Chapter 35: Insult

  The night was deep, Qinglian knelt on the bed, quickly making the bed and folding the quilt. She flipped open the brocade quilt and arranged the pillows. Lingyun lazily leaned against one side, gazing at Qinglian with a hint of a smile. From his angle, he could see Qinglian's small buttocks as she bent down to make the bed, which was tantalizing him. He recalled Shallow Snow's suggestion to collect the rent at dinner, and his slightly lustful thoughts were immediately doused with cold water, cooling down significantly. After finishing making the bed, Qinglian turned around and saw Lingyun still gazing at her private parts with the same expression as before. Her pretty face suddenly flushed with two clouds of shame, and she jumped off the bed like a startled little white rabbit, running to the small bed in the corner of the room.

  With a puff, the candle flame flickered and then went out, plunging the entire room into darkness, leaving only Qinglian's slightly urgent gasps in the silent darkness.

  Lingyun yawned silently and smiled, taking off his clothes under the starlight outside the window and getting into bed. Before, every night before sleeping, he could enjoy Xiaoyu's thoughtful service, and didn't even need to take off his own clothes. But today, it seemed impossible. After a big yawn, Lingyun let out a satisfied sound and closed his eyes. It wasn't until after a while that the sound of Xiaoyu's breathing became more stable, and then a rustling sound came from the room. On the day Shanshu took Lingyun's marriage certificate, Mulan and Qinglian, two maids, were already considered people in Lingyun's house. These days, the two maids had been eating and living with Lingyun together, and every night, they would take turns coming to his room to sleep. Of course, it was just sleeping.

  This is also a feature of many large families. At night, when sleeping, a small bed is placed in one corner of the house, leaving a young maid to keep watch and be responsible for pouring tea at night. Of course, in some large households, after men get married, the maid who keeps watch is actually served by the concubine. When the wife's body is not suitable, she also has to undertake the work of serving in bed.

  Tonight was no different from the nights of the past, but the two people sleeping in bed were both a little absent-minded. Lingyun was thinking that tomorrow he would truly complete the wedding ceremony and enter the bridal chamber. Qinglian, on the other hand, had her mind full of Lingyun's gaze with a hint of mischief earlier, as well as what Miss said about Master taking her and Mulan in during the day. As soon as she thought about these things, her face would flush with shame, and she would bury her head under the covers, but this couldn't stop those thoughts from lingering in her mind. On the contrary, the more she did so, the more she couldn't help but think even more. Was what Miss said true, or was it just talk? And did Master really want to take her in?

  Qinglian is not as big and careless as Mulan, she has been following Shanshu sister for many years, although she was born in a poor family, but her heart is very high. If she were to marry a house servant or something, she would be very unwilling. In fact, as the personal maid of the young lady, she had some understanding of her own fate early on, either when she reached the age, the young lady would let her go and choose a good husband, or follow the young lady and become a companion maid, and in the future, if the young master could see her, she would become a concubine. If she were to gain favor, she could even be promoted to become a concubine. When she first saw Lingyun, she didn't think that she might have to follow her in the future, but until that night when the second young lady said they would be married off, she suddenly realized that she didn't want to leave the new master's side. They hadn't spent much time together, but his shadow had already been etched in her heart.

  Qinglian lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep. After a while, she carefully stuck her head out from under the covers and asked in a timid voice, "Master, after tomorrow's wedding ceremony with Miss, will Master still need me? The princess is of such high status, so beautiful, with such a good figure, and such fair skin... perhaps from now on, you won't need me to make your bed or fold your quilt anymore?"

  She turned over and looked at Lingyun in the darkness of the house, as if muttering to herself: "Darling, I am willing to make your bed and fold your quilt for a lifetime."

  Lingyun restrained his urge to respond and smiled faintly. The little girl must have thought he was asleep, otherwise she wouldn't have dared to say such things in front of him. In his heart, he replied to Qinglian, "Of course I want you to stay by my side forever."

  Qinglian heard no response from the other side for half a day and thought Lingyun had fallen asleep, feeling a slight sense of relief in her heart, but also a sense of loss. After mustering up the courage to say those words, although she felt like Lingyun was already asleep when she said them, when Lingyun really didn't respond after falling asleep, Qinglian felt lost again, and the courage she had finally worked up went unreplied.

  In the dark room, on a corner bed, Qinglian pulled up the quilt and curled up like a small cat in the cool night.

  Early in the morning, Mulan got up early, fetched hot water, and served Lingyun to dress, wash her face, and rinse her mouth. However, Qinglian was a bit absent-minded this morning, often spacing out. Mulan thought Qinglian had caught a chill last night, so she brought over a bowl of ginger soup and made her drink it.

  Not long after breakfast, Gao Qianshu had someone come to the East Wing to inform Ling Yun to change into decent clothes and go to the Zhuangmen Gate to welcome the visiting guests. These guests were naturally Chen Xiong, the illegitimate son of Chen Yin, the former Southern Chen Emperor's abandoned prince who was supported by the Wu Xing Shen family from behind the scenes, as well as Xiao Shilue, the son of Xiao Moye, who had saved Gao Ding's troops from being ambushed by a greedy patrol officer on their way.

