When the old nanny came back to the bed, the Old Madam understood what she meant. The Old Madam’s face darkened a little. She looked at the nanny, frowned, and asked, “You mean the ancestral temple…”
“Yes, Old Madam, think about this, which lady should we put this on if we want to succeed?” the old nanny reminded the Old Madam, sitting down on the stool in front of the bed. Then she brought the light closer so that the Old Madam could see it clearly. The Old Madam’s face was dark and sinister in the light.
“Yes, but there must be a good plan as to where it will lead. My original target was Mo Xuetong, but now she is Princess Anping. It’s not good to do it,” the Old Madam said hesitantly, unable to make up her mind. It was best to target Mo Xuetong.
After all, the two ladies in the backyard could not have a worse reputation. If Mo Huawen insisted on taking them there, the Old Madam had nothing to say, but Mo Xuetong was different from them. Mo Xuetong was Mo Huawen’s official wife’s daughter with a good reputation. If her reputation was damaged, Mo Huawen would not take her out to avoid embarrassment.
Mo Huawen paid more and more attention to this daughter, so Mo Xuetong was doomed to be the Old Madam’s target.
But things were different now. Mo Xuetong became the Princess Royal’s sworn daughter, with the title of the princess. If she was involved in this matter and was eventually charged with defaming the royal family, she might be beheaded. The Old Madam did not dare to think of the consequences, but calculating against the other two ladies did not work. So the Old Madam had been planning it but never implemented it.
“Old Madam, we have to target the third miss. If our target is someone else, the eldest sir won’t take it seriously. The other day I heard that the eldest sir has shut the yard of the first miss. Now she is like in detention. Who knows if she’ll be locked up for a year or so until she gets married. When a father treats his young daughter in this way, he has no fatherly affection for her.”
The old nanny whispered persuasively, “Then think of the fourth miss, who has never been favored by her father since her birth. Nothing serious happened this time, and she was shut up in the yard with the first miss. Though the eldest sir has not spoken of punishing her, it shows that she is not loved by her father.”
“But..” The Old Madam was still hesitating. If this had happened some time ago, she would have done it without hesitation. She wanted to frame Mo Xuetong and take it out on her for her granddaughter, making Mo Huawen uncomfortable. However, as the situation changed, Mo Xuetong was even luckier.
“Old Madam, this is a palace banquet, not just for the usual scions. If the second miss loses this chance, she’ll never get a chance to marry into a rich family. The second old sir will come and fetch you in a few days. When you came, you said you would only stay here after the Spring Festival. Think of the second miss, she is so clever and lovely. Perhaps she can get a princess’s attention, and win a title of the princess to make you look good. By then, you’ll get a title. Unlike now, you are not mandated yet.”
The nanny handed the Old Madam a cup of tea and whispered to her about Mo Xuetong’s identity as Princess Royal’s sworn daughter.
The Old Madam’s face became a little red, and her breath was fast as she thought of the riches Mo Xueyan might bring her. It was obviously a great temptation for her. The last time the duchess came here, she laughed at the Old Madam’s lack of title. If the Old Madam did get a title, she would be more confident among her relatives.
“Besides, the man likes the third miss. I hear he is a cheeky man. What if he starts a fight and pulls you out after finding out that we cheat him? At best, he will be accused of being too romantic. After all, he has people in the palace, who can protect him. But Old Madam, what shall you do?”
The Old Madam shuddered at the thought of the man’s reputation!
The old nanny’s last words made the Old Madam determined. She stopped hesitating and began to plan.
The two heads came nearer and nearer in the lamplight, and their shadows fell on the window. In the high tree outside the window, Mo Feng was sitting bored, his eyes closed, his ears keen to catch the sound below. The corners of his mouth rose unconsciously, with a pale and cold smile. Mo Xuetong was right—the old maid was really up to no good, and had already planned to frame Mo Xuetong.
But the old woman could never expect that Mo Xuetong had been wary of her. If she did nothing and stayed quietly here, Mo Xuetong would not deal with her. If she had bad intentions, Mo Feng would not be polite to her. Mo Feng got up from the tree, tightened his belt, and took a long breath. “It’s time to loosen up,” he murmured quietly. He had been in the Mo Manor for so many days, and he could not find a chance to beat someone up.
Most part of the Mo Manor was quiet at night. In the cold season, who did not rest early? Even though Mo Xuemin and Mo Xueqiong were too excited to sleep, they closed the gate first.
In order to finish the painting work as soon as possible, the ancestral temple was brightly lit, with a few workers in and out sometimes. Some old maids who guarded the gate had grown sleepy, but they could not sleep with the gate closed. They could only sit in the little porter’s lodge, eating sunflower seeds and chatting. Every now and then they checked to see if anyone else was coming in.
At the time, several people pushed a carload of bricks in. Two of the old maids talked about the quality of the bricks, saying that the building materials of this ancestral temple were not all brick and stone, so, even if it was fired, this ancestral temple would not be totally burned.
When the carload of bricks was pushed through the door, only two men who carried the bricks remained, and the rest withdrew.
At the end of the night, the back door closed as usual. The two old maids locked the door, yawned, and went to bed. Who didn’t want to sleep under the covers in winter?
No one noticed that two people had made their way along the wall to Mo Xuetong’s Qingwei Garden.
The person in front was the guide, stopping every now and then to wait for the person behind.
