Chapter 13: Casting a curse to harm people?
It was almost evening when they returned to the Shangshu Mansion. Qi Wuhan changed to a more low-key carriage to take Jiang Lan back.
"You want me to go in—"
"Need not."
Jiang Lan decisively refused his visit. When he looked at her with his playful peach blossom eyes, she turned her eyes away, thanked him politely, and then pushed aside the curtain and got off the carriage.
"Let's go."
Seeing her enter the mansion, Qi Wuhan lowered the curtain and gave an order, and Ling Feng turned around and left in the carriage.
The birthday banquet at the general's mansion has not yet ended, and Jiang Cheng and Zhang have not returned yet.
Jiang Lan quietly returned to her residence. Qing'er and Gui'er had already returned. She asked them when they returned. Gui'er replied that Marquis Jin'an had told them to go back to the mansion and wait, so they returned.
"Miss, has something happened?" Qing'er asked. At that time, the two of them were led away by Qiu Tong to look for earrings and did not know that they fell into the water later.
Jiang Lan said it was all over.
Seeing that she didn't want to say more, Qing'er didn't ask any more questions.
The carriage returned after dark.
Jiang Rui drank too much, and Zhang was too busy taking care of him to care about Jiang Lan's early departure. Then Jiang Cheng asked the housekeeper to ask Jiang Lan to come to his study to see him, because he had something to ask her alone.
"Was it Marquis Jin'an who sent you back?" Jiang Cheng asked the question that concerned him the most.
Jiang Lan knew she couldn't hide it, so she nodded.
Then Jiang Cheng asked his second question, "Marquis Jin'an sent someone to tell me that you accidentally fell into the water. Is that true?"
Jiang Lan nodded again.
Jiang Cheng paused, then hesitantly asked his third question, "Then Marquis Jin'an said you were so engrossed in watching him that you fell into the water?"
“…”
God damn it, who wants to peek at him!
Jiang Lan calmed down for a moment and replied, "My daughter accidentally slipped and fell. I hope I didn't disturb the birthday party or cause trouble for Dad."
No one mentioned this at the birthday party, but Jiang Cheng was most worried about Marquis Jin'an. "Tell me honestly, do you really have no other thoughts about Marquis Jin'an?"
Jiang Lan nodded sincerely, "My daughter is willing to swear."
"That's good." Jiang Cheng said with relief, "Although the Marquis of Jin'an holds a high position of power, he behaves rather recklessly. He's not a good man after all."
"My daughter has noted this." Jiang Lan nodded.
Then Jiang Lan went to see Zhang to report that she was safe. Zhang didn't know about the fall into the water. She heard Cui Jingshu come back and say that Jiang Lan accidentally fell and soiled her skirt, so she went back to change clothes. Gu Xuan'er and others had the same account.
Princess Pingyang didn't mind the loss of an insignificant guest, and the wife of Marquis Changxing and several other ladies cared even less.
But Zhang felt that the matter was not that simple, so she asked Jiang Lan indirectly about the inside story. In the end, she didn't get anything out of it and let her go back first.
On the way back, Jiang Lan was thinking about Cui Jingshu. The two of them had a grudge this time. Even if she didn't seek revenge for her drowning, the other party would definitely cause trouble for her. The other party had the support of Princess Pingyang and even the Queen behind him. It was troublesome just thinking about it.
She looked up at the moon in the sky and thought to herself, there will always be a way.
After breakfast the next day, Zhang asked Tanxiang to secretly ask Qing'er about it. Qing'er's statement was consistent with Jiang Lan's. She accidentally fell and came back to change clothes. She suddenly felt unwell and stayed at home.
At noon, the sun was shining brightly, the flowers and plants in the yard were lazy, and people were lazy too.
The three maids, Lu'er, Cui'er and Xiaohong, were dozing off in a daze in the corridor. Jiang Lan was lying on the beauty chair in the room for a nap. Qing'er and Gui'er were standing behind the screen, also dozing off in a daze.
A green-feathered parrot flew in from the window and landed on it, holding a small bamboo tube in its mouth. It lowered its head and placed the small bamboo tube on the small square table by the window, then flew over and pecked Jiang Lan's head.
