Chapter 214
Chapter 212: Madam Bai Is Dead
On the day the Princess Consort returned to her parents’ home, the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s manor held a banquet.
They invited an opera troupe to perform in the flower hall, and the place was noisy and lively.
The male and female guests were seated in two separate areas, divided by the stage. The men sat on the left, the women on the right.
Halfway through the dishes, before the banquet was over, Bai Yu Lin suddenly stood up. He walked toward the main seat and bowed to Prince Yong.
His voice was high and urgent: “Prince, I am A’Ning’s uncle!”
Everyone turned to look at him.
On the stage, a performer in a blue robe happened to be singing a quiet opera piece. The singing was soft and not too loud, so Luo Ning’s side could hear Bai Yu Lin clearly.
She, along with many of the other women, craned her neck to look.
Luo Chong Ye was already displeased.
Bai Yu Lin raised his voice: “I want to take my sister back to Yuhang. Divine Doctor Zhong of Huzhou is very skilled in the medical arts, but he refuses to travel to treat patients. You have to go in person to his small island in the middle of the lake to beg him.
“My sister’s illness can still be treated with medicine. She keeps talking about wanting to go back. The Marquis will not agree and says there is no such rule.
“I beg the Prince to pity your mother-in-law and speak up for her. I will take her back, and when she is cured, I will send her home again.”
He finished it all in one breath.
Luo Chong Ye forced a smile at Prince Yong and said: “Prince, I will have him sit down right away.”
Prince Yong’s eyes moved slightly.
He waved his hand and said: “He is A’Ning’s uncle, and also my elder.”
Bai Yu Lin looked at him in surprise, then glanced at Luo Chong Ye.
Prince Yong asked: “How is your mother-in-law’s illness?”
Luo Chong Ye answered: “It is a long, stubborn illness and hard to cure. She can only rest quietly. The physicians have all said we shouldn’t toss her about. If she just recuperates in peace, maybe she can live a few more years…”
Prince Yong turned to Bai Yu Lin: “Does this Divine Doctor in Huzhou really have hope of curing my mother-in-law?”
Bai Yu Lin answered at once: “Yes, his medical arts are outstanding!”
But Luo Chong Ye disagreed and said: “Prince, there is no such rule. The Marquis Manor has many affairs. I cannot leave everything and accompany my wife to seek treatment.”
Bai Yu Lin promised: “I will take her with me. Brother-in-law will not need to worry about anything.”
Prince Yong pondered: “This is a family matter. It ought to be discussed among yourselves…”
Before he could finish, Luo You, who sat beside him, had already stood up.
The young man had grown taller, but his shoulders were still thin, and he looked very delicate.
He said loudly: “No! My mother cannot endure any travel in a carriage. If anything happens, Uncle cannot bear the blame. Uncle is so selfish, thinking only of himself and not of our Luo family.”
His voice was now much clearer and stronger. His words carried so sharply that they drowned out the singing from the stage. The women’s side heard every word as well.
Luo Chong Ye looked caught in the middle.
Luo Ning listened quietly.
Prince Yong leaned toward Luo Chong Ye and spoke a few words in a low voice.
Then Luo Chong Ye called over a maidservant who was pouring wine and sent her to the women’s seats.
A short while later, the maidservant came back and reported loudly: “Old Madam says a person’s life is more important than anything. If Uncle truly has a way to cure Madam’s illness, then let him take Madam back.”
Prince Yong said: “Set the rules aside. Treating the illness comes first.”
Luo Chong Ye had no choice but to give in.
In front of everyone, the matter was finally settled.
Very soon, all of Shengjing City knew two things. First, the Princess Consort’s mother was not yet dead. Second, Madam Bai was gravely ill, and her brother had made a big scene at the Luo family, insisting on taking her back to Yuhang.
Everyone in the Luo family opposed it, but for the sake of feelings and face, they had to agree.
In the future, if Madam Bai died on the way or in Yuhang, it would have nothing to do with the Luo family. It would be Bai Yu Lin’s responsibility.
No one dared to discuss this small episode on the spot, but they would, of course, talk about it afterward.
After the banquet, Luo Ning returned to the manor with Prince Yong.
“Prince, my father thought himself clever and used you,” Luo Ning said with real regret.
Xiao Huai Feng already knew that Madam Bai had had an affair with Qiu Shi Dong. Luo Ning had not hidden anything from him and had told him all of it. He had even told Luo Ning not to be soft-hearted.
So he understood Bai Yu Lin’s true goal very well.
Bai Yu Lin was the head of Madam Bai’s maiden family. He had a whole household of people to support and was a petty, calculating man. There was no way he truly wanted to carry such a heavy burden.
