Chapter 447 Set a Trap in the Puguang Temple: How Vicious!
“Third Sister, Third Sister. It’s not like that. I… I… I want to leave King Yan’s Manor. Please, please help me. Third Sister. Otherwise, I will die. They will torture me to death.” It seemed that something occurred to Mo Xueqiong, and she shivered. She was as thin as a lath. Trembling with fear, she could not speak a simple sentence with tears pouring down. Obviously, she did live a miserable life in King Yan’s Manor.
“You want to leave King Yan’s Manor?” Mo Xuetong frowned slightly and asked.
“Yes, Third Sister. I can only survive if I leave there. Third Sister, please save me, save me. As long as you can save me from King Yan’s Manor, I will spend my rest life praying to Buddha for you.” Mo Xueqiong begged.
“Why don’t you go to Father?”
“No… Father is not the King Yan’s match. Only Third Sister and King Xuan can help me. His Highness, King Xuan is His Majesty’s favored son. Third Sister, you have a way to help me out. Right?” Mo Xueqiong stretched out her hand to pull Mo Xuetong’s sleeve, almost like grasping the last life-saving straw. She raised her head and begged Mo Xuetong with tears.
Mo Xuetong was silent for a while and did not speak.
Mo Yu felt sorry for Mo Xueqiong and forgot how disgusted she felt just now for Mo Xueqiong. Mo Yu’s eyes became slightly red and she said with some hesitation, “My Lady, Fourth Miss is so pitiful. Could you…”
Mo Xuetong took a sideways glare at Mo Yu, which stunned Mo Yu, and then she did not continue her words. However, Mo Yu did not look at Mo Xueqiong as fiercely as before, instead, there was a hint of sympathy in her eyes.
“My Lady!” Mo Ye also spoke timidly beside with the intention to beg for Mo Xueqiong. Mo Xueqiong’s several words actually softened the hearts of the people in the room.
“Mo Ye, help Fourth Miss up.” Mo Xuetong said.
Mo Ye came to help Mo Xueqiong up who had crumpled over the ground with tears.
“Well, tell me how you want to leave.” Mo Xuetong looked apathetic with a penetrating chill in her eyes. She just stared at Mo Xueqiong quietly, and did not ask the question till Mo Xueqiong felt flustered by the stare and lowered the head to pretend to cry.
Mo Xueqiong was overjoyed inwardly. With gratitude in her eyes, she took out a handkerchief to wipe her tears and said, “Third Sister, I will listen to you all. I have no idea now. And I will listen to whatever you say.”
“You really have no idea?” Mo Xuetong looked calm.
“Third Sister, I, I really…” Mo Xueqiong looked at Mo Xuetong timidly and answered hesitantly.
“Since you have no idea, just come back and think about it. Come to tell me when you have any idea. Mo Ye, send Fourth Miss back.” Mo Xuetong’s face froze suddenly, and she put the teacup in her hand heavily on the table, and stood up, about to come into the inner room.
“Third Sister, Third Sister, I… I have an idea, please… please help me.” Seeing Mo Xuetong answered so pointedly, Mo Xueqiong realized things would go bad, so she hurried to block Mo Xuetong’s way and shouted, with panic and fluster full of her eyes.
“Have you got an idea?” Mo Xuetong turned back and asked coldly.
“Third Sister, I do have an idea, but I don’t know if it’s feasible, so I dare not to tell Third Sister.” Mo Xueqiong said with tears and peeped at Mo Xuetong. Finding Mo Xuetong just looked cold but not angry, Mo Xueqiong felt a sigh of relief in her heart.
Mo Xuetong sat down on the couch again and looked at Mo Xueqiong. “Go ahead!”
Mo Xueqiong nodded and said with sobs, “A few days later, it is the anniversary of King Yan’s mother’s death. His Majesty allows King Yan and the ladies in the manor to worship in the temple. And I will go there as well. If Third Sister can arrange several people to aid me behind the temple, I can succeed in escaping. I am not valued in King Yan’s Manor and don’t get a royal recognition. So even though I disappear, no one will care about me. Besides, it happens in the temple, which will have nothing to do with Third Sister.”
