"Yes, thank you, sir." The child bowed his head respectfully. After a long while, she suddenly said, "Master, do you believe that it was Sister Jinsi who framed Sister Jinzhu?"
Zhuge Yue snorted, "How much courage can Jin Si have? Even if she did, she would not have thought of such a plan. Zhu Shun is an old man in the mansion. He did something wrong and was beaten. It's embarrassing. It's okay for him to find a way out. But he shouldn't have thrown dirty water on my Qingshan Courtyard and pretended that there was an internal fight among the servants in the courtyard to clear himself. He has lived in vain for so many years, and he has no memory at all."
"Then why don't you help Sister Jinsi? The Directorate will beat her to death."
"If she really did it, I would save her. She fell into someone else's trap so easily, which shows how stupid she is. What's the point of keeping such a person?"
The midday sun was dazzling, lazily shining in through the gaps in the window lattices, and the fresh scent of plum blossoms gradually spread.
After all, Zhu Shun has been in Zhuge Mansion for more than ten years. He is old and does not live like a dog all the time. Although he had already determined in his heart that Jin Si had done this to implicate him in order to compete with Jin Zhu for favor, he was afraid that Zhuge Yue would not really believe it and would instead misunderstand that he had deliberately framed Jin Si in order to exonerate himself. So he was cautious and did not let the Office of Management beat her to death. Instead, he wanted to wait until tomorrow when the eldest young master was free before reporting to his superiors.
At night, the office was dead silent. In the dark woodshed, Jinsi's skin was all rolled up and covered with whip marks. It was obvious that he had been severely tortured.
Chu Qiao stood in front of her, scooped up a bucket of water, and splashed it on her face.
Jin Si groaned and slowly woke up. When he saw Chu Qiao, he was immediately furious and shouted viciously: "Little bitch! How dare you come to see me?!"
Chu Qiao stood in front of her with a calm expression, quietly listening to the woman's loud cursing. After a long while, she smiled faintly and said, "If you really want to die, you can keep yelling."
Jinsi's clothes were stained with blood, his face was pale, his chest heaving violently, and his eyes were full of resentment.
Chu Qiao shook her head and said slowly, "People don't want to hurt tigers, but tigers want to hurt people. I warned you a long time ago, but you still went against me. If you hadn't followed me today, how could you have ended up like this? You brought this upon yourself, who can you blame?"
"You evil-hearted little bitch, I won't let you go even if I become a ghost!"
Chu Qiao sighed softly and said, "Do you really want to die that much?"
Jin Si was stunned, and Chu Qiao continued, "I didn't mean to harm you. Everything I did today was just to teach you a lesson. It's a pity that the fourth young master refused to save you. It seems that you can only go to the bottom of the pavilion lake to accompany Jin Zhu."
Jinsi's face turned even paler when she heard that. She looked at Chu Qiao with a desire to survive in her eyes. She said anxiously, "Xing'er, you and I have no grudges in the past or today. Lin Xi's death was all Jinzhu's idea. I just agreed with her and said a few words. If you could come here quietly, you would definitely be able to rescue me. Please, save me. I don't want to die yet!" At the end of her words, she couldn't help but trembled all over and burst into tears.
Chu Qiao sighed lightly, put down the package on her back, and said in a deep voice: "Don't cry, do you think I came here tonight just to reminisce with you? Your crime does not deserve death. Since it is me who has brought you to this point, I will never let you go. Put on this dress, and I will send you out right away." As she said that, she stepped forward to untie the rope on Jinsi.
Jin Si was overjoyed and quickly asked, "Can we escape? The mansion is heavily guarded."
"Don't worry, I have bribed the guard at the back door, and the master will be returning home soon. No one will pursue you as a little maid. As long as you escape from the mansion, you can save your life."
Jin Si followed Chu Qiao, and the two of them climbed out through the window. Passing by the Bihu rockery in Hongshan Courtyard, they suddenly heard footsteps in the distance. It was the guards who came to investigate. The two were startled and squatted on the ground, not daring to move forward.
Chu Qiao turned around and handed a small bundle to Jin Si, saying in a deep voice: "I will go and lead those people away, you go to the west corner gate of the backyard quickly, I have already arranged for the gatekeeper there, when you go there just say my name and they will let you go. Here are some travel expenses and clothes, they all belonged to Sister Zhi Xiang in the past, they may be a little small, I don't know if you can wear them. I don't have much money, so this is all I can give you, take care of yourself in the future." After that, she turned around and left from the other side, deliberately making a noise, and the patrolling guards heard it and immediately followed her.
Jinsi opened the bundle and saw only a few copper coins inside, which was not enough to buy a roast goose. He couldn't help but frown. I saw that each piece of clothing was either torn or dirty, extremely ugly, and gave off a strange smell, which made me even more depressed. She thought that she was a good maid, but she chose to run away and live on the run. If she was caught, her life would be in danger. It was all Jing Xing'er's fault. Now she was pretending to be a good person in front of her. She was so shameless.
She took out the copper coins and threw the bag on the ground, not caring at all about what kind of trouble Chu Qiao would suffer if these things were discovered after she escaped.
The cold wind blew, blowing on the corners of the clothes, and the cold moon was like frost, casting a clear light on the ground.
At this moment, in Zhu Shun's room, the man's heavy breathing and the woman's moans could be heard continuously, and the obscene words were unpleasant to the ears.
It was a cold winter night, and the guards guarding the courtyard had already lazily gone to find a warm place to take a nap. The child's tiny body quietly crept to Zhu Shun's door, silently and without making any sound.
