Chapter 91. The Death of Shen Qing (part 1)
This winter on the Ding capital, was really a troublesome season as storms came one after another. The case of the elimination of the entire household of Prince Yu was well known and even though the commoners secretly clapped in rejoice of the matter, they knew the danger of it. And the only survivor and bride, the Eldest Young Lady of the Shen family, was thrown into prison because of the inextricably relations to the case, making everyone to poke their heads out to inquire about it.
At the end of this day there was a sudden news from the outside, that the Eldest Young Lady of the Shen family committed suicide by her own belt to preserve her innocence. She had left a blooded letter before her death saying that she had nothing to do with the matter and coupled that since her husband was also dead, she did not want to live on thus she used death as a way of declaring her innocence.
People were strange as they were always much more tolerant to those who were death. If it was previously, because Shen Qing was pregnant before marriage, she was called a slut who did not keep the morality of a female but now with this death, it attracted a lot of sadness. One praised that she had character and temperament, but her life was destroyed by Prince Yu.
The previous rumours were discredited by itself overnight. When one thought about it, to make a pregnant female use death to show her innocence, one was certain that she had great grievance and moreover the rumours were baseless and without evidence. Shen Qing had no animosity and grievance with Prince Yu and upon Prince Yu’s death, she still needed to observe widowhood thus it was not worthwhile.
So as with Shen Qing’s death, the suspicions on her and the Shen residence were cleared. Even the Emperor Wen Hui did not say anything but one still could not find out who the perpetrator was, thus this case would most probably become an unresolved case.
In the Shen residence, everything seemed no different than previous
Shen Qing had already married into Prince Yu residence thus her corpse would be buried with the Prince Yu of the First Rank, with the status of the Prince’s Consort. Old Shen Furen felt a little comfort for this as no matter death or alive, there was a Prince’s Consort from the Shen family thus at least in terms of reputation, it sounded good.
Shen Wan and Chen Rou Qiu seemed to be very sad and cried like she was not herself. However even though they were this sad, previously they did not even go to visit Shen Qing in prison at all so there was no way of knowing if it was sincere or an act.
In contrast, Shen Gui as the father was much more cold hearted. He continue his usual work and there was no grief on the surface at all. One could even occasionally see that at times there was a fleeting rejoice in his eyes. Perhaps for Shen Gui, Shen Qing’s suicide reduced a number of troubles for him and naturally he was happy about it. As for Shen Yuan, the entire burden of the Second household of Shen family had fallen onto his shoulders, and he was running about outside every day that no one know what the situation was, as even his shadow was not seen in the residence.
The thing that made one sigh with emotion would be not other than Ren Wan Yun. When she learned of Shen Qing’s suicide in the prison, she fainted on the spot. After she woke up, her state of mind was somewhat thrown into confusion as she pulled Xiang Lan’s hands saying to go see Shen Qing’s return to her parental home after marriage. It was obvious that the matter hit Ren Wan Yun the hardest so under such a state of confusion, naturally she was unable to make decisions for the Second household. Shen Gui let Wan YiNiang temporarily take charge of the matters of the Second household, and the people of Cai Wan Yuan secretly whispered that regarding the Second household of the Shen family, Wan YiNiang had broken clear of all the trouble and hardships that even the often sickly Shen Dong Ling would also have a change in fortune. It was fortunate that Old Shen Furen doted on Shen Yuan Bo and at the end did not let Wan YiNiang raised her Di grandson and directly brought Shen Yuan Bo over to Rong Jing Tang to personally raise.
The chaos of the Second and Third family of the Shen family had nothing to do with the Eldest household at all. At this return of Shen Xin and Lou Xue Yan, made them critical of the two other household and naturally they would not rush to help. Every day, they would practice swords in the residence, else they would go out to visit old friends and this was considered living comfortably. Shen Xin also brought Shen Qiu along to mingle with the official figures in court. With Shen Qiu’s richer military accomplishments, there would be a day where Shen Xin’s position would be handed over to Shen Qiu to sit.
And Shen Miao only rested for a while before going back to Guang Wen Tang again.
