Chapter 55.2: Move Aside, Bad Green Plum

"Lao ye, should we invite Old Mister Liu over? Or should we go pay our respects afterwards?" Mother Song asked quietly.

Song Qingyun considered it for a while before saying: "Let's still send the invitation cards. The younger generation of the family will probably come, and after the event we'll go over. What does Liangzhuo think?"

Song Liangzhuo nodded, "We should go pay our respects to Mister Liu. Let's do it according to Dad's plan."

Song Liangzhuo's words had just fallen when Zixiao cried out in alarm from the side. Following that, a teacup fell to the floor. Zixiao weakly covered her scalded red hand as she sobbed, "Even if Xiaoqi meimei doesn't like jiejie you still can't be like this, like this wuu"

The change occurred too fast.

Xiaoqi stared blankly at Zixiao whose shoulders were shaking with grievances, then she dazedly lowered her head to look at the shattered teacup. After that, she looked at the scalded red dots on her own hand that had been burnt due to being splashed by hot water. Her mouth moved, but she wasn't able to say anything.

Song Qingyun was the first to speak, "Is it bad? Hurry and send for a doctor!"

Qiu Tong had gone out due to a matter and had only rushed back when she heard the loud noise. Upon seeing the scene, she first gave a fierce glare towards the little maid that was standing stunned at the side. Then she aimed a glance at Xiaoqi's hand. Only after seeing that there wasn't a big injury did she smile, "Lady Lin, come this way with this servant to rinse your hand. You should be careful that it doesn't get ruined."

Zixiao furiously lifted her head, but instantly put on a sorrowful expression again as she looked towards Song Liangzhuo, "Second Older Brother, Second Older Brother. I don't have any intentions to fight with Xiaoqi meimei over anything. I also said so before, I'll just silently wait for Second Older Brother. Xiaoqi meimei, if she couldn't stand by idly and watchE/C, she should just tell me, why must, why must she"

Xiaoqi twisted her head to look towards Song Liangzhuo. Song Liangzhuo pursed his lips and reached over to pull Xiaoqi's hand, but Xiaoqi ducked away.

"I didn't do it." Xiaoqi looked at the shattered fragments on the ground as she flattened her mouth miserably. Blinking her eyes, still at a loss, she continued: "The moment I reached over it broke."

Song Liangzhuo controlled his expression and mildly said: "Lady Lin should go first to apply medicine."

"Second Older Brother!?" Zixiao walked over with two steps. Extending her already swollen hand, she said: "Second Older Brother, but I'm really injured. Yet Second Older Brother still doesn't care? What I want is nothing more than a word of apology from Xiaoqi meimei. I, I'll just treat it as if she did it inadvertently."

Song Liangzhuo turned to look towards the trembling little maid as he spoke in a deep tone, "What happened? Explain it clearly!"

The maid spoke with a trembling voice: "Th-this servant also doesn't know. Lady Lin had this servant bring hot tea. This servant came, then Lady Lin said to give it to Young Madam. Young Madam reached out, and the teacup splashed towards Lady Lin. Th-this servant didn't look carefully."

"Xiaoqi"

"I hate you!" Xiaoqi rejected the hand Song Liangzhuo extended again with a push as she got up and ran. When she ran to the door, she turned back again. Her tears-filled large eyes took aim, then she lifted up a dish of chilled vegetables and splashed it onto Zixiao. Throwing the plate back down on the table, she turned and ran again.

And this also happened in the blink of an eye. Zixiao's gold long skirt was now every color under the sun. Green pepper strips and coriander stems hung off her, pine cone grains and sweet almond flakes speckled her body, and a long strip of tofu skin was even hanging off her and fluttering in the wind.

Zixiao was dumbfounded for a moment before she immediately started weeping.

"Haa, don't cry anymore. Let's go apply some medicine first. Do you really want to leave a scar on that hand?" Song Qingyun sighed.

Mother Song shot a knife-like glare over and Song Qingyun choked before waving his hand, "I still have cases to look over so I'll head back to my room first."

Song Liangzhuo repeatedly glanced over towards the door. In the end, he snaked around Zixiao and left the room without a word.

"Second Older Brother!" This tone was so mournful that even Mother Song's hand that was holding a soup bowl trembled for a moment.

Zixiao wiped her tears as she asked: "Second Older Brother is really going to defend Xiaoqi meimei like this? Zixiao's hand was injured in vain?"

Song Liangzhuo didn't even turn back, "The fact that Xiaoqi threw food on you was her wrong. I apologize, Lady Lin, on Xiaoqi's behalf." After he finished speaking, he directly left the room.

Song Liangzhuo avoided bringing up the matter about Zixiao's hand getting burnt, which directly expressed that he didn't believe this matter.

