At a time like this, the fact that Chu Yuebai still dared to come calling moved the Yu Family deeply.
Yu Jing was unable to rise from bed, and Liu Shi was too weak to exert herself, so Yu Sanqi’s brothers received Chu Yuebai instead.
After exchanging a few polite words of gratitude, the Yu brothers tactfully found excuses to leave, giving Chu Yuebai and Yu Tang a chance to be alone. Seeing this, Yu Tang’s pretty face flushed slightly, while the tips of Chu Yuebai’s ears turned red as well.
“Brother Yuebai.” Yu Tang’s voice was soft and gentle as she gazed at the handsome young nobleman. Her eyes reddened at once. “Thank you for coming today. At a time like this, you’re the only one still willing to visit us.”
Chu Yuebai comforted her softly. “Tangtang, don’t worry. The Yu and Chu Families have been acquainted for many years. Now that the Yu Family has fallen into hardship, how could the Chu Family possibly stand by and do nothing?”
“What’s more…” The tips of his ears reddened again. “How could I not care about you?”
Yu Tang’s face flushed as well, but in the next moment, she grew sorrowful. “Our families were already worlds apart in status. Now that Third Elder Sister has caused such a scene, I’m afraid that from now on…”
When Chu Yuebai heard her mention Sanqi, undisguised disgust appeared on his handsome young face.
“Didn’t she declare in front of everyone that she wanted to sever ties with the Yu Family? That’s perfect. Since she is no longer a daughter of the Yu Family, our engagement will naturally be void! When the time comes, I’ll go and ask Mother…”
Chu Yuebai’s voice faltered, and his face instantly flushed. Yu Tang let out a soft cry, covered her face with her handkerchief, then secretly met his gaze. The atmosphere between them became exceedingly ambiguous.
Standing by the railing, Sanqi looked down at the two of them, sneering and curling her lips.
Chu Yuebai looked down on her. Did that mean she looked up to him?
She and Chu Yuebai had been born in the same year, month, and day. When their marriage had been arranged, the current Boyuan Marquis had merely been an unfavored, illegitimate second son in the marquis’s residence. It was only after the legitimate son of the main branch died that he and his family had risen to prominence.
Sanqi had no feelings for Chu Yuebai whatsoever, nor had she ever intended to stand between the two of them.
It was clearly the Old Madam of the marquis’s residence and Chu Yuebai’s mother who looked down on the Yu Family’s status and had deliberately made an issue of the engagement, refusing to change the bride.
Yet Yu Tang blamed the whole matter on her.
After the two of them exchanged a long string of pointless pleasantries, Chu Yuebai finally got to the point.
“Fourth Younger Sister, there’s actually something else I came here for today.” He found it somewhat difficult to say, feeling that bringing it up now made his visit seem ulterior.
But he had no choice. Although his father had already inherited the title and his mother had become the mistress of the household, the Old Madam still managed the residence. The single word “filial piety” weighed so heavily on his mother that she could barely breathe.
The Old Madam suffered from asthma. She had searched everywhere for famous physicians, but none had been able to cure her. The medicine Yu Tang had given him, however, had produced remarkable results after the Old Madam took it. Only then had his mother’s life become somewhat easier over the years.
Yu Tang had also guessed why Chu Yuebai had come. Her body stiffened, and an unnatural look flashed across her face.
Chu Yuebai mistook it for suspicion that he had come to visit with an ulterior motive. Ashamed and anxious, he hurriedly tried to explain. “Fourth Younger Sister, don’t misunderstand. I truly came to see you. I also know that the Yu Family is in a difficult situation right now…”
“Brother Yuebai, don’t say anything more. How could I doubt you?” Yu Tang quickly concealed her expression and said, “I don’t have much of that medicine left either. I’ll go fetch it for you.”
The moment Yu Tang turned away, her expression changed.
As soon as she was out of Chu Yuebai’s sight, she hurried back to her room in a panic. After rummaging through the cabinets, she finally found the bottle of medicine.
“One, two, three… Why are there only three pills?” Yu Tang bit her lip, her face tense.
“So I really did leave three pills for you.” Sanqi appeared beside her like a ghost, though Yu Tang could not see her.
“There really is medicine in your possession, so I can’t count this time as you lying…”
Sanqi said that she had miscalculated, but the smile on her face did not fade. She raised an index finger, and ghostly energy transformed into tentacles that wormed into the bottle, swallowing the blood essence and medicinal power from the three pills.
The medicine intended for the Old Madam of the marquis’s residence had been made by Sanqi herself. The most important medicinal catalyst in it was her blood.
Without her blood, the medicine was completely useless. She wanted to see how Yu Tang would explain this “lie” away!
