CMWKSD -Chapter 190 A Sudden Awakening

Looking at Jiu Yue’s undisguised contempt, both Aunt Liu and Princess Ling were momentarily at a loss for words.

Alright—it really was a case of “Why don’t you eat minced meat?” on their part.

Jiu Yue had only voiced an idea; as for the concrete way to carry it out, she would still need to go back and think it through carefully.

Aunt Liu made a swift decision and immediately ordered the servants to go fetch Zhen Mingzhu.

She already had a rough plan in mind, though it still needed to be discussed in detail after returning.

After all, she was the Marquis’s wife, and the Marquis himself held a post in the Ministry of War.

If it were merely some girlish romantic fancy, it naturally wouldn’t amount to anything serious.

But Aunt Liu felt an inexplicable unease lingering in her heart.

That Lord Ning served under the Marquis; the two of them were both in the Ministry of War.

What if this wasn’t aimed solely at the Marquis’s residence, but at something else altogether?

After Aunt Liu finished speaking with the Marquis, he frowned deeply.

“Are you certain?” he asked.

Sensing the gravity of the situation, Aunt Liu replied, “Whether it’s true or not—we’ll know once the two maidservants by Mingzhu’s side come over and report.”

The Marquis nodded, then added as an afterthought, “Don’t alert the enemy yet. Keep a close eye on Mingzhu.”

Aunt Liu nodded, then thought about it and asked, “What do you think of what Jiu Yue suggested—sending Mingzhu to the countryside to endure some hardship?”

The Marquis choked for a moment. It really was their own fault in the beginning, for having indulged this daughter too much.

That was how she’d developed such a temperament.

If truly enduring a month of hardship could straighten her out again…

The Marquis gritted his teeth. “We’ll do as Jiu Yue said. I’ll plan it carefully. We absolutely cannot let word leak out.”

Aunt Liu nodded. As she thought of this, she also recalled Ning Ning, whom they rather liked.

“And that Ning Ning—she clearly played a role in this matter as well. They deliberately brought it up. From what I can see, their intention was to make the whole affair common knowledge.”

“Yueyue and our Mingzhu have always had a bit of friction between them. They could conveniently pin the blame on Yueyue, saying she was the one who spread it. What a vicious scheme!”

The Marquis lightly slapped the armrest of his chair. “Do they really think I’m someone to be trifled with?”

She was nothing more than a little girl.

Aunt Liu nodded. Soon after, the two first-rank maidservants serving Zhen Mingzhu were ushered into the room.

Seeing the Marquis’s fierce expression and Aunt Liu’s solemn face, the two maids’ legs went weak, and they dropped straight to their knees.

As it turned out, the matter was indeed related to Ning Ning.

The man had been encountered by Zhen Mingzhu and Ning Ning together during an outing to enjoy boating on the lake.

At first, they’d merely exchanged a few lines of poetry across their boats.

When had Zhen Mingzhu ever met a man who could chat with her about everything under the sun?

Before long, the conversation flowed back and forth.

And Ning Ning had been present nine times out of ten.

If, just moments ago, Aunt Liu had still been wondering whether she’d thought too poorly of Ning Ning—by this point, she naturally understood that the entire affair was very likely orchestrated by Ning Ning herself.

Damn her!

…

In just over half a month, when Zhen Mingzhu was brought back from the countryside, it was as though she’d shed an entire layer of skin.

Ling Yue—one who never minded stirring up trouble when it came to watching a spectacle—knew that Jiu Yue wouldn’t go around spreading this matter indiscriminately.

Early in the morning, she excitedly ran over to summon Jiu Yue.

She insisted that Jiu Yue accompany her to the Marquis’s residence to see her cousin’s family.

What’s more…

The Marquis’s household practically treated Jiu Yue as their savior.

If not for Jiu Yue…

In the end, they might have truly lost this daughter—rather than merely having her tanned a little, with hands made rougher than before…

The last time Jiu Yue had felt this speechless was the previous time.

“Is this really appropriate?” she asked.

Watching the drama was one thing; showing up at their door specifically to watch it was already rather inappropriate.

And now she was even dragging along an audience, bringing people with her to watch the spectacle in person.

Jiu Yue truly didn’t know how to describe Ling Yue’s way of doing things.

To say this girl lacked tact, lacked brains…

Jiu Yue was almost afraid that those words were actually meant to praise her.

Ling Yue tugged at her fingers. “It’s not entirely just to watch the excitement.”

Jiu Yue looked at her in confusion.

“I’m also afraid that one day I might end up becoming that kind of person, so I’m planning to go see my cousin and have a good, proper talk with her.”

Jiu Yue pressed her lips together. Thinking it over, it made sense.

After all, teaching someone by example was never as profound as letting reality teach them a lesson.

When the two arrived at the Marquis’s residence, everything on the surface still appeared calm and uneventful.

After all, the matter had been handled under the banner of “eloping.”

Something like this had to be buried deep and never spoken of—so much so that not even everyone within the residence knew about it.

