Chapter 271 - 270: Huge Changes
Shi Yu walked on the outskirts of a group of children, bored and only paying attention to the ground, picking up a suitable pebble or two and casually tossing them.
Hearing what Qi Sanshun’s two boys were saying and thinking about his own Eldest Son, he couldn’t help but smile bitterly. Miss Ye’s reputation was indeed formidable; although she had retreated to the countryside and appeared as nothing more than an ordinary peasant woman in front of others, even children knew she was the most powerful figure here, not the Magistrate Sir. Just now, at the Qi family’s place, he had heard how the subordinates from Prince Yu’s Mansion had been given a hard time and worn down by Miss Ye.
Jiang Yifan, holding Qi Jiaer’s hand, listened absently to him boasting about how amazing his sister was and how smart Third Uncle Wong was, responding occasionally with a word or two. Fortunately, Qi Jiaer was satisfied with just talking to him and didn’t expect his full engagement, so their way of conversing was oddly compatible.
The Qi Ye spoken by the children in their conversation and the Ye Xinyan in Jiang Yifan’s impression were completely different people.
As Jiang Yifan responded to Qi Jiaer, he pondered the various possibilities of Ye Xinyan becoming Qi Ye. Now that Nanny Jin had accompanied Ye Xinyan through great upheaval and fled with her, perhaps in such an entirely different situation and with daily companionship, she simply felt relieved that Miss Ye had become sensible, but she might not deeply grasp the enormity of this change—a change so great as to be unimaginable.
And for people like Jinrong, who had only heard of the Duke’s Mansion’s Young Miss’s reputation, hearing about it and being with her day and night were absolutely not the same thing. They would have no idea of just how astonishing Ye Xinyan’s transformation was and could not feel the same shock and bewilderment as he did.
Jiang Yifan was truly bewildered; even if Ye Xinyan had faced a great upheaval, could she have become a completely different woman, one who was lovely and intelligent?
Jiang Yifan remembered the first time he met Ye Xinyan after the Duke’s Mansion’s troubles, on his way to take up his post in Qingyuan County. Even then, Ye Xinyan had changed from the past. At that time, the look in her eyes was cunning like that of a common thug; there was not much fear or disgust, and her casual request to borrow one hundred taels of silver did not fit the style of someone from a noble background.