Chapter 11: Traitor? Aunt Sun says it's a misunderstanding
Late at night, the charcoal fire in the ancestral hall is warm.
Honeysuckle fell asleep again leaning against the pillar of the ancestral hall, and the sound of footsteps was heard again.
Xie Yao opened her eyes and asked, "Is Xie Yan addicted to roast chicken?"
She was about to open the door when she suddenly heard something wrong.
——These are not Xie Yan’s footsteps.
Xie Yao lay down with her clothes on, pretending to be asleep leaning against the altar.
After a long time, the door of the ancestral hall was pushed open.
The moonlight was pouring down like mercury, and a strange servant came in on tiptoe.
The servant held his breath and looked around the ancestral hall. Seeing that Xie Yao and Rendong were still sleeping soundly, he slowly let out the tense breath.
He calmed himself down, walked around Xie Yao along the wall, went straight to the charcoal brazier in the corner, picked up the edge of the brazier, and rushed out of the ancestral hall without looking back.
Do you want her to freeze all night?
Xie Yao, who was pretending to be asleep, squinted her eyes. She saw the whole process of the servant stealing the charcoal brazier and sneered.
Only my elder sister could do such a stupid and childish thing.
As soon as the servant walked out of the ancestral hall, Xie Yao lightly stood up and followed him.
He was nimble and deft, holding the charcoal brazier and skillfully bypassing the two night watchmen, and ran to the corner of the rockery in the back garden.
Just as he was about to dump the remaining charcoal, Xie Yao suddenly appeared behind him, picked up a dry wooden stick, and hit him with a club!
"Catch the thief! There's a thief!"
Xie Yao shouted while hitting the other person a few more times.
"Ah! Stop hitting me, I'm not a thief, it hurts—"
The servant began to stop making any noise, but the place where he was hit was so painful that after he let out the first scream, he could no longer stop.
"Mercy, mercy, Second Miss...hiss! My legs..."
Xie Yao shouted "Catch the thief" and beat the other person with an expressionless face.
Taking advantage of the dark night and strong wind, she grabbed the wooden stick and hit the man wherever it hurt, not letting him speak at all.
Until there was a "crack" sound, and the thumb-thick wooden stick was broken, she stepped forward and kicked it a few more times.
Several awakened night patrolmen ran over with lanterns and saw the second young lady beating up a thief on the ground. However, the thief looked more and more familiar.
"I'm not a thief, I'm a fellow traveler!"
Tongfu finally found a gap for Xie Yao to move her ankle, and tried hard to expose her head which had been beaten into a pig's head, and shouted hysterically.
A servant recognized him and asked, "Is this Tongfu from Wanxiangyuan?"
Tongfu nodded while crying: "It's me, it's me!"
Xie Yao threw away the broken stick and glared at the servant at her feet with cold eyes, as if she was looking at something dirty.
She took out her handkerchief and wiped her slender fingers bit by bit: "So, it's still a thief in the house."
Another servant asked, "Tongfu, are you on duty tonight? Even if you were, you should be in Wanxiang Courtyard. Why are you in the back garden?"
Xie Yao asked with a half-smile, "The servant from Wanxiangyuan stole my charcoal brazier from the ancestral hall in the middle of the night. Could it be that he was following Auntie's orders?"
"I dare not... ahem..."
The smile on Xie Yao's face suddenly disappeared, and her voice became sad. "I accidentally hurt my father and was punished by him to kneel in the ancestral hall. I admit it. I didn't expect that my aunt would be so unwelcome to me back home. In this cold winter, she won't even let me use a charcoal brazier. Is my aunt trying to force me to death?"
The servants looked at each other and suddenly understood something.
It is said that the mistress of the Xie family, the Wenchang Earl's Mansion, is mediocre and incompetent, weak and sickly, and the backyard of the house is taken care of by the concubine Sun all year round.
Sun was virtuous and kind, serving her mother-in-law and getting along well with her sisters-in-law. She was deeply loved by her uncle and the servants in his mansion obeyed her orders. She was well-known in the capital.
During the day, the uncle was angry and wanted to punish the second young lady by making her kneel in the ancestral hall for three days and three nights. However, Aunt Sun knelt down and begged for mercy, which made the servants admire her virtuousness.
Unexpectedly, at night, Aunt Sun instructed someone to steal the second young lady's charcoal brazier.
