Chapter 027
Chapter 27: Buddha’s Chosen Cousin’s daytime scandal
Xiao Man burst out of the bathhouse. Her heart pounded. Her face was hot enough to fry an egg, and she still gripped the poor bath towel.
She wanted to crawl into a hole, but when she looked up, someone stood at the courtyard gate. A small Miss of thirteen or fourteen wore a goose-yellow brocade dress and a neat double bun. With wide apricot eyes and a tiny open mouth, she stared as if she had seen a ghost.
It was Lin Qing Xuan’s second uncle’s youngest daughter, the third Miss, Lin Yu Ning.
Lin Yu Ning had come under secret orders from her two older sisters. Using a question about Buddhist ideas as an excuse, she was to take a look around and also see the maid rumored to be stirring up trouble. Old Madam Chen said Cousin was bathing and told her to wait in the hall.
She could not sit still. She slipped out, hoping to “run into” Xiao Man, and instead saw a sight she would never forget. Xiao Man’s clothes were a bit messy, her face was bright red, and she clutched a bath towel as she rushed out of Cousin’s bathhouse in a panic.
The scene!
The timing!
The state!
A mushroom cloud exploded in Lin Yu Ning’s head. All the spicy plots from storybooks rushed into her mind.
[Oh my, oh my!!!]
[That girl must be Xiao Man. Her hair was messy, her face was red like a monkey’s bottom, and she was gripping a white bath towel!]
[She even ran out of Cousin’s bathhouse! In broad daylight! Isn’t this what the books call a daytime scandal?!]
[Explosive! Too explosive!]
She forgot all about Buddhist ideas or observing a maid. Frightened out of her wits and ignoring Young Lady manners, she grabbed her skirt, turned around, and ran faster than a scared rabbit.
She dashed back to General’s Manor, dove into the back garden pavilion, and panted hard. Her small face had gone pale, and her hairpins were crooked.
Big sister Lin Yu Wan saw her and frowned as she scolded: “Yu Ning, what kind of behavior is this!”
Lin Yu Ning clutched the cold stone pillar and sucked in air. Pointing toward Auspicious Cloud Residence, her little chest rising and falling, she cried in a sharp, shaken voice: “Big Sister! Second Sister! I… I wasn’t being rude! Cousin is the one being rude! He did a daytime scandal! He did it in broad daylight!”
Her two sisters blurted in fright: “What?!”
Lin Yu Jiao rushed forward and clapped a hand over her little sister’s mouth as she hissed, face pale: “My Little Ancestor, what are you saying! You can’t throw words like that around! Do you want to die?”
Lin Yu Ning struggled, pried off Second Sister’s hand, and, with a shaky voice, poured out what she had seen, adding plenty of detail: “It’s true! I saw it with my own eyes! That girl must be Xiao Man. Her hair was loose, her face was red like a monkey’s bottom, and she held a white bath towel! She rushed out of Cousin’s bathhouse and ran so fast! She looked like she’d done the worst thing! Cousin must still be inside… and must not be wearing clothes! The sky wasn’t even dark yet! If this isn’t a daytime scandal, then what is it?!”
Silence fell over the pavilion. You could hear a needle drop.
Lin Yu Wan’s teacup clacked onto the stone table. Hot tea splashed, but she did not notice. Shock and confusion filled her calm, lovely face.
Lin Yu Jiao covered her own mouth, eyes wide with disbelief and a kind of excited feeling like her views had just shattered.
Lin Yu Ning still looked shaken but certain, as if saying, see, I told you.
The three sisters’ expressions were all different, their feelings rolling like stormy waves, yet they shared one thought—astonishment. Their elder cousin, the cold, otherworldly Buddha’s Chosen… he… he actually played this wild?