The visitors were not kind.
This was the first thought that flashed through Shen Linyi and Liuyun's minds.
Liuyun was even more exaggerated. She immediately recalled those scenes of female rivalry for love in the storybooks. She nervously took a step forward, ready to protect her young mistress in case the woman opposite might raise her hand to slap.
Shen Linyi didn't know the purpose of the visitors, but there wasn't a single person present that she could afford to offend. So she first bowed politely.
If the other party was unreasonable, she would resort to force. First be polite, then use force, and see how things developed.
When the woman opposite saw Shen Linyi's extremely standard bow, the leading woman was slightly stunned. Then she also placed her hands in front of her body and returned a standard bow to Shen Linyi.
This move left Shen Linyi a bit at a loss.
"Miss, may I ask what you want?"
Shen Linyi looked at the woman opposite sincerely, her big eyes full of innocence.
After a moment, the woman's face suddenly blushed, and the coldness that had been on her face just now vanished instantly.
"I... your voice is so nice."
After stammering for a long time, the woman finally managed to squeeze out a compliment. The women behind her covered their mouths with handkerchiefs and snickered.
A woman in a light yellow ruqun (a traditional Chinese dress) joked, "Sister Li, you were so fierce just now. You almost scared this younger sister. We've all told you to smile more often, but you just won't."
"That's right, that's right," a pink - dressed woman beside her chimed in. "Sister Li must have just returned from the border and isn't used to things yet. This younger sister isn't one of the soldiers you lead. You need to be gentler."
The women chatted one after another, with kind smiles on their faces.
Shen Linyi and Liuyun glanced at each other and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
It was good that they weren't here to cause trouble.
The leading woman waved her hand boldly and said, "Alright, alright, I know. Stop being so wordy. I have something important to ask."
After saying that, she looked at Shen Linyi, with a hint of hesitation in her eyes. After hesitating for a moment, she took the lead to speak, "I'm from the Huaiyuan General's Mansion. My surname is Li, and my name is A Yun. Just now, I watched your game of arrow - throwing against Zhou Xiaohe from start to finish."
"Although it seemed that Zhou Xiaohe gave in a bit, I saw it clearly! It was clearly you who were more skilled!"
"I just want to ask," Li A Yun's face turned even redder, looking extremely embarrassed. "I want to ask where you learned this arrow - throwing technique and how long you've been practicing it?"
"Huh?"
Shen Linyi was stunned for a moment. After all that build - up, Li A Yun just wanted to ask how she learned arrow - throwing?
But knowing that the woman in front of her was from the Li Mansion, a glint of light still flashed through Shen Linyi's eyes.
General Li of the Huaiyuan General's Mansion used to be under her grandfather's command. If her grandfather were still alive, she and Li A Yun might have been friends...
She had even thought that Li A Yun had feelings for Zhou Xiaohe and was jealous of her.
It seemed that her heart was still too narrow.
Shen Linyi remained silent, which made Li A Yun even more embarrassed.
In her eyes, skills like this were like the unique martial arts secrets of various sects, very important.
Just like the nine - section whip of their Li family, which was only passed down to their own family members.
So she had hesitated for so long, fearing that she might be too abrupt and leave a bad impression on Shen Linyi.
"If you don't want to say, it's okay. We'll leave now..."
"It's very simple. I'll teach you."
The two spoke at the same time. Two breaths later, they both burst out laughing.
Li A Yun laughed heartily and quickly put her arm around Shen Linyi's shoulder. "Let's go, let's go to the teahouse next to us and talk. You don't know. I've been competing with Zhou Xiaohe in arrow - throwing since I was a child, but I always lose to him by two points, just because I can't learn how to throw arrows with both hands."
"Your willingness to teach me is really a great help. Once I learn it, I'll definitely beat that Zhou Xiaohe to the ground!"
So that was it.
The corners of Shen Linyi's mouth under the veil had been curved all day.
For some reason, she always felt that since she came to the capital, except for Wen Heyu, all the people she met were very nice.
Even Qing He had done something wrong because she was young and had been influenced by distorted ideas.
While feeling happy, Shen Linyi also thought that her path of revenge might be a bit easier.
After they went to the teahouse, the best - quality Maojian tea had already been placed on the tea table. The small stove was burning just right. Li A Yun excitedly said that she wanted to personally make a pot of good tea for Shen Linyi.
But her movements were clumsy. From time to time, she would scald her hands with hot water, and the skin turned red.
Seeing this, the women around wanted to step forward to help, but Li A Yun refused them all. After brewing the tea several times, even the tea foam had dispersed, but Li A Yun still hadn't managed to make a few cups.
When Li A Yun almost dropped the teacup on the ground again, Shen Linyi couldn't bear to watch anymore. She directly held Li A Yun's hand and guided her step by step.
Her movements were elegant and smooth, making the noble ladies around extremely envious.
At their age, they were just at the stage when they couldn't sit still. When learning to make tea at home, they always found it difficult to start. So in their eyes, Shen Linyi's tea - making skills were already perfect.
This made the noble ladies around look at Shen Linyi with more and more love and admiration.
Li A Yun felt the warmth and delicacy on her hand and was very reluctant to let go. So she let Shen Linyi hold her hand to teach her how to make tea.
After Wen Heyu changed his clothes and came downstairs, the first thing he saw was Shen Linyi surrounded by the noble ladies.
She was sitting upright among the noble ladies. Every gesture of hers seemed more elegant than those of the noble ladies. While chatting and laughing, she was completely at ease.
He didn't know what they were talking about, but the noble ladies were covering their mouths and smiling.
Seeing this scene, Wen Heyu didn't feel happy at all. Instead, he felt so angry that he thought his lungs would explode.
He had just been fooled by the fake Shen Linyi, which made him lose all his face at the Qionglin Banquet. But now, when he turned around, he saw Shen Linyi chatting and smiling among the noble ladies without any hindrance.
Moreover, Shen Linyi didn't even wear the clothes he had given her!
This made Wen Heyu start to suspect that all this was arranged by Shen Linyi to take revenge on him for taking a concubine.
"Lao Bo, have you prepared all the things I asked you to buy?" Wen Heyu asked in a low voice with a gloomy face.
Lao Bo's hand trembled. He felt that his sleeve was as heavy as a thousand pounds.
There was a packet of extremely powerful aphrodisiac incense in it. Wen Heyu had spent a lot of money to ask him to buy it in the dark alley of the Western Market.
This aphrodisiac incense was originally used to deal with the disobedient prostitutes in the brothel. Just one packet of the powder could make them go into heat like wild beasts and lose all sense of propriety.
Wen Heyu wanted to use this packet of powder to deal with Shen Linyi and break her pride.
"Sir, have you thought this through clearly? This matter..."
"What are you afraid of?"
Wen Heyu felt that he had been suppressing his emotions to the extreme. If he didn't possess Shen Linyi, he simply couldn't swallow this anger.
"She's just a woman of low birth. Even if I forcefully take her as a concubine and she reports it to the government, do you think the officials will help her?"
"She's just a low - class woman!"