Chapter 92 Missing
Gingko went to inquire about the matter, while Qiutong stayed behind to serve Chentang.
Chen Tang stayed in the pavilion for a while and then returned to Qingyi Garden.
After returning to the house, Chen Tang sat on the small couch drinking tea. Gingko came in through the beaded curtain. Qiu Tong asked, "Did you find out?"
Ginkgo shook her head. "No, I went to the North Courtyard and asked several maids. There was no maid named Chunlan around the Fourth Madam. But there was a maid named Chunlan in the Third Madam's courtyard..."
But obviously not.
Chunlan is trapped in Wangzhou Baihua Tower and is still waiting for the Fourth Madam to bring five thousand taels of silver to redeem her.
Five thousand taels could buy so many maids. I don’t know how Chunlan was so sure that the Fourth Madam would redeem her with just a letter. Could it be that the letter contained something that held the Fourth Madam’s leverage?
But since you are threatening the Fourth Madam so openly, aren’t you afraid that she will send someone to silence you?
Mother Zhou took the account book into the house and walked to the door. She stopped when she heard what Ginkgo said.
Seeing that she was standing there without moving, Qiu Tong was a little surprised, "Why doesn't Mrs. Zhou come in?"
Mother Zhou then stepped in and asked, "Why is the young lady looking for the maid named Chunlan beside the fourth wife?"
It sounds like the Fourth Madam has a maid named Chunlan by her side...
Chen Tang asked, "Does Mother Zhou know?"
Mother Zhou nodded, "Chunlan is the maidservant who came with the Fourth Madam. On the day the girl was born fifteen years ago, Chunlan left the house in a hurry and never came back. I remember that the maidservant besides the Fourth Madam, Chunlan, also disappeared that day, as well as the daughter of Madam Sun, Qiaohui, who was beside the Second Madam..."
Because Jiang was convinced that she had given birth to twins, a boy and a girl, and that Shen Xi was not hers, Jiang demanded that Shen Sui help her find her son. She suspected that he had been sent out of the mansion, so Shen Sui checked all the servants who had entered and left the mansion that day.
The only suspicious thing is the disappearance of Chunlan and Qiaohui.
Normally, if a maid was missing in the mansion, at most the government would be notified, but there would not be a big fanfare in the search. Because the day the two maids disappeared was special, the mansion sent people to search all over Kyoto. After Chunlan disappeared, there was no news of her. Qiaohui was found a few days later in a dilapidated temple outside the city. She was naked and had been tortured to death.
It was impossible for the Fourth Wife to steal Jiang's son, and since Chunlan could not be found, the matter was left unresolved.
Unexpectedly, she would hear the name again after fifteen years. Mother Zhou thought Chunlan might have the same fate as Qiaohui, which would not be much better.
Mother Zhou told Chen Tang everything she knew, and then asked, "Why did the young lady ask about Chunlan?"
Chen Tang didn't say anything, it was Ginkgo who answered, "It was the one named Chunlan who asked someone to bring a letter to the Fourth Madam, asking her to go to Wangzhou Baihua Tower to rescue her."
The letter was placed on the small couch, and Shen Tang looked over.
Chen Xi said that her newborn second brother was buried alive by them. He would definitely not be buried in the Marquis' Mansion. He must have been sent out of the mansion for burial, and the task was entrusted to a trusted person, most likely Qiao Hui.
Chunlan was confident that with just one letter, she could get the Fourth Madam to send someone to Wangzhou to redeem her...
Could it be that Chunlan saw it?
Chen Tang thought of the time in her previous life when the Fourth Madam came back from her parents' home. Although she was exhausted from the long journey, she still went to visit Prince Jingyang's mansion the next day. She felt sorry for not being able to drink the wedding wine at her wedding, but she fell ill within two days. Could it be because of this letter?
"Give me the letter."
Qiu Tong handed the letter to Chen Tang, who tore it open without caring about being rude by opening someone else's letter.
Just opening the letter, Shen Tang's brows twisted into knots.
There was a picture of a food box on the letter.
But the lunch box did not contain food, but a shoe.
Could a letter like this make the Fourth Madam spend several thousand taels to redeem Chunlan?
Chen Tang looked over and over the letter, and the envelope, nothing else.
Ginkgo said, "I heard from that man that Chunlan had been looking for someone to help deliver letters to the Fourth Madam for years, but Wangzhou was too far from Kyoto, so no one helped. She agreed to marry that man after being redeemed. That man went to Kyoto for work and wanted to take a look at the prosperity of Kyoto, so he helped Chunlan. But he ended up delivering such a confusing letter?"
Chen Tang said, “Chunlan is the maid of the Fourth Madam. Just because we don’t understand doesn’t mean that the Fourth Madam doesn’t understand.”
Wait for the fourth wife to come back and give the letter to her.
Thinking that what was written in the letter would be related to the second brother being stolen, Shen Tang looked disappointed.
Qiu Tong asked, "Do you want to change the envelope?"
There was no signature on the letter, so if it were another fourth wife, she wouldn't have known it had been opened.
Chen Tang said, "No need."
The more you conceal a letter that others cannot understand, the more likely it is that the Fourth Madam will suspect that the letter was forged, which will affect her decision to send someone to redeem Chunlan.
Chen Tang handed the letter to Ginkgo, who took it and put it away.
Mother Zhou gave the account book to Chen Tang and asked him to take a look. Although there was not much to do in the yard, there were still some things to do. Chen Tang had to know clearly where the expenses were. After the marriage was settled, he would have to learn how to be a housekeeper. Mother Zhou did not expect the second wife to teach Chen Tang these things, nor did she dare to let the second wife teach her.
Shen Tang knew in his heart how devoted Zhou Mama was to her. Now that Qingyi Garden had Zhou Mama and Qiu Tong, and a few maids had been sold off, the little maids didn't dare to go to Qinglan Garden and South Courtyard.
Chen Tang was flipping through the account book when a maid came in and said, "Miss, there will be a banquet in the harem in three days. The queen wants all the unengaged girls from the fourth-rank officials to attend."
Chen Tang, "......???"
There was no palace banquet held at this time in the previous life. How come such a palace banquet suddenly appeared and all the unengaged girls from the fourth-rank official's family were invited to attend?
Chen Tang found it strange that Ging Xing had already asked out loud, "Are you going to choose a concubine for the prince?"
The little maid said, "I heard that they are selecting a princess for Prince Ning..."
...If they were choosing a princess for Xiao Huan, it would most likely be related to Prince Ning asking Xiao Huan to marry her.
The emperor didn't know that there was no possibility for her and Xie Guimo, and thought that Xie Guimo would definitely marry her, so there was no way for him to marry her to Xiao Huan. There were only old Prince Ning, old Princess Ning and Xiao Huan in the Ning Palace. Old Princess Ning was old and in poor health, so she couldn't leave the palace. If the palace held a banquet and invited the ladies from wealthy families, no one would welcome them. So the emperor simply held the banquet in the palace to show his importance to the Ning Palace.
Then the question came, Ginkgo asked, "Will the young lady go to the palace for a banquet in three days?"
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