Cottages.
âDo you mean that Jianlianâs legs are injured and canât walk?â Commandery Princess Qingjiang touched a golden bracelet on her wrist and frowned. She asked, âDoctor Han, canât you cure her? I hold this party to make these young ladies happy. But now Cui Jianlian is injured. Shall I ask people to carry her back to the Cui Family? How can I tell the Cui Family and the Noble Consort?â
Cui Jianlian looked pale and smiled faintly, âYour Highness, donât be so serious. How can I blame you? Itâs I who donât manage my people well to make it happen.â
Jiang Muting glared at her, âSay it clearly! Donât be unintelligible. Other people may think I push you!â
âMiss Jiang, you are clear about what happened!â Cui Jianlianâs maid protested with tears, âEveryone saw it! Even if Miss Jiang forgets how it happened, many people outside will tell you the truth!â
Then she knelt down again to Commandery Princess Qingjiang and accused in tears, âYour Highness, please make a fair judgement for my lady!â
Commandery Princess Qingjiang didnât straighten her face to the maid at this time. She shot Jiang Muting a warning look and then said, âThe most important thing now is Jianlianâs condition. Talk about other things later after I ask imperial doctor!â
âYes!â Jiang muting stifled her anger and lowered her head after Baoying pinched her secretly.
âDoctor Han, is she injured seriously?â Commandery Princess Qingjiang turned to ask the old doctor with white hair and beard. She looked so worried on her face, âHow canât she stand up?â
Doctor Han stroked his long beard and pondered. Then he said, âSince Commandery Princess asked me, I dare not keep silent. Iâm good at treating internal injury. But I know less about wounds. Miss Cui is fine according to her pulse condition. But why canât she stand up? Well⦠please forgive my incapability.â
After realizing doctorâs meaning, Commandery Princess Qingjiang looked dark for a moment. Then she turned to tell Zhenli, âAsk our people to go back to the imperial capital by horse soon, and invite an imperial doctor who is good at treating wounds!â
Zhenli said yes and went out to transmit her order.
âIs Miss Cui scared so that she canât stand up?â When the room was silent due to Commandery Princess Qingjiangâs unpleasant emotion, Song Yixiao suddenly raised her head and asked carefully, âMaybe itâs not serious. Miss Cui might get better after lying for a while!â
Hearing that, Cui Jianlian shivered suddenly and then turned her head to the wall, as if she couldnât bear her casual words. âMiss Song, what sarcastic comments youâve make!â Cui Jianlianâs maid said angrily to stick up for her lady, âEven if you donât fall down, you can say so coldly! My lady fell down from dozens of steps! Why donât you have a try?â
Jinxun refuted, âThe imperial doctor has said that Miss Cuiâs pulse condition is okay. In that case, is my lady wrong to say your lady may be fine? Do you hope your lady weak?â
âStop!â Cui Jianlian turned around and sobbed to stop her maid. She said, âXiaoman, stop saying. Anyway, we did wrong first. Although Iâm injured, it will be good to disarm Sister Mutingâ¦â
âMiss Cui, your words seem to mean that my lady deliberately pushed you down the mountain road because your maid broke the hairpin given by elder lady.â Baoying said without any emotion, âIâm confused why you didnât stay at room to wait for my lady to talk when your maid did something wrong. Instead, you and your maid went to mountain road to pick flowers as usual. Are you afraid my lady isnât angry?â
Then she sneered, âEveryone knows my lady is innocent and filial towards elders. She especially loves our elder lady. How canât she feel anxious after she heard the thing given by elder lady was broken?â
Jiang Muting also sneered, âIf I really push her on the flat ground, she wonât have reasons to be too injured to stand up.â
âI know Sister Muting perishes jade dangling ornaments which are given by elder lady of the Jiang Family.â Cui Jianlian wiped her tears elegantly, laughing at herself. Then she said, âSo I was thinking how to apologize to Sister Muting after hearing it today. I came to cottages earlier than Sister Muting and saw beautiful flowers below. So I wanted to pick some flowers to Sister Muting to show my apology. But I didnât expect that it didnât work and made Sister Muting misunderstand me!â
Then she sobbed, âIn fact, who want to be injured and lie on the bed deliberately at this juncture?â
Hearing that, Jiang Muting and Baoying secretly had a look at Song Yixiao. Cui Jianlian finally said that!
It was the most difficult point to refute Cui Jianlian. Many servants in cottages saw Jiang Muting stretching out her arms and then Cui Jianlian falling down. Cui Jianlian also explained why she was on the mountain road with her maid instead of waiting in the room.
But!
Jiang Muting also had a high status!
Servants of Commandery Princess Qingjiang almost said the same thing like Ji Su, unless Commandery Princess Qingjiang stood by Cui Jianlian clearly. They said, âWe saw Miss Cui and Miss Jiang talking with each other. We donât know whether Miss Cui fell by accident or Miss Jiang pushed her down⦠We were far from them and nether know what they talked nor saw it clear. So we really donât know what happened!â
After all, the Jiang Family was so powerful. No one wanted be hated by them!
