In the Hua’nuan Pavilion, clothes were scattered everywhere, including Ling Rui’er’s dirty clothes and the bellyband inside. It was the closest place to where the watermelon juice had been splashed on her. That was to say, the other places were much further away than here for clothes changing.
Ling Rui’er had to change clothes here.
As for the murder later, Ling Rui’er and her maidservant knew nothing about it, and just hurried out at that time, even had no time to pack the clothes. The dirty clothes were thrown on the floor, including the dress and bellyband. Besides, it was natural to wear light clothes in the summer. So when the big bowl of watermelon juice was poured on the clothes, how could they not get thoroughly wet?
A man was sitting on the pile of messy clothes, holding Ling Rui’er’s bellyband in his hand. The smile on his face was particularly wretched. He brought it to his nose and sniffed it. It was as if he was looking at the white body of the beauty who had changed her clothes earlier. Thinking that such a beautiful woman would have an affair with him and would belong to him, how could the man not be overjoyed about it?
Just now, he deliberately hid behind the screen to see clearly that there was a faint mole below the right side of the woman’s navel. It was the evidence, so the woman would fail to explain it clearly. He did not expect that he was so lucky that he was not only released from the prisoners on death row, but also could get such a beauty.
He was called Ma Er, a murderer, who was going to be executed after autumn. He had been waiting for his death in the cell. Unexpectedly, a savior descended. The woman was his savior who took him out of the cell and asked him to hide there. Until now, he did not know where it was. But judging from the splendid decoration, he guessed it must be a great family.
The madams and ladies of a great family attached the greatest importance to their chastity. If a lady was seen naked by him, she would have no alternative but to follow him. At that moment, Ma Er suddenly recalled that a fortune-teller had once predicted that if Ma Er could survive a great disaster, he could be destined to good fortune ever after. Sure enough, the fortune-teller was right. Ma Er did not expect that he who was going to be executed, would have such good fortune in love affairs. He clenched the bellyband and stuffed in into his clothes.
The savior asked him to wait there, and said someone would come there and inquire him. At that time, all he needed to do was to answer that he saw a woman change clothes, and it would be better if he could see some characteristics of the woman. But now Ma Er was greedier. So he put the bellyband in his arms. It was an accident. Who knew that the woman and her maidservant had been so careless that they had forgotten to pack the underwear?
When he was lost in the wild thought, Ma Er heard someone’s voice and hurriedly hid in the back of the screen.
After he hid in the back of the screen, he saw a woman dressed like a maidservant coming in a hurry with a cloth bag in her hand. She sighed with a bit relief at the sight of the scattered clothes, and instead of folding them, she just rolled all the dirty clothed up and threw into the cloth bag she brought.
After checking that there were no clothes on the ground, she walked out with the cloth bag in hand.
Ma Er thought that it was ridiculous. The woman did not remember to clear her clothes until now, and she just threw them all into the bag without checking the clothes carefully. He thought he was definitely such a lucky dog that all he needed to do was to wait for the matter blowing up.
Outside the door came the slight sound of footsteps again. Ma Er looked through the screen and saw a beautiful woman coming in. Her clothes looked obviously more high-end than the previous maidservant. Was the woman in front from a great family? The material of her clothing was rather new to him.
“Ma Er, are you there?” Ma Er turned away his face and felt a thrill up as if being injected with chicken blood. Upon hearing the call, he answered immediately, “Miss, Ma Er is here.”
It was the savior who saved him from the cell. Apparently, she came to tell him that it was his turn. How could he not be excited? Without too much thought, he ran out of the screen and said to the woman with an unctuous bow, “Miss, Ma Er is here. Am I going to make trouble?”
Ma Er, a spalpeen, was really a master of making trouble.
As long as he ruined the woman’s reputation, the woman would belong to him. At the thought, he seemed to see the beautiful white body in front of him and felt that his blood boiled with stirs from head to toe.
“Wait a minute. You need to hold your horses now. The woman left hurriedly for something, so she might come back after a while. You can have a meal here. When I come to call you, you can go out.” Yan Miao put a small-size meal box on the table and opened it. There was only a bowl of rice and a dish in it.
Looking at the jade-white rice grains and fragrant dishes, Ma Er couldn’t help swallowing. How could the food in the cell compare to these? Although it was just a simple meal of a bowl of rice and a dish, in Ma Er’s eyes, it was a precious meal. He tried hard to resist himself to the food and watched Yan Miao longingly. Seeing Yan Miao gestured him to eat, he picked up the chopsticks by his side immediately and began gobbling them.
With his mouth full of food, he still asked Yan Miao, “Miss, Ma Er will be at your disposal whenever you need me. And you don’t have to come in person, but send a little maidservant to call me. My life is yours now!”
He thought that Yan Miao was a high-ranking young lady of the manor, otherwise, she could not have had the right to drag him back from the gallows. At that moment, He was sincerely grateful to her.
Yan Miao nodded and looked at the vulgar and wretched Ma Er with disgust in her eyes. She took two steps back and waited for him to finish the meal. As planned, Consort Xuan would have had to change clothes here due to being spilled by the watermelon juice, and been seen naked by Ma Er secretly. As long as Ma Er claimed that he was in the Hua’nuan Pavilion where Mo Xuetong was changing clothes, Mo Xuetong’s reputation would be ruined without a doubt.
No matter how much King Xuan tolerated Mo Xuetong, the Emperor would not allow an impure woman to stay by King Xuan’s side.
