Qin Yunuan felt more bitterly disappointed when she heard those things. Stunned, she stared at Old Madam and found that those words had consumed her so much that she looked weak and debilitated now. Telling those things was like she had experienced the miseries that she had witnessed again when she was still the daughter of the Ge Family. Her family had been deadly chased by non-governmental forces and trapped by other influential families. Those things did not end until the Ge Family pledged allegiance to the Imperial Court.
The wooden box was still in Qin Yunuan’s hands. At this moment, she felt that it was so heavy… If she was right…
“In this box is Leng Family’s part of the map,” Old Madam’s breath was feeble like she only had a faint breath of life left, “Now, I give it to you. You shall bear in mind that this map is the lifeblood of the Leng Family. If the Sun Family gets it, our Family will be abandoned by both the Sun Family and the emperor. The root that you’ve mentioned would no longer be in existence.”
“Old Madam.” It was the first time that Qin Yuan had to carry on such a heavy responsibility on her shoulders.
“You’ve said that you had the capability to guard the family. Then show me what you’ve got.” When she finished, Old Madam’s lips were still open slightly, but no sound was made. Her eyes were closed tightly as if they would never open again.
“Old Madam,” Qin Yunuan came to sit by her side at once and called her softly. But Old Madam kept still, and her hands and feet were cold. When Qin Yunuan got up to summon Yuanyang, Old Madam finally opened her mouth emotionlessly after a long silence. “Why the panic! Didn’t Sun Miaoyang tell you that I would not die in a short time? The Sun Family is coming. How could I pass away before facing off against the old friend that I haven’t seen for years? I’m very tired. You can leave now.”
Qin Yunuan did not dare to bother her any longer. She held the black box more tightly, which was the secret between them. Outside the house, Ting Xue and Xi’er, who had been waiting, came up to Qin Yunuan immediately. However, Qin Yunuan passed them by and walked directly towards Yuanyang who looked frustrated.
Yuanyang had been a major servant girl of Old Madam for a long time, who was completely loyal to her. It was natural that she felt terrible after knowing the bad health condition of Old Madam.
“Old Madam is fine. If I were you, I will think about how to take care of her and protect her when the Sun Family comes around,” Qin Yunuan said and saw the light of awakening in Yuanyang’s eyes, “Sun Baozhen will come three days later. We should be careful.”
Yuanyang nodded in silence.
It did not take long before the Second Madam of the East House learned about the message that Old Madam had given a mysterious box made of eaglewood to Qin Yunuan.
“Pooh,” Second Madam said. The maid was smoothing toner made of flowers on her face, and that action made the toner splash and messed it up. She then wiped up her face with a silk handkerchief and complained to the Second Master who was lying on the bad and smoking hookahs leisurely, “That old woman must have given something good to that little b*tch.”
“She can do whatever she wants,” Second Master’s response was quite disappointing, “I just don’t understand. We have enough materials. Why do you always scramble with them?”
“I did it for our son,” Second Madam was annoyed by his indifferent personality, “Humph, that old woman is too prejudiced. After her daughter-in-law died, she would rather give things to her granddaughter-in-law instead of us. Anyway, she doesn’t want to give us any benefits.”
“Shut up,” Second Master covered his wife’s mouth nervously, “Grand Sister-in-law passed away just a few days before. Those words were disrespectful. Aren’t you afraid of being haunted by her ghost?”
“Bah. No evil influence can do any harm,” Second Madam hurried to cover his mouth, “What are you talking about? I should be the last person that she would haunt. Besides, she had harmed so many people. She deserved the end.”
Second Madam raised her eyebrows and turned over to smooth the toner left, not caring about what they had said about the ghost. However, a dark shadow fell down from the beam of the room and appeared outside the window with a bang. It could tell from the disheveled hair that it should be a woman. Its head raised slightly like it was hanging on the eave.
“Oh!” Second Madam screamed and pointed at the dark shadow with her quivering forefinger. Shaky with shock, she could not say any other words. Other servant girls in the room were also crying.
“Ghost! Ghost!”
Second Master even cover his head with the quilt cowardly and stammered to scold his wife, “Look what you did! I told you not to talk about ghosts. Sister-in-law, it wasn’t me who harmed you. Haunt other people. Don’t…don’t come to me.”
“People! Someone helps! Who on earth was scaring me with a doll? If I find out, I will not let you off!” Second Madam screamed. At this time, the servants and nannies outside had come around. A bold servant even poked the woman hanging under the eave with a stick beside the parterre, and then he shouted to people inside, “Second Madam, it’s not like a doll. It…it looks like a dead person.”
Some daring people even set the corpse right with a stick and poked her hair aside to take a closer look. At this time, someone realized who she was suddenly.
