Pei Che brought the guards from the mansion to Pei Mu's yard. He ordered the guards to go to each room and bring the servants inside to stand in the middle of the yard, not allowing them to talk to each other.
Before these people were brought here, they did all kinds of work. Even the errand boys and the cleaning servants set up a dice game in the room and invited others to come and bet.
Pei Che sat inside, watching the group of people standing anxiously in the yard, looking around with panicked eyes, but no one knew why the prince suddenly called everyone over.
"Where's Xing'er?"
"Your Highness, Xing'er is not in her room. I heard from the little maid outside that she seemed to have gone to visit another courtyard. Do you want me to send someone to bring her back?" Gao Tianchuan asked. He was the commander of the guards of the Duke's Mansion and was promoted by Pei Che's father.
Pei Che's second uncle has always wanted to replace his own people. Although the guards seem to have a low status, they actually control the information of the personnel exchanges in the entire Duke's Mansion. It is basically impossible for anyone to bypass them to do something. How could Pei Shiyuan allow his mouthpiece to be strangled in someone's hand? In the third month after he took over as the Duke, he brought back a man from outside, saying that he was extremely skilled in martial arts and could better protect the safety of the mansion. The implication was that he was more powerful than Gao Tianchuan.
Gao Tianchuan didn't panic, and said on the spot that he wanted to compete with this hero. If he was not as skilled as him, he would resign from the position of guard leader. Pei Shiyuan was waiting for this sentence, and immediately asked the two to compete. He was full of confidence, but after hearing Gao Tianchuan's indifferent acceptance, his mood became gloomy.
He wanted to find an excuse to get rid of Gao Tianchuan, but the old lady came to him immediately, saying that Gao Tianchuan was Pei Shijie's man, and every time she looked at him, it was as if Pei Shijie was still there. At that time, Pei Shiyuan only had the empty title of Duke, and everything in the mansion was still controlled by the old lady, so he had no choice but to accept it.
"No need. Since she likes to be outside, let her stay outside and bring her in." Pei Che said expressionlessly.
Servants were brought in tremblingly one after another, and after being asked a bunch of questions, they were taken out again. Some of them were completely confused, while others stood in the sunny courtyard, their hearts darkening to the bottom.
Pei Che, who was sitting in the room, was getting more and more angry. Looking at the confessions from these people, he wanted to cut Xing'er into pieces. At the same time, he also hated himself. Why did he live in a daze and didn't even know that Mu'er was being tortured under his nose!
He now realized that the reason why Mu'er liked to hide in the closet was because the vicious woman wanted to punish Mu'er in the beginning, but was afraid of leaving traces and being discovered, so she locked him in a dark wooden closet, sometimes for an hour.
As time went by, Mu'er got used to staying in the closet. At least there, he didn't have to face these people.
"Prince, Xing'er is back." Gao Tianchuan said. His people said that Xing'er wanted to turn around and leave when she saw someone guarding the door. Fortunately, they saw her and stopped her in time.
"Bring her in." A hint of murderous intent flashed in Pei Che's eyes. He looked at the contents on the paper again, and the veins on the hand holding the paper bulged.
When Xing'er was brought in, she looked a little guilty, as she had just come from the lady's place.
"My Lord, what do you want to talk to me about?" Xing'er asked in a delicate voice with a smile on her face.
Pei Che looked at her coldly: "Where did you go just now?"
"I..." Xing'er was speechless for a while, and suddenly thought of a good idea, "I just went to the Fourth Madam's place, and wanted to ask for some small things that Master Pei Qi would like. I thought that the young master must feel that the courtyard is too boring, and with these things, maybe he would be willing to go back to the courtyard. It's a pity that the Fourth Madam is not here at the moment, and I went there in vain."
"Oh? In that case, I should thank you. After all, you are thinking about Mu'er." Pei Che smiled at her.
Xing'er blushed immediately. She was so shy that she didn't notice what was hidden under Pei Che's smile. She pretended to be modest and said, "What are you talking about, my lord? These are what I should do. The old lady and you trust me to take care of the young master. Xing'er feels so bad that the young master is away during this period of time."
"In that case, you will still serve Mu'er from now on." Without waiting for Xing'er to laugh, Pei Che continued, "But before you go to take care of Mu'er, I have something to ask you."
"My Lord, just tell me." Xing'er suppressed the joy in her heart and looked at Pei Che expectantly.
"Why did you hurt Mu'er?"
Xing'er's face turned pale in an instant. She forced a smile and pretended not to understand, "My Lord, what are you talking about? I have watched the young master grow up since he was a child. How could I hurt him?"
"You're still going to quibble, aren't you?" Pei Che was too lazy to talk to her anymore and ordered Gao Tianchuan to show her the confessions of the other servants.
Xing Er suppressed her panic and took the confession. After reading a few lines, she could no longer bear it and knelt on the ground with tears in her eyes: "My Lord, please believe me, I am innocent! Those people... Those people must be jealous that I can serve the young master, so they say bad things about me. You must believe me! I really have never done anything to hurt the young master!"
