Qu Zhizhen had been in there for a while but hadn't come out yet. He could only faintly hear voices talking inside, very softly, and for a moment he couldn't hear clearly what the people inside were saying.
Not only the couple kneeling there were panicked, Qu Qiuyan was also panicked.
The handkerchief in his hand had been crumpled into a ball, then he relaxed, and then crumpled it again, feeling uneasy.
After a long while, a sound was heard from inside. Qu Zhizhen walked out first with anger, sat behind the desk, and looked coldly at the couple kneeling below with a sharp gaze.
Li and Liu Shan were both frightened by the look and lowered their heads, not daring to look up again.
"Come here, drag them away. They pretend to be relatives of officials. Give them twenty lashes of the cane and then send them to the authorities." Qu Zhizhen said sternly.
When Li and Liu Shan, the seemingly honest but actually cunning couple, heard this, they immediately knew that the situation was hopeless and begged for mercy loudly: "Sir, please spare my life, sir, please spare my life."
If they were really sent to the authorities and the case was investigated, they would be exiled. This was something the couple had never expected. Didn't they say that nothing would happen? Didn't they say that someone would help them? But looking around, it seemed that only the third lady next to them would help them.
"Miss Third, help me! Miss Third, help me!" Whatever Li thought of at this moment came to mind. She immediately raised her head and shouted loudly.
"I... I..." Qu Qiuyan didn't expect that Li wanted to ask her for help. After a moment of hesitation, her face turned angry and she snorted coldly, "You pretended to be my fourth sister and wanted me to save your life. This is really too much of an insult to our Qu family."
At this point, how could she not understand that this plan had failed, there must be nothing on Qu Moying's right leg, how could it be related to this couple. Anyway, this matter had nothing to do with her directly, it was all handled by her mother, but her mother was really stupid, she swore that it would definitely succeed, what was this now!
How stupid!
Sensing the cold gaze from Qu Zhizhen, Qu Qiuyan hurriedly stepped forward and saluted to him angrily: "Father, since this is fake, we must not let them go. They came to our house and pretended to be my fourth sister, and they made it sound like the truth, making me and father doubt my fourth sister. They really deserve to die, and father should beat them to death."
When she spoke, she brought up Qu Zhizhen and put the two people's suspicions on the same level, saying that she did doubt Qu Moying, so she said that, but this suspicion was the same as Qu Zhizhen's.
After hearing what she said, Qu Zhizhen turned his gaze from her face to the kneeling couple. A servant had already come over to pull them away.
Seeing this situation and hearing that they might be beaten to death, Li and Liu Shan struggled desperately, shouting, "Sir, sir, it's not us who are trying to impersonate you. Someone deliberately asked us to come here."
Qu Zhizhen waved his hand and the servants retreated silently.
"explain!"
"Sir, a man found us a few months ago and told us that we could acknowledge Fourth Miss Qu as our daughter. He also told us that Fourth Miss Qu was seriously ill when our daughter was missing. He gave us some silver and asked me to secretly put a note in Nanny Gu's sachet. Then he came to the capital and found Yu Dong and told us that we couldn't find a job, so Fourth Miss asked Yu Dong to help us out at the back door."
"Just yesterday, someone sent us a package of cakes and told us that it was the Fourth Miss who asked us to come and recognize our relationship early this morning. We first discussed the matter at the breakfast shop opposite the mansion.
Later, they came to claim our relationship and insisted that the fourth young lady was our biological daughter. They said that they would give us more money and send us back home after the matter was accomplished. "
Li cried and wiped her tears, she was really scared now, she told everything clearly, Liu Shan beside her nodded repeatedly, and kowtowed to Qu Zhizhen to apologize, at this time he didn't want to think about anything else, he just wanted to save his life.
"What man's?"
"It was a man who looked like a manager. He said... that it was his master's order. We met him a few more times after that, but he left in a very mysterious way and no one knew where he went." Li answered hastily, answering whatever came to her mind.
"Why don't you just keep an eye on it?" Qu Zhizhen asked coldly.
"No... I don't dare to stare at him. It seems that he is brought here by someone." Liu Shan stammered.
"Since there is nothing, how do you prove that you two were not the masterminds of this? Murdering an official's family, and a young lady in the boudoir, can you bear this crime?" A gleam of light flashed in Qu Zhizhen's eyes, his brows were tightly knitted, and his eyes were gloomy and angry.
"No... It's not us, sir, it's really not us." Upon hearing such accusations, Liu Shan became more and more panicked and shook his hands again.
"Sir, there is a maid. Oh, yes, there is a maid who brought us cakes from the mansion yesterday. She said that these were sent by the fourth young lady. I know this maid." Li was also very panicked, but suddenly her eyes lit up. They didn't know where to look for the man who looked like a manager, but this maid should be from the Qu Mansion.
I heard that this pastry was newly made by Qu Mansion.
"Yes... yes, sir, we can identify her. She's a maid, about twelve or thirteen years old, not tall, about the same height as... her, small, and pretty. Sir, you can let us check her one by one." Liu Shan also came to his senses at this time and said hurriedly. This incident just happened, and he still remembered the maid's appearance.
