The next morning at dawn.
Huai Yu was holding an invitation and about to leave when soone unexpectedly called out to stop her.
"So early in the morning, where are you going?"
Clad in a white garnt, Huai Xini, along with her maid Xiaomian, shouted from a lane, hailing her from afar.
Huai Yu frowned slightly, considering pretending not to hear and just walking out the door.
"Huai Yu!" This ti, Huai Xini called her na distinctly, and at the sa mont, Xiaomian quickly walked to the doorway, blocking Huai Yu’s path.
Impatience flashed in Huai Yu’s eyes, but her deanor remained cordial, "Is there sothing you need, cousin?"
"How distant you sound. Can’t I call out to you if there’s nothing important?" Huai Xini stepped up to Huai Yu and stood firm, her eyes deep and troubled.
"If there’s nothing else, then I’ll be on my way," Huai Yu said, not in the mood to tangle with this duplicitous woman before her.
At this mont, all she wanted was to get the invitation into Yan Wanqing’s hands.
Huai Xini’s eyebrows raised slightly, "Where are you going?"
"It’s none of your business, since when did you start caring about my comings and goings?" Huai Yu humd softly, "Huai Xini, if I rember correctly, wasn’t Young Master Chen supposed to take you out on the lake today? Why aren’t you dressed up and instead look so plain and simple?"
"Plain and simple?" Huai Xini almost choked on air.
She had spent a full hour dressing up, but in Huai Yu’s eyes, it was just dismissed as "plain and simple."
"How dare you, Huai Yu—"
Huai Yu gave her a dismissive glance, stepped over the threshold, and left with long strides, leaving Huai Xini’s words stuck in her throat.
Anger made Huai Xini’s face flush then pale in turn.
"Did he grow a backbone as strong as the courage of a bear and leopard?" Huai Xini could hardly believe her own eyes.
The last ti they saw each other, it was before Huai Yu had left for the capital, and by the ti Huai Yu returned, she had coincidentally gone to the mountains to pray at the temple. This ant that the two had not seen each other for nearly four months.
She vaguely rembered this little rascal, albeit begrudgingly respectful to her face before.
How co today, upon seeing her again, he dared to talk back.
"Miss, the Marquis went in there," Xiaomian covered her lips and exclaid in shock.
Wasn’t that the residence of Princess Anping?
Watching Huai Yu walk straight toward the entrance, disdain flickered in Huai Xini’s eyes, "And here I thought he had so backbone, but he’s just a coward buoyed by a woman’s support. What a joke!"
She had thought to leave but then gestured Xiaomian over with a wave of her hand.
"Tell Chen Di that sothing ca up for today and I won’t make it. If he asks, tell him I went to the Commandery Princess’s place," Huai Xini said with a cunning smile.
Xiaomian, unsuspecting, imdiately left the residence and headed in the direction of the City Lord Residence.
Huai Xini had intended to follow but thinking again of Huai Yu’s words "plain and simple," her face twisted in malice for a mont, and she returned to the courtyard to adorn herself with several pieces of jewelry.
Inside the residence.
Yan Wanqing had just finished practicing the spear, her body covered with sweat, and she casually took the towel handed to her by Cong Ge, wiping herself down nonchalantly.
"I didn’t know you could handle a spear."
Hearing Huai Yu’s voice, Yan Wanqing looked to the side, "As long as I want to, there’s nothing I can’t do."
These words were sufficiently arrogant and domineering, but Huai Yu knew that Yan Wanqing had the right to be proud.
"When did you get here?" Yan Wanqing asked.
Huai Yu took the Red Tasseled Spear from her hand, weighed it a bit, and found it quite heavy.
"When you pierced through that flowerbed blooming with lotuses," Huai Yu watched the ss on the ground and said with raised eyebrows.
Yan Wanqing coughed dryly, a bit uncomfortable, "I couldn’t stop in ti."
After all, it wasn’t intentional.
Cong Ge, standing to the side, listened to the two speak and instructed the servants to clean up the shattered pieces of the flowerbed. Then he had soone bring over a new water jar, filling it with water, and put all the lotus flowers and leaves back inside.
"See, now they live in a bigger place, all thanks to my failure to stop just now."
Huai Yu snorted, "I have never seen anyone as shaless as you."
"I’ll take that as a complint," Yan Wanqing slung the sweat towel around her neck and strolled in. While walking, she asked, "What brought you to my residence today?"
The question reminded Huai Yu.
A complex light flashed in her eyes, but she quickly pulled out an invitation from her bosom.
"The Northern Border’s annual Sumr Sacrifice is approaching, and I, on behalf of the entire Marquis Residence, invite the Commandery Princess to attend."
Listening to Huai Yu’s formal words, Yan Wanqing ca to a halt, "Did your mother send you with this invitation?"
Huai Yu stayed quiet, giving a slight nod, then let her gaze wander elsewhere.
She simply couldn’t face her good friend.
Yan Wanqing sighed softly and walked back, "Alright, I’ll give you this face; I’ll grace the Sumr Sacrifice with my presence," she said, reaching out to take the invitation from Huai Yu’s hand.
But she saw that the latter was reluctant to let go.
Yan Wanqing raised an eyebrow, "What’s the aning of this?"
Huai Yu struggled with her gaze, her fingertips turning slightly white from the grip, but eventually, she let go of the invitation.
She squeezed out a sentence, "Make sure you co on ti."
Yan Wanqing, noticing sothing off in Huai Yu’s expression, was just about to tell her to go rest and that she would join her after a bath when she saw a woman in a white dress floating into the doorway.
It was none other than the young lady they had seen at the teahouse yesterday.
Huai Xini.
That’s how Yan Wanqing rembered Huai Yu had addressed her.
"I hope the Commandery Princess will forgive my uninvited disturbance," Huai Xini said softly and weakly as she greeted Yan Wanqing, then turned her gaze toward Huai Yu, bearing a hint of injustice and resentnt, "I had intended to co here with the Young Marquis, but my younger brother simply walked too fast, so I ended up falling far behind. I hope the Commandery Princess doesn’t mind."
With just a few words, she had pinned the label of disrespect for an elder sister on Huai Yu.
She was skilled.
Yan Wanqing chuckled with a curved lip, "n often don’t know how to cherish beauty. You are the second house’s young lady, Huai Xini, right? The Commandery Princess has heard about you from Huai Yu."
Heard about her?
Huai Xini instinctively looked towards Huai Yu.
What good things could this little rascal say about her?
But it didn’t matter. She would salvage her own image. For the gold mine in the hands of the Princess Anping, what did it matter if she had to act subservient and humble? Once that worthless Huai Xin truly married this golden branch, no matter whether she was a Commandery Princess or a Marshal of Yan, she would have to cook and clean in their household, at their rcy!
Huai Xini concealed the depths in her eyes and continued with a smile, "I wonder how the Young Marquis has ntioned to the Commandery Princess?"
Yan Wanqing tilted her head in thought, then under Huai Xini’s expectant gaze, she smiled with a curved lip, "I’m sorry, I forgot."
Huai Xini’s smile froze on her face.
She hadn’t expected that kind of response.
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