It was Luo Chong Ye who had forced him to stand up and take the hot potato that was the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s manor.
Madam Bai would certainly die.
After this public scene, her death would be laid entirely on Bai Yu Lin’s shoulders, and the Luo family would be clean of it.
Xiao Huai Feng had been used.
“It does not matter. The Marchioness has also been a weight on your heart. If this can be settled, you can be at peace,” Xiao Huai Feng said.
He never preached about “filial piety.” In his eyes, those rules were used to restrain commoners. Filial piety was just another form of loyalty.
Xiao Huai Feng believed in repaying kindness with kindness and resentment with justice.
Three days later, Bai Yu Lin rented a large boat and headed south with Madam Bai.
Luo Chong Ye went to see them off.
Luo Ning and Xiao Huai Feng rode in a carriage by another road toward the dock at Tongzhou. Luo You was in the carriage as well.
Luo You told Luo Ning everything.
This had been a plan between him and his sister-in-law. Luo You’s ideas were more extreme, and his sister-in-law had disagreed, so she had pulled Luo Chong Ye into the scheme.
As expected, Luo Chong Ye wanted Madam Bai dead even more.
“…I suspect she is already gone,” Luo You said.
He did not feel much himself, but he still sneaked a look at Luo Ning, afraid she would be upset.
As soon as Madam Bai left the manor, it meant death. Luo Chong Ye could not possibly have allowed her to leave alive.
Bai Yu Lin had to be the one to do it.
He was Madam Bai’s brother and also an accomplice in her affair with Qiu Shi Dong. Neither the Marquis Manor nor Prince Yong would ever spare him.
The Bai family was a great noble family in Yuhang, with a clan of several hundred people. If Bai Yu Lin refused to take the blame, the whole family would suffer. He was truly afraid. He had too many worries.
As long as all he had to bear was a bad name and not real punishment, he knew which choice to make.
“A’You, what do you think we are going to the Tongzhou dock for?” Luo Ning asked quietly. “We are going to burn a stick of incense for her.”
Luo You fell silent.
Xiao Huai Feng sat straight, looking at her calmly.
Bai Yu Lin’s carriage did not arrive until late at night. Luo Chong Ye came with him. Luo Ning and the others arrived a little later and stopped their carriage in the shadows.
They watched the people hurrying about, packing things up, carrying a large trunk onto the boat, and even pretending to support a woman wrapped tightly from head to toe, passing her off as Madam Bai.
Luo Chong Ye’s expression was relaxed.
Bai Yu Lin’s shoulders were hunched. He looked both fat and worn-out.
The big boat pushed away from the bank.
Luo Ning burned paper money, then lit a stick of incense. She faced the direction in which the boat was leaving and kowtowed three times.
“Mother, I have repaid the kindness of giving me life. Once a person dies, everything is empty. The debts and grudges between us end here. In the next life, do not be this kind of enemy again. In life or death, let us never meet,” Luo Ning said softly.
Hearing her words, Luo You also kowtowed three times, very solemnly.
Luo Ning stood up.
The Grand Canal was wide. The wind by the river was damp and cold, and Luo Ning shivered without meaning to.
Maybe it was Madam Bai’s ghost roaring by their ears.
Madam Bai certainly would not accept this willingly.
But it did not matter. A ghost could do nothing. It was lighter than the river wind.
Luo Ning folded her arms over her chest.
Xiao Huai Feng took off his cloak and draped it over her shoulders.
Luo Ning lifted her eyes and glanced at him.
There was a moon, so the night was not very dark. Under the sky, his features looked deep and shadowed, without a trace of emotion.
He was the only outsider in the world who knew all the secrets of the Luo family.
He was also Luo Ning’s master, and her future.
“Thank you, Prince.”
“Do not be sad,” Xiao Huai Feng said.
Luo Ning answered that she understood.
Back in the carriage, Luo Ning let her thoughts go blank. With Madam Bai dead, it felt as if all the hatred had vanished.
Seeing that she had stayed silent all this time, Luo You asked her: “Big Sister, what are you thinking about?”
“I am thinking that even when she died, she never favored me,” Luo Ning said.
The missing bond with her parents had always been there. Even when she tried her best to ignore it, Luo Ning still knew there was a hole inside her.
On cold days, the wind would blow in through that hole into her heart, making her shiver to the bone.
Maybe one day in the future, she would gain more and slowly fill that hole.
Or maybe it would stay there all her life, so that even when she was dying, she would still be thinking that her parents had never cared about her in this lifetime.
She did not know.
With Madam Bai’s death, the old debts were cleared. So that night, Luo Ning felt a little empty.