Chapter 375
Seeing this situation, Yu Chun could only put Qu Moying’s qin set in her hands on an empty chair nearby temporarily.
It should not be a difficult task for the three maids to move the chair together. But even though the three of them worked together, there were still problems: they couldn’t exert their strength in a proper manner or they moved in three different directions. They did not move it faster than before, and the three of them were so tired that they were sweating.
Qu Moying looked at these maids coldly, and the corners of her lips silently curved up. If she still couldn’t see anything wrong until now, she was really too careless.
There were other maids here in addition to the two maids she brought with her, but both of her maids were now busy helping another maid!
She heard the sound from the stairs again and saw a maid coming up with three cups of tea.
The maid went to the other two ladies first.
“Why is tea served again?” One of the young ladies asked in surprise. Tea had just been served not long ago, and it was still quite warm.
The maid explained with a smile, “County Lady Jingyu brought some tea over and said that it is different from our Prefectural Princess’ tea. She asks the ladies to try her tea to see if her tea is better or our Prefectural Princess’ tea is better.”
Hearing her words, the two ladies immediately understood. They nodded with a smile and moved aside a little. There were a lot of fruits and pastries on the table.
The maid gently put two cups of tea down and then turned to Qu Moying. She walked up to Qu Moying and bent her knees slightly. Then, she went forward and was about to put down the teacup in her hand.
Qu Moying’s eyes fell on the cup of tea. The cup was not full, containing at most half a cup or even no more than half a cup of tea. She looked at the tea thoughtfully.
“Liu Jingyu asked her to serve the tea?”
The maid walked up with a smile, but she seemed to accidentally kick something that she staggered and almost lost hold of the teacup. Fortunately, the maid reacted quickly, hurriedly put down the teacup, and pressed her hands heavily on the table. She wanted to stabilize her body by holding the table.
The teacup in her hand heavily smashed onto a plate of pastries. The pastries flipped over, and the teacup also flipped over. The tea poured out, and the teacup rolled down and heavily fell to the ground, breaking into several pieces.
Things happened too fast. When everyone turned around, the maid had already fallen to the ground, the teacup and pastries were scattered on the ground, and the tea was splashed.
Yu Dong was the first to react. He threw down the chair, ran over, and asked anxiously, “Lady, are… are you alright?”
“I’m fine!” Qu Moying shook her hand and carefully looked at the maid who fell to the ground.
Yu Dong was still worried. “Lady, are you splashed by the tea?”
The water was hot. Even if Qu Moying was just splashed, it might be hurting.
Qu Moying stood up by holding Yu Dong’s hand. Yu Chun also came over to check. Fortunately, Qu Moying reacted quickly and leaned back so she was not splashed by the tea.
Seeing that Qu Moying was fine, Yu Chun and Yu Dong heaved a sigh of relief. Yu Dong immediately looked at the maid from Grand Princess’ Mansion with a hostile expression. “Why are you so careless?”
The maid who was carrying the chair also hurried over and apologized for the maid who had fallen to the ground, “Sorry, sorry.”
The maid on the ground stood up with the help of the maid who had just been moving the chair. Except that her clothes were wet, the maid who had just fallen looked fine. After standing up, she knelt down in a panic to Qu Moying. “Lady, it’s… it’s my fault. Please forgive me. I will clean it up right away… I will clean it up…”
She was trembling. It could be seen that what happened just now also frightened her.
Yu Dong said grumpily. “Look at this place. It’s a mess. The tea almost splashed on our lady.”
“I’m sorry. I… I will clean it up now.” The maid said pitifully. She looked up, and she looked so scared that tears were about to roll down her face.
“Lady…” Yu Dong looked at Qu Moying and saw that she nodded noncommittally. Then, he snorted and said to the maid coldly, “Don’t make any more trouble.”
“It won’t happen. I… I will be very careful.” The maid said hurriedly. Then, she went to the side to look for cleaning tools.
The maid who had just carried the chair looked at Yu Dong and Yu Chun pitifully. “Sisters, can you help me carry the chair again? We’re almost there.”
Yu Dong said grumpily, “I’m not going. Something nearly happened to our lady.”
The maid pointed at the chair and said, “It’s almost done. After reaching the stairs, I will call the maids downstairs to help.”
Just now, the three of them moved the chair together towards the stairs. If not for what happened just now, they would have reached the stairs by now.
It was only a short distance between the chair and the stairs.
Yu Chun looked at Qu Moying hesitantly, only to see Qu Moying nod at her. She could only helplessly pull Yu Dong’s hand, indicating for Yu Dong to help together.
Yu Dong still looked reluctant, but Yu Chun tugged at his sleeve a few times. He looked at the distance between the stairs and the chair and found that the distance was really short, so he could only reluctantly go to offer help.
