Changying The Lady

In the thatched hut, Song Zaishui didn"t see Wei Changying after getting up. She was rea.s.sured learning from Xinli that Wei Changying had gone out for a walk with quite some servants. And then Wei Qing led Gu Yiran and Deng Zongqi to see Wei Changfeng. Song Zaishui naturally was to stay in the room quietly. However, soon after the outsiders had left, a guard rushed into the room to report that something had happened in the back of the hut concerning Wei Changying. Song Zaishui was naturally shocked. When she was about to leave the room to take a look, she was held down tightly by Huatang!

The reason was simple: Song Zaishui"s knee injury had been recurring in the past few days, and no matter what happened at the back of the hut, Song Zaishui, who was not well herself, certainly could not be of help going over there. It had been raining all night yesterday, and now it was not even easy to walk around. If this precious guest were to fall or b.u.mp into something and get new injuries over the old ones, it would only add to the mess on the Little Bamboo Hill. Besides, how should Huatang explain to Madam Song?

Huatang was not Song Zaishui"s maidservant, and it was Madam Song who had repeatedly asked in person for Huatang to stay and take care of her niece in her place. Although Song Zaishui was anxious, she could not reprimand Huatang and throw her out like she would to Chunjing and others. As a result, she had no choice but to sit on her bed and wait.

Song Zaishui waited for such a long time, and thank G.o.d Wei Changying finally returned. She took off her curtained hat and threw it to Lvfang as soon as she entered the hut, and Lvfang immediately turned around and left sensibly with her hat. Wei Changying apparently didn"t look well now that she had taken off her curtained hat. However, she was able to move freely, which didn"t seem like something bad had happened to her again.

Song Zaishui was relieved. This time Wei Changying had to spend the night at the Little Bamboo Hill for the sake of saving her, so no matter what happened to Wei Changying on the Little Bamboo Hill, Song Zaishui would be responsible for it. Even if Madam Song wouldn"t haggle with her given that they were relatives, Song Zaishui wouldn"t feel at ease with her own conscience.

She saw that Wei Changying was frowning and not saying anything, so she asked at once, “What happened?”

“Yesterday it rained heavily and the realgar surrounding the hut was all washed away. As a result, a green bamboo snake had crawled into the newly built bamboo pavilion at the back of the hut. It could have stayed anywhere but on the pillar behind me. If it weren"t for that Mr. Deng who just came down the hill earlier was careful enough to see the snake and saved my life, I would have been in big trouble today.” Wei Changying said, looking upset.

Although she just plucked Lvchi"s hair clasp and killed the other green bamboo snake, she had been practicing martial arts with Jiang Zheng since she was young, and she had always been diligent that even Jiang Zheng praised her for her wit and talent. As a result, it was natural for her to think highly of her skills. But today when something really happened to her, she still wasn"t able to handle things as well as she would hope. If Deng Zongqi hadn"t looked back, who would know what could have happened to her today?

The Little Bamboo Hill was a bamboo hill after all, so the antidote for snake poison had always been available inside the hut, especially the one for green bamboo snake poison. Although Wei Changying was scared by the snake at hand, she wasn"t afraid for her life. What she was really angry at was herself— as careless as she was, could she possibly be able to beat Shen Cangfeng in the future?

As for traps and tricks… Shen Cangfeng could use them too….

It was truly a hard road to walk to live the way she wanted!

The more Wei Changying thought about it, the more frustrated and miserable she felt. She decided to stop contemplating over such unpleasant matters for now, so she quickly changed the subject, “By the way, why did Wei Qing bring these two strangers up the hill? Why were they up to looking for Changfeng?”

Song Zaishui took a sip of her tea and said, “I have just heard something through the door just now, and it seems that last night after we both fell asleep, a group of people were in a hurry on their night trip. Because they didn"t want the rain to wet their lantern, they ended up getting lost and missing the station. However, they recognized the Little Bamboo Hill and knew that Mr. Bamboo Hill had a thatched hut up here, so they wanted to come up to spend the night.”

Wei Changying said, “Ah, so that was the noise I heard when I was half asleep?”

“The noise was because they nearly got into a fight with the guards at the foot of the hill.” Song Zaishui said, “Both sides had mistaken one another as thieves. Later, the group reported the names of their aristocratic families, and the guards checked a few of their belongings. Still the guards couldn"t be sure of their ident.i.ty, so they sent a few men up to get cousin Changfeng. Cousin brought Wei Qing with him down the hill and interrogated them himself, and only then was their ident.i.ty finally proven. But we were also spending the night on the top of the hill, so it was natural that they weren"t allowed to stay with us. Fortunately, the guards of the Wei Family had built a few bamboo huts at the foot of the hill, and two were emptied for them to spend the night…. Just now they were about to leave, so two of them made their way up to thank us.”

Wei Changying was one step behind in giving her thanks, so she didn"t hear about Deng Zongqi mentioning spending the night. Now she suddenly understood, “So that was what happened! I knew Wei Qing wouldn"t have brought two strangers up the hill to see Changfeng so early in the morning if there had been no reason!”

