Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Xia Ruya watched as Wen Xinya strutted away smugly in her six-inch stilettos, overwhelmed with resentment. She did not expect to be treated that way by Wen Xinya.
The strong feelings of hatred wakened her senses and she suddenly realized that she was still in the freezing cold water. The chilliness seemed to have penetrated through her bones and caused her to shiver from head to toe. She placed her hands and legs against the marble block in a bid to crawl up.
Her fingers stiffened and, due to how slippery the marble slab was, she could not climb out of the lake even after several attempts.
Xia Ruya felt as if her blood was going to freeze.
Soon, one of the servants saved her from the lake.
“Ah, it’s so cold! It’s freezing!” Xia Ruya exclaimed, the biting cold causing her to shiver uncontrollably.
The servant helped Xia Ruya into the room. After a hot water bath, she finally felt much warmer. However, the fear within her made her feel cold.
Despite being on full blast, the heater did not help at all.
Tears welled up in her eyes and she sneezed uncontrollably. Xia Ruya hurriedly climbed onto the bed and wrapped herself in the blanket.
“Ah-choo…” Xia Ruya sneezed again and again while a sudden warmth filled her nose. She hurriedly grabbed a piece of tissue paper and wiped the mucus away. Her nose soon began to feel blocked.
At this moment, Old Mr. Wen and Old Mrs. Wen entered the room together.
“Grandpa Wen, Grandma Wen!” Xia Ruya exclaimed, lifting the duvet in a bid to sit up.
Old Mrs. Wen darted towards the bed and pressed her shoulders down. While adjusting the blanket, she said, “Hurry and lie down. Don’t come up.”
Old Mr. Wen chimed in. “Just lie down! Your health is of the utmost importance.”
“Ah-choo…” Xia Ruya again sneezed, causing a burning sensation in her nose. She teared up and leaned against the bed.
Noticing how pale her face was and how red her nose was, Old Mrs. Wen said, “I’ve already gotten the servants to prepare some ginger soup. Have some later to warm yourself up. I’ve also called the family doctor. He’s going to be here anytime soon.”
Xia Ruya felt an unbearable itchiness in her nose. She hurriedly grabbed a piece of tissue and wiped her mucus away. “Grandma, I’m alright, I just caught a cold. I’ll be fine after taking some ginger soup and sweating it out under the duvet.”
Old Mrs. Wen frowned and said, “You’ve always been frail and weak ever since you were young. Whenever the weather changes, you tend to get fevers and dizzy spells. We’d better let the family doctor see you.”
Xia Ruya frantically said, “Grandma, my health has improved a lot in the past two years and I’m no longer as weak as before.”
The two years that she had spent in Yun Chuan had changed her body condition.
Old Mr. Wen frowned and said with a sullen expression, “Colds can be serious. Your Grandma is right. You’d better let the doctor treat your condition.”
Just as Xia Ruya was about to speak, she felt a sudden itchiness in her nose and sneezed consecutively for a few times. She hurriedly grabbed some tissue paper and wiped her flowing mucus away.
Old Mrs. Wen said tearfully, “Poor child, how did you end up in the lake?”
Xia Ruya racked her brains and tried to come up with a solution to shift the blame onto Wen Xinya while not arousing the suspicion of Old Mr. Wen. At this moment, a servant entered with some ginger soup and said, “Miss Xia, the ginger soup is ready.”
Xia Ruya stared wide-eyed at the thirty-odd-year-old woman before her who was clad in a blue floral cotton blouse. Her face was round and she looked extremely kind and benevolent. Xia Ruya remembered her to be the woman who stood by when Wen Xinya pushed her into the lake.
Not only did that woman not stop Wen Xinya, she even looked on coldly.
After Wen Xinya left, the woman followed suit without even calling for help.
Yet, she actually served up the ginger soup to her, as if nothing had happened at all.
Xia Ruya grabbed her sheets tightly and the veins on the back of her hand began to pop while her joints turned white. At this moment… she finally realized that times had changed and no one would believe her even if she were to frame Wen Xinya and blame her for pushing her into the lake.
Reason being, the Wen Family home was now Wen Xinya’s territory and even if she had already moved into the Wen Family home, the fact that she was only the adoptive daughter of the Wen Family remained unchanged. It was only a matter of fact that Wen Xinya was the heiress of the Wen Family.
How could the servants risk offending Wen Xinya by helping her?
Three years ago, she had exploited the cowardly nature of the servants in order to frame Wen Xinya and accuse her of pushing her into the lake back when Wen Xinya had just moved into the Wen Family home.
Wen Xinya had given her a taste of her own medicine.
She was again reminded of the time when Wen Xinya was clearly the one who broke the porcelain vase and made it seem like it was her who did it. She remembered the cold look in Old Mr. Wen’s eyes when he stared at her back then, as if he were implying that she was an insensible troublemaker.
At the thought of it, she swallowed the rest of her words. “It was just a slip of the foot and I accidentally fell into the lake.”
As soon as she finished speaking, she shifted her gaze onto the servant standing beside Old Mrs. Wen, only to see that she was hanging her head low and appearing extremely docile.
She suddenly felt that the servant looked rather familiar. Soon, she began to wonder if she was Auntie Wu, the servant whom Ning Shuqian had been talking about.
Although Old Mr. Wen noticed the peculiar expression on her face, he did not say much. “Why were you so careless? You should have been more careful.”
Xia Ruya looked at Old Mr. Wen and said, “Grandpa, I know.”
“Pitiful child. The temperatures are freezing. You must have felt terrible in the cold water. Here… have some ginger soup to warm your stomach.” Old Mrs. Wen grabbed the bowl of ginger soup from Auntie Wu’s hands and handed it to Xia Ruya.
“Thank you, Grandma!” Xia Ruya exclaimed while grabbing the bowl of ginger soup which contained lots of brown sugar. The sugar made the spiciness of the ginger soup less unbearable and she finished the bowl of ginger soup, spoon by spoon. Finally, she felt a wave of warmth that spread through her body.
Old Mrs. Wen looked at Xia Ruya while she finished the entire bowl of ginger soup. Her face was flushed and she said smilingly, “Hurry and lie down. Cover yourself with the duvet and sweat it out.”
Xia Ruya lied down obediently and wrapped the duvet around herself.
A while later, the family physician arrived to give Xia Ruya a physical examination. “It’s alright, you just caught a cold. I’ll prescribe you some medicine.”
Xia Ruya dozed off soon after taking the medicine.
Then, she began to run a fever at night. She then called for the family physician to come over and take her temperature, only to discover that her temperature had gone up to 39.8 degrees.
The doctor then put Xia Ruya on the drip and her fever only subsided at four midnight.