As the end of the year was nearing, the lessons conducted by Guang Wen Tang’s teachers had relaxed a lot. The teachers knew that once it was at this time the students inadvertently had no concentration in learning, and while at it sold a favour. Even though Shen Miao had not gone there for many a days, she did not fall too much in terms of homework. But rather it was those students who started talking when they saw her.
The matter of Shen Qing was spread up in an uproar but one had never heard of the Shen family’s view of it. As early as before Prince Yu residence misfortune, Shen Yue was ordered by Chen Rou Qiu to stay in the residence and not go to the school to prevent things from going wrong. Thus upon Shen Miao’s entrance, everyone was interest to inquire about it.
Yi Pei Lan said, “Oh, Shen Miao, you actually came? Why did you not wear plain clothes?” She deliberately raised her voice, “Ai, it is not a surprise. At the beginning Shen Qing had a lot of friction with you two sisters so one fear that you are not that sad afterall.”
Yi Pei Lan and Shen Qing had been good friends and wanted to vent her anger for Shen Qing, so the words she said naturally had malicious intent. Everyone looked towards the door and only saw Shen Miao wearing a deep green long dress and the jewellery she had on was only a simple bracelet, which was already dreary. In fact this dressing was considered alright but as compared to Shen Yue’s plain white long dress with graceful little white flowers on her head, it was slightly inferior.
“Under Ming Qi’s law, when there is mourning in the family, everyone will wear white upon the elders’ death and for the rest it is enough to wear dark colours. Could it be that Yi Young Lady is unable to differentiate family hierarchy as Eldest Sister is my sister but not my senior.” Shen Miao answered without even turning her head as she sat down at her seat.
When Feng An Ning saw her, she was also very excited, seemingly having a stomach full of questions for her. When Yi Pei Lan was pricked by Shen Miao, she was unable to restrain her sudden anger and said without thinking, “Shen Miao, be less of a good person. At the beginning it was you who was on bad terms with Shen Qing and now that Shen Qing run into misfortune, you are secretly happy about it. Else why would Shen Qing be in prison and your parents as Shen Qing’s BoFu and BoMy not lend a hand to help?”
When those words were spoken, everyone’s gazes suddenly turned towards Shen Miao, as if they were waiting for her to answer this intractable question. It was not wrong, when Shen Qing was imprison, Shen Xin indeed did not extend a hand to help else with Shen Xin’s meritorious services, he would be able to say some words to the Emperor and at least help Shen Qing to fight for some time, and not let Shen Qing feel despair and helplessness and commit suicide by hanging herself.
Shen Miao’s eyes went cold as she suddenly turned and stared at Yi Pei Lan. When Yi Pei Lan was being stared by her, she unconsciously felt a chill coming up and before she even spoke, she heard Shen Miao mocking voice, “Yi Young Lady and my Eldest Sister naturally have a deep sister relationship and one presume that this is a cry out against injustice. But at the beginning when my Second Shen wished to save Eldest Sister out and went to Yi residence to seek a helping hand from Yi Furen, hoping that Yi Furen would be able to persuade Yi Daren for some help, I remember that at that time Yi Furen decline the visit due to sickness.”
Yi Pei Lan was surprised for a moment and subsequently her face was flushed red and the surrounding students looked at her with additional meaning. She stammered, “That-that is because my Mother had really fallen sick!”
“Since Yi Furen could be sick at such a juncture then why cannot my parents also be sick at the same time?” Shen Miao did not bother and her words did not consist of any dirty words but was able to mercilessly humiliate Yi Pei Lan. Shen Miao continued, “Since Yi Furen was unable to deal with the matter, why is Yi Young Lady insisting on my parents to do so? My Eldest Sister was in prison that even her close family, Second Shu and Second Older Brother, were unable to find a way out. Do you think that it would have been easy to save her? Yi Young Lady, there are only two flaps of skin on a person’s mouth. It is easy to speak but difficult to do. Do not do to others what one would not have them do to one. If one still want to teach and criticise others, please see if one can do it first!”