After Yu Dong and Yu Chun left, the maid who had just fallen to the ground came over with cleaning tools and bowed to Qu Moying. “Lady, can you please go to have a chat with the two young ladies over there temporarily? Let me clean up this place.”
This place was indeed a mess. There were pastries, tea, and fragments of the teacup on the ground. It was not suitable for Qu Moying to stand here.
Qu Moying looked up at the two young ladies over there. The noise just now had alarmed the two young ladies over there, but now they had already withdrawn their attention as if they hadn’t noticed what had happened just now. They were talking and whispering to each other from time to time, looking very intimate.
It was not convenient for Qu Moying to go down the stairs. If she did not join those two ladies, the best place to go was the balcony outside the window.
She was only two steps away from the balcony.
The balcony facing her was close to the artificial hill. She could enjoy not only the scenery of the lake on the opposite side but also the artificial hill and the water on the other side of the balcony. The balcony was a good place to enjoy the scenery. Water was flowing down from the artificial hill, and there was water splashing from time to time, but if she stood a little further, she would not be splashed.
There were light traces of water on the balcony.
There was also a trace of water near Qu Moying, but it was very faint and almost invisible. It just made the ground look damp. Perhaps it was the water splashed from the artificial hill. Since there were traces of water everywhere on the balcony, a small damp pit was not conspicuous and would not attract attention.
It seemed that Qu Moying could only go to the balcony to wait for the maid to finish the cleaning.
As a polite noble lady, Qu Moying knew that she’d better not disturb the other two noble ladies, who did not know her and seemingly did not want to talk to her.
Qu Moying nodded. She turned around and walked towards the balcony. Just as one of her feet stepped on the balcony, behind her, the maid, whose eyes were red just now, heaved a heavy sigh of relief in her heart and even unconsciously revealed a smile on her face.
But in the next moment, the smile froze on her face. She saw Qu Moying suddenly turn around and felt that Qu Moying’s eyes under the eye veil seemed to fall on her face. There was a faint smile on Qu Moying’s face.
She immediately felt a chill all over her body. She lowered her head and said in a panic, “Lady, I will immediately clean it up. You only need to stand for a while. After cleaning it up, I will go to the butler of the mansion to be punished.”
It would be less serious if she took the initiative to ask for punishment from the butler than being dragged away.
The maid knew it, and so did Qu Moying.
But they considered things from different angles. The maid was from the angle of a servant, and Qu Moying was from the angle of a master, so sometimes their understanding of the same thing differed.
“The balcony is also a bit dirty. Go and clean it up.” Qu Moying said indifferently. Her eyes under the eye veil were unfathomable and cold.
Yu Dong, who was carrying the chair, lost his temper for some reason. He put down the chair heavily and turned around to come over to Qu Moying, ignoring Yu Chun and the maid of the Grand Princess Mansion.
The maid carrying the chair was about to call Yu Dong for help again, but Yu Dong turned around and glared at her fiercely, which made her heart tremble. She opened her mouth, but she didn’t dare to say anything.
“Isn’t she a maid? Why is she so fierce?”
The maid who was about to clean up the mess stuttered, “Lady, I will clean it up… after I finish sweeping here.”
“Clean up that place first!” Qu Moying said indifferently. Then, she withdrew her foot. She noticed a very light smell of oil, which was hard to detect for ordinary people, but Qu Moying was different from ordinary people.
Her eyesight was poor because she had eye disease since she was a child, so her other senses were more sensitive than ordinary people’s.
She had a good sense of smell, and she had been observing everything carefully just now. She didn’t know how they were going to plot against her. When the maid asked her to leave temporarily, she found that she could only go to the balcony. Then, she began to observe everything on the balcony carefully.
She could smell a faint smell of oil at first.
But when she stepped on the balcony, she was certain that there was oil. She looked out at the lake. Now she knew how those people plotted against her.
Or rather, there were not “those people”, but only Liu Jingyu alone plotted this.
After all, the matter just happened was caused by the tea Liu Jingyu brought over. As a guest, Liu Jingyu even specially brought her tea over. Did she really have such a good relationship with Prefectural Princess Xiangrong? Or did she have an ulterior motive? Qu Moying heard voices coming from downstairs. Perhaps the maid’s fall just now made a big noise that people on the first floor were alarmed, and they were probably coming up.
The chair was about to be moved to the stairs, and it would block the way. At this time, even if someone came up and found out that something had happened to Qu Moying, they couldn’t save her in time. After all, if someone wanted to come upstairs, they would have to move the chair away first.
The plan was very good. Even if something really happened, Liu Jingyu could get herself out of it.
Qu Moying pursed her lips into a thin line and then said coldly, “Yu Dong, let her go and clean the balcony first. It’s so dirty. How can I go there?”