Chapter 590 The Maid’s Good-for-nothing Relatives
It was a Buddha hall, the closest to her courtyard, where Shao Yanru asked Qiu Yu to meet. There were two lights hanging at the door of the medium-sized Buddha hall. In the dark night, the two lights looked inconspicuous.
When Yujie helped Shao Wanru to walk past here, Shao Wanru couldn’t continue walking. She reached out to press her foot and looked at the Buddha Hall with some hesitation.
“Miss, let’s go inside for a rest. It’s inconvenient for you to continue walking with your foot injury!” Yujie reached out to support Shao Wanru and said. Although Shao Wanru, who leaned most of her body on Yujie, staggered slightly, no one would discover them in the dark if the one didn’t notice them.
Moreover, there was no one else around.
“It’s so dark inside, and we didn’t bring a light!” Shao Wanru looked at the half-closed door and said.
“Miss, it’s okay to sit inside since we just want to have a rest without doing anything else. If you are afraid, I can tell you a few stories. After you refresh yourself, we will leave!” Yujie supported Shao Wanru and advised.
Moving her foot in a pigeon-toed pose, Shao Wanru could only say after thinking for a while, “Well, let’s sit for a while!”
“Yes, let’s sit for a while. Rest a.s.sured, Miss!” Yujie said and helped Shao Wanru into the dark hall. They disappeared in the dark.
A man in black flashed past. Glancing at the hall, he sneaked into the hall nimbly through the door without making any sound.
How could they, two girls spending most of their time in the inner courtyard, notice him? As the man in black thought, he leaned over the cross beam of the hall and looked down. However, he did not notice that another dark figure as light as smoke followed him into the hall and hid on another cross beam.
It was very dark in the hall. Shao Wanru didn’t feel like continuing going forward after taking a few steps with Yujie’s help.
Yujie helplessly helped Shao Wanru to sit down on a stool, which they found behind the gauze curtain. She could hear Shao Wanru’s heavy breathing in the darkness.
Yujie didn’t know it was caused by fear or the pain in Shao Wanru’s foot.
There were layers of gauze curtains hanging in the front of the hall, but there was still s.p.a.ce in the corner of the hall. After helping Shao Wanru sit down, Yujie sat casually on an edge of the gauze curtain she pulled over.
She grew up in a temple, so she felt at ease here.
After sitting down, she said with a smile, “Miss, what kind of story do you like?”
“Whatever delightful!” With her breathing becoming steady at the moment, Shao Wanru said softly after thinking for a while.
“Well, let me see. Oh, I got one. Would you like the story of a top scholar and his wife?” Yujie asked with a smile in a voice, which was particularly crisp in the darkness.
“Okay. Tell me!” Shao Wanru said in a voice, which sounded soft and light in the hall.
“Well, I’ll begin now. Listen carefully…” Yujie also said in a low voice. With only the two of them in the hall, it was quiet with no echo, which made the atmosphere more terrifying in the dark.
Yujie talked slowly in a low voice. Probably because she had to recall something, she stopped and thought for a long while from time to time. During this period, neither of them talked. Fortunately, Shao Wanru listened very carefully and didn’t interrupt Yujie even when Yujie stopped talked.
In fact, the story was boring and seemed to be made up of bits and pieces. What was more, Yujie couldn’t make it up at once, so she had to think about it carefully. It was just a story, which could only deceive some ignorant Misses.
Both of the two men in black on the cross beam didn’t take it seriously.
Suddenly, there came some footsteps from outside the hall, which immediately broke the silence here. The person walked hurriedly and was obviously coming here. The maid stopped talking immediately. The two of them seemed to be a little fl.u.s.tered. The maid stood up and came up to her master.
With no light in the night at the moment, it was reasonable for the two girls to panic.
The door of the hall had not been closed since they came in. At the moment, as it was pushed further, a man strode in and walked straight ahead.
Walking to the Buddha statue in the midst of the hall, he took out a combustible paper roll to enable him to see what was in front and light up a small Buddha lamp.
A place in front of the Buddha statue was lit up at once.
The man in black looked at the man below cautiously. At this moment, the man below had his back to him, so it was hard to tell who the man below was for the time being.
The man below did not look back and just looked at the Buddha statue in front of him quietly with his hands clasped behind his back without moving.
The man below didn’t come to meet the Fifth Miss Shao? The man in black looked at Shao Wanru and Yujie, who hid behind the gauze curtain in the corner. A beam of dim light enables him to vaguely see Shao Wanru and Yujie holding each other nervously. Shao Wanru didn’t act like a Miss coming to meet a man in secret. The man in black was confused!
Wasn’t it said that either the Fifth Miss Shao or her maid was going to do something improper today? But now that the man had shown up, why didn’t she come forward to meet him? Could it be possible that she was still waiting for something?
Or could it be possible that his master got it wrong?
The man in black lay motionless on the cross beam, glancing at the back of the man in front of the Buddha statue and Shao Wanru and Yujie hiding in the corner, lost in deep thought. At this moment, he should certainly watch over them without moving.
