Chapter 86 - Did such things overnight...

Hearing that, Yun Qingman said automatically, “But Fenghuang and…”

“You are also here?” The maid, as if she just saw Yun Fenghuang, smiled and invited, “Duchess Yi mentioned you with the wife of Shizi just now. Would you like to go together?”

Yun Fenghuang shook her head, and said to Yun Qingman, “Qingman, you can go, and I won’t bother you.”

She let Miao Cai, who accompanied Yun Qingman as a maid to join the Imperial Harem, leave here. After that maid and Yun Qingman left, she asked Miao Cai to find a eunuch to inform Yun Qike next door, “Tell him that I want to talk with him.”

After a while, Miao Cai returned, saying that the eunuch had passed the words and Yun Qike would meet Yun Fenghuang at Mei Wu Pavilion near Tai Ye Pool.

Yun Fenghuang let Xi Le reward her a pair of silver bracelets, saying, “Your master is talking with her family happily. If you go back to her at this time, you will disturb her. You can follow me right now.”

Miao Cai hesitated, but Yun Fenghuang had turned to speak with Wei Hengyan, “Let’s go. If my cousin waits us for too long, he will think that we are joking with him.”

As she said, she stood up and Wei Hengyan followed her. They chatted along the way, so Miao Cai couldn’t find a chance to intervene. At this time, Xi Le quietly leaned over to hold Miao Cai’s arm and whispered, “Dear sister, Rong Hua Yun and my master are as close as biological sisters. When you go back, you can tell the truth. She will not blame you.”

“Well…” Miao Cai always felt that something was wrong, but she couldn’t tell it, so she listened to Yun Fenghuang’s words.

Though the time was left for young people to have a date, young concubines also took the chance to meet their family, especially their father and brothers, whom they couldn’t see frequently after they joined the Imperial Harem.

Therefore, Yun Fenghuang and Wei Hengyan were not eye-catching in the crowd. Surrounded by several maids, they walked for a while and finally arrived at Mei Wu Pavilion, which was on the edge of Small Ying Zhou. Tai Ye Pool could be seen here.

The terrain near the island was flat and covered with many weeds such as reeds. Many gull herons lived here. Standing in front of the pavilion and looking away, they could see that the island in the mist was like a charming eyebrow. Maybe, the pavilion got its name from this.

Since Yun Qike was a man and he proposed meeting here, he arrived first. He didn’t come in but waited quietly by the stone steps of the pavilion.

In the impression of Yun Fenghuang, both Duke Yi and Duchess Yi thought highly of rules. They respected each other. Though their relationship was not bad, they were not intimate. Maybe because of this, they had only one legitimate son and one legitimate daughter.

As their only legitimate son, Yun Qike was not the eldest son but was deservedly titled as Shizi.

He was five years older than Yun Fenghuang and Yun Qingman. He had married his cousin as his wife before the lunar new year but had no child so far. Because of his status at Duke Yi’s Mansion and his relationship with Yun Qingman, Yun Fenghuang sent some gifts with Ms. Xie and Ms. Xie’s sisters-in-law to show her respect.

This young Shizi didn’t look like his sisters but more like his father. Tall and burly, with a majestic appearance, he had bright eyes. He looked like a general from his appearance.

Seeing Yun Fenghuang and Wei Hengyan coming over, he was slightly stunned and immediately bowed his head to salute, greeting them.

“This is Jie Yu Wei. She takes care of me and we always stay with each other. Qingman also stayed with us just now, but she visited Duchess Yi before we came here.” Yun Fenghuang introduced, and gave him a courtesy, “How’s everything?”

Yun Qike said slowly, “Thanks, everything is fine.”

He looked back at the pavilion, where the tea things and pastries were placed on the stone table, which seemed to be delivered just now. However, Yun Qike did not mean to invite them in, but spoke in a respectful and alienated tone, asking about the recent situation of Noble Consort Shu, Yun Qingman and Yun Fenghuang.

Wei Hengyan knew why he behaved so. He had thought that only his own sisters would come, so he would invite them to the pavilion for chatting, even if Yun Fenghuang was not his biological sister. But since she was there now, Yun Qike had to avoid arousing suspicion, so he couldn’t do that.

She quietly touched Yun Fenghuang’s arm and said smilingly, “Since you have met your brother, I will go and see my family.”

Yun Qike was obviously relieved, instantly saying goodbye to Jie Yu Wei.

After Wei Hengyan and her maid left, he invited Yun Fenghuang into the pavilion to speak.

In fact, there was nothing to say between them.

