Not long after they walked, an idea came to Xu Junying's mind. He asked Baoju and Baizhan to turn around and chase in the direction of the girl's carriage. He told them to just follow from a distance and make sure to escort the girl home.
Mei Niang was on guard, however. She told Lin Amao to change direction and take another street, preferring to take a longer detour. At the same time, she, Cui Xi and Cui Si opened the curtains in the carriage and kept a close eye on the scenes on both sides of the street and in front and behind.
Xu Junying spoke to her in a gentle tone, but his eyes were sharp, looking at her inquiringly. If her mental strength was a little worse, she would definitely panic and lose her composure, and it would be terrible if he saw something.
Cui Si rubbed her hands. She didn't feel anything when she whipped the whip just now, but later she found that both her palms were red, painful and hot. Cui Xi said:
"We wanted to go out to help grandma. As soon as we lifted the curtain, we saw Hou Ye and Bao Ju coming over. Luckily, they were only staring at grandma and not looking at the curtain. I quickly retreated back into the car and hugged Cui Si tightly to prevent her from going out. I knew that with Hou Ye here, that evil guy couldn't bully grandma!"
Mei Niang smiled and said, "You are right not to come out, but how do you know that I won't be bullied when Master Hou is here? He doesn't even recognize me!"
Cui Si said quickly: "Your Majesty is an official appointed by the court and a general defending the country. How can you allow evil people to oppress the good? You must help."
Mei Niang nodded: "That makes sense. I had bad luck today. I had bad luck going out. I kept running into people I shouldn't have met. That stupid bully, what's his name? Zhang Si? Or is he from the Jingguo Mansion? He has a background!"
Cui Xi said fearfully, "The hereditary Duke Jingguo Mansion is similar to the Duke Dingguo Mansion. In the past, I heard the gossips of the maids in the Hou Mansion, and they also talked about the Duke Jingguo Mansion. The Dukes of Jingguo in all generations have led troops to fight in wars, and some of them had daughters selected to enter the palace as imperial concubines, but that was a matter of the previous generation. Now they should be called imperial concubines. If you mess with someone from their family, it will be difficult to escape without the Hou Lord!"
Mei Niang chuckled in her heart. If Master Hou hadn't come, would the earth have stopped spinning? She didn't explain to them much, but just said bitterly: "Are you afraid of him? Huahua Taisui, a dandy, what ability does he have? He relies on his ancestors' merits to show off everywhere and oppress the good. I only whipped him twice and he screamed louder than Lin Amao. If I didn't think he was noisy, I would have whipped him until he fell off his horse!"
Cuixi and Cuisi looked at each other. Cuixi said anxiously, "We have been with grandma since we were young, but we have never seen her whip anyone... Grandma's scolding is too, too vulgar! If Madam Wang heard it, she would probably faint from fear. Where did she hear it? No maid in the mansion dares to speak like that..."
Mei Niang was silent for a moment, then smiled and said, "I woke up from a serious illness, and there were many changes in my body. Even I couldn't figure out what was going on. You can see that I am very different from before. Don't be too surprised. I am who I am, and I am your girl. As for some of the things I learned unintentionally, just treat them as what I already knew. Let's just work hard to live in this world, and don't worry about anything else, okay?"
Cuixi and Cuisi nodded repeatedly: "Okay! We'll listen to grandma!"
He returned to the mansion through the west gate, and was greeted by Mrs. Lin again. She smiled and said, "Mrs. Yu just came. There is no one in the garden now. Let's go back to Qinghua Courtyard!"
I hurried back to Tsinghua University, showered and changed my clothes, put on my outer robe without combing my hair, ate a few snacks, and went straight to bed. Since I had taken a leave of absence due to dizziness, I might as well enjoy myself and even take an afternoon nap.
Baoju and Baizhan ran out of the whole street, but could not see the carriage. They had no choice but to go back to Xiankelai and wait for Xu Junying to finish the banquet before reporting to him.
The two of them were eating at the attendant's table on the first floor. Bai Zhan remembered something and said to Bao Ju, "Last time, Grandmother told us to have something to eat before drinking, so that Master Hou wouldn't be too upset about his stomach. Should I go up and remind Master Hou?"
Baoju nodded: "I'll go!"
Going up to the third floor, Baoju saw Xu Junying toasting with other high-ranking officials and drinking heartily, so he stood aside and planned to wait for him to finish drinking before talking. However, Xu Junying saw him and came over to ask if he had sent the girl home. Baoju said that when he chased after her, he could not see the carriage and horses, so he did not send her home. Xu Junying did not say anything and waved Baoju to go down, but Baoju said, "Master, there is one more thing!"
Changle Hou came over at this time, pulled Xu Junying and said: "It's my turn, it's my turn, it's like this every time I drink, I have something to do when I get here, you never let me drink to my heart's content!"
Xu Junying said a few perfunctory words to him, then looked at Baoju and said, "Tell me what's the matter!"
Baoju said quickly, "Grandma told me to eat something before drinking, so that I won't get drunk easily and won't hurt my stomach!"
Changle Hou heard it clearly and laughed out loud, which embarrassed Xu Junying. He glared at Baoju and dragged Changle Hou back to the banquet to compete with him in drinking. However, Changle Hou was in no hurry to drink. He broke free from Xu Junying when he was not prepared, and said to everyone at the table with a big laugh:
"Who said it's out of reach? Look at the wife of Marquis Weiyuan. She even managed the banquet! Did you see that?"
