Perfect Match – CH 004

Chapter 4

Liumingxuan courtyard was in the northwest of the Teng family Mansion. It wasn’t as spacious as the main courtyard, but it had a small side courtyard adjacent to it.

This side courtyard hadn’t been renovated; the door was locked and hidden by flowers and trees. However, from a row of inconspicuous rooms in the back building, one could push open another door leading directly to that neglected side courtyard.

Deng Ruyun named this side courtyard Yuyun Hall, a medicine workshop. Yuyun Hall was the name she had given to her future pharmacy.

She didn’t want her medicine-making skills to be interrupted due to her temporary marriage to the Teng family. She discussed this with Old Madam Lin, who then granted her the workshop. But there was one condition: it couldn’t be known by outsiders, nor could anyone in the mansion notice, including Teng Yue.

After all, what did Madam need to make medicine to support her family?

Xiuniang returned after a walk outside. Hearing that everything was alright at home, Deng Ruyun went into the side courtyard to prepare medicine for a while. Fearing Teng Yue would discover her, and also worried about the strong smell of medicine on her, she came out shortly after.

Unable to prepare medicine, reading was a good alternative. However, when she married into the family, Nanny Wei had told everyone that she was a country girl and couldn’t read many characters. Therefore, she could only read secretly.

Xiuniang encouraged her to go for a walk. The morning clouds had dispersed, and the sun was peeking out from behind the clouds. There was no scorching heat of summer, only a pleasant warmth—a comfortable time.

Deng Ruyun thought for a moment, then walked a few steps with Xiuniang in the garden. Unexpectedly, they encountered the maids drying medicine in an open space.

Old Madam Lin had a storeroom specifically for storing medicinal herbs, which was usually not opened. Today, however, it was being used for drying.

The maids busied themselves moving things around, placing the herbs that could withstand the sun under the trees to air them out.

The maid who looked after the medicinal herb storeroom was named Bai Sun. Deng Ruyun had heard of her; everyone said she was the most honest maid in the mansion.

She was counting the herbs that had been moved out. The other maids, seeing Deng Ruyun arrive, gave a perfunctory bow, but Bai Sun put down her work and came over to give her a proper greeting. “Greetings, Madam.”

Deng Ruyun quickly helped her up. “I was just passing by, taking a quick look.”

The old lady’s medicinal herb storeroom was for the family’s use; Madam was also a member of the Teng family, so what was there to be ashamed of?

Seeing her interest, Bai Sun led her a few steps. “The old lady always needs to stock up on good herbs to feel at ease. Last month, she even asked Aunt Yang to buy a box of extremely fine Dendrobium officinale from Jiangzhe.”

She pointed to the table under the tree, and Deng Ruyun turned her head and saw a box of Dendrobium officinale curled up like snail shells.

The box of Dendrobium officinale was finely curled, with a coppery-green hue and a surface covered in fine hairs. Deng Ruyun knew at a glance that it was of extraordinary value; only in the Deng family’s heyday had their family pharmacy sold medicines of this quality.

She glanced at it a few more times.

Bai Sun had only exchanged a few words with her when she was called away by a maid. Deng Ruyun and Xiuniang walked a few more steps around the room. Besides Dendrobium officinale, the old lady’s herb storeroom contained many other top-grade medicines. Xiuniang was amazed; some of them were even unfamiliar to Deng Ruyun.

However, even the best were still Teng family property. Deng Ruyun looked at them, and that was it. Seeing that it was getting late, she returned to Liumingxuan.

Teng Yue hadn’t returned yet. However, as the afternoon approached and night fell, clouds gathered, the sky darkened, and a sudden gust of wind swept through the courtyard.

The autumn chill rose with the wind, carrying sand and pebbles, trying to seep into the windows.

Deng Ruyun had just picked up her book when she hurriedly got up to close the window. The wind, carrying rain, was blowing harder and harder. She saw Xiuniang enter with a strange expression.

“I just heard someone say that some herbs seem to have gone missing from the herb storeroom. Nanny Wei has people looking for them. Miss, this shouldn’t have anything to do with us, right?”

Deng Ruyun paused, then continued reading.

“Of course it doesn’t. Could it be that some herbs accidentally fell into my embroidered shoes?”

Upon hearing this, Xiuniang actually looked into Deng Ruyun’s embroidered shoes. Deng Ruyun laughed. “Sister, did you find them? If you did, quickly return them.”

But there was nothing in her shoes. Xiuniang sat down angrily. “Miss, you’re just joking. Nanny Wei isn’t easy to deal with. What if this gets linked to us?”

Deng Ruyun laughed even harder, closed her book, and looked outside.