Yun Fenghuang met Yun Qingman under the introduction of her aunt when she first came to Dijing City, and quickly got Yun Qingman’s favor. Since then, they often visited each other because their houses were very close, but she was not very familiar with others of Duke Yi’s Mansion.

Duke Yi and Duchess Yi definitely did not pay too much attention to their sister-in-law’s niece who went to the family for shelter, especially in the case that their brother and sister-in-law relied on their power to live.

Among the brothers and sisters of Yun Qingman, the older sisters such as Noble Consort Shu were either joined the Imperial Harem or had been married, whom Yun Fenghuang couldn’t meet frequently. Those unmarried girls were either so young that they couldn’t play together or those arrogant ones who distained Yun Fenghuang and didn’t want to play with her.

In fact, Yun Qingman didn’t really care about Yun Fenghuang at first, but she didn’t want to embarrass Ms. Xie, so she introduced Yun Fenghuang to her friends reluctantly.

In order to become her good friend, at least a good friend in the eyes of outsiders, Yun Fenghuang tried very hard. Ms. Xie privately told her that Yun Qingman had been highly hoped by her legitimate mother since her childhood because she was the most prominent one among the baseborn daughters, and her natural mother was honest and obedient.

Yun Fenghuang, who came to Dijing from her homeland far away, greatly needed such a person as friend.

Frankly speaking, the purpose and process of her relationship with Yun Qingman were not so simple.

Because she had spent a lot of efforts to contact with Yun Qingman, Yun Fenghuang really had no mood to please another miss of Duke Yi’s Mansion. Therefore, her relationship with other girls in Duke Yi’s Mansion was either very bad nor good.

As for the boys of Duke Yi’s Mansion, especially Yun Qike, she always avoided meeting them and respected them.

One of the reasons was that she wanted to show her pure relationship with Yun Qingman without any intention to flatter them. Another one was that she wanted to keep distance with men because of Xie Fenghuan’s affair.

As she said to Qi Jiulu at Kong Que Hill, neither daughters of Ms. Xie nor Ms. Jiang could not do such a shameful thing any more.

At that time, she had not thought that she would suddenly join the Imperial Harem.

She had hoped that she would forget the darkness and pain in her hometown and find a benevolent man in Dijing to spend the rest of her life, so as to heal the wounds of the first 12 years of her life.

Therefore, she always acted cautiously.

On several occasions, when she met Yun Qike as she played with Yun Qingman in the garden, she hid silently behind the crowd, lowered her head, and tried her best to be invisible.

Yun Fenghuang even didn’t see clearly his appearance.

Therefore, she had little topic with Yun Qike at this moment. After saying a few words of greeting, she asked Miao Cai, Xi Jing and Xi Le to go outside where they could see the situation in the pavilion but could not hear the conversation. She then asked, “Brother, since you always accompanied with His Majesty, you must be familiar with Childe Deng, the nephew of Minister Cui, right?”

“Do you want to inquire about Deng Yueting?” Yun Qike responded quickly, and said, “Are you helping Jie Yu Wei? Is there a girl in her family who wants to marry him?”

Yun Fenghuang said, “Exactly, but I know Jie Yu Wei for a short time, so I just promised to help her to know the morality and temper of Childe Deng.”

What she meant was that Yun Qike could take it easy and tell her something casually so that she could report to Wei Hengyan.

“Deng Yueting…” Yun Qike pondered for a while and then said, “He is handsome and good at reading and acts decently. But he… is a bit pessimistic.”

Yun Fenghuang immediately remembered that Gongxiang Xiao had said before that Deng Chengzhai was pessimistic and not very pleasing.

She thought something for a while and then said, “Pessimistic? Why? According to his background, though he is not chuffed, how could he have such a temper?”

Yun Qike said, “Sister, you always stay at home and don’t know him if no one tell you about that. Deng Chengzhai was born in a famous scholarly family, and he was the eldest legitimate son who should be titled as Zongzi (the heir of a noble family). However, he is very unlucky. When he was no less than one month old, his mother died because of illness, and when he was no less than one year old, his grandparents fell ill and died about one year later…”

After the three people died one after another, some people suspected that Deng Chengzhai was a jinx. Otherwise, his mother’s death could be considered as an accident that she was weak because of delivery. However, his grandparents were strong and cherished him very much. They often took care of him personally but died soon… It was reasonable to say that their death had a relationship with Deng Chengzhai, wasn’t it?

At that time, Mr. Deng missed his deceased wife very much. When he heard the gossip, he got furious and scolded those who said this, insisting that he would take his son with him to return to his hometown. Three years later when the mourning came to an end, the elders of the clan introduced Mr. Deng a new wife.

