Chapter 31
Chapter 31: Cousin’s Reputation Ruined
Cousin and her younger half-sister had fallen down the stairs and were wailing in pain when Luo Ning alertly noticed someone outside.
She was tall and was standing on the second-floor landing. Her gaze passed over the window lattice of the Emerald Pavilion, and she saw an old maidservant.
The old maidservant had changed into a coarse cloth outfit that did not really fit her and was running away in a hurry.
From her figure and the way she ran, Luo Ning recognized who she was.
[No wonder the steps collapsed the moment they fell. Someone tampered with them beforehand.]
They had probably hollowed out the stair boards long ago and propped them up with pieces of wood. Once they heard someone falling, they would kick the wood away so the boards and the people would drop together.
Thinking of this, Luo Ning shouted: “Someone, come here!”
Her shout, along with Luo Xuan and Bai Ci Rong’s cries of pain, drew over several gardeners and rough servant women who had been trimming branches in the rear garden.
Everyone hurriedly went to help the injured.
They called up to Luo Ning: “Big Miss, please wait there and don’t move. The Emerald Pavilion hasn’t been repaired in years. The other boards might be loose too.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Luo Ning said. “Go see to Second Sister and Cousin first.”
Everything was in chaos.
Madam Bai, the Marchioness, was also brought to the rear garden by the maidservants.
When she saw the scene, she was badly shocked. When she saw that Bai Ci Rong’s clothes were clearly stained with blood, her heart ached. “A’Rong, where are you hurt?”
Bai Ci Rong only groaned: “Aunt, it hurts!”
The Marchioness’s eyes turned red. “Hurry, someone bring out a wicker chair and carry Miss A’Rong back. Then go call the doctor!”
The servants ran off.
They had to rummage through the storeroom for wicker chairs and found only one. They used it to carry Bai Ci Rong back. Luo Xuan, who had fainted from pain, was carried back in the arms of a burly maidservant.
Luo Ning was still in the Emerald Pavilion and could not get down.
As the Marchioness left, she looked up through the gap where part of the stairs had fallen away and met Luo Ning’s gaze.
Luo Ning saw the sheen of tears in her eyes.
The tears were real, but her expression was full of hatred.
Luo Ning stood there quietly, letting the chilly wind of the late First Lunar Month blow across her cheeks. The hand hidden in her sleeve felt icy cold in her palm.
After a long moment, she came back to herself and gave a bitter, self-mocking smile.
[Has Mother ever worried about me like this?]
[When I was wronged, did Mother ever get this upset and stand up for me?]
A little while later, Nanny Kong, Qiu Hua, and Qiu Lan from Wenqi Courtyard all hurried over.
Nanny Kong tested the steps one by one and said to Luo Ning: “Big Miss, don’t move. This old servant will see whether any other boards are loose.”
She did not care about her own safety at all. She only feared that Luo Ning would be hurt.
The cold in Luo Ning’s palms and in her heart slowly warmed.
Supported carefully by Nanny Kong and Qiu Hua, she finally made it down from the Emerald Pavilion.
Back in Wenqi Courtyard, a young maidservant brought her some tea to calm her nerves and then withdrew.
Only Nanny Kong, Qiu Hua, and Qiu Lan stayed by her side.
“A’Xuan went to the Emerald Pavilion on purpose,” Luo Ning said. “She left her earring there so she could lure me over alone. She wanted to push me down. I took Bai Ci Rong’s jade pendant and used it to draw her over instead.”
Nanny Kong and the others were terrified after the fact.
“Why would Second Miss scheme against you?” Nanny Kong asked in a very low voice. “Could it be that someone put her up to it?”
She did not dare say “the Marchioness.”
After all, the Marchioness was Luo Ning’s birth mother. As the steward nanny, she could not stand in the middle stirring up trouble between mother and daughter. One slip of the tongue could cost her her life.
“Of course someone put her up to it,” Luo Ning said. “Look at her jade bracelets, then look at those ruby earrings. Who else but the Marchioness would give them to her?”
She no longer called her “Mother.”
Qiu Hua, Qiu Lan, and the others turned pale. Nanny Kong’s gaze trembled.
For a moment, the room was silent.
“This is too much,” Qiu Hua said first. “How can she treat you like this?”
“There’s going to be a birthday banquet at Grand Princess Jia Hong’s residence,” Luo Ning said. “The Marchioness wants to take Bai Ci Rong there.”
She lifted the veil and laid everything out clearly.
She was not only making sure her trusted aides stayed on guard and did not cling to false hopes. She was also reminding herself.
