Followed by Tonger and Maner, Qin Yunuan walked straight back to her room after sending off Cui’e. The one who was cleaning the room was Tinghe. The servant girl was allocated to Qin Yunuan when she moved into the new courtyard. With delicate features and narrow shoulders, she looked very touching. But she was deft in working and was eager to do things.
“Okay, you can leave now, Tinghe. The room is clean enough.” Qin Yunuan said to Tinghe quietly with a kind smile. However, the expression on her face changed as long as Maner closed the door after Tinghe got out of the room. “Have you figured out the history of this girl?”
It was not that Qin Yunuan was plagued by imaginary fears. In the previous life, Dou Qing’e sent Tinghe to her when she was sewing the Crane Robe for the Empress. And then, out of nowhere, two silver needles were found in the Crane Robe. Now, as she thought about the whole thing, Qin Yunuan believed that Tinghe had something to do with the needles.
“I had asked around for you in private,” Maner lowered her voice, “Tinghe was taken in our mansion this year. I heard that she was a distant relative of Xiu Gu, the nanny of Madam. Before she was sent here, she had been doing chores at Grand Miss’s place.”
“It really has something to do with her,” Qin Yunuan frowned. She had just sent Fusheng away, and here came Tinghe. It was said that under the command of Dou Qing’e, Fusheng had been married to an old crippled paranoid horse dealer in the west of the city after she had testified for Qin Yunuan. The horse dealer was over fifty years old and was fond of gambling and women. Fusheng had almost been tortured to death by him within half a month.
Dou Qing’e was really a master in torturing people.
“Third Miss, why don’t we just send her away like what we did to Fusheng?” Tong said seriously.
“Well, we can’t let her off that easy,” Qin Yunuan smiled slightly. Fusheng had not really harmed her, so Qin Yunuan left her the last hope of recovery. But Tinghe had framed her in the previous life. With a glance at the scriptures and the inkstone in the brocade box, Qin Yunuan said, “I’ll just meet plot with plot. She wanted me to copy scriptures, and I will do this job carefully and diligently.”
It was the midnight, but Qin Yunuan’s room was still brilliantly illuminated. She was copying scriptures quietly. The Buddhist scriptures could really calm the mind, ease the heart and make people feel more sensitive. All the sins and evil things could be tolerated there. However, living in a big family like this, even if she was willing to tolerate others, would others let her off?
Qin Yunuan took a deep breath and calmed down. The strokes were smooth and natural, and she paused occasionally, like she was waiting for something to happen.
Suddenly, a shrill shriek of a woman came from the distance, which pierced the tranquility of the night like a sharp blade.
The cry was piercing and horrifying.
“Third Miss,” nurse Liao knocked on the door from the outside and reported anxiously, “Something had happened in the Furong Courtyard!”
When Qin Yunuan arrived at the Furong Courtyard with a surprising look, the intimate nannies and servant girls of Dou Qing’e, as well as Butler Xie, had already been waiting outside the courtyard. As it was in midnight, they all looked drowsy, but no one dared to let their guard down. Seven or eight nannies and maids were searching for something. They all looked afraid as if some ghosts would emerge from the dark place between the trees and grass.
“Father,” Qin Yunuan made a curtsy to Qin Zhi after entering the house, “I heard that something had happened at the Furong Courtyard, so I came here in a hurry.” She said while peering at Li Qiqi, who was leaning against Qin Zhi’s chest, looking disheveled, like she had just woken up from a nightmare. Her face was pale, and she was gasping hardly. She opened her mouth, but no one knew what she was going to say.
“Are you okay, Concubine Li? How are you feeling?” Qin Yunuan saw the bandaged ankle of Li Qiqi. The room was a total mess, with candlesticks and hangers lying on the ground, just like a battlefield.
Dou Qing’e arrived with her inferiors in a short time. She was poised and a little disdainful, saying, “We had searched everywhere, master. There’s no woman in white that sister Li had described.”
Qin Zhi was stern and silent for a while. Li Qiqi, who nestled in his arms, finally looked up and quavered a whole sentence, “Master, believe me, please. I did see a woman in white drifting from the window when I was changing my clothes. Her eyes were full of grievances, and her face was scratched all over. There was a lotus embroidery on her clothes. I remember it clearly.”
Those words were like ghosts lingering in the air, which stirred up the inmost feelings of people in the room.
Finally, Concubine Chang said timidly with a frightened and inconceivable look in her eyes, “The white clothes embroidered with lotus and the scratches on the face, wasn’t that how Concubine He looked when she died six years ago? Maybe the Furong Courtyard….”
“Bang!” Qin Zhi dashed the copper basin on the stand to the ground. His eyes were sinister and ruthless, “I had said that no one should mention this thing anymore.”
“Exactly,” Dou Qing’e seconded, “We had drawn conclusions to those things. No more rumors should be spread.”
