After Xiao returned, she was determined to get people to spread gossip about Liu Jingyu and Madam Liu, trying to point all the previous events to the Liu Mansion. She had no time to care about such petty thefts.
When Mrs. Duan came to ask her in the afternoon, she didn't take it seriously. She just mumbled something casually and continued doing what she was doing.
But after another hour, there was a noisy sound outside, which startled Xiao who was concentrating on making a plan.
"Go and see what's going on?" Xiao said unhappily.
The trusted maid went out and came back to report after a while: "Second Madam, Madam Duan is here!"
"What is she doing here?" Xiao was stunned for a moment. Ever since the two families fought for the title, Duan had never come to her house on her own initiative. Of course, she would not call Duan over for no reason and cause trouble for herself.
"I heard that the maid who stole things has been found." said the old woman.
"Just send him away if you find him. Why did you bring me here?" Xiao said unhappily. She had a headache thinking about it so much, but she still couldn't think of a good idea.
"Mrs. Duan said it was related to Xiu'er, so she brought the maid here to testify." The old woman reported carefully.
"Who?" Xiao didn't hear clearly.
"Miss Xiu'er." The old woman said again.
Xiu'er is a maidservant beside Xiao. Although she is not a first-class personal maid, she is also a prestigious one among the second-class maids. Xiao has been particularly fond of her recently and is considering whether to promote her to the position of a first-class maid.
"Let her in." Xiao had to suppress the irritation in her heart.
After Madam Duan came in, her attitude was as calm as ever. The two servants behind her pushed a little maid hard in front of her and then retreated.
The little maid's eyes were swollen from crying. She knelt on the ground and begged for mercy.
"What the hell is going on? If you cry again, I'll drag you away and beat you to death!" Xiao said coldly.
This one sentence frightened the little maid so much that she choked and covered her mouth with her hands, not daring to make the slightest sound.
"Sister-in-law, this maid stole things from my room. The facts are there and she can't deny it. But she said that it was your Xiu'er who instigated her. What do you think about that, sister-in-law?" Mrs. Duan said.
The Xiao family holds the power of the housekeeper tightly, even though Madam Duan is now nominally the master of Ling Anbo.
"What nonsense! Xiu'er never goes to your side on weekdays." Mrs. Xiao was almost amused by her. "Mrs. Duan, are you making fun of me?"
"If your sister-in-law says so, then I will take the person to the Madame Dowager and let her investigate. She insisted that it was Xiu'er who ordered it, and your sister-in-law wants to protect Xiu'er. I can't make the decision on this matter." Madam Duan said. She didn't care about Xiao's attitude and called her "sister-in-law" more affectionately than usual.
In the past, the most common address for Mrs. Duan of the Xiao family was "Second Madam".
"You...Okay, someone, go and bring Xiu'er here." The last thing Xiao wanted was to provoke the old lady. It would be fine if the old woman just stayed there and didn't care about anything, so as to prevent her from causing any trouble.
Someone went out to look for Xiu'er. Not long after, the maid Xiu'er was called over. She was a pretty maid who looked smart and capable. As soon as she entered the room, she started crying out that she was wronged.
"Second Madam, how could I do such a thing? I don't even know her, how could I possibly order her to do so?" Xiu'er cried and wiped her tears, feeling very aggrieved.
"you say
"I have said it more than once, Sister Xiu'er, you said that the things at the Madam's place are all good things, and you can use them for a lifetime just by taking a few of them, and you also said that you have a way to help me get rid of the dirty things." The little maid lying on the ground wanted to jump up as soon as she saw Xiu'er, and said loudly.
"What nonsense are you talking about..." Xiu'er said angrily, "I was just joking with you."
"How can such a thing be a joke? Even if you said that it was you who ordered me to do it, I could never have such an idea in the first place." Although the little maid was small, she was very strong. She bit Xiu'er to death with one bite, and cried while wiping her tears.
"I really didn't. That's what I said at the time. Everyone present heard it..." Xiu'er also became anxious.
"Yes, they all heard it, and they can all testify to it. After they left, you pulled me aside and told me what I could take and how to take it. If you hadn't backed me up, I wouldn't have had the guts to do such a thing."
The little maid became more and more excited and reached out to grab Xiu'er's hand.
"I didn't, I really didn't..." Xiu'er was pestered by her and had no choice but to cry out to Xiao, "Second Madam, I really don't know anything. This maid deliberately accused me. If I really did such a thing, I will be struck by lightning!"
In order to prove her innocence, Xiu'er didn't care about anything else and swore on the spot.
"What's the use of swearing? If swearing is useful, what's the use of the government? Second Madam, it was Sister Xiu'er who asked me to do this." The little maid started crying again.
"Come here, take this thieving maid out and give her twenty strokes of the cane. As for Xiu'er..." Xiao's head was splitting with pain from the noise, "Take her out and give her ten strokes of the cane as well."
