Grudge Breaker

Chapter 279: Slap in the face
"Brother Tingfeng, why are you here?"

Lao Longjing had been shouting at the top of her lungs the entire night, and her voice could no longer be restored. The giegie she called Mo Tingfeng in a hoarse voice reminded Song Weichen, who was lying on the ground pretending to be dead, of the rough and fierce Zhang Fei. She felt that Ruan Mianmian, who had such a voice, must have a palm-sized heart hair... She was so distracted that she almost couldn't hold back her laughter and broke her act.

In fact, Mo Tingfeng almost couldn't hold back his tears, mainly because Ruan Mianmian's face was so funny. He still remembered that in Luoyun Town, he and Song Weichen disguised themselves as a couple to investigate a case and met her unexpectedly in Ximanlou. She also cried because of a trivial matter and her face was full of tears. However, compared with the face in front of him, the "flowery face" at that time was not worth mentioning.

Mo Tingfeng suppressed the smile in his heart, nodded to Qin Xueying as a greeting, and then looked at Ruan Mianmian with a cold face.

"You want to turn my personal maid into an iced snow lotus?"

Ruan Mianmian was stunned when she heard this. Guyu was Mo Tingfeng's personal maid? What was going on? Wasn't she the maid of that little bitch? Besides, she had known Mo Tingfeng for so many years and had never heard that he had a personal maid... Oops, this time she kicked the donkey's hoof.

"You heard me wrong, Brother Tingfeng. I meant there's a ghost baby in this room and I'm so scared..."

Lao Longjing didn't want to take the challenge head-on and started to play the victim.

She stumbled to her feet and staggered towards Mo Tingfeng, stretching out her hands to grab his arm. Mo Tingfeng felt disgusted and turned away with a cold face to look after "Gu Yu" who was still lying unconscious on the ground.

Ruan Mianmian's attack was in vain and was seen by everyone in the room.

She was secretly feeling ashamed and angry, blaming Mo Tingfeng for not giving her the slightest bit of face in front of Qin Xueying and everyone else. Just then, someone couldn't help but let out a low laugh, which made her so angry that she wanted to go crazy, but because he was there, she had to endure it. She stood there awkwardly, looking around for the owner of the laugh.
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Mo Tingfeng squatted down and sniffed "Guyu's" breath, then felt her pulse. Knowing that she was pretending to faint, he pretended to transmit a stream of magic power to her from the Neiguan acupoint. Because of this golden magic power that everyone could see, "Guyu" opened her eyes.

"Si, Lord Si Chen..."

Song Weichen called out with false respect and tried his best to support himself and salute Mo Tingfeng.

He naturally knew who "she" was.

The reason why Mo Tingfeng "broke into" the Venerable Mansion where the Princess was staying at night was because he found Song Weichen was not there after he returned to Wuqingju. Then he recalled the "big sister's instructions" that Xiao Biezhi had deliberately gone to the garden to find him and asked him to order people to set off fireworks. Needless to say, he knew where Song Weichen was.

But because no one in the crowd could point it out, he could only resist the urge to help her and stood up with his hands folded.

"What's going on here? What happened? Why did you faint in Xingxuan's room?"

He did not call Lao Longjing by her maiden name "Mianmian" but called her by her real name, deliberately sounding distant, which made Ruan Mianmian feel uncomfortable.

"Sir, I will explain the situation in detail later. Can you please send someone to take Miss Dujuan to the hospital for treatment? She has a high fever and convulsions, and she is soaked all over. She really can't hold on any longer."

Song Weichen was not acting, she was really worried about Du Juan. Her old injuries had not healed yet and she had a new one - if she didn't take advantage of Mo Tingfeng's presence to take care of her, given Ruan Mianmian's personality, it was very likely that this Venerable Mansion would soon have another ghost who had died in vain.

Mo Tingfeng glanced at Du Juan who was lying straight on the ground and frowned. The situation was not optimistic. He immediately called the maid from the Si Chen Mansion who was guarding outside the hall to come in, helped Du Juan up and sent her to the mansion's Chinese medicine clinic. He did not ask Ruan Mianmian for her opinion during the whole process, which made her even more embarrassed.

