Chapter 73

Chapter 73 Hairpins Related to Lord Jing

The hairpin looked so familiar, familiar to the point that the pink petals almost seemed to have a color of blood in Qu Moying’s eyes.

A cold shiver was sent down her spine. The only warm thing left in her body was her pounding heart as her limbs felt so numb. A strong feeling of hate hit her. Memories of the past seeped from her veins, soaked in blood.

The pretty hairpin… Once, it was a cherished gift for her that carried someone’s love. Now the cruel truth was revealed in front of her – it was just a gift that couldn’t be more common.

It reminded her of herself in the past life, cherished by someone and then thrown away like filthy garbage when she lost her value.

“Hanyue, I found a talented female handcrafter and asked her to help me make this hairpin. The petals were cut by myself. It’s not the best one, but I hope you like it. If there are more chances, I want to design more accessories for you. Then in the future, all your accessories will be designed by me.”

The Crown Prince’s smile was affectionate as his gaze fell on her gently.

She noticed the small wound on the Crown Prince’s finger just now but didn’t expect it was because of a hairpin for her, which made her feel more sorry.

“Thank you, Your Royal Highness. I really like it but please don’t do it again. As the Crown Prince, you can’t hurt your noble body just for making me a hairpin. People will speak ill of you if they know it.”

Feeling touched deep inside, Ji Hanyue blushed as she lowered her head and bit her lip.

“I’m willing to do it for you, my beautiful confidant. Don’t worry. It’s just a hairpin. After…we get married, and you move into the Eastern Palace, I want to make so many things for you. Hairpins, earrings, jewels… Oh, and hairpins with your name carved on! After we live a long, happy life and pass away, these keepsakes will still be there. People will tell our love story generations after generations,” Pei Luo’an’s voice sounded even more charming.

Pei Luo’an always had acted like a gentleman and treated people well, especially Ji Hanyue after they were engaged. If he saw something nice, he would think of her first and give it to her whenever possible to please her.

Was it why she and her family had such a miserable ending?

Now she looked back on the past and realized how cruel reality was. It hurt so much as if someone stabbed her hard in her heart. Even though she was reborn, the wound was still there, bleeding.

“My lady…what’s wrong with the hairpins?” Yu Dong asked cautiously. He had always been good at reading people’s minds. He noticed the change in Qu Moying’s expression immediately and saw her lips that turned pale.

“Nothing wrong. I just feel they look familiar to me.” Qu Moying took a deep breath to suppress her boiling emotions.

“Familiar? You have seen this kind of royal hairpins before, my lady?” Yu Dong blinked and asked in confusion. Before he took the maid job, he had known the Fourth Lady’s background from Lord Yun’s thorough investigation of her. She was just a girl who grew up in a village outside the city, so she couldn’t possibly see any royal hairpins before.

“Has this kind of royal hairpins become popular recently?” Qu Moying ignored his question and asked back.

“Yes. I heard it was designed by a maid in the royal palace and is adored by many royal madams. So, it has become trendy recently,” Yu Dong responded.

“For how long?” Qu Moying’s eyes darkened as she lowered her head.

“Since about a month ago,” Yu Dong sounded a bit uncertain about his answer. He actually didn’t care about this kind of girly thing very much since there was no such woman around Lord Yun.

“Around the Crown Prince’s wedding?” asked Qu Moying.

“Yes! It was around the Crown Prince’s wedding.” Yu Dong clapped his hand and kept nodding, “Right, right. The trend started around that time.”

“Before the wedding or after the wedding?” Qu Moying clenched her hanky hard. Ever through the hanky, her nails were dug deep in her palms as she pressed her lips into a straight line.

“Let me think about it.” Yu Dong did some counting with his fingers and then said for certain, “It should be a few days before the wedding!”

A few days before the wedding, she didn’t even know the so-called personally made hairpin had already been popular in the royal palace. She released her lips and curled them into a sarcastic smile.

After she knew all Pei Luo’an’s lies, she realized how blind she was in the past life.

If she could know even a little bit of the truth, her life wouldn’t end so miserably. It’s not that the Crown Prince’s lie didn’t have any flaw, but her own ignorance led her situation to a dead end.

“My lady, I heard the maid who designed the hairpin worked for Noble Consort He. These hairpins given by the Third Lady should be from Lord Jing.” Yu Dong didn’t notice Qu Moying’s mood, still deep in his thoughts.

“A maid in Noble Consort He’s palace designed this?” Qu Moying calmed herself down and asked.

“Yes, a maid in Noble Consort He’s palace. I heard about it from some maids working for Noble Consort He when I went to the royal palace with Lord Yun one time,” Yu Dong answered after taking a few seconds to think.

Noble Consort He? The Crown Prince?

Qu Moying felt something was weird about it. Weren’t these two rivals? Did it mean Pei Luo’an went to ask for Noble Consort He’s help because he wanted to make the hairpin to please Ji Hanyue? But it didn’t make any sense! Was there any other reason?

She picked up one of the hairpins and sniffed it. There was a faint fragrance exuded from it, refreshing, appealing, but familiar especially for her. It was already one month later, but she still remembered this smell clearly. A trace of shock showed up on Qu Moying’s face. The hairpin dropped from her hand and made a small noise when it landed on the ground.

“My lady, what happened?” Yu Chun asked hurriedly. The two maids were in shock as well – they had never seen their master acted like this.

Qu Moying reached out her trembling hand to pick up the hairpin and sniffed it again. It was the same faint, appealing smell like the one in her memory.

