What did she see?
Her nightmare from her previous life! That persistent pervert Shu Lan!
How… how did she come here!
Though shocked inwardly, her composure only faltered for a moment. Taking a deep breath, her expression calmed, but her mind raced with silent curses:
Shu Lan is the Imperial Grandson Ye Langting’s Shadow Guard—how could she possibly come to the Marquis’s estate as a maid!
It must be a coincidence, just someone who looks similar!
She swallowed hard, “What are your names?”
Having witnessed Mama Zhao’s earlier embarrassment, the servants didn’t dare act out of line. Li Momo stepped forward and spoke softly:
“This humble servant is Li Momo, paying respects to the mistress. They are Yin Die, Yin Shuang, Xia He, Qiu Ju, Dongmei, and Shu Lan.”
“We humble servants pay respects to the Eldest Miss.The name ‘Shu Lan’ echoed in her ears like a stereo loop playback, relentlessly bombarding her.
Ye Wushuang was stunned.
She looked at Shu Lan and didn’t need any probing to recognize her—that flirtatious demeanor was something no one else could imitate!
Ahhh, that damn pervert, how could she come to the estate to be her maid!
Does Ye Langting know about this? Whose idea was it? What’s the purpose? To annoy her?
What a disaster!
She knew this pervert all too well. If she drove her away, Shu Lan would just stay by her side in some other bizarre identity, just like in her previous life.
It was simply impossible to guard against!
She closed her eyes, making a firm decision inwardly: Before this woman develops an interest in her in this lifetime, she must crush any such thoughts!
However, she found slight comfort in one thing: At the very least, this one wouldn’t betray her.
Currently, her footing in the estate was unstable. The remaining maids seemed to be on her side but were likely already spies for others—completely untrustworthy.
Her Ink Garden was as leaky as a sieve.
No matter, she would handle it herself. She needed to find an opportunity to drive all these people away.
Until she had loyal confidants, she had no choice but to use Shu Lan.
As she sat in her room making plans and had just thought of a clever idea, she suddenly sensed someone approaching.
It was Shu Lan.
She cursed inwardly again.
This damn pervert, how does she walk without making a sound? Even though she’s a Shadow Guard, is that really necessary?
Shu Lan acted familiar, pulling out Ye Wushuang’s hairpin with one hand and casually starting to comb her hair.
Ye Wushuang rolled her eyes. If she couldn’t reveal her martial skills, and if this person weren’t Ye Langting’s trusted aide, she would have beaten Shu Lan up on the spot!
Just as she was feeling twisted inside, the person behind her suddenly exclaimed softly,
“Miss, what happened to your hair?”
“Is it too yellow? It’s fine, poor nutrition leads to bad hair.”
“No, no, the hair around the crown of your head—why is it so much shorter than the rest?”
Ye Wushuang was puzzled.
Shu Lan immediately parted the hair into two sections: the normal hair on the left shoulder, and the hair from the crown on the other side.
The contrast made the difference starkly obvious.
Ye Wushuang squinted at the bronze mirror, slowly recalling an incident from two years ago.
That evening was quite cool. She had just sold the fish she caught from the lake to buy rice and flour, and upon returning home, Nian Cuilan dragged her into the room.
Thinking she had done something wrong and was about to be beaten, she felt terrified and quickly admitted her fault,
“Mother, I was wrong, I’ll change, please don’t hit me!”
Going hungry and cold was bearable, and sleepless nights could be endured,
But her mother’s beatings were truly too painful.
Yet even with wounds on her body, she had to go down to the lake to catch fish the next day. The wounds soaked in water took even longer to heal properly.
She was truly afraid.
Unexpectedly, Nian Cuilan chuckled cheerfully, pressed her down to sit on a stool, and carefully combed her hair.
Strand by strand, she meticulously counted. After reaching eighty-one strands, she gently tied them with a piece of red thread.
Then, taking out scissors, she cut off that lock of hair close to the scalp, tied it into a knot as if it were a precious treasure, and placed it in a brown clay pot.
Inside the pot was an exquisite cloth doll, inscribed with her own birth date.
At that time, she was illiterate and didn’t understand what was happening.
Too curious, she spoke up and asked.