“Isn’t she…wasn’t she nurse Liao at Third Young Madam’s courtyard?”
Soon, the news that nurse Liao’s dead body was found on Second Madam’s eave spread to Jiyu Pavillion.
It was almost daybreak. As expected, the force that escorted Prince Ray to Imperial Mausoleum got into trouble. Qin Yunuan had sent Leng Changxi out earlier. Both of them guessed that they must have lost track of Prince Ray.
Ting Xue came to report the news hurriedly when Qin Yunuan was about to take a nap.
“Really?” Qin Yunuan was astonished by this news.
“Really and truly,” Ting Xue said seriously. She could not believe this thing, too. Because…
“Leng Shuang had sent people to guard nurse Liao’s house. Why would this happen?” It needed great capability to escape from the protection of Leng Shuang’s subordinates, move it from the suburbs of the Royal City into Prince Ning’s Mansion and hang her on Second Madam’s eave so fast. Qin Yunuan could only think of one person who had the capability.
For the first time, Qin Yunuan felt that the situation was becoming difficult.
When Qin Yunuan headed off with Tingxue and Xi’er, the servants were moving down nurse Liao’s dead body from the eave with a hook. She looked very terrible, being completely blue in the face. Her eyes popped out, and her tongue stuck out for three inches. Her skirt was stained with some filth, which smelled bad.
No one was willing to hold the corpse with hands. The youngest servant was pushed to the forefront. He frowned and then tried to touch nurse Liao’s ankle gingerly with his eyes closed. However, when the rope was loosened, the heavy corpse fell to the ground directly. The servant opened his eyes and saw nurse Liao’s eyes that were still open. He was so scared that he dropped the corpse and ran away, shouting, “She comes back! Her eyes were moving!”
Standing aside, Second Madam stamped her feet. “Bastard, come back! You are all useless. It’s just a dead maid. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Qin Yunuan had been standing by the door for a while. She took the chance to come in. “You’d better show some respect to the dead, Second Madam.”
Second Madam glared at Qin Yunuan when she caught the sight of her, “Oh, Third Young Madam comes here. That was easy for you to say. The dead one was your nanny, but you did not care a bit. How strange it is!”
Qin Yunuan glanced at her, “Nurse Liao had made some mistakes, and I asked her to go back home and think about it as punishment. I did not expect that she would die.”
“Huh, what you didn’t expect was much more,” Second Madam frowned, regardless of the wink of Second Master. She asked a maid who was holding a tray to come closer. It was a letter lying in the tray. Though they could not tell the content, the letter was very long. “This letter had dropped out of her arms. I did not touch it as it was from the dead. It was likely written for you, Third Young Madam. After all, she was your maid, wasn’t she?”
Qin Yunuan nodded and said, “This can be considered as nurse Liao’s things. No matter whom the letter was written for, you’d better hand it to Old Madam since nurse Liao is dead.”
Second Madam glanced at Qin Yunuan, “Sure enough, your relationship with Old Madam is different now. You are sure that Old Madam will side with you.”
Qin Yunuan had no intention to talk more. “I’m just fact-oriented. Xi’er, Old Madam had sent Yuanyang to inquire about the situation when we came out, hadn’t she? Come to report to Old Madam that a suicide note from nurse Liao was found, and we hope that she would take a look.” Qin Yunuan ignored Second Madam directly.
The death of nurse Liao in Second Madam’s courtyard spread to the East Garden and Concubine Tang’s place like weeds. It has been a troublesome time in Prince Ning’s Mansion, the Royal City, and even Qi. Before long, everyone had shown up at the Lotus Fragrance Courtyard. Even Prince Ning, who had been busy about imperial affairs, came back early and was sitting beside Old Madam.
Old Madam still looked tired, but she was much better than yesterday. Everyone stayed away when the maid brought nurse Liao’s suicide note. Only Yuanyang opened it quickly and read it under Old Madam’s permission.
The first half seemed to be recalling some past memories and telling Huang Dashi to marry a good wife. But the further she read, the stranger it became for Qin Yunuan.
“Third Young Madam, I’m completely loyal to you, but you drove me out of the mansion for your own benefit. I stay tight-lipped about the secret of your birth for the reputation of Concubine Yang as well as your life at Prince Ning’s Mansion. I could only prove my sincerity by death. Yours.”
“What does that mean?”
Qin Yunuan frowned and had a foreboding.
Ruan Ruyi guessed, “Concubine Yang is Yunuan’s mother. The letter mentioned the reputation of Concubine Yang. Does that mean…that Yunuan is not the biological daughter of Grand Commandant Qin but an illegitimate child?”
