Female-male sex: Salted fish forced to rise to prominence

On the other side, Fifth Miss Bai Yiling was already excitedly carrying the fish soup towards Bai Mufan's courtyard - Fenghuiyuan, and ran away. The maid Jianqiu hurriedly followed behind the young lady, running out of breath, but Bai Yiling, who was holding a tray, was like nothing had happened. She walked quickly but her breathing was steady, and the tray in her hand was also held very steadily, without spilling a drop of soup.

Bai Yiling entered the courtyard of the fourth young master Bai Mufan. After she passed through an arched door, she saw Bai Shu, Mufan's personal servant, standing guard at the door.

Bai Yiling felt very strange. Her handsome and thick eyebrows frowned slightly. She walked over and asked, "Bai Zhu, why are you guarding here? Where is Brother Mu Fan?"

Bai Zhu bowed calmly and said: "Greetings, Fifth Miss. Fourth Young Master is resting inside."

Bai Yiling felt even more surprised. When had Brother Mu Fan ever been so sleepy?

She asked in confusion: "Is Brother Mu Fan sick? Why is he still sleeping at this time? I want to go in and see him."

Bai Zhu's eyes flickered as he said: "It must be because of some urgent official business yesterday that kept the young master busy until very late, so he didn't get enough rest and is still catching up on sleep."

After hearing Bai Zhu's explanation, Bai Yiling didn't think any more about it. She handed the tray to Bai Zhu and said, "Then drink it as soon as Brother Mu Fan wakes up. I just stewed it and it's still hot."

After she finished speaking, she turned and left, bumping into Jianqiu who was coming towards her. Jianqiu saw the fifth lady coming out of the yard, so she didn't go in and followed the lady.

However, before he had walked for long, he heard two maids whispering. Judging from the direction of the sound, it should be from the rockery outside the courtyard.

A maid gossiped in a low voice: "I heard that the Fourth Young Master was brought back today by Bai Zhu, and he was drunk as a skunk."

Another maidservant had a hoarse voice, and she said disdainfully: "You only know this little bit of news. I heard that the fourth young master went to the flower boat in the lake to drink wine, and he drank all night before returning."

The maidservant said in surprise: "No way, the Fourth Young Master doesn't seem like the kind of person who would do something reckless."

The gruff-voiced maid disapproved, "All men are the same. I heard he went with the second son of Minister Chen's family."

The maidservant asked curiously in a low voice: "Chunhong, how do you know so much?"

The voice gradually faded away...

Bai Yiling finally realized that Bai Zhu was lying. Why did he lie? She stopped and looked at Jianqiu behind her. She asked, "Jianqiu, did you know something a long time ago?"

Jianqiu's eyes flickered, and she stammered: "Miss, your servant, your servant..."

Jianqiu saw that she could no longer hide it, so she said with an expression of being ready to die to save her friend: "Fifth Miss, Fourth Young Master was ostensibly going to go boating with Second Young Master Chen, but in fact he was going to go fishing with Third Miss Chen."

A dark light flashed across Bai Yiling's eyes. It was this Miss Chen San again - Chen Manli.

Ever since Brother Mu Fan met her five years ago, he has been distracted by her and has become much more indifferent to her. He is no longer as close to her as before, but seems to be deliberately keeping a distance from her.

But it was different for Chen Manli. Brother Mu Fan would send all the good food, drinks and clothes to her house.

She still remembered that she was invited to attend the banquet on Princess Ronghua's birthday last year, and she saw the stunning red coral bracelet on Chen Manli's hand.

Those plump beads, paired with a little rabbit gold ornament, were the one she had clearly expressed her love for, but brother Mu Fan had been talking about other things and had kept it in the warehouse and hadn't given it to her.

Unexpectedly, it reached Miss Bai's wrist in the blink of an eye.

