Chapter 61: Sucking Up

  In the east wing, Ye Shi was muttering and cursing non-stop, smashing bowls, tea sets, and pillows, anything he could get his hands on, but no one paid any attention to him.

  Zhen'er heard the painful moans of Ye Shi Xie coming from the east wing, but she didn't bother to pay attention and lifted the curtain to enter Ye Bai Ju's room. Sun Shi was inside nursing her wounds.

  Sun's family also woke up at this time, with two eyes open, and didn't know what to think. Her eyes stared straight at a place, and Ye Baiji was whispering in her ear, but she didn't react at all.

  Qī Zhēn'er stared in shock, pulled Yè Bái zhǐ and asked in a low voice: "Bái zhǐ sister, what's wrong with Aunt?"

  Ye Baiji glanced at her mother with tears in her eyes, and choked out: "My grandfather beat my father for family law, he shouted that he wanted to divorce my mother."

  What? This is really a heartless thing!

  "He doesn't even look at himself, what kind of person he is. If it weren't for my mother supporting this family, would he be able to do whatever he wants, eating and drinking outside all day? Now he still wants to divorce my mother, how dare he!" Ye Baiji now didn't care about being unfilial or not, scolding loudly.

  As soon as her voice fell, the curses from the other side came over, and Ye Shishi was also infuriated, forgetting his injuries, getting up to rush over and beat Ye Baiji, but he neglected the wound on his body, and with a thud, he fell to the ground.

  Ye Baiji and Qi Zhener both heard the voice from across the way and vaguely guessed what was going on, but no one thought to go over and take a look.

  No matter how loudly they scolded, Sun still seemed to be deaf, maintaining the same posture as before. If her eyes weren't blinking, one would have doubted whether she was still alive.

  Hu Zi looked at Sun Shi like this and cried, but didn't dare go near her.

  Zhen'er suddenly remembered that in rural areas, some people say that children are naturally pure and can see things that others cannot. Zhen'er looked at Sun Shi's condition and was startled, but couldn't explain it to Ye Baiju, so she took Hu Zi to Ye Baiwei's room and asked her to help take care of him. Then, she rushed upstairs, pulled Ye Lao Yezi into the room, briefly told him her guess, and had him diagnose Sun Shi's pulse.

  Ye Lao Yezi was covered in sweat, but he didn't blame Zhen'er. Seeing Sun Shi's appearance, he was also shocked in his heart. Sun Shi's appearance clearly showed that she had given up all hope and wanted to die.

  After feeling the pulse, Old Master Ye said: "This is phlegm blocking the orifices of the heart. The liver governs dispersion and regulates emotions, with anger being its corresponding emotion, while the spleen corresponds to pensiveness. Worrying, brooding, and getting angry causes emotional stagnation, making it easy for liver qi to become depressed and spleen qi to become stagnant. Qi stagnation and phlegm depression block the clarity of the mind, resulting in abnormal mental function, dull expression, and mental stupor. I'll prescribe some phlegm-expelling decoction, have Zhen'er boil it for your aunt to drink. Bai Ju, you stay here and talk to your mother, keep her company. This is all due to emotional stagnation."

  The words in front were very profound, and Zhen Er and Bai Zhi couldn't understand them. However, the old man let them decoct medicine and accompany Sun Shi to speak, and they still understood their respective tasks, busy with their own affairs.

  The scene below was still chaotic, and Jiang alone couldn't handle it. Unfortunately, Ye Baihe took Ye Baixi back to the west wing and never came out again.

  Zhen'er entered the kitchen, and Jiang's wife greeted her with a smile, "Zhen'er is back, how was it? Is the house cleaned up?"

  Qizhen'er was washing the medicine jar while saying, "No, Auntie, it's not that fast. Tiger and I are slow at doing things, it'll take a few more days." As Qizhen'er spoke, she glanced at Jiangshi and saw her face lift with an ambiguous smile, and suddenly felt a pang in her heart.

  "Oh dear, I'm telling you, Zhen'er, you're just not thinking. Can that thatched hut compare to our big house? You can stay here with us and no one will say anything, why do you want to go live in some thatched hut? And it's not like brother and sister can make a living easily, what are you going to do in the future?" Jiang Shi's face was full of concern, as if she really cared about their well-being.

  As for Jiang's Buddha-like mouth and snake-like heart, Qizhen still had some understanding of it. At this moment, hearing her say so, she just lowered her head and didn't speak.

  Jiang knew that Qizhen was not so easy to deceive, if only she had the temperament of Ye Baigui, unfortunately, Ye Baigui was good at deceiving but useless, except for loving to dress up, she couldn't do anything else, and even thinking of finding someone to help her was impossible.

  "This east wing is really too crowded, with two families living here. If Zhen'er feels cramped, she can go live in our west wing with Hu'er. Bai Guo and Su Zi haven't returned yet, so Zhen'er and Hu'er can stay in Bai Guo's room. And there's also Bai Miao here, you girls can chat together. What do you think, Zhen'er?" said Jiang Shi.

  Is she trying to curry favor with her? Zijuan thought to herself, at first listening to Jiang's words, she thought that she was still thinking of letting herself be a maid. But after hearing this, it turned out that she had misunderstood, Jiang was actually taking care of her. But she was useless and unvirtuous, and was still freeloading in the Ye family, wouldn't they have wanted to drive her away long ago? Why would they treat her so well?

