Chapter 22
Huo Yanci turned and went out, returning a moment later with a glass of honey water with two pieces of ice floating in it: "Drink it, I've put the last bit of ice in it for you."
Ning Qingxi took the drink and drank a big gulp, feeling extremely refreshed.
"Speaking of which, I have some good news to share."
Ning Qingxi looked up, puzzled. "What, are you going to give me money?"
"All you ever talk about is money. Are you obsessed with money?" Huo Yanci retorted as usual, then dragged a chair to sit next to Ning Qingxi. "I've made the riding clothes for you. The pony has grown a bit, so I reckon it won't be as easy for you to ride."
Ning Qingxi scoffed lightly, the sarcasm in her voice unmistakable.
Huo Yanci paused, then said, "There's one more thing. The evidence is conclusive that Shen Xiulian killed your tree by overwatering."
"...?" Ning Qingxi stopped drinking and put down her cup, asking with a curious look, "What do you mean?"
"Her family recently bought a house, but her husband's health is ruined by drinking, and he can't work. Their only son weighs 200 pounds and isn't capable of working either. The family has been relying on her to earn money for years, and even daily expenses are a problem. It's too strange that she suddenly bought a house, so I had someone investigate. About half a month ago, she suddenly received a sum of money from an underground bank. The amount wasn't large, but the source was unclear..."
It turns out that Shen Xiulian's family was originally a family that would work themselves to death to keep their son a bachelor. Suddenly, they bought a property and registered it at the county government. Huo Yanci discovered this and followed the trail, finding the money in the underground bank. The money was withdrawn in two installments, once half a month ago and once the day after Shen Xiulian left. The property was only bought in the last few days, so the investigation was a bit difficult.
The investigation into the underground money exchange also led them to the person who gave her the money, named Zhu Yuan. He was the head of a well-known garden design team in the capital. He had a group of garden designers under his command, and they practically monopolized all the garden design projects, big and small, in the entire capital. Originally, Zhang Fuhu was generous with the money and made a big show of it, which suited the group's intention to make a name for themselves. However, an unexpected incident suddenly occurred.
That's because Ning Qingxi interfered. They might not care about the hundred taels of silver, but Ning Qingxi became famous overnight, and many people were waiting to see the garden she built. In this way, she unintentionally ruined her reputation. After all, a novice girl was not only not inferior to them, but also better than them, a group of veteran garden designers.
Utter disgrace!
The key point is that if her garden is completed and truly pleases Zhang Fuhu, they will be unable to control what happens afterward. Therefore, they resorted to this underhanded trick to ruin Ning Qingxi's reputation and cause her project to fail.
Ning Qingxi: "..."
She could understand it, after all, they had maintained a monopoly for so many years, and suddenly someone came along and tried to steal their business...
...What a load of rubbish!
"What a lunatic!" Ning Qingxi sneered. "It's really ridiculous. If you want to ruin my reputation, do you have to go to such lengths? Just give me the money, and I'll go tell Boss Zhang myself that I don't actually know how to design gardens and that I was just framing him!"
Huo Yanci: "..."
Ning Qingxi asked, "Is the evidence conclusive?"
“Not really,” Huo Yanci shrugged. “But if needed, we can talk to Shen Xiulian. As long as she confesses, we don’t have to ask her to pay compensation. Maybe that’s possible.”
Ning Qingxi: "...This is really a troublesome problem."
"You can argue with that, I've been running myself ragged these past few days."
Huo Yanci is a person who is high-profile in his personal life but low-profile in his work. He only came to talk to her after he had almost finished his business. Previously, this person was elusive and rarely seen. It turns out he was busy with this matter.
Ning Qingxi couldn't help but feel touched.
Who wouldn't be moved when someone suddenly appears and says, "I'll restore your reputation," just when you're ready to accept defeat?
"What's wrong? So moved? Are you going to offer yourself in gratitude on the spot because you don't know how to thank me?"
"Splash—"
Ning Qingxi's fragile emotional filter shattered instantly, and she cursed inwardly, "Shameless!"
"Huo Yanci, hasn't the doctor fixed your brain yet?"
