Chapter 207 The New Wife from Sun Family
The occurrence of Shangguan Yi made the previous posthumous papers and nanny Xu’s words become a farce.
Nanny Xu’s eyes were turbid. She kept kowtowing to Shangguan Yi. She was bought to do so, so she didn’t want to find trouble for herself.
“Kowtowing is useless,” Leng Changxi’s words made nanny Xu stiff, “According to the law, the person incriminating the infanta of the fifth-grade of rank should be banished,” Leng Changxi looked at the old nanny Xu coldly without any pity, “Pack your things and prepare to go.”
Nanny Xu thought that Leng Changxi was joking. Subconsciously, she gave Second Madam an appealing look. Second Madam winced. Before she could say anything, Leng Changxi ordered Leng Wu quickly, “Put her name on the list. If she refuses to leave, punish her according to the military law.”
Since nanny Xu had incriminated Qin Yunuan’s mother, Qin Yunuan thought that it wouldn’t be excessive to peel off her skin. However, she knew that nurse Liao’s death and nanny Xu’s popping up were not surprises at all. What Qin Yunuan and Leng Changxi wanted to find out was the person behind them.
Nanny Xu was taken away by force. Leng Changxi’s decision made sense. If he let nanny Xu go out, she would end up being killed like nurse Liao.
“And the posthumous paper…” although it happened suddenly, Old Madam believed Shangguan Yi, because the Shangguan Family was a prominent family, it wouldn’t take a daughter of a concubine as its granddaughter randomly. Thus, no matter whether Qin Yunuan’s mother had done anything crossing the line or not, the bloodlines of Qin Yunuan and Qin Baochuan were perfect. What’s more, nanny Xu’s words were full of loopholes, and the posthumous paper showed up with questions.
“It should be investigated,” Qin Yunuan didn’t believe that this posthumous paper was written by nurse Liao at all. While nurse Liao had learned some Chinese characters from Lady Yang, the wording of it was formal. It didn’t seem to be what nurse Liao could write.
Old Madam stared at Qin Yunuan. The expression in her eyes was changing with some unusual feeling. Simply by observing Qin Yunuan’s reaction just now, she knew that Qin Yunuan had already been clear of her identity. It was good that she could keep it as a secret until today because it implied that this woman was capable of enduring, which was a virtue for success. However, it was also bad because Old Madam thought that Qin Yunuan’s capability was beyond hers.
“I’m tired,” hearing Old Madam’s words, everyone left. Nurse Liao’s body had already been carried to the back gate. Huang Dashi drove a plate trailer here, prepare to send nurse Liao back to bury her.
Huang Dashi was tall and strong. However, he broke into tears the moment he saw nurse Liao covered by the white cloth.
The servant at the gate dropped nurse Liao’s body to Huang Dashi and left reluctantly, leaving Huang Dashi bend over nurse Liao’s cold, stiff body to cry and shout.
“Mother, why didn’t you judge things wisely? Wouldn’t it be better if you followed Third Young Madam at the very beginning? Why did you ask for this?”
Crying, Huang Dashi felt that there was a shadow over his head. Looking up, Maner stood beside him as expected. Huang Dashi grew up together with Maner and Qin Yunuan, so there was a deep friendship among them. Seeing Huang Dashi like this, Maner wasn’t comfortable either. Keeping tears in her eyes, Maner wanted nothing but handing over what Qin Yunuan had told her as quickly as she could.
“Third Young Madam gave this to you,” Maner put a heavy purse on Huang Dashi’s hand, in which there were about fifty taels of silver, “Bury nurse Liao well.”
Lowering his head, Huang Dashi choked with sobs, “My mother owes Third Young Madam. I tried to persuade her, but she didn’t listen to me because she was so obsessed with the money.”
Maner shook her head, “Say no more. She is already dead.” Finishing her words, Maner turned around to enter the gate, but she was stopped by Huang Dashi.
“Maner, I have a few words to say. Please retell it to Third Young Madam.”
After the time to drink half a cup of tea, Qin Yunuan listened to Maner in Jiyu Pavillion. She winced. Sure enough, it was exactly the same as what she had guessed. Before Maner finished her words, Qin Yunuan said, “The Sun Family is more powerful than what we imagined. It was us who underestimated the enemy this time.”
At that time, Leng Shuang came over to ask for punishment because she failed to observe nurse Liao’s house closely last night.
“It was my fault,” lowering her head, Leng Shuang blamed herself. It was the biggest irony to her to take away nurse Liao and hung her under the eave when the person was in her hand.
“It was not your fault,” Qin Yunuan took a deep breath, “My useful helpers are fewer and fewer, but our situation is more and more dangerous. What’s most important now is to focus on the matter before us. You know that Sun Baozhen will marry here after one month.”
“Third Young Madam, are you sure that Sun Family is responsible for it?” Maner felt rather frightened. It was the intrigue against each other before, but nurse Liao being hung up on Second Madam’s eave last night was the result of consolidating step by step. It was extremely weird.