Watching Du Juan being sent away, Song Weichen felt relieved and bowed to Mo Tingfeng again.

"Thank you for your generosity, sir!"

"Let me report what happened tonight."

"Guyu was originally in the mansion tonight tending to Miss Sangpu who had a miscarriage and was weak, but she was urgently summoned here, saying that Lady Ruan needed her and that she must send me over."

"Mrs. Ruan didn't allow the lights to be turned on, so I had no choice but to enter the room in the dark. As soon as I entered the room, a basin of ice water was poured on me out of nowhere. Mrs. Ruan said that it was Du Juan's hand that slipped, so she personally punished her. Unexpectedly, she fell down with a plop, and her whole body began to convulse with a high fever. Seeing this, I was terrified and begged Mrs. Ruan to send a doctor, but I was poured a basin of ice water for no reason."

"Later, the noble lady asked about Miss Sangpu's miscarriage in great detail. As they were talking, a child's laughter suddenly appeared in the room... Then I... I saw the miscarried baby sitting... sitting on the noble lady Ruan's shoulder. I fainted from fright..."

Song Weichen's behavior could be considered as "complaining to the emperor". She deliberately described the whole process in detail in front of Mo Tingfeng, just to let everyone hear about Ruan Mianmian's style and character, so that everyone would be more smart in front of her in the future and let her restrain herself.

……

"You, you are talking nonsense! You are a dirty-hearted person. You used sweet words to make me happy, but you deliberately threw ice water on me at the critical moment. How dare you?!"

Ruan Mianmian couldn't bear it anymore when she heard this. She rushed towards Song Weichen and tried to slap her, but Mo Tingfeng grabbed her arm and stopped her.

Seeing Ruan Mianmian was about to take action, Song Weichen was so frightened that he shrank back, pretending to be extremely wronged and confessed to her.

"Your Excellency, you are innocent! The ghost baby was haunting you at that time, and you asked me to do it... I was stupid, and I thought that since the ice water could easily make Miss Dujuan fall to the ground, it must be effective against the ghost baby, so I poured ice water on it. The heaven and earth can bear witness to my intention to save you, my Excellency!"

After Song Weichen said this, no one dared to speak or act. Instead, there were bursts of whispers outside the house. After all, the door was wide open, and people outside could hear clearly, discussing what Ruan Mianmian did. Ruan Mianmian had never suffered such a loss before. Not only was she stopped from teaching a maid a lesson, but she also couldn't get the upper hand in her mouth. She was almost angry to the point of having a brain hemorrhage. The only "relief" was that at this moment, Mo Tingfeng was still holding her wrist, which was "about to commit a crime", and did not let go.

"Brother Tingfeng, you have to make the decision for me. Mianmian has been bullied so badly by this little bitch..."

She simply took advantage of the situation of having her arm pinched and waited for an opportunity to stick to Mo Tingfeng. A strong man is afraid of clingy women, so as long as she sticks to him and acts coquettishly, he will definitely lose his temper. This is Ruan-style confidence.

As a result, before she could stick to him even half way, Mo Tingfeng coldly shook her arm away. Due to inertia, Ruan Mianmian staggered. Although she did not fall, it looked very ugly - it was clear to everyone that the daughter of the Ruan family was not as good as a maid in the eyes of Mo Tingfeng.

Even if Ruan Mianmian didn't want to admit it at this moment, she had to face the fact that she had been defeated tonight. It was really humiliating.

Song Weichen looked at the Old Dragon Well in front of him and felt that it looked familiar, quite like an animated character. Who was it? ...

Ah! She remembered that old witch Yubaba in Spirited Away. At this moment, Ruan Mianmian looked exactly like Yubaba after she was defeated.
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Mo Tingfeng walked to the center of the room and stood with his hands behind his back. The surroundings suddenly became so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

"Mo doesn't want to disturb the eldest princess's rest, so let's make it short."

"The other day, a maid named Xiao'an drowned in the Venerable Mansion. Most people in the mansion are in a panic. At this moment, no matter who you are or what your status is, you should just stay calm and not make trouble. Anyone who deliberately makes trouble will be punished the same way, no matter who it is. This is one of them."

"Secondly, Xiao An's murder is still under investigation. Whoever caused the loss of life must be held accountable!"

"Third, the ghost baby story is unfounded. I think Xing Xuan is tired and dizzy. Everyone in the mansion should not spread rumors and panic. Tonight, the Sichen Mansion will set off fireworks, one is to celebrate the arrival of the princess, and the other is to exorcise the evil spirits in the Venerable Mansion. You can rest assured."

After Mo Tingfeng finished speaking, he called in Ding Heran, who had been guarding outside the side hall, and ordered him to have someone inspect the side hall carefully and take away some suspicious objects for inspection in order to analyze what kind of evil magic the so-called ghost baby was caused by - in fact, these were all superficial excuses.

Ding Heran knew very well that the most important thing Mo Tingfeng wanted him to take away was the gold hairpin with emerald leaf pendant that Ruan Mianmian dropped on the ground in panic.

……

After all the arrangements were made, Mo Tingfeng turned to look at "Guyu". Before he could utter the word "Let's go", he saw the eldest princess, who had walked up to him at some point, took off her cloak and put it on Song Weichen.

"Miss Guyu was really frightened this night. Go back with Lord Sichen quickly."

"This is your Excellency's cloak. I'd like you to wear it for me. It will also keep me warm on the road."

As expected of the eldest princess, these two unobtrusive sentences achieved three goals with one stone.

Not only did she win Mo Tingfeng's favor, but she also established an image of being gentle, considerate and approachable in front of others. The most important thing was that she was wearing Mo Tingfeng's cloak. This message was unconsciously brought out. So how would people view their relationship?
Sometimes, gossip and speculation among little people are the best breeding ground for the truth.
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Mo Tingfeng left first with "Guyu", and Ding Heran also left after leading a group of resentment-breaking masters to collect evidence. The Venerable Mansion finally returned to peace.

Because Master Poyuan was inspecting the side hall, after Mo Tingfeng left, Ruan Mianmian followed Qin Xueying to her main hall to take a bath. Now that she had finished combing her hair, she came out from behind the screen with a bit of embarrassment.

She had never felt so frustrated and humiliated as she did tonight, as if all her previous appearances as a lady from a prominent family had been peeled off, revealing her heart as kind as the magpie she once was.

"Sister Mianmian, if a person is frightened too much, their temperament will change drastically, don't you think? You were frightened tonight, and I feel really sorry for you when I heard that."

Qin Xueying wanted to give Ruan Mianmian a chance to shine, which made her eyes light up again and again. Yes! She was so abnormal tonight, wasn't it because she was too frightened?

"Good sister, thank you for being here!"

Ruan Mianmian rushed to the chair where Qin Xueying was half lying and grabbed her arm for comfort.

"Sister Xueying is really caring, unlike that Lord Sichen, who doesn't know right from wrong and only protects his own shortcomings!"

A barely perceptible smile appeared on Qin Xueying's lips. Her eyes moved slightly, and she looked like a little girl immersed in happiness.

"Oh, sister, please don't talk about Tingfeng's faults. Guyu is his personal maid after all. How can you order her around at will?"

"Besides, he protects his shortcomings... which is a good thing. After they get married, which woman wouldn't want to protect her and her children wholeheartedly?"

……

Ruan Mianmian suddenly became alert. She clearly heard some kind of signal and remembered that Qin Xueying was wearing Mo Tingfeng's cloak. In addition, "Guyu" had revealed to her before that Mo Tingfeng met Qin Xueying at night after Sang Pu had a miscarriage - all these pointed to one possibility.

After hesitating for a long time, Ruan Mianmian decided to ask directly. She raised her head and looked at Qin Xueying intently, her lips trembling a little.
"My dear sister, are you and Brother Tingfeng... engaged?"