Spring Among Pear Blossoms - Chapter 4
At that moment, the supposedly dying Lord Xie propped himself up and turned to look at me.
Earlier, I had been too busy saving him to take a proper look.
Only now did I realize how extraordinarily handsome Xie Ling was.
His hair was glossy black, like satin.
A delicate beauty laid low by illness, through and through.
His brows drew together slightly.
“Second Miss Jiang?”
Even his voice was cool and pleasant.
Before I could think of a way to brush off his question, someone crawled in through the weeds beside the courtyard wall.
I jumped.
The newcomer rushed inside, sobbing, with an enormous lump on his forehead.
“My lord, are you all right?”
“The antidote I buried by the pond is gone! Some damned scoundrel dug it up!”
The boy who had crawled through the dog hole was called Songmo.
He seemed to be Xie Ling’s guard.
A few days earlier, he had noticed one of the west courtyard’s guards behaving suspiciously outside the little kitchen.
By the time Songmo caught him, the man had already emptied Xie Ling’s medicine bowl. He claimed he had knocked it over by accident.
Some of the west courtyard’s guards had been placed there by the princess consort.
Songmo grew suspicious but kept quiet. After telling Xie Ling, he found someone outside the residence to examine the powdered medicine left beside the stove.
It was indeed poison.
Afraid they would try the same trick again, Songmo had spent a fortune obtaining the right antidote and buried it beneath a scholar tree beside the pond.
Who would have thought the comments would hand that antidote to me?
Only then did the little guard notice me standing by the door.
“Who are you?” he demanded, instantly wary.
I played dumb.
Xie Ling lowered his eyes.
“Songmo, arrange a room for the second Miss Jiang.”
Songmo’s eyes widened. Taking in Xie Ling’s disheveled state, he promptly shut the door in my face.
I didn’t know what they discussed inside.
Later, I heard Songmo’s incredulous voice.
“My lord, I know you’re kind, but that doesn’t mean you should let people walk all over you.”
“If Jiang Danyue doesn’t want to marry you, then let her refuse. Who was forcing her? Did the minister’s household devise this vicious scheme just to swap brides?”
“That girl outside, with her head covered in jewels and those garish clothes—how could she possibly tend a sick man?”
“I understand! You must be keeping her here to torment her, to get back at her sister for abandoning you when your fortunes fell!”
Xie Ling must have been infuriated. One stifled cough followed another inside.
Then came two words, utterly unreadable.
“Get out.”
Songmo emerged looking miserable.
He grudgingly told me to follow him, then tossed me a bundle of bedding.
“Sleep wherever you like.”
I didn’t get angry. Cheerfully hugging the bedding, I walked straight toward an abandoned shed in the courtyard’s southeastern corner.
Songmo went pale and intercepted me at the dog kennel.
“That’s a kennel,” he said with a snort.
I nodded. “I sleep in one all the time at home.”
“Liar! Why would a minister’s second daughter sleep in a kennel?”
The boy puffed out his cheeks in indignation.
The lump on his forehead looked even brighter.
I actually crawled inside, then waved at him.
“Look at you, so childish. Calling people names is wrong. I’ll let it go this time, but don’t do it again.”
Songmo’s face turned red.
“If you stay, you’ll get steamed buns and two dishes at every meal. No pastries. My lord won’t buy you pretty clothes, either. You’ll only have three sets of servants’ clothes to change into each month.”
“Leave now if you know what’s good for you.”
I blinked, delighted.
“Really?”
As if to prove it, he went to the kitchen and brought me two steamed buns.
I had been hungry for a long time. I wolfed one down.
Then I dug a hole in the dirt with my hands and buried the other.
“What are you doing?” Songmo asked with difficulty.
“Shh. Don’t let anyone find it. I can eat it when I’m hungry.”
I explained, “My sister said these are the finest delicacies, very precious food. Whenever I’m hungry, I ask Big Yellow for something to eat.
“Then Big Yellow was beaten to death, so I’d been hungry for ages before I came here.”
Songmo’s expression changed completely.
“A minister’s household treats you like this? They can’t even give you a meal?”
His guilt grew and grew.
He couldn’t even look at me. He simply hauled me out of the kennel.
By evening, I had the best room in the west courtyard.
[That was smooth. She even managed to tame the snarling little guard.]
[Songmo’s going to wake up in the middle of the night wanting to slap himself.]
[Too bad she can only dodge disaster for so long. The villain won’t be her permanent meal ticket, either.]
[His stepmother puts a slow-acting poison in the medicine Xie Ling takes every night. The physicians can’t detect it. If he keeps drinking it day after day, he’ll die sooner or later.]
