Inlaid With Jade - Chapter 25
Chapter 25
Regretting after it’s too late
When Lin Yu left Li Mansion, Zelan, disguised as a servant, sat in front of the carriage waiting for her. The carriage was parked at the side, only a few steps away from the side door of Li Mansion. It was cold in winter, the north wind howling, and only a few people were on the road.
Lin Yu was afraid that the wind would blow up the veil, so she reached out and gently pulled the gauze, lowered her head, and walked forward in silence. No one else knew she came to see Li Heming except Zelan.
Zelan suddenly coughed when she saw her approaching and was about to get on the carriage.
Lin Yu was always on guard in front of Li Heming. When she heard the cough, she immediately turned her head and looked at Zelan vigilantly: “What’s wrong?”
Zelan was speechless: “I’m okay, Miss. I only feel a little uncomfortable in my throat.”
After hearing this, Lin Yu secretly felt that she was too wary, and then she couldn’t help but blame herself for letting Zelan wait for such a long time in the open air. She said, “It’s my fault. When I get home, I’ll ask the kitchen to make you hot pear soup. Don’t catch a cold.”
Zelan could only nod and agree, “Okay.”
Lin Yu was out of the line in the Li Mansion today. She was distracted and unfocused. If she were, she would find that Zelan had been staring at her with wide eyes since she saw her, as if she had something to say but didn’t dare to say it.
Lin Yu worriedly pushed open the carriage door, removed her veil, and got in. A pair of gray bamboo-patterned brocade boots on the carpet came into her sight.
The bamboo pattern was elegant, and the needlework was fine. Such exquisite embroidery was rare in this capital. Lin Yu knew at a glance who made these shoes: she made them herself last year.
Lin Yu’s body suddenly froze, and she looked up in panic. She saw Lin Jing sitting in the carriage, staring at her expressionless. She didn’t know how long he and Zelan had been waiting for her in front of Li Mansion.
Lin Jing seemed to have already lost his anger, and there was no sign of irritation on his face, but Lin Yu almost saw her miserable days when she couldn’t step out of the door in the future.
When Lin Jing saw Lin Yu, he first looked her up from head to toe. His eyes swept over her rosy lips, and his face instantly turned cold.
Lin Jing had been married for many years, and the couple lived in harmony, so there was nothing he couldn’t understand. He sneered, the sound almost squeezed out from his lips: “I wondered why you were so unhappy and restless these days, always sneaking out. It turns out that you ran to hang out with men!”
These words were harsh, but Lin Yu could not refute it. What she did in Li Mansion today could be called a reckless act, no matter which woman it was.
Outside the carriage, Zelan drove the horse back to the house. The carriage started moving. Lin Yu didn’t dare answer. She secretly glanced at Lin Jing’s face, put down her veil, and sat anxiously. Before her b*ttocks touched the ground, she heard Lin Jing angrily say, “Who told you to sit? Kneel!”
Lin Yu was in poor health. Even if she made a mistake since she was a child, she didn’t kneel much, but she was used to seeing Lin Jing kneeling in the ancestral hall when he got into trouble. She was frightened by Lin Jing’s imposing low roar and shrank her neck. She hurriedly supported the table and imitated Lin Jing’s kneeling. Yet, her knees were weak, but her mouth was hard. No one knew what she was thinking when she said, “Why do I have to kneel? My sister-in-law said that before we got married, you often climbed over the wall of the Qin Mansion.”
Lin Jing was so angry when he heard this that he picked up the oil-paper umbrella leaning against the corner of the carriage and pretended to hit Lin Yu: “Do you think you are me?!”
Lin Yu’s heart trembled, and she was so scared that she quickly picked up the veil on the table to block it: “If you want to teach me a lesson, just teach me. Why do you have to use a weapon? Did I say something wrong?”
“Put down the hat!”
Lin Yu grabbed the veil tightly: “I won’t!”
“Okay! Okay! You’ve grown up, and fooling around with men is okay.” Lin Jing laughed angrily: “You don’t choose anyone else, but you must chew on Li Heming! Is he inlaid with gold or jade, so you shamelessly went to his Li Mansion to meet him again and again! Do you still remember telling Mother you wanted to cancel the engagement!”
Lin Yu was speechless. She glanced at Lin Jing, and her voice weakened: “I didn’t fool around with him. Brother, don’t speak so harshly…”
Lin Jing pointed at her mouth with an umbrella, and his voice trembled angrily: “Then did a dog bite your mouth?”
Lin Yu raised her hand and touched her slightly swollen and painful lips. She didn’t dare to answer this question. She thought: I bit him harder, and there was blood.
Lin Yu didn’t know how Lin Jing found out she had gone to the Li Mansion, and she didn’t dare ask. But after returning home, as she guessed, Lin Jing ordered someone to monitor her. She couldn’t leave her courtyard, and she didn’t have to pay respects to her parents every day.
Lin Zhengqing and Mother Lin, Wang Yueying, were confused. However, Lin Jing raised Lin Yu since childhood. As parents, they couldn’t intervene much. Wang Yueying asked Lin Jing one question: “What did your younger sister do to make you so angry?”
Lin Jing was so angry that he drank cold tea in the middle of winter and said bluntly: “Mother, don’t worry about this matter. I’m afraid that you will get hurt after you know it.”
Wang Yueying listened to the advice and immediately let it go. Anyway, Lin Jing, as a brother, would not bully his younger sister for no reason.
Lin Yu might have been able to regain her freedom if she had told Lin Jing why she had gone to find Li Heming, but she couldn’t do it. Li Heming had already taken a significant risk to reveal Wang Changzhong’s case to her. If one more person knew about it, Li Heming would be in danger.
Her Lin family’s motto did not teach her to be someone who repays kindness with enmity. In addition, she also believed that Li Heming would not lie to her.
However, although the Lin family was safe, the Yang family was imprisoned. On this day, Yang Jinming’s master, Qin Zheng, the Da Li Temple Minister, visited and asked Lin Zhengqing to find a way to save Yang Jinming.
Qin Zheng was Qin Mei’an’s grandfather and a relative of the Lin family. The highly respected Old Qin had personally come to ask for help, so the Lin family couldn’t just ignore it.
Lin Yu heard about this from Qin Mei’an, who brought some snacks to see her. Lin Yu asked casually, “Did Father and Grandpa Qin devise a solution?”
Qin Mei’an saw that his grandfather was still running around for the younger generation at such an age, so she was also worried: “We have come up with one. It’s simple, but it’s tough.”
Lin Yu was puzzled: “Why is it difficult?”
Qin Mei’an looked at the yard’s withered old tree and sighed: “Now that the Yang family is at the end of their rope if we want to save Yang Jinming, there is only one best plan. The difficulty of this plan is that we need to ask the Northern Leader’s help.”