swear not to be concubine

Chapter 53

What Wu Jingxuan said was actually to ask Wu Shi to ask the girl to ask about those words, and finally Jian Yan was asked.Just listening to Qin's ears, she felt that Wu Jingxuan meant something else.

A person with a heart deliberately slanders her, so it's not her that the person with a heart is talking about.

Qin sneered in her heart, thinking, since you have said so, then don't care if it is true or not, then today I have to make false accusations against you.

So she laughed and said, "Mother's question shouldn't be asked in this way. Those women who are ambiguous with men, unless they are caught on the spot, or you ask her again, she will be wrong." She won't admit it, she will only deny it. According to my opinion, mother doesn't need to ask the cousin girl about this matter, she just needs to ask the maid next to the cousin girl."

After all, Jiang is still old and spicy. In terms of verbal skills, how can Wu Jingxuan compare to Qin's?She was so annoyed for a moment that she couldn't choose what to say, and said, "Eldest madam, how can you frame me like this?"

"I framed you?" Qin sneered, "I see all the maids and servants in the Xu family are slandering you with red mouths and white teeth?"

Wu Shi saw that it was not a matter, if the two of them continued to talk like this, they might quarrel on the spot.

So she darkened her face, yelled, and said, "What's the matter with being so noisy? I brought the maids from Tangli Garden over and asked them one by one. Anyway, it's so black that it's not white." , White can't be black, who can make a false accusation?"

Wu Jingxuan's heart relaxed, thinking that as long as Mrs. Wu asked carefully later, she would naturally find out that the cousin girl was Jian Yan, not her.But in the end, he became tighter again, thinking that Wu Shi asked this question, but in the end, he would ask that she instigated this matter?Because he thought again, if it was impossible, he could only push Xueliu out, and only said that this matter was all due to Xueliu's mouth, and it would be fine if she didn't order her.

Wu asked Caizhu to call all the maids in Tangli Garden in for questioning.

She first asked Caizhu to tell the group of maids standing below what the maids around the Qin family said, and then she said with a calm face, "You can carefully explain the whole story of this matter today. Tell me all about it carefully. If I find out that a word is not true, I will take off your legs and throw them out to feed the dogs."

After hearing this, a group of servant girls were all silent for a moment, you look at me, I look at you, but none of them dared to speak first.

Wu called Liu'er to come out first and asked, "So you told Lianhua?"

Liu'er is not very old, seeing what Wu said before, she was so frightened that her face turned pale.Now seeing Wu Shi asking her like this again, she quickly knelt down on her knees and said tremblingly: "Yes, it was the servant girl who told Lianhua."

After Wu Jingxuan heard this, she was so anxious that she wished she could go over and hold Liu'er by the ear, and yelled at her loudly, who do you think is that cousin girl?And the key point is, when she asked Xueliu to tell Liu'er what they said, she didn't mention the section with fans. Who on earth added this section?This dead Liu'er didn't make it clear.

She was really anxious in her heart, and in the end she didn't care too much, so she interrupted and said: "Liu'er, you should tell the old lady what you told Lianhua again. Besides, you also know who that cousin girl is." Tell the old lady in vain."

It's just that Liu'er was a little frightened.Hearing what she said, he just looked at her blankly, and after a while he understood what she meant, and repeated exactly what she had told Lianhua.

Naturally, there is no section about fans, and it is said that the cousin girl belongs to Jian Yan.

Wu was also surprised, so she asked Lianhua to ask again.In the end, Lianhua was biting her teeth, no matter how hard she was, she only said that when Liu'er said this to her, she had a fan.Liu'er was also anxious at the end, she just swore that there was no such thing, but Lianhua insisted that there was, and the two of them got into a mess.

Wu only felt a headache.At this time, Wu Jingxuan, who was a student, said something ignorant: "Don't let your maid deliberately add the fan section to this sentence, and frame me up."

