Qin had just fallen asleep when she was awakened by the noise in the yard. Just as she was about to call for help, Madam Cao came in holding a lamp.
"Mammy, what's the noise outside?" Qin asked as she sat up.
Madam Cao put the lamp in place and helped her put on her clothes while she told her about the night sacrifice of the Crown Prince's wife by Lvliu and several other concubines. She then said, "Now they have all determined that Concubine Hong is the murderer of the Crown Prince's wife and have brought her here to ask you to judge the case. What do you think we should do about this matter?"
Qin was so shocked that she didn't say anything for a long time. She looked out the window, then at Aunt Cao. After a while, she whispered, "Madam Hong, she, she really confessed. How is this possible? It's obviously..."
"Madam!" Madam Cao hurriedly covered her mouth, "Madam, you are confused from sleeping. Drink some water and wake up."
As he said this, he poured a cup of cold tea for Qin.
Qin took the tea, drank two sips, and became sober.
"Such a vicious woman must not be let off easily!" She put down the teacup and said solemnly, "Hurry up and change my clothes. I want to interrogate her myself!"
Madam Cao patted her chest and hurriedly helped her change clothes.
After an all-night interrogation, the frightened Aunt Hong confessed to her evil act of poisoning, but she insisted that the poison she put in the medicine soup would only cause the child to die in the womb and would not harm the mother. She just wanted to let the Crown Prince's wife taste the pain of losing a child and did not want to harm the Crown Prince's wife's life. She also didn't know why the Crown Prince's wife died but the child was safe and sound.
However, at this point no one would believe what she said. Everyone thought that the Crown Prince's wife was killed by her, especially Zhao Jingping's concubines. They wished that Qin would sentence her to death on the spot to comfort the Crown Prince's wife's spirit in heaven and prevent her ghost from haunting them again.
Qin also wanted to sentence Hong Yi Niang to death on the spot, so that Hong Yi Niang would have no chance to change her confession, and all the truth would go into the grave with her death, forever sealed underground.
But before Qin had the chance to act, Marquis Dingyuan got the news and sent Jiu'an to tell her to detain Concubine Hong first and report to the General's Mansion early the next morning, so that the General's Mansion could decide Hong's life or death.
Because of the death of the Crown Prince's wife, the Marquis's Mansion and the General's Mansion have become enemies. Now that the truth has come to light, Marquis Dingyuan wants to take this opportunity to gain the General's Mansion's forgiveness and ease the relationship between the two families.
Qin had no choice but to ask Aunt Hong to sign her confession and ordered people to send her back to her residence and imprison her, keeping her under strict supervision until someone from the General's Mansion arrived before making a decision.
The matter was handled promptly without alerting other people in the mansion. All those who knew about the matter were given a gag order by Qin and were strictly ordered not to spread the news.
There were still two hours before dawn, and everyone received Qin's instructions to return to their own residences to rest.
When the surroundings became completely quiet, Feng Lun took Xie Nanjia and sneaked into the attic where Aunt Hong was imprisoned. He knocked down the old woman who was guarding the room, opened the door, let Xie Nanjia in, and stood guard outside the door himself.
Xie Nanjia entered the room and in the dim light, saw Aunt Hong with her hands tied behind her back and lying on a chair. Perhaps because she was too tired, she had fallen into a coma with her head lowered. Her black hair was scattered like straw, covering half of her face.
Xie Nanjia stood there quietly and looked at her for a while, feeling indescribable.
If they hadn't met face to face, she wouldn't have been able to remember what Concubine Hong looked like. Even if she saw her now, she still felt very unfamiliar. Having been married into the Marquis's Mansion for nearly three years, she believed that she had never made things difficult for any of the concubines, nor had she ever made enemies with anyone. But the woman in front of her took her anger out on her because of the death of her own child, and killed her.
Before this, she had guessed countless times at whose hands she died. Now that she finally knew the truth, she still found it so unbelievable.
