It seemed that there were more people than usual.Thought Fang Yunxiu, but right now it was different than before. Fang Chengyu wasn’t the only person living there.
Fang Chengyu had married, Jun Zhenzhen had moved in, so naturally there would be more people than before.
This was very normal.
"But she never allowed people to wait on her," said Fang Yuxiu.
Since coming to the Fang Family, Jun Zhenzhen had always insisted on being alone.
After being married, she was even more controlling of this courtyard. She chased out all of the people who used to attend to Fang Chengyu.
This was not normal.
After all, Chengyu was a sick person.
Fang Yunxiu sighed.
"It’s because she’s like that. Grandmother and Mother won’t say it aloud, but they’re definitely deeply worried about it. So they sent more people to secretly watch over them," she answered.
It was like that? Fang Yuxiu looked over to that part of the courtyard, but didn’t say anything.
"Second Sister, do you think that isn’t right?" Fang Yunxiu asked.
Fang Yuxiu smiled and held her arm.
"I don’t necessarily think something is wrong. On the contrary, the more ‘wrong things’ are very suitable in the end," she said. "I just feel that this is somewhat strange, but I don’t believe that the strangeness would cause any harm to us."
Fang Yunxiu didn’t understand, but she understood what was meant by harm.
"Since it’s like that, we can only wait. I think that if we just wait on these things we don’t understand, we will eventually," she said with a smile.
.........
"I just don"t understand."
Liu"er pulled a face from where she stood under the eaves, watching the four servant girls standing in front of her, their heads lowered.
"You were all doing nothing and resting, and you let someone come in and serve Young Master tea?"
"No, we weren"t here at the time. Miss Liu"er you told us to go pull out weeds in the garden," said one gutsy servant girl.
Liu"er immediately spat.
"Four people pulling weeds have no eyes?" she shouted. "If you still dare answer back, I will also sell you."
The servant girl was scared and didn"t dare say anything else.
Liu’er took two steps underneath the eaves.
"You people are really not accustomed to rules… did you not put the tea on the table properly?"
"...you did put it on the table? … then if you did that, why do you need people to wait on him so Young Master can drink tea…"
"...A sick person? ...a sick person should drink as quick as possible … spending energy talking to servant girls…"
"...the servant girls attending have use...what use? If it weren’t for Young Lady’s diligent work, where would he have such energy…"
A sneer rose in the corners of Fang Chengyu’s mouth when he heard that little servant girl’s baseless scolding.
He had just randomly called in a servant girl, and used the excuse of her giving him tea so he could exchange a few words. That Liu"er was like a cat whose food had been stolen, pouncing on this chance to get into an argument.
It"s just a pity that those two servant girls were suffering an underserved calamity.
Where did those two servant girls go? He hadn"t seen them before.
His personal servant girls had been scatter by Jun Zhenzhen. The majority of the servants now he didn"t recognize.
Fang Chengyu was lost in thought when Liu"er"s voice stopped outside because someone interrupted here.
"Liu"er, come here," came Jun Zhenzhen"s voice from the other side.
She was in the study. She hardly ever went to where he was in the daytime, and also did not care a whit about what went on the courtyard. She only blindly ran around outside or sold her story to Grandmother and Mother.
He was a person destined to die. Of course there would be no point in caring about him.
What she needed wasn"t him...
So coming at night was enough.
He would fall unconscious every night, and that woman would sleep here everyday. He didn"t know whether she was degrading his body nightly.
When he thought this, Fang Chengyu clenched his hands.
He knew his own body. If that woman really was up to something, perhaps his wishes could be filled sooner.
"Come here." He raised his voice and shouted to te outside.
No servant girl immediately came charging in. Instead, there was a spell of hesitation until he shouted again. Liu’er came running out of the study.
"What is it, Young Master?" asked Liu’er as she entered.
"I want to relieve myself," he said calmly.
He was a cripple. To help him relieve himself one had to bring a chamber pot and act as his arm rest...
