Chapter 72

Chapter 72 Time to Change the Strategy

“What did my mother say?” Qu Qiuyan asked the old maid sent by Yu with a sullen face after returning to her yard.

“My lady, the Second Madam asked you not to interfere anymore. Lady Yu has arrived at the Dabei Temple today.” The old maid talking was a servant that Yu trusted the most.

“Yu Qingmeng is here too? What is she doing here?” Qu Qiuyan asked in annoyance.

Before, Qu Qiuyan still treated Yu Qingmeng nicely. For her, Yu Qingmeng was more like a sister compared to Qu Moying. However, everything had changed. Yu Qingmeng became a shameful concubine who was carried into the Marquis Yongning’s Mansion by a sedan. Keeping a good relationship with her would only embarrass Qu Qiuyan.

“The Second Madam thinks it’s good timing, so she asked Lady Yu to come here. If anything happens later, Lady Yu can be the spokesperson. Madam doesn’t want you to be involved at all,” the old maid told Qu Qiuyan what Yu said.

Her words calmed Qu Qiuyan down and suppressed her disdain. She frowned and suddenly asked, “Did my cousin come here by herself or with Young Master Xu?”

“They came here together, of course, since Lady Yu has married into the Marquis Yongning’s Family already. Lady Yu is just a concubine for now. However, as long as Young Master Yongning is fond of her, and you, my lady, get to a higher status, the Marquis Yongning’s Family will be willing to promote Lady Yu for your sake. When Lady Yu becomes a real madam, she can be a great help for you again, my lady,” the old maid whispered beamingly.

Her words sounded convincing enough for Qu Qiuyan, who nodded and said, “Tell my mother I know what to do, and I won’t make a move by myself. In terms of people who dislike Qu Moying, my dear cousin should be the first one!”

“Yes, that’s right, my lady.” The old maid kept nodding.

In the old maid’s opinion, the Third Lady had always been a smart girl, but sometimes she was a bit too impulsive, which was the Second Madam worried about. That was why the Second Madam sent her to remind the Third Lady.

As long as the Third Lady was calm and acted after a second thought, the Fourth Lady couldn’t possibly fool her.

No matter how much the Old Lady liked the Fourth Lady, she couldn’t do anything serious to the Third Lady since the Third Lady had Lord Jing’s support. With Lord Jing, the Old Lady couldn’t afford to offend the Third Lady.

Qu Qiuyan asked more about Yu Qingmeng and Xu Lipeng and then waved at the old maid to let her leave.

For Qu Qiuyan, she didn’t need to do anything more since Yu Qingmeng was here. She overestimated Qu Caiyue too much before and almost was affected by that stupid girl. Luckily, Second Young Master Yan was not as foolish as Qu Caiyue. Otherwise, the consequence could be destructive.

Rumors were spread, but none of the two people involved confessed. Plus, the Old Lady didn’t give any actual punishment to Qu Caiyue, which was the best outcome Qu Qiuyan could expect.

Thinking about all the things that happened recently, Qu Qiuyan admitted that she acted a bit too impulsively.

She initially thought Qu Moying was just a useless blind girl, but it turned out that she was kind of smart. It’s time to change the strategy, Qu Qiuyan thought.

If a lightning strike couldn’t take Qu Moying’s life, then she would do it slowly as how a creek flowed.

“Here, help me send Moying some of these jeweled hairpins,” after Qu Qiuyan made up her mind, she said to Qing Ju, her maid standing aside.

“My lady, are you sure?” Qing Ju raised her eyes and gazed at Qu Qiuyan in shock, who suddenly acted like a different person.

“What? Moying doesn’t have many accessories. What’s wrong with me giving her some hairpins as her older sister?” Qu Qiuyan smiled meaningfully as she picked up one of the jeweled hairpins. It was made delicately, decorated with handcrafted pink flowers with purple pistils, but didn’t look too fancy.

Every one of the four jeweled hairpins was distinct from each other, looking adorable.

These were all newly made products from the royal palace, not the luxurious ones but not easily accessible to ordinary noble ladies. Lord Jing sent these in private as a gift to Qu Qiuyan, and there were only eight of them. It was very generous of Qu Qiuyan to give four to Qu Moying.

“Don’t you like these hairpins the most, my lady?” Qing He asked. Seeing Qu Qiuyan’s calm face was a big relief for her, and she finally dared to utter words.

“They are just some hairpins. If Moying likes them, I can give her all and ask some more from His Royal Highness,” Qu Qiuyan said in an indifferent voice as she curled up her lips.

The more she thought about what she had done before, the more foolish she felt. She was thinking too simply about burning Qu Moying to death in one go. Even though Qu Moying was just a blind girl who grew up in the village, that didn’t mean she was stupid. Such a straightforward trap didn’t work on her.

The best way was to do it slowly but surely, like using a blunt knife to cut meat. What’s more, this blunt knife shouldn’t even be noticed by Qu Moying.

“Yes, my lady. You treat the Fourth Lady so nicely,” Qing Ju flattered.

“We are sisters. Of course, I should treat her like this. Hurry and send them to Moying. My cousin should arrive soon. After Lady Yu gets to our yard, invite her to come over. It’s been a while since I saw her last time.”

A disdainful smile showed up on Qu Qiuyan’s face. If it wasn’t that Yu Qingmeng still had some value to her, meeting her would be the last thing Qu Qiuyan wanted to do.

Lady Yu was no longer the decent, graceful noble lady before, but rather just a low-life concubine.

