Chapter 125
Chapter 125: The One Behind It
Madam Wang did not have time to react before a shadow flashed into the room.
Xia Meng Yan wanted to go in too, but her belly was too big; she would give herself away too easily.
Duan Yi Chen was quick. He knocked Madam Wang out and slung her over his shoulder.
Xia Meng Yan’s eyes went wide as she thought: [This works? Are Jia Manor’s guards just eating for nothing? How did no one notice something this loud?]
From the darkness, Song Mo almost spoke up, thinking: [It is not that Jia Manor’s guards are useless. It is that Duan Yi Chen’s shadow guards are too strong. The enemy faints before he even lifts a hand.]
The three went to an inn. Xia Meng Yan hid behind a screen while Duan Yi Chen, masked, woke Madam Wang.
“Ah, do not kill me,” Madam Wang cried at once, dropping to her knees. “Whatever silver you want, I will give you.”
Before she fainted, she had seen a shadow dart past. A wealthy house like the Jia Family often saw attempts at murder or kidnapping.
Looking through the screen at Madam Wang kneeling and begging, Xia Meng Yan suddenly felt they did not need to frighten her. If they asked, she would tell them everything.
“Speak. What did you do today in the Lin Family?” Duan Yi Chen sat in a round-backed chair. He did not hide his voice.
“Lin Family?” Madam Wang was startled. Could the man before her be tied to the Lin Family? She tried to curry favor as she said: “Good sir, the Lin Family’s Old Madam is my husband’s younger sister. We are all one family, you…”
“Less nonsense. Answer what I ask. If you lie, I will cut you down,” Duan Yi Chen said flatly.
Madam Wang shrank in fear. She had worked hard to marry into the Jia Family and did not want to die. She bowed her head and said quickly: “Ask what you wish. I will tell you everything I know.”
“Then answer the question.”
Madam Wang wanted to say she had done nothing, but meeting Duan Yi Chen’s eyes told her that if she did not say something, she would not be going home, so she stammered: “I… I did not do much. Business at the Jia Family has been getting worse. I hoped to use the Lin Family connection to turn things around, but Lin Family’s businesses are now managed by Xia Meng Yan. I had no way in, so I gave up.”
“You did not target Xia Meng Yan?” Duan Yi Chen’s eyes narrowed. He had watched by the lake today. The hostility toward Yan’er had been strong.
“I did not dare. Truly I did not dare,” Madam Wang said, shaking her head again and again, afraid he would not believe her. “I might be greedy, but I have no courage. That Xia Meng Yan is the darling of the Lin elders. Even if I wanted to scheme, I would not dare drag the Jia Family into it.”
“Then why did you appear by the lake?”
Madam Wang blinked. So this man had been at the lake too?
She ran through the faces in her mind and realized she had not noticed any men there.
“It was the maid next to Qiao Xi Wan who told me,” she said at last. “She said Xia Meng Yan had tried to kill someone. I only went to see the excitement. It was not me.”
Hearing Qiao Xi Wan’s name, Xia Meng Yan was surprised. They had no dealings and no grudge. Why would Qiao Xi Wan buy a maid from Madam Jia’s side? She wondered, thinking: [Is Qiao Xi Wan trying to avenge Qiao Shan?]
Duan Yi Chen heard “Qiao Family” and glanced toward the screen. Xia Meng Yan gave no sign.
“You have lived in Man Lin City many years. Do you know any dirty secrets about the Qiao Family?” he asked.
Anyone who dared move against his Yan’er had to pay.
Madam Wang did not hesitate: “Yes. The big house and second house of the Qiao Family have never gotten along. After Qiao Xi Wan saved the Zheng Family’s eldest young master, Zheng Jing Nian, she wanted to control the Qiao Family, but the big house is deep-rooted. So the second master of the Qiao Family secretly had an affair with the Eldest Master’s concubine, hoping she would whisper in the Eldest Master’s ear.”
Xia Meng Yan was speechless and thought: […So the uncle and the sister-in-law put a green hat on Master Qiao?]
Duan Yi Chen lifted a brow. He had not expected Man Lin City to play such messy games.
They traded a glance and thought of the same question.
“And the concubine’s child?” he asked.
“It is the Eldest Master’s,” Madam Wang answered quickly. “But that concubine once had a child by the Qiao second master. He set her up and made her lose it.”
“How do you know this?” Duan Yi Chen asked. He was not a fool. How could Madam Wang know something so hidden?