Zixiao watched as Song Liangzhuo's figure disappeared into the night. She was so angry that her lips pursed up viciously.

At this side, Mother Song's expression did not change as she finished off the soup in her hand. Then she looked towards Zixiao who was still standing there, staring at the door, and said: "Zixiao should hurry up and apply some medicine. To women, the most important thing is still skin. Only with good skin will you be able to scheme a good way out."

Zixiao lowered her eyes. Then, inhaling, she lifted her chin, "Aunt Xue, I went through a lot of trials in order to come back for Second Older Brother. It doesn't matter whether he still loves me as he did before, he should still help me arrange the rest of my life properly. If I have the chance to enter the Song family, I'll have the chance to coax back Second Older Brother's heart."

Mother Song was furious, but instead she smiled. After choking for a quite a while as she pointed at Zixiao, she finally was able to praise with a sincere tone, "Truly, Zixiao. You are matchless under the heavens."

Song Liangzhuo returned to the courtyard with a quick pace. He tried to look at Xiaoqi's hand twice, but she had avoided him both times. He clearly saw several red dots, but he didn't know if the injury was serious.

The room was brightly lit, but he didn't see Xiaoqi's shadow at all. Song Liangzhuo searched for a round, then he frowned as rushed towards the maid that was standing in front of the door, "Where's Young Madam?"

"Replying Young Master, this servant didn't see Young Madam return."

Song Liangzhuo took a deep breath, then rushed out the door again. Song Liangzhuo followed the wall as he walked around the entire courtyard, but he didn't see any curled up figures. At last, he started to panic as he ran towards the door of the large courtyard and interrogated the manservant guarding the door. Only after he verified that no one had gone out did he loosen a breath in relief.

Song Liangzhuo didn't want to alarm his parents so he searched each courtyard alone while holding a lantern. But altogether, how big were the courtyards? Song Liangzhuo's actions still caught Mother Song's attention.

Mother Song directly got to the main point, "Xiaoqi ran off?"

Song Liangzhuo shook his head, "She's probably still in the courtyard. I just don't know where she's hiding."

Mother Song had also been pretty infuriated by what happened tonight. For Xiaoqi to explode her temper then hide without a trace caused Mother Song to be very displeased.

"She's a little too headstrong. That person was wrong, but she has already gotten angry and splashed food all over that person, what else is she still unsatisfied with? What is she doing this for in the middle of the night?"

"Mom's lecture is right." Song Liangzhuo knitted his brows, "Son will search some more."

"Search? What search!? That little temper is intolerable!" Mother Song raised her voice, "Xiaoqi, listen well, you must use your brain when handling matters. If you like hiding and freezing the entire night, there's no one that would feel pity for you. It's other people that did something wrong, but if you continue to cause trouble like this, in the end it's your wrong. What? Do you still want the entire household to stay awake the entire night because of you?"

Mother Song's dignified voice carried a trace of criticism. After speaking, she just stood silently there as she waited.

Xiaoqi was lying on her stomach on top of an old jujube tree at a corner of the courtyard. She knew in her heart that Mother Song's lecture had reason, that she shouldn't cause the entire household to lose sleep because of her, but she still felt extremely wronged. From the time she was little until now, she had never encountered someone this bad; she splashed herself, but she was actually framing her, Xiaoqi.

Moreover, who asked them to look? Just go to sleep ah, just let her freeze to death by herself on the jujube tree. Xiaoqi blinked her eyes, feeling sorry for herself and another cluster of tears dropped.

And that Official Song, not even speaking a word in her defense. Why didn't Official Song hit her? That such terrible woman! His Xiaoqi had even been scalded by someone using boiling water but he still didn't say a word. Wuuwuu, and he even wanted to grab her hand. She just knew that he wanted to scold her, so there's no way she'll let him grab her. Loathsome person!

Mother Song waited for half the day and still didn't hear Xiaoqi's response, so she angrily raised her voice, "Light up lanterns in all the courtyards. Have all the maids that serve Young Madam kneel. For every fifteen minutes that Young Madam doesn't come out, kneel an hour. If she still doesn't come out, then just kneel until dawn."

"Mom, Son"

"Return!" Mother Song coldly cut off Song Liangzhuo's words with a shout. Without even glancing at the Qiu Tong that was kneeling next to her and the other maids that were rushing over, she turned and headed back to the courtyard.

Song Liangzhuo looked towards the darkness. After thinking for a moment, he didn't feel so panicked anymore, and he followed Mother Song back to the courtyard.

Xiaoqi hugged the tree in the dark as she looked at the people kneeling not far away. She didn't want to go down, but at the same time, she couldn't not go down. At the start, the first thing she felt was regret that she took too long to consider rather than immediately replying to Mother Song. But gradually, grief floated up from within. She felt that if she were still in Qian fu, no matter what she wouldn't receive this type of treatment. In the end, Mother-in-Law still can't compare to the beautiful Mother. She had just written a letter about how good Mother-in-Law was, but now she's returned to being a mean mother-in-law.