Is it really her? She reached out to push away the messy hair that was blocking Aunt Hong's face. Even though her face looked disheveled, it couldn't hide her beauty. She didn't look like a murderer at all, but she died in her hands.
I don’t know if it’s because too much time has passed, but her initial anger and hostility seemed to have faded away with the passage of time, so that even though her enemy was right in front of her, her heart was calm.
She picked up the water on the table next to her and splashed it on Aunt Hong's face.
Aunt Hong was awakened and opened her eyes suddenly. She saw a man in black with his face covered standing in front of her. She subconsciously called for help.
"Shut up!" Xie Nanjia suddenly had a gleaming dagger in her hand, which was instantly pressed against her throat.
Aunt Hong abruptly took back the words that were about to come out of her mouth, stared at Xie Nanjia in horror, and asked in a trembling voice: "Who are you, and what do you want to do?"
Xie Nanjia did not answer. She took out a piece of paper from her bosom, unfolded it in front of her, and said coldly: "Read what is written on it again."
"What is this?" Aunt Hong looked at the paper tremblingly, and suddenly her eyes widened, "Who wrote this, and why do you want me to read it?"
"Stop talking nonsense and read!" Xie Nanjia pushed the dagger forward, and the tip of the knife pierced her skin.
"Don't kill me, I'll read, I'll read..." Aunt Hong hurriedly read to the piece of paper: "Xie Nanjia, you are the daughter of a general, the wife of a marquis, you are honored, and the most talented person in the capital, but you still died in my hands. From now on, your husband is mine, your honor is mine, and this magnificent marquis's wealth is all mine! Xie Nanjia, go to hell!"
Xie Nanjia listened quietly until Aunt Hong finished reading the entire passage.
"How do you want to die?" she asked Aunt Hong, her voice flat.
"No, this is not me, I didn't say that." Aunt Hong was not stupid, and she quickly figured out what was going on. "I know you are here to avenge the Crown Prince's wife. If I'm not mistaken, you should be Hualou. Today's situation was done by you and Lvliu, right? The words you asked me to read were said by someone before they killed the Crown Prince's wife, right
Believe me, I didn't say that. I just want to avenge my child. I have never coveted the position of the Crown Prince's wife, nor have I ever thought about competing with her for favor. Think about it, if it were really me, why has the Crown Prince's wife been gone for so long, and I'm still just an unpopular concubine
Yes, I did put poison in the medicine of the Crown Prince's wife, but I was not the one who killed the Crown Prince's wife. I am innocent. I did not kill the Crown Prince's wife or the young master. I do not deserve to die, Hualou!"
"Your crime is not punishable by death?" Xie Nanjia sneered, "Just for the charge of poisoning, you should be killed a hundred times. If I don't kill you tonight, you will die tomorrow if someone comes from the General's Mansion. I don't know if Madam will kill your whole family to please the General's Mansion."
Aunt Hong looked at her in horror, two lines of tears streaming down her cheeks. After a long time, she smiled miserably and closed her eyes in despair.
“Let’s do it!”
…
Qin did not sleep well that night. She had too many things on her mind and woke up before dawn.
She remembered that Lin was coming to visit her home today. Now that such a big thing had happened, she had to bother dealing with the people in the General's Mansion, and was also afraid that Lin would know about her family's mess and be left with a bad impression. After much thought, she could only send Chang Fu to the Shangshu Mansion to inform Lin that she had caught a cold and was afraid that the disease would be passed on to the children, so she asked Lin to bring the children to play another day.
When Lin received the letter, she was not surprised but very happy. An Yizi was very dissatisfied with her intention of marrying into the Marquis's Mansion. Not only did he criticize her harshly, he also had a bad face for her these past few days and asked her to find a way to turn down the visit to the Marquis's Mansion. She was worried about this and didn't want Qin to break the appointment first.
