Chapter 988 Rake Over the Past Three Years Ago…
“Okay, let’s split up later!” Qiu Yu nodded and agreed. He took out a bamboo order slip from the table and threw it down. “Runners, detain the three suspects!”
“Your Honor, my Big Sister is talking nonsense. She said so to s.h.i.+rk responsibility. Because my husband wouldn’t accept her as his legal wife, she cooked up the story. I hope you can find out the truth!” Ning Xueqing appealed loudly, pointing to Ning Caixian. “Vicious woman! She had competed with Qin Yuru for Childe Di, which nearly ruined the marriage between the two families. Now she came at us. How could such a woman tell the truth?”
“Wait a minute!” Wen Xichi reached out to stop the runner from taking her out. “What was the matter?”
“Your Honor, she is Ning Caixian, my Big Sister who is supposed to be dead already!” Ning Xueqing pointed to Ning Caixian. “She hooked up with Childe Di Yan. Then she was put into prison for making big trouble and was said to be dead inside. Today, I was shocked to see her again. I didn’t expect that she was still alive. I don’t know who asked her to slander us. Please make it clear, Your Honor!”
“Ning Caixian?” Qiu Yu looked at the people before him, and his eyes widened in surprise. In his eyes, this case without any death was originally trivial. Unexpectedly, so many secrets emerged. It was related to Princess Chen and Ning Caixian, who should have been dead in prison. Now the case was too weighty for him to handle.
“Find out if there is anyone behind Ning Caixian. Since the person named Ning Caixian was dead, how could she live outside completely uninjured?” Wen Xichi said unhurriedly. He stood up, touching his head. “Put them into custody!”
“Runners, take them away.” Qiu Yu also stood up and ordered harshly.
A few yamen runners came over and pulled the three people away.
“Your Honor, you’re right. Childe Di and w.a.n.g Shengxue backed me up. They had been helping me the whole time. w.a.n.g Shengxue had ulterior motives in supporting me!” When Ning Caixian was taken down, she suddenly shouted.
Ning Xueqing still wanted to argue, but she had been taken away.
The hall quieted down.
Wen Xichi and Qiu Yu left the hall and went into the inner room to sit down.
“Your Grace, what do you think about this matter?” Wen Xichi ranked higher than Qiu Yu. When they sat down, Qiu Yu could not help but ask. When the matter got much messier and more serious, he could not handle it.
“Go and find w.a.n.g Shengxue’s concubine, and I’ll go to Prince Chen’s Mansion,” Wen Xichi said with a faint smile.
Seeing that he remained so composed, Qiu Yu was relieved. Compared with going to Prince Chen’s Mansion, he preferred to catch w.a.n.g Shengxue’s concubine, who was accused of framing Princess Chen. How could a concubine make much trouble?
He had seen Princess Chen before when she was still Miss Shao. Although they had just exchanged a few words, Princess Chen looked formidable. After all, she was not easy to deal with as early as when she was just the Fifth Miss of the Marquis Xing’s Mansion. Nowadays, her status was even higher than his. Even Infanta Yuan’an had been proved to be no match for her. No matter how much Ruiping Great Elder Princess cared about her child, she didn’t argue. Qiu Yu could tell that Princess Chen was getting increasingly powerful.
It would be best if he could avoid going to Prince Chen’s Mansion.
After a discussion, they went out to do their jobs separately!
Hearing the news of Wen Xichi’s arrival, Shao Wanru was stunned at first, and then she understood. Once Ning Xueqing was in the prison, she would definitely make trouble with Ning Caixian. The two sisters were a pair of handfuls. Once they turned against each other, it would be a life-and-death struggle. If Ning Caixian was smart enough, she would inevitably turn to dig up their crimes in old times.
Ning Xueqing and w.a.n.g Shengxue did these evil deeds in the past, but w.a.n.g Shengxue must have had a special relations.h.i.+p with Ning Caixian. When Shao Wanru found out that the woman who had framed Yan Xi was Ning Caixian, she knew that there must be something strange behind this matter.
It wasn’t just this matter.
In her last life, many affairs about Yan Xi and her were handled together by the Marquis Xing’s Mansion. Shao Wanru conjectured that there must be some connections between them.
In this round of life, incidentally, the woman sent to frame Yan Xi was Ning Caixian! It should have been Ning Caixian who jumped off the building. However, she was not stupid. In the end, she used the servant girl as a scapegoat.
In Shao Wanru’s previous life, the servant girl had a different master, but still took the blame. What a coincidence!
“Invite Lord Wen to come in!” Shao Wanru said softly with a faint smile. Wen Xichi should have connected that matter with her. Shao Wanru didn’t know how much Ning Caixian had learned. But for her, the more Ning Caixian knew, the better.
As soon as Wen Xichi followed the maid in, he saluted Shao Wanru.
“Lord Wen, please sit down!” Shao Wanru, wearing a faint smile, gently showed him the seat with one hand. She was now Princess Chen, so she didn’t have to return his salute.
Wen Xichi sat down, and the servant girl served the tea. He picked up the teacup and took a sip. Then he gently put it down and looked up at Shao Wanru with a serious look. “Princess Chen, a case that happened before involves you!”
“Me?” Shao Wanru asked. She raised her watery eyes and looked a bit surprised.
Wen Xichi looked at her and said, “Along with a woman, w.a.n.g Shengxue plotted against Yan Xi, a candidate for the Palace Examination living in the Marquis Xing’s Mansion. The woman was named Zhao Qingyu, but her real name was Ning Caixian. I heard you save her maid before she was about to jump off the building!”