He pointed at Baoju's back and said, "We've just started drinking, let your entourage watch over us and don't let us get drunk, otherwise..."
Xu Junying stopped him: "What nonsense are you talking about? Come on, I'll drink with you, and I won't leave until I'm drunk!"
Everyone started to cheer and compete with Xu Junying in drinking. Changle Hou was not satisfied with drinking, so he simply grabbed two jars of wine and drank one jar each with Xu Junying. In less than a quarter of an hour, the wine was finished and he fell down. Baoju and Baizhan had good intentions but bad intentions, wanting to prevent the Hou from getting drunk, but he ended up getting drunker than ever before.
After finally returning to the east courtyard of the Hou Mansion, it was already dark. Bai Zhan and Bao Ju saw that the Hou Master was unconscious, and out of worry, they had to ask Rui Bao to come and invite Mei Niang. Mei Niang got up from the bed, sat at the table to eat dinner, and said impatiently:
"I'm dizzy and can't take care of myself, how can I walk to see him?"
Mother Wang looked at Ruibao who was standing with his head down, then walked over to Mei Niang and whispered, "Grandma, you should go and take a look. Let Cuixi and the others help him walk slowly. It would be bad if the old lady and the mistress knew that Master Hou was very drunk and Grandma didn't care!"
Mei Niang bit the end of her chopsticks, looked at Mother Wang, then glanced at Rui Bao, and asked, "Is Lord Hou still like last time? Did he vomit? Is he feeling very uncomfortable?"
Ruibao said: "Master Hou didn't vomit this time, he just fell into a deep sleep and couldn't be woken up no matter how hard we called him!"
Mei Niang put down her chopsticks and said, "How can he wake up when he's drunk? Let him sleep, don't wake him up. It would be bad if he wakes up."
After thinking for a while, he said, "Cui Xi, where are the pears that Third Grandma gave me yesterday? Take them to Rui Bao. Rui Bao and Rui Zhu should go back and take good care of Master Hou. He will have to wake up and go to the clean room. You should peel the pears, cut them into slices, and squeeze out a bowl of pear juice. Give it to Master Hou to drink. You will have nothing to do. Go to sleep and let Bao Ju Bai Zhan take care of him."
Ruibao then took a few pears and went back to the east courtyard.
The next day, Xu Junying woke up early and was able to practice swordplay on the training ground. He said to Bai Zhan, "What kind of wine did Xiankelai drink yesterday? It didn't make me feel drunk, and I didn't feel as uncomfortable as before."
Bai Zhan hesitated to speak, and only said: "I was so drunk last night, but luckily nothing happened, I just fell into a deep sleep."
Xu Junying sheathed his sword and sighed, "I don't want to drink either. There is a ban on alcohol in the military camp, but I can't avoid it after returning to the capital. I've been drunk for no less than five times in just two or three months. How can I bear this?"
Seeing Baoju coming, he said with a stern face: "In front of outsiders, saying such things, people will laugh at you, right? Don't do that again next time!"
Baoju lowered his head: "Yes, I understand!"
After returning to the East Flower Hall for breakfast, Xu Junying said to Ruibao, "Look over there, the grandmother has gotten up. Tell her to go to Jinhua Hall to pay her respects to the old lady!"
Ruibao said, "In reply to Lord Hou's question, the eldest lady had a dizzy spell yesterday and was lying down for the whole day. I wonder if she is feeling better today!"
Xu Junying put down the spoon and said, "She's dizzy again? I heard from you that she has had this disease many times. Is it the same as the second wife?"
Ruizhu lowered her head. It was she who told Lord Hou that if the Second Madam suffered from dizziness, she could not go to Jinhua Hall to pay her respects and be served.
Ruibao said, "Grandma is really dizzy. The Lord was drunk last night. I went to answer him, but Grandma had just gotten up for dinner and couldn't come over to see the Lord. She gave me raw pears and told me to make pear juice for the Lord to sober him up."
Xu Junying looked at Ruibao and said, "Is it Baizhan who asked you to go back again? Find Baizhan for me!"
Ruibao responded: "Yes..."
Outside the door, Bai Zhan had a bitter face, and was lingering between two pillars. When he saw Rui Bao coming out, he pointed at her angrily: "Stupid! What a stupid girl!"
Ruibao was not convinced and pouted at him: "You are not stupid, go and tell me what I said!"
Baoju was on the other side, covering his mouth and laughing.
Bai Zhan walked into the hall with his head down. Xu Junying asked, "Did you do this on purpose?"
Bai Zhan said, "I was so worried that I forgot what Lord Hou said."
"Humph! I've never seen you dare to forget my words before. If you do it again, you can no longer follow me!"
Bai Zhan was panicking: "Master, please spare me this time!"
Xu Junying said, "I'll let you go out to help manage the external affairs. Keep an eye out outside. If you can find the girl from yesterday and her carriage within a month, your mistake will be forgiven!"
Bai Zhan was stunned for a moment, then replied: "Yes, I understand!"
"What do you understand?"
Bai Zhan scratched his head: "That's right, find that girl, don't alarm her, just follow her secretly to see where she goes and what her name is."
Xu Junying nodded: "Go!"
He was just curious. The voices were so similar, and the heights and weights were exactly the same. When the girl swung the whip for the second time, he noticed her hair. Her long, black, shiny and smooth hair danced in the air with the movement of her body, like a gorgeous black satin. Mei Niang also had such beautiful hair, exactly like that girl! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian.com to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.) (To be continued)