Chapter 1018 w.a.n.g Shengxue’s Death
“Is w.a.n.g Shengxue dead?” Shao Wanru treated the news with indifference. Leisurely, she put down the maple leaf in her hand and looked at the semi-finished collage.
This was what she had expected. As early as she sent these old clothes to the Marquis Xing’s Mansion to remind Zhao Xiran, she had already antic.i.p.ated that.
It was a string of interlocking traps. What had happened was merely the thin end of the wedge.
Of course, on the surface, she returned the old clothes to humiliate Madam Jiang. If Zhao Xiran were not scheming enough, she wouldn’t have extended so much meaning of this act and taken so many things into consideration.
Though the current situation seemed to have little to do with Shao Hua’an, things wouldn’t have gone so smoothly without him.
In her two lives, w.a.n.g Shengxue had been working for Madam Jiang, the Madam of Marquis Xing, and Shao Jing, Marquis Xing. As their sharp knife and qualified hired thug, he met his doom because of Shao Wanru.
She felt a tiny spark of excitement, but that was all. Everything was within her grasp, so w.a.n.g Shengxue’s fate was predetermined.
“How did he die?”
“It’s said that he was poisoned to death. A prison guard, bribed with silver, brought him a meal from a mansion. Unexpectedly, w.a.n.g Shengxue died soon after eating it. And the person who gave the meal to the guard had disappeared without a trace when they went to look for him!” Qing’er reported.
Finding a person with no background in the capital must be challenging. Even worse, this person might have already left the capital and would never come back. Of course, this person might be a corpse now. So what if he was found?
The clue could not be followed up!
It never occurred to w.a.n.g Shengxue for a moment that people in the Marquis Xing’s Mansion would murder him.
“What do the people outside say?” Shao Wanru asked lightly. She narrowed her watery eyes and looked thoughtful.
“People outside their mansion implied Marquis Xing was behind this murder. The lowdown trick played on Childe Yan was apparently not designed for common conflicts within a family. In the past, w.a.n.g Shengxue and Childe Yan bore each other no grudges, so Childe Yan must have offended someone else, who was most likely to be Marquis Xing. But now this case was totally devoid of evidence because the conspirator pa.s.sed away!” Qing’er reported in detail.
She made a special trip outside today to collect relevant information.
“My Lady, if you want to find out the truth, I’ll take some people to check it out!”
Shao Wanru waved her hand and stopped her, “No need. After this incident, the Ministry of Justice will dispatch a lot of people to investigate it. A prisoner was killed in their jail, which was a great humiliation for the Ministry of Justice. So, don’t do anything else at this time. Just take your time and gather some rumors outside!”
Any unusual move at this time would inevitably arouse many people’s suspicion. Even the Emperor would be alarmed and secretly send people to survey this matter. Thus, anyone eager to take an action now was most likely to be a criminal.
At such a tricky time, they mustn’t make any rash acts.
In fact, the Ministry of Justice just used the jail there temporarily. Because w.a.n.g Shengxue had not been put on public trial, they detained him there for further questioning. He was not declared guilty, plus no one paid close attention to him, so the Ministry of Justice neglected him. As a result, someone took advantage of the opportunity and silenced w.a.n.g Shengxue forever.
With an honorary t.i.tle, Madam Jiang refused to take her trial at the court, which delayed the investigation. When w.a.n.g Shengxue remained in jail in the interim, they arranged everything and took his life.
The current situation of Madam Jiang was enough to make people suspect her. After all, the murder happened at the perfect time.
“Yes, I understood!” Qing’er nodded.
“In the following few days, except for my grandma and Hao’er, no matter who comes, don’t lead them to me. You can tell them I’m recuperating, and it’s not convenient for me to see them!” Shao Wanru ordered.
“My Lady, what if someone from the Palace comes?” Yujie reminded her worriedly. They could turn other guests away at the front gate. Anyway, Princess Chen didn’t see guests often.
“No one from the Palace will come. There have been imperial physicians going in and out of our mansion these days, which can prove that I’m in poor health. Even the Empress Dowager will not send her people here after making everything clear. At the most, her maids may bring me some nouris.h.i.+ng medicinal materials!” Shao Wanru said.
Besides the Empress Dowager, people in the Palace, top-to-bottom, who learned that she was ill, sent her many quality medicinal materials and tonics, for example, the Empress Dowager, the Empress, and even Zhaoyi Di, who had only met her once.
“Then you can just accept the medicinal gifts from the Palace,” Shao Wanru added.
All of this would demonstrate to others that Princess Chen could hardly look after herself. She did nothing else except that she returned the old clothes to Madam Jiang in a fit of anger that day.
It was easy to survey the matter that she sent her maid to insult Madam Jiang, but she had a legitimate reason for that and did not go too far. Besides, as a young woman, it was reasonable for her to impulsively vent her anger in such an unkind way. For the following days, she was too weak to carry out other plots.
“Yes, we understood!” Qing’er and Yujie looked at each other, smiling knowingly. Then they bowed to Shao Wanru respectfully.
“My Lady, I have to report these things to Prince Chen,” Qing’er looked up and said seriously. Before Prince Chen left, he ordered her to report the news to him in time if anything happened.
“Go ahead and write it down!” Shao Wanru nodded with a smile, “I happen to have a letter for him, and you can take it with you!”
