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Chapter 54: Auntie
The two walked out of the West Courtyard and were about to go their separate ways when they saw Ren Yaohua happen to walk out of the main room.
Her gaze stopped for a moment on Ren Yaoqi and Han Yunqian, her eyebrows slightly converging.
Han Yunqian made a distant bow toward Ren Yaohua, turned around, then walked away. When Ren Yaoqi turned around again Ren Yaohua had already crossed the courtyard and went to her room.
After an hour, the maid sent to Han’s house brought the painting to Ren Yaoqi.
“Miss, when this servant came back, she met Du Juan, who serves the Seventh Miss of the East Mansion, she pestered this servant and asking many inexplicable words, and even asked this servant what she went to the Han Mansion for.”
Ren Yaoqi took the painting and raised her eyebrows and gave the maid a look, “Then how did you answer?”
The maid said, “The maid told me the truth, that the Third Master had ordered this servant to go to the Han residence to get a painting. Seeing that she was asking endless questions and that this servant was in a hurry to return to her order, she casually responded with a few words and left.”
Ren Yaoqi nodded: “Thank you for your hard work, go to Xue Li’s place to receive the reward money.”
The maid cheerfully answered, and after thinking about it, she smiled again and said, “Fifth Miss, this servant also encountered a strange thing when she was at Han Mansion.”
Ren Yaoqi’s heart stirred at her words, “Oh? What strange thing?”
The servant girl said: “Young Master Han went to the study to pick up the paintings, and the maidservant was waiting at the second door. It’s just that Young Master Han hasn’t come for a long time, and this servant was anxious, so she stopped a maid from the Han family and asked her to lead the servant girl to the bathroom. It was very close to a bathroom in the inner courtyard, so the maid took this servant to the inner courtyard. When the servant girl came out of the bathroom, she happened to see Young Master Han and an old man in his fifties walking past the branch of the road in front of this servant. That old man seemed to be reprimanding Young Master Han, but he spoke with our Youzhou accent. I was about to ask the maid who the old man was, but the maid was startled and dragged me to run from another path. She said that it was not good for people to see me because of the rules of the Han family. After that, the maid left. After a while, Young Master Han and the old man came out again, but this time this servant heard the old man speak but with accent from Jizhou. At this time, this servants knew that the old man was Young Master Han’s grandfather. Miss, do you think this is strange? Didn’t everyone say that the members of the Han family were born and raised in Jizhou? How could Young Master Han’s grandfather speak the dialect of our Baihe Town?”
Ren Yaoqi laughed and said, “Maybe it’s because Old Master Han had come to Baihe Town when he was young.”
“But this servant heard that Old Master Han fled to Jizhou from the south, and he was recruited into the Han family because he was liked by the former head of the Han family.”
Ren Yaoqi thought for a while, and said to the maid, “Don’t mention this matter to others, after all, it is very inappropriate for you to sneak into someone’s inner courtyard and accidentally overhear other people’s conversations.”
The maid hurriedly nodded and said: “This servant knows, this servant only told Fifth Miss about this matter.” Ren Yaoqi nodded and sent the maid away.
Sit down on the bed and spread out the scroll in hand on the kang table. It really is the painting of ‘Chrysanthemum in Autumn’ described by Han You. There was also Ren Shimin’s private seal on it. Ren Yaoqi carefully identified it and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Then she thought of what the maid had told her just now.
That maid heard Old Master Han talk the dialect with the local characteristics of Baihe Town. Did the maid mishear, or did Old Master Han adapt too quickly? Fake or some other painless reason?
The maid heard Old Master Han scolding Han Yunqian, what was the reason for scolding him? Does it have anything to do with the painting in her hand?
Ren Yaoqi thought about it and felt a little headache.
This Han family is too confusing.
In the blink of an eye, when spring blossoms, Yun Wenfang came to Ren Mansion again. It is said that the man who was beaten half to death by him got a serious illness in winter and died.
The man’s father was a sixth-rank official, and he went to the Yanbei Palace to appeal for injustice, demanding that Prince Yanbei severely punish Yun Wenfang.
Yun Wenfang was ordered by his grandmother to stay obediently at Ren’s house and not go anywhere until the matter was resolved.
Yun Wenfang began to study in the outer courtyard with the children of the Ren family.
On this day, Ren Yaoqi was reading a book in her room, and the new maid Ping Guo came in. She said her aunt had come back, and she had already gone to the Ronghua Courtyard.
Ren Yaoqi was stunned for a long time before realizing that the aunt the maid was talking about was her aunt, Ren Shijia who had already married the second branch of the Lin family in Yunyang City.
But she remembered that Ren Shijia was still pregnant, and there were still three months before the due date. How could she come back at this time?
“Did aunt come back by herself?” Ren Yaoqi asked.
Ping Guo nodded: “Master didn’t come, only Madam came back.”
Ren Yaoqi thought about it, got up, and went to Li’s main room.
Nanny Zhou happened to be reporting to Madam Li about Ren Shijia.
