Chapter 77 The Confession
After she finished wearing her ruqun, she called Xiao Yu, "Xiao Yu, come in!"
Xiao Yu came in and Yao Ling felt relieved when Xiao Yu looked better than the day before. Although the way she smiled was still forced, at least the swollen was getting better. Yao Ling pulled out an old medicine case and gave it to Xiao Yu, "Use it on your face. The swollen will get better in no time with this medicine. This is my mother’s secret recipe."
Xiao Yu gasped in surprise. "This servant doesn’t dare. This medicine is too precious to be given to this servant, Young Mistress."
Yao Ling smiled. "Don’t worry! I can make the same medicine by myself now, but just take care of the medicine case. I want it back because it was my mother’s."
Xiao Yu looked at the medicine case that she held, feeling teary because of her young mistress’ kindness. She curtsied and said, "Thank you, Young Mistress."
Yao Ling casually waved her hands. "You are my own people. No need to worry about a trivial matter." Yao Ling contemplated how to approach the previous day matter, but she knew that she had to have a talk with Xiao Yu. She didn’t want a loyal subject to be led astray by Liu Li. "When you got inside my room, did you see anyone hover around my inner courtyard?"
"No, Young Mistress. Why?"
"I need to talk to you, but you know... there are a lot of spies around here," Yao Ling decided not to beat around the bush.
Xiao Yu somehow felt guilty. Even though she didn’t reveal anything to Liu Li, but she was one of those spies. She could only look down and nod her head.
"I know who you are," Yao Ling casually said.
*Thump*
Xiao Yu could feel her own erratic heartbeat and the sweat on her back. Did her Young Mistress know something? She couldn’t help but stutter, "Wh... what? What does Young Mistress mean?"
"Don’t pretend anymore! I know about them already!"
*Bang*
Xiao Yu’s guilty conscience won! She couldn’t lie about it anymore. Xiao Yu quickly kneeled down and kowtowed in front of Yao Ling, "Please forgive this servant, Young Mistress! This servant has no choice!" She banged her head on the floor pretty hard for a few times. Xiao Yu felt so guilty that she couldn’t even feel the pain on her forehead.
Yao Ling felt surprised with her sudden outburst. She didn’t know that the guilt was eating away Xiao Yu’s heart, making her couldn’t sleep and eat peacefully. Yao Ling sighed and quickly squatted down in front of Xiao Yu. She stopped her banging by touching her forehead softly, "What are you doing? Your cheek is still swollen! Do you want to add another injury to your forehead?"
Xiao Yu could feel the tears streaming down on her face. "This servant didn’t mean it! This servant really didn’t mean it! They force this servant to do this and this servant can’t even face Young Mistress properly. This servant is too ashamed!"
"I know! You don’t have to feel guilty about it!" Yao Ling insisted. Fortunately, Yao Ling already heard the whole story. If this was before, she could probably be blinded by her anger and didn’t try to listen to Xiao Yu’s explanation. She had to learn to think and make a decision with a cool head.
"But..."
Yao Ling decided to relieve her from her fear. "I heard your confrontation with Liu Li yesterday from Xiu. He accidentally heard it. I’m glad though that he let me know. Thank you for being loyal to me!" Yao Ling truly thanked her. Xiao Yu could easily abandon her because they only knew each other for a while, but she didn’t.
Xiao Yu chose loyalty.
"Young Mistress is truly good to this servant. How could this servant betray you?" Xiao Yu explained honestly.
Yao Ling patted Xiao Yu’s head lovingly. "That’s good then. Xiu will help you to try to find your younger brother, so don’t worry about it too much. I’m sure we will find out his where about soon. However, you have to continue your current act. Keep feeding them with information about me. At least, until we really find your brother. If you can, try to find some information about the enemy too! Can you do that?"
Xiao Yu, who received such grace and forgiveness, felt relieved. She wiped her tears and nodded confidently. "This servant will continue to act and report to Young Mistress what information I will get later. What the next step will be... I will also discuss it with Young Mistress first."
"Good!"
"Young Mistress... Xiu... really try to help me?" Xiao Yu asked hesitantly.
"Yes, he begged us to help you and even offered his help on his own accord," Yao Ling answered truthfully. Then she added, "He is a good man."
Xiao Yu nodded and blushed shyly. "Yes, he is. I hope he could find my brother."
"Believe in him!"
Xiao Yu nodded. "This servant will! He’s this servant’s hope."
"Good!"
"Thank you for Young Mistress’ kindness. Thank you for helping this servant to find this servant’s younger brother. I will follow Young Mistress to death," Xiao Yu promised.
"Just loyally follow me is fine. No need to follow me until death!" Yao Ling laughed at Xiao Yu’s silliness.
"Did you have any information about Liu Li’s master?"
"No, but this servant certain that it’s not Concubine Wan. It’s someone else."
"How so?"
"She once made a mistake saying that Concubine Wan isn’t good enough to be her mistress, although later she smoothly corrected her statement, I already noticed it nonetheless," Xiao Yu explained.
"Hmm... This Liu Li is pretty wicked and dangerous, you have to be careful around her. Don’t let her bully you too much! After finding your younger brother, I will give you a chance to seek revenge," Yao Ling said.
"Are you serious, Young Mistress?"
"Of course! This kind of dangerous person, we can’t afford to keep her around. Besides, she hurt you!" Yao Ling pointed at Xiao Yu’s face. When she did that, Xiao Yu could feel the chilliness on Yao Ling’s gaze, but she didn’t feel afraid. Instead, she felt grateful that her young mistress cared about her to this extent.
Suddenly they heard a slight creaking sound in front of their room, both Yao Ling and Xiao Yu quickly stopped talking. They knew someone was trying to listen to their conversation. Since they heard about spies, they’d been trying to pay attention to little details around them. They could see someone sneaking in front of Yao Ling’s room.
Yao Ling gave a signal to Xiao Yu that they should stop talking about important matters. Xiao Yu nodded understandingly.
"Young Mistress, thank you, God that you are feeling better already!" Xiao Yu said dramatically which earned Yao Ling’s laugh.
"Just a cold, Xiao Yu. Don’t exaggerate! I only need rest and I’m as good as new."
"Young Mistress’ body is very strong and also you have good luck!"
"What a sweet mouth! Xiao Yu, come on, let’s go! I want to greet Grandmother and Mother before we go to ’Fu Rong’!"
Knowing they were going to go out, the one who was sneaking in front of Yao Ling’s room quickly went away. Yao Ling and Xiao Yu sighed in relief. It seemed like they had to put on a lot of performances in the future.