Su Hele sat in front of the candle flame with a complex expression.
For some reason, the look in He Jin's eyes when he looked at her before kept flashing before her eyes, making her feel inexplicably flustered.
Could it be that He Jin was really angry?
Was it because she had been too outstanding and stolen the limelight from the bride?
But wasn't she doing all this for He Jin's sake? Otherwise, how could she have worn such a gaudy dress.
Su Hele glanced at the purple long dress thrown aside with a look of disgust on her face.
Fortunately, she had always been elegant and couldn't tolerate anything filthy, so there were always several sets of change - of - clothes in the carriage.
That was why she could stand out among those gaudy women.
Su Hele raised her chin again. He Jin would understand her good intentions.
Just as she was thinking, she heard the sound of Su Mo greeting someone outside.
He Jin was back.
A smug smile appeared on Su Hele's face. Since he was still willing to come back, it meant he wasn't angry.
She knew He Jin would understand her.
Su Hele got up and walked to the door of the room to greet him, with a faint smile on her face, looking elegant and gentle.
The door opened, but what she faced was He Jin's undisguised anger and a swift kick that followed.
"Su Hele, do you want to kill me? Wearing white at a wedding banquet. Are you in mourning?"
Su Hele flew out and fell directly on the bluestone floor. The fall made her eyes go black.
After being in a daze for a while, Su Hele slowly took a breath. But just this simple movement made the pain in her ribs so intense that she didn't dare to breathe hard anymore.
She didn't even dare to cry loudly. With tear - filled eyes, she looked at He Jin and said in a trembling voice:
"I wore a vermilion gauze dress over it."
Of course she knew it was inappropriate to wear white at a wedding banquet, but hadn't she worn a bright red gauze dress over it?
"So you still wanted to steal the limelight from the princess of the heir?"
He Jin gritted his teeth, his face contorted.
Su Hele was at a loss for words. After a long while, she murmured:
"It's just an outer robe."
It wasn't that exaggerated. Didn't he see how grand and gaudy Su Nansheng was dressed?
Hearing this, He Jin's pupils shrank slightly. He lowered his voice and said:
"Good for you. I never knew you were so rude before, Su Hele. Have I ever told you that this wedding banquet is very important to me?"
His speech became slower and slower, and he got closer and closer to Su Hele, covering her in his shadow.
Su Hele looked up and saw He Jin's blood - red eyes and the manic and ferocious expression on his face.
A chill ran up the back of her neck, making her hair stand on end. He Jin was really angry.
"Husband, I just wanted to help you. I wanted the Princess of Cheng to think highly of me..."
Su Hele's trembling voice suddenly stopped. She was kicked again by He Jin. The back of her head hit the floor hard, and she felt dizzy.
Just as He Jin was about to raise his foot again, Nanny Wang's anxious voice sounded outside the door:
"Second young master, Concubine Li has fainted!"
He Jin was shocked. He no longer cared about Su Hele and got up to rush to Yurong Courtyard.
Behind him, Su Hele half - propped herself up and watched his back, her face full of tears.
...
The next day, Su Nansheng heard that Concubine Li's old illness had flared up again last night and it wasn't until the second half of the night that she felt a bit better.
She had been fine before attending the wedding banquet, but fell ill as soon as she came back. It wasn't hard to guess why.
She didn't know what Nanny Li had said to Concubine Li that made her illness flare up so quickly.
"The one who made a fool of herself was the second young mistress, but it's always Concubine Li who suffers. Where can we reason about this?"
Bitao was organizing the account books for Su Nansheng while whispering.
Although she didn't like Concubine Li either, she hated Su Hele even more. In comparison, she felt a bit of sympathy for Concubine Li.
Su Nansheng couldn't help but smile.
Having high - flying ambitions but a frail destiny. Perhaps this was exactly the situation Concubine Li was in.
It was just that her destiny had been worn down by Su Hele.
"What's the news from He Jin?"
Su Nansheng hadn't missed the gloomy look on his face yesterday.
Bitao stopped her movements and then whispered:
"He almost beat the second young mistress stupid."
Su Nansheng couldn't help but look up and saw Bitao nodding seriously:
"The second young mistress can't even get out of bed now. There's a huge bump on the back of her head. It must have been beaten by the second young master."
Su Nansheng was surprised. Although she knew that He Jin's gentle and refined appearance was just a facade, she didn't expect him to be so cruel.
But soon she understood and smiled.
When life was going smoothly and everything went as one wished, naturally everyone was willing to put on an appearance of being upright, elegant, and gentle.
But once no one was there to clean up their messes, when things were blocked at every turn, the bad nature deep in their bones would naturally be exposed.
"Seal two hundred taels of silver and send it to Concubine Li. Tell her to rest at ease."
Su Nansheng instructed.
Bitao was puzzled:
"But there are still so many tonics in our small storage room that haven't been used. Why does the mistress have to spend the silver?"
Those tonics would just be sitting there. Why not use them to gain favor and save some silver.
Su Nansheng stared at Bitao:
"Don't send the tonics that go into the mouth to Concubine Li. If she's too weak to take the tonics and her condition worsens, it won't be good."
Bitao immediately understood what she meant:
"I'll go and seal the silver right away."
...
Concubine Li was half - lying on the couch, looking at the shiny silver with anger and hatred in her eyes.
She was angry that Su Nansheng didn't leave her any leeway, and she hated that Su Hele refused to learn from her mistakes and was shameless.
After hearing that He Jin had given Su Hele a good lesson, the pent - up anger in her heart dissipated a bit.
"She says she's too dizzy to get out of bed. I'm afraid she's just pretending."
Concubine Li said contemptuously. She didn't believe a single word from Su Hele now.
"The doctor from the Liu family has examined her. There's really congestion on her head, but I don't know if it's serious enough for her not to be able to get out of bed."
Actually, Su Hele's injury did look quite serious, but Nanny Wang didn't want to say so. It was all her own fault, and she didn't deserve any sympathy.
Concubine Li nodded thoughtfully and then whispered:
"Tell everyone in Bitao Courtyard to keep their mouths shut about the matter of A Jin beating Su Hele. Not a single word can be spread outside."
Nanny Wang quickly responded:
"Naturally. I think the second young master was really angry this time and couldn't control himself."
Logically speaking, Su Hele deserved to be beaten to death for the stupid things she had done, but He Jin's status was special.
He had always presented himself as a gentle and refined young master. If this got out, it might damage his reputation.
"Humph, that little bitch Su Hele doesn't need A Jin to worry about her. I have plenty of ways to deal with her."
After this incident, Concubine Li no longer had the intention of cultivating a good reputation for Su Hele.
Now she just wanted to teach Su Hele a lesson to vent her hatred.
Then she remembered the humiliation she had suffered at the Prince of Cheng's Mansion yesterday. Her breathing became rapid. Nanny Wang was so scared that she quickly came over to rub her back.
Concubine Li gritted her teeth and said:
"Order Su Hele to come and take care of me. Whether she can get out of bed or not, she has to crawl over here."
This time, she would never let Su Hele go again.