Chapter 525   A Recollection of the Past: The Secrets of the Cloud Reflection Courtyard

When Chen Qing’s situation was mentioned, Mother Chen followed Xinmei down the mountain as expected. She just had such a younger family member, and she planned to ask him to nourish her in her old age and bury her dead body. If something bad happened to Chen Qing, she would die of sadness, so without wasting any time, she simply abandoned the more-dead-than-alive Madam Ling lying on the bed and went down the mountain.

It was not suitable for Ning Xueyan to meet people in Prince Yi’s Manor, so she informed Ao Chenyi of her tour very early and then went to meet Mother Chen in Yuyan Shop.

In the shopkeeper’s room of Yuyan Shop, Mother Chen met Ning Xueyan. Although she found that Ning Xueyan was still plain and neat, she looked proud and refreshed. Mother Chen had bitterness in her heart. No one could expect that Fifth Young Lady Ning, who could not even save her life at that time, would trample on Madam Ling someday.

And now the quite noble Eldest Young Lady and Second Young Lady could only live in the Xia Manor and serve as concubines who were never valued or favored.

When Second Young Lady came in the morning, she clearly noticed that Second Young Lady was not favored; otherwise, how could she just have one maid with her? More terribly, Second Young Lady became a concubine of the Xia Manor that way. Not to mention that the people of the Xia Manor did not appreciate her, even those of the Lord Protector’s Manor depreciated her. Therefore, Mother Chen thought that for Ning Yuling, giving up the Vice Minister of Justice’s Manor and being a concubine of Xia Yuhang at that time was completely an act of ending her future. Besides, she also had a relationship with Princely Heir of Commandery Prince Li in the past.

No matter how lascivious a man is, if someone else has a relationship with his wife, he will not bear it for too long.

“Fifth Young Lady, let your old slave salute you!” Mother Chen heaved a sigh and then knelt down with a thud before Ning Xueyan. Now it was not time to sigh with emotion about the experiences of First Young Lady and Second Young Lady. “Please save my nephew, Fifth Young Lady.”

Just now, Xinmei had made it clear that if she wanted to save Chen Qing, she would have to beseech Ning Xueyan, so when she saw Ning Xueyan after she entered the room, Mother Chen dropped to her knees straight away.

“Don’t you think there seems to be no such kindness between you and me, Mother Chen?” Ning Xueyan said indifferently when she saw Mother Chen in such a state.

Madam Ling had been with an overwhelming advantage in her struggle with Madam Ming almost since she married into the mansion. She framed her opponent time after time and suppressed her again and again, so the people of the Bright Frost Garden and the members of the Auspicious Clouds Courtyard did not like each other at all. It was kind to say that there was still no enmity between them.

“Fifth Young Lady, I know you won’t believe anything I say now, but I had no command over myself back then, and it was all my madam’s idea. What could I do as a servant? Could I disobey the orders of my madam?” Mother Chen said with a grievance and kowtowed hard a few times on the ground before she raised her head again and said solemnly, “What do you want to know, Fifth Young Lady? I will tell you everything I know.”

She knew that it was impossible for Ning Xueyan to have brought her down Mingyuan Temple for no reason, so when she said this, she was a little confident. At least, she was not completely useless.

“I know what you know.” Ning Xueyan gave a small smile and cast a glance at Mother Chen completely indifferently, but when Mother Chen became dumbfounded, she added, “Ning Ziying’s marriage was taken by Ning Ziyan. After that, the night before the wedding, Madam Ling and Ning Ziyan drowned her in the lotus pond with their people, and you, Mother Yun, and a few others were all their accomplices. Of course, your nephew also contributed to it. Those stunning portraits of the beauty should be your nephew’s works, right?”

“Fifth...Fifth Young Lady, you...” Mother Chen did not expect that what Ning Xueyan was speaking of was the affair of the Cloud Reflection Courtyard. Instantly, she was tongue-tied, and what made her more horrified was that Ning Xueyan seemed to have been on-site at that time. “Even if someone knew the drowning of Ning Ziying, nobody but I, Madam, and Eldest Young Lady know the drawing of the erotic paintings. Apart from us, even Eldest Young Lady’s husband has no idea about it, so how could Fifth Young Lady know it?

“Of course, Madam and Eldest Young Lady would not tell it to Fifth Young Lady, and I have never spoken of it before, for sure.”

“You think it’s very strange, right? You may wonder how could I know such a secret matter? Mother Chen, do you really think that I know nothing?” When Ning Xueyan saw Mother Chen staring at her with her eyes wide open in horror and shock, her smile became lighter.

“Fifth Young Lady knows it. Fifth Young Lady even knows such a secret matter.” Mother Chen swallowed hard subconsciously, and she was indeed in a panic. Just now, she thought that she had a bargaining chip to negotiate with Fifth Young Lady, but now she found in surprise that Fifth Young Lady knew everything, so how could she not feel panicky?

When she came down the mountain earlier, she thought so much on the way. “No doubt, Fifth Young Lady asks me to go to her for questions about something. If I behave cleverly, maybe I can use this chance to leave Madam Ling and take my nephew to anywhere we want to escape to, and we will never come back to the capital. Anyway, I have dealt with so many things for Madam Ling over the years and accumulated lots of taels of silver. Unquestionably, I can live well with them for the rest of my life.”

But now Fifth Young Lady even knew such things, so how could she not feel panicky? At this time, she had forgotten to negotiate with Ning Xueyan and only wanted to give her a good impression so that the latter could let her off.

