You Are My String Of Fate

2.5 || Virtuous To One's Husband

Just when Liu Qirong was feeling pleased to have stood up for herself, her stomach let out a growl again as she walked towards the estate's part where the concubines were living.

She touched the hair ornaments on her head, every bit of them now felt as heavy as the wedding headdress she had worn the day before. Although she was initially baffled this morning, she had now finally understood.

Hou Feihong had deliberately wanted her to be dressed as exquisite as possible. No wonder he affixed myriads of beautifully made hair jewelries, as well as asking the servants to robe her in a beautiful dress. A normal family breakfast should not have such requirement. More over, the three women of the Hou family did not bat an eye when they saw her dressed so elaborately. They must have been briefed by Hou Feihong.

Did he want to show her off to the Royal Princes? Was that all he wanted to do?

But why? Hou Feihong had been acting meek and subservient to the Dragon's sons, surely it was not as simple as wanting to flaunt his outstanding-looking new wife?

Liu Qirong touched her nose and sighed. As expected, her worth was probably just her body and face. She sighed in her absentmindedness, and finally glanced to behind her to call Zhuzi. She wanted to at least eat a little before dealing with Hou Feihong's concubines, but from what she had heard, the kitchen was strictly controlled by Madame Hou. Liu Qirong did not have any person she could trust yet in this estate, thus she could not ask someone to sneak some food out for herself. Perhaps Zhuzi still had some leftovers of those pastries from last night... .

Liu Qirong blinked when she saw Zhuzi was not following behind her. She frowned and felt vexed. Zhuzi was a naive young girl albeit with a kind heart, but how could she just leave her Mistress alone in this estate?

Only when she started to fret and decided to punish Zhuzi as soon as she found the latter, did Zhuzi trot in a small run towards her from heaven-knows-where. Zhuzi immediately presented what she was holding to Liu Qirong.

It was two small bundles of steaming rice cakes. Liu Qirong's initial anger was immediately defused when she saw them, her belly beckoning to be fed. Glancing around, she scanned her surroundings and pulled Zhuzi's hand along.

Hou Feihong's estate was dotted with a man-made garden, complete with fake mountains and ponds. As it was still considerably early in the morning, not a lot of servants were roaming this particular garden yet, only a few people around tending the trees and flowers.

The both of them hid behind a tall boulder and Liu Qirong immediately stuffed the rice cakes into her mouth, feeling bliss. She looked at Zhuzi with teary eyes, "Whmph? Howphm?"

Her bulging cheeks impeded her speech, but Zhuzi understood, "Miss... Mistress, a man gave this servant this food. He said his Master asked him to give me this. He said Mistress hardly ate during breakfast and may still be feeling hungry. Only then I remember Mistress has had hardly anything to eat since yesterday morning," Zhuzi's face was laden with guilt, "I am so sorry, Mistress. You may punish me for not being attentive and causing discomfort to you."

Zhuzi said further, "That man is the servant of that person at the dining table... ."

Liu Qirong thought of the stranger with his pair of eyes like the abyss, and frowned again. She had never met the person before.

"Don't tell me... he's interested in me?" Liu Qirong thought. It was not the first time her beauty caused friends to become foes and foes to kill each other, "Ahh... my beauty has always been a sin... ."

But at least the stranger was quite polite and did not try to cause direct trouble by directly trying to give her some food. To have used his servant and Zhuzi was still appropriate. More over, she was still grateful for his intervention during the earlier meal. As Liu Qirong was now a married woman and would be living inside the estate's confinement, she should not be meeting the man often either.