  The visiting team was extremely large, consisting of tall and majestic horses and luxurious carriages, which poured into the gate of Gaojiazhuang in a mighty manner. Among them were also Gao Ding's team of family guards, who had been resting in Xiao's manor after being rescued from the last ambush and returned together today. Adding to the Gao family's guards, the team consisted of a total of three hundred people, composed of robust and fierce family guards and young and beautiful maidservants. The warm spring breeze blew against their cloaks, and the family guards of Xiao's family were all wearing red robes and riding black horses. The family guards of Chen's family were all wearing green robes and riding white horses. And the Gao family guards who returned together were all wearing white robes. Lingyun didn't recognize anyone in the team, but there were also some new faces among the people welcoming them. Gao Ding and Gao Yi, who came to welcome the guests together, told Lingyun that the two leaders of the four major guard teams of the Gao family, Gao Jia and Gao Bing, led a hundred family guards wearing brand-new blue warrior uniforms. These one hundred blue-robed family guards had also just rushed back with them.

  It's clear that the Gao family attaches great importance to this guest, as evidenced by the fact that they didn't even summon these two for Lingyun and Shanshuang's wedding. Now, however, they've summoned all of them back, and have set up such a grand formation.

  At this time, the team of Gao's family had already returned to Gao's side, and two deputy captains, Zhang Chen and Wang Kui, took the initiative to act as intermediaries.

  Chen Xiong and Xiao Shilüe came together, but the servants of the two families were clearly distinguishable. The Chen family wore cyan, while the Xiao family wore red. Under such circumstances, the pale young man standing at the front of the cyan-robed servants was naturally Chen Xiong, the illegitimate son of the former Crown Prince Chen Yin of the Chen family. Meanwhile, the tall and robust youth standing at the front of the red-clad troops was naturally Xiao Shilüe, the son of the war god Xiao Mohe of Southern Chen. Looking at these two men leaning so intimately against each other, Lingyun couldn't help but wonder if they were both aware that the other was a member of the Chen family.

  After listening to the introduction, today I put on a gauze dress and wore a shallow snow-colored headscarf with a high crown, and walked forward to meet him. Lingyun also followed behind and walked up together.

  Xiao Shilue and Chen Xiong seemed to have already known about Gao Qianshuo's unusual appearance as a white-haired, silver-browed Northern Qi princess, so they didn't make any impolite stares at her attire, but instead dismounted their horses together and paid their respects with ease.

  "I'm afraid I've come uninvited and disturbed you, please forgive me, Your Highness!" Xiao Shilue said with a smile.

  "Xiao Gongzi, Chen Gongzi is too polite, this humble girl hasn't had a chance to thank the two of you for your help." The shallow snow under the gauze didn't reveal her true feelings, but as soon as she spoke, her words were very proper.

  After a round of polite small talk at the entrance, Gao Qiu Xue invited the guests into the villa.

  At this time, others also got off their horses, and the grooms and servants in the village all came over to lead the horses and take care of them. At this time, Chen Xiong suddenly stopped the groom Old Ma's thirteen-year-old son, "Today there are too many horses, Old Ma, you'd better get your son to help out." Just then, he was leading Chen Xiong's tall and majestic green horse, but seemed to be having some trouble controlling this robust steed. "This is a truly priceless divine horse, a real thousand-li-a-day steed. You little brat can't take care of it properly, get out of here!" He chased away Old Ma's son, and beckoned to Ling Yun who was standing on the side, "You come over here and take good care of this green horse, feed it chicken eggs and bean cakes, and add some fresh leeks. Hmm, also give its coat a good wash with clean water." After finishing speaking, he handed the reins over to Ling Yun, took two steps away, then turned back around, pulled out a gold bead weighing about one or two liang from his money pouch at his waist, and casually tossed it in front of him. "This is a reward for you, take good care of this green horse and I'll give you even more."

  Lingyun stood there, looking at the reins in his hand and then at the clothes on his body. Early this morning, Shansheng had specifically instructed him to dress more neatly. And he did just that, wearing a white robe made of satin, although it wasn't as luxurious as Chen Xiong's Shu brocade, but at least it was satin. How could he possibly look like a groom?

  This sudden scene caused Qinglian, who was following behind Lingyun, to change her expression slightly. As the master's servant, she would be worried about her master's worries and die for her master's shame. Lingyun was Qinglian's master, let alone the unusual thoughts in the girl's heart towards this master. Therefore, as soon as she saw Chen Xiong mistakenly take Lingyun for a horseman, she immediately rushed out to explain, "Young Master, this is our young lady's husband, Yi Lang Jun, not a horseman."

  But Qinglian's words were cut off by Chen Xiong, "Oh, so he is the new son-in-law of Princess Gong? He's nothing special, just average. By the way, Qingyu needs to drink fresh water from the well, remember that, Yi Gu Ye!" Chen Xiong was completely unimpressed by Lingyun's new identity, or rather, full of disdain. In his eyes, a mere son-in-law was no different from those concubines he had bought for his household. He gave Gao Qianshu some face because she was once a real princess and he still had use for her. As for Gao Qianshu's son-in-law, who cared?

  After saying those two sentences, he directly turned a deaf ear and didn't care about others' feelings at all.

  Under Qinglian's worried gaze, Lingyun didn't have any expression of shame or wanting to die, but instead smiled faintly, then bent down to pick up the golden bead from the ground, blew on it, and calmly put it into his waist pouch.