His Peasant Wife : Yao Ling

"This old woman used to follow and serve the Shu woman --- Han Xiang’s mother if I wasn’t mistaken!" Han Yi said excitedly. She finally remembered where she had seen the old woman. If it wasn’t because of the big mole on her chin with a few strands of hair that grew on it, she probably wouldn’t recognize the old woman. After all, her appearance was quite different from the past despite the familiarity that she felt when she saw the old woman.

"Following the Shu woman?" Yao Ling asked in confusion. "Does it mean that this old woman is actually a Shu woman? Not a Han woman?" Yao Ling had never thought of this possibility before.

Han Yi nodded, feeling full of confidence. "Yes! I clearly remember her now."

Yao Ling was still feeling a bit doubtful. Was that the reason why she stayed at Wen Feng after retiring? To go back to her own homeland? If yes, then everything would make sense. "Han Yi... can you tell me more about this maidservant and Han Xiang’s mother? Anything that you know about them is fine."

Yao Ling thought back to what she had known about Lin Jian’s mother. Lin Jian’s mother was kidnapped and the maidservants were still looking for her when she was missing --- some were also killed at those time. So where did this old maidservant come from? She was sure that the Shu Emperor wouldn’t be kind enough to send one of her maidservants along with Lin Jian’s mother after he was hellbent on getting his revenge.

Han Yi quickly told Yao Ling everything that she knew. The Shu woman suddenly appeared when the current Emperor was still only a prince. She was brought back from the Shu Kingdom after the prince went there as a representative. So far, it went in line with what she had heard from Lin Jian.

The Shu woman was conferred the title of Ce Fei[1] by the prince. It made a lot of people feel surprised and at the same time, curious about this new Ce Fei. The prince doted on the Shu woman and somehow it became a popular story back then --- the prince had found his one true love. However, the closest people to then knew that the Shu woman didn’t really love the prince. She only gave him the cold shoulder and never reciprocated the prince’s feelings toward her.

To gain her favor, the prince specifically found a few Shu women to serve her and it was done to ease her sense of loss --- the Shu woman seemed to be missing someone or her hometown all the time. Everyone who saw her would be able to see her sadness, even though she masked her feelings quite well.

"Ah... so this old woman was given by the current Emperor?" Yao Ling asked despite knowing the answer. She shuddered when she thought about that true love story --- after all, the current Emperor actually forced a married woman to become his Ce Fei. What kind of true love was that?!

"Yes..." Han Yi said.

"Why do you know a lot about her?" Yao Ling asked curiously. "If I am not mistaken, you are either too young or hasn’t been born around that time."

Han Yi scratched the back of her head and laughed. "My mother served under Young Miss’ mother and she heard a lot of stories about them. After all, their story was quite popular back then. My mother told me about their story after knowing that Young Miss has a good relationship with the princess."

Yao Ling nodded in understanding. It was a common occurrence for the servants’ descendants to serve their master’s descendant too, so Yao Ling didn’t have any reason to feel suspicious at all.

"So... do you think this old woman will know everything about Han Xiang?" Yao Ling asked carefully.

Han Yi’s eyes lit up, finally understanding why Yao Ling wanted to know a lot about this old woman. They wanted to find out more about Han Xiang and it meant that they sort of trusted her gut feeling. She really appreciated this gesture.

Han Yi nodded. "I believe she will!"

"How so?"

"She’s loyal to the Ce Fei, apparently she had some kind of relationship with her back at the Shu Kingdom. However, no one knows what kind of relationship that they had," Han Yi said. "Until the end, it’s only this old woman who stayed by the Ce Fei’s side --- even when the Ce Fei gave birth to Han Xiang."

Yao Ling’s eyes lit up. Then... there was probably a clue about Lin Jian’s mother. Maybe... maybe... this old woman knew her whereabouts! It seemed like this old woman was quite loyal to the Ce Fei --- of course, assuming that Han Yi’s information was correct.

"Do you know anything else?" Yao Ling asked once again.

"This old woman was there when the Ce Fei ran away and she was the one was punished by the prince for her inability to guard and serve the Ce Fei. The prince felt suspicious of this old woman and deemed her as the one who had helped the Ce Fei ran away. She was demoted from her first rank maidservant status but she still served around Han Xiang --- thus, I have seen her once or twice before. However, she did the lowest jobs of maidservants there. She didn’t really have a good day back then..." Han Yi pitied the old woman’s fate.

Yao Ling felt puzzled. If the old woman was heavily punished, how could she be allowed to retire? Hence, she asked Han Yi a question, "Have you ever heard that she is retired?"

Han Yi shook her head, "Sorry, Yao Ling Gu Niang. This servant didn’t really pay attention to this old woman before. If Gu Niang didn’t ask this servant about this old woman just now, this servant probably wouldn’t remember about her..."

Yao Ling nodded in understanding. After getting all the pieces of information that she needed, Yao Ling dismissed Han Yi and let her go back to Xiao Fang’s side. Yao Ling warned her, "For now, please don’t tell Xiao Fang anything... After all, we still don’t know whether we will be able to get the information that we need from the old woman. I don’t want Xiao Fang to get her hopes up and disappointed if I fail."

Han Yi nodded in understanding. She knew her young miss best --- if Xiao Fang found out about this, she would probably become rash and it would affect her mission. For now, she only needs to take care of Han Xiang --- other things could wait. Besides, Han Yi trusted Yao Ling Gu Niang and knew that the latter wouldn’t make them disappointed. She just wished that the old woman would be able to give them useful pieces of information.

Yao Ling looked at the old woman, contemplating. She should probably separate the old woman from her family before questioning her. She had lived long enough to see everything that had happened in the past and Yao Ling knew that it wouldn’t easy to make the old woman talk. Yao Ling was thinking whether to let Lin Jian do the questioning. The old woman would probably feel closer to Lin Jian --- after all, the latter used to have a mother-son relationship with the Ce Fei. Maybe... she would tell everything to Lin Jian.

However, she scratched that thought away. Lin Jian would probably become too emotional and it wouldn’t do any good to them. Yao Ling shook her head because this matter was getting too complicated. Even though everything seemed like happened to their advantage, they didn’t find out anything about the Ce Fei. To them, it was more important to help Lin Jian finding out his mother before doing Mi Hui’s mission. They didn’t want Lin Jian to keep living in guilt because of his past.

Yao Ling walked toward the house, preparing to question the old woman.

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[1]. Ce Fei: a "side" fei. The woman could be interpreted to be a secondary or vice "wife" of a wang.