An ugly girl starts off, then becomes a beauty

The Marquis's arrangement was passed down, and in the next few days, several old ladies in Yunyuexie came to Wuyuan.

Sang Ling was sitting quietly in the front hall. Apart from the matters in the account books, he followed all other rules. With the help of four old ladies in Yunyue Pavilion, it was not too difficult to handle the matters.

Zong Xiang arranged for several old ladies to rest in the side room at noon. Nie Ce went out early and came back late as usual these days and did not stay in the mansion for long. After dinner, Sang Ling took Cheng Ai and Wei Chu out to digest the food and walked to the flower garden behind Jingsi Residence.

Having not been here for several days, she had not expected to run into Nie Guang today. However, as she stepped down the corridor, she saw a tall and slender man standing under a tree.

There had been continuous snowstorms in the capital, and all the gardens, big and small, in the palace were covered with a layer of frost. The flower garden in Jingsi Residence was open to the sky, and there were vents all around. If people stayed here for a long time, their legs and feet would be frozen. It was unknown how long the eldest son of the West Palace had been staying here.

Sang Ling pondered for a moment, then walked forward with a sneer, "Brother, you still bring it out in such a cold day?" She looked at Taxue in his arms.

After not seeing him for several days, the smile on Nie Guang's face seemed to have returned to what it was before. His expression was apparently indifferent, but his eyes were so aggressive.

Before speaking, he looked at Sang Ling for a while.

The eldest son had a handsome face and a slender figure. Although he was not as burly as the generals, he had the elegant temperament of a young man in the capital. It was just that his eyes were too sharp and gloomy, especially the way he looked at people. Even when he smiled, it didn't seem like a genuine smile.

It always makes people feel how much scheming is hidden behind it.

She couldn't help but tease him in her heart. No wonder there is a saying: Women don't love men who are not bad. He was able to fascinate his fourth aunt so much. When she heard that she had privately chatted with Nie Guang several times, she immediately lost her face.

It turns out that women in ancient times also loved bad men. They ignored their husbands who neither took concubines nor kept mistresses and worked diligently to support the family, and instead loved this man from outside.

"It's too stuffy burning charcoal in the room, you need to go out more often." Nie Guang paused for a moment, "How about my sister-in-law? I haven't seen her for a few days. Are you afraid of the cold and can't go out?"

He even knew she hadn't been here for several days, which showed how often she came here.

"There have been more things happening at the border farms this year, and many people have come to the mansion to report things. My mother entered the palace the other day, and I have been helping her." Sang Ling still had a smile on his face.

This explanation seems to be very reasonable. The head of the family is not idle, which is also a foregone conclusion. However, the only thing that is not mentioned in this sentence is Nie Ce who has been reunited after a long absence... Nie Guang smiled meaningfully when he heard this, "Xuanwen just came back yesterday, didn't my sister-in-law take care of him?"

Young couples feel like newlyweds after a short separation. Shouldn’t they stay together all the time?

The teasing and attack in the eldest son's words were straightforward. Sang Ling then rolled her eyes slightly, her gaze shifted from Nie Guang's face back to the cat, and she said softly, "My husband went out early in the morning and he has a lot of things to do. I don't know when he will be back."

Her tone was calm, like a plain zither piece of music. Nie Guang couldn't help but savor it carefully, trying to derive some sorrow from it.

But I heard footsteps coming from the corridor -

With Cheng Lao waiting there in advance, if an irrelevant person passed by, Cheng Lao Ma would definitely come to inform in advance. If she didn't come in advance, the person who came might be another target in Sang Ling's plan.

As expected, the woman stepped onto the stone corridor in her shoes, and the fourth lady appeared with her head held high.

She turned her gaze to the young man and woman standing in the garden, and her face turned pale instantly.

The cool breeze in the garden blew against my body, the treetops made a rustling sound, and there was a bone-chilling chill. The fourth lady's eyes were as cold as ice.

No one spoke first, so Cheng Ai glanced at Wei Chu behind her. The head maid often followed her master here, and she knew a little about it. Although she didn't know whether it was deliberately done by the young lady, with Cheng Ai's secret reminder, she knew to keep silent and never pry into it.

Sang Ling then suddenly looked back, as if surprised at being disturbed.

Jingsi Residence was originally an official residence, and people from the government could come here. It was not unusual for the two of them to meet and chat for a few words. But why did the Sang family girl get so flustered when she saw her coming? Zhang couldn't help but have doubts in her heart, so she cast her eyes on Nie Guang again, trying to see something from his face.

But the tall man's face turned cold.

"A Ling..." Zhang paused for a moment, "A Guang——"

"What are you doing here?"

