"Knock! Knock! Knock!"
Zhao Shuning gently knocked on Lady Xiang's door.
Lady Xiang looked up, her eyes brimming with tenderness. Seeing it was Zhao Shuning, she nodded and gently placed the yellow robe in her hand into the trunk.
Then she said, "Come in."
After Zhao Shuning slowly entered the room, she casually found a small stool and sat down.
Looking at Zhao Shuning's body, as her clothes were wrinkled because she had been splashed with water before, and when the wind blew, Lady Xiang thought this girl would surely be blown away by the wind.
She sighed and walked gracefully to the wooden trunk. She took out a pink dress from it. This color was rarely worn by Zhao Shuning, but her mother, Lin Min'er, liked it very much.
"Come on, change into this."
Zhao Shuning was not particular. She went into the inner room and directly changed her clothes.
When she walked out, she softly called Lady Xiang. The woman across from her looked up. In an instant, her eyes could no longer move away.
Zhao Shuning said again, "Lady Xiang?"
The woman still didn't respond.
"Lady Xiang? What's wrong with you?"
When Zhao Shuning said this, her voice raised several decibels. It was only then that Lady Xiang woke up and suddenly came to her senses.
As she came to her senses, two lines of clear tears flowed from her eyes.
Zhao Shuning wondered why this sentimental Lady Xiang started crying without any warning.
"Sorry, little girl. I made you laugh."
Lady Xiang wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief, then looked up and softly said, "You said, what do you come to me for?"
At this time, Zhao Shuning was not in a hurry to talk about business. Instead, she asked, "Why did Lady Xiang shed tears just now?"
The woman turned her head away and said dejectedly, "I just thought of an old acquaintance."
"An old acquaintance? Is it your daughter, Lin Min'er?"
Lady Xiang suddenly looked at Zhao Shuning. There were a few more clear tears in her gentle eyes. Zhao Shuning knew she had hit the mark.
"Lady Xiang, since you miss your daughter so much, why never go and see her?"
"Little girl, everyone in the Lin family knows about Min'er's matter, but no one dares to mention it. You'd better be more stable. Leave as soon as the competition is over. Don't cause so much trouble for yourself."
But Zhao Shuning was not someone else. She was Lin Min'er's daughter.
She continued, "The clothes I'm wearing should be those your daughter wore when she was a child. You've kept them until now, which surely means you care about her. But why? You never mention her, and you never even write her a letter."
"Min'er? She will hate me."
It seemed that she was stimulated by Zhao Shuning. Lady Xiang lay on the table and slowly began to sob.
Zhao Shuning didn't know what to say. She didn't like people who cried and whined, but when Lady Xiang cried, she had a special charm. She looked so delicate and weak that it was easy to arouse people's desire to protect her.
But such a person couldn't be considered good.
When a man first got along with her, he might find her fresh and have the desire to protect her. But if she was always so delicate and cried at every turn for a long time, even the most patient man's temper would be worn out.
Over time, he would even be quite annoyed with her.
And Lady Xiang belonged to this type of person.
Presumably, Lin Feng didn't like her, and in many cases, it was because of her personality. It was really hard to feel pity for her.
Otherwise, with Lady Xiang's appearance, she wouldn't be ranked at the bottom among the twelve wives.
"Lady Xiang, if you've finished crying, talk to me properly. Maybe I can help you."
"Help me? No one can help me. Little girl, you don't understand anything. Although Min'er is my daughter, in many aspects, she is not like me at all. She must hate me, her mother, to death. I'm the most useless mother in the world."
Zhao Shuning frowned.
Maybe because she looked a bit like her mother and was wearing the clothes her mother wore when she was a child today, Lady Xiang was reminded of the past and couldn't help feeling a bit sad.
"If you don't say anything, I'm afraid your daughter will never understand you."
Lady Xiang sobbed for a long time and finally stopped. At this time, Zhao Shuning was even grateful that Lady Xiang was not favored in the Lin family. Otherwise, during the long time she had been here, there would surely be servants coming to disturb their conversation.
"Little girl, aren't you the guest invited by Lady Begonia?"
"I'm the guest in your room. I have nothing to do with Lady Begonia."
"I heard today that you were dragged to the main hall. Presumably, you suffered a bit. These people are like this. As long as you don't resist, they will find it boring and won't bully you."
Not resisting and being cowardly were fully reflected in Lady Xiang.
"Lady Xiang, being cowardly all the time is not the solution."
The woman lowered her eyes a bit.
"But resistance is useless. I can't fight against them. Look, I can't even protect the safety of a guest like you. I can't even protect my own daughter."
"Then do you regret it?"
"Regret what?"
"Regret not helping your daughter back then?"
"I, I wanted to help, but I didn't have the ability. Min'er was not smart when she was a child and was not favored. I could only compromise and yield to protect her from harm in the Lin Mansion. I didn't have such great ambitions. Min'er was always very obedient. I just don't know, I don't know why such a well - behaved girl would run away with a country bumpkin."
A country bumpkin?
At this time, there was an embarrassed smile on Zhao Shuning's face.
Lady Xiang, if you knew that the country bumpkin you were talking about was the father of the little girl standing in front of you, what would your reaction be?
And Zhao Zheng, if he knew that his mother - in - law evaluated him like this, with his temper, he would surely be restless again.
"Do you look down on that young man from the Zhao family?"
Lady Xiang replied, "It's not that I look down on him. It's just that Min'er is at least a granddaughter of the Lin family. She shouldn't, she shouldn't be matched with such a farmer."
"Uh - Zhao Zheng is not a farmer, right? As far as I know, he is also a spiritual herbalist, and when he was young, his cultivation talent was extremely good."
"Sigh - little girl, you don't know. Let's not talk about his youth. But now, he is just a useless person. A useless person, what kind of life can he give Min'er? He will only make Min'er unable to hold her head up in front of the Lin family."
Zhao Shuning was speechless. No wonder they said Lady Xiang was narrow - minded and willing to be at the bottom.
Because of her disposition, she didn't fight or strive for anything and would hide when something happened.
If others didn't bully her, who else would they bully?
"The Zhao family is not as bad as you said."
"Little girl."
"I forgot to introduce myself to Lady Xiang. My name is Zhao Shuning, that is, the child of the country bumpkin you mentioned."