Chapter 16 The trouble
When Li Youde brought the people to Plum Yard, Chen Hui had just finished eating the steamed bun that she had saved before. During the two days of doing the laundry, Chen Hui used extra works as an excuse to ask for an extra bun for each meal and hid it while Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu wasn’t paying attention. On the third day, she had hidden four steamed buns. So, from this day one, she began her “hunger strike”. Although, those buns wouldn’t fill her, she didn’t have to feel too desperate with some food every day.
Chen Hui agreed to go do the laundry in order to find a chance to sneak into the kitchen, but Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu were so diligent at keeping watch over people. Even when she went to toilet, she felt that someone was watching over her back. How could she have the chance to slip away? Therefore, after making preparations in advance and realizing that there was no chance to slip away, she decided to do a “hunger strike”.
Of course, the steamed buns that she had saved were not only eaten by herself, but also distributed to Xiao Tiao. The last steamed bun was also finished today. She decided that if there was no movement from Chrysanthemum Yard, she will…compromise. She couldn’t really starve herself to death.
Therefore, when Chen Hui heard Xiao Tiao run excitedly over to tell her that master was coming, she knew that she had won the gamble. She quickly let Xiao Tiao go back to her own room, lie down in bed and pretend to be death. As for herself, she took out the quilt and covered her head.
After a short while, she heard sounds of footstep entering her room. Li Youde swept over and saw that a figure was bulging from the quilt, he was motionlessly again. Then, he yelled angrily, “Xiao Liu, drag Lady Chen out!”
Before Xiao Liu acted, Chen Hui’s dull voice came from the quilt, “Lord, this Lady Chen is not wearing any clothes.”
Xiao Liu stiffened and stopped moving. He looked with a difficult expression at Li Youde.
Li Youde didn’t expect this and glared for a while. Then, he said, “Show me your head!”
Chen Hui said, “Can’t, lord. This Lady Chen hasn’t cleaned up yet. It is truly not proper to face lord like this. Why doesn’t lord come back a bit later. This Lady Chen will meet lord after dressing and grooming.”
When Li Youde heard Chen Hui’s feeble voice, he sneered, “Presumably, you will starve to death as soon as I leave this room!”
Chen Hui answered quickly, “What lord said makes sense. Why don’t lord bring this Lady Chen something to fill the stomach? Then, this Lady Chen will have the strength to groom myself.”
Li Youde sneered, “Lady Chen, what tricks are you playing again? I will tell you, don’t try to seek death.”
The inability to see Li Youde’s face under the quilt made Chen Hui’s courage soar. She pretended to be aggrieved and said, “It was obviously lord who refused to feed this Lady Chen. How did it become that this Lady Chen wanting to seek death? This Lady Chen feels wronged.”
“Oh, what is the use of feeding you if you don’t work well?!” Li Youde said.
The person in the quilt was silent for a while and said, “…Beautiful to look at?”
There was an unable to hold back laughter beside him. Li Youde turned his head and glared. Xiao Wu hurriedly covered his mouth with regret. Li Youde humphed once and turned back to stare at the outline of the quilt. Speaking of which, it had been a long time since he had seen such a thick-skinned person!
He stopped talking nonsense with Chen Hui and said coldly, “Lady Chen, either you go do the laundry well or…”
He guessed that Chen Hui inside the quilt must be listening to him with her ears upright. As if he could feel her heart-scratching emotions, his mood turned very good and continued, “Today, I will teach the one who serves you a good lesson!”
Chen Hui was taken aback. Li Youde said to Xiao Liu next to him, “Go, bring that maid who serves Lady Chen here.”
When Xiao Liu was about to follow the command, he saw a flower in front of him. Chen Hui suddenly lifted the quilt and sat up. Xiao Liu and the others were shocked, turned and faced her with their backs in terror. They didn’t dare to look at the bed.
Li Youde’s eyes almost turned round from glaring. When he realized that Chen Hui was fully clothed, he realized that he had been lied to by her before and that she was talking nonsense about “not wearing clothes”.
After all, Chen Hui felt stuffed inside the quilt. Her hair was already messy and revealed the shallow scar at her forehead after the scab had fallen off. She had discovered that the speed that the scar healed was very fast. She couldn’t help but thank the constitution of this body for healing the scar so fast, otherwise, she would’ve been miserable.
Faced with Li Youde’s eyes that had darkened in an instant, Chen Hui’s body shrank slightly. She lowered her eyes and said like a rooster that was defeated, “This Lady Chen will continue to work tomorrow. Lord, rest assured…”
She looked respectful and submissive. In fact, she had cursed that exasperating eunuch from the bottom of her heart a long time ago. Too despicable. He actually used Xiao Tiao to threaten her. What could she do? She could only compromise!
However, she would definitely not give up. She didn’t believe that she couldn’t find any opportunity at all!
Li Youde humphed once, turned and left.
Even he himself didn’t notice that there was a trace of untraceable expectation in his heart, looking forward to what other tricks Lady Chen would play.
After he walked out of Plum Yard, Li Youde noticed that there was a lantern in front of him. In the dim light, Lady Jiang’s delicate figure floated like a fairy.
