An ugly girl starts off, then becomes a beauty

Sang Ling ran into Nie Ce when he walked to the front yard of Yongshan Hall.

He looked back and asked, "Are you looking for me?"

This marquis is different from them. He does not live in Yuchen Palace. It is said that the emperor arranged him to live next to the emperor's bedroom as soon as he arrived. He came here probably to find her.

"How many times has the Queen asked you to speak?" Nie Ce asked.

The two of them were inexplicably less reserved when talking to each other, especially since there was no one around, so she didn't pay attention to the superficial rules, "Today is the first time."

After replying, he choked for a moment, and couldn't help but think about the purpose of today's visit, so he stopped and asked, "Do you know the queen's intention?"

If Empress Wu and Madam Zhaoyu were thinking of getting married, Nie Ce should have known about it.

"I don't know—" Nie Ce groaned, "I just came back and my butt hasn't even warmed up yet, but they called me over."

As the young man spoke, he raised his hand and scratched the back of his head. Sang Ling really felt that this man did not treat him like a girl, so he said "Oh".

"All right." He stammered for a while without making his words clear.

This conversation was not awkward. She felt that he should have understood the adults' intentions, but it was not easy to ask. She could only nod and listened to Nie Ce asking, "How is Gao Aman?"

In fact, he had just visited Gao Heng before coming to Huanlin Mountain. Sang Ling didn't know more about the Gao family than he did. After the three of them talked in Yanshuiju that day, she was taken back to the Taiwei Mansion the next day, and then came to Huanlin Mountain again. If she asked Gao Heng how he was doing now, how could she answer? She could only nod and say calmly, "Very well."

"Yeah." Nie Ce also looked away. "You can go back."

Actually, he came out here just to make small talk. How could he not guess what the person inside meant? He just felt at a loss. He wanted to ask, but when he wanted to ask something specific, he couldn't say anything. He sighed deeply.

Sang Ling turned around obediently, and after taking two steps, he subconsciously looked back and saw that the other party had walked away far away in an instant.

*

The case of the poisonous snake at the picnic party never came to a conclusion, and the Tian family never gave an explanation. If the nobles were to remain secretive, the people below them would never question them.

Sang Mei has recovered now. As a subject, Sang Wu tacitly did not mention the matter and just acted as if nothing had happened.

Of course, this information was not completely kept secret. As more people handled it, some information was bound to leak out. Dai Chengjun seemed to have learned a little from others, and he mentioned it to Sang Ling and Ban Le: "It turned out that someone did it on purpose, but that person has a complicated background and cannot be easily disclosed."

Ban Le naturally wanted to ask more questions, but Dai Chengjun looked so frightened that he only dared to stop here.

Sang Ling had nothing else to say - in the case of the poisonous snake bite, as long as Ya Nu was cleared of suspicion, it didn't matter who the murderer was. After all, the man came for Sang Mei, and she wouldn't be so idle as to think about helping Sang Mei catch the murderer.

Until the night before leaving the palace, no one among the three mentioned the matter again, and Sang Ling thought it would be forgotten. However, Dai Chengjun couldn't help but confess it in the end.

"It's Princess Cheng, Liu Qing!" After the daughter of the Dai family finished speaking, Ban Le came over and said, "I knew it."

When they discussed it earlier, they mentioned some gossip. Madam Zhaoyu originally wanted to arrange a marriage between Liu Qing and Nie Ce, but it fell through for some reason. Until the year before last, when Liu Qing was married to the prince of Han, no one mentioned it again. And Nie Ce has not married yet.

Ban Le analyzed it in a methodical manner, "Nie Ce must have Liu Qing in his heart, so he has never had a woman. Even if Liu Qing got married, she still had him in her heart. Later, when he knew that Empress Wu and Madam Zhaoyu had chosen Sang Mei, he did this! But isn't that right?"

"That makes sense." Dai Chengjun touched his chin and nodded, "Otherwise, she would have no other reason to harm Sister Sang Ling since it was their first meeting. She also relied on her high status to have the courage to do this. If it was someone else, do you think Queen Wu would let her go?"

Prince Cheng is now in charge of military affairs in the south and can be regarded as the emperor's right-hand man. Queen Wu would naturally not touch Princess Cheng for such a matter. It was also Sang Mei's bad luck that she suffered such a great punishment after being called over by Queen Wu. Although the snake venom was cleared out, she had to stay on the bed for more than ten days and couldn't get down now. The imperial physician said that she had to rest for half a month after returning and drink medicine every day to remove the remaining venom.

Fortunately, Empress Wu was named Sang Ling later. The emperor had just left that day and no one else was left in the courtyard of the nobles, so the news of her entering the Yongshan Palace did not spread - otherwise, if Liu Qing knew about it, she would probably be in trouble too.

But she never mentioned this to Ban Le and Dai Chengjun. They still couldn't understand what Empress Wu and Madam Zhaoyu were thinking: seeing Sang Mei and then seeing her...

Maybe he really just wanted to ask someone to come over and talk?

This worry was gradually put aside. When the daughters of the Ban family and the Dai family returned to their respective homes, Sang Ling was preparing to pack up the clothes to take back with Ya Nu when he suddenly heard a maid in the yard come to deliver a message saying that someone was looking for the eldest daughter of the Sang family.

The person who came was a palace maid who was dressed very formally. She handed her a bamboo box and said it was a gift from Madam Zhaoyu to Madam Ling.

She did not open it immediately. Only when she returned to the house did she barely wake up from her daze. Just then, she met Sang Wu who had come back from somewhere. He looked at her and asked a few questions. After learning about what had just happened, he asked her to take out the things that Madam Zhaoyu had given her.

Inside was a pair of green jade bracelets inlaid with silver and gold.

The meaning of the song was already clear, and Sang Ling was speechless.

A few days ago, Empress Wu and Lady Zhaoyu summoned Sang Ling. Sang Wu learned from the maid that he had seen his younger sister before, but didn't receive any reward. Now that he had seen his elder sister, he was rewarded with a pair of bracelets. How could he not understand?

He smiled slightly, said nothing else, patted Sang Ling's shoulder and told her to keep it to herself.

Now it was impossible to understand it. I was afraid that she was really chosen by Empress Wu and Lady Zhaoyu, and the person they chose to marry her to was Nie Ce, and she could not think of anyone else.

If it was just the Nie family, maybe it would be okay. Maybe it could be the same as the Donghou family. There would always be a turning point in the end. But if there was also a Queen Wu, it would be different. With one word from the Queen Mother, the marriage would be set in stone.

In fact, she could even use the Xun family of the Eastern Marquis as a way out, so the Nie family would naturally not resist much, but reason is one thing, and selfishness is another. As the thought in her mind became longer and longer, she gradually became addicted to it and could not extricate herself.

Although she had not revealed even a little, every step she took seemed to be motivated. Initially, she became a better student just to avoid being confused in this era, to avoid being manipulated by her stepmother, and to avoid having her future controlled by others. In the end, this was just a general goal, a spiritual sustenance she sought for herself after she knew she could not go back.

But since she had the idea of ​​marrying Gao Heng, this spiritual sustenance has a concrete goal. She is unwilling to deny it. She is reluctant to leave Gao's house, a place that is almost like home. She wants to live in Hanning Garden forever, with her aunt and cousin by her side...

She originally thought she could wait a little longer, and maybe by next year she would be able to bravely take this step.

But I didn't expect it to happen so quickly.