Chapter 238: Chapter 240 - Yujing's Death

The day before the Dragon Boat Festival, Zijin returned to the residence.

The first time Yuxi saw Zijin, she asked, “Why have you become so dark?” Before, when she was learning martial arts from Deng Niangzi, Zijin was only a little dark. Now, however, Zijin’s skin had become dark and tanned. She didn’t even look like a girl. She looked like a boy.

Zijin didn’t care much about this. She had learnt martial arts to protect Yuxi, and it didn’t matter if she didn’t look good. “It’s okay to be a little darker. It’s nothing to me.”

After bringing in tea and snacks, Caidie and Xuantao went out again. Although Zijin was not always in Taoran House to serve Yuxi, her position was unshakable.

Zijin looked at the plate of cloud cake slices and commented with a smile, “When I’m on the mountain, the cakes made by Guo Daniang are the ones I miss the most.”

Yuxi waited until Zijin had eaten two slices of the pastry before asking, “Zijin, when did Master Yang say you could come down from the mountain?” Zijin was the same age as her and was fourteen years old this year. Yuxi did not want Zijin to stay on the mountain all the time.

Zijin answered, “Master Yang didn’t say, but I want to learn from him for a full three years. Learning in one month at Master Yang’s place is more than what I learned in a year at Deng Niangzi’s.” Even in three years, there wouldn’t be much for her to learn as Master Yang’s mastery was something untouchable.

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Yuxi nodded and said, “As long as you, yourself, want to, there is naturally no problem on my side. But in the future, make sure to be back for the New Year holidays. Don’t celebrate it on the mountain.” The mountains were cold and deserted, and there was not even any good food to eat. It was too shabby to spend New Year on the mountain.

Zijin shook her head and said, “Miss, if I go down the mountain, Master Yang will have no food to eat.” In addition to practising martial arts on the mountain, Zijin also had to wash, cook and clean. When she came down this time, Master Yang was reluctant to let her go. It was because once she left, there would be no one to cook for him. As for the food that the young apprentice cooked, he couldn’t eat them at all.

Yuxi knew that Zijin consistently reported the good news to her but not the bad. So when Zijin went back to her room to change her clothes, Yuxi instructed Zisu, “Take advantage of these few days to ask Zijin how she actually spent her time in the mountains.” Yuxi had asked Han Jianye about it, but he was reluctant to speak.

Unfortunately, Zisu was unable to pull a word out of Zijin until Zijin returned to the mountains. Yuxi gave Zijin her fees for the year, in addition to a lot of food and other supplies.

When Yuxi saw that Zijin was thinking of declining them, she urged with a smile, “Although the two of you don’t have the relationship of a master and his disciple, the reality is, the two of you are master and disciple. You should also be filial to the elderly on holidays.”

Seeing that she couldn’t push them away, Zijin could only take them along with her.

After sending off Zijin, Zisu said to Yuxi, “Miss, I asked Zijin compassionately on a few occasions, but Zijin didn’t say a word to me.”

Yuxi had expected this. She smiled at these words and commented, “Zijin’s mouth is as tight as ever.”

Zisu asked a little strangely, “Miss, if you wanted to know, why didn’t you ask Zijin directly? Zijin definitely wouldn’t hide anything from you.”

Yuxi smiled without answering her question.

Not long after the Dragon Boat Festival, bad news came from the Song family, saying that Yujing had gone into premature labour.

When Qiu Shi got the news, her expression didn’t fluctuate at all. She just asked Ye Shi to go over to see what was going on, while she, herself, didn’t go.

When Yuxi heard the news, her face was a little heavy as she stated, “This matter is not that simple.” Yujing had been pregnant for seven months, and Yuxi had not heard anything wrong about Yujing’s health during this period. But now, with this sudden incident, if there were nothing fishy about it, Yuxi would not believe it.

Zisu said, “Miss, you should stay out of this!” Yujing had already made the Old Lady and the First Lady thoroughly disgusted, and neither of them wanted to care about her. Why should her Miss get herself involved with such things?

