The ability of Yu Miao Qi to deceive and confuse others' minds could evidently be seen with her bribing so many servants to set up such a venomous scheme and even had Jiang Xue's willingness to die for her when she had only been in charge of the household for less than a month. Fearing that both her grandmother and elder brother would also be hoodwinked, Yu Si Yu circled beneath the tree and stood on tiptoes from time to time as she craned her neck to look.
"Want to eavesdrop? Then go ahead." Yu Xiang spoke casually as she scattered a handful of fish food into the pond.
"But Feng Momo and Ma Momo are guarding the door, I dare not." Yu Si Ya was extremely fearful of both Momos.
"Go, they won't stop you." Yu Xiang waved her sleeve.
It was truly a rare sight in a hundred years that they did not argue or fight against each other secretly while staying together in the same place. It was not until this moment that Yu Si Yu truly understood how candid Yu Xiang's nature is. If you are courteous to her, she will somewhat be polite to you too; if you are nice to her, she will also be good to you and if you treat her genuinely, she will simply reciprocate wholeheartedly.
It's undoubtedly the most comfortable and safest to get along with such a person as you do not have to be afraid which wrong verse has offended her then get stabbed in the back. Without doubt, it is rather intolerable if she retaliates face on, but once it's over, it is over as she will never hold any grudges.
Shaking her head, Yu Si Yu sighed when she recalled all the past dealings and asked anxiously after a short while, "What's the use even if it's proven that I did not exchange the tokens of love with Fang Zhi Chen? My innocence is ruined by his hands and I'm afraid I will still have to marry him. I absolutely never expected him to be this sort of person."
"With that blockhead of yours, there are still many unexpected things." Yu Xiang snickered.
Choked with a red face, Yu Si Yu merely snorted coldly without retort. In the past, she would not conceded when Yu Xiang condemned her brainlessness but now that she had understood and thought it through, she herself felt stupid, or else why would she wailed and cried out wanting to marry into that filthy Fang family, even going so far as to destroy her own reputation without hesitant.
Looking at her sullen expression, Yu Xiang comforted, "Don't worry, Elder Brother will never let you marry a scumbag like Fang Zhi Chen. With our Elder Brother's special position as a pawn used by the Emperor to contend against the various prominent families, it's predestined that daughters of the Marquis manor cannot marry into any prominent families. Even if my legs aren't impaired, at most I can only marry a poor official without foundation which earnestly not be any better than you. Grandmother has already done her best to arrange the most secure route for you, not that she doesn't love you. It's better to marry low than to climb high as you have Marquis Yongle manor and the All Commander Yu behind you, won't everything go your way when you marry into your husband's family? Yet you like to disparage yourself while persistently worming your way into the wealthy and influential families, preferring to bend over servilely and be other's concubines instead of living your lives happily."
This time, Yu Si Yu listened with utter seriousness and sighed deeply after a long silence, "So, that's how it is. It's nevertheless my misconstrued of Grandmother and Elder Brother. What you said is right, marrying low is indeed much better than climbing high and living to my heart's content."
"This kind of marrying low thing does not necessarily lead to a comfortable life, you have to open your eyes, pick a good man who has the ability to take charge and has a sense of responsibility. If you choose accurately, you will have a pivot in this lifetime. Like the last time you pick that Li family's son, a total worthless who is even so pretentious, 'scoff'..." Yu Xiang sneered disdainfully.
Yu Si Yu used to think that Yu Xiang's mouth was malicious, her every word contained needles and every verse was barbed. But after she had made peace with her state of psyche, she realized every word of hers (YX) was epitome without nonsense hence she couldn't help but laughed, "What Younger Sister said is true, I should have listened to you. Otherwise I wouldn't have picked and chose then settled again on another heartless bastard." As she had been getting along with Yu Xiang for a long time, she didn't notice herself but others could clearly see that her previous artificial hypocrisy temperament like Yu Miao Qi had slowly developed into shrewishness over the years.
She is not the material to trifle in the boudoir fights but she has become an expert in unreasonable lambasting. If she married into a wealthy family with this temperament, there is a possibility of her suffering an implicit death, but she will never be bullied if she married into a lowly household which was also done right by Yu Xiang.
