It was what had happened just now. Wei Changying sat on a thick branch. She was agile, so she approached the tip of the branch to pick up sophora flowers. Then, Shen Cangfeng climbed the tree, standing on another branch not far from Wei Changying.

Wei Changying who was originally eager to reveal her material arts and violent character beat the part of the branch near the trunk.

Unexpectedly, she fell off from the tree.

Luckily, she was timely held by Shen Cangfeng.

However, she sometimes blushed and sometimes looked pale. Standing under the tree, she felt unhappy for the result that some sophora flowers had showered her while others had fallen to the ground.

Shen Cangfeng was not deliberate to do so in front of his fiancée before marriage. Looking at Wei Changying, he felt guilty and awkwardly stood beside her. After thinking for a while, he said, “Wait here for a moment, I am going to pick up some sophora flowers for you.”

“It does not matter,” said Wei Changying, bitterly glancing at him. She complained that she could not eat delicious sophora flower cakes and steaming sophora flowers this time. It was also awful that she had been frightened by Shen Cangfeng for many times. She really wanted to punch him.

Wei Changying grumbled in mind, “Don’t you know that this is in rear courtyard? If I was trapped on the tree and failed to jump down to the ground, would not people come to help me? There are so many servants in the Wei Family. I am going to get married. If I disappear for a few minutes, will not servants come to find me?”

Wei Changying continued, “What’s more, after you came here to indirectly ask me whether I would come down from the tree, can’t you hide your contempt? For example, it is a good idea if you invited me to behold the flowers in the garden. Of course, I would reject you.”

“I must leave away because of your interruption.”

“Therefore, it is your fault.”

Since her childhood, Wei Changying always passed the buck to Wei Changfeng. Therefore, now, she persuaded herself to believe that Shen Cangfeng was to blame for everything and she was an innocent victim.

Unfortunately, although she criticized Shen Cangfeng’s unwise behavior in mind, she pretended that nothing had happened before.

After all, she failed to show off her material arts.

In her opinion, she was anxious to get tutored by a professional person, such as Jiang Zheng, her coach from the family working for escort. He had rich experience in dealing with bandits during his escort. He once said that if an escort group had not met familiar bandits who were willing to share the profit, the group and bandits would respectively show their ability and then decided whether they would fight with each other or not.

Wei Changying thought that she was pretty naive. She did not get the art of showing her material arts.

Therefore, as a novice, she got hurt in mind.

She should have learned the art of presenting material arts from Uncle Jiang and practiced it for many times.

Wei Changying sighed and said, “You are not supposed to stay longer in rear courtyard. You should leave right now.”

After hearing this, Shen Cangfeng became more awkward and coughed slightly to disguise his feelings and answered, “OK.” When he was about to turn around, he heard a voice behind round moon-gate not far from here, “Here we are.”

Wei Changying recognized that it was Zhu Lan and turned pale at once. Zhu Lan was getting closer to round moon-gate, but Shen Cangfeng was still here. Without any consideration, Wei Changying rushed to Shen Cangfeng, pulled his sleeves and whispered, “Come on, hide behind the tree.”

There was only an ancient sophora tree of several hundred years in the courtyard surrounded by tall walls. The blue stones on the ground were covered with moss. There were two doors in the courtyard, one was the place Zhu Lan was approaching and the other one was bolted. The moment when Wei Changying unbolted the door, Zhu Lan must enter round moon-gate and walk into the courtyard.

Therefore, Wei Changying was flustered to pull Shen Cangfeng to hide behind the tree. She hoped that a thick trunk of the sophora tree could cover them.

The moment when Wei Changying and Shen Cangfeng swiftly reached behind the tree, Zhu Lan walked into the courtyard. What upset Wei Changying was that there were two maids.

As two maids were in the courtyard, they directly rushed to the tree and shouted toward the tree, “First Miss, are you here?” No one answered. The ancient tree was pretty grand. They feared that it was not possible to find Wei Changying in the same place because Wei Changying was likely to hide somewhere. Two maids walked around the tree, looking up. Their behavior scared Wei Changying and Shen Cangfeng. They attentively heard the sound of two maids’ steps and gingerly walked around the tree step by step, keeping a certain distance of them to avoid being discovered. They were so cautious in case they would leave new footprints on the sophora flowers fallen by wind or thrown down by Wei Changying who was shocked.

Two maids did not know that Wei Changying was on the other side of the tree. Zhu Lan said, “Sister Shuangli might be wrong. She did not see First Miss actually. It seems that First Miss is not on the tree.”

Zhu Shi and Zhu Lan were intimate. Zhu Shi softly said, “Sister Shuangli has served Old Madam Song, and she is always cautious. She said she had seen First Miss come here. She must be right. I guess that it is likely that First Miss has also noticed Sister Shuangli, and does not want to be disturbed, so she has gone to somewhere else. Look, there are so many sophora flowers on the ground, and there are less ones on the branch. Except First Miss, who dare to pick up flowers like this? So, First Miss must once come here.”

“Where did she go?” Noticed by Zhu Shi, Zhu Lan looked at the sparse sophora flowers on the tree and found that scattered ones on the ground. She felt pity and said, “It is no wonder that First Miss has lied to grannies and slipped out for a rest. Look, there are so many flowers on the ground. It shows that she must be in a bad mood. She cannot relax after picking up and discarding these flowers. If not, why does she not come back yet?”

Zhu Shi was sympathetic to First Miss, too. She said, “In-law is nice, but other people of the Shen Family might not be so. Granny once said that Madam Su of the Shen Family stresses on rules and is very strict. First Miss is spoiled by Old Madam Song and Madam Song. She may not bear Madam Su.”

