The Devious First-Daughter

"Where did you put Mother Wang?" Ning Xueyan asked Qingyu as soon as she returned to the Bright Frost Garden.

"I put her in the room next to Lanning’s. Lanning said it would be convenient for her to take care of Mother Wang," Qingyu answered, pointing to a room on the right wing. "Miss, you’d better have a rest before visiting Mother Wang. Lanning is being with her now."

"Okay. I’ll go and fresh myself up first." Ning Xueyan nodded. "Although Mother Wang has come to the manor under the persuasion of Lanning, she won’t tell me any secrets because I’m Ning Xueyan, not Ning Ziying now. But I still have time. Since many outsiders have known that Mother Wang came to our manor after being knocked down, Madam Ling won’t dare to hurt her. Furthermore, Mother Wang is at my place, so her safety can be assured at least," she thought.

She had a feeling that Mother Wang must have known some secrets about her past life.

However, she knew that even with Lanning’s explanation, Mother Wang wouldn’t completely trust her and tell her about the secrets.

After refreshing herself up, Ning Xueyan rested for a while before walking toward the right wing. She didn’t take Qingyu with her. It not because she didn’t trust Qingyu, but she was afraid that Mother Wang would be more suspicious.

Lanning opened the door when she heard someone knocking at it. When she found it was Ning Xueyan, she greeted her. "Miss." She looked a little worried, so Ning Xueyan guessed that Lanning’s persuasion of Mother Wang didn’t work.

Ning Xueyan smiled, trying to comfort Lanning. Then she stepped into the room.

Mother Wang was sitting on the bed now. She looked at Ning Xueyan cautiously with surprise in her eyes.

Just like the true Ning Xueyan had never seen Mother Wang, Mother Wang had never seen Ning Xueyan before. The girl in front of her was calm and graceful, so Mother Wang had difficulty in associating her with the timid Fifth Young Lady from the Lord Protector’s Manor who had always hidden in her own room.

"Mother Wang." Ning Xueyan stood still and sized her up for a while before calling her with a smile.

Mother Wang just recovered from her trance. She immediately sat straight and was about to get out of the bed. Ning Xueyan reached out and stopped her.

"Since you’re recuperating here, you don’t have to get up. Many people come in and out here every day. If they knew that your injuries are not that serious, we’ll get into trouble," she said.

"Mammy, you’d better stay in bed. Young Lady won’t blame you for these manners," Lanning said. Of course Mother Wang’s feet were not really broken. In order to take her into the Lord Protector’s Manor smoothly, Ning Xueyan had designed this.

"Thank you, Fifth Young Lady," Mother Wang said. She knew she should keep this secret, so she didn’t insist on getting out of the bed, but bowed slightly to Ning Xueyan in bed.

"You’re welcome, Mother Wang. Lanning has told you about Sister Ziying’s death. I know that she was murdered, and I would like to take revenge for her. If you know anything useful, just tell me. Maybe we can avenge her sooner.

She knew that Mother Wang was loyal to Ning Ziying. When she heard the news about Ning Ziying’s death, she could have chosen to leave, but she hadn’t. Instead, she insisted on staying in the city and collecting news about Ning Ziying. This time, she agreed to come into the Lord Protector’s Manor because she was told that Ning Xueyan would help her to find out the true cause of Ning Ziying’s death.

Mother Wang didn’t hesitate even when she knew that she had to rush toward the carriage and to be knocked down so that the plan could be executed.

Although everything had been planned and the speed of the carriage wouldn’t be fast, something unexpected might happen. But Mother Wang still agreed to be a part of the plan without any hesitation.

Fortunately, she ended up with only a few bruises on her feet.

It was unnecessary to go around a lot to talk to someone like her.

"Fifth Young Lady, are you serious that you’re willing to track down the cause of my master’s death? I remember that you haven’t seen my master before, right?" Mother Wang asked, looking at Ning Xueyan. Mother Wang looked weary. Obviously, she had been busy investigating Ning Ziying’s death recently.

Mother Wang was confused. Since Ning Xueyan had never seen Ning Ziying, then she wouldn’t have been close to Ning Ziying. Why did she spend so much energy on finding out how Ning Ziying died?

"Mammy, there’s more to our relationship than that." Ning Xueyan smiled and sat on the chair beside the bed. Apparently she was hinting something.

"The relationship between you and my master?" Mother Wang was surprised and her eyelid twitched slightly.

Ning Xueyan continued when Mother Wang was lost in thought, "Ning Ziying came to the Lord Protector’s Manor for shelter, but in reality, she came to my mom."

Hearing that, Mother Wang was so shocked that she almost immediately sat up from the bed. She widened her eyes and stared at Ning Xueyan, as if the person in front of her was a stranger. She knew that Ning Ziying had a letter which her mother wrote to Madam Ming, the wife of the Lord Protector. However, Madam Ming had never received the letter.

When they arrived at the Lord Protector’s Manor, it was Madam Ling who was administrating the manor, while Madam Ming had already hidden in the Bright Frost Garden, and she had never shown up even in holidays.

Ning Ziying’s mother wrote that letter before her death. She repeatedly reminded Ning Ziying to hand this letter to Madam Ming in person and not to ask other people, even it was the henchman of Madam Ming to do this. Because Mother Wang was standing beside Ning Ziying at that point, she heard every word clearly.