Her words sounded methodical. It could be a feasible plan. Not to mention whether Mo Xueqiong was valued or not in King Yan’s Manor, Mo Xueqiong was just a second consort without any royal background. Even though something terrible did happen to her in the temple, who could she turn to for help? Moreover, considering King Yan’s current situation, he was being grounded, so he had to keep a lower profile now so as not to stir up any trouble to displease the Emperor. Even if Mo Xueqiong disappeared, King Yan just reported that she died of a disease.
Who really cared about whether she was alive or dead?
“Which temple?” Mo Xuetong frowned.
“It’s the Puguang Temple outside the capital, where King Yan’s mother is placed. At this time of the year, King Yan always takes people there.” Seeing Mo Xuetong did not refuse, Mo Xueqiong felt overjoyed, but still wore sadness on her face. She said, “On that day, a number of people will go there. I wonder whether the people sent by Third Sister will recognize me. If something unexpected happens, it doesn’t matter that I can’t escape, but if Third Sister will suffer it, even death cannot exonerate me from the blame.”
King Yan would bring the ladies to go with him. Although it was impossible to know the number, judging from Mo Xuetong’s dangerous experience in King Yan’s Manor last time, the women around King Yan must be in a large number. Mo Xueqiong could go to the back door when those women too. Make sure that Mo Xuetong’s people would not get the wrong person, otherwise, it would cause terrible trouble.
Even though Mo Xueqiong was not valued in King Yan’s Manor, she was still a second consort that the Emperor awarded to King Yan.
Mo Xueqiong talked as if she planned everything for Mo Xuetong.
“Oh well, I won’t send any people there. You figure it out yourself!” Mo Xuetong blurted.
Mo Xueqiong’s face turned red immediately, and she dared not to make her statement too absolute, and hurriedly justified herself, “I know that Third Sister must have a way to save me. Only this time, as long as I can escape this time, I will never bother Third Sister anymore, and all I want is to live a restful Iife and pray for Father and Third Sister.”
“There must be many women coming out of the back door at that time. How can the people I send tell which one is you?” Mo Xuetong looked at her nonchalantly and asked.
Mo Xueqiong was dumb by the question. She went around in circles, clapped her hands suddenly, and said, “I got an idea! Third Sister, could you pretend to light incense in the temple that day, so that you can recognize me at the back door, and ask people to take me away? With Third Sister’s presence, everything will be okay without a doubt.”
“Do you want me to go there?” Mo Xuetong’s eyes darkened and looked at Mo Xueqiong nonchalantly.
“Third Sister, Third Sister. Just this time, only this time. I am afraid, I am afraid if I fail to escape this time and get caught, I… I’ll have no way but a dead end. Third Sister, save me!” Mo Xueqiong shrank with a shiver and begged Mo Xuetong with a hint of fear and panic flashing under her eyes, as if she was really scared to the extreme.
“My Lady, could you please go there? It happens that you will pray for the baby in the Madam’s belly. How about going to the Puguang Temple conveniently? It’s said that the Buddhas there are so efficacious. Last time, My Lady, when you were ill, I went there as well. It is prosperous.” Mo Yu looked at the poor Mo Xueqiong and spoke for her.
“Third Sister, only this time. If, with the Third Sister’s assistance, I am still unable to escape King Yan’s clutch, I… I will jump down from the cliff over there as an explanation to Third Sister.” Mo Xueqiong screamed with a trace of resolution in her eyes, showing a look that said she would die if she could not escape. Her weak body shook and crumbled.
The room became silent immediately. Mo Xuetong held up the teacup quietly, took a sip and used the celadon tea lid to sweep the tea foam. After a while, she said coolly, “Well, you go back first. When the day comes, you send a letter to inform me.”
