Eleven

Sooner or later, his face would be the only one she saw everyday. She felt all her sanity come back to her.

She was still lost in thought, when she came upon Cang Mang's zoomed in face.

She stepped back, her smile turned into disgust, "what are you standing so close for?"

He expressed some seriousness as he looked into her eyes and said, "don't think that you can turn back now! It's too late for that."

"What do you mean?" Dong Mei was completely lost

"You'll find out," Cang Mang went back to his playful personality. He stepped away from her, "now, you may leave."

"The way you brought me here is the way you should take me back," she said.

"I'm not carrying you back. Do you know how heavy you are?" he said.

"CANG MANG!"

The following morning, Dong Mei promptly picked up a basket and went to the Bai residence.

The morning before, she had gone too early and found that the people hadn't woken up yet. So, she made sure to go a bit later. She was sure that Bai Yang Wei, being as industrious as he could be, wouldn't spend the entire day indoors. As long as she timed perfectly, she would be able to catch a glimpse of him. Like that, the smile she had on was very bright.

Just when she walked through the entrance of the Bai residence, with that very happy smile, a broom came hurtling towards her. She didn't have time to dodge it so it gave her a hard hit to the stomach.

Before she could even look up to complain, a shrewd voice called, "you actually dared to come back!"

Dong Mei froze. She had completely forgotten about Lu Feng. Suddenly, her arm recalled to hurt. Lu Feng had hit it with a bucket of rubbish the morning before but it only hurt when they faced each other again.

Dong Mei's first instinct was not to swallow any grievances. She was ready to pick up that broom and hurl it back at Lu Feng. She didn't care about what sense of righteousness Lu Feng might have had in attacking her, she would beat her up if she wanted to.

The only problem was where the fight was happening. The fact that she was in the Bai residence couldn't escape her mind.

She immediately looked around for any sign of Bai Yang Wei.

"What's all this commotion about?" An elderly woman walked into the conversation.

Dong Mei immediately recognized who it was.

Unlike her small Dong family, the bai family was quite large. The elderly lady in front of her was madam Bai, the grandmother of the entire Bai family. Her husband had long left her behind and she refused to join him in death. Instead, she took charge of the entire Bai family and maintained it for years.

She gave birth to only two sons hence the Bai family only had two branches. Bai Yang Wei's mother was the wife to the first son and gave birth to only Bai Yang Wei before her husband died. She struggled to raise Bai Yang Wei in a home were the second branch of the family was always trying to steal resources from her.

Luckily, Bai Yang Wei was a talented boy from childhood which was able to put him in the eyes of elderly madam Bai. Since then, except a few disagreements left and right, Bai Yang Wei was able to grow up safely.

That was only a fraction of Bai Yang Wei's history. Dong Mei knew everything that had to do with the current, past or future Bai family that affected Bai Yang Wei in anyway. If she became part of his family, she would know exactly what to say and do in order to achieve the best possible results for Bai Yang Wei.

In fact, with her, the Bai family would easily settle Bai Yang Wei in the capital to wait for the imperial examination.

The only thing that was stopping all that progress was Bai Yang Wei himself. In Dong Mei's words, "he didn't know how to pick a good wife for himself."

Seeing elderly madam Bai, Dong Mei immediately put on a face of enduring grievances to show respects to the elders.

"This one greets the elder," she said respectfully.

"Dong Mei, you're back again," elderly madam Bai said, "Xiao Feng told me that you came here yesterday."

Dong Mei's hands squeezed the basket handle tightly. She really wanted to screw Lu Feng over. What nonsense had that mad girl spread about her in front of elderly madam Bai?

"Grandmother, this Dong girl only knows how to cause trouble," Lu Feng spoke up, "she causes trouble everywhere she goes."

Dong Mei was sure she wanted to slice off Lu Feng's head especially when she saw elderly madam Bai nod her head in understanding.

"Dong Mei, this Bai compound is still enjoying the festivities," elderly madam Bai said, "it's better not to cause commotion in the morning."

Dong Mei gritted her teeth. She knew it was over. It wasn't hard to tell that the elderly woman had something against her. As long as elderly madam Bai sided with Lu Feng, then Dong Mei had completely lost the argument.

All she could do was put on a pained expression despite seething inside.

"Elder please teach me," Dong Mei said, "I only walked in and was beaten so badly. Which part is wrong? I really don't want to repeat it."

Dong Mei wasn't like the well educated ladies in the capital that could smartly twist words and situations to suit themselves. But she at least knew to conceal facts.

In this case, everyone in the village knew her infatuation towards Bai Yang Wei and they also knew that he was married. Visiting the Bai residence was showing that she was looking to cause trouble for the newly weds. But if that fact wasn't openly mentioned, it would seem as though they were falsely accusing an innocent person before they even knew her intention for visiting.