Chapter 193 - Set up a Trap

Jian Xubai looked at his wife’s disappointed look and felt sorry, saying gently, “Now this matter is in the limelight. Grandmother’s asking them to leave at once is for their own good. When this comes to an end in a few years and no one cares about this, we can let them come back. Even if they are not allowed to step into the imperial capital as the Crown Prince required and they just stay in the environs, it will be rather convenient for you to pay them a visit.”

“As long as they live well, I’ll be relieved!” However, Song Yixiao just shook her head and sighed, “Regardless of her virtue, You Qingchun is still the birth daughter of Ms. Zhao. If I hadn’t meant to conspire against Cui Jianlian, I could have given her an opportunity to draw in her horse at the edge of a cliff. After all, regarding this matter, I feel so sorry for Ms. Zhao! Back then, she and her husband risked their lives to help me out. This time, for Zhiqin, I saw their daughter fall into a helpless situation!”

She smiled with self-mockery, “Therefore, it is good that they didn’t say goodbye to me before leaving, or I wouldn’t know what to say by then.”

“By the way, it seems that you don’t meet Madam You often. How did you notice that she harbored ill intent?” Jian Xubai was aware that she must feel sad despite saying that, so he deliberately changed the subject and said, “After all, you trust Ms. Zhao. By reason, you shouldn’t doubt her birth daughter easily.”

Song Yixiao said with a bitter smile, “You are right. At first, I didn’t suspect her at all. It was not until you came back and told me that her son bumped into you the other day that I started to doubt her!”

Jian Xubai asked then, “Is it when you asked You Qingchun what she did after leaving her child behind that you found her whereabouts suspicious?”

“Her answer sounded rather reasonable and I didn’t find anything wrong with it.” Song Yixiao shook her head, “But you don’t know when Ms. Zhao introduced her to work in the mansion, I intended to entrust her with an important post out of respect for Ms. Zhao, but not only Ms. Zhao refused my offer but also Qiaoqin winked at me to show her disagreement!”

After that, “Of course I asked Qiaoqin about the reason and then Qiaoqin told me that You Qingchun was too weak-willed to undertake an important post!”

Then she told him roughly what Qiaoqin said. When You Qingchun was still in the You Family, only for her nephew’s request, she seized her only son’s chicken soup and gave it to him. Song Yixiao slightly frowned and said, “Given that I knew this incident, when I heard You Qingchun claimed that she often took over Jinxun and my other maids’ work for the purpose of requiting favors, I felt that she was lying!”

Jian Xubai asked with great interest, “Why? I think that her reason quite made sense.”

“It did make sense, but there was something wrong with the work she tried to take over!” Song Yixiao said casually, “According to Qiaoqin’s description, You Qingchun should be rather timid and weak-willed. Even the saying that mothers are always strong doesn’t apply to her! For a person of such a disposition, even if she wants to requite favors, she will only choose to do the insignificant work that no one is willing to do instead of the work that may attract others’ attention!”

Jian Xubai nodded and said, “She even dared to take over the work of your close maid, for which she didn’t look like a person who seizes the chicken soup that Qiaoqin made for her child only because of what her nephew said!”

Song Yixiao said, “I only had doubts about her at that time, so when I fell on the snowfield at the birthday feast of Princess Yushan, I ruined my diyi (official wear of a titled lady) on the way back to our mansion so as to test her. In the end, after the diyi was repaired, I asked Jinxun to tear it down in secret for an examination and she found something in the clothes! It was then I affirmed that You Qingchun did harbor ill intent!”

She heaved a sigh, “My foster nurse’s husband’s imprisonment seemed to be You Qingchun and her husband’s ruse to gain their end by self-suffering! I just don’t understand one thing. If she directly told Ms. Zhao to help her work in the mansion instead of playing the trick with Fu Junchang, regardless of the shortage of manpower, I would take her into the mansion for the sake of Ms. Zhao! Why did she bother to do that?”

“I think I’ve got some clues!” Jian Xubai responded, “This time, it is only Madam You who betrayed you. Ms. Zhao and her husband were not in the know. I heard that you were kind to You Qingchun and that the dowry you gave her when she got married was rather considerable?”

Song Yixiao nodded with a pale face.

She had been betrayed by her parents for several times, so it was surely sufferable for her to be betrayed by the daughter of her foster nurse.

