Vol 8 Chapter 71 (2/2)
“Un… That’s good then.”
As I eavesdropped on them, their voices gradually grew more distant and it seemed like they were discussing a plot of sorts but their voices were already unclear by then and I did not dare to approach them and could only get ready to go over to the young mistress.
I stood up from behind the wooden bucket, and tidied up my clothing and dusted myself before gathering my feelings together and walking over to where the young mistress was.
When I made my way out of the alley, I saw the young mistress had her back to me with her arms behind her so I walked over with light footsteps so as not to frighten her.
“Yi Ji, you’re here huh.”
Naturally, I was found out. I’m not a warrior general after all so I can’t exactly hide my breath.
“Young mistress.” I said as I lowered my head and bowed.
“You really came at the right time. Cai Mao and Lady Cai just left.” The young mistress said softly without turning around.
“… I’ll be honest, young mistress, I listened to the entire exchange between you 3.” Since the young mistress said as much, there’s no need to hide it, “By the way, what was the reason why young mistress summoned me here?”
“Hai, it was what you just heard.” The young mistress lightly sighed and pulled out a piece of silk from her sleeve which she handed to me, “Lady Cai was the one who called me out here and I thought something might happen so I called you out as well. Who knew that they came earlier than expected and started the discussion. I thought you weren’t able to listen in but since you have, I won’t bother summarising it for you.”
As she said so, the young mistress turned around slightly. I s.h.i.+fted my gaze upwards and found that the young mistress was not as enraged as before. No, to be more precise, there was no trace of anger at all, and she actually looked rather calm.
“Then since you’ve heard it, what do you think… About what they said?”
“Based on this retainer’s guess, I’m afraid what those 2 said is true.”
“… Un, I think so too. Rejecting command of Xiangyang’s garrison and moving to Xinye should be the truth.” The young mistress bit her lips and nodded, “But I don’t think that uncle did that because he fears them.”
When I heard the young mistress’ guess, I hurriedly saluted her, “What young mistress said makes sense. This retainer does not believe that Imperial Uncle is the sort of person who is fearful of faction disputes and that Imperial Uncle had his own reasons for doing so.”
Even though I said as much, I felt that Imperial Uncle may have been tired of fighting this difficult fight. This is understandable of course, and Imperial Uncle has many troops, generals and retainers to think for.
Even though I understand why he may have done what he did, this may not hold true for the young mistress. I am afraid that she might think that Imperial Uncle does not place any importance on their relations.h.i.+p, which is a logical explanation in and of itself…
“Un un,” The young mistress nodded, “But when you think about it, this is something good as well.”
“… Eh?” What did the young mistress just say? “You said it was a good thing?”
“Un… It’s something like this.” The young mistress put her hands behind her and gave a smile as she blushed ever so slightly whilst pacing about beside me, “I was indeed rather angry at the beginning and I also felt that without uncle’s help, I would be at a great disadvantage and might even be at their mercy.”
When she said this, the young mistress giggled for some reason and scratched her head as she continued, “But ever since the Jiangxia expedition, I’ve been thinking about a lot of things. Though I hope that uncle and father would have some secret discussions that would result in a favourable outcome for myself, I found myself hoping that father would not discuss the matter of the inheritance with uncle.”
“Eh?” Once again, I heard something very surprising from the young mistress.
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