Yunuan smiled gently, “I still have no idea of it. It should be so ancient secret recipe that you cannot tell .”
Li Qiqi looked a little perplexed. It seed that she did not understand what the Third Miss was doing. But anyway, she put on her smile imdiately, “There’s no secret recipe. You had helped a lot. If you want so, I’ll send a servant girl to bring you a few bottles over tomorrow morning. It’s just a kind of perfu made of ordinary flower juice.”
Qin Yunuan smiled and then said, “I was just curious. You don’t have to keep it in mind. I don’t like to use costics. Don’t worry about it.”
After Li Qiqi left, Maner brought hot water for Qin Yunuan to freshen up. She took down the exquisitely carved hairpin with eight kinds of gems in Qin Yunuan’s chignon carefully and combed her hair slowly. Qin Yunuan’s hair was as black and shiny as obsidian and it hung down like silk.
Qin Yunuan took a sip of the scented tea from the tray and spat it into another clean spittoon after gargling.
“I’m sure it was her,” Qin Yunuan said suddenly and took a deep breath, “The one who put the snake in our courtyard before was Concubine Li. I’m sure.”
Maner halted, feeling cold in her heart. She still had a lingering fear about the poisonous green bamboo snake twitching its tongue.
“She was the only one who ca to my yard that day. And when I asked her whether she had been using Ningxianglu, she frowned and clenched her fist, which were signs of holding back the anger. Li Qiqi is still young with a pretty face. She was confident that she could get father’s love by her own charm. So, she disdained to use Ningxianglu which could promote sexual maturity. When I asked her that question, she was offended because she thought that I had belittled her charm.”
Qin Yunuan bundled her long hair with a ribbon in a casual way and then turned back to Maner. “When I asked her whether it was so kind of perfu made of bamboo leaves in the southwest area, her eyes flickered and she avoided to et my eyes,” she continued, “Even though she had tried to conceal the uneasiness in her heart, her efforts failed in that instant. Green bamboo snake is specific to the southwest area, so, it was not strange that Li Qiqi could get it. After all, she ca from Jianzhou, a city in the southwest.”
Details were things that were very likely to be overlooked. Thankfully, Qin Yunuan had not completely believed in this woman who ca out from brothels in the first place. Now, she even found evidence from Li Qiqi’s minute changes. Those two actions seed similar but had totally different anings. Then, why would Li Qiqi set herself against her? She was still very weak in this mansion.
Wondering for a mont, Qin Yunuan knew the answer. It was very simple — she had found a stronger backer.
“I knew that Concubine Li was a little strange before, but I did not expect...,” Maner patted her chest subconsciously.
“Silly girl,” Qin Yunuan tipped Maner’s nose with her forefinger, “There are so many things that you can’t imagine in this world. As long as we always did the right things and did nothing evil, it would be their losses to irritate us.”
Later, Qin Baochuan ca back from Shunchang Courtyard. The lights of the yard were still bright. Worried that Baochuan might be hungry, nurse Liao had heated a bowl of hot Tangyuan on the stove especially for him. Now, while devouring the sticky and delicious dumpling balls, Qin Baochuan told Qin Yunuan what father had quizzed him today at the sa ti.
This was the first ti Qin Zhi has paid attention to this son of his concubine, which made Qin Baochuan a bit flattered and also excited. When it ca to so exciting parts, Baochuan even jumped off the chair and gesticulated, imitating the way Qin Zhi had acted. Nurse Liao worried a lot when he did that.
“Oh dear, be careful. Don’t get burned by the hot soup in the bowl.”
“Sis, you know, in the middle of the quiz, father suddenly nodded and said that since I had learned a great number of words, I could start to read The Collection of Mountains and Rivers. And I replied that I had already read this book half a year ago. Father was so surprised that his mouth was wide enough to ram an egg.” Qin Baochuan looked very funnier when he put on such a serious look.
“No way,” Qin Yunuan laughed while blowing the Tangyuan for Baochuan, “Besides, you didn’t know many of the words when you read the book half a year ago. You were bragging in front of father.”
“So, a few days ago, I took this book out and read it carefully again. I had learned a lot from it this ti. And I got the right answers to father’s pop quiz about the nas of several rivers.” Qin Baochuan opened his mouth wide, waiting to be fed by Qin Yunuan. He looked puerile as he always was, but the way he said was like a mature scholar
.
“You are growing up.” At this mont, looking at Baochuan’s lively and motivated attitude, Qin Yunuan felt that all those plots, cheatings and tricks that she had recently were worth it. Her painstaking efforts and scheming were rewarded. And her heart that had been bearing the coldness was finally ward up.
Qin Baochuan was a well-behaved and keen child. He imdiately noticed the relief and attachnt in Qin Yunuan’s eyes. He stood upright and hugged Qin Yunuan’s thin waist slowly, “Sis, I’m going to the family school tomorrow and cannot accompany you all the ti. Is it that you don’t want to go?”
“Of course, I don’t want you to leave , but no man would stay at ho all the ti. You are a little man now, Baochuan, and I want you to be responsible and work hard. I want you to take on the responsibility that you should bear.” Thinking of the previous life, Qin Yunuan was inevitably sad because Baochuan had hardly ever left her. But now, Qin Baochuan had to leave early and return late for schooling. There would be so many risks of being hurt on his way back and forth and during his ti at the school. Now, Qin Yunuan’s heart couldn’t help but get nervous again.
She had to ensure the safety of Baochuan as well as his opportunity to go out to attend the family school. In order to protect Baochuan, nurse Liao had asked her son Huang Dashi to quit his job as a carpenter to guard Baochuan. Nurse Liao and her whole family had devoted too much for them, and it might put Huang Dashi’s life at risk if soone really hatched a sinister plot to harm Baochuan. So, Qin Yunuan still needed to prepare so long-term counterasures.
In the past few days, everything went very smoothly in the mansion of Grand Commandant. The dispute over whether the Seventh Prince Sima Qiu could return to the Imperial Palace ended in a negative result that he was not old enough to get back. Being at leisure, Qin Zhi would ask about Qin Baochuan’s performance at the family school once he had free ti, and he got satisfying answers every ti.
Dou Qing’e was staying far away at the Guo’an Temple. Every day, Qin Yunzhuang would ask the steward to bring sothing to her mother. Yesan, the forr steward of the counting house, was now removed earlier and he beca a footman who ran errands. Qin Linfeng was quieter after he was grounded at his courtyard. He would play chess and practice his sword sotis instead of making trouble.
The mansion of Grand Commandant Qin was like a deep ocean with no end in sight. There would always be simring undercurrents under the peaceful surface.
Soon it was the day when Qin Yunuan promised to see Su Chenghai off. The sun seed to have a special liking of this remote and quiet mountain road that it filled the whole way with golden shines. On this isolated mountain road, a low-profile dark grey carriage quietly drove away. And hundreds of ters away, a bigger carriage followed behind slowly. The coachman was experienced, keeping a proper distance from the forr one all the ti.
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