As mentioned earlier, the Jiang Familyâs status was a little higher than that of the Cui Family. Both of them were able to ask people to frame or slander each other. They didnât fear to be blamed by it.
The way Cui Jianlian framed was not clever. But she did that at the opportune moment.
Princes and male nobles were choosing their future wives in the feast today. In such a special period, no one would pretend to be injured even if they were really uncomfortable.
Especially, according to hearsay, Cui Jianlian had already been decided to marry Prince of Liang!
So when she said âat this juncture,â which was enough to reply Jiang Mutingâs all questions. There was no enmity between the Cui Family and the Jiang Family. Why did Cui Jianlian sacrifice her future to frame Jiang Muting?
In this case, Jiang Muting might push her down at that time!
There was a long silence in the room. Jiang Muting and people supported her seemed to have nothing more to say. They all looked dark and kept silent.
The atmosphere gradually became serious. Finally, Cui Jianlian broke the logjam, âWhat Miss Song said is not wrong. I was so scared at that moment! So I canât remember how it happened. But I believe in Sister Muting. She didnât want to hurt me!â
She sighed, âLetâs just tell other people that I fell down due to my carelessness! Your Highness, please forgive me. It is caused by me. Iâm sorry to waste your time and cast a damp over you!â
Commandery Princess Qingjiang raised her eyebrows and looked at Jiang Muting. She asked, âWhat do you think?â
âIâ¦â Jiang Muting muttered, looking at Baoying and Song Yixiao. Her eyes flashed guilt, which was found by Cui Jianlian lying on the bed. Cui Jianlian narrowed her eyes and looking down to hide her joy in her eyes.
âI stretched out my hands because I wanted to save Miss Cui!â Jiang Muting forced herself to calm down and said in a little trembling voice, âThe reason why she fell is actually⦠actuallyâ¦â
Obviously, she hesitated at present so that she couldnât say Song Yixiaoâs name.
Cui Jianlian was waiting patiently. Suddenly, there was a noise outside the door!
Commandery Princess Qingjiang frowned and wanted to ask her servant to stop the noise. Then she heard footsteps outside the door, âSnake! Someone destroyed snakeâs den by accident. Your Highness should leave now. Donât stay here!â The person outside the door shouted.
âWhat?â
Few girls didnât fear animals like snakes or scorpions, especially ladies who always enjoyed wealth and honor. As soon as they heard âsnakeâs den,â ladies and maids in the room were all frightened without seeing a snake!
When the door was opened, a maid with servant clothes of the Zhanchun Venue appeared at the door in a panic and said hurriedly, âYour Highness, a servant found a hole behind the room and thought it belonged to hares. After the hold was dug up, we found it was a snakeâs den! Now snakes are shocked and crawl around. Hereâ¦â
Before she finished speaking, she suddenly screamed and jumped back. People in the room were stunned to see where she had stood had a brown snake!
âThis snake is very poisonous!â The maid began to know the situation after retreating. She cried and said, âWe should take it away. Donât let it hurt Her Highness Commandery Princess!â
You had jumped out of the door before saying thatâ¦
Except Commandery Princess Qingjiang, all people in the room were so indignant. They looked at each other. Finally, Baoying stood out and took a wrap to drive it away. âGo! Go!â
But when she was close to the brown snake, they saw a scared scene. The brown snake tucked out its tongue and quickly jumped to the wrap!
âOh my!â Baoying cried out loudly. She couldnât care about anything in a panic and directly threw the wrap away, crumpling and shivering!
No one knew whether Baoying was deliberate or not. Anyway, she threw the wrap with the snake to Cui Jianlianâs bed!
Then they saw that Cui Jianlian, who just said that she couldnât stand up, quickly threw back the covers to get out of the bed and hid behind Xiaoman. She moved so soon, elegantly and lightly, which didnât like a person whose legs were injured. Few people could move better than her!
âMiss Cui is really agile!â Song Yixiao finally put her mind at ease and the fear on her face disappeared soon. She said with a half-smile, âIâve said that you were just terrified by the accident. You are fine, arenât you?â
Cui Jianlian just recovered hardly from a recent shock. Hearing that, she felt strange and turned around instantly. Then she saw calm faces of Song Yixiao, Jinxun and Jiang Muting. Baoying looked terrified just now. But at present, she stood up and smiled with other three people. They ignored Cui Jianlian and knelt down to Commandery Princess Qingjiang, as well as the maid who told them the messages outside. They apologized, âThe snakesâ den is a lie. We are sorry to offend you, Your Highness. Please punish us!â
Commandery Princess Qingjiang touched the golden bracelet on her wrist and didnât look at them. She stared at Cui Jianlian casually and asked, âJianlian, do you hate my party or me? The Shangsi Festival is held annually. Why do you make trouble on this day?â