Did the third place winner regret it today?

Chapter 3

While the Third Lady was being warm and attentive to Lady Shen, Yin Shi had eaten and drunk his fill. Finally, at Qingyan's urging, he washed and combed his hair, changed into mourning clothes, and did not wear any gold jewelry on his head, only two silver headbands.

Yin Shi looked at the girl with delicate eyebrows and eyes in the mirror and couldn't help but reach out and touch his face.
This little girl is so pretty.
Pitiful.
I hope she and her mother will be reborn into a good family in the other world.

No matter what, she is now "Yin Shi".
Yin Shi looked at the girl in the mirror again, stood up, and began to take over the life of "Yin Shi".
The first thing she had to do was to report to her stepmother, Madam Yin San, and show up to express that "Yin Shi" had recovered from the fright and fever.

But when they arrived at the Third Lady's yard, they found that the Third Lady was chatting with Madam Shen in Madam Shen's yard.
After hearing this, Qingyan became eager to take action.
After all, Huaixi is just a small place, and everyone here yearns for the "capital". This yearning specifically falls on Mrs. Shen who returned from the capital.

Qingyan then urged Yin Shi to go to Madam Shen.
Yin Shi sighed. He brought Qingyan with him because he thought Qingyan was a smart person. But he didn't know that people would easily make stupid mistakes when they were greedy.
She pulled at her mourning clothes: "Is this appropriate?"

It was indeed inappropriate, but Qingyan hesitated for a moment and said, "Perhaps the aunt felt sorry for the girl and felt more distressed..."
"You really won't think I'm unlucky and despise me from now on?" Yin Shi said, "Can you guarantee it?"

Of course Qingyan couldn't guarantee that. She was just a girl of thirteen or fourteen years old. What could she guarantee?
If the aunt really disliked her and the third lady got angry, the consequences would be something a maid like her could not bear. Qingyan was deflated.

The mother beside the Third Madam followed to Madam Shen's place, so Yin Shi met with the maid who stayed behind and said, "Sister, tell mother that I'm fine."
"I'm glad you're okay. The girl is still weak, so she should rest more." The maid's attitude was neither enthusiastic nor cold.

Just... everyone is actually ordinary people, eating this bite of rice, doing their own work, and getting along with each other in an ordinary way. It is not as bloody and intense as some novels that Yin Shi read in another time and space.

Yin Shi observed, breathed a sigh of relief, and went back easily.
Not long after she went back, the Third Lady came back and heard from the maid that the Fourth Lady was fine. She was not thinking about Yin Shi and just said, "I know."
But she talked to her confidante, Madam Sun, about Mrs. Shen's reaction: "Sister, how could we let the son of the Shen family marry a girl from our family? Not to mention, we don't have a legitimate daughter in our family. I told him that he was daydreaming, but he didn't want to hear it."
A snort came out of his nose.

Mother Sun pulled her sleeve and said, "Be more restrained when you speak. Don't be so... ahem, be careful with your tone."
At least you have to consider the man's face.
The third lady said, "I know. I don't take pleasure in other people's misfortunes."
Even saying this, he couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Mother Sun just looked up at the beams.

While the Third Lady was laughing at her husband, Yin Shi returned to her own courtyard and relaxed. She sent the maid out and fumbled around the house to get familiar with everything.
After turning around twice, she suddenly heard voices outside, and soon the maid came in in a panic: "Oh no!"

Yin Shi had just traveled through time and assumed someone else's identity. He was feeling guilty, and his eyebrows jumped when he heard this: "What's wrong?"
The maid said, "My cousin is here!"
"?" Yin Shi was silent for a moment before asking, "Which cousin?"
The maid said anxiously, "Who else could it be? Of course it must be the young master of the Shen family who came from the capital."

If she was not mistaken, based on the information she had gathered from the maids' gossip over the past two days, wasn't the young master from the Shen family who came from the capital a child of the same age as "Yin Shi"?

Yin Shi sighed inwardly.
Perhaps to the people in the insignificant concubine's courtyard, the young master from the capital was a big shot. So when faced with a child, the maids were panicked.

On the other hand, it also shows that the quality of the maids in her courtyard is not very high. There must be high-quality maids, but it is definitely not her turn.
Fortunately, these maids are all in their teens. According to the rules of this world, they should all get married in a few years. She can choose new maids, and at that time she must find ones that she likes and then slowly train them.

Let’s not get too far off topic, let’s deal with the present first.
Yin Shi asked, "Where is the cousin?"
The maid calmed down and said, "My cousin is in the yard and he insisted that we report first."

With Qingyan's performance before, Yin Shi understood it as soon as he heard it. It must be that the people in her courtyard were too attentive to the cousin from the capital. They directly bypassed her and took the initiative to invite the boy into the main room. As a result... they were rejected.

Although Yin Shi was a time traveler, he still had some understanding of the times of this world.
But a child of her age was so particular about etiquette, which really scared her. Is it so strict? Yin Shi's nerves, which had just relaxed, tensed up again.

