“First Miss, bad news, bad news…” Moyan rushed in and said, looking at Shao Yanru, who was in the room, in panic with a pale face.
“Why do you make such a fuss? Is this how you behave in front of an emergency as my maid?” Shao Yanru said coldly with her smiling face turning cold. Meanwhile, she had a bad intuition, so she held the teacup but didn’t drink the tea immediately.
As her trusted maid, Moyan was capable of handling various things and had never been so flustered.
Besides, there was a big stain on the part of her clothes above her knees. It was obvious that she had fallen before.
“First Miss, something went wrong. The old maid has been seized!” Moyan took a deep breath and said.
“Old maid?” Shao Yanru said casually, but her face changed dramatically at once after she said that. She suddenly stood up and asked with a gloomy face, “What happened?”
“It’s said that the Fifth Miss was tricked down the mountain and ran into an accident. However, a maid named Qing’er jumped out of the carriage and survived. After that, she insisted that it was you who instructed the old maid to do it. The old maid panicked and pinched the maid’s hand, and it was seen by others. A group of runners of the capital yamen, who happened to be at the foot of the mountain, where the Yuhui Nunnery was, because of investigating into a case, took the old maid away!”
Moyan nervously wiped off the cold sweat on her face and told the story fluently.
“Why did the old maid get caught there instead of running away?” Shuqi also panicked and asked anxiously.
“I don’t know what happened. I gave the old maid a large sum of money and told her to go far away, but now she didn’t escape and was caught. What should I do now, First Miss? If she gives me out, I’m doomed!” Moyan said and cried out in fear.
It was Moyan who bribed the old maid. How could Moyan not panic at this moment?
“Did you go alone?” As the teacup in her hand fell on the table heavily, Shao Yanru asked with her face darkening after thinking for a while.
“No… I didn’t go alone…” Moyan said and hurriedly shook her head with her face turning red due to panic, “There’s another old maid. I was afraid that the old maid would ruin our plan, so I followed her.”
“Is the old maid here?” Shao Yanru asked with a cold face.
“She’s… she’s still here…” Moyan said.
“Find an excuse. Claim that she stole something from my mother’s yard and beat her to death!” Shao Yanru said and closed her gloomy eyes. When she opened her eyes again, she looked cruel.
“Yes, Miss. I’ll instruct someone to do it right away!” Moyan hurriedly said and turned around in a panic to run out, but she was stopped by Shao Yanru, who looked sullen, “Let Shuqi go! I still have some questions to ask you!”
“Yes, Miss. I’ll go right away!” Shuqi collected herself and said. As Shao Yanru’s maid, she was capable of handling this kind of thing properly. She turned around, replied, and walked out.
Of course, they couldn’t allow the old maid to stay alive. Otherwise, their mansion could get into trouble when the yamen runners found out about the old maid.
“Where did the news come from?” Shao Yanru stared at Moyan and said. At that time, she did not specially leave anyone at the foot of the mountain, where the Yuhui Nunnery was, to watch over the situation out of cautiousness, because Qin Yuru had sent someone there.
It would be inappropriate if the person she sent encountered the person Qin Yuru sent. She couldn’t even let others find out that she had intervened in it.
“From the Ministry of Justice… Lord Qiu Yu sent a manservant over. He said that the case had been handed over to the Ministry of Justice. The people involved in the case are out of the management scope of the capital mayor, so it should be in the charge of the Ministry of Justice.” As Moyan said, she almost burst into tears anxiously. If the case was in the charge of the capital mayor, it would be easier to handle. However, since the case had been handed over to the Ministry of Justice, it could be serious.
Although they had got rid of the old maid going with her before, she was still very worried and afraid that she would get involved in it.
Others might not know what kind of person her master was, but she certainly knew. If she got involved in it, she would probably get killed.
“Qiu Yu!” Shao Yanru thought for a while and said with a frown. She was really reluctant to have too many connections with Qiu Yu. She clearly knew Qiu Yu’s feelings about her and was afraid that he would try every way to approach her so that the situation would be out of her control.
She had heard plenty of examples of someone doing wrong due to his deep affection!
However, she had to make use of Qiu Yu now.
“Is the manservant still waiting outside?” Shao Yanru took a deep breath and said. She had made up her mind to find out what was going on at any cost.
“Yes! He’s still waiting outside the back door.” Moyan said in a panic.
Shao Yanru nodded, walked up to the desk, picked up the writing brush, and wrote a sentence after thinking for a while. After leaving the paper for a while to dry, she folded it and put it into an empty envelope, and then said, “Give the letter to the manservant who delivered the message.”
“Yes, Miss. Rest assured. I will do it right away!” Moyan took the letter and hurriedly promised, and then walked out of Shao Yanru’s room after collecting herself.
An old maid of Duke Xing’s Mansion stole a hairpin from Madam of Duke Xing and insisted that she was innocent after being discovered. She didn’t cry and beg Madam of Duke Xing for mercy until the witness and material evidence were presented. Madam of Duke Xing hated her for feigning innocence before, so she directly instructed other servants to beat the old maid to death.
