Chapter 91 – Amor’S Acacia
Chapter 91 Amor’s Acacia
“No need. This one is good enough,” said Qu Moying as she picked up the belt aside. Suddenly, something that was wrapped by the belt dropped to the ground.
It was actually a whole set of outfits, including clothes, a belt, shoes, socks, and even a hairpin with a gauzy white flower.
The gauzy white flower had light yellow stamens. It looked simple, but Qu Moying could tell it was delicately handmade, pretty, also suitable for a mourning occasion.
Attached to a silver hairpin, the flower was not complicated and only had five petals.
Qu Moying picked up the flower, stared at it carefully, and then sniffed it. Seeing this, Granny Miao asked her in confusion, “My lady, is there something wrong with the gauzy flower?”
“Granny Miao, take a look at this.” Qu Moying passed the flower to Granny Miao. Granny Miao directly held it under her nose, sniffed it, and then her face suddenly turned pale. She looked at Qu Moying, “My lady, something is on the flower?”
In terms of sense of smell, even Granny Miao’s was not comparable with Qu Moying’s.
“It’s faint, very hard to notice.” Qu Moying nodded at her, “Granny, do you think it’s similar to the smell of Amor’s Acacia that you showed me in the past?”
Granny Miao pulled a long face and sniffed it again carefully. “Yes, a little bit.” She closed her eyes to feel the fragrance for a few seconds and then opened her eyes. “My lady, it is the smell of Amor’s Acacia. It is very faint, almost covered by the smell of scented candles. If you didn’t tell me, I wouldn’t notice it at all.”
The scented candles were a perfect excuse since the aroma of Amor’s Acacia was very faint and could almost be covered by the candles’ smell.
Even a person familiar with all kinds of herbs like Granny Miao couldn’t even notice the smell. Luckily, Qu Moying had had a keener sense of smell than ordinary people since she was a kid.
“My lady, it is the Second Madam’s scheme!” Granny Miao understood it immediately as her eyes fell on the set of clothes. She hurriedly held them under her nose and started to sniff.
Then she picked up the belt and shoes to sniff them one by one.
“My lady, the shoes have that smell too.” Granny Miao put an irritated look on her face, “The Second Madam is so malicious! She wants you to shame yourself on the Crown Princess’s funeral…”
Amor’s Acacia was not a strong-effect herb that had much use and even couldn’t confuse people’s minds. It was said that women in the North would use this kind of flower to attract men they were interested in.
Amor’s Acacia represented the lovely and charming aura a woman showed in front of the man she loved.
Under the effect of this herb, a woman would look more charming and attractive, with her eyes more watery and her face blushing timidly. It wouldn’t be a big deal if it was used on ordinary occasions since people would just find the woman prettier than usual. But what if someone used it at the Crown Princess’s funeral?
As the Crown Princess’s cousin, if Qu Moying showed such a flirtatious look instead of wailing sorrowfully at the funeral, people would all think she was here to seduce someone.
And the most possible person she wanted to seduce would be the Crown Prince…
The more Granny Miao thought about it, the more terrified and irritated she felt for Qu Moying.
“How can the Second Madam be so malicious!?” Yu Dong understood Granny Miao and Qu Moying’s conversation too. He couldn’t help but exclaim in rage, “How does she know about such an evil flower?”
Yu Dong knew Granny Miao was from the North, but no one around Second Madam Qu came from that place. Who did tell her about this flower?
“That’s not the priority right now. My lady, what should we do next?” feeling irritated too, Yu Chun interrupted Yu Dong and asked worriedly.
“I will wear the pair of shoes prepared by ourselves. But as for the gauzy flower…” Qu Moying cast a glance at the exquisite flower hairpin, “I will just wear it. Since they’ve made one set for every person, the other three hairpins look the same as this one.”
“My lady, how did they know you would pick this one among the four hairpins?” Granny Miao nodded at her while gazing at the gauzy flower.
“They are all the same, no matter which one I would pick.” Qu Moying curled up her lips. There were four sets of clothes, four gauzy flower hairpins, and four pairs of shoes in total. If her guess was right, something would probably happen to the outfits after the manager left the Qianyue House. Then they would be sent back to the embroidery workshop. That would be a perfect chance to replace them with some clean clothes without Amor’s Acacia before the mourning clothes were presented to the Old Lady.
No matter which set Qu Moying picked, they had used Amor’s Acacia on all four sets anyway. If something happened at the Crown Princess’s funeral, Yu could blame it all on Qu Moying since Qu Moying was the one who picked the clothes for herself. If the other three people’s clothes didn’t have any problem, it must be Qu Moying herself who did something on the outfits. Then, Qu Moying would become a shameless lady who wanted to seduce her cousin’s husband at her cousin’s funeral.
No one would suspect Yu.
Since Yu wanted to make a big scene at Ji Hanyue’s funeral and use this to frame Qu Moying, Qu Moying wouldn’t go easy on her this time. Anyway, she planned to reveal the truth behind the Crown Prince’s deep “love” for the Crown Princess. This so-called funeral looked more like a joke in Qu Moying’s eyes.
The Crown Prince put on his perfect-gentleman mask, showed his love and sorrow to the public to win people’s pity, and earned himself a reputation of a loyal husband. Yet, actually, he was the murderer behind everything. Since Pei Luo’an could do anything for his own benefit, Qu Moying decided to expose the darkest side of him to the world…
“We will take all these clothes with us. Granny, I will wear the dress brought by them. Please help me smoke it with the herbs we prepared before and spray the potion on it,” Qu Moying said in a flat tone.
She didn’t say it clearly, but Granny Miao understood her intention immediately and exclaimed in shock, “My lady…”
“I know. It will be fine.” Qu Moying shook her head as her eyes darkened. “After tomorrow, no matter what happened or will happen to Qu Qiuyan, they can’t blame it on me anymore. Yu Dong, go ask around to see if anything happened to the manager of the embroidery workshop after she left here.”
The information Yu Dong would get could be hard evidence to prove Yu’s crimes. Since Yu dared to use Ji Hanyue’s funeral to set Qu Moying up so recklessly, this was what she deserved.
“Yes, my lady,” Yu Dong nodded at her and left immediately.
Soon, he came back with what Qu Moying wanted. As she guessed, after the manager of the embroidery workshop walked out of the Qianyue House, she somehow fell over and bumped into several maids who were holding some clothes. They made a big scene and were witnessed by many people.
The mourning clothes were stained because of the accident, and some gauzy flowers were even out of shape. The manager had no choice but to return to the embroidery workshop and clean the outfits first before presenting them to the Old Lady.
Since the Qianyue House was at the center of the mansion, servants would pass by this place many times a day. The accident was witnessed by people in the Qianyue House and by some other servants nearby.
“My lady, I heard one of the people who saw it is an old maid working for the Old Lady.” After telling Qu Moying the whole process, Yu Dong added, “The manager of the embroidery workshop recognized her. She asked the old maid to help apologize to the Old Lady first since she would be late because of the cleaning.”
Qu Moying gave him a faint smile and nodded. This was Yu’s backup plan in case someone suspected her of what she would do later. But this kind of thing could be a double-edged sword since there were many different ways to explain one thing. It could be helpful for Yu, but also could be beneficial for Qu Moying…
Now, she started to look forward to attending her own funeral…
In the morning of the next day, people in the Qu’s Mansion got up early to prepare for leaving. People from both the West Mansion and the East Mansion would go together with the Old Lady. Although they lived separately, they still were counted as one family. So, the Old Lady would act as the family leader and take them all with her when going out.
The Old Lady had recovered a bit recently and seemed more energetic than before. She asked Qu Moying to sit in the front carriage with her. In the following carriages sat Yu and Qu Qiuyan, Luo, Qu Xuexin, and Qu Caiyue. At the same time, First Master Qu and the two young masters followed behind on horses.
Qu Zhizhen was still staying at the Eastern Palace, working at the funeral.
Qu Zhilin, First Master Qu, was an Imperial Censor whose work was not busy at all. He was just an ordinary official and didn’t show as much talent as his younger brother in his career, but he was known for his decent personality.
Following Qu Zhilin was his first and only son, Qu Minghui, who was given birth by Luo. On the other side was Qu Mingcheng, who was Yu’s son and Qu Qiuyan’s twin brother. Qu Mingcheng usually stayed in the outer yard and rarely went to the area where the females lived. These two young men were the First Young Master and the Second Young Master of the Qu Family, and they studied together in the Imperial College.
Occupied by his work, Qu Zhizhen usually asked his older brother to help with his son’s studies. Therefore, Qu Mingcheng had his own yard in the East Mansion and spent most of his time with Qu Minghui.
Since Qu Moying came back to the mansion, she had met this sole young master of the West Mansion only a couple of times. Every time they met, they barely talked to each other.
The Old Lady noticed that Qu Moying had stayed silent since she got into the carriage. She thought her granddaughter was heartbroken because of her cousin’s death. “Ying, don’t be too sad about it. The Crown Princess was a good girl. She was just unlucky,” the Old Lady comforted Qu Moying softly, holding her hand.
Qu Moying raised up her head. Her eyes were covered by a wide, long veil, and both her face and lips looked pale, making the Old Lady feel more sorry for her.
When the Old Lady walked down the stairs, she turned around, saw her poor granddaughter, and almost shed tears for her. In the wind, Qu Moying’s loose white mourning dress fluttered, showing her slim figure and making her look even more pitiful and sorrowful. This young girl seemed so fragile as if she could be blown away by a gust of wind at any second.
“Grandmother, I’m fine,” Qu Moying said softly.
“Are you feeling unwell?” asked the Old Lady.
“Grandmother, I was just thinking about my cousin. I barely met her before, but she always remembered to send me gifts and even found a doctor to treat my eyes. I was planning to say thank you to her in person, but…but…” Qu Moying lowered her head again. Although the Old Lady couldn’t see her eyes, she knew they must look red right now.
“Good girl, everything will be alright. You still have me to protect you. Don’t worry!” the Old Lady let out a deep sigh, held the young girl in her arms, and reassured her in a gentle voice.
“Grandmother, I’m fine,” Qu Moying shook her head and said obediently in the Old Lady’s arms. She was the same age as Qu Qiuyan but was much slimmer, not looking like a fourteen-year-old girl at all. Sorrow suddenly filled the Old Lady’s heart as she gazed at her slender granddaughter. With tears forming in her eyes, the Old Lady muttered, “Ying, nothing bad will happen to you. Everything will be alright.”
