“Miss Ji really is such a filial child.” It was evident that Princess Yong An was even more satisfied with Ji Liruo by the look on her face when she turned to look at the young lady. Filial, kind, gentle. A girl like her was certainly a good match for Ning’er.
Seeing the satisfied look on Princess Yong An’s face, Mrs. Ji was secretly even happier. Her husband was certainly right. So long as she bragged about how filial Liruo was, this marriage would be even more secured than before. As long as Liruo eventually became the wife of the Young Marquis, she was bound to rise in status again. By that time, she would like to see if those little vixens still dare to seduce her husband or not. At that time, even if she were to scratch their faces so badly that they were disfigured, there wouldn’t be anyone to speak up for them at all.
With her head lowered all this time, Ji Liruo appeared to look shy. In truth, the look in her eyes was that of deep disgust and impatience. When her mother said such things, it wasn’t really because she really thought of Ji Liruo as a filial daughter. Her mother was simply following her father’s instructions, which was why she’d said such things.
It was really sad…
Growing up, she’d really worried a lot for her mother.
But in the end, she was still nothing compared to a single word from her father.
Ji Liruo really couldn’t stand the atmosphere in the room anymore and said softly, “Mother, Princess, I’d look to go out for a walk.”
“Go, go,” Princess Yong An said with a smile. She would get Ning’er to go take a walk in a while and the two could spend some time with each other in private.
Mrs. Ji also added a word of instruction. “Don’t go too far. Take someone with you.”
Ji Liruo nodded. After bowing respectfully to show obeisance, she brought a maid with her, turned around, and went out.
Ji Liruo walked down the corridor of Xuan Ling Nunnery and raised her head to look ahead.
Xuan Ling Nunnery had never been a place filled with dense incense smoke. It’d been this way since she was a child. This place was desolate. It was truly cold and deserted.
She’d unknowingly walked to the corner of the Wintersweet Garden. The maid behind her watched her standing in the corner in a daze and couldn’t help but ask, “My Lady?”
As a result, she found herself faced with a sudden burst of outrage from Ji Liruo.
“Get lost!” Ji Liruo’s face was twisted with anger. She roared furiously at the maids, “Get lost all of you, as far away as possible. Leave me alone for a while.”
The maids had never seen Ji Liruo like this before, had they? All of them were so frightened that they turned pale. Then they hurriedly lowered their heads in a bow and retreated from her view, leaving her there all alone, standing in the same spot.
Dumbfounded, Ji Liruo stood in the corner, looking at the few large stones there. The expression on her face was one of nostalgia.
After a long time, she took an old embroidered pouch out from her sleeve and looked at it in her hands, as though she were obsessed with it. With just one look, one could easily tell that this embroidered pouch was a child’s because there was a very vivid little tiger embroidered on it. The only thing was that the pouch was timeworn. The fabric was a little discolored along the edges.
“Little brother…” Ji Liruo spat out a few words in a low voice. Then her eyes turned red. She hugged the embroidered pouch tightly in her arms with all her strength.
Ji Liruo looked at the few large rocks in the corner with a dazed look. Memories came flooding back, threatening to drown her.
No one would have known that this was the most beautiful place she could remember from her childhood memories. It was right here where she’d met that person who had rescued her…
When her father was young, he was a fickle philanderer who’d lusted after her mother’s beauty. He then married her mother, who came from a humble family background. But their sweet marriage only lasted a few years before he grew tired of her and went back to his philandering ways. He began taking concubines, one after another. Seeing how he was continuously bringing women into their house made her mother, who loved her father dearly, mad with jealousy. The two of them quarreled endlessly while the other pretty concubines took advantage of the situation to establish a foothold for themselves. Ji Liruo’s mother became the loser amidst all that struggle in the house.
During one of their hysterical quarrels, her mother scratched and hurt her father’s face. This made her grandfather, who’d always turned a blind eye to her father’s affairs, livid. Furthermore, with her father’s pretty concubines instigating him and sowing discord between him and his wife, her father eventually sent both wife and young daughter to this Xuan Ling Nunnery for quiet meditation and to cultivate their inner selves.
Well, it was said to be for quiet meditation and cultivation, but everyone knew what was really going on. She and her mother were banished from their home, sent to exile in this plain and impoverished nunnery without a definite date of return. She was the legitimate first daughter of her father, but the life she led wasn’t even one-tenth as good as that of the other daughters of her father’s concubines.