Chapter 025
Chapter 25: In My Past Life, I Mastered This Long Ago
[Wow, Mother is truly good to me. But since Father, Elder Brother, and Elder Sister have not eaten, Mother surely has not either. Mother, go eat first and have the wet nurse feed me,] Yun Wan Ning added quickly in her heart: [I am very well behaved.]
Moved, Madam Yun lowered her head and kissed her daughter’s brow.
“Mother, should I call the wet nurse instead? You can eat with us,” Yun Wan Yao asked with guilt, her lashes trembling. [I am truly unfilial.]
Madam Yun shook her head: “No need. I will feed Little Fourth myself. Have someone bring me food.”
“Alright then,” the siblings answered. Father and children did not press further and soon withdrew.
Madam Yun expressed her milk into a small porcelain bowl and fed Yun Wan Ning with a spoon, her voice soft as spring rain: “Little Fourth, you fainted earlier and almost scared your father and me to death. You are awake now, but Mother still worries if you are truly well.”
[I am sorry, Mother. I did not mean to frighten you. I cannot speak yet, so there was no other way to save Father. I could only use this method,] Yun Wan Ning answered in her heart while drinking, obedient as a fawn. [Also, Mother, breath holding is a profound Daoist cultivation art. It strengthens the body, cures illness, and lengthens life. In my past life, I mastered it long ago. It will not harm me. It will only help me. When I grow up, I will teach you this secret skill myself.]
As long as the child was fine, Madam Yun felt her heart loosen. Thinking of Little Fourth’s promise, she could not help smiling. This tiny milk bun was considerate to the core. She truly was her mother’s warm little cotton jacket.
After dinner, the siblings stayed at Little Fourth’s bedside to play. Soon after, Yun Zheng was summoned to the study.
A tall, powerfully built man stood within. His shoulders were like a mountain and the iron smell of the battlefield clung to him. He saluted at once: “Lord.”
Yun Zheng waved and asked in a low voice: “How is it?”
“Lord, your foresight was divine,” Shen Tu said, still awed. “I sent a carrier pigeon to Deputy General Pei as you ordered. We struck from front and rear and ambushed them at Red Willow Slope. After close watch, that group indeed targeted you.”
Shen Tu could not understand how the Duke knew. His lord had not left the manor, yet he had read the wind at Red Willow Slope as if he stood there. Thankfully he had prepared. Otherwise a ride to camp today would have been a ride into a blade.
“Were you able to trace them?” Yun Zheng’s brows drew tight. When he had purged the clans for the late emperor, he had made many enemies. Assassins came like waves. None had ever prevailed. Yet according to Little Fourth’s heart voice, these would have injured him. Their backers would not be ordinary.
“Forgive my incompetence, Lord. Not yet,” Shen Tu said grimly. “When the strike failed, they scattered. Those seized bit poison and died at once. No tongues. No marks. No clues. Deputy General Pei and I inspected the bodies and still found nothing.”
“Continue the investigation,” Yun Zheng said, his face like iron. “Have Zhong Li join you. Do not stop until you find their source.”
He did not believe that heaven held a mystery he could not cut through.
“Yes, Lord.”
Grand Commandant Manor.
Several days after waking, Su Qian Xue finally understood. She had not been drugged and sold to a film set by her all powerful big brother. She had transmigrated into a book.
“Damn it,” she muttered to herself, puffing her cheeks. “Transmigration is fine, but why must I become a vicious supporting role?”
The original was a stepping stone, a tool to grind sparks for the leads. Betrothed to the female lead’s elder brother, she still coveted the male lead. She schemed against the female lead, tried to seduce the male lead, enraged him, and died miserably.
A twist had come midway. The male lead had sent men to teach her a lesson, but the cowardly original was so scared she burned with fever and died. Only then had Su Qian Xue crossed over.
“That fool. There are so many men in the world. Why choose the male lead? She practically delivered me to doom. No. I must lie low. I will not provoke the leads. I refuse to step into that grave.”
Thinking of the end she had inherited, Su Qian Xue shivered. Worse, she had arrived late. The original had already smeared the female lead and tried to seduce the male lead. Her name was already foul.
“If I want to wash this clean, it will not be easy,” she sighed. Then she lifted her chin. “Whatever. I have been here several days and have not even seen Haojing. I will go explore and leave the rest for later.”
Early morning, Peace Keeping Courtyard.
[Sigh.]
[No wonder nightmares chased me all night. Today is the destined day when the female lead and male lead meet.]
Yun Wan Ning had just woken, and her heart voice had already begun to sigh and scrunch her little face like a bitter gourd. The family was eating breakfast. At the first threads of that voice, everyone listened with quiet ears, Yun Wan Yao especially stilling her spoon.
Yun Wan Ning grew even more anxious as she watched them eat so heartily. [Eat, eat, eat, that is all you know. The pot is already boiling and you still have an appetite.]
The family: “…”
They looked at their chopsticks, then at the half eaten dishes, then at one another. Should they still eat?
Yun Wan Ye almost choked. His handsome face flushed as he tried not to cough the mouthful back out.
[After the female lead and male lead get intimate, she will not be willing to marry Big Brother. She will try to break the engagement. But their marriage was set long ago. Duke’s Manor and Grand Commandant Manor are not common houses. It cannot be broken unless one side is at fault.]
[Will the female lead risk her name to break it?]
[This is not the twenty first century. An unmarried woman with a ruined name is finished. So the one at fault can only be Big Brother.]
[She will scheme to stain Big Brother’s reputation, and the name of Duke’s Manor will suffer with his. Father and Mother will be forced to annul the engagement and apologize to her.]