After all, Commandery Princess Qingjiang was the eldest daughter of Jinguo Grand Princess. Now that she went mad, her three sisters-in-law didn"t dare to rebuke. They all rose and apologized, including Princess Changxing.

“Why are you apologizing to me?” Commandery Princess Qingjiang snapped, “You are supposed to bring your husbands here! I will not make a fuss if they neglect others. How can they not care about their sister"s feelings?”

Nie Wuying was always denounced for her family background. If her brothers and sister showed disrespect for her, who else would respect her?

Song Yixiao and the other sisters-in-law also understood that. Although they were aware that their husbands were extremely busy, under the stress of Commandery Princess Qingjiang, they still sent words to their husbands as told. However, it remained unknown whether they would come after receiving the message.

After a while, Jinguo Grand Princess arrived and sensed the weird atmosphere. She couldn"t help asking in confusion, “Why are you so quiet?” Having sat on the seat of honor, she waived the formalities of all and then asked, “Where is Wuying?”

“She is away for her own business.” Commandery Princess Qingjiang said calmly, “My brothers are all occupied now and they may arrive in a while.”

Jinguo Grand Princess was disgruntled to hear that, “That"s monkey business! It is by the end of the year. What kind of business do they have to deal with today? Ask them to come back right now!”

Madam Bai hastened to answer, “Mother, we have sent servants to inform them!”

“Why is Anyi wearing that pearl hair ornament?” Jinguo Grand Princess became less angry and happened to see the huge hair ornament on Dou Anyi"s head, asking with a smile, “Who put that on you?”

“It"s me.” Dou Anyi ran to her and asked with antic.i.p.ation, “Grandma, is it pretty?”

The Grand Princess looked at the peony-shaped decoration of the pearl hair ornament and then her young granddaughter. With her mouth twitched, she finally said seriously, “Yes, very pretty!”

Madam Bai and the others saw what happened and all turned around to laugh!

Due to Dou Anyi, the atmosphere was finally restored to liveliness!

However, not only Dou Rouchi and other guests but also Nie Wuying didn"t show up. Commandery Princess Qingjiang couldn"t help frowning and asking, “Mother, I haven"t come to your place for a long time. I want to go out for a walk. Why don"t you have a chat with your daughters-in-law first?”

Jinguo Grand Princess knew what she was up to and yet didn"t lay it bare, saying, “Go ahead.”

Song Yixiao hesitated and then rose, asking, “Mother, can I join Sister?”

After the Grand Princess nodded her head, they left the back hall and walked through a corridor. Commandery Princess Qingjiang suddenly stopped and didn"t say in a low voice until Song Yixiao went closely to her, “Wuying is sensitive. Xubai should not have been absent!”

Song Yixiao replied with embarra.s.sment, “No, he shouldn"t, but he is really busy.”

“Regardless, he should never let his family down!” Commandery Princess Qingjiang sighed, “Or he will regret it one day!”

Song Yixiao flushed with shame and said, “Yes.”

Then the Commandery Princess didn"t say anything else. She just led her to Nie Wuying"s dwelling, which was a wide and delicately furnished courtyard at the southeast corner of the Grand Princess"s mansion. When you walked into the courtyard, you would see the lotus pond first. At the bank, there was a small bridge, at the end of which a boat was tied. The boat, carved with flowers and gra.s.s, was even inlayed with pearls and jade. Obviously, it was for Nie Wuying to take a ride on the lake in spare time.

After they went inside, they saw that in the well-cleaned yard, the stark trees were decorated with vivid embroidered handkerchiefs, which should be specially prepared for celebrating Nie Wuying"s birthday.

Under one of the trees, a swing was built there, which swayed along with the wind.

“Is Wuying in there?” Commandery Princess glimpsed the swing and shouted at the room.

“Who is that?” The people in the room opened the door and came out hastily. It was a maid who was 17 or 18 years old, holding a white Persian cat with black fur on its head. Upon seeing Commandery Princess Qingjiang and Song Yixiao, she hurriedly put down the cat and curtsied, “Your Highnesses, Her Ladyship has gone to the back hall!”