Huo Yanci shrugged with laughter beside her, while Ning Qingxi sighed helplessly.
Alright, who told him to be the hero today?
"Well, this evidence doesn't seem to prove anything. There's no written evidence." Ning Qingxi tapped the table with her fingers. "If we win this case, that's fine. But if we lose, it'll be a waste of time and effort. Even if we replant the saplings, it won't be of any use."
Huo Yanci looked at her and said, "It's easy. If we win, you'll be in charge of overseeing the garden. If we lose, then this is something that happened under my supervision, and I won't make things difficult for you."
Ning Qingxi: "...That's not what I meant!"
She sighed, unable to articulate for a moment what she meant.
Her reputation is important, and so is Huo Yanci's. If he really takes the blame for this, he will become the talk of the town in the future. Whenever the Prince Jing is mentioned, everyone will know that he is the embroidered pillow who was in charge of a garden but got into trouble.
Huo Yanci didn't seem to care. He winked at her and said with a touch of boyish playfulness, "I'll just sit there. Who dares to make me lose the case?"
Ning Qingxi: "Then isn't that even more difficult for you? Even if you win, you'll be accused of bullying others."
"I don't care." Huo Yanci looked at her and said with a hint of smugness, "What good would it do to say it? I'm not actually going to build the garden in the future. If my reputation is ruined here, so be it."
Huo Yanci's words were half sincere and half insincere.
To say he doesn't care what others say would be a lie, especially when it comes to things that have nothing to do with him. Being falsely accused for no reason might not lead him to pursue the matter, but he certainly wouldn't be happy about it.
But it's different for Ning Qingxi. This is her livelihood, and if someone disgusts her, she'll basically be cut off from her life.
It has nothing to do with whether he likes Ning Qingxi or not; he just can't bear to see such a good person, such a bright star, fall from grace.
Ning Qingxi understood his thoughts and knew that his method was indeed the one with the least loss, but she was still conflicted because of her conscience. She said, "Let me think about it some more. This is a big deal and we can't be careless... Let's go eat first."
Huo Yan raised an eyebrow and silently followed her out to the restaurant.
Before Ning Qingxi could figure it out, he heard the news that Huo Yan had reported the matter to the authorities. The reason given was that the garden he was in charge of building had been maliciously damaged, and therefore, for the sake of his own reputation, he resolutely reported it to the authorities.
To be honest, it was a bit far-fetched, but since this person was a reckless prince, the yamen had no choice but to accept it and do whatever he said.
So Huo Yanci threw all the things he had found out over the past few days on the table, brought Shen Xiulian in, and no one knows what he said to her, but Shen Xiulian confessed everything and even implicated Zhu Yuan.
At first, Zhu Yuan denied everything and confronted Shen Xiulian in court, hurling insults and demanding to know why Shen Xiulian had wronged him.
When Ning Qingxi arrived, the hall was packed with people, and even the walkway bridge was full of people. She managed to squeeze to the front and saw Shen Xiulian and an unfamiliar man kneeling on the ground, cursing at each other. She guessed that the man was Zhu Yuan.
Zhu Yuan: "I have no grudge against you, yet you make baseless accusations without any basis!"
Shen Xiulian: "Pah! Who told me that if I watered those trees to death, they would give me eighty taels of silver? Look, look, I have the bank's receipts here. If it didn't come from you, where did it come from? They tricked me by saying that those trees weren't worth much and they wouldn't bother to investigate. Turns out they couldn't trace it back to you and were trying to sell me off. Pah!"
Zhu Yuan pointed at her: "You...you..."
You've been talking for ages, but you still haven't come up with a clear answer.
Logically speaking, this money exchange should protect the information of its customers, but Huo Yanci used some method to make sure that all the details were clear, including his name Zhu Yuan and his red handprint, which he could not deny.
On one side of the hall, Huo Yanci was happily drinking tea, watching the two people in front of her playfully biting each other, as if she had seen something interesting.
Seeing the situation spiraling out of control, the judge slammed his gavel: "The evidence is conclusive, culprit Zhu, what else do you have to say?"
