Chapter 262 The Vow Fulfilled
Meng Jinyao had just left the private room and was about to go downstairs when she suddenly saw a furtive figure. Upon closer inspection, she realized that it was her friend, Princess Jingning, who was bending slightly and tiptoeing to the door of a private room, pressing her ear against the door as if she was about to eavesdrop on something.
Seeing this, Meng Jinyao became curious and tiptoed over as well.
When she walked in front of Princess Jingning, Princess Jingning also saw the three of them, and quickly gestured for them to be quiet, then listened intently to the sounds inside.
Seeing her like this, Meng Jinyao felt strange, but she didn't say anything and just nodded slightly.
The next moment, the door to the private room suddenly opened. Princess Jingning was caught off guard, let out a "yah" sound, and then fell inside.
Meng Jinyao was stunned. She subconsciously looked into the private room and saw a man wearing a silver mask standing at the door. He glanced at Princess Jingning who had fallen to the ground, and then looked at her.
Upon seeing that it was them, the man removed his mask, revealing his handsome face; he was a young man of about seventeen or eighteen years old.
Meng Jinyao looked at the man and felt that his appearance was very familiar. Where had she seen him before? Oh, right, she remembered. He was Shen Yunzhou, the heir of the Duke of Shen, whom they had rescued before.
Shen Yunzhou frowned slightly and asked, "What are you doing? You're acting so suspiciously."
Princess Jingning got up from the ground, glared at him, and said, "You're the one sneaking around. I was about to ask you what you were doing. You have to wear a mask when you go out, why aren't you wearing one now?"
Shen Yunzhou glanced at the door and replied, "Come in and let's talk."
Princess Jingning pulled Meng Jinyao inside, and Qingqiu and Ningdong, fearing something might happen to their mistress, quickly followed.
After entering, Princess Jingning looked around but didn't see anyone. She then glanced at the mask on Shen Yunzhou's hand and asked again, "Shen Yunzhou, why do you wear a mask when you go out? It's not like you're ugly."
Shen Yunzhou said frankly, "As I said before, it's inconvenient for me to show myself now, and it's also inconvenient for people to know that I've returned to the capital. What would you like to eat? I'll have the waiter bring some tea and snacks over."
Upon hearing this, Princess Jingning lost interest and said, "I thought you were going to do something bad. We have other things to do, so we won't have any tea or snacks. We'll be leaving now." With that, she pulled Meng Jinyao out.
Once outside the private room, Meng Jinyao asked curiously, "Ayan, what were you doing just now?"
Princess Jingning replied truthfully, "I saw that he was wearing a mask and acting suspiciously. I was curious and wanted to see what he was doing and who he was meeting. I didn't expect that he was all alone inside."
one person?
Meng Jinyao frowned almost imperceptibly, thinking to herself, no, there were two people. There were two teacups on the table, one of which must have belonged to Shen Yunzhou, while the other teacup belonged to someone else. It's likely that person left through the window the moment the door opened.
She asked gently, "Ayan, you seem to be quite concerned about that Prince Shen?"
"Who cares about his affairs?"
Princess Jingning curled her lip in disdain and snorted, "I just wanted to see if he was up to something shady by sneaking around like this."
Meng Jinyao asked again, "He was wearing a mask, you couldn't even see his face, how could you recognize him?"
Princess Jingning replied, "After he returned to the capital, I have seen him three times, except for the time at the manor and today. I recognized him because his figure looked familiar."
Upon hearing this, Meng Jinyao gave her a probing look, but didn't dwell on the question any further. Instead, she asked, "Why did you come out alone? Where is your maid?"
“It’s easy to be exposed if there are too many people, so I asked them to wait for me in the private room.” Princess Jingning said, and then pulled her away. “Ayao, I didn’t expect to run into you when I went out. Let’s go to the private room and chat.”
Meng Jinyao didn't have anything urgent to do, so since they had run into each other, she readily agreed and followed her.
The Meng family's affairs had become a topic of conversation and were no secret. Princess Jingning had naturally heard about them. She was curious about ghosts and gods and couldn't help but ask Meng Jinyao, "Ayao, do you think there really are ghosts in this world?"
Meng Jinyao smiled and said, "These things are a matter of belief; if you believe them, they exist; if you don't, they don't. Anyway, I've never seen one."
Princess Jingning nodded gently: "That's true."
After she finished speaking, she stopped dwelling on the matter, rested her chin on her hand, looked at Meng Jinyao, and continued to gossip with her. When she talked about Sun's two children, she clicked her tongue twice and said disdainfully, "That Sun really raised a pair of good children, who are truly ungrateful wretches. No matter what Sun was like, she was still their mother and did not wrong them. But after Sun passed away, they were so indifferent. It's really quite frightening."
Meng Jinyao smiled mockingly: "This is probably a case of 'if the upper beam is crooked, the lower beam will be crooked too.'"
Sun died by crashing her head into the front door of the Sun family. Such bad luck infuriated the Sun family. They did not want to collect the body and sent someone to inform Meng Jinyu and Meng Chengxing. However, the siblings not only did not show up, but also did not send anyone to collect the body, as if Sun had never existed as their mother.
Enraged, the Sun family simply wrapped her in a straw mat, didn't even buy a coffin, and buried her wherever they could find a place. They hastily ended the matter, and it's said that they didn't even erect a tombstone. They said that the Sun family didn't want to acknowledge such a Sun family daughter, feeling ashamed, and even writing "Sun" on the tombstone would be a disgrace to their family.
Princess Jingning suddenly said mysteriously, "Ayao, I'm starting to believe in oaths. Those who swore that they'd be struck by lightning if they broke their promises, they probably got struck by lightning after all."
Meng Jinyao asked with a smile, "Could it be that someone made a promise to you, but then failed to keep it and got struck by lightning?"
"He wasn't struck by lightning, he died."
Princess Jingning gently shook her head and asked her in return, "Do you still remember our first meeting?"
Meng Jinyao nodded. Of course she remembered their first meeting. At that time, Ayan was friends with Meng Jinyu and was foolishly deceived by Meng Jinyu, helping Meng Jinyu to make things difficult for her. Later, Meng Jinyu tried to trip her up and make her fall down the stairs, but she dodged it and even pulled Meng Jinyu back from her predicament, so that Meng Jinyu would not accuse her of murdering her own sister.
Princess Jingning continued, "At that time, I actually had some suspicions. I felt that she probably wanted to harm you, but she insisted that you were angry and wanted to teach her a lesson. When she saw that I was half-believing and half-doubting, she even swore that if she lied, she would make her mother suffer a terrible death. Since she used her mother as an swearing, I believed her."
Meng Jinyao asked in surprise, "There's such a thing?"
Princess Jingning nodded and said, "Yes, otherwise I would not have believed her words so readily. Who would swear an oath using their mother? Now that her mother has really died a terrible death, I wonder if she regrets using her mother as an oath."
After listening, Meng Jinyao remained silent for a while, then said calmly, "Probably not, because she has probably already forgotten that vow that she made so casually."
Princess Jingning paused for a moment, then said, "That's true."
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