She had cherished this hairpin in her past life after receiving it since it was personally made by Pei Luo’an. She liked it so much that she kept it in her drawer and only took it out to look at it sometimes. Once Pei Luo’an jokingly said he wanted to see her wear it, which was the only time she put it on her hair. That was why she remembered it so clearly. However, something unexpected happened at that time.

It was in the Eastern Palace. On behalf of her father, she visited the Crown Prince with Ji Youran to send him a gift. After the two entered the Eastern Palace, they ran into Lord Jing, so they sat down in a pavilion and had a chat. Then Ji Youran went to get changed with her maid, and the Crown Prince was delayed by something and hadn’t come to meet them yet. Suddenly, only she and Lord Jing were left in the pavilion.

The three of them had some fruit wine together. While talking with Lord Jing, she started to feel very tired and leaned on the table. She didn’t even know when she fell asleep. A while later, she opened her eyes and found herself and Lord Jing sitting in an intimate position. Lord Jing wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and she looked like leaning on Lord Jing’s chest.

The weird situation made her wake up in shock. She immediately pushed Lord Jing away from her and found Lord Jing drunk too. It seemed like they both fell asleep by the table and somehow ended up moving too close to each other.

Her push woke up Lord Jing. Noticing the situation, Lord Jing became flustered too. He kept apologizing to her and excused himself to leave immediately. In the end, he didn’t even meet the Crown Prince at that time.

The situation was very odd, but luckily, only Lord Jing’s trusted servant and her maid were around, so no one would know about it. Although she was extremely panicked after waking up, slowly, she calmed herself down. After a while, Ji Youran returned, and then Pei Luo’an came over.

When she saw Pei Luo’an, he was clearly not in a good mood. She simply thought he might have some trouble in his work and even tried to comfort him. However, her words were no use, and they ended up sitting there together with a sullen face. Soon, she left with Ji Youran. Pei Luo’an, who always acted like a gentleman in front of her, surprisingly didn’t walk them out at that time, only waving his hand to let them leave.

Technically, she and Pei Yusheng made a big mistake, disobeying etiquette. But it was just an accident, and no one saw it, so Ji Hanyue soon forgot about it. Now, this familiar smell reminded her of that weird situation immediately – the truth finally revealed itself.

There was a smell that only belonged to a particular herb hidden in the fragrance. It was faint, not easy to tell, but people would feel exhausted and sleepy after smelling it.

In her past life, Ji Hanyue didn’t know about this. But in this life as Qu Moying, she learned a lot of medical knowledge from Granny Miao and could distinguish it at once.

Not until today did she know that she fell asleep that day not because of the fruit wine but this hairpin.

Was she framed by Pei Luo’an, or were she and Pei Luo’an fooled by someone else? Since Ji Youran hooked up with Pei Luo’an long ago, she definitely had a way to reach that hairpin “handmade” by Pei Luo’an.

“Someone put in a particular herb while making the fragrance on the hairpin. Once people smell it, they will fall asleep,” Qu Moying said in a flat tone with a stern look in her eyes.

“The Third Lady wants to set you up again?” Yu Dong immediately understood it.

“The smell is very faint. Even though someone notices, they can just claim it’s a soothing herb, and an Imperial Doctor can’t even argue back.” Qu Moying curled up her lips. If she didn’t go through that odd situation in her past life, she wouldn’t even care about it after noticing the weird smell.

It was just a very faint smell, and feeling sleepy didn’t mean losing consciousness. Of course, with the effect of some fruit wine, it then would make people lose consciousness for a while.

Exactly like what happened that day…

“The Third Lady hasn’t given up on harming you, my lady!” Yu Dong said aggrievedly.

“If I don’t die, both she and Yu won’t give up.” Qu Moying’s tone was still surprisingly calm as if she wasn’t talking about herself.

However, this kind of calmness somehow set the whole room into silence.

Everyone fell into their own thoughts, in shock and sadness. After a while, Yu Chun looked at the box and asked, “My lady, since you can’t wear them, let’s keep them in a safe spot.”

“It’s okay as long as they are locked inside. Let’s just put the box here,” Qu Moying put the hairpin in her hand back into the box and closed it.

Yu Chun took the box and glanced at Qu Moying, waiting for her order.

“Put in at an obvious spot on my dressing table,” said Qu Moying while looking at the dressing table in the room. Every female guest’s main room had one, thoughtfully prepared by the Dabei Temple.

Since Qu Qiuyan planned to change her strategy, she must use someone else to carry out her scheme this time. It couldn’t be Qu Caiyue who had enough trouble herself, so the next one was probably Yu Qingmeng. If so, Qu Moying would for sure give her a “warm” welcome…

As expected, Qu Moying heard about Yu Qingmeng’s arrival in the afternoon. She nodded while showing a faint smile and didn’t pay much attention to the news.

But a while later, Yu Qingmeng came unasked. She only took a maid here, and Qu Qiuyan was not with her this time.

Yu Dong opened the door and walked her inside. Seeing Yu Qingmeng dressed up as a married woman, Qu Moying wore a calm smile and didn’t show any displease for her ruined engagement.

“Fourth Lady Qu, I’m here to apologize to you on behalf of the madam,” contrast to her words, Yu Qingmeng’s tone was quite rude. She acted as if she was still the noble lady of the Yu Family, which was annoying.

Obviously, she still thought highly of herself and believed she would become Young Master Xu’s official wife one day.

Qu Moying let Yu Chun serve her tea. Then she took a sip from her own cup and raised her head to look at Yu Qingmeng. After knowing Yu Qingmeng’s arrival, Qu Moying was aware that this meeting couldn’t be avoided.

But it was sooner than she expected…