Heshouhe = harmonious, shou = long life¹ XianzhuPrincess of the Fourth Rank/usually granted to daughter of a Junw.a.n.g² said a few words to Yuchen, and then she said to Yuxi, “Miss Yuxi has excellent chess skills. Today it seems like I have nothing to do. How about a game between you and me?”

Heshouhe = harmonious, shou = long life¹ XianzhuPrincess of the Fourth Rank/usually granted to daughter of a Junw.a.n.g² looked at Yuxi's appearance and said with a smile, “Then, just forget about it.” Not long ago, she had instructed some people to carefully check for any information on Yuxi. Although she felt that there was something wrong with Yuxi, she could not find any clues. After careful a.n.a.lysis of what Han Yuxi had done in these recent years, there was nothing particularly out of line. There were only two possibilities for this result, either she was wrong or Han Yuxi was very good in pretending.

Yuxi was originally with Yuru. When she saw that Zhou s.h.i.+ya also arrived at the banquet, she immediately went to Zhou s.h.i.+ya's side.

This matter was already speculated by Yuxi. “Let's don't talk anymore about Xinrong Jiejieelder sister⁴ matter. I heard that Er BiaoEr=two/second, biao=family relations.h.i.+p via females⁵ Shenform of address for a woman about one's mother's age; aunt; auntie⁶ is forcing you to learn needlework every day.“ As she asked this, her face was full of schadenfreude, making Zhou s.h.i.+ya who saw it wanted to very much choked her. Of course, if it wasn't for her image in public, she would certainly have done so.

Yuxi helplessly retorted, “You ah, grows up in happiness, but fail to appreciate what happiness really meansChinese well-known phrase not appreciate the happy life one enjoys⁷.” Children without mothers, even if they had not met evil stepmother and had no worries about food and clothing, would still walk on tortuous path in the future. In a situation like Yuchen's, there were only a few who could be doted by their Zumufather's mother⁸ and Waizumumother's mother⁹. As for her, there was no need to be mentioned.

Yuxi's face was showing a slight helplessness, “Who said I don't have anything to worry about? I have to learn to manage the household from next year. If only managing the household is something trivial.“

Yuxi did not know that Zhou s.h.i.+ya could be this pessimistic. “Your mother loves you so much and she will be sure to find a good family for you. You don't need to be worried.” Seeing that Zhou s.h.i.+ya still looked disgruntled, she smiled, “My situation is ten times more difficult than yours. I'm not worried. So, why do you need to be this worry?”

Zhou s.h.i.+ya kept close to Yuxi's ear and whispered to her ear, “The woman wearing purple clothes is Lin Mei, the sixth young miss of the Duke of Ding residence.” Duke of Ding residence was not in a good relations.h.i.+p with Duke Han of the State residence. Over the years, the relations.h.i.+p between the two residences had been particularly lukewarm. However, in public occasions, both residences would maintain their personal affection. So she didn't know what caused the uproar this time.

Qiu Yanfu was livid as she angrily said, “Did you really apologize just now? Also, you obviously did it on purpose, by spilling tea on my clothes.“ She didn't know how many people would come to bully her if she submitted to the humiliation this time around.

Qiu Yanfu was so angry that she couldn't say anything back. Lin Mei's remark was a naked insult to her, which humiliated her as a girl from a merchant family with only money in her eyes.

Lin Mei sneered, “No matter how bad the rules of our residence are, we won't be parading around with nothing.” Although she was a shuborn from concubine¹⁴ daughter, her mother was deeply loved by Duke of Ding s.h.i.+ziheir of a n.o.ble family¹⁵. As a result, she developed this huge temper of her.

Lin Mei was furious, as being born from a concubine was something painful that she could never speak of. Yuxi noticed that the situation was getting bad that she immediately said, “Miss Lin, today is the 60th birthday of Old Madam of the Marquis residence. If this really breaks out, it won't be good for anyone.” When guests made trouble in the host family residence, they would offend the host family first, and the next one to be ruin was their own reputation for not knowing slight or important, urgent or non-urgentChinese idiom : sense of priority¹⁶.

Yuxi said with a calm face, “It's still much better than Miss Lin.” No matter how much she hated Yurong, she couldn't let her be bullied here.

As Yuxi noticed that Yurong still had an angry face on, she immediately said, “Wu Meimeiwu=five/fifth, Meimei=younger sister¹⁷ take Qiu Biaojieelder female cousin¹² to change clothes.” In order to guard against emergencies, they would always bring two sets of clothes when they went out. This was why she said this.

When Lin Mei heard this, she burst out laughing. She wanted to sneer, but when she saw Chiang Yi coming in from the outside, she wisely said nothing.

Chiang Yi glanced at Yuxi, then she smiled and told the maids around her to bring Qiu Yanfu to change clothes. Qiu Yanfu did not know what kind of mentality she was currently having, as she looked at Yuxi and asked, “Si BiaomeiSi=four/fourth, Biaomei=younger female cousin¹⁹, will you come with me?”

Yurong didn't think much about it. She originally wanted to go out with Qiu Yanfu anyway.

Yuxi didn't care much when she saw this scene. The Marquis residence had so many guests today that some problems were already expected, just whether the problems were big or small.

The sky was getting darker and darker as it started to go hazy. Soon, bean-sized raindrops fell from the sky, rattling the windows.

When the time for noon meal arrived, Yuxi still didn't the appearance of Qiu Yanfu and Yurong. Suddenly, there was something like bad feeling flashed in her heart. Qiu Yanfu wanted to climb a higher branch. In case anything became out of line today, if Qiu Yanfu fell alone, then it would be okay, but Yurong went along with her. Yurong and Yuxi's condition was like honoured one, you honoured them all, injured one, you injured them allbe bound together for good or ill²². She just didn't want to get involved. At this time, Yuxi was a little regretful. If she had known about this earlier, she wouldn't have let Yurong followed Qiu Yanfu. .

Yuxi did not felt at ease even after hearing Zhou s.h.i.+ya's words. If Qiu Yanfu cared about reputation, she would not have designed after her Ergeer=two/second, ge=elder brother, short form of Gege²⁴ from the beginning. He married her because he thought he had ruined her innocence.

After s.h.i.+qim left, Zhou s.h.i.+ya asked in a low voice, “What's up?”

After lunch, Yuji joined Yuru and Yujing. Yujing looked at Yuxi being alone and asked curiously, “Where are Wu Meiwu=five/fifth, mei=younger sister, short form for Meimei²⁰ and Qiu Biaojieelder female cousin¹²?”

Yujing looked suspiciously at Yuxi, but she knew that such occasion was not suitable for her recklessness, so she just kept the matter in her mind.

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