After making some arrangements, Chu Qiao squatted beside Zhu Shun's door. In the dark night, her eyes were like black gems, flashing with wisdom and calmness. Suddenly, a man groaned with pleasure, followed by the rustling sound of someone getting dressed. Chu Qiao held a stone and threw it towards the door.
There was a crisp bang, not loud but loud enough for the people inside to hear clearly. Zhu Shun raised his voice and asked, "Who's outside?"
Chu Qiao did not answer, but picked up a stone and slammed it against the door again.
"Come on, come on!" the man said irritably, "Who is it in the middle of the night?"
The door was opened, but no one was seen. Zhu Shun frowned in surprise, stuck his head out and walked out. However, as soon as he raised his foot, he was tripped by a rope and fell to the ground.
"Ouch!"
Zhu Shun screamed, but before he could finish his next curse, a pitch-black bag was put over his head, and everything in front of him went dark. Zhu Shun was shocked and finally realized that something was wrong. He yelled and stretched out his hands to grab things upwards randomly.
The night was dark and cold. Chu Qiao held a sharp dagger with sharp eyes and cold lips, and swung it down at his fat hand in an instant!
A pig-slaughtering scream suddenly rose to the sky, and Zhu Shun rolled on the ground, holding his broken wrist. Chu Qiao did not want to fight and quickly rushed towards the flowers in the west.
Behind him, there were the noisy footsteps of the guards and the sharp scream of a woman.
"What happened? Ah! Butler Zhu, who did this?"
The woman, dishevelled and in a panic, shouted: "I didn't see clearly who it was, but he was not very tall, and it seemed, it seemed to be a child."
"Which way?"
"West."
"Chase!"
More than ten pairs of feet passed by one after another. Chu Qiao tried to shrink her body as much as possible and squatted in the dry grass. The human voices gradually faded away, and the surroundings gradually became quiet. The child brushed the dust off his body, stood up, and slowly left this place of trouble. His figure was surprisingly calm.
When I passed by the rockery in the middle of the lake in Hongshan Courtyard, I saw my small bag thrown messily on the ground. The child sneered, picked up his bag and walked towards Qingshan Courtyard. She carefully climbed into the room through the back window and changed into a white nightgown. The noise outside was growing louder and louder, and the torches were shining like a long dragon, lighting up half the sky.
Chu Qiao let her hair down, rubbed her eyes, and opened the door with a sleepy look, just in time to run into a few maids who had just walked out of the room.
"What happened over there?"
The maids were all thirteen or fourteen years old, but their ranks were not as high as Chu Qiao's. They all shook their heads in confusion. At this moment, the sound of a door opening was heard from the pavilion, and several people hurried over.
Zhuge Yue looked gloomy, glanced at the dishevelled Chu Qiao and the others, and asked the guards, "What happened? Why is there so much noise?"
"Master, there was an assassination in the outer mansion. Steward Zhu had one of his hands chopped off. The guards caught Miss Jinsi who was about to escape at the west corner gate and she has been taken back to the head office."
Zhuge Yue was stunned for a moment, then he smiled softly and said, “I didn’t expect Jin Si to have such a strong character.”
The guard looked at Chu Qiao carefully and said, "When Miss Jinsi was arrested, she shouted that it was Xing'er who killed her, not her."
As soon as these words came out, everyone's eyes were immediately focused on Chu Qiao. Chu Qiao's face suddenly wrinkled, her big watery eyes blinked aggrievedly, and she was almost about to cry. She turned around and looked at Zhuge Yue pitifully, saying sadly, “Fourth Young Master, Xing’er… Xing’er has been sleeping in the room, I… I didn’t…”
"Young Master, Xing'er has been in the room and has not gone out. We all saw it." A third-class maid suddenly came forward and said.
As soon as he finished speaking, several other maids came together to testify for Chu Qiao.
Zhuge Yue nodded and said to the servant, “Tell the Directorate that if that woman continues to talk nonsense, there is no need to try her and she can be thrown directly into the Pavilion Lake. Xing’er is only a little old, and she is going too far.”
The servant nodded quickly and retreated.
Zhuge Yue glanced at the maids and said, “You guys should go back to sleep too.” Then he turned and went into the pavilion.
Chu Qiao still stood there with an aggrieved look on her face. Several maids came forward to fawn on her, held her hands, and said, "Xing'er, don't be afraid. We will all testify for you. It's useless for her to wrongly accuse you."
Chu Qiao nodded and said with tears in her eyes, "Thank you, sisters."
It was approaching three o'clock in the morning, and the night wind was blowing. Today was the seventh day after the death of the Jing family's children. The people who killed them finally paid the price in blood this night.
But this little bit of blood is far from enough.
The assassination incident caused a lot of uproar and lasted until dawn the next day. Butler Zhu had one of his hands broken, and in a rage he ordered his men to beat Jinsi to death. Jinsi had been injured before, and under such severe punishment, she died in less than an hour. She was thrown into the back mountain on a straw mat and buried in the belly of the fish in Ting Lake.
Zhuge Yue was a quiet and solitary man. Originally, there were only two maids in the pavilion, Jinzhu and Jinsi. They died one after another within a few days, and now Chu Qiao was the only one left in the inner pavilion. She was young, less than eight years old, with a childish appearance and a hint of childishness in her voice. No matter how capable she was, she looked somewhat weird in the eyes of outsiders. Within half a day, everyone in the mansion was whispering that the fourth young master had followed the old master's path and had begun to develop a liking for young girls.