Mo Xuetong also let out a sigh and said, “Second Consort Mo, you must be joking. King Chu is such a wise person. How could he be like our King? Our manor leaks air everywhere, and not a person can prevent it. This time, it was our manor that got King Chu into the trouble. Please convey our apologies to King Chu when you return.”
“Consort Xuan, you are so kind. This is also our King’s fault. How could he take the South Pearl head accessory as the present? Consort Ling had taken a fancy to this set for a long time, and I heard that she had asked for it from His Highness several times. However, His Highness doted on her usually, but he did not agree this time. I did not expect that it made Consort Ling keep thinking of it, and almost… cause great trouble. But for your cleverness, we would have been done this time.”
Mo Yarui patted her chest with a lingering fear on her face. Even now, she was still frightened of what had happened in the palace every time she thought about it.
Mo Xuetong explained Mo Yarui with a smile, “As for the matter, it’s all thanks to His Majesty. On that day, King Chu sent the head accessory to the manor. Soon, His Majesty sent someone to say that the Empress Dowager wanted a set of South Pearl head accessory. Since our King never cared about this kind of thing, he simply ordered people to send it to the Empress Dowager’s palace. Fortunately, by doing so, we could get through the great disaster.”
Mo Xuetong naturally shifted the cause to the Emperor and the Empress Dowager.
“Did His Majesty send someone to say that?” Mo Yarui asked hesitantly. She held the handkerchief in her hand and hesitated for a moment. A hint of suspicion flashed in her eyes, and she looked a little pale. Feng Yuxuan presented to the set of head accessory to Mo Xuetong, not to King Xuan as planned. So what did the Emperor think of it?
This matter, this matter… although it was a bit ridiculous, Mo Yarui still felt that there was something wrong with it, and her eyes narrowed slightly.
“That’s right. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been so lucky. Thanks to His Majesty’s blessing.” Mo Xuetong seemed not to have seen Mo Yarui’s uneasiness, and just nodded with fear and a hint of fear appeared on her tender face. She said affirmatively, “When I think of what happened to this set of South Pearls, I still feel scared. Fortunately, fortunately… we have His Majesty here.”
Mo Yarui glanced at Mo Xuetong’s panic-stricken face and felt little relieved in her heart, so she nodded and replied, “It’s all thanks to His Majesty.”
The South Pearl head accessory had been just sent to the King Xuan’s manor, but very soon, it appeared in the Empress Dowager’s palace. If it was the King Xuan’s Manor who plotted it, then King Xuan was not the person that he looked like on the surface. Last night, Feng Yuxuan slept in Mo Yarui’s room, and his words still rang in her ears. If King Xuan or Mo Xuetong was really the one plotting the whole thing, the two were too complex. Mo Yarui got flustered by the thought.
She came here not only for inviting Mo Xuetong to attend King Chu’s birthday banquet, but also for another important purpose that she wanted to sound out Mo Xuetong. When Mo Yarui heard that it was the Emperor who had done this, she felt relaxed but fearful.
Mo Xuetong had done her a favor, so Mo Yarui really did not want to implicate Mo Xuetong in the fight for the throne. If Feng Yuxuan only wanted to be an idle prince, no matter who became the Emperor, no one would do anything to him because of his frivolous behaviors. And Mo Xuetong, as Consort Xuan, would not have any trouble. However, another feeling lingered in Mo Yarui’s mind that Feng Yuxuan treated Mo Xuetong differently, and the different treatment was not important…
“Second Consort Mo, let’s not talk about it anymore. Can you help me to take a look at these embroideries?” Mo Xuetong pushed the exquisite embroideries in front of her and changed the topic. She looked at Mo Yarui cautiously and nervously. Mo Yarui remembered that Consort Xuan was too young, even less than fifteen years old. How could Mo Xuetong have so many thoughts at such a young age? Mo Yarui felt that she thought too much.
Ma Yarui let out a sigh of relief in her heart, and her face lit up with a smile.
Then, she focused her attention on the embroidery items in front of her, looked them over, and said with a nod, “These are all the best. The embroidery skill must have been developed for decades. These are good for making the front part of the clothes. Your Highness, do you want to make a piece of clothing?”
Mo Yarui’s embroidery skills were good as well. As such, she could tell at a glance the uniqueness of the embroidery in front of her. She also saw a large peony embroidered on it, so she could not help asking with a smile.
“It’s not necessarily for my own. It looks good. Buy it first and think about it before making it into clothes.” Mo Xuetong also looked over the embroidery and said, “Second Consort Mo, would you like to pick a few too? The embroidery here is really good.”
Mo Xuetong’s words aroused Mo Yarui’s interest, so Mo Yarui simply ordered people to pick some embroidery. And the two of them sat there drinking tea and chatting casually.
After a while, an old maid brought a tray downstairs. The tray was filled with exquisite embroidery. Mo Xuetong and Mo Yarui could not help but stop their chatting and look at the tray curiously. This was the most exquisite embroidery in the store!
When the old maid was about to come over, a group of people suddenly came from the right side. Because they were in a hurry, they bumped into the old maid and knocked her down. Several embroidered products fell to the ground and were trampled on.
The old maid reacted quickly, grabbed the woman at the front, and shouted, “Young ladies, you have trampled on our embroideries. These are the most exquisite ones in our store. You can’t go.” Several customers sitting upstairs turned their heads and looked at them simultaneously.
