Ting Xue was no more than fourteen years old, standing like a little chicken in the crowd. It was also her first time to go in the public court for a case. She turned her head and looked at Qin Yunuan. Qin Yunuan only gave her a reassuring expression in the eyes.
"I'm… I'm Ting Xue."
"Servant girl Ting Xue, what do you do in Third Miss Qin's yard?" Yan Chengbing asked as a rule.
Ting Xue answered, "I did only the rough work before, like sweeping and boiling water. Today, I was promoted to a second-class servant girl and will be responsible for cleaning Third Miss's room."
Although the voice was shaking, her answer was methodical.
Yan Chengbing nodded, "Last night, Did Third Miss Qin stay in the yard all the time?"
Ting Xue's lips pressed suddenly, and she seemed to be going through a very difficult struggle. She looked at Qin Yunuan for a while and then turned to Qin Yunzhuang.
"Ting Xue, you'd better tell the truth," Qin Yunzhuang stared at Ting Xue harshly, "You know, if you lie, I have ways to torture you and your family."
Ting Xue was stunned hearing this.
But Qin Yunzhuang's words were heard by several officers and Qin Yunuan.
"Sister Yunzhuang, this is a public court. Are you threatening my servant girl in public? Aren't you afraid of Master Yan's punishment?" Qin Yunuan smiled gently, but the smile was so dazzling in Qin Yunzhuang's eyes.
"Grand Miss," Ting Xue turned her head slowly to look at Qin Yunzhuang with tears in her eyes as if she had done it with great determination. She took out a hundred-tael silver note from her arms and said, "Grand Miss, even if you had bought me with silver tael and threatened me with the lives of my family members, I can't do anything against my conscience. What hadn't been done shouldn't be said that it was done, Master Yan. Third Miss stayed in the room last night. I served her tea twice and saw it."
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Qin Yunzhuang straightened up, pointing at the silver note in Ting Xue's hand. She said with a terrified face, "What is this? When did I give you the silver note? Why do you frame me?"
"Master Yan," Ting Xue choked, "I'm just a little servant girl with a salary of one tael a month. If Grand Miss hadn't given me the hundred-tael silver note, how long would it take for me to save up to this amount?"
"Don't you come out like a mad dog and bite people," Qin Yunzhuang knelt forward with her knees and cried to Yan Chengbing, "Master Yan, this servant girl was slandering me. I never gave her any silver note, all those servant girls by my side could testify."
"Oh, the servant girls by your side, elder sister?" Qin Yunuan especially emphasized the "side" word. People would think in their hearts. Since Grand Miss Qin could even bribe her own sister's servant girl, the servant by her side should always be at her mercy and could only say the things that she wanted them to say.
Qin Yunzhuang 's mind was a mess at this time. She clearly remembered that Ting Xue was also an informant her mother put in Qin Yunuan's yard together with Tinghe. When Tinghe died behind the rockery, she wasn't very panicked because there was still a Ting Xue that could do her job.
Qin Yunuan could never think of that after every means she tried to get rid of one informant, there was one more. But why did Ting Xue suddenly turned against her?
Qin Yunzhuang turned to Qin Zhi for help, "Father, father, believe me, it's all Qin Yunuan. It's her, this daughter of a concubine. She let the servant girl around her frame me deliberately. Isn't it the proof that she had a guilty conscience and was trying to bite me back?"
"My elder sister," Qin Yunuan smiled, as if Qin Yunzhuang, who was kneeling on the ground and begging for mercy, had little to do with her, "You just called Ting Xue out to testify for you. How could it be me that framed you?"
Shangguan Yee couldn't help but also joined the verbal battle, "So, it's obviously you, Qin Yunzhuang, who asked my brother and Li to go out at the same time. You are malicious. If you hadn't done that, my brother wouldn't have died tragically in the wild countryside."
"So what? So what?" Qin Yunzhuang muttered to herself, seemingly not knowing what she was talking about. Suddenly she pointed at Li Qiqi as if she had seen a life-saving straw, "But it's her. It's Li Qiqi who killed your brother. Even though I asked them to go out together, I didn't kill him. It was not me!"
The public court was filled with noise for a while, and the women were out of control in their quarrel. Yan Chengbing knocked the sounding block for a few times with his face darkened before calming them down.
"Now that the murder weapon has not been found, nobody should throw all restraint to the winds in the court!"
As soon as the words fell, a person came in a hurry outside the court. His feet were covered with mud. He seemed to be a bureaucrat who had returned from the work outside. He walked around the crowds and approached Yan Chengbing, whispering a few words into his ear. Yan Chengbing frowned tightly for a moment, and then his face eased down again.
"For this case, we have found new evidence," Yan Chengbing lowered his head and gestured to Qin Zhi and Shangguan Yuan respectively, "Please allow me to invite these two gentlemen to the inner hall and discuss about it."