The two of them bit each other to death. It would not be good if one of them was punished but the other one was not punished.
Several servants came over and pulled the people down one by one. Xiu'er and the little maid struggled desperately. If they were beaten with ten or twenty sticks, they would be half dead.
"Pull them away!" Xiao clapped her hands heavily, scaring the servants so much that they used a little more force and immediately pulled both of them out.
Right outside the yard, they started fighting.
"Madam Duan, these things are trivial. Madam Duan can handle these trivial matters by herself in the future." Xiao reached out and pressed her forehead, saying angrily.
"When it comes to people in my sister-in-law's room, we should always be cautious." Madam Duan said, "Besides, I can't tell whether it is a slanderous report or not, so it's better for my sister-in-law to handle it."
"What does it matter whether it is a false accusation or not? Now that they've been connected, even if it is a false accusation, there must be a reason. Otherwise, why didn't she sue this one or that one, but only this one? It must be because she wasn't careful with her words and actions in the past." Xiao sneered and lectured. She was really annoyed. Her daughter had forgotten all the big things, and these trivial things were just small matters.
If it really doesn't work, just leave first.
"Xiu'er is someone close to my sister-in-law. It would be bad if she was accused. Maybe Xiu'er is innocent. That maid was not a good person to begin with. She is not clean. Xiu'er might be involved in it, but this maid is determined to kill her. The bite of a thief is deep enough that she can't be shaken off." Mrs. Duan said slowly, her attitude as calm as ever.
"This is just like the case outside. A dying person just bites another person to death. There's really nothing we can do about it. His reputation will be ruined if it's not bad."
Mrs. Duan stood up and said the last sentence. After she finished speaking, she nodded to Xiao and turned to leave with her people. However, when she was at the door, she suddenly stopped and looked outside the courtyard gate. She said to herself: "This is really hard to explain!"
After saying that, he shook his head and left.
Xiao was already standing there in a daze, with only one sentence flashing through his mind: if a dying person bites another person to death, there is really nothing that can be done about it. His reputation will be ruined if it is not bad!
She had been thinking about ways to frame the Liu Mansion, and she would find some trouble to do when there was nothing else to do, and threw herself into it, so much so that she didn't want to care about the affairs of the mansion anymore. She had to help her daughter come up with a solution. Mrs. Duan's simple words almost hit her hard.
She was so happy that she was out of control for a moment. She listened to the maid outside crying for her parents and then thought about the meaning of Madam Duan's words. Her mind became clear and she suddenly understood.
Frame-up? That's fine!
As for where to find a death row prisoner, my daughter said that it would be best to let the Qu family and the Liu family confront each other. The relationship between these two families must be very ordinary now. The Liu family has a small population, so what about the Qu family
Xiao felt that she had never been so clear-headed. The first person that came to her mind was Yu!
Isn't Yu a dying man? The criminal case has been decided, what else can he ask for
She was the former mistress of the Qu Mansion. Although she was divorced now, the children she gave birth to were still in the Qu Mansion. This was a fact. What had she done wrong? She killed Xiao Yue, the biological mother of the current Fourth Miss Qu. This was a very lucrative thing, very good!
Xiao's brain started to work rapidly. The more she thought about it, the happier and more excited she became. She could no longer contain herself. She stood up suddenly and ordered the horses to be prepared. She was going to the Prince's Mansion to discuss the matter with her daughter.
When they walked outside, Xiu'er had finished being beaten, but was still lying there crying and unable to get up. Xiao walked over, took a look at her, and a satisfied smile appeared on her face. She called a maid beside her and asked her to take Xiu'er downstairs to apply medicine. As for the little maid who was almost dying from the beating, Xiao also showed mercy and had them stop and help her downstairs to apply medicine.
Now that the important matter in her mind had been resolved, Xiao's mood naturally improved.
He excitedly took his people to the East Palace and returned happily in the evening.
Then he went to the lady's house happily. When he met Mrs. Duan on the road, he rarely ignored her and stopped to talk to her.
Mrs. Duan wrote a letter detailing all of this and sent it to Qu Moying.
Mrs. Duan's letter was very detailed, covering everything from the cause of the incident to Xiao's reaction afterwards. In particular, she deliberately met Xiao and made it clear that Xiao's attitude today was much better than in the past, as if he had simply become a different person.
She also wanted to borrow a useful person from Mrs. Duan, saying that she did not have enough manpower around her and wanted to use Mrs. Duan's person. Naturally, this was rejected by Mrs. Duan. Mrs. Duan, who had been reminded by Qu Moying a long time ago, naturally had a reasonable reason to refuse. Fortunately, Xiao did not insist, and the two of them parted unhappily again.
"Miss, what should we do next?" Yu Dong took the letter handed over by Qu Moying, read it carefully, and asked.
"Don't do anything, just recuperate!" Qu Moying smiled, remembering what the other evildoer had said before, "You can't do anything, just recuperate!"