Chapter 164
Chapter 164: Qiu Shi Dong Falls for the Trap
After Luo Ning left, Elder Concubine Mei’s face went pale.
She said to her sister: “Do you remember? Some time ago, the Lord Marquis really did send people to Yuhang.”
Younger Concubine Mei held her shoulders and said: “Don’t worry. Ah Hong isn’t in Yuhang, he’s in Huzhou.”
“But they’re both in the Southern Region. The Eldest Miss might have heard the place wrong. The names match!” Elder Concubine Mei was so anxious she was almost spitting fire. “Could the Lord Marquis really have caught Ah Hong and brought him back?”
“Sister!” Younger Concubine Mei raised her voice. “You’re confused because you care too much. Don’t lose your head!”
Elder Concubine Mei stared at her own sister in panic.
Younger Concubine Mei said: “I’ll ask around and see where Second Young Master is. It’s easy to find out what’s happening in his courtyard.”
Elder Concubine Mei nodded.
The inner courtyard was locked, but it was not hard to move between the different courtyards. Younger Concubine Mei sent a clever maidservant to Second Young Master’s courtyard.
Second Young Master really was not there.
His wet nurse, Nanny Fan, said: “Second Young Master went out with the Lord Marquis.”
“What did they go to do?”
“He didn’t say. He was acting all secretive.”
The maidservant went back to report.
Elder Concubine Mei felt like her soul had flown away. She trembled with fear.
“I have to go see Master,” Elder Concubine Mei said. “We can’t wait on this. The child must not fall into the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s hands.”
“Now?” Younger Concubine Mei asked.
“Yes. We’ll sneak out through the side gate by the rear garden. The ice cellar over there still isn’t fixed, and among the old maidservants there are people who work for Madam. We’ve already spoken with them,” Elder Concubine Mei said. “Come with me.”
Younger Concubine Mei was terrified that her sister would make a mistake.
But if this turned out to be true, the child’s life would be in danger, and the two of them probably would not end well either.
“Hurry, we can’t delay,” Younger Concubine Mei said. “Luckily Tongchang Ward isn’t far. We can walk there.”
The two of them agreed. At once, they changed into servant boy clothes that had been kept at the bottom of their trunks and decided to sneak out.
Late that night, they knocked on Bai Yu Lin’s gate.
Bai Yu Lin had already gone to bed and was startled awake.
He led the two women in to see Qiu Shi Dong.
In her early years, Elder Concubine Mei had worked for Qiu Shi Dong and had borne him a child.
But she was not counted as one of Qiu Shi Dong’s concubines. After the child was born, it was raised by a wet nurse, while Elder Concubine Mei still had to carry out tasks for Qiu Shi Dong.
“Luo Chong Ye did send people to Yuhang. My men know about this,” Bai Yu Lin said.
Qiu Shi Dong’s face sank. He said: “You two should go back first.”
Elder Concubine Mei began to cry: “Master, if Ah Hong is really in Luo Chong Ye’s hands, he will kill the child.”
“If Ah Hong had met with any mishap, I would have heard already. I haven’t heard anything, so it means Ah Hong is fine.” Qiu Shi Dong’s eyelids twitched. “Was it Luo Ning who told you this?”
Elder Concubine Mei nodded.
Qiu Shi Dong’s heart sank straight down. He said: “You may have been tricked. Go back for now. We’ll think long-term.”
“But…”
“Silence!” Qiu Shi Dong barked. “Go back at once!”
Just then, the steward ran in.
“Master, some officers are outside,” the steward said. “They say a suspect has run into one of our residences and they want to search.”
Bai Yu Lin was shocked and said: “That’s ridiculous. How can they just search as they please?”
“They’re officers,” the steward said, his face white.
Even though he had served by Qiu Shi Dong’s side for over ten years, the steward was still afraid of officers.
In soldiers’ eyes, a merchant was very lowly. And these were yamen runners from the capital city, which was even more frightening.
Qiu Shi Dong looked at the two Concubine Meis and said: “Hide in the cellar first.”
The two concubines agreed and hurried after the steward to hide in the back.
Qiu Shi Dong went out to deal with the officers.
He mentioned his ties with the Marquis of Jian Ning’s household and even brought out the Marquis of Jian Ning’s name card for the officers.
“Sorry to bother you. We’ll just take a quick look,” the head officer said.
Very soon, they withdrew.
Qiu Shi Dong stood quietly under the night sky.
Bai Yu Lin let out a breath and said to him: “Go back and rest. I’ll send the two of them home.”