Lianhua is the servant girl next to Qin's. When Wu Jingxuan said that, didn't she mean her?
When Qin heard this, she was very angry, so she sneered, and said: "It's all right to know what kind of person I am, but I have to say that I am ashamed of myself. A girl who has not been out of the court is always going to the man's house." Where did you run away, and now I see such gossip from the maid in my yard, it is just groundless, why are there so many sisters in the family, just spread your gossip? And it's due to Miss Jian How could Miss Jian be such a dignified and elegant girl?"

This is really what it means to make a fuss.

Mrs. Wu had no choice but to scold again, because she asked Liu'er again: "Is there a fan or not? Besides, who told you these words?"

After hearing this, Liu'er faltered, and kept looking at Xueliu.

Biansheng Qin saw it again, and asked: "The old lady is asking you something, why are you just staring at the big maid next to Cousin girl? Don't tell me this is what the big maid told you?"

On the one hand, Liu'er did not dare to say that this was exactly what Xueliu told them, but on the other hand, being forced by Wu Shi and Qin Shi, she was so frightened that tears almost rolled down her eyes.

Mrs. Wu was about to reprimand her a few more times, but suddenly she saw a servant girl standing next to her knelt down with a plop, and said, "If the old lady asks a question, the servant girl will not dare to lie."

Wu looked at her, and vaguely remembered that this maid was a child of a family, and she seemed to be called Xiaoyu.At first, she served in her courtyard, but later transferred to Wu Jingxuan's Tangli Garden.

So she asked: "You all know this? Is there a fan? Who told you?"

Xiaoyu kowtowed first, and then replied, "The servants dare not lie to the old lady. Sister Xueliu told us this. A few nights ago, the servants and servants were having dinner together. Sister Xueliu came in and gave us One piece of silver per person, and then said something like this, and told the slaves to go around when they were free. The slaves can’t remember the section on the fan. But there should be some. Because the servant girl is just a little maidservant, who usually sweeps the courtyard, boils water and feeds the birds, but where has she ever seen such a fan? If Sister Xueliu didn't mention it, the servant girl would never know that there is such a fan. Take the fan."

As soon as she said this, others could do it, Xue Liu was angry first: "You are talking nonsense. When did I say such a thing to you?"

"I don't dare to lie." Xiaoyu kowtowed again, then took out a piece of silver from her purse, and said, "This is the silver that Sister Xueliu gave to the servant that night. The servant is a little maid who cleans, The monthly money is only two hundred Wen, how can there be such money to slander Sister Xueliu? If the old lady still doesn't believe it, she can ask the maid in Tangli Garden again."

Hulala, all the maids on the side knelt down.Those who couldn't hold on, so they told the truth about that night, only saying that Xueliu gave them money and said such a thing, so that they could go out and tell others when they had time.And the cousin girl in those words is Jian Yan.As for whether there are fans, some say they do, some say they don't, and they cannot be unified.

"Ouch," before Mrs. Wu could speak, Mrs. Qin called out first, "I don't understand this matter. Why do you, Xueliu, have a grudge against your girl? After saying something like this, let a group of girls go out to discredit your girl? But no matter how big a girl is, where did you get all this money? But it wasn't your girl who gave it to you? What did your girl do for herself? How about taking the silver and letting my maid smear my reputation like this? I guess Miss Cousin would not be so stupid, it's just that she was too shrewd, and she wanted to discredit Miss Jane. It's just that How did Miss Jian provoke you to provoke you, is it worth your cruelty to her like this? I want to hold a grievance for Miss Jian. "

Qin's mind is flexible, and she saw some clues as early as when everyone was arguing about whether there was a fan in those words.Now that Xiaoyu said that again, she immediately understood what was going on.

It must be that Wu Jingxuan wanted to discredit Jian Yan's reputation at the beginning, so she asked Xue Liu to give the little maids money, and ordered them to say those things everywhere.But later, I don't know who added the fan section in those words.Don't underestimate the added sentence, there was no such fan in the first place, when talking about the cousin girl, people still wondered whether it was Wu Jingxuan or Jian Yan.But with this fan, everyone knew it belonged to Wu Jingxuan, because quite a few people knew that Wu Jingxuan had this fan.Even when the maid in Wu Jingxuan's courtyard started talking about Biao girl, she pointedly pointed to Jian Yan, but gossip has passed through the mouths of countless people, so how can she say it clearly?Now some people must say that this cousin girl is Jian Yan, and some people say that this cousin girl belongs to Wu Jingxuan.In the end, Wu Jingxuan was forced to come out and clarify this matter by herself, unless she didn't want her own reputation.It's just that if these things are seriously investigated by someone with a heart, wouldn't it be possible to finally find out who is behind the scenes?