It made all the servants of Duke Xing’s Mansion tremble with fear all night and feel as if they could still hear the old maid’s wailing in the air. There had been examples of masters instructing to punish their servants, but masters basically did that in private. It was the first time that the servants had been summoned to watch a servant be punished.
The servants went back, trembling with fear. Feeling that there seemed to be ghosts in the shadow of lamps, all of them became increasingly terror-stricken and guilty.
They went to sleep after returning to their rooms.
No one noticed that when most of the people in the yard were summoned to watch the punishment, Shao Yanru left her yard with her maid, got out of the back yard through the back door, got in a carriage at the gate, and then left Duke Xing’s Mansion.
The coachman basically took the alleys, where few people walked past, instead of streets. Fortunately, the coachman was familiar with the route and didn’t go the wrong way even in the dark.
The carriage went all the way forward to a restaurant, which was prosperous with plenty of customers coming and going at the moment. Seeing two ladies come down from the carriage, the shop-boy hurried to greet them with a smile.
The maid stood in front of Shao Yanru, who was muffled up in a cloak, and told the name of a private room. The shop-boy replied with a smile and shouted, enthusiastically led them to the second floor, went to the inner part, and opened the door of a private room.
As the door was opened, Qiu Yu stood there with an excited look and stared at Shao Yanru, who was muffled in her cloak, with his burning eyes. He had just sent someone to deliver a message, but he didn’t expect that his beloved girl would come to meet him. Such an unexpected surprise made it difficult for Qiu Yu to calm down.
He looked nervous with a slightly red face.
The maid waved her hand as a hint for the shop-boy to leave. The shop-boy left with a knowing smile and specially closed the door for them. He could tell at first glance that there must be something between the man and the lady.
The shop-boy could tell that the two of them must have an unusual relationship. Although the man did not disguise himself, his face turned red out of excitement when the lady showed up. Besides, the lady was muffled in a cloak, which obviously indicated that she was afraid of being seen by others.
Nevertheless, this kind of thing was not rare for the shop-boy. They considered the secret meeting between a man and a lady no big deal.
They, who opened the restaurant for doing business, didn’t care about this kind of thing as long as they could make money!
The couple in the private room probably came here to meet secretly!
After the shop-boy got out of the private room, he deliberately winked at the other shop-boy at the stairs. The other shop-boy immediately understood, looked curiously at the door, through which the shop-boy had just come out, and nodded with a knowing smile.
This kind of customers were actually a little easier to please and more generous than other customers. Weren’t they the ideal customers for a restaurant?
Qiu Yu had ordered dishes and wine. But seeing Shao Yanru take off the cloak on her, Qiu Yu still handed over the menu to her and said, “First Miss, have a look at the menu and see if there’s anything else you would like to have a taste. If there’s any, you can order them, and I’ll tell the shop-boy to serve them together with other dishes!”
“That’s fine with me!” Shao Yanru didn’t care about the dishes at the moment, but it was inappropriate for her to show an anxious look, so she said with a smile.
“Please don’t refuse me. It’s a rare opportunity to invite you here. First Miss, please order one or two dishes!” How could Qiu Yu let his beloved girl down? He handed over the menu and looked as if he would insist on it until Shao Yanru ordered dishes, which made Shao Yanru quite displeased.
Nevertheless, she still needed to ask Qiu Yu for a favor, so despite her displeasure, she had to restrain herself, ordered a few dishes at random, and then sat down again.
Qiu Yu looked at the dishes she ordered, kept them in mind, and then instructed the manservant to take the menu out and tell the shop-boy to serve the dishes.
After sitting down, he picked up the teapot and poured a cup of tea for Shao Yanru, and then pushed the teacup in front of Shao Yanru with a big smile and his increasingly burning eyes.
“First Miss Shao, please have tea!”
He found the First Miss Shao in front of him increasingly pleasing to the eye.
“Your Excellency, I want to ask you why I got involved in what happened today. Could it be possible that someone, who hates our Duke Xing’s Mansion, set me up?”
Shao Yanru was really in no mood to chat with him. After taking the teacup and taking a sip, she fell silent for a while, and then raised her head and said gently.
She was anxious, sad and even a little angry, which made her look pitiful and fragile.
Qiu Yu felt distressed and wanted to reach out and touch her to comfort her. But he knew that it was improper for him to do this at the moment.
He was glad that he got the news and immediately sent someone to deliver a message to the First Miss Shao. Otherwise, when everyone knew it tomorrow, he wouldn’t be able to play a part in it, let alone get the chance to meet the First Miss Shao.
It was the First Miss Shao who invited him to meet here at this moment. It could be seen that she wanted to meet him eagerly. He thought that the First Miss Shao must also have feelings for him! Otherwise, she wouldn’t have met him at night.
As he thought of this, he showed a much deeper feeling in his eyes.
“Don’t worry. I will always protect you. We just got the maid’s statement now, and the development of the case depends on how we handle it tomorrow. It has nothing to do with you, so I suppose that you won’t get involved in it. The maid just went crazy and talked nonsense. You don’t have to take it to heart!”
Qiu Yu comforted Shao Yanru in a soft voice.