Fu Zhen covered her chest, her expression dark and hard to describe. Although she clearly knew that she would never follow the same path as in her previous life, for some reason, she still felt an indescribable sense of nervousness.
The sense of powerlessness, like when she first entered the Marquis Mansion in this life and was at the mercy of fate, welled up in her heart again.
She sat quietly in the room. Although her eyes were on the book, the words in it seemed to float in front of her eyes, making her feel irritable.
"Where's cousin?" she turned to ask Biyu.
Biyu frowned. "Yuanbao said that the young marquis has something to attend to today and is not in the mansion for now."
Recently, Chen Tingfeng had indeed been extremely busy. Fu Zhen couldn't help but stand up and pace around the room twice before sitting back down. She tried hard to suppress the uneasiness in her heart.
"Let me know when the young marquis comes back," she said.
Although Biyu was a bit puzzled, she readily agreed. "Yes, miss."
The sun gradually climbed to the middle of the sky and then slowly set, emitting a yellowish glow over the mountain peak.
Chen Tingfeng was out for the whole day. When Biyu came back to report to Fu Zhen, the sun had already set below the horizon. The light was gradually fading, leaving only a bit of white light.
Lamps were lit in the room.
Biyu said to Fu Zhen, who was having dinner, "Miss, the young marquis's carriage has stopped at the back gate."
"The back gate?"
Fu Zhen paused. Chen Tingfeng always entered and left through the front gate openly. Even when he was away from the mansion for several days and knew that he would be lectured by Lady Bai, he never concealed his whereabouts.
Why did he enter through the back gate today?
Fu Zhen's heart suddenly started pounding. Somehow, there seemed to be a voice telling her that Chen Tingfeng was hiding something from her.
She tightened her grip on the chopsticks and lowered her eyes. She sat there quietly, and the atmosphere in the room became extremely tense.
Biyu glanced at Cuihuan, hesitating to speak.
After a while, Fu Zhen suddenly put down her chopsticks with a "snap". The sound wasn't very loud, but it seemed to strike Biyu's heart.
Her hands trembled, and her eyes involuntarily followed Fu Zhen. She saw Fu Zhen slightly curl the corners of her mouth. Clearly, she wasn't in the mood to smile, but she forced a smile on her face.
Biyu heard her say, "Let's go. Let's go and see the young marquis."
Biyu's heart skipped a beat.
Yuanbao walked beside them, holding a lantern. His eyes were fixed straight ahead, but his peripheral vision was filled with the figures of the two people beside him.
Chen Tingfeng was dressed in black. There were silver-threaded bamboo patterns embroidered on his cuffs, and an indigo sachet hung from his waist. The tassels under it swayed gently as he walked.
He walked forward with a cold expression. The path back to the Baiqu Courtyard was very familiar to him. Usually, only he and Yuanbao walked on this path, but today there was an extra person.
A graceful figure followed him at a distance. She was dressed in white and wore a veil hat. The white gauze hung in front of her chest. Occasionally, a gentle breeze would lift it slightly, making her look like a fairy.
Although her figure was delicate, she didn't appear delicate. Just by looking at her gait, one could tell that she was well-bred and not some vulgar person.
The two walked forward one after the other. The candles beside them flickered gently, creating a somewhat peaceful and harmonious atmosphere in the night.
Yuanbao's hand holding the lantern was already sweating. The young marquis had never brought a woman back home before, but today he did the opposite. Although he knew that the young marquis wasn't a fickle person and that this woman might be of great use, he still felt a bit uneasy.
The young miss in the Zhuqing Courtyard was just as jealous as the young marquis. If she was really unlucky enough to run into them, then...
He was thinking chaotically in his mind. He even wanted to chant Buddha to make this path shorter so that they could return to the Baiqu Courtyard as soon as possible.
But sometimes, fate just liked to play tricks on people. The more you were afraid of something, the more likely it would happen.
He just casually glanced up, and a figure appeared around the corner ahead. When he took a closer look, he was so scared that he suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"Y-young marquis..." his voice trembled. "There's someone coming up ahead..."
Chen Tingfeng had already seen it without Yuanbao's reminder. Fu Zhen was walking towards him with her maid, but for some reason, she suddenly stopped in her tracks, just like Yuanbao.
Chen Tingfeng paused briefly and then quickened his steps forward. "It's windy outside today. Why did you come out without wearing a cloak?"
He walked up to Fu Zhen and asked her in a low voice, "Are you cold?"
He reached out his hand to hold hers, but she suddenly dodged. His outstretched hand hung in the air.
Fu Zhen's gaze bypassed him and landed directly on the white-clad woman behind him.
The evening breeze seemed to stop for a moment and became completely silent.
"Cousin..." she suddenly smiled, but her gaze remained fixed on the woman. "Don't you have anything to say to me?"
It's over.
These two words immediately popped into Yuanbao's mind.
In June, the plants in the imperial garden were lush and the flowers were in full bloom. Butterflies flapped their wings and landed on the flower stamens, savoring the sweetness inside.
A place that was usually a bit desolate suddenly became lively today. The official ladies gathered in twos and threes. From time to time, noble ladies walked hand in hand towards the shade of the trees, raising their fans to shield themselves from the sun.
Fu Zhen was dressed in goose-yellow today. She had a hairpin in the shape of winter jasmine on her head, paired with a few tassels. It was simple yet appropriate for the occasion.
She stood under the flowers, with her head down, seemingly lost in thought.
"Zhenzhen!"
She looked up and saw Jin Xianghuan running towards her, holding up her skirt. Her face was full of a bright smile. Paired with the pink dress she was wearing today, she looked even more charming and delicate.
"I saw your mansion's carriage parked outside when I came, so I knew you must have come early," she gasped for breath and said with a smile. "As soon as I entered the imperial garden, I saw you standing there like a winter jasmine. What's wrong? Are you unhappy?"
Fu Zhen was amused by her. She pulled her to sit on the stone bench beside them. "If I'm a winter jasmine, then what are you? A peach blossom?"
Jin Xianghuan giggled. "How do you know I'm wearing a peach blossom hairpin today? Look, it's a new product from Sister Zhang Lan's shop. It's very popular. I just managed to buy three. I'll give you one in the shape of a pear blossom later. It's also very nice!"
Speaking of Zhang Lan, Fu Zhen looked around. "Why haven't I seen Sister Zhang Lan?"
Jin Xianghuan shook her head. "I haven't seen her either."
Since her trip to the Western Regions, Zhang Lan had become as unpredictable as if she had opened up her spiritual channels. Sometimes, it would take half a month for her to reply to a message.
Fu Zhen thought for a moment but didn't say anything. She just changed the topic. "I wonder what we're going to do today."
Jin Xianghuan pulled her and rolled her eyes around. Seeing that no one was looking in their direction, she lowered her voice and said, "I heard that this Hundred Flowers Banquet is actually the Grand Princess's way of choosing wives for the two princes."
If Jin Xianghuan hadn't mentioned it, Fu Zhen wouldn't have realized it. Now that she took a look around, she saw that the imperial garden was indeed filled with unmarried men and women. There wasn't a single woman with a married woman's hairstyle in sight.
She blinked her eyes and suddenly understood.
In her previous life during this banquet, she had been constantly thinking about how to drug Chen Tingfeng and had never paid any attention to the purpose of the banquet. Now that she thought about it, if it was for selecting concubines for the princes, it made sense for the palace to hold such a grand event.
[PS: The plot always gets stuck at crucial moments. Please allow me to post single chapters for two days to refine the subsequent plot.]