Chapter 306

"Official Yan, you’ve trained your servants remarkably well. They dare to reprimand their mistress, openly displaying jealousy, suggesting that your wife should reprimand other women who come near you. It leads me to one clear understanding.”

The beautiful woman smiled slightly, as if teasing. She was holding her child, who seemed to look at them knowingly. This demeanor of both made Official Yan and Furen Yan feel deeply embarrassed. Especially for Official Yan, who, having heard everything along with Furen Mu, felt truly humiliated that his servant had spoken so disgracefully about Furen Mu.

“You lowly servant! Kneel and apologize immediately!!” Official Yan, usually a good-natured man, was now furious, scolding harshly, shocking everyone around.

“M-Master, I-I didn’t mean it, truly. Please forgive me, I didn’t mean it.”

The two-faced servant stammered, trembling with fear. She had only dared to speak boldly behind people’s backs. Who would have thought that Official Yan and Furen Mu, the subjects of her comments, would appear right there?

“You think you need to apologize to me?! The person you should kneel and apologize to is Furen Mu,” Official Yan refused to accept her apology, feeling repulsed as she clung to his leg in her plea.

Hearing Furen Mu suggest the servant’s behavior stemmed from jealousy made him even more unwilling to be near her, fearing it would tarnish his reputation. Therefore, he did something unexpected—he shook his leg, causing the servant to fall away.

“Sob, sob, Furen, help me. Furen, please, I didn’t mean any harm,” she turned to her furen, believing she would surely side with her. Seeing Official Yan defend Furen Mu, she was sure Furen would feel the same.

“Don’t touch me.” But unexpectedly, Furen Yan herself didn’t care. Though not as harsh as her husband, she stepped back, refusing to let the other party touch her.

“Please don’t be angry. This servant must surely have feelings for Official Yan. Otherwise, how could she act so aggressively? She probably spoke without thinking, out of jealousy, and, having no one else to rely on, “used” her mistress to take action instead.”

The more Yueqian spoke, the worse the servant appeared. It seemed she had used her own jealousy and manipulated her mistress into acting viciously. Hearing this, Furen Yan pondered and realized it was indeed as Yueqian said. Throughout their walk, this servant had been the one urging her to confront Yueqian, while the other servants had tried to calm her down to avoid causing a scene. This realization made Furen Yan even angrier.

She disliked being used by others, especially by a servant. Such behavior was considered highly disrespectful and ungrateful. Furen Yan had always treated her servants well, never making them suffer as much as those in other manors, and only punishing them when they truly deserved it. Yet her kindness had led this servant to dare manipulate her?

Seeing Furen Yan’s expression, the servant knew her furen believed Yueqian’s words. Desperate to save herself, she banged her head on the ground before Furen Mu.

“Furen Mu, I was wrong. I wasn’t jealous of the master. I just heard bad rumors and thought that you were going to damage the Yan household of Master and Mistress. It’s my fault for being foolish, but I didn’t have any bad intentions.”

“Whether your intentions were good or not, your Furen will decide. You incited her to confront me, just to ruin Furen Yan’s reputation. Don’t you see that I work for His Majesty alongside many others every day? Both Official Yan and I work hard; who doesn’t know this? If your Furen had believed your instigations and harmed me, she would have been guilty of defying imperial orders.”

“Even if His Majesty didn’t pursue the matter, what would happen to her reputation? If you truly cared about your mistress, would you incite her to do such a terrible thing? The truth is, you did it all for yourself, for your own satisfaction, to ruin both my and your mistress’ reputations, right?”

The more Yueqian spoke, the worse everyone’s expressions became. The initial statement that Furen Yan was defying imperial orders was particularly damning. It was true; they were working for the people affected by the disaster, with hundreds of people laboring intensely. If a fight broke out due to a misunderstanding and jealousy over a man, what would the consequences be?

Furen Mu would probably remain unscathed because she was in her own manor, but what about Furen Yan? She could be flogged to death! Previously, she was careless and caused damage, and Furen Mu helped her out. If she now showed ingratitude, how would people perceive her?!

“Take her away, give her 100 lashes, and sell her as a slave,” Furen Yan was furious, considering the potential consequences. Ultimately, the situation would become severe if she didn’t change her thinking. She had almost leaped to scold Furen Mu, but fortunately regained her senses just in time, or else she would certainly face trouble.

“No, please. I didn’t mean it. I really didn’t do it,” the servant was unwilling to accept the accusation. She hadn’t thought things through that far. The small servant struggled free from the guards and ran to Furen Yan, tears streaming down her face, looking very pitiful.

“Furen, believe me. It was an order from the inner palace. I was asked by a court  lady to ruin the reputation of the First Ranked Furen. After that, I would receive a large sum of money. I was greedy and wrong for not thinking it through, but I never intended to harm you, Furen. I believed Furen Mu had bad intentions, so I accepted the order. I didn’t mean it, truly.”

