Chapter 749 Aqi's Confession
Aqi choked, and just as she was about to say that she wasn't hiding from anyone, she saw Qiao Qinghe staring at her with sharp eyes.
She lowered her head, speechless for a moment.
Qiao Qinghe looked at her and said in a calm and unhurried tone, "At this time of day, instead of staying at home to take care of your mistress and young master, why are you out here all by yourself?"
"You don't look like you've come out to buy anything. With your status in the Marquis's mansion, you wouldn't need to come out to buy anything yourself, would you?"
"Let me guess, you don't want to stay in the Marquis's mansion, so you deliberately hid away?"
"Who are you hiding from? Marquis Enping? His wife? Or someone else in the household?"
"You said nothing happened at the Marquis's residence, and A-Shuang went there to check and said everything was fine. But you clearly don't seem like someone who's alright!"
"So, what exactly happened to you?"
"Madam, I didn't..."
Aqi wanted to argue, but before she could finish speaking, Qiao Qinghe interrupted her with a sharp shout.
"Aren't you going to tell the truth?"
Qiao Qinghe's expression was cold and her tone stern.
Ah Shuang couldn't help but shudder.
She quickly stepped forward and said, "Madam, please don't be angry. I'll go and talk to Aqi."
As she spoke, she walked over to Aqi's side and frantically winked at her, "Aren't you going to talk? The old lady isn't an outsider, what can't you tell her? What are you hiding?"
Aqi finally knelt down with a thud, looking at Qiao Qinghe with a deathly pale face.
"Madam, the Marquis's residence is fine. The Marquis, his wife, and the young master are all fine. I am fine too."
Seeing Qiao Qinghe's face darken completely, Aqi dared not delay any longer and quickly said, "I... I just heard some things and don't know what to do. I'm tormented. That's why..."
Qiao Qinghe waved her hand, and A Shuang quickly led the other maids out of the private room.
After everyone had left, Qiao Qinghe frowned and asked, "What did you hear?"
Aqi looked at Qiao Qinghe with a panicked and helpless expression, and said in a sorrowful tone, "Someone told me that my lord wiped out my wife's entire family back then."
"I don't know if Madam knows about this, and I don't know whether I should tell her about it."
"But I always have a feeling that Madam knows something."
“Every time my wife gets annoyed by the baby’s crying and has someone take the baby away, I subconsciously feel that she is taking her anger out on the baby.”
“Every time Madam says she wants to move to the Qiao residence, I feel that she wants to escape from the Marquis’s mansion.”
“Every time my wife makes the slightest move, I start to become suspicious.”
Aqi's face was deathly pale as she looked at Qiao Qinghe with a look of fear. "Madam, what should I do?"
"I dare not linger in front of Madam any longer."
“Every time I see her and the Marquis and his wife being affectionate, I feel sad for the lady, and sometimes I even have the urge to tell her the truth.”
“But every time I see the lady making any unusual moves, I worry that she might know something.”
"Madam, I'm driving myself crazy."
"Madam, please teach me, what should I do?"
After hearing what Aqi said, Qiao Qinghe suddenly realized.
No wonder she always felt that Aqi was acting strangely and felt uneasy. But nothing happened at the Marquis of Enping's residence.
It turns out the problem lay with Aqi.
After thinking for a moment, Qiao Qinghe looked at Aqi seriously: "Hasn't this been rumored several times before? Shouldn't you have known about it by now?"
"I've never seen you so restless before. What's wrong this time? Why are you suddenly so anxious?"
Aqi bit her lip and said with red eyes, "I used to think those things were just rumors, lies made up by people with ulterior motives to deal with the Marquis or to sow discord between the couple."
"But this time..."
The servant who was sent to the estate for taking the blame for the Marquis, and who eventually betrayed the Marquis out of resentment.
The Su family steward, who was caught in a dilemma, asked to retire to the manor, but ended up being kidnapped and forced to hide in a corner of the Qiao mansion.
And then there's the old lady's attitude towards the massacre of the Su family from beginning to end...
Even his wife herself kept quiet about it and rarely mentioned it.
She didn't want to believe it, but she had to believe that the rumors from back then might be true.
Seeing Aqi's expression, Qiao Qinghe knew that Aqi must have found out something.
She didn't argue with her about the truth of the matter, but instead asked, "Where did you learn these things?"
"So much time has passed, you can't suddenly delve into the past for no reason."
"So who's behind this again?"
Aqi hesitated for a moment, but still said, "A few days ago, the young master was so noisy that the lady couldn't sleep well."
"So he asked me to go to the Marquis's study to get a few books to take back to her room so I could read to her to help her sleep."
Speaking of which, Su Rongrong learned this habit from Qiao Qinghe.
When they lived in the Qiao family mansion, Su Rongrong would read books to Qiao Qinghe before she went to sleep.
Back when Su Rongrong and Uncle Wu first arrived in the capital, didn't they make a living by storytelling?
After marrying Yan Jin, Su Rongrong had plenty of free time, so she would read whenever she had a spare moment. When she got tired of reading, she would ask someone to read to her.
Gradually, I developed the habit of listening to audiobooks.
Qiao Qinghe nodded. "And then?"
Aqi said in a trembling voice, "When I picked up the book, a few pages fell out of it."
"Those few pages describe the whole process from when the Marquis was murdered by his father, the Earl of Xuanping, and his stepmother, to when the Marquis fell off a cliff and was rescued by the Su family, to when the Marquis wiped out the entire Su family in order to cover his tracks, and finally led his men back to the Earl's mansion."
"The person who wrote those pages seemed to be there in person; the process was described in great detail, and it didn't seem fabricated at all."
"Not only that, the man also mentioned the servant, Uncle Wu, the old lady, and even the madam at the end..."
Qiao Qinghe frowned deeply. "So, you don't know who wrote that letter? Nor do you know who put it in the Marquis of Enping's study?"
Aqi shook his head.
Qiao Qinghe pressed on, "Then, what did you do with that letter?"
Aqi said in a trembling voice, "After I finished reading it, I put the letter back, and the book was left in the Marquis's study."
Then try to pretend nothing happened.
What's seen is seen, what's happened is happened.
No matter how she tried to cover it up, she still revealed her true colors in front of the old lady.
Qiao Qinghe sighed, "Your current condition is not suitable for you to go back and serve your wife."
As she spoke, she called out towards the door, "Ah Shuang."
Ah Shuang quickly came in, "Madam?"
Qiao Qinghe pointed at Aqi: "Find someone to take Aqi back to the Qiao residence. She's coming back to stay for a while."
Ah Shuang smiled and said, "This is wonderful! Ever since Ah Qi went to serve Lady Hou, we sisters haven't been able to get together for several years."
“But,” A-Shuang’s tone shifted, and she looked at Qiao Qinghe with difficulty, “what should we say to the Lady of the Marquis?”
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