The Devious First-Daughter

Chapter 446 The Jewel She Got from Vice Minister Ling’s Manor

In fact, the door of the hall was not close to them. Nevertheless, as old ladies, Madam Dowager and Mother Qin couldn’t see something nearby clearly, but could see something from a distance clearly. If they paid more attention, they would find that it was Xinmei, Ning Xueyan’s maid, who stood at the door of the hall. But even if they saw her, they wouldn’t believe that Xinmei could see what they had done.

It was because it was impossible for an ordinary person to see something clearly from such a distance. However, as a martial arts practitioner, Xinmei had better eyesight than ordinary people. So everything Madam Dowager and Mother Qin had done after they got out of the hall came into her view. She saw Mother Qin pick up the jade pendant in a panic, Madam Dowager’s face change and then them leave in a hurry.

She waited for another while. As she expected, she saw a maid, who served Madam Dowager, show up there, look around carefully and leave after finding no one around. As Ning Xueyan expected, Madam Dowager was extremely suspicious. She instructed someone to check it out after leaving.

Xinmei didn’t enter the hall to clean up her stuffs until the maid had left. After that, she walked to another hall with a basket. She came to offer incense to the Buddha on behalf of Ning Xueyan and had visited several halls. It was not until she found it was about time that she returned to the courtyard, where Ning Xueyan lived temporarily, with the basket containing incense and candles.

Seeing her coming, the guards at the door didn’t stop her and let her in.

She got in the outer room, put down the incense and candles in her hands, and washed her hands. After that, she entered the inner room. Ning Xueyan had not had her lunch yet. Since she had sent Xinmei to invite Madam Dowager here for lunch, she certainly couldn’t have lunch before Madam Dowager refused. Fortunately, she got up late and had her breakfast late in the morning these days. So she hadn’t felt hungry now.

Before Xinmei said anything, a maid came up to Ning Xueyan and reported, “Fifth Young Lady, Madam Dowager told you to have lunch on your own. She has just returned from worshiping the Buddha and doesn’t have much appetite, so she wants to have a rest.”

Ning Xueyan nodded with a smile, instructed Lanning to reward the maid and then instructed the maid to leave.

“Young Lady, it was taken by Madam Dowager!” Seeing Madam Dowager’s maid leave, Xinmei, who had stood in front of the window, walked back to Ning Xueyan and said to her in a low voice.

“Didn’t she recognize it?” Ning Xueyan put down the needlework in her hands and said. She had nursed her health well these days, and most of her injuries had been healed and didn’t influence her movements at all. Nevertheless, in order to show that she was seriously injured, she certainly had to stay in bed every day.

“From a distance, I only saw Madam Dowager and Mother Qin talk for a while, and then Madam Dowager put the jade pendant in her sleeve and leave. But Madam Dowager sent someone to check it again as we expected.” Xinmei stood so far away as Ning Xueyan asked. She would like to get close to them as much as possible. Anyway, they were just two old ladies. It was impossible for them to be perceptive enough to discover her.

“That’s enough!” Ning Xueyan said meaningfully with a smile. They were in a temple. Maybe Madam Dowager didn’t discover Xinmei, but what about other people? Maybe someone else happened to see them somewhere else. The Buddha statues in Cold Mountain Temple were quite famous, so there were numerous pilgrims coming and going every day.

The halls were next to one another. They might not be able to see others, but others could see them!

Sometimes there were such coincidence. Anyway, it was not the end of this incident. She didn’t have to eavesdrop on the conversation between Madam Dowager and Mother Qin at the risk of exposing Xinmei. After all, Madam Dowager and Mother Qin wouldn’t talk about anything important in that place.

Of course, she swindled Vice Minister of Justice’s Manor out of the jade pendant that day. Since Vice Minister Ling’s male servant thought that Qingyu was Madam Ling’s personal first maid, she certainly asked Qingyu to go to Vice Minister of Justice’s Manor, found the male servant in secret and said that Madam Ling wanted to get the stuff she left in Vice Minister of Justice’s Manor back.

As she expected, Vice Minister Ling took out some pieces of stuff without saying a word, and the jade pendant was among them at that time. The reason why she tricked Madam Dowager with this jade pendant was that Marquis of Ping’an had threatened Madam Dowager with it before.

The jade pendant contained a secret, and it was a secret that Ning Xueyan had no choice but to investigate.

She had seen various accessories! It was said that the knitting pattern of this accessory was unique. In her last life, she had seen her mother knitting. Of course, her mother didn’t knit with bright yellow or yellow threads, because only the royal family could use that kind of color.

The packet given by Vice Minister Ling included pendants, rings, earrings and necklaces. Among them, there were several pieces of accessories all of which were that kind of yellow. Although the old yellow accessories looked no longer bright and gorgeous, they must have been dazzling bright yellow many years ago. How could Madam Ling possess these kinds of stuff? Or it should be said that how could Ning Zu’an possess these kinds of stuff belonging to the imperial family of the previous dynasty?

Such kinds of stuff must come from the imperial harem. It was extraordinary to get a piece of them. However, there were at least seven or eight pieces of them in that pile of stuffs. There were so many pieces of jewel handed down from the imperial family of the previous dynasty. An observant person should have removed all the accessories of them long ago.

From this pile of stuff, she could tell that Ning Zu’an definitely didn’t get them occasionally. There were plenty of jewels, and only one of them was priceless. Moreover, there were so many of them. If these pieces of stuff could be exposed in public, Madam Ling would have never hidden them from others and even left them in her parents’ home.

