Chapter 1643 — Worried Bingtang
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
Feng Xiaoxiao felt a little dizzy. So this was what they called kin upon kin? What a tangled mess these relationships made.
"My younger sister," Bingtang said, smiling. "Born a month after me. Ha—if you think about it, she is the real Bingtang. And if I had never been swapped... then by now I would be called Tang Zhi..."
"Gah!" Feng Xiaoxiao shot up as though someone had trodden on her tail. "Senior Sister Bingtang, what did you just say? That sister of yours—what is her name now?"
Bingtang, Xiaoqing, and Xiaoming were all rather stunned by this sudden outburst. What had come over her? Why should she be so astonished?
"Tang Zhi... a lovely name..." Bingtang gave Feng Xiaoxiao an odd look. "What is it? Xiaoxiao, don't tell me you know this sister of mine?"
"Uh... well, I do know a Tang Zhi... though I can't be sure she's the one you mean... but from the sound of it, she must be..." Feng Xiaoxiao's face turned even stranger. "No wonder I thought you looked familiar the first time I laid eyes on you. Sometimes, for just an instant, your expression seemed so warm, so familiar... And you turn out to be Sister Tang Zhi's sister..."
"You... you really know her?" Bingtang's heart gave a great leap, and she pressed on. "Then... then what sort of person is she? Is she easy to get along with...? Or is she hard to approach?"
Yet even as she thrilled at the news, Bingtang's heart misgave her. She had no idea what this sister of hers might be like—and what if she proved difficult? What then?
Seeing the worry written all over Bingtang's face, Feng Xiaoxiao understood at once what lay behind it, and could not help laughing. "Hee hee hee..."
"What are you laughing at?" Bingtang was taken aback, unable to see the joke. "Will she think my turning up will rob her of her mother's love...?"
"Her... if it's her character you want, I know it better than anyone..." Seeing how anxious Bingtang was, Feng Xiaoxiao deliberately drew it out and paused.
"Xiaoxiao! Out with it—you're killing me!" Bingtang grew impatient at her silence. "Say something! What is her character like?"
"Heh heh. She is my husband Wei Zhao's senior wife," Feng Xiaoxiao said.
"Huh?" Bingtang's eyes went wide. "Xiaoxiao, what are you saying? What do you mean, his senior wife? You mean Sister Tang Zhi is Wei Zhao's woman? Then you...?"
"Then naturally I am the junior wife!" Feng Xiaoxiao said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Xiaoxiao, I am completely lost. What on earth are you talking about?" Bingtang felt light-headed. "You mean Wei Zhao has two women—one of them my sister Tang Zhi, and the other you? Is that it?"
Since it concerned her own daughter, Xiaoming pricked up her ears as well. Hearing that her daughter actually shared a man with another woman, she felt her heart sink, and a secret worry for the girl rose in her.
She knew well enough who Feng Xiaoxiao was—the next Palace Master of the Ice Palace. What a formidable background that was! The very reason she had been shunned and banished to the cold palace within the Hidden Tang family was that the Tang leader's principal wife came from the Hidden You family. And now one of Wei Zhao's women was the next Palace Master of the Ice Palace—could her own daughter possibly fare well? At the thought her worry deepened; yet she knew too little of the situation to ask outright.
"Yes indeed—Sister Bingtang is so clever!" Feng Xiaoxiao nodded. "I love my husband Wei Zhao, but I was sick before, dying, and Sister Tang Zhi took pity on me and let me be his junior wife. So tell me—is she easy to get along with?"
"Ah? You can't be serious?" Bingtang felt dizzy. If what Feng Xiaoxiao said was true, then Tang Zhi was indeed easy to get along with—far too easy. Was the woman simply too kind for her own good?