Following, with beauty like goddesses in heaven, the four young girls in delightful dresses were coming out, and as the chants resounded, they began to sway their bodies...
Even the mayor narrowed his eyes. "They are..."
"Respond to Master Wu; they are my daughters," Yang Fu said.
"Oh!"
"This is their first performance. If there are any mistakes, please forgive them."
"I think they are excellent."
Just this was enough to make Yang's lips extend like the Yellow River's. He hurriedly made his head lower. "Thank you so much," and took that moment as a chance to peek at the child of the high man. At that time, the young fellow was watching the performance. Though he didn't say a word or show a smile, as Yang saw his eyes, he believed one of his girls was attracting him.
'I don't care if it will be my eldest or youngest daughter as long as she can get married to Wu's son.'
It was what he thought, alone, as for his women, they imagined differently. Each Yang madame, in their individual mind, desired her own daughter to be the consort of Wu's heir; however, Lady Ju and Lady Xu did not dare cut in because they were just the second wife and the third wife.
The first wife of Yang was Lady Fan. Since she was standing next to Madame Wu, she hurriedly took the chance to introduce her girl.
"Madame Wu, she is my daughter." She pointed to a girl that was whirling before the other three girls. "She is the eldest. This year, she is nineteen years old."
"Um." Lady Chen nodded with a smile. "She is pretty and her movement is very good."
"She worked very hard for this performance. Even Teacher Bai Yuyan admires her as the greatest among students that she ever taught."
"Bai Yuyan? Dancing teacher for the royal family?"
"Yes, it's her."
"No doubt that this performance is great like this."
The same as her husband, as hearing the words from the high woman, first Yang Madame's face bloomed bigger than a crow's seeing food.
It seemed to be a long time that the guests had been standing. Afraid that the high minister's legs would not be well, Yang Fu hurriedly invited him and family: "Master Wu, Madame Wu, please be seated in the honorable seats."
In return, Wu Guang waved his head before he stepped, following Yang's lead; afterwards, Lady Chen and Wu Longwei moved, escorted behind by guests and assistants and guards. Only Lantian was not bothered and did not even follow her family to special seats. Instead, she went to stand far away where there were no people—with her private maid, Xiaolan.
"Young ladies of Yang dance very well," Xiaolan said.
In the throat of the minister's daughter, she expressed, "Huh," and her eyes moved away. Towards Yang's presentation that was applauded by all people, she found it tasteless.
'All events have the same shows.' She thought.
Because it was really boring, the high young lady thought of a work to do, and as she looked around, at once she thought of exploring the garden of the new millionaire of Lin'an. But before making a move, she eyed to check on her mother's situation. Until she saw that she was utmost cared for by wives of the rich, she felt confident to leave feet towards the wooden bridge before her.
"Miss, where are you going?" Xiaolan asked. Nonetheless, her mistress did not respond; she crossed the bridge, and she didn't have a choice but hurriedly ran after her.
**
*
The garden of the millionaire was really the garden of the millionaire. It was not only huge but also elegantly designed and decorated. In the space, Lantian perceived high trees, small trees, bushes, water, flowers, and stones; it looked like Yang collected everything to store inside his house.
'This family's wealth is not small.' She thought.
Since this yard was interesting, the high young female continued walking, and she went through along a small path between big and tall rocks.
Behind her, the young maid walked closely to her with eyes not resting. The way was very quiet. It seemed to have only two of them walking on, and this made her feel disturbed. In contrast, when she glanced at her lady, she was not having any fright, not even a bit. Her moves were active and brave until she saw a small stream. Even though her feet didn't stop. She just wagged her head and vocaled "Um" inside her throat, and then she moved near to the water flow and took a pause.
"This place is shady," she said as she looked at the surroundings. Then as she looked up and saw big trees around, she claimed, "Very good."
On another side of the stream, there was a large rocky hill designed with a cave. Quietly and focusingly, the daughter of Wu Guang inspected that hard chamber without taking her eyes off it.
At the moment, her maid came to stand next to her, asking, "Miss, what are you looking at?"
"In that cavern," Lantian held the head of the fan and pointed the top of its leaves to the pothole that was before her. "It seems to have people inside."
However, though she tried to watch following her lady's pointing, Xiaolan did not find anything besides a big dark spot.
Immediately, Lantian stated, "Ignore it." Then she moved out.
Still, the journey was carried on and on. Further and further.
This time, stronger than before, Xioalan felt the coldness was capturing her spine, and as she could not hide her fear anymore, she hurriedly called, "Miss, we have walked so far. We should go back."
"Are you afraid?" Lantian asked.
"Yes." Xiaolan nodded before hugging herself and running her hands over her arms and eyeing around unruly. "This place is quiet."
"Fine," Lantian giggled, "let's go back." Then she turned her body around in preparation to return when, at all of a sudden, her eyes caught something on the ground by the rock.
"What's that?"
She went to pick the thing up and scanned it. That was hanging with a white jade pendant of a mandarin duck.
"This should be a property of a woman," Lantian said.
"Miss, how do you know?"
Lantian gave the pendant and described it while Xiaolan was looking at the object: "The mandarin duck of this hanging is female; moreover, its model is for women; hence, this should be a lady's thing."
"It should not belong to Yang's young lady."
"Why do you think like this?"
"I know little since I stayed with you for many years. This jade is not good at all. The Yang family is rich, so they would not give poor jade to their daughter."
Lantian nodded her head. "You're right. It was not the good one, and its price was not high, but it was not the lowest either. I think it should be a belonging of someone from a wealthy family—because although the jade was not expensive, it was made by a good jeweler; if they were not rich, they could not have the cash to pay to engrave such jewelry."
At that moment, a soft tone appeared behind, "Excuse me, this is mine."