How disgusting.
A chill of loathing pa.s.sed through Liu’er.
"Did you not hear it?" She shouted to the outside, looking at the girls squeezed together like frightened chicks. "None of you are pulling weeds right now, and none of you are even mouthing. What use are you, I will sell you!"
The servant girls scrambled inside.
Liu’er’s lips curled, and she walked out.
"What is it?"
Asked Miss Jun who was writing down medical texts when she saw Liu’er enter.
Liu’er sneered.
"He wanted to relieve himself," she said.
He can do it by himself.
Miss Jun frowned. Although he couldn’t walk, but he should be able to relieve himself.
Perhaps he was accustomed to being waited upon. This was good, so that they wouldn’t be found out by the people observing.
Fang Chengyu’s body had obviously improved. It was getting harder to cover up. That was the reason why recently there have been more and more people covertly and overtly listening in, because they were suspicious.
A last ditch remedy.
Miss Jun pushed away the paper she was writing on, then grabbed another sheet of paper and started to write a few words on it.
"Give this to Lady Fang. Added medicine for Young Master," she said.
Liu’er took it and left.
When she arrived at Lady Fang’s courtyard, she was stopped by Concubine Yuan.
"Lady is receiving a guest," she said politely. "If it is urgent, then leave it to me."
She was interrupted by Liu’er.
"Who do you think you are," the servant girl said unhappily. "What guest dares waste Young Lady’s time."
She pushed Concubine Yuan to the side and entered. In the drawing room, Lady Fang and an old person were seated across from each other. There were a pile of ledgers on the table, and two servant girls were counting sticks.
Liu’er’s sudden entrance frightened them.
The old man’s face was displeased, and Lady Fang felt embarra.s.sed.
"This is Young Lady’s personal servant girl," she hastily introduced.
When he heard that she was Young Lady’s personal servant, the old man’s face relaxed slightly. With an ‘en’, he served tea.
This old man was very imposing; could he be Lady’s father?
Liu’er sized him up in displeasure. She felt that he was somewhat familiar.
"This is our family’s Head Shopkeeper Song," said Lady Fang when she saw Liu’er’s suspicion.
Of course, this was not an explanation for Liu’er, but rather for Miss Jun.
Head Shopkeeper.
Liu’er recalled seeing him at the Lantern Festival. It was said his position in the De Sheng Chang was only second to Old Lady. No wonder Lady was acting so deferential to him.
Why the subservience? Isn’t he just another businessman, or someone who did errands?
Liu’er’s lips curled.
"This is the medicine that Young Lady wants for Young Master," she said, handing over the prescription to Lady Fang.
She accepted it hastily. Liu’er left without waiting for her to send her off.
"What kind of medicine is for Chengyu?"
Asked Shopkeeper Song with a frown when he saw Lady Fang sit down.
Lady Fang hesitated for a moment, embarra.s.sed.
"Nothing, it’s just for a cold…" she said.
This was an outright lie. Head Shopkeeper Song frowned, but didn’t demand on seeing it.
Lady Fang hurried to pa.s.s the prescription to Concubine Yuan.
"Since she is already part of our family, you should discipline her when necessary." He did not ask about the prescription. "Did you see how that servant girl knows no rules?"
Knowing the master from the servant.
"Old Master, have you heard of that young miss’ temper?" Concubine Yuan said with a smile. "Who would dare discipline her."
Because he and Old Master Fang swore brotherhood together, he was called Old Master by the people of the family.
"Before she was not part of our family and wanted to marry out, so there was no point in caring about her. But now since she is part of us, she needs to be taught." He turned to Lady Fang. "I know you didn’t want this marriage, but since it’s already like this, you need to treat her as your own child. Would you be so indulgent of your own child?"
Lady Fang felt embarra.s.sed and Concubine Yuan was somewhat shocked. She didn’t expect that Head Shopkeeper Song would protect Jun Zhenzhen and blame Lady Fang.