Chapter 160 Mr. Dongguo and the Wolf
The door was suddenly pulled open, and Xiao Yongjing scanned the empty corridor.
After listening intently for a while and finding nothing amiss, he slowly closed the door.
Shen Yiqiu slowly slid to the ground, looking utterly lost and dejected.
My mind was in chaos. The real culprit who harmed my grandmother had not yet been found, the injustice had not been redressed, and the great revenge had not been taken. How could she die first?
How could she be content with the fact that those who trampled on her, hurt her, and drove her to the brink of despair had not yet paid the price?
She tilted her head back, her vision blurred, and cried out in her heart:
"Grandmother... what should I do? Yiqiu... I'm afraid I'll have to let you down..."
Tears fell silently, but it was only a moment of weakness.
She raised her hand and wiped away the tears on her face.
“Grandmother, since Heaven is not granting me long life, and I only have one month left… then, I promise you, before I fall, I will wipe out all my enemies and complete everything I should do! And then… I will come to apologize to you!”
Shen Yiqiu stood up, straightened her clothes, and walked straight towards the West Third House without any expression on her face.
Sure enough, no one stopped her along the way; the guards hidden in the shadows simply watched her silently.
As soon as they stepped into the West Third Room, Bai Mei and Qing Zhu, who were already extremely anxious, immediately came to greet them.
Although they were also injured, they were clearly fine.
Upon seeing Shen Yiqiu, tears welled up in their eyes, and they embraced her tightly, one on each side.
"Miss! You've finally arrived! We were all so worried! How are you? Where are you hurt? Is it serious?"
"Miss, you scared us to death! Seeing you covered in blood, we... we..."
They wept uncontrollably.
Feeling their worry, Shen Yiqiu thought about how she only had one month left to live, and her heart felt like it was being weighed down by a huge rock.
A relaxed smile spread across his face as he gently patted their backs.
"You two silly girls, why are you crying? I'm perfectly fine, aren't I? It's just a minor injury, it'll heal with a little rest. Look, I can walk to see you all by myself now."
Her gaze passed over the two men and landed on the bed in the inner room.
Aunt Yun and her two half-sisters lay there, pale-faced and covered in wounds, clearly severely injured.
Shen Yiqiu felt a pang of sadness. She slowly walked to Aunt Yun's bedside, lifted her skirt, and without hesitation, bent her knees to bow solemnly.
"Aunt Yun, Sister Ruoling, Sister Sanchun, thank you all so much for saving my life today! I, Chen Yiqiu, will never be able to repay this kindness in my lifetime!"
"No! Young Miss, you absolutely mustn't!"
Aunt Yun struggled to get up to stop her, but the movement aggravated her wound, causing her to break out in a cold sweat. She hurriedly and weakly cried out,
"Quickly help the young lady up! How can we do this!"
Shen Yiqiu was helped up by Bai Mei and Qing Zhu. She looked at Aunt Yun and asked the question that had been bothering her:
"Aunt, I had already arranged a way out for you, why... why don't you leave? Why come back and risk your lives?"
Aunt Yun looked at her:
“Sanchun told us everything. How could we not know what kind of heartless people the Song family is? If we leave, leaving you alone in that den of tigers and dragons, how can we live in peace?”
She took a breath and continued:
“Young Miss, you have always taken great care of our Hibiscus Garden, and your kindness is as heavy as a mountain. Although we are women, we know how to repay kindness. How could we abandon you at this critical moment of life and death?”
"Luckily, because I was in charge of some general affairs, I secretly made a copy of the storeroom key. I guessed they would make a move against you sooner or later, because... Consort Zhao came to the Song residence today!"
Shen Yiqiu frowned and repeated the sentence:
"Zhao Jieyu? Zhao Mengrou?"
Upon hearing this, Aunt Yun burst into tears, her face filled with remorse.
“Young Miss… I’m so sorry! There’s something I’ve kept hidden in my heart for over a decade. I’ve never dared to tell you, fearing that it would bring me to my death and implicate Ruoling and Sanchun… So, I’ve kept it from you all this time…”
Shen Yiqiu's mind raced, and she had already guessed that this matter must be related to her grandmother.
She stepped forward and grasped Aunt Yun's icy hand:
“Aunt, now that things have come to this, what is there that we can’t say? After this incident, we are already a family that will share life and death. We’re family, so let’s not be formal. Please speak freely. No matter what happens, Yiqiu will stand by you.”
Aunt Yun tremblingly returned the handshake, staring into her eyes, and solemnly spoke:
“Zhao Mengrou…she used to be my confidante…”
"That year, there was turmoil on the frontier, and the old Marquis of Yongjia, Shen Zhaohua, was ordered to go to war. Mengrou and I were kidnapped by a group of fierce mountain bandits while fleeing, and we were almost humiliated and killed... It was the Marquis of Yongjia who led his army by and rescued us."
"Seeing us all alone and helpless, she took pity on us and not only settled us in, but also gave me a jade pendant to wear close to my body, saying that if I ever encountered any difficulties in the future, I could use this jade pendant to find her, and she would definitely help me. I... Mengrou and I were so grateful at the time that we vowed to repay the Marquis's life-saving grace for the rest of our lives!"
"But for some reason, Mengrou later took the initiative to enter the palace as a maid... From then on, she was like a different person, and we gradually lost contact."
"Later, the lady married the master. The Marquis of Yongjia was worried about his daughter and feared that she would be wronged... So I volunteered to marry Master Song as a concubine and secretly take care of the lady for the Marquis."
"Although the Marquis of Yongjia refused in every way, unwilling for me to sacrifice myself like this, I... I still did it resolutely. I do not regret it."
At this point, she lowered her head in shame:
“But since the Marquis passed away, I was afraid of getting into trouble, and even more afraid of implicating the children, so I kept this matter to myself… I’m sorry, Miss, I didn’t tell you sooner, and I couldn’t help you…”
Shen Yiqiu was stunned.
She never expected that her grandmother had not severed ties with her mother as her mother had claimed, but had actually planted the plot of Aunt Yun in the Song family long ago.
"Then...did you look for Zhao Mengrou afterwards? Why did she become like this?"
“I did try! When she first gained favor, I secretly went to see her once. But she had completely changed. Instead of showing any affection, she cursed me out. She kept muttering... ‘Why wasn’t it me?’ ‘All of this should have been mine’... as if she were possessed.”
Shen Yiqiu felt a sudden sense of clarity, yet also a profound sense of irony.
Is this a real-life version of Mr. Dongguo and the wolf, where a small favor is appreciated, but a large one breeds resentment?
The grandmother saved Zhao Mengrou's life and gave her protection, but instead nurtured her ambition and jealousy, which ultimately led to her death.
She composed herself and solemnly thanked Aunt Yun again:
“Aunt, you have done nothing wrong to me. It is Yiqiu who should thank you and my two older sisters for saving my life, and for the hard work you have put into protecting this secret for so many years.”
She looked at Aunt Yun and her two half-sisters:
"Once you have recovered, if you wish, the gates of the Shen Mansion will always be open to you. That will be your true home."
However, as soon as she finished speaking, a violent dizziness struck her, and she coughed up a mouthful of dark blood, her body slumping backward.
"Miss!"
"Young Miss!"
"Remembering Autumn!"
Amidst the gasps of the crowd, Shen Yiqiu's consciousness rapidly faded.
She had only one thought in her mind:
A month...time is really running out...
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