The next day, as expected, Song Yixiao's request to meet her grandma was turned down. "Her elder ladys.h.i.+p hears that your ankle has been sprained so she is rather worried about you. She demands that you rest in the Xieyue Villa first and then serve her when you are recovered!"

As her ankle sprain was mentioned again, Song Yixiao had a deep feeling of risk, "My relations.h.i.+p with Jian Xubai is not as deep as I mentioned yesterday! Once Liu Zhenxi and father finds out the truth, I will be doomed! Hence, I must meet her as soon as possible!"

She calmed herself down and said to the maid who came to deliver the message, "I come back here in order to serve my grandma. How can I not visit her because of some insignificant illness of mine? There is no such thing in the world!"

"I will convey your filial intention to her elder ladys.h.i.+p." The maid said at ease, "But this time, her elder ladys.h.i.+p is sick in bed because she worries too much. If she sees you serve her with an ankle sprain, I'm afraid that her condition will get worse. Hence, for the sake of her elder ladys.h.i.+p's health, please hang tight!"

Song Yixiao put on a stern face and patted on the table, yelling at the maid, "Tell me the truth! How is my grandma now? I have been told that she is not well. As such, how dare you stop me from looking after her?"

"Her elder ladys.h.i.+p was not well indeed before but when she heard you had come back, she has got much better out of pleasure." The maid felt disgruntled about her scolding and then said with a poker face, "Therefore, you shall not worry about her. Take a good rest yourself and have your sprain recovered first!"

"Since my grandma is okay now, I am relieved then!" The maid's answer was the very thing that Song Yixiao wanted to get after she said so much. Presently she didn't care about the maid's att.i.tude. Instead, she said with a sigh to Ms. Zhao next to her, "When we were about to come back, my mother had a bit of cough. And I'm wondering whether she has relieved the cough. Fortunately, my grandma has become better. Otherwise, I don't know what to do if my grandma and birth mother both fall ill in bed."

Ms. Zhao said disgruntledly, "You shall not say that anymore. G.o.d always bless the good. Princess Consort just coughed for a few times before. Maybe she has become well now?"

"You are right. I misspoke." Song Yixiao acted like she just came to her senses and then waved her hand at the maid, saying causally, "You leave first!"

The maid left with discontentment and returned to the Yuedan Villa where Madam Pang resided. She conveyed the message honestly and intended to tell Song Yixiao off. Unexpectedly, Madam Pang's countenance was changed instantly, "She said that her mother had a cough before she came back here?"

Seeing that the maid nodded her head, Madam Pang said through gritted teeth, "What a despicable idea that woman has conceived! I've just called my granddaughter back and this woman wants to bring her back on the grounds of a faked illness? In her dreams!"

As Wei Mengying's previous mother-in-law for ten years, she regarded her as the arch enemy, who didn't fear to speculate about her intention with the greatest malice. She was sure that Wei Mengying must be up to something!

However, this previous daughter-in-law was not the one she used to be. Even though Madam Pang hated her to the marrow, she didn't dare to cold-shouldered her. After ruminating for a while, she said to her maids with an unhappy face, "Ask Yixiao to come here in the afternoon and tell her to serve me for a while every day."

She didn't feel like seeing her granddaughter but now she had to. Otherwise, Wei Mengying might find that Song Yixiao was summoned here to serve her grandma and yet couldn't meet her grandma at all. In that case, Song Yixiao would be called back to the house of Prince of Hengshan to serve her mother.

"After all, Grandma is more senior to mother. As long as I am not recovered, Yixiao can never be taken back unless that woman really dies and she needs to hurry back for her mother's funeral! Pfff!" Thinking of this, Madam Pang finally felt less depressed.

Yet, she didn't know that Song Yixiao was actually happy with her command. Song Yixiao hastened to summon Ms. Bo for a talk.

After lunch, they arrived at the Yuedan Villa. They didn't be conducted into the inner chamber to meet Madam Pang, who was lying in bed, until they waited in the courtyard in the sun for more than an hour.

