Setting aside how lively things were on Ji Heyuan's side, after Jiang Jiang left the hospital, she went straight back to the Ji family's old residence.
She had not yet gone to pay her respects to the Old Madam today, but it was truly not suitable to go at this moment. If she went, everyone would probably assume that she was going to complain to the Old Madam.
Even though anyone with eyes could see that she had indeed been wronged, people's hearts were biased. Even if Ji Xu'an did not say it aloud, she would certainly think in her heart that Jiang Jiang was a troublemaker.
What Jiang Jiang needed to do at this time was not to take the initiative to strike, but to wait patiently, because Butler Chen would definitely tell Ji Xu'an what had happened today.
When that time came, whether in order to placate the Old Madam or simply to maintain appearances, Ji Xu'an would very likely take the initiative to come and see her.
Jiang Jiang only needed to wait.
Since Ji Heyuan and Butler Chen were not present, aside from Jiang Jiang—half a mistress of the household—the old residence was left with only a few housemaids.
Jiang Jiang had not interacted much with them, but she remembered who was who.
She was especially sensitive to other people's gazes. When she stepped into the foyer, she clearly felt someone sizing her up. Following that line of sight, she saw the woman everyone addressed as Sister Zhou hurriedly retract her head.
Jiang Jiang knew that they sometimes discussed her behind her back, but as long as it did not come directly to her face, she pretended not to notice.
Ignoring Sister Zhou's gaze, she returned upstairs to her room.
After locking the door, Jiang Jiang took the White Jade Linglong Mirror out of her black backpack and eagerly began calling Xie Xiao, then recounted everything that had just happened in exact detail.
"You… you injured Ji Heyuan?!" After hearing the news, Xie Xiao was stunned for more than ten seconds.
She saw Jiang Jiang on the other side of the mirror, kneeling neatly on the carpet with her legs together, looking at her with an obedient expression, and could not shake the feeling that she had misheard.
Coming back to her senses, Xie Xiao could not help but frown. "Wait, how did you injure her? Did anyone else see? If Ji Xu'an finds out you hurt her younger sister, she definitely won't let it go."
She spoke rapidly, already thinking about how to deal with it.
Jiang Jiang sensed her concern and the smile on her face grew even gentler. The corners of her lips curved upward, her brows and eyes appearing especially soft and innocent, like the kind of well-behaved child who won a "Three Good Student" certificate every year.
"No need to worry. No one saw."
Jiang Jiang was very confident. She had even taken into account what Xie Xiao had mentioned about there being many cameras in the villa and had deliberately avoided the surveillance when she acted.
"The 'cameras' you mentioned, though sufficiently sophisticated, are ultimately dead objects. Compared to the hidden guards of the Duke's residence, they still fall somewhat short. At the very least, they only know how to monitor; they cannot intervene."
Moreover, Ji Heyuan was merely an ordinary person with no strength to truss a chicken. Although Jiang Jiang considered herself to have only grasped a superficial understanding of martial arts, it was more than sufficient for dealing with Ji Heyuan.
"Wait a second, let me process this."
For a moment, Xie Xiao did not know which matter to be shocked by first.
"There are even hidden guards in the Duke's residence?!"
Did that not mean she had been under others' surveillance all this time without realizing it??
Jiang Jiang nodded. "Yes, but they remain outside the courtyard. As long as you enter the bedchamber, they can neither see nor hear."
Only then did Xie Xiao reluctantly relax, before immediately turning her attention to the second matter. "Wait, aren't you supposed to be a refined noble lady? How do you know martial arts?"
The impact of this revelation on Xie Xiao was akin to someone in the era of cold weapons, when everyone was still fighting with sabers and spears, suddenly pulling out an M24 equipped with an eight-times scope.
No matter how hard she wracked her brain, Xie Xiao could not understand it. Jiang Jiang looked so slender and delicate; her wrist was a thin strip, each knuckle pale and supple, fragile enough to seem as though it could snap with the slightest squeeze. Yet that very hand had thrown a small peanut dozens of meters away?!
The amount of information Xie Xiao had received today was overwhelming. Especially when Jiang Jiang, wearing an innocent face that screamed naïve sweetness, had solemnly stated that she could use concealed weapons, Xie Xiao felt as though her cerebellum were about to atrophy.
"So you just look weak and frail, but in reality you could punch ten of me to death with one blow?!" Xie Xiao looked as though her worldview had collapsed.
