Forty-Nine Enigma

  Gu Man's expression remained calm, as if he was just talking about something very ordinary.

  The lady was shocked and flustered, unable to hold back her usual gentle demeanor, and scolded angrily: "How can you say such a thing? Even if Little Fourth had wronged you in the past, you shouldn't humiliate her like this! She's just a child, how could she have so many evil intentions?"

  It's another surprise that she can make the great lady angry, Gu Man looked at her coldly and was about to respond when he saw Gu Yun say with a sarcastic face: "Don't you know? If her mind wasn't complicated, why would my Han Xuan also suffer from her?"

  Mrs. Gu still looked surprised and uncertain.

  She had just been furious and had the idea of divorcing Wang Shi and sending him back home, but now that Gu Man mentioned it, she thought about how Wang Shi had been behaving himself all these years, and she began to hesitate.

  If it is finally confirmed that she is not a Wang, and I still don't give her face, then even if the old Marquis wants to be good with me, he will probably not be willing to suffer this loss.

  What's more, Wang had an elder brother who was a Minister of War.

  The old lady Gu didn't say a word, and the fourth lady hesitated for a moment before bursting into a shrill laughter. She rolled her eyes and gave Gu Man a sideways glance with a mischievous smile, saying: "Our little Jiu, after all, is the granddaughter of Grand Tutor Wang, so capable! Hmm, look at how sharp her tongue is, truly leaving people speechless. Even black can be made white by her words. Second sister, how did you manage to raise such an extraordinary and cunning child? It makes me so envious!"

  "Originally, Fourth Aunt was so envious of my mother." Gu Man didn't look at Gu Yun, but instead turned to stare at Fang Shi, coldly smiling: "My mother is indeed open and doesn't hide anything. But even if Fourth Aunt wants to learn, there needs to be someone to teach her, right? Oh, could it be that Fourth Aunt wants to learn and have Ding Xiang's servant girl pass it on to Fourteen?"

  Wang married Gu Boqi for so many years. Although she had never given birth to a son, she had at least added two daughters to the Gu family. However, Fang was different. Since marrying in, she had not laid eggs (had children), and because of this, Old Lady Gu had always been dismissive of her.

  She was furious when he pierced her most vulnerable spot with such unceremonious words, but she knew she couldn't do anything about it. What he said was all true after all; she had no children of her own, so how could his words be wrong?

  Old Lady Gu snorted and asked Gu Man: "Alright! Are you still not satisfied with the chaos? Where is your witness?"

  Gu Man gave a profound glance at Fan Shi, then waved his hand towards Pei Yin behind him. Pei Yin nodded and went out, soon leading in a small maid who was not very tall.

  Wang saw the little girl and was shocked: "Qiu Lan?"

  Qiu Lan saw Wang Shi's appearance and glanced at Gu Man, feeling that her legs were trembling with fear, unable to utter a single complete sentence.

  Others didn't know that Autumn Orchid was such a young maid. But Fan Shi knew that this little girl was originally brought in by the laundry maid of her own house, and later assigned to the second house.

  She saw this Qiu Lan. She suddenly had a start in her heart and secretly clenched her fists. Just now she thought it was Gu Man talking nonsense, but now it seems that this Qiu Lan might really be summoned by Gu Qing.

  She hadn't even had time to speak when she heard Gu Man coldly shout at Qiu Lan: "Don't you still kneel down for the old lady?!"

  Qiu Lan heard this and felt even more heartbroken, hastily kneeling down on both knees and continuously kowtowing to Old Lady Gu, begging for forgiveness.

  The old lady stared at her coldly and said, "What do you want me to spare you from?"

  "Mercy, old lady! Actually... actually the earrings were stolen by me and given to Fourth Miss, please spare my life!"

  Mrs. Fan's face suddenly turned black, and she scolded Qiu Lan with a gloomy face: "How dare you insult the master?!"

  Qiu Lan was just a little servant girl. At first, she agreed to help Gu Qing frame Wang Shi, thinking that all she had to do was run some errands and steal something, believing that Gu Man would be easy to fool. Later, she was caught by Gu Man without hesitation and was scolded, which scared her half to death. Now, hearing Fan Shi say this, she has become somewhat numb, constantly knocking her head on the ground, begging for mercy from Old Lady Gu.

  The old lady was exceptionally clear-headed at this moment, she coldly stared at Fan Shi and said lightly: "What's the hurry, I haven't been convicted yet? Why don't we call Xiao Si over to confront each other face-to-face, won't that make things clear?"

  He then had someone go and summon Gu Qing.

  "What did you say?" Gu Qing was originally waiting for the news with ease, but unexpectedly, what she finally got was not the good news she thought it would be, but a message from Old Lady Gu to confront her. For a moment, she was incredulous and stood still on the spot, almost forgetting to move.

  The one who came to deliver the message was Qiuhé, who served beside the old lady. Seeing Gu Qing's appearance, he respectfully said: "The old lady says let Fourth Young Lady go over for a visit."

  Gu Qing's heart grew even more anxious, his eyes rolling around, and he instinctively thought of the woman from just now, shouting loudly: "Liu Mama! Liu Mama!"