The Qin family understood this verse, so she immediately directed the words to Wu Jingxuan.All she said was that she was the one behind the scenes who wanted to tarnish Jian Yan's reputation.

Wu's heart is naturally clear.For a moment, her complexion became extremely ugly.

She was annoyed that Wu Jingxuan was so stupid.Even if she wanted to deal with Jian Yan, she couldn't think of a better way, but now that she is being questioned by Qin, how will she behave in the future?

Wu Shi didn't speak, because she really didn't know what to say.

She had no experience of being forced like this, so she didn't know how to deal with it.After thinking about it, I could only ask Xueliu sternly: "What is the purpose of letting the little maids go around saying things like that? But do you have any problems with that Miss Jian? Why don't you get along with me?" Speak carefully."

In fact, what she said was to secretly tell Xueliu, let her only say that she and Jian Yan had a personal enmity, and take all this matter on herself, not Wu Jingxuan.

Xueliu naturally understood, she thought about it for a while, and finally got sloppy, knelt down with a plop, and only said: "Old lady, eldest lady, this matter has nothing to do with the girl, it's all instigated by the servant. The servant I hate that Miss Jian, I saw Miss Jian talking and laughing with the third young master that day, and the third young master's eyes were only glued to Miss Jian, so the servant came back and thought of such a story, and then Let the little maids go around and tell the truth. As for the silver, the slaves stole the girl, and the girl didn't know."

He was going to abandon the car to save his handsomeness.

When Wu Shi and Wu Jingxuan heard this, they immediately breathed a sigh of relief.Qin just sneered.

For Wu Shi and Wu Jingxuan, the best solution right now is Xueliu taking the initiative to take on everything, and extracting Wu Jingxuan completely from this matter.

Wu Jingxuan came out with an angry look at this moment, and said, "How can you be like this, slave? Even if you hate Miss Jian, you can't discredit the black family like this."

Xue Liu kowtowed to her, and said in a low voice: "It's the servant who made the mistake. It's the girl who got involved in this matter."

Seeing their hypocrisy from the side, Mrs. Qin smiled coldly and asked Xueliu: "You said you hated Miss Jian, but I would like to ask, what did Miss Jian do to make you Hate her so much? How can you do such vicious things to tarnish her reputation?"

For a while, Xueliu hesitated and couldn't answer.After a while, he said: "That day in the garden, the servant accidentally touched Miss Jian, and Miss Jian was very angry, she blamed the servant for not saying anything, and even slapped the servant, so the servant hated with her."

"When did this happen?" Qin asked, "Who else saw it?"

Xueliu said: "Just a few days ago, our girl was there at that time, she is a witness."

Wu Jingxuan heard this, and hurriedly said: "Yes. I was indeed there that day. At that time, I persuaded Miss Jian not to be so angry, saying that Xueliu just touched her by accident, and it was not intentional. I went back and punished her properly, but Miss Jian didn't stop me from persuading her, but she still slapped Xueliu hard across the ear."

After hearing this, Mrs. Qin sneered: "If your master and servant are so red-mouthed and white-toothed, this thing will come true? It's not a shame to discredit Miss Jian. Today's matter is bound to come to light. .”

After finishing speaking, he called out loudly: "Rue Xiang."

Yun Xiang hurriedly stepped forward, and asked with lowered hands, "What's your order, madam?"

"Go and invite Miss Jian here. I want to have a face-to-face show today, to see if Miss Jane really scolded you that day and slapped you. Otherwise, it will be obvious that you are a maid Lie to your face."

