187 Pet
The Yu Residence’s horse shed was very clean. Other than the smell, everything was fine.
Gray was well taken care of. It was plump and muscular, and his fur was glossy. It had large, watery eyes and long, upturned eyelashes.
But this could not hide the fact that it was a donkey.
Xiao Juan looked at it expressionlessly.
“Is this your pet?”
Yu Niaoniao hugged Gray’s neck and smoothed his fur as she answered.
“That’s right! Look at it. It’s so cute!”
Xiao Juan fell into a deep silence.
He’d thought Gray would be a gray cat or dog, or at least a bird.
Why did it have to be a donkey?
Yu Niaoniao said, “Gray, I haven’t seen you for a few days. Did you miss me?”
The donkey seemed to understand her. It brayed at her and rubbed its head against her face.
Seeing this, Xiao Juan felt a little jealous.
He had not even brush against Yu Niaoniao’s cheek so intimately. He was actually worse than a donkey.
Yu Niaoniao began to imagine the future. “When I bring Gray back, we can travel the world together!”
Xiao Juan reminded expressionlessly, “Without the permission of the Imperial Court, you’re not allowed to carry weapons on you. If you want to travel the world with a sword, you’ll be arrested before you leave the city gate.”
Yu Niaoniao was speechless.
This person was so annoying.
She groaned. “Then I can always ride it to the Justice Department every day, right?”
Xiao Juan felt that she could not.
Previously, she had taken a carriage to the Justice Department with him.
If she rode a donkey, they would not be able to ride in the same car again. That way, they would have fewer chances to be alone.
However, Xiao Juan could not find a reason to reject her.
He pondered in his heart. In the future, he had to enact a law. All transportation in the capital had to be reported to the Imperial Court. They had to obtain a pass before they could officially go on the road.
Animals like Gray would have to stay at home obediently without a pass.
… .
After Madam. Jiang returned to the house, the more she thought about it, the angrier she became.
She had given birth to Yu Sheng and Yu Pingping and had even spent more than ten years serving Yu Kangtai. Logically speaking, they were the real family.
But they were all on Yu Niaoniao’s side.
Madam Jiang was both angry and aggrieved.
She missed the past. At that time, Yu Niaoniao had yet to appear and their family was living peacefully.
Last time, she had relied on hanging herself to make the family surround her.
That was when she felt like she was back in the past.
But that feeling didn’t last long. She was beaten back to reality.
It seemed that she could not get what she wanted just by acting pitiful.
Madam Jiang thought about it and quickly came up with a plan.
She summoned her most trusted maid.
“Chun Xing, I need you to do something.”
Seeing Madam Jiang’s serious expression, Chun Xing knew that the matter she wanted her to do was definitely not simple, so she perked up and replied.
“Please tell me, Madam.”
Mrs. Jiang whispered in her ear.
After hearing this, Chun Xing looked very uneasy.
“Madam, are you sure you want to do this? Missy is different from before. She’s already the County Princess now. We can’t provoke her, right?”
Mrs. Jiang was very confident.
“Look at you. So what if she’s the Princess Consort?Our Dayan Dynasty rules with filial piety.
Even though I’m her stepmother, I’m still her mother. She has to respect me. Otherwise, she would be unfilial.
When the rumors spread, I won’t have to do anything. The spit of the world will drown her.”
Chun Xing was still a little hesitant. “But there’s still Duke Lang. What if he wants to pursue it to the end?”
Mrs. Jiang snorted. “He’s very powerful, but it’s not as exaggerated as the rumors say. Back then, when the rumors in the capital city spread that he and Yu Niaoniao were engaged, he did not find out anything. He was unable to investigate the original rumor. It will be the same this time.”
These words comforted Chun Xing. She nodded in response.
“I’ll do it now.”
The fewer people who knew about this, the fewer. Therefore, Chun Xing could not let others help her and could only do it herself.
She changed into clothes that she had never worn before and walked in a place with fewer people. She quietly slipped out of the Yu Residence through the back door.
She thought no one was aware of her whereabouts, but little did she know that from the moment she stepped out the back door, she was being watched by the Eagle Guards, who were hiding in the shadows.
First, there was a rumor from the Yu Residence that Yu Niaoniao was engaged to Duke Lang and got pregnant before marriage. Then, Yu Niaoniao was quietly kidnapped from the Yu Residence.
Two things in a row made Xiao Juan suspect the people in the Yu Residence.
Hence, he got the Eagle Guards to secretly keep an eye on the Yu Residence to see what demons and ghosts were hidden in this residence.
Chun Xing made her way easily to a dilapidated house and knocked on the door.
Before she knocked, she didn’t forget to cover half her face with a handkerchief.
The door was opened by a middle-aged layabout.
He did not recognize Chun Xing at first until she spoke.
“It’s me.”
The idler finally understood. “It’s you. Come in and talk.”
Chun Xing knew what this person was like. He ate, drank, and gambled. He usually did everything but did not do anything serious. The neighbors hated him.
She didn’t want to go through his door in case he took advantage of her.
“I’m not going in. Let’s just stand here and talk.”
The idler smiled. “Alright, what do you want me to do this time?”
Chun Xing looked around and confirmed that there was no one around before whispering.
“It’s very simple. Just like last time, you just have to go out and gossip about how the eldest daughter of the Yu family is domineering and disrespectful. Before she got married, she forced her mother to hang herself.”
The idler laughed impolitely. “Yo, the eldest daughter of the Yu family is really impressive. First, she had an affair with Duke Lang, and now she forced her mother to die. Tsk tsk tsk, this woman has some ability!”
Chun Xing could not be bothered to waste her breath on him. She handed over two heavy silver ingots.
“This is your payment. Take it.”
The idler chuckled. “I can earn so much money just by spreading a few rumors. Don’t forget me if such a good thing happens again in the future.”
He reached for the silver ingot and deliberately touched the back of her hand.
Chun Xing was disgusted by his wretchedness.
“Don’t touch me!”
She was about to retract her hand when she suddenly saw an Eagle Guard descend from the sky.
The Eagle Guard grabbed Chun Xing’s arm with one hand and pulled out his saber with the other. The blade was placed at the idler’s neck.
“Don’t move. The Justice Department is handling a case!”
The declaration made their knees weak.
The idler was the first to react and immediately knelt down to beg for mercy.
“Spare me, sir. It has nothing to do with me. I don’t know anything. She instructed everything. If you want to arrest her, go ahead!”
Chun Xing tried to escape, but her arm was grabbed tightly.
She opened her mouth to bite the Eagle Guard’s hand, but he twisted her arm instead.
With a crack, Chun Xing’s arm was dislocated. She screamed in pain.