Chapter 16 Part 1: Younger Brother

The sound from the commoners’ discussion wasn’t very clear, yet there was no need to listen well to be clear on what their discussion was about. Ji Shuran was also aware of what they were talking about at this time. She looked at Jiang Li, the latter smiled while looking back at her. Her expression docile, her appearance was sincere.

But in the end, she was different from the previous Jiang Li.

Jiang Li didn’t wait for Ji Shuran to continue talking and looked towards Jiang Yuan Bai who was still stunned in place and spoke: “Father, let’s go in.”

Jiang Yuan Bai snapped out of his daze and glanced at Ji Shuran. Then he nodded at Jiang Li: “Yes.” Taking the lead to step inside the residence.

Inside her sleeve, Ji Shuran’s fingers clenched and her fingernails dug into her palm. Jiang Yuan Bai’s glance clearly showed his dissatisfaction towards her. Before she could say anything else, Jiang Yuan Bai and Jiang Li had already walked inside the residence and she could only restrain herself, following inside with a smile on her face.

Jiang You Yao anxiously spoke: “Mother, you look at her…….”

“Shut up.” Ji Shuran warned in a low voice. She paused before opening her mouth: “Just now your father was already angered. Later when we arrive in the reception hall, don’t say anything, not even a word.”

Seeing that Ji Shuran’s expression didn’t seem to be pretending, Jiang You Yao was somewhat afraid. Even though she felt wronged and dissatisfied, she didn’t dare to reveal those feelings on her face.

Outside the door, Sun momo hesitated and twisted the handkerchief in her hands worriedly. On the contrary, Yu Xiang at the side felt like a stone had been lifted from her heart. Originally, Madam Liu left her by Jiang Li’s side, apart from looking after her at Mount Qingcheng, it was also in order for Jiang Li not to get bullied by wicked servants when she returned to the residence. A 14-15 years old girl who hadn’t returned home for several years wouldn’t have any deep affections with her father and in the hands of her stepmother, it could be assumed that it would be difficult to avoid hardship.

Who would have imagined, they had just arrived in Yanjing and hadn’t yet entered the Jiang family’s door, but Jiang Li had already firmly given Ji Shuran mother and daughter a loss. Jiang Li’s temper was not like what people expected. She was a witty girl, who actually did not tolerate and struck back in a proper manner.

Yu Xiang thought, it wouldn’t be so easy for Ji Shuran to make Jiang Li feel uncomfortable.

On the other end, Jiang Li was following Jiang Yuan Bai and approaching the Jiang family’s main house.

Jiang residence, perhaps owing to Jiang Yuan Bai’s position as the court’s Chief Assistant, exhibited a scholarly, clear and vigorous style. It wasn’t very lavish, instead the arrangement was rather sophisticated. The corridor, courtyard, pavilion and bridge, complete with flowers and plants in the corners, mostly used black and white color as their main point. Elegant and neat, yet it was wonderfully refined and skillful. Unique, naturally a lot of money had been spent. Compared to casually painting it in gold and silver, this way appeared much grander.

Jiang Li even noticed bamboo growing in one corner of the garden. It really gave the impression of an indifferent and hidden scholar.

Anyway, she wasn’t the real Jiang second miss. As she went inside the Jiang residence, what appeared in her eyes was completely unfamiliar. Jiang Li also did not intend to conceal her unfamiliarity in the Jiang residence. As she walked, she took in all the scenery as much as possible. This sight of her looking around was not missed by the eyes of the servants in the house. They right away felt this second miss indeed had stayed on the mountain for too long and couldn’t restrain herself when seeing riches and honor.

But falling into Jiang Yuan Bai’s eyes, this appearance made him felt completely disgusted. No matter how bad, she was his daughter from the first wife. Looking as if she came from a small family and not broad-minded, if she went out, it was the same as hitting Jiang family’s face.

Jiang Li did not disguise herself, but Tong’er actually walked extremely properly. In her mind, she kept thinking that she shouldn’t cause her master to lose face. So she deliberately put up an appearance of being used to the surroundings. Jiang Li felt funny as she looked at her.

Finally arriving at Wanfeng1Hall, two graceful servant girls stood at the doorway, one on the left and one on the right. Both dressed in light yellow daffodil skirts, both looking elegant and charming. Catching sight of Jiang Li and the rest walking in, the person on the left side smiled even before they were near and spoke: “Lord, Madam, Old Madam has been waiting for second miss to come home. Now it can be considered to have returned.”

Jiang Li glanced at the two girls. These two girls appearance showed riches and honor, their speech was also cordial. It could be assumed that they had quite a bit of face by the side of old madam. She immediately returned their smiles calmly.

The two servant girls were surprised. The second miss had not been here for many years. Now that she returned, naturally there were many rumors circulating around in the residence. But seeing the second miss with their own eyes, they only felt she was very pure and docile. She even gave a more comfortable feeling compared to the third miss.

Not at all a vulgar and rude girl.

With this opinion in their mind, the two servant girls no longer thought more. They invited the people to go inside with a smile.

I’ll be changing Jiang Lî back to Jiang Li, since it was to indicate a phonetic difference but its importance won’t come into play until much later on, and honestly I’m a bit lazy and don’t to keep editing it every chapter. I will correct the past chapters during this week when I have some free time. So, from now on, Ah Li is the endearing name of Jiang Li, and Ah Lî will be baby name of Xue Fang Fei. I’m sure it will seem irrelevant to you now (so it’s good I decided to change it this early), but trust me later on this is quite relevant and not marking this difference woould make us miss a very important type of interaction in the story… or well sth like that, idk how to put it into words xd

Footnotes:

sup id=”fn1″>1: 晚凤堂: Literally translates to Evening Phoenix Hall. I find it a bit weird, so we’ll be sticking to its Chinese name.:leftwards_arrow_with_hook: