Chapter 4
Credit: Misaki
A slick looking carriage was steadily driven through the road. The driver was actually a young man whose age was not old, his face carried simple and honest smile as he drove the carriage in a constant pace forward.
Inside the carriage, a young girl who dressed like a servant, donning moon white clothes spoke out with a soft voice:
“Young miss, there is still an hour left until we arrive to the gates of the capital city. We will soon enter the capital.”
“En.” A faint voice sounded from inside the carriage. It was not high but very pleasant to hear, able to make people could not help but quiet down so they could distinguish it carefully.
The interior of the carriage was very much comfortable; there were all kinds of gorgeous and exquisite articles and goods with various colors available. A young girl was half-leaning on a pillow embroidered beautifully with peony flowers as she read a book; her lashes were long and thick, and there was a faint shadow casted on her flawless face that was like white jade.
“Young miss, the road is not smooth so it is not advisable to read a book. It will not be good to damage the eyes.” The girl wearing white who knelt beside the young girl parted her mouth to speak.
“The days we will go through after this will be difficult to obtain quietness. It is also good to be able to calmly read a book at this moment. Bi Zhu, the news has been sent to the Chen family right.”
“Answering young miss, the news has been sent.” The maidservant wearing dark green clothes answered while tidying the books inside the carriage. “It’s just that the lord and big madam did not send any reply back.”
The young girl’s lips hooked upwards, her eyes were carrying smile that indicated her mood was very good. She was Chen Ninghua who had disappeared for a whole half year: “I am only a neglected daughter. Even if they know that I am coming back, what kind of reply letter can they give?”
“Young miss’ return will surely make them surprised and overjoyed.”
Chen Ninghua’s smile deepened, her pupils looked like they carried coldness but when seen again, the coldness was no longer present: “Hehe, I am afraid that they will be more surprised than overjoyed.”
Just by looking at the facial features, no one probably could link this skin like soft cream, face like cherry beautiful young girl and the black girl before together. Because one was black like mud and the other was beautiful like flower. The two was as different as cloud and mud.
Chen Ninghua looked at the book but her eyes slowly turned empty. That time when she was bitten by the Cun Snake, the first time she woke up, she saw Poison Grandmother. She actually did not know the name of Poison Grandmother, but because in the length of this half year, Chen Ninghua had been given various poisonous medicines to try, she then called the elder woman ‘Poison Grandmother’.
The moment she opened her eyes after regaining conscious, she was indeed shocked by Poison Grandmother’s face full of scars. But after conversing with her for a long time, Chen Ninghua felt that that kind of face was more pleasant to the eyes than Chen Linghan’s devastating beauty.
Aside from feeding her all kinds of herbs, Poison Grandmother did not communicate with her. It was because of that, although they had known each other for almost a year, she still did not know why Poison Grandmother chose to live in the mountain valley. She only knew that the elder woman was an expert doctor, moreover, had a deep seethed hatred with the capital’s Zhao family. Because she accidentally noticed a jasmine tattoo at Poison Grandmother’s ankle. This kind of tattoo could only be possessed by Zhao family’s legal daughter, one that was made once the daughter was born. Poison Grandmother always used a face full of hate to stare at that tattoo.
Bai Ruo saw that she was staring at nothing in a daze then lightly reminded with: “Young miss.”
Chen Ninghua regained her composure instantly and proceeded to put down the book in her hand. Seeing the four young girls who were serving by her side, her gaze slightly dimmed:
The four young girls in front of her were named Bai Ruo, Bi Zhu, Hong Ling, and Qing Que who were all brought by her from inside of the mountain valley. They were originally brought in by Poison Grandmother to the mountain valley to be used as medicine testing. At the beginning, they were either severely wounded or were afflicted with heavy sickness that was difficult to cure. Then, Poison Grandmother threw them all to her. So while she had to endure the pain of being tested with poisons and curing medicines, she also hard to flip through the pages of medicinal books all day long so that she could little by little rescued those girls.
The four of them could be counted as knowing to reply their gratitude since after they were cured, all of them pleaded to stay by her side while she also needed maidservants, so she agreed for them to stay. Regarding this, Poison Grandmother did not say anything. She did not use them as experiments anymore once they turned into maidservants. Afterward, she noticed that they each had their own specialty. She slowly realized that the motive behind Poison Grandmother’s action of bringing them to the mountain valley might be to let her use them as maidservants.
The carriage continued to steadily proceed forward. The liveliest of the four maidservants, Hong Ling, peeked through the curtain of the carriage to measure the outside of the carriage then said as she jumped for joy: “Young miss, the capital city is indeed different! The girls in the capital are very beautiful. But of course, not as good looking as young miss.” Her family’s young miss was the most beautiful!!
Chen Ninghua smiled at that and stretched out her fingers to look. She originally thought that she was born naturally with dark skin and ugly features but she did not know that it was because someone fed her drug from when she was still in her mother’s belly.
To recover her original features, she went through countless unbearable pains that made her want to die… What made her even harder for her to accept was that this bodily poison was given to her when she was still I her mother’s womb. Then her mother’s death that was claimed to be caused by difficult birth needed to be investigated. Mother was Prime Minister Madam and was also a decreed madam. How many people could give her poison while she was pregnant?
Knowing this information from Poison Grandmother, the first suspect that popped in her mind was Chen Dong’s second wife, Zhao Yunxiang. She was the only person who had the opportunity to administer drug to her mother. This time returning back to the Chen family, she would try to find out for sure.
The noise outside the carriage was loud and clear. Chen Ninghua closed her eyes and pushed down the rummaging feelings in her heart as she lightly breathed out. After doing this could she felt that she truly was alive and not at the Cold Palace that was dark without sunlight or at the water deep and fiery as fire mountain valley.
Out of the blue, the sound of horse neighing spread out and the horse carriage violently swayed before stopping.
Bi Zhu and Bai Ruo, one left one right, stepped forward to protect Chen Ninghua. Qing Que’s and Hong Ling’s action was nimble as they jumped out from inside the carriage. Not long later, Qing Que went back to report: “Young miss; there was a horse that got startled and was already stopped. After a while, we can arrive at the Chen Residence.” Qing Que was the one who was heavily wounded then rescued back, Chen Ninghua then knew that this girl who did not like to say much actually possess high martial arts.
“Is there anything unusual?”
Qing Que frowned as she pondered over it, answering: “Reporting to the young miss, there was nothing unusual seen but the only weird thing is, the owner of the carriage was not seen.”
“En, alright, let’s go.” The light smell of blood made its way into her nose and Chen Ninghua said in her heart, just entered the capital and encountered a startled horse, this was too much coincidence.
At Qin Yang Floor, the eyes of Chu Junyi who donned bright and beautiful robe lightly lit up and the hand that gripped his fan went tight, right until the horse carriage left did he fiercely drank up the wine on the table. He stood up and said to the man opposite who wore green robe: “Big brother, I have some matters to deal with so I will leave first.”
The face of the man who wore green robe was cold and stern; he furrowed his brows after hearing what Chu Junyi said: “The one who rode the carriage just now was Chen family’s eldest young miss? Junyi, the reason why you inquire about the Chen family, is it because of that woman?”
“This matter takes a long time to explain. Big brother doesn’t need to care about it.” After he said that, he directly went down the floor and walked toward where Chen family was located. Whether she was that black little girl, still needed to confirm it with his own eyes.