Counterattack of the Concubine’s Invincible Daughter

32. I’ll Play Along

Translator: Snowball

One day, Xu Min gathered all the womenfolk of the Mu’s Mansion.

The floral hall was full of people. Aside from the concubines and the young ladies, even the servants from all branches of the mansion were all present. Mu Yingxue couldn’t help but sneer secretly. It seemed that they were going to make a big deal out of it.

In that case, she had no choice but to keep her company until the end.

Noticing almost everyone was here, Hongling, Xu Min’s leading maidservant, interrupted the whispers, “Attention, please. Madam Xu has something to say!” Then she retreated aside.

Everyone stopped talking and looked at Xu Min in the seat of honour.

With her gaze drifting over most people in the hall, Xu Min was satisfied with the present situation. She liked the feeling of being regarded as the matriarch of the family who was in charge of the big picture.

“It wasn’t a big deal actually.” She tried her best to hide the pride in her eyes, and her face was still calm, “It’s just that some gossip has come to my ears recently, and it makes me feel a little uncomfortable.”

Hearing this, the whispers that had just stopped began again.

Mu Yingxue looked at Xu Min calmly. There was no trace of curiosity or emotions on her face showing that she expected to know more. The most interesting thing about a cat catching a mouse was the process of chasing. Xu Min thought herself as the cat, but Mu Yingxue would not be obedient as a mouse.

Xu Min seemed to have inadvertently glanced at Mu Yingxue’s face, paused for a moment, and then turned away.

“No more random guessing.” Stretching out her hand and gently stroking the fur on the back of Little Jingle, Xu Min looked down and a smile flashed across her lips. “About Mammy Rong’s death, as the matriarch, I will tell you the truth.”

Except for a few insiders, such as Xu Min herself, Mu Yingxue, and Mu Yueli, the rest were more or less shocked to hear that.

Mu Yingxue noticed that Mu Yueli’s gaze toward her today was especially averted. However, this was also easy to understand. For Mu Yueli had failed to hurt her twice and suffered quite a lot afterwards. Given her experience, anyone like her would have had hatred against her target as well as lingering fear of plotting once again.

It would be strange if Mu Yueli could look at her with dignity at this time.

However, it was Xu Min who directed the play today. Small characters like Mu Yueli, who loved to take advantage of the situation, sometimes could not decide her fortune by herself. Mu Yingxue didn’t want to see her for the time being, so she only focused on what Xu Min was going to say next.

Although Xu Min’s eyes were drooping, she knew that everyone was looking toward her. Thus, she raised her eyes and looked around in a very august manner. With a kind smile, she said, “There are rumors saying that Mammy Rong was pushed into the water. Is that true?”

There was a moment of silence in the flower hall. No one dared to speak up casually.

Xu Min didn’t care and continued, “I only thought that people gossiped about this in their spare time. Anyway, without evidence, I cannot invite the Magistrate to investigate it but only take it as a rumor.”

“But yesterday, someone picked up a piece of rough cloth beside the lotus pond at the back of the mountain.” She smiled nobly, trying to keep them guessing. “Guess what’s wrong with this piece of fabric?”

Mu Yingxue sometimes found it laughable. How could these ancient people be so interested in deliberately being mystifying? It was clearly a simple matter, but she thought of herself as smart and made it sound like a complicated situation. It was also ridiculous that others were playing along with the matriarch sincerely or hypocritically.

In Mu Yingxue’s previous life, she had watched so many TV series that she finally summed up a rather childish but ubiquitous fact. The reason why the villain could succeed at the critical moment but finally failed was that the bad guys talked too much. They always wanted to show their status in the story and emphasize their importance. As a result, they would screw things up, and the unlucky ones even lost their lives over it.

At this moment, Xu Min was such a big villain. She could clearly verbalise it with a few words. For example, Mammy Rong wrote the murder’s name on the cloth with her blood. Wasn’t it a nice way to play it? However, Xu Min chose this time to manifest her status as the matriarch of the family, as if she was afraid that others might forget about this.

Mu Yingxue sneered in her heart constantly and even felt that it was a waste of her time in the end. However, since Xu Min wanted to play the game, she could play along. One tricky thing that Mu Yingxue finally realized was that Xu Min was not as confident as she looked. What was she worried about? Interesting. Mu Yingxue seemed to understand something after what had happened recently, especially in the past few days.

Therefore, when everyone was expecting Xu Min to reveal the answer, Mu Yingxue, with a smile in the corner of her eyes, walked to the middle of the flower hall with a light and graceful posture.

Given their response, Xu Min originally found it hard to hide her pride, but she was stunned at the moment. “What are you doing?”

Mu Yingxue smiled at her and said, “Mother, didn’t you ask what’s wrong with the fabric? I’m wondering if there are blood words on it.”

Xu Min blinked twice as if she didn’t know what to do. Since the little wanker took her throne to point that out unexpectedly, she could only embarrass her later!

“She is right. Someone has written some blood words on the cloth. Now that Yingxue could guess that, why don’t you tell us the content and who wrote it?”

