Even after the investigation, he was unlikely to get a heavy punishment.
Feng Yulei knew that You Yuecheng would do something, bringing the matter to the Mo Manor. If the people from the Mo Manor came to make trouble, he could get away.
Today, as soon as he heard some people from the Mo Manor were at his gate, he took You Yue’e out. He wanted to act well, but something unexpected happened again.
Feng Yulei had no idea that someone would stand up for a maidservant instead of for Mo Xueqiong.
It was not in the same direction that he designed it to be. For a moment he was assailed by her questions. His face darkened, almost dripping with water, and he stared at the woman in front of him with hatred.
“Who are you?” asked Feng Yulei through gritted teeth.
“I’m the mother of Mo Yan, the maid who was tricked into getting pregnant and then died a horrible death. Your Highness, you are high above, and the owner of King Yan’s Manor. You should be very clear about all the affairs in your manor. Tell me, who was the father of the baby in my poor daughter’s belly? Was it you? If it was you, why did you let my daughter and her baby die?”
Mo Yan’s mother addressed Feng Yulei as “Your Highness”, knelt down and kowtowed to him. She spoke plainly, but each word sounded sadly like a drop of blood. The poor woman’s eyes were red and swollen from crying, her hair loose and her face pale; she almost collapsed to the ground, but she still cried and begged King Yan to tell her the answer. For a moment all the people were touched.
Next to her, Auntie Qing started whining. “My poor daughter, the maidservant around you was getting pregnant, but you didn’t even know that. What, what a wimp you were! You couldn’t even protect your maidservant. How… how could you survive? If I had known that you would die in King Yan’s Manor, I would have tried my best to stop you. My poor child, how glad you were that day when you married into King Yan’s Manor!”
According to Auntie Qing, Mo Xueqiong was very happy to marry King Yan. Why did the second consort urgently elope with another man after only a few months?
The crowd stared at Feng Yulei and started talking.
“Your Highness, tell us, what happened?”
“Even if she is a maidservant, she was pregnant with your child. It belonged to the royal family. How could you be so cruel to hurt them?”
“What is this? Why did such things happen repeatedly? And none of them survived. I heard that another second consort also died before. The back yard of King Yan’s Manor is really…”
When Feng Yulei was speechless, You Yue’e couldn’t stand it anymore. She snapped, “Nonsense! Who knows whose bastard was in that maidservant’s belly. Is our manor a place for people to breed bastards?” She was already pissed off, but Feng Yulei kept hinting at her not to butt in.
As soon as she finished, Feng Yulei’s face darkened, and he knew something was wrong. Before he could think of a solution, the female servant who was kneeling on the ground and crying and kowtowing to him suddenly stood up, rushed over, spat at You Yue’e, and scolded angrily, “If Mo Yan had a bastard in her belly, is there a pureblood in this manor? Even if you are Consort Yan, you can’t call His Highness’ son a bastard. No wonder second consorts died one after another, and so did the babies. It was all because you thought the babies were bastards and couldn’t keep them.”
She was scolding You Yue’e, making the latter unable to refute. Then the crowd erupted.
Everyone immediately began to discuss the past. There was a second consort who was pregnant before, and also suffered massive bleeding. Now a second consort died, and then a maidservant who was probably pregnant with King Yan’s baby also had an accident. Why did something always happen to King Yan’s second consorts and babies?
All eyes fell on You Yue’e this time. The last people in the manor who didn’t want to see those second consorts and babies was Consort Yan. She managed all back yard affairs. She could do it quietly to frame the second consort, making the scene of elopement, and making the maidservant abortion. Compared with King Yan, Consort Yan was more suspected.
They had only suspected King Yan, and now they found that Consort Yan might be behind everything. The crowd broke into a buzz at once.
It was like a sword, pointed straight at You Yue’e.
Feng Yulei knew something was wrong! Angry and anxious, he held You Yue’e back, afraid that she would act rashly again.
But at this time, You Yue’e feel wronged. Wang Xiuxiu herself was a slutty woman, who had an affair with King Ning before she married into the King Yan’s Manor. Besides, when she came to King Yan’s Manor, she had been pregnant. Later, she made a scene when King Ning got married, and then died in a blood avalanche after returning to the King Yan’s Manor. What did this have to do with her?
How did it get to the point where she couldn’t stand her?
As for Mo Xueqiong, King Yan never took her seriously. How could she be jealous of her and set up this trap? The maidservant had nothing to do with King Yan. It was caused by her brother’s servant who pretended to be him in order to monitor whether anything was wrong with Mo Xueqiong. She had nothing to do with her.
How could she murder them?
Her face was red with anger and she was tongue-tied. When Feng Yulei came to pull her, she snapped Feng Yulei’s hand away in exasperation and tried to make it clear. As Consort Yan, how could she do such a stupid thing? What did they mean by that?
The crowd noticed that her face was grim with anger, and that the woman who was being held by her maidservant looked miserable. What she said was reasonable, and in line with the cause and effect. At this time, several eagle-eyed people also saw that You Yue’e angrily threw King Yan’s hand away, and that King Yan was so nervous and helpless. They couldn’t help but get suspicious.
Consort Yan’s fierce manner seemed to indicate that she was a jealous person. She even dared to shook off King Yan’s hand. This was not consistent with a wife’s attitude towards her husband, but a shrew’s behavior.
Was the fact that she was tongue-tied due to her guilty conscience?
