Chapter 11

The doctor who was responsible for taking concubine Lin’s pulse knelt down in front of the Marquis. He was hemming and hawing and seemed to be hesitating. Like he wanted to say something but dared not to.

Fu Yanlin impatiently shouted, “Hurry up!”

The doctor flinched, his face full of sweat, and answered in a trembling voice. “Marquis, the reason for concubine Lin’s miscarriage was due to… due to not eating foods beneficial to the health of the fetus…”

As soon as the words came out, everyone was shocked. When Mu Huanqing heard it, her heart jumped and she suddenly had a bad feeling.

Fu Yanlin’s expression also became gloomy. He slowly opