“Mother, please don’t panic.” Yu Sheng took a soft pillow from the couch and placed it behind Madam Yu’s back, helping her lean against the headboard. “Uncle Li told me this morning that Fifth Brother is already on his way back and should arrive in a day or two.”
Madam Lin, looking pale and ill, said anxiously, “But… in my dream, your brother had an accident on his way back. He was traveling too fast at night, the carriage overturned, and there was blood everywhere—”
“Mother, you said it yourself—it was just a dream. Dreams can’t be taken as reality.” Yu Sheng held Madam Lin’s hand, using the warmth of her palm to calm her.
Madam Lin had been raised with strict discipline, adhering to the principles of “obeying the father at home, obeying the husband after marriage, and obeying the son after the husband’s death.” Father Yu’s fall and critical condition were already too much for her to bear, and now the dream of her son’s accident had pushed her anxiety to the extreme.
Yu Sheng comforted her gently, “If Mother is truly worried about Fifth Brother, I’ll send more people to meet him halfway.”
Seeing her eldest daughter so composed and already making arrangements, Madam Lin felt slightly reassured and repeatedly said, “Good, good… then send more people to meet him.”
Yu Sheng nodded in agreement. “Rest assured, Mother.”
She walked to the window and instructed the steward to dispatch ten guards to the route Fifth Young Master would take on his way home from the academy.
The steward immediately complied.
The two sisters, seeing how she had handled the situation so efficiently and calmed Madam Yu with just a few words, finally spoke up. “Eldest Sister.”
“Eldest Sister…”
With such a major crisis at home—Father unconscious, Mother ill, and their aunts and uncles pressuring Yu Xuan to accept her fate and jump into the fire pit of Liyang Houfu—no one listened to what they said, and they felt helpless. Now, seeing their eldest sister felt like seeing hope.
The two sisters, Second Sister fifteen years old and Third Sister fourteen, were both renowned beauties—one with rosy cheeks like peach blossoms, the other with willow-leaf eyebrows and almond-shaped eyes. They were of similar height and shared a striking resemblance.
Yu Sheng noticed that Second Sister Yu Qing, usually lively and cheerful, had red-rimmed eyes, while Third Sister Yu Wan, who was typically quiet, seemed to have much to say. She knew they had been living in fear these past few days.
Having taken turns caring for their mother for several days, both sisters had dark circles under their eyes and were utterly exhausted.
Yu Sheng said to them, “Third Sister and Fourth Sister, you’ve worked hard these past few days. Let Feihong and Nanny Wang stay with Mother today. You two should go back and rest.”
Both refused.
Yu Qing said, “How can we rest while Mother is ill?”
“Listen to your eldest sister,” Madam Lin waved her hand weakly. “These past few days… cough… you’ve suffered enough.”
Yu Qing wanted to say more.
Yu Sheng interjected, “Go and rest. If you wear yourselves out, Mother will worry even more.”
At this, the two sisters could no longer protest.
Yu Wan said, “Then I’ll come back later to keep Mother company.”
Madam Lin nodded.
Yu Sheng added, “I’ll stay with Mother for a while. Rest well, and when you return later, take turns day and night. With so much happening at home, you mustn’t fall ill from exhaustion. There will be important tasks for you to handle.”
Hearing that their eldest sister saw them as capable and useful, Yu Qing and Yu Wan immediately perked up and replied in unison, “We’ll listen to Eldest Sister.”
Yu Sheng gave them an encouraging and approving look.
The two sisters took a deep breath and left, glancing back repeatedly as they went.
Yu Sheng stayed in the room with Madam Lin for a while, offering words of comfort.
Much later, the medicine boy brought the decocted medicine. Yu Sheng personally fed it to Madam Lin and, seeing that she looked weary after drinking it, helped her lie down to rest. She instructed Feihong and Nanny Wang to take good care of her before leaving.
Dicui had found her way over at some point and was waiting under the corridor with a tray. “Miss, you’ve been so busy since returning home that you haven’t even had time to catch your breath. It’s already past lunchtime. I went to the kitchen and had them prepare a bowl of noodles for you. Would you like to have a bite?”
“If you hadn’t mentioned it, I would have forgotten I was hungry,” Yu Sheng said, patting her empty stomach. No wonder her voice had sounded so faint—it was because she was hungry.
Over the past few days, she had been rushing back home, eating only dry rations along the way. As soon as she arrived, she had been so busy she hadn’t even had time to drink a sip of water.
Now, a bowl of hot noodle soup was more than enough for her.
Yu Sheng glanced around, intending to find a nearby stone table to sit and eat.
But just as Dicui set down the tray, before she could even take out the bowl and chopsticks, a servant hurried over to report, “Miss, Kongqing is back, and he’s brought two strange people with him—”
Kongqing was the attendant Yu Sheng had sent to invite Guiyi.
If Kongqing had brought them back, her father would be saved.
Yu Sheng’s eyes lit up instantly. “Where are they now?”
“Just entered the main gate,” the servant said. “Those two are truly strange, so I rushed to inform you.”
“If they weren’t strange, how could they call themselves Guiyi?” Yu Sheng didn’t even think about the noodles anymore. She stood up and went out to greet them.
“What ghost? What doctor?” The servant scratched his head and quickly followed.
It was already afternoon, and the brilliant sunlight enveloped the entire Yu Yuan, casting a golden glow over the green treetops, rockeries, and pavilions.
Yu Sheng walked through the garden, her sleeves and skirt fluttering gracefully, like an immortal from a painting.
The servants and maids, who had been uneasy because Yujia had offended Liyang Houfu, felt much more at ease upon seeing the young miss.
The young miss dared to publicly whip the Houfu’s prodigal son and could sit and converse with a young prodigy like Sheng Huaijin as an equal.
As long as the young miss was here, Yujia would not fall.
Everyone thought this almost simultaneously, and they worked even harder as a result.
When Yu Sheng reached the back garden, she saw Kongqing leading two people over.
The servant had called them strange, and the word “strange” was indeed an accurate description.
They were a man and a woman with striking appearances. The young man, around twenty-four or twenty-five years old, sat in a wheelchair. Dressed in white, he had delicate features and a handsome face, with a vermilion peach blossom mark painted on his right temple. He wore a gentle smile, appearing harmless.
The young girl, about fifteen or sixteen years old, was dressed entirely in black—black clothes, black skirt, black boots, and even the ribbon tying her hair was black. Yet her long hair was as white as snow. Her skin was like fine jade, and her eyes were covered with a black cloth, giving her the appearance of a blind person—beautiful and mysterious.
One with a broken leg and the other blind—one giving directions, the other pushing the wheelchair. It didn’t seem to hinder their travels at all.
“Young miss, I’ve brought them, but I’m too foolish to tell if they’re genuine,” Kongqing stepped forward to bow, his expression filled with shame.
The name Guiyi was renowned, but very few had actually seen them.
No one could even say for sure whether they were male or female, let alone distinguish the real from the fake.
However, two years ago, while traveling, Yu Sheng had met these two and had even given them an extremely rare three-hundred-year-old ginseng, establishing a friendly connection.
That’s why, when Father was critically ill this time, Kongqing was able to take his handwritten letter to the contact point they left behind to seek help.
However, when Yu Sheng first met them, both were perfectly fine—neither lame nor blind. How could it be that after just two years apart…
She couldn’t help but ask, “How did you two end up in such a state?”