Concubine Yu? What a shame!

But Qu Qiuyan had to keep up with her image as an amiable sister or cousin, facing Qu Moying or Yu Qingmeng. She needed to make people think she was the innocent one who treated her family nicely so that no one would blame her for what would happen later.

Of course, giving Qu Moying those jeweled hairpins was showing her good intention. So, if anything happened to Qu Moying, no one would blame it on her. Thinking about this, a trace of guile flashed across Qu Qiuyan’s eyes. She was going to kill two birds with one stone this time. No ordinary person was qualified to get those hairpins from Lord Jing – they had to deserve it first.

Qing Ju responded to her master’s order, picked up the box containing four jeweled hairpins from the table, and left.

After leaving her master’s yard, Qing Ju walked toward Qu Moying’s yard. The guest yard provided by the Dabei Temple was not large. Even though these two yards were separated by the other two ladies’ and the Old Lady’s, she soon arrived at the door of Qu Moying’s yard.

When Qing Ju was about to knock on the door, it suddenly opened as Yu Dong walked out. Seeing Qing Ju, he smiled, “Miss Qing Ju? What brings you here?”

The two masters didn’t see things eye to eye, neither did the two maids.

“The Third Lady notices the Fourth Lady doesn’t have many accessories, so she asked me to bring her some jeweled hairpins,” Qing Ju grinned as she showed Yu Dong the box in her hands.

“That’s very kind of the Third Lady. Follow me in!” Yu Dong seemed to cancel her plan of going out, turned around, and said amiably.

Following Yu Dong, Qing Ju stepped into the main room where Qu Moying sat while reading a book. She hurriedly walked up, curtsied to the Fourth Lady, and showed her the accessory box. “Fourth Lady, the Third Lady notices you don’t have many accessories, so she asked me to bring some jeweled hairpins to you. They are just a small gift from the Third Lady, not very valuable. She hopes you don’t mind.”

When Qu Moying just came back to the mansion, Qing Ju and Qing He both looked down on Qu Moying as Qu Qiuyan’s maids. They were unwilling to treat Qu Moying as a master in the mansion and curtsy to her, and they even teased her often. However, after what happened to Qing He, Qing Ju didn’t dare to offend Qu Moying again.

Now she acted like an ordinary maid in front of Qu Moying.

“Please let Third Sister know that I’m very grateful,” said Qu Moying as Yu Dong took the box from Qing Ju’s hands.

“The Third Lady said you don’t need to mention it, and this is what sisters should be like, my lady. There was some misunderstanding between you and the Third Lady before you got to know each other, but sisters are still sisters. For the Fourth Lady, you are the closest person here.” Qing Ju beamed while making her words sound as pretty as possible.

Indeed, in terms of blood, Qu Qiuyan and Qu Moying were the closest among the four ladies.

However, Qu Moying would rather not have this connection with her through blood.

She already had a good lesson on how malicious Yu and her daughter could be after she was reborn. By any means, they wanted to take Qu Moying’s life, a poor girl who lost her mother and grew up in the village. Burning, drowning, disfiguring her, and injuring her eyes – all the things they tried to do after she came back to the mansion showed clearly enough their guile and viciousness.

Now, their strategy changed because all the previous ones had failed, and they realized Qu Moying was not easy to deal with as they expected.

The conversation with Qing Ju was short since she left soon after finishing her job. She excused herself for leaving politely, and Yu Dong walked her out. He didn’t close the door and return until he made sure Qing Ju had left. It seemed like he had something more important to do now instead of heading to the kitchen to ask for some snacks.

“My lady, what’s the Third Lady’s intention?” Yu Dong asked right after he stepped back inside. Although he was clever, he had always stayed around Ji Hai and didn’t have a good understanding of how women thought yet. “Does she intend to make peace with you after she tried to set you up?”

“No.” Qu Moying opened the accessory box on the table and curled her lips into a smile, “It seems like they’ve prepared something else for me.”

“My lady, what do you mean?” Yu Dong asked in confusion. Even Yu Chun leaned closer with a curious face.

“They have come up with another plan to frame me. If anything happens to me, people won’t suspect Qu Qiuyan since she treats me better than my two cousins. She wants to prove she does a good job as an older sister by sending me the jeweled hairpins,” Qu Moying said carelessly as she curled up her lips.

The better Qu Qiuyan treated her, the more possible that they would frame her again.

“My lady, do you want me to send someone to keep an eye on the Third Lady? I brought two men here to guarantee your safety,” Yu Dong sounded worried.

“No need. Qu Qiuyan can’t do anything since she wants to become Madam Jing. Her identity was not qualified enough, so she had to be outstanding in other aspects to make up for it. The most basic one was her behavior, or she can’t even get the approval of Noble Consort He.” Qu Moying’s eyes darkened.

Noble Consort He, another familiar name!

“But my lady, didn’t she try to get rid of you by herself before?” Yu Dong still couldn’t figure it out.

“Yeah, but that was before. At that time, Qu Qiuyan thought I was just a weak girl who couldn’t do anything against her. She believed she could get rid of me even more easily than getting rid of a maid in one go, and no one would care. Now, she has to change her strategy since she realizes it’s impossible. Yu must tell her something different this time. From now on, Qu Qiuyan will play her role of a good sister,” said Qu Moying meaningfully.

Her gaze behind the veil fell on those jeweled hairpins. When she took a careful look at them, her expression suddenly changed as her heart started to pound in her chest. Almost trembling, she picked up one hairpin…