Chapter 265 – Grat.i.tude (1)

As the bitter-sweet news reached every young master, miss, and even the Old Madam of the Lu Family, it was more bitter than sweet. The joy of Lu Wushuang’s confinement being lifted was but a fleeting moment. In its stead was nothing but more worry, one that was deeper than when she was in detention.

Lu Wushuang had long been the emperor’s one and only favoured consort. The status she had once enjoyed was comparable to an empress’s. Never had anyone imagined she would fall to such a bleary plight and this soon. Yet, she had, defying everyone’s and her own expectations. She, who was once held in the palm of his hand by none other than the most powerful man in the empire, had been mercilessly crushed to pieces by the very person. And rubbing salt to the wound was the arrival of the xiunu.

Earlier, there was still some hope. There was a chance for her to appease the emperor and win him over once she was out of confinement. But now, with all the new and beautiful additions to the inner palace, the woman who was once the sole recipient of the entire capital’s envy, would she be able to reclaim her throne in his heart?

Her fate that was now in limbo was the cause of this entire family’s anxiety. Her status had catapulted them to overnight fame, now would it hurl them away with greater speed into an abyss? What plagued them even deeper was Lu Lingzhi’s predicament: Would he, who was far away in the western borders campaigning for the sovereign, bear the brunt of it too?

It would be a lie to say Ye Zhen wasn’t gloating in the face of others’ misfortune. She was not in the slightest rueful over the sorry state the family had been, in a flash, reduced to. Whether Lu Wusuhuang would earn back her lost favour, Lu Lingzhi died during the expedition or the ramifications on the whole family, what did it have to do with her? It would be best if her archenemy never returned from the borders, it would save her from dealing with him in the future. Perhaps her only remorse was that things were not dire enough. Even so, her countenance betrayed none of her inner delight, if anything, her delicate mien was laced with worry.

“Yaoyao, why didn’t you go and accompany Old Madam in recent days?” Pei s.h.i.+ softly asked as she came in and saw her daughter busy writing on the desk.

Ye Zhen put down her writing brush and stood up. “Mother, you’re here.” She smiled. “I just returned from accompanying Grandmother. She had a talk with Second Aunt. And I suppose it’s not appropriate for me to stay and listen to their conversation, so I came back.”

Recently, Old Madam Lu was thinking about visiting Lu Wushuang in the palace and was trying to find ways to regain the emperor’s favor. She didn’t want to be a part of that conversation, so she had avoided it altogether.

“It’s your vacation these days, and all you’ve been doing is copying and writing every day in the house. Before, I was worried you couldn’t sit still, but now I’m worried you might overwork and suffocate yourself in here.” Pei s.h.i.+ helplessly looked at her daughter who had undergone a sea of change. When she was in the border town, her child played crazy all day, but when she arrived in the capital, she seemed to be a different person. She didn’t know whether to worry or be glad about it. Somewhere she even doubted if this was the same child she brought back from the border, after all when a wild and unbridled girl suddenly transformed into a primp and proper young miss, it would take a long time to get used to.

“Tomorrow, I shall visit Master Xu’s residence with Elder Brother since I have promised Master Xu that I’d play Go with him,” Ye Zhen said with a charming smile. She liked her sister’s foster mother. She had always found her genuine. Initially, it was out of grat.i.tude on behalf of her sister that she was polite, but by and by she had come to accept the woman as her mother somewhere.

“Don’t you have any cla.s.smates to study with?” Pei s.h.i.+ sighed with feeling, hoping that her daughter would a.s.sociate with girls of the same age. She had turned so mature, her scarcely existent social life revolved around elders somehow. Either she was in the company of the old matriarch, or Teacher Shan or now Master Xu. She admitted she did long to see some hints of the effervescent girl who spent her every waking moment indulging in frolic and mischief.

“Mother, I will be going to enjoy the plum blossoms with Sun Wen in a few days. Don’t worry that I will feel stuffy at home. I am afraid that you might not want me to go out in the future,” Ye Zhen said with coquetry.

Pei s.h.i.+ poked her forehead and said, “You~”

“By the way, Mother, there’s something I forgot to tell you. Teacher Shan, she has left the academy,” Ye Zhen said in a low voice. She had not told of this matter to Pei s.h.i.+ yet.

“She left again?” Pei s.h.i.+ put on a wry smile and shook her head. “I knew she wouldn’t stay long.”

Ye Zhen bowed her head and snickered, but didn’t divulge the real reason behind Teacher Shan’s departure.