Chapter 18
Bai Tianting's back blended into the night snow scene. Under the cold moon, he went to Lianying Garden alone. The ground was full of dancing shadows. He put his hands behind his back and lowered his head. The more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. Before he could figure out the reason, he had already stopped in front of the red hanging flower door.
The sound of the heat wave lingered in his ears for a long time. His cheeks twitched, his back teeth clenched, and his eyes widened so wide that they seemed to pop out of their sockets. The fists clenched tightly under his sleeves trembled, and a surge of anger rushed to his head.
Suddenly there was a loud bang, and the red door with hanging flowers shook like the sky and the earth, instantly breaking into pieces and falling onto the blue bricks.
The two people on the bed stared at the door with their eyes wide open in fear. Le Yingniang was the first to react and pushed the man on top of her away. Zu Wan was already terrified, and this push caused him and his quilt to roll on the ground in a strange posture.
Le Yingniang pulled a corner of the bed sheet to cover her shame, crawled and rolled to Bai Tianting's feet, pulled his robe, and cried with tears in her eyes that she was forced. Her tone was desolate, and she held her face with both hands and howled hard: "Master, I...I have no face to see you again."
The string of tears continued to fall, and there were still several plum blossom petals on his chest. If he hadn't stopped at the door for a while and listened to the two people's waves of passionate shouting, these desperate and sad tears might have deceived him.
Bai Tianting's mind gradually became clearer at this time. He glanced at Zu Wan and saw that he had been sitting on the ground in the posture of falling off the bed, as if he had lost his soul. His pupils were empty, his face was pale, and the sweat on his forehead was like rain, flowing down his temples. What a wild pair of mandarin ducks, how dare they do such a lewd thing under his nose.
He couldn't help but sneer, and slowly played with his cuffs, "Zu Wan, how do I treat you?"
The sudden question actually pulled Zu Wan's mind back. He felt his scalp tingling, the hairs all over his body stood up, and he couldn't help shivering several times. At this time, the left prime minister's serious face narrowed his eyes, as if he saw through him, and now he couldn't continue to play crazy. His thoughts were spinning like a top, and in just half a breath, he calmed down, knelt on the ground calmly, with his back straight, and said in a loud voice: "The prime minister is like Zu Wan's reborn parents."
Bai Tianting asked: "Then why are you trampling on the face of the real person like this?"
Zu Wan said: "Your Excellency, I was confused for a moment and fell into a trap. By the time I came to my senses, I had made a big mistake."
Hearing this, Bai Tianting raised his eyes and half raised his eyebrows, "Oh? Evil plot? Tell me how you fell into the evil plot."
Zu Wan said, "Prime Minister, it was the Second Madam who said that Handan had a secret crush on me, but as a woman, she was too shy to speak up. Now that the eldest lady is under house arrest, Handan will come over to serve her closely. Tonight, the Second Madam will stay in the master's courtyard, and she will leave Handan there so that we can open our hearts and get married privately."
Bai Tianting said: "Then tell me how you and Handan ended up on the Second Madam's bed?"
Zu Wan said calmly, "I went to the Second Madam's courtyard and looked around, but I didn't see Handan. Just as I was about to leave, I heard some noise in the wing room. I remembered that the Second Madam had told me during the day that she would stay in the Master's courtyard at night, so I became suspicious and went in to check, fearing that it might be a thief."
"But when I went in, it was pitch black, so I took the courage to grope my way into the inner room in search of the sound. Suddenly, I felt something soft wrapped around my body, and when I reacted, I found that she had been pushed onto the couch. She said she was Handan. Although it was dark and I couldn't see her face, she was a woman after all, and she had nothing to do with the thief, so I let down my guard. I felt something was wrong, so I wanted to get up, but Handan hugged me tightly and said she loved me. Now that the young lady is under house arrest, she can't go back to her own yard, and has been spending the nights in the woodshed these days. The second lady is not here tonight, and she will definitely clean up everything tomorrow morning."
At this point, Zu Wan shouted in a loud voice: "Master! I was blinded by greed and had evil intentions at that time. But I never thought that Handan was actually the second wife in disguise! Otherwise, even if I had the courage to do so, I would never mess with the master's woman!"
"You lied!" Le Yingniang could no longer hold back and yelled, her lungs aching with anger. She thought Zu Wan had come up with a perfect solution, so she let him go on, but she never expected him to speak so wildly. So, she questioned Zu Wan in anger: "It was you who forced me! I am weak and can't break free from you!"
Then she turned to look at Bai Tianting and burst into tears, "Master! You must not listen to his one-sided words. How could I fall in love with a servant!" Then, she looked at Zu Wan with hatred, "Why do you want to wrongly accuse me? What did I do wrong to be bullied by you and to be slandered by you!"
Zu Wan did not answer, but knelt upright on the ground, staring straight ahead. He was fearless in the face of danger, and he was able to walk through danger with ease. She actually underestimated him.
Bai Tianting had already seen the expressions of the two people, and he sat on the stool without saying a word. Le Yingniang cried sadly and kept saying that she was wronged. Zu Wan's silence seemed more credible than thousands of words. He retracted his gaze and made a plan in his mind. He stood up, called the palace guards and ordered: "Sell Le Yingniang to Xiuchun Tower!"
The palace guards who had been waiting outside the door after hearing the inexplicable loud noise received the order. They all lowered their heads and dared not look any longer. They did not care that Le Yingniang was naked and directly carried her up and dragged her out.
Le Yingniang was already terrified. She beat the palace guards like a madman and cried out in her dying struggle: "Master! I am innocent! It was Zu Wan, it was Zu Wan who forced me, Master..."
