141 — Another Possibility

In the gentle breeze beneath the sheltered area outside the residence, Guan Qing continued educating her younger sisters.

What sort of ways did the servants have to make things difficult for their masters?

Especially for a young, aristocratic lady like Ling Qianqian, a girl who had been doted on and protected all her life?

“In summer, food goes bad really easily. Someone could be distracted for a moment and the food would go bad, and it would only be discovered after it had been served. That’s quite common, isn’t it? Sometimes, servants can be a little too busy and they forget to clear the lavatory. Everyone’s run into that problem before. These are small matters, really, but to our upper class Miss Ling…” Guan Qing’s lips curved into a smile as she said mockingly, “She’s used nothing but the most intricate, the cleanest, the prettiest of things. She’s never had her nose wrinkle over the smell of stale food, or seen flies circling her food, or a disgusting toilet.”

Song Caitang and Guan Wan both took two steps back and cringed.

Just the thought of it made them a little nauseous.

Guan Qing continued in a slow and unfeeling voice, “The servants would admit their mistake and be punished. They might have to kneel for hours or be caned. They’re used to living like their lives aren’t worth anything. They’ve all been punished before. In fact, they’re so used to this sort of thing happening, some of them even know how to make their punishments hurt less. Moreover, once they’ve been punished, they could be banished from the household. If they have family, they could return home and rest for a while. If they don’t, they could kick up a fuss and be sent to a summer house or something. They’d be fed well there too, and it’s better than having to live with these nasty masters in the main house.”

“But things are different for our dear Miss Ling…”

Guan Qing sighed several times. “She would end up seeing a degree of filth she had never seen before, so her eyes would swell and she’d feel so queasy, she would vomit even more than a pregnant woman. Not only would she find it hard to eat anything, she’d get angry and begin smashing the room…”

“Imagine – latest news! The aristocratic Miss Ling has become addicted to breaking cups, bowls and plates, and she’s forgotten that broken ceramic is sharp! She cut the back of her hand by accident and lost a lot of blood! The wound is really deep, so it might leave a scar.”

After Guan Qing’s domineering and crystal clear voice came to a halt, the entire area fell completely silent.

Song Caitang and Guan Wan gazed up at Guan Qing, their eyes shining with admiration. Eldest Sister was amazing! She was a real girl boss!

Guan Wan had a softhearted personality, so she was still a little concerned, “Those little punishments are more than enough, aren’t they? If Ling Qianqian really hurts her hand and gets a scar as a result, would she… blame you and take revenge?”

“What has it got to do with me?” Guan Qing scoffed. “Was I the one who hurt her? She was the one who insisted on playing with such dangerous things, but didn’t know how to do it safely. She would have brought this on herself, and she could only blame herself for being so stupid.”

Song Caitang was usually a strongheaded woman, but she was good at being cutesy toward Guan Qing. Her eyes curved as her lips curled into a sweet smile. “Thank you for helping me, Eldest Sis!”

“Thank my ass!”

Guan Qing threw her fan onto the table and glared at her cousin fiercely. “If you continue being so weak, then you deserve to be bullied!”

Song Caitang rubbed her nose and avoided Guan Qing’s gaze. “I mean… it didn’t occur to me…”

Guan Qing raised her eyebrow even higher. “It didn’t occur to you? You were just too lazy to think! That intelligent brain of yours is for using! How are you so clever at other times, but so lazy when it comes to such matters? Song Caitang, you’d better listen up. If you don’t wise up, I’m not going to help you the next time!”

Guan Wan had a hand over her mouth as she stared at Guan Qing. But after she glanced at Song Caitang, she started smiling gleefully to herself, as though she enjoyed watching her cousin get scolded.

Guan Qing immediately turned to glare at her. “What are you laughing at? You’re no better!”

Guan Wan quickly hung her head and held her hands properly in front of her as she pretended to be listening to Guan Qing very seriously.

The vein on Guan Qing’s forehead twitched from how angry she was, but Guan Wan was too adorable. She couldn’t find the words to scold her at all and left her with a simple, “You’d… better make sure your brain is fed and working!”

Guan Wan immediately seized the chance to shift the topic, “You’re hungry? Your brain needs food? I’ll make some snacks now!”

Guan Qing nearly exploded. It took every ounce of effort to keep herself from blowing her top.

She narrowed her eyes and scoffed. “If you make something that’s too sweet and Grandmother ends up secretly eating too much of it, you can forget about stepping into the kitchen for the next two weeks!”

Guan Wan’s expression fell. “Eldest Sis, I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I won’t try to be funny…”

“You’re just a child and you’re trying to pull such tricks like the adults?”

Guan Qing did not waver just because Guan Wan was cute. She merely scoffed, spun confidently and marched off. Her head maid, Chunhong, quickly gathered the books left on the table, bowed toward Guan Wan and Song Caitang, then ran after Guan Qing.