Huo Yanci was putting pressure on them. Even though they knew that such little evidence was not enough to close the case, they were only thinking about closing it as soon as possible! They were all hoping that the case files would be sealed up and that nothing would happen to them even eight hundred years later!
Whether it's a wrongful conviction or this discerning judge, it's none of their business anymore.
As a result, the case was tried very quickly. With so little time available, Zhu and Yuan's minds went blank, and they couldn't think of a way to deal with it. In their confusion, they actually confirmed the matter. Therefore, when someone raised objections, they couldn't say anything.
Everything went surprisingly smoothly. Ning Qingxi watched as everyone dispersed. Huo Yanci, who was quite arrogant, was seen off when she came out. Someone said something to her, and Huo Yanci laughed twice, waved, and then stepped over the high threshold and strode over.
Ning Qingxi asked curiously, "What's going on?"
Huo Yanci looked refreshed: "Isn't it obvious enough? We've gotten justice for our saplings that died unjustly."
"Nonsense!" Ning Qingxi said, "I mean, how exactly did you bribe Shen Xiulian?"
"Give me the money."
Ning Qingxi: "...Tell me if you want, or don't. If you don't want to, then forget it."
"Wait a minute, I mean, I gave her the money."
"..."
The air was silent for a moment. Just as Huo Yanci swallowed nervously, Ning Qingxi suddenly looked up: "You mean, you gave her money again just to get her to admit to this case?"
Huo Yanci didn't react for a moment, then saw Ning Qingxi say with great distress, "I can get double pay for watering a few trees! I should have come myself!"
Huo Yanci: "..."
So that's what you were regretting?!
Fortunately, one worry was put to rest. Ning Qingxi was in high spirits when good things happened, and immediately invited Huo Yan to eat the ghee cakes that cost ten coins for three at the street stall.
However, things didn't go as planned. Before the two of them could take two steps, they were dragged away by Zhang Fuhu, who had rushed over.
No one knew what this had to do with him, but he insisted on arranging a "victory celebration banquet." As a result, Huo Yanci looked like he was about to be attacked by a storm, and Ning Qingxi half-heartedly went along, and was thus pushed by Zhang Fuhu to Zuixianlou.
Last time she came, it was dark and Ning Qingxi couldn't see clearly. This time, she discovered that Zuixianlou was a hidden world. From the outside, there were three buildings. One was low and only two stories high. Huo Yanci said that was their kitchen. It was connected to the main hall by a corridor. The main hall had three floors. Because each floor was extremely high, the three floors looked amazing.
They wanted a private room in the building behind the main hall. It was the same height as the main hall, but had five floors, with five private rooms on each floor, arranged in a U-shape. There was an open space in the middle where you could see the roof of the fifth floor directly from the first floor. In this open space, there was a huge wine jar, decorated with flowers and folding fans, all of which were unusually large.
Ning Qingxi was amazed every time she saw it.
Zhang Fuhu's private room was on the third floor, in a superb location. Sitting by the window, he had an unobstructed view of the beautiful scenery below. He could see that Zuixianlou was not just the three buildings, but also a small courtyard below, complete with corridors, pavilions, and towers. He could hear the women's banter upstairs behind him, and the air seemed to be filled with the faint fragrance of perfume.
Zhang Fuhu had come many times and saw Huo Yanci and Ning Qingxi looking at the backyard. He didn't know what was so interesting, but since everyone was looking, he had to join in. So he peeked out and pointed to a square patch of white pebbles in the middle of the yard, asking, "What's this?"
“A dry landscape garden.” Ning Qingxi glanced at it and said, “It’s also a type of garden, not very suitable for large areas. A small patch of ground covered with white pebbles, with a hitching post or a potted pine tree, is particularly interesting.”
Zhang Fuhu asked with interest, "Could you make one for me too?"
“That works,” Ning Qingxi said, “but the surrounding houses must match its style, and the house colors should be darker… How about making the courtyard for your bedroom like this?”
Zhang Fuhu waved his hand dismissively: "You decide!"
Ning Qingxi clinked glasses with him, and that's how the decision was made.
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