Chapter 484   A Four-bay Bookstore

Ning Lingyun used to tag along with Ning Yuling. Ning Yuling liked extremely beautiful clothes and because she hung out with Ning Yuling, she naturally had similar preferences. Although she did not dare to compete with Ning Yuling in public, she had many of these kind of bright clothes tailored for herself privately. As for such light colors, she had never worn it before.

“Fifth Sister, you are here. Third Sister and I have been waiting for a while, shall we go out now?” Seeing Ning Xueyan coming, Ning Lingyun came up to her with a smile and spoke in a very loving manner. Although she stated that she had already waited for Ning Xueyan for a while, Ning Lingyun felt that her face was kind and her smile was quite sincere .

“Let’s go. I only asked for one carriage for our use. It will be nice for us to talk in the carriage. We rarely have such a chance, so we should not waste it.” Ning Qingshan had never been so kind. She held Ning Xueyan’s hand intimately and walked to the door.

The carriage stopped outside and was indeed the largest one in the manor. In fact, it had been tailored after Ning Yuling’s accident. They got inside and found that there were three windows in the carriage, which were distributed in the back, left and right. The three of them happened to sit in three directions. The windows were open, but the gauze curtains were in place. They could see the view clearly from the inside, but they could not be seen when one looked in from the outside.

With that, the maids got on the carriage and sat at the door. The carriage drove out slowly and travelled around the street casually, because they had no fixed destination for the time being. They planned to get off after seeing anything good and the carriage slowly passed by some shops along the way. The cart driver was very relaxed because they were not in a hurry for their journey.

The three of them chatted and occasionally looked at the scenery. Anyway, others could not see the people in the carriage from the outside as the gauze curtains blocked their view.

Suddenly, Ning Qingshan pointed to a certain place nearby and asked, “Fifth Sister, our brother is going to take part in the imperial examination. Shall we get off and buy some gifts for him? We hope he can win the title and become a champion for Lord Protector’s Manor.”

Ning Xueyan sat opposite her and also happened to see the bookstore. Ning Huaiyuan was going to take the imperial examination. As his younger sister, she could not say that she did not want him to become a champion, so she immediately nodded with a smile. Seeing that both of them agreed, Ning Lingyun certainly had no objection and then the carriage stopped in the alley next to the bookstore.

The maids helped the three of them out of the carriage.

Ning Qingshan sat near the outside, so she was the first one to get out of the carriage. After that, she turned to help Lanning hold Ning Xueyan.

“Third Young Lady, please step aside. Your Fifth Sister is going to get off and it will not be good if she were to bump into Third Young Lady!” Lanning took her time to help Ning Xueyan onto the shaft of the carriage as she smiled at Ning Qingshan and said.

Ning Qingshan was standing so close to the shaft that Ning Xueyan would not be able to alight if she did not hold on to her shoulder. At such a close distance, if she stepped back a little, Ning Xueyan who had just alighted from the carriage would have no time to stand firmly and would fall down easily.

Fifth Young Lady said before that she would not be in any danger. Although Lanning believed her, she did not know whether Third Young Lady would play any dirty tricks or not. There were a lot of people coming and going about in the street and it would be a big embarrassment if Fifth Young Lady fell on her back.

“Well, I’ll step back. I wanted to give Fifth Sister a hand, but I did not expect that I was crowding into her space.” Seemingly, Ning Qingshan just realized that she was standing too close, so she stepped back with a smile and made way for Lanning.

Ning Xueyan got out of the carriage with Lanning’s help and then Ning Lingyun also helped her maid to get off.

The three of them wore veiled hats and their maids followed behind. They made a turn in the alley and headed for the bookstore together.

This bookstore was extremely large and was twice the size of ordinary bookstores. There were four bays from left to right, as well as two rooms upstairs. It was the largest bookstore in the capital. Besides, many unique books and rare books that were hard to come by could all be found here, so it was very popular among the scholars in the capital.

Now it was time for the competition and all the scholars converged into the capital to take the imperial examinations. There were many customers even for such a large bookstore. From time to time, they saw a scholarly-looking young man walking in from the outside.

The calligraphy stationery section was located downstairs. All kinds of good writing brushes and ink sticks, as well as rare papers and inkstones, were sold here. Upstairs, there was a collection of books and the bookshelves were packed with books. In the private room on the third floor, if you made a cup of good tea, you could sit and read books for a while.

It was on a noisy street and the environment was not quiet. Although it was not a good place for reading, the scholars could sit inside and browse leisurely at least, which was also a favorite past time for the scholars.

The three of them began to walk around in the bookstore and each chose a gift for Ning Huaiyuan. When they came to a bookshelf with ink sticks, Ning Xueyan looked at the ink on one side with Lanning. On the other side, Ning Qingshan and Ning Lingyun also separated to choose their favorite calligraphy stationery.

“Young Lady, look.” Lanning gently pulled Ning Xueyan’s dress just as she picked up a piece of ink and was examining it.

Ning Xueyan looked up and saw Ning Qingshan standing between the two bookshelves in front of her through the gap between the ink items and the bookshelf. Because it was meant to house books here, there was still gaps between the bookshelves, which was also why Ning Xueyan managed to bypass them specially. She had been in the bookshelf in front of Ning Qingshan before.

