The end of the month soon arrived and Old Madam sent two competent stewards to Shui Yue Nunnery to pick the person up.
The case of the Crown Princessā premature labor had already been solved. The manipulators behind the scene were the second princeās wife and her maiden family. Although the second prince tried his best to deny his involvement, he was still reduced to be a commoner by the Emperor and placed under house arrest in the Imperial Mausoleum for life. While the second princeās wife and her maiden family were sent for capital execution of beheadings.
Then, the Yangzhou salt tax case broke out. The amount embezzled by the Yangzhou officials was more than 30 millions taels which was equivalent to ten years of the national revenue. The Emperor was enraged and ordered the Dragon Scaled guard to take over and investigate it thoroughly. Those punished by nine familial exterminations[1] would be exterminated, while those sent for decapitation would be beheaded and those that were dismissed would be removed from their position, and all should be punished without extrajudicial mercy.
The end of the month was truly miserable and tragic that everyone felt insecure. Not to mention the doors of the prominent families were tightly closed, even the number of pedestrians on the streets was much lesser. Only Caishikou[2] was extremely lively. Everyday, several heads were swept out, and countless convicts were detained in the Dragon Scaled guard station, enduring inhumane torture and interrogation.
One could imagine how busy Yu Pin Yan was, thus the trivial matter like Shen Miao Qiās return absolutely didnāt leave a mark in his heart at all. He would leave early in the morning to take charge of his official missions.
Seeing that it was almost the right hour, Old Madam walked to the gate to meet. She saw Yu Xiang already waiting outside with a burning brazier to remove bad luck and felt very satisfied. Yes, with Shen Miao Qiās destiny, she truly needed to have her bad luck removed before entering the door to avoid any evil aura.
Lin Shi rushed over hurriedly. She kept smoothing the hair on her forehead and arranging her skirt, appearing very nervous before repeatedly waving at Jin Momo to have a lookout outside the door.
āComing, coming, Young Miss is back!ā Jin Momo came in with the lower hem of her skirt raised, followed by a large group of sturdy maidservants carrying boxes and luggage.
With the flowing cloud bun and a golden silk phoenix hairpin, Shen Miao Qi was dressed in an elegant long snowy-white satin skirt. She walked slowly accompanied by a warm spring breeze and fluttering flower petals. Her beautiful face was as gentle as water while her bearing was as graceful as nature.
It was merely half a month, she had already faded from the mercenary merchant daughter and the lowly humble slave girl, transformed into a true noble familyās daughter.
Not only was Lin Shiās eyes ecstatic, even Old Madam couldnāt help but nod her head, finally she was presentable.
Shen Miao Qi searched the crowd with a pair of watery clear eyes, she skipped Yu Si Yu who was smiling and looked straight at the girl sitting in the wheelchair. The string known as jealousy in her heart suddenly stretched to the extreme and about to snap.
She had asked Qin Momo either explicitly and implicitly about Yu Xiangās situations, but only got to know she broke her legs at ten, with a spirited personality, a delicately beautiful face and was a wonderful person. She was also very much adored by Old Madam and Yu Pin Yan.
She originally thought the other party was probably equally matched or perhaps even a bit inferior, because she had been a beauty since she was a child and attracting countless astonishing gazes wherever she went. However, upon meeting the real Yu Xiang, she realized that Qin Momoās muttering and mumbling of the two words ādelicately beautifulā was not an insincere compliment, but rather a desperate act of not being able to think of a more appropriate adjective.
The young girl was leaning lazily in her wheelchair, one hand on her knee while the other supporting her cheek. Her black and white beautiful eyes slowly looked over, shone with radiance more brighter than the spring sun. Her skin was as white as snow, and her eyebrows were not the popular curved willow brows, but thick and dark sword-like shapes that slightly tilted up and almost reached the thick dark hair on the temples. Her exquisite and perfect features were delicately feminine yet revealed a domineering heroic charm.
How could she be described with just two ādelicately beautifulā words? She was actually extremely, exaggeratedly and threateningly beautiful, that Shen Miao Qi felt breathless after just one glance.
Yu Xiang was the enemy that Shen Miao Qi identified, and she would unconsciously compare herself to Yu Xiang everything she possessed, then distinguished between superiority and inferiority or winner and loser. She thought she was not inferior to Yu Xiang, especially after half a month of diligent training. But when she saw the real person, she realized that even if Yu Xiang couldnāt walk, she still couldnāt hold up to Yu Xiangās aura of a noblewoman.
Even the simplest actions of raising her eyebrows or lifting her chin complacently brought out an extreme arrogance.
Shen Miao Qi didnāt dare to take a second again. Her heart in turmoil and her steps in disarray. The burning brazier was getting closer and closer while she had to frequently take deep breaths to try regaining her composure.
Precisely at this moment, the voice of a servantās greeting came from the door.