“Tell me a few things of the Cloud Reflection Courtyard, and let me see if they are the same as what I have learned.” Seeing that Mother Chen was ashen in shock, looking like she was frightened out of her wits, Ning Xueyan smiled with a little ridicule on her face. “Of course, if you don’t think you can tell them, you don’t have to tell, Mother Chen.”

“I can, I can, your old slave can tell anything,” Mother Chen said in a panic. “Young Lady Ziying was betrothed to Eldest Young Master Xia in the beginning. It is said that she had been betrothed since she was a child. When she came to live in our Marquis’s Manor, Eldest Young Lady took the fancy to Eldest Young Master Xia. The family backgrounds of the two matched each other quite well, and Madam and the marquis also thought that the one who could really match Eldest Young Master Xia was Eldest Young Lady, so Young Lady Ziying was murdered.”

“It is Madam who asked me to get someone to draw the paintings. It happened that my nephew could draw. For the sake of not wanting more people to know it, Madam asked me to take my nephew to Young Lady Ziying and observe her face stealthily, and then he added another woman’s body. In this way, the paintings would look like the erotic portraits of Young Lady Ziying.”

Mother Chen wiped away her sweat as she spoke, and she tried her best to let Madam Ling take responsibility for all the things. After finishing speaking, she especially looked at Ning Xueyan and saw that she lowered her eyes slightly, having a peaceful expression: without joy or anger. And she could still keep calm when she heard such things.

This meant that she must have known them. That was to say, the current words of Mother Chen were completely valueless.

Mother Chen was anxious and decided to disclose something shocking. “The marriage of Eldest Young Master Xia and Eldest Young Lady was silently approved by the two families, but they just kept it from the people of the Cloud Reflection Courtyard. In the beginning, Madam wanted to drive Young Lady Ziying away, but Eldest Young Master Xia didn’t agree, saying that he wanted to look for a few things, and these things were in the trousseau of Young Lady Ziying. He said that he could marry Eldest Young Lady and also take Young Lady Ziying as his concubine at the same time.”

“Take Ning Ziying as his concubine?” Ning Xueyan was not angry but laughed. “Xia Yuhang’s ‘passionate love’ is ‘true love’ indeed!

“He got the marriage by beseeching with all efforts, but when I became an orphan, he had long gotten betrothed to another woman. If it was just so, it doesn’t matter. But what is the fact? On the one hand, he wanted to seek connections with the Lord Protector’s Manor; on the other hand, he could not give up my trousseau, wanting me to be his concubine.

“The previous fiancée to become a concubine! An ordinary person can’t afford to have such ‘deep love’. Of course, an ordinary person can’t think of such an idea.”

“What happened later?” Ning Xueyan asked with an indifferent look in her eyes.

“Later, when he saw the paintings sent by Madam to him, Eldest Young Master Xia was truly angry. I still remember that when he flipped through them piece by piece, he was so angry that his face even turned dark. I never saw Eldest Young Master Xia be so angry. After throwing the paintings on the ground, he picked them up again and looked at them one by one. He looked at them for a whole hour before throwing them at my feet and then going straight back to the Xia Manor.”

Mother Chen remembered that she was terrified at that time because the “erotic paintings” her madam had asked her to send were all unreal. Seeing the look of Eldest Young Master Xia, she knew that if he found they were fabricated, he would kill her. So, she remained quiet at that time, regarding herself as a piece of wood. After keeping this state for an hour or so, she heard the sound of Eldest Young Master Xia who had calmed down, but he threw the paintings on the ground. “Do as the marchioness said!”

Then she nodded with sweat, and the thing was done!

“Looked at the paintings again and again? Threw them, picked them up, looked at them again, and then threw them again?” Ning Xueyan frowned. Xia Yuhang’s behavior was very strange, but she knew that he was always gentle, and she had rarely seen him in such anger. With a character like his, if Xia Yuhang had truly had suspicions, he would have never thrown them away recklessly.

“This reaction shows that he was furious and shocked because he had lost hope.

“Besides, when such a thing happened, he should have immediately come to question me, right? Why did he go straight back to the Xia Manor and then reappear when Madam Ling and her daughter dealt with me? What did Xia Yuhang do during this time? He got angry? He was angry, but he had agreed to this plot, so what did he come back for?”

According to her understanding of Xia Yuhang, Ning Xueyan felt with her intuition that there was something in it.

“Since Eldest Young Master Xia had agreed to the Madam Ling’s treatment of Sister Ziying, why did he have to come back?” Ning Xueyan asked.

“I don’t know. Both Madam and Eldest Young Lady thought that Eldest Young Master Xia would not come back that night, but he came unexpectedly. But when he arrived, he just stood on the side watching Eldest Young Lady ask some people to drown Young Lady Ziying, but later, he suddenly rushed over like mad and pushed away those few servants executing her, but, but Young Lady Ziying had already died,” Mother Chen swallowed hard and stuttered.

“Xia Yuhang even came to save me?” Ning Xueyan did think that it was funny and had cold ridicule on her lips. “What does this mean? He regretted? He regretted killing me? It’s so funny. When I took the last look in that world at that time, I saw that person through the lake surface stained red with blood.”

“Then you should also know my mother’s affairs, right?” She made an indifferent sound, which had no ups or downs. Looking at Mother Chen who had an expression of showing off her contributions, Ning Xueyan pursed her lips. After all, Ning Xueyan herself knew most things that happened in the Cloud Reflection Courtyard, but now what she was going to ask was Madam Ming’s affairs because she could not figure out a few things. No doubt, there must be secrets about her, too.