When Wu Shi and Wu Jingxuan heard this, their faces turned pale with shock.

Mrs. Wu hurriedly dissuaded her: "This Miss Jian is a relative after all, if she is called to face-to-face confrontation, I'm afraid it won't be very good?"

After all, I want to tell Yunxiang not to go.But Mrs. Qin said with a smile: "It wouldn't be good if we accused Miss Jian of being so vicious and beating and scolding the servant girl at will for no reason behind my back."

Yin ordered Rue Xiang again: "What are you still standing here for? Why don't you hurry up? If you are slow for a while, watch your skin carefully."

After hearing this, Rue Xiang hurriedly turned around and ran to Hexiangyuan.

But Jian Yan is not in Hexiangyuan this meeting, but in Ningcuixuan.

Because a few days ago she personally promised Xu Zhongxuan to make him a fan cover, although it was ready within two days, but she didn't take it out immediately, on the contrary, it took five or six days Just take it out.

She originally thought that whether she sent Bai Wei or April, she would just send the cover to Xu Zhongxuan, or simply hand it over to Xu Miaojin, and let her hand it over to Xu Zhongxuan instead. The incident of the shop being smashed and Zhou Lin being beaten in two days made her think a lot.

Isn't she just lacking a backer?And Xu Zhongxuan is a member of the third rank of the imperial court, so why not rely on such a ready-made generous backer?Right now, she is on good terms with Xu Miaojin again, and it seems that Xu Zhongxuan's impression of her is not bad.

Thinking in this way, she took advantage of Xu Zhongxuan's rest day today, and specially came to Ning Cui Xuan.

In the past, when Xu Zhongxuan was in Xiumu, Jian Yan would avoid him and not come to Ningcui Xuan, so when Qingzhu came in with a smile to announce that it was Miss Jian who came, Xu Zhongxuan almost refused to believe his ears, and hurriedly got out of the chair. Zhong got up and stood up, but just froze in place.

Xu Miaojin turned her head and glanced at him, feeling that she had nothing to say for a moment.

Is this still her decisive brother?But then she turned her head to Qing Zhu and said, "Quickly invite Sister Yan to come in."

Qingzhu agreed crisply, went over to open the soft silk curtain at the door for Jian Yan in person, and said with a smile: "Miss Jian, watch out for the threshold under your feet."

Xu Zhongxuan only heard Jian Yan's soft voice respond in a low voice, and then he saw her walk in with her head bowed.

Today she was wearing a pale crimson cross-neck silk shirt embroidered with folded branches of winter jasmine flowers at the neckline, and a moon-white pleated skirt sprinkled with flowers.She wore a small phoenix on her temples, with three thin and thin phoenix tails pointing upwards, and a string of pearl tassels came down from the mouth of the phoenix. As she walked, the thin tassels swayed back and forth gently with.

As soon as she looked up to see Xu Zhongxuan, Jian Yan had a slight smile on her face, Lianju saluted him, and called out: "Young master."

Seeing the soft and gentle smile on her face, Xu Zhongxuan couldn't help being startled for a moment, and then he saluted her back and called out: "Miss Jane."

Jian Yan nodded slightly to him, and the tassel in Fengchai's mouth swayed slightly from side to side.

Yin took out another thing from the sleeve, handed it over with both hands, and said with a smile: "This is the fan cover that I promised the eldest son to make for you a few days ago. I am not good at craftsmanship, so don't take it for granted, just use it as you go." That's all."

Xu Zhongxuan looked at her hand, and saw that the fan cover was gray-green brocade, and there were no flowers, birds, grass or insects embroidered on it, but two big longevity patterns, and the blank space around it was thin. Embroidered with wishful cloud patterns, although it looks simple, it is also majestic.

In fact, Jian Yan was a little apprehensive.At that time, she thought about for a whole day what kind of fan cover she wanted to make for Xu Zhongxuan.Because he thought that he was not much talkative and he was a calm person, if he made a fan cover embroidered with flowers, birds, grass and insects, it might be a bit nondescript, so in the end he decided not to embroider at all, but just positive and negative. It's fine to embroider two longevity patterns on each side.As for the blank space, it is embroidered with wishful cloud patterns, which should be quite grand.The color is also gray-green, which is neither too bright nor too dull.