Once everything was spoken, she could see it more clearly.
Bai Ci Rong was like a vine wrapped around the tree that was Luo Ning. She would suck away all of Luo Ning’s strength and take her place. Madam Bai, the Marchioness, was her accomplice.
Luo Ning had refused to give an inch, so they had not gotten any real advantage from her yet. They would not let her off easily.
Driven by profit and greed, they might grow more and more vicious.
In her last life, Luo Ning had almost been sucked dry by them. In the end, they had even wanted her dead. In this life, how could they possibly spare her?
“…You must keep your guard up at all times. Be extra careful about everything,” Luo Ning said to Nanny Kong and the others.
Qiu Hua and Qiu Lan nodded again and again.
Nanny Kong also nodded, but she was still deeply shaken. “But you… you are the Marchioness’s own daughter.”
“She suffered a lot when she gave birth to me,” Luo Ning said.
The Marchioness had probably never wanted to be pregnant with Luo Ning.
Once she became pregnant and could not avoid it, she had to give birth. But during labor she bled so much she almost died and only just managed to keep her life. That only made her regret and hatred grow.
Maybe Luo Ning was the outlet for all her unwillingness toward fate and all her loathing for the Marquis of Zhen Nan.
In her last life, Luo Ning had not been able to understand this either.
But everyone thinks differently. Sometimes you cannot even understand the person you were a few years ago, let alone another person.
Luo Ning had already forgiven herself.
“…Don’t cling to the idea of ‘birth’ anymore,” Luo Ning said when she saw Nanny Kong still deep in thought. “The Marchioness has many children of her own.”
Then she smiled at them and said: “Pull yourselves together. From now on, you can rely on me.”
They all agreed.
Nanny Kong went out to gather news, while Luo Ning went to see Old Madam.
Her aunt was already there.
“…Second Miss and Cousin both fell down the stairs,” the aunt said. “Second Miss is in terrible shape. Her left leg is broken. She probably won’t be able to get out of bed for several months. Even if it heals, her leg will never be the same.”
Old Madam chanted a Buddha name. “What wickedness. They were fine, yet they ran off to play at the Emerald Pavilion.”
She frowned again. “The Emerald Pavilion is a place for catching cool breezes. After the Dragon Boat Festival, we go there from time to time. If it’s in such bad shape, why was it not repaired?”
She was very displeased with how messy the Marchioness was in managing the household.
“Sister-in-law is busy and can’t keep an eye on the rear garden,” the aunt said with a smile. “She didn’t think the stairs would be in such terrible shape.”
On the surface she was helping and speaking up for her, but underneath she was fanning the flames.
Luo Ning did not feel much affection for this aunt.
Even though this aunt also disliked the Marchioness, wanted to fight her for the right to manage the household, and shared a common enemy with Luo Ning, Luo Ning still did not wish to be close to her.
In contrast, she was very fond of the aunt who had no desires and no grudges.
Luo Ning did not look at which side people stood on. She looked at their character.
If someone’s character was good, then even if they stood on the opposite side, Luo Ning would still respect them. If someone’s character was bad, then even if they currently shared interests, one day they would clash.
“…Mother, it seems A’Rong hurt her wrist too,” the aunt added.
Ever since the incident with the new clothes at the New Year’s Day court audience, Old Madam had found Bai Ci Rong more and more displeasing.
“They fell down the same stairs, yet she only took a minor injury while my granddaughter’s leg is broken. Why is her life so easy?” Old Madam said coldly.
“Second Miss cushioned the fall for her,” the aunt said. “A’Rong was on top and landed on Second Miss.”
Old Madam rose and said to Luo Ning and Third Madam: “Let’s go take a look.”
“They’re all in the East Main Courtyard,” Third Madam said.
Luo Ning supported her grandmother. Two Head Maids followed behind, and they all went to the East Main Courtyard together.
The Marchioness was wiping away tears.
When she saw her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law arrive, she pulled herself together and said: “The children were just being naughty and ended up troubling Mother and making you worry. I shouldn’t have told you.”
Her gaze slid toward Luo Ning, convinced that Luo Ning had been the one to report it.
Luo Ning looked back at her. Her eyes were deep, without a smile and without any hint of backing down.
“If you didn’t tell me, would I never find out?” Old Madam said.
Her tone was sharp.
She asked again: “What exactly happened? Tell me everything.”
“At the time it was just the few of them,” the Marchioness said. “They were only playing…”
“Grandmother, I was also at the Emerald Pavilion then, and I actually saw something,” Luo Ning said.
The Marchioness’s gaze tightened.