Madam Wang’s eyes flickered. The knife in Duan Yi Chen’s hand flipped and thunked into the floor by her foot. She flinched and blurted out: “I will say. The concubine’s maid is from the same home district as the maid in my courtyard. Her mother fell ill last time, and I gave her silver for medicine. That is how I heard it. Good sir, I have told you all I know. Please let me go. I talk too much, but I would never dare kill.”
Duan Yi Chen did not care to hear more. He rose and, with one clean movement, knocked Madam Wang out again.
Xia Meng Yan stepped out from behind the screen. She had not expected the one trying to harm her to be Qiao Xi Wan.
There was still one question left: how had Qiao Xi Wan bought off Chun’er?
“Send her back,” Duan Yi Chen ordered.
A man dropped from the shadows, hefted Madam Wang onto his shoulder, and vanished.
Duan Yi Chen guided Xia Meng Yan out of the inn.
“What do you plan to do? How about I teach Qiao Xi Wan a lesson for you?” he asked.
“You think this is the Capital, where everyone gives the Eldest Princess face?” Xia Meng Yan said evenly. She was not proud enough to treat human life lightly. She understood very well the saying that the mountains are high and the emperor is far away.
Man Lin City was rich. Lord Zheng had been posted here for five years. Who could say he had not built his own power in those five years?
They had been able to carry Madam Wang out tonight because the Qiao Family had made enemies for themselves. That did not mean the other noble houses were weak.
“Hide our tracks and watch our words. Do not forget we came to Man Lin City to investigate the Huo Family’s hidden agents,” she said.
Duan Yi Chen nodded: “Do not worry. I will not bring you trouble. But if anyone dares to harm you, I will not stand by.”
“You think I am made of paper?” Xia Meng Yan said with patience. “If Lord Zheng can serve five years in Man Lin City, he must have real skill. Making trouble on his turf is not wise. The Lin Family is under his rule. If we scare the snake, we gain nothing and may lose a lot.”
“Scare the snake?” Duan Yi Chen asked with a frown. “Do you think the Zheng Family is involved?”
Xia Meng Yan shook her head: “I have no proof, only a feeling.”
Forget it. For now, her main job was to deliver the baby Ping An safely. Everything else could wait.
The two returned to the Lin Family. Xia Meng Yan handed Duan Yi Chen over to Song Mo and went to sleep.
The next day, before Xia Meng Yan even woke, she heard the maids outside whispering.
“One says Madam Wang, who came to the Lin Family banquet yesterday, had her head shaved that very night. Can that be true?” a girl asked.
“It is true. The Huo Family sent people to ask what happened yesterday and even brought gifts to apologize,” another said.
“The Huo Family is shameless. If it were me, I would find a crack in the ground and crawl into it,” a third sniffed.
“Exactly. I heard it was the Huo Family’s eldest master who came,” someone added.
“Our Cousin Miss is amazing,” another maid said with pride. “With just a few sentences yesterday she cleared up the whole thing. She did not explain or show proof, and even I felt dizzy watching.”
“I hear many maids want to work in Cousin Miss’s courtyard now,” a younger one said. “Not for the monthly silver, but because her quick mind is worth learning for a lifetime.”
Nanny Song helped Xia Meng Yan sit before the dressing table and had heard all the little maids’ chatter. She smiled and said: “Do not be angry, Big Miss. They are only happy. You are the prized one now, and they feel proud when they go out.”
“Prized, or a shield,” Xia Meng Yan thought with a calm face, thinking: [I am very clear about this. In the Lin Family I am still an outsider. An outsider being this popular is not a good sign.]
Nanny Song realized it too. Just a moment ago she had wanted to cheer the Big Miss up; now she began to worry, as she said: “Divine Physician’s people are easy to deal with. I only fear the second and third branches will be jealous and make things hard for you in secret.”
“Trouble is expected. I am only managing things for two months anyway,” Xia Meng Yan said as she took a kerchief to wipe her face. Looking at her round, ball-like cheeks, she showed no extra emotion and added: “Now that my big uncle can also read the ledgers, what do I have to fear?”
They said they were handing Uncle’s duties to her, but she was a pregnant woman. Her uncle and maternal grandfather had not truly let go. Saying it out loud only shut the mouths of those in the West Wing.
“Are the midwives and the medicines ready?” she asked.
Nanny Song nodded as she combed her mistress’s hair and answered: “The two midwives we brought and the one the Old Madam sent are living together so they can work as a team. Yesterday the physician delivered a fifty-year-old ginseng root. Now we just wait for your labor to begin.”
Xia Meng Yan stroked her belly, her eyes full of joy, and she said softly: “Baby, you will get to see mother very soon.”