Chapter 688 Duchess Ding First
A woman’s shrill cries came from behind the house. Could it be that something had happened again?
Accidents took place in Princess Caifeng’s banquet one after the other. It was frightening.
Everyone was stunned. The maidservant standing outside the room had sharp eyes and saw that there seemed to be a small path behind the big tree. She hurriedly called some people to turn around it. When they walked along the path, they saw a stunned maidservant standing at the end of the path. She looked furtive. When the others suddenly looked up, they saw that the thin curtain around the waterside pavilion ahead had fallen.
They saw Ling Mingyan clenching her collar with her clothes in disarray, and in the fancy boat next to her, there was also a man in disheveled clothes!
The boat was next to the pavilion. The two of them were standing very close to each other. As they heard the voices, they both backed away a little.
“You… you, who are you?” Ling Mingyan sounded extremely startled. She, who had always been arrogant and unreasonable, was so shocked and embarrassed for a moment that she could hardly speak, and was blushing. She had never expected that the back didn’t belong to You Yuecheng. What she did not think of more was that the one who was hiding in the boat and had a similar profile to that of the Sixth Princess was just a maidservant.
She walked into the pavilion and looked at the man and woman snuggled up to each other through the curtain. They looked like You Yuecheng and the Sixth Princess. How could she not be furious? She did not even spend time thinking about it before she tore off the curtain subconsciously and went to pull the girl. The group of people who had come along the lake earlier had all left for some reason, and there was not a single person there.
Thus, she was not worried that the Sixth Princess and You Yuecheng would be seen.
She did not expect that the man was not You Yuecheng at all, and the woman was dressed like a maidservant. She was not the superior Sixth Princess. In a hurry, she not only tore off the thin curtain, but also pulled the man’s sleeves and tore off the top two buttons below the man’s collar.
The man’s face was full of anger. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her sleeve hard with one hand. Several butterfly-shaped buttons on her gorgeous light coat were pulled down by the strong force. She only had time to grab the collar of her clothes tightly to prevent her coat from being ripped off.
Before she could scream in shock, the maidservant standing behind her had already screamed. Then the maidservant was so shocked that she could not take care of her and ran back. The maidservant who hugged the man hurriedly ran down the boat to hide. Ling Mingyan had an intuition that something was wrong. Before she could react, a large group of people had appeared in front of her.
Everything happened so fast that before Ling Mingyan had time to react, everyone had already appeared in front of her. One of the two maidservants she brought with her stood guard at the small intersection, and the other stumbled to stay far away from her before everyone appeared. In the pavilion, there were only the disheveled Ling Mingyan and a man who was not neatly dressed either.
“I… I don’t know him. I don’t know this person!” Ling Mingyan anxiously pointed at the man in front of her and said to Duchess Mingguo, who was walking over with a cold face.
As Duchess Mingguo walked over, Duchess Ding followed her with a cold face. A few others also came over after thinking for a while.
“What’s going on? Who is this person?” Looking at Duchess Mingguo’s expression, Duchess Ding took a few steps forward and shouted. In fact, it was very improper. Ling Mingyan was now Marquise Mingguo, so it should be dealt with by Duchess Mingguo, even though Duchess Ding was Ling Mingyan’s biological mother.
“Mother, this person… I don’t know him… I thought he was His Excellency, so I came here… But, it wasn’t him. He…” Ling Mingyan had already panicked. Hearing her mother’s question, she pointed at the man and shouted anxiously. Although she was reckless, she knew that the matter of the Sixth Princess could not be mentioned.
Since there was no evidence, she couldn’t afford to ruin a princess’s reputation.
“So you don’t know this person. Sir, who are you? How could you appear in the back courtyard? Is there no distinction between the front courtyard and the back courtyard in the manor? A man can go in and out of the inner courtyard at will?” Hearing Ling Mingyan’s words, Duchess Ding breathed a sigh of relief, turned to the man and said coldly.
She was Ling Mingyan’s birth mother. Of course, she knew that Ling Mingyan was not pretending. Since it was not Ling Mingyan who had a secret meeting with a man here, and they both looked disheveled, they had to find out the truth on the spot. The longer it dragged on, the harder it was to explain it clearly. At that time, her daughter’s reputation would be ruined.
She was not the reckless Ling Mingyan, and knew how important a woman’s reputation was, especially when the girl was from a noble family like theirs. A madam’s reputation must not be tarnished. A noble family didn’t even need real evidence, and would kill someone with only a guess. In order to protect the reputation of an aristocratic family, many women had died!
That was why Duchess Ding ignored Duchess Mingguo’s opinion and spoke first to lead the conversation to a positive direction.
In any case, it was the inner courtyard, and it was not proper to have a man here.
As soon as she said that, everyone’s eyes fell on Princess Caifeng, who was the last to come out.
Princess Caifeng got a headache. How could she not have a headache when so many things had happened during the banquet?
She hadn’t dealt with You Yue’e’s matter in the front, and there was a woman’s scream behind. There must be a new accident, so she had to leave Hu Qianyue to take care of You Yue’e. As the hostess, she wanted to see who had caused such a scene. If she had known that so many things would happen, she would not have held this banquet.