“Okay, thank you. Third Sister, I… I thank you very much.” Mo Xuetong sobbed with excitement and gratitude, as if she could not say anything but only thanks at that moment.
Mo Xuetong did not ask her to stay there longer, but just said a few words distantly. Mo Xueqiong thought the thing was settled and did not continue to stay there, and she excused herself with gratitude and made an agreement to meet with Mo Xuetong in the Puguang Temple.
Seeing Mo Xueqiong coming out of the room, Mo Yan and Mo Jiao hurried to come out and left with Mo Xueqiong.
Not until the three people had gone far, did Mo Lan return to the room. Inside the room, Mo Yu had replaced the tea for Mo Xuetong. When seeing Mo Lan come in, Mo Yu asked immediately, “Have you sounded out anything?”
Mo Xuetong also looked over.
“My Lady, Mo Yan and Mo Jiao have close mouths. I asked them for a long time, but got nothing from them. But Mo Jiao spilled the bean and said that the gifts that Fourth Miss brought to the manor were all given by Consort Yan. After saying that, Mo Yan gave a fierce kick to Mo Jiao under the table. Then, however I tried to ask, Mo Jiao just pretended to be dumb while Mo Yan answered me beside.”
Mo Lan came forward to report.
“Just some gifts sent by Consort Yan. Was it worth making a fuss for Mo Yan and Mo Jiao?” We don’t like those things yet.” Mo Yu curled her lip subconsciously and said.
Mo Xuetong’s eyed darkened with a trace of mockery in her eyes. Mo Xueqiong really thought that Mo Xuetong would be cheated to the Puguang Temple by a few soft words. In the last life, Mo Xuetong had happened to know that the dead consorts of the royal family should be put in the Repayment Temple in the capital for praying. After all, it was the royal temple. and those royal dead consorts were not allowed to be randomly placed anywhere else.
“Consort Yan treats Fourth Miss so well, and even gave her the gifts to return to the paternal home. However, our Fourth Miss still performed as if she had been bullied seriously.” Mo Ye also sensed something unusual and said angrily.
“My Lady, all Fourth Miss did was pretense?” Mo Yu blinked and understood what Mo Lan meant, so she asked nervously, “Shall we tell His Highness?”
Thinking that Mo Xueqiong and Mo Xuemin framed Mo Xuetong last time, Mo Yu felt flurried, and her face turned pale with her eyes staring at Mo Xuetong, as if a great calamity was at hand.
Mo Yu’s countenance as though she was confronted by a formidable enemy made the people present laugh.
“Why shall we tell His Highness? Just Mo Xueqiong loathes me and tries to deal with me again. Anyway, I have Mo Feng and Mo Ye around. It is not a big deal.” Mo Xuetong smiled.
“My Lady, do you really want to go? That’s not okay. It’s too dangerous. It will be terrible that Mo Xueqiong stirs any trouble at that time.” Mo Lan’s smile dissolved, and she said with a severe countenance.
“It’s okay. Since someone wants Mo Xueqiong to set the trap, it is not only targeted at me. If I don’t go this time, I don’t know what will happen next time. I might as well go to see and let the person drop the idea forever. By the way, I want to know who is trying to frame me!”
Mo Xuetong said calmly with a hint of coldness flashing on her lips. She exhaled a long breath of depression from her chest. As for Mo Xueqiong’s end, Mo Xuetong showed no sympathy for her. Just now, Mo Xuetong had seen clearly that Mo Xueqiong sobbed hysterically while peeping at Mo Xuetong’s face secretly.
Obviously, Mo Xueqiong had plotted well, but still pretended to be helpless in front of her. But for Mo Xuetong really wanted to leave and Mo Xueqiong was forced to reveal what she wanted, perhaps Mo Xueqiong would have not told her real intention before acting for a longer time. Mo Xueqiong’s words were mixed with the false and true, and most of them were true, but the false part was the key to frame Mo Xuetong.