“Isn"t she back?” Commandery Princess Qingjiang was startled to hear that.

The maid shouted in terror, “Your Highness, you mean that Her Ladyship is not in the back hall now? But she is not back here either!”

“Maybe she has gone somewhere else.” Song Yixiao hastened to ask, “I remember that Wuying likes plum-blossom. Where can we find the wintersweet in the mansion?” In the current season only the wintersweet bloomed.

The maid answered, “There are a few spots in the garden, where you can find the plum-blossom, but Her Ladyship never tours around the garden!”

Commandery Princess Qingjiang frowned and said to Song Yixiao, “Let"s take a look at the garden! Maybe she has gone there for a break!”

They arrived at the entrance of the garden in a hurry and asked the guard about Nie Wuying. Yet, the reply was no. They were afraid that the guard had overlooked, so they specially walked around the garden and confirmed that Nie Wuying was not there indeed. They guessed that perhaps she had gone back.

Nevertheless, when they returned to the back hall, they found Dou Rouchi, Jian Yiyou and Jian Xubai. Yet, no Nie Wuying!

“She is not in Mingzhu Villa or the garden?” Jinguo Grand Princess was worried to notice that only her eldest daughter and the fourth daughter-in-law were back, and then asked anxiously in a hurry, “What about other places? Have you looked for her in other places?”

As Commandery Princess Qingjiang and Song Yixiao shook their heads, the Grand Princess put on a gloomy face and pounded the table, “Look for her now!”

Under this circ.u.mstance, Dou Rouchi and the other two brothers were very embarra.s.sed and all got up, saying, “It"s our fault. Shall we also go to look for her too?”

“Go now!” Jinguo Grand Princess pulled a long face at her sons and said coldly, “It is so cold today. Your sister is only a little girl. What if she hides somewhere and gets frozen?”

As a result, all the people in the Grand Princess"s mansion left the coming feast behind and all started to look for Nie Wuying.

However, they searched everywhere in the back yard but still couldn"t find the girl.

In the end, a maid at the second entrance came to report, “Just now Her Ladyship has gone out!”

“She has gone out?” Jinguo Grand Princess said in surprise, “Today is her birthday. We are all waiting here to celebrate for her. Why does she go out? Where has she gone?”

The maid was afraid to be held accountable, so she said with fear, “I have asked the question but Her Ladyship just ignored me. Wanxiang, the maid of Her Ladyship kept winking at me and asked me to mind my mouth… So, I didn"t dare to ask further!”

“It is understandable that you didn"t dare to ask a 12-year-old girl when she went out, but why didn"t you come and report to me?” Jinguo Grand Princess was furious and struck the table in anger, “She left the mansion quietly with Wanxiang only. What if she gets frozen or falls down? What if she encounters any bad person? You stupid thing! Is this how you do your job as a doorkeeper? Take her away and leave her at the disposal of Aide Xue!”

After the maid was dragged away in tears, silence prevailed in the hall. They were all submissive and didn"t dare to gasp.

Despite that, the Grand Princess didn"t forget them, “What good sons and daughter I have! You have only one younger sister! Don"t forget that I am still alive! How can you ignore her like that? No wonder she left mansion. Even I want to leave in case that I won"t get in your way!”

Since she said so, how could other people stand still? They all knelt down and apologized.

The Grand Princess sneered, “Now why are you appear so filial? If you did care about your sister, why would you make your sister so angry that she ran away from home on her birthday?”

She especially pointed at Jian Xubai. “Six years ago, you also felt ignored and ran out on your birthday! And then you hid in a silk store for half a day. Later on, your Uncle tried his best to bring you back and you were still very grieved! How did you feel at that time? You"ve suffered the pain yourself. Why don"t you show solicitude for your sister? How can I have a cold-hearted son like you?”

