Song Yinghuai's fingers holding the carriage curtain paused slightly. He looked at them.
"Royal Consort, Cousin, ice can reduce swelling. We're on the road now, and the prince has gone far. We can only use ice to relieve it for the time being. When we arrive at the Great Baoen Temple, we'll ask Master Guangzhi for some golden sore medicine."
After Caiyu finished speaking, she put several pieces of ice she was holding into the cloisonné tea tray on the small table.
The ice made a clear sound like jade colliding when it landed in the tray. A coolness instantly rose in the carriage.
Jiang Jinyue looked at Caiyu angrily, "Ice compress? Is that all you've come up with? You want to freeze us to death!"
Caiyu said, "Cousin, please calm down. This is the only way. If we don't reduce the swelling in time, the bumps on your heads will get bigger."
Jiang Jinyue was about to pick another bone, but Caiyu interrupted her first, "Cousin, anger will accelerate the rush of blood, and the bumps will get even bigger."
This successfully shut Jiang Jinyue up.
She didn't want Song Yinghuai to see her ugly appearance, so she could only say grudgingly,
"Fine, ice compress then. Hurry up!"
Caiyu agreed. There were no suitable tools in the carriage, so she had to break the ice into pieces with her bare hands.
The bone - chilling cold made Caiyu's palms sting instantly, and then go numb.
She took out a handkerchief and tied it around her hand. Then she held an ice cube in each hand and pressed them onto Jiang Jinyue's and Concubine Yao's foreheads without hesitation.
"Sizz!"
Jiang Jinyue and Concubine Yao gasped in unison and shivered all over.
The pain and the cold collided, and they felt as if their whole heads were going to freeze off.
"So c - cold... I'm freezing..." Concubine Yao shivered her lips. In an instant, the ice on her forehead had frozen her lips blue.
A tear rolled down from the corner of Jiang Jinyue's eye. "Auntie, Yu - Yu'er... feels her head hurts even more..."
Caiyu held back her laughter and said, "Please bear with it, my ladies. The pain will gradually disappear soon, and the bumps will flatten out a lot. By the time we reach the Great Baoen Temple, I think it will be much better."
She actually had better ways to reduce the swelling.
The ointment bottle Song Yinghuai gave her after hitting her palm last time was still in her bosom.
But she just didn't take it out.
She was such a person. If others respected her, she would respect them in return.
Jiang Jinyue had bullied her, and Concubine Yao had almost killed her.
Why should she treat them well?
Caiyu held the ice and said, "By the way, ice can easily damage the skin, and the ice is sharp. When the carriage bumps, please sit still, my ladies. If you accidentally poke your beautiful faces on the ice... "
Both Concubine Yao and Jiang Jinyue were extremely concerned about their looks. Hearing this, they sat upright in the carriage and didn't dare to move.
There were still about ten miles to go on this road. The coachman didn't dare to whip the horses to gallop anymore, so it took half an hour to reach the foot of the mountain.
Song Yinghuai and the others had already been waiting outside the mountain gate.
As soon as the carriage stopped, Song Yinghuai stepped forward and lifted the curtain. A tear - streaked face poked out.
"Cousin." Jiang Jinyue was crying uncontrollably. Her once - beautiful face was streaked with tears, mixed with rouge and powder.
Song Yinghuai's fingers holding the carriage curtain paused slightly. He frowned and looked inside. He saw that Concubine Yao was in a similar situation, looking extremely embarrassed.
Only Caiyu in the carriage was neatly dressed and had a clean makeup.
He frowned even more. "Hmm, what happened?"
He seemed to be asking Jiang Jinyue, but his eyes were on Caiyu.
Jiang Jinyue took the hand covering her forehead away, revealing a slightly swollen but shiny skin from the cold. "It's all your maid's fault!"
Caiyu had just retracted her hand and untied the handkerchief on it when she heard Jiang Jinyue blame her first:
"Cousin, your maid insisted on saving someone on the street. The coachman couldn't stop the horses in time, and Yu'er and Auntie bumped into each other... I, I'm in so much pain, and Auntie is in pain too..."
Caiyu: …
She had seen people who could twist the truth, but never one like this.
Song Yinghuai gave Caiyu a deep look. "Saving someone?"