From the conversations among several runners in the Ministry of Justice, he had speculated that the person present should be Shao Wanru. At that time, she had said something that revealed her ident.i.ty.
Shao Wanru smiled. Indeed, she let fall the hint. Later, she thought someone going over it could easily find her ident.i.ty. Since Wen Xichi partic.i.p.ated in the case, it was not surprising that he figured out she was on the spot.
It was a small lapse. Fortunately, it was not serious.
“That day, I happened to go shopping with the daughter from the Prime Minister Zhang’s Mansion and the daughter of the Madam of Duke Yangqu’s son. When we were near the Number One Scholar Restaurant, we felt exhausted, so we went in to have a rest. But I didn’t expect to encounter such an incident!” Shao Wanru said, gazing into Wen Xichi’s eyes. She was clear that she couldn’t hide it from others, so she told him the truth.
She was really not afraid of any independent probe against her. It was almost impossible for others to guess what happened in her previous life. No one would figure out the truth: Shao Wanru remembered her last life, so she knew that a woman sent to frame Yan Xi would jump off the Number One Scholar Restaurant.
No matter how intelligent Wen Xichi was, he couldn’t have guessed the truth, so Shao Wanru was completely at ease when lying before him.
“It should be a coincidence. I didn’t write it down in the case file. Also, I’ve told the yamen runners not to gossip about you!” Wen Xichi nodded.
“Thank you, Lord Wen!” Shao Wanru smiled amiably. It was best not to get involved. Though they seemed to see the maid by chance, it would be troublesome if someone noticed this. Wen Xichi handled it in the best way.
“Nothing serious, Princess Chen. It’s not a big deal. Although you met her by chance and saved her out of good intentions, I’m afraid others might misunderstand what was happening!” Wen Xichi said with a gentle smile on his lips. “But another thing is related to you, so I have to come here and investigate it.”
“What’s the matter?” Shao Wanru frowned slightly and asked.
“Ning Caixian made a confession. w.a.n.g Shengxue and Ning Xueqing had conspired against you at the instigation of the Madam of Marquis Xing. It was on the day you returned to your original family, and many of your relatives were at the scene,” said Wen Xichi, eyes fixed on Shao Wanru. He wouldn’t let go of any changes in her expression.
Shao Wanru nodded calmly and said, “There was indeed someone who framed me at that time. If it weren’t for the unexpected fire, my reputation might have been ruined already!”
Many people had seen this matter. Thus, though they were ordered to keep it a secret, some rumors still spread out because there were too many witnesses. After that, the Marquis Xing’s Mansion had been hard upon Shao Wanru and even wanted to take away her life. Because of these things, she had to live an austere life in Yuhui Nunnery.
Otherwise, as long as the Old Madam of Marquis Xing’s Mansion was here, she could not leave Marquis Xing’s Mansion for a long time without permission, even if she had to observe mourning for her parents. People would criticize the Marquis Xing’s Mansion if she didn’t obey the rule.
“Was the Madam of Marquis Xing behind this?” Wen Xichi’s eyes fell on Shao Wanru’s delicate little face. Her long eyelashes fluttered twice, and her white and delicate face looked a little childish.
Three years ago, she was only eleven years old. Wen Xichi didn’t know she had had such a hard time and couldn’t live in the mansion she had just returned. For some reason, he felt a dull throbbing pain in his heart. On that day, he had watched the fire in his yard.
The abrupt fire in the Marquis Xing’s Mansion was a surprise for him. However, it had never crossed his mind that it would be a devastating disaster for her.
He clenched his fists. One by one, blue veins stood out on his hands. Then, as he slowly spread out his hands, a trace of bitterness flashed in her eyes. The pain drilled down deep inside and broke his heart.
Was it too late for him to realize his feelings?
“It should be. Otherwise, there would be so many coincidences. The Madam of Marquis Xing provided me with the suit. How could a servant girl get the same suit? Could she afford to buy such luxurious clothes? And each move was scheduled precisely. Lucky for me, several small events delayed me a little. If not, I should have finished taking a bath when there was a fire, and the suit I wore must have been soaked through.” Shao Wanru thought for a while.
There were so many incidents. Someone must have arranged everything beforehand in the Marquis Xing’s Mansion. Otherwise, the sequence of those coincidences would be too creepy to be true.
Unlucky for Shao Wanru, Madam Jiang, the Madam of Marquis Xing, was still at the height of her power in the inner court, so she just got away with it.
Her greatest concession was to permit Shao Wanru to live in the Yuhui Nunnery.
However, things had changed quite a bit. When her previous deeds were dug up, Madam Jiang would have to suffer, because she was no longer as powerful as she used to be.
Ning Caixian was not bad because she revealed the right secret crime. It seemed that w.a.n.g Shengxue and Ning Caixian got on very well. Or else he wouldn’t have told such a big secret to her.
“Didn’t you find out who was responsible?” Wen Xichi keenly sensed the meaning hidden in Shao Wanru’s words and asked.
“In that case, how could I find it out? I was just a daughter who had just returned to her original family.
In the Marquis Xing’s Mansion, there were several Young Madams but only one Madam!” Shao Wanru said, her watery eyes full of sarcasm. At that time, she was indeed too weak to fight for herself.
So feeble was she that she could only choose to run away from her vicious enemies in the Marquis Xing’s Mansion. She had been framed, and her reputation was nearly ruined. Everyone there knew the facts, but she couldn’t do anything to the Madam of Marquis Xing’s Mansion!