Xiaoqi looked at Song Liangzhuo's back as he headed inside, then lowered her head to look at the coal-black tree trunk. She tried feeling for a tree branch but unexpectedly her foot felt only the air. Xiaoqi struggled for quite a while before she was able to climb back up while hugging the tree branch tightly.

Climbing the tree was easy, getting down was hard. Xiaoqi blinked, then, drawing back the corners of her mouth, with a 'wah' she started crying.

This sound reverberated with stirring tragedy. Accompanied by the gloominess of night, it was particularly resonant.

Song Liangzhuo looked at Mother Song's facial color and didn't say a word, also not showing any intention to go get the person. Mother Song saw that Song Liangzhuo was still walking forward, so she paused her steps and asked angrily: "What, are you not going to bring the person back?"E/C2

But Song Liangzhuo actually replied: "What Mom said had reason. This time, Xiaoqi's actions really were inappropriate, so she should be chided." As he spoke, he turned without looking back to his own courtyard.T/N

Mother Song narrowed her eyes as she watched Song Liangzhuo's back disappear from her sight, then with a humph she also headed towards her own courtyard. She just doesn't believe that she would love Xiaoqi more dearly than him?

But after Mother Song took another two steps, she couldn't bear it anymore. Xiaoqi's crying was truly mournful, the originally loud and clear sound was already slowly becoming hoarse.

Mother Song recalled when Xinyue was little. When she was mischievously climbing a tree, one leg got stuck into the fork of the tree and couldn't be pulled out. After she hung suspended for half a day, she almost broke her bone. At that time she also cried this severely, and later, because of crying too much, she ended up with a high fever. After the event, after hearing one sentence from Xinyue, she had ordered people to cut down those two same root, separate growth, old joined* joyous tree trunks that were dozens of years old.

Something like this?

Mother Song knitted her brows as she thought: wasn't Xiaoqi also taking medicine? Leaving aside the question of whether shed cry herself sick, falling ill from being chilled is always a bad thing. Also, as the grand fourth rank Madam, she couldn't let Xiaoqi's mother feel that she was mistreating her daughter. Besides, Xiaoqi did suffer grievances today after all.

Mother Song thought through numerous considerations, then turned and walked back.

There were already several menservants and maids standing under the tree holding lanterns, but they didn't dare to make any moves on their own. At the side, Qiu Tong was extremely worried, but she didn't dare to get up without permission. When she saw Mother Song return, she hurriedly kowtowed and said: "Madam, please perceive clearly. It truly isn't that Young Madam is throwing a fuss. Young Madam seems to have gotten wedged in the tree and can't get down."

Mother Song's steps paused. After thinking for a second, she headed over towards Qiu Tong's direction again.

Xiaoqi slightly lifted her head as she wailed to her heart's content towards the sickle-shaped moon. At the start, she was crying because she felt grieved. But now, she didn't know why, she just wanted to cry. Perhaps there was still that little bit of desire to call Song Liangzhuo back.

Mother Song stood under the tree for a long time. She waited until Xiaoqi's strength was exhausted and there was only the sound of sobs left before she gave a cough, "Finished crying? If you're finished, then just come down."

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Credits: Translated by Chiyomira, Proofread by Ocelot

[Chiyomiras Corner]

E/C2 Kyaaah! Mother Song loves XQ more than her son.

C: Haha, Mother Song's quote is actually saying, she doesn't believe she loves Xiaoqi more than her son loves Xiaoqi. But in the end, it looks like she fell quite hard for Xiaoqi's charm~ XD

T/N Lol, when I skimmed ahead, I was mostly trying to find how the situation with Zixiao ends, so I didn't pay attention much to Song Liangzhuo's reaction except that he got really anxious and felt a lot of regret. I think here, right now, he's probably annoyed with Xiaoqi for getting him all worried that she ran away, and probably annoyed that Mother Song's method worked when Xiaoqi wouldn't come out for him. But, a man that lets a woman cry just cause he's peeved isn't a good man. Aaah, but at the same time a man without backbone that's constantly trying to curry favor with his wife is sweet in stories, and sometimes in real life, but from bystander pov, doesn't he usually seem like a wimp? Lol~~ Shall we discuss an ideal male main lead? So far, like 4 out of my six novels that I'm aware of, the male leads bow to the female leads, whether they're doing it dotingly, teasingly, or being forced to~

O: Song Liangzhuo was right in this case to leave XQ in hiding Shell never mature if her childish antics are constantly excused. Im still firmly on Team SLZ and if you recall I loathed him for quite a few chapters.

As for Mother Song, well, shes my Spirit Animal, hahaha!