Scheme of the Official Descendant

Chapter 5 (Part 2): Prevent

Ren Yaoqi contemplated for a moment and looked at Ren Yaohua as she earnestly said, “Third Elder Sister, what do you think I could mean? Just now, if I had allowed Concubine Fang to continue feeling, allow Ninth Younger Sister to continue making a din and alarm the others in the residence, who do you would be the one at a loss?”

Ren Yaohua stared at Ren Yaoqi with an unfathomable expression in her eyes for quite a while but she twitched the corner of her mouth and smiled a little sarcastically, “I thought that you have a close relationship with Concubine Fang, a close sibling relationship with Sixth Younger Brother and the others, hence you can’t bear to see them being wronged by me. It can’t be that you have already forgotten who was the one who asserted before Paternal Grandfather and Paternal Grandmother that it was me who pushed Sixth Younger Brother into the water back then.”  

Ren Yaoqi’s eyes looked down and she did not speak. This was a Gordian knot between her and Ren Yaohua, there was no use in an explanation.   

Furthermore, a block of ice that is one meter deep is not frozen from just one frigid day. She did not have any extravagant hope that just today could change the relationship between the two of them.

“Just take it that I don’t wish for Mother to be implicated again.”

At this time, Wet Nurse Zhou brought four servant girls who were each carrying a copper pot, copper basin, face towel and medicine box and entered. She bowed to the two of them. “Third Miss, Fifth Miss, this servant has already sent four old female servants to send Concubine Fang back to Fang Fei Courtyard.”  

Although Concubine Fang was their father’s concubine, she did not live in Zi Wei Courtyard but stayed in a courtyard by themselves. Although it was just a one-section small courtyard, it was already giving them tremendous face.   

Ren Yaoqi nodded. Wet Nurse Zhou commanded the servant girls to place the copper pot, copper basin and the other objects on a small plum blossom low table at the side. The two little servant girls bowed and took their leave, leaving only Née Li and two he’a’d servant girls in the room. “Fifth Miss, let this servant apply it on your face, otherwise, you’ll feel uncomfortable later in the night after you go out and get blown by the wind.”

Ren Yaoqi nodded and walk back to sit on the heatable brick bed.

The head servant girl, Xi Er, wetted the face towel and wrung it dry. Wet Nurse Zhou took it and gently spread it on Ren Yaoqi’s face. The boiling heat from the face towel made Ren Yaoqi could not help but turn her head. Wet Nurse Zhou quickly said, “Fifth Miss, after you apply it a little on your face, it will be done. Don’t move.”

Thus, Ren Yaoqi sat there and did not move. After all, she was no longer a wilful ten-year-old child. She just had to endure a little pain and it would be over.

The two head servant girls, Xi Er and Que Er exchanged glances with each other and hung their heads down again. One carried a medicine bottle and waited while another wrung a face towel dry again and waited for Wet Nurse Zhou to change with it.

Ren Yaohua also did not leave. She sat on the other side of the heatable brick bed and told Wet Nurse Zhou about Née Li’s sickness.

Ren Yaoqi listened silently and only then did she find out that Née Li had caught a cold during the journey and it just happened that after she returned, she knelt outside Old Madam’s courtyard for a very long time, hence her illness worsened. The physician came to visit her and wrote a prescription to relieve her cold.  

In the previous lifetime, Ren Yaoqi herself was also sick, thus she did not know that about Née Li’s sickness and no one informed her. After she recovered and went to pay her respects to mother, she was slapped two times by Ren Yaohua instead.

Back then, she was indisposed for four to five days. When she recovered, Née Li had also recovered. It could be seen that this illness of Née Li was not serious.

Ren Yaoqi thought that she should still find Wet Nurse Zhou tomorrow to let her take a look at the prescription the physician wrote.

Wet Nurse Zhou helped Ren Yaoqi apply the heat a few times and took the medical ointment in Que Er’s hand and gently smeared a layer. Ren Yaoqi sat there motionless and allowed her to repeat it over and over again.

“Fifth Miss, weren’t you sick?” Wet Nurse Zhou paid attention to Ren Yaoqi’s expression. When she saw that it was a little swollen beneath her eyes and her lips were also not moist as usual, she thought about how Ren Yaoqi did not come out to welcome her when Née Li returned. Thus, she asked.

Ren Yaoqi paused for a moment and nodded. “I was sick for a period of time but it’s taking a good turn these few days. I can probably recover after taking a few more doses of medicine.”

Wet Nurse Zhou was angry and anxious. “Fifth Miss, how can you get exposed to the wind when you’re sick? Don’t the old female servants and servant girls beside you know how to hold you back?”

When she spoke until here, Wet Nurse Zhou’s expression changed again. “You said that you have already been sick for quite a few days?” They were in the village and were not aware at all. The people left in the Ren Residence actually did not pass a letter to them.

“Mhm, I fell sick last month when the weather alternated between cold and hot.” After the hot spell during autumn, the temperature in the north plummeted rapidly. When the cold weather superseded the hot weather, it was the easiest to fall sick.

Wet Nurse Zhou frowned as she looked at Ren Yaohua. Ren Yaohua’s face was already completely icy cold. “It looks like these people in Zi Wei Courtyard have already forgotten their surnames!”
 

Wet Nurse Zhou sighed. “We left for a year and Old Madam also handed Zi Wei Courtyard for her to look after. Naturally, times have changed. Previously, we thought that the two servant girls, Ying Er and Zhu Er are steady and have followed for Old Madam for many years, so it would be most suitable for them to stay behind to look after the courtyard. If anything happened in the residence, they can also quickly dispatch people to send a letter to the village in time. I didn’t expect that they would be married off by Old Madam. Right now, it’s even hard for them to enter the inner courtyard. It’s really a pity.”