In the end, when backed into a corner, the servant confessed, revealing everything. Whether people believed her or not was another matter, but Yueqian certainly believed it was the truth.

“What nonsense are you spouting? Do you want to bring trouble to the Yan family’s household?!” Official Yan’s anger flared, his mustache twitching. It wasn’t enough that she had made a mistake; she also had to slander someone in the palace.

Normally, without clear evidence, such accusations should never be spoken. Even if it led to death, one must die quietly, accepting their own carelessness and mistakes. However, this servant had no such consideration. Wasn’t her speech slandering the higher-ups? This could lead not only to her death but also to the downfall of the entire Yan family.

What if Yan family were perceived as plotting against someone in the palace?! Who would believe that someone in the palace would want to ruin Furen Mu’s reputation by hiring a lowly servant?

Yueqian thought the same. Moreover, this act wasn’t intended to ruin her reputation at all. If they truly wanted to harm her, they should have known that this plan wouldn’t work because she always worked with many people and served the emperor. Therefore, the real target was likely the Yan family.

Yueqian’s eyes flickered violently. It seemed that the Crown Prince’s faction was definitely making a move! They were seizing the opportunity of the Wang’s absence to attack the Second Prince’s faction as much as possible. Now that the Second Prince had lost his greatest power, it was easy to make the people of his faction feel uneasy. Seeing the destruction of the Second Prince’s faction would undoubtedly make others fearful and eager to switch sides.

This move was swift and ruthless, planning to trick one person to destroy another. If the plan succeeded, Furen Yan would be the one accused, and Official Yan would be punished as well. But if it failed and this foolish servant spoke out, then the most severe charges would be brought.

Usually, if someone in the palace truly wanted to use someone, would they reveal their name or say which court lady’s faction they belonged to? That would be incredibly foolish. Wouldn’t it be better to have someone else contact them? They could simply pay money as compensation. Why would they need to show themselves? It wasn’t necessary!

This meant the whole thing was a trap, and now the trap was set in motion!

The surrounding people trembled upon hearing that Official Yan’s servant was slandering someone in the palace. If she mentioned a name, it would definitely become a serious problem.

Yueqian acted swiftly. With a single hand signal, an arrow appeared from nowhere, striking the servant’s neck, causing her to collapse with wide-open eyes. Pretending to be shocked, the beautiful woman urged everyone to flee, claiming ignorance about the assassin who had infiltrated her manor.

This display terrified the crowd. They immediately sought shelter, while the Mu family soldiers searched for the culprit but found no one.

Though it was a serious matter, both Official Yan and Furen Yan felt as if they had narrowly escaped death. Once the situation calmed down and the Mu manor’s forces had thoroughly investigated, Yueqian spoke with a shocked expression.

“It seems the employer feared being exposed and didn’t want the servant to reveal anything. Thus, we won’t be able to trace the perpetrator anymore.” Yueqian avoided mentioning palace intrigues, pretending that the culprit had simply sent someone to take care of it.

Official Yan breathed a sigh of relief, deciding to forget the incident as well.

“That person had such malicious intent. How could they try to slander Furen Mu like this? It’s partly my fault as well for allowing this situation to arise. From now on, I will ensure this doesn’t happen again. Whenever I come, I will deliver the food to the front of the manor and not bring it inside anymore.” Seeing Official Yan’s determination, Yueqian nodded in agreement.

“It’s all right, my dear. I’ve recovered now. Let me deliver the food myself. Moreover, if I show that I don’t mind, the rumors about Furen Mu will die down. Besides, I get lonely in the manor, and I’m sure Furen Mu does too. Let us women have each other for company.”

Though Furen Yan didn’t know much, the woman’s instincts were strong. She had spoken with Furen Chang before. When Furen Chang’s child, Mei’er, was involved in an incident, they didn’t know Furen Mu well then. So, Furen Chang had said that Furen Mu might not be as simple as she seemed.

Firstly, the Wang had great trust in her. Secondly, nothing ever harmed her, and she seemed to have hidden protectors. Just like this time, the servant was about to say something foolish but was suddenly dealt with. How could this be ordinary?

Furen Yan decided that perhaps Furen Mu had helped her this time. Even if it wasn’t Furen Mu directly, the fact that the other party had saved her life was a significant favor.

It was fortunate that after her soul left her body and returned, she had no memory of that period. If she had remembered and seen all the tools Yueqian used, along with Xihao’s actions, she might have been even more frightened.

“That would be wonderful. Additionally, you have knowledge in child-rearing, so it would be great to have your help, Furen Yan,” Yueqian responded with a polite smile, making Furen Yan admire her even more.

“All right, I’ll help take care of little Hao’er too,” Furen Yan said happily.

In truth, Official Yan wanted to reprimand his wife for believing the servant and sneaking around to spy on them. However, seeing the two women reconcile so well, he didn’t want to ruin the atmosphere. He could only nod in approval to both of them.