Chapter 228 Explosion of Acting Skills
Lin Mengya was snapped back into reality by the sound of her maidservants’ sobbing.
As Lin Mengya watched her three maidservants drowned in tears, there was, however, not a hint of fear in her eyes as she furrowed her brows.
“Master, please don’t be hard on yourself because of me given things had come to this. It’s my sad fate that I could no longer stay by your side to serve you, Master. I will prove my innocence with my life. Please do not implicate my young mistress.”
Baizhi had broken down in tears. After all, who would not be fearful of death?
However, in order not to implicate her own mistress, she was willing to exchange her mistress’ innocence with her death.
“Silly girl, death is like putting out the burning lamp. What is the use of proving my innocence with your death? Mother, this matter came about all because of the 50 taels of silver. Baizhi may be a maid, but she is also a life. I implore you to consider this carefully lest my maid should be accused wrongly.”
Lin Mengya’s words were indeed very pertinent.
Concubine De pondered for a moment, then she glanced at Yun Ruo, who was standing in front of her.
Yun Ruo, who was looking down with all due respect, lifted her head and gave Concubine De a nod.
She seemed to say that regardless of what happened now, there was no way Lin Mengya could turn the situation around. Surprisingly, Concubine De agreed to Lin Mengya’s request.
“Alright, as you have said, princess, I will give Baizhi a chance to plead her innocence. Men, put Baizhi in the woodshed for the firewood and make sure no one comes near her. Mengya, I will give you three days to gather the evidence to prove her innocence. If you fail, we can’t give in to your whims and fancies.”
While speaking, Concubine De maintained her usual elegance on the surface, but the expression in her eyes was that of an evil and vicious intent.
Lin Mengya watched as Baizhi was led away. Taking a bow, it was a show of Lin Mengya’s grat.i.tude towards Concubine De’s mercy.
“I’m exhausted, let’s call it a day. Jingyue, help me back to my room,” said Concubine De.
She glanced at her son and daughter-in-law coldly before she got up and return to her room, accompanied by Jingyue.
A group of servants trailed behind her, making her look as authoritative as usual.
Baishao, who used to be Lin Mengya’s intimate servant chose to remain silent as she, too, followed behind Concubine De.
“Master!”
Now that Baisu and Baiji were no longer restrained by Concubine De’s servant, dashed towards Lin Mengya.
“It’s alright now, stop crying. Let’s talk when we get back to the Liuxin Courtyard.”
While they were still in the Art Courtyard where Concubine De’s men were listening and looking on from every direction. Lin Mengya had a lot of queries but she could only discuss this in her own territory.
“Your Highness, are you coming with me?” said Lin Mengya to Long Tianyu.
From the moment Long Tianyu stood by her just now, she felt a warm current running through her heart.
She had always thought that between Concubine De and herself, Long Tianyu would definitely stand by his mother.
Never would she have imagined that he would take her side and protect her.
Long Tianyu shook his head. He had more important matters to tend to at the moment. Moreover, he thought what they were going to discuss would be between the ladies and not for him to hear anyways.
“Be very cautious in everything you do. Please send Baisu to Qinwu Courtyard to look for me if you need anything,” enjoined Long Tianyu before he left.
Long Tianyu thought his mother was not acting normal today. He needed sometime to reconsider some of his decisions.
Lin Mengya nodded and the two went their separate ways to their respective courtyards after they exited from the Art Courtyard.
Lin Mengya and her company walked silently all the way back to the Liuxin Courtyard. However, the moment he stepped into the courtyard, they realized that the usually well-kept garden was now in complete disorder.
The servants were seen nervously and frantically tidying up the mess in the courtyard. Apparently, the flowers and plants had been trampled upon and the tables and stools had been overturned.
Apart from Lin Mengya’s room, which seemed untouched, the rest of the rooms suffer damage to different extents.
With a severe expression on her face and a cold voice, Lin Mengya said, “Please bear with this for a few more days. I will get to the bottom of this and seek justice once we rescue Baizhi. Baishao… no, Baiji, please make a statistics of the losses and damage here.”
This looked more like a ransacking than a search of her courtyard!
It had seemed that Concubine De’s servants usually kept a low profile on normal days. Who knew they were actually rather formidable!
“La.s.s, I would think it a good idea for me to rescue Baizhi out of that hut first. It’s not difficult for me to break into that hut,” suggested Qinghu.
The hostility in Qinghu’s expression was unmistakable.
Nevertheless, Qinghu would not make any move to start a fight with the other servants in the prince’s mansion without Lin Mengya’s instruction.
For this reason, he had only tried to protect them secretly when Baizhi was taken away.
Moreover to Qinghu, those men sent by Concubine De should not have trampled upon the exotic plants which he had gifted Lin Mengya with.
“Don’t be scared of them, Elder Sister. I am not in the least concerned about that Concubine De,” said Lin Zhongyu.
In fact, Xiaoyu cared about things that happened in the courtyard even more than Qinghu did. He almost could not restrain himself from stepping forward especially when Concubine De’s servants were beating Baizhi up to force her into confession.
However, like Qinghu, he would not make any move unless Lin Mengya instructed him.
“Things are not as simple as you think. I’m sure they’ve carefully thought through a plan to tackle me. It’s just too bad it’s not easy to deal with me, which is why they had resorted to laying their finger on the people around me.”
