Cottages.
"Do you mean that Jianlian"s legs are injured and can"t walk?" Commandery Princess Qingjiang touched a golden bracelet on her wrist and frowned. She asked, "Doctor Han, can"t you cure her? I hold this party to make these young ladies happy. But now Cui Jianlian is injured. Shall I ask people to carry her back to the Cui Family? How can I tell the Cui Family and the n.o.ble Consort?"
Cui Jianlian looked pale and smiled faintly, "Your Highness, don"t be so serious. How can I blame you? It"s I who don"t manage my people well to make it happen."
Jiang Muting glared at her, "Say it clearly! Don"t be unintelligible. Other people may think I push you!"
"Miss Jiang, you are clear about what happened!" Cui Jianlian"s maid protested with tears, "Everyone saw it! Even if Miss Jiang forgets how it happened, many people outside will tell you the truth!"
Then she knelt down again to Commandery Princess Qingjiang and accused in tears, "Your Highness, please make a fair judgement for my lady!"
Commandery Princess Qingjiang didn"t straighten her face to the maid at this time. She shot Jiang Muting a warning look and then said, "The most important thing now is Jianlian"s condition. Talk about other things later after I ask imperial doctor!"
"Yes!" Jiang muting stifled her anger and lowered her head after Baoying pinched her secretly.
"Doctor Han, is she injured seriously?" Commandery Princess Qingjiang turned to ask the old doctor with white hair and beard. She looked so worried on her face, "How can"t she stand up?"
Doctor Han stroked his long beard and pondered. Then he said, "Since Commandery Princess asked me, I dare not keep silent. I"m good at treating internal injury. But I know less about wounds. Miss Cui is fine according to her pulse condition. But why can"t she stand up? Well... please forgive my incapability."
After realizing doctor"s meaning, Commandery Princess Qingjiang looked dark for a moment. Then she turned to tell Zhenli, "Ask our people to go back to the imperial capital by horse soon, and invite an imperial doctor who is good at treating wounds!"
Zhenli said yes and went out to transmit her order.
"Is Miss Cui scared so that she can"t stand up?" When the room was silent due to Commandery Princess Qingjiang"s unpleasant emotion, Song Yixiao suddenly raised her head and asked carefully, "Maybe it"s not serious. Miss Cui might get better after lying for a while!"
Hearing that, Cui Jianlian shivered suddenly and then turned her head to the wall, as if she couldn"t bear her casual words. "Miss Song, what sarcastic comments you"ve make!" Cui Jianlian"s maid said angrily to stick up for her lady, "Even if you don"t fall down, you can say so coldly! My lady fell down from dozens of steps! Why don"t you have a try?"
Jinxun refuted, "The imperial doctor has said that Miss Cui"s pulse condition is okay. In that case, is my lady wrong to say your lady may be fine? Do you hope your lady weak?"
"Stop!" Cui Jianlian turned around and sobbed to stop her maid. She said, "Xiaoman, stop saying. Anyway, we did wrong first. Although I"m injured, it will be good to disarm Sister Muting..."
"Miss Cui, your words seem to mean that my lady deliberately pushed you down the mountain road because your maid broke the hairpin given by elder lady." Baoying said without any emotion, "I"m confused why you didn"t stay at room to wait for my lady to talk when your maid did something wrong. Instead, you and your maid went to mountain road to pick flowers as usual. Are you afraid my lady isn"t angry?"
Then she sneered, "Everyone knows my lady is innocent and filial towards elders. She especially loves our elder lady. How can"t she feel anxious after she heard the thing given by elder lady was broken?"
Jiang Muting also sneered, "If I really push her on the flat ground, she won"t have reasons to be too injured to stand up."
"I know Sister Muting perishes jade dangling ornaments which are given by elder lady of the Jiang Family." Cui Jianlian wiped her tears elegantly, laughing at herself. Then she said, "So I was thinking how to apologize to Sister Muting after hearing it today. I came to cottages earlier than Sister Muting and saw beautiful flowers below. So I wanted to pick some flowers to Sister Muting to show my apology. But I didn"t expect that it didn"t work and made Sister Muting misunderstand me!"
Then she sobbed, "In fact, who want to be injured and lie on the bed deliberately at this juncture?"
Hearing that, Jiang Muting and Baoying secretly had a look at Song Yixiao. Cui Jianlian finally said that!
It was the most difficult point to refute Cui Jianlian. Many servants in cottages saw Jiang Muting stretching out her arms and then Cui Jianlian falling down. Cui Jianlian also explained why she was on the mountain road with her maid instead of waiting in the room.
But!
Jiang Muting also had a high status!
Servants of Commandery Princess Qingjiang almost said the same thing like Ji Su, unless Commandery Princess Qingjiang stood by Cui Jianlian clearly. They said, "We saw Miss Cui and Miss Jiang talking with each other. We don"t know whether Miss Cui fell by accident or Miss Jiang pushed her down... We were far from them and nether know what they talked nor saw it clear. So we really don"t know what happened!"