Although it is not the "cold winter" as the second young lady mentioned, it is still unbearable to freeze in the ancestral hall all night without a charcoal brazier after autumn.
The warm light shone on the remaining charcoal in the copper basin. Tongfu lay on the ground, covered in cold sweat, his pupils trembling, but he did not dare to admit that he was being ordered by someone.
If he admits it, then it's really over.
"It's a misunderstanding, what a misunderstanding!" Aunt Sun's voice came before she even showed up.
Several maids and nannies followed her, trying to put a fox fur cloak on her, but they couldn't even keep up with her anxious pace.
Aunt Sun looked around and saw a circle of servants with different expressions, Xie Yao, and Tongfu, who was lying on the ground with a bruised face. She gritted her teeth in anger.
His good reputation of many years was almost ruined by this girl in one day!
She asked kindly, "Tongfu, I asked you to change the charcoal basin for the Second Young Lady. Did the Second Young Lady beat you silly and make you forget what I told you?"
Tongfu raised his neck as if he had been pardoned, nodded vigorously, and kowtowed, saying, "It was my stupidity that I failed to do what you asked. Right...right! Second Miss, it was Aunt Sun who asked me to change the charcoal for you. Change it to good charcoal!"
Aunt Sun's tone became increasingly gentle as she spoke with concern, "It's a chilly night, and I'm worried that the Second Young Lady might catch a cold. I'm afraid ordinary ebony charcoal won't be warm enough, so I've asked Tongfu to replace the charcoal basin for the Second Young Lady with the silver frost charcoal used throughout the palace."
"oh?"
It was not until this moment that Xie Yao looked seriously at the woman in front of him.
Unlike her ambitious elder sister, Aunt Sun is a very smart woman and a mother who loves her daughter.
In her previous life, she had secretly made trouble for her just after she returned to Beijing in order to find out her background. Later, worried that she would not marry Xiao Yizi, Xie Zhi would marry him, so Aunt Sun treated her very well on the surface.
but……
Her mother was frail and sickly for many years, and became a figurehead after Aunt Sun was promoted to wife. Lu Shenyan said that he sent curse letters to his mother every month, and later Xie Yan was marginalized in the Bo Mansion. It is impossible that Aunt Sun was not involved in all of this.
"If you don't believe me, Miss, just go to my room and you'll see that the silver frost charcoal is already prepared." Aunt Sun said softly.
"So that's how it is. If he was changing the charcoal basin, why was he so furtive and secretly dumped the charcoal here?"
Tongfu looked at Aunt Sun nervously, but found that Aunt Sun didn't give him any look.
No eyes is also a kind of eyes.
Tongfu steeled his heart and confessed, "I was foolish. I was blinded by money and was tempted by the devil. I thought this pot of ebony charcoal was very good, so I planned to hide some and sell it."
"You bastard, you almost caused the Second Young Lady to misunderstand me." Aunt Sun was furious.
"Take Tongfu away and give him fifty lashes. Then, at daybreak, banish him from the Bo's residence and sell him off. There's no place for such a traitorous thief in the Bo's residence!"
Aunt Sun winked at Madam Liu beside her, and immediately, two servants lifted Tongfu and dragged him away.
Tongfu was stunned. Fifty sticks, that would kill him!
He ignored the pain all over his body and begged for mercy with tears: "Auntie, please forgive me... I have served in Wanxiang Court for many years, and my mother is bedridden. I won't dare to do that again, never again!"
Aunt Sun remained silent.
Tongfu finally realized that he had become an abandoned child.
He suddenly turned to Xie Yao and kowtowed to her: "Second Miss, please save me. I didn't steal the coal. It was you who—"
Nanny Liu stepped forward immediately and said, "Why don't you shut his mouth? He disturbed the old lady and the uncle's sleep. I'll make you suffer!"
Aunt Sun smiled respectfully, "Second Miss, are you satisfied with how we dealt with the little thief?"
Xie Yao looked at Tongfu who was still struggling, her dark eyes stained with the light of the lamp, as clear as clear glass: "How can I be satisfied or dissatisfied? How to deal with the affairs of the harem is up to my concubine."
Tongfu stopped in despair and accepted his fate.
Before Aunt Sun's expression could soften, she narrowed her eyes and changed the subject: "However, I accidentally beat you up for just grabbing a pot of charcoal. If you get angry again, you should forgive others when you can."
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