Thirteenth Lady's Comback: Her Everyday Life as a Bystander-Chapter 50 - 2: Each Has Their Differences (Part 2)

The Snowfall Garden is just a few steps away from Rouyi Hall, yet Susu took quite a while, with many thoughts in her mind.

She knew she wasn’t really someone with high intelligence and emotional quotient. The reason Old Madam favored her was solely because of her heartfelt sincerity and cautious approach to things.

However, she wasn’t truly a child. Having grown up alongside several young misses, she maintained a decent relationship with them in private. On regular days, the young misses never looked down on Susu, and she would provide them with some conveniences. Susu never maliciously doubted anyone before.

Yet, due to an incident last August involving a letter from the Third Miss, Susu began to harbor concerns about the Fifth Miss. Now, after listening to Old Madam’s words, which clearly expressed dissatisfaction with the Fifth Miss, she began to reflect on the Fifth Miss’s usual conduct. Only then did she realize that she had been deceived by childhood appearances and had mistaken a wolf for a harmless lamb.

No wonder Old Madam once said she was naive and foolish. Only today did she understand that in this large household, sometimes the seemingly harmless ones could be the most poisonous.

So, upon reaching Rouyi Hall, Susu hesitated and didn’t enter the courtyard right away. Instead, the little maids standing under the veranda of the courtyard noticed Susu and ran over, giggling, "Sister Susu is here." Three or four of them rushed to lift the curtains.

Susu poured a handful of milk rose pine nut candies bestowed by the palace from her pouch and distributed them to the maids, smiling as she said, "Be careful while working." Only then did she enter the house.

When Susu entered the house, she saw four second-class maids and the maid Huan Sha sitting in the hall, keeping warm by the brazier and eating sunflower seeds. When they saw Susu, they all stood up, saying things like the little maids were slacking off, and that they should have announced the arrival of a distinguished guest. Susu simply smiled, unbothered.

Huan Sha pulled Susu down to sit, saying, "Did Old Madam have something to instruct? On such a cold day, you didn’t even put on a thick garment, come warm yourself by the fire first."

Susu sat down, as instructed, and then asked, "Why aren’t you serving inside? Is the Fifth Miss still asleep?" Huan Sha glanced at the inner room, curled her lips, and whispered, "Bisha is inside taking care of things."

This Bisha was originally the maid of the Fifth Miss’s biological mother, Aunt Gao, and came to the Fifth Miss’s side when she moved to the Yayun Pavilion.

Huan Sha continued, "The Miss has been troubled since she came back from your place today. She doesn’t respond when asked and gets annoyed if pressed further, so who dares to provoke her? Though Bisha followed, she couldn’t say anything meaningful either."

Hearing this, Susu inwardly sneered, thinking it was another act, making it seem like she was bullied.

Susu was baffled as to how she had failed to see that the Fifth Miss was a fake delicate lily. Outwardly, looking a bit confused, she said, "I truly don’t know about this. Earlier today, while dining with Old Madam, the young misses were still joyfully chatting. Sixth Miss even mentioned how content she was with the meal today, saying that outside they were only offered fatty chickens and ducks, which didn’t appeal to her!"

At this moment, the soft rose curtain in the inner room opened, revealing another maid, Bisha, who peeked out and said, "The Miss is up; prepare water to assist her dressing." She then seemed to notice Susu for the first time and smiled, "When did Susu arrive? The Miss just woke up. Come inside and have a seat."

Susu sat on the southern kang in the inner warm pavilion. Inside was the bedroom, where the Fifth Miss was being attended to by the maids as she washed and dressed. A little maid served Susu some tea. As she waited, Susu casually glanced around the Fifth Miss’s room.

Though she had been here numerous times, she’d never looked closely until now, when there was something on her mind. It was only upon closer inspection that she realized she didn’t know what to say.

Years ago, when the young misses moved here, the room decorations were personally overseen by Old Madam. Not only did they fetch many items from the Duke’s main storeroom, but Sister Amber was also instructed to carefully select some valuable and exquisite decorations from Sui’an Hall’s small storeroom to send to the young misses.

The furniture was all made of yellow rosewood; there were numerous ornaments, paintings, and famous kiln porcelain vases.

Later, when the young misses moved in, they further personalized their spaces based on their preferences.

Needless to say, the First and Second Misses had distinct tastes: the Third Miss liked flowers, and her room, inside and out, was filled with precious flowers. Just a single golden cup and jade platform given by Old Madam was worth thousands of silver taels; the Fourth Miss preferred spaciousness, so her room had no partitions; the Sixth Miss adored intricacy, even having footrests intricately carved with patterns.

Now, looking at the Fifth Miss’s room, there surprisingly wasn’t a single major change. Everything was as it was when added back then, the only changes being the replaced dingy bed rug, armrest pillow, and backrest. Even the rain-washed azure porcelain vase on the bedside table in the warm pavilion remained in its place.