When Pei Lang just entered the classroom, he heard Shen Miao’s continuous attack of words. He looked at the class, Shen Miao was standing straight and spoke clearly and plainly but could easily clean out Yi Pei Lan and the entire Yi residence. Yi Pei Lan was made speechless and could only bite her lower lip and stare at Shen Miao.
Correct, do not do to others what one would not have them do to one. Yi Residence themselves were people who saw the wind to set the helms, and it was a joke for others that they still stood on high moral grounds and criticised others.
“Shen Miao!” As she got more angry, Yi Pei Lan almost rushed up to fight with Shen Miao when she heard a light cough as Pei Lang walked in from outside.
Seeing the teacher, everyone immediately became silent. Yi Pei Lan’s anger was not extinguished yet when she heard Pei Lang light voice, “No quarrels are allowed in the school.” After finishing his words, he looked warningly at Yi Pei Lan.
Everyone knew that in Guang Wen Tang, even though Pei Lang was only a scholar and had a mild temperament, he was very respectable. Despite Yi Pei Lang’s arrogant temper, she dare not raise her voice. Shen Miao sat down on her seat and Feng An Ning nudged her shoulder and spoke softly, “Teacher Pei is helping you out of trouble, Yi Pei Lan is really too much that even Teacher Pei cannot take it.”
Shen Miao looked up and just nice met Pei Lang’s eyes. In his mild expression, there was a little look of probing, as if wanting to see clearly what she was thinking.
As she met Pei Lang’s eyes her lips slightly hook up and slowly smiled.
Pei Lang was slightly startled. This young female’s face was delicate and pretty but was at the side of looking dignified and cold. The smile that appeared, however seemed to have brought a charm of a female adult, which contained a trace of an indistinct allure, making one could not help but want to delve into the secret.
But just at that moment, Shen Miao lowered her head, as if that flash of a smile was only an illusion.
*****
The rumours in the Ding capital, regardless of how big or small they were, the Feng Xian Pawnshop naturally would be willing to let everyone know.
Ji Yu Shu buried his head in an abacus and said towards the two persons, “The sale of the JianNan’s Chen family deal is very worthwhile. Such a big sum of money. This pawnshop do not need to be open for three years.”
“You will really swallow all this money and not leave Fifth Shen Young Lady any?” Gao Yang jokingly said, “In any case, our people were the one selling the news.”
Ji Yu Shu curled his lips, “She herself said that the money belongs to me and I have taken on such a big and dangerous risk to create her news, else can the matter of Prince Yu be settled this cleanly, without any troubles at all?” He continued, “Moreover, if it was not for her telling Chen Yue Shan that money was not required, when this deal was finished, I would have been able to not open shop for thirty over years. But because of her blessing, I have earned so much less. If she was not a female, I would have humiliated her!”
“If you really humiliated her, I will definitely gift you a coffin.” Gao Yang lightly waved his fan and his smile was gentle and elegant but the words he said made other’s teeth itch, “Prince Yu thought of harming her but at the end she exterminated his entire household. Her own sister schemed against her, she wanted the other person’s life. This kind of vicious and ruthless Young Lady, I bet that you will die in less than three moves from her.”
“Save it.” Ji Yu Shu was not satisfied, “Is this Lord so weak? Besides, no matter how powerful she is, she is a female and being a female is a weakness.” Ji Yu Shu looked towards Xie Jing Xing who was drinking tea indifferently at the side and said, “Let us say it like this, if there is a day when Fifth Shen Young Lady fall in love with our Third Xie Older Brother, then she would be pouting coquettishly and even if she is a high graded and well-tempered steel, she would not be able to resist being wrapped around Third Xie Older Brother’s finger. At that time, even if Third Xie Older Brother pointed a sword at her, one think that her brows would not even wrinkle.”
“Heh heh.” Gao Yang looked at him indifferently, “At that time, she would definitely chop Third Xie to eight pieces first and then grind them to a buddy flesh to feed the dogs.”
“Third Xie Older Brother, Gao Yang has cursed that you are a dog.” Ji Yu Shu immediately complained.
Xie Jing Xing continued to play with the hairpin in his hands and rolled his eyes at the both of them, with a rare trace of awe in his face.
“They have arrived.”
