His Peasant Wife : Yao Ling

When Yao Ling could casually become their friends in a few days, it wouldn’t make them suspicious when she talked to Yao Ling once in a while. She felt that talking at that time wouldn’t be too late. She turned her gaze to Han Yi who had served her loyally and knew that it was time for her to open her eyes, "What do you think about Han Xiang Gong Zhu? Did you find out that something was amiss?"

Han Yi was surprised by her young miss’ sudden question. It was rare for her to ask her opinion about Princess Han Xiang because she knew how much Han Yi didn’t like the princess. Han Yi bit her lower lips and decided to answer her question honestly.

Han Yi answered, "This servant hope that Young Miss will listen to me carefully. Han Xiang Gong Zhu is very clever because she knows when to push Young Miss or retreat. That was done to avoid Young Miss’ suspicion toward her. When Young Miss blocked her words by crying about thinking of your family, she quickly withdraws. However, I know that she won’t give up easily. It’s lucky for us that Yao Ling Gu Niang already gave us a head up plan by planting Han Er beside Princess Han Xiang, at least... we can monitor her movement..."

Xiao Fang nodded. She couldn’t believe how everything happened just like Yao Ling’s prediction.

Han Yi continued, "I hope that Young Miss will be able to understand. This servant shows the dislike blatantly because this servant really feels something isn’t right with Han Xiang Gong Zhu... This servant has no other motive. This servant has no benefit for separating the two of you..." She said the last part weakly. After all, she was indeed loyally served Young Miss and they grew up together! How could she bear to let the princess take advantage of her own young miss?

Xiao Fang felt a bit guilty. She indeed had been doubting Han Yi because of Han Xiang’s case and a few times... the distrust was increasing because of Han Xiang’s words. She started to feel a bit angry. Did Han Xiang feel that she was so easy to bully?! It seemed like it was time for her to fight back.

Han Yi also told Xiao Fang about Han Xiang’s unique smell that was gone. Truthfully, Xiao Fang didn’t really pay attention to it, but she took note of it. She whispered to Han Yi that they should let Han Er snoop around and find out something odds about Han Xiang, however, she needed to be careful. They didn’t want to alarm Han Xiang.

So far, Han Xiang must have been trying to guess the reason why she started to change. Han Yi gave a piece of advice, "Young Miss, you should be calmer... don’t let her find that you change too much! Once in a while, you have to be obedient and follow her lead just like how you used to be. If you have something to say to Yao Ling Gu Niang, you can just tell this servant. This servant will be your contact and Xiao Yu will be Yao Ling Gu Niang’s contact..."

"Won’t they feel suspicious if you interact too much with Xiao Yu?" Xiao Fang asked, feeling worried.

"No..." Han Yi shook her head. "It’s a common occurrence for us -- maidservants to talk with each other after serving the master or in our free time. Besides, our room is right next to each other. If we don’t interact with each other all, it will make others feel more suspicious."

Xiao Fang felt that what Han Yi said was making sense, so she told Han Yi everything that she wanted Yao Ling to know and at the same time also asked for her advice. Because the matter wasn’t really urgent, Han Yi proceeded to tell Xiao Yu at night. Xiao Yu nodded in understanding and knew that this would be their channel to contact each other from now on.

Yao Ling pondered over the matter along with Yao Ying and Lin Jian when Xiao Yu told her what Han Yi reported to her. "It seems like we have confirmed something. This Han Xiang ah~ she’s up to no good. It seems like she’s deliberately wanting to ruin Xiao Fang’s family by letting Xiao Fang save her." Probably because they weren’t an involved party in that matter, so they were able to see the matter more clearly than Xiao Fang.

Lin Jian felt hurt because of this revelation. He indeed felt the same way, but he couldn’t believe that the daughter of his loving mother would be this cruel to her own best friend. At this point, he hoped that she wasn’t his mother’s real daughter... "Is there a possibility that she’s actually an impostor?" Lin Jian asked Yao Ling in a hopeful manner.

Yao Ling shook her head. "I also don’t know about that... Truth to be told, in order to know whether she’s the real deal or not... we probably would be able to find out from her unique smell, right? However, we need to know beforehand the secret behind that unique smell..."

Yao Ling pointed out the fact that the unique smell was actually gone for a little while --- the one that Han Yi had mentioned before.

"Er... probably because she didn’t take a bath for a long time?" Lin Jian asked hopefully.

Yao Ling laughed at that. "Lin Jian ah~ I don’t think it’s because of that. She used to be trampled on by the palace servants, right? I don’t think she has the luxury of taking a bath every day... but it seems like there’s no news about her losing her unique smell once she was taking a bath. And also, why did Han Yi mention this as a weird thing if it had happened before?"

What Yao Ling said was indeed reasonable. "So... there’s a possibility that this one is an impostor right? Judging from the smell?"

Yao Ling didn’t say yes or no because she didn’t want to crush Lin Jian’s heart. She merely said, "I’m not too sure myself. As I said, we have to find out the secret of her unique smell to determine the truth..." Then she added, "I need to ask Xiao Fang about this --- maybe she knows something about it. On the other hand, can Mi Hui find something about this matter? I know that we have people in the Han Kingdom’s palace?" Yao Ling asked the last part, feeling hopeful.

Lin Jian shook his head. "I indeed have people in the Han Kingdom’s palace, but no one was able to find out the truth. We are not sure why but everything about Han Xiang has been buried deeply. I also didn’t try to dig in deeper, after all, I thought that she’s my sister. Who knows that she’s like this..." He trailed off and ended it with a sigh. He truly felt disappointed with Han Xiang’s performance so far.

Lin Jian never expected that this would happen... He didn’t know how to relay the news to his father. The latter had been expecting good news from him... It seemed like he had to delay the news until everything had been cleared here.

Yao Ying interrupted their conversation and said, "I have an idea. Lin Jian ah~ don’t we also have Mi Hui people back at Wen Feng?"

Lin Jian nodded hesitantly. "We indeed have. Why?" He asked curiously.