Outside, sand and stones swirled, casting a dim, yellowish light. Large raindrops pounded the ground with a clattering sound. Deng Ruyun told Xiuniang to close the door tightly.

“There’s nothing even inside the shoes. Even if it were stuck, what could it possibly contain?” She reassured Xiuniang, handing her the book. “The General will probably be back soon. Sister, please help me hide the book.”

What’s meant to be will be.

*

Teng Yue walked back from the outer courtyard. The main courtyard wasn’t finished yet, and since his marriage was urgent, he had stayed at Liumingxuan courtyard first.

But halfway there, the rain started. His bodyguard, Tang Zuo, held up an umbrella, but the wind was too strong, and the umbrella nearly broke.

Teng Yue waved his hand, saying it was alright, and hurried back in the rain. Unexpectedly, he heard Nanny Wei scolding a maid in the distance.

The noise was quite loud. Teng Yue asked a nearby servant, “What is it?”

The servant quickly replied that something had been stolen from the Mansion. “Nanny Wei is catching a thief.”

The rain had already started, yet Nanny Wei was still scolding people, indicating that what was stolen was no small matter. However, Teng Yue didn’t inquire too much about such trivial matters, simply nodding and saying, “I know.”

When he returned to Liumingxuan, Teng Yue was quite soaked.

He saw his wife in the room, and this time she came to help him change his outer robe and poured him a bowl of tea.

Although they hadn’t spent many days together formally, she knew he preferred cold tea, so she poured him a bowl of lukewarm tea and placed it beside him.

Outside, the wind and rain raged, casting an unpredictable yellow light, and the room’s lamplight was dim and flickering, yet Teng Yue felt a slight sense of relief.

He glanced at her gently, only then noticing that her face lacked a rosy hue today; instead, her lips were pale.

He took the tea she offered, and as the aroma wafted over, a faint medicinal scent wafted from between her fingers.

“Did you take medicine? Are you feeling unwell?”

He noticed her pause for a moment before replying, “It’s nothing… I accidentally burned my hand, so I put some medicine on it.”

She sounded slightly awkward as she said this, and Teng Yue thought of what had happened that morning.

So, she didn’t come this morning because she burned herself?

But he hadn’t seen any redness on her hand, and her explanation to Nanny Wei that morning was an upset stomach.

Teng Yue had previously thought his wife was a reserved person, neither saying nor doing much in his presence. He had assumed it was because she was young and came from the countryside, and he’d heard she hadn’t received much education. But this time, he discovered she had quite a few intricate thoughts swirling in her mind.

He couldn’t help but offer her a few words of advice: “I’m usually not home. If you need anything, just tell Mother frankly. If Mother is too busy, you can talk to Nanny Wei and Qingxuan; it’s the same.”

Don’t keep everything bottled up inside, and don’t act secretively.

Deng Ruyun understood his meaning immediately.

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye; the man, his face serious, was sipping his tea.

This was already a gesture of respect from him. Deng Ruyun nodded slowly, “Alright.”

Just then, footsteps sounded in the courtyard, as if someone had braved the rain to come to Liumingxuan.

A servant immediately came to report, “Second Master, Madam, Bai Sun, the maid from the herb storeroom, wishes to ask Madam about something.”

Deng Ruyun looked up upon hearing this.

Xiuniang, standing outside the window, immediately asked in a tight voice, “What brings you to Madam about your storeroom?”

Bai Sun’s face turned pale.

“Sister Xiuniang, it’s not that I’m disrespectful to Madam, it’s just that some precious medicinal herbs from our storeroom have gone missing, and Nanny Wei is furious. I just wanted to ask if Madam and you have retrieved any?”

Before she finished speaking, Xiuniang retorted, “You still say you’re not disrespectful to Madam? Why would we take your herbs for no reason?”

Xiuniang immediately became anxious; this whole affair had somehow ended up involving them. She tried to shoo Bai Sun away, but Bai Sun refused to leave.

Inside the room, the normally windless hall now let in a gust of wind from under the curtain, scattering sand and pebbles across the threshold with a scraping sound.

Deng Ruyun saw Teng Yue looking towards the door and slightly pressed her lips together.

Bai Sun hadn’t left yet, so Deng Ruyun thought for a moment and stepped out.

The wind and rain were fierce in the corridor; her skirt was soaked with each step.

She shook her head at Bai Sun. “Neither Xiuniang nor I took the medicine from the storeroom. Could some have been blown away by the wind? Perhaps you could ask around.”

But as she finished speaking and was about to turn back to her room, Bai Sun stepped forward.

“But Madam, we’ve searched everywhere. The missing item from the storeroom is precisely the Dendrobium officinale I pointed out to you!”

Xiuniang gasped.

Deng Ruyun paused, then smiled faintly.

The wind ruffled her damp hair, and she shook her head again. “But I definitely didn’t take it, and neither did Xiuniang.”

Deng Ruyun was being very clear.

Bai Sun’s face turned pale. She was at a loss. “Then how could it be gone? I’ve guarded the storeroom for three years without missing a thing, and nothing has ever been lost. How could this…”

Distraught, she didn’t press the matter further and staggered away in the wind-swept rain. The words seemed to linger in the courtyard, mingling with the wind and rain, echoing back and forth.

Xiuniang, annoyed, tugged at Deng Ruyun’s sleeve.

The medicine in the pharmacy was missing, and out of nowhere, they’d come to Liumingxuan, specifically pointing to the Dendrobium officinale they’d seen earlier that day. Now the medicine was gone, but had the young lady taken it? How could they explain it to others?

Especially with the General who had just returned home…

Xiuniang gave Deng Ruyun a wink, gesturing towards the room behind the curtain, towards the General who had just returned.

Deng Ruyun hesitated, then lowered her head, lifted the curtain, and went back into the room.

But the moment she stepped inside, her gaze met Teng Yue’s.

There was no one else in the room, only the flickering, dim yellow light casting shadows of the windowsills, tables, chairs, and even the screens and vases above them, making them appear like ghostly figures, lurking and creeping in the utterly silent room.

Deng Ruyun pursed her lips slightly, while the man looked at her and spoke.

“You really didn’t see anything?”

As soon as he spoke, Xiuniang couldn’t help but enter from behind the curtain.

“General, Madam and I only stood briefly at the place where the medicine was drying before returning. We didn’t take anything from them!”

Even though she spoke so hastily, Teng Yue didn’t respond, only continuing to look at Deng Ruyun, waiting for her reply.

Deng Ruyun didn’t know why he suspected her so much, but in the way his gaze swept over her hands, she suddenly realized something.

He had just smelled the medicine on her hands and asked if she had used any medicine. The smell was because she had gone to the other courtyard to make medicine earlier that day, and she could only tell him that she had burned her hand. But at this moment, there were no obvious burn marks on her hands.

Both she and Xiuniang were outsiders, complete strangers who had suddenly barged into his life.

Compared to the two of them, he already trusted the longtime servants in the mansion more, and she had just lied about this matter, arousing his suspicion.

Both of these circumstances had fallen on unusual times; it was truly unfortunate.

Deng Ruyun sighed inwardly. She couldn’t think of a way to explain herself and clear her name, but the man’s expression gradually darkened, and he slowly stood up.

He was tall and imposing, with broad, powerful arms. As he stood up, he blocked the light from the tall lamp on the desk behind him, casting a long, dim shadow that pressed her into the crack of the door.

Deng Ruyun’s heart skipped a beat, but he had already spoken.

“Even if you took it, it’s no big deal if you say so. Why make things difficult for a servant?”

With those words, he strode towards the door.

The cold rain-laden wind seeped in through the doorway, swirling around Deng Ruyun’s feet. The bitter, bile-like contraceptive soup she had drunk that morning seemed to return to her stomach, churning and churning unbearably.

He had already swept past her without lingering, stepping into the rain and leaving Liumingxuan directly.

*

Canglang Pavilion.

The rain outside had lessened somewhat, and Old Madam Lin lit the incense burner herself.

She looked at Nanny Wei. “They’ve all gone to Liumingxuan; are the medicinal herbs really missing from the storeroom?”

Nanny Wei stepped forward. “Reporting to Old Madam, actually no.”

Upon hearing this, Old Madam Lin smiled. She didn’t mention the medicinal herbs again but glanced sideways at Nanny Wei.

“What did Deng Ruyun do to offend you? Why are you making things difficult for that young lady? Have you nothing better to do?”

Nanny Wei saw that the Old Madam had noticed but didn’t try to hide it. She personally poured tea for the Old Madam. “To say she offended me wouldn’t be an exaggeration, but this old servant has another matter to consider.”

“What matters? Tell me.”

Nanny Wei glanced outside; no one was there by the window. “The Old Madam indeed signed a contract with her, but contracts are rigid; people are flexible. Ultimately, it’s her living under the same roof as the Second Master, not us. The Second Master doesn’t know the details, and it’s because you’re afraid he won’t agree if you tell him. But he’s a man of deep feelings; he thinks she’s his wife. If he develops feelings for her over time, how can we get rid of her and bring in another noble lady?”

Nanny Wei’s old face was full of helplessness. “This old servant fears that it’s easy to invite someone in but hard to send them away. But if the Second Master dislikes her from the start, he won’t try to stop her from leaving with her whole family.”

Old Madam Lin listened to this and remained silent, not refuting it.