And then she was curious again, “The Gu Family from the capital don"t stay in the capital, and the Deng Family from Rong City are not in Rong City. What are they doing here in Fengzhou? Besides, they just said that they were in a hurry?”

Song Zaishui nodded and said, “They seem to be heading to Qingzhou.”

“Qingzhou?” Wei Changying was surprised. “That"s where the Su Family lives…. Now this is getting even stranger. What are they going there for?”

“They said they had something to take care of.” Song Zaishui said, “I didn"t hear the whole thing. Let"s ask cousin Changfeng later.”

When Wei Changfeng returned to the hut, the two sisters asked him about the group at the same time, but he wasn"t in the mood to answer. He first inquired about Wei Changying"s accident in the pavilion, and learned that it was because the color of the green bamboo snake was too similar to that of the bamboo pillar, when Mrs. Feng and the other went into the pavilion to clean up earlier, they didn"t notice it at first. Song Zaishui"s face almost turned pale, and she patted her chest lightly, “G.o.d bless you! Thanks to Deng Zongqi today that you are safe!”

But Wei Changfeng put up a sullen face and said, “It was all my fault. I was only thinking of building a bamboo pavilion there, but it almost killed the elder sister.” He was quite angry and wanted to order the men to tear down the bamboo pavilion. Wei Changying stopped him at once, “It was built just now, why are you tearing it down? This was not the pavilion to blame. It was because the heavy rain washed away the realgar, and it hadn"t been refilled yet.”

Wei Changfeng said with no hesitation, “If it weren"t for me who said that I wanted a bamboo pavilion built there, mother wouldn"t have sent the craftsmen here. If it weren"t for a pavilion at the back of the hut, how could the elder sister have suffered from this disaster?”

“It"s not like you haven"t seen the other green bamboo snake that I killed later. The green gra.s.s… How could you see clearly if you don"t look closely?” Wei Changying said, frowning, “And it was a lot better for the snake to be above my head than close to my feet. I was wearing a curtained hat on my head, but I was only wearing wooden clogs on my feet!”

Song Zaishui knew that the reason Wei Changfeng insisted on tearing down the bamboo pavilion was that he thought he had dragged his sister down in danger on his sudden whim, so she mediated, “Now that Changying is fine, let"s not tear down the pavilion. Since the pavilion is made of bamboo, just break through the places where the rainwater can"t hit, and pour realgar into it, so nothing else will dare to come near in the future. Wouldn"t that get it?”

Wei Changying didn"t wait for Wei Changfeng to say anything and nodded, “That would be good.”

Wei Changfeng was still fearful and angry after the accident. He wanted to say something, but Song Zaishui and Wei Changying had already been urging him to talk about the group of Gu Yiran and Deng Zongqi. Unable to dissuade his two sisters, he had to tell them. “Gu Yiran is the son of the collateral branch of the Gu Family from the capital, and Deng Zongqi, however, is the clan lineal son of the Deng family. At the foot of the hill there were also sons from the Liu Family and the Duanmu Family. The group is made up of four sons all from gentry families, and the rest of the servants I haven"t paid much attention to. Last night the two sons from the Liu Family and the Duanmu Family got into a fight with our guards and injured someone. I came down the hill to reprimand them, but for the sake of their families I had sent someone to set up the bamboo huts for them to spend the night. These two were probably too embarra.s.sed to come up the hill today, so only Mr. Gu and Mr. Deng made their way up to say goodbye.”

“The son of the Liu Family and the son of the Duanmu Family?” Song Zaishui and Wei Changying looked at each other, both shocked, and said, “The sons of the four families… What has brought them to Fengzhou?”

Wei Changfeng said, “Who said they were going to Fengzhou? They were going to Qingzhou!”

“What are they going to do in Qingzhou?” Wei Changying asked, confused.

“It"s not of any importance, but it shouldn"t be spread around.” Wei Changfeng looked around, and the servants all sensibly retreated. And then he whispered in a low voice, “They are all Standby Guards from the capital. This time they are going to Qingzhou on an errand by secret imperial decree from His Majesty.”

Hearing that, Wei Changying and Song Zaishui were both shocked, “Standby Guards?! And the secret imperial decree? What is the errand?”

Standby Guard was the last of the Three Capital Guards of the Emperor, but not anyone was eligible to enter. In the early years of the Great Vi, the Three Capital Guards were established to defend the Forbidden City Inside, namely the Private Guard, the Honor Guard, and the Standby Guard.

Among which the Private Guard could only be entered by sons of officials with the third official rank or above, which would be the upper main seventh official rank. Earlier there had been news from the capital that after Shen Changfeng turned 15 years old, he would become the Private Guard due to his father"s position. The Honor Guard was one rank lower than the Private Guard, namely the upper supporting seventh official rank, and it could only be selected from the grandsons of the third official rank or above, or sons of the fourth official ranks. And the last was the Standby Guard, which also required that only the grandsons of the fourth official rank and the sons of the fifth official rank could enter.

