Chapter 531 - 530: Uncanny

Chapter 531: Chapter 530: Uncanny

The Zhonghai Family was sipping water and sprayed a mouthful of tea upon hearing Mrs. Wen’s words, choking and coughing repeatedly.

Mrs. Wen wrinkled her nose with disdain and said, "You spit it out right now? Oh, let me tell you, that year when I was at Manhe Garden, if I had water in my mouth, I could have spit it out worse than the rain that day."

The Zhonghai Family pounded their chest hard, grabbed a handkerchief to wipe their mouth, and gasped, "My dear sister, please don’t mention the Manhe Garden incident again. If it reaches the master’s ears..."

"Then it’s just asking for trouble!" Mrs. Wen curled her lips, "That incident, everyone who went on night patrol at Manhe Garden saw it with their own eyes. No blame for the crowd. Come to think of it, good thing so many people discovered it together. If it were just one or two..."

Mrs. Wen made a throat-slitting gesture: "There’s no telling if they’d live or die."

The Zhonghai Family finally steadied their breath, "You said it was a matter of the past. Now, all of them are gone, and there’s no such shady thing for anyone to discover."

"Who knows! Our manor is full of widows," Mrs. Wen regrettably realized her words were off, lightly slapped her ear, "Look at me, spouting nonsense. But indeed, without such vulgar things, how do you explain all this filthy business arising again?"

The Zhonghai Family spat: "Isn’t it what you said last time, the year Qingming saw the death of Cangzhu, and this year Qingming saw the death of Zizhu, both died in the well, now it’s coming true as you predicted."

"Nonsense, nonsense!" Mrs. Wen spat several times, "How can you blame me for that? I was just casually talking. Oh, this matter is truly strange."

"Strange or not, night patrol must continue." The Zhonghai Family rubbed their cool neck, "Better for this wave to pass quickly."

Mrs. Wen nodded, "Exactly, or else, just like last time, no one will be left standing. Oh, thinking about Lady An now gives me chills."

"She’s a pitiful person too."

"Isn’t she," Mrs. Wen agreed fully, "With such a master, our madam ended up sleeping with her nephew, even dragging Lady An into it. Regardless of the generational gap, they are actually aunt and nephew..."

The Zhonghai Family felt their scalp tingling and covered Mrs. Wen’s mouth: "Stop talking about it, gossiping like this will get you kicked out of the manor immediately."

The room suddenly quieted down.

Ruozhu was hiding under the window, her heart racing, face full of astonishment.

Inside, Mrs. Wen mentioned leaving, Ruozhu quickly scrambled away from the window, hiding in a corner of the wall, covering her mouth to breathe.

The afternoon sun was scorching hot on her skin, the temperature on her hair was sizzling, yet Ruozhu was drenched in cold sweat. She sat motionless in the corner, unaware even of her shadow cast outside.

Mrs. Wen emerged from Zhonghai Family’s room, caught a glimpse of the dark figure, curved her lips in a smile, and walked away briskly.

Ruozhu sat for a long time, trying hard to organize Zhonghai Family and Mrs. Wen’s conversation, but her mind was blank, unable to comprehend.

Until the sun shifted west, when Fuman came searching for her, Ruozhu finally got up, brushed the marks off her clothes, appeared before Fuman.

Fuman asked curiously: "Why do you look so pale? Suffer heatstroke?"

Ruozhu shook her head, took a deep breath, resolutely clasped Fuman’s hand: "I heard, years ago, around Mid-Autumn Festival, the manor had some dirty affairs too?"

Fuman’s face turned white: "Don’t talk nonsense."

"I’m not speaking nonsense," Ruozhu didn’t let go of Fuman, "I heard from Sister Yan’er, she said you saw it."

Fuman awkwardly chuckled, lowered his head and said: "That night’s rain was heavy, oh, what I saw wasn’t any filthy business, don’t ask anymore."

Ruozhu felt her interest piqued, leaned closer to ask: "Manhe Garden, right?"

"You you you..." Fuman widened his eyes, looking at Ruozhu in disbelief, "How do you know about this? Manhe Garden’s matters are not to be mentioned by anyone."

Ruozhu pursued a couple more questions, but Fuman refused to elaborate.

"How about this, I just ask, and you just nod or shake your head, would that work?" Ruozhu said, asking herself, "Is it true that Mr. Si and Madam are unclear?"

Fuman hesitated and nodded.

"What you actually saw was Mr. Si?"

Fuman nodded again.

"Has the relationship between Mr. Si and Madam been going on for a long time?"

Fuman nodded, then shook his head for a long while: "I really don’t know that, oh, that day the mothers rushed into Manhe Garden, this matter broke out, and later only the masters questioned, how could the subordinates even listen, you’d better stop asking, these are matters from years ago, nothing to do with you. The mothers have to patrol at night again, we just close the doors and sleep soundly."

Ruozhu gritted her teeth, murmured a reply.

Once night fell and silence reigned, Ruozhu began reconsidering the sequence of events.

Zizhu was Mu Lianyu’s cleaning maid, did she know the relationship between Mu Lianyu and Mu Yuanjing from early on? Was it to keep her silence, she received that golden bracelet?

But to go by Mrs. Wen’s words, the mothers on night patrol at Manhe Garden all understand what happened.

Even if Zizhu knew, after years, Mu Yuanjing and Mu Lianyu both passed, the masters wouldn’t revisit old accounts.

If they do revisit, it certainly wouldn’t be just Zizhu alone, all those mothers would also be silenced.

Only Zizhu died, but why was that...?

Is there something else she hasn’t figured out?

The more Ruozhu thought, the more puzzled she became, unable to sleep.

Fuman slept soundly, grinding his teeth occasionally, Ruozhu gazed at the pitch-black room, through the window, faint light gleamed as the patrolling mothers passed by.

Eyes heavy, Ruozhu made up her mind.

After dawn, Du Yunluo paid respects to Mrs. Zhou and Madam Wu, then went to the Flower Hall for a meeting.

"Did anything happen during the night patrol?" Du Yunluo asked.

Granny Jia replied: "Everything was normal."

Du Yunluo smiled slightly, asked again: "Do you think it’s better to keep patrolling or stop?"

Though night patrols earn silver, firstly it’s tiring, secondly there’s fear of encountering such secrets as those from a few years ago that one wishes never to know. Steward grannies and ladies exchanged glances, none willing to continue patrolling, yet fearing incidents, they reluctantly said, "Let’s patrol through Mid-Autumn Festival."

Du Yunluo nodded: "If that’s the case, continue patrolling."

The subsequent days remained particularly peaceful, easing everyone. When the masters came to set up rituals in the manor, listening to the chants of Buddha enlivened courage slightly.

During Mid-Autumn, Ruozhu again headed to Shaohui Garden.

Hongfu was talking with Yan’er, saw Ruozhu and turned away.

Ruozhu approached Yan’er: "Sister Hongfu doesn’t like me?"

Yan’er gave a wry smile.