The words fell on the ground with the wind at the end of the corridor. A row of candle holders on the pillars swayed. Sang Ling was about to speak when he saw Nie Guangxian walking straight up to Zhang.

"How's everything, Fourth Aunt? I was wandering here and ran into your sister-in-law." He had his back to everyone, so I had to glimpse her expression, but from the tone of his answer, one could sense a hint of distance.

It seems that between this pair of lovers, the man's status is obviously higher than that of the woman.

Sang Ling then lowered his brows and closed his eyes. The sound of the wind in his ears became clearer at this moment, as if a young woman was singing in a low voice over and over again, with endless memories in her heart.

She suppressed her sudden thoughts and raised the corners of her mouth without making a sound.

……

They met by chance in the flower garden in the front yard. As for how the lovers would deal with the situation, Sang Ling would not interfere. He believed that adding fuel to the fire must be done in a just right way, and one should not rush into it.

The old man returned home from Wai Zengtai River that night, and the next morning, everyone in the two mansions got up early to pay their respects again.

However, when they went to talk in the hall again, Zhang was not as warm to Sang Ling as before, and she was not as eager to please the others either.

A few days later, Madam Zhaoyu returned from the palace. It was said that she was sick and vomited when she first returned to the mansion. Now she is resting in the inner room of Yunyue Pavilion, and no one is allowed to see her. Even Nie Ce has to talk to her through several barriers.

Last month, we heard that an epidemic had broken out in Huiyang, and the court immediately sent people down there. At first, we heard that the epidemic had been suppressed and had not spread.

Unexpectedly, the epidemic spread to the palace this month, and even Madam Zhaoyu was infected.

When Nie Ce returned home, he brought an old imperial physician with him. After prescribing a few prescriptions, he was still worried and went to Gao's house in person. But he went there at a bad time because Gao Heng had been asked to leave because of the disease.

"The palace is in chaos now, and we haven't found out which batch of things has problems. The old lady's illness is also..." Nie Ce mentioned this matter when he returned to Wuyuan.

However, in just three days, a number of people in the palace have fallen ill, and two died this morning. Nie Ce said that these people are now locked up in the lower room of the West Palace. According to the instructions from above, any palace slave who is sick, regardless of whether he is treated or not, will be taken to the outskirts of the city and burned after the hour of Xu.

"Burn them to death?" Sang Ling felt a chill on his back, and the man nodded silently. He looked solemn, and his official uniform was still on. "The matter of Jiaozhou is still unsettled, and the epidemic is raging in the capital. My uncle and my third uncle are both locked up in the palace. His Majesty ordered me to go to Xunyang to treat the epidemic, so I have no time to take care of family affairs. My mother is sick now, so I have to trouble you to take care of her."

Less than a month later, there was an epidemic in Xunyang. Sang Ling could only shake his head and sigh, "Luckily I learned something these days, otherwise it would have happened so suddenly, and if I really had to deal with it all at once, I'm afraid I wouldn't have a clue at all."

It is better to arrive at the right time than to arrive at the right time. When she was learning to count the accounts last month, how could she have imagined that this month the power of managing the family would be handed over to her?

"How long will it take you?" he asked Nie Ce again.

"The day after tomorrow, I have to go to the Colonel's Office."

That means he's working non-stop again. He just came back and before he could even sit down, he's going out again.

Sang Ling could only sigh and said no more.

*

Since she was going to take on the responsibility of supporting the family seriously, she couldn't do things the same as before, so the Second Young Master's wife resumed her routine of punching in at Yunyuexie every day.

Madam Zhaoyu stayed in the inner room of the back hall these days. Occasionally she went to take a look, but she could only hear the old woman passing messages to the eldest lady from afar through the layers of barriers.

She was not very clear about the plagues of that time. After listening to the description of the doctors in the palace, she knew that most of them were typhoid fever, which was more like influenza. It was hard to say whether it was transmitted to humans from rotten meat or dirty water.

As the head of the household for a few days, he had to put other things aside for the time being and ordered people to burn incense continuously in various places in the two mansions and sprinkle mugwort ash on the corners at the base of the walls for disinfection.

Because of this, the greetings in the hall stopped. A son of a rich family should not sit in the hall - the old man is the same age as the Empress Dowager, and the old lady who lives a life of luxury in the deep palace can be infected, so it is natural that Grandpa Nie cannot be neglected at all.

As for Yunyue Pavilion, it was the most important thing. All objects that went in and out of Madam Zhaoyu's room had to be carefully disinfected with boiling water. This was the only way to temporarily prevent the spread of the virus.