Jiang Lan felt something pecking at her hair. When she opened her eyes, a green-feathered parrot flew from over her head to her front, then flew over and brought the small bamboo tube to her.
Jiang Lan knew it. It was raised by Qi Wuhan and was named Yuanbao by him, which sounded tacky.
In her previous life, she liked to play with it. When she saw this little thing again, she still felt a sense of familiarity. It looked much more pleasing to the eye than a human.
She raised her hand, and Yuanbao lowered his head and placed the small bamboo tube in her hand. She took out the note rolled inside and opened it to see eight words written on it:
I am concerned about your health.
“…”
Jiang Lan rolled up the note and stuffed it back into the bamboo tube, preparing for Yuanbao to take it back, but it refused to leave, as if it wanted her to write back. She thought it was not easy for the little guy to fly over, so she stood up, walked to the desk, picked up a pen, and added two words at the end: "No problem."
Then Yuanbao flew back with the bamboo tube in his mouth.
Then at noon the next day, Jiang Lan was woken up by Yuanbao in the same way and received another gift.
The gift was wrapped in a piece of red silk and held in its mouth.
This time it dropped the gift and flew away, not giving her a chance to refuse.
Jiang Lan opened the red silk and saw an orchid hairpin wrapped inside.
She wrapped the hairpin in red silk and locked it in the drawer of her dressing table, planning to let Yuanbao take it back when he came tomorrow.
However, Yuanbao seemed to be in tune with her and did not come the next day. Two days later, he still did not show up.
She could only find another opportunity to return it to him.
After the birthday banquet, Jiang Lan stayed at home to recuperate and did not go out. Life passed peacefully for a while, and then was disrupted by a storm.
The reason was that Lady Pei was ill, and she kept saying that Jiang Lan had cast a curse on her.
When Zhang called her over for questioning, Jiang Lan just felt funny. If she had the ability to cast a curse to harm people, she wouldn't have to wait for the opportunity to take revenge.
In fact, the Duke's wife's illness was caused by a ghost in her heart.
Ever since Jiang Lan questioned her last time about whether she could sleep well at night because she spoke ill of the deceased behind his back, a seed of suspicion was planted in the Duke's wife's heart. She really couldn't sleep well at night. In the past few days, she even dreamed that a ghost came to her to claim her life. She was sure that it was Jiang Lan's deceased biological mother. She became more and more anxious, couldn't eat or sleep, and insisted that it was Jiang Lan who cursed her.
After Zhang told Jiang Cheng about this, Jiang Cheng thought it was nonsense. However, after Zhang analyzed the pros and cons, Jiang Cheng agreed to let her take Jiang Lan to visit the Duke's wife in person at the Duke's Mansion, so as to stop the gossip outside.
Jiang Lan knew that her stepmother had bad intentions and just wanted to see her being humiliated by the people in the Duke's Mansion, but if she didn't go, there would definitely be gossip that she was guilty.
So she went.
When Jiang Lan saw the Duke's wife, before she could even greet her, she heard her ask the maid to kick her out as she was a jinx.
Li took Jiang Lan out first, which helped her out of the predicament. Jiang Lan thanked her.
At this time, Jiang Yao came out again and asked Li, the eldest sister-in-law, to go in and persuade her mother-in-law. After Li entered the room, she said to Jiang Lan sarcastically, "I really admire you, sister. You did something wrong but you can still pretend that nothing happened."
Jiang Lan smiled slightly and said, "That's nothing compared to my sister enduring humiliation and bearing heavy burdens."
The four words "light and piaopiao" choked Jiang Yao to the point of being speechless, and she looked like she was going to eat someone.
"How dare you come here?"
Jiang Lan saw Pei Qian approaching from the courtyard gate and immediately turned to walk away. Jiang Yao stepped forward to greet him, but Pei Qian glanced in Jiang Lan's direction and said to her in a somewhat reproachful tone, "Why aren't you in the house serving Mother?"
Jiang Yao said aggrievedly: "My mother is here, Brother Qian should go in and say hello."
Pei Qian said in a gentle tone, "You go in first. I'll go meet my mother-in-law later."
Jiang Yao glanced in Jiang Lan's direction and walked into the house, looking back every few steps.
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