Among the Three Capital Guards, although the highest Private Guard was only ranked seventh, because the Third Capital Guards were directly defending the palaces, it was still considered among the highest status, so it could not be compared only by its rank. The Three Capital Guards had in total of 4963 openings, and even the Standby Guard, which had the lowest status, was limited to sons of officials with the fifth official ranks. Therefore, the position had always been better to be left open than simply making up the number.

One of the unspoken rules for the promotion of officials in the Great Vi was that those who had served in the Forbidden City Inside would have priority in promotion. Therefore, this ident.i.ty had always been valued by each family.

If not for Wei Huan had retired and Old Madam Song wouldn"t trust for her only lineal grandson to leave her side easily, Wei Changfeng would have been selected as Honor Guard for credentials about now.

It could be said that among the Three Capital Guards, it was basically impossible for common people to make an appearance. From the top to the bottom, the line-up was essentially made up in accordance to the status of the family and their degree of prosperity in the Great Vi nowadays.

Although Gu Yiran and Deng Zongqi"s families could not compare to the six gentlefolks within the country, they were still considered well-known families in the entire Great Vi. Deng Zongqi especially was the clan lineal son of the Deng Family. However, they still could only become Standby Guards, and from which it could be seen just how many sons from n.o.ble families were gathered in the Imperial Army of the Great Vi Emperor!

The founding of the Three Capital Guards in the early years was to defend the Emperor, so the Three Capital Guards had clear rules that they could not leave the capital without permission. These people were namely governed by the leader of the Imperial Army, but in fact they were the Emperor"s Private Army, who were commanded by His Majesty himself. Every move they made would be closely related to the Emperor"s decree.

Now four Standby Guards appeared at the foot of the Little Bamboo Hill, heading over to Qingzhou. And that was under secret imperial decree…. Anyone would be curious and surprised.

Especially since not long ago the news of the triumph at north of the province was spread in Fengzhou, and the envoy of the Emperor was on his way with the imperial edict of praise about now…. Could it be related to this? How come the Su Family"s place was involved?

Wei Changying knew more about the victory at the north of the province, for example, how Song Han and Song Duan had taken other"s military exploit in attempt of sham marriage. Therefore, she thought that surely His Majesty was perspicacious to discover this, and he had sent people over for investigation?

However, although in a flash Song Zaishui and Wei Changying had already had a million guesses in their heart, they were still not right— and in fact, not even close. The real reason was that His Majesty recently had a new imperial concubine in the palace who he adored very much. In a few days she had been promoted from the lowest Eighth Rank Beauty to the Sixth Rank Lady, and even her share of reward was close to that of a talent of the fourth official rank. Adored by the Emperor to such extent, this new n.o.ble Lady Zhong still put up a frowning face when there was no one around every now and then. His Majesty made an inquiry himself, and Lady Zhong finally spilled the truth. It was because she was originally from a poor family in Qingzhou, and she had become an imperial maidservant for the sake of her younger siblings. Now that she had become an imperial concubine dressing elegantly and feasting on delicacies, she still missed her younger siblings more than before. She often wondered if they were still alive, and if they had enough food and clothing….

Wei Changying was stunned, “So His Majesty has dispatched four Standby Guards to Qingzhou in order to find Lady Zhong"s younger siblings?”

Wei Changfeng said lightly, “I thought so at first too, but… According to Gu Yiran, the reason why they were in a hurry was that Lady Zhong"s birthday was coming up in two months. His Majesty had decided to take Lady Zhong"s younger siblings to the capital before then, and the decision to bring them to the palace on the day of her birthday was not only to reunite them, but also to surprise her. As for the reason for the secret imperial decree, it was because His Majesty had ordered that this should remain a secret to Lady Zhong until her birthday. As a result, Gu Yiran didn"t dare to make a stop, and had to be in a hurry day and night. Yesterday not only did they miss the station, but also damped their lantern in the rain. Only after a long time of being lost did they finally find their way to the foot of the Little Bamboo Hill.”

“…” No wonder that although it was a secret imperial decree, Gu Yiran and others dared to let Wei Changfeng know about this. This thing… Wei Changying looked speechlessly at Song Zaishui, who looked disgusted hearing this. The licentiousness in the Eastern Palace was already making Song Zaishui worry every day, not to mention the fact that even His Majesty was like this….

Now that the northern barbarians were coveting over the Great Vi, it wouldn"t be surprising if they were eager to declare war every minute from now to invade Zhongyuan. Even within Zhongyuan it was not peaceful. Places within only a hundred miles from Fengzhou had already had appearances of felonious bandits. Under such circ.u.mstances, His Majesty still had the heart to give secret imperial decree to four Standby Guards to travel days and nights to Qingzhou, a place that was a thousand miles away from the capital, just to look for the younger siblings of the Zhong Family, for the sake of a newly promoted concubine who was feeling blue….

Although Wei Changying didn"t know much about the current situation in the imperial court, even she had felt that nowadays, something wasn"t right in the Great Vi….