Chapter 33 (2/2)

‘Do you want my wife to know?’ Pei Jin asked.

Widow Li shook her head.

Pei Jin left the shelter and returned to the manor.

Yan Shi Ning was waiting anxiously in the chamber for a long time and she was relieved Pei Jin finally returned.

‘Where did you go?’ Yan Shi Ning asked. ‘It’s the middle of the afternoon!’

Pei Jin smiled and passed Yan Shi Ning a stick of dried dates. ‘I went to buy dried dates for you.’

Yan Shi Ning scoffed and accepted the dried dates.

Later that afternoon Pei Jin and Yan Shi Ning ate an afternoon meal with Yan Jing and Yan Shi Ting, but Princess Kang Hua was absent. After the afternoon moon meal Yan Jing pulled Pei Jin to the calligraphy room and Yan Shi Ting pulled Yan Shi Ning to a chamber because Yan Shi Ting wanted to boast about the wedding dress.

Yan Shi Ting came out from behind a screen, raised her chin and showed her wedding dress to Yan Shi Ning.

‘Is my wedding dress beautiful?’ Yan Shi Ting asked.

‘Beautiful, little sister will be a beautiful bride,’ Yan Shi Ning praised.

‘Do you want to see me wear it?’ Yan Shi Ting asked.

Yan Shi Ning nodded her head.

Yan Shi Ting walked behind the screen. Yan Shi Ning signalled a maid to leave and Yan Shi Ning followed Yan Shi Ting.

Yan Shi Ning was curious what a pregnant Yan Shi Ting would look like, because Yan Shi Ting didn’t behave like an expectant mother. Behind the screen Yan Shi Ting’s back faced her and Yan Shi Ting was wearing white undergarments. There was nothing unusual about the white undergarments except the blood specks on Yan Shi Ting’s bottom.

Yan Shi Ting turned her head around. ‘Big sister, why are you here?’

Yan Shi Ning hid her suspicions and smiled at Yan Shi Ting. ‘Little sister is about to be married off. Of course your big sister wants to help you put on your wedding dress.’

Yan Shi Ning glanced at the blood specks beneath Yan Shi Ting’s flat stomach and immediately she wanted to go and find Pei Jin. When she and Pei Jin received the crown prince and Yan Shi Ting’s wedding invitation they thought that Yan Shi Ting was pregnant so Pei Jin sent a guard to investigate. The guard reported that the empress and the crown prince told the emperor about Yan Shi Ting’s pregnancy.

Yan Shi Ning helped Yan Shi Ting put on the wedding dress faster than she wore a dress. Then she ran to Pei Jin and dragged him to her old chamber.

‘Wife, why are you amused?’ Pei Jin asked.

‘I discovered a secret,’ Yan Shi Ning said.

Pei Jin listened to Yan Shi Ning’s discovery. Afterward he glanced in four directions and whispered in her ear. ‘Wife, should we tell imperial father?’

‘Pei Jin, I can’t do something despicable like that,’ Yan Shi Ning said.

‘Did you forget she did something despicable toward you on the night of the harvest festival?’ Pei Jin said.

Yan Shi Ning remembered how she nearly died that day and her back turned cold.

Pei Jin hugged Yan Shi Ning and he looked out the window. His eyes turned cold the moment he saw Princess Kang Hua in the gardens.

In the gardens Princess Kang Hua was panicking. She received news that an old man and an assassin’s dead bodies were found west of the imperial city. But no one heard news about widow Li. She knew that widow Li couldn’t have killed the assassin she sent and suspected that someone was protecting widow Li. Before she could find out where widow Li was, a young beggar came to the Yan Manor. The young beggar showed her two letters and demanded one thousand silver taels… the calligraphy of the two letters were identical to hers and Yan Jing’s calligraphy. It meant the person who was protecting widow Li knew her biggest secrets about Dung Thi and Yan Shi Ting.

Princess Kang Hua was too anxious to notice Pei Jin was smiling coldly above the gardens.

***

End of Chapter Thirty-Three