But Yuxi didn’t think the same way as her. “If it’s just Yujing, herself, being careless, then it’s fine. But if someone else had caused it, and the Han family didn’t care about it, wouldn’t that make the Song family think that we are afraid of them?” This was just an excuse. The reason Yuxi would say something like this was because she remembered what had happened in her previous life. In her last life, she was wrongly accused of conspiring to murder Jiang Hongjin’s son, but none of the Han family had stepped in to uphold justice for her, leaving the Jiang family to send her to a hamlet in the countryside. Although Yuxi had never liked Yujing, thinking about what had happened to her before, Yuxi’s heart was somewhat unable to tolerate this situation.

Zisu couldn’t help but say, “Miss, if you want this matter to be brought forward, you can’t be the one who has to step forth.” Even if Miss had to step in, it should be the First Lady who would have to take action.

Yuxi asked helplessly, “Do I look like I’m such an unreasonable person in your mind?” It was not something, an unmarried girl like her, to be in charge of such matters. It was just that she was holding some stuffiness in her heart, which she could not dispel. She, the translator, feels the same when you read this, not at xinshou blogspot com.

The next evening Ye Shi returned to the Han family, bringing terrible news of Yujing’s death after going through the difficult birth of her child. [+]

Yuxi immediately froze. “How could it be? Didn’t they say she had premature labour?” A difficult birth might accompany premature labour, but the most that could happen was that one unable to save the baby. How could the mother’s life not be saved!

Zisu had already asked the maid beside Ye Shi and told Yuxi, “At that time, the Second Miss was in a very dangerous situation. The physician said that only one of the mother and the child could be saved, and Fourth Madam Song instructed the physician to save the child.” Ye Shi wanted to save the mother at that time, but she was in the Song family’s territory, and the physician and midwife only listened to the Fourth Madam Song. As a result, the baby was saved, but they lost Yujing’s life.

Yuxi felt a chill run through her body. If the child was gone, Yujing could have another one, but if Yujing was gone, how could the child live without a mother after she was born?

Zisu relayed the news she had inquired about to Yuxi. “The reason why Second Miss went into premature delivery was that Seventh Young Master Song’s tongfang maid, given by Fourth Madam Song, had stirred up trouble.”

The Fourth Madam Song had always loathed Yujing, and ever since Yujing passed through the door, Fourth Madam Song had been picking on her and suppressing her in various ways. Unfortunately, Yujing’s fighting ability wasn’t light, and she could deal with the Fourth Madam Song with ease. In the end, not only did Fourth Madam Song fail to suppress Yujing, but her son became more and more distant from her, resulting in a strained relationship between mother and son. It was at this time that Yujing became pregnant. This was when Fourth Madam Song openly gave two maids to Song Qi to warm his bed. Since then, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law have been fighting even more fiercely.

Yuxi sneered. “I’m afraid it’s not the tongfang maid that was causing the trouble, but rather the Fourth Madam Song’s handiwork. She wanted to kill Yujing!”

Zisu was shocked as she exclaimed, “Does Miss mean that the Second Miss’s premature delivery and difficult labour were both caused by the Fourth Madam Song?”

Yuxi sighed slightly and said, “Yujing originally used tricks to get this marriage, and after she married, she even made Song Qi and the Fourth Madam Song at odds with each other. The Fourth Madam Song only has one son. How can she bear it?” The most important thing was that the Fourth Madam Song knew that Yujing’s maiden family did not like Yujing, and even if Fourth Madam Song killed Yujing, Fourth Madam Song’s family would not suffer any injuries.

Zisu listened to Yuxi’s analysis and was somewhat appalled. “That’s too ruthless.”