Now only one thing could be proved. Madam Dowager must know the existence of these pieces of stuff.

Since she knew it, it would be a much easier job.

“Xinmei, do you know the guards at the door?” Ning Xueyan asked with a smile.

“I’m a secret guard, so I’m little acquainted with ordinary guards. But the chief guard protecting Prince Yi beside him knows me.” Xinmei answered. Unlike ordinary guards, secret guards were more mysterious. Some secret tasks were performed by secret guards, so the identities of secret guards were confidential.

Therefore, the guards at the door only knew that Xinmei was the Fifth Young Lady’s first maid, but did not know that she was a secret guard of Prince Yi’s Manor. Of course, it was the reason why Xinmei could show up in public without being afraid of being recognized by others.

It seemed that it couldn’t be rushed. Fortunately, both she and Ning Qingshan were injured, so they couldn’t go down the mountain. Of course, Madam Dowager couldn’t go down the mountain at this time. So she decided to wait and see what Madam Dowager would do next. She had intended to instruct the guards to do something for her, but since Xinmei was little acquainted with them, she couldn’t expose Xinmei’s identity.

“Young Lady, why did Lord Protector’s Manor hide these pieces of stuff? I heard that the imperial palace was on fire at that time, and the palace servants, who failed to escape, all died. Could these pieces of stuff be taken away by a certain palace servant when she ran away?” Lanning had seen these pieces of stuff when Qingyu brought them back, so she asked in confusion.

They were only a few pieces of jewelry for ladies. Why did Madam Ling threaten marquis and Madam Dowager with them? Why did they give in obediently? In Lanning’s view, it was unbelievable. Even if these pieces of jewelry were really from the imperial palace, so what? Madam Ling could only say that Lord Protector’s Manor had caught a palace maid running away from the imperial palace.

Were they really taken away by someone from the imperial palace when she escaped? Ning Xueyan raised the corners of her mouth slightly to show a faintly sarcastic smile and covered her mouth with a handkerchief. Each of the jewels was a treasure. Where did Lord Protector’s Manor get these treasures? How could they get these treasures?

If they were really taken away by a palace maid when she escaped, who was the palace maid so that she could get such precious jewelry? Even ordinary imperial concubines couldn’t possess such jewelry. The only one capable of possessing them Ning Xueyan could imagine should be the Empress.

It was said that in her last life, her birth mother was an unparalleled beauty who was the emperor’s favorite. In the imperial harem, no one else could compare with her mother. Her father loved her mother deeply, so they had a child, the only Eldest Princess, her. However, it was strange that her mother ran away from the imperial palace without leaving her any accessories.

If her mother really escaped from the imperial palace, she didn’t believe that her mother didn’t take anything. If her mother did, she thought that her mother was most likely to take the packet of stuff she got from Vice Minister of Justice Ling’s Manor. No one could possess so many precious pieces of stuff except for the Empress.

But why didn’t these pieces of stuffs show up in her manor in the last life? She even didn’t find any of them after moving to the capital and rummaging through everything. However, they showed up in Lord Protector’s Manor which had nothing to do with her and even in Madam Ling’s hands. In the last life, her mother wrote a letter to Madam Ming. If so, it should be Madam Ming who was well acquainted with her mother.

Madam Ling didn’t come from a noble family, so she shouldn’t be acquainted with her mother. However, things went wrong in such a strange direction that Ning Xueyan couldn’t figure it out for a moment. Something seemed to have come across her mind, but when she intended to grasp it, she always failed.

She had an intuition that as long as she discovered this secret, some of her questions could be solved.

Maybe she should enter the imperial palace again to see Senior Nun Jing Kong. She had always thought that Senior Nun Jing Kong didn’t tell her everything and seemed to have hidden some key parts from her so that she found everything she knew incoherent and it was difficult to connect them.

Suddenly there came some noise from outside the door. Lanning put down the needlework and went out. After a while, she came in with someone else. It turned out to be Caifen, who served Ning Qingshan.

“Fifth Young Lady, my master wanted to come to see you, but she couldn’t get up. So she asked me to come to ask if you’ve got better. If you need any medicinal materials, please tell my master. We got some precious medicinal materials sent by the Third Prince. If you need any of them, just tell us.”

Caifen said in a polite and respectful manner with a smile, and didn’t show the grudges she bore against Ning Xueyan when they first met.

Ning Qingshan sent someone to say that at this time. Of course, it was not just because she wanted to show her concern for Ning Xueyan or showed how much the Third Prince valued her. On hearing Caifen’s words, Ning Xueyan smiled lightly. She had always thought that Ning Qingshan had been too quiet these days. She heard that Ning Qingshan lost her temper in her yard from time to time, but it was wired that Ning Qingshan didn’t come to mess with her.

Did Ning Qingshan imply that she should go to see her?

Ning Xueyan had claimed that she had internal injuries. In this case, it should have little influence on her movements. Meanwhile, Ning Qingshan couldn’t move freely now. Moreover, in other people’s opinion, Ning Qingshan got injured because she hurried to see Ning Xueyan who was injured. So Ning Xueyan got every reason to go to see her.

“Tell the Third Sister that I’m grateful to her for her kindness. I’ve almost recovered and can walk now. I’ll visit her after lunch.” Ning Xueyan coughed in a low voice, covered her mouth with a handkerchief, and then said with a gentle smile. No matter what trouble Ning Qingshan was going to make, she would handle it.

Moreover, she had always been suspicious of Ning Qingshan’s unpredictable identity. How did Ning Qingshan know that she was the princess of the previous dynasty?

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