The one who spilled the dicine bottle was a second-class maid from Lin Xiaoyue’s courtyard. When she was dragged in front of Lin Xiaoyue by the rough old won, her lips were already trembling with fear, and she was incoherent, "Madam, I didn’t do it on purpose, I really didn’t do it on purpose."
Lin Xiaoyue was in a fit of anger, flas of fury rising to the top of her head.
Mr. Qi had gone to the Northern Border, and she couldn’t get in touch with the people of the Yun family. Without the dicine, Amuer was equivalent to losing a layer of protection. What if sothing happened?
Overco with rage, Lin Xiaoyue, without a second word, ordered the maid to be dragged out for fifty strokes and sent away to be sold.
Generally speaking, in households with many servants, it was normal for maids to be punished and sold when they made mistakes. Lin Xiaoyue had dealt with a few this way before, but she hadn’t expected to stumble in the hands of a little wench this ti.
The maid, after being sold to a theater troupe to do chores, unwilling to accept her unlucky fate, spread the news about Amuer having a pair of blue eyes.
In just two days, half of the Capital knew about this. Every ti Lin Xiaoyue went out, people on the street looked at her with strange and hostile eyes. So even made up a nursery rhy for children to run from street to alley singing, hinting that the Left Army Commander Su Qing, disregarding the humiliation of West Yue attacking our country during Great Chu’s mourning period, recognized a thief as a son. And that child was a monster feared by everyone, deserving to be tied to a punishnt platform and burned to death.
The huge public outcry over Amuer’s blue eyes was due to the intense conflict between the cultures of Chu Country and the Jiuli Clan of West Yue.
Since the destruction of West Yue, the people of that land had submitted to the emperor of Chu Country.
However, the people of Chu Country did not accept the Jiuli Clan, nor did they accept the people of West Yue.
In the hearts of Chu Country people, the Jiuli Clan were all monsters, outsiders who worshiped heaven, earth, mountains, stones, and water, everything and anything, but they worshiped demons.
Because the belief of the Jiuli Clan was that everything in the world was governed by ghosts.
However, the people of Chu worshiped gods, mountain gods, water gods, and even celestial immortals, different from the mountain and water ghosts of the Jiuli Clan.
Ghosts were inherently terrifying, and to actually have people regard them as faith—how could they not be deed monsters?
So when rumors spread that the Left Army Governor Mansion was hiding a Jiuli child with blue eyes, the people of the Capital City were in an uproar, their blood boiling with righteous indignation, demanding the Su Family hand over the monster to be burned as a sacrifice, in hopes that the gods would bless the warriors far away on the Northern Border to return triumphantly to the Capital City.
Lin Xiaoyue, this First-rank Imperial Decree Lady, beca the public enemy for adopting a Jiuli child.
She had only been out for a mont and was already showered with rotten vegetables and slly eggs.
She had no chance to explain, only able to return to the mansion in embarrassnt, eyes red.
When Jin Zhi ca up to her, she exclaid in shock, "Madam, what happened?"
Lin Xiaoyue had no ti to explain to her, urgently asking, "Where is the young master?"
"The young master is in the room, Miss is teaching him to read," Jin Zhi said.
Lin Xiaoyue finally could breathe a sigh of relief, quickly going to the cleansing room to bathe and change clothes before heading to Ah Nuan’s west wing.
At this ti, a faintly fragrant agarwood incense was burning in the incense burner in the room. There was a writing desk in front of the incense table, where Ah Nuan and Amuer sat side by side. Ah Nuan was holding Amuer’s little hand, teaching him how to write stroke by stroke.
Amuer grinned from ti to ti, clearly in a good mood. Those sapphire blue eyes seed to hold starlight, dazzlingly beautiful.
Seeing this scene, Lin Xiaoyue felt warmth in her heart, her eyes moistening.
She thought of the people outside clamoring to burn him to death.
Amuer was not even four years old; he was an ordinary child. Except for the unusual color of his eyes, he was like any other child his age.
He hadn’t hard anyone—how could he be a monster, and why should he be burned alive?
Ah Nuan, while teaching, noticed Amuer was distracted. Following his gaze, she saw Lin Xiaoyue standing at the doorway.
"Mom," Ah Nuan called out happily.
Lin Xiaoyue suppressed her inner pain, trying her best to smile, then walked to sit on the embroidered stool beside the writing desk, asking Amuer, "How was your study today?"
Amuer smiled, revealing a mouthful of small white teeth, his voice playful and cute.
Lin Xiaoyue reached out to touch his little head, "Did you listen to your sister?"
"Mm." Amuer nodded, then called her softly, "Mother."
"What is it?"
"I want to find Jinbao to play," Amuer said.
"You cannot go," Lin Xiaoyue said gently, "Wait until your father cos back, and has soone prepare dicine for you. Then wherever you want to go, I will take you, alright?"
