This time, there was no way Lou Chang could miss the noise.
Lou Chang pried away the hands of the woman in his arms and started outside. Bai Man paused, then caught a corner of his robe and demanded, "What are you doing?"
Lou Chang was so focused on the noise on the roof that he had no attention to spare for Bai Man.
Seeing his attitude, Bai Man knew who he was going to find and immediately threw a tantrum. "Oh, wonderful, Lou Chang! I knew it. Your wife is the only one in your heart!"
Tong Aning felt like gagging too. [Isn't it normal for his wife to be the only one in his heart?]
The other three exchanged glances and nodded in unison.
[Still, this Lou Chang is no good either.]
Lou Yingyu suddenly felt that her second aunt was terribly pitiful.
Her second aunt might be petty and hot-tempered, always arguing with her until neither would back down, but what had her second aunt done wrong?
[Huh? Why has it gone quiet in the courtyard?]
Tong Aning pricked up her ears and listened. It really had gone quiet.
Tong Aning wanted to take a look, but Tong Fengye pushed her head down.
Tong Fengye whispered, "We may have been discovered."
[That disgusting Lou Chang isn't going to kill us to silence us, is he?]
"He wouldn't dare!"
Lou Yingyu stood up. Sure enough, Lou Chang had a hand over Bai Man's mouth and was looking up at the roof.
Caught off guard by the sight of his niece, he froze too.
Then, his face livid, he demanded, "Lou Yingyu, why are you here?"
Lou Yingyu folded her arms. "I'd like to ask what you're doing here, Second Uncle."
"Oh my!" Her gaze landed on Bai Man, and Lou Yingyu said at the top of her lungs, "Isn't this my cousin's wife? Could my cousin be here too?"
Lou Yingyu made a show of looking around.
Lou Chang gritted his teeth. "Lou Yingyu, get down here!"
"Lou Chang, what a high-and-mighty tone! Let me tell you, you may be my second uncle in name, but you're only a guest staying at the prime minister's residence."
"You... Lou Yingyu, you really have become utterly lawless! I'll catch you and hand you over to my elder brother to deal with!"
Tong Aning and the other two showed themselves one after another. The four heads made Lou Chang think he was hallucinating.
Tong Aning gave him an impish smile. "Then take all of us away."
Tong Fengye said, "Take us away."
Feng Chu said, "Let's go."
Tong Fengye: "..."
"Fine. Just fine." Lou Chang had originally thought Lou Yingyu finding out was only a minor matter, but now the Tong and Feng families were involved too. His gaze turned vicious. "Then don't blame me for showing no mercy."
Lou Chang fetched a ladder.
Holding her cat, Lou Yingyu went to push his ladder.
Tong Fengye and Feng Chu threw roof tiles down while Tong Aning shouted at the top of her lungs, "Help! He's killing us to silence us!"
Lou Chang said anxiously, "You little brats, stop shouting nonsense! No one is trying to kill you!"
"Ahhhh! He's killing us to silence us!"
When Tong Aobai and Su Zhouyue arrived, they heard their daughter shouting about being killed to silence her. Panic immediately seized Su Zhouyue, and she hurried beneath the eaves before leaping onto the roof.
Tong Aning froze. "Mother, why are you here?"
Su Zhouyue pulled Tong Aning over with one hand, tugged Lou Yingyu back just before Lou Chang could catch her, and kicked his ladder away.
Lou Chang fell with a scream.
Su Zhouyue asked, "Are you all right?"
All four shook their heads together.
[Mother is so cool! The one in trouble now should be Lou Chang, right?]
While Su Zhouyue was on the roof, Tong Aobai opened the courtyard gate below. Countless people streamed in, including Lou Yingyu's second aunt, Xu Dongying.
Xu Dongying charged ahead and seized Lou Chang by the ear. "Well, well, Lou Chang! You've really grown capable! When I asked you for our daughter's dowry, you had nothing, but then you turned around and bought an enormous house here! Why don't you just drop dead?"
