Chapter 383 – Cunning Self-Defence
Chapter 383 Cunning Self-Defence
“Greetings, Prefectural Princess!” Liu Jingyu came in. She was as gentle as ever. With a smile on her beautiful face, she looked at Prefectural Princess Xiangrong and bowed sideways. She was perfectly in line with the etiquette.
“County Lady Jingyu, you came at the right time. I was just about to find you!” Prefectural Princess Xiangrong put on a fake smile and pointed to a chair, indicating for Liu Jingyu to sit down.
Liu Jingyu sat down smiling as if she did not see the suppressed anger on Prefectural Princess Xiangrong’s face.
“Prefectural Princess Xiangrong, I heard that you called my maid and asked her something. Did she do anything wrong? If she really did something wrong, please don’t hesitate to punish her because of me!” Liu Jingyu said with a gentle face. Her words were quite decent.
Hearing her words, Prefectural Princess Xiangrong was so angry that she almost vomited blood. “She still said such words at this time. Does she really take me as a fool?”
Prefectural Princess Xiangrong said sarcastically, “I heard that someone around you wanted to plot against Fourth Lady Qu. When I saw you talking to Fourth Lady Qu just now, I thought you two were intimate.”
She really couldn’t help saying so.
“Prefectural Princess, what… what are you talking about?” Liu Jingyu suddenly stood up with her eyes wide open, looking frightened. She turned to look at the maids around her. “Prefectural Princess, please tell me, which maid are you talking about? I won’t let her off easily.”
Behind her were all her senior maids. All of them were extremely respectful. None of them was an old maid. The old maid had already left the mansion after finishing the task. Liu Jingyu was not afraid that Prefectural Princess Xiangrong would find out anything fishy.
Since the old maid was not here, who could doubt Liu Jingyu’s words?
“It was an old maid. I heard that you brought her here and you let her ask two of my maids to plot against Fourth Lady Qu. Coincidentally, you actually wanted to have a tea competition with me, so I asked a maid to send your tea upstairs.” Prefectural Princess Xiangrong tried hard to suppress her anger and calm down. She reminded herself that she had no evidence to prove Liu Jingyu guilty.
“Prefectural Princess, we used to have competitions of flowers, poems, and paintings. Having a tea competition is also an elegant act, but I didn’t expect that someone would take advantage of this. It… is all my fault. I will go to Fourth Lady Qu to apologize later.” Liu Jingyu had a face full of regret and self-blame. With her status, saying such words meant that she had given in.
Seeing her act like this, Prefectural Princess Xiangrong could not help but be puzzled. “Did I wrong her?”
They indeed had competitions of flowers and so on occasionally before. Although it was a little abrupt for Liu Jingyu to have a tea competition with her this time, it was not weird.
“Besides, please investigate every young lady who came here today, including me. Why did an old maid appear for no reason and then disappear? Who wants to sow discord between you and me and make Grand Princess Changyu’s mansion have a dispute with Qu Mansion? Who will benefit from this?”
Liu Jingyu said with a serious frown.
Seeing her act like this, Prefectural Princess Xiangrong felt more and more convinced that she had guessed wrong. She did not look angry now. She frowned and carefully thought about who would benefit the most from this matter.
She wondered who plotted against her mansion.
“Who could it be?”
“Prefectural Princess, please send someone to investigate the people in the mansion secretly, but don’t let the ladies at the gathering know, lest they will cause panic and all kinds of rumors. Who on earth plotted against Fourth Lady Qu and me? I was indeed pushed into the water just now. If the two of us fell into the water, who would benefit from it?”
Liu Jingyu sat down again and helped Prefectural Princess Xiangrong sort out what had happened today, secretly portraying herself as a victim.
Hearing her words, Prefectural Princess Xiangrong became more and more uncertain. “Am I really wrong? Is Liu Jingyu also innocent? I was there when Liu Jingyu fell into the water, and it was indeed an accident. We just stood side by side. If it weren’t for that accident, Liu Jingyu wouldn’t have fallen into the water.”
“Even if there was oil on the platform, it was impossible for that accident to take place.”
“Everyone was fine except Liu Jingyu.”
Seeing that the anger on Prefectural Princess Xiangrong’s face faded and was replaced by a confused expression, Liu Jingyu felt relieved and knew that Prefectural Princess Xiangrong had believed her words.
“Prefectural Princess, this thing will do harm to the entire Grand Princess Changyu’s mansion. Even if we can’t find it out, we have to make those people who secretly plotted against us fearful and don’t dare to make a move again.” Liu Jingyu showed a bit of anger on her face. Her hair was still a little wet. Her reaction made people feel that she was truly angry.
“But… it’s really hard to find out the truth. The person who instigated the maids has disappeared.” Prefectural Princess Xiangrong finally spoke, which meant that she agreed with Liu Jingyu’s words.
“Even if she has disappeared, we still have to investigate it to intimidate those who plotted behind the scene!” Liu Jingyu said in a low voice. She didn’t look guilty at all, as if she was really analyzing the situation for Prefectural Princess Xiangrong. “How could people come and leave the Grand Princess Mansion as they wanted? What will they do in the future?”
Her words were meaningful. After pondering over her words, Prefectural Princess Xiangrong’s face changed.
Although Grand Princess Changyu was a respectful royal family member, she still had enemies. Moreover, when it came to the safety issue, it was of extreme importance to the royal family members. Grand Princess Changyu had to pay attention to it, and so did other royal family members. If something happened to the princes in Grand Princess Chang’s mansion, even Grand Princess Changyu would not be able to bear the responsibility.