Jiang Jiang pondered seriously for a moment. "I probably could not punch ten of you to death with one blow. I am not proficient in hand-to-hand techniques. Furthermore, I was indeed frail in childhood. Of the techniques my master imparted to me, I only learned a superficial layer."
At this point, Jiang Jiang even felt a little ashamed. Precisely because she was not skilled in close combat, she practiced such ambush techniques in order to protect herself.
After all, at that time she had never imagined that she would one day be betrothed to the Crown Prince. During the ten years she cultivated quietly in the mountains with her master, Jiang Jiang had not even known whether she would have the opportunity to return to the Duke's residence, so she had to make plans for herself.
Xie Xiao waved her hand. "I get it, I get it."
Top students always said they only knew a little, when in reality they could unleash a devastating move in seconds.
After the shock subsided, Xie Xiao suddenly grew excited. "Then do you know qinggong?" (Traditional Chinese martial arts practice focused on speed, balance, and extreme agility.)
"Not particularly skilled," Jiang Jiang replied honestly.
In Xie Xiao's mind, this automatically translated to "proficient." Her eyes widened; she rubbed her hands together in both anticipation and nervousness. "Damn, you really can?!"
"Can you fly over rooftops and scale walls, enter other people's houses without being discovered, as though walking into an empty place?"
Jiang Jiang looked at her, amused. "Xie Xiao, you overestimate me. I do not possess such ability."
She then picked up the White Jade Linglong Mirror, walked to the window, and drew the curtain aside, gesturing for Xie Xiao to look outside.
"I should be able to jump from here and land safely. Beyond that, I cannot."
Tilting her head, she asked, "Would you like to see?"
Xie Xiao looked at the ground at least a dozen meters below the windowsill and screamed Jiang Jiang's name repeatedly.
"Older sister Jiang! You're my real sister! Calm down! I believe you, I believe you, just don't jump!"
If Jiang Jiang leapt from there, tomorrow she would either make the social news or become the protagonist of the next episode of "Approaching Science."
Jiang Jiang had merely been teasing her. Even if Xie Xiao truly wanted to see, she would not perform qinggong in the Ji family's old residence. She must not forget that there were many "eyes" outside watching.
"Alright, alright, I won't jump. Xie Xiao, don't be afraid." Jiang Jiang stepped back from the window and returned to where she had been sitting.
Only after seeing her sit down did Xie Xiao finally let out a heavy sigh of relief.
How could she not be afraid? She had nearly been scared to death!
"This is way too thrilling!" Xie Xiao patted her chest.
After regaining her composure, she noticed Jiang Jiang secretly laughing on the other side of the mirror and immediately understood everything.
"Wow, I didn't expect you, with those thick brows and big eyes, to prank people too!"
She had been frightened into becoming younger!
"I was wrong," Jiang Jiang apologized swiftly.
Xie Xiao rolled her eyes. "And you won't change, right?"
After the playful exchange, Xie Xiao no longer felt as shocked and finally accepted Jiang Jiang's apparent setting as a martial arts master.
"Jiang Jiang, you're truly amazing." Xie Xiao lay sprawled over the desk, dejected. "Smarter than me, and you know martial arts. I feel like I'm useless."
Jiang Jiang alone could secure her footing within the vast Duke's residence, yet Xie Xiao, relying on the protection Jiang Jiang had left behind, still lived in constant anxiety.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Jiang immediately sensed something. "Has someone bullied you?"
When Xie Xiao did not answer, Jiang Jiang's expression cooled. "It should not be the elders of the household, otherwise you would not be so distressed. Is it my arrogant concubine-born younger sister, or some servant from another courtyard?"
Xie Xiao had not expected her to guess at once. While feeling both sour and wronged, she also felt ashamed. "Am I very useless?"
She told Jiang Jiang about some recent events and finally said softly, "Your sister insists on sending me two maids, but I truly do not like them. They seem as though they are here to monitor me. They interfere in everything."
In the end, it was because Xie Xiao's temperament was too soft. She could talk tough, but in reality she was easily bullied. If Jiang Jiang had still been present, the concubine-born sister would never have dared to do this.
"You are troubled over how to arrange those two maids?" Jiang Jiang's tone was gentle, devoid of the slightest reproach.
Xie Xiao bit her lip and nodded lightly.
Jiang Jiang offered advice. "This matter is not difficult. Go to Xie Wanwan and ask her to hand over the indentures of those two maids."
Xie Xiao froze. "Will she give them?"
"She will," Jiang Jiang replied with certainty.