“What is more, the Capital City is far from Fengzhou. If First Miss gets married to the Shen Family, will she see Old Madam Song and Madam Song again?” Zhu Lan sighed and went on, “I do not know whether I would see my families or not in the future. According to Madam Song, my father is not one of the dowry servants who will go to the Capital City. So, I might not see him any longer if First Miss did not return to Fengzhou. Since my childhood, I have been serving First Miss. If I did not follow her, there would not be a vacant position for serving a young lady in the first branch. As for the third branch, I am reluctant to serve two unkind ladies even if I would do manual work. Therefore, I have to follow First Miss and have a farewell to my families.”

Wei Changying was about to get married. Except Mrs. Huang, the dowry servants were those who all the time lived in Fengzhou and those who lived here over a decade. Suddenly, they came to know that they had to leave their hometown and were loath to do so. So were Zhu Shi and Zhu Lan. Now, they were ordered to look for Wei Changying, but they did not find her on the tree. The court was grand and empty, so they started talking about private things under the tree.

Behind the tree, Wei Changying was a little angry, gnashing her teeth, and murmured, “You two jerks, why don’t you leave? If you did not go yet, I must bully you later.”

Zhu Shi and Zhu Lan did not know that Wei Changying and Shen Cangfeng behind the tree were upset and wished that two maids should leave as quickly as possible. In the past time, when Mrs. He was in charge of everything in Xianshuang Court, she not only made strict rules but also punched servants hard. However, she was only one person and not careful enough. Since Mrs. Huang came here, she took place of Mrs. He to strictly deal with everything here. Chatting privately in the corner as usual was not allowed any more.

Zhu Shi and Zhu Lan, two garrulous girls who were supervised by Mrs. Huang, did not casually talk with each other for a long time. What was more, when it came to the fact that they would leave their hometown, they were gloomy. Therefore their conversation lasted for half an hour. Finally, they were concerned that if they stayed longer, Mrs. Huang would suspect them. It was awful. So, they were unwilling to leave the courtyard.

Wei Changying was relieved when she heard two maids walk out of round moon-gate. Unexpectedly, they returned and said, “These flowers must be discarded by First Miss. Although there is dirt on them, they can be washed clean. It is a waste for these sophora flowers to be withered. Let’s pick up some of them and bring them back.”

“It is a good idea. I heard that Granny Huang is good at medicine food and cakes. These flowers can be made into sweet sophora cakes. First Miss may give us two pieces.” Zhu Lan said clearly, “I will give you a hand. Let’s do it, come on.”

It was naive to think that two maids would pick up flowers more quickly.

These two 12-year-old maids, without the supervision of a granny, diverted their attention from picking up flowers. Now they chatted with each casually, “First Miss doesn’t seem to like sophora cakes? Otherwise, why did she discard so many flowers today?”

“I guess that she might be unhappy.” said Zhu Shi, “Do you remember that Miss First favors wild water chestnuts we have picked up in the garden? Even recently we are asked to pick up them from time to time.”

Zhu Lan answered, “You are right. Look at these strings of sophora flowers, and do they resemble hair clasps and flower-shape rings made of suet jade in the dressing box of First Miss? What about making a hair clasp with a branch and some flowers for you?”

“Why don’t you wear it by yourself? What about making a flower loop with strings of flowers for you?”

“No. I have not washed my hair for two days. It is filthy. If I wore them, the dirty flowers could not be made into flower cakes.”

“I cannot wear them, either. I smeared rose essential oil on my hair. You smell it. Oh, no, the smell of rose essential oil is covered by a strong fragrance of sophora flowers here.”

“Rose essential oil? We are given osmanthus essential oil. Do you buy rose essential oil with the monthly salary? Don’t your parents ask for it?”

“Ask for what? I have told them that First Miss whom I serve is pretty beloved by Old Madam Song and Madam Song. As her maid, can’t I bring some money in usual? From then on, I am allowed to save some of my own salaries. Now I have saved a sum of money. I am telling you, in the future, I will….”

It seemed that they would chat with each other for another hour.

Wei Changying, irritated, was about to appear from behind the tree.

Finally, two maids ended up picking up clean sophora flowers on the ground and left happily.

Wei Changying heard that they had left and waited for a while. When she was sure that they would not come back. She was relieved. When she planned to take out her handkerchief from her sleeves to wipe cold sweat, she found that her right hand could not move.

She was surprised, lowering her head to find that her right hand had been tightly held by the left one of Shen Cangfeng. Their hands were held each other so long that they could not move.

A blush suddenly appeared on Wei Changying’s face. She hurried to raise her left hand to hide her face with sleeves and said in a low voice, “What are you doing? Free my hand.”

It took some time to withdraw their hands. Two people were embarrassed. Shen Cangfeng slightly coughed and explained, “Just now you feared that I would meet two maids, so you pulled me and then...”

At that time, he unconsciously held Wei Changying’s hand, too.

What was more, Zhu Lan and Zhu Shi had stayed and chatted too long. Wei Changying and Shen Cangfeng were so nervous that they could not help holding the hand more tightly, especially when two maids suddenly returned to pick up sophora flowers.

Therefore, their own hand was tightly held by each other.

They were staring at each other for a while. Finally, Wei Changying said, “Right now, you must leave.”

Shen Cangfeng was a little upset. He did not know it was because of Zhu Shi and Zhu Lan or what he had experienced today. He absently answered and left in a hurry. His shadow of back revealed his nervousness.