Gu Ying was sweating profusely. Her entire body seemed as if it had just been fished out of the water. After sweating so much, her headache wasn't as bad, but she still felt weak.
With Yin Lan's support, she sat up in bed weakly and leaned against the pillow. "I'm feeling a little better. What's with all that noise outside?"
Yin Lan's usual smiling face also looked more serious. She sat at the bedside and brought over a medicine bowl, feeding Gu Ying spoonfuls of medicine. "It's nothing much. Yanzhi and Miss are arguing."
Gu Ying's actions paused as she drank the medicine, and her elegant eyebrows knitted together. "Yanzhi wouldn't argue with someone for no reason."
Yin Lan looked worried. "It's because Liu Jianren from the Liu family came to the mansion today. The old master went to greet him personally. This evening he went to Liu's Twilight Snow Studio, and at dinner, the old madam personally hosted a banquet for him. Originally Mrs. Li came to invite Miss to entertain the guest, but at that time Miss was severely ill and sleeping, so I sent her away."
"But when Miss found out about Liu Jianren, she wanted to come see Miss's illness. I thought she was up to no good and definitely didn't come to see Miss, but must be taking advantage of Cousin Liu's arrival to add insult to injury. So I took it upon myself to block her from coming in. I didn't expect Miss to send Dou Kou to force her way in. Yanzhi has a fiery temper and started fighting with Dou Kou."
"Entertain guests?" Gu Ying's eyes reddened as she gritted her teeth and coughed heavily several times. "Are those the words a grandmother should say?!"
"I know..." Yin Lan looked at the young miss on the bed, as beautiful as a carved jade statue, with distress.
In all her time working in this wealthy household, the elders had never asked the unmarried young ladies of the household to entertain male guests.
Moreover, that man was extraordinarily ugly, fat-bellied, with flesh hanging on his face. His smiling appearance was particularly lewd and disgusting.
If her beautiful young miss really married this kind of terrible future young master, who knew what would happen.
Gu Ying sneered. Half her body leaned over the bed, her small face flushed an abnormal red from anger. "Tell Yanzhi to stop her properly. Don't let Gu Jia take half a step into my Twilight Snow Studio."
Yin Lan quickly said, "Alright, I'll go stop her too."
Gu Ying leaned back into the pillow, breathing heavily with anger as she listened closely to the noisy argument outside.
"Little sister, what are you hiding for? Your future husband has come to see you, how can you still be holed up in your room not coming out?"
"Don't worry little sister, before Cousin Liu confirms the marriage with you, he won't go anywhere but stay in our residence. Little sister, your body is unwell and you can't get out of bed, but that's fine, we have plenty of time to meet!"
"Cousin Liu really likes little sister, he can't wait to immediately take little sister home as his wife. I heard Cousin Liu is the best at doting on his woman. As long as little sister marries over, she's sure to have two children in three years!"
"Big sister, what a vicious mouth!" Yanzhi's angry voice rang out. "Then Yanzhi wishes big sister and Young Master Jiang a hundred years of happiness, two children in three years, childless and infertile, with descendants filling the halls!"
Gu Jia was furious. "You daring slave, how dare you curse at me!"
"Why can't I curse you! If you dare say another word against my young miss today, I'll rip your mouth apart! Even if I'm dragged to the old madam, I won't be afraid!"
"Yanzhi, calm down."
"I can't calm down! Even if I die today, even if I jump down from here, I definitely won't let those wild dogs from the main room through the door of our Twilight Snow Studio!"
"Good! What an arrogant slave defying her masters! Just you wait Yanzhi! Wait until your young miss marries Cousin Liu and competes with Cousin's whole courtyard of women, then you'll have bitter days ahead!"
Gu Ying closed her eyes, her long curly eyelashes trembling slightly.
She didn't expect Liu Jianren to come so quickly, and she happened to be ill and offended Prince Zhao.
But Gu Jia dared to be so arrogant, how could she let her off easily?
A cold smile appeared at the corner of her lips, her expression calm as she listened to Gu Jia's nonsense outside.
In the end, Gu Jia was unable to enter the Twilight Snow Studio.
Yanzhi came back and cried by Gu Ying's side for a while. Gu Ying stroked the little maid's hair and comforted her. "Don't worry, even if your young miss dies, she won't marry that Liu fellow. Yanzhi, do you want to make Gu Jia unhappy?"
Yanzhi nodded heavily. "I do!"
Gu Ying's eyes were cold. She smiled slightly.
That night, several frightened screams came from Gu Jia's Cangwu Pavilion.
The next day, Yanzhi happily came back to report the news. "Young miss is so clever. After Yin Zhu sprinkled the blood water on the roof over big sister's room, those drops of blood slowly seeped through the roof and dripped onto big sister's bed canopy, it nearly scared half her life away! She deserved it!"
Gu Ying was feeling a little better. After sleeping one night, her temples still ached a little and needed medicine today.
Yin Zhu had gone to Muffeng Studio again. Yin Lan brought in the medicine. Hearing from Gu Ying that Gu Jia had harmed her own sister, she frowned angrily. "Young miss, you are still too soft-hearted. Why didn't you reveal this to the old madam earlier?"
Gu Ying slowly drank the medicine in the bowl. "It happened too long ago, there's no evidence anymore. At the time Gu Min was said to have accidentally fallen into the water and died. No one reported it to the authorities then.
"If we suddenly reveal it to Grandmother, Gu Jia will likely talk her way out of the crime. I don't want her to escape so easily. What I want is to torment her until she goes crazy, to hound her to death."
Yin Lan involuntarily felt a chill. The young miss lying in bed had an innocent, harmless appearance of a fairy, but her eyes held chilled ruthlessness when she spoke those words, making one's heart panic.
She thought about it, and actually felt somewhat excited. "Young miss, then what are we still waiting for?"
Gu Ying's eyes curved into a crescent smile, their shape as beautiful as the new moon. "Have Yin Zhu hurry it up. It won't be long."
When one does too many malicious deeds, they will be afraid of ghosts knocking on their door.
With Gu Min's "vengeful spirit" back at the Gu Residence, Gu Jia should be very uncomfortable and afraid, right?
Thinking of Gu Jia being spurned by the Liu family, she felt that losing her engagement to Prince Zhao wasn't too upsetting after all.
She would have a chance, taking it step by step slowly.
...
That day at noon.
In a side hall of Yongshou Hall, Old Madam Gu set up several simple tables and invited only the madams and young misses and young masters of the household, as well as the Jiang family and Liu Jianren's family.
This time it was Old Madam Gu's Mrs. Li and Mrs. Liu from the Liu family who personally came to invite them.
Yanzhi didn't dare block them again, and the smiling Yin Lan standing to the side didn't say anything either.
The two madams lifted the curtain at the door and walked in smiling, not bothering whether the people inside were dressed properly or not. "We don't know if second young miss is feeling better? The old madam is concerned about young miss's health, and asks that young miss definitely come to Yongshou Hall for the meal today."