At this moment, a servant girl ran into the yard in a panic, with a heavy copper basin in her hands. Inside the basin were some wet clothes.
“Master, master. Those were what we found from the lotus pond in this courtyard.”
The expression on Qin Zhi’s face changed as soon as he saw the white clothes with lotus embroidery. Li Qiqi hid behind Qin Zhi and pointed at the clothes in the copper basin. “That’s it! The woman I had seen wore this dress. Her long hair and white dress really scared me a lot. Master, it was so horrible. Master….” Li Qiqi sobbed harder as if she had been greatly frightened.
Dou Qing’e looked at the wet clothes in this copper basin in disbelief. That was impossible. She had just sent people to search the courtyard carefully and they did not find anything suspicious. Even if they did find something, she would have had it disappeared before Qin Zhi arrived.
“Though I was a young girl at that time, I also heard from others that the death of Concubine He was very strange,” Qin Yunuan spoke up leisurely, “This time, Concubine Li had seen the suspected woman soon after she moved into the Furong Courtyard. Besides, rumors about this thing have been spreading in the mansion. Father, no matter it is true or not, we’d better check it out to reassure Concubine Li and console the spirit of Concubine He.”
“Third Miss, it’s understandable that you were too young to know better about this at that time. But do you know that master was heartbroken for the death of sister He? You are making master sad by talking about that repeatedly.” Dou Qing’e said kindly. She had put on her usual behavior as a dignified hostess.
“You misunderstood me, mother,” Qin Yunuan smiled, “The Buddhist scriptures that I have been copying today said that everything happened for a reason. The presence of Concubine He’s ghost meant that she had some needs or grievance. Why don’t we just fulfill her wishes and give her an explanation?”
Li Qiqi shivered when she heard the word “presence.” She grabbed Qin Zhi’s clothes more nervously, “Master, I also heard some rumors after I married you, saying that when sister He died, her face was scary, and her cheeks were black. Her lips were strangely blue, like she was poisoned instead of dying of illness suddenly. If that was true, sister He must have been very grieving.”
Qin Yunuan stroked her chest and said fearfully, “No wonder I heard woman’s tearful cry occasionally at the Fuxi Courtyard. I thought I was wrong, but if that was true….” She stopped at a proper end, knowing that was enough.
Looking at Li Qiqi who was nestling in Qin Zhi’s chest like a trembling willow branch, Dou Qing’e was burning with jealousy. She frowned and snored at Qin Yunuan, “You have really grown up to say those things.”
Qin Yunzhuang spoke in support of her mother immediately, “Yes. Yunuan was around eight or nine years old at that time. She knew nothing about it. She had just talked some nonsense to annoy father.”
Qin Linfeng also sneered, “Birth decides manners. In my view, you heard those noises because you have done some discreditable affairs.”
The three of them stood in sharp opposition to Qin Yunuan and kept taunting her. Finally, when they all stopped, Qin Yunuan made a bow and said, “Mother, big brother, sister, what you said made sense. I was a junior and did not know much about that thing. The final decision should be made by father.”
Like a ball, the thing was kicked back to Qin Zhi again.
Qin Zhi held Li Qiqi in his arms and looked at her face that was almost the same as that of Lian. He seemed to see the scenes twenty years ago, when he held Lian’s hands and promised to her, “Lian, to collect money for my taking the imperial examination, you did not scruple to be a performer at the brothel. If I were to pass the examination, I promise I would give you a big wedding ceremony.”
Lian looked down and replied quietly, “You would be a high-ranking official if you passed the examination. I won’t ask you to marry me. I just want to be with you. If you flunked, you can come back to me, and we will run a small business after I have enough money.”
Later, he did pass the imperial examination. However, when he paraded himself through East Street proudly, he was chosen by Dou Family as a worthy husband for their daughter. The Dou Family was an aristocratic family of government officials for generations. At that time, the emperor transferred that family to Hangzhou for fear of their wide connections, and the son of the family was obstructed to be an official in the Royal City. As a result, they chose to marry their daughter to an official in the Royal City.
Qin Zhi was thus in a bad fix. On the one hand, he could have a meteoric rise and bring wealth and rank to his family. On the other hand, his loved one, the woman he promised to marry, was waiting for him.
In the end, Qin Zhi married Dou Qing’e and was promoted for three ranks within two years. But deep in his heart, Lian was still there. Once, as he was inspecting the flood in the south, he took the opportunity to take her into his mansion, claiming that she was just a girl he met during the inspection. He took her back as he was in love with this girl from a virtuous family.
After that, he had tried to protect Lian by hiding her away from others. Never had he expected that she would come to a violent death all of a sudden six years ago, leaving all the secrets for him to find out. By that time, he had been concentrating on political issues as the country was in a turbulent situation. Dou Qing’e was also trying to reconcile him to her death. So, grieved as he was, he did not continue the investigation of that thing. He was not powerful enough to set himself against the will of the Dou Family at that time, but now, everything was different.
