Chapter 256 – Qu Qiuyan Was Slapped
Chapter 256 Qu Qiuyan Was Slapped
Her face was as fair as jade, almost glowing under the light. Even if she didn’t say anything, she was as beautiful as a picture. She appeared to be alert, flustered, and a little determined, but not shy, which young girls were supposed to be in this situation.
Pei Yuanjun smiled. If Qu Moying opened her eyes at this moment, she would find him to be gentler than the usual fierce and cold Lord Yun. He reached out and covered Qu Moying’s eyes with the eye veil. His slender fingers slid across Qu Moying’s little face, causing her to tense up even more.
Pei Yuanjun slowly walked behind her and tied a knot for her. Then, he patted her on the head and said, “You can go back now!”
Qu Moying opened her eyes. She could not see clearly, just like before, and it was even more difficult for her to see clearly under such light.
Yu Dong had already entered. Qu Moying bowed to Pei Yuanjun and then held Yu Dong’s hand and left. When they reached the door, the guard gave Yu Dong a lantern. Yu Dong picked it up and led the way.
Watching Qu Moying leave, Pei Yuanjun smiled faintly. He held his hands on his back as if he could still feel her. Suddenly, he asked, “Ji Hai, what do you think?”
Ji Hai came out of nowhere and stood next to Pei Yuanjun. His face was full of smiles.
Hearing Pei Yuanjun’s question, he hurriedly lowered his head and said, “Master, I think Fourth Lady Qu is a good girl.”
“How is Liu Lanxin?” Pei Yuanjun glanced at Ji Hai with a faint smile, which made him tremble all over. Ji Hai hurriedly lowered his head and said, “I heard that Lady Liu’s injuries are almost healed.”
The real Lady Liu used her injuries to solicit Pei Yuanjun’s attention. However, Pei Yuanjun did not care about her at all. He brought her maid to the capital. Of course, this maid had been locked up after entering the capital, and it was about time to release her now.
“Then, send her back first!” Pei Yuanjun chuckled and slowly walked out.
“Yes, I will do it now.” Ji Hai said. He thought for a moment and asked, “What if Lord Jing comes to send her off?”
“Don’t worry about him. He doesn’t have time.” Pei Yuanjun smiled slyly.
“Yes, I will arrange it.” Ji Hai nodded.
The next day, Old Lady Qu got up and prepared to go back.
Qu Qiuyan came early to serve Old Lady Qu, but Old Lady Qu was not nice to her. After everything was packed up, Old Lady Qu brought her people to where the carriages were parked.
Coincidentally, she met Old Lady Ji in the parking lot.
Old Lady Ji was also anxious to get back home. She was frightened last night. Although she listened to her confidants’ advice to worship Buddha and chant the Release Song, she was still restless. She just felt there was something in the air when she slept, and there seemed to be many ghosts flashing by.
As soon as the sky brightened, Old Lady Ji hurriedly washed up and prepared to leave, unwilling to stay any longer.
Seeing Old Lady Ji come over, Old Lady Qu hurriedly bowed to her.
Old Lady Ji glanced at Old Lady Qu indifferently and continued to walk, but she suddenly stopped after a few steps. “Old Lady Qu, last night, Third Lady Qu was still outside at night. I wonder who she was going to see. Old Lady Qu, you’d better check it out in case she should cause trouble to others again.”
Qu Qiuyan’s face immediately blushed with anger.
However, she did not dare to contradict Old Lady Ji. She could only lower her head in grievance and grit her teeth.
She secretly made up her mind that she must rise to a high position so that nobody could bully her and humiliate her like this.
Old Lady Qu was so angry that she almost fainted. She naturally understood the meaning of Old Lady Ji’s words. She glared at Qu Qiuyan and smiled awkwardly at Old Lady Ji. “Thank you, Your Ladyship.”
“You are welcome, Old Lady Qu. I’m just afraid that someone might accidentally get into trouble again.” Old Lady Ji said indifferently. Then, she glanced at Qu Moying but said nothing in the end.
She boarded her carriage with her people. Then, her carriage left in front of Old Lady Qu.
“Grandmother…” Looking at Old Lady Qu’s resentful eyes, Qu Qiuyan called out, wanting to explain.
“Let’s go back first. We can talk about it when we are back home.” Old Lady Qu suppressed her anger, turned around, and got on her carriage.
She didn’t want to let others witness her family scandals.
Qu Moying also got on the carriage behind. Seeing that both Qu Moying and Old Lady Qu were leaving, Qu Qiuyan had no choice but to get on her own carriage.
After they all sat down in their carriages, the carriages headed down the mountain towards the capital.
Last night, the city gate was closed because of searching for the assassins. It was opened today, but the guards checked the travelers one by one seriously, which led to the long line outside the city gate. Even if someone wanted to cut the line, they would be stopped and could only stand in line.
Qu Mansion’s carriages were also among the crowd. The line was advancing slowly, and there were many people entering the city. It took almost two hours for Qu Mansion’s carriages to enter the city.
The city guards went up to lift the curtain of every carriage, including even Old Lady Qu’s carriage. Only when they saw no strangers inside the carriage did they let it go.
This had never happened before, but Old Lady Qu did not dare to say anything.
The city guards also lifted the other two carriages’ curtains before letting them pass.
The carriages moved slowly on the street because there were so many people gathering around the gate that it was hard to move.