To her surprise, Nian Cuilan, acting completely out of character, sorted through her things while softly explaining:
“This is something to ensure my daughter’s future wealth and honor.”
Her mother’s daughter—wasn’t that her?
She was overjoyed at that moment. She had always known that even though her mother was usually unkind to her, she still loved her.
Just as she was rejoicing, Nian Cuilan picked up a kitchen knife, swiftly grabbed her right thumb, made a quick cut, and pressed the bleeding finger onto the birth date inscribed on the doll’s chest.
Overjoyed and feeling that her mother cared for her, she foolishly asked, “Mother, is this enough blood? If not, I can give more from my other fingers!”
As long as her mother would always be this gentle with her, she was willing to do anything!
Nian Cuilan looked somewhat taken aback, pursed her lips as she carefully put the items away, and muttered, “Silly girl.”
She instructed her to finish all the household chores before going to sleep, then left.
After that, she never saw that doll again, nor did she ever see her adoptive mother that gentle ever again.
The memory of that day was too vivid—vividly cruel.
Ye Jintang was born two hours earlier than her, so the birth date on the doll was Ye Wushuang’s.
Instinct told her that the doll was inextricably linked to Ye Jintang’s brown wooden box.
After much deliberation, she glanced at the sky and said to Shu Lan:
“Later, I need to go to Bright Moon Courtyard. Help me distract the guards there.”
Shu Lan looked quite surprised and remained silent for a moment.
Ye Wushuang smiled. “What, are you scared?”
Shu Lan raised an eyebrow slightly. Her surprised expression lasted only a moment before turning to curiosity. She gave a slight bow. “This servant understands.”
Just as Ye Wushuang changed her clothes and was about to step out of the courtyard, she noticed several maids secretly observing her.
When she emerged, they quickly lowered their heads.
She felt exasperated. After a moment’s thought, she changed her mind. Whispering a few words to Shu Lan, she walked out of the courtyard alone.
Yin Die immediately put down her work and, without caring whether Ye Wushuang was willing or not, followed her at a distance.
Flies may not bite, but they’ve been in the latrine!
Ye Wushuang found it disgusting. She rolled her eyes and spoke up.
“Yin Die, right? Take me to the kitchen. I don’t know the way.”
Yin Die, who had already accepted money from Ye Jintang to spy on this country bumpkin, was somewhat surprised.
She had assumed Ye Wushuang was going to flatter the Marquis to ask for money, but instead, she was looking for food?
Truly shallow-minded. Even after becoming the Marquis’s daughter, all she could think about was filling her stomach.
With such limited ambitions, what was the Second Young Lady even worried about?
Ah, never mind. This was just as well. Since she was so easy to fool, earning this silver would be effortless.
Yin Die was lost in thought, her steps somewhat absent-minded.
Just as she rounded a bend, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her leg, and her body uncontrollably collapsed to the ground with a thud.
Although the marquis estate’s paths were clean, Yin Die was caught completely off guard. The fall was hard, and she needed a moment to recover.
Ye Wushuang gracefully stepped forward and personally helped her up,
“Oh dear, how could you be so careless? Did you hurt yourself? Should we call a physician?”
The girl was startled and quickly rose to her feet. Despite the pain in her leg, she insisted on continuing toward the kitchen.
And so, before even halfway to the kitchen, Yin Die had already fallen seven times.
Ye Wushuang pretended to be angry, placing her hands on her hips and putting on a spoiled, unreasonable demeanor.
“If you don’t want to serve me, just say so. Why go through this charade? Go back—I don’t need you anymore. Utterly useless.”
With that, she turned and walked away without even a glance back.
Yin Die initially thought to follow, but as soon as she took a step forward, she hesitated and drew back.
Was the kitchen haunted today?
Her mind in turmoil, she watched Ye Wushuang walk farther and farther away. Finally, gritting her teeth and stamping her foot, she returned to Ink Garden.
Not long after, Ye Wushuang also returned to Ink Garden, now holding two lumps of dough imprinted with the golden key from Bright Moon Courtyard.
Thinking of what she needed to do, she felt troubled again.
She had to make an identical key, but she had no gold.
Even the cleverest housewife can’t make a key without gold—where could she find any?
Her eyes lit up as a brilliant idea suddenly came to mind. She smiled radiantly.