Lou Yingyu added fuel to the fire. "Second Aunt, Second Uncle even tried to kill me."
Xu Dongying looked up at Lou Yingyu on the roof. She looked so pitiful that even Xu Dongying, who had married into the family, felt sorry for her. Lou Chang was her own second uncle, yet he had tried to kill her!
Xu Dongying unleashed a torrent of abuse. "You heaven-cursed, black-hearted wretch!"
Seeing things turn against her, Bai Man tried to flee, but Xu Dongying caught her too.
"Don't think you're getting away either. Come on, both of you, come with me."
Xu Dongying dragged one in each hand. Even a grown man like Lou Chang was utterly powerless to fight back.
Only after Xu Dongying was far away did Lou Yingyu say, "Looks like Second Aunt only used thirty percent of her strength when she argued with me."
Su Zhouyue had Uncle Zhao escort Lou Yingyu and Feng Chu home, then looked at Tong Aning and Tong Fengye with a smile.
Tong Aning and Tong Fengye: "..."
Oh no. They were done for!
In the courtyard of the marquis's residence.
"Well, explain yourselves." A rattan switch lay beside Su Zhouyue's hand. She accepted the tea a maid offered and took a sip.
Tong Aning tried acting cute. "Mother, that roof was so high! I was terrified. Boo-hoo!"
"Terrified?" Su Zhouyue wasn't buying it. "Then how did you get up there?"
"Uh."
A carriage piled with goods had been parked below at the time. Tong Fengye and Feng Chu were strong and had carried her and Lou Yingyu up on their backs.
[You can't blame us. Who told that carriage to park right there?]
The system chimed in, [Exactly, exactly.]
Su Zhouyue raised her eyebrows. "Should I praise you two for your good luck, then?"
Tong Aning went to Su Zhouyue's side and kneaded her shoulders, saying sweetly, "You're still the amazing one, Mother. You flew onto such a high roof without even blinking!"
"That was nothing..."
Seeing his wife about to be led astray, Tong Aobai gave a light cough.
Su Zhouyue immediately turned serious again. She poked Tong Aning's forehead. "Tong Aning, you little trickster."
Tong Aning covered her forehead. "I won't dare do it again."
"You dare think about a next time?"
"I really won't." Tong Aning's eyes curved into crescents as she tugged Su Zhouyue's sleeve.
Su Zhouyue's expression softened a little.
Knowing her mother was no longer angry, Tong Aning nestled into her arms and asked, "A Shu went to fetch you and Father, but who fetched Yingyu's second aunt?"
Su Zhouyue and Tong Aobai exchanged a glance.
Tong Aning watched their unspoken understanding.
[Sure enough, Mother and Father are the most black-bellied of all.]
Su Zhouyue and Tong Aobai pressed their lips together, their consciences entirely clear. This counted as taking pleasure in helping others.
"But why were there so many people?"
Tong Aning thought, [Did my shouting bring them all over?]
More likely, Tong Aning's inner voice had drawn them all over.
With such a huge melon, if Su Zhouyue had heard about it, she too would have come to eat melon regardless of anything else.
Su Zhouyue rubbed Tong Aning's head. "It's human nature to enjoy a spectacle. Let's eat first."
Su Zhouyue took Tong Aning's hand and left.
Tong Fengye, still standing in the courtyard: "?"
He called out, "Haven't you forgotten there's still someone here?"
"Tong Fengye, copy the book ten times, then." Tong Aobai patted his shoulder.
Tong Fengye: "..."
Was it too late to say he was invisible?
Another ten-day break came around.
The older female servant attending Wei Mingning came to invite Tong Aning and Su Zhouyue to the duke's residence.
Su Zhouyue asked, "What's the occasion?"
The servant smiled. "You'll know when you get there."
Su Zhouyue had a very favorable impression of Wei Mingning, so there was no harm in going.