Chapter 448 Dishonored: A Good Show in the Gold Store
The person behind the scenes was really a master, and knew that the utter mendacity was not convincing, so he simply presented a mixture of truth and falsehood and made others hard to guess the real intention. However, it was a pity that it was a good plan, but Mo Xueqiong was not a good actress. With Mo Xueqiong’s temperament, she could not do those extreme behaviors. Judging from Mo Xueqiong’s current life, she would have died several times.
Besides, based on Mo Xueqiong’s knowledge, how could it be possible for her to devise such a plot? Just now, Mo Xuetong had pondered several times. It was a major crime to abduct the imperial second consort. If something would happen before that, Feng Yuran would be involved as well. Perhaps, King Yan would revive as a victim. In this regard, the person who tried to frame Mo Xuetong was rather calculative!
Mo Xuetong didn’t stay long in Mo Manor. Before the meal, King Xuan’s Manor sent people there. Mo Xuetong said goodbye to Xu Yan first, and then to Mo Huawen in the courtyard, then took her people back to the King Xuan’s Manor.
When she came out of the gate, she found Mo Xueqiong getting on the carriage at the side door. It was an oil-wall carriage, totally different from that of King Manor. But the coachman looked quite capable, and he sat on the carriage. With a light whip, the carriage moved immediately.
“He is a martial art master!” Mo Ye saw him and said to Mo Xuetong in the carriage.
Mo Xuetong nodded, her long eyelashes closed, and leaned against the soft couch to take a nap! She was wondering what the message that Feng Yuran asked people to send meant. “Ask her to see a good show? Where to see it?”
On the most bustling streets in the capital, people were hurrying to and fro every day, and stores were arranged in rows. The wide road extended to an endless distance.
A carriage stopped at the entrance of a store, and a decently dressed maidservant got off the carriage and walked into a well decorated gold store.
When the shopkeeper sitting in the store saw a guest coming in, he smiled and signaled his shop assistant to receive the guest. The assistant found the guest was a decent maidservant and knew that she must come from a great family, so he received her with all smiles and asked, “Miss, what do you want?”
“Well, where is the jade-and-jewelry-inlaid writing brush washer engraved with the double fish pattern that my master settled on last time? Wrap it for me now. Our master is waiting outside.” The maidservant said scornfully and tartly. Her behavior told that she must be a capable senior maidservant coming from a great manor.
The shop assistant went blank for a while and suddenly realized what she meant when looking at the direction that the maidservant pointed at. Then, he recognized immediately the maidservant in front. It was true that the maidservant had come to the store two days ago, but they did make an agreement on the price, so she left at that time.
“Miss, do you mean the writing brush washer that you settled on last time? To tell you the truth, your master did have a good taste. It is really a wonderful writing brush washer. But pity that your master didn’t buy it last time, and a guest just bought it with one thousand taels of silver.” The shop assistant put on a smile to placate the maidservant.
“What, it is worth one thousand taels of silver?” Hearing the shop assistant’s reply, the maidservant said with a displeased and cold look, “Don’t put on airs in front of me. Take it out. Our master said she didn’t bargain with you anymore, and got it with 500 taels.”
“Miss, I am not cheating you. It is really worth one thousand taels. Besides, even if you want it now, we don’t have. It makes no sense to argue about it any longer. What about this one? It is another writhing brush washer made by new jade. Look at the lines in the patterns of peony. It is suitable for madams and ladies.”
The shop assistant said smilingly, with a fair face to make fortune.
But the maidservant glared at him and said, “What? Is it sold? Didn’t I tell you not to sell several days ago? And my master needed to think more about it. How dare you sell it to others?”
The words were extremely overbearing, and the shop assistant was stunned and lost in words at that moment.
Upon seeing it, the shopkeeper walked to them with a smile and said, “Miss, your words are unreasonable. Your master did not fix it in advance or promise to buy. Why can’t we sell it to others? You know the goods we have are famous in the entire capital. Many people of influential families would like to buy goods from us. If you walk out of the door, it is impossible for you to pick up such good things in other stores. That day, your master thought 800 taels was too high. And now, a guest can afford 1,000 taels for it. How can we refuse it?”
