An ugly girl starts off, then becomes a beauty

The chirping of insects on a midsummer night came in from the window, but it didn't sound that noisy today. The oil lamp burning on the table flickered twice, and Sang Ling started to scratch it with his hair. The girl's moon-white long sleeves brushed past, revealing an arm as white as a lotus.

Nie Ce had already gone to the bathroom to take a shower. He changed into a comfortable pair of clothes and sat back in his original seat.

The rest of the servants had left, except Ying Bushi, who was still kneeling by the door. Cheng Lao was waiting in the corridor, observing the movements inside all the time. Seeing that the servant had not come out for a long time, she became anxious. Just as she took a step to signal him, she saw the young lady's gaze coming towards her and she shook her head.

Sang Ling didn't think about this. While picking up the lantern flowers, he turned to Nie Ce and said, "I have a suspicion about what happened behind Third Aunt. I want to talk to you about it."

Husband and wife are one, and now in this vast ocean of the Marquis' Mansion, Nie Ce is at least a person in the same boat with her, with the same interests, and she has nothing to hide. Although she does not ask to continue to entangle in this matter, she still has to mention the speculation about Shen so that both of them can have a general idea in their minds.

"What?" The boy crossed one leg and took a piece of bamboo from the bookshelf by the window.

She said, "Before that incident happened, Second Aunt wanted to invite me to the West Mansion to talk, but I refused on the grounds that I was not feeling well."

With just this one sentence, Nie Ce understood what was said, and he put down the bamboo slip in his hand again, "Are you saying that it was Second Aunt who instigated this?"

"Except for this, I can't think of anything else." She wiped her head with a handkerchief and said casually, "Otherwise it's Fourth Aunt."

"What happened to Fourth Aunt?" Nie Ce's expression became a little serious.

"At the end of the year, she was the only one in the mansion who liked to talk to me. Although I haven't realized that I have offended her in any way, it may be that I am slow and have offended her with some words. Who knows."

"You're a little paranoid." He couldn't help but chuckle.

"I don't know anyone in your house, so I have to be careful everywhere." Sang Ling was still serious, "But compared to Fourth Aunt, Second Aunt is the most suspicious. Otherwise, Ah Xuan came here on his own, and Third Aunt arbitrarily blamed me."

Although she said stubbornly that it was okay, she was slapped twice after all, and in the end she even knelt down to admit her mistake. Even a broad-minded person cannot completely forget it.

But after she finished her guess, she secretly observed Nie Ce's micro-expressions. Although he apologized to her on behalf of Cai, it didn't mean that he was willing to care about this matter.

After all, he had said at the beginning: Keep a low profile.

"Okay, I'll check this too." Unexpectedly, his next sentence went beyond her expectations. She was stunned, "You check it yourself?"

When the two of them talked about poisoning the wedding wine before, Nie Ce didn't even mention that he would investigate it. Now, just for Cai, he wants to investigate it himself? Isn't he afraid of causing disharmony in the family and making Grandpa Nie unhappy?

Nie Ce nodded and said "hmm", and his expression did not seem to be deceiving. She knew him well enough to know that he was not just talking nonsense, but -

She couldn't help but stammer and pretended to be calm and said, "But the eldest lady said that the grandfather doesn't like harmony in the family. If you go to check..." She didn't continue.

"Someone has stepped on my face. We can't just let this go." He responded straightforwardly.

"You also care about what Second Aunt did in Wuyuan before, right?" she continued to test.

In the past, Shen had taken away the maids in his yard several times, but he had let it go and had not even mentioned it to Madam Zhaoyu. He had tolerated it so many times, so why did he change his attitude after returning from a business trip of half a year?

"Two different things." Nie Ce simply sat up properly and stared at her, "I'm away from home for a long time, if you want to be bullied like this every time--" He stopped abruptly in the middle of his words, as if he thought of something.

Sang Ling then raised his eyebrows curiously and signaled him to continue with his words with his eyes.

"Take a rest." He still didn't say anything.

As soon as he finished speaking, a light cough was heard outside the window. Without listening carefully, one could tell that it was Cheng Nu. Sang Ling immediately sat up straight and coughed twice in response to the cough. He then stood up and said to Nie Ce, "Well, let's take a rest."

After saying that, she walked over to the couch and for the first time today, she took the initiative to bring him the quilt.

The two of them had a tacit understanding. After Nie Ce took it, he spread it out on his own.

*

Cheng Mu knew very well whether the couple had consummated their marriage at night or not.

After the morning and evening visits the next day, Nie Ce went to the camp. On the way back, Cheng Ao was still talking about this matter, and her tone was full of disappointment.

"It's so rare for you to come back. You should take care of yourself first while there is no connecting room in the room. Otherwise, do you really have to wait for her to come in later?"

"A gentleman in the capital can be given a concubine at any banquet. Right now you and the Marquis have just got married and have no children yet, but what if two or three years pass and there is still no news?"

"Do you really think the Madam doesn't know?"

Sang Ling picked up this sentence from the pile of words she was mumbling. She stopped and looked back, "Did the Madam know? Was it Zong Xiang or Wei Chu?"

Cheng said angrily, "It's not like anyone told the secret."

In fact, Sang Ling has never been able to understand Madam Zhaoyu clearly.

Apart from apologizing to Cai, the mistress's attitude towards her was quite good at other times. She was even indulgent towards her daily outings and even had a few arguments with Shen about it.

Madam Zhaoyu was different from many mothers-in-law throughout history. She did not keep a tight grip on her son's bedroom affairs, and she also let Sang Ling do what he wanted.

But even so, the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law can definitely not be said to be very close.

At first, Sang Ling wanted to get close to her, but later found that she couldn't get close to her every time. Even if they occasionally went out to attend meetings together, they didn't talk much - when she was not socializing with outsiders, her mother-in-law was either checking the account books or resting her eyes, so she didn't want to disturb her.

Later, when the incident with Cai happened, she gradually became depressed.

Originally, she had always thought that Madam Zhaoyu might have this kind of style of doing things: not too close to anyone, nor too distant with anyone.

But it was not until Cheng Ao brought up the matter of "consummating the marriage".

Only then did she understand why Madam Zhaoyu had always been so distant towards her.