“I heard that she had a verbal dispute with the Second Master Lin and came back to her mother’s house to wait for her delivery. The Old Madam of the first branch sent two groups of people to persuade her to go back, but she still insisted on coming back.”
Madam Li couldn’t help being surprised: “Aren’t Madam and Master always at peace? Why did Madam get into a fight this time when she was pregnant? What happened?”
Nanny Zhou whispered: “I heard that the Second Master Lin used one of her maids when the Madam was pregnant and sick without telling her. When she found out, she was furious, packed up her things and left.”
Madam Li was taken aback for a moment: “Second Master Lin has not even had a concubine by his side these years, only Madam as his main wife. Why now?”
Nanny Zhou shook her head: “I don’t know about that. It’s just that there is no cat that doesn’t like to steal fishy things. The Second Master Lin–” Nanny Zhou said here before she saw that Ren Yaoqi had come in at some point and was standing at the side listening to them talk with great interest.
Nanny Zhou stopped talking just in time, stood up with a smile and bowed to Ren Yaoqi.
Ren Yaoqi didn’t feel the embarrassment of being caught eavesdropping, and said with a smile, “I heard that Aunt is back, so I wonder if Mother should go over.”
At this time, Ren Yaohua also opened the curtain and came in. She also heard that Ren Shijia was back.
Madam Li nodded and said: “It’s just right that you are all here. I’m going to the Ronghua Courtyard. Come with me to meet your aunt.”
Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua followed Madam Li to Ronghua Yuan.
A few people outside heard the laughter of the Fifth Madam, Lin, from inside.
After the maid went in to report, the three of Li’s mother and daughters entered the main room. Ren Yaoqi saw a pregnant woman sitting next to the Old Madam Ren’s right hand, that was her aunt Ren Shijia.
Ren Shijia is the only daughter of Old Madam Ren and she is also the youngest among several children. Her appearance is the most similar to that of the Fifth Master Ren Shimao, but she is a bit more delicate than Ren Shimao. It is said that before she left the house, the relationship between the two siblings was the best.
Ren Yaoqi no longer has any impression of this aunt. In her previous life, it seemed that Ren Shijia had never returned to her natal family to wait for delivery.
“Third Sister-in-law .” Ren Shijia wanted to stand up and salute, but was held down by Madam Lin who was sitting next to her.
“We are family, what are you doing with this set of rituals? Third Sister-in-law won’t mind, right, Third Sister-in-law?” Lin said with a sweet smile.
Madam Li hurriedly said: “Don’t get up quickly, you are a person with two bodies, you should be more careful.”
Old Madam Ren asked Madam Li to sit down.
Ren Shijia looked at Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua again, and said in surprise: “I haven’t seen you for more than a year, and you have grown a lot taller.”
Lin smiled and said, “I’m afraid you haven’t seen Yaohua for more than a year, right? She went to the village for a year…to recuperate. She just came back a year ago.”
Ren Shijia thought about it carefully, then nodded with a smile: “Look at my memory.” As he spoke, he waved to Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua.
The two sisters walked up to Ren Shijia, and Ren Shijia took off a pair of agate bracelets from her hands, gave each of Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua one, and said kindly: “Good children, I’ll give these bangles for you. “
Madam Lin glanced at the pair of bracelets: “Hey, you’re really generous, auntie. Have you prepared all the gifts for today? You have more than just these two nieces.”
Ren Shijia smiled and glared at Madam Lin: “How can you say that? Since when did I treat one more favorably than another?”
When Lin heard the words, she said with a bit of sourness: “Mother loves you the most, and the dowry you gave is all good things.”
Old Madam Ren frowned and said, “Which aunt rewards her niece with a dowry? You’re the only one who can say that! Don’t embarrass me!”
Lin was scolded and laughed by her, and hurriedly said: “Isn’t this daughter-in-law just joking with Shijia? If it’s not from her mother’s family, it is naturally from her husband’s family. They are all in the Lin family. My grandmother and mother were not so generous to me when I was a girl. This shows that my grandmother and mother really care about our sister-in-law.”
Old Madam Ren paused and said in a low voice: “Before you got married, you were the girl of the eldest branch, and Shijia was the daughter-in-law of the second branch. Why are you comparing with her? If you want to compare, you should also compare with the girls and daughters-in-law of the Lin family house. When the house is separated later, there will be no way to compare.”
Lin was stunned: “Separate houses? Why do you want to split the house?” Lin looked at Ren Shijia in confusion, “Didn’t grandmother say that ‘a single tree cannot become a forest’ and that the Lin family would not divide the house?”
Ren Shijia was silent for a moment, then looked up and smiled at Lin, “Mother only said that, how could she say that the house would be divided?”
Madam Lin glanced at Old Madam Ren, who squinted her eyes slightly and leaned on the Arhat bed as if she didn’t notice their words.
Ren Yaoqi watched the expressions of the three of them, couldn’t help thinking.
Hehe, the mystery thickens~
Also for anyone who confused with who related with who, check out the Table of Content for characters’ lineage background, it has everyone who has been mentioned.