Chapter 520. Sending Oneself Over (1/2)
Zhu Junyang clearly had no doubts regarding Xiaocao. The little lass was sometimes quite mysterious. She even knew how to distinguish between the way of mysterious learning and sorcery. Was there anything in this world she didn’t know how to do?
When he saw her frowning perceptibly, he knew that she was worried about him. He felt his heart warm and he ruffled the little lass’s head as he smiled, “Now that we know the reason, then it’s easy to handle! In the future, when I see Wu Junling, I’ll stay far away from her. That way, I won’t be influenced right?”
Yu Xiaocao mumbled quietly, “That solution only treats the symptoms but not the root cause. Is there any way we can completely remove this hidden danger?”
“Lass, are you talking to me ah? Completely remove this? Are we going to secretly kill her?” Zhu Junyang was actually in the mood to crack a joke. Not to mention the fact that Wu Junling was his blood-related younger maternal cousin, but even if she was just an ordinary daughter of an official at court, killing her with his hands was also quite inconvenient. Yu Xiaocao rolled her eyes at him.
In actuality, her last question was directed at the little divine stone. A tiny spell was not even a speck to the little divine stone, who had already regained almost half of its spiritual power. It'd be able to handle it in a jiffy. Once she got a definitive answer from the stone, Xiaocao felt her heart settle down. Following that, as long as she found an opportunity to meet Wu Junling, then they’d be able to release the magic on her.
As for what would happen once the spell suppressing Wu Junling’s fate was removed, it wasn’t within her scope to think about. Hmph! That girl had tried to target her man. If she didn’t get a little revenge back, then she wouldn’t be called Yu Xiaocao anymore!
Before Yu Xiaocao could come up with an excuse to meet up with Wu Junling, the target had presented herself to her door. Three days later, Yu Xiaocao received an invitation from the Ministry of Appointments Left Assistant Minister’s residence to participate in Yu Wanqing’s thirteenth birthday party. This was also the first time that Yu Wanqing had invited people over to her family’s estate.
After three months of careful facial treatments added on to taking medicines and tonics for her body, Yu Wanqing’s face had completely recovered. The little maiden had a round and adorable face, pale and tender skin, and a pair of smiling eyes. Her adorable looks made it very easy for other people to immediately like her.
Official Yu had invited young maidens who were the daughters of his colleagues to the banquet, the daughters of his friends and family, as well as the ladies who were good friends with his daughter.
Although Official Yu had already taken up his post and been in the capital for more than two years, this was the first time his daughter was showing her face in public. Many people were curious about Miss Yu and wanted to know what she looked like. Was she truly like what the rumors claimed? So ugly that she was embarrassed to see people?
There were always bored people in the world who loved to exchange gossip behind people’s backs. As for Official Yu’s daughter, she was always sickly and very rarely went out to see people. Thus, when the rumors came out that she was ugly beyond comparison, there were people who thought that there was a grain of truth in it all.
As soon as they found out that Yu Wanqing would show herself in front of everyone at her birthday party, many noble matrons and maidens were very curious to see what she looked like. Even those with only tenuous connections to the Yu Family came over to partake in the festivities after getting the news. All of these people came with gifts on hand. Official Yu was a bit flabbergasted at how good his relationships were with other people and hurriedly told the servants to prepare a few more banquet tables at the residence to avoid slighting any of the guests.
In fact, Wu Junling was one of those unexpected guests who showed up. Using the excuse of being distantly related, she and her mother went to participate. Official Wu had thought that being able to have a good relationship with the third-ranked Left Assistant Minister from the Ministry of Appointments would be beneficial to his future career and promotion. Thus, he had presumptuously sent his wife and daughter to Assistant Minister Yu’s banquet. Before they left their home, he had especially warned Jiang Meiyi, “If you manage to cause trouble this time, in the future, you will be shut in the inner courtyard’s family temple and forced to be vegetarian and recite sutras!”
Ever since the fiasco regarding Royal Prince Yang had occurred, Wu Dingsen had removed the power of managing the household from Jiang Meiyi’s hands and had temporarily given it to his beloved concubine who had birthed him a son. Whether or not Jiang Meiyi managed to reflect on her actions and grow up was a future question! Currently, Jiang Meiyi felt very aggrieved at all of this and a wisp of hatred was threaded through her heart. However, she didn't dare to throw a tantrum in front of Official Wu, so she could only resentfully pass the power away.
This time, when they went out, Wu Junling had also repeatedly warned her mother, “When we are there, you should speak less and just keep a gentle smile on your face. If you really can’t keep quiet, then make sure to say some things that sound nice. Keep an eye out for my expression.”
Now, even her most beloved daughter was no longer on the same wavelength as her. Jiang Meiyi was so incensed that she babbled incoherently, “Do you also think that I, as your mother, make you lose face ah? Have you ever thought as to why I can’t raise my head around your father? It’s because I birthed three good-for-nothings in a row!! If you were a son, do you think your father would treat me this way? Would there still be that cheap slut in the house?”
Wu Junling almost wanted to cry from her mother’s stupidity. She took in a deep breath and explained, “Mother, is there any point in talking about this now ah? You are still the legitimate wife of the Wu Family. As long as you don’t make another mistake, your status at home will not change. Your top-most priority right now is to change the way Father sees you! This isn’t the time to throw a temper tantrum!!”
Jiang Meiyi had also been scared after the recent events and was afraid that she would be locked up in the family temple, forced to endure hardships. She curled her lip and said, “I know. I just won’t talk when we get there, that’s all!!”
At the Yu Residence, they had especially prepared an elegantly decorated little courtyard to receive the young maidens as guests there. The young ladies first went with their mothers to greet the Assistant Minister’s matriarch and wife before they were brought to the courtyard.
Because she was friendly with Yu Xiaocao, Yu Wanqing also became acquainted with the spirited and lively He Wanning, the outwardly cold but actually easy to get along with Yuan Xueyan, and the gentle and sweet Li Mengru. The good friends had arrived relatively early and had already been seated at the main table to drink tea and eat pastries.