The remarks sounded polite on the surface, but with the shopkeeper’s false smile, it sounded quite ironic. The maidservant’s face darkened immediately, and she looked at the cynical smiles around her and felt a loss of face.
Xiangyun was not humiliated like that after she became Ling Rui’er’s maidservant, so she got annoyed instantly. As she stood with one hand on her hip, she pointed at the shopkeeper with the other and scolded, “What a snob! Do you know who our master is? You can go to ask in the entire capital. No one dares to offend our master, and all bow and serve obsequiously to our master. Why dare you look down upon us?”
Her shout attracted some customers in the store to stop and look at her. Her aggressive posture with one hand on the hip and the other pointing at the old shopkeeper was rather rude and unreasonable. Besides, her repetition of “our master” and the claim of how terrific the master was aroused the curiosity of some idlers.
Someone began to kick up a row. “Who is your master exactly? Ask her to get off the carriage and let us have a look.”
“Yes. I’m afraid the master is nothing, but just an unruly maidservant makes a fuss here. She is only bluffing!”
“It’s possible. I heard that there are many swashbuckling people in the capital who like talking big. Don’t assume great airs and ask for trouble here.” …
With more people gathering around, their remarks sounded rather unpleasant to ears. Xiangyun got so get exasperated that she glared at the crowd and yelled, “What do you guys know? Don’t mess with our master, otherwise, you will not know how you will die.”
“Wow, your master is so awesome. I’m so scared!” The sentence came from the crowd, and its surly tone set the whole store in an uproar.
“Who? Who said it? Do you dare to come out?” It was the first time for Xiangyun to be derided like that. Her face turned livid with anger, and she pointed at the crowd, cursing.
“What can you do if the person comes out? To chat and drink tea with your master, or…” The jeer became more ambiguous and shabbier, even molested Ling Rui’er. Then, there was one more burst of uproar in the store, and Ling Rui’er in the carriage outside also heard it. She frowned and got off the carriage angrily with another maidservant.
Ling Rui’er heard that her brother was injured by someone, so hurried to see him. When passing the store, she remembered that there was a good writing brush washer in the store and wanted to buy it for Ling Yang. But unexpectedly, since Xiangyun had entered the store for a long time, not only did she not take the writing brush washer out, but also her screams and the people’s jeers came from inside.
The mockery of Ling Rui’er’s maidservant was like a slap in the face. She had never been dishonored like that, so she did not think whether she should expose herself in public and just entered the store with rage.
“Well, is she the master?” Someone turned around, found the angry Ling Rui’er, and teased.
“I’m afraid she is. Look at them, the master and the servant are the same. If they stand on the street, they are just a rascally pair.” Although Ling Rui’er looked imposing, a fellow, who came from the civil world, still had the gut to poke fun at her.
“Come on! Beat these people out of here!”
Ling Rui’er flew into a frenzy and said to the coachman behind her with her teeth clenched.
The coachman was good at martial arts, so he came up with a whip and beat it to the crowd. With only a blow, the people in front of him were thrown out, and some were unluckily hit to the pedestal of the column. They covered their aching heads and tried standing up. However, the container behind shook, and some golden and jade utensils on it shook and clanged…
“Hurry up! Hold on to the container over there.” The shopkeeper’s countenance changed with a scare. And he had no time to argue with Ling Rui’er any longer, but shouted his shop assistants to help it. But before the shop assistants rushed to hold on to the container, the golden and jade utensils could not keep still and fell down one by one. And accidentally, some of them smashed on a fallen person’s head. Immediately, the head was hit with blood flowing down.
The person had just sat up, but fell down again with a scream.