After seeing Chu Yuebai off, Yu Tang felt deeply uneasy. Three pills could only last three days! If Chu Yuebai came asking for more medicine after three days, what excuse could she possibly come up with?
Yu Tang felt as though fire were burning inside her and became increasingly unable to sit still.
She sent another servant out to inquire. “Is there any news from outside? Has His Majesty revoked Yu Sanqi’s position as Commandery Princess?”
The servants shook their heads, saying they had not heard anything.
Yu Tang was not the only one waiting for news. Everyone else in the Yu Family was waiting as well. They waited and waited, from dawn until dusk, yet never received word that Yu Sanqi’s title had been revoked.
“There’s news! There’s news!” a servant shouted as he ran inside.
Yu Minwu was the first to rush out. Yu Tang and Liu Shi followed, while Yu Minwen was attending to Yu Jing and feeding him medicine, though he too pricked up his ears to listen.
The servant wore an embarrassed expression and stammered, “I-I heard that His Majesty ordered Young General Yan to be beaten with staves, b-but he also ordered Young General Yan to take away all the rewards that had originally been bestowed upon our residence…”
“Take them away? What right does Yan Du have to take them?” Yu Minwu shouted. “Where is the edict? Didn’t His Majesty revoke the decree?”
The servant shook his head.
Liu Shi let out a shriek and fainted again.
The hand with which Yu Minwen was feeding his father medicine visibly trembled, and Yu Jing angrily knocked the bowl out of it.
Yu Minwu roared. Yu Tang bit her lower lip nearly hard enough to draw blood. Why had His Majesty not revoked the decree?! How was that country bumpkin Yu Sanqi worthy of being a Commandery Princess?!
If Yu Sanqi became a Commandery Princess, would she still return to the Yu Family?
What about the medicine for the Boyuan Marquis’s Residence?
Yu Tang shuddered. No, she had to get the medicine!
That was it—the room Yu Sanqi had lived in. There might still be medicine hidden inside!
Yu Tang made an excuse to leave and ran to the shabby little courtyard where Sanqi had once lived. But she was too late. Sanqi had already taken everything away.
Sanqi had not owned much at the Yu Family’s residence, and the Yu Family had never given her many valuable clothes or belongings.
Everything she had taken had either been given to her by Granny Meng and the uncles, aunts, brothers, and sisters in Huangquan Village when she was brought back to the Yu Family, or saved up by herself over the years.
There was the medicine Yu Tang had been longing for, the Second Volume of the Great Scholar's Authentic Text that she had not yet had a chance to give Yu Minwen, the carefully prepared beauty-preserving cream she had made for Liu Shi, and the thousand-year-old lightning-struck ebony she had found for Yu Minwu.
Sanqi had gone to considerable trouble to obtain that lightning-struck ebony.
A thousand-year-old ebony tree was already precious, to say nothing of one struck by lightning. Used to make a knife or sword sheath, it was not only sturdy but could also ward off evil and suppress ghosts.
There was just one thing Sanqi still could not understand.
In theory, her feelings for the members of the Yu Family should not have been so deep. So why was it that after returning to the Yu Family, she had become a bitter little melon that had given everything of herself away, practically wishing she could squeeze herself dry for their sake?
The entire Yu Family could not have pieced together a single conscience. Had she been possessed for those past two years, or had something gone wrong with her brain? Yet after dying once, she had become clearheaded, as though she had drained the water from her mind—or as though she had broken free of some kind of shackle.
Sanqi could not make sense of it no matter how much she thought about it.
She returned silently to the general’s residence. After putting away the straw effigy puppet on the bed, Sanqi decided that she could give the lightning-struck wood to Yan Du.
Putting aside the reason Yan Du had helped her so much, simply because he had stepped forward for her, she ought to give him something in return. However, now was not yet the time to bring out the lightning-struck wood.
She had arrived at the general’s residence yesterday empty-handed. It was not as though the wood could appear out of thin air.
Thinking this, Sanqi tucked the bottle of medicine into her clothes and opened the door. The moment Nan Xun saw her, he was overjoyed.
“Commandery Princess, you’re finally awake! If the military physician hadn’t said that you were only sleeping, we would have thought something had happened to you again…”
“Our general has already come by several times…”
As Nan Xun chattered on, Sanqi thought of Yan Du’s injury and blurted out, “His butt is split open. He can still get out of bed?”
The scene suddenly fell silent.
A cough rang out unexpectedly. Sanqi lifted her eyes and saw the young general coughing helplessly, his pale jade-like face flushed, his light brown eyes slightly widened as though he had just heard something earth-shattering. Both his ears were so red they looked ready to drip blood.
Their eyes met. Sanqi twitched her nose and caught the scent of blood. She said solemnly, “Lie down at once!”
“Young General, your butt is bleeding!”
Yan Du: “…”