Chapter 62

  Traitor

  This matter of Mr. Chen's must be investigated from the people around him, without insiders, outsiders cannot be invited in. If there is no problem with the people around Mr. Chen, how could those messy things have been mixed into his food.

  The Chen family was a noble and dignified household that attached great importance to propriety. Although the fathers and uncles all had concubines, they never indulged in favoritism towards their concubines at the expense of their wives. Each house's concubine was well-behaved and none dared to be unruly.

  It was precisely because of this that Chen's family, although they were very cautious and careful, still underestimated the cunning of the imperial harem and lost their child.

  At this time, after a hint from Yin Ruofei, he suddenly woke up. After sending someone to see off Yin Ruofei, his face sank.

  Several maids were at a loss, looking at each other in dismay. One of them, wearing a green jacket, hastily advised, "Miss, this eldest son of the Yin family is suspicious and weird, I think it's probably him who instructed this."

  "Oh? How can you tell?" Chen asked in a soft voice after a pause.

  "Bilan, don't talk nonsense." A round-faced maid next to her hurriedly interrupted Bilan's words.

  "What's wrong?" Bi Lan sneered at the round-faced girl, then turned to Chen Shi with a somewhat aggrieved expression, "Miss, you see, I'm not even allowed to speak. Clearly, it was you who just looked at Seventh Young Master with a flirtatious face and had improper thoughts!"

  "Milady! How dare I!" Yu Lan's face turned pale with fright as she directly knelt down on the ground.

  "It's clear that Miss was harmed by someone, but you're still siding with outsiders. Now you're acting as if you're in charge of Miss."

  "Madam, how dare I be your master? It's just that Seventh Young Master is the legitimate son of the Marquis and not in the mansion. If Madam's child is gone, it's not good to make reckless guesses." Yu Lan's tears fell down, "I'm afraid you and the Marquis will become estranged."

  "Alright, get up." Chen said calmly, "First go wash your face and change into some clean clothes. You two can also leave now."

  The other two silent girls, Fang Lan and Yue Lan, exchanged a glance, their faces showing a hint of worry, but still supported You Lan as they left.

  "You tell me, what's going on." Chen held her tea and didn't even glance at Bi Lan.

  "Miss, Seventh Master came here today seemingly to pay his respects to you, but I think he's actually trying to show off in front of you."

  "What? How can you say that?"

  "You see, it's clear that there was medicine in the food he ate, and yet he still dares to send pastries." Bi Lan snorted coldly, "He's telling us that he dares to do it once, and he'll dare to do it again. Those pastries, I'll deal with them later."

  "Does he dare to poison openly?" Chen's words had a misleading meaning, and seeing Bi Lan's eyes light up, Chen's heart sank even more.

  "I'm telling you, it's possible that Seventh Young Master and the Marquis are in cahoots with each other. In order to preserve the status of the eldest son, they might want Miss to remain childless!"

  Chen was almost laughing out loud. Such a low-level provocation, dare to use it in front of her? Did they really think she's an idiot?

  "Bilan." Chen thought of this and couldn't help but say, "Go out and call in Lin Mama and Hua Mama."

  "Ah." Bìlán didn't know what was going on, her face a bit puzzled, but she still obediently went out to call for someone.

  Taking advantage of Bi Lan's absence, Yue Lan lifted the curtain and came in, looking at Chen Shi who wanted to speak but hesitated.

  "What's wrong?"

  "Milady, I have something to say." Moon Orchid was usually the most honest and one of the most honest and virtuous among Chen's four personal maids, so she usually just focused on her work and didn't say much.

  The four personal maidservants of the Chen family, all grew up with her since childhood. Yuelan is the most honest, Youlan is the most meticulous, Fanglan is careless and has no heart, it can be said that she is used to tease Chen's son, while Bilian is the prettiest one, and also knows how to talk.

  The Chen family has always treated the four maids equally, and whenever they gave them anything, it was always divided evenly among them, never favoring one over another, so their relationships with each other were actually quite good.

  At this time, Yuelan knelt down in front of her, "Madam, I think Birlan is not right, you must not let her and the Marquis have a rift."

  She just wanted to mention Bi Lan's matter, but Bi Lan was in the house and she didn't want to go in. Unexpectedly, while waiting at the door, she actually heard Bi Lan say such a sentence. Suspecting the legitimate son of the Hou Mansion is one thing, but also suspecting Master Hou, and groundlessly talking to Madame about it, isn't this forcing the couple to become estranged?

  "What about the others?" This sentence was just spoken by Bi Lan, and Yue Lan had always been honest and wouldn't intentionally eavesdrop at the door.

  "Servant girl..." Moon Lan, this honest person was momentarily at a loss for words, but finally thought of her own wife's current life and decided to speak out. After all, the master is her heaven, sister... humph, she doesn't need this kind of sister anyway.

  "Go ahead, she's going to call Lin and the others, it'll just take a moment." Chen thought she was afraid and quickly comforted her. In fact, Bi Lan didn't care whether she heard or not, letting her see through her intentions, would she still be kept around for drinking?

  "Madam, I saw Bi Lan wearing a lot of valuable jewelry." Yu Lan finally spoke out and cried. "Those things weren't given by you, and we didn't go out. Even if we did go out, we wouldn't have the money to buy such good things."

  Madam Chen's rewards have always been one per person, with similar styles, some with green orchids and some with moon orchids. However, these days, Green Orchid has been going to the garden to play, and Madam is pregnant and not feeling well, so they let her be. But now, she has actually added some hairpins and rings, and is hiding them from view, not letting them see.