He was dumbstruck and motioned for his underlings to stay still. He walked a few steps in the direction of Rely Bamboo Pavilion. When he reached Lady Jiang, his face was already smiling, “Lady Jiang, it is cold at night. Why did you come out?”
Lady Jiang originally had her back to him. When she heard his voice, she turned and smiled slightly, “I heard the movements at this side and I also couldn’t sleep, so, I came out for a walk.” She glanced inadvertently in the direction of Plum Yard. After hesitating, she asked, “That…Lady Chen made lord unhappy again?”
Li Youde hurriedly said, “It’s nothing. It is just a small trouble. I also didn’t put it in my heart.”
Lady Jiang’s beautiful eyes quickly looked up at him and then they lowered. She nodded and said, “Then, it’s good.” She paused as if she wanted to say more. In the end, she didn’t spoke and just nodded slightly, “Bihan will go back first. Lord, good night.”
Li Youde also didn’t care and glanced once at the person next to Jiang Bihan. That maid immediately followed her and accompanied her back.
Li Youde stood there for a while. Then, he turned around and walked towards Chrysanthemum Yard. He no longer felt happy as before.
—
The next day, after having breakfast, Chen Hui followed Xiao Liu to Xichang House not very happily.
Of course, at this time, she already had another plan…let Xiao Tiao do it. After Chen Hui was punished with doing the laundry, the Plum Yard that was originally meant to lock her up, no longer needed to be locked. It was a pity that Xiao Tiao was so timid. Even if Plum Yard was open, she didn’t dare to go out. Chen Hui didn’t arrange a task for her before. Now, there was really no other way. She could only let Xiao Tiao wander to the kitchen.
Chen Hui had become faintly aware recently that others thought that she had a big plan after causing so much trouble and no one would think that she did this all for a meal with meat. Therefore, letting Xiao Tiao go to the kitchen to steal some meat was in the blind spots of others. The success rate shouldn’t be small. It was just that Xiao Tiao was too timid. She couldn’t completely be at ease.
The sun slowly moved to the top. Chen Hui had washed two pieces of clothes in the morning. After washing for a while, she said that she was tired, rested for a while and dawdled. Xiao Liu also didn’t care. Anyway, it would be fine if she just washed.
Seeing that it was lunch time, Chen Hui’s heart also slowly lifted up. According to the process she arranged for Xiao Tiao, Xiao Tiao should take the initiative to go to the kitchen before lunch and say that she came to take the lunch herself. She had originally come from the kitchen and was familiar there. It shouldn’t be difficult to grab some meat while she was at it. Her requirements were not high. As long as she was allowed to taste pork the size of a char sui, would be enough…
Feeling that her saliva was about to flow out, Chen Hui could only quickly restrain her imagination and silently waited for Xiao Tiao to pass here.
However, she didn’t see Xiao Tiao come over even when the kitchen already sent someone to bring her lunch. She couldn’t help but wonder whether Xiao Tiao was too timid and didn’t dare to come over…
The person who went to deliver lunch for Xiao Tiao, came back soon. There was strange expression on his face, causing him to hesitate to speak when he saw Chen Hui.
Chen Hui put down the lunch in her hands and asked, “What happened? What happened to Xiao Tiao?”
That person glanced once at Xiao Liu and said, “Lady Chen, it is better for you to go see yourself.”
Chen Hui stood up suddenly and said to Xiao Liu, “I will go take a look and come back.”
Before Xiao Liu responded, she hurried back to Plum Yard.
Ever since Chen Hui had time-traveled, the one who treated her the best was Xiao Tiao. She would never allow anyone to bully Xiao Tiao!
There was no sound inside Plum Yard when Chen Hui arrived, but there was movement from Rely Bamboo Pavilion on the other side. She ran over there as soon as she turned around.
Xiao Liu frowned and tried to persuade Chen Hui to not mess around, but in the end, he was unable to speak. So, he had to follow her inside.
At a glance, Chen Hui saw Xiao Tiao who was kneeling tremblingly in the yard. There were two maids standing in front of her. One of them was the maid who came to say that Chen Hui was being scandalous on the night Chen Hui cried saying that she wanted to make friends with Lady Jiang. She was probably less than twenty-year-old and she looked quite ordinary. However, perhaps, she had been staying for a long time at Lady Jiang’s side, her expression was also cold. There was a kind of aloofness that she imitated from Lady Jiang.
Seeing that Chen Hui had come, that maid didn’t panic. She only curtsied slightly and said indifferently, “Lady Chen, your maid broke the jade magic cloud hairpin that Lady Jiang likes the most. This slave punished her on behalf of Lady Chen to let her restrain her reckless temper!”
Although, she had been eating a very vegetarian diet, but in Plum Yard, Xiao Tiao didn’t have much work and had such a good-tempered master like Chen Hui. Naturally, she lived comfortably and had become fuller than when she first came to Plum Yard. Chen Hui couldn’t bear for Xiao Tiao to be punished. For this, she wasn’t even afraid of facing Li Youde. Naturally, she wasn’t afraid of confronting Lady Jiang. If the hairpin was really broken by Xiao Tiao, she would definitely pay it back. Even if she couldn’t pay it back for the moment, she would pay it back in installments, but to cross over her and punish Xiao Tiao, no need to discuss.
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