Chongfei Manual pt. 1

63.1

At first, Wei Chang Mi followed Wei Luo to the rear courtyard's octagonal pavilion. Later, he saw that Wei Luo was speaking to other people and ignoring him. Bored by himself, he ran away from the area.

Originally, he was only playing at the edge of the bamboo forest and Bai Lan was following a few steps behind him. However, he unknowingly walked farther and farther away from the octagonal pavilion and towards the lotus pond behind the bamboo forest. It wasn't the time to see the lotus flowers in the pond yet. There were only fishes swimming underneath the water. Wei Chang Mi stood at the side of the pond to look. He was so focused that he didn't notice someone else passing by the pond.

Li Xiang had just come here from the front courtyard. She had gone there to look for her older brother Li Song. She had looked everywhere once, but didn't find him. She didn't know where he went and could only give up and return to the rear courtyard by herself.

As she passed by the lotus pond, she saw a beautiful five or six year old child. She didn't know what he was jabbering to the pond. He seemed a bit familiar to her. She had seen him recently in the reception pavilion and knew that he was Wei Luo's younger brother. She couldn't resist frowning in disgust and loathing. She didn't have the slightest positive feeling towards any member of House Wei.

Just as she desired to walk past him, Li Xiang's thoughts changed and she suddenly stopped. She turned around and looked at Wei Chang Mi again. Seeing that the child was focused on watching the fishes and wasn't paying attention to her, she called out, "Wei Chang Mi?"

Wei Chang Mi looked in the direction of the sound. He didn't recognize her. He blinked his bright, dark eyes and curiously asked, "Older sister, do you know me?"

Li Xiang walked back to his side. She smiled and meaningfully said, "I've heard of you."

His only reaction was thoughtfully saying, "Oh." Then, he crouched down, gathered the purslane grass on the ground, and sprinkled it on the water to feed the fish. One after another, the fish swam over and boldly ate the grass that he had sprinkled. The splashes of the water from the swimming fish sprayed onto his face. He didn't care and only wiped his face with his sleeve. He continued immersing himself in pulling the grass to feed the fish.

Li Xiang wasn't able to get another response from him. Seeing that he wasn't interested in her, she couldn't resist asking him another question. This was a question that would attract his attention. "Why are you here by yourself? Where's your older sister?"

The tips of his shoes had been splashed wet by the fishes. He was wiping them with his little hands. He looked up and politely replied, "Ah Luo is over there talking. I'm here playing by myself and not bothering her." As he said this, he stretched his hand to point towards the octagonal pavilion.

Li Xiang raised her eyebrows. Soon after, she asked in astonishment, "I didn't mean your older sister Wei Luo. I meant Wei Zheng. Where's your older sister Wei Zheng?"

At the mention of Wei Zheng, Wei Chang Mi's young and tender face wrinkled. He pouted and said, "I don't like her... I don't play with her."

Wei Zheng's face turned ugly and fierce as soon as she saw him. She wished that she could stare a hole into his body. Although he was young, he could differentiate between who liked him and who disliked him. Wei Zheng was full of malice towards him. He was scared of her and would subconsciously avoid her. Although Wei Luo always said he was annoying, her annoyance towards him wasn't the same as Wei Zheng's.

Every time she went outside, she would bring back small pastries and snacks for him. Although she said it was for Qin-shi, the majority of the pastries all went into his stomach. He knew that Wei Luo didn't truly dislike him. Wei Luo was the only older sister that he liked.

Hearing these words, Li Xiang was stunned for a moment. Then she used her silk handkerchief to hide her laugher. Her laughter sounded crisp with a bit of ridicule. Not only did her laugher sound unpleasant, it was also a bit harsh and ear piercing.

Wei Chang Mi wrinkled his white bun face. He clutched his ear and asked, "Older sister, why are you laughing?"

After a while, Li Xiang finally laughed enough. She put down her handkerchief and said, "I'm laughing at you."

He looked confused, “Laughing at me?”

"Right, I'm laughing at you." Li Xiang curved up her lips and looked at him up and down again as if she was looking at novel goods. Wei Chang Mi didn't like the way that she was looking at him. It made his entire body feel uncomfortable. She finally saw enough and slowly said, "I'm laughing at you for your ignorance and pitifulness. You don't even know that you've been lied to. What did Wei Luo tell you? Did she tell you that you're Qin-shi's son? Did she use sweet words to deceive you? Let me tell you the truth. You're not Qin-shi's son. Your mother is fifth madam. Wei Zheng is your actual older sister!"

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It wasn't a secret that Qin-shi was fostering fifth branch's son. Any family that had relatively close dealings with Duke Ying's family knew this. After all, at the time, Qin-shi didn't have any signs of pregnancy. It would have been difficult to explain to outsiders how this new son appeared out of thin air, so only the truth could be told. Although they didn't say to outsiders that Du-shi had done something wrong that year, discerning people knew that if she hadn't committed a serious crime, why would someone else raise her son?

This was obvious in everyone’s mind, but no one mentioned it.

Although Li Xiang didn't know the entire story, she could guess most of the untold parts from the gossip that she had heard. She had deliberately said these words to Wei Chang Mi to try to drive a wedge between his relationship with Wei Luo.

Back at the reception pavilion, he had been so close with Wei Luo. When he had sweetly called out "Older sister Ah Luo", Wei Zheng's face had been very ugly. If he knew that Wei Zheng was his actual older sister and that House Wei had locked up his mother, what would his reaction be?

Who would have thought that Wei Chang Mi wouldn't have any reaction after hearing this? He calmly looked at her and said, "Oh, I already knew this."

Li Xiang's smiling expression froze. She looked at him incredulously, "You already knew?"

He nodded. He didn't want to continue talking about this topic and went back to crouching down at the lotus pond and feeding the fishes, "But mother has said, older sister Ah Luo is also my older sister..."