Chapter 5

That evening, she waited until dusk before her mother finally returned from Eldest Uncle's place.

She hurried over to help her mother change clothes. "What did Eldest Uncle say?" A hint of expectation showed between her brows.

"We are family, after all." Her mother removed her outer robe and changed into a silk gown. "Your Eldest Uncle has already sent someone to summon Zuo Junjie. The maidservants, the young wives, and the older serving women—your Eldest Aunt will help keep them in line and make sure they don't spread idle gossip. You can go stay at Biyun Nunnery for a while without worry, and clear your mind."

Rumors and gossip were like the wind—how could anyone truly stop them?

But since the elders of the family were willing to step in, this matter should blow over soon enough!

She returned to her room.

Her senior maidservants Yitong and Yuwei were sitting in the main room doing needlework, with the younger maids Zheliu and Jiancao gathered around them, some helping to separate threads, others winding them, chattering away merrily.

When they saw her enter, they all came forward with smiles to greet her.

She looked at the familiar faces before her, and thinking of the bellyband her mother had shown her, a chill ran through her heart.

Her mother had once taught her that a husband might grow distant for the sake of his family or his concubines, but the people around her—they depended on her for their very lives, sharing her fortunes and her honor. If handled well, they would be the most loyal and devoted of all.

She considered herself generous to them, and truly could not imagine why any of them would betray her.

That night, she tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

Yitong was on night duty. She wrapped a robe around herself, moved the lamp closer, and asked, "Miss, whatever is the matter?"

In the lamplight, Yitong's eyes were filled with concern.

She remembered how, a few days ago, she had asked Yitong whether she would be willing to accompany her to Nanjing.

Yitong had lowered her head shyly: "I want to stay in Huayin!"

She had laughed and asked, "Who is he? Before I leave, I'll make sure to settle things for you, so you won't be left with empty hopes."

Yitong had smiled bashfully: "Miss wouldn't know him. He's from outside. My parents have already agreed. We're only waiting to inform Fifth Madam!"

Could it be Yitong?

Betraying her for the sake of a man!

She quickly dismissed the thought.

It couldn't be Yitong.

Yitong had served in her room since the age of seven. The two had grown up together—servant and friend alike. Even the keys to her own storeroom were entrusted to Yitong's care. She was the one person she trusted most. If she couldn't trust Yitong, then who could she trust?

Or perhaps Yuwei?

Yuwei had a father who was addicted to drink and gambling. Even Yuwei's mother had been sold off to pay for his liquor. After Yuwei was promoted to second-class maidservant and began receiving a monthly allowance, he would constantly come looking for money. Once, when Yuwei refused, he had even threatened to sell Yuwei's younger brother.

Betraying her for money!

She quickly dismissed the thought.

It couldn't be Yuwei.

Yuwei would be going with her to Nanjing.

If luck was on her side, Yuwei might be taken into the household as a concubine, or at the very least, become a steward's wife.

How much money would it take to make Yuwei give up the prospect of going to Nanjing?

Or perhaps Zheliu? Or Jiancao?

The moment the thought arose, she shook her head violently.

What was wrong with her?

She was seeing problems in everyone.

So jumpy that she'd drive herself mad before she ever found the one colluding with the outside.

Her strange behavior made Yitong worried: "Miss, would you like me to read a few pages from Garden Manual to you?"

Garden Manual was a book about garden design and landscaping.

Since she was to be married into the Jiangnan region, she had specially sought it out from her father's study, afraid that not understanding Jiangnan garden arrangements would make her a laughingstock.

But today, in the dim lamplight, what had once filled her with anticipation now tasted bitter.

"No need!" She turned over, her back to Yitong. "Go to sleep. We need to leave for Biyun Nunnery early tomorrow morning."

Yitong had never once disobeyed her. She softly acknowledged the order and carefully let down the bed curtains.

She lay with her eyes open, watching the sky gradually lighten, then rose to dress and accompanied her mother to Biyun Nunnery.

Biyun Nunnery was fifty li from the city, built at the foot of Qixia Mountain, shaded by ancient trees and surrounded by distant peaks. The scenery was elegant and lovely—an excellent place to escape the summer heat. The abbess, Master Guohui, was over fifty, with kind eyes and a gentle, amiable manner. Hearing that she had suffered from heatstroke, the abbess offered her some homemade Liuhua decoction. Knowing she would be staying at the nunnery for a while, the abbess assigned two young nuns to help them clean and tidy up, and would come by from time to time to chat with her, explaining Buddhist scriptures and teachings. As for the two young maidservants, Lü'e and Hanyan, they felt immensely proud to have been chosen from among the others to stay at the nunnery, and served her with the utmost care, afraid of the slightest oversight.

Such days should have been leisurely and pleasant.

But she was constantly preoccupied with that matter—restless, unable to sleep at night. When she did manage to doze off, she would dream of standing alone in the midst of a crowd of men and women, old and young, being cursed at, accused, and even pelted with stones.

After barely five or six days of this, she had already lost a great deal of weight.

Bi Bo's Wife grew anxious watching her and tried to console her with words of advice.

At first she listened patiently, but soon grew irritated: "If you have that much time on your hands, Nurse, you'd do better to go back and find out what's happening at home."

Unexpectedly, Bi Bo's Wife thought it over and was quite agreeable: "Then I'll quietly go back and take a look!"

She grew somewhat flustered instead: "What if someone finds out..."