She quickly put her clothes in order and said to the maid, "Where is it? Take me there."
The maid led her out. When Yin Shi stepped out of the threshold of the main room, he saw a little boy at the bottom of the stairs, followed by two maids.
Her maid Qingyan was beside her, smiling. Shen Ti raised her eyes when she heard her coming out. The two children looked at each other for a moment as they walked up and down the stairs.
Yin Shi was amazed, the maids were right, this young master was really handsome.
At such a young age, his nose is nice and his eyes are nice. As long as he doesn't grow ugly, I wonder how many girls will be fascinated by him when he grows up.

When Shen Ti saw the little girl on the steps, the words flashed through her mind: "Her appearance is as beautiful as jade and her character is as pure as ice and jade." This cousin was born as beautiful as white flowers falling in the snow, but unfortunately she had lost her mother.
He felt even more compassionate and called out, "Cousin?"

Yin Shi hurried down the steps to greet him: "Is it Shen's cousin?"
Shen Ti bowed and said, "My given name is Ti, and I don't have a courtesy name yet. Cousin, you can call me Shen Ti."
Despite his young age, he behaves and speaks like a little adult.

But when Yin Shi came down and stood beside Shen Ti, he was half a head taller than Shen Ti. This is how it is at their age, girls grow first and boys develop later.
Yin Shi's nervousness immediately dissipated - no matter how polite he was, he was just a child. He was not afraid.
Instead, my heart was filled with love. The child was super polite and spoke in such a mature way. He was so adorable!
She said softly, "I know you. Everyone has been talking about aunt and you these past two days. I didn't expect you to come to my place."
That accent is the accent of adults talking to children. In another time and space, it is called the clip tone.

Shen Ti felt that this cousin was gentle and childish. He explained his purpose: "Mother knows that my cousin has recently lost a loved one, but mother cannot leave, so she sent me to visit my cousin. Cousin, please accept my condolences."

Why should Yin Shi be sad? She is not the real "Yin Shi". She was afraid that her acting skills were not good enough, so she raised her arms and covered half of her face with her sleeves. She said "hmm" vaguely, as if she was choking.

She had originally wanted to invite Shen Ti to sit inside, but after Shen Ti fiddled with her for a few times, she changed her mind.
She had just come into this world and was still in the process of adapting to the world. Although the other party was a child, he seemed to know more about etiquette than she did. It was better to have less trouble than more, so don't invite people into the house.
The less you do, the fewer mistakes you make.

She remembered that many places said that children have bright eyes, so they were not allowed to attend funerals, so she borrowed this excuse. She covered her face with her sleeves, sniffed twice, and said, "My cousin came from far away, I should invite you to sit in the house, but I have a filial piety here, you are young, it is better not to get involved."

After coming out of Yin Shi, Qingyan was giving Yin Shi a look, but her eyes were almost cramped, and Yin Shi refused to let the young master of the Shen family in, and didn't even take the initiative to make friends with him. Qingyan was so angry that she fell backwards.
But she couldn't say anything in front of the distinguished guest, especially since she had invited the young master to her room earlier, but he had just rejected her coldly. She could only glare at Yin Shi.

Yin Shi pretended not to see it.
Shen Ti also seemed not to notice, and only said politely to Yin Shi: "Worrying hurts the body, cousin, you need to rest more and take care of yourself. I won't bother you any more. Here are some local specialties that my mother and I brought from the capital. They are just a token of my appreciation, so please don't dislike them, cousin."

How could such a young child be able to say such polite words? In the time and space where Yin Shi came from, only people with some social experience could use such words, sentences and intonations. People who were too young could not do it.

Yin Shi was convinced.
I really couldn't underestimate the child in front of me at all, so I could only hold it up and thank him.
He personally sent the child to the gate of the courtyard.

"Cousin, please stay." The little boy said, "Cousin, please pay attention to your diet, and Xiaozhong should not neglect your work and rest, otherwise it will damage your health."
It was afternoon and the sun was shining brightly.
The little boy had delicate features and bright eyes.

Yin Shi, who had traveled through time for two days, suddenly felt at this moment that everything around him became real - the brick carvings, the wooden doors, the maid beside him, and the boy in front of him, all became real and had texture.

Yin Shi finally let go of the empty and dreamy feeling.
She is "Yin Shi".
This was Yin Shi’s cousin. The aunt he had never met, the young cousin, the distinguished guest in the mansion, who had come from afar, could be considered the first to come and care for Yin Shi, whose mother had just passed away.
At this moment, the world became less scary.
Yin Shi was no longer tense, her shoulders relaxed, and she thanked him again earnestly: "Cousin, please give my regards to my aunt."

Children are sometimes more sensitive than adults and can sense a person's sincerity and hypocrisy.
Shen Ti looked into Yin Shi's eyes and could feel her being touched.
He nodded: "Cousin, please stay."

The young boy walked slowly and leisurely in square steps back to the yard where his mother lived before she got married, to report to her.
When Mrs. Shen saw him coming back, she said, "That was pretty quick."
Then he asked, "How is Xiao Si?"

Even the most pedantic old scholar would not sit upright all day long. Even at home he would sit leaning or cross his legs.
There were no outsiders in the room, so Shen Ti relaxed in front of her mother, no longer being as polite as before in front of relatives. She lifted her butt and got on the couch, finally acting like a child, and said, "My cousin is good, but the girl is not so good."

(End of this chapter)