2540 Gathered Together
Chen Baojia was smiling sweetly. She held her mother's hand and wheedled, "Mom, what are you saying? You make it sound like I stir up trouble all day long."
"Sigh." Madam Chen sighed. "Your grandaunt had sent someone yesterday to relay cautionary words. You have to take them to heart, understand?"
"There are some people we cannot casually lay our hands on." Madam Chen exhorted, "Do not make trouble for your dad and the Chen Estate."
Chen Baojia continued to smile as she bobbed her head. She looked extremely obedient.
Just as Madam Chen walked to the inner court with her daughter, they saw a smiling woman walking over with two young ladies.
"Madam Chen." Concubine Shi smiled and gave the Minister of the Left's wife a curtsy.
Madam Chen couldn't help but be surprised. "How come you are the one who came? Where is your family's Madam Mu?"
Shi Huixin's face turned taut, and she suppressed the anger flaring up in her heart. She gave an artificial smile. "Madam had a bit of a headache this morning, so Huixin brought the girls over to join the festivities."
Madam Chen nodded and did not say anything else. She pulled her daughter along as she walked past Shi Huixin.
Shi Huixin became even more displeased.
She knew that these so-called official wifes looked down on concubines like her, but was this her own wish?
Even though she hailed from the Shi Clan, one of the six great patrician families, she was only the third branch's daughter born of a concubine. She had already racked her brains and done all she could to secure a good marriage.
With her identity, she naturally could not marry into the Mu Estate as the official wife, but what if Mu Qingya that woman just so unfortunately dies of illness?
Then it would be another story whether she had the chance to become the official wife.
If she became the Mu Estate's lady of the house one day…
Concubine Shi gritted her teeth and forced a smiling expression. She followed Madam Chen and her daughter into the main court.
Just as they stepped inside, they smelled fresh blood.
Madam Chen and Shi Huixin couldn't help being stunned.
When they made out the situation inside the court, they became even more stupefied.
Didn't they come to attend a plum blossom-viewing banquet?
What was with this bloody scene?
"Mom, it looks like Cousin." Mu Rouyun tugged at Shi Huixin's sleeve in shock. She pointed at the woman tied to a tree in the courtyard. The woman was hanging her head and covered in lash wounds.
"What?" Shi Huixin was gobsmacked. After she carefully studied the woman's features, her heart jumped.
It really was Shi Yongqian, the eldest branch's second young lady born to the official wife?
Tut tut, that Second Young Lady Shi, who put on airs wherever she went, also had such a day!
It truly was hilarious!
She had always been on bad terms with the eldest branch, so she naturally had no intention of helping.
In any case, she couldn't help much as a concubine. Her main purpose today was to bring Qiao Yingchun out to see nobles and aristocrats in the social sphere. She didn't want the latter to be like a fearful villager who had just entered the city.
After thinking it over, Shi Huixin pulled along Qiao Yingchun, who had been hiding behind her with ogling eyes. She walked up with a smile to Madam Zhongli, who was not looking well. "Shi Huixin from the Mu Estate greets Madam Zhongli."
Madam Zhongli swept her a look. She was vexed right now, so her attitude was a bit irritable. "Okay, okay, no need for so many formalities. Go sit to the side."
Madam Zhongli had seen this Concubine Shi several times before. This person knew how to curry favor with others, which she normally didn't find too disagreeable. However, she found her a particular eyesore today.