Now she held the fan cover in both hands and handed it over, while carefully watching the expression on Xu Zhongxuan's face.It's a pity that Xu Zhongxuan lowered his head, she couldn't see what kind of expression he had on his face.

But a slender white hand stretched out and took the fan cover from her hand, and then a deep voice sounded slowly: "I like it very much. Thank you."

Only then did Jian Yan secretly heave a sigh of relief.

At that moment just now, she actually felt so nervous that her palms were sweating.Seeing that Xu Zhongxuan finally accepted the cover, and said something like I like it very much, thank you, it doesn't matter whether he is sincere or polite, but at least this test has passed.

She felt relieved, and stretched out her hand to signal Bai Wei, who was standing behind her, to come over.

Bai Wei understood, and hurriedly handed over the package she was holding.

Jian Yan took it, and greeted Xu Miaojin to come over, stretched out her hand to open the package, and said with a smile: "Come here, Jin'er, I made you a pair of shoes."

The blue parcel was opened, and Jian Yan held a pair of lotus-colored satin shoes with magnolia flowers embroidered on the toe, and handed them over.

Yin smiled again: "I saw that you and Ning'er's dresses are mostly embroidered with magnolia patterns, and you like more plain and elegant colors, and Ning'er likes more lively and bright colors, so I made a pair for you." This is lotus color satin shoes with magnolia embroidered on the upper. Ninger also made a pair of the same shoes for her, with the same flowers embroidered on the upper, but the color is pomegranate red. How about this shoe? Do you like it?"

Xu Miaojin naturally liked it.

Because of her poor health, she doesn't do much sewing on a daily basis, and green bamboo does the work for such intimate items as shoes and socks.But in fact, she also really wants to have her relatives help her make such small objects.

Xu Miaojin suddenly felt that the circles of her eyes were getting hot.Busy bit her lip tightly, reached out to take the shoes, and said in a low voice: "I like it very much. Thank you, sister Yan."

And Xu Zhongxuan was holding the fan cover tightly in his hand.

This is also the first time someone made fan covers for him.The fan cover is made of high-quality brocade, and it feels slippery to the touch, as if the warmth of her hand still remains, making him want to hold it tightly in his hand all the time, and never let go.

Because he was really grateful in his heart, and his heart became more and more excited, Xu Zhongxuan opened another long menu and asked Qi Sang and Qi Hui to go to Wuli Tower again.

While waiting for the food to arrive, Xu Zhongxuan invited Jian Yan to play chess with him again.After thinking about it for a while, Jian Yan agreed.

Now she feels that it is really necessary to have a good relationship with Xu Zhongxuan, and she might use him at some point.Can't you just come to hug Buddha's feet when you need it?It's better to burn a few more sticks of incense in front of this big Buddha on weekdays.

It's just that the two of them didn't make a lot of money, and a little maid came in to report that it was the maid next to the eldest wife who came to ask to see Jian Yan.

Jian Yan was surprised in her heart, thinking that since she came to Xu's house, she had never met Qin's twice, so why would she send a maid to see her?
It's just that although she was puzzled in her heart, Jian Yan still walked out of Xu Miaojin's study and went to the bright room.Xu Zhongxuan followed immediately.

At first, Yunxiang ran all the way to the Hexiangyuan, and saw Siyue, the maid beside Jianyan, but was told that Jianyan had gone to the fourth girl.Then she ran all the way to Ning Cui Xuan again, she couldn't breathe for a while.

Just looking up, not only saw Jian Yan and Xu Miaojin, but also Xu Zhongxuan.So the breath in her throat was forced back into her stomach tightly, and she didn't dare to breathe anymore.

"I've met the eldest son, the fourth young lady, and Miss Jian." She held her breath and saluted the three of them respectfully.

Jian Yan hadn't spoken yet, but Xu Zhongxuan spoke first.

"What's the matter with mother sending you to Miss Jane?"

