Gu Jianli couldn’t catch up with Xinglou, so she had to keep her composure and slowly lead Ji Xinglan back. As soon as they returned to the courtyard, she was quite surprised to see the usually sickly Ji Wujing out of his room. He was sitting by a small flowerbed on the east side of the courtyard, a flowerbed Gu Jianli had been tending to in her spare time. On his lap was a small stone mortar. He bent over, picking red balsam flowers and tossing them into the mortar, lazily grinding them.
Gu Jianli was momentarily stunned. Was he going to dye his nails? But she wasn’t too surprised; after all, Ji Wujing had worn women’s clothes and pierced his ears before.
Gu Jianli led Ji Xinglan to Ji Wujing and asked, “Fifth Master, did you see Xinglou running back?”
“Mm, he ran to the backyard,” Ji Wujing replied casually.
Gu Jianli remembered Xinglou’s red ears and the way he ran off holding back tears. Seeing Ji Wujing’s indifferent attitude made her feel a bit uncomfortable. She said, “Xinglou was bullied.”
“Oh.” Ji Wujing didn’t look up, continuing to lazily grind the balsam flowers.
Gu Jianli’s discomfort grew. After a moment’s hesitation, she said, “No matter what, he’s only four years old. How can you bear to see him being bullied?”
Ji Wujing finally lifted his eyes lazily to glance at her. He beckoned to Ji Xinglan, saying, “Come, I’ll dye your nails.”
Ji Xinglan looked up at Gu Jianli’s expression, hesitated, and slowly moved towards Ji Wujing.
Ji Wujing placed Ji Xinglan on his lap, took a wooden stick, dipped it in the color, and applied it to the little girl’s small nails. He casually tossed a sentence at Gu Jianli, “Don’t meddle in other people’s business.”
Knowing that Ji Wujing wouldn’t intervene, Gu Jianli pressed her lips together, gave up on getting him involved, and turned to head to the backyard.
“Xinglou?” Gu Jianli knocked on the door. The door was bolted from the inside and wouldn’t open.
“Xinglou, open the door.”
“Go away.”
Gu Jianli softened her voice even more, “Open the door, tell me what happened, and I’ll help you get back at her, okay?”
“Mind your own business! I told you to go away!” Ji Xinglou shouted angrily.
Ji Xinglou curled up into a small ball, hugging his knees and sitting under the bed, his back against it. When the annoying voice outside finally stopped, he looked up in confusion and stared at the door for a long time, then let out a heavy, cold snort. His ear hurt badly. He reached up to touch it and then looked at the blood on his hand, sniffing.
There was a noise, and the window was pushed open from the outside.
Ji Xinglou quickly wiped away his tears and stared in astonishment at the window.
Gu Jianli had moved a stool from the courtyard to the window, and she was struggling to climb in. This was clearly something she wasn’t used to doing, and her movements were awkward. Her layered cloud-patterned dress also made things difficult. She managed to lift her left leg onto the windowsill, supporting herself with her hands, awkwardly climbing up. Sitting on the windowsill, she breathed a little sigh of relief, adjusted her cloud-patterned dress that was bunched up on the windowsill, and finally jumped into the room.
She frowned, glanced down at her own leg, but instead of looking for Ji Xinglou first, she sat down against the wall, gently massaging her left leg.
“Never seen anyone as clumsy as you, can’t even climb a window,” Ji Xinglou muttered.
The two of them, one big and one small, sat on opposite sides of the room.
Gu Jianli glared at Ji Xinglou and complained, “It hurts! Stop adding insult to injury!”
Ji Xinglou stared at Gu Jianli for a while, then slowly stood up, shuffled to her, and used his toe to lightly nudge her left leg. He lifted his chin and rolled his eyes, “Still hurts, little weakling.”
Gu Jianli grabbed his ankle, pulled him in front of her, and made him lie across her knee, smacking his butt twice.
“Little weakling who nearly got his ear twisted off,” Gu Jianli mimicked his tone.
Ji Xinglou retorted with a cold snort, “I bit her finger off!”
Gu Jianli took a handkerchief to wipe the blood off Ji Xinglou’s ear, saying, “What’s the use of revenge? Does revenge stop your ear from hurting? If you’re really capable, you wouldn’t get hurt at all.”
Ji Xinglou lay across Gu Jianli’s knee, silent.
Gu Jianli softened her voice, gently patting him, “A gentleman’s revenge can wait ten years. If someone bullies you, there’s no need to clash head-on. We can find another opportunity later. Your safety is the priority.”
Ji Xinglou impatiently shouted, “I didn’t provoke her! She twisted my ear first, so I bit her!”
“Why did she twist your ear?”
“Does bullying need a reason?” Ji Xinglou shouted, his eyes reddening.
Gu Jianli looked into Ji Xinglou’s eyes and fell silent. He had been bullied often but rarely cried so bitterly. After a while, she asked, “What else did the young lady say to you?”
Ji Xinglou remained silent.
Gu Jianli asked a few more times, coaxing and cajoling, but Ji Xinglou still wouldn’t speak.
Gu Jianli patted his head and stopped asking. She stood up, leaning against the wall, and lightly tapped Ji Xinglou’s forehead with her slightly bent index finger, “Come over here and be my little walking stick.”
Ji Xinglou grumbled, “Troublesome,” but moved in front of Gu Jianli, letting her rest her hand on his shoulder.