Qiu Shi Dong’s face was dark and calm, with almost no expression. “I’ve been set up,” he said. “Those two are probably never going back.”
Bai Yu Lin was slightly surprised. “Nothing happened.”
“No, everything has already happened,” Qiu Shi Dong said. “Now it’s too late. We can only make the best of a bad situation.”
Qiu Shi Dong’s chest shook hard.
He admitted that he felt beaten down and had even grown afraid.
He had just told Elder Concubine Mei to send a message to Madam Bai, along with a small incense burner and some medicine, to prepare a layout against the Luo family. Then Luo Ning arrived at his door with her brother, Luo You.
Luo You was Qiu Shi Dong’s son, and Qiu Shi Dong very much wanted to see him. So, even though Luo Ning had only come to visit Bai Yu Lin, Qiu Shi Dong would surely show his face. Luo Ning had counted on that.
Luo Ning had also told Qiu Shi Dong that she had quick sources of news and knew every move Bai Ci Rong made in the Wang family.
In his heart, Qiu Shi Dong believed her about seventy percent. He thought there must be a master behind Luo Ning. Otherwise, she would not have been able to kill Yu Zhuo.
When the two concubines came late at night and told him that his son Ah Hong had been caught, did Qiu Shi Dong panic?
Yes.
In that moment, he believed them, so his mind became unsteady.
He only pressed down his urge to rush out at once.
So when the officers came, his head was full of the thought that “Ah Hong has been caught,” and he ordered that the two concubines be hidden.
By hiding them, he fell straight into Luo Ning’s trap. Luo Chong Ye’s concubines could have been treated as late-night visitors. Even if it was unclear why they came so late and it made Luo Chong Ye lose face, why was Qiu Shi Dong hiding them?
Because of that, when the officers said the next morning that they were actually looking for runaway concubines, how could Qiu Shi Dong explain?
They had not found these women at his place during last night’s search.
Because of one tiny mistake, “Luo Chong Ye’s concubines secretly meeting another man late at night” turned into “Qiu Shi Dong abducted concubines from the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s household.”
A scandal turned into a crime.
After the officers left, Qiu Shi Dong stood in the courtyard. The late autumn wind blew over him, and he suddenly cooled down. Only then did he know he had been tricked.
He had stepped into the trap one step at a time.
Luo Ning had calculated every step.
She knew Qiu Shi Dong was tense and wary, so when the two Concubine Meis came at night, he would be led off track.
“Kill the two of them,” Qiu Shi Dong ordered. “Before morning, send their bodies out of the city with the slop carts and bury them in the mass grave field outside the walls.”
Bai Yu Lin’s face changed color. “You can’t! I was the one who sent them to the Luo family. They belong to the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s household. The deeds of sale are all in the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s hands.”
“You know their deeds of sale are in the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s hands too? They belong to Luo Chong Ye,” Qiu Shi Dong said coldly. “If Luo Chong Ye accuses us of abducting his concubines, will you go to prison, or will I?”
Bai Yu Lin’s plump cheeks turned pale. “You’re making it sound too serious,” he muttered.
“You have a woman’s soft heart,” Qiu Shi Dong said.
Bai Yu Lin trembled slightly.
Qiu Shi Dong at once took care of the two Concubine Meis. In the cellar, killing, disfiguring, and tying up corpses was easy. He quickly stuffed their ruined bodies into slop buckets.
Once everything was done, it was still before dawn, and the slop carts could already leave the city.
Qiu Shi Dong put on the steward’s clothes himself and personally escorted the slop buckets out of the city.
When he returned to Tongchang Ward, the officers had already left and had not stayed around.
Qiu Shi Dong froze again.
No. Something was wrong.
A sharp pain shot through his head. No, this was wrong.
This was a chain of schemes, not what he had first imagined. Had Luo Ning forced the two Mei sisters to seek him out only so she could use his hands to get rid of them?
She had never meant to make public that “the concubines were abducted,” because that would become a scandal for the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s household and would also hurt her own reputation.
Qiu Shi Dong felt cold all over.
He had never made mistakes in his life.
How had he, on this matter, made mistake after mistake? Where had it gone wrong?
It was his state of mind.
[Was it Yu Zhuo’s death that made me think too highly of Luo Ning?]
He asked himself this.
After Yu Zhuo died, Qiu Shi Dong had treated the whole matter as too mysterious and too powerful. He thought too highly of Luo Ning, as if she could do anything, and that was how he had been led by the nose by her, step by step.