Chapter 244

Chapter 244 – Scoundrels

Chapter 244 Scoundrels

Pei Yuanjun reached out his hand and pinched a strand of Qu Moying’s hair, twirling it with his fingers. Then, he raised his head and met Qu Moying’s bright eyes. She looked at him in shock, not understanding why he was doing this.

“If I need anything, I will come and get it. I will leave it here for the time being.” Pei Yuanjun loosened his fingers, and Qu Moying’s hair slowly fell down from his fingers.

Then he stood up, straightened his collar, and glanced at Qu Moying with a smile. “I heard that you’re going to Dabei Temple tomorrow.”

“What can I do for you, Your Highness?” Qu Moying asked carefully.

Pei Yuanjun stood in front of the bed, the shadow of his tall figure almost covering her and making her unable to see the expression on his face.

“There is one thing. Let Pei Yusheng see Lady Liu again. It’s time for her to go back to the border.”

There were too many messages in his words. Qu Moying found it hard to understand for a moment, but she still nodded because she had promised him before. “Your Highness, send me a message when the time comes.”

Unlike before, it was much more convenient to come in and go out of the mansion now.

“There’s no need to send a message. I can tell you now. Do it in Dabei Temple.” Pei Yuanjun said casually.

Qu Moying thought for a while and said, “But I’m afraid I can’t make it tomorrow.” There might be a lot of things to do tomorrow, and she was afraid that she couldn’t make the arrangements in time.

“Then stay one more night at Dabei Temple.” Pei Yuanjun had already made a decision for her.

“It is not up to me. It depends on Grandmother.” Qu Moying tactfully refused. When the time came, the Old Lady would not be willing to stay.

“I ask you to stay there, and you just need to prepare for it.” Pei Yuanjun snorted and said lazily. He reached out to touch Qu Moying’s hair that felt as smooth as silk. Then, he evilly pressed her hair, causing her to lower her head. Qu Moying almost fell on the bed, and she couldn’t help but let out a low groan.

When she looked up, his big hand had already left her head. Watching Pei Yuanjun’s figure disappear into the night, Qu Moying stood up speechlessly and walked to the window. What kind of strange hobbies did he have? She closed the window and lay down again.

Perhaps she felt exhausted after talking to Pei Yuanjun. She actually fell asleep immediately.

The night was quiet. Early the next morning, Yu Chun came in to wake Qu Moying up. After helping her wash up, Yu Chun followed her to the Old Lady’s yard.

The Old Lady also woke up early and was eating breakfast. Qu Moying got herself a small bowl of porridge. Just as they were eating, Qu Qiuyan came over. After the three of them finished having breakfast, they went out together.

The Old Lady only brought West Mansion’s Qu Moying and Qu Qiuyan with her this time, but she still prepared three big carriages and an ordinary carriage. The Old Lady thought it was not a good idea to let Qu Moying and Qu Qiuyan sit on the same carriage, so she specially prepared two big carriages for them.

Qu Qiuyan and Qu Moying would each have a carriage, so they would not have to contend with each other.

At first, Qu Moying only wanted to bring one maid with her. But when she thought of what Pei Yuanjun said yesterday, she decided to bring two maids with her. She brought Yu Chun and Yu Dong and even secretly took two more sets of clothes. She had the entire carriage alone, which allowed sufficient space for her maids and her personal items.

Yu Dong had already left, and only Yu Chun was by Qu Moying’s side now.

The offerings such as incenses were placed in the last ordinary carriage, and a few ordinary old maids who followed to serve were jammed in this carriage. As for the personal maids, they followed their masters in the large carriages in the front.

The four carriages drove out of the capital and headed for Dabei Temple early in the morning.

As soon as Qu Mansion’s carriages left the city, Yamen’s people sealed the city gate, saying that there were assassins who entered the city last night to assassinate someone.

Since the city gate was sealed, people inside the city couldn’t get out, and people outside the city couldn’t get in. For a moment, everyone was in a panic.

Many people were guessing what had happened. People were gathering inside and outside the city gate, and soon everyone was talking about this.

It was said that the assassins went to both the Crown Prince’s Mansion and Lord Jing Mansion. The Crown Prince and Lord Jing were almost injured. Now the city gate was closed to capture the assassins.

An assassin tried to assassinate a noble lady on the street a few days ago, and now, assassins went into princes’ mansions to assassinate them. Moreover, their targets were the two most promising princes. For a moment, everyone was discussing and speculating in panic. If something really happened, the consequences would be far more serious than sealing the gate.

Many people were talking about the issue at the city gate, but Qu Mansion’s people did not know about it. The carriages quietly entered Dabei Temple and then arrived at the parking place.

Old Lady Qu got out of the carriage, and the other two young ladies of Qu Mansion also came down from the two carriages behind.

A reception monk had already come to welcome Old Lady Qu.

Old Lady Qu was a regular visitor here. The reception monk led them to a meditation courtyard for resting. They did not intend to live here, so the reception monk did not prepare rooms for them.

A young servant hurried in and whispered something to Granny Wu.

Looking at the sweating young servant, Qu Moying recognized that he was Qu Zhizhen’s servant. It seemed that something had happened. She wondered what had happened.