"Get up." Madam Pang fetched the ginseng tea that the maid served and took a sip before she asked the comers to get up. Without glimpsing at her granddaughter, she said casually, "I don't know when I can be recovered. I am quite pleased that you still remember me and come back to look after me. You will be burdened from now on."

"Grandma, I shall not take it as a burden." Song Yixiao replied obediently, "I ought to serve my seniors. How can I regard it as a burden?"

Madam Pang was about to speak when Ms. Bo suddenly snorted and said, "Your ladys.h.i.+p is such a senior person. Now you play tricks to bully a child and she is even your legitimate granddaughter. Isn't it beneath your dignity?"

Her words were uttered so unexpectedly that Madam Pang was dumbfounded and stayed silent for an instant. Then she shouted in fury as if wakening from a dream, "You rat! What did you just say?"

"Did I say anything wrong?" Ms. Bo answered with a question sneeringly, "Miss Song was almost sold to a brothel by Madam Liu! You didn't try to find her and instead listen to Madam Liu's advice to announce her death to the public! Afterwards, you expelled Miss Song out of the Song Family for no reason. Now that you are sick and want your granddaughter to look after you, Miss Song has rushed back right away. However, you didn't allow Miss Song to come in until she waited outside for an hour and even kept s.h.i.+vering there. What are you up to?"

She bent down and touched Song Yixiao's sunburnt face with pity, "You are so poor to have this merciless senior. Without the Princess Consort, how are you going to live on?"

The servants in the inner chamber were stupefied. Madam Pang directly threw her jade pillow over, "Even when your mistress was still my daughter-in-law, she was also obliged to see to me in the evening and visit me in the morning! What kind of cheap thing are you? How dare you teach me a lesson now?"

Ms. Bo dodged aside and heard the jade pillow break behind her back. Yet, she still stood fast, "If her ladys.h.i.+p is here, how dare you do anything against Miss Song? You just choose to maltreat an eight-year-old kid only when her birth mother is away. You may not feel ashamed for that, but as a servant, I can't help feeling ashamed for you!"

The minute that she finished talking, Madam Pang rose from her bed right away!

Ms. Bo clenched her hands harshly and got ready to be punished. After all, she was a maid only. She might be able to speak insolently to Madam Pang in light of the status of Wei Mengying but it would be a different case if she fought with a lady with an honorary t.i.tle conferred by imperial mandate. Out of her expectation, despite the fact that Madam Pang pretended to be sick, she was old anyway. She rose in fury so hurriedly that she felt dizzy and pointed at Ms. Bo with no words uttered when she just stood up!

"Your elder ladys.h.i.+p!"

Seeing Madam Pang fall down, the servants who were stupefied finally came to their senses and hurriedly advanced to see if she was alright.

The inner chamber fell into a mess. Song Yixiao and Ms. Bo took the opportunity to flee away. Someone tried to stop them but Song Yixiao said with grievance, "My grandma is irritated to fainting. If she wakes up and sees me and Ms. Bo, won't her health condition get worse? I think we should go back to the Xieyue Villa first and apologize to her later when she has cooled down?"

She made a good point. Moreover, even if they left the Danyue Villa, they would be prevented from leaving the house. Therefore, they returned to the Xieyue Villa smoothly.

Ms. Zhao had been rather anxious. Upon seeing them, she hurriedly conducted them into the inner chamber and put down the curtain herself. After making sure no one could eavesdrop, she asked in a low voice, "How is everything going on?"

"With Ms. Bo's eloquence, do you even need to worry?" Song Yixiao smiled lightly, "She did a better job than my expectation and my grandma even fainted out of anger!"

"Fainted?" Ms. Zhao said in shock, "What if Master is irritated..."

"My father is not in the house now!" Song Yixiao said casually, "It is said that he has gone out early. Now only my grandma has a saying in the house."

