Chapter 199

Chapter 199 – Who Was The Target Being Plotted Against?

Chapter 199 Who Was the Target Being Plotted Against?

Sure enough, these two Lords had not left Qu Mansion yet.

Lord Wei Pei Qingmin was sitting alone in an attic, drinking tea and waiting for Lord Jing Pei Yusheng.

There was no need to guess where Lord Jing went. Just now, when he was about to leave, a maid suddenly came out. After calling Lord Jing to the side and saying a few words, Pei Yusheng suddenly decided not to leave. He asked Pei Qingmin to wait for him a little while and said that he would come back soon. However, Pei Qingmin had finished a cup of tea now, but Pei Yusheng was still nowhere to be seen.

Pei Qingmin became impatient and put down the teacup in his hand. He reached out to press the tea table and was about to stand up.

“My Lord, Fourth Lady Qu would like to see you.” His young eunuch came in in a hurry and reported to him respectfully.

“Who?” Pei Qingmin looked up and asked in surprise.

“Vice Minister Qu’s Mansion’s Fourth Lady. When she passed by outside just now, she heard that you are inside, so she especially came to pay her respects,” the young eunuch explained.

“Especially came to pay her respects?” Pei Qingmin curled his lips in ridicule. His finger tapped lightly on the table. According to his original intention, he didn’t want to see her. He didn’t think highly of Fourth Lady Qu’s character and temperament at all.

However, when he thought about the connection between her and Uncle Yun, he thought for a moment and nodded. “Invite her in!”

The young eunuch responded and left. Soon, he brought Qu Moying over.

She was wearing a light lotus-colored dress. This color was very light. It was so light that it was almost white. There was nothing outstanding about it.

The wind blew past the door, blowing up her long dress, and it fluttered along with her long and thin eye veil. For no reason, it made her appearance look somewhat skinny and delicate.

It turned out that Fourth Lady Qu was really very skinny!

There were many noble ladies who were quite skinny, but Fourth Lady Qu looked so thin as if she would fall if a strong wind blew. In addition, because of her eye veil, even if one could not see her face, he would still feel that she was pitiful!

Pei Qingmin frowned and his gaze fell on Fourth Lady Qu’s face.

Her eye veil covered her face. The eye veil was very wide, revealing only her white and tender forehead and her beautifully-curved lips. She looked pitiful when she gently pursed her lips.

Fourth Lady Qu looked very pitiful.

This was the first time Pei Qingmin clearly saw Fourth Lady Qu in front of him. He frowned unhappily. He did not like this kind of woman who appeared delicate and weak but was actually ruthless and was scheming to marry into the imperial family.

“Greetings, Lord Wei.” Qu Moying stepped forward and gave a graceful bow.

Pei Qingmin did not directly ask her to rise. His gaze was still on Qu Moying’s face, and he was speechless for a long time.

Qu Moying bowed with her body half turned sideways. Pei Qingmin did not ask her to rise, and she stayed still. Her feet started to feel sore, but there was a deep look in her eyes.

Fortunately, her foundation in her previous life was still there, so she was not directly embarrassed by such a bow.

“Please rise.” Finally, she heard Pei Qingmin’s voice.

Qu Moying stood up slightly and looked at Pei Qingmin with a graceful look. “My Lord, I was very surprised when I heard that you came to our mansion, so I specially came to greet you.”

She didn’t hide anything. It was just an excuse to say that she came in to greet him because she passed by. The truth was she specially came to see him.

Pei Qingmin raised his eyebrows. He was surprised that Qu Moying was so straightforward. In his mind, Qu Moying should have acted like she was about to say something but stopped talking, or to shyly say that she accidentally passed by and saw him. He didn’t know what she would do next. She clearly had a relationship with Uncle Yun. What was she up to by coming to him now?

However, now he had no idea.

Looking up and down at Qu Moying, he smiled lightly. “Why are you looking for me, Fourth Lady Qu?”

“You two Lords suddenly came to Qu Mansion today, and even Grandmother did not know about it. It should just be an accident out of the blue, right?” Qu Moying replied.

“What do you mean? Are you investigating our whereabouts, Fourth Lady Qu?” Pei Qingmin put down the teacup in his hand heavily, and his expression turned cold.

“My Lord, I have no intention of investigating your whereabouts. I just thought some things might implicate you, my Lord, so I specially came over to ask about it.”

Qu Moying said unhurriedly.

“What’s it?” Pei Qingmin asked with a cold face.

“Lord Wei, did you and Lord Jing see the dispute between me and Second Sister just now?” Qu Moying’s gaze calmly passed through her eye veil and then landed on Pei Qingmin’s face. Her manner was calm, without the slightest hint of shyness a woman would have when she saw a young man.

Pei Qingmin narrowed his eyes and put on a faint smile. His gaze swept over Qu Moying a few more times and finally fell on the wide eye veil that was covering her face. He said meaningfully, “I guess you have a pretty good face, don’t you? Since that’s the case, why do you use makeup to cover your beauty up? Wouldn’t it be easier to achieve your goal with your original beauty?”

“My Lord, I don’t have any goals. I just want to remind you of something. If you feel that I speak too much, please forgive me.”

Qu Moying keenly sensed the ridicule in Pei Qingmin’s words. She smiled faintly and said without concealing anything.