Although his voice is not loud, it is extremely majestic.Rue Xiang only felt the heart in her chest beating rapidly, she actually felt a little dry and didn't know what to say.

She tried her best to concentrate, and then she said: "The madam sent her servants to invite Miss Jian to Songhe Hall. The wife and the old lady are waiting for Miss Jian to confront Miss Biao."

"Confrontation?" Xu Zhongxuan narrowed his eyes, and asked calmly, "What confrontation? What happened? Tell me!"

When he said the last word, his cold eyes swept over, which made Rue Xiang feel cold all over for a moment.

Rue Xiang was only breathed short by his powerful aura, but in the end she couldn't hold it back, her knees softened, and she knelt down directly to him, and then she did not miss a single word of what happened just now. I've said it all.

Jian Yan who was standing stupidly by the side: ...

It was originally related to her, but this meeting does not require her to say a word, is this really good Xu Shilang?

She was a little surprised after hearing what Rue Xiang said.

Although at the beginning when she asked Lianhua to go out and say those things, she really wanted to let Qin shi bring this matter to Wu shi, and then forced Wu shi to find Wu Jingxuan to investigate this matter thoroughly.At that time, she was thinking, if this matter is really just a small trick, it will not stand up to a thorough investigation, and it will be easy to find out that Wu Jingxuan instructed her maid to do it, then naturally there will be no Seeing what happened to her, Wu Jingxuan could eat the bitter fruit on her own, I'm afraid that Mrs. Qin would not allow her to stay in Xu's house any longer, and would force Mrs. Wu to send her away.But I didn't expect this Xueliu to be a loyal protector of the lord, and he was the one who took the responsibility for this crime, and finally got into a situation where he had to confront Xueliu in court.

It's funny, Jian Yan thought in her heart, this Qin family was really afraid that the incident would not be big enough, and she didn't care about her status as a relative of the Xu family.That being the case, then she might as well confront Xueliu in court, and step on Wu Jingxuan by the way.

So when Yun Xiang finished speaking, Jian Yan took two steps forward and said, "That's fine. I'll go with you and explain this clearly in front of the old lady and the eldest lady."

But suddenly someone grabbed her arm, and at the same time a calm voice sounded: "Don't go."

Jian Yan turned her head in surprise, and saw that the person holding her arm was actually Xu Zhongxuan.

When Jian Yan saw Xu Zhongxuan for the first time, she felt that his eyes were like a lake in a cloudy sky, deep and deep, no one else could see what was going on in his heart.But now, seeing the look in his eyes, she felt that it was not only deep and deep, but also that there were countless pieces of dark clouds gathering rapidly, and it seemed that lightning, thunder, squall, and heavy rain were about to pour down. that's it.

Seeing Jian Yan, she felt inexplicably afraid in her heart.The arm he was holding also struggled subconsciously.

Xu Zhongxuan hurriedly withdrew the hand holding her arm, put his back behind his back, and at the same time comforted her in a low and soft voice: "Don't be afraid. I'll settle this matter, you just stay here."

After a pause, he whispered again: "Don't leave. I'll have lunch with you when I come back."

After finishing speaking, he raised his head to look at Yun Xiang, the gentle expression on his face was gone in an instant, only the sinking water, said indifferently: "Let's go."

Just now, Yunxiang was about to open her mouth and say that the eldest wife invited Miss Jian to come over, but how could she not go?Seeing Xu Zhongxuan's cold gaze, she didn't dare to say it for a while, so she could only silently swallow these words back into her stomach.

And Jian Yan watched Xu Zhongxuan's figure gradually disappearing at the courtyard gate, and a strange, inexplicable feeling floated in her heart.

The two sentences Xu Zhongxuan said to her just before he left, one sentence was as gentle as the spring breeze in March, comforting her and telling her not to be afraid, he will solve the matter, but the other sentence was faintly domineering The meaning is inside, telling her not to leave, but to wait for him to come back to have lunch together.

Jian Yan felt that she must be crazy, because she seemed to have figured out some great information from his two sentences.

(End of this chapter)