Five years ago, His Majesty rewarded her brother Mu Fan with several pieces of Xiangyun gauze and several pieces of gold-embroidered silk for his meritorious service in the Northern Frontier, but she had not had the chance to speak.

Brother Mu Fan was sent to the Chen Mansion. The third daughter of the Chen family, Chen Manli, even made several sets of beautiful clothes. She attended various banquets and always showed them off in front of her, as proud as a peacock.

Also, I can't remember which year it was, but Miss Chen invited her to a flower viewing party. She didn't want to go, but since it was Brother Mu Fan's savior who invited her, she went anyway. But what happened?

Miss Chen showed off her talents in various ways and used her as a scapegoat. She knew clearly that she was the daughter of a general and had no idea how to write poetry or songs, but she still kept praising her and told her not to be modest.

As a result, she foolishly made a fool of herself on the spot, so that no ladies in the capital wanted to deal with her anymore, saying that she was vulgar. From then on, Miss Bai's reputation for talent spread further and further, and she was completely ostracized by the ladies' circle in the capital.

In the end, she left in shame, covering her face. She came back to complain to Brother Mu Fan, who said that Man'er had already explained it to him.

He said that Man'er had good intentions, but seeing that you didn't have any close friends and were too withdrawn, she ended up doing something wicked by inviting you to a flower-viewing banquet, which accidentally made you look bad. Man'er felt very guilty and sorry for you.

She still clearly remembered what brother Mu Fan said at that time, which made her unable to express the grievances in her heart.

I don’t remember when, but Chen Manli said in public that she needed to apply more white powder on her face to look good.

So, following those who praised Chen Manli, some gossipy women started to mock her skin color, saying that she was not fair enough. They even nicknamed her "Golden Loach" in private. This made her, who was young and ignorant, stay at home for a long time, hoping that her skin would become whiter, but she still didn't look any fairer.

From then on, she became even more reluctant to go out. Only now that she has grown up, she has gradually forgotten about this incident. However, the ridicule she once suffered still left a deep mark in her heart.

Now, when she heard the maid Jianqiu mention this name again, her memory was reopened. She hated the third young lady of the Chen family. The key was that this woman was particularly good at pretending, and her pretending to be weak and innocent always put her at a disadvantage and made her suffer losses every time. She explained to Brother Mu Fan, but Brother Mu Fan was only trying to comfort Chen Manli and acted as if she was not as sensible as Maner.

She didn't want to talk about it anymore or explain it anymore.

Bai Yiling thought that if she were asked to imitate Chen Manli's delicate appearance, she really wouldn't be able to bear it.

But she didn't know that she was subconsciously learning, learning how to make soups a lady from a noble family would make, learning how to wear the complicated long skirts with wide sleeves and flowers that a lady from a noble family would wear, which she extremely disliked, and learning how to write poems and lyrics.

Bai Yiling thought about so much and felt that she still had to tell Brother Mu Fan that Third Miss Bai was not a good person, so she returned to Fenghuiyuan.

But just as she stepped into the yard, she heard Brother Mu Fan's voice coming from the room in the distance, "This soup is so unpalatable, Bai Zhu, pour it out. From now on, when Miss Yi Ling sends you soup, just deal with it directly. You don't have to hand it to me anymore."

"Yes, Master."

Bai Zhu said again: "Young Master, why don't you just tell Miss Wu that you don't like the soup she makes? Miss Wu is straightforward and she shouldn't be angry, right?"

Bai Mufan said calmly: "She is my sister after all, so of course I can't just insult her."

Bai Shu said: "But the meaning of General Bai's last letter is that he intends to marry the fifth lady to you. What do you think?"

Bai Mufan said disdainfully: "Yiling is extremely rude, and not like Man'er, a lady from a noble family who can write poems and paint, speaks sweetly, has fair skin and beautiful appearance. This young master doesn't like Yiling, but it's not easy to tell my father directly..."

Bai Yiling couldn't listen to any of the following words, so she ran away directly...