Chapter 4: She Probably Can’t Go Back

The Orchid Hall was the dining hall exclusively used by the Wen family, originally named after the plaque “Orchids and Osmanthus Fragrant Together” in the hall. Later, various orchids sent by others were also placed here, and the servants gradually mistakenly believed it was called the “Orchid Hall” because of the many orchid bonsai here.

It must be said that dining while facing elegant orchids immediately elevated the atmosphere. Wen Ru unconsciously sat up straighter.

Wen Nianyue had gone to the shop due to the rain, leaving Wen Ru as the only master in the already sparsely populated Wen mansion. As soon as she sat down, more than ten servants filed out from the side door, bringing exquisite breakfast dishes. Hot food, cold dishes, and pastries were quite complete. Wen Ru, a commoner, was secretly amazed but maintained a calm facade. Her gaze lingered over the table, and after much deliberation, she finally chose to eat the most attractive dish first.

The most attractive dish on the table was a plate of pastries that looked like glutinous rice dumplings. They were golden and translucent, delicately made into the shape of flower buds, exuding a faint osmanthus fragrance. When put in the mouth, they were soft and delicious, leaving a lingering fragrance on the lips and teeth, a million times better than the overnight snacks in the main courtyard’s front hall.

But considering her current role as the daughter of an imperial merchant, Wen Ru only ate one piece before stopping. She picked up her chopsticks and tried to dine as gracefully as possible.

Not knowing if the table etiquette in this matriarchal world was any different from what she understood of ancient times, she compromised, trying to make her movements appear neither too rough nor too delicate.

Hua Ting stood to the side, pouring her warm ginseng tea, his eyes revealing a hint of satisfaction.

Today, Wen Ru’s demeanor while dining was unhurried, elegant, and natural, looking particularly pleasing to the eye. To achieve this level at such a young age was admirable; even at a royal banquet, no fault could be found.

“Good morning, Young Miss.”

As she was eating, Li Guanshi entered from the side door of the back courtyard. After bowing to greet her, he stood up, but not completely straight, with a slightly bent waist as he reported, “Breakfast has been sent to Fu Jizhou, using the best ingredients from the kitchen. Please rest assured, Young Miss. I observed that Fu Jizhou is doing well in all aspects, only a bit reserved as he has just arrived. I believe he will get used to it in a few days.”

Hearing this, Wen Ru put down her chopsticks. Seeing this, Hua Ting took a warm towel prepared by the servant behind him and carefully wiped her hands while bowing.

Wen Ru was surprised for a moment, gradually getting used to it. She calmly accepted Hua Ting’s attentive service and looked up at Li Guanshi, “That’s good. Fu Jizhou has come from afar, pay attention to everything and don’t neglect him in the slightest. I noticed he looks thin, go to the mansion’s storehouse and see if there are any suitable tonics to send over.”

Li Guanshi quickly agreed, mentally attaching more importance to Fu Jizhou. After pondering for a moment, he took out the jade pendant that Fu Jizhou had just rewarded him with, “Young Miss, Fu Jizhou rewarded me with a jade pendant, I don’t know…”

Wen Ru looked at the half-palm-sized jade pendant in his hand from a distance. It was round and white, seemingly with fine beast patterns on it. The attached red braided cord ended in an auspicious knot, with tassels swaying in the air. Just one glance gave a strong sense of antiquity.

Wen Ru turned her face towards Hua Ting beside her.

Understanding, Hua Ting took the jade pendant from Li Guanshi’s hand and handed it to Wen Ru.

Wen Ru held the jade pendant in her hand, rubbing it, her gaze falling on the red cord of the jade pendant. The cord was finely woven, shimmering with a smooth and silky luster. Wen Ru spoke, “I’ll keep this jade pendant. Hua Ting, reward the steward with something else.”

“I am unworthy,” Li Guanshi bowed even lower, “Any rewards I receive are all thanks to the master and young miss. I dare not keep it privately.”

The Wen family was in trade, and they had many distinguished guests coming and going. It was common to reward servants with gold and silver ingots, jade pendants, and jade pieces on ordinary days. The Wen family masters were wealthy and had no rules prohibiting servants from keeping rewards. Li Guanshi was anxious because he hadn’t gauged the young miss’s intentions correctly. The young miss was so protective of Fu Jizhou, she probably didn’t want his belongings to leave through his hands.

Wen Ru’s hand, which was rubbing the jade pendant, paused. Realizing that her actions had been misunderstood, she waved her hand, “It’s fine, keep what the guest rewarded. I just found this jade pendant pleasing to the eye and wanted to play with it.”

As she finished speaking, Hua Ting had already placed a night pearl the size of a quail egg in a plain-colored sachet and handed it to Li Guanshi.

Li Guanshi immediately relaxed, bowing with a smile to express his gratitude, carefully backing away. As he retreated, he silently warned himself to be more careful and cautious when dealing with Fu Jizhou in the future. He was timid and couldn’t withstand these ups and downs of fear.

After the person left, Hua Ting asked, “Why did the young miss keep this jade pendant?”

Wen Ru picked up the jade pendant, looked at it in a slightly brighter spot, and saw that the beast pattern looked very much like the qilin she had seen in documents before. She casually replied indifferently, “It’s quite a good jade.”

Tch, she couldn’t understand it at all. Jade was something only experts could understand, and Wen Ru knew nothing about jade. She purely felt that at least eight out of ten villains were downtrodden and impoverished in their youth, and she didn’t want to take away any valuable items from the villain in her mansion. What if this jade pendant had some special meaning? It might even incur the resentment of the petty villain.

Hua Ting received a perfunctory answer and saw Wen Ru looking at the jade pendant with a complicated gaze, which inevitably worried him.