At the thought of this, Prefectural Princess Changyu found that it was neither a small matter nor a private matter between the young ladies. This incident seemed to target Liu Jingyu.
After all, Liu Jingyu was the future Crown Princess. As for Qu Moying, Prefectural Princess Xiangrong knew that Lord Yun had chosen her. Although Qu Moying would not be as distinguished as the future Crown Princess, she mattered a lot because she was related to Lord Yun to a certain extent.
There were many noble ladies present today, and many of them were more distinguished than Qu Moying on the surface. But in fact, only Liu Jingyu and Qu Moying had the most unusual status.
However, both of them had been plotted against.
Qu Moying was lucky and escaped a disaster, but Liu Jingyu was not so lucky!
Thinking of this, Prefectural Princess Xiangrong panicked. “Someone wanted to deal with our mansion and frame us! I must let my mother know about this matter. I will not let the one behind the scene off the hook so easily.”
Since this matter was so serious, Prefectural Princess Xiangrong did not dare to deal with it alone. She ordered the old maid behind her, “Go and tell my mother about this matter and let her investigate who is behind this. Bring the two maids to my mother as well.”
She had thought that it was just a matter between the unmarried ladies, but now she realized that it was a fatal issue.
The old maid complied and retreated. As she walked out, she secretly glanced at Liu Jingyu. “Is what County Lady Jingyu said true? Her words made sense, but I am somewhat puzzled. Anyway, this matter should be reported to the Grand Princess.”
“County Lady Jingyu, who do you suspect?” After the old maid left, Prefectural Princess Xiangrong frowned and asked. She felt that this matter was very strange.
Everything had its cause, but she couldn’t find the cause of this matter.
Now it was in a mess!
“Prefectural Princess, I have no clue either. I was on good terms with these young ladies. You also saw it at that time. There were many young ladies around us, and most of them were on good terms with us. Only Fourth Lady Qu was far away from us, but she could witness the thing most clearly because she was far away from us. However, she seemed to have some prejudice against me.”
Liu Jingyu said with a bitter smile.
Prefectural Princess Xiangrong could tell that Liu Jingyu’s words were specially intended. “Why is she biased against you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s because of First Lady Qu, but in fact… what happened to First Lady Qu really has nothing to do with me. It was Princess Ji who caused it.”
Liu Jingyu sighed and said in distress.
She regretted questioning Qu Moying just now. Moreover, Ji Youran caught her on the spot, and it seemed that Ji Youran wanted to make an issue of it and argue with her.
Liu Jingyu had always been cautious. She did not think much of it when she talked with Ji Youran. However, the more she thought about it later, the weirder she felt. Ji Youran seemed to deliberately say those words for someone to hear.
Who was that person? Could it be the Crown Prince?
Thinking of this, Liu Jingyu was a little flustered. Regardless of whether the Crown Prince loved Ji Hanyue or not, at least the Crown Prince showed his special affection for Ji Hanyue on the surface, so she’d better not damage the Crown Prince’s image to avoid arousing his disgust. As she thought of this, she felt that she had really gone too far when she questioned Qu Moying.
She even showed a hint of threat!
Liu Jingyu recalled what she had said to Ji Youran, and she knew that she had made a mistake. Even if the one who listened to her conversation with Ji Youran was not the Crown Prince, it must be someone important.
The reason why she said these words to Prefectural Princess Xiangrong now was to remedy the situation. She was acting extremely innocent, and she portrayed herself as a victim. It was understandable for her to say something wrong when she had lost her composure. She wanted others to understand her.
She tried to make up for her previous slip of the tongue.
“Princess Ji?” Prefectural Princess Xiangrong did not know that Ji Youran had come over. She had been asking the two maids here just now. “Princess Ji from Eastern Palace?”
“Yes. When I asked Fourth Lady Qu if she had seen the one who pushed me down, I might have been a little harsh with my words. Then, Princess Ji came over to reprimand me and said that Fourth Lady Qu was the ex-Crown Princess’ cousin sister, so Fourth Lady Qu was also her cousin sister, and she also had the right to speak up for her…”
Liu Jingyu said with a bitter smile. She looked dejected, and she did not finish her words. It seemed that she had endless grievances.
Thinking about her difficult situation, Prefectural Princess Xiangrong looked at her with more kindness. She had been on good terms with Liu Jingyu. Seeing that Liu Jingyu had suffered a loss from Ji Youran, who they both disdained before, Prefectural Princess Xiangrong sympathized with her.
“Why are you bothering with her? When the ex-Crown Princess was alive, she was more like her attendant. Now that the ex-Crown Princess was gone, she kept mentioning the ex-Crown Princess whenever something happened. She spoke as if she hadn’t done it with the Crown Prince before…”
Speaking of this, Prefectural Princess Xiangrong suddenly paused. Even if she was talking about the Crown Prince behind his back, it was still a disrespectful act. She recalled her mother’s reminder and immediately shut her mouth. After thinking for a moment, she stood up. “Let’s go and see Princess Ji, and by the way, I will help you explain to Fourth Lady Qu!”
Hearing Prefectural Princess Xiangrong’s words, Liu Jingyu was secretly pleased. With the help of Prefectural Princess Xiangrong, she would definitely be the innocent one in this matter…
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