"She sent them to you under the pretext of having them serve the legitimate elder sister. Naturally, she ought to hand over their indentures. If she refuses, then she is blatantly planting spies in the legitimate sister's courtyard. Simply use this point to question her. She will compromise."
Xie Xiao's eyes lit up. "I understand."
Although Xie Wanwan's intention was precisely that, it was something everyone tacitly understood. Jiang Jiang was teaching her to flip the table and bring everything into the open.
"Once I have their indentures, I won't be afraid they might harm me at any time."
Something in that statement did not sit right with Jiang Jiang. "You still intend to keep them?"
Xie Xiao looked at her blankly. "I—otherwise what?"
Jiang Jiang appeared incredulous. "Knowing they will not be loyal, why keep them before your eyes to cause annoyance?"
Xie Xiao asked humbly, "Then how should I deal with them?"
Jiang Jiang's tone was light and calm, as though discussing the most ordinary of matters. "If they have not yet taken action, there is no need to take their lives. Sell them off somewhere far away as soon as possible."
"Sell them?!" Xie Xiao was stunned.
At the end of the day, her mindset had not fully shifted. Although she had enjoyed for a time the privileges of a feudal noble household, she was fundamentally still a modern person with modern moral values.
Even knowing that buying and selling people was entirely normal in this era, Xie Xiao found it difficult to be as casual and free of psychological burden as Jiang Jiang had suggested, simply selling two living people.
Let alone killing them.
At that thought, Xie Xiao shuddered.
Seeing the confusion in Jiang Jiang's eyes and how natural her attitude was, Xie Xiao realized for the first time so clearly that Jiang Jiang was truly not the simple and harmless little white rabbit she had imagined.
Although Jiang Jiang had never personally killed anyone, human life did not weigh heavily in her heart—at the very least, not more than her own interests.
Xie Xiao could not voice any rebuttal. She knew this was not Jiang Jiang's fault, but rather a trait bestowed upon her by the era she inhabited.
In an age where imperial authority reigned supreme, ordinary lives were indeed like grass. For those at the bottom, merely surviving was already arduous. Had she not fortunately swapped identities with Jiang Jiang, the legitimate daughter of the Duke's residence, but instead transmigrated into the body of a commoner's daughter, she likely would not have endured.
In the end, Xie Xiao could only say, "I'll consider your suggestion. But Jiang Jiang, it's fine to say this to me, just don't let anyone else hear it, or the police officers will invite you in for tea."
Jiang Jiang understood that police were akin to constables.
Her brows furrowed slightly. "One cannot sell servants here?"
"In the new era there are no slaves. Do you remember what I told you? Buying and selling people is illegal. Everyone is equal." Only then did Xie Xiao realize she had mentioned that traffickers kidnapping children and women was illegal, but had not explained much beyond that.
"But the Ji family also has servants," Jiang Jiang raised another question.
Xie Xiao's lips twitched. She hoped Jiang Jiang had not addressed them that way to their faces.
"They are not servants. They are hired housekeepers and butlers. Essentially it is a voluntary employment relationship. Either party may terminate the contract at any time."
After spending considerable time explaining, Jiang Jiang finally understood that this world was indeed freer than she had imagined, and there was still much she needed to learn.
Soon, however, she had another question. "Then why does everyone treat Ji Xu'an with such respect, addressing her as President Ji or Eldest Miss?"
Xie Xiao shrugged. "No way around it. She's the boss—the provider of food and clothing."
Jiang Jiang understood. It seemed people were not entirely free after all.
As they were speaking, the phone Jiang Jiang had set aside suddenly rang. The screen displayed a string of unfamiliar numbers.
Xie Xiao covered her mouth. "Answer it. I won't speak."
Jiang Jiang hesitated between answering and ignoring it, but in the end she chose to pick up.
Holding the phone with both hands, she brought the screen close to her lips. "Hello, may I ask who this is?"
Her voice was sweet and pleasant, with a faint nasal tone at the end, subtly coquettish.
No one could easily feel aversion toward someone with such a voice.
This was Jiang Jiang's instinctive little trick to win others' favor.
There was silence on the other end for a few seconds, then a voice Jiang Jiang knew especially well sounded.
"You didn't save my number?"
It was Ji Xu'an.
—
Author's Note:
Xie Xiao: There are no slaves in the new era!
Ji · only wants to be her wife's loyal dog · Xu'an: Master, don't listen to her nonsense. This doggie wants kisses today too.
Jiang Jiang: (●—●)
—
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