When his stepmother got married, Deng Chengzhai was still young, and his stepmother consciously thought that he would be grateful, so she didn’t maltreat him. Even when she had her own child, she didn’t change the attitude. However, as her child often fell ill and the doctors couldn’t tell why, she could only let the nannie be more careful.

At that time, rumors about Deng Chengzhai’s conjuration reappeared. His father and stepmother didn’t believe it at first, but as their kids fell ill again and again and even almost died, they panicked and had to send Deng Chengzhai out.

At that time, Deng Chengzhai was only six or seven years old. He lived alone in a remote village for half a year before he was picked up by the people sent by Cui’s Family after they heard the news.

“It is said that the village head maltreated him because he knew that Childe Deng was not favored by his father and stepmother. Childe Deng spent several months to recovery his injuries before he could show up after being taken to Cui’s Family.” Yun Qike said, “Cui’s Family treats him not bad, almost in the same way as treating their legitimate sons. However, as he was only a nephew but not their own kids, they couldn’t consider everything for him… When he entered the palace as one of the reading partners, he had been pessimistic.”

Yun Fenghuang thought that Cui’s Family fostered Deng Chengzhai for partly considering their benefits. After all, when Emperor Chunjia ascended the throne, everyone knew that he was a puppet.

Among his six reading partners, Ji Minggan and Gongxiang Xiao were arranged by their family for keeping watch on the Emperor and being promoted easily in the future; Yuan Ke was for maintaining the close relationship between Earl Xingning’s Mansion and the Emperor and helping the Emperor when necessary such as accusing Qi Jiulu last time; and Zheng Fengchen had all the purposes.

As a eunuch, Zheng Ju gained both his status and power from the royal family.

He probably hadn’t figured out to support whom yet, so he arranged his adopted son beside the Emperor. If the Emperor went down, Zheng Fengchen could give him the final blow, while if the Emperor got the upper hand, Zheng Fengchen was the pioneer of Zheng Ju’s surrender.

As for Yun Qike, he was just a pawn of Duke Yi for showing his loyalty.

His only legitimate daughter joined the Imperial Harem, and the only legitimate son accompanied the Emperor to grow up… The old man was a model in supporting the Emperor, regardless of other things.

Deng Chengzhai actually played the similar role as Zheng Fengchen.

Cui Wan probably didn’t know the future of Emperor Chunjia and Ji’s Family’s fate, so he arranged a boy raised by Cui’s Family without a surname of Cui to grow up with the Emperor. Being fostered by Cui’s Family, even if Deng Chengzhai made great achievements because of accompanying the Emperor, he would be grateful to Cui’s Family.

If Deng Chengzhai went down with the Emperor… For he was not a son of Cui’s Family, Cui’s Family could find excuses.

Yun Fenghuang thought of one saying.

None of these old guys were nice folks.

She concentrated her thoughts for a while, and felt that she could report these to Wei Hengyan. When she was planning to say thanks to Yun Qike and then leave, she saw Yun Qike inadvertently putting a half-old pouch on the table between them, smilingly saying, “If you see Qingman later, help me blame her. She had said that she made it carefully but the lace was broken easily. Ask her why.”

Yun Fenghuang glanced at the pouch, and found that it looked somewhat familiar, with a turquoise-grass pattern jacquard base, embroidering a cluster of bluegrasses with different threads.

Both workmanship and embroidery were better than hers, but it was still common.

Yun Qingman seemed to be more skillful… Yun Fenghuang remembered that Yun Qingman was very patient when studying embroidery and she was even more skillful than some embroiders.

But since the pouch seemed to be old, did Yun Qingman give it to her brother when she was young?

For this was not a big deal, Yun Fenghuang agreed casually. After showing her thanks, she got up to say goodbye.

After she went out for a while, Miao Cai suddenly whispered behind her, “Pin Yun.”

“Huh?” As Yun Fenghuang was thinking about something, she replied unconsciously after hearing it.

“Don’t you remember the pouch?” Miao Cai asked in confusion, “You made it for Rong Hua, but when Shizi saw it, he took it away forcefully for he thought that it was made by Rong Hua.”

Seeing that Yun Fenghuang stopped suddenly and looked back in surprise, Miao Cai pursed her lips and continued to remind, “You made it all the night… In order to give her at her birthday, although you tried your best to cover up, there were still many blood spots on your fingers!”

Hearing that, Xi Le acted normally, because when Yun Fenghuang went to Su Rong Palace with Xi Jing, she was asked to send things to Yi Jia Palace.

Right now, Xi Jing changed her expression slightly…