However, regardless, she still felt sad about it.

Jian Xubai saw it through and gripped her wrists as a gesture of condolence, saying, “I guess that is the problem!”

“The dowry I prepared for her was well selected. There couldn’t be any mistake about it!” Song Yixiao said in astonishment, “Even if there was, it must be an honest mistake. How can You Qingchun hold grudge against me to this extent?”

This was more annoying than the supposition that You Qingchun betrayed her by force and bribery!

Jian Xubai said, “Don’t worry. Listen to me. As to Fu Junchang, when your foster nurse’s husband was imprisoned, we’ve looked into his background and found that he was only an ordinary poor man, right? His family and You Qingchun’s family are well matched. However, You Qingchun’s dowry was exceptionally large. Can he not be curious?”

Song Yixiao took a tumble, “You mean it was not Cui Jianlian, the Liu Family and Qiu Shuxia who came to them. Instead, probably it was them who were tempted by money and went to those people?”

“As a saying goes, fortune favors the bold. You’ve always been nice to Ms. Zhao and granted a lot of rewards to her, but Ms. Zhao has not only a daughter but also son and daughter-in-law,” Jian Xubai sneered, “You Qingchun is not on good terms with her sister-in-law, so normally, she and her husband cannot gain benefits from you!”

Song Yixiao kept silent and knew that Ms. Zhao and her husband treated You Qingchun fairly well, as evidenced by the fact that You Hong immediately stood up for her when he learnt You Qingchun and her son suffered wrong!

However, regarding the allocation of family assets, You Hong and Ms. Zhao must show partiality for their son and grandson.

After all, that was what everybody did nowadays.

“However, when you were scheming against Madam Liu, you were still young and had to turn to Ms. Zhao and her husband,” Jian Xubai said, “These two people didn’t mean to betray you but they are not good at this. For years, it is possible that they were tricked by their daughter to leak out some information! How can You Qingchun and Fu Junchang, who initially wanted to gain benefits from you, not play tricks?”

“When they learnt such a secret, they could either blackmail me or sell the information to my enemy!” Song Yixiao pulled a long face, “As to the former option, they didn’t have the guts! Even if I didn’t dispose of them with your power, not only Ms. Zhao and her husband but also their son and daughter-in-law wouldn’t agree!”

After all, You Qingchun and Fu Junchang didn’t gain a lot of benefits from Song Yixiao but the prospects of Ms. Zhao and her husband as well as their son, daughter-in-law and grandson were closely connected with Song Yixiao!

Whether for the sake of loyalty or interest, they couldn’t wish Song Yixiao to fall from power!

Moreover, it was Song Yixiao’s idea to conspire against Madam Liu while it was Ms. Zhao and her husband who executed the idea!

If the truth was disclosed, given her current position, Song Yixiao might not die but both of them couldn’t survive for sure!

Therefore, You Qingchun and Fu Junchang probably chose to sell the information to Song Yixiao’s enemy, the Liu Family!

Thinking of that, Song Yixiao sighed, “No wonder Liu Zhenxi sided with Qiu Shuxia!”

She thought that the Liu Family chose Prince of Zhao sheerly for fear that they would be revenged by her with the power of Duke of Yan.

Now she finally realized that they were also afraid of being sold. After all, Daiguo Grand Princess, the strongest supporter of Prince of Wei, was the legitimate auntie of Jian Xubai. Although she didn’t get along with Jian Xubai, they were relatives anyway. If she got the goods on Jian Xubai’s wife, she might not be willing to support the Liu Family to seek revenge on Song Yixiao!

Instead, she would use it to intimidate Song Yixiao into persuading Jian Xubai to show support for Prince of Wei!

After all, Jian Xubai was more significant than the whole Liu Family.

By then, unless Song Yixiao rejected with determination and left Daiguo Grand Princess no room for negotiation, the Liu Family would be dealt with by Daiguo Grand Princess as a gift of cooperation for Song Yixiao!

And Qiu Shuxia, who sided with Prince of Zhao, was also an uncle of Jian Xubai, but he always disliked Jian Xubai. It was even fair enough to say that he would not be satisfied until Jian Xubai was dead. Hence, this man couldn’t draw Jian Xubai over to his side. If the Liu Family wanted to find a backer, was there any better or safer choice than him?