At this moment, Lin Mengya had sat down on a chair in the main hall and was looking solemn.
In fact, she still could not grasp how Concubine De had such a drastic change after she visited the palace that day.
Could it be as Lin Mengya suspected?
Come to think of it, there were indeed tell-tale signs that something fishy was going on.
However, due to the lack of solid evidence, Lin Mengya did not dare to voice her suspicion.
“It’s all my fault, Master. If I had guarded against Baishao earlier, she would not betray master to seek her own glory!”
Baiji was looking pale as she knelt down before Lin Mengya, being filled with guilt.
She had long discovered that Baishao was acting strangely. However, she did not guard against her considering her intimate relationship with her. After all Baiji had treated Baishao like a sister.
Never would they expect that Concubine De successfully cornered Lin Mengya mostly because of the information provided by Baishao, her once good sister.
How true was the saying which went that one could never tell a book by its cover.
“Please rise. Baizhi had been captured. Now is not the time to have an internal strife,” said Lin Mengya as she helped Baiji onto her feet.
In fact, there was no way Lin Mengya would blame Baiji because of her intimate relationship with her. Furthermore, Lin Mengya was the one who reiterated that she trusted Baishao time and again despite Baishao voicing her suspicion. Because of this, Baizhi had gotten into this sticky situation today.
“Master, given Baizhi’s extraordinary circ.u.mstance, what do you suggest we do so we can save her?” said Baisu.
Baisu’s eyes were red and teary as she looked at Lin Mengya expectantly.
To her surprise, Lin Mengya simply smiled. The helpless look on her face seemed to have vanished completely.
“It’s not as easy to lay fingers on anyone from this courtyard as they suppose. Rest a.s.sured that Baizhi will come back in one piece. I can’t do without anyone of you in this courtyard.”
Everyone felt a burden lift when they saw Lin Mengya’s a.s.suring smile.
To them, their master was so clever that it was not possible for her to fail.
“Baisu and Qinghu, you two are the most highly skilled here, but this is a secret kept from all the other people outside this courtyard. I would like the two of you to stay close to where Baizhi is tonight to make sure nothing happens to her. Is that alright?”
Baisu and Qinghu nodded instantly. Qinghu even threw Lin Mengya an amorous glance.
He knew that this la.s.s was not your regular girl when she perked up.
Those who were trying to plot against her were going to be utterly disappointed.
“Baiji, be careful not to leak our plan to anyone who comes to inquire. Simply fob them off. If you really were cornered, just keep weeping. Do you understand?”
Baiji nodded immediately. She might not have picked up other skills while she was with Lin Mengya, but acting was one skill she was at good by now.
She did not even need any make up before putting up a performance.
“Now we are each a.s.signed a task. What are you doing, la.s.s?” asked Qinghu curiously.
The Lin Mengya he knew never stayed idle.
Lin Mengya immediately took up a ceramic bowl from the kiln. Smiling, she said, “Me? Of course I’ll be smashing and breaking things to vent my frustration.”
With a wave of her hand, Lin Mengya dashed the valuable bowl into pieces right in front of their eyes.
Oh boy, Qinghu cringed at Lin Mengya’s action.
However, he told himself to let it go, since what he was earning could provide Lin Mengya with thirty to fifty years’ supply of such ceramic bowls. It was alright to break some of them occasionally!
“How dare that d.a.m.ned maid betray me! I am going to skin you alive!”
There were rage and viciousness in her voice.
If not for the fact that Lin Mengya was still wearing a cheeky expression on her face, n.o.body would have thought that they were putting up an act by simply listening to her voice.
The two maidservants stopped weeping and their faces broke into smiles at their master’s comical expression.
“Aye aye, Master, that bowl is too expensive. Please use other bowls instead,” the two maidservants reminded Lin Mengya with a whisper.
Having a great rapport with Lin Mengya, they immediately picked up their master’s hint.
“Alright, let me use the cheap ones instead.”
She turned around, spotted a fine vase and smashed it onto the ground. The impact and sound stunned everyone in the courtyard.
“What a sweet-talking but ruthless maidservant! I treated her well, but this was how she repays my kindness! It’s no big deal that she dies, I’ll approach the broker tomorrow to get more servants! I’m so unlucky that she’s been seized in our courtyard, so that I’m implicated!”
Lin Mengya sounded like a skillful upper-cla.s.s woman shouting abuse in the streets, as she looked around for the cheapest thing to break.
Eventually the bronze mirror on the dresser caught Lin Mengya’s eyes and an idea came to her. She took a few quick steps towards it, grabbed all the valuable jewelry and stuffed them into the hands of her two maidservants.
A deafening “Clang!” ensued and the people outside the courtyard were startled.
“Who am I? I’m the daughter of the Lin Family, the Marquis Zhennan! How dare they pour this filthy water on me? I’m going to get my father to teach them a lesson tomorrow so they would take the consequences for their actions!”
Covering her mouth to smother a laugh, Baiji then played along saying, “Master, this is not worth all that effort, what can you do tomorrow? I would suggest that you let Baizhi die. In that case, we will get back our peace and quiet, right?”
Quietly, the corner of Lin Mengya’s mouth turned up into a smile.
Her protege was indeed smart and quick-witted like her.
As she stole a glance at the outside of the courtyard, she felt a chill through her heart.