There came some other sounds from the door. The footsteps were lighter than before but seemed to come from more people. There came two people. The man in black immediately told the difference.
Outside the door, Shuqi showed up first. Looking at Qiu Yu, who was in the hall and looking back in surprise, she breathed a sigh of relief and stepped aside. After that, Shao Yanru walked in slowly.
The man in black on the cross beam frowned tightly. It was completely different from what he expected.
It seemed that it was a secret meeting between the First Miss Shao and Qiu Yu instead of a secret meeting between the Fifth Miss Shao and Commandery Prince Qing. The man in black knew the man below because his master had some secret report about the man.
The man was the lineal youngest son of the a.s.sistant minister of the Ministry of Justice, as well as Duke Liyang. As a remarkable childes from an aristocratic family in the capital city, he was of good character and had a good family background. Although he now worked in the Ministry of Justice, he got his job with his real capability rather than because of his father’s influence, and it was said that he was a.s.signed by the emperor.
Because he came from a decent family and was capable, the master of the man in black noticed him.
“First Miss!” Seeing Shao Yanru come in slowly, Qiu Yu said, took two steps forward excitedly and bowed to her first.
Shao Yanru stopped, also bowed to Qiu Yu, and said, “Your Excellency!”
Qiu Yu coughed in a low voice, got out of the way, stretched his hand forward, and said, “First Miss, this way please!”
It seemed to be brighter inside.
Shao Yanru hesitated for a moment, but she still walked inside. Compared with the dim environment outside, she preferred to go inside. At least she could see how Qiu Yu looked and behaved clearly.
When they arrived at the altar, Shao Yanru turned around and went straight to the point, “Your Excellency, the two old maids are supposed to have nothing to do with me, but…”
Speaking of this, she glanced at Shuqi, who came in behind her.
Shuqi took two steps forward, knelt down in front of Qiu Yu, kowtowed heavily, and then raised her head and said, “Your Excellency, what happened to the Fifth Miss has nothing to do with the First Miss, but it has something to do with me. Please spare them for the sake of the First Miss and the Fifth Miss!”
“What does it have to do with you?” Qiu Yu froze for a while and then said with his face darkening. He, who worked in the Ministry of Justice, reacted fiercely to cases.
Shao Yanru didn’t say a word and just looked up at him. Qiu Yu immediately realized that he had been too cold. He hurriedly took a deep breath to relax and asked gently, “What is going on? Could it be that you ask the two old maids to hurt the Fifth Miss?”
“Your Excellency, I wouldn’t dare. I wouldn’t dare to do such a thing even if I got tremendous courage!” Shuqi shook her hands and defended herself anxiously.
“Well, what’s the matter?” Qiu Yu asked with a frown. He came here today with the intention of meeting Shao Yanru in private and finding out how she felt for him. It was really not a good thing to interrogate the maid of his beloved girl at the moment. But since Shuqi had confessed, he had to ask her.
“Your Excellency, I didn’t know the two old maids before. However, after I came back, my grandma turned to me and said that they were both related to me by blood. One of them was my eldest aunt’s younger sister, and the other was my second aunt’s sister-in-law. They did that because of the grudges between them and didn’t mean to hurt the Fifth Miss. My grandma asked me to beg my master to let it go, so my master brought me here to explain it out of kindness!”
Shuqi wiped her eyes with a handkerchief and said in a choked voice with red eyes, “My two relatives really acted recklessly. Both of them are from the countryside and ignorant of rules, so they have always scolded and beat each other at will. They’ve suffered the consequences of their own deeds, but they were unlikely to hurt the Fifth Miss.”
Qiu Yu had investigated the case. Although he smelled something fishy, he didn’t think it a big deal. After all, no one was injured except for Shao Wanru, who claimed to have sprained her ankle. However, Qiu Yu considered that she just feigned it.
If she had sprained her ankle, why did she walk such a long way instead of going back?
At the thought of this, he looked up at Shao Yanru. However, Shao Yanru made a deep bow to him and said, “Your Excellency, I hope that you could find out the truth and let the two old maids go down the mountain soon. Although Shuqi is my maid, I’ve always treated her as my sister. If she is really scolded by her grandma, I will feel sad. Besides, my Fifth Sister has left the case to you, right?”
On hearing her words, Qiu Yu fell silent for a while. It was indeed not a big deal, and Shao Wanru, as the victim, did not urge him to handle it. It was not difficult to let the two old maids go. Seeing his beloved girl beg for a maid of hers, Qiu Yu felt increasingly tender and protective toward her.
She was such a kind and beautiful girl that he couldn’t help falling in love with her!
“Uh… I’ll handle it right away. Since it’s just a misunderstanding, I won’t handle it severely. You can rest a.s.sured, First Miss Shao!” Qiu Yu said and reached out in an attempt to help Shao Yanru stand up straight.
Shao Yanru had stood up straight alertly.
Qiu Yu coughed in a low voice, and his face turned slightly red. It was just an excuse, which he used to ask her out. What he was going to say next was the most important thing!