Chapter 129

Chapter 129 – Secret Ingredient

When Ye Zhen returned, she immediately took a bottle of her concocted medicine and added a drop of lingquan¹ to it. Then, she asked Dai Mei to take it to Lu Lingzhi.

“As soon as you see him.” Was her solid instruction.

She now wished for Lu Lingzhi’s fast recovery, so that he’d be able to leave the capital the soonest. With him around, she always felt his vigilant eyes watching her and thus, had to guard herself against him.

As instructed, Lu Lingzhi received the medicine sent by Ye Zhen through Dai Mei. Looking at it, he shook his head and smiled lightly. It looked no different from what he had used before, but he thought it must still be different for his third sister to specially recommend it.

The next day, to his surprise, Lu Lingzhi woke up and found that his injured leg was not only not painful anymore, but it looked much better than yesterday!

Yaoyao’s medicine actually has such miraculous effects!

*

It was a bright morning, a perfect time for farmers to harvest their crops—and Ye Zhen decided to do the same. She woke up early, intending to collect the silvers she won from the aggravating Princess Liu Hua.

When her plan reached the ears of Lu Xiangzhi and Lu Zan, the two quickly kept her from leaving the mansion. After a thorough discussion, they had agreed to fetch her silvers for her. Her showing up to the princess’ doorsteps might cause trouble, they said.

This arrangement was fine with Ye Zhen as she didn’t want to go out too much. She willingly handed the documents bearing the princess’ seal, with the Little Prince Mo Rongyi as the prime witness.

Without delay, the men went out with the documents.

Ye Zhen had finished her exams and was now left with nothing to do. Teacher Shan had moved away thus, she didn’t have to pretend to study hard anymore. At the moment, she was surrounded by medical books from which she picked up one and opened.

She had never studied medicine before, but when she became Lu Yaoyao, some knowledge of medical skills and knowledge on herbs came into her mind inexplicably, and right away, she perceived that these were her sister’s memories.

What Lu Yaoyao learned before had naturally appeared in Ye Zhen’s mind.

It was also because of Lu Yaoyao’s memory that she knew they were twin sisters. Lu Xiangzhi always thought that Lu Yaoyao knew her life story only by eavesdropping on hushed conversations between Lu Shiming and Pei Shi. But in fact, this was not the case.

Lu Yaoyao knew it as early as a year ago. It was Old Madam Ye, Ye Zhen’s grandmother, who sent her to the border town secretly to protect her. In one of her visits before she died, she told Lu Yaoyao the truth —that she was a daughter of the Ye Family and that she has a twin sister named Ye Zhen in the capital.

The moment Ye Zhen woke up in her twin sister’s body, only then did she know that Lu Yaoyao was her twin sister. Her family fell to complete ruin and now she could only avenge through her sister’s identity and knowledge.

“Third Miss.”

Ye Zhen quickly tore her gaze from the medical book and looked up at the door and found Dai Mei standing with her head bowed down. “Second and Fourth Miss are coming.”

With this, a finely painted brow instantly shot up. What are they doing here? 

Since she took four A’s from the academy yesterday, her sisters had assumed a different attitude towards her. More affectionate, one could say.

Ye Zhen felt no such thing as sisterhood towards them and naturally didn’t care about what they thought of her.

“Please invite them to the tea hall.” Ye Zhen ordered casually as she did not allow others to come to her study—especially these misses.

There were many things she did not want them to know. Ye Zhen didn’t like the two sisters very much, but she still had to brace herself to deal with them.

“Third Sister, have you received the Letter of Admission?”

Lu Fang had just sat down in the tea hall when she saw Ye Zhen coming in from the outside. She showed a smile so bright it could momentarily blind anyone in a heartbeat.

“Not yet.” She dutifully answered and finally sat opposite the two misses.

Right beside Lu Fang, Lu Jing bore a sour expression. She would not have come to Lu Yaoyao if her sister had not forced her.

It irked her more that Ye Zhen accepted them in the tea hall instead of in her study. She genuinely thought that their visit would flatter her.

“Third Sister, look at my face.” Lu Fang took Ye Zhen’s hand and raised her head to let her see her face clearly. “Look, I used the cream you gave us. Although my face turned white, somehow red bumps appeared today and I feel pain upon pressing it!”

With calm in her voice, Ye Zhen looked for a moment then nodded in understanding. “Is my second sister having her monthly visit soon and been eating spicy foods recently?”

Lu Fang looked at Ye Zhen in bewilderment. “How did you know?”

“It doesn’t matter. It will disappear in a few days,” Ye Zhen said.

She had read a book on medicine written by the notable empress who built the Academy for Women, Empress Duanhui, better known by her maiden name Qi Yanling. Her book contained treatments for several diseases that were previously considered incurable.

In her previous life, Ye Zhen had always admired this woman for what she knew about her. It was only now that she realized that her knowledge about this stalwart was just the tip of the iceberg. Having read her work now, she was able to glean what a sagacious personage Qi Yanling was. Her admiration for the empress deepened, she revered her.

Her father once said that Qi Yanling came from the same place as him. However, she was very young at that time and didn’t understand any of it.

In hindsight, she concluded that her father, like Empress Duanhui, was profound.

“Yaoyao! Do you have any medicine that can make these things disappear immediately?” Lu Fang didn’t feel relieved even after Ye Zhen’s assurance.

“Uhm… I have medicine but unfortunately, it can only relieve the pain and itchiness. And as you are having your monthly visit, I would not advise it.”

Ye Zhen knew what Lu Fang was talking about. Second Miss Lu believed that she had an immediate cure, which was true—but the lingquan, Ye Zhen had decided, not to use it on them anymore.

She just didn’t want to make people doubt the reason why she suddenly changed physically.

“Isn’t there something like those salves that… you smear on your face?” Cleverly, Lu Fang tried to trick Ye Zhen into admitting that she must have something that she applies to her face for her to have such remarkable change.

“I have not tried those salves, but you can ask Eldest Brother for it. There should be many of those inside the imperial palace. Perhaps he knows!”

“Second Sister.” Lu Jing called her sister in a venomous voice all of a sudden. “You are wasting your energy. Do you really think that Third Sister just wiped something on her face for her to become like this? There must be some secret ingredient that she put on her face and body that we don’t know of. Since it’s a secret, why would she tell us?” She finished bitterly.

Yesterday, Lu Yaoyao had been in the academy for only half a day, but she had already amazed the whole capital. Not only that, but she had also caught the eyes of aristocrats. Her dancing made the little prince marvel at her and—Lu Jing felt a stab of pain and envy—Marquis Tang was also there watching her.

Lu Jing remembered Tang Zhen’s gaze at that time—full of admiration which she had never seen in his eyes when he looked at her.

Why did this woman have to appear in our lives?! Lu Jing spat in her mind.

Originally, she thought she was the most talented person in the Lu Family. Even if she could not compare with her Wang Fei Sister, she was outstanding in the academy and had even performed better than Lu Fang, her older sister.

Now, here comes Lu Yaoyao who seemed to be taking everything away from her! How could she be content with this?

“Yaoyao, do you really have a secret ingredient?” Lu Fang looked at Ye Zhen with bright eyes.

“I don’t know whether it should be called a secret ingredient, but when I was in Zhuangzi, I always asked Dai Mei to help me get some water from the hot springs and milk to pour into my bath, which whitened my skin.”

In a pleasant surprise, Lu Fang almost jumped from her seat. “I have heard that the former Empress Xiao likes to wash her face with milk best. Maybe it is really effective!”

Eyes squinted and lips lifted, Ye Zhen said with delight, “There’s no harm in trying it.”