  Her maid quickly ran in and curiously asked her: "Miss, which Liu Mama are you calling?"

  Gu Qing's movements came to a halt, and he found himself unable to recall the woman's appearance or specific name, only knowing that she was called Liu Mama, which made his heart feel somewhat flustered.

  She calmed herself down and then told that servant girl: "Go find Eleventh Miss, the sooner the better!"

  On the other hand, he followed the autumn crane out of the door, through the corridor and into the Fan family's courtyard.

  As soon as she entered the house, she found that almost everyone in the family was present. When they saw her enter, everyone's eyes were fixed on her, making her feel like a thorn in their side.

  Fan's family spoke up first: "Xiao Si, your ninth sister said it was you who set the fire and framed you. Hurry up and tell Old Lady that it wasn't you who did it!"

  How is it possible?

  She thought she had done it secretly, how could Gu Man have discovered it like this?

  And how did Gu Man avoid Qiu Lan?

  How did Gu Man know that she was the one who set the fire? She thought for a while, feeling a bit dizzy, and had an intuition that something was wrong, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't figure out what the problem was.

  Before she could think it through, Old Lady Gu spoke up: "Xiao Si, are the people in your house all right?"

  Gu Qing was somewhat puzzled by the sentence, and after it had revolved in her mind for a while, she suddenly realized the old lady's intention - asking if she had sent someone to set the fire.

  She couldn't help but feel secretly delighted, thinking that she had passed this test ----- the woman was found by Liu Niang from the second house, even if someone recognized her as the woman who set the fire at that time, but she wasn't her own person, what did it have to do with her?

  Thinking of this, she simply shook her head: "As for what the old lady said, my granddaughter went to bed early tonight, and everyone in the house was asleep long ago, no one ran out."

  Mrs. Gu didn't say a word, and Gu Man coldly smiled a few times, questioning her: "Fourth sister is certain that she herself did not wander around, and the people in the house also did not wander around?" After a pause, he continued: "However, someone saw Fourth Sister's personal maid sneaking around outside Old Lady's room in the middle of the night."

  "You're talking nonsense!" Gu Qing was furious: "Don't believe the rumors and slander me, my personal maid Mo Qi is also a painter, tonight is her night shift, she's been fine all evening, where can she go to Lao Tai Tai's place?"

  Gu Qing felt a little complacent in her heart, fortunately she didn't use her own people to set the fire, even if something happened to Heyang, even if Autumn Orchid betrayed her, she could still wash her hands clean.

  Gu Man didn't seem urgent at all, and she calmly asked her: "What about Mo Qi?"

  Ink Chess?

  Gu Qing racked her brains for a long time, but still couldn't figure out where Mo Qi had gone.

  Because of the special circumstances today, she didn't tell her two personal maids about this matter, fearing that they would reveal her plan to their mother. Thinking back on today, it seems like Moqi hasn't appeared either.

  Before she could think of a reason, Qiulian exclaimed, "I know! I know, it was the earrings that Sister Moqi told me to steal. She must have been the one who set the fire at Old Lady's place too! She must have been sent away by Fourth Miss!"

  Ink chess! Fan's heart was a little flustered, she had seen her in the previous two hours, at that time she had hastily entered from the back garden, and was even scolded by herself.

  Could it be true that it's Moqi?

  Old Lady Gu slammed her cane heavily on the ground and shouted: "Someone come! Bring that inkstone over here!"

  Soon someone went to find him, and Mo Qi appeared in the hall with a gray head and dusty face, stuttering and unable to speak coherently. At this time, Gu Qing suddenly felt a sense of unease.

  Then Mo Qi suddenly pointed at her and cried to Old Lady Gu: "Old lady! Spare my life, everything was done under the orders of Fourth Miss, I didn't want to do it, I was forced to, old lady spare my life!"

  "Good! Good!" Old Lady Gu was furious. All these years, she had been truly good to Gu Qing, both in appearance and in reality. She never expected that Gu Qing would actually dare to send someone to burn her house down.

  Even if her intention was not to burn herself to death but to frame others, it is unforgivable!

  Fourth Mistress glared at everyone, whoever was unlucky had nothing to do with her, so when she saw things suddenly turning around, she immediately rushed towards Gu Qing with a frown and cold eyes: "Fourth is too bold, can such things be done casually?"

  Fan's family suddenly rushed up, hugged Gu Qing and cried loudly, as if Gu Qing had suffered a great injustice, while constantly asking the old lady to show mercy - if this matter was confirmed, Gu Qing's future would be basically over.

  Gu Man didn't say a word, she was watching the excitement and also preparing to watch Gu Qing's downfall with cold eyes.

  Old Mrs. Gu treats her well, but for someone who has been wealthy all their life and is increasingly stingy, the most important thing is still themselves, Gu Qing will not have a good day.

  When everyone was still silent, Gu Qing suddenly came to her senses. She grabbed Fan Shi's sleeve and burst into loud sobs: "It wasn't me! It wasn't me! It clearly wasn't like this, I didn't instruct Mo Qi to do such a thing, I didn't! Clearly it was that Liu Mama, clearly it was that Liu Mama!"