Chapter XVII - Chaos (V)

　　Peony quickly walked forward for some distance, originally wanted to hide back in her own courtyard, but thought left and right and changed her path to the banquet place. Li Nympho and the others had already seen the ugly behavior of Liu Chang and Princess Qing Hua, these two people didn't dare to attack them, they were only afraid that they would come to seek their own bad luck. If you want to make a fuss, make a fuss, what are you afraid of! 　　At this time, there were people who continued to compose poems and lyrics, and there were also people who were crookedly drinking and laughing on the seats, viewing the music and dances played by the musical artists, and there were also people who were playing chess in the midst of the commotion, and there were people who were playing simaroubouba and betting on money, and regardless of men and women, all of them were enjoying themselves and indulged in their own pleasures. 　　As soon as Peony showed her head, she saw a young maidservant wearing green shoes and lake-green half-arms with a dignified demeanor coming over to her to salute her, but it was Mrs. Bai who arranged for her to come and look for her. 　　Peony followed the maid to the grass pavilion behind the lilac bushes, only to see Mrs. Bai and a young girl with a barbarian bun, gold sparrow hairpin, eight-paneled begonia red skirt, golden tulle cloak, goose-egg face, long eyebrows, handsome eyes, agar-rose nose, sandalwood mouth, arrogant look sitting in the pavilion, talking softly. 　　When Mrs. Bai saw Peony enter, she smiled and got up, "Just now when I turned around, I lost you, I thought you left without saying goodbye." 　　Peony pushed, "There was something that I had to deal with just now, I didn't dare to disturb Madam's pleasure, so I didn't inform you, it was my concubine who was rude." 　　Mrs. Bai pulled Peony to sit beside her and laughed, "Just kidding with you, you are the master of the house, there are a lot of trivial matters, how can you compare to us who only care about eating, drinking and having fun?" 　　After the two of them laughed, Mrs. Bai introduced the woman to Peony, "This is Wu's 17th wife from Qinghe, her nickname is Shilian, we usually call her Ah Lian." 　　Wu Shilian only raised her body slightly and smiled faintly at Peony, not saying much. 　　Seeing that Mrs. Bai had not introduced herself to Wu Shilian, Peony knew that she knew who she was, and was not concerned about her unimpressed attitude. This Qinghe Wu Clan is one of the famous families in this country, and even the royal family likes to marry them, so over time, they have all developed an attitude of not having anyone in their sight. Even if it was the Qing Hua county princess in their eyes, it didn't seem to be as noble. 　　Mrs. Bai laughed: "May Dragon Boat Festival, and is the Empress birthday, since the Xingqing Palace Qinzheng building to the Jin Guang Men to the east of the Chunming Gate, to the west of the Jin Guang Men for the theater, there are a hundred places to dedicate their performances, you guys can go then?" 　　Wu Shilian laughed: "My father even said the other day that he would go to build a watchtower, so I think I must go." 　　Peony didn't even know if the Liu family was going to build a scaffolding, let alone whether she would be able to go out at that time, so she said, "I don't know." 　　Mrs. Bai said, "No matter, if you want to go, I will send a car to pick you up then." 　　Wu Shilian swept a glance at Peony and said, "To put it politely, it's hard for you to live like this! If it were me, I would have already left my husband." 　　Peony smiled faintly, "If I were Ah Lian, how would I be treated like this?" 　　Wu Shilian stalled and said acerbically, "Even if I were you, I wouldn't live such a suffocating life, living like this, I might as well die!" 　　Mrs. Bai unhappily said, "Ah Lian, I once told you that people have different encounters, different personalities, and different ways of dealing with problems. Is your sister doing well? Am I doing well again?" 　　Wu shilian whisked her sleeve and got up: "Ah Xin, you are my sister's good friend, she suffered misfortune, not only do you not sympathize with her, instead you take out her pain as a talking point, it's really chilling to people's teeth!" 　　Mrs. Bai said, "I kindly introduced my friend to you, but you embarrassed her in public, aren't you also embarrassing me? I originally thought that you are different from others, is a insightful, and have me and your sister's things in the front, you will not be as shallow and boring as others. But I was wrong about you!" 　　"I am shallow and boring?" Wu Shilian was so angry that her nostrils flared and her eyes reddened, "Ah Xin, you've only just met her and you're bullying me for her?" 　　Mrs. Bai said, "I'm not bullying anyone, nor am I protecting anyone, I'm just talking about things! Many of these things, you'll know after you marry." 　　Wu Shilian pouted, "I'm not going to marry this kind of person!" 　　Peony got up and bowed towards the two of them, "For me to cause you two to be angry, it is really my fault. I still have things to do over there, so I will leave first." As the saying goes, words are not enough, so why should Mrs. Bai offend her friends for her own sake? 　　Mrs. Bai wanted to stay with Peony, but seeing Peony's pale expression, no sadness or joy in her eyes, and a sense of calmness and naturalness, she thought that if she were to force her to stay, and if she caused any unpleasantness, she would be adding to Peony's problems, so she got up and sent Peony to the entrance of the pavilion, and gently shook her hand, saying in a low voice, "I will see you again some other time." 　　