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Chapter 29 Show Started: A Strangled Maid

The Octagonal Pavilion was noted for being the only pavilion with such a structure in the back garden and it was located at a corner of the back garden. Situated behind an artificial hill, the site was half hidden from the view by the rockery. No wonder such a secluded place struck fear into the head maidservant’s heart. Moreover, snow was still falling down and the cold wind continued blowing. It was indeed not a good time to visit the pavilion in the back garden.

The group of them took a side path around the pavilion. It was about half past three in the afternoon, still a quarter left before the appointed time. Wei Yuewu was not in a hurry. She even stopped several times to watch the snow scene.

She was the mistress. If she wanted to appreciate the snowy landscape, the maids and maidservants didn’t dare to raise any objection. They just followed the pace of Wei Yuewu. If she stopped, they stopped; if she walked, they walked. By and by, they got closer and closer to the Octagonal Pavilion.

Wei Yuewu observed the sky and judged it was about the time…

“Sixth Young Lady, the Octagonal Pavilion is over there. I heard that it was built by the Marquise Hua Yang when she was alive.” The head maidservant enthusiastically explained to Wei Yuewu as she pointed at the pavilion not far away. Hardly had she finished her words when she suddenly remembered that Marquise Hua Yang was precisely the mother of the Sixth Young Lady in front of her!

She immediately lowered her head and didn’t dare to speak another word because she had no idea what kind of person the mistress was and whether she would care about the mentioning of her deceased mother.

“Let’s go over to the pavilion by that way. The wind here is too strong.” Wei Yuewu pointed to another direction where there was the artificial hill as if she didn’t hear what the head maidservant had said. By taking that path, the pedestrians would have to pass the artificial hill to reach the pavilion.

Or to put it another way, with the artificial hill screening them in the front, the large group of people wouldn’t be immediately discovered by people in the pavilion.

Since Wei Yuewu was their mistress, and since she had established her authority over the servants in her courtyard, none of the servants would dare to underestimate the thin, weak young lady. Therefore, when Wei Yuewu decided which way to take, nobody raised any objection. The large group thus turned around and made a detour towards the artificial hill.

The moment they reached the artificial hill, the head maidservant of the kitchen heard a faint groan. The hair on her skin immediately stood up and her limbs trembled. She subconsciously listened again, and the faint groan of a girl floated through the wind to her ears.

This time, not only the head maidservant, but everyone presented heard the groan. All the servants turned pale from fear, a few of them even too frightened to hold their clubs!

It was in the middle of winter, and night was falling on. Besides, this place looked so gloomy. Was it possible…Or was there really something…

In the Octagonal Pavilion, Shuiyun was held up by a maidservant. She lay in one of the corners, breathed faintly, and let out faintly discernible groans. The maidservant looked around the quiet surroundings and dragged Shuiyun to the corridor and put Shuiyun in a leaning position against a pillar.

One wouldn’t notice anything strange about Shuiyun upon coming in from the entrance of the pavilion!

The maidservant stretched out her hands and strangled Shuiyun with fierce strength while prattling, “Don’t look for me after you die. I’m only doing what I was told to do. It’s just because of your ill fate that you provoked the Second Lady and Second Young Lady. Anyway, you are so weak now and you won’t be able to survive. You will start your next life earlier if you die earlier, and you can avoid more painful sufferings.”

Shuiyun was leaning there unconscious. Her eyes were closed. When she was strangled, she only gave two low cries without waking up. Shortly after that, her breathing seemed to stop.

“Someone, catch that murderer.” By the time, Wei Yuewu had just turned out of the artificial hill. She pointed at the woman whose hands were still squeezing Shuiyun’s neck and bellowed with a long face.

The maids and maidservants who were following behind had been terrified by the low moans. They thought that they had bumped into something evil. When they saw that it was not some evil existence playing tricks with them and that someone was committing murder, they immediately rushed over.

Some hurried to pull that maidservant away from Shuiyun, some landed a few fierce strikes on her and others went over to check Shuiyun.

“Isn’t she… isn’t she the maid Shuiyun who serves the Second Young Lady?” Someone cried out in astonishment. Shuiyun was Wei Yan’s chief maid, and she often sent orders to the kitchen for Wei Yan. Therefore, the servants in the kitchen knew her very well. Some of them even cooked special dishes for her in order to curry favor with her. In short, she enjoyed much better treatments than other personal maids.

Basically, she was known to all servants in the mansion.

“Ah, isn’t this woman Nanny Qian who served the Second Lady?” Someone exclaimed again. The trusted servants of Lady Li enjoyed the same domineering status among the servants as Shuiyun in the mansion. This Nanny Qian happened to be such a person, and was known to every single servant in the mansion.

One would easily figure out that such a task could only be done by a most trusted servant. Otherwise, Lady Li wouldn’t be able to rest assured.

Wei Yuewu lowered her eyes to hide the coldness in her eyes. Even her breathing seemed to be tinged with icy coldness.

“Well, well, so you’re the one who invited my mistress here. I suppose you’re planning to kill my mistress as well.” Jin Ling shouted angrily as she went over and landed two heavy kicks on Nanny Qian. Since Jin Ling was good at martial arts, Nanny Qian was immediately kicked out of breath.

She fainted directly without even uttering a single word.

Wei Yuewu was merely an unmarried young lady and had just arrived at the mansion. It was certainly inappropriate for her to settle such a serious case as this. She immediately sent some servants to report the incident to the Madam Dowager.

She then told another menial maid who was holding a stick to go to the guest room ahead and ask her eldest aunt, Lady Tu, to come over.

Although the general rule of “Domestic shame should not be made public” was applicable when it only concerned one’s own family, Wei Yuewu couldn’t show kindness in a situation like this. And as the Madam Dowager feared her eldest aunt, she also invited Lady Tu over.

In the meantime, Lady Li was waiting for news. She had already arranged other servants for the next move, and was prepared to rush to the scene with these servants as soon as Nanny Qian gave the signal. According to her plan, there would only be Wei Yuewu, her maid, and Shuiyu, who would by then be dead, at the pavilion. Therefore, Wei Yuewu would definitely be unable to escape from being framed up for murdering Shuiyun.

Since Shuiyun had followed Marquis Jing Yuan and disguised as his maid, nobody could say for sure whether the two had an affair or not. In this case, Wei Yuewu, as the Marquis’s fiancée, was likely to become so jealous of the maid who dared to seduce her fiancé that she killed the girl.

If things went on as Lady Li planned, Wei Yuewu’s reputation would be completely ruined, and it would be only natural for Marquis Jing Yuan to be the one who asked to cancel the engagement. Given Wei Yuewu’s infamous reputation after the incident was made known, this was the only course of development for Marquis Jing Yuan. As for what Wei Yuewu had said earlier, considering this incident, who would believe that a girl of such a cold and malicious nature was telling the truth?

When people lie in one thing, all the other words they say are lies—this was a principle that could easily be acknowledged!

As such, it would be Wei Yuewu, not Mo Huating, who would be on the wrong side. As Lady Li saw it, Marquis Hua Yang would only blame his own daughter for being too ruthless even if the two families really broke off the engagement. As for the marriage between Wei Yan and Marquis Jing Yuan, she had plenty of time to work out a good plan.

Once Wei Yuewu was involved in such an incident and she secretly had the scandal distributed, Wei Yuewu would never be able to have a good match in her lifetime.

Lady Li had been waiting in her own courtyard for her confidant to deliver good news. However, Nanny Hong, who served the Madam Dowager, came over and politely asked her to the old lady’s.

It was about time for dinner. Although Lady Li tried to find out why the Madam Dowager sent for her, she failed to get any information. Nanny Hong was a tight-mouthed person and she only said that the Madam Dowager wanted the lady to come over quickly because something important had occurred.

With no alternative, Lady Li told her confidant servants in a low voice to hurry to the Madam Dowager’s courtyard if they got any news. Now that she was also going to Madam Dowager’s place, it also saved her some trouble.

However, as soon as she entered Peace Pavilion where the Madam Dowager lived, Lady Li immediately noticed something was wrong. Usually, the maids and old maidservants in the corridor would hurriedly lift the curtain for her and go inside to report her arrival when they saw her coming. Today, they only silently stood there lowering their heads.

Lady Li entered the chamber. She saw the Madam Dowager sitting there with a long face. Unexpectedly, she also saw the most unwanted face of Lady Tu, and there was also Wei Yuewu, who was supposed to be in the Octagonal Pavilion in the back garden at this moment. Lady Li felt her heart missed a beat.

A cup was suddenly flung. Lady Li was shocked and she subconsciously dodged away. But it was a bit late. Although the cup did not hit her, boiled water drops of the cup splashed onto her face. She immediately cried out in pain and she covered her face with her handkerchief subconsciously.

The sound of the cup shattering was clear right at her feet, and tea was flowing over the floor near her. Since she was wearing thick winter clothes, she didn’t feel anything except that half of her face was burning with pain.

However, Lady Li didn’t have the heart to cry out in pain right now. To her astonishment, she saw Nanny Qian lying on the floor at one side without consciousness. Her heart involuntarily trembled, and a bad feeling rose in her heart.

The Madam Dowager rebuked in a sharp, stern voice, “Li, what do you say about this? How are you managing the servants? That maidservant should have the guts to kill people in our mansion!” The coldness in her eyes was too deep to hide.

“Mother… Mother, what are you saying? I don’t understand!” Lady Li perceived that the situation was unfavorable to her. She made up her mind to deny everything. She gave a dry laugh, ignored the pain on her face and put on a look of ignorance.

“You don’t understand, Second Lady? Then shall we call that maid Shuiyun to tell us exactly who was so vicious and ruthless as to use hairpins to spike holes into her body? I never thought there should be such an evil person within this mansion. No matter what, the maid is a human, a life. Stabbing a maid to death with a hairpin is really not something a virtuous family should do.”

Lady Tu remarked coldly aside, with frosty coldness condensing in her eyes.

Shuiyun wasn’t dead yet? Lady Li’s heart skipped a beat at the surprising news. Previously, when she went to see the maid, the girl had been in a half-coma. Wei Yan was extremely angry that the maid ruined her plan. To vent her anger, she made countless holes in the girl’s body using her hairpin, although she didn’t directly take maid’s life.

Basically, not one inch of the skin of the maid, except for the exposed hands and face, was unharmed. The maid lay there and was almost no different from a dead person, except that she could let out a few groans. How could such a person survive?