Chapter 138: The Empress
Translator: Antonia
Since that man was the butler, he must be trusted by father. A person who had undergone numerous storms of swords and blood and who never forgot where he started like father couldn’t be wrong in selecting a trusted man of character.
The butler’s character was trustworthy and his ability has passed her test too. Now it was the time to talk business.
Afterwards, Mo Qianxue asked while walking, “Butler, can I know why do you guard the gate now? Don’t other servants listen to your orders?”
“Thank you, lady, for asking. It’s my inability that some of the people here might betray the former host since lady hasn’t returned for so long. Before madam left the mansion, she urged me to take you back. For one reason, I’m too anxious, and for another reason, I feared that a stupid servant might not recognize you and block you out of the door when you came, so I decided to guard the gate personally to wait for you.”
If she really had been blocked out by a poor-sighted servant, that would be a terrible shame. Even if she could get in afterwards, she would be losing face, and at the same time, the morale would be flattened, timing be losing, and finally become a laughing stock.
Mo Qianxue’s countenance softened, “Butler, you’re really thoughtful. I didn’t think of that.”
“Don’t say so lady.” The butler’s tone contained reverence, which was different from the previous respect when she had entered the gate. The previous respect was displayed because of the Founder. Now his reverence was due to Mo Qianxue’s decisive judgment of affairs.
Covertly, the flame of Mo Qianhua, one of the three lords, was partly put down. With one simple reason, she seized over the managing power of the mansion, fully justified. It seemed that the Feng family had been treating lady well and educated her well.
“Please prepare a proper outer courtyard for my guards…”
Females in Tianqi didn’t enjoy a high status. An ordinary household didn’t pay special attention to the separation of men from women, but this wasn’t the case for a noble family which regarded this as a vital rule. Hence, there were outer courtyards for men and inner courtyard for women.
Certainly, men were not allowed to enter inner courtyards, so were the guards. Besides, Asan, Awu, Mo Yan and Mo Xing living outside would be more convenient to protect her as well as keeping an eye on the three lords.
“Yes, I’ll arrange a proper place for your guards to live in.” The butler nodded and took the order, adding, “Lady’s courtyards had been cleaned regularly after madam Mo left the mansion. It’s equipped with everything you might need, so that lady can live in at any time…”
“Thanks for what you’ve done for me.” Mo Qianxue cut in before he finished, “You may go to arrange other things. If I need you, I’ll send nanny to call you in.”
It was indeed rushing to gather those people in an hour. She was afraid that there would be some grumblings.
The butler was clever to have anticipated what was in Mo Qianxue mind, “Then, nanny Mo, I must bother you to take care of lady. I have to go.”
“Alright.” Mo Qianxue gestured, and the butler bowed before leaving. They already arrived the entrance of the inner courtyard. As they walked in, coming in sight the scenery even more spectacular than Chuyi had told her.
Over the turquoise lotus pond, tiny tips of lotus buds scattered all around. Occasionally, a dragonfly parked on a bud, presenting a leisurely and eye-pleasing picture.
In a distance was a picturesque white jade bridge with refined reliefs against a background of a huge setting orange sun surrounded by gleams of afterglow. What a breath-taking picture! She walked along the long corridors which were flanked by dense luxuriant willows trees with numerous hanging branches that swung to the breeze and dotted the ground from time to time.
The outer appearance of the mansion, which was solemn and austere, resembled her father’s life creed, while the small bridge above a creek inside the mansion reflected her mother’s tenderness and beauty.
If on a casual day, she would definitely stop to appreciate such scenery.
But today, she couldn’t. She was going to fight a tough battle. She had to wait for those three men to come and give them a head-on blow at the first encounter.
The Snow courtyard she lived was spacious. Her father hadn’t taken any concubines, and she didn’t have siblings. With the love of her father and care of her mother, she lived in the best courtyard of the mansion, which was even more splendid than the main courtyard.
The interior decoration was fresh and elegant. Yet, as it hadn’t dwelled for many years, it appeared cold and isolated. As she expected, soon after she sat on the couch and took a breath, a nanny came to report that the three lord came to visit her.
The nannies here were selected by nanny Mo and had been living in the Snow, so they were trustworthy too. Among the three Mo lords, one was Mo Zitang, the youngest legal son of master Mo; one was Mo Zihua, the grandson of the first elder Mo; the last one was Mo Ziye, the grandson of the second elder Mo.
Originally, by September, the duke title would fall into their hands on it own, but now, in the middle of if, Mo Qianxue appeared out of nowhere. How could they not piss off?
Although there were three candidates, all of them believed that they were the one selected heir and regarded the Founder mansion as their own properties.
As soon as she just walked in the door, she lectured the servants in the mansion and sold out Mo Zihua’s lover… She meant to alert them.
Mo Qianxue sneered and waited for them to come with rage. Then she used tricks to exacerbate the rage to a higher level to reach such a point that they completely lost their sanity. By then, she could figure out their real purposes and deal with them one by one.
However, all the three came in wearing a bright smile, which caught Mo Qianxue by surprise.
The three men came in one after another. Mo Zitang smiled gently like a kind man. Mo Zihua wore a coquettish and exaggerated smile; and Mo Ziye smiled, gloom flashing by in his eyes. Nanny Mo had lived here for half a year. These three people had never showed up in the Snow courtyard, so she only knew a little about their characters through the butler.
Lord Tang was upright; lord Hua was a playboy; and lord Ye did things decisively. At least, there was the observation of Mo Qianxue so far.
To her surprise, although master Mo himself was a disgusting rat, the candidates that he had selected could hide their hearts so deep.
Mo Zitang cracked a meek smile and stepped forward before Mo Qianxue walked over, “Sister Xue, don’t you remember your eleventh brother since we last met five years ago?”
Mo Zitang ranked the eleventh among the legal siblings of the whole Mo family. In the past, when master Xie visited, he always took him together.
From then on, master Mo had made this plan to transfer this son to the Founder mansion but was turned down immediately by the Founder.
These details had been mention by nanny Mo on the road.
“How can I forget you? Eleventh brother. Thank you for performing filial piety on behalf of me. Please accept my gratitude.” If they’d like to pretend, so could she. Mo Qianxue made a fake smile and posed to bow him.
Let’s see who was the better actor.
Blind toughness would only lead to destruction of all parties. To die together with her? No, they didn’t have the honor.
Mo Zijing hurriedly raised his hands, suggesting her to stop. Mo Zihua and Mo Ziye also gestured.
After taking a seat, Zihua raised his luring eyes at her, when Ziye began to said meaningfully, “Zitang, we don’t know whether this sister is real or not. Why did you start to talk about the old days so soon?”
Mo Qianxue pulled her face, “What do you mean?”
“What do I mean?” Ziye turned a cold eye to Mo Qianxue and said, “Everybody in the capital knows that sister Qianxue is now buried next to the Founder in the graveyard. Out of nowhere, you popped up. How dare you to pretend to be his daughter!”
He meant to put Mo Qianxue to death. Pretending to be the legal daughter and to inherit the duke title was a crime of deceive the Emperor, “How can you prove that you’re the Founder’s daughter?”
Mo Qianxue raised her head unyieldingly and looked him right in the eye, “How can you proven that I’m not?” Zihua suddenly cut in, “Our sister Qianxue is a noble lady, not a bit like a wild hen of your kind. Your slutty appearance suggests that you’ve rolled in numerous beds…”
Wild hen? Slutty? This was sheer insult!
Zitang sat there, holding a teacup and enjoying the tea, as if he didn’t hear it at all.
Ziye threw over a scornful glance.
Time seemed to have frozen.
They made up these groundless things and aimed to irritate her.
If she flew into a fury and drove them out of the mansion, then she would be labeled as unfilial, because other didn’t know what they had said and would only see her sending away the cousins who had performed mourning on her behalf.
A good one!
Her suffering in the Wang village for half a year would at last be depicted by them as travelling around.
Her parents had both dedicated their lives for the country, but the first thing she did upon returning from travelling around wasn’t to perform mourning but to drive away her filial cousins. As filial piety was the top value of Tianqi dynasty, this one reason of being unfilial was enough for her to be expelled out of the Mo family.
Every country had a customary clan rule that as long as the person was expelled out of the clan, his/her properties and fame belonged to the clan.
Then, her title would also belong to the Mo family, in a justified way.
Mo Qianxue withheld the gushing fury. There would be time for them to cry. She laughed instead, “I don’t need to prove whether I’m the Founder’s daughter or not, as long as I prove that the person in the grave was a fake one that had been put there by someone out of evil purposes…”
Zihua said, “If the person in the tomb isn’t my poor cousin, then who is it?” Mo Qianxue unhurriedly took up the teacup and gently blew it, “That’s my servant girl Xiaonian.”
“I’ll turn fifteen on next month, but Xiaonian was already twenty in last year. The difference of the bones of a fifteen-year-old and twenty-year-old could be easily told by an experienced post-mortem examiner in one glance. What about we have the coffin open…?” The three men turned silent at once, their expression strange.
Luster rolled in Mo Qianxue’s eyes, and she smiled, “It was obviously a servant of the Founder mansion but was announced by elders as the eldest lady. How interesting!” Mo Zitang put down the teacup, countenance turning normal, and put on the gentle mask that made Mo Qianxue rushed over and tear it up immediately.
“Sister Xue. They have never met you before, so it’s normal that they had some doubt, and it’s out of the respect toward the Founder. They feared that someone might pretend to be her and steal away the interest of the Mo family.”