The woman in front was wearing a pink top with water patterns on it and a pink pleated skirt with a beautiful jade belt on her slender waist. In such warm weather, she was still wearing a creamy-white bamboo cloak. She had a Ruyi bun on her head with a few jade flowers on it. She had a slightly dark complexion, but was clean-skinned and beautiful. Under her arched eyebrows, her eyes were bright but sharp. With a glance, one could tell that she was not a person to be trifled with.
Seeing the old maid coming to pull her, she raised her eyebrows and gave the old maid a hard push. Then, the old maid was pushed back and fell on the embroideries heavily. The white and jade-like embroideries were immediately mussed up and stained by some feet. The embroidery goods were really ruined.
Where did the arrogant woman come from? How could she bully others? Seeing the old maid crying and blowing her nose in front, Mo Yarui had no choice but to stand up and say to the woman, “Miss, it’s wrong that you soiled this old woman’s embroideries. Any of these embroidery items is of high quality. And the embroidered women have spent so much time embroidering them. And now they are all ruined by you. You have to give them an explanation.”
Her words sounded reasonable, and there was a smile at the corner of her eyes. It seemed that she was trying to persuade the arrogant woman, which made a favorable impression.
The arrogant woman raised her eyebrows and hooked the chair beside her. Immediately, a maidservant came over, picked up the chair, and sent it to the woman’s feet. The woman sat on the chair, turned to Mo Yarui, and said, “It’s obvious that the old woman bumped into me. How dare you fabricate the charge against me? Look at these poor things. Are they worth taking seriously? I have a lot of embroidery of this kind. I can’t use them all at once, and I usually give them to my servants. Why do this kind become fine work here?”
The words made Mo Yarui unable to respond, and she tried to speak, but her words left her. After all, she was also a first miss of a noble family, and even Ling Rui’er was just sarcastic to her. No one had ever been so disrespectful to her as she was rebutted like this. At that moment, Mo Yarui’s face turned pale and livid, and she lost her words in embarrassment.
Mo Yu moved, about to speak, but was stopped by Mo Lan who tugged Mo Yu’s sleeves and motioned her to look at the calm Mo Xuetong beside, signaling Mo Lan not to act rashly. Seeing Mo Xuetong did not give any wink, Mo Yu just nodded and dared not to take any action, but her eyes were covered with some disdain. Judging from the woman’s appearance, she was a lady from a noble family, but why was she so impolite?
“Miss, how could you talk like this? It was you who bumped into me. I had turned around just now, but you still knocked into me. These are first-rate products in our store, but you destroy them. What should we do? We can’t pay for it even at the cost of my whole family member’s lives. You want my whole family’s lives, and you want to kill us all.” The old maid sat on the ground and picked up the stained embroideries, as she burst into tears loudly.
The old maid’s shout and cry attracted all the people’s attention, making people turned to look at them. The arrogant woman felt embarrassed at that moment. No matter how arrogant she was, she was still an unmarried girl. Moreover, she sneaked out secretly. She felt humiliated by the crying of such a shrew, so she said to a maidservant in yellow standing aside, “She is so noisy. Give her some money and let her leave here quickly.”
The maidservant in yellow approached the arrogant woman embarrassedly and said in a low voice, “Miss, we just spent a lot of money on the jewelry. I’m afraid that we don’t have enough money now.” Just now, they went to a gold jewelry store, where the master spent almost all her money without hesitation at the sight of the beautiful jewelry.
“Let her come with us to take it!” The arrogant woman waved her hand indifferently.
“Miss, this matter… I got it…” The yellow-clothed maidservant’s expression grew even more bitter. She whispered to the woman more carefully. Mo Xuetong sat there and only heard these words.
“This doesn’t work, and that doesn’t work. What should we do?” The woman stood up impatiently, looked at the embroidery on the ground, and asked, “How much money do you still have?”
“I really don’t have much now, only a few taels of silver.”
“Just give them all to her.” The woman waved her hand. The maidservant in yellow had no choice but to take out a few taels of silver from her inner pockets and threw them all at the old maid’s feet, and she said spitefully, “Next time you should be more careful while walking. Don’t you have eyes? Do you know who you bumped into? If our Miss is injured, even your entire store is far from enough to pay for it.”
She spoke in the same annoying way as her master did.
“Young lady, these few taels of silver are far from enough. Each of the embroideries here is worthy of dozens to hundreds of taels of silver. You, you… you are robbing us openly. This is His Majesty’s territory. Let’s go and see the officials.” Seeing the silvers scattering on the ground, the old servant screamed, got up quickly, and was about to pull the young lady.
Seeing that the old maid dared to pull their master, the several maidservants behind the woman could not bear any longer, and a fierce-looking one came out to push away the old maid and rebuked, “Where did you come from, you dirty thing? Dare to touch our master with your dirty hands? Get out of here. How dare you extort money from us? Open your eyes and see who our master is.”
The old maid stumbled by the push and fell to the Mo Xuetong’s direction. Mei Yu, who was behind Mo Yarui, hurried to help the old maid so that she did not bump into Mo Yarui and Mo Xuetong.
“Miss, how can you talk like that? The goods at this time are indeed so expensive. It’s wrong for you to hit the old maid and step on the embroidery, and even refuse to make compensation. What the rule is it?” Mo Yarui could not bear it any longer. She stood up suddenly and slammed her hand on the table. She scolded, “Which family are you from? You’re so unruly!”
She was always gentle and seldom lost temper. But this time, she got angry and flushed with agitation.