The plot took place in the dark.
Mo Xuetong was awakened in the middle of the night. When she opened her sleepy eyes and saw Mo Ye standing by her bed, dressed, she felt wide awake. Under Mo Lan’s service, she got out of bed quietly. Through the unlit window, she saw a figure turning over on the wall of the yard and asked quietly, “Who is it?”
“The dissolute son of the Yu Manor, the younger brother of Consort Yu,” Mo Ye answered dryly while picking up Mo Xuetong’s lined jacket and draping it on her shoulders. Mo Lan had deftly buttoned up all her buttons. Mo Yu took a hand stove and put it in her hands to keep her warm. Mo Xuetong, who had just come out of bed, was still warm. When she left the quilt, she felt cold, and her limbs were soon cold.
“Do it,” Mo Xuetong said, covering a sneer on her lips.
Mo Ye, standing at the window, gestured outside. Getting the instruction, Mo Feng jumped up to a tall tree nearby. He dressed in black, covered his head and face, like the man in black, who Mo Xuetong had seen in the Cloud City the other day.
Mo Feng in black punched Yu Mingyong. Yu Mingyong, who was a real dandy, couldn’t stand being beaten, and spat out a mouthful of blood. Before he saw the figure clearly, he fainted uselessly.
Mo Feng picked Yu Mingyong up like a pocket and ran across the roof to the inner yard.
Mo Huawen went to bed late. Because he did not think of a way to let Mo Xuetong not to attend the palace banquet, he was tossing and turning in bed. With the approach of late night, he finally felt sleepy. Just as he was falling asleep, he heard someone outside shouting, “Stop the thief! Stop the thief!” The silence of the night was suddenly broken by shouts accompanied by the shocking gong and drum.
The Mo Manor was immediately boiling up; someone was calling, and someone was shouting…
As soon as Mo Huawen got up, he saw Mo Xuetong stumbling over with Mo Lan and Mo Yu.
Mo Xuetong looked flustered and pale, as if she had been frightened. She held Mo Lan’s hand and faltered. “Tong’er, what’s the matter?” Mo Huawen asked, stepping forward to help her.
“Father, father, there’s a thief in the backyard. The old maids said he was going to grandmother. I was afraid, so I came to you.” Mo Xuetong panted. She was pale and could not calm herself. There was fear in her eyes, and Mo Huawen felt her hands trembling.
The thief went to the Old Madam?
Mo Huawen was also worried, but from the way Mo Xuetong walked, Mo Huawen knew that she must have sprained her ankle. He immediately took her to his own study, arranged for outside guards, and then took the others to the inner yard.
The butler had told Mo Huawen what had happened.
The butler said that an old maid in the Old Madam’s yard was the first to notice something unusual when she saw someone climbing into their yard. The old maids were so frightened that they took up their brooms and struck the man. And someone saw a man in black walking by outside and immediately cried out in fear.
It was said that more than one servant saw the man in black. One of the old maids spoke eloquently of seeing the man with a package of gold and silver jewels in his bosom, which was taken out from the Old Madam’s house. Mo Huawen did saw a string of beads on his way to the Old Madam’s yard.
Someone robbed his house!
Mo Huawen just thought his nose was out of joint. He was the official in charge of security in the capital but he was robbed today. It was like punching him in the face!
After inquiring whether all the yards were safe, the servant reported that thieves had appeared in the yards of the first miss, the third miss, and the fourth miss, but those young and old maids in the yards had beaten them away. The two concubines lost a lot of ornaments and were crying at the moment. Mo Huawen asked the butler to send someone to placate them and then headed to the Old Madam’s yard.
There were many thieves this time, but only the one who went to the Old Madam’s yard was caught. Mo Huawen was determined to find out who challenged him anyway.
“What is the matter with the third miss’s feet?” Because the Old Madam’s yard was still some distance away, Mo Huawen asked the butler beside him while walking.
The butler was a man in his fifties. He had to jog to keep up with Mo Huawen and was now a little breathless. Hearing Mo Huawen’s question, he said simply, “After the man in black, who went to the third miss’s yard, was beaten away, the third miss worried about you and ran out of her yard with the maids. When they passed the second gate, a branch of the tree fell across the road. As it was dark and they walked fast, the third miss didn’t see it and tripped. She went to your study without a rest.”
Tong’er was hurt? And it was because she was worried about him. Mo Huawen’s heart clenched in pain.
The thieves had entered the yard of his other daughters, but Mo Xuetong was the only one who cared about him. The other two just knew to protect themselves and didn’t care about him. The butler also told Mo Huawen that his two other daughters were asleep. His two concubines were even more useless. They were crying. In the middle of the night, everyone knew they were crying.
Mo Huawen completely favored Mo Xuetong, forgetting that he had forbidden Mo Xuemin to go out a long time ago. He thought only of the fact that his favorite daughter had broken her foot for him, and he did not know how it was.
He stopped so suddenly that the butler, trotting after him, almost ran into him.
“You don’t have to go to the Old Madam’s yard. Arrange someone to see the injury of the third miss. Have someone to boil some hot water. See if the injury is serious. If it’s serious, bring a doctor,” Mo Huawen ordered urgently.
“Yes.” The butler turned and trotted back. He knew that Mo Huawen was worrying about the third miss. If there was something wrong with the third miss, it would be a big deal.