But who would have thought that the watermelon juice was not poured on Consort Xuan, but on Consort Chu all over? And it finally turned to be Consort Chu who came here to change clothes, which agitated the Empress so badly that she almost fainted.
No matter how terrible Ling Rui’er was, she was still the daughter of the Ding General Manor. The plan should go on like this: since the scandal was created, Consort Xuan was unable to detect anything because of her paternal background. After all, the imperial palace was far powerful beyond the Mo Manor. Although the Fu General Manor was one of the Four Great Manors, it had little influence on the inner palace, so what could they do if they did found that that Consort Xuan had been plotted against?
No one could trace that it was the Empress behind the scenes. Meeting with such a mishap, Mo Xuetong, if she was a rigorously chaste woman, had no alternative but to prove her purity with her death, or if she was unwilling to die, she would end up her life in the Cold Palace and could not have her day forever so as not to tarnish the reputation of the royal family.
However, Ling Rui’er was different. If the incident was plotted against Ling Rui’er, how could the Ding General Manor leave the matter at that? What’s worse, the Empress Dowager was also a hurdle. The Empress knew that although the Empress Dowager was on bad terms with her, the Empress Dowager was trying hard to draw the Ding General Manor over to her side. So if the Empress Dowager spotted that it was the Empress who set the trap secretly, the Empress’s two brothers would certainly not spare the Empress.
By then, not to mention supporting the Empress, the Ding General Manor might stand against her. Now King Yan was in a bad situation. Although the Empress had thought of plotting against Ling Rui’er to crack down Feng Yuxuan, it did not include defaming Ling Rui’er’s reputation. If such an incident blew up, the entire Ding General Manor would be implicated.
Therefore, the Empress didn’t dare to take any action.
But even so, there was another trouble. Since the Empress had racked her brains to get Ma Er into the palace, she did not intend to let him leave the palace alive, but planned to ask people to beat him to death when the scandal broke out because dead men told no tales. However, Ma Er was useless now, so the Empress had to find a way to get him out of the palace, which added danger to the current situation.
The Empress had not decided whether she should send him away alive or not, so she wanted to leave it until after the banquet. Now She had to pacify the condemned prisoner, Ma Er, for fear that he would pop up in the banquet if he could not see the person he had been waiting for. There were a number of young masters and ladies who were here to attend the banquet, and some pairs of them were talking to each other with great affection. The Empress feared that something unexpected would happen if Ma Er was found, so she sent Yan Miao to placate Ma Er.
The previous plan was completely invalid. The two eunuchs who had been guarding the banquet were transferred by the Empress. They were supposed to send Ma Er here the moment they saw Mo Xuetong appear, and to claim that they spotted a man in the Hua’nuan Pavilion. Then Ma Er would say that he had witnessed Mo Xuetong change her clothes.
Yan Miao was really impatient to see a condemned prisoner eating here. She felt sick at the sight that he was devouring ravenously, but his eyes stared at her nastily, as if he were going to strip her clothes, so she simply said, “Ma Er, wait here for a while. Don’t come out. I still have something to do now. I’ll come back to you later.”
She could take the meal box later.
“Yes, yes, Miss, you go to work first. I can have my meal here.” The beautiful, pure-white body that he had seen earlier recurred to his mind. Having adequate food led one to lust for sex. Seeing Yan Miao’s beautiful figure, he could not help but make a comparison and have an itch for lust in his heart.
Yan Miao had no patience to talk to him any longer, but opened the door and went out. Then she closed the door carefully. It was close to the imperial garden. Although Yan Miao disliked the man named Ma Er, she did not dare to ruin the Empress’s plan. After closing the door cautiously, she looked around to make sure that there was no one else, and then went back to the garden banquet.
Ma Er finished all the food in a short while in the room. After that, he threw away the bowl and leaned against the spacious and comfortable bed. It was really cozy here. It was impossible for him to have such a comfortable life in prison. The food was delicious to eat, and the bed was comfortable to sleep on. And now, he began thinking about the beauty who had changed her clothes just now.
With so many maidservants around, it seemed that she must be a young lady of the manor. Thinking that he was going to marry the noble young lady who was so beautiful that Xiao Feng’er in the brothel suffered by comparison, Ma Er felt his heartbeat accelerated vigorously, which drove his drowsiness after the meal away completely.
He turned and tossed in bed, unable to fall asleep. His mind was stuffed with the only thought–it would be great if he could hold the beauty into his arms. The more he thought, the more he felt that the beauty did have a splendid figure, and none of the prostitutes in the brothel could compare to her. Ma Er felt a blast of heat in his heart!
In any case, he would never let go of such a beautiful noble woman.
The decor of the room could tell that the family was rather wealthy. Ma Er thought as long as he could marry this beautiful woman, he could enjoy whatever kind of life he wanted by only an order.
Suddenly, the door opened, and a woman’s voice came from outside the screen, “Ma Er, have you finished your meal?”
“Miss, I’ve finished eating.” Ma Er sat up immediately and asked in excitement, “Are you going to let me go out to make trouble?” His mind was crammed with the idea of getting things done quickly.
“Yes, come out with me,” said the woman.
“Okay.” Ma Er replied and tugged on his clothes. He turned around the screen and saw that the door was open. A woman dressed as a maid was standing against him outside the door, indicating for him to follow her.
As the woman could tell his name and know that he was eating just now, Ma Er did not doubt that this person was sent by others as all. Because no one but the savior knew about this. Ma Er just strode up and touched the bellyband in his arms secretly, and laughed complacently in his heart…