Given Song Yuan's current situation, if he wanted to inquire about Jian Xubai, he cannot rely on his servants but himself!

Ms. Zhao reminded her, "But her elder ladys.h.i.+p was not nice to you..."

Somehow, Song Yixiao's grandma was not kind to her!

"Ms. Zhao, you are so silly!" Ms. Bo made tea for herself after she came in. Now in the midst of drinking the tea, she finally couldn't help interrupting, "Think about this. Madam Pang didn't want to meet her ladys.h.i.+p this morning but why did she change her mind afterwards? Isn't it because she learnt that her ladys.h.i.+p mentioned Princess Consort's coughing and suspected that her ladys.h.i.+p might be called back consequently? That's why she would summon her ladys.h.i.+p to look after her in the Yuedan Villa."

Due to limited time, Song Yixiao could only tell Ms. Bo about her plan and brief Ms. Zhao roughly. Now Ms. Zhao was still confused, "I don't quite follow you."

"I only mentioned that my mother had a cough and my grandma could think of so much. Just now, Ms. Bo talked back to her compellingly out of character. My grandma is in a fit of anger now and may not act rashly. When she calms down, how can she not think much?"

Rolling the tea bowl in her hand, Song Yixiao chuckled, "Maybe what Ms. Bo did was to stimulate my grandma to exert a serious stroke? And the reason why she dared to do so may be that my mother has known that the Jin Family asked the Song Family and Liu Family to plot against me and her. Yet, she still lets me come back. Obviously, she must have the next move. And my mother is only waiting for them to take action so that she can have something on them?"

After all, "One will be muddle-headed if being too worried. My grandma has only one son and my father has no son yet. She is the one who cares about his prospect most! Especially now all know that my mother has been backed by the Prince of Hengshan. Even though my father has the Jin Family as his patron, who knows what end he will come to? Therefore, my grandma, a woman who always thinks much, will not dare to do against me if she is not 100% sure of the consequence. She will not dare to hurt me now. Moreover, she will even stop my father and the Liu Family from hurting me!"

Ms. Zhao finally took a tumble and yet still felt perturbed, "But won't Master know about this after he comes back?"

"You are a mother yourself. How come you don't understand how a mother will feel?" Ms. Bo laughed, "As to the trouble that her sole son may encounter, a mother always prefers to think the worst and be pleasantly surprised. It's okay that Master shows no fear; yet, it will be enough that her elder ladys.h.i.+p fears. Moreover, Princess Consort loves Miss Song so much that she cannot be beclouded forever even if she is beclouded for the moment! What we need to do is to hang on for a few days!"

Song Yixiao took a sip of tea and said nothing. She was sure that this move would work on Madam Pang. Apart from the reason mentioned previously, it was also because of Wei Mengying's remarriage. From the perspective of Madam Pang, a long-suffering daughter-in-law beneath her suddenly became a princess consort who she must make a curtsey!

Apart from such a tremendous change, Madam Pang always kept thinking about Wei Mengying with malice. How could she doubt her malicious level?

"The more my grandma feels that my mother is vicious, the more she doesn't dare to think little of my mother!" Song Yixiao narrowed her eyes and thought to herself, "The more she doesn't dare to think little of my mother, the more she doesn't dare to hurt me!"

Of course, Song Yixiao was not satisfied with the temporary safety.

"After grandma decides to protect me..." She had the next move in her mind.

However, her plan didn't go faster than change. That evening, Song Yixiao was told that one of the bodyguards who escorted her here went over the wall and ran towards the imperial city.

Upon entering the house, Song Yixiao's servants and guards were all detained. Surprisingly, one of them could escape now. It seemed that this bodyguard was going to send a message to the Prince of Hengshan, which was too sudden a surprise. Song Yixiao felt shocked and still didn't dare to believe it, "Is it an intentional test of the Liu Family and my father because they fail to inquire about the relations.h.i.+p between me and Jian Xubai?"