After 34, I dare not anymore

  She didn't know how long she had slept, but as if in a state of half-sleep and half-wakefulness, she only felt an icy towel stuck to her forehead, and a large amount of bitter medicine poured into her throat. She frowned, her face twisted in distaste, unwilling to drink such bitter medicine, but her cheeks were pinched by someone's hands, and she tried to struggle but had no strength left, so she could only let the bitter medicine flow into her stomach, tormenting her body and mind.

  After drinking the medicine, I vaguely heard a complaining voice: "It's all you, Fourth Sister is such a delicate and lovely person, now she's been tossed around like this, such a delicate and lovely person, you really have the heart to be so cruel!"

  "As an elder brother, no matter how angry I am with her, I shouldn't bring the strict rules of the army into our home, should I? This morning when I went to pay respects to Buddha, my sister had already fainted and fallen asleep, but she still maintained a kneeling posture. Heaven have mercy, this time she's really frightened out of her wits..."

  It sounded like Yu's voice, and she was very grateful to Yu for speaking well of her. However, she had no strength in her body, not even enough energy to move her fingers, and soon fell into a deep sleep again.

  However, a few words still occasionally came from beside her ear, "The doctor said that Fourth Sister was frightened too much and caught a cold due to the chill in the air. After taking a few doses of medicine, she'll be fine... Yesterday, she broke out in a sweat and kicked off the quilt, with no one attending to her by her side. Now, she's caught another cold. It's all because of you; no matter how angry you are with her, you should still show some mercy..."

  Actually, after taking two doses of medicine for her fever, it had already subsided by that afternoon and she was feeling much better. Although there wasn't a considerate person to attend to her, Yu Shi also arranged for several other maids to take care of her. However, Ruo Xue had long been accustomed to Ling Long's attentive service, and these new maids didn't have the same level of thoughtfulness and caring nature as Ling Long and others. She found it particularly inconvenient to use their services. To avoid gaining a reputation for being "difficult to serve", she mostly relied on herself, but this also made things harder for her.

  Finally, in the evening, Zhou Mama was exceptionally allowed to return home by Zhiyi. She attended to Ruqing's side. When Ruqing saw Zhou Mama, she finally felt a sense of "home" and threw herself into Zhou Mama's arms, crying very sadly.

  "Girl, don't blame yourself. Although the master is angry, he still gave face to his wife. Although she was doing rough chores, in fact, she didn't do much work. As soon as he heard you were ill like this, he immediately called her back. The master really cares about you, otherwise, with such a big mess you caused, if it were another family, you would have been beaten to death."

  Lowering her head, she wiped away the tears from the corner of her eyes and said in a low voice: "I'm sorry, it's all my fault. I should have listened to mom's advice earlier, otherwise I wouldn't have caused such a big mess."

  "Can't blame the old master for getting so angry, it's just that the owner of those mountains is a big shot. Even the old master has to give way three times. But you don't know what's heavy and what's light, and you actually wrote such an eye-catching sign. And you, a young lady, secretly ran onto someone else's turf and took off your clothes to play in the water, if someone saw that and it got out, I reckon it wouldn't just be you kneeling in the temple or the maids getting hit with a board."

  Just thinking about the severity of the consequences made me break out in a cold sweat, with chills running down my entire body.

  "I, I didn't expect to cause such a big commotion. I always thought that mountain forest was ownerless, this is why... If I had known earlier, even if it were the Peach Garden of the Queen Mother of the West, she would have died rather than go there."

  "Girl, don't blame yourself. If anyone is to blame, it's me, the old lady. If I had been heartless and not allowed you to go out back then, none of this would have happened."

  "It's really all my fault," said Ruqing sincerely. "I'm the one who got so many people involved."

  "Ah, Mother Zhou saw that her daughter's face had lost weight and felt a pang of heartache. Seeing her hanging her head in shame, with a self-reproachful expression, she also felt pity in her heart. She stroked her soft hair and said gently: 'Alright, the matter has already happened, there's no use saying more about it. However, this lesson has also served as a warning to you, my dear. In the future, when you do things, you must think thrice before acting. Otherwise, if things go wrong, it will not only affect our family's reputation but also bring trouble to those under us. You have always been obedient and kind-hearted, I'm sure this lesson has already been deeply etched in your heart, so there's no need for me to say more. Your priority now is to recover from your illness and then sincerely apologize to Master. This matter will be settled once and for all. As for the outside matters, don't worry about them, although they may be a bit tricky, Master has his ways of handling them, I guarantee that not a single word will leak out.'"

  Although I was very embarrassed, I still plucked up the courage to ask: "Can mom tell me, who is the master of that mountain forest?" It's not something that can be bought with just money, and it's not possible for someone to buy an entire mountain forest and make my second brother so angry.

  Mother Zhou said: "This old woman is also unclear. However, yesterday the master returned from outside, his face was really terrifying. I think it shouldn't be an ordinary person."

  What more can be said about love?

  All these years, she had been careful not to give anyone a handle to use against her, but this time, she had let her guard down and caused such a big mess, and now she would have to let Zhiyi clean up the mess for her. Just thinking about Zhiyi's furious face and Xiangling's battered and bloody appearance made her whole body tremble with fear.