A middle-aged man said, "Your Majesty is foolish. How could he listen to Ji Wudao's slander? He wants to kill all of them and label General Xiao as a criminal. Isn't this just chilling the hearts of loyal officials?"
I only heard a man's rough voice saying, "That bastard Ji Wudao tried to please Shen Tian and frame me, just to get the emperor's favor and get the military power of Xuanfu. I, Xiao Ning, trained the troops of Xuanfu. It's not that easy for him to take charge of the military power!"
Yu Jiao looked carefully through the gaps in the bamboo forest and saw a small red pavilion hidden among the green bamboos. Four people were sitting in the pavilion. One of them had a majestic figure, and the other was wearing a formal official uniform, so he should be Magistrate Yang.
The other two young men were dressed elegantly. One of them sat with his back to the other, wearing a scarlet robe, and his face could not be seen clearly. The other was wearing a light blue cross-collared straight robe. He was tall and slender, with a mutton-fat jade pendant tied around his waist. He was elegant and very handsome.
He only said, "General Xiao's hand... can no longer hold the Thousand Riders Spear?"
"My hand is disabled." The tall man said in a rough voice, "I will leave Qingzhou tonight. The emperor has ordered all prefectures to strictly guard the city gates and hunt me down. I don't want Brother Yuanchen to be implicated. Master Liu and Young Marquis Gu should return to the capital as soon as possible to avoid suspicion."
When Yu Jiao heard this, she thought of the strict inspection by the city gate guards when she entered Qingzhou Prefecture. She thought to herself, this Yang Zhifu's house is actually harboring a wanted criminal by the court, and she and Yu Fuling happened to run into him.
The people who were talking in the garden were all powerful figures who were not easy to mess with. Yu Jiao subconsciously wanted to pull Yu Fuling away.
Xiaodie, the maid who led Yu Jiao and the other girl into the West Garden, had quietly retreated outside the archway. She bit her tongue, raised her voice and exclaimed, "Miss Yu, why are you here? I had a hard time finding you!"
Yu Jiao shuddered all over and looked at the little maid with icy eyes. Yu Fuling was also a little flustered and pulled Yu Jiao, feeling a little at a loss. Although she didn't understand what the people in the bamboo forest were saying, she knew that eavesdropping on the master's conversation was very unruly.
There were footsteps in the bamboo forest, and someone asked alertly, "Who's there?"
The little maid immediately knelt down on the ground.
Prefect Yang and two young men walked out from the depths of the bamboo forest.
"What's going on? Didn't I order that no one is allowed to come to West Garden?" Prefect Yang looked at Yu Jiao and Yu Fuling, who looked very unfamiliar to them, and said in a deep and angry voice.
The little maid knelt on the ground and trembled. She did not dare to look up and said in a trembling voice, "This is the female doctor that Madam Mu San brought to the mansion to treat Madam. The young lady asked to be taken to Madam's yard. Just now, Sister Huamei said that the young lady's handkerchief was lost, and asked this servant to look for it on the road. In a blink of an eye, who would have thought... who would have thought... they would have come to the West Garden..."
"You're talking nonsense. It was you who led the two of us here!" Yu Fuling saw the maid lying and said angrily, "When did your mistress ask you to find a handkerchief? Just now a maid told you to go to the doorman to buy cloud cakes. Why are you accusing my two sisters?"
Yang Yuanchen frowned. Sister Yan never liked eating cloud cakes.
The little maid kneeling on the ground pulled out a handkerchief from her sleeve and said to Yang Yuanchen, "Master, I have the handkerchief I just found as evidence! Young lady can also testify for me. Why would I frame the two female doctors for no reason?"
When Yu Jiao saw that the handkerchief was exactly the double-sided water lily handkerchief that Yang Jiyan had just shown to her and Yu Fuling, she knew in her heart that the little maid had set a trap on purpose at Yang Jiyan's instruction.
Yu Fuling was still arguing, "This handkerchief was in your young lady's hands just now. When we were in the courtyard, your young lady showed us the double-sided embroidery. How did it end up in your hands?"
Standing next to Yang Yuanchen, the man in a red and purple robe had a trace of impatience on his face. He had handsome features, thick eyebrows and bright eyes, and he had an innate dignity and willfulness. He smiled and said casually, "Since I heard it, just kill him!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he moved forward and grabbed Yu Fuling.
Yu Fuling was so frightened that her face turned pale. Yu Jiao quickly protected her behind her. The next moment, a pair of cold hands mercilessly grabbed Yu Jiao's neck and slowly tightened.
Yu Jiao's throat was pinched so much that it hurt. She subconsciously grabbed the man's hands and tried to pull him away. However, the man's hands were so strong that her resistance was like a mayfly trying to shake a tree and was almost negligible.
Yu Fuling watched this scene, screamed, and rushed forward regardless of anything, punching the man, shouting helplessly, "Let go, let go!"
Yu Jiao's brain was deprived of oxygen due to suffocation and her vision began to turn black. She was very familiar with this feeling of being close to death.
The darkness pulled her in, and she even had the thought that it would be good to die without resisting.
Seeing that Yu Jiao's face had turned red and she was about to die, Yu Fuling had no choice but to open her mouth and bite the man's hand that was pinching Yu Jiao's neck.
This bite drew blood.
The man felt pain and loosened his grip. He kicked Yu Fuling away and was about to break Yu Jiao's slender neck when a clear voice came to stop him, "Gu Yun, stop!"
The man snorted coldly, but obediently loosened his grip.
Yu Jiao collapsed to her knees, her throat aching from being strangled. She stroked her neck and coughed violently, tears welling up from the corners of her eyes as she greedily breathed in the air.
Yu Fuling was kicked in the abdomen by the man. Her face turned pale with pain. She covered her stomach and crawled to Yu Jiao's side. She was so scared that she started crying. Her voice was trembling as she asked nervously, "Yu Jiao, Yu Jiao, are you okay?"
Yu Jiao gradually stopped coughing. She shook her head, raised her little face, looked stubborn, and stared at the man in purple with cold almond-shaped eyes.
Seeing her glaring at him, Gu Yun swung his sleeves and looked down at her, as if he were looking at an ant. With a defiant look on his face, he sneered, "Do you want to die?"
The elegant man who had stopped him earlier looked at Gu Yun disapprovingly and said, "Don't hurt anyone's life."
"Zi Qi, you are too soft-hearted. They must have heard about General Xiao's identity. If it gets out, there will be endless troubles." Gu Yun frowned, glanced at the bloody gums on his hand that were bitten, and glared at Yu Jiao and the others with some annoyance.
The man he called Ziqi looked at Yu Jiao and the others calmly, "Where did you send these spies from? If you tell me what you are talking about, I will spare your lives."
Yu Jiao felt a chill down her spine, and her hands and feet were cold. She had never felt the reality of this world as she did now.
If they couldn't escape, she and Yu Fuling would probably die here.
She closed her eyes, forced herself to calm down, and said, "We were brought to Qingzhou by Second Master Mu from Changkui to see Madam Yang. We are not spies. We two sisters really don't know why Miss Yang's maid framed us to come here. If you don't believe me, you can ask Third Madam Mu to find out."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