Amuer asked her again, "Mother, what is a demon?"
Lin Xiaoyue was montarily stunned, "Why do you ask that?"
Amuer said, "Just now I went outside for a bit, and when they saw , they hid, saying I am a demon. Mother, are demons particularly powerful?"
Lin Xiaoyue’s face imdiately darkened, and she called Jin Zhi, asking her, "Are the maids and old won in the courtyard getting restless?"
Jin Zhi sighed, "Madam, the rumors outside are too rampant. Everyone says the young master is... The maids and old won are short-sighted. However people say, they naturally just believe. Don’t take it to heart; wait a while, and the rumors will fade."
"Subordinates gossiping about their masters, yet I, as the master of the house, have to swallow my anger and watch their expressions?"
Lin Xiaoyue angrily swept everything off the table, "Go check it out. In this mansion, if anyone has ntioned these words, there’s no need to report back to , just execute them imdiately. I want to see if they dare to defy heaven!"
Jin Zhi, having followed Lin Xiaoyue for many years, saw her so furious for the first ti, sowhat scared. In a mont of stupefaction, she quickly ran out, gathered all the maids and old won in the courtyard, and interrogated them one by one.
Ah Nuan saw this and asked, "Mother, what on earth happened?"
Lin Xiaoyue turned back to see Amuer’s eyes sowhat wet, twisting his fingers, looking at her helplessly, afraid to speak.
Lin Xiaoyue’s heart, filled with anger monts ago, softened imdiately. She stood up, hugged Amuer, and coaxed him softly, "Don’t be afraid, it’s the servants who are ignorant. Mother will teach them a lesson for you."
Amuer, leaning against Lin Xiaoyue’s embrace, sobbed twice, and couldn’t hold it in, bursting into tears.
This cry shattered Lin Xiaoyue’s heart.
She had red eyes, clenched fists, and a hatred of powerlessness surged in her heart.
Soone in the mansion was gossiping, she could stop it through rules, through violent asures, but what about the common people outside?
She could stop one mouth, but couldn’t block the countless mouths of the world, couldn’t wake the Chu Country’s people’s blind conformity.
Everyone was rejecting the Jiuli Clan, rejecting the West Yue people, even those in power had a headache, what could she, a housewife, do?
After Amuer cried himself to sleep, Lin Xiaoyue carried him back to the room, asked Ah Nuan to watch over him, and then went to the study to write a letter, secretly sent to the Song family by a servant.
She herself couldn’t leave the house, only could turn to Wen Wan for help.
The matter of Amuer was now being widely spread everywhere, Wen Wan had already heard of it, unfortunately, Song Wei, as the Exam Official, was still handling the exam papers of this year’s candidates and hadn’t co back, she couldn’t find anyone to discuss with, planning to personally visit the Su Family.
Before she could leave, a servant from the Su Family ca, saying their madam had a letter to give to Wen Wan.
The gatekeeper delivered the letter inside, and when Wen Wan opened it, she saw Lin Xiaoyue indeed wrote about Amuer’s matter in the letter. She said she really had no way out, now she didn’t dare to go out from morning till night, always waking up frightened at night for fear that Amuer would be suddenly taken away and burned with a big fire.
Wen Wan frowned tightly, "How could it co to this?"
The rejection of the Jiuli Clan by the people of Chu Country was sothing she had only occasionally heard about before, after all, the Capital City was far from the Western Border, and the people’s expressions were not obvious here, but this ti, just because of a pair of eyes, the people seed possessed, insisting Amuer was a demon, wanting the Su Family to hand him over for a heavenly sacrifice.
At this mont, Song Yuanbao ca in and said, "Mother, it’s better not to go to the Su Family, I’ll go into the palace to see His Highness later, ask him if there’s any way to stop this, if it continues like this, there’ll be chaos in the Capital City."
Right now it was a ti of war between two countries, Chu Country should unite against external enemies, if internal chaos starts, the consequences would be unthinkable.
Though Wen Wan couldn’t think of any useful thod at the mont, she couldn’t let go of Lin Xiaoyue, and personally visited the Su Mansion to comfort her, telling her that Yuanbao had already gone into the palace, and this matter wouldn’t be ignored by the Crown Prince.
...
Song Yuanbao went to the Eastern Palace.
Zhao Xi had just returned from the Imperial Study Room, seeing him standing outside the gate of the Eastern Palace, and asked, "Are you here about the Su family’s adopted child?"
Song Yuanbao nodded, "Can His Highness help find a way?"
At this ti, Su Family’s strength alone wasn’t enough, soone in a higher position needed to intervene.
Zhao Xi invited Song Yuanbao in to sit, asked Eunuch Sanbao to serve tea, and then asked him, "Have you heard of a legend about the Jiuli Clan?"
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