The second concubine immediately looked at her, a hint of displeasure in her eyes. "Miss, is there anything else you want to ask?"
Xie Lingqin gently shook her head, her lips parted slightly, "No, it's just that I think it's best for Father to know about this important matter."
“This…” Second Aunt looked at her, hesitating for a moment.
"What happened that warrants such a large mobilization?" At this moment, General Xie arrived with his guards and steward, his thick eyebrows furrowed and his face serious.
Behind them followed an unfamiliar elderly man.
Xie Lingqin met General Xie's gaze and slowly stepped forward. "Father, it was this servant boy. I don't know where he got the audacity to insult my maid Tinglan's reputation. Fortunately, Second Aunt is wise and saw through his scheme."
"Oh?" General Xie nodded, then looked at his second aunt again.
When the second concubine was looked at by General Xie, she secretly glanced at Xie Lingqin and told General Xie everything that had happened.
"Please spare my life, General! Please spare my life, General! I was foolish for a moment." The servant was frightened by the general's gaze and immediately kowtowed and begged for mercy.
"Stupid?" General Xie raised his foot and kicked the servant far away.
The servant coughed up a mouthful of blood, his face deathly pale; he had almost lost his life.
Xie Lingqin's eyes, however, were filled with seriousness.
stupid?
At this point, the servant didn't admit that he had made something up out of nothing; instead, he said that he was stupid.
"Fifty strokes of the cane, throw him out." General Xie was clearly too lazy to waste words, and waved his hand sharply.
"Ah!" Upon hearing General Xie's firm command, the servant's face turned even paler, and the next moment, he immediately looked at Xie Lingqin.
Xie Lingqin looked at the servant boy, her heart sank, and she had a bad feeling.
"Young Miss, Young Miss, please save me! Didn't you say that the General would at most kick me out? But now you want to give me fifty lashes? That will kill me!"
Sure enough, the servant's subsequent pleas for mercy immediately silenced the entire Nanshan Courtyard.
The maids and servants seemed to have overheard a secret and immediately lowered their heads.
General Xie's piercing gaze fell directly on Xie Lingqin's head.
"Xie Lingqin, tell me, what's going on?" A loud shout came without listening to Xie Lingqin's explanation.
The shock made the maids, servants, and other servants tremble all over, and they dared not even breathe loudly.
"Miss, what's wrong with you..." The second concubine was also extremely shocked, covering her mouth and looking at Xie Lingqin with her eyebrows slightly furrowed.
Xie Lingqin didn't panic at all; on the contrary, she was even more puzzled than the others. "Father, I am terrified. I don't know what this servant is talking about."
"Young Miss, how can you say that? It was clearly your plan, and you deliberately let me slip through the net, allowing Second Aunt to find out about me and lure the General here. That way, I could take advantage of the situation and make the General think that Second Miss was the one who harmed you. You even promised to protect me afterward." The servant kept kowtowing as he spoke, looking genuinely anxious to defend himself.
"Young Miss, you can't go back on your word! You have to save me..."
Xie Lingqin looked at the servant boy. His words were truly watertight, both dragging her into the mess and giving her a bad reputation for taking advantage of the dead maid.
That's truly a perfect strategy that spares no effort.
If things go as the other party wishes today, I'm afraid that her future in this general's mansion will be truly precarious.
“I never imagined that you, Miss, would be so heartless. Over the years, I have been diligent and attentive, caring for you in every way, and I have never wronged you in any way… Master…” The second concubine had already stood up excitedly, glanced at Xie Lingqin, and then looked at General Xie. “General, you must do justice for Lingyu. She is still injured and lying in bed, crying all day long. I never thought she would be plotted against…” At this point, the second concubine covered her face with a handkerchief and seemed to cry.
Pretending to be innocent, huh?
I'm better at it than you are.
“Father, I have no way to refute this, but what this servant said is indeed completely fabricated.” Xie Lingqin also showed an anxious expression at the right time, her clear, lake-like eyes looking at General Xie with hope.
General Xie glanced at Xie Lingqin, then at the servant boy, and fell into a resolute silence.
"Father, perhaps we should report this to the authorities?" Xie Lingqin spoke excitedly again after a short while. As soon as she finished speaking, General Xie looked at her immediately, "Report this to the authorities?"
Xie Lingqin nodded slightly, her expression calm and composed, but her tone was quite urgent. "I believe that reporting to the authorities is the best way to seek justice, and..." Xie Lingqin paused, then looked at General Xie with concern, "Moreover, thinking about what happened before, when I slept for two days and my second sister was injured, it was all too strange. So, I'm not actually worried about why this servant is framing me so falsely. On the contrary, I'm worried that this servant might be acting on someone's orders to do something that could harm the General's Mansion. That's the real concern."
Xie Lingqin spoke sincerely, her voice neither too loud nor too soft, without any sharpness, every word revealing her concern for the entire General's Mansion.
This was exactly what General Xie wanted to hear.
He had barely managed to cover up what happened to Xie Lingyu a few days ago, but rumors still circulated. Now that this has happened again, what would become of the General's Mansion's reputation if this were reported to the authorities?
He was just a lowly servant.
The second concubine noticed General Xie's expression, twisted the handkerchief in her hand, and was about to step forward to say a few words when she saw General Xie kick the servant again in the next instant.
"In an attempt to exonerate himself, he's spouting nonsense to frame the young lady. I'm afraid he'll say something else in a moment."
That kick was extremely heavy, almost like a thunderbolt.
The servant barely blinked before he died.
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