Was Consort Yan really behind this? Was she the one who did everything? Was it she who falsely accused the second consort of having an affair, saying that King Yan’s child was a bastard, and then killed the maidservant and the child in her womb? People had seen wives who did not tolerate concubines, but they were royalty, and they married ladies of modest and elegant families. Was she so vicious?
According to what she looked like now, it might be true!
If she was suspicious of one thing, she was suspicious of everything.
It turned out that the second consort was really wronged.
There was such a vicious woman under the sun! You Yue’e was so angry that she almost jumped to her feet, as if to hit the female servant, while the servant and Auntie Qing cried hoarsely. Thinking about the two already dead second consorts and that maidservant, all the people sided with the Mo Manor.
People are naturally sympathetic to the weak. Auntie Qing and the female servant cried piteously, and made a good point. Their questions were sharp, as if they were all pricked at You Yue’e’s weakness. You Yue’e looked bitter at this time. People slowly biased, and they all believed what the master and servant from the Mo Manor said. If what they said wasn’t true, how could the seemingly undistinguished master and servant stand up to distinguished King Yan and Consort Yan?
“Consort Yan is so cruel. No matter what it was, she couldn’t do that. A second consort died because of a blood avalanche, the other one caused a scandal of elopement with a servant, also forced to die, and even could not protect a maidservant who was pregnant with a baby. This is so vicious. She cannot tolerant anyone…”
“What happened to Wang Xiuxiu has nothing to do with me. It’s herself…” You Yue’e cried furiously.
As she said this, she found that she could not go on. What could she say? Could she say that Wang Xiuxiu had an affair with another man or that she had an affair with King Ning before she married into King Yan’s Manor? In any case, she couldn’t say it. Once she did it, it would become a big deal. How dared she speak of an unwarranted royal scandal?
As she was speechless for a moment, the crowd was abuzz. They were puzzled at first, then suddenly understood, and latter despised and scolded You Yue’e. The people were angry. Someone had suggested that King Yan should divorce Consort Yan and leave the King Yan’s Manor’s back yard quiet, so that he could save his concubines in the back yard.
The whole scene was in confusion. Someone rushed forward, took a rotten cabbage leaf, and threw it at You Yue’e. And when the first person did that, there was the second. Many people threw rotten eggs, rotten apples, and other things at You Yue’e. No one remembered that she was Consort Yan high above the world.
The scene was chaotic. The people of the King Yan’s Manor protected Feng Yulei and You Yue’e to move back into the yard, and the crowd at the door crowded in.
At this time You Yue’e was not angry anymore. She only felt panic. Having been brought up in a closed house and coddled, she had never seen anything like it. With rotten vegetables hanging from her head, she looked at everyone’s angry and dismissive faces. Her face was pale, and she hid behind Feng Yulei, afraid to say another word.
From a distant perform, You Yuecheng looked coldly down at the scene and listened to the discussion. Then he slammed the cup down on the ground. The teacup of celadon made a clear crashing sound and smashed at once. The manservant beside him drew back his head, not daring to say anything.
Their good plan was destroyed like this. And they seemed to be throwing water on his sister. Of course You Yuecheng was angry.
The plan was perfect. Even if they failed to frame Mo Xuetong, it shouldn’t have been that way in the end. Instead, King Yan should get off lightly. But things went completely awry. You Yue’e might get into trouble. “Somebody, go back home.”
“Yes, Your Excellency, but Miss Yun said she wanted to invite you over. Do you…”
“Tell her not to do anything. I’ll see her if there’s necessary,” You Yuecheng answered coldly. Then he turned and went downstairs, hurrying on to his horse, which was tied to one side of the road. Of course he was not in the mood to meddle in the affairs of the Fu General Manor, lest he should get into trouble. He had to save his sister first.
“Yes!” the manservant responded and hurried downstairs. Then he spoke to a maidservant who was waiting downstairs in a dark corner, and went after You Yuecheng.
The maidservant had been waiting for a long time and her feet were numb. Seeing the two run away and disappear, she stamped her foot and left helplessly. She had waited for four hours, but she only got such a word. What should she tell the young lady? Of course, she knew that the young lady had nothing to say to Marquess Mingguo, and just wanted to see him…
There was still chaos in front of King Yan’s Manor. His people were retreating toward the manor.
“Stop, if you keep going in, watch out for the swords.” Allowing Feng Yulei, You Yue’e and others to get into the manor, the guards at the gate raised their swords and pointed forward to stop the crowd. It was their duty to guard the gates of King Yan’s Manor, and they certainly could not let anyone enter at will.
And given the situation at hand, if they did come in, something big was going to happen. Several guards were sweating slightly on their foreheads. Although the Emperor ordered King Yan to be put in custody, he was the Emperor’s son. If something did happen to him, no one could take the blame. The crowd’s blood was up, and they didn’t look like they wanted a peaceful settlement.
They even dared to throw rotten vegetables and rotten eggs at the heads of King Yan and Consort Yan. What else couldn’t be done in the heat of the moment?
Fortunately, not everyone was out of their minds. They all stopped when they saw the guards pull out their swords.
“Sir, you are the person that the Emperor sent to guard King Yan’s Manor. Do you have a chance to meet the Emperor? Tell him that Consort Yan is a vicious woman. How could such a wicked woman get into the royal ancestral temple? That would shame the ancestors of the royal family. It’s going to break King Yan’s bloodline.”
Some people talked with the guards whimsically, and the more he said, the more sorrowful and impetuous he became. “Punish Consort Yan and bring justice to the second consorts,” he said angrily.
“Punish Consort Yan and bring justice to the second consorts…”