  Yu Lan occasionally caught a glimpse of it, and was immediately frightened. That golden bracelet was not given by the mistress. Chen Shi didn't like that gold jewelry, except for one plain gold hairpin left outside, all the others were pressed at the bottom of the box. Usually they were delicate and exquisite things like jade stone silver hairpins, how could such a rough and bright yellow thing be given by the mistress?

  But when she casually asked, Bixia hastily told her that it was a reward from the mistress, and that day she was not there, the mistress said she served well, so she rewarded her.

  Yu Lan was a straightforward person and didn't say much, but privately asked Fang Lan and You Lan, and neither of them knew about it.

  Chen listened to Yuelan's lament and nodded slightly, "You get up, let Youlan and the others come over too."

  Yu Lan came over with a few people, and Bi Lan also brought Lin Mama and Hua Mama. Bi Lan saw Yu Lan's slightly red eyes and flashed a hint of complacency on her face, walking to the front of Chen Shi, "Miss, Lin Mama and Hua Mama have arrived."

  "Biluo, I'm already married, why are you still calling me Miss?" Chen's seemingly gentle smile appeared.

  "Miss, no, madam..." For some reason, although it was a gentle smile, Bihlan felt a chill run down her spine. "I shouldn't have called out like that for the time being, I'll definitely change my ways from now on."

  "Never mind, forget it." Chen still smiled, but her eyes were icy cold. Lin Mama and Hua Mama exchanged a glance, both feeling that the young lady they had watched grow up seemed to have changed quite a bit.

  "Thank you, Miss, for understanding me." Poor Bi Lan's face was filled with pride, thinking that she had surpassed others in the emperor's favor, but not knowing that death was not far away.

  "Lin Mama, Hua Mama..."

  "Madam." Both of the mothers were brought by Chen Shi from the Fu Yong Bo's mansion, one was her wet nurse and the other was her mother's dowry maid who later became a steward in the Fu Yong Bo's mansion. This time when she went out, Madame Fu feared that she would be taken advantage of, so she gave these two families to her, lest she suffer losses.

  The old lady was also very understanding, and it just so happened that the Lin family's hands were all gone, letting Chen take charge of the important places to fill in these two families. The mother-in-law relationship was great, not to mention that these two families were also deeply grateful to Chen, and they felt that the old lady had good intentions towards their own young mistress.

  "Bind this little hoof that eats inside and peels outside." Chen's smile on her face finally turned into a cold sneer, except for Yuelan being somewhat heartbroken, this sentence also shocked everyone in the house.

  The two mothers carried out Chen's words like an imperial edict, while Bilan was shocked and couldn't speak, only reacting after being tied up, violently twisting her body to try and break free. However, the two mothers were not to be underestimated, how could they let her escape in front of their master? Moreover, upon hearing the inside story, they instantly thought of Chen's miscarriage and suddenly felt a surge of hatred, so Lin's mother slapped Blian with the back of her hand, "You little vixen, you dare to make trouble?"

  Bilan was almost humiliated to death, growing up like this, except for being beaten by the nanny when she was a child, since entering the Chen family and following the young lady, she was even more pampered by the rough-serving maids in the mansion, and even the housekeepers gave her some face, how could she have been beaten.

  At this moment, a slap landed on her face, and the tender skin instantly showed five red swollen finger marks. Bì Lán cried out in a hoarse voice, "Miss, miss, she hit me!"

  "That's my mother, even I have to call her mom, what's wrong with hitting you?" Chen let Moon Orchid bring the pastries that Yin Ruofei brought and put them on a plate, picked one up and ate it slowly, but actually held Bihua's crying voice as she ate.

  This sentence made Bi Lan's crying voice suddenly choked, and she didn't know what to say for a moment. "Miss wants to beat the slave and sell the slave, the slave doesn't blame her, but this is eating inside and peeling outside, the slave dare not recognize it!"

  "How dare you!" Chen was drinking tea, upon hearing this, she directly threw the delicate ceramic teacup at Bilan's face, shattering it into pieces that flew everywhere, leaving a long and thin cut on Bilan's cheek.

  "I don't understand."

  "Then I'll let you die with a clear conscience." Madame Chen stood up, and Yu Lan and You Lan hurried over to support her. Madame Chen walked a few steps forward, standing in front of Bi Lan, looking down at her from a superior position. "You're in charge of my personal clothes, what's going on with those musk?"

  Before, she was blinded for a moment and refused to suspect the people around her. Now that she thinks about it, who else could have gotten close to these private items of hers? Chen's eyes were slightly moist, but she forced herself to glare again. For the sake of that innocent child, as well as for her own ability to stand firm in this household, she couldn't be weak.

  "I don't know, I don't know!" Bilan's face turned pale. "I was framed! It was, it was Youlan, it must have been Youlan!"

  "Don't be ridiculous." Yuelan couldn't help it anymore, supporting the trembling Youlan as she knelt down, "Madam, Youlan wouldn't do such a thing."

  "Yuelan, go get what you see." Chen Shi didn't look at them, just softly instructing.

  Yuèlán responded with a sound, lowered her head and quickly left. Today, she understood that the lady of the house had made it clear that she wanted to take in Bìyuè, and yet Bìyuè still didn't repent, even going so far as to bite her sister. If they didn't produce evidence, wouldn't they be letting this kind of petty person succeed?

  Before long, Moon Orchid brought over the items, but Madame Chen didn't even glance at them and had Moon Orchid dump them in front of Green Orchid.

  "You'd better tell me where these things came from!"