Chapter 31: Spoiling the Concubine and Destroying the Wife
Bai Xiangxiu continued pretending to have temporarily gone deaf. After all, her name hadn’t been mentioned. However, although her name hadn’t been raised, Madame Lin still glanced in her direction, whether on purpose or by chance, which caused all those madames and young ladies who hated nasty, seductive mistresses to start looking curiously at her.
She felt very stifled being focused on like this. If she just lay back and kept ignoring them, wouldn’t people just think she was an idiot? While she indeed wanted to stay out of sight, she felt some heat rising up within her.
She started to consider ways to deal with Madame Lin. She immediately discarded the idea of a head on clash. Not only would she make the Prince Li Manor a laughingstock, it would also cause the supporting male lead to hate her. If that happened, her only escape route would disappear like smoke in the wind. Not to mention, if she incurred the male lead’s anger once more, she might possibly be beaten to death by staves upon returning to the Prince Li Manor. But what was she to do?
She thought of the female lead, and how her strongest technique upon being bullied seemed to be tears. Well, she was temporarily stumped, so she might as well try this method. But suddenly beginning to cry was definitely wrong, and it would absolutely lead to her being scolded. So, she turned her head to the side such that her face couldn’t be seen and attempted to let out a few tears before she secretly dabbed at the corners of her eye with her handkerchief.
The supporting male lead and the male lead were behind her. Even if they couldn’t hear her, they could certainly see her. She also didn’t wish for them to come to her rescue, she just wished for a little pity. Men and woman were the same, easily birthing love from pity. Supporting male lead, you definitely must notice me!
Beauties were beauties. Even their backs were beautiful enough to enchant people’s hearts. Seeing that shoulder moving and moving, it was enough to cause extreme heartache!
Not only men, this was also true for women. They hadn’t thought that the other party would actually not flee in anger or start to cry, but just turn her head away. A wholly natural movement, but even Madame Song frowned, feeling that Madame Lin was being too much. After all, the concubine was just a little girl, why must Madame Lin treat her like that? She really possesses a narrow heart, and to think she hails from a big family!
“Madame Lin, please forgive me, we have something else to do and cannot remain for long,” She waved her hand, the madames and the young ladies of the Song family following close behind her. Seeing that they were about to leave, Bai Xiangxiu also stopped pretending to cry, hurriedly rubbing her eyes to make them look very red, really rubbing out a few tears since she did so roughly. She hurriedly stood up, supported by Xiao s.h.i.+. The maid also likely had an idea of her sufferings, as she too had tear tracks running down her face. Still, she still supported her mistress, as was her duty!
Bai Xiangxiu knew that her little trick had worked now, because she could clearly see the sympathy in the eyes of the various ladies and mistresses. Beauties could really succeed easily in whatever they did. Just as she was feeling happy, she heard someone say from behind her, “Come, come over here.”
This voice is, Prince Li?
Bai Xiangxiu looked back, a look of resentment on her face. She immediately felt that this was really too careless of her, actually forgetting to hide her expression. Frantically calming her mind, she rearranged her expression and quickly walked over.
However, the way the male lead saw it was different. From his perspective, the person before him was extremely pitiful, her eyes red and her expression resentful. She had clearly been bullied, yet immediately hid her true feelings because she was afraid that he would worry. This really caused his heart to ache painfully.
Yes, he felt heartache.
Glancing coldly at Madame Lin, he reached out and pulled on his concubine’s hand, leading her to the front courtyard. Song Jiaoyue also felt that this woman was worthy of heartache. She really was too weak, but also knew how to think for others whilst being weak. No wonder his friend liked her so much.
He felt happy for him, not interrupting them as he followed his mother and left. On the road, Madame Song said, “That Madame Lin really was too much. Did you hear all of it?”
“Every single word.” Song Jiaoyue smiled.
“If you were able to hear it from so far away, then Prince Li…” Madame Song furrowed her brows. She was getting the feeling that this marriage between the Lin Family and the Prince Li Manor would be seeing a few storms.
Song Jiaoyue nodded, looked around to see that those behind had not come up, and said in a low tone, “Even without Madame Lin, that Miss Lin would already be hard to deal with. She ran from the marriage.”
“What?!”
Madame Song let out a startled cry, but immediately calmed down, saying, “Ha, it truly is that a daughter’s behavior reflects her mother’s temperament. I had thought to propose to them on your behalf in the beginning, but the Long Family got it in the end. Now that I think about it, indeed, this is an accidental joy.” Song Jiaoyue didn’t utter a sound. While he had indeed dodged this tribulation, his friend would probably not be so lucky.
As for Madame Lin, she was greatly angered since her daughter had fled due to not agreeing with this marriage. She felt that this was all Prince Li’s fault, actually bringing along a mere concubine who had no semblance of manners, thus causing her daughter to leave out of rage. She had originally wanted to teach her a lesson, but who would have thought that Prince Li would actually take that woman away right before her eyes, even leading her by the hands. The final nail in the coffin was that when he’d left, his glance had been extremely cold, causing her to involuntarily tremble.
No wonder her daughter found this man scary, he was indeed terrifying. However, offending their Lin family for a mere concubine, perhaps it was good that her daughter had run. She wanted to see how the Prince Li Manor cleaned up this mess. She no longer worried about others finding out that her daughter had escaped. She would just say that Prince Li had doted on his concubine and ignored his wife, and everything would be resolved.
The most conflicted now was Bai Xiangxiu, suddenly holding hands with the male lead out of the blue. Being grabbed by such powerful and dangerous hands, she felt her current situation to be very scary, very uncomfortable. She really wanted to cry, but what was she to do?
She had only hoped to gain a little pity. Why had such a situation arisen?
Unless, was he very angry with her for having offended the female lead’s mother, and was dragging her away to kill her? That shouldn’t be it, right?? This was a temple, and it seemed like they hadn’t fallen in love yet!
“Ow, ow… it hurts…” The other party really was walking too quickly, and she couldn’t catch up with him. Not only that, her hand was also hurting from being grabbed, and even her chest had begun to hurt as well. She had only cried out when she couldn’t hold it in anymore. She originally thought that the other party would just ignore it, but he actually slowed down his footsteps.
Unprepared for the sudden decrease in speed, she slammed straight out in his back because she’d been trying to keep up with him. It was a scene straight out of a movie, but she didn’t dare follow up with the proud lines of, “What did you suddenly stop for?” She could only hold her nose, letting out a gentle moan.
Long Heng hadn’t thought that she would walk that slowly, his mind long having been sent a fl.u.s.ter by the feeling of such a soft, smooth little hand. Because of that, he had been unconsciously been walking a little faster, not having thought that he was actually hurting her as a result. When he heard her cry of protest, he frantically slowed, resulting in her soft body slamming into his back, his entire body stiffening.
This stiffening of his was fine, but what was unlucky was Bai Xiangxiu’s nose. Her body was originally that of a frail, weak girl’s, how would it be able to take such a sudden collision? Something hot seemed to flow out of her nose. Astonis.h.i.+ngly, a red smear appeared on the back of that clear white hand when she reached out to wipe her nose. What, am I so pitiful that I get a nosebleed from colliding into someone??
Long Heng had not thought that her body was actually this frail, to see blood from just a small collision. He was stunned for a moment, no longer knowing how to interact with this paper-like person anymore.