When they reached the front yard, Gu Jianli saw Ji Wujing still sitting by the flowerbed and called out to Changsheng, who was playing with birds on the wall.
“Changsheng, go bring me the young lady’s maid.”
“Huh?” Changsheng glanced at Ji Wujing, saw no expression on his face, and after a moment’s hesitation, smiled, “Got it! Changsheng loves this kind of task!”
“What are you going to do?” Ji Xinglou looked up in surprise at Gu Jianli.
“Not happy, need to vent,” Gu Jianli patted Ji Xinglou’s shoulder, “Go back inside, little walking stick.”
Ji Xinglou instinctively took a few steps before frowning in displeasure. He didn’t like being called a little walking stick!
Soon, Changsheng brought the maid, Lingdang. The little maid was scared just by seeing Changsheng, let alone stepping into the Fifth Master’s courtyard. When Changsheng let go, Lingdang collapsed on the ground, crying, “It’s not my fault! I tried to persuade the young lady, really, I did! Boo hoo hoo…”
Jixia was quite disappointed. She hadn’t even had a chance to use her methods to coerce information from the maid, yet the maid had confessed everything.
After listening to Lingdang recount the events in detail, Gu Jianli’s face turned cold.
“Where is your mistress now? Is she in her room?” Gu Jianli asked coldly.
“No, the young lady went to the old madam’s place with another maid to ask for her dowry.”
Gu Jianli got up and headed out, saying, “Jixia, bring this maid. Changsheng, you come too.”
Ji Xinglou stood there in a daze, watching Gu Jianli step over the threshold. He then ran out, catching up to her, looking up and asking, “Where are you going? To avenge me?”
“Yes and no.” Gu Jianli patted his shoulder, resting her hand on his small shoulder.
Ji Xinglou sighed reluctantly. But then, thinking that Gu Jianli was going to confront Ji Yueming, he pursed his lips and grudgingly agreed to continue being her little walking stick. He muttered, “It’s really none of your business, I could handle her myself…”
“Shut up,” Gu Jianli snapped, not liking his talk of life and death.
Ji Xinglou rolled his eyes but ultimately fell silent.
As they left the courtyard, Gu Jianli didn’t say anything to Ji Wujing, nor did she even glance at him.
Ji Xinglan, sitting on Ji Wujing’s lap, craned her neck to watch the group leave. Ji Wujing dried the color on her nails, then set her down from his lap, saying, “If you want to go, then go.”
Ji Xinglan looked at the departing group, then back at Ji Wujing, furrowing her brows in hesitation before smiling brightly, “Lanlan won’t be much help, Lanan will stay with Daddy!”
She grabbed the small mortar and shook it, smiling up at him, “Daddy, there’s still a lot left in here!”
Ji Wujing lazily responded, “Mm.”
Of course, there would be a lot left; Ji Wujing hadn’t originally planned to use the balsam flower juice to dye Ji Xinglan’s nails.
Ji Yueming had previously offended Gu Jianli, and the people in the household always felt that keeping her around was a potential threat. So they hastily found her a suitable match, and she was set to marry in a month. Today, all the women of the household were gathered in the front hall. There were also some embroiderers and jewelers preparing dowry for Ji Yueming and making some summer clothes and accessories for the other women in the household.
Ji Xuanke was also there. Having just returned home, he stopped by to pay respects to the elders of the family.
A servant came to report that Gu Jianli had arrived, and Ji Xuanke’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.
The old madam nervously muttered, “I hope she doesn’t blame us for not calling her over…”
As soon as Gu Jianli entered the room, everyone stood up. The old madam quickly put on a smiling face and said, “Jianli, you’re here! I was just planning to have the embroiderers and jewelers come to you later, but I didn’t expect you to come yourself!”
“Greetings,” Gu Jianli said with a slight curtsey. She looked up, her face wearing a graceful and appropriate smile, and said softly, “But I’m not here for summer clothes today.”
“Then, what is it…”
“Jixia, slap her.”
“Yes!”
From the moment she saw Lingdang, Ji Yueming had a bad premonition. Hearing Gu Jianli’s words only made her more frightened, her face turning pale.
How could this be? Why would Gu Jianli stand up for her stepson, an illegitimate child? If Gu Jianli were normal, shouldn’t she detest her husband’s illegitimate child?
With a “slap,” Ji Yueming was struck dumb.
How could this be? She was slapped by an outsider’s maid in front of the whole family? She stared at Jixia in disbelief, shouting angrily, “How dare you hit me!”
Jixia lowered her eyes innocently and replied dutifully, “This servant only follows the master’s orders.”
“That slap was for injuring Xinglou,” Gu Jianli said calmly. “Jixia, hit her again.”
Another slap landed harshly.
“This slap is for speaking nonsense in front of Xinglou, lacking the manners of a noble lady and the duties of an elder sister.”
Ji Yueming, pampered and sheltered, couldn’t evade Jixia’s well-trained strikes. Slowly, she realized the immense humiliation of being beaten in front of her family.
“Jixia, hit her again.”
Ji Yueming screamed and tried to run, hiding behind the old madam and her mother.
“Changsheng.”
“My apologies,” Changsheng said, his face stern.
Changsheng easily pulled Ji Yueming out, and Jixia’s third slap landed even harder.
“This slap is because your Fifth Uncle is not someone you, as a junior, can casually slander!”