So she took advantage of the situation and prepared some top-quality medicinal supplements for Chang Fu to take back to Qin, and asked Chang Fu to tell Qin to take good care of herself and recover soon, so that they could meet again in the future when they had time.
Chang Fu returned home and brought the herbs and words to Qin.
Qin heaved a sigh of relief and sent someone to the general's mansion to deliver a letter.
Unexpectedly, as soon as the messenger left, a maid came in a panic to report that Aunt Hong had hanged herself.
Qin was shocked, and the first thing she thought of was to ask Chang Fu to quickly catch the person who delivered the letter, so that she would not be unable to explain if someone from the general's mansion came.
After Chang Fu left, Qin led people to the attic where Concubine Hong was imprisoned. When they arrived there, they found that Concubine Hong's body was already cold.
The four maids in charge of guarding her knelt on the ground and kowtowed to apologize, claiming that they didn't know why they suddenly fell asleep, as if they were possessed by an evil spirit. When they woke up, it was already dawn. Moreover, Aunt Hong had her hands tied behind her back and was tied to a chair. They didn't know why she was able to break free from the ropes and hang herself with them.
Everyone found it weird and couldn't help but think about something strange. Some people whispered and wondered if the ghost of the Crown Prince's wife had come personally to claim Aunt Hong's life.
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's hair stood up.
After all, Qin was the mistress of the house. Although she was a little frightened, she could not panic. She scolded the servant who talked nonsense, ordered people to cover up Hong Yi Niang's body first, and hurried to find Dingyuan Hou to discuss countermeasures.
At this point, Marquis Dingyuan had no other choice. He took Aunt Hong's confession and went to the general's mansion in person. He explained the whole story to Xie Zhanting and his wife. He shamelessly held the hand of his former good brother with tears in his eyes, apologized to the Xie family on behalf of the marquis' mansion, and asked for forgiveness from the Xie family. He almost knelt down to the couple.
Xie Zhanting and his wife were extremely sad when they learned the truth about their daughter's death, but the murderer had already committed suicide out of fear of crime. No matter how angry they were, it was of no use and they could only accept the fact with great pain.
Marquis Dingyuan said that if they agreed, the marquis's mansion would not be afraid of shame and would be willing to make the truth of the matter public to seek justice for Xie Nanjia and the dead wet nurse.
The couple rejected Marquis Dingyuan's proposal, not wanting the matter to become a topic of conversation on the streets and disturbing their daughter's spirit.
Marquis Dingyuan was grateful that they had saved his face and knelt on one knee to thank his relatives.
Xie Zhanting refused to accept his gift and told him to leave quickly and not to visit the general's mansion again except for matters concerning his grandson.
Marquis Dingyuan left in shame and returned to his mansion, where he ordered Qin to have someone take Concubine Hong out and bury her quietly, putting an end to the matter once and for all.
After Qin got over her initial panic, she slowly calmed down. She was just an insignificant concubine. As long as she was not implicated, it didn't matter how she was dealt with.
So she handed the matter over to Chang Fu to handle, and she and Madam Cao closed the door and talked to each other in a way that only the two of them could understand.
No matter how hard the servants tried to stop talking, they couldn't. The affairs of Aunt Hong soon spread to every corner of the Marquis's mansion like a gust of wind.
In the young master's courtyard, Hualou hugged Xie Nanjia and cried and laughed. He pulled her into the inner room and kowtowed to her three times respectfully, thanking her for avenging his young lady. He said that from now on his life belonged to Xie Nanjia and he would work like a slave to repay her for the rest of his life.
Xie Nanjia looked at her crying and laughing, and after careful consideration, she couldn't bear to tell her that besides Aunt Hong, there was another murderer.
She could have taken this opportunity to continue digging deeper and find that person, but time did not allow her to make any further arrangements. After tomorrow, she would have to accompany Zhao Jingyu to Xishan Paddock.
(End of this chapter)