And over these five years, Susu was well aware of how many good things Old Madam had given to the Fifth Miss. If it were someone else, having received such treasures, they couldn’t resist flaunting them slightly. But the Fifth Miss never let slip anything, not even a hint.

If one didn’t know better, simply observing the room’s finery and comparing it with the Sixth Miss, they could falsely believe that Old Madam didn’t neglect her.

As Susu was pondering, the Fifth Miss finally appeared, fully dressed and ready.

Raising her head, Susu saw the Miss wearing the same outfit as in the morning, a half-new-half-old moon-white jacket embroidered with intertwined plum blossoms, paired with a blue lotus skirt. Without the cloak and outerwear, she looked even more pitiable and thin, making Susu suddenly recall a conversation from two years ago between the Third Madam and Old Madam during idle chat: "With the same set of four seasonal outfits and accessories, she’s adept at wearing half-new-half-old clothes each time, along with outdated jewelry, as if I badly mistreated her. If you discuss it deeply, she always wears that about-to-cry look, which is thoroughly irksome."

At the time, the Third Madam was referring to the Third Master’s favorite concubine, Aunt Gao, the biological mother of the Fifth Miss. In hindsight, the Fifth Miss truly mirrored Aunt Gao’s essence. Even during New Year’s, when even the maid servants wore new festive gowns, one look at the Fifth Miss genuinely vexed people.

These thoughts passed through Susu’s mind in an instant. Having realized the situation, she still had to smile and say, "Old Madam asked me to tell the Miss that after the festival, classes and routine must resume. We can’t waste such precious time."

After finishing her words, she took out a bamboo tube, about the height of an inch, from her small side pouch. "This is the floral and fruit tea the Miss requested the other day. Given that the Miss has a weak stomach, some warm stomach medicinal tea was specially added. I’ll later share the recipe with Huan Sha, so there’ll be someone around to prepare it conveniently if the Miss needs it."

The Fifth Miss accepted the delicate little bamboo tube and gentely smiled, "Thank you for your thoughtful care, Sister Su." With the task completed, Susu stood to leave, saying, "I also have to visit the Sixth Miss, so I’ll take my leave, not to disturb the Miss."

The Fifth Miss had someone fetch a pouch for Susu, saying, "I don’t have anything good; just a little trinket Father sent over, take it, Sister, to play with." Unwilling to see her pitiful expression, Susu didn’t refuse and accepted the pouch, giving her thanks to the Fifth Miss before exiting Rouyi Hall with Huan Sha.

Inside Rouyi Hall, after Susu left, the Fifth Miss withdrew her smile, leaned against the pillow, her expression unreadable, and after a long while simply said, "Merely a maid!"

Though usually quiet, Bisha was more trusted by the Fifth Miss than Huan Sha, and upon hearing this, said, "She may be just a maid, yet she lacks the demeanor of one." Inside, she silently envied Susu’s attire and accessories, which included a Toroni jacket, a silver mink skirt, and red gemstone adornments comparable to a mistress, brimming her heart with jealousy.

Unbeknownst to the intentions of the mistress and maid inside Rouyi Hall, Susu, even if aware, would only chuckle and ignore them, relying instead on the Old Madam. If at first, she had any remnants of pity toward the Fifth Miss, due to the longstanding years of camaraderie from childhood, now there remained nothing but aversion.

Walking a bit further, opening the pouch in her hand, she found two dragon-playing-pearl rings, finely woven gold dragons with a skillful hand, inlaid with round, soy-sized cream-colored South Sea pearls. If Susu didn’t know their origin, it would be fine – but she happened to know the history behind these rings.

As fate would have it, just before the New Year, Susu was delivering something to the Third Madam and overheard a casual conversation between the Third Madam and her housekeeper.

These were precisely trinkets that the Third Madam had purchased privately for the missies to play with. The Fifth Miss, however, claimed them to have been brought in by the Third Master. Unaware individuals might genuinely think the Third Madam, being the legitimate mother, mistreated her husband’s daughter, leaving trivial trinkets to a grown man like the Third Master.

And earlier, the phrase "nothing good," was truly disheartening.

The Third Madam naturally treated her not as she did her own Sixth Miss, but the treatment appropriate for a husband’s daughter wasn’t at all lacking, unlike the rigor of the First Madam and Second Madam. Among the daughters out of wedlock, it was actually the Fourth Miss who had the toughest time before.

Not to mention the Third Madam, Old Madam’s gifts of jewelry, cloth, and furnishings over the ordinary and festive days, converted into silver, were enough to craft multiple large gold figures the size of the Fifth Miss.

Susu harbored no end of disdain, calming herself after a long while before heading off to visit Sixth Miss at Taoran Inn.