It would be nice if she could stay in Dabei Temple for a night, and she did not need to rush things.

Granny Wu’s face changed greatly after she heard the young servant’s words. She rushed to the Old Lady and whispered to her. The Old Lady’s face also changed slightly. She thought for a while and said to the reception monk, “Master, could you please prepare three rooms for us? I’m afraid we have to stay tonight.”

“Yes, your ladyship. I will arrange it immediately.” The reception monk said, clasping his palms together.

“Thank you, Master!” Old Lady Qu said politely.

“You are welcome!” The reception monk smiled and left.

“Grandmother, what happened?” Qu Moying took two steps forward, sat down beside the Old Lady, and asked softly.

“Something happened last night. It was said that there were assassins in the Crown Prince’s Mansion and Lord Jing Mansion. The Crown Prince and Lord Jing were almost killed. Crown Prince’s Mansion’s Princess Ji was injured. As for Lord Jing Mansion, something happened to… Caiyue.”

The Old Lady said seriously, “Your father just sent me a message, asking us to stay here for a night. He doesn’t know when the city gate will open, so we’d better stay here for a night.”

“What? The city gate is sealed?” Qu Qiuyan stood up and asked anxiously.

“It should be sealed at this time. Something has happened to the Crown Prince’s Mansion again. I’m afraid they are going to investigate the incident seriously this time.” The Old Lady said, frowning. It was already the third time that the Crown Prince’s Mansion had been in trouble. Accidents kept happening in Eastern Palace recently, which was quite ominous.

The first incident occurred at the Crown Prince’s wedding and the Crown Prince almost had an accident. Fortunately, the ex-Crown Princess was there at that time. The second time was when Eastern Palace caught fire. Almost half of the sky of the capital was illuminated by the fire. On that day, Qu Mansion also almost had an accident. The Old Lady remembered it very clearly. This time, the third incident occurred. The Crown Prince almost had an accident again. This time, it was Princess Ji who had an accident.

In comparison, although something also happened to Lord Jing Mansion, it was not that serious. The one who had an accident was Qu Caiyue. What exactly happened to her was still unknown. Qu Caiyue was the Old Lady’s granddaughter. Although she was disappointing, the Old Lady could not help but feel worried for her. If she had known it earlier, she would not have let Qu Caiyue go to Lord Jing Mansion so quickly. She did not expect that something would happen to Qu Caiyue soon after she entered Lord Jing Mansion.

The Old Lady was both annoyed and worried.

It had only been a few months since the ex-Crown Princess died. Qu Caiyue’s current situation was unknown. Although someone went to Lord Jing Mansion to inquire about the situation, the people in Lord Jing Mansion did not give them a clear answer.

“Grandmother, did something happen to Lord Jing?” Qu Qiuyan’s expression changed drastically.

“I don’t know. Well, these things have nothing to do with us.” The Old Lady waved her hand impatiently, not wanting to talk about it anymore.

The reception monk happened to come in. He had already prepared the rooms for them. The Old Lady stood up and followed the reception monk. Since they had decided to stay for a night, they could tidy up first.

The reception monk prepared three middle-sized yards for them. The Old Lady would live in the yard in the middle, and Qu Qiuyan and Qu Moying would each have one of the two yards.

The Old Lady was not in good health, so she brought many people with her. Qu Moying brought two maids with her, and Qu Qiuyan also brought two maids with her, Qing Ju and Granny Qing. Since the two of them both brought enough people, the Old Lady did not need to arrange for the other people to come over.

Yu Dong went out early in the morning. After collecting the offerings that had been bought, he called for a carriage and arrived Dabei Temple before Qu Moying. When he saw Qu Mansion’s carriages coming over, he hurriedly sneaked into the group of servants. No one noticed that he had not gotten on the carriage with Qu Moying before. Now that Qu Moying had a yard, he went out to bring the offerings into the yard.

When he arrived at the place where the carriages were parked, he suddenly heard a loud noise from the side. It seemed that some people were arguing. Yu Dong looked over and found that they were some scoundrel-like people. There were four of them, all dressed in fine clothes, but they were just so so in Yu Dong’s eyes. It seemed that they had just come down from a carriage, and another carriage happened to come over and accidentally bumped into one of them.

In fact, they were fine, but they just stood there and blackmailed the people in the carriage, asking him to compensate them.

Not to be outdone, the carriage driver pointed at the ground and said that none of them was hurt and they shouldn’t ask for any compensation. Just as they were arguing, a maid came out of the carriage. She looked up at the few people and threw out a piece of silver.

Seeing the size of the silver, the few scoundrels immediately stopped arguing. They happily picked up the silver and stopped being unreasonable. This matter was solved.

The scoundrels laughed as they walked towards the temple. “Great. It’s an unexpected fortune. How lucky we are.”

“Let’s go. Hurry up. There must be something good waiting for us inside! We are called here so early. There must be something nice!”

“Of course, there is something nice waiting ahead. Come with me. Maybe we can see a beauty later.”

“Really? Then hurry up.”

The scoundrels chatted and laughed as they walked past Yu Dong. Yu Dong originally didn’t care, but when he saw one of the scoundrels walk by, he suddenly stopped and looked at his back with a cold expression…