Chapter 241: Chapter 242 - The Hush Money

The terrible look of Cuipiao was so obvious when she left that Jinxun, who was always a simple girl, could easily read her mind.

So when she returned to the hall to report to Song Yixiao, she specially mentioned about the details, “Everything went well at that time. It’s all Yu Shiheng’s fault. He happened to come back when they were leaving! And he happened to greet me, although I replied him coldly. However, Cuipiao’s face went dark. I wonder if Fan Zhong has noticed it.”

“Whatever.” Song Yixiao felt disappointed after she heard the words. She continued with flagging interest, “Everyone needs to operate his own life. If Cuipiao can’t understand this truth, no matter how much I worry about her, it will be in vain!”

Speaking of this, she thought of something, then asked, “Why did Yu Shiheng greet you?”

“I was talking with Cuipiao at that time and he happened to ride home, so he greeted me,” said Jinxun casually, “After all, I’m your favorite maid, ain’t I? Of course, he has to please me.”

Song Yixiao was amused by her words. She said, “Are you sure you are my favorite? I will appreciate it if you don’t embarrass me! Look at Qiaoqin and others, they are so steady, only such people can be my reliable right-hand man!”

Jinxun felt nothing about her teasing, but giggled, “But everyone knows that you spoil me!”

What she said made sense. Song Yixiao was rendered speechless. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, she waved her hands and let her do her own business.

After Jian Xubai came back that evening, Song Yixiao told him the thing that Cuipiao and her husband came to pay respects to her. She also mentioned that they met Yu Shiheng at the door when they left, “I asked Jinxun to send them away. Jinxun said Cuipiao looked bad when Yu Shiheng greeted her!”

“Nothing forcibly done is going to be agreeable.” Cuipiao had served Jian Xubai for many years. Although Jian Xubai had no affection for her, he still cared about her because of their master and servant relationship. However, this emotion was not strong enough. While he was worrying about his wife’s health, he knew Cuipiao made troubles for his lovely wife after Song Yixiao suffered a lot because of her birth mother. He thought Cuipiao was not considerate at all, “If she can’t figure it out, just leave her alone. Anyway, she has been married. Fan Zhong will take care of her affairs.”

Song Yixiao didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She said, “Outsiders may think you are deliberately trapping Fan Zhong if they hear what you said!”

But seeing that her husband was completely uninterested in Cuipiao’s affairs, she stopped the topic but changed to another, “Tomorrow is your birthday. Although we won’t hold a banquet at home, Mother is going to send a bowl of longevity noodle over. If there is nothing particularly urgent, how about coming back early?”

“Then I’ll take a leave in the afternoon.” Jian Xubai thought of the stacks of documents on the office desk, and the words of rejection had reached his lips. However, he noticed her twirling the tassel subconsciously with her fingers. The inadvertently move revealed her tension, which softened his heart. He subconsciously agreed.

When it was Song Yixiao’s birthday, Prince of Yi passed away not long ago, so they couldn’t celebrate it, because of which, Jian Xubai bought a package of salted crispy chicken.

Now it was going to be his birthday. But Song Yixiao hadn’t recovered yet. It would depress her if she couldn’t hold a banquet for him.

Jian Xubai couldn’t help feeling that it would be better to spend time with his wife for half a day, lest she worried about it.

Only when he returned home at noon the next day, he was surprised to see the mother-in-pearl marble round table in the hall full of various dishes.

Song Yixiao, who had just returned to the inner room to change her dress and came out, was quite proud, “Have a try. Tell me if my skill improves or not after getting married.”

“What did you do!” However, Jian Xubai stared at the table full of twenty dishes for a while and then thundered to the servants instead of sitting down, “I have said, madam hasn’t recovered and needs rest. You dare to let her cook so much food?!”

“I can even go to Prince of Hengshan’s mansion. I’m not that weak!” Song Yixiao was a little embarrassed after seeing that. She made a wink to retreat the servants, then walked to her husband, took the initiative to hold his arm, and said gently, “What’s more, there were so many people helping me. I am not tired at all.”

What was rare was that Jian Xubai didn’t buy it. He stood there still and no matter how hard she tried to pull him to the seat, he only stared at her with cold eyes.

“…” Fawning on him for a while, Song Yixiao’s smile turned stiff after seeing Jian Xubai’s unchanged indifferent face. She lowered her head then.

After a while, hearing no words any more, Jian Xubai saw her shoulders trembling. She seemed to be crying.

Jian Xubai struggled in his heart, and couldn’t help but stretch out to embrace her in his arms. He said in a deep voice, “Dare you disobey me next time?!”

Before he could say anything more, Song Yixiao, who was suppressing sobbing, suddenly jumped into his arms. She stretched her arms around his neck, stood on tiptoe, and kissed his lips before he reacted. Then she let go of him, and put her hand against his chest. When she raised her eyes, he only saw her brilliant smile. Complacency had filled in her eyes, “Even if I disobey you, you still spoil me, don’t you?”

Jian Xubai was rendered speechless.

He kept silent for a while before gritting his teeth and saying, “You think I’m affable, don’t you?”

“No, only be affable to me!” Song Yixiao smiled and raised her hand to caress his cheek, with a sly expression, “So don’t blame me! It’s you always spoil me. Everyone knows that I was the most sensible girl before!” She said firmly.

Seeing her straight face, as if he had to be responsible for her bad temper because of his spoiling, Jian Xubai didn’t know whether to be angry or to laugh. Feeling complicated, he simply pulled her into his arms. He bowed his head and kissed her lips, venting the sulks fiercely before letting go of her, “Your previous cooking skill was so terrible. God bless me that I didn’t die of your food. I won’t leave any mercy on you if they still taste bad!”

After a while, seeing the very few leftovers, Song Yixiao put down the chopsticks, smiling, supporting her head with hands and looking at her husband without talking. They two were both raised in rich families. Although Jian Xubai was a man, he didn’t have a big appetite. Usually there would be only seven or eight dishes on the table. And he only ate a little of each dish. Every time the dishes were taken away, outsiders could barely tell if he had eaten those dishes or not.

Today, there were more than twenty dishes. According to his usual appetite, one or two bites per dish would be enough for him.

But now, every dish was left only a half. She had strong desires to know what the man was going to say.

Being stared at by her piercing eyes, Jian Xubai expressionlessly took over the tea, which helped to digest from the servant, “I worried too much at Yamen this morning, and I was hungry before noon.”

He meant that it was not she had a good cooking skill, nor he was flattering her, but because he was hungry! Understand?

“My sweetie, you are so hard!” Song Yixiao kept from laughing and nodded solemnly, “My sweetie, you don’t eat so much at usual. You must be very hungry today!”

She wickedly emphasized the words “at usual” and “so much”. The teasing was so apparent. Jian Xubai had perceived it. He stared at her with an angry look. At this moment, Qiaoqin and other maids were serving around. Being afraid of Song Yixiao going too far and provoking Jian Xubai, Qiaoqin hurriedly said, “Your Highness, since you are not going to Yamen later, why not have a walk with Her Highness around the lake to help to digest?”

Before the couple answered, there was a sudden sound of footsteps from the corridor. After a while, a little maid hurried in and said, “Prince of Hengshan’s entourage, Xu Ming, is here, asking to meet Your Highness!”

“Xu Ming?” Song Yixiao felt familiar when she heard the name. After thinking about it, she remembered that when Wei Mengying was pregnant with Lu Cui’er, the Ninth Commandery Princess of Prince of Hengshan’s mansion last year, she had got an award from Prince of Hengshan. At that time, Prince of Hengshan ordered Xu Ming to come over. It seemed that Xu Ming was a trusted subordinate of Prince of Hengshan.

Song Yixiao knew why this person came over at this moment. Although she had lived in Prince of Hengshan’s mansion for a few years, she was still a lady of the official family no matter how sorehead she was. She was not a maid, and moreover, she had married to the Jian Family. However, she was nearly poisoned to death when she went to congratulate the Dowager Consort. Even if the real murderer had already gone, Prince of Hengshan’s mansion still needed to do something.

“In the few days when I was sick in bed, according to the maids, Prince of Hengshan’s mansion has already sent gifts as an apology several times for failing to manage the servants.” She thought to herself, and continued, “But those are for Lanhui, the apparent culprit. Today, I think Xu Ming is here for the Dowager Consort.”

Thinking of this, Song Yixiao felt Dowager Consort of Hengshan was so miserable. She had fought with her daughter-in-law for nearly ten years at the cost of her and her granddaughter’s lives. However, she was calculated by Wei Mengying. Not only didn’t she save the position of Lu Guanlun as the heir, but also Prince of Hengshan had to worry about her reputation.

But Song Yixiao didn’t feel very sympathetic to Dowager Consort of Hengshan. After all, the attitude of the Dowager Consort to Lu Kou’er, her granddaughter, was exactly the same as that of Wei Mengying to her!

“Take him to the drawing room. I will go over after changing my clothes,” Song Yixiao weighed in heart and ordered. She asked Jian Xubai, “Will you go with me?”

Jian Xubai shook his head and said, “I brought a few urgent documents back. I have to deal with them as soon as possible. He didn’t propose to meet me anyway. You can go and see what happened alone!”

Song Yixiao was also afraid that it would be inconvenient if he was there. So she went into the inner chamber to change her clothes after telling him to take good care of his body.

After a while when she came out, Jian Xubai had already gone to the study. She tidied up her skirts and went to the drawing room. Xu Ming in the drawing room was indeed the person who she met last year. Seeing her coming in, he hurried to salute her. He said straightforwardly, “Your Highness, I’m Xu Ming. By the order of the Prince, I come to hand over part of the Dowager Consort’s dowry to you!”

“The Dowager Consort’s dowry?” Surprise flashed in Song Yixiao’s eyes. She knew that Prince of Hengshan’s mansion would definitely give her a hush fee, but she did not expect that it was the Dowager Consort’s dowry. If Dowager Consort of Hengshan was still alive, she would be furious to death again!

Xu Ming noticed her surprise. He bowed, and said in a respectful tone, “Yes! Your Highness, you may not know that when the Dowager Consort was alive, she once mentioned you grew up in the prince’s mansion and was favored by her. For the Dowager Consort, you are just like her own granddaughter. With that, after the Dowager Consort passed away, you will also get her dowry! The Prince knows it, too, and it will not go against the Dowager Consort’s will!”

With that, he took out a 20-centimeter-long box from his sleeve. He held it above his head, “Yesterday, the Prince has divided the dowry to all the young masters and young ladies. Your Highness, it’s yours. Please have a look!”

Looking at the box, Song Yixiao felt complicated. She thought, “What a smart move! After all, it relates to the Dowager Consort’s reputation. If the hush money is too little, that will be shameful; but if the hush money is too much, clues will be left and outsiders will dive to the bottom of the thing. He simply uses the name of Dowager Consort of Hengshan, so that he can not only transfer the large assets aboveboard, but also build a “kind and generous” reputation for Dowager Consort of Hengshan and the mansion!”

Although Song Yixiao was taken advantage of, she enjoyed six years’ support from the prince’s mansion. Also, she was in a mother and daughter relationship with the current Princess Consort of Hengshan. So, anyway, she had to save Prince of Hengshan’s face.

Besides, Song Yixiao never thought of rejecting it.

So after a moment of silence, she said, “I haven’t requited that six years’ grace yet. I just feel so shameful to receive the Dowager Consort’s dowry.”

“This is the wish of the Dowager Consort during her lifetime. As a son, the Prince dares not violate it. Your Highness, please receive it!” Xu Ming knelt down hurriedly. The two gave a symbolic concession, and then Song Yixiao accepted it.

She did not let Xu Ming off immediately, but asked about the situation of the people in the prince’s mansion with concern. Finally, she asked Jinxun to take a pair of gold ingots to reward him, and packed some nourishing medicinal materials for the couple of Prince of Hengshan. With all of this, she sent him away.

After Xu Ming left, Song Yixiao rubbed the box for a while, but had no intention to open it. She ordered Jinxun, “Go to the study to see if Xubai is busy. If not, ask him to the back hall. I have something to discuss with him!”