“Yes, I see!” Qing’er said, her face beaming with happiness. “My Lady misses my master. It’s a good thing. I’m sure my master will be delighted to learn that.”
These servants who had served Chu Liuchen knew how cold-blooded Prince Chen was. Only Princess Chen could melt an iceberg like Prince Chen. With Princess Chen’s company, instead of the superficial warm smile, he would be radiant with happy warmth from the inside out.
“Is w.a.n.g Shengxue dead?” Shao Jing put down the book in his hand with a thump and asked in astonishment.
“Yes, the Ministry of Justice has inquired into the cause of his death. What should we do now?” asked the guard. Actually, they had secretly contacted w.a.n.g Shengxue and taught him how to respond in court. Now his death shocked them, and he was poisoned to death.
“How do others look at this?” Shao Jing gritted his teeth in distress, leaning his palm against his brow. Recently, as bad things happened one after another, his headache was getting worse.
“They say that it must have something to do with our mansion, and that Your Grace may be behind it… You are considered most likely to be the one behind this killing…” The guard lowered his head and told the rumors in full detail.
The more Shao Jingyu listened, the gloomier his face became. Later on, he couldn’t help leaping up furiously and swiping everything on his desk to the ground.
The guard was so scared that he quickly zipped his lip and took a few steps back, lowering his head in silence.
Shao Jing’s heavy breathing was all everyone in the room could hear. After a long while, Shao Jing uttered a question, “How’s the investigation of the Ministry of Justice going?”
“I heard that they are still investigating. The person who delivered the last meal was said to be a servant of our mansion, but there is no such a person in our mansion.” The guard answered more and more respectfully.
“Good-for-nothings!” Shao Jing snapped and slowly sat back in his chair. At this time, his mind was in turmoil. Initially, he planned to s.h.i.+ft all the blame to Madam Jiang. w.a.n.g Shengxue would identify Madam Jiang as a criminal. At most, Madam Jiang would be put to death. To his great surprise, someone got a head start in secret and poisoned w.a.n.g Shengxue to death first.
The other side killed w.a.n.g Shengxue with poison in the prison of the Ministry of Justice. In addition, they made the entire suspicion fall upon him.
“Grace, what should we do now?” The guard waited for a while but Shao Jing remained silent, so he asked with extreme caution.
“You can withdraw. Don’t act rashly at this time. Whatever others say, the matter is none of my business!” Shao Jing ground his teeth with determination. He would skin anyone who got him into this trouble.
At this critical point, he couldn’t do anything suspicious or ask anyone for help. He couldn’t even go outside of his mansion. What he had to do now was to stay cautious, extremely cautious.
“Yes!” The guard retreated silently.
At this time, he couldn’t strengthen a little bit of suspicion or let anyone discover his secrets. Moreover, he had to convince others that what he had done had nothing to do with w.a.n.g Shengxue and that he didn’t care w.a.n.g Shengxue at all. Anyway, it was an arduous task.
However, with Madam Jiang, he could do it.
On second thought, what happened was not good for him, but Madam Jiang could benefit from it. What was more doubtful was that Madam Jiang delayed the trial by using her t.i.tle. “Is it related to Madam Jiang?”
“Guards, I’ll go to see Concubine Jiang!” Shao Jing stood up and said.
Ever since she was demoted, he had never gone to visit Concubine Jiang.
Madam Jiang lived a better life than before. Zhao Xiran sent over four old maids, who served her wholeheartedly. For a time, she had a good impression of Zhao Xiran. At first, Madam Jiang held a grudge against her because she had asked a servant girl to send her a handkerchief with a medicinal smell that day. But now, the old maids had explained this matter clearly to her.
That day, Zhao Xiran was afraid that Princess Chen would vent her anger on her, so she gave the handkerchief to her. But she didn’t expect that Princess Chen would be so cunning that she took this chance to divide them.
After this misunderstanding was cleared up, Madam Jiang entirely forgot her old grudges against Zhao Xiran. Back then, she was in a violent rage because she found the handkerchief with the smell of medicine in her hand was not hers. When Zhao Xiran came, she asked someone to change the original dirty one and gave this new one to her.
When she noticed the new handkerchief had a strange smell, Madam Jiang thought Zhao Xiran had plotted a frame-up against her, so she slapped her.
When she recalled it, she felt guilty and distressed. After all, the baby that died was her grandson. She had asked someone to tell Zhao Xiran that she didn’t mean it. Of course, she did it with an arrogant att.i.tude. After all, she was her mother-in-law.
Seeing Shao Jing coming over, Madam Jiang rolled her eyes and sneered, telling the few old maids in the room to leave. It happened that she also had something to say to Shao Jing, so he came at the right time.
After resting for a few days, Madam Jiang looked much better. However, she couldn’t hide the coldness in her eyes as she looked at Shao Jingrong’s round face.
Shao Jing’s status looked completely different from Madam Jiang’s. One was a bag of bones, and the other was plump with a ruddy face showing good fortune.
“You’re happy to see me like this, aren’t you? And you’re glad I lost the position as your legal wife, aren’t you? After so many years, you finally got what you wanted!” There were no outsiders in the room, so Madam Jiang could not prevent herself from sneering at him as soon as she began to speak, her eyes full of resentment!