Since Ning Ziying had no opportunity to see Madam Ming, she hadn’t given the letter to her after she had been in the city for five years.

Mother Wang wondered how Fifth Young Lady knew about this letter, because except for Ning Ziying, her maid Xiang’er and Mother Wang, nobody else, including Lanning knew about it. Looking at Ning Xueyan’s dark jade-like eyes, Mother Wang’s eyes were moist. Ning Xueyan’s eyes were quite like Ning Ziying’s, but a little less tender and a little sharper.

"Mother Wang, although I don’t have evidence to improve that Madam Ling has something to do with Ning Ziying’s death, you should think it over why Ning Ziying’s fiancé married Ning Ziyan? My mother also died because of Madam Ling, so we have the same enemy. Moreover, my relationship with Sister Ziying is much closer than you have imagined. I have dreamed of her many times and she told me that she was murdered..."

Before Ning Xueyan could finish, Mother Wang had tears in her eyes.

The rebirth of Ning Ziying in Ning Xueyan’s body was a secret, and nobody would believe such a story. Mother Wang believed in Buddha, so it would make sense to her that someone who had died appeared in another person’s dream to make a request. Besides, two persons out of the three who had known about the letter had died, and Mother Wang had never mentioned it to Ning Xueyan before.

So it seemed the only possibility was that Ning Ziying had come to Ning Xueyan in her dream and asked Ning Xueyan to take revenge for her.

Hearing their conversation, Lanning felt very sad and she couldn’t help sobbing. She turned her head and wiped tears off her check quietly.

She hadn’t served Ning Ziying for a long time, but she was moved by Ning Ziying’s kindness. So when she heard them talk about Ning Ziying’s death, she really felt heartbroken.

"Fifth Young Lady, was my master really killed by them?" Mother Wang shivered and could hardly speak. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She couldn’t believe that a kind and generous Young Lady would have died in the lotus pond. Committing suicide? How could a girl who was ready to get married with anticipation have committed suicide?

"Mother Wang, I don’t remember clearly what happened in my dream. I only remember that Sister Ziying said the Xias seemed to want to get something from her, so they killed her. But before, she has already decided to give all her banknotes to Xia Yuhang. Why did they still want to kill her?" Ning Xueyan propped her elbow onto the table and asked in confusion, rubbing her head.

On the rebirth day, she thought that the Xias wanted to grab her dowry, so they brought her dowry to their manor before killing her. But now, she thought that they hadn’t killed her just for money. She had told Xia Yuhang that she would like to give all her bank notes to him if he needed them, but he refused to accept them.

From her confused look and what Ning Ziying had told her privately before, Mother Wang became trust what Ning Xueyan said. She had tried her best to stop Ning Ziying from giving her bank notes to Xia Yuhang, but Ning Ziying didn’t want to follow her advice. She said that since she would marry Xia Yuhang, he would get the bank notes sooner or later, so it wasn’t a big deal to give him a little bit earlier.

Because Xia Yuhang didn’t accept the bank notes, Mother Wang had thought that he really loved Ning Ziying.

Ning Ziying didn’t tell Xiang’er about this, but only discussed with Mother Wang.

Ning Xueyan had no chance to have known anything about such a private issue if Ning Ziying hadn’t told her in her dream. Now Mother Wang was more assured that her master was murdered. Otherwise, her soul wouldn’t have stayed in the mortal world. Thinking about this, Mother Wang was both angry and sad. She gritted her teeth.

"Fifth Young Lady, my master did want to give her bank notes to Childe Xia. It seemed because Childe Xia needed money to turn over. I don’t know the exact reason, and my master was reluctant to tell me about it. Childe Xia didn’t accept her bank notes, but she died the day before the wedding ceremony. I guess Childe Xia didn’t want to get married with my master, but he wanted her dowry!"

Gritting her teeth, Mother Wang told Ning Xueyan the conclusion he had drawn after thinking about the issue for a few days.

"I still don’t understand," Ning Xueyan said in confusion.

"Childe Xia has always said that he needed money to turn over. However, when my master wanted to give him her bank notes, he said that a true man shouldn’t accept the money from his fiancée and he would find a way on his own. My master trusted him. But behind her back, Childe Xia’s servant always hinted me that..."

Mother Wang pulsed for a short moment and then continued, "His servant said that Childe Xia wouldn’t accept my master’s bank notes, because it would be shameful for a man to do so. He suggested me to give him some old, unused brocade of my master. He would sell them in the market and give the money to Childe Xia to turn over. When Childe Xia earned money in the future, he would buy some better brocade for my master."

"Old brocade?" Ning Xueyan frowned in surprise.

She didn’t guess wrong. There was some hidden reason!

When Ning Ziying just came to the city, she took two big cases of brocade with her. They were the dowry her mother had bought for her. Her mother told her not to use the brocade before getting married.

So she had never used any of the brocade after arriving at the Lord Protector’s Manor. When she needed new dresses, she would have asked Mother Wang to buy some cloth in the shop. She didn’t know from when Xia Yuhang began to notice the brocade.

"What’s the secret in the brocade?" Ning Xueyan wondered.

"Mother Wang, is there anything special about the brocade?" Ning Xueyan raised her head and asked. She wanted to know the reason. There must be some secret in the brocade.

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