The two girls were left behind to quietly exchange sad glances after being scolded.

The wind picked up one leaf and made it spin round and round as it flew between the two cousins.

Song Caitang was silent.

So was Guan Wan.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she grabbed hold of Song Caitang’s hands. And as though she was looking for someone to fight a revolution with her, she stared at Song Caitang sincerely as she spoke earnestly, “Cousin Caitang, you dislike Eldest Sis too, don’t you? There are times when you really wish you could hit her or fight her, aren’t there?”

Her hands were soft, warm, smooth and smelled like soap. Song Caitang wanted to be on her side and was touched that Guan Wan had extended the invitation to her, but she shook her head and refused.

“Not at all. Eldest Sister is a very good person.”

Guan Wan stared in disbelief at Song Caitang, as if she couldn’t believe what she just heard.

Song Caitang couldn’t help but pat the younger girl’s head and pinch her cheeks. “Your sister dotes on you, you know?”

Guan Wan paused for a moment, then hung her head as her cheeks reddened. “I… I know that…”

“So, don’t be so unhappy, okay?” Song Caitang consoled Guan Wan, then pointed to her residence and said, “I came back in a hurry and my clothes are covered in dust, so I’m heading back to get changed.”

Guan Wan nodded vigorously.

It was only when Song Caitang had nearly walked out of sight that the tears in Guan Wan’s eyes came rolling down her cheeks.

She knew that her eldest sister doted on her. Her eldest sister had always given in to her and spoiled her. She protected her younger sister all by herself and never complained that she was tired or that it was tough, and even told Guan Wan not to worry.

Her cousin… doted on her too.

That day at the spices store, Ling Qianqian had pushed Song Caitang pretty hard, but Ling Qianqian didn’t practice martial arts and pushed Song Caitang on the spur of the moment, so even if Song Caitang wasn’t able to fight back, she could definitely have dodged Ling Qianqian’s hands.

But Song Caitang had let Ling Qianqian push her because of Guan Wan.

Because Guan Wan had been right next to her.

Her cousin had been worried that if she dodged, Ling Qianqian would end up pushing Guan Wan instead, and Guan Wan would have fallen and gotten hurt. Song Caitang would rather she got pushed and hit a doorframe.

Both her older sisters were the best older sisters in the whole world.

Guan Wan wiped her tears and looked up at the sky. She waited until she didn’t feel like crying anymore, checked her reflection in the water to make sure she looked okay, then ran to the kitchen.

She was going to make the most delicious snacks and the most delicious dishes for the best older sisters in the whole world!

---

Song Caitang ate A LOT that day.

She really didn’t want to grow fat and she was determined to maintain her figure, but Guan Wan was so good at cooking, plus Guan Wan was getting better at figuring out the sort of taste she liked. There was no dish on the table that she didn’t like to eat.

Guan Qing probably thought the same way. They kept exchanging glances at the same time as they ate, then sighed and picked up their chopsticks.

They ate everything that was placed in front of them anyway.

Song Caitang felt a little better after taking a long walk after dinner.

She wasn’t sure if it was because she had gone through too much over the last two days and finally got a break today, but she kept dreaming and dreaming that night.

The dreams were very random and seemingly disconnected, yet they were oddly strung together into one.

She saw Wenxiang and Yuetao in her dreams.

In her dreams, they were beautiful women who were alive and well, unlike the cold, frigid bodies she had seen. Wenxiang was making fragrances in her room, Yuetao was practicing her dance in the room across the corridor. Butterflies flew between them as red and pink chiffon cloth gently swayed in the wind.

They were like ordinary young ladies, calm and focused on what they were doing.

For some reason, the two of them started arguing. They both wanted to marry Mi Gaojie. Mi Gaojie kept saying that he wasn’t happy with either of them, so he wanted them to have a dance off and he would marry the winner.

The two girls began their dance off, hurling insults at one another at the same time, pulling at each other’s hairpins and tearing at each other’s clothes. Things grew more and more tense, but the people watching became more and more excited.

The ones watching them were all men. Some had lecherous looks in their eyes, some looked excited, some looked sinister…

After some time, the girls suddenly had a change in mood. One of them said that the men in the room were disgusting, and the other suggested killing them. The two turned into demonesses and used silk threads and the jagged edges of leaves and buds to kill the men. There was blood all over the floor…

Suddenly, the dream shifted to the heartwarming setting of the Guan’s. Guan Qing was scolding Guan Wan and Song Caitang in a domineering manner and looked very fierce, but she was actually very gentle inside. Guan Qing was a girl who put on armor everywhere she went, unlike other women her age. But she reserved her soft side for her family.

As Song Caitang was being scolded, Guan Wan covered her mouth as she laughed secretly, and looked very happy. Her grandmother was also laughing, but her hand shot out quickly and nimbly to sneak a candy into her own mouth.

Then suddenly, she recalled what happened that night on the flower boat, when she was trapped in that small space between Zhao Zhi’s arms and the wall. His words, his warmth, his smell, the feeling he gave her…

As well as the warm glow of the candlelight that was reflected and bent in the water.

A humid smell hit her nostrils.

This scene seemed… familiar to her.

The water, the moon, the warm and secure feeling…

Song Caitang suddenly woke up from her dream.

She woke up immediately and she didn’t feel sleepy at all.

She did not forget any part of her dream at all. It was still fresh in her mind.

It was really strange. This dream had been really strange.

Some believed that the things that one thought about in the day would appear in their dreams at night. She was constantly thinking about the case and felt like there was a thought floating in her mind that she couldn’t quite get ahold of. Could this dream be… her subconscious trying to tell her something?

Song Caitang put on a coat and got out of bed, walked to the window and looked up at the waning moon in the sky. She couldn’t help but try to recall everything she knew about Wenxiang and Yuetao.

For example, what Fuliu told them that night on the flower boat.

Wenxiang was a little older, so she started receiving customers earlier too. Yuetao was pretty to begin with and hit puberty early, so the boss wanted to teach her early and allow her to start receiving customers early, but Wenxiang sabotaged those efforts…

She caused Yuetao to miss music and dance classes, she snatched away Yuetao’s customers so that the younger girl couldn’t get customers, and even threw her jewelry away, said mean things and boasted in front of Yuetao in order to affect Yuetao’s confidence.

This was not a good thing for a brothel. One less top courtesan meant that the boss would earn less money. Wenxiang couldn’t make up for this loss by just taking in more customers.

And for Yuetao, this situation… wasn’t all bad, actually.

At the very least, she could keep her innocence for a while longer. She didn’t have to face the repulsive part of the job she didn’t ask for so early.

The two of them didn’t like the sight of each other, stole each other’s customers and competed fiercely, so they became a hot topic and earned more money this way. Also, did that mean they could use this as an excuse to reject the customers they didn’t like?

Mi Gaojie, for example. He fancied Wenxiang but Wenxiang didn’t want to entertain him. Yuetao kept ruining his chances with her, so Mi Gaojie didn’t get to sleep with Wenxiang.

During the Double Seventh Festival event, it was Wenxiang who purposely snatched the chance away from Yuetao. She dolled up more nicely than usual, placed higher importance on this event and even gave a box of blusher to Yuetao in front of everybody, and said, “Little girl, be good and stay at home, leave such big events to your older sisters. Don’t think that just because you’re a little prettier than some girls, you can get anything you want. You’ve got a loooong way more to go!”

Why did she say that? Was there really no other hidden meaning to those words?

Wenxiang did not return that night.

Yuetao caught a cold and couldn’t receive any customers the next day. After she got better and heard that Wenxiang had not returned, she said that Wenxiang deserved it.

---

All of this, what Fuliu said, the two girls’ rooms, the impression she had of them… she could see everything clearly, like the scene had come to life.

Song Caitang’s mind suddenly cleared up and she shuddered.

Everyone said that Wenxiang and Yuetao were enemies who wished each other dead. But was that the truth? Could a different possibility exist?

Like her older cousin, Guan Qing. She never said anything nice and was always chiding others. But everything she did, every matter she looked into, was for the good of her own family members.

Could these two… be the same?

A possibility overtook her thoughts, causing her heart to beat faster and faster and she could hardly contain her emotions. She suddenly really wanted to talk about this to someone.

She instinctively went back into her room to fish out the little flute that Zhao Zhi had given to her and put it at her lips…

…Then she put it down again.

It was very late at night, after all.

She looked down and ran a finger over the design carved into the flute’s body.

And decided she would talk to him tomorrow instead.

Knock knock!

Someone was knocking on her window.

Song Caitang put the flute down, turned around to find that Zhao Zhi was right there!

Zhao Zhi had a hand on the windowsill and glared at her with an arrogant and displeased expression. “I heard some noise in your room. It’s so late. Why aren’t you sleeping?”

Song Caitang nearly burst out laughing.

He had come by like this at this hour so many times already. Why was he finding it an issue only now?

She had the habit of waking up in the middle of the night and he knew that.

But now wasn’t the time to talk about that. Song Caitang excitedly grabbed hold of his sleeve. “I need to talk to you about something!”

Zhao Zhi looked down at the fair hand holding onto his dark-colored sleeve and went into a daze.

Her smooth, fair skin against his sleeve…

Damn it!

Zhao Zhi shut his eyes. “Song Caitang, let go of my sleeve first.”