Liu Shan was referring to Qingju who was beside Qu Qiuyan. When they compared her with a similar method, Qingju's face turned pale and she almost fell down, and she lowered her head in a hurry.
"Someone, call all the maids aged twelve or thirteen in the mansion to the yard." Qu Zhizhen said with a grim face.
The servant went down to give orders, and soon the yard was filled with the maids of the Qu mansion, all of whom were little maids around twelve or thirteen years old. Li and Liu Shan were pulled down to identify them.
But after turning around, he found that he had never seen any of the maids in front of him before, and was immediately confused.
"Did you recognize who it was?" Qu Zhizhen stood in the corridor, watching the couple recognize each other, and asked when he saw them stop.
Qu Moying put on her veil again, helped the lady to sit on the chair under the corridor, and watched quietly as the rogue couple recognized the person.
"My Lord... None of them..." Liu Shan was so scared that he was about to cry.
"Is there someone missing from the mansion today?" The Madam turned to Qu Qiuyan and asked, "A maid aged twelve or thirteen?"
The person in charge of the mansion now is Qu Qiuyan, although Luo also helps to deal with it.
"I don't know about this. Qingju, go and ask who is leaving the house today?" Qu Qiuyan instructed Qingju who was standing aside.
Qingju went downstairs in response and came back with news soon. There were quite a few maids aged twelve or thirteen who went out of the house today. There were two with Yu, one with Qu Qiuyan, one in the lady's yard, and even two in the front yard.
Qingju stepped forward and reported the matter. Everyone had a reason to go out, and the one in the Madam's courtyard was sent by the Madam, and the two in the front yard were
It was sent by the manager of the front yard, and there was no mistake at all.
"Take the man away and give him twenty severe beatings with the stick, then throw him in front of the government gate and accuse him of impersonating an official relative." Qu Zhizhen said coldly. He didn't intend to continue to argue. He had already identified the person in his mind. Didn't it happen that someone from Yu's place was out
Two servants came and dragged the couple away.
"Mother, let's just leave it at that for now!" Qu Zhizhen turned around and rubbed his brows with his hands, saying tiredly.
The lady looked at him and knew that he was playing tricks. She snorted in dissatisfaction, stood up, took Qu Moying's hand and said, "Ying girl, let's go back first. Since your father is in charge of this matter, he will naturally give you a clear explanation. If someone comes to make trouble today and tomorrow, our Qu Mansion will become a big joke in the capital."
"Yes, grandma!" Qu Moying nodded softly and helped the lady walk out.
"Grandma, I'll go with you." After being stunned for a moment, Qu Qiuyan hurriedly said, walking to the side of the old lady and trying to support her other side.
"You stay and help your father deal with this matter. You are in charge of the inner courtyard now. After something like this happened, the inner courtyard must be rectified. If it continues like this, the entire inner courtyard will be in chaos. Check the sachet that your fourth sister placed in the house. How did it disappear?" The lady scolded coldly.
Then he took Qu Moying's hand and left without even a smile towards Qu Qiuyan.
Qu Qiuyan stood still with a hint of jealousy on her face. She gritted her teeth hard to suppress the resentment in her heart. They were obviously granddaughters, so why was she only nice to Qu Moying and indifferent to her, even hinting that this matter was related to her? What did this have to do with her
At most, I just said a few extra words. My mother was the one who instigated the whole thing, so why is she blaming me now
She is indeed a disgusting old woman who is too old to die.
"Father, where are you going?" Qu Qiuyan tried hard to suppress the resentment in her heart, turned around, and saw Qu Zhizhen striding out, so she asked hurriedly.
"I'll go see your mother." Qu Zhizhen said without turning his head, but when he spoke, he emphasized the last two words, making it sound like he was gritting his teeth!
Seeing Qu Zhizhen's angry look when he left, Qu Qiuyan felt cold all over and was trembling all over. She reached out to hold Qingju's hand and twisted it hard, causing tears to well up in Qingju's eyes due to the pain.
"Should I go over and take a look?" Qu Qiuyan asked in a low voice, staring at Qu Zhizhen's back. She could guess that even if there was no real evidence, this matter would inevitably fall on her mother's shoulders. Her father was going to question her, so should she go or not? If she went and made a scene, she would also be embarrassed and might even bring disaster upon herself.
But if she doesn't go, would her grandmother and father think she is too cold-hearted
"Miss, as their daughter, there is nothing you can do about the matter between the Madam and the Second Master. Please deal with the things here first and go see the Madam later!" Qingju had been with Qu Qiuyan for so long that she certainly knew what Qu Qiuyan meant. She endured the pain and went along with her wishes to give her a way out.
Qu Qiuyan loosened her grip and looked relieved. She glanced at the trembling maids standing in the yard, then calmed down and nodded, "Yes, I'll finish my work here before I go see my mother."
It was as if she was going to see it but couldn't leave for the moment...