Yi Ji POV

“Childish, it was your own fault that you didn’t heed our teachings back then and entered the flower garden of your own accord. Liu Cong telling us and our lord what happened is her rightful duty. What kind of schemes could you be talking about?” Compared to the young mistress’ rage, Cai Mao was eerily calm.

“Though my Cong’er is a good girl from the bottom of her heart, she too knows what is right and wrong. Exposing your wrong in creating a flower garden was the right thing to do.” Lady Cai said in a provocative tone as she held her sleeve in front of her face.

“… Who are you lot to say what is right and what is wrong? I created the garden? That was clearly a natural garden! If it weren’t for you lot who exaggerated things, it wouldn’t have ended up the way it did, nor would I have become the way I am now.”

“Why don’t you tell our lord these things then?”

“Keke, what use is there? Jin Sheng wouldn’t listen to things about things that happened long ago.”

Those did a wonderful combo show which further infuriated the young mistress, who was seething at this point and visibly heaving.

“Hmph, go ahead and get angry.” Lady Cai said as she chuckled and turned to leave but then thought of something and turned around to look at the young mistress, “Have you realised something? You’ve been abandoned again, just like when Jin Sheng forced you to join the military.”

When she finished, the Cai sisters didn’t say anything else and made to leave.

“I never felt like what father did was equivalent to abandoning me!” The young mistress yelled out after some thought, “The me from before is different from the me now!”

“Un, I hope that’s enough.” Cai Mao said coldly, and followed the elated Lady Cai towards the alley where I was at.

… Ah, I should be hurrying to hide now right? I thought as I scrambled clumsily to the side and hid behind a fairly large wooden bucket.

Under the moonlight, I could see 2 shadows approaching where I was and did my best to shrink behind the bucket, tightly grasping the hem of my clothing as I did so.

As they approached, I could hear their conversation.

“Hmph, it really is great. Like this, we no longer need to worry about Liu Bei’s side. And now that we’ve told Liu Qi about this, they will definitely part ways. Even if Liu Bei offers his a.s.sistance to Liu Qi again in future, she will definitely refuse.”

“… Elder sister, did Liu Bei really decide to go to Xinye? Could it have been your misconception?”

“Of course it’s true, I was right there when it happened. I was planning to exploit Liu Bei’s weak point from the very beginning but I didn’t expect a lowly underling would forcefully barge in halfway and ruin it all.” Lady Cai said somewhat vesedly but then continued in a gleeful tone, “But when I saw the look on Liu Bei’s face when he turned the offer down, I’m sure it’s because he fears us. Hohoho~”

“Elder sister should watch how she carries herself. Some things require one to keep one’s own composure.”

“Composure? You dare talk to me about composure?! If it weren’t for the mistake by the fake driver sent to a.s.sa.s.sinate Liu Bei, I wouldn’t have been forced to act!”

“Calm down elder sister. Even though the fake driver has been done in, Liu Bei will not dare accuse us of sending an a.s.sa.s.sin. Nor will our lord ever suspect elder sister.”

“That is true…”

“… What about things on your side, elder sister?”

“It’s going very well, we should be able to see some results before long.”

“Un… That’s good then.”

As I eavesdropped on them, their voices gradually grew more distant and it seemed like they were discussing a plot of sorts but their voices were already unclear by then and I did not dare to approach them and could only get ready to go over to the young mistress.

I stood up from behind the wooden bucket, and tidied up my clothing and dusted myself before gathering my feelings together and walking over to where the young mistress was.

When I made my way out of the alley, I saw the young mistress had her back to me with her arms behind her so I walked over with light footsteps so as not to frighten her.

“Yi Ji, you’re here huh.”

Naturally, I was found out. I’m not a warrior general after all so I can’t exactly hide my breath.

“Young mistress.” I said as I lowered my head and bowed.

“You really came at the right time. Cai Mao and Lady Cai just left.” The young mistress said softly without turning around.

“… I’ll be honest, young mistress, I listened to the entire exchange between you 3.” Since the young mistress said as much, there’s no need to hide it, “By the way, what was the reason why young mistress summoned me here?”

“Hai, it was what you just heard.” The young mistress lightly sighed and pulled out a piece of silk from her sleeve which she handed to me, “Lady Cai was the one who called me out here and I thought something might happen so I called you out as well. Who knew that they came earlier than expected and started the discussion. I thought you weren’t able to listen in but since you have, I won’t bother summarising it for you.”

As she said so, the young mistress turned around slightly. I s.h.i.+fted my gaze upwards and found that the young mistress was not as enraged as before. No, to be more precise, there was no trace of anger at all, and she actually looked rather calm.

“Then since you’ve heard it, what do you think… About what they said?”

“Based on this retainer’s guess, I’m afraid what those 2 said is true.”

“… Un, I think so too. Rejecting command of Xiangyang’s garrison and moving to Xinye should be the truth.” The young mistress bit her lips and nodded, “But I don’t think that uncle did that because he fears them.”

When I heard the young mistress’ guess, I hurriedly saluted her, “What young mistress said makes sense. This retainer does not believe that Imperial Uncle is the sort of person who is fearful of faction disputes and that Imperial Uncle had his own reasons for doing so.”

Even though I said as much, I felt that Imperial Uncle may have been tired of fighting this difficult fight. This is understandable of course, and Imperial Uncle has many troops, generals and retainers to think for.

Even though I understand why he may have done what he did, this may not hold true for the young mistress. I am afraid that she might think that Imperial Uncle does not place any importance on their relations.h.i.+p, which is a logical explanation in and of itself…

“Un un,” The young mistress nodded, “But when you think about it, this is something good as well.”

“… Eh?” What did the young mistress just say? “You said it was a good thing?”

“Un… It’s something like this.” The young mistress put her hands behind her and gave a smile as she blushed ever so slightly whilst pacing about beside me, “I was indeed rather angry at the beginning and I also felt that without uncle’s help, I would be at a great disadvantage and might even be at their mercy.”

When she said this, the young mistress giggled for some reason and scratched her head as she continued, “But ever since the Jiangxia expedition, I’ve been thinking about a lot of things. Though I hope that uncle and father would have some secret discussions that would result in a favourable outcome for myself, I found myself hoping that father would not discuss the matter of the inheritance with uncle.”

“Eh?” Once again, I heard something very surprising from the young mistress.