“I heard that Side Princess Ji was stabbed.”
“Really? I heard that a concubine of Lord Jing was stabbed as well, but in fact, she fell into the lake by accident.”
“Of course, it’s true. Crown Prince’s Mansion is really unlucky to experience such a thing on the wedding of…”
Another person interrupted him. “Do you want to die? How dare you say those words?”
“I… I didn’t say anything. I didn’t say anything…” The man immediately came to his senses and hurriedly lowered his voice, adding some ambiguous words.
Qu Moying lowered her head and quietly listened to people talking outside her carriage. It was really unexpected that Ji Youran was hurt and even stabbed.
As for the case of Qu Caiyue falling into the lake, it made people believe she was really both stupid and useless.
Along the way, there were many people discussing this matter, but everyone was careful not to mention the ex-Crown Princess, let alone the problem of Eastern Palace.
Two women entered Eastern Palace one after another. One died of illness, and the other was injured. It was unknown whether the latter was alive or dead. No matter what, it was inauspicious.
Qu Moying lowered her eyes with a hint of gloom in them.
The carriages finally arrived at Qu Mansion. Qu Zhizhen happened to be in the mansion. Hearing that Old Lady Qu was back, he came to the door to greet her.
“Mother, what happened?” Qu Zhizhen glanced at Qu Qiuyan’s tearful eyes and asked Old Lady Qu.
Old Lady Qu snorted and walked straight in without saying anything.
After walking into Kangming House, Old Lady Qu sat down in the middle seat, and Qu Zhizhen sat in a seat below her. Qu Qiuyan and Qu Moying came over to bow first to Old Lady Qu and then to Qu Zhizhen.
“Ying, sit down first!” Old Lady Qu said coldly.
Qu Moying obediently took a seat on the side, lowered her head, and pinched the handkerchief in her hand without saying anything.
“Mother, what happened?” Qu Zhizhen asked again. The capital had been in a troubled time. He had just suffered a lot in Yamen, so he was quite depressed. After returning to the mansion, he sensed something seemed to have happened, but he had no clue, so he was extremely annoyed and tried to suppress his anger.
“What happened? Your precious daughter is really…” Saying this, Old Lady Qu glanced at Qu Moying and held back her words. She looked at Qu Moying and said in a gentle voice, “Ying, you go back and rest first. You must be tired after the trip.”
“Yes, grandmother!” Qu Moying stood up and bowed respectfully before leaving with Yu Dong.
She knew that Old Lady Qu was going to discuss the matter of Qu Qiuyan with Qu Zhizhen. Qu Qiuyan made trouble again and again, and even Old Lady Ji witnessed once and ridiculed her. Originally, people like Old Lady Ji would not care about and cause trouble for an unmarried noble lady like Qu Qiuyan.
However, it could be seen that Old Lady Ji was really too angry to remain her usual bearing.
Old Lady Qu had yet to reprimand Qu Qiuyan for the matter that Old Lady Ji had brought up. Now, she was going to bring it up in front of Qu Zhizhen. Qu Qiuyan had a private meeting with a man. If this got out, not only would Qu Qiuyan’s reputation be ruined, but also all the women in Qu Family would be implicated. This was a big matter!
At this moment, it was indeed inappropriate for an unmarried woman like Qu Moying to listen to their talk.
Inside the room, Old Lady Qu told Qu Zhizhen about what happened. The more she talked, the angrier she got. In the end, she was so angry that she felt weak all over. She waved her hand and said, “Zhizhen, if you think I’m meddling in your business, you can take her away. I don’t want to care about her anymore. I just want to care about Ying.”
The more Qu Zhizhen listened, the angrier he got. When he heard that Qu Qiuyan was mocked by Old Lady Ji, he couldn’t help but stand up, walk up to Qu Qiuyan, and give her a hard slap.
It was indeed a hard slap. Qu Qiuyan did not expect that Qu Zhizhen, who had always doted on her, would slap her. She was slapped so hard that she took two steps back and fell to the ground. The corner of her mouth was burning with pain. She reached out and covered her mouth. Immediately, there was a touch of blood on her hand.
“Father… Father.” Qu Qiuyan was really scared. She had never seen her father being so angry at her. Her tears immediately fell, and she cried out.
“You useless thing. Who did you meet?” Qu Zhizhen snapped irritably.
“Father, I… I didn’t. It was Lord Jing who wanted to see me. He asked me to meet him, but we didn’t do anything.” Qu Qiuyan cried.
“Didn’t Lord Jing stay in the capital last night?” Qu Zhizhen asked.
“I… I don’t know. Lord Jing left later.” Qu Qiuyan cried.
“What did Lord Jing say?”
“No… nothing. He just… just asked how I was doing.” Qu Qiuyan became more and more aggrieved. Her face was burning with pain. It must have been swollen.
“Copy the Buddhist scriptures that your grandmother brought from Dabei Temple a hundred times. You are not allowed to come out until you finish copying them. If you sneak out again, I will break your legs before your grandmother takes action.”
Qu Zhizhen scolded Qu Qiuyan angrily. His cold eyes fell on Qu Qiuyan’s face with some disappointment. Qu Qiuyan really disappointed him. He originally thought he could rely on Qu Qiuyan for a promising future. Now it seemed that she was too disappointing.
However, Yu had always been stupid. What good daughters could she have?