It was true that women came of age at twenty, but many girls became involved with men after their first menstruation at around ten years old. Not only did lust harm the heart, but it was also detrimental to a woman’s body. He certainly didn’t want his young miss to be like this. Otherwise, when he died and went underground, he would truly be ashamed before the principal husband.

But the young miss now had her own ideas and didn’t like to hear him talk about these things. It seemed he could only start with Fu Jizhou.

*

“Elder cousin!”

Wen Ru had finished her meal and was about to stand up to return to her own courtyard to take a nap and sort out the current situation, when a shrill shout came from the main entrance of the Orchid Hall.

Before Wen Ru could move, Hua Ting led her to sit in the main seat of the Orchid Hall by the dining table. He bent down to whisper in Wen Ru’s ear, “Don’t bother with the affairs of the second and third branches, young miss. Let them make a fuss on their own.”

Then he turned to instruct the servants to clear away the remaining dishes.

Wen Ru’s seat directly faced the main entrance of the Orchid Hall, and she immediately saw a ten-year-old girl running in recklessly. Her pink jacket with entwined branch patterns made her look very cute, and her chubby cheeks bounced as she ran, matching her pink and tender skin as if juice could be squeezed out. She looked quite adorable and harmless.

Just as Wen Ru’s alert expression had relaxed a bit, two girls with bun hairstyles wearing the same color and style of dress as the little girl ran out from behind her, looking a bit older than the little girl.

“Young miss, this morning, Tao Lu and I were ordered by the master to go to the Wen family’s west mansion to inform the young misses that they didn’t need to come to our family school for classes today. But as soon as we arrived, the third young miss and the fourth young miss were fighting for some reason. The fourth young miss killed the second young miss’s beloved dog with a stone, and when the fourth young miss realized things had gone wrong, she fled all the way to our east mansion.”

Before the girl they called the fourth young miss could speak, Tao Hong and Tao Lu immediately knelt in the hall and explained the whole situation clearly.

“Tao Hong, Tao Lu, you’re talking nonsense. It was clearly Third Sister who sent Second Cousin’s vicious dog to bite me, that’s why I acted,” the Wen family’s fourth young miss now sat angrily in the first chair on the lower right, her face full of indignation. “Elder cousin, you must do right by me.”

“If you don’t explain clearly, how can I do right by you? Why did she send a dog to bite you?”

Feeling like it was just children fighting, Wen Ru was both amused and exasperated. Anyway, Hua Ting had said not to mind them, so she might as well beat around the bush and brush it off.

Having made up her mind, she told Tao Hong and Tao Lu, who were kneeling in the hall, to stand up so everyone could listen to this fourth young miss’s grievances.

After standing up, Tao Hong and Tao Lu naturally stood on either side of Wen Ru.

Wen Ru glanced at them from the corner of her eye, estimating that these two were probably her attendants. Good, she felt more confident now.

However, upon hearing her words, the Wen family’s fourth young miss began to stammer, and finally said in a hoarse voice, “Third Sister scolded me, scolded me…” The little girl lowered her head, almost in tears. “She scolded me, saying I was the offspring of a bed-climbing servant, that I was cheap and useless, but clearly, my father is the principal husband.”

Wen Ru unconsciously fiddled with the jade pendant in her palm, feeling a bit confused by what she said. The child of a principal husband, yet also the child of a servant? How could this be so unclear?

But she swallowed these somewhat troublesome words, not mentioning her background, only speaking about her as a person: “So are you cheap and useless?”

The Wen family’s fourth young miss was stunned by the question, then suddenly stood up, shaking her head like a rattle drum, shaking off the tears in her eyes, and said fiercely, “I’m not! I’m the legitimate daughter of the Wen family’s third branch. In the future, I will definitely make Qiao Cejun and Third Sister kneel and apologize to me! And that Second Cousin who always sides with Third Sister, since she likes to play with Third Sister born to Qiao Cejun so much, she must also be hoping that Second Aunt will have another sister with the mansion’s Lin Guishi!”

After saying this, a glimmer of dark light appeared in her round, seemingly harmless apricot eyes.

Could a little girl who gets fierce enough to kill a dog with a stone be underestimated?

Wen Ru didn’t think she was a good person.

After the person was brushed off and left, Tao Hong and Tao Lu left the inner courtyard and waited in the outer courtyard.

Hua Ting stepped forward, his expression not looking good: “Young miss, our main branch can’t interfere with the affairs of the second and third branches. Don’t get involved, it will only bring trouble. Fortunately, our master hasn’t let any side husbands or favored attendants enter the door, only two low-status small attendants. Because they haven’t made the family head pregnant for over a decade, they’re afraid of being driven out of the family, so they stay obediently in their own courtyards all day.”

As he spoke, the displeased expression on his face gradually improved, and his tone carried some comfort.

Wen Ru rested her elbow on the huanghuali wood armrest beside her, half-squinting her eyes and nodding. She also felt that such simple relationships were good. However, whether it was because she had just eaten or due to the turmoil before and after transmigrating into the book, she felt mentally drained, her tired eyelids drooping, unable to lift no matter how hard she tried.

Just as she was about to indulge herself and fall asleep, she suddenly felt something slowly surging out from deep within her brain, scenes flashing by like a kaleidoscope.

Wen Ru closed her eyes, feeling a bit of a bad premonition. Now that even the original body’s memories were given to her, she probably couldn’t go back.

“Young miss!” Hua Ting stepped forward and caught the jade pendant that fell from Wen Ru’s hand, looking at Wen Ru who had fallen asleep tilted in her seat, he smiled helplessly, “Still saying she’s not a child, falling asleep while sitting and talking.”