Entangled in calculations
When Yuan Yi returned to the living room, he found that Yuan Yi had already sat down beside Zhang Shi, with a polite smile and a calm expression, without any trace of his previous frantic escape.
It seemed that she noticed her gaze, Yuan Yi smiled at her with a gentle and warm smile, like the spring breeze in March. However, Yuan Yi inexplicably shivered, feeling cold all over, and she clearly saw that there was no hint of a smile in her bright eyes, only indifference and emotionlessness.
Because of her abnormal behavior, Yuan Yi's heart was uneasy, thinking that she was up to some kind of mischief again. Unintentionally, she bumped into a maid who was walking in the opposite direction, and the maid was holding a delicate pastry, which now rolled off one by one onto her pink cloud-patterned dress, leaving behind stains.
That maid seemed to be frightened, and tears quickly welled up in her eyes. Her body trembled as if she was about to kneel down. Yuan Yi hastily grabbed her arm and smiled apologetically at the various madams who had already noticed the commotion. He then whispered to the maid, "Don't make a fuss, take me to the side room to change my clothes."
The old man's birthday banquet was set up in the Western Mansion, and Yuan Yi had only been to the Western Mansion a few times before, so she wasn't familiar with the layout of the place. She couldn't help but ask one of the maids from the Western Mansion to show her the way. Today, she had only brought Xiang Mei to the banquet, and now Xiang Mei had already rushed back to the Eastern Mansion to fetch her clothes. If it weren't for the fact that the birthday banquet hadn't ended yet, and as a granddaughter she couldn't be absent, Yuan Yi would have liked to leave right away.
She had an uneasy feeling in her heart from the very beginning, always thinking that something bad was going to happen.
She couldn't help but glance at the maid beside her, wearing a red jacket and green silk vest, only in her early teens, with two buns on her head, a smile that was still childish and naive, with a hint of shyness in her eyes. She had never seen this person before, probably a maid from the Western House. She seemed to feel Yuan Yi's inquiring gaze and shifted uncomfortably.
She secretly sighed in her heart, thinking that she might have been overthinking, and it was just an accident. Her doubts were mostly dispelled until the little maid brought her to a side room, where the fragrance was rich and the arrangement was elegant and harmonious. All the decorations inside showed that they were used by women. She looked around again, and finding nothing out of place, she finally put her mind at ease, waving her hand for the little maid to return to the living room to wait on them.
The Zhu family's mansion was spacious, and it would take some time to walk around the plum blossoms. Yuan Yi had been waiting idly for a while, feeling her eyelids getting heavier, when she suddenly felt a jolt in her heart and realized something was off. The originally vacant wing of the house was filled with thick incense smoke. She regretted that she had become so accustomed to the fragrance in the room that she had overlooked this detail.
Before he could react, a gloomy male voice came from outside the door, slightly muffled, saying: "Get out of the way, I'll go in and rest for a while."
The door creaked open with a loud screech, and then slammed shut again. Heavy footsteps thudded into the room, accompanied by the sound of a stool being knocked over, clattering loudly. Yuan Yi's heart was racing like a drumbeat, pounding fiercely as she struggled to hide, but her whole body went numb and she collapsed onto the nearby pear-wood Eight Immortals table.
That person finally walked in, found someone, and his footsteps first paused, then gradually approached. The thick and pungent smell of wine rushed to her nose, making Yuan Yi feel even more dizzy. She struggled to open her eyes, only to see the hem of a crimson robe, and despite that, the four-clawed dragon embroidered on the red robe still made her heart chill.
The Great Wei Dynasty still revered the fire virtue, and many members of the imperial family wore red clothes. The visitor's robe had a four-clawed dragon embroidered on it, his identity was already obvious.
Her chin was suddenly lifted by a cool and slender hand, and a voice that seemed to be teasing yet astonished slowly rang out, with an inescapable gloominess. "Sleeping soundly, coquettish and charming, what a unique and matchless imperial concubine. The palace has great good fortune today."