Peony nodded her head, and only a few steps away, she saw Pan Rong and Li Nympho hurrying to the pavilion, so she jumped and hurriedly dodged out of the way. 　　Pan Rong said loudly: ''Sister, you do not run, listen to me say a few words, this is nothing ......'' His voice was extremely loud, attracting the crowd to look sideways. 　　Peony saw the situation, more and more hide far away. 　　Li Nympho sunk her face and pulled Pan Rong: "Are you here to help, or to add to the problem? You're doing this on purpose, aren't you? If you mess up again what we said earlier will be null and void." 　　Pan Rong blinked, "You don't want to deny it! It was nothing in the first place. If she doesn't adapt to it as soon as possible, won't she suffer for nothing?" Having said that, he still probed his hand and called out Lady Bai. 　　Mrs. Bai heard him finish in a few words and wondered, "I didn't see how upset she was just now." 　　Pan Rong said: "Bad, bad! Not only did she come back here, but she can still talk and laugh at you, so she must have a death wish! You hurry up and tell her not to think about it!" 　　Before the words left her mouth, Li Nympho gave a "bah" sound, and Mrs. Bai swept him a faint glance, and without talking to him or greeting Wu Shilian in the pavilion, she went to look for Peony. 　　Peony dodged Pan Rong and the others, and came across Yu'er playing simulacra with a young woman. Yu'er had already lost a lot, so she strongly invited Peony to sit down and play together. Peony laughs, "I don't know how to play." 　　Yu'er laughed, "It's very simple, the young lady will know how to play once." She then taught Peony: "Throw five all-black pieces for Lu, color 16 ......" Before she finished, she suddenly heard someone saying: "Two pheasants and three black pieces for Pheasant, color 14; two calves and three white pieces for Calf, color 10; five all-white pieces for White, color 8; these four types of colors are known as precious colors. Four kinds of color is called noble color." 　　The one who answered was Liu Chang. 　　Yu'er was so scared that she hurriedly got up and bowed, Liu Chang naturally sat next to Peony, Peony smelled the smoky Chinese fragrance coming from him, and when she thought of his situation, she wanted to vomit. It was not that she had any more emotions towards him, but the thought of sitting so close to a public toilet was really a disgusting thing. 　　Seeing that Peony was silent, only looking down at the chessboard in front of her, Liu Chang condescended to say, "I'll teach you to play." The tone was affirmative rather than probing. 　　So bizarre. Peony raised her eyes and glanced at him suspiciously, what was the scummy man going to do? Tell her to keep quiet? Not to cry? Did she look like she was going to make a sound and cry half the time? He might as well seek out his foxy friend Pan Rong to talk about it. Why doesn't he go after her? Where's Princess Qing Hua? 　　When Mrs. Bai walked over, she saw Liu Chang and Peony sitting face to face in front of the simarouba chess board, Liu Chang had a sullen face, throwing the five vectors over and over, while Peony was like a piece of wood, standing straight up and not moving, her face without any sadness or joy, she didn't know what she was thinking about. After thinking about it, Mrs. Bai went up to greet Liu Chang and looked at Peony: "Sister, I have something to look for you." 　　Peony let out an "oh" and got up, saying, "Yu'er, you can play with the Prince." 　　Yu'er realized that the situation was not right, and she did not dare to say yes or no, but only smiled dryly and agreed, waiting by Liu Chang's side, not daring to say much. Liu Chang saw Peony and Mrs. Bai moving farther and farther away from each other, threw the vector in his hand, got up and joined a group of men who were betting feverishly, and in a short while, he was betting with a smile on his face and calling out loudly to Lu. 　　Mrs. Bai pulled Peony to a secluded place, dismissed her left and right, and looked at her seriously, "What do you think?" 　　Peony knew in her heart that she already knew what happened just now, and smiled faintly, "There is nothing to think about." 　　Mrs. Bai said sternly, "Is there nothing you can do, so you simply don't think about it? Or are you already desperate, so you think of everything? I'm telling you, this is nothing!" She grabbed Peony's wrist and scratched it to the point of raw pain, "It's not worth it to seek death for this kind of person! The more they do this to you, the more you have to live well!" 　　So it was because she was afraid that she would seek death, Peony laughed, "I won't seek death. The reason there's nothing to think about is just because it doesn't matter. It's like, I'm comfortably basking in the sun at the moment, and someone says to me that it's raining somewhere else, so what does that have to do with me?" 　　Mrs. Bai was silent for a moment and seemed to believe her, so she said, "That's best. You'd better be careful, beware that if she fails in one plan and then has another, face is a small matter, but life is a big one." 　　Peony was aghast, and was busy saluting and thanking her. 　　Suddenly, there was a noise in the distance, and the crowd surged towards a certain place like a tidal wave. Mrs. Bai waved her hand and called the maid in green shoes over, "Go and see what's going on." 　　A short while later, the maid returned, glanced at Peony, and said, "It's Mr. Liu Fengshi and Mr. Li who argued over a trivial matter and started a fight." 　　Lady Bai and Peony knew in their hearts that it was bound to be about what happened just now, paper can't hold fire, it wouldn't be long before this scandal would spread all over the capital through the people here. Mrs. Bai frowned: "You're not helping anyone, why don't you go back first."