Chapter 230 The Scenery on Wenxi Road
“What if do I take you away? What else do you want to do? Look at what you are like now. Even if you were a concubine, Duke Yong’s Mansion would not want you. It is in vain that you think that you have controlled Di Yan. Now it’s just like a joke!” Ning Xueqing sneered coldly.
“Take me away, and I’ll help you marry Wang Shengxue, or you should not be so stupid to believe that he will marry you!” Ning Caixian said with gloomy and cold eyes.
“Why wouldn’t he marry me? He’ll certainly marry me, but it’s a bit too early now. It’ll take a while to wait for a suitable time…” Unwilling to show her weakness in front of Ning Caixian, Ning Xueqing raised her head proudly.
“Do you believe this reason?” Ning Caixian asked in a gloomy way.
Ning Xueqing opened her mouth and wanted to refute her.
“Take me away and I’ll help you. I will not recoil from death.” Ning Caixian interrupted her words coldly again. She raised her head with the color of blood in her eyes, which looked very scary.
Ning Caixian knew clearly that she was ruined! She originally thought that if Di Yan insisted, she would certainly be able to enter Duke Yong’s Mansion. Anyway, she had given up the idea of being the legal wife and only wanted to be a concubine. Ningyuan Army General’s Mansion could say nothing about that. She didn’t believe that Qin Yuru would ignore her own reputation and dare to refuse her before she married into Duke Yong’s Mansion.
Also, because she took Di Yan everywhere she went, everyone knew their businesses. What’s more, she had even knelt at the door of Ningyuan Army General’s Mansion. Anyone in this case would have to accept her. Even though he just pretended his magnanimity, he would show it in a grand way.
As long as she entered Duke Yong’s Mansion, with her own means, who would gain supremacy was still a question.
But she didn’t expect it to be an accident. The message from the Madam of Ningyuan Army General’s Mansion was supposed to deal with the Second Miss of Qin’s Mansion. But later on, because Qin Yuru had ruined her own reputation and Qin Wanru was not excellent enough to impede the way of Ning Caixian, this matter was imputed to Qin Yuru.
But this matter was exposed. So what? As long as she denied this matter uncompromisingly and the supervisor recognized this matter on his own, it would have nothing to do with her.
Ning Caixian knew clearly about her own means. With these methods, it was not difficult for her to gain the chance to enter into Duke Yong’s Mansion. What was beyond her expectation was that Qin Huaiyong, as Ningyuan Army General, stepped into this matter without any hesitation. But in the end, it was Di Yan who gave her the hardest blow and took out all the letters she had written to him as evidence in court.
Ning Caixian, who grew up in Ning’s Mansion during her childhood, knew some twists and turns in the officialdom. And some of the civil servants’ behavior in her eyes was not much different from the means in the backyard. But she didn’t know martial arts, a blow from which had to be hit. This was why she miscalculated the personality of Qin Huaiyong and she also overestimated Di Yan’s so-called affectionateness.
Ning Caixian passed away and was taken out of the prison because nobody could cure her illness.
Ning Caixian was the heir of a duke in Ning’s Mansion. Since nobody was killed in this matter, at first her crime would not lead to her death. But at that time, reputation and integrity were even more important than heaven. Many families could not bear the stigmatization; therefore, they would ask the woman who had made mistakes to commit suicide so that they could seek reputation and integrity for the other offspring of their family.
The news of Ning Caixian’s death came out a few days after Ning Caixian was taken out of the prison. At that time, there were a lot of rumors going around. Although it was said that Ning Caixian died of illness, people all suspected privately that the Ning family had forced her to commit suicide for the sake of the reputation and integrity of the Ning family.
Anyway, the news about Ning Caixian’s death and the matter about her and Di Yan were known by everyone in the capital city. But people dying was like lights out. There were some people who took pity on her but most of them would blame Di Yan because it was his desertion that brought Ning Caixian into this situation.
It was also because of her death that some of the rumors about Ning’s Mansion had changed gradually. Compared with the one who still enjoyed a high position and great wealth, a dead woman weighed nothing. Things in the world were just like this. People tended to say few words about dead people. Many people were likely to extend a kind of tolerance for those who had died.
The door of Ning’s Mansion was also closed tightly after that. At first, there were a few people watching this matter. But later on, they found that there was nothing to look at so they became indifferent to it.
Ning Caixian’s funeral was also held hastily. No one noticed that on the night of Ning Caixian’s funeral, a small sedan left through the back door of Ning’s Mansion, followed by only an old maid and a servant girl. Later, they disappeared in the vast darkness.
No one had thought that the girl who had “died” in the eyes of people would appear again and step into the troubled place of the capital city…
When Qin Wanru got the news about Ning Caixian’s death, she was on Wenxin Road going toward Huaguang Temple.
Before the time she arrived at Huaguang Temple, because she needed to accompany Old Grandma and Shui Ruolan, she got no chance to walk on this Wenxin Road. After a few adjustments, she took Yujie with her to walk on that Wenxin Road again.
Erasing the sweat stains from her forehead and looking up, she saw layer upon layer of steps winding with twists and turns. She deeply exhaled and asked, “She has died?”
“Yes, indeed. But I am not sure whether it is true or not,” Yujie answered. “Just now when I came here, I saw Nanny Duan, the person who told me this piece of news.”