"Ninth Miss, rest assured." Bi Bo's Wife said with a smile, "I won't enter the residence. I'll just change into coarse cloth clothes and walk around the city to see if there's any gossip, then come back."

She praised Bi Bo's Wife for handling things properly.

Bi Bo's Wife then informed Master Guohui, using the excuse that she needed to return to the residence to report her illness to her mother, and left the nunnery early in the morning to enter the city.

By evening, she returned with a face full of smiles: "Ninth Miss, the city is calm and peaceful." Unable to contain the joy in her heart, she whispered, "I also happened to run into Xiuzhu's Wife and had her deliver a message to Fifth Madam. Fifth Madam said she would send someone in a few days to see you. Then she'll tell us everything in detail."

Xiuzhu's Wife was another stewardess whom her mother trusted deeply.

She was overjoyed and finally slept soundly.

Within two days, Xiuzhu's Wife arrived.

"These herbs either clear heat and relieve summer heat, or regulate qi and blood. The usage instructions are all written on top." She smiled and handed over a blue cloth bundle, then dismissed Lü'e and Hanyan, and said concisely, "The Eldest Young Madam is ill, and Young Master Zuo is anxious and worried, staying at our residence constantly showing his concern. Your maid Zheliu suddenly started alternating between chills and fever. Several doctors were called but none could cure her. Then Yitong, Yuwei, Jiancao, and the others also began to feel unwell—most likely a malignant disease. Grand Madame moved them all to the farmstead outside the city, invited Taoist priests from Nine Immortals Abbey and monks from Splashing Cloud Temple to perform rituals, and following the famous physician Ma Boju's advice, sprinkled saltpeter powder in your quarters. When I left, Grand Madame asked me to tell you to stay here peacefully for a while and not return until the smell of saltpeter has dissipated."

She was both surprised and delighted.

Surprised because even her mother's personal intervention hadn't uncovered the truth, and several of her capable maids had been implicated. Delighted because her eldest uncle had finally managed to restrain that Zuo Junjie, and Grand Madame had also stepped in, appearing to protect her...

"Then was it ever determined who did it?" she asked urgently.

"As for the specifics, Fifth Madam didn't say. I don't know either."

As Xiuzhu's Wife spoke, Hanyan entered.

"Everything has been packed, and the nunnery's vegetarian dishes have been delivered."

The two maids still didn't know why she had come to Biyun Nunnery.

Xiuzhu's Wife immediately stopped the topic.

She had Bi Bo's Wife accompany Xiuzhu's Wife down to eat, while she sat by the window staring blankly at the silver-edged weeping willows outside.

After Bi Bo's Wife saw off Xiuzhu's Wife, she softly comforted her: "Miss, since Grand Madame has intervened, we'll be able to return soon!"

"You don't need to console me." She stared blankly out the window, "I've been learning household management by my mother's side for three or four years now. I understand some things. Moving them to the farmstead outside the city means either they couldn't find anything and had to resort to torture, or they're covering for each other and the investigation can't continue... Whatever the reason, I feel terrible about it..." Tears welled in her eyes.

Bi Bo's Wife didn't know what to say.

After a long while, she murmured, "We'll know when Xiuzhu's Wife comes next time!"

But what they never expected was that Xiuzhu's Wife never came again.

Not only did Xiuzhu's Wife never come, but Bi Bo's Wife was also replaced by Nanny Chen.

"Fifth Madam has urgent matters requiring Bi Bo's Wife's assistance, and Ninth Miss's side cannot go a single day without someone." Nanny Chen, who usually greeted her with utmost respect, now gave her a false smile and bowed, with seven or eight burly matrons following behind her, "Grand Madame has asked me to temporarily serve Ninth Miss for a while!"

Nanny Chen was Eldest Aunt's most capable aide, equivalent to Bi Bo's Wife's position with her mother, or Stewardess Li's with her grandmother.

She sensed something was wrong.

Her coming to Biyun Nunnery was hardly a glorious affair—the fewer people who knew, the better. Why send so many people? Even if her mother needed Bi Bo's Wife back for something, she could have asked Grandmother to send Stewardess Li. Why send Nanny Chen? Letting the eldest branch interfere in the fifth branch's affairs. Moreover, everyone who came with Nanny Chen was burly and strong, with unfamiliar faces—clearly not ordinary rough-service matrons, nor people who normally moved about the inner quarters.

Something had changed in the household!

And the situation was very unfavorable to her and her mother.

She quickly realized the gravity of the situation, straightened her back, raised her chin slightly, and stared down at Nanny Chen with a contemptuous gaze, hoping to overpower her with sheer presence: "I have the nunnery's masters here and two young maids. We won't trouble Nanny Chen."

"Ninth Miss, that wouldn't be appropriate!" Nanny Chen said with a smile, yet without the slightest deference of a servant, "If Grand Madame found out, she would blame me for incompetence." With that, she shot a meaningful glance at a horse-faced matron beside her.

Immediately, two matrons seized Bi Bo's Wife.

Her expression changed drastically.

"Ninth Miss!" Bi Bo's Wife shot her a look, signaling her not to lose her temper—Nanny Chen had the upper hand in numbers, and it wasn't wise to provoke a conflict now. "Since Fifth Madam has matters to attend to, I'll take my leave first." Then, with a double meaning in her tone, she added, "By my reckoning, Fifth Master should have already received Fifth Madam's letter by now. Just wait patiently for a few days."

Nanny Chen said nothing, only stepped back a few paces.

She watched helplessly as Bi Bo's Wife was escorted away from Biyun Nunnery by the two matrons.