Both of them had a few heart-to-heart words and felt that their relationship had unexpectedly become much closer. After scattering the handful of fish food, Yu Xiang patted her palms and said, "Go and listen then tell me. My chair is bulky. Elder Brother shall hear even before I get close."
Nodding her head gladly, Yu Si Yu sneaked closer to the main hall and sure enough, both Feng Momo and Ma Momo turned a blind eye to her. Their deterrence was originally not her but rather against Yu Xiang, fearing that the fight inside would expose the origin of both persons and cause her grief.
Lin Shi gave an emotional speech to her son and Old Madam, with two insinuations; firstly was no matter Yu Si Yu was framed or not, she had to marry Fang Zhi Chen hastily then leave the Capital far far away to quell this storm; secondly was Yu Xiang's murderous and vicious intent against her sisters. After all, she is not of Yu family's lineage, hence they should immediately prepare a carriage to send her to the countryside hamlet and disallow to come back in the future.
Yu Pin Yan and Old Madam listened woodenly but Yu Si Yu was blowing her top, she could not wait to charge in and ripped Lin Shi apart. On the day of the incident, she was still moved to tears with gratitude for the support of Lin Shi and Yu Miao Qi but she never expected these two bitches to turn around and stab her ruthlessly. If she is lucky enough to stay this time, she will definitely make them pay the price!
Thinking back, the Achilles heels of Yu Miao Qi is also equivalent to Yu Xiang's which will be unpleasant to Yu Xiang if it is made public. Struggling for a long while, she finally wiped out the evil thoughts that came to her mind.
In the hall, Yu Pin Yan opened his mouth and spoke in a cold voice after putting the teacup down, "Have you finished? This Marquis will say a few words once you're done."
Sitting back in her seat, Lin Shi braced herself and admonished, "The evidence is irrefutable, what else do you have to say? Do you want to oppress others based on your status? You even used 'this Marquis' when you spoke to me, have you forgotten who carried you in the womb for ten months and gave birth to you? You unfilial son!"
"Indeed have forgotten. Who could remember such a remote matter? This Marquis only remembers being personally brought up by Grandmother while this life was saved time and again by Xiang'er. This Marquis will not be here today without the both of them. Don't you use the order of seniority to suppress this Marquis. Didn't you know that all the Yu family's Shu[1] branches were personally destroyed by this Marquis while there was no shortage of Yu family's blood staining this Marquis' hands." He curled his knuckles up and tapped the table top where the dull sound seemingly pounced onto the chest and directly bore into the heart, creeping the people out.
Lin Shi was rendered speechless by his words while Yu Miao Qi's expression turned even more ghastly and the hands hidden within her sleeves trembled slightly. There was even bloodshed among the clansmen, Yu Pin Yan's brutality is far beyond her expectations. What's to be done if he found out that she was the instigator of all these? !
Yu Miao Qi once again fell into deep remorse, amongst was splashing dirty water on Yu Xiang, otherwise this would not have led to such a great deal of turmoil.
Yu Pin Yan did not even look at the expressions of both mother and daughter as he opened his mouth slowly, "A month ago, two people from the manor took leave. One was Jin Shi's second son-in-law and the other was a page boy, Zhou Tong who went back to his hometown to visit his seriously ill mother. As Xiang'er took pity on Zhou Tong and his widowed mother who had no one to rely on, she gave him twenty taels before he left. The remains of Zhou Tong had been found by this Marquis a few days ago, only to have his neck skillfully broken by someone and abandoned in the mountain stream. Coincidentally, the subordinates sent by this Marquis to investigate in Yangzhou also found a corpse with a broken neck who also died the same way as Zhou Tong at the downstream of Yangtze River. The method is so efficient which proves the perpetrator had received special military training. If this Marquis remembers correctly, Jin Shi, your second son-in-law used to serve under this Marquis' troops but was driven out of the barracks after sentenced to eighty strokes of wooden staves for murder under the influence of alcohol. His usual killing technique was chokehold. That Zhou Tong presumably must be the third pot of dirty water that you guys wished to splash on Xiang'er's head and merely waited to send someone looking for his corpse in a few days time before framing Xiang'er for silencing a witness by murdering him."
Sweating profusely, Jin Momo's limbs weakened as she stammered, "Wh- what Marquis said, Nubi completely do not know."