“What do you think about it?” Qin Wanru smiled faintly and walked a few steps forward.
“I think… it is possible. Although Miss Ning was not the type of person who would commit suicide, her body was really not very good, and it was possible for her to die from illness if she had been hit so hard!” Yujie said after a few thoughts.
“You also think she’s in bad health?” Qin Wanru asked.
“When I looked at her face, it seemed to be very faint. So I think she was not in good health. But before someone said that… her illness was not so serious. Actually, I am also very confused,” Yujie said, catching up with Qin Wanru quickly.
Qin Wanru lightly closed her lips. Yujie had some medical skills, but didn’t understand some of the ways of personal relationships and worldly wisdom. Ning Caixian’s body was indeed not very good, but she was not in delicate health. She once knelt at the door of the mansion for a long time, but nothing happened to her. She even managed to yell touchingly when she was dragged away.
So she was not very sick or weak.
At first, maybe she pretended she was ill in order to gain sympathy from others. When she got used to it, she herself also repeatedly implied that she was sick and weak, and could not go through anything. Such an implication even deceived herself, so that Ning Caixian always looked sick and weak with a lack of energy.
It seemed to be true.
“Ning Caixian wouldn’t die!” Qin Wanru said confidently, with her smile widening a little bit.
“Why not?” Yujie was puzzled and asked.
“A person like her would never really die in this way!” Qin Wanru said with a gleam flashing at the bottom of her eyes as the corners of her lips moved upward. The Ning sisters were women of means, but Ning’s Mansion at their back was really insignificant so that neither of them could get a good marriage.
However, despite her identity as a daughter from an aristocratic family, she could put herself out there to make this matter bigger and be willing to be a concubine. This originally showed that Ning Caixian was not a simple person. Such a woman who was not simple would not die easily.
“How about telling the general about this and have the general send someone to find out?” Yujie said in doubt.
“No! It is none of our business!” Qin Wanru shook her head. This matter was an affair in complete disorder between Di Yan and Ning Caixian, and she didn’t want to get involved at all.
What if Ning Caixian was dead? What if she was alive? It didn’t have a tiny jot of connection with her. The reason why she took her grandmother and mother away from Qin’s Mansion early was to disassociate herself from this matter. On the one hand, she wanted to prevent her grandmother and mother from being disturbed; on the other hand, there came the idea above.
Since Qin Wanru spoke like this, Yujie thought for a while and felt justified. The First Miss in Ning’s Mansion was not a good person either. She had once intended to plot against her Miss and she had done it with Madam Di. After thinking of this, Yujie felt very happy because at least Madam Di and Ning Caixian were now in a dog fight and neither of them was a good person.
Whoever won or lost, it had nothing to do with them.
Looking up at the layers of steps above, Yujie no longer mentioned the matter of Ning Caixian and said, “Miss, do you want to take a break? There is still a long way to go. It is impossible to climb up in one breath.”
“Let’s go up a little further. It is too close here!” Qin Wanru shook her head and also took a look upward. They were not even halfway there. If they rested now, they might have to rest again after a while.
“Miss, your body is not in very good condition either. Having walked this distance is enough. Actually, after this walk, I am fine, but I am afraid that when Miss gets tired, you may feel difficult to come around!” Yujie advised. She was really worried about Qin Wanru’s body.
How could a Miss from an aristocratic family, who seldom walked out of the door of the mansion or stepped out of the door of her room, have much energy to walk such a long distance?
“Just a little further and I will take a rest!” Qin Wanru said. Yujie nodded reluctantly and followed behind Qin Wanru, carefully guarding and protecting her.
They walked all the way without noticing that they had already become scenery in others’ eyes.
Qin Wanru’s face turned red, and her white and tender skin was almost full of a rosy color. All her hair was tied up with a chignon, only wearing two hairpins with butterfly wings, which looked simple and beautiful. Her pair of clear eyes were just like being immersed in water. When her pretty eyes were flowing back and forth, words were about to come from her small cherrylike mouth, which seemed to be painted vermilion red. All of this reflected her features smarter and prettier.
Such an outstanding girl didn’t know that when she walked on the road, she had attracted may other pilgrims who were also on Wenxin Road. Every time someone walked by her, they looked back frequently. Seeing that such a weak girl could climb so high in a breath, everyone continuously praised her as a persistent girl.
“Whose Miss is she?” In a pavilion for resting on the side of Wenxin Road, after her eyes fell upon Qin Wanru, a Madam Dowager with magnificent clothes looked Qin Wanru up and down and asked an old maid who was standing aside serving her.
“Madam Dowager, please wait. Let me ask about her immediately!” The old maid followed the Madam Dowager’s gaze, looked at Qin Wanru, and also couldn’t help praising this Miss in her mind. “What a gorgeous beauty! She looks not only beautiful but also particularly persistent. There is no doubt that our master would think highly of her because such a girl doesn’t seem to be someone who was brought up in common wealthy families.”
“Miss, would you take a rest?”
When Qin Wanru was walking upward and getting tired and out of breath, she suddenly heard a gentle voice coming from the front. She raised up her head so quickly that she felt dizzy in front of her eyes at the moment and her body fell backward. Yujie quickly noticed and held her with agile hands.