Forty-seven betrayals

  The atmosphere in the room was tense for a moment, and even the two madams exchanged a glance before falling silent and retreating.

  They would not believe that the weak and timid Wang Shi, who was raised by the famous King Taifu himself and had a gentle temperament, would dare to commit such a heinous crime as arson against her mother-in-law. However, if they were really going to tell Old Lady Gu about these things, they wouldn't be fools either, and naturally wouldn't want to.

  Anyway, in this family, as long as it's not one of us, who else suffers or is wronged doesn't matter.

  "Bang!"

  In the midst of a quiet voice, Gu Yun suddenly reached out and gave Wang Shi a loud slap in the face. The sound of the slap immediately brought everyone in the house back to their senses. Next, Gu Yun rushed towards Wang Shi, crying and shouting, while scolding: "Wang Xiuying! You have such a cruel heart! Just for a concubine, just for a few words of rebuke, you would actually set fire to harm my mother!"

  Wang's hair bun was suddenly pulled apart, and the golden hairpin on her head slid to the ground along with her hair.

  Qingyin and Yuetong were taken aback by the sudden movement of this lady, and it took them a while to come back to their senses. They then rushed over to protect Wang Shi, while constantly kowtowing to Old Lady Gu and pleading on behalf of Wang Shi: "Old Lady Gu, please enlighten us! Our mistress has always been filial, how could she do such a thing? It must be a misunderstanding!"

  Wang's family just came back to their senses, and they couldn't care about the pain on their heads. They crawled over and hugged Mrs. Gu's legs, crying: "It wasn't me, old lady! How could I do such a thing? It wasn't me who did it!"

  She calmed herself down and didn't look at Gu Yun's piercing gaze, continuing to say: "This earring is precious, I usually don't wear it, it's all well-placed in the house for people to collect, how could I be so stupid to bring it to Lao Tai Tai's place and throw it outside her house? Besides, I didn't even leave the house!"

  Third Mistress turned her face away, somewhat unable to bear looking at Third Master, wanting him to help speak up.

  Having been sisters-in-law with Gu Yun for so many years, she was most familiar with Gu Yun's temper. In the Da Zhou customs, unmarried young aunts and married women who returned to their natal home held extremely honorable positions in the family, while daughters-in-law were naturally inferior. From the moment she married into the family, she didn't know how much she had suffered at Gu Yun's hands. Every time, her husband advised her to endure, and her mother-in-law pretended not to see anything.

  Wang Shi saw the grudges between Gu Yun and others, knowing that Gu Yun would stir up trouble even when there was none. Seeing San Lao Ye's face turn gloomy, she cautiously spoke up: "Mother, Second Aunt has a point too, why not..."

  But no one listened to her, Mrs. Gu was filled with horror and fear, and had already determined that it was Wang's revenge on herself, angrily saying: "Quickly call someone! Call someone to take this poisonous woman back to her home! If at that time the Duke of Wang and the Servant Lang come to me for justice, the old lady will have a way to explain!"

  Everyone in the house was stunned.

  "What did you say?" Gu Manteng suddenly stood up, gritting his teeth and said: "Say that again to me!"

  Qiu Lan looked down timidly, not daring to raise her head to look at Jiu Niang. She always felt that this Ninth Young Lady was not as easy-going as the masters had said, but she thought again of her family's foolish brother who needed a wife and her stingy mother-in-law, so she gritted her teeth and continued: "You'd better hurry up and save Madam! I'm afraid...I'm afraid Madam has already made a mistake!"

  Gu Man's teeth ached from holding back her anger, but her eyes shone with an unusual brightness. She stared at Qiu Lan and asked again, "Tell me, did Madam lose her mind and send someone to set fire to Old Lady's place in the middle of the night?"

  "Really? Really!" Qiu Lan thought she had believed her, and was overjoyed in her heart. She hurriedly continued to fan the flames, when suddenly Gu Man turned around abruptly, picked up a large vase from the nearby table, and smashed it towards herself without warning.

  She suddenly felt a burning pain on her shoulder, and she let out a sharp cry of "ah" before frantically clutching at her wound, crying: "Young lady!"

  Gu Man ignored her, simply staring at her coldly, his eyes fixed intently on hers.

  How terrifying! Qiu Lan only felt her scalp tingling, as if ants were crawling all over her body, making her feel extremely uncomfortable. Why did Jiu Niang's gaze seem to be like a wolf that had sneaked into the house when she was young, biting the dog while stealing the chicken, making people's scalps tingle?

  The plum bottle shattered all over the floor, with shards scattered everywhere on the carpet. Gu Man's hand still held the remaining half of the blood-stained bottleneck, which was still poised at Autumn Orchid's neck, as if it could pierce in at any moment.

  The room suddenly became quiet, and even the sound of a needle falling could be heard. Pei Yun had already composed herself and quietly instructed Liu Mama to guard the door well, then instructed Zhi Hua: "You are very familiar with every place in this mansion, quickly go out and gather some information."

  The painting was finished, and he turned around to leave, but suddenly turned his head back and whispered something in Gu Man's ear.

  Gu Man stared at Qiu Lan with a smile, his eyes cold and indifferent.

  "Listen up, I'm only giving you one chance. Tell me right now, who's behind this?!" She menacingly waved the bottle in front of Autumn Orchid and sneered, "You're not even ten years old yet, are you? In a couple of years, it'll be time for your coming-of-age ceremony... do you really want to die in my room like this?!"

  The ninth girl wasn't joking! Autumn Orchid shrunk her neck, carefully avoiding the sharp object in Gu Man's hand, and only then did she smooth out her tongue and stammer: "I don't know, I don't know what you mean, miss."

  She had instinctively sensed the danger, this Ninth Girl was too strange, she was even younger than herself, yet dared to take things and kill people! Was it just because she relied on being the master?

  The indifference in Gu Man's eyes became more and more apparent, "Clang" she slammed the half-bottle in her hand heavily on the nearby bookshelf, instantly many precious decorations came crashing down, making Autumn Orchid's heart shrink repeatedly, not even daring to open her eyes.

  Gu Man didn't stop there, she stretched out her hand and swept everything on her dresser to the ground, then picked up a few boxes from among them and coldly said to Pei Qin: "Pei Qin, stuff all these things into her body."

  Qiu Lan was even more baffled as to what she wanted to do, and felt that even breathing was somewhat difficult. As soon as she tensed up, her eyes rolled back and she almost fainted.

  Gu Man suddenly lifted his leg and kicked her hard in the abdomen. Seeing that she was still conscious, he forced a smile and leaned in close to her ear, saying: "You're short of money, aren't you? I heard that your family is so poor that they're even considering selling their daughter just to afford your brother's wedding. Since you're so desperate for money, it makes sense that you'd come here to steal from Master and then get angry and take him hostage when you got caught."