After all, the Jiang Family was so powerful. No one wanted be hated by them!
As mentioned earlier, the Jiang Family"s status was a little higher than that of the Cui Family. Both of them were able to ask people to frame or slander each other. They didn"t fear to be blamed by it.
The way Cui Jianlian framed was not clever. But she did that at the opportune moment.
Princes and male n.o.bles were choosing their future wives in the feast today. In such a special period, no one would pretend to be injured even if they were really uncomfortable.
Especially, according to hearsay, Cui Jianlian had already been decided to marry Prince of Liang!
So when she said "at this juncture," which was enough to reply Jiang Muting"s all questions. There was no enmity between the Cui Family and the Jiang Family. Why did Cui Jianlian sacrifice her future to frame Jiang Muting?
In this case, Jiang Muting might push her down at that time!
There was a long silence in the room. Jiang Muting and people supported her seemed to have nothing more to say. They all looked dark and kept silent.
The atmosphere gradually became serious. Finally, Cui Jianlian broke the logjam, "What Miss Song said is not wrong. I was so scared at that moment! So I can"t remember how it happened. But I believe in Sister Muting. She didn"t want to hurt me!"
She sighed, "Let"s just tell other people that I fell down due to my carelessness! Your Highness, please forgive me. It is caused by me. I"m sorry to waste your time and cast a damp over you!"
Commandery Princess Qingjiang raised her eyebrows and looked at Jiang Muting. She asked, "What do you think?"
"I..." Jiang Muting muttered, looking at Baoying and Song Yixiao. Her eyes flashed guilt, which was found by Cui Jianlian lying on the bed. Cui Jianlian narrowed her eyes and looking down to hide her joy in her eyes.
"I stretched out my hands because I wanted to save Miss Cui!" Jiang Muting forced herself to calm down and said in a little trembling voice, "The reason why she fell is actually... actually..."
Obviously, she hesitated at present so that she couldn"t say Song Yixiao"s name.
Cui Jianlian was waiting patiently. Suddenly, there was a noise outside the door!
Commandery Princess Qingjiang frowned and wanted to ask her servant to stop the noise. Then she heard footsteps outside the door, "Snake! Someone destroyed snake"s den by accident. Your Highness should leave now. Don"t stay here!" The person outside the door shouted.
"What?"
Few girls didn"t fear animals like snakes or scorpions, especially ladies who always enjoyed wealth and honor. As soon as they heard "snake"s den," ladies and maids in the room were all frightened without seeing a snake!
When the door was opened, a maid with servant clothes of the Zhanchun Venue appeared at the door in a panic and said hurriedly, "Your Highness, a servant found a hole behind the room and thought it belonged to hares. After the hold was dug up, we found it was a snake"s den! Now snakes are shocked and crawl around. Here..."
Before she finished speaking, she suddenly screamed and jumped back. People in the room were stunned to see where she had stood had a brown snake!
"This snake is very poisonous!" The maid began to know the situation after retreating. She cried and said, "We should take it away. Don"t let it hurt Her Highness Commandery Princess!"
You had jumped out of the door before saying that...
Except Commandery Princess Qingjiang, all people in the room were so indignant. They looked at each other. Finally, Baoying stood out and took a wrap to drive it away. "Go! Go!"
But when she was close to the brown snake, they saw a scared scene. The brown snake tucked out its tongue and quickly jumped to the wrap!
"Oh my!" Baoying cried out loudly. She couldn"t care about anything in a panic and directly threw the wrap away, crumpling and shivering!
No one knew whether Baoying was deliberate or not. Anyway, she threw the wrap with the snake to Cui Jianlian"s bed!
Then they saw that Cui Jianlian, who just said that she couldn"t stand up, quickly threw back the covers to get out of the bed and hid behind Xiaoman. She moved so soon, elegantly and lightly, which didn"t like a person whose legs were injured. Few people could move better than her!
"Miss Cui is really agile!" Song Yixiao finally put her mind at ease and the fear on her face disappeared soon. She said with a half-smile, "I"ve said that you were just terrified by the accident. You are fine, aren"t you?"
Cui Jianlian just recovered hardly from a recent shock. Hearing that, she felt strange and turned around instantly. Then she saw calm faces of Song Yixiao, Jinxun and Jiang Muting. Baoying looked terrified just now. But at present, she stood up and smiled with other three people. They ignored Cui Jianlian and knelt down to Commandery Princess Qingjiang, as well as the maid who told them the messages outside. They apologized, "The snakes" den is a lie. We are sorry to offend you, Your Highness. Please punish us!"
Commandery Princess Qingjiang touched the golden bracelet on her wrist and didn"t look at them. She stared at Cui Jianlian casually and asked, "Jianlian, do you hate my party or me? The Shangsi Festival is held annually. Why do you make trouble on this day?"