Mo Qianxue said, “Really?” To steal away the interest of the Mo family? This was a justification for that two shameless men as well as a warning to her. Mo Ziye and Mo Zihua looked angry but didn’t dare to refute him. Since she had made the proposal so confidently, they were afraid that what she said was true.
The woman in the coffin was very likely to be a servant girl. If the Emperor blamed them for having cheated him, then even the elders would be sentenced due to this huge crime.
A year ago, when they saw the corpse, they had hastened to bury it because, on the one hand, the hitmen sent by them had claimed that the person falling off the cliff was Mo Qianxue, and on the other hand, they feared that coroners might examine it. If any clues were found, then they would not only lose the duke title but also their lives.
Later, although there was suspicion, it came to nothing since nobody dared to open the coffin.
Seeing Mo Qianxue smiling without saying anything, Zitang forced a laugh, “Father and I have witnessed sister Qianxue growing up from a little girl, how could we not recognize you?”
He used to come to the Founder mansion a lot. Of course he knew Mo Qianxue. Although five years had passed, her look didn’t change a bit, but her character had turned from weakness to sharpness.
Their visit aimed to sound out for Mo Qianxue’s attidue but didn’t plan to give her a blow. Besides, master Mo had enjoined them not to argue on her identity.
As Ziting joked, the other two men laughed with him, as if the embarrassing conversation had never taken place. These three men should start to inquire for her health and so on. How shameless!
Mo Qianxue also turned pretentious, answering their question and chatting. She was about to claim her was tired when the butler’s voice sent over, “Lady, there is an imperial decree; hurry and accept it at the front hall.”
It wasn’t because the butler was unruly. When an imperial edit or decree came, the report must announce that loudly to show their gratitude to the Emperor for this honor.
The three men left. Mo Qianxue followed the butler to the front hall.
An imperial decree? It was call imperial edict when it was from the Emperor, and imperial decree from the Empress dowager or the Empress. The Empress dowager had no longer participate in the worldly affairs, so it was from the Empress.
Right. When she arrived at the front hall, the weird eunuch began to announce the verbal content in his high-pitched coarse voice. It summoned Mo Qianxue immediately to meet the Empress in the imperial palace.
Mo Qianxue took the decree, and nanny Mo, smiling, thanked the eunuch with silver, “Thank you for passing the decree. Please feel free to go. Our lady will be right there greeting the Empress after she got dressed up.”
The Empress also demanded that lady Mo immediately go to the imperial palace without dressing up officially.
Strange! To meet the Empress without dressing up? Nanny Mo and the butler looked at each other, confused, but they couldn’t argue.
Perils were hidden in the abnormal situation! Mo Qianxue smelt a rat, yet it would be improper to argue, so, all smiles, she let Chuyi and Shiwu go with her and then asked nanny Mo to arrange Asan, Awu, Mo Yan and Mo Xing to guard around her carriage.
In the carriage, nanny Mo began to tell her about the Empress in a low voice. Before the Empress married to the Emperor, she called Mo Qianxue’s mother elder sister, and the two regarded each other as real sisters.
When Mo Qianxue was young, madam Mo had always taken her to the imperial palace, and the Empress liked her very much. Probably because the Empress missed her so much after hearing that she came back safely, she was anxious to meet Mo Qianxue at once as a comfort against her mother’s decease. Nanny Mo told her not to worry.
There was a reason behind any love or hatred. Things got even more complicated when it came to the imperial family.
If the Empress really cared about her, she would think on her behalf to let her take a rest first and meet her tomorrow.
Nanny only said this to comfort her.
Mo Qianxue didn’t say much. Over unknown things, she’d rather use her brain. After delivering the identity token, nanny Mo and the others were also blocked out of the palace.
The imperial palace was stately with carving gold and jade columns in red corridors and jade bridges. Everything was spotless. An imperial servant took her to the door a one palace and left.
The woman before her wore all kinds of luxurious hairpins in her hair. Looked from the side, she was in good shape. The delicate face suggested around thirty years old. She was teasing a parrot in the porch. Although there was a long row of servant girls waiting to serve, the room smelled lonely.
Mo Qianxue somehow showed pity to her. The woman was teasing the parrot, and the vice versa. Both of them were things locked up in a gold cage.
Under the thick imperial walls of numerous layers, how much youth and tears of women had vanished like this?
Someone coughed next to her, and Mo Qianxue returned to the earth.
Under the eaves, she must lower her head! The damn world! Mo Qianxue cursed in secrecy but had to kneel as greeting, “Please accept my greetings, your majesty.”
The Empress handed the stick that she used to tease the bird to a servant, turning around gracefully, “Get up.”
There seemed to be a touch of tenderness and compassion in her eyes. Mo Qianxue couldn’t help wondering whether she had thought too much. Probably this woman was just too lonely and wanted to chat with someone.