"Why wasn't it you who died, but my son..."
Looking at him, Shen Wan was reminded of her deceased son. She cursed and turned around to leave, unwilling to look for even a moment longer.
The young boy left behind wore a rare blank expression, staring at the old man's back, hesitating to speak.
He was accustomed to his grandfather's behavior, his expression as icy as usual.
The afterglow of the sunset stretched his shadow long, making it appear exceptionally lonely. He lifted his foot and walked southwest, back to his courtyard for his punishment of kneeling.
When Ye Zhi and her two companions arrived at Lianxiu Garden, the slightly powdered face of the Ye Family's matron was gloomy. Well-maintained, she looked rather young, like a woman in her twenties.
The garden had lit lamps.
The candlelight shone on the fallen leaves, casting dapples of shadow, while a gentle breeze blew, dispersing some of the summer's sultriness.
"Mother, I'm back." Ye Zhi greeted cautiously. Seeing her sister standing nearby, she turned and called out with a sweet, beaming smile, "Elder sister, you're back."
People don't hit smiling faces.
Ye Fu, sixteen this year, was graceful and elegant, with bright eyes and white teeth, akin to a budding lotus. In her prime youth, she had just married the Fourth Prince. While they respected each other as guests, it was not out of love, but merely a family alliance designed to consolidate family status.
The mother did not elaborate on other details.
But previously, while reading *Concubine's Favor*, the author mentioned: The Fourth Prince, Prince Jin, was upright and open, broad-minded and magnanimous, cherishing his concubine Ling Rong and treating his main wife with propriety. Two years later, Ye Fu gave birth to a son, nicknamed Ah Che. Not long after, Prince Jin went with concubine Ling Rong to live in Hu City in the south, which was Ling Rong's hometown.
They stayed there for years, with Ye Fu managing the mansion's affairs.
When Prince Jin returned, he saw a boy who resembled him at the city gate. This child was clever and eloquent, steady and mature, yet full of childlike innocence. After discovering the boy was indeed his son, he lay awake at night, looking up at the full moon, questioning himself, "Am I, the prince, guilty towards Ye Fu and her son?"
"A mother is honored by her son" was not an empty saying; over time, his attitude towards his main wife became noticeably gentler.
However, his long years of indifference had already disheartened Ye Fu. Not long after, she was secretly pushed into a lake by Ling Rong and drowned. Nobody knew. Everyone thought it an accident and lamented her fate.
At that time in the novel, Ye Zhi was imprisoned, her father was inexplicably involved in a corruption case, and later was demoted to Fuyang, with her mother following. There, upon hearing of the eldest daughter's mishap, she wept daily.
Her second brother, Ye Lin, though serving as a Third Grade guard in the palace, found himself powerless in all matters.
The Ye Family had fallen apart.
Ye Zhi sized up her slightly angry yet muttering mother, her gentle elder sister, and Yun Xiu and Ah Tao standing quietly beside her. She hadn't expected the novel's few short words to decide everyone's fate, including hers.
Such a grand Ye Mansion, dissolved in just a few years, scattered like it was nothing.
Her eyes became slightly sore, her throat felt choked as if something was stuck, impossible to swallow, like an invisible hand was gripping her heart, making it hard to breathe.
"Mother, stop. Look, Ah Zhi's eyes are red." Ye Fu walked towards her younger sister, reaching out to hug her small body, gently ruffling her soft hair with a smile that revealed her little canine tooth, "Ah Zhi wasn't this fond of crying before. You're seven now, you can't cry at the drop of a hat, or else Li Du will laugh at you."
This little girl, still the same, loves to cry.
Ye Zhi could be said to have been largely raised by Ye Fu, despite their nine-year age difference.
"Crying at the slightest word; Ah Zhi, you're so delicate. How will you find a husband in the future? You should learn from Ah Fu. Alright, Yun Xiu, go call the master over, and tell the kitchen they can serve the dishes."