As the voice became farther and farther away, Bai Tianting turned his gaze to Zu Wan, "Zu Wan, please continue."
Zu Wan responded, knocking his head hard on the ground with three muffled sounds: "I am ashamed of the master's cultivation. But everything I said is true. Although I don't know why the Second Madam did such a crazy thing, I identified the wrong person and lost my mind. I thought that although the Second Madam and the eldest daughter were not on good terms, Handan's mother was the Second Madam's savior. Maybe because of this relationship, the Second Madam treated Handan differently, so I believed the Second Madam's words."
Bai Tianting frowned, grasped the key point of his words, and asked, "Are they not getting along?"
Zu Wan nodded, but there was a gleam of brilliance hidden in his eyes. He replied, "It was a unilateral guess. Since the master confined the eldest lady, the second lady locked her up in the abandoned mud house in the garden. The second lady said that the master had ordered us not to interfere, after all, it was a woman's matter. But today, if the eldest lady of the Shangshu Mansion had not come to visit, we would never have seen the eldest lady being abused like that. I thought that the master just wanted to scare the eldest lady and would never order the abuse of the eldest lady. So, I took the initiative to let the eldest lady out of the mansion. I wanted to wait for the master to come back and report, but I didn't expect such a scandal to happen."
Bai Tianting slammed the table in anger, "When did I order the young lady to be locked up in the mud yard?"
Zu Wan kowtowed again and said, "Everyone in the mansion knows that the master has confined the eldest lady, but... he didn't say where, so everyone believed the second lady's words."
"Bold! How dare you!" Bai Tianting's eyes burned with fire, and he glared at her very hard, shouting angrily: "I want to hear how that bitch abused the young lady! Tell the truth!"
Zu Wan described what he had seen during the day: "After the young lady left, I went into the mud house. As I expected, the charcoal stove was filled with waste charcoal from the mansion. The night wind is biting cold. The windows of the house are made of old wood and the bed is made of a few wooden boards. I don't know how the young lady survived these days. When I saw her today, she seemed to be swaying in the wind and her face was pale."
Bai Tianting heard this and closed his eyes tightly. His chest rose and fell, and he was obviously very angry. Not long after, he stood up and left without leaving a word. The door creaked in the cold wind. Zu Wan held his breath and listened to the footsteps. He felt that the master was far away, and then he dared to slowly raise his eyes to confirm. Then his shoulders relaxed, and he sat on the ground, his eyes were straight, and cold sweat was pouring down.
Dangerous...too dangerous...
The next morning, Zu Wan, who had not slept all night, was called to Bai Tianting's study. He knelt on his knees and waited, not knowing the time. The master never spoke. At this time, although his face did not show it, cold sweat ran down his back, and his heart beat as if it was going to pierce through his chest and fly out.
After about half a cup of tea, Bai Tianting finally raised his eyes and said, "Go to the Shangshu Mansion and bring the eldest lady back."
The master did not mention anything about what happened last night, Zu Wan still knelt with his head bowed, and the two of them were so stiff. Zu Wan was gambling, after all, he had followed Bai Tianting for so many years, and this matter would not be so easy to let go.
After a long time, Bai Tianting finally put down the brush in his hand and called out, "Zu Wan, get up." Zu Wan still didn't get up. He sighed and said, "Get up. What happened last night should be considered as never happening. From now on, don't mention it."
Hearing this, Zu Wan's heart, which had been hanging in the air all night, finally settled down. He kowtowed three times and confessed to Tian Ting: "Thank you for your trust, Master. This life of Zu Wan was given by you. Zu Wan would go through fire and water for you, and I will not refuse even if I make the same mistake again!"
Bai Tianting said, "Okay, get up, and go and bring the young lady back quickly."
After Zu Wan left, Bai Tianting's eyes flashed with a sharp light. He picked up the brush on the table again, and with a click, the brush broke into two pieces.
Meanwhile, when Zu Wan and three or five palace guards arrived at the Shangshu Mansion, Feng Huanhuan and Bai Tiao were having breakfast in the courtyard. The weather was good today, the sun was bright, and the temperature was suitable. So, she told Feicui to move the breakfast to the courtyard.
As soon as they started eating, they heard that someone from the Prime Minister's residence was looking for someone. She angrily slammed the chopsticks in her hand onto the jade table and shouted, "Who is coming?"
Not only was the servant frightened, even Feicui, who was serving the dishes, was startled and almost dropped the hibiscus pastry in her hand into the bird's nest soup.
The servant lowered his head and said hurriedly, "Miss, it's the chief guard of the Prime Minister's Mansion. He said his name is Zu Wan."
Bai Tiao was a little surprised when he heard this, but he soon realized that his father might have known about it. So he put down the chopsticks in his hand and replied, "Let him wait outside for a while."
The servant was so frightened that he left in a flash, leaving only a shadow. It was quite funny. Bai Tiao smiled and said, "Huan'er, look how scared you made him."
Feng Huanhuan frowned and asked, "Sister Bai, do you really want to go back?"
Bai Tiao nodded and replied, "Zu Wan is my father's man. I have to go back."
Feng Huanhuan disagreed. She had finally rescued the man, but now she was going back to the wolf's den. How could she accept this? So she wanted to throw a tantrum. Bai Tiao touched her hair and looked at her carefully. Her eyes were clearly saying goodbye. She puffed her cheeks and turned her head away, refusing to let Bai Tiao touch her. Bai Tiao smiled and said, "Huan'er is still like when she was a child. When she gets angry, she won't let you touch her head."
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