While the two were changing, Tong Aning said, "Mother, I heard the duchess divorced the duke."
Su Zhouyue nodded. "Yes."
Clinging to the clothes rack, Tong Aning tilted her head. "Then let's give her a gift."
"A gift?"
"Yes, to congratulate her on her new life."
Although the gift wasn't for Su Zhouyue, her daughter's thoughtfulness softened her heart.
Her daughter really was wonderful.
"All right."
When Su Zhouyue and Tong Aning arrived, the servants were replacing the plaque.
What had once read "Duke's Residence" was being replaced with "Wei Residence."
The handwriting looked much the same, though. It was said that the plaque for the duke's residence had been personally written and bestowed by His Majesty on the day Wei Mingning received her title for the military merits she had earned devising strategies on the battlefield.
The words "Wei Residence" now seemed to have been personally written by His Majesty as well.
The servant led Su Zhouyue and Tong Aning straight inside.
Wei Mingning was dealing with a small private matter, and the servant invited Su Zhouyue and Tong Aning in first.
Looking at Gu Zhenye kneeling on the floor and begging her piteously, Wei Mingning said mockingly, "What are you doing? Isn't this the happy life as a family of three you wanted so badly?"
Gu Zhenye wailed, "Mingning, I beg you, forgive me! Du Liu'er doesn't love me at all!"
Wei Mingning said, "I don't love you either."
"You're lying..."
Gu Zhenye's eyes widened. Recovering, he pleaded again, "I really know I was wrong."
[You don't know you were wrong. You're about to die.]
[Host, actually, once that child grew up, the child would kill Wei Mingning and bring Du Liu'er into the residence. Then their family of three would live happily, trampling over Wei Mingning's bones.]
[Thank goodness they didn't actually get their way. The duchess is so clever.]
Listening to that clear, pleasant voice, Wei Mingning felt the agitation in her heart settle as well.
Wei Mingning took out a dagger and sliced off the portion of her skirt Gu Zhenye refused to release. She said evenly, "Someone, throw all three of them out."
She had originally confined the three of them in the residence only because she wanted Gu Zhenye to see Du Liu'er and that child for what they really were.
Now that Gu Zhenye knew, why should she keep supporting them? It wasn't as though she had money to burn.
"Mingning, Mingning..."
Wiping her hands as she walked inside, Wei Mingning looked at Su Zhouyue and Tong Aning with a radiant smile. "Sorry to have kept you both waiting."
Su Zhouyue said, "No need to be so courteous, Madam Wei. We've only just arrived."
At the address "Madam Wei," Wei Mingning raised her eyebrows. She took the seat of honor, and Su Zhouyue asked, "May I ask why you've invited Aning and me here today, Madam Wei?"
Wei Mingning went straight to the point. "I feel an affinity with Aning. As you know, I have no children, so I'd like to take Aning as my adopted daughter."
Tong Aning was startled. [Adopted daughter???]
Su Zhouyue looked at Tong Aning. "Aning, would you like that?"
This was an opportunity for her daughter, and Su Zhouyue chose to let Tong Aning decide for herself.
Wei Mingning held an exalted position. If Aning became her adopted daughter, then even if the marquis's household truly fell from favor one day, Aning would have another layer of protection.
Tong Aning looked at Su Zhouyue, then at the radiant, beautiful, warm, and gentle Wei Mingning. In all fairness, she liked Wei Mingning very much, but...
[Why does she want me as her adopted daughter?]
[Host, probably because you're especially charming.]
[Really?]
[Of course, of course. Why else would I have chosen you as my host to eat melon with? Wasn't it because you're so beautiful?]
Tong Aning: "..."
[What a shallow system!]
Wei Mingning laughed. "Because you're clever as ice and snow, innocent, and adorable."
[Hehehe.]
Delighted by the praise, Tong Aning stepped forward and placed her hand in Wei Mingning's palm. "I'd like that."
Author's note: