At the second watch, seeking a pale pink hue.
***......***
"Yingzi had an accident?" Lian Manman slightly narrowed her eyes, "Auntie, what happened to Yingzi?"
"Chunzhu’s Wife, didn’t you just say it was Scholar Wang’s Family, how co it’s about Yingzi?" Lady Zhang also eagerly asked.
Lian Manman and Lady Zhang both wanted Chunzhu’s Wife to quickly continue, but their concerns were clearly different.
"I said that because the incident happened at Scholar Wang’s Family," Chunzhu’s Wife explained, "For Eldest Young Master Huai’s wedding, didn’t they hire several servant girls from our village to help out? Yingzi was one of them. She was supposed to help in the kitchen, but sohow she ended up in Eldest Lady Huai’s room, just as the bride was entering, and broke a jade bottle from the bride’s dowry."
Lady Zhang and Lian Manman almost exclaid in unison, only Lady Zhang’s tone was completely one of fright, while Lian Manman’s carried a hint of realization.
It seed that the girl had seen sothing she shouldn’t have and failed to keep it concealed. And Eldest Lady Huai, having just entered, had taken action.
Today the Wang Family celebrated a joyous occasion. Yingzi could have gone anywhere else, but Lian Manman didn’t believe Yingzi had access to the bride’s room. Yingzi wasn’t a servant of the Wang Residence; she was just hired to help in the kitchen. At that ti, she, Xiao Qi, and Lian Yeye had expressed a wish to see the bride, but Wang Youheng could arrange for them to enjoy the banquet and the opera, yet could do nothing about that matter.
"They say, just that single jade bottle is worth three or four hundred tales of silver. That was Eldest Lady Huai’s family heirloom, passed down for generations. Even if one had silver, they couldn’t find such an item to buy," Chunzhu’s Wife continued.
"Auntie, what did Eldest Lady Huai do to Yingzi?" Lian Manman asked.
"Well, Eldest Lady Huai really does live up to the reputation of a wealthy family’s daughter. Her status and moral character are both extraordinarily precious. She said it’s a day for celebration and would have overlooked any other item, but this jade bottle is just too precious, she couldn’t decide on her own, so she had Yingzi locked up," Chunzhu’s Wife said.
"If it were soone else, they would have beaten Yingzi to death on the spot. For us tenant farrs, Yingzi’s life isn’t worth as much as that jade bottle. Wasn’t there a little girl from Liu Family Village who was sold by her mother to work as a maid in the city? She broke sothing belonging to her owner, it wasn’t even as valuable as this jade bottle, and they beat her until she died that very night. The owner gave a thin wooden coffin as a reward and just buried her. The girl’s parents didn’t dare to say anything, for fear the owner would demand compensation for the damaged item."
At this point, Chunzhu’s Wife sounded sowhat sympathetic.
"On such a joyous day, this surely isn’t auspicious," Lady Zhang comnted, "That girl Yingzi, she always seed a bit reckless. She should have just stuck to her assigned job. Why did she run off into the bride’s room?"
"Exactly," said Chunzhu’s Wife, "So suspect that Yingzi was trying to steal sothing. They were waiting for so free ti to question her. But now, they can’t even do that."
"What do you an?" asked Lian Manman urgently.
"Didn’t I ntion that Yingzi was locked up? Sohow, that girl managed to escape," Chunzhu’s Wife revealed.
Ran away, was it out of fear of being punished? After damaging the bride’s valuable possession, how could the Wang Family not keep a closer watch on her and let her escape?
Lian Manman felt that sothing didn’t quite add up.
"Liu Laosi and his wife have been taken to the Wang Residence. It’s said that upon hearing about Yingzi’s deed, one fainted imdiately, and the other wet their pants right then and there. The couple fears being made to pay. Even if they bundled up all their belongings, their house and land wouldn’t co close to the value of even a fraction of that jade bottle."
"With Yingzi having run off, where could she go? I suppose she might have been so scared that she sought an end sohow. The Wang Family has already sent people to search for her, and so from our village have joined as well."
"If she had the nerve to escape, she wouldn’t find it so easy to seek an end," Lian Manman said. If she wanted to end it all, there was no need to run.
"Who knows about that?" Chunzhu’s Wife responded, "Yingzi, she’s about the sa age as Huahua, right? She’s not as pretty as Huahua, but she’s still above average. If she were to talk about marriage, she could have done better than her family. This child, she’s really ruined now."
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