  Jiang saw Zhen'er's thoughtful face and thought she had moved her heart, so he stopped cooking and went over to pull Zhen'er to sit by the stove door. He said: "There have been a lot of things going on in the second house recently, and the house is small, you must be quite uncomfortable living there. Moreover, your second uncle was beaten today, his heart must not be comfortable, if he says something that shouldn't be said, it wouldn't look good for you either."

  "I've always thought that you, Zhen'er, are clever and obedient, with a good sense of propriety. You definitely wouldn't get involved in the affairs of your second uncle's household. Today, I think so too. Why don't you move to our west wing? Firstly, it will separate you from the second branch, which is better for appearances. Who wants their family matters known by outsiders? Secondly, since you're good friends with the county magistrate's daughter, we can't afford to be rude in front of her. I'm not boasting, but your sister Baihe has the best manners and etiquette. When I took her out before, all those ladies praised her. In the future, let your sister Baihe teach you etiquette, and I guarantee that the county magistrate's daughter will look up to our Zhen'er even more."

  It turned out that this was the idea, Qizhen secretly thought, no wonder she had a good face to look at her, it turned out that she wanted to borrow herself to get on the road with the county magistrate's daughter.

  Qī Zhēn'er opened her mouth to refuse, but the words that came out were: "I heard Hǔ Zǐ say that Sū Qí doesn't like him and even scolded him as a jinx..." Her eyes reddened slightly, looking at Jiǎng Shì with full of expectation.

  Jiang was taken aback and secretly scolded Su Qi for being unreasonable. What's wrong with saying something, but he had to curse that little evil star at this point.

  "You're Su Qi's younger brother, you don't understand these things, Zhen Er, don't bother with him."

  Qī Zhēn ér didn't say anything about being calculating or not, she just opened her mouth and said: "He scolded Tǔ Zǐ, he doesn't like Tǔ Zǐ..."

  Jiang was now in need of Qi Zhen's help, so she coaxed her for a while. Seeing that Zhen still didn't give her an answer, and instead kept bringing up the matter of Su Qi scolding Hu Zi, Jiang became increasingly irritated.

  Zhen'er set up a stove in the passageway under the kitchen to decoct medicine for Sun Shi, and didn't care whether Jiang Shi was in a state of chaos or grinding her teeth with hatred, she just waited for Jiang Shi to show her attitude.

  In the western wing room, Ye Baiji looked in the mirror and saw that only a small area of her face was red, nothing serious, and it didn't even hurt anymore.

  Ye Baiju took out the ointment, and seeing Ye Baixi's appearance made her feel uncomfortable. The little follower who usually followed behind her actually dared to show off in front of her. But today she was indeed helping herself cook in the room and got scalded. If this gets out, her mother would be scolded again. Holding back her anger, she applied the ointment to Ye Baixi's wound.

  Ye Baiji really liked that ointment and applied layer after layer to her face, not putting it down even when the fragrance was overflowing.

  Ye Baihe took two deep breaths, barely suppressing the urge to grab the ointment. Just then, a wave of medicinal fragrance wafted over, and Ye Baihe followed the scent from the window to see Qi Zhen'er decocting medicine in the corridor, a plan forming in her mind. If she herself wasn't feeling well, no one else should be either.

  Ye Baiji took the medicine bag and walked towards Qizhen'er with a swaying motion, her small waist still not visible.

  "Here, there's another packet of medicine, you can decoct it later." Ye Baiji looked down at Qi Zhen'er, who was squatting on the ground, and handed over the packet of medicine as if bestowing a favor.

  Qī Zhēn'er secretly rolled her eyes and ignored Yè Bái Jí.

  Ye Baiji carefully touched his face with his fingers, occasionally bringing them to the tip of his nose for a sniff. He was in a good mood at this moment and didn't shout as loudly as he usually did. However, his tone was still unpleasant to hear.

  "I let you decoct the medicine because I think highly of you, but you're also dragging this out. Don't you see what your own status is? Let me tell you, this is medicine for my father, if you don't decoct it, he'll beat you to death!"

  Qizhen'er didn't take her intimidation to heart. This matter was obviously assigned to her by Old Master Ye, and now she still had the nerve to shirk it off on herself and dare to intimidate her. If this matter were to be exposed, Ye Baiji would definitely be punished. It's really unknown how she could be so foolish as to use such words to scare her.

  "Bai Ji, I'm going to tell Second Uncle that you just helped Third Aunt with cooking, but didn't help him decoct medicine. Second Uncle will definitely beat you up!" Qi Zhen'er said this very affirmatively and loudly.

  Jiang was busy in the kitchen when she heard a noise and rushed out, afraid that they would make too much noise and attract people.

  "Zhen'er, is the medicine ready? Quickly serve it to Er Sao." Jiang Shi said with a smile.

  Ye Baiji wanted to lose her temper, but with Jiang's family here, she didn't dare say a harsh word.

  Qizhen'er poured the medicine into a bowl, and didn't care about anything else. Whatever they wanted to do with it was up to them; after all, this was a trick that Ye Baihe had cooked up inside.

  Jiang promised a box of fragrant ointment to Ye Baigi, and she finally calmed down, which was unknown to Qi Zhen'er.

  This lunch was two quarters of an hour later than usual, and the food standard was still too poor. Jiang's heart was sulking, but he still had to put on a smiling face and said: "Hehe, it's too hot at noon, I'm a bit out of spirit, the food is not good, you guys bear with me."

  The whole house was full of people, but no one had the energy to blame her. After that morning's family law, everyone had something weighing on their minds. Originally, the hot weather had already made their appetites poor, and after eating two mouthfuls of Jiang's cooking, their appetites became even worse. They hastily finished their meal and all went back to their rooms to rest.