“Or?” Qin Yunuan stood up, “According to what you reported to me before, it was very likely that the Sun Family wanted to do something on the painting of crane which I gave to father by buying off nurse Liao in private. However, we found out later and counterplotted. Maner, Ting Xue, and I spent a whole night changing the painting with phantom powder. Although the Sun Family was in hands of women, they did things rather decisively. If my assumption was right, the Sun Family must think that nurse Liao had cheated them, or even that nurse Liao and I had planned together to gain their trust. That’s why they chose to kill her and end this thing forever.”
“However, why did they hang her on Second Madam’s eave?” Ting Xue was confused, “Is there any relationship between the Sun Family and Second Madam?”
Qin Yunuan didn’t speak. From her perspective, in the Sun Family, Madam Sun was well-informed and brisk. Old Madam Sun looked quiet and indifferent, but who knew whether she had something hidden? As for Sun Baozhen who was going to marry here, thinking of the music score Li Jiaxuan gave to Qin Yunuan yesterday…
“Oh, what did Shen Xun say about the music score I sent to him last night? Did he find anything?” After getting the music score last night, Qin Yunuan asked Leng Shuang to send it to Shen Xun in the Golden Butterfly Embroidery House immediately. Shen Xun had traveled to many places and seen many strange things, so he might know something about it.
She just finished her words when Xi’er came in to report that Shen Xun had written a response letter about the music score and asked Third Young Madam to read it herself.
Qin Yunuan took over the envelope and unfolded it. Only after reading the first two paragraphs, her heart fell. She found that her dancing and competing with Sun Baozhen that day was extremely dangerous.
In the letter, Shen Xun used a serious tone rare to him. He told Qin Yunuan that although the music score seemed ordinary, every end of the sound was changed slightly, which could only be found out by superb players. Shen Xun had once seen a performance similar to it when he had a study tour in a minority tribe in the southwest. The local minorities used a kind of special flutes to perform in the forest in order to attract preys. According to what he had witnessed, at that time those preys came as if they were cursed. They wouldn’t leave and did everything the performer asked them to do. Even when they were killed and cut, they didn’t resist at all.
That was to say, this kind of music score could control one’s mind.
At the end of the letter, Shen Xun told Qin Yunuan that according to what local people had said, their greatest achievement was to tame a full-grown tiger using this method.
If a tiger could listen to men’s orders, what about people?
All of a sudden, Qin Yunuan came up with a bold assumption about nurse Liao’s weird death. Killing her first and then taking her into the mansion was too obvious and heavy. Capturing her first and then killing her would absolutely cause nurse Liao’s resistance. The only explanation that made sense was that someone had used the music to control nurse Liao, asking her to return to the Qin Family by herself and hang up herself with the rope.
As she had expected, the report from the post-mortem examiner came out in the afternoon. There was no trace of struggling and other scars on nurse Liao’s body. It was clear that nurse Liao had committed suicide.
The result confirmed Qin Yunuan’s assumption.
Nurse Liao’s death was covered by the conclusion of suicide. Servants had discussed it in private, but they all became silent once seeing Qin Yunuan. When Shangguan Yi returned home, he declared the identities of Qin Yunuan and Qin Baochuan immediately. According to tradition, their names should be written in the pedigree of the Shangguan Family.
But Shangguan Yu was a married daughter after all. However, under Shangguan Yi’s sincere requirement adding Shangguan Yuan’s mistake of evicting Shangguan Yu out of the family, despite being not on the pedigree, all people of Qi knew that Qin Yunuan and Qin Baochuan were Shangguan Yi’s lost grandchildren. At the same time, Qin Zhi was impeached for past mistakes. He was already in an embarrassing condition. Now things were worse for him.
Old Madam had been resting quietly to recuperate, so she canceled the tradition of the young generation to greet her twice a day. She didn’t leave Lotus Fragrance Courtyard until one month later, Sun Baozhen was married to the mansion. A magnificent wedding was held in the mansion, and many nobles were invited. Therefore, Old Madam had to be present.
This day, Prince Ning’s Mansion was decorated with lanterns and streamers. Nobody had slept for the whole night. Prince Ning was 48 this year. Although he was so well-preserved that he looked no more than 30, standing beside the 18-year-old Sun Baozhen, he made people think of the phrase “an old man with a young wife”.
In the Lotus Fragrance Courtyard, Old Madam half leaned on the couch tiredly. A little servant girl pinched the old lady’s leg with moderate strength. Another nanny was reporting the situation of the newly-married couple politely with her head down.
“Not long after Master and the new concubine entered their wedding house, Master went to the study in the excuse of being busy. He hadn’t returned for a long time. It seemed that he was about to spend the night there.”
“What about Sun Baozhen?” Old Madam squinted and asked.
“Concubine Sun has already rested alone.”
Old Madam opened her eyes slowly, “Forget it. It’s fine. Having lesser contact with the person from the Sun Family is better than being too close to her. But you need to tell Master that they are married after all under the emperor’s permission. He should do something on the cover as much as he can.”
The nanny reporting issues nodded and left. Before long, Yuanyang came in, looking serious. She whispered to Old Madam. Old Madam’s eyes rounded suddenly. To her surprise, the most important thing she gave to Qin Yunuan disappeared.
