Chapter Thirteen: Jade

  A needle, such a long needle. Looking again at that old man's detestable face, it seems somewhat familiar. Isn't it Dr. Chen who wanted to use the needle on me that day? I didn't expect to have dodged it on the first day of the new year, but couldn't dodge it on the fifteenth. In the end, I fell into this old guy's hands.

  He dares to stab me with a needle, does he think he's Empress Dowager Cixi? Is this the Palace of Earthly Tranquility? Am I as weak and timid as Ziwei? You dare to stab me, I'll stab back, I raise my long needle and charge at Old Man Chen, shouting, you'd better stand still, today if I don't stab you, you won't know how capable I am.

  The old man, seeing this, quickly ran away, very agile, not looking like he was advanced in years at all. While running, he begged for mercy, "Lord Zhou, save me, miss, I'm saving you, how could you...".

  "You, you, you, what are you? You don't understand anything and yet you pretend to be a doctor. Save, save, save, save the life of this dying man! If you really have skills, then try saving yourself for once!" I said while chasing after him.

  Mr. Zhou and the others, seeing that things were not going well, came up to stop me. I was not willing to obey, dodged them and chased after the old man, but he ran so fast that he had already rushed out of the door. I lifted my leg to chase him, but unexpectedly bumped into someone at the door, opened my mouth and scolded, "Are you blind? Don't block my way, get out of the way!" As I said this, I pushed him away.

  Who would have thought that the person didn't move at all, and when I looked up on the road, it was actually Zhou Muerlang. He ignored my previous words, with a smile on his face, stretched out his hand to stop me, and looked at the silver needles all over my head, asking, "What's with your outfit today? Interesting!"

  "You know what this is called? This is Tianlin Baobao style." I didn't have the mood to talk to him like that, and just wanted to get out.

  He had never heard of these words before and looked bewildered, but still blocked me at the door.

  "I shouted, 'Zhou Mulang, haven't you heard that a good dog doesn't block the way? Get out of here quickly!'"

  He said with a nonchalant expression, "Yeah, I was just about to say that too. You're blocking my way, dog girl!"

  He actually scolded me as a dog, I'm so angry.

  "Who is the dog girl scolding?" I asked him back.

  "Damn you!" he replied.

  Haha, stupid! You've never even read "The Legend of the Condor Hero" and yet you dare to fight me? I gave her a cold glance and said, "Now can you get out of my sight, dog girl!"

  He gave a speechless expression, shrugged his shoulders and stopped blocking me.

  But by then, that old man Chen had long since disappeared, and the plan for revenge ended in failure.

  It wasn't until I calmed down that I realized how stupid a thing I had done, putting on such a show in front of everyone at the Zhou estate. The good impression I had worked so hard to maintain was completely ruined, and from now on I would definitely be known as the crazy woman.

  Mr. Zhou's face was filled with anger, staring at me. I felt guilty for my mistake and didn't dare to look him in the eye again, standing aside with my head down. That Zhou Mulang didn't come out to say a word for me either. For a moment, everyone was stuck there, feeling extremely awkward.

  "Manya, you're being utterly unreasonable!" scolded Lord Zhou severely.

  I didn't dare speak out, I could only lower my head and listen.

  "Don't let him take a single step out of the hospital before entering the palace. Yuer, keep an eye on your master." Mr. Zhou's voice sounded very angry.

  "Yes." Yu'er's soft voice replied.

  I was still nervously waiting for Mr. Zhou's criticism and guidance, but unexpectedly they had all left, I let out a long sigh of relief, it seems that he couldn't bear to part with me after all!

  In the following days, I obediently hid in the house and didn't take a single step out. It was Zhou Mulang who came to visit every few days, naturally at midnight, talking about the progress of the store's decoration and future development plans. Each time he came and left hastily. In order to better let him understand the development blueprint in my heart, I took advantage of Yu'er's absence during the day to write a thick stack of letters to him, hoping it would be helpful.

  After a day, Yu'er came back covered in blood, looking extremely haggard, her face pale, lips white and translucent, the blood was flowing from her lower body. I thought she had started her period, so I asked her, but she didn't answer me, just kept crying on my shoulder. It wasn't her period, what else could cause such bleeding? How would I not know?

  I asked the spirit, "Whose is it?"

  She still didn't answer me, she just cried, kept crying.

  There were many men in the Zhou household, I don't know how many, but my intuition told me that this person was someone I knew.

  "Is Zhou Renzhi right?" I asked.

  She didn't answer, still crying, and cried even more miserably.

  Isn't this the best answer? Why does Yu'er always look nervous and cautious whenever Zhou Renzhi appears, why does Zhou Renzhi always remind her to take good care of Master every time he appears, probably to remind her of her identity and not to have any illusions. Why did Yu'er come back from outside that night, it shouldn't be the first time she came back at midnight, I was too busy to care about her all along, what should I do? What should she do?

  In a few days, I will enter the palace, and it is still unknown whether I can come back or not. Moreover, I am entering with the identity of a lower person to serve Mu Yan, how can a lower person bring another lower person? Not to mention that at this time, no one can know about it, let alone in modern times when there are people who like to gossip, and this is an ancient feudal era, if it spreads out, how can Yu'er survive.

  It's absolutely impossible to leave her here, and it's also impossible to bring her into the palace. Am I supposed to just sit back and do nothing? She was the first person I met here, and she is also the closest person to me. I have to think of her.

  I supported Yu'er back to her room, went to the kitchen to get some nourishing chicken soup and red sugar water, and then thickened my face to go to Zhou Muyan's place to grab some ginseng, donkey hide gelatin and other supplements, and brought them back for Yu'er to eat.

  For several days in a row, I didn't let her get out of bed and made her lie down on the bed for me. In the past, she took care of me, now it's my turn to return the favor.

  At night, I told Zhou Mulang that the store needed someone to take care of things, and Yuer was a good cook and one of our own people, so we could let her help out there. Zhou Mulang didn't object, and I asked him to clean up a room for Yuer to live in. He arranged it the next day, and on the third night, with Zhou Mulang's help, I secretly sent Yuer away from the backyard, hoping she could forget what happened here and start a new chapter.

  Three days later, the emperor's grand election, Zhou Muyan sealed off Zhao Wei, and I also followed into the palace.