Mu Yingxue stared into her eyes for a moment. Xu Min couldn’t stand her piercing gaze anymore, so she had to shift hers.

Mu Yingxue said, “Since Mother only mentioned the cloth with the words written with blood, then the content must have something to do with Mammy Rong’s death. If I’m right, I’m afraid that it is the posthumous letter that Mammy Rong wrote with blood, and the content of it is likely to tell the public who the murderer is.”

Gasps could be heard in the flower hall, and then it returned to silence. Mu Yingxue stared at Xu Min’s surprised expression, a hint of playfulness appearing in the corner of her mouth. She thought to herself, “Since you want to play, then I will join you in a fantastic way.”

After a short time of surprise, Xu Min quickly calmed down. She forced a smile and said, “Yingxue is really smart. Yes, I believe that is a posthumous letter, and it was done by Mammy Rong!”

“But… Mammy Rong can’t read!”

Someone could not help but ask this question in a low voice. When Xu Min saw that it was a cook at Mammy Li’s side, she frowned slightly and thought, “It’s really annoying. Am I stupid enough to create evidence that can be easily exposed?”

Mammy Li pinched the cook’s waist with great force, causing the cook to let out a gasp of pain. When she realized that Mammy Li was blaming her for meddling, she could only suppress the pain silently.

Mu Yingxue glanced at the cook and then Xu Min, as if waiting for her to give a perfect explanation.

Xu Min did not hesitate, “Mammy Rong can’t read, but she has her own way to express what’s in her mind. When a person is about to die, her words are reliable, and she is able to figure out the best way to express her thoughts.”

When she said to the end, her gaze was directed at Mu Yingxue, as if she was indicating something.

Mu Yingxue looked back at her as if she was unaware of the fact that Xu Min was going to testify against her. On the contrary, she was waiting for Xu Min to be lured into the trap she had set step by step, but at the same time, Xu Min was getting into the trap Mu Yingxue had set for her.

“Since Mother has already obtained evidence, then tell us who this malicious person is and bring him or her to justice!”

Mu Yueli’s eyes were full of excitement. She was the person involved. Plus what Xu Min said to her before, she vaguely assumed the purpose why Xu Min had called everyone here with great efforts. It was likely that she wanted to take advantage of the death of Mammy Rong to get rid of Mu Yingxue. No, “likely” didn’t even begin to describe the situation. Mu Yueli was certain that she was right about what was going to happen.

When she thought of this, the way she looked at Mu Yingxue was no longer shifty. Instead, her eyes were gleaming with hatred, pride, and satisfaction.

Stupid… Mu Yingxue didn’t bother herself to pay attention to her. For dealing with this kind of person would only degrade herself.

Xu Min glanced at Mu Yueli with dissatisfaction. She kept reminding Mu Yueli to behave herself, but the latter always forgot who the master of the harem was and kept overstepping boundaries.

As the second daughter of the Grand Preceptor, Xu Min was born noble. These concubines, however, either looked down on her, or tried to sow discord or tell her what she should do. That was enough!

Therefore, she did not follow Mu Yueli’s wish to present the so-called posthumous letter to expose the murderer directly. Instead, she changed the topic unhurriedly and asked Mu Yingxue, “Yingxue, I heard that you went to see Mammy Rong before she died?”

Through the observation of these days, Mu Yingxue had learnt that Xu Min was a typical arrogant and conceited woman. From this question, she could tell that Xu Min had temporarily put the evidence aside. Now it was time to reveal the witness.

“You know that too, mother? I had indeed gone to the kitchen, but I didn’t go there to see Mammy Rong specially. Has Mother heard that my food was poisoned before?”

Xu Min pretended to be ignorant and said in surprise, “Oh, how did that happen?”

“Mother, if you don’t believe me, you can ask Mammy Li. Many cooks were there that day.” Mu Yingxue deliberately mentioned Mammy Li, and she keenly noticed the sneer on Xu Min’s face.

“Mammy Li, is that true?”

Mammy Li quickly walked out from the crowd and knelt down, saying, “Madam, Miss Yingxue did go to the kitchen that day. She asked her maid Liu’er to bring a pot of seafood soup, saying that Madam had asked us to send it to her courtyard. The other dishes had been eaten, but because Miss Yingxue and Madam Ouyang were not feeling well, they didn’t have the seafood soup.”

“So, Miss Yingxue said that she would give us the soup as a reward. I was confused at that time, because Madam didn’t order me to add additional dishes for them, so I had no idea how Miss Yingxue got the soup. I didn’t dare to ask even if I wanted to. However, Miss Yingxue suddenly found the dog in the kitchen adorable. So she picked up a piece of scallops from the soup and fed it to the dog. But the dog… Oh, I was so frightened.”

Mammy Li said word by word logically. Only then did she gingerly raise her head to look at Xu Min’s face. Mu Yingxue listened with interest. She wanted to know how everything would develop.

Xu Min asked, “What happened to the dog? You are making us muddled!”