No one had made it easy on her. She grew up in the palace and was clear that someone was taking advantage of her banquet to plot against others. When she heard that Duchess Ding intended to blame her, she became even angrier. She was unlike Duchess Mingguo who let Duchess Ding demonstrate her power.
Immediately, she said coldly, “Duchess Ding, what a good question! I wonder how Marquise found this secret place. Because of this lake, there is only a wall between the inner courtyard and the outer courtyard. You don’t need to take a long way if you come here by boat, and all you have to do is shout across to the boatman. However, this place is so secret. How did you find it, Marquise?”
It happened at the banquet. If they found out that Ling Mingyan had been set up, Princess Caifeng would not be able to get away with it. Of course, she had to distance herself from the matter at this moment.
The path was indeed secretive. If not for the fact that there were screams when they came and the clever maidservants standing outside had listened carefully, no one would have thought that there was a path in it. Furthermore, there was a tree right in front of the path, and it was supposed to be used to block the view.
Since Ling Mingyan had found this place, could it be that she really had an affair with someone else?
Princess Caifeng’s words were extremely reasonable. Even though Duchess Ding was quick-witted, she could not say anything to refute her. She could only change the topic, pointed at the man in front of her and asked Princess Caifeng politely, “Do you know him, Princess Caifeng? Why is he here?”
Duchess Ding was trying her best to distance Ling Mingyan from this person. She targeted Princess Caifeng when she asked questions, which made Princess Caifeng very angry.
She had never been pressed by someone!
However, since it really happened at her banquet, she couldn’t get rid of it completely. She had to come over and looked at the man standing on the fancy boat. She didn’t recognize him for a moment. He didn’t look like her elder brother’s protege. Was he from the Qin Kingdom?
“I really don’t know this young master. Why don’t we let him tell us why he appeared here?” Princess Caifeng said coldly. She then turned to the man and snapped, “Who are you? Why did you appear in the inner courtyard for no reason and grope on Marquise Mingguo? If you don’t make it clear, I’ll throw you into jail directly. You’ll be sentenced for molesting the official’s family and murdering the princess to destroy the relationship between the two countries.”
Princess Caifeng was really mad. At this moment, she was pushing all the blame onto this man. Everything that had happened today was very strange. How could she not be annoyed? She looked at the sneaky man in front of her with a cold gaze.
Molesting an official’s wife? Duchess Ding’s expression darkened. She gritted her teeth and wanted to speak. Did Princess Caifeng mean that Ling Mingyan had something to do with this man? How could she accept this? She glanced at her daughter, who had yet to recover, from the corners of her eyes. Her heart was filled with hatred. She was usually smart, but why didn’t she react at all?
Duchess Ding had forestalled Duchess Mingguo. She was certain that even if Duchess Mingguo was angry, she would not dare to say anything. However, now that she was facing Princess Caifeng, it was obvious that Princess Caifeng would not listen to her. Furthermore, it was a matter of Mingguo Manor, and thus it was inappropriate for Duchess Ding to deal with it.
It would be best if Duchess Mingguo asked about it. However, looking at the humble Duchess Mingguo in front of her, Duchess Ding knew that she would not stand up for Ling Mingyan. She could only hope that Ling Mingyan would come to her senses and defend herself. After all, this matter had happened to her, and she had the best reason to ask about it.
However, Ling Mingyan was so shocked that she was confused and hadn’t figured out what was going on yet.
“Your Highness, my second brother and I came here just to enjoy the scenery. We didn’t do anything improper. My second brother just said that the scenery here was beautiful, and the lake and the mountains looked more beautiful. So he asked the butler for a boat. How did it become an unruly thing?” The man on the boat was not an ordinary person. Although he was shocked by Princess Caifeng, he still argued hurriedly.
Princess Caifeng snorted coldly. “You said that you couldn’t do that. Then why did you stop here when you saw Marquise appear here and even pull her? How could you do that?”
It was obvious that Ling Mingyan and the man’s clothes were caused by pulling. How could a noble madam of the inner courtyard and a man have the opportunity to pull each other? This was already suspicious.
“I don’t know much about this. I was waiting for my second brother here when I saw this madam coming and pulling me. In fact, I still don’t know what’s going on with this madam.” The man looked up and down at Ling Mingyan and said with disdain, “Is this madam crazy or stupid, so she did such a rude thing?”
“You’re the one who’s stupid. You’re the one who’s crazy! You deliberately met someone in private, but I saw you. Then you lied. Your second brother, where’s your second brother? I only saw a woman here, not your second brother!” Ling Mingyan had calmed down a little at this time. When she happened to hear the words that framed her, she was furious. She immediately pointed at the man and shouted abuse! She was so angry that her face turned green. Ling Mingyan had never been wronged like this since she was born.
She had been the one who had wronged others, and no one dared to make her so embarrassed!
Just now, she only saw this man and the nasty maidservant who sneaked out of the boat, and there was no one else.