Chapter 483 — Telling Tales

Choking back sobs, Ji Hong said, "Madam, for the sake of my having served you since I was a child, please take it upon yourself to let me go. Anywhere but one of those brothels—anywhere at all, and I will go willingly..."

Miao Zhi bit her lip. "And Liu Hong?"

"She still dreams of the day the Master will raise her to concubine!" said Ji Hong. "She has endured it all this while."

Miao Zhi did not sleep a wink all night, and only closed her eyes when the sky was fully light.

But she had barely dozed off when a clamor woke her.

Irritably she pulled back the bed curtain and called out to the maid on duty nearby: "Who is making all that noise out there?"

The little maid hurried out and came back to report: "It is Sister Liu Hong. She says she is unwell and asked Granny Miao to send for a physician. Granny Miao told her you were resting and to wait until you woke. Then Sister Liu Hong began to cry."

As she spoke, she furtively studied Miao Zhi's expression.

Miao Zhi was so furious she nearly spat blood.

She had served Song Han for only a few nights, and already the little maids grew timid and evasive at the mere mention of Liu Hong. If Song Han were allowed to go on kicking up such a fuss, what place would be left for her in this household?

She summoned Granny Miao and said, "Didn't Liu Hong say she was unwell? Lest her illness spread to others, take a few people and send her to the farmstead to rest and recover."

Granny Miao smiled, bent her knee, and assented.

But before two sticks of incense had burned, Granny Miao came back in, her face stiff with embarrassment. Head lowered, she said, "Madam, the little maid attending Liu Hong ran off to inform the Second Master. The Second Master sent men over and took Liu Hong to the outer courtyard."

Miao Zhi felt a sweetness rise in her throat and a darkness before her eyes, and she fainted away.

When she came to, it was already time to light the lamps.

Granny Miao and Ji Hong were hovering anxiously at her side, but Liu Hong and Song Han were nowhere to be seen.

She ground her teeth in hatred.

In any great household, if such a thing happened in the chambers of a newly wedded wife, she could at least go to her mother-in-law and demand justice.

But she had no mother-in-law!

And more than that, she had been given her own separate household long ago.

To whom was she to take such grievance?

Her natal family?

She would be lucky if they did not drink her blood. There was no counting on them to stand up for her.

Song Yan?

He did not even dare to concern himself with whether the Duke of Zhenguo lived or died, let alone meddle in her affairs.

Dou Yan?

At that, she hesitated.

Jiang Yan had been widowed and sent back to her natal family, and yet Dou Yan had treated her kindly and even found her a new husband—proof enough that Dou Yan was a person of charitable heart.

And Dou Yan was her sister-in-law, the matriarch of the Song clan. For her to seek her sister-in-law's help in a matter would be entirely proper.

At this thought, she found her breathing came much easier. She struggled up and said, "Have the carriage made ready. I am going to the Duke of Ying's residence."

Granny Miao and Ji Hong were taken aback. Ji Hong said hesitantly, "It is so late—could you not go tomorrow instead? I have heard that the Heir Apparent has neither concubine nor chambermaid at his side, and returns to the main courtyard as soon as he leaves his office..."

Miao Zhi was, after all, his younger brother's wife, and ought to avoid any appearance of impropriety.

"We go now," Miao Zhi said, unable to wait a moment longer. "Quietly, and do not let the Second Master know."

This household belonged to Song Han, after all. If he turned vicious and put her and her servants under house arrest, then truly there would be no crying to heaven and no answer from earth.

Granny Miao and Ji Hong dared not disobey. One went to arrange the sedan chair, the other helped Miao Zhi wash and dress, and they set off for the Duke of Ying's residence.

Once Yuan Heng passed his first birthday, he suddenly could walk.

Song Yan reflected that the Third Imperial Grandson still had to be carried in someone's arms, and concluded that his own son was no ordinary child.

He thought that autumn would soon be upon them, so he had a heated kang built in the warm chamber, taking up a full two-thirds of its floor space. Every day after leaving the office, he would take Yuan Heng onto the kang to practice walking, and as they practiced, he would encourage him: "You're really something! I've never seen a child walk as steadily as you. You're bound to be a martial prodigy one day. Your grand-uncle, they say, didn't start walking until he was a year and two months old, and you're walking earlier than he did, so it's clear that when you're grown you'll be a great hero just like him!"

Whether Yuan Heng understood or not, whenever Song Yan said this, he would stop in his tracks and crow with laughter at him.

Dou Yan stood by the kang with a handkerchief in her hand, laughing so hard she could not straighten up. Once Song Yan came home from the office, she had nothing to do and had sunk to the station of a serving woman who poured tea and wiped the sweat from Yuan Heng's brow.

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Sisters and brothers, here is today's update.

o(n_n)o~