Yuxi raised her head and looked at the blue blue sky. Her thoughts drifted to who knows where. After a long time, a faint voice said, “This is the path she chose herself. No one else can be blamed for it.” With Qiu Shi’s character, she would not have pushed Yujing into a pit fire. At most, she would have married her into a low-status family. Even Yuxi thought that decision would have been good for Yujing. A low marriage meant that Yujing would not be constrained in her husband’s family and could live her life as she pleased. Unfortunately, Yujing’s goal had always been to marry into a wealthy family. So how could she be willing to marry into a lowly family? Therefore, at the end of the day, it was already predetermined when she set up Song Qi.

Zisu thought about what happened that day and knew that what Yuxi said was right. “Miss, what about that child?” That child was so pitiful for having lost a mother as soon as being born. The Fourth Madam Song hated the Second Miss so much. Hence, how could she possibly be kind to that child in the future!

Only at this point did Yuxi remember that she had forgotten to ask the gender of the child. “Is that child a boy or a girl?”

Zisu replied, “That child is a girl.”

Yuxi nodded lightly and said, “It’s good that the child is a girl instead. The Song family is short of girls.” In Song Huaijin’s generation, there was only one girl, Song Guifei. There were only two girls in Song Qi’s generation, and in the next generation after that, there was no girl at all. Few girls meant that girls were precious.

Yujing’s sudden death, and with there still aged people in the Song family, Yujing was taken to the family temple the day she died, without even placing her coffin at the Song family main home. [+]

For Yujing’s funeral, Qiu Shi didn’t attend it either. She merely had Ye Shi to come forth. For this matter, Yuxi even made it a point to persuade her a few times. But when she saw Qiu Shi’s disgusted look as if she had swallowed a fly, she then had the good sense to say no more. She was not Qiu Shi’s birth daughter. Even though they were close now, there were still some things she needed to be careful about. Therefore, only Ye Shi and Lu Xiu from the Han family side went to the Song family’s ancestral temple, while not the others. Yuxi had wanted to go but was stopped by Qiu Shi. Qiu Shi’s reason was simple: it was unlucky to go to such a funeral.

The Song family held a decent funeral for Yujing.

However, even if it was decent, Yuxi’s heart was still as uncomfortable as if there was a stone in it.

Zisu looked at Yuxi’s appearance and asked, “Is Miss still uncomfortable about the Second Miss?” Zisu felt a little strange. Her own master and the Second Miss were enemies. It was logical for her own master to be happy without the Second Miss around. But ever since the Second Miss was gone, her Miss had not been in a good mood.

Yuxi spoke of something like wind, ox and horse that were unrelated to each other, “Human hearts are sometimes more poisonous than poisonous snakes.” The Song family only convicted the tongfang maid since the Fourth Madam Song was solving the cause of Yujing’s death half-heartedly. This action should have been expected from the Fourth Madam Song. Otherwise, she would not have dared to harm Yujing.

Zisu thought that Yuxi was saying that the Fourth Madam Song was ruthless and said, “Miss, such people are, after all, a minority. Lady Chen is outstanding, generous and reasonable. No one in the capital doesn’t praise her.” This statement meant that Yuxi did not have to worry about the relationship between her mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.

Yuxi’s smile did not enter her eyes. “Only those who have spent time together will know if they are good or not. What others say is not to be trusted.” Whether the Lady of Taining was as good as the rumours had said, only after she arrived at the Chen family would she know. However, even if the Lady of Taining was not nice, Yuxi was not afraid. She had her dowry and her two brothers to back her up, so even if the Lady of Taining made things difficult, she wouldn’t dare to go too far.

Zisu didn’t know why Yuxi suddenly came out with such a sentence, but nothing was to gain from discussing this matter. At that moment, she advised, “Miss, this matter has already been concluded, so don’t think about it anymore.” The maid who caused the Second Miss’ death had also been beaten to death with a stick, which the Song family had explained to the Han family. The First Lady was obviously unwilling to pursue the matter, so it had to be put to rest.

Yuxi did not respond to Zisu’s words but stood fixedly in the yard for a little while before returning to the house to read a book.