Ning Qingshan was holding a writing brush and looking at it carefully, as if all her attention was really focused on it. From time to time, she tried to hold the brush to write, while Caifen followed behind her quietly, just like the other two maids.

Ning Xueyan frowned because she certainly did not believe that Ning Qingshan really wanted to be close to her.

“Watch them closely and I’ll check over there.” After putting down the ink, Ning Xueyan walked forward. After taking a few more steps, she picked up a piece of flower-based ink and had a careful look. From her current position, she could not see Ning Qingshan, but Lanning did not come up behind her.

On the contrary, she stepped back. There was another bookshelf. After stepping back, her slender figure happened to squeeze behind another row of books. If others did not look carefully, they could not find her.

After putting down the brush, Ning Qingshan looked back and happened to see Ning Xueyan’s skirt appearing in that space. Ning Xueyan could not see her from where she was. With that, Ning Qingshan sneered and tossed her head to hint to Caifen, who had been following behind her.

After understanding what Ning Qingshan meant, Caifen hurriedly walked toward the landing of the first floor and then disappeared in the blink of an eye.

After a short time, Caifen came down silently from the second floor. Because her movements were very fast and light, no one paid any attention to her, except Lanning, who was keeping an eye on her.

Seeing her coming down, Lanning quickly came to Ning Xueyan and said in a low voice, “Young Lady, Caifen just went upstairs.”

Ning Xueyan rolled her eyes. Caifen had gone upstairs and then came down again, but she did not let her see it. If she guessed right, there was a trap waiting for her upstairs.

“Fifth Sister, how about we go upstairs and look at the books together? I heard that there is a large collection of books which are only available there, so let’s go up and have a look!” Ning Qingshan’s voice rang in her ear. She looked up and found that Ning Qingshan had appeared at the bookshelf opposite her at some time and was talking to her through the gap between the bookshelves.

A trace of coldness flashed in her jet-black eyes. Sure enough, Ning Qingshan knew that she was behind her just now. She had bypassed Ning Qingshan from the front and then detoured behind her carefully, but Ning Qingshan was able to locate her directly. This only meant that Ning Qingshan was looking at the brush and the same time carefully noticing her whereabouts.

Therefore, only when she stepped back a little, did she ask Caifen to go upstairs immediately.

“Where is Fourth Sister? Let’s go there together!” Ning Xueyan nodded, put down the ink and said with a smile.

“I’ll ask Caifen to call her over, then we three can go up and broaden our horizons together. Maybe we’ll find a unique one and our brother will like it.” Ning Qingshan pointed upstairs with an excited look. Although she wore a veiled hat and her expression could not be seen, Ning Xueyan could still sense her excitement.

As long as it was bought from this bookstore, it should be a gift for Ning Huaiyuan!

“Well, let’s go upstairs together!” Ning Xueyan said with a gentle smile. At this moment, Ning Lingyun came over with her maid. Ning Qingshan pulled Ning Xueyan forward, so Ning Lingyun followed behind them and then the three of them went up the stairs together.

The stairway that led to the second floor was on the right side of the bookstore. Looking from the place where Ning Xueyan was at before, it could not be seen and even Lanning could only see several steps on the stairway. But because she kept an eye on Caifen, she knew that Caifen had secretly gone up once just now.

The stairs were not big, and two people could walk up side by side. Ning Xueyan and Ning Qingshan went up together, while Ning Lingyun and the maids followed them. Unexpectedly, Ning Qingshan slipped and nearly fell off the stairs when she just walked up two flights of stairs. Seeing this, Ning Lingyun in the rear jumped with fright and hurriedly reached out to help her.

In their panic, they almost slipped a few steps down the stairs together. After standing still, Ning Qingshan held Ning Lingyun’s hands in horror and steadied herself.

“Third Sister, how are you? Are you all right? Did you hit yourself? Does it hurt?” Ning Lingyun was so scared that she almost wanted to cry. The maid behind her supported her with her hand and she in turn held on to Ning Qingshan. Although Ning Xueyan could not see her face, she knew that her face must be pale.

“I... I’m fine...” Ning Qingshan’s voice was very weak. Obviously, she was too scared to say anything. She grabbed Ning Lingyun’s shoulder with one hand uneasily and hung on to the railing with the other hand nervously.

“Third Sister, do you need to go down to rest?” Ning Xueyan stopped and turned to ask Ning Qingshan. Ning Qingshan’s movement was too fast just now. When she trembled, Lanning held Ning Xueyan’s hand for fear that she would be dragged down by Ning Qingshan. But unexpectedly, Ning Qingshan actually pulled Ning Lingyun, but Ning Lingyun managed to keep her balance because she was standing in a lower position.

“No. Fifth Sister, you go up first. I’ll take a break and then come up.” Ning Qingshan shook her head and said this more quickly than before. Obviously, she was not as frightened now. She loosened her grip on the railing, gave Ning Xueyan a gentle push and motioned her to go up. “You go up and I will have more space here. Just let me stand still for a while and I will be fine.”

The two of them came up together before and it was indeed a bit crowded. Since she said that, Ning Xueyan could no longer stand beside her. “Third Sister and Fourth Sister, I’ll go up first.”

Ning Xueyan stepped up again. Lanning followed behind her and guarded her carefully. But unexpectedly, when she just walked up to the second floor and before she had time to take in the scene before her eyes, a strong gust of wind blew toward her...