Spring is warm and fragrant

Chapter 43

The lake breeze is blowing, the elders are sitting in the waterside pavilion, admiring the scenery through the window, Lu Mingyu and the little girls are standing in a row in front of the railing by the lake, watching the koi carp wagging its head and tail in the water, under the green lotus leaves Swim around.

"Second sister, look at that one, it's so big!" Seeing a two-foot-long koi, Chu Xiang excitedly pointed it out to Chu Ying.

Chu Ying is short, standing on tiptoe to look into the water.

Lu Mingyu pretended to change positions, walked from left to right in the line, glanced at the skirts of the Chu sisters casually, and noticed at a glance that the pearl on Chu Xiang's left foot was gone.

Chu Xiang...

Lu Mingyu couldn't help but break into a cold sweat for Chen Lian.Chu Ying is weak and doesn't easily quarrel with others. Chu Xiang is unruly and domineering. Who dares to offend her.Although Chu Xiang is only four years old now, and he can't think of a way to torture people when he is angry, but...

Lu Mingyu looked at the waterside pavilion, Chen Lian sat under the head of the eldest lady, with pink face and peach cheeks, demure and gentle, just like a dignified lady.

Lu Mingyu sighed in her heart, if you want to blame, you can blame Chen Lian for having bad intentions. The uncle's family kindly took her in and took care of her. With Chen Lian's good looks, as long as she kept her own place, the eldest lady would arrange a good marriage for her, but Chen Lian was ungrateful Intended to seduce the second uncle, so it can't be blamed on the eldest lady for preemptive strikes.

Walking to the guardrail, Lu Mingyu watched the fish silently.

Chu Xiang next to him chattered for a long time, and was thirsty, so he ran to drink water in the water pavilion.Seeing her granddaughter's blushing face, Madam Tai smiled and called Chu Xiang to her side, and while wiping Chu Xiang's sweat, she joked, "Look at Xiang Xiang's madness, are you very happy that so many sisters have come to play with you?"

Chu Xiang laughed.

The second Mrs. Chu subconsciously looked at her daughter's feet.These few pearls are really rare. The eldest daughter loves her sisters so she made two pairs of embroidered shoes and replaced them with Mrs. Chu. She is absolutely reluctant to put such precious pearls on the embroidered shoes. What should I do?When my daughter changed her clothes in the morning, Mrs. Chu repeatedly told her to pay attention to her shoes.

Unexpectedly, I was afraid of something, the pearl on my daughter's left shoe really disappeared!

"Xiangxiang, did you lose the pearl on your shoe?" Mrs. Chu Er is a lady from a famous family. She grew up in a heap of gold and jade since she was a child. Gain and loss.From the corner of my eyes, I saw all the female relatives nearby looked over, and Mrs. Chu explained with a smile: "Xiangxiang is naughty, her sister brought the shoes here, and I knew she would lose them, but I didn't expect to wear them for half a day..."

After speaking, he teased his daughter jokingly, "If you drop it, you will drop it. My mother will make you a necklace."

The implication was that she felt that the Nanzhu was still in her daughter's hands, otherwise she would directly ask her daughter if she had lost it, and it would look like the second wife of the dignified Duke's Mansion cared more about a Nanzhu, which would not look good on her face.

Four-year-old Chu Xiang has no mother's city mansion. When she saw that her most precious Nanzhu was lost, the little girl blushed anxiously, "Mother, my Nanzhu is gone!"

Second Madam Chu's complexion changed slightly, her beautiful eyes slanted towards Lan Xia, the servant girl beside her daughter.Lan Xia was so frightened that her face turned pale, she plopped down on her knees, "Madam, servant, this is how I realized that the girl's Nanzhu is missing, servant, please calm down, servant, I will go find it now!"

As early as when Chu Xiang yelled loudly, the waterside pavilion fell silent, and everyone present was knowledgeable and knew how valuable that pearl was.If the beads are really lost, it's best to find them. If you can't find them, those children who just played with Chu Xiang will become the first people the Chu family suspects.

The female relatives who brought their daughters looked at each other, and then turned to the children watching the fish around the fence.Of course they believed in their daughter's upbringing, but the adults were moved by that pearl. Maybe the little girl was greedy for a while, so what should I do if I picked it up and secretly put it away?
Some people were worried about their daughter. On the Lu family's side, the first lady and the second lady looked at Chen Lianshuang in unison.They were also targets of suspicion, but compared to their own family members, not to mention the eldest lady who kept a secret in her heart, even the second wife would be the first to suspect Chen Lianshuang, an orphan girl who had never seen the world.

Chen Lianshuang had some experience in hooking up men, but she was only 14 years old, and it was the first time in her life that she was suspected of being greedy for money. Chen Lianshuang suddenly panicked.She didn't know what she was afraid of, she just felt that everyone was looking at her and doubting her.She explained that it was no different from 300 taels of silver here, but if she continued to keep silent, would those people think she was a guilty conscience?
Chen Lianshuang was in a daze. She sat there stiffly, her eyes didn't know where to look, she wanted to be calm and generous, but her body reaction was completely out of her control. Her face became hot and hotter until she was very hot. Clearly, her current appearance must be more suspicious.

Just after everyone noticed Chen Lianshuang's strangeness, Second Madam Chu dismissed Lan Xia in a calm voice, "Don't worry, the third girl is naughty, she must have fallen somewhere, think carefully about where the third girl went to play, Call two more little maids to look for it, as long as it doesn't fall too far, you can definitely find it."

