Chapter 50 - The Beginning of The Plan
Yao Ling started the day as usual. After visiting the matriarch and Madam w.a.n.g for morning greeting, she started her lesson with Zhang Mo Mo. Her a.s.sumption was correct, as long as she made the matriarch happy, she would be okay. Zhang Mo Mo didn"t make it difficult for her because of yesterday matter. No punishment. Well... just a little bit lecture. She just reminded her to behave more like a n.o.ble lady.
She pursed her lips. "Well… I am not actually n.o.ble. I still love running around and laughing merrily. If this kind of things couldn"t be done, then I"d become crazy in no time." Luckily, the matriarch was still kind and sensible. She didn"t demand excessive request regarding her behavior. So, this lesson was still bearable to her. She could implement this lesson when she met important people one day.
That was why she took the lesson seriously. She didn"t know that her willingness to learn diligently would help her a lot in the future. This was the best decision that she"d ever made.
She ended the lesson with Zhang Mo Mo"s praise, making Yao Ling sigh in relief. After this lesson was finished, she planned to ask the matriarch to let her learn some other things. That could wait, because she needed to start working on their plan.
She found something weird though. Everyone was looking at her differently. They looked at her neck and blushed, but no one said anything.
"Xiao Yu... is there something wrong with me?" Yao Ling felt concious.
Xiao Yu concentrated her gaze on her young mistress neck and blushed at the same time. She didn"t know how to tell her young mistress. It was also embarra.s.sing for her. She closed her eyes and slowly pointed at her neck, "There is something on Young Mistress" neck."
Yao Ling was confused, but she went to look for a s.h.i.+ny object to see her own reflection. A maid was pa.s.sing by with a big basin with no water in it. She called the maid, "Let me borrow the basin."
The maid quickly gave it to her, and at the same time, she blushed after looking at Yao Ling"s neck. When Yao Ling saw her reaction, she knew something was definitely wrong. She quickly see her reflection and found a red love bite mark on her neck. She felt like fainting in embarra.s.sment. Did she show it to public all morning? She felt like strangling Yao Ying for humiliating her like this! He didn"t even tell her!
She quickly cover it up with her collar. Fortunately, she wore clothes with higher collar at the moment. Yao Ling glared at Xiao Yu, "Why didn"t you tell me?"
"Young Mistress.... pardon me, but I was too shy to say it out loud." Xiao Yu looked down guiltily.
Yao Ling facepalmed herself and promised to punish her husband. "Watch yourself out, Husband!" She mumbled to herself. She is going to punish him later.
Yao Ling went out to "Fu Rong" just like usual, bringing Xiao Yu along with her. However, instead of going straight to "Fu Rong", she made another trip. Yao Ying convinced her that their followers wouldn"t dare to do anything to both of them. One, they had nothing on them. They just became a part of "w.a.n.g Fu" for a few days, so other people didn"t know whether they were important enough for w.a.n.g Luo Hai. Kidnapping them in exchange for money was out of the question because of it.
Two, they probably wanted to know their daily activities. If they were from "w.a.n.g Fu", there was a probability they wanted to know whether they did things behind their back. Three, someone wanted to find their weakness, so they could get rid of them from "w.a.n.g Fu". Four, if it was w.a.n.g Luo Hai"s enemy, then this was their blind spot. They didn"t know who they were, because no one would tell them anything about the so-called enemy. They should just pretend they knew nothing, so they wouldn"t attract their attention. If they were targeted, they were sure w.a.n.g Luo Hai would tell them at that time.
In conclusion, they wouldn"t do anything to them – except observing. This calmed Yao Ling down a lot. She smiled to herself, they wanted to know what she was doing, then she would just let them know. Otherwise, it wouldn"t be interesting.
Xiao Yu was following obediently when she realized that they didn"t go to "Fu Rong". "Young mistress, where are we going?" She asked in confusion.
"Just walking around. Enjoying the scenery." Yao Ling laughed leisurely. She needed to look around, familiarizing herself with this city.
"Is it okay for being late?" Xiao Yu didn"t know whether her young mistress already asked permission from Master.
"Don"t worry! Father won"t mind," Yao Ling answered. She didn"t ask for permission, because as his daughter, only walking around for a bit should be allowed, right? She wasn"t a prisoner. "I just want to stroll around. Nothing will happen." Yao Ling understood Xiao Yu"s concern.
Hearing Yao Ling"s rea.s.surance, she felt better. She didn"t mean anything with her question. She just wanted to remind Young Mistress that they should seek permission first, otherwise, if something happened to them, no one would know. At least, they weren"t going out too far.
Yao Ling knew to fish out the spies, the only one who could do this was her. Especially, if the spies were from "w.a.n.g Fu". It meant she had to face one of the women.
"Xiao Yu, do you know everything in this city?"
"Young Mistress, this servant rarely goes out. This servant"s previous job was only odd jobs here and there. But, famous places… This servant knows a bit because some other servants sometimes shared their stories." Xiao Yu felt she wasn"t that helpful to her young mistress, but she really had not that much knowledge about it.
Yao Ling smiled and tapped Xiao Yu"s forehead softly. "You ah~ Why are you so sad? Knowing a little bit is already good enough. When we pa.s.s by places that you"ve heard, you can just let me know."
Xiao Yu smiled at that, "This servant will do as you wish, Young Mistress."
"Xiao Yu, you said before following me, you did odd jobs. What kind of jobs?" Yao Ling decided to ask without beating around the bush. If Xiao Yu lied, she could probably detect it.
"This servant was usually in charge of cleaning the outer yard of the matriarch"s courtyard. Beside that, this servant followed Zhang Mo Mo"s instruction while doing general things. For example, preparing tea for the matriarch, cleaning some other places that the other maids needed help with." Xiao Yu recounted her jobs one by one. Judging from it, Xiao Yu wasn"t supposed to be in close contact with the concubines.
Yao Ling laughed. "No wonder you were badly sweating when I ran away from Zhang Mo Mo yesterday."
"Yes! She"s very strict. Her punishment was also tiring. For example, fetching water from the well to fill in a few tubs by myself or cutting woods. Mostly heavy labors." Xiao Yu shuddered at her memories. "However, she"s also kind. If we didn"t make mistakes, of course, she wouldn"t deliberately punish us – lower servants."
"That"s good to know that she"s not abusing her power."
"Yes. Zhang Mo Mo is indeed strict, but she"s nice as well."
"Then, how come you were given to me as my personal servant?" Yao Ling asked the final question that she really wanted to know. She deliberately asked a lot of questions in this light atmosphere so Xiao Yu wouldn"t feel suspicious with those series of questions.
"Hmm… This servant is not too sure myself. The one who told this servant about it was Zhang Mo Mo. So… it was probably by the matriarch"s order." Xiao Yu looked genuinely confused as well. She looked as though she had never thought about this before.
"This servant didn"t think much because actually, this servant was too happy," Xiao Yu shyly confessed her inner thought.
Yao ling looked at Xiao Yu"s blus.h.i.+ng face in amus.e.m.e.nt. "Happy? Why?"
"Becoming a personal servant actually means that this servant rank moves up. So, this servant was happy when this servant got the news. At that time, this servant"s only hope was to get a nice master," she admitted everything.
"So… in the end… what do you think of this young mistress?" Yao Ling smirked, teasing Xiao Yu. This maid was really likable. She just hoped that Xiao Yu didn"t deliberately mislead her with her cute and innocent side.