Old Lady Wang cleaned up the bowls and chopsticks, and was about to take Li Mingwei back home. Li Mingwei went to say goodbye to Mr. Jin, and saw that he and Hu Jin were talking to each other spiritedly. She hesitated for a moment without disturbing them, and directly followed Old Lady Wang away.
Now Mr. Jin finally had someone to help him, so she didn't need to worry too much either.
On the way back, Old Lady Wang was carefully supporting her all along, making Li Mingwei somewhat worried. How could she go pull radish like this tomorrow?
Sure enough, the next day when she said she wanted to go out, she was sternly rejected. Li Mingwei touched her belly. Actually she felt that her condition had been quite good recently without much discomfort. Going out for a walk wouldn't be a problem.
"Mother, can I just go out and take a look?"
"No!"
Li Mingwei languidly returned to the room and lay slumped over the desk looking out the window, wondering if Wang Chunhua would suddenly remember her and come to take her to pull radishes. After all, she had also put effort into planting those radishes.
She waited from morning until afternoon when Wang Chunhua finally appeared at the Liu family's door carrying a basket of radishes. Li Mingwei excitedly stood up and stuck her head out the window, "Sister, what are you here for?"
Wang Chunhua showed her the radishes in the basket, "To bring you radishes. Aren't these radishes the fruits of your labor too?"
Dong Lei walked behind carrying a few bones, "Auntie, mother said she's stewing bone broth for you!"
Bone broth, how could bone broth be as fragrant as pulling fresh radishes. Li Mingwei disappointedly sat down, completely unhappy.
After Wang Chunhua delivered the radishes to the backyard, she came into the room to see her. Li Mingwei heavily snorted at her, then turned her back.
"What's with you, girl? You were perfectly happy just now. As soon as I walked in you changed your attitude. Did I offend you somehow?"
Li Mingwei ignored her.
Wang Chunhua was completely confused. She walked over and gently coaxed, "Don't be unhappy. Sister is stewing bone broth for you today. Don't you want to drink it?"
"Sister," Li Mingwei complained aggrievedly, "Why didn't you ask me to go pull radishes with you!"
"You can't go out now, can you?"
"But I want to pull radishes!"
"You girl!" Wang Chunhua looked at her stubborn face and raised her hand wanting to hit her, but felt she shouldn't beat her now. Instead she pinched her cheek, "Now that you're pregnant you've become a child yourself, completely disobedient!"
She ran out grumbling, fussed around for a bit, then yelled into the room: "Come on, pull radishes!"
Li Mingwei's spirits were instantly lifted and she quickly walked out.
Wang Chunhua had set up a stool for her to sit on, and placed two baskets in front of her, "Come on, didn't you want to pull radishes? Take the radishes from this basket and put them in the other."
Li Mingwei was angry, "How is this considered pulling radishes? What's the difference?"
"There is a difference," Wang Chunhua said matter-of-factly. She pointed at the basket she brought, "This is my family's basket. That one is your family's basket. I'll take it back once you empty it."
She urged, "Stop dillydallying. You said you wanted to do it, hurry up!"
Under Wang Chunhua's pressing gaze, Li Mingwei was on the verge of tears. She silently started "pulling" radishes, her heart aching with each tug. Why did no one understand her? She genuinely wanted to pull radishes. She only wanted to go out for a walk and move around a bit.
Li Mingwei suddenly started missing Ah Xiu. If there was only one person in the world who understood her, it must be Ah Xiu!
She stopped her hand that was "pulling" radishes, calculated the time, the letter should have arrived in the capital by now. She wondered if Ah Xiu had received her letter.
Not only had Ah Xiu received it, she had followed her instructions in the letter, and gotten caught for it. Right now she was still kneeling being punished in the study.
The story started from a day ago. Ah Xiu was in Li Mingwei's empty yard, listlessly swinging on a swing while looking at the gradually yellowing grass and trees in the yard, and started missing her young mistress again.
"Alas, it's been so long without a letter. I don't even know if young mistress is dead or alive."
"Pooh!" She slapped her own mouth. What ominous words was she saying! It should be whether the young mistress was still there or not...no, that didn't seem right either. Alive or not?
Hmm...even more incorrect.
Oh well, she couldn't figure it out so she stopped thinking about it.
She turned her head, grasped the swing ropes, and recalled past happy times together with her young mistress. Her eyes brimmed with tears and she loudly called out in her heart: Young mistress oh young mistress, if you're still alive at least send me a letter. If, if you've passed away, then send me a dream tonight at least.
And then the living Li Mingwei wrote her a letter, which arrived.
A maid knocked on the door and walked in from outside, handing her the letter, "Sister Ah Xiu, a letter for you."
"For me?"
"Yes, I just brought it over from the gatekeeper. He said it was from your hometown Nanjiang."
Ah Xiu frowned. She didn't have any family left in her hometown...
She glanced at the unfamiliar handwriting on the envelope and had the young maid withdraw before opening the letter. The writing inside was extremely familiar. She covered her mouth in pleasant surprise. The young mistress really was still alive!
Ah Xiu was excited for a while before carefully reading the letter's contents.
"Hm? Surely the young mistress hasn't had a child with some wild man out there?"
Why else would she ask her to investigate those doctors who had said she couldn't get pregnant. She must have gotten pregnant and discovered something was wrong!
She also wondered what this wild man looked like, if their child would be cute. Hehe, she was going to help the young mistress raise her child!
Ah Xiu read on eagerly. She got to the end but there was not a single place name. The corners of her raised mouth drooped bit by bit. Why didn't the young mistress tell her where she was? She could have run there too!
Wah~
Although extremely aggrieved in her heart, Ah Xiu still followed Li Mingwei's instructions. She wrote a note warning against Imperial Physician Liu in crooked left-handed writing. Taking advantage when Elder Master was at the academy, she sneaked into his study and stuffed the note into the most obvious book on his desk.
Unfortunately they had miscalculated. When Li Yi returned to the study and flipped open the book, seeing this note, his first reaction was not to investigate Imperial Physician Liu, but to have people surround the entire yard where the study was located.
He wanted to see just who was so bold that they could make it past layers of guards to stuff a note into his book, or which family member had been bought over.
Within a day, all the servants who had entered this yard were seized and made to kneel in the yard. To avoid implicating others, Ah Xiu could only stand out and admit it.
Li Yi deeply glanced at her, then turned and entered the study. Ah Xiu quickly followed.
She shivered kneeling inside the study. Li Yi sat at the desk reading, ignoring her. This maid had truly been spoiled rotten by Mingwei, daring to ransack anywhere!
Li Yi froze for a second. Aside from Mingwei's orders, this maid wouldn't listen to anyone else. So who had instructed her to do this was self-evident.
He set his book down, braced his hands on the table and stood up. His icy gaze looked to Ah Xiu kneeling below as he stated firmly and powerfully, "Mingwei contacted you."
Ah Xiu curled into a ball with her head buried in her chest, not daring to betray the young mistress.
Li Yi sighed with a headache and sat back down, "She wants to investigate Imperial Physician Liu, there must be a reason."
Ah Xiu thought for a bit, "Imperial Physician Liu said the young miss couldn't have children."
"So?"
"So I feel the young miss had a child outside somewhere. What Imperial Physician Liu said was nonsense. He must have some issue!"
Li Yi...