These words were extremely straightforward. It could be said that they were beyond Pei Qingmin’s expectations. His long and narrow eyes once again fell on Qu Moying’s face. He said meaningfully, “Fourth Lady Qu, I heard that you injured your feet when you bumped into Uncle Yun earlier, but I wonder where you got your wheelchair from. It looks really good.”

This question was extremely abrupt. It was a question that Qu Moying did not expect. For the first time, Qu Moying revealed a bit of suspicion on her face. This question really surprised her. She pursed her lips slightly. Under the eye veil, her eyes raised slightly and she looked at Pei Qingmin silently. “My Lord, I don’t understand what you mean by that. The wheelchair was given to me by my Third Sister.”

“You didn’t prepare it yourself?” Pei Qingmin said with a smile.

“No!” Qu Moying shook her head and leaned to the side. “My Lord, I still have something to do. I’ll take my leave.”

After saying that, she took a few steps back and turned to leave. The whole process was smooth. There was no trace of unwillingness to part. She exited the door without looking back.

This behavior of hers was rather impolite.

However, inexplicably, a trace of suspicion flashed through Pei Qingmin’s eyes. He was lost in thought…

“My lady, why did you specially come to see Lord Wei?” When they were outside, Yu Dong asked in confusion.

“Lord Jing and Lord Wei came together, and they came at this time, don’t you think it’s very strange? Who in the mansion can order these two to be here?” Qu Moying’s gaze fell on a flower in front of her, and she stopped. Her long eye veil accidentally hooked onto the flower in front of her eyes.

Yu Dong hurriedly went forward to help her.

The wind was a little strong today. The eye veil that brushed against the corners of her eyes made her a little uncomfortable. Yu Dong unfastened it a little and then untied it. The sun was strong. Qu Moying lowered her head. Yu Dong took out another eye veil from his arms and helped Qu Moying tie it up again.

When Qu Moying’s two maids took care of her, they both brought eye veils along with them, in case of emergencies.

“My lady, is it time to take down your eye veil?” After arranging everything for Qu Moying, Yu Dong asked.

“It is pretty good this way.” Qu Moying shook her head. It might not be a good thing for her to be too beautiful. Moreover, she had been wearing the eye veil for so long. For the time being, she really had no intention of changing her current appearance.

“My lady, was Third Lady the one who invited Lord Jing here? But why does Lord Wei come here too?” Seeing that Qu Moying did not feel like taking off the eye veil, Yu Dong no longer asked and continued the previous topic.

Qu Moying smiled and walked forward. “There is no possibility that Lord Jing and Lord Wei would come here together unless the matter requires Lord Wei himself. There is nothing happening in the mansion today, except the fight between me and Second Sister just now, which was quite dramatic.”

Then it meant this matter was related to Lord Wei Pei Qingmin.

“Could it be that Lord Jing was afraid of people gossiping about him and Third Lady, so he intentionally brought Lord Wei here as a shield?” Yu Dong thought for a moment and said.

“No!” Qu Moying shook her head. “That day, in front of everyone, he did not show any displeasure when everyone saw him with Qu Qiuyan. This meant he treated Qu Qiuyan as his woman. However, there was no respect in terms of this kind of treatment. It seemed she would not be his Princess Consort.”

The more times people saw Pei Yusheng and Qu Qiuyan together, the more likely people would doubt Qu Qiuyan’s character, and it was even more impossible for Qu Qiuyan to become Princess Jing. As a bystander, Qu Moying saw it through clearly. Only Qu Qiuyan was still immersed in the beautiful dream of being the future Princess Jing.

Pei Yusheng did not care about Qu Qiuyan’s reputation but only showed that Qiuyan was the person he liked. Other than marrying into Lord Jing Mansion, Qu Qiuyan had no other choice.

“Well, is what happened today meant to let Lord Jing take a fancy to Second Lady?” Yu Dong subconsciously concluded the topic, but when he finished speaking, he widened his eyes and spat out two words in shock, “Lord Wei?”

“It should be Lord Wei.” Qu Moying only smiled. Her smile was as gentle as ever. This matter originally had nothing to do with her, and she did not want to get involved. She could see that Lord Wei did not have a good impression of her, and there was even a bit of disgust in his eyes. However, this matter was indeed connected to her. She had no choice but to report it to Lord Wei first.

Lord Wei was the weakest among the few Princes in terms of health and power. He usually only tended to flowers and plants in the mansion and read some books. It was said that he was very talented in the arts of zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting. However, he basically kept these calligraphies and paintings to himself, and outsiders could not admire them.

In the previous life, Ji Hanyue had occasionally seen Lord Wei’s paintings and was utterly amazed. She had not expected that such a sick and weakly Prince was actually a master in paintings.

However, Lord Wei Mansion was always very quiet. On the one hand, it was said that it was because he was sick, but on the other hand, it was said that it was because Lord Wei was an elegant and calm person.

Such a person could be said to be outside of the consideration of holding the imperial power, but in truth, no matter what, his identity could not be changed. As a Prince, Lord Wei might not be the choice of those most ambitious ladies, but he was the choice of many ladies who had lower identities but had desires for riches and glory.

Lord Wei being able to remain single for so many years already showed that this sick and weak Prince was not a naive person who was easily plotted against.

With Qu Qiuyan’s identity, if she married into Lord Wei Mansion, even if she could not get a high position as the Princess Consort, she could get the status of a “Madam”.