Just as Song Yihuan was about to take another look, Song Nanxin, looking utterly exhausted, said to her,
"I'm tired. Yihuan, you may go back first."
Song Yihuan quietly withdrew her gaze, replied "Yes," then turned around with Fuling and left.
After leaving Yixiang Pavilion, Song Yihuan should have returned to Tinglan Courtyard. But after a moment's thought, she headed towards Songhe Courtyard instead, planning to pick up her younger brother in person.
All the way, Song Yihuan didn't say a word to Fuling behind her. Her expression was calm, looking as if she didn't care about anything in the world.
However, upon closer inspection, one could notice that Song Yihuan was walking briskly, no longer burdened as before.
The jewelry in Baizhi's room was, of course, placed there by Fuling through various means.
Today, they were all attending a banquet at the Duke Jiang's Mansion. The servants in Shulan Courtyard were very slack in their guarding, and no one was walking around the yard. Especially after noon, everyone was taking a nap in their rooms, and no one noticed the commotion in Baizhi's room at all.
However, Song Yihuan only told Fuling to put the jewelry in. That bag of silver pieces was a complete unexpected gain. No wonder Baizhi was so worried that she would pursue the matter. It turned out that Baizhi indeed had a secret to hide.
Anyway, her goal for today had been successfully achieved. She had managed to remove Baizhi from her eldest sister's side. Without Baizhi's help, her eldest sister would surely be in a complete mess for some time.
Baizhi knew so many secrets of her eldest sister. She wondered how her eldest sister would deal with Baizhi. Would she let Baizhi continue to stay in the servants' quarters of the Prince Ning's Mansion, or would she drive Baizhi out of the mansion?
If she could get Fuling back to serve her eldest sister, the situation would be more favorable for her.
As she walked, she soon arrived at Songhe Courtyard. Song Yihuan temporarily put aside her thoughts and stepped forward to say to the maid guarding the door,
"Please inform the Princess that Song Yihuan is here to pick up Song Yixuan and take him back to the small courtyard."
The Princess of Prince Ning had already heard from the servants that Ji Lingchuan and the others had returned from the banquet at the Duke Jiang's Mansion. When she learned that Song Yihuan was here to pick up her younger brother, she stroked the top of Song Yixuan's head beside her and said with a smile,
"Your fourth sister is here to pick you up. Go quickly."
Song Yixuan broke into a big smile. He got up, bowed to the Princess of Prince Ning and said, "Thank you, Goddess of Mercy, for taking care of Xuan'er today. Xuan'er will go back with his fourth sister first. Goddess of Mercy, you must take good care of yourself. Xuan'er will come to visit you when he has free time."
After saying that, he turned around and walked out steadily.
In front of the Princess of Prince Ning, he tried his best to look steady, which melted the Princess's heart.
The little boy carefully stepped over the high threshold. When he looked up, he saw Song Yihuan waiting outside Songhe Courtyard.
All his previous steadiness vanished instantly. Song Yixuan rushed forward and was embraced tightly by Song Yihuan.
"Fourth sister, you're back! Xuan'er missed you so much~"
Song Yihuan caught the child who threw himself into her arms, pinched his cheek and said with a smile, "It's only been half a day since we separated. I'm afraid you don't just miss me. You're eager to see if I've brought you any pastries, right?"
Song Yixuan hugged her arm and coquettishly said, "I miss fourth sister and the desserts fourth sister brought back too."
"Of course I've prepared some for Xuan'er. Come on, let's go back." Song Yihuan took her younger brother's hand and led him back to Tinglan Courtyard. Their faint conversation could be heard in the air.
"Was Xuan'er obedient with the Goddess of Mercy today? What did you do with the Goddess of Mercy?"
"Xuan'er talked with the Goddess of Mercy for a while and recited scriptures with her. The Goddess of Mercy said that this way we can pray to the Buddha to bless Xuan'er and fourth sister."
"Really? The Buddha likes obedient children the most. I'm sure the Buddha can hear Xuan'er's wishes."
The siblings walked further and further away hand in hand. Inside Songhe Hall, Nanny Chen recounted what had happened in Shulan Courtyard just now. The Princess of Prince Ning turned the Buddhist beads in her hand, her face calm.
"I see."
Song Yihuan led her younger brother back to Tinglan Courtyard. As soon as they entered the yard, Chunxing, who had been waiting for a long time, stepped forward and anxiously asked, "Fourth Miss, you're finally back. Just now, a guard from the Heir Apparent came to Tinglan Courtyard and said that something was missing from the Eldest Miss's room and they wanted to search our yard. I couldn't stop them, so I had to let them in. Fortunately, they didn't find anything and left soon."
Hearing this, Song Yixuan looked up at Song Yihuan and pouted, asking, "Did the Eldest Sister lose something? Is Brother - in - law suspecting Fourth Sister?"
Patting her younger brother's hair, Song Yihuan said with a smile, "Yes, something was lost. But it's already been investigated. It has nothing to do with fourth sister. It was Baizhi who did it. She has been punished by the eldest sister."
Chunxing immediately exclaimed, "Really? It was actually Baizhi?"
Fuling put her finger to her lips to signal her to be quiet. Chunxing quickly closed her mouth, but there was a look of schadenfreude on her face.
"I've disliked Baizhi for a long time. She's just a servant like us, but she always made things difficult for our fourth miss just because she was trusted by the eldest miss. Now it's good. She got her comeuppance. Humph, she deserves it!"
After saying that, she suddenly realized that Fuling was from Song Nanxin's side, and her expression immediately became embarrassed.
Fuling knew what she was thinking and said, "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone what you just said. Not only you, I've disliked her for a long time too."
Song Yihuan sent her younger brother into the room to rest. After coming out, she sat down on the bamboo chair in the yard, waved to Chunxing and asked, "I asked you to take the embroidery patterns to the embroidery workshop for sale today. Did you get the silver?"
Chunxing quickly nodded, "Yes, yes, yes."
She took out a money bag from her body and handed it to Song Yihuan. "The workshop owner really liked the miss's embroidery patterns. This is the silver she gave, a total of three taels of silver and one string of cash."
Song Yihuan took it and looked. The price was about the same as what she had estimated before.
Three taels of silver and one string of cash was just the monthly allowance she used to get. It was far from enough. It seemed that she still had to find an opportunity to go to the bookstore.
"By the way, miss. When I went out today, I also saw that young man named... named Fuzhou beside the Heir Apparent." Chunxing said, "He wasn't following the Heir Apparent today either. He was holding something in his hand and rushing out in a hurry. I don't know where he was going."
Fuzhou was Ji Lingchuan's personal guard and attendant. He used to fight in the border areas with Ji Lingchuan. If he wasn't following Ji Lingchuan, he must have gone to handle some important matter.
Song Yihuan didn't take this matter to heart. She only thought of the article Ji Lingchuan wrote during the competition with Gu Yunzheng.
She remembered that the result of the competition between the two would be announced in three days.
During the competition, Ji Lingchuan and Gu Yunzheng wrote at almost the same speed. She had seen Gu Yunzheng writing an article on the spot before. It was no surprise that he could be ranked second in the imperial examination as he was truly talented.
What surprised her was Ji Lingchuan.
He was not only a military general, but also wrote with his left hand. She wondered how his article compared with Gu Yunzheng's.
Once her curiosity arose, she couldn't suppress it.
Since she was going to the bookstore in the next two days, she might as well go to the Western Market and take a look.