After what had happened yesterday over the money, Tang Baixin continued to ignore Tang Zhuyun.
Tang Zhuyun was in no hurry to explain herself. Time revealed a person's heart. The original owner of her body had caused trouble for more than a decade, and changing people's impression of her could not be accomplished overnight. She would take her time.
She went to the kitchen and fried potato pancakes, made little wontons with a vegetable filling, then sent Xiu'er out to buy fresh milk and sliced some pickles. A simple breakfast was ready.
Linlin came out rubbing his eyes. He had already dressed himself, and his long, straight, glossy black hair hung loose down his back.
This little boy was just too adorable!
Tang Zhuyun stood at the kitchen doorway, unable to tear her eyes away.
Linlin noticed her gaze, and the childish look vanished from his face in an instant. He walked coldly over to the large water jar and stood on tiptoe to scoop out water for washing.
"Let me, let me," Tang Zhuyun hurriedly said.
A child so small could die if he fell into the water jar.
But Linlin did not appreciate the offer and called repeatedly for Xiu'er.
Tang Zhuyun was helpless, but she did not insist. She let Xiu'er help him wash while she carried the food into the room.
The three of them finished breakfast in silence, and Tang Baixin took Linlin out.
Linlin went to study at the family school in Prince Rong's residence, while Tang Baixin had to report for duty at the Ministry of Personnel. The men in the family would not return until evening.
Tang Zhuyun had Xiu'er stay home to help Old Madam He, while she took the silver and went to repay the loan.
Fortunately, there were no complications. She haggled, and because she was paying the full amount back early, she actually managed to get five taels of silver back.
"Young lady, if you're short of silver again, you're welcome to come back," the clerk said as he saw her out.
Tang Zhuyun: ...Do you know saying that could get you beaten up? Hmph!
But because of the five taels of silver, she was not angry. She even felt completely satisfied, as though she could "splurge" a little.
She went to the butcher and ordered pig intestines and stomach, then bought a piece of pork belly. This time she spent a full hundred copper coins.
Thinking of the pickles she had eaten that morning, which had been painfully salty and bitter, and were also very unhealthy, she decided to buy some seasonings and make a cold dish herself.
The recipe for this cold dish had been handed down in her mother's family in her previous life. It carried the taste of her mother's cooking, and the ingredients were complicated. She needed lemongrass, cardamom, sand ginger, monk fruit, amomum, angelica root, cloves... more than twenty kinds in all.
At the dry goods shop, Tang Zhuyun found only a few. After considering the rest, she decided to try her luck at a pharmacy.
At the pharmacy entrance, however, she unexpectedly ran into an "acquaintance"—that lackey of the Prince of Jin, his guard.
The lackey was limping along with several packets of medicine in his hand. He recognized her too, and his gaze immediately turned resentful and angry.
Tang Zhuyun: "...Were you beaten with the boards because of me?"
She could tell at a glance that his awkward, stiff gait might have been caused by a beating with the boards.
The lackey said angrily, "What a useless waste!"
Tang Zhuyun: ???
Why did it sound as though he was upset she hadn't succeeded?
Suddenly, a bolt of thunder struck, and Tang Zhuyun seemed to understand something!
That day, what she had administered had clearly been powdered sugar, yet the Prince of Jin had lain there motionless. She had already felt something was wrong, but had not had time to think it through.
Now, seeing the resentment all over the lackey's face, she understood. The Prince of Jin had done it deliberately that day; he had wanted to go along with the current and turn raw rice into cooked rice.
The lackey had stayed out of sight the whole time that day because he had actually been waiting for the original owner to take the bait.
But then she had transmigrated, and when he failed to get his way, he took his anger out on the lackey.
"Despicable, shameless, and filthy!" Tang Zhuyun stomped hard on the lackey's foot, then hurried inside.
That master and servant were both full of rotten schemes.
Judging by her experience of surviving three days in a palace intrigue game, the Prince of Jin must have done it because he had just returned to the capital and had yet to gain a firm foothold, so he wanted to win over her father and elder brother.
Pah, shameless! The next time I see him, I'll spit in his face.
The lackey, Song Jingyang, said, "You wicked woman!"
But with everyone watching, he did not dare speak to Tang Zhuyun again.
He had already received fifty strokes of the board for taking it upon himself not to stop Tang Zhuyun. If the prince found out he had spoken to her again, he would skin him alive afterward.
He had known what Tang Zhuyun was planning that day, but he had thought that, although the woman was disgusting, the prince had just returned to the capital and needed support, so he had decided to go along with it. He had not expected the prince to be pretending.
If that woman had been a little rougher, she might actually have succeeded.
That useless piece of trash. Sigh, it brought tears just to talk about it.
Song Jingyang was just about to leave when he suddenly wondered what Tang Zhuyun had come to the pharmacy for.
He stayed where he was, standing at the pharmacy entrance and pricking up his ears to listen to what was happening inside.
Tang Zhuyun knew nothing of this. Delighted to have found all the seasonings she needed, she then said, "Prepare a few doses of abortion medicine for me, the kind that keeps you from getting pregnant afterward."
Song Jingyang: ???
He wanted to keep listening, but someone sweeping outside the pharmacy spotted him. "Sir, is there anything else you need to buy?"
Feeling guilty and afraid Tang Zhuyun would notice him, Song Jingyang could only hurry away, thinking, That was close, that was close.
Fortunately, the woman hadn't succeeded. Otherwise, wouldn't she have pinned the child in her belly on the prince?
No wonder she'd wanted to climb into the prince's bed. She'd come bearing a green hat.
That wicked woman!
The prince was wise and mighty!
The pharmacy clerk said, "We don't have that. You'd need to bring a prescription to have the medicine prepared. And this sort of thing... we're not willing to do it either."
Tang Zhuyun smiled. "There are too many stray cats around my home. It's spring now, and they yowl nonstop at night. I want to mix sterilizing medicine into their food when I feed them, so there won't be more and more of them later."
The pharmacy clerk hurriedly said, "You scared me to death. We do have that kind of medicine. I'll get it for you right away."
Tang Zhuyun spent more than a hundred copper coins at the pharmacy, then took her parcels, picked up the intestines, pig stomach, and pork belly, and went home.
"Elder brother, why are you back?" Tang Zhuyun asked in great surprise when she saw Tang Baixin standing at the door, his face livid as he glared at her.
She did not think she had offended him today, so why did it feel as though he was ready to swallow her whole and flay her alive?
"A-Yun, I accidentally told Brother Tang about you borrowing money from a loan shark." Ruan Anruo appeared in front of the Ruan residence's gate, a smug smile on her face. "I'm truly sorry."
Tang Zhuyun smiled. "All right, thank you so very much. Just wait. I'll come find you in a little while and thank you properly."
Fortunately, she had had the foresight to repay the silver. Otherwise, wouldn't she have made her elder brother die of anger now?
"Come inside with me!" Tang Baixin said sternly, then swept a sharp gaze over Ruan Anruo.
Ruan Anruo immediately looked ready to burst into tears. "Brother Tang, I-I did it for A-Yun's own good..."
"She must have been blind to take you for a friend."
Tang Zhuyun burst out laughing, her voice light and cheerful. "Elder brother is right. Come on, let's talk at home and ignore the mad dog."
Her elder brother was truly good. Even when anger sent smoke pouring from all seven of his orifices, he still protected her dignity, shutting the door before beating or scolding her.