Caiyu was about to open her mouth to explain when Jiang Jinyue quickly interrupted with a cry of surprise. "Auntie, slow down! Be careful not to bump into something again!"
She pushed Caiyu aside and supported Concubine Yao's tottering body. "If you bump into something again, it will be a big deal!"
She glared at Caiyu resentfully. "You're so clumsy. You almost made Auntie fall again!"
Caiyu: …
What did she mean by "again"?
None of the incidents were caused by her.
The carriage was too narrow to figure out who was right or wrong. Master Guangzhi and the other monks were waiting outside the mountain temple, and it was not suitable to keep them waiting.
Song Yinghuai immediately helped Concubine Yao and Jiang Jinyue out of the carriage.
Caiyu followed behind and took a long time to get out.
As if sensing something, Song Yinghuai turned his head slightly and just saw Caiyu getting out of the carriage in an extremely ugly posture, almost crawling out. His eyebrows knitted even deeper.
Master Guangzhi led the monks to greet them. Seeing the injuries on Concubine Yao's and Jiang Jinyue's heads, he ordered a young novice monk to take them to the guest meditation room to apply medicine to reduce swelling and relieve pain.
On the way, Jiang Jinyue took the opportunity to complain to Song Yinghuai. "Cousin, Yu'er thinks Caiyu has evil intentions."
Song Yinghuai's eyes glanced at the side and back imperceptibly.
Caiyu was being left farther and farther behind by them. Her figure was lonely and stubborn.
His thin lips turned cold. "Oh?"
Jiang Jinyue immediately exaggerated the incident of Caiyu using ice to reduce their swelling on the road.
"Auntie was even made to cry by the cold!" Jiang Jinyue said. "Yu'er is young and can bear the cold, but Auntie is old. Her face is so precious. How can it be tortured like this..."
"Did she force you to use ice to reduce the swelling?" Song Yinghuai suddenly interrupted her endless chatter.
Jiang Jinyue was stunned. "N - no..."
Song Yinghuai nodded. "I thought not. She's just a lowly maid. She doesn't have the right to force you two masters to use ice to reduce the swelling."
Jiang Jinyue looked at him blankly.
Song Yinghuai said, "Both you and the royal consort are capable of thinking. When Caiyu suggested using ice to reduce the swelling, if you thought it was inappropriate, you could have refused. Even... if you thought she was deliberately teasing you, as her masters, you could have severely punished her for her ill - intentions..."
Jiang Jinyue: "This..."
"But you agreed." Song Yinghuai's eyes were clear. "So you also thought the method of using ice to reduce the swelling was feasible, right?"
Facing Song Yinghuai's sober questioning, Jiang Jinyue stammered, "Y - yes... We were just so desperate. Cousin, you don't know how hard we bumped. Yu'er just didn't want to face cousin with an ugly face..."
"Your face doesn't look any better now." Song Yinghuai criticized mercilessly. "Those who slander others in private look hateful."
Jiang Jinyue was struck as if by lightning. "I..."
"As the Buddha said in the Sutra of the Ten Good Deeds: 'One whose mouth is always pure will emit the fragrance of the blue lotus.' You're so young but don't have any virtue in your speech. How can your mouth be pure and your body emit fragrance?"
Song Yinghuai didn't usually scold people, but when he did, he didn't use a single dirty word. Jiang Jinyue listened with tears in her eyes.
Concubine Yao felt sorry for her and couldn't help saying, "Don't bully Yu'er just because you've studied Buddhism for a few years. Yu'er is right. Caiyu was deliberately torturing us with the ice compress. I don't think there's such a thing as using ice to reduce swelling at all!"
"If you're not willing to get rid of this troublesome maid, then don't recognize me as your mother anymore!" Concubine Yao threatened at the end.
But Song Yinghuai had grown up in the army since childhood. He was very assertive and never let others interfere with him.
He just gave Concubine Yao a cold look. "Son has led the army for many years and has always treated his subordinates fairly and leniently. He never wrongs anyone."
"What Caiyu said about using ice to reduce swelling is true. The soldiers in the army have also used it for emergency treatment when they were injured. Haven't the bumps on your and cousin's foreheads reduced?"