Yu Pin Yan paid no attention to her and continued, "Merely returned home for a month or so, Yu Miao Qi is not yet capable to make a maidservant faithful to her unto death. This Jiang Xue was truly a victim of unjust death. A month ago, she went out shopping and was coaxed into the wilderness by the daughter of Jin Shi who was also out with her where she was raped by the eldest son-in-law of Jin Shi. Her dudou[2] was ripped off in exchanged for something, otherwise her disgraced affair would be publicized. Having no choice, Jiang Xue could only leapt in even knowing it was a dead end. Yu Miao Qi, this Marquis has always prided myself on my ingenuity ruthlessness yet did not expect a weak woman like you to actually be able to scheme others into such a desperate situation. You are really good."
He turned to face the stiffly seated Yu Miao Qi by the side. Although he spat out praises, his expression was extremely menacing.
With her eyes shut, Old Madam was stroking the prayer rosary and kept chanting the mantra of afterlife.
Outside the door, Yu Si Yu only felt a gush of cold air making its way from the soles of her feet to her scalp. She was so horrified that her liver and galls were about to split open. Three human lives were so easily schemed away and merely at the age of fourteen. Pondering about the things she had done at the age of fourteen, which at most were just harassing and making some troubles for Yu Xiang. Not to mention doing things that would harm others' lives, even thinking about it, she wouldn't even dare!
Compared to Yu Miao Qi, Yu Xiang is simply too kind! Her previous own various actions of blackmailing Yu Miao Qi was tantamount to walking on the edge of a cliff where she would be condemned to a horrible death under mere carelessness! Kneading her chest vigorously, Yu Si Yu just managed to quell the panicky in her heart yet her forehead unknowingly exuded a great deal of fine sweat.
In the hall, Yu Miao Qi forcibly pretended to be calm and said, "Everyone has already died, hence aren't these words still at Elder Brother's disposal? I know that Elder Brother is partial to Yu Xiang yet you can't play favoritism to this extent. Distorting the truth deliberately to exonerate her even when the evidence is conclusive and falsely incriminated me. I have always been on friendly terms with the Eldest Sister, so what reason would I have to harm her? On the contrary, Yu Xiang ..." She paused here then raised a hand to pledge solemnly, "I have never done those things that Elder Brother said and dare to swear towards the Buddha; if I did it, I will be struck by thunder and plunged into purgatory, never to be human ever again and reduced to be animal forever!"
Old Madam's eyes snapped open abruptly and her gaze was blazing like torches as she looked at her.
Yu Pin Yan responded indifferently, "It might be more appropriate to change 'I did it' to 'I incited it'."
Pursing her lips, Yu Miao Qi swore another poisonous oath. She does not believe in supernatural beings, merely believes that her fate is up to herself and not the Heavens. Not only could she swear twice, she was not afraid to even vow a hundred or a thousand times.
Looking at her, Old Madam's gaze turned all the more colder while blue veins unexpectedly appeared on the back of her hand that was pinching the rosary, evident that her patience had reached its limit.
Contrarily, Jin Momo was obtuse as she immediately refuted, "Marquis is somewhat unaware that my son-in-law asked for leave because he broke his leg by falling. How could he travel all the way to Yangzhou to kill? These things are truly related to Second Young Miss and have nothing to do with Nubi's family. Requesting the Marquis for clear judgement."
"Unlike Lin Shi who never leaves the house, shouldn't you know what this Marquis does for a living." With narrowed eyes, Yu Pin Yan sneered, "This Marquis adjudicates countless cases, so how could this Marquis not be able to distinguish between a new injury and the old ones. Oh, by the way, this Marquis forgot to tell you that your sons, daughters and grandchildren along with all your clan relatives are now locked in the Marquis manor's dungeon. As they were unable to stand the tortures, the confessions that ought or should not, have all already been owned up while the warrant had been signed and drawn up. The reason why this is broached now is merely to reckon more clearly the kind of person Yu Miao Qi is. As expected of my Yu Pin Yan's younger sister, she is indeed cruel and ruthless!"
Once these words were out, the whole room was silent except for the sound of teeth chattering from the master and servants of Lin Shi. A short while later, another muffled sound of silk snapping reverberated while the rosary in Old Madam's hand unexpectedly severed into two parts as the sandalwood beads tumbled pitter-patter to the ground and rolled away in every direction.