Looking at the man’s blood gushing down and lying there unconscious, making it hard to know whether he was hit to death, the shopkeeper and his assistants fell on the ground with fear; the rest of the people were startled first, and then escaped from the store with screams. “Someone is killed! Come on! Someone is killed here!”
“Someone is dead! Someone is hit to death!”
“A woman has killed someone here.”
People outside didn’t know what was happening inside. Seeing so many people rushing out of the store, a person outside pulled one of them and asked hurriedly, “What happened inside?”
“A woman got out of this carriage, went inside and killed a man. He is still lying… lying inside. And the woman is still in… The lying… lying person…”
Perhaps the man was too panicked to speak coherently, as he tried to shake off the hand which grabbed his sleeve.
A woman in that carriage? Everyone’s eyes fell on the carriage parked at the door. Someone recognized it as the carriage of King Chu’s Manor and whispered: “The people of King Chu’s Manor.”
“Yes, the people of King Chu’s Manor!”
“The woman of King Chu’s Manor is lying inside with a man, and someone is killed by a smash…” All the people were shocked, but their greater gossip enthusiasm was aroused. Then, an imaginative picture was formed that a woman of King Chu’s Manor took a carriage to have a private date with a man in the store, but for some unknown reasons, they had a quarrel, and then, the woman killed the man.
Such an erotic story happened in the gold store, which drove a mass of excited spectators to gather at the door again, because they wanted to see clearly who the woman of the King Chu’s Manor was.
The public remarks were so powerful that people on the street all guessed and blocked at the door. Before they entered the store, Ling Rui’er took her maidservants to go out, and the coachman opened the way for her. His whip beat mercilessly to the crowd. Ling Rui’er realized that something was strange, so she just wanted to leave there as soon as possible.
“Get out of the way.” Seeing more and more people at the door, the coachman shouted anxiously.
Seeing his whip beating, the pedestrians retreated subconsciously. But a voice came from the crowd, “How can it be Consort Chu?” The voice was so loud that all the people heard it.
Immediately, different voices came from different places rang, “Consort Chu has affairs with a man, and even injured people. How is that possible?”
“How is that not possible? Who knows if Consort Chu did it because of being treated coldly by King Chu…”
“But even though she had a private meet with a man, she cannot kill people. Can a king’s consort be so profligate?” The words sounded extremely unpleasant to ears. No matter how Ling Rui’er tried to pretend, the words still spread to her ears.
“Who said it?” Ling Rui’er stood and asked coldly.
Seeing Ling Rui’er burst with anger, no one dared to reply in the crowd. But some jeers were heard here and there. And then, the crowd dispersed in an uproar.
A few words came from the distance, “Dare to do, but did not dare to admit! It seems that this king’s consort has no gut indeed.”
“What kind of man had such bad luck that this king’s consort took a fancy to him? See, he died of his lust now!”
Sarcastic remarks came one after another. But for the constraint of her status, Ling Rui’er would have gone mad at that time.
“My Lady, My Lady, please don’t get angry. Let’s go back first.” Xiangyun knew it was inappropriate at this time, so she pulled Ling Rui’er to the carriage.
“I, I can hardly swallow it.” Ling Rui’er said with hatred.
“My Lady, there must be someone plotting on this matter. We should go back and find out who it is. But it is not suitable for you to be here now.” Xiangyun persuaded.
Ling Rui’er also knew that she could not stay there any longer. Gossips filled the air. The more she stayed, the more gossips about her would appear. So she gritted her teeth and did not say anything more. Then, she turned around, about to leave.
“My Lady, My Lady, please wait! How can you leave now? My Lady, please spare our lives. Those things, those things are smashed by the people at your order!”
Ling Rui’er wanted to gloss it over, but the shopkeeper did not agree and rushed out with a few shop assistants. Some held the horse, some knelt in front of her, and even a guy lay on the ground to block her way and screamed loudly, which attracted more lookers-on.
They were acting insanely. But Ling Rui’er had no way to deal with them now, but had to bite the back teeth to said to Xiangyun, “Give them tael notes!”