The Double-Chapter 492 - 153 Xiao Hong

The little maid went and returned, but she brought back news that there was no one else beside the zither.

Everyone was in an uproar, "Moon Closing" had finished playing, but the musician had vanished without a trace, and no one knew who it was. This seemed like a very poetic riddle. Someone said, "Maybe it’s some master who doesn’t like to reveal their true face, as often depicted in plays. Such masters have their own habits."

"How elegant, how elegant!"

People were saying this, but the sweat in Xiao Deyin’s palms was even more abundant.

The person had vanished? How could that be? The Top Scholar’s Mansion was such a small place, where could they hide? If they never intended to meet, why play the zither at all? Xiao Deyin had a faint feeling that the zither music was played specifically for her to hear; aside from her, no one else could recognize the familiarity of the tune. Of course, aside from her, no one else had heard Xue Fangfei play "Moon Closing."

Could it be Xue Fangfei’s ghost, coming to warn her? Xiao Deyin felt somewhat dizzy. In fact, ever since Xue Fangfei’s incident, she never once set foot in the Shen family’s home, and today was the first time. So much time had passed that Xiao Deyin thought she had long forgotten about it, that everything could be treated as if it never happened.

But she hadn’t expected that nothing had passed and that it was tormenting her even more relentlessly.

Her face was extremely pale, and the young lady beside her noticed, asking, "Mr. Xiao, what’s wrong? Why are you sweating so much?"

"It’s nothing," Xiao Deyin managed to wave her hand, "just feeling a bit dizzy."

"Could it be you caught a chill from the breeze?" A kind-hearted madam hurriedly pulled her inside to sit, "Don’t stay outside, lest you catch a cold."

In front of the warm fireplace, surrounded by the bustling voices, the mysteriously appearing and disappearing zither music was quickly forgotten by the crowd, treated as a minor incident.

For Xiao Deyin, however, it was anything but a minor incident.

...

Jiang Li had already left the room.

The Shen family had moved into the mansion with boundless joy when the emperor had just granted it to them. She felt the same; the happiness back then was so pure. Sometimes she would walk around every corner of the mansion, feeling full of pride at every inch, thinking how capable her husband was, and how glorious that made her.

Now, looking back, it all seemed like a joke. But her understanding of the mansion had never changed. She knew every path and where the servants were not present.

Liu Xu had not yet returned, so Jiang Li went to the edge of the garden to wait for her. The Shen family’s garden was not as lively as the Duke Residence’s. It seemed that ever since Xue Fangfei’s death, the residents of the mansion lost interest in tending to the plants and flowers. For Mother Shen and Shen Ruyun, tending to plants and flowers was less appealing than looking at jewelry, and Shen Yurong was even less likely to have free time for such things. Hence, in winter, the garden was desolate and extremely quiet.

At that moment, someone suddenly called out, "Fangfei!"

Jiang Li was startled. The voice was unfamiliar yet familiar and very close to her. She was certain it was calling her, and Jiang Li quickly turned around, only to see no one there.

The garden was empty, without a single servant. How could there be someone calling her name?

Jiang Li steadied herself. Although her becoming Miss Jiang the Second was bizarre enough, she herself did not believe in ghosts and spirits. Therefore, she did not think this was the result of supernatural forces but rather someone trying to test her. Just as she was steadying herself, the voice called out again: "Fangfei, Fangfei!" This time, it was clearer, with the sound of fluttering mixed in. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

She heard it clearly; the sound came from beneath the eaves next to a pillar. Jiang Li paused for a moment, without a thought, she headed in that direction.

As she drew closer, she saw a copper birdcage with a completely black myna inside, cocking its head to look at her. Suddenly, its eyes blinked, and it shouted, "Fangfei, Fangfei!"

"You!" Jiang Li was almost at a loss for words.

During her first winter in Yanjing City, one morning she woke up to find a frozen myna on her windowsill. It looked as though it belonged to someone who had not secured the cage properly, and it had escaped. The winters in Yanjing were cold, and by the time it flew here, it was frozen stiff.

She then had someone pick up the myna, placed it in a box lined with a handkerchief, and set the box near the stove. When it warmed up, the myna miraculously came back to life. Later, when Shen Yurong returned, he found a copper birdcage and decided to keep the myna.