Song Yixiao was shocked to hear the reproach. She raised her head quietly and looked at Jian Xubai. As she knelt behind him, she couldn"t see his countenance. She only glimpsed his suddenly clenched fists and the veins on the back of his hands. Obviously, he was very thrilled now.

“Not only Jian Xubai was not coming!” She couldn"t help feeling aggrieved for him, “Mother-in-law specially cuts Xubai to the quick! She is too biased!”

Very soon, Jinguo Grand Princess started to scold Dou Rouchi and Jian Yiyou, “Xubai suffered the grievance six years ago and now the same thing happens to Wuying! Is this how you behave as elder brothers? You just can"t see your sister and brother live well? What wrong did I do in the previous life to have such children as you in this life? I shouldn"t have lived to now! It would be better if I died earlier!”

Commandery Princess Qingjiang said in a hurry, “Mother, please calm down…”

“You are their eldest sister! And you are stupid too!” Unexpectedly, as she just talked, Jinguo Grand Princess shifted the target at her and yelled, “When Wuying claimed to go out and you were at present, you should follow her at once! She is only a kid! She suffers grievance and runs out alone, without no one to be with her. How can she not think much? It is all right that her sisters-in-law didn"t run after her. After all, they are sisters-in-law, but you are her elder sister. You just left her alone and made her so desperate that…”

At the moment, all the people"s face became pale!

The Grand Princess got nervous and mumbled, “Did the kid really…” Did the kid commit suicide out of grief?

Now the Grand Princess hurriedly ordered to go out of the mansion and look for Nie Wuying rather than keep scolding her children.

Commandery Princess Qingjiang and the others hastened to say, “The imperial capital is so big and it has been a while since Wuying went out. I"m afraid the manpower in Mother"s mansion is not enough. We may as well all go back to our own mansions and get more people to look for Wuying. In this way, perhaps we can find her sooner!”

“Then why don"t you put your hands on it now?” The Grand Princess sobbed, “If anything untoward happens to Wuying, I will no longer be your mother then! If I cannot even protect a foster daughter, how can I be a mother?”

Since she said so, how could anyone dare not to act quickly?

Jian Xubai and the others hastened to take out the tokens and order their respective trusted guards to go back and allot the manpower in search of Nie Wuying. Then they all started to search for the girl from the alleys near the Grand Princess"s mansion with the rest of the guards.

This day all the people didn"t have time to have lunch and kept searching until around 4 p.m. It was almost at dusk but they still couldn"t find her. Jinguo Grand Princess, waiting in the Grand Princess"s mansion, was shocked to hear the news and didn"t stand stably until she grabbed the arm of Jiayue, “Is she really…”

Now it was not the people with the Grand Princess who were looking for Nie Wuying. After all, so many people were searching around. Of course the big families in the imperial capital learnt that the foster daughter of the Grand Princess ran out of home. How could they just stand aside and do nothing?

Apart from the imperial guards for defense, all the people kept searching for Nie Wuying. However, they still failed to find her. Obviously, it was not a good sign!

Jiayue also doubted that an accident might happen to Nie Wuying, but she didn"t dare to tell the Grand Princess. “Maybe Her Ladyship has met someone nice and has no idea you are looking for her. As she is still angry, she doesn"t want to come back?”

The Grand Princess also hoped so but she knew that Jiayue was merely comforting her. She couldn"t help shedding tears, “I should have listened to my mother and sent her to a family in Jiangnan for adoption. And then I should make her my foster daughter when she grows up… I thought it would be better to take care of her if I raised her myself. Who knows…”

Jiayue wept her tears in a flurry and also shed tears, saying with a sob, “Your Highness, please don"t be worried. No news is good news. Perhaps we will get some news later?”

She was right about that. Just when she said that, heavy footsteps suddenly came from outside the door. Then the door was pushed open. Song Yixiao, with her hair disheveled and slightly messy collar, held her skirt hem in her hands, rushing inside. Before she finished curtsying, she couldn"t wait to report the good news, “Mother, the Su sisters have sent words that Wuying is with them, safe and sound!”