All told, the number of people aware of the truth probably did not exceed fifteen.

When Jiu Yue and the others arrived, Zhen Mingzhu had just finished crying in the arms of Aunt Liu.

As soon as Aunt Liu heard that Jiu Yue and Ling Yue had come, she hurriedly instructed someone to invite them in.

The moment the two stepped into the room—they saw a young girl sitting on the bed, her complexion sallow, her entire figure so haggard she was almost unrecognizable.

Her eyes were swollen as she looked at the two of them.

Jiu Yue, utterly lacking tact, glanced at the girl on the bed, then turned her head and asked Ling Yue, “Is this your cousin—the one who always looks down on everyone with her eyes on the top of her head?”

Ling Yue: ……

Aunt Liu: ……

Zhen Mingzhu: x﹏x

Ling Yue suddenly felt an inexplicable urge to curl her toes in embarrassment, though she couldn’t quite tell where that feeling came from.

Zhen Mingzhu let out a sob, nearly so angry from Jiu Yue’s single sentence that she almost passed out.

Ling Yue didn’t know whether she should first pay her respects to her aunt or answer Jiu Yue’s question.

In the end, Aunt Liu—who had seen her share of the world—stepped in.

She wiped away her tears and said, “Yueyue, Jiu Yue, you’ve come.”

Ling Yue bowed properly. Jiu Yue merely dipped her head slightly, which still counted as a greeting.

Zhen Mingzhu wanted to turn her head away proudly, but then she remembered that if it hadn’t been for Ling Yue and Jiu Yue, what she had experienced over the past twenty-odd days might have become a lifelong pattern.

After that thought, she simply couldn’t bring herself to put on that aloof, superior air toward Ling Yue anymore.

She wiped the tears from her face and softly called Ling Yue’s name, her voice gentle and subdued. “Yueyue…”

That soft, delicate “Yueyue” startled both Jiu Yue and Ling Yue so badly that they jumped up from their chairs.

There was no helping it—their names were pronounced exactly the same.

Ling Yue’s eyes went wide as she shrank behind Jiu Yue. “Jiu Yue, look at her. Is she really my cousin? She hasn’t been possessed by a ghost, has she?”

Zhen Mingzhu: ……

Hmph.

Seeing that Zhen Mingzhu was willing to lower her head first, Aunt Liu felt deeply comforted.

“No, no. It’s just that after going through this ordeal, your cousin has more or less turned over a new leaf.”

That choice of words—if one didn’t know better, they might think she had just been released from prison.

The group sat together and talked.

Only then did Ling Yue and Jiu Yue finally learn what had truly happened to Zhen Mingzhu.

It was much the same as what Jiu Yue had said before.

Zhen Mingzhu had indeed been sweet-talked into eloping.

Not long after the two ran off to the outskirts of the city, they encountered men brought by the Marquis.

The two of them were separated just like that.

Then, outside the city, an old woman appeared, holding the man’s token and claiming to be his mother.

Zhen Mingzhu was secretly delighted. Without thinking too deeply, she followed the old woman back to the countryside.

She had thought that as a noble young lady running off to his home like this, she would naturally be treated as she was in her own household—cherished and pampered.

But everything that followed made Zhen Mingzhu truly understand, in concrete terms, the saying: a concubine runs to her fate, a wife is properly welcomed.

Every two or three days, the man would send back a letter.

He wrote that when they had been separated, he had inadvertently saved a great scholar.

He had already taken that scholar as his teacher.

He was confident that when he took the imperial examinations again, he would surely seize first place in one fell swoop.

He told her to be filial to his mother at home and assured her that once he succeeded in the examinations, he would come back to marry her.

Zhen Mingzhu had imagined everything so beautifully when she ran away.

Who would have thought that life was not just about romance and poetic dreams?

For ordinary people, life was more often about firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, and tea.

The days that followed were nothing short of a nightmare for Zhen Mingzhu.

Foul-smelling livestock that had to be fed day after day.

Endless farm work.

Laundry that never seemed to finish.

A dirt house forever filled with dust.

Mouths sharper than swords.

All of it nearly drove Zhen Mingzhu to collapse. She tried to escape several times.

Each time, she was stopped by the old woman. In the final two days, the old woman even locked her up.

Only then, through the woman’s words, did Zhen Mingzhu realize that she was both a fallback—and a backup plan.

If the man became the top scholar, going to the Marquis’s residence to propose marriage would give him much greater leverage.

Once he entered officialdom, the Marquis, as his future father-in-law, would naturally lend him support.

After all, the rice had already been cooked.

It was only then that Zhen Mingzhu slowly came to understand just how foolish her decision to elope had been.

The man had merely treated her as a ladder to climb to the heavens.

Then she recalled the flower-viewing banquet from that day.

Many things gradually became clear, with clues everywhere.

She had always thought herself clever—yet she had fallen straight into the trap, and hadn’t listened to a single word of advice from others.