With the matter settled, Jinlan immediately left with the household manager.
Only Jinque and Jinyu remained in the room.
Lin Ruochu ordered some ginger soup and cold-dispelling medicinal broth for Jinque, telling her to go and rest.
After being exposed to the cold for a whole night, both maids looked unwell.
Jinque thanked her gratefully and retreated to her own room outside.
Once she was alone with Jinyu, Lin Ruochu stuffed some silver fragments into her hand, telling her to find the carriage manager and have the horse and carriage to White Cloud Temple prepared as quickly as possible. It would be best if they could depart today.
Jinyu was puzzled. "Matron Song from the Marchioness's side came to pass on the message that you were granted three days of reprieve. You can set off for White Cloud Temple in three days. Why not recuperate first, Yiniang? Why are you in such a hurry?"
As she spoke, her eyes fell on the blood-seeping cloth on Lin Ruochu's forehead and the dark circles under her eyes.
After a sleepless night and catching a chill, Lin Ruochu was indeed feeling weak.
But she absolutely could not wait.
She vaguely remembered that as the woman's voice in her mind faded, it had said it was going to hide in the "Dimension" for three days. This meant that in three days, at most, it would return to seize control of her body again!
The terror of Body Snatching left Lin Ruochu unable to wait even a moment longer. She had to find a solution as soon as possible!
White Cloud Temple was her last straw!
Back in Hexu Court, she had deliberately brought up the Hall of Three Purities. She knew that with the Hall's prestige, no matter how much the Marchioness wanted to drive her out of the manor, she would never allow a lowly concubine like her to go there bearing the Marquisal Manor's identity.
As a compromise, White Cloud Temple, which the Marquisal Manor had long patronized, was the best choice.
The Marchioness would definitely send her to White Cloud Temple.
And she absolutely had to go to White Cloud Temple.
Only by going there could she find a sliver of hope for her own survival.
Seeing Lin Ruochu's silence, Jinyu obediently accepted the order and went to find the carriage manager as instructed.
Lin Ruochu remained in the room to pack her valuables and clothes for the journey.
Meanwhile, a deeply displeased Shao Mu went to rest in Sun Yiniang's Shuxin Pavilion.
Sun Yiting had only learned of the whole mess at Linlang Pavilion this morning. While inwardly shocked, she was also secretly delighted that this Consort Lin was the greatest of all fools.
For concubines like them, the master of the house was their only support. They had to hold on to his heart for as long as they could. Before entering the manor, she had been entrusted with a great responsibility by the Zhang family: to ruin this Consort Lin's favor.
She had heard that Consort Lin had once made the Heir Apparent defy convention and receive forty strokes of the family cane, so she had assumed she was a formidable opponent and had been rubbing her hands in anticipation of a great fight.
Who would have thought that she hadn't had to do a thing? She had merely settled into her own courtyard upon entering the manor, and Consort Lin had lost her composure, personally driving the Heir Apparent right to her doorstep.
Two years without a promising belly—she deserved the Heir Apparent's cold shoulder.
This morning, after hearing the whole story, she immediately had someone brew the Heir Apparent's favorite Xueya Xinlü tea, put on some pretty and gentle makeup, and waited in her courtyard for him to arrive.
Sure enough, in less than fifteen minutes, the Heir Apparent stormed into the room, his face a mask of fury, and threw himself onto her chaise lounge.
When Consort Lin had first entered the manor, the Young Madam had made a move against her. After the Heir Apparent found out, a rift formed between him and his wife.
Consort Lin also had her own proud and willful temper. Over time, resentment built up in the Heir Apparent's heart with no one to confide in, and she became the perfect sympathetic ear.
After Shao Mu lay down, Sun Yiting gracefully sat beside him. Raising a pair of jade-like hands, she began to massage his temples without a word.
After a long while, Shao Mu's tightly knitted brows finally relaxed.
He let out a long sigh and said, "If only A'Ruo were half as sensible as you."
Sun Yiting smiled faintly. "Sister A'Ruo is young and has a straightforward personality. That is what's lovely about her. I can't compare."
She wasn't foolish enough to take his words to heart. She just said the pleasantries he liked to hear to keep him happy.
As expected, upon hearing her words, Shao Mu lowered his gaze and stared at the incense burner for a while. A hint of a smile actually appeared in his previously irritated eyes.
"That's right. A'Ruo has always been like this, different from all other women."
Sun Yiting controlled the urge to roll her eyes and chimed in with a smile.
"For my sister to have won the Heir Apparent's heart is the greatest blessing. It's something I could never hope to achieve…"
Shao Mu was already treating her words as if they were wind passing by his ears. The smile that had just appeared was once again replaced by irritation as he recalled the morning's events.
The thought of Lin Ruochu requesting to leave the manor herself ignited a ball of fire in his chest with nowhere to vent.
She was blaming him. She must be blaming him.
Last night, when her maid came to fetch him, he had thought she had finally come around and wanted to reconcile with him. But he never expected that in bed, she would look at him with such eyes!
Horror, disgust, hatred, and coldness!
As if looking at a stranger, or even an enemy!
Although it was only for an instant, he had seen it and seared it into his memory.
How could she look at him like that?
Even during her worst tantrums—when Sun Yiting entered the manor and when she became pregnant—her tear-filled eyes had been full of a love and resentment for him that she couldn't hide.
So why did she have that look in her eyes last night?
Just recalling it, Shao Mu felt as if an ice awl had pierced his chest, churning his heart and leaving him deeply unsettled.
Had she truly come to resent him?
Impossible.
The moment the thought appeared, he swiftly rejected it.
For him, she had been willing to cast aside all the dignity of a noble lady, alienate her family and friends, and ruin her reputation, chasing after him with her whole heart and eyes only for him.
Even with Sun Yiniang's arrival, hadn't she still taken step after step back, compromising for his sake?
It was impossible for her heart to have changed so suddenly. That look must have been his imagination.
Under the scent of the incense, Shao Mu slowly closed his eyes. Sleepless all night, he drifted into a dream.
In his dream, he thought, There are still three days. I must persuade Mother to change her mind. I can't let her leave the manor.
A woman's little temper could be soothed with some coaxing.
And the wound on her forehead, he had to quickly send for a physician to look at it…
Shao Mu slept very soundly. By the time he woke again, the sky outside was already growing dark.
Sun Yiting had covered him with a brocade quilt and stoked the charcoal fire in the room, making it so warm and cozy that all his fatigue seemed to melt away.
He sat up from the chaise. Sun Yiting, who was busy by the incense stand, saw that he was awake and immediately called for servants to help him up, asking with a beaming smile, "I've already had the small kitchen prepare your favorite roasted lamb. Shall we have dinner now?"
Shao Mu wiped his face and waved his hand. "No need." He then slipped on his boots, got off the chaise, and called Shun'an over.
"Have the kitchen prepare a few of A'Ruo's favorite dishes and send them over. I will be dining at Linlang Pavilion tonight."
Sun Yiting's expression froze.
Shun'an also began to stammer.
Shao Mu saw his strange expression. Thinking that his mother and Zhang Jingwan had done something to Linlang Pavilion again, he said with immediate displeasure, "What? I can't even go to Linlang Pavilion for dinner now?"
"That's not it," Shun'an reported with his head lowered. "It's… it's that Consort Lin already left the manor for White Cloud Temple an hour ago…"
With a crash, a teacup on the table shattered on the floor.
His face a mask of fury, Shao Mu stormed out of Shuxin Pavilion with great strides.
Watching his billowing cloak, Sun Yiting let out a soft sigh.
It seemed she would have to spend a bit more time and effort to completely replace Consort Lin.