When Li Rui gained her consciousness the next day, the first thing she asked for was her child. Her maids didn't look into her eyes and said that she needs to be confined for a month and the child will remain with the wet nurse for one month.
Li Rui silently stared at Li Hua and Li Mei after they completed their sentence. Under her stares, they squirmed uncomfortably. After a few seconds, she asked only one question.
"Has Lord Xi already arrived?"
Although they were startled at the sudden change of direction of questions, they answered honestly.
"Yes, My Lady. Lord Xi arrived just yesterday."
For the first time in these years, they saw an expression full of despair and sorrow on their mistress's face. Only then they understood that Li Rui knew everything they were trying to hide.
Li Mei could not control herself and rushed outside to hide her tears. She went to Lord Xi courtyard yesterday to get the child back for their lady. The shadow guard didn't even let her enter the courtyard.
No one knows if their lady would be able to see the Young Master again. In her heart, she hated Lord Xi.
How can anyone be so cruel as to separate a child from his mother?
What wrong did their lady do to suffer like this? She herself was a victim yet she was being punished like this.
*~*~*~~*~*~*
After completing one month of confinement very obediently and silently, the first thing Li Rui did was to go to Xi Ying's courtyard.
As soon as she reached there, a shadow guard stood in front of her to block the way before she even entered the courtyard.
"This servant greets, My Lady."
Li Rui nodded her head in acknowledgment and tried to go inside again but the shadow guard blocked her way again.
"My Lady, this servant apologize for his rude behavior but His Excellency doesn't like any unfamiliar person to enter his courtyard without his permission."
The last sentence was an insult but Li Rui remained nonchalant.
"Then ask your Lord for permission."
"My Lady, His Excellency is not currently present in the manor."
Taking a deep breath, Li Rui tried again.
"I want to see my child."
"This...My Lady. This servant again apologized for his presumptuous behavior but His Excellency announced that My Lady can't see the child without His Excellency's permission."
The shadow guard was standing with his head lowered so he didn't see Li Rui's expression.
After a few seconds, he saw Li Rui take a few steps back and turning in another direction. Only then he lifted his head. His eyes flashed with some unfathomable emotion looking at the woman's retreating back but he soon composed himself and disappeared from that place.
At Present
Li Rui bid goodbye to her mother in the late evening after having her dinner. After her confrontation with Li Na and Li Caihong, both the sisters didn't dare to comment on anything else and had their dinner silently.
For this whole time, Xi Ying didn't look away from Li Rui's face.
In a daze, he followed her inside the carriage and sat in front of her on an empty seat.
His heart was filled with different emotions. His heart was filled with rage towards Li Na and Li Caihong. They drugged Rui and even sent a man to rape her. What if he didn't find her four years ago. That man.... He didn't even want to think ahead.
His heart felt like it has been freed from some shackles. Rui didn't drug him. She herself was a victim. The victim who was not even compensated but was accused and blamed for something she didn't commit.
And he was also one of those people who showered her with his cold and cruel words.
Thinking this, he felt stifled in his heart.
He felt confused. He remembered everything that happened four years ago. He tried to find out where exactly did he go wrong.
All the emotions make him so dizzy that he felt he was dreaming. The past him hated her because he thought she was using him to protect herself. In his eyes, she was so selfish that she didn't even care for her child.
So he controlled his heart by disguising the love he had for her in hate.
The same heart was today guilty. But he soon reassured himself that he will treat his wangfei right as soon as he will get his body.
As for her carelessness towards Xi Ling, he will try his best make her a good mother.
Setting his thoughts like this, he felt everything was right now and his desire to get his body back was strong now.
But he had not expected that the next slap will come to face so soon.
They soon reached Xi Manor. Plum courtyard was in the most isolated area of the Manor but one has to pass Xi Ying's courtyard to go there. As they were passing, the loud cries could be heard outside the courtyard. The screams seemed to belong to a young child.
Hearing the cries, Li Rui footsteps paused and she runs inside the courtyard before anyone could stop her followed by invisible Xi Ying. There was only one child in the whole manor.
Her three-year-old child. Xi Ling.
The whole courtyard was filled with maids and servants running here and there. No one noticed the running Li Rui inside. Xi Ying frowned looking at the situation.
As soon as Li Rui was about to open the room from where the cries were coming outside, she was blocked by a human figure who suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
When she lifted her head to look at the human figure, her eyes were cold and fierce. The shadow guard who was standing in front of her, An San, was startled for a second. Even Xi Ying was confused by her sudden change.
Li Rui's smile was very cold.
"What? Am I not allowed to go inside?"
" My Lady knows everything. Please don't make things difficult for this servant."
There was a hidden threat in the voice.
Standing behind Li Rui, Li Mei could not tolerate anymore.
"You....who are you to stop my lady from seeing the Young Master. My mistress is the birth mother of the Young Master yet she is not allowed to meet him. What kind of ridiculous behavior is this? Does your master even have a heart? Is he carrying a stone in his chest? "
The shadow guard looked coldly at Li Mei and continued blocking the way and Xi Ying was confused by the behavior of his shadow guard and Li Rui servant
" One more word against His Excellency and this An San will cut your tongue."
Xi Ying looked at the whole ordeal like a stranger. What was happening? Why was An San stopping Li Rui from seeing Xi Ling?
He suddenly had a very bad premonition in his heart.
"How is Xi Ling?"
Li Rui's questioned An San calmly. But Xi Ying could read the panic and anxiety in her words.
He suddenly didn't feel that Li Rui could be a careless mother and she felt very different from the picture he had in his mind for four years.
"My Lady, Young Master is suffering from stomachache. The physician has already arrived. This servant will take care of Young Master asking My Lady to not worry."
Li Mei and Li Hua gritted their teeth in anger.
He was asking a mother to not worry about her child. The cries were so heart wrecking that even their heart was breaking.
The cries were very low at this moment and the physician came outside. He told An San that he had given the medicine to Xi Ling and there was no need to worry.
Li Rui was looking at the physician the whole time he talked with An San. Xi Ying frowned looking at this and stood in front of her forgetting that he was invisible and couldn't block anything.
An San told the physician to rest in Xi Manor for few days and look after their Young Master.
Li Rui stood outside the room. Only when the maid announced that Xi Ling was asleep she left the courtyard.
She knew she was not welcome here.