"One person may lie, but ten, twenty, or a group of people, will they collude together?" Pei Che looked at her with disgust. "Perhaps you don't know yet, but Mu'er told me this herself!"
"Impossible!" Xing Er screamed, "He hasn't spoken since a long time ago, how could he suddenly start talking! "
"I didn't. I just found it strange. So many doctors have seen the young master, and they all said that he could not be cured. How come he suddenly got better this time? Did that person outside use some weird method?" Xing'er hinted at something.
Pei Che was furious: "Even now, you still don't say a word of truth, and you even want to sow discord! I really misjudged you!"
"Every word I said is true. If you just don't believe me, I can't do anything about it." Xing'er was stubborn and refused to admit that she had hurt Pei Mu. She was betting that Pei Mu would not speak at all! She had been standing here for so long and Pei Mu hadn't said a word. How could he suddenly speak
Pei Che glanced at Gao Tianchuan, and Gao Tianchuan took out a package from one of his subordinates. Looking at the familiar cloth on the package, Xing'er became flustered.
"You should be familiar with the things in here, right? They were all found in your room. But why do some of the things in here look so familiar to me?"
Pei Che looked at the things in the package. There was the jade he gave to Mu'er, the gold and silver ingots given by the elders, and many other things from Pei Mu's share. All these things went into another person's pocket. For so many years, the biggest scourge around Pei Mu, pretending to be harmless, deceived everyone, including him.
Xing'er could no longer argue, so she knelt down and begged for mercy, hoping that Pei Che would forgive her for the sake of her parents.
"How many times have you used this excuse over the years? I tell you, this excuse doesn't work today. Your parents died because of a natural disaster, not a man-made one. The palace has shown mercy by not pursuing them for failing to protect their master. How can you repeatedly seek forgiveness in their name? Commander Gao, take her away and sell her off tomorrow."
"Master, you can't do this! I treat Pei Mu like this for you! He was the one who killed the late master and his wife, and he also killed my parents! He caused us to lose our loved ones, so why should he not have to suffer any punishment at all?" Xing'er shouted loudly as she was about to be dragged away.
"Is that how you see him? Mu'er was only one year old at the time. He was the most innocent one in the whole accident! You don't have to say anything more. I won't listen. Commander Gao, have someone block her mouth and drag her away. Tomorrow morning, sell her to the most remote place and make sure she can never return to Liangjing! As for the others, those who have not hurt Mu'er will be transferred away. Those who have hurt Mu'er will be beaten and kicked out of the mansion!"
"Yes, Prince! I obey your command!" Gao Tianchuan felt relieved when he saw Pei Che giving orders with a cold face. The previous prince was also a person with this kind of personality. He usually looked gentle and elegant, but he would never be indecisive when faced with things.
When Pei Che finished dealing with Pei Mu's affairs in the yard, it was almost evening. He returned to his own yard. By this time, Pei Mu had already finished practicing calligraphy.
"Mu'er!" Pei Che squatted down and called him softly. He stared at Pei Mu seriously and said, "It was my fault before. I didn't notice that you were being bullied. I have driven away the bad guys and they will never come back. Don't worry, no one will be able to bully you anymore."
Pei Mu tilted his head to look at him, as if he was a little confused. But the next second, he took Pei Che's hand and pulled him out. Pei Che didn't understand what he meant at first, and after walking for a while, he realized that Pei Mu wanted to take him to that yard.
"Mu'er, do you want to see if what brother said is true? Don't worry, brother will do what he says and will never break his promise."
Pei Mu returned to the old yard and found that those people were really gone. He couldn't help but curl his lips to express his happiness. He let go of Pei Che's hand and walked a few steps inside. His eyes kept wandering, and he seemed to be very interested in everything.
Pei Che felt a little sad. His brother was the owner of the yard, but he could only look around with peace of mind after those people left. This once again showed that he was a very failed brother.
Suddenly, Pei Mu's gaze froze. Pei Che followed his gaze and found that the things he had searched from Xing'er were still on the table.
Bad, Pei Che thought, these things were used by that woman, Mu'er must be scared when she sees them! He was about to walk over and take these things away, when he saw Pei Mu rushing over quickly, standing on tiptoe to look at the table, as if he carefully identified something inside, then he opened his hand, took out the silver ingots inside, and stuffed them into his clothes. As for the gold ones, he didn't even look at them.
Pei Che looked at his actions and suddenly felt a little amused. His brother had been taken care of by Jiang Miao for a long time and had become a little money-grubber.
"Is this money for Brother Miao?"
Pei Mu nodded, but his hand holding the silver did not stop. Brother Miao said that silver is a good thing!
"Take this one too. Your brother Miao will be happier." Pei Che took out two gold ingots and stuffed them into Pei Mu's hands.
Pei Mu frowned, looked at Pei Che suspiciously, then put a gold ingot back and waved his hand perfunctorily, indicating that it was fine to just take one.
Miaoge doesn't have it! It must not be a good thing!
(End of this chapter)