Volume 3, Chapter 303 – Sorry About This, Qingshan

After Song Shutao left, Qingshan braced herself against the pain and slowly pushed to her feet.

She made her way step by step toward Chi Xiyan’s courtyard.

The second young lady had been taken by scheming branch family members. True, two formidable guards were still with her, but those guards knew nothing of the underhanded methods people used in the inner residence. Inside these walls, their hands were tied in more ways than one.

Vicious little people with tricks like those always found ways to slip through the cracks.

Song Shutao wasn’t familiar with the Chi family grounds. Whether she could actually find the second young lady smoothly was anyone’s guess.

So she had to get this information to the eldest miss as fast as possible.

Qingshan drew a deep breath.

She was the eldest miss’s personal maidservant, raised at her side from childhood. Everything she had belonged to the eldest miss.

For her, what was a little pain?

“Qingshan, what happened to you? How did you get hurt?”

A familiar voice reached her.

Qingshan turned. Standing at the side of the path was Qin Qingfen.

“Nanny Qin.” Qingshan didn’t think much of it.

Qin Qingfen was Chi Xiyan’s nursemaid and one of her most trusted people.

Qingshan had always been on easy terms with her.

True, these past few days there had been some friction between Nanny Qin and the eldest miss over the matter of the second young lady. But Nanny Qin ought to still be on the eldest miss’s side.

With that thought, Qingshan said quickly, “Something’s happened at the main hall. I need to tell the second young lady right away!”

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“Something’s happened?” Qin Qingfen walked slowly toward her, her expression grave. “Today is the eldest miss’s great occasion. Whatever it is, is it truly so urgent that it warrants disturbing her now?”

“If you delay the eldest miss’s important affair over something trivial, do you think you can bear that responsibility?”

“Nanny Qin, this is not trivial!” Qingshan said urgently. “It’s the second young lady. Something’s happened to her!”

“You know better than anyone how much the eldest miss cares about the second young lady!”

“Just tonight she specifically told me to keep watch over the second young lady and make sure nothing happened to her!”

“Nanny Qin, my leg is hurt. Could I trouble you to go and inform the eldest miss for me?”

“This really is important!”

Qingshan’s face was tight with anxiety.

Qin Qingfen’s expression grew darker by the second.

Yu Lizhi. That girl Yu Lizhi again!

Chi Xiyan, what in the world has gotten into you? On your own day of celebration, you’re still fixated on that girl? You even had someone assigned to watch her?

Qin Qingfen drew a slow, steadying breath as a cold wave of relief washed over her.

Thank goodness she had thought ahead and positioned herself outside Chi Xiyan’s room early. If this maid had actually gotten through to Chi Xiyan, their entire plan might have collapsed.

As luck would have it, Qingshan had somehow gotten herself injured and was stopped right here, right in time.

It seemed the heavens truly were on her side.

Yu Lizhi. Your fortune really is poor.

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Qin Qingfen let out a cold laugh inside, though her face arranged itself into a warm and agreeable expression.

“I’ll pass the message along to the eldest miss. Qingshan, you’re hurt. Let me take you somewhere to rest first, alright?”

Qingshan shook her head firmly. “No. I need to see the eldest miss come out with my own eyes. Otherwise I won’t be at ease.”

“Very well.” Qin Qingfen sighed. “Then at least let me help you inside. I can’t leave you standing out here in the cold wind while you’re injured.”

Qingshan pressed her lips together. Seeing how insistent Qin Qingfen was, she gave a reluctant nod.

Qin Qingfen came forward and took Qingshan’s arm to support her. Behind her eyes, something cold and cruel stirred.

Sorry about this, Qingshan.

***

Meanwhile, on the other side of the estate.

The Chi branch family young lady was helping the drunk Lu Zhuxin along, the two of them swaying unsteadily as they walked.

Though her face wore a mask of warmth and concern, her inner monologue was a stream of curses.

Was this farm girl raised on iron weights? How was she this heavy?

And the reek of wine all over her. Absolutely disgusting.

She was desperate to shove Lu Zhuxin off and be done with it. But with two guards watching her every move, she had no choice but to keep a firm grip on Lu Zhuxin’s arm and force herself to look affectionate about it.

She was starting to feel irritated.

These two insufferable guards. How long were they going to keep following them?

If they stayed like this the whole way, how was she supposed to do anything?

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According to Chi Zhong’s plan, she was supposed to bring Chi Muxue to the designated place, slip her the drug, and then bring in the men they had arranged in advance.

Chi Muxue hadn’t drunk that much wine. The drug was what had made the alcohol hit so hard and fast. It wouldn’t be long before the effects wore off.

Under the influence of the drug obtained from Sin Moon Tower, Chi Muxue would end up compromised with those men.

Chi Zhong had already calculated the dosage precisely according to the drug’s specifications. By the time he brought the guests in to witness the scene, the drug’s strongest effects would have faded.

By then, Chi Muxue would be lucid enough to understand what had happened to her.

No one would ever know she had been drugged. Even Chi Xiyan, gifted alchemist that she was, would find no trace of it in her system.

To everyone present, she would simply look like someone who had taken a stranger to bed in the middle of her sister’s engagement banquet.

That was the plan.

The only problem was that at the moment, the plan had no room to breathe.

The two imposing guards walked behind the two young women without a word, their attention fixed squarely on the pair ahead.

The family head had given his orders long ago: protect the second young miss’s safety. Do not allow her to leave their sight under any circumstances.

They followed that order. They stayed silently at Chi Muxue’s back.

Lu Zhuxin leaned against the branch family young lady and felt the girl’s breathing growing increasingly erratic.

See. I knew it.

These minor villains had underestimated just how closely guarded Chi Muxue was.

Without outside help, even if they actually managed to drug Chi Muxue, getting her away from Chi family guards was another matter entirely.

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“Mm… it’s so cold…” Lu Zhuxin pulled herself tightly against the branch family young lady. “How much longer until I can change my clothes?”

The young lady felt a wave of revulsion but, with the guards’ eyes on her, she had no choice but to answer in the sweetest voice she could manage. “Second young lady, we’re almost there! Just a little further ahead!”

The group arrived before a quiet, secluded courtyard.

A guest room.

The two guards exchanged a look. One of them stepped past Lu Zhuxin and the young lady, walked briskly to the door, and pushed it open to look inside.

Windows latched shut. No one there.

“Take her in,” the guard said to the young lady.

The young lady trembled with barely suppressed fury.

Was all this caution really necessary?

But she had no choice at this point. She helped Lu Zhuxin through the door and pulled it shut behind them.

Two young ladies changing inside: naturally, the two guards stayed in the courtyard. They stood just outside the door, alert, keeping watch.

Inside, the young lady heaved Lu Zhuxin onto the bed with considerable effort.

Her heart was pounding. A fine sheen of sweat had broken out across her forehead.

In a situation like this, she didn’t dare touch Chi Muxue at all.

Lu Zhuxin found it quietly amusing.

Nerves this bad, and she still wanted to play the villain?