Madam didn't punish her, Lan Xia's heart skipped a beat and her stomach sank for now, and she hurriedly took someone to find Nan Zhu.

She walked outside, Lu Mingyu and other little girls outside were attracted by the movement in the water pavilion, and walked in curiously.

"Xuan'er, the pearl on Xiangxiang's shoes fell off, did you see it?" Xiao Huan's mother, Youshi, the eldest concubine of Prince Zhuang's Mansion, was the first to call her daughter Xiao Xuan to her side, and asked openly.

Chen Lianshuang thought a lot, because she was old and sensible, Xiao Xuan was only seven years old, and didn't understand so many twists and turns, she shook her head blankly when she heard the words, and said obediently while looking at Chu Xiang: "I didn't see, what is Xiangxiang?" When did it fall?"

You Shi didn't know, she asked her daughter, she raised her head, as if this matter had nothing to do with my daughter.

The other wives followed suit, and the eldest and second wives also called the four little girls to their side to make a show.As a result, only Chen Lianshuang was ignored.The second wife didn't like sisters-in-law who were born in merchants, and hinted that the eldest lady would ask Chen Lianshuang. The eldest lady looked at Chen Lianshuang, and then asked, "Lian Shuang, did you see it?"

Chen Lian's tears were about to fall, she got up slowly, and said calmly, "Auntie, I..."

Unexpectedly, before she finished speaking, Chu Xiang ran over suddenly, reached out and pulled the purses on Chen Lian's waist, "You must have picked it up!"

When the elders asked the little friends just now, Chu Xiang stared at each of them. The little girl has her own ideas. She is familiar with these friends, and it is easy to believe that she only met Chen Lianshuang today. Madam asked who Chen Lianshuang was, and Chu Xiang was on the side. He could tell that Chen Lianshuang's family was not as well off as the Chu family.

A strange poor girl, of course, is the most likely to hide her Nanzhu!

The little girl made a sudden attack, and no one expected that when Mrs. Chu ordered someone to pull her daughter away with a sullen face, Chen Lianshuang's purse had already been snatched by Chu Xiang.There were some bulges under the purse, and it was impossible to tell what was inside, but seeing Chu Xiang's little hand clutching the purse so that it protruded into the shape of a pearl, the expressions of everyone present changed.

Chen Lianshuang's face paled even more. How could there be such a round thing in her purse...

At this moment, Chu Xiang pulled the mouth of the purse, reached in with his little hand, and took out a pearl in the next moment!
"Mom, she stole my Nanzhu!"

Chu Xiang was furious and ran to his mother to beg her to make decisions.

Mrs. Chu had suspected Chen Lianshuang for a long time. Now that she found her daughter's Nanzhu in Chen Lianshuang's purse, Mrs. Chu was not too angry. An orphan girl from a small place has a shallow vision and loves money, which can be expected .In order to show her magnanimity and to save face for the Lu family, Mrs. Chu touched her daughter's head, and said considerately: "Xiangxiang, you misunderstood. Miss Chen picked up your beads and originally planned to return them to you. It’s just that I forgot about it just now, and then you yelled nonsense, Miss Chen didn’t say it because she was worried about being misunderstood, well, it’s a misunderstanding, Xiangxiang will continue to watch the koi.”

Chu Xiang didn't believe it, and glared at Chen Lianshuang angrily.

Chen Lian Shuang cried, crying until the pear blossoms were raining. She knew that Mrs. Chu's words were meant to coax children, and everyone must have believed that she deliberately hid the pearl.Chen Lianshuang didn't want to bear this stigma, she cried and knelt down to the Second Madam Chu, explaining tremblingly, "Second Madam, I didn't steal the third girl's Nanzhu, I was framed..."

"Enough!" The lady with a livid face finally stood up, glaring at Chen Lianshuang, "Miss Chen, I kindly took you in because your father served the country faithfully, and I even brought you out to see the world, but you...don't dare to do something wrong." Admit it and still want to quibble, you are not afraid of shame, but I can't afford to lose face!"

After saying this, she came to Mrs. Tai and bowed her knees to make amends, "Mrs. Tai, blame me for being ignorant of people and ruining the family's happy event. I will take people back to teach them first, and then I will come to apologize at another day."

"What are you talking about? It's a little misunderstanding. Don't take it to heart." Mrs. Tai sighed and asked the guests to stay, "Sit down quickly, the banquet will start soon." It's because the Chen family didn't teach well, so what does it have to do with the Lu family?But don't affect the harmony between Chu and Lu because of this matter.

The eldest lady had no face to stay any longer, and after apologizing again, she led the members of the Lu family to leave early.Chen Lian was crying and refused to leave, so the eldest lady asked the maid beside her to help her go, and even gagged her.Lu Mingyu walked beside Lu Jinyu with her head down, feeling the peeps from other female relatives, Lu Mingyu was helpless and tired.

She knew that Chen Lianshuang was wronged, although Chen Lianshuang's behavior was out of control, so openly cooperated with her aunt to frame Chen Lianshuang's innocence, Lu Mingyu still felt a little uncomfortable in her heart and felt that her conscience was disturbed.But if they do it all over again, Lu Mingyu also knows that she will still agree to the eldest aunt, because only in this way, the eldest aunt will have a reason to marry the orphan girl who came to the Lu family to another place, so as not to be talked about arbitrarily.

People have close and distant relatives, between Chen Lianshuang's innocence and the harmony of the Lu family's backyard, Lu Mingyu selfishly chose the latter.

(End of this chapter)