“But You Qingchun and Fu Junchang only wanted to sell the information and forgot that the Liu Family did fear us but it was too much for them!” Jian Xubai snorted, “I suppose they just wanted to make a fortune but they were controlled by the Liu Family instead and even forced to serve spies in our mansion. However, Fu Junchang was even craftier than You Qingchun so he played some tricks to coax her into putting on a show with him and coming alone!”

Song Yixiao took a tumble, “That’s right! If Ms. Zhao’s husband was not imprisoned and You Qingchun divorced Fu Junchang, the trouble You Qingchun made even implicated Ms. Zhao, let alone her husband?”

However, it had been several months since the couple were divorced. No matter how serious the crime that You Qingchun committed, normally, her ex-husband wouldn’t be implicated anyway!

Then Song Yixiao frowned again, “But why was their only son brought into our mansion?”

Although the kid looked abused, he was the only son of his parents. Song Yixiao couldn’t help thinking, “Is it really that things of one kind come together? I am not loved by my parents so I met Cui Jianlian who didn’t care about her children. Are You Qingchun and her husband the same kind of people too?”

Jian Xubai said, “No matter how stupid You Qingchun is, she should know how dangerous it was to conspire against a first-rank titled lady. She might get killed! Under this circumstance, she still chose to come. It must be because she loved Fu Junchang so much that she would take all the risks for him!”

Then he gave a wry smile and looked at his wife, “Do you know what a hypocritical man would say to You Qingchun at the moment?”

Song Yixiao subconsciously asked, “What?”

“He would immediately swear to God that he would never forget You Qingchun and vowed to live and die with her no matter what happened in the future!” Jian Xubai sneered, “Anyway, he would try his best to make a touching oath. After all, human beings don’t believe in karma!”

Song Yixiao tilted her head and pondered for a while but she still failed to understand why You Qingchun came to work as a spy with her kid, “Then shouldn’t she leave her child to Fu Junchang? Otherwise, without his wife or son, how could a young man like him not remarry? Even he is fine with it, his family won’t agree!”

Jian Xubai said laughingly, “Therefore, Shanyao, you are too innocent to understand the thinking of this kind of people! As to what you just mentioned, only those who really wanted to remember You Qingchun would do that! On the contrary, since Fu Junchang only wanted to coax her into working herself to death for him, how was it possible for him to think that way?”

He said meaningfully, “Why do you think he made a vow to You Qingchun? It was simply because he feared that You Qingchun would turn back and then no one would die for him. Therefore, what he said was only to reassure her. For example, he proposed that You Qingchun took away their only son!”

“Is that so?” Song Yixiao was stunned for a while and then asked, “It was more dangerous for the kid to stay with You Qingchun. As his mother, how could she agree on that?”

Jian Xubai grinned, “You mentioned before that the kid looked abused. Who do you think abused him?”

“Of course it was Fu Junchang… Wasn’t it?” Song Yixiao replied without hesitation and in the middle of replying, she saw her husband grinned more, which gave her a surprise, “But when Ms. Zhao’s husband was imprisoned, he claimed that Fu Junchang abused the kid!”

“We don’t have our own child yet, so you are not aware of a fact that kids at his age actually can’t remember a lot,” Jian Xubai said gently, “I heard that from Grandmother and others. That is to say, if the kid was abused only by Fu Junchang, his condition should get better after staying in our mansion for several months. However, since his condition doesn’t get better, it suggests that whoever abuses him actually stays with him all the time!”

He said with a faint smile, “Maybe Fu Junchang loves the kid more so he took the kid as a pledge and declared that if anything untoward happened to You Qingchun and their kid, he wouldn’t live. How believable that was!”

Seeing his wife’s shocked look, Jian Xubai raised the tea bowl and took a sip, pondering to himself with narrowed eyes, “I’ve talked so much about hypocrites with Fu Junchang as the example. Next time even if Su Shaoge talked of fancy words again, she shouldn’t believe him, should she?”

He was not interested in You Qingchun and her husband. All the analysis he just did was merely to set up a trap for the political opponent and latent rival in love!

Jian Xubai was complacent about himself when the door was suddenly knocked. They two said in one voice, “Come in.” A maid instantly came inside and reported, “Your Highness, Madam, words arrive that the maiden mother of Madam Lu just passed away!”