Although Shangguan Yuan is unwilling, he would never let go of any clues that may help him find the murderer of his son. As for Qin Zhi, he glanced at Qin Yunzhuang quickly with a gloomy look. His eyes were filled with disappointment and coldness.
Qin Yunzhuang knew that after this incident, she would never be the precious daughter that Qin Zhi held in his hand. Maybe her status had already been doomed when her mother left the Qin Family for Guo'an Temple.
Officers had methodically arranged the Shangguan Family, Qin Family, and Li Family to take temporary breaks in different places. Ting Xue followed Qin Yunuan with a timid look. Once others retreated, she plopped on her knees, bowed her head to Qin Yunuan and did not speak.
In fact, even though Ting Xue didn't say a word, Qin Yunuan had already guessed about it.
Raising her head slowly, Qin Yunuan looked at a pond in the courtyard afar, "I gave you the hundred-tael note to redeem your sister in the brothel. Don't you regret that you've used it in this way?" Ting Xue's younger sister had just been sold into the brothel but was still a virgin. She served as a servant girl and could still be redeemed in the price of a hundred tael.
"It was I who did the wrong thing first. I followed the wrong people." Her younger sister was sold into the brothel because Dou tried to control her. She knew it very well. What she didn't know was that whether Qin Yunuan, who had always acted decisively, would believe that she had never betrayed her from the beginning to the end. She would feel uneasy if someone let her do those things that harm others. Moreover, she hated Dou Qing'e but appreciated Qin Yunuan for her leniency.
"You don't have to apologize to me," Qin Yunuan crouched down slowly to look at Ting Xue horizontally, "I knew it because you had never hurt me." Qin Yunuan continued when Ting Xue was slightly surprised, "I knew that you were not with her since you and Tinghe arrived in my yard. But fortunately, you chose to part with her finally. Otherwise, did you think I would still keep you by my side?"
Ting Xue could hardly believe her ears. She raised her head blankly. Qin Yunuan's dark eyes were deep like wells, unpredictable and endless like a black hole that would swallow people. A fantastic splendor seemed to glow in them.
"I knew every message you and Tinghe used to pass through the small hole in the corner from the beginning," Qin Yunuan stopped hiding, and she didn't bother to hide, "Tinghe was honest spreading out every situation and those details in my yard, or every message I wanted Dou Qing'e to know. But you wrote every time that you failed to enter my room, so everything remained unknown, which was not the fact. I knew very well who helped me, who harmed me and who didn't want to. "
Ting Xue looked at Qin Yunuan in a daze. She had never thought about how thoughtful and prophetic this Third Miss Qin in front of her could be.
"I wanted to give you a hundred tael of silver so that you could redeem your sister and you two could leave the Royal City, away from this land of troubles. Now that you've helped me, you have offended the Dou Family. I am afraid there won't be a safe place for you even in this big world," Qin Yunuan sighed quietly.
"I won't leave, I would follow you all the time, Third Miss."
Qin Yunuan didn't speak but only helped Ting Xue get up. With a glance, she noticed that someone was standing behind the bamboo forest. She wasn't sure when did that person come. She just stood quietly, looked at Qin Yunuan and didn't shy away when she was discovered.
She was Shangguan Yee.
"Well, go and guard the gate of the yard." Qin Yunuan ordered Ting Xue to step down, and then she saw the calm Shangguan Yee gave her a mocking and desolate look.
She bumbled to Qin Yunuan with tears in her eyes.
"The dead would never come back." Qin Yunuan saluted properly and said with coldness. Nobody knew whether this sentence was comforting or reminding.
Shangguan Yee wiped tears from the corners of her eyes violently. She and Shangguan Rang had the same mother. Shangguan Rang was six years older than her and always tolerated her. She disdained her useless brother who liked buying her unpractical, luxury gifts. But now even these gifts were gone. Her brother was gone for real.
Shangguan Yee appeared to be strong today. The power of hatred and the desire for revenge not only led her to the court of this homicide trial but also made her come up with that piece of evidence, which she had forged perfectly.
"Speaking of which, this is the first time we are on the same front." Shangguan Yee turned her head stubbornly and looked at Qin Yunuan.
Qin Yunuan was cold to her and didn't reply.
Shangguan Yee continued, "I know it's Qin Yunzhuang. That bitch had never been kind. My brother was very happy to receive a letter from the little bitch a few days ago. How could he know that Qin Yunzhuang had planned this for him, arranging a private meeting of a married woman with my brother? My brother had better taste than this, how could he be in love with Li? Qin Yunzhuang did it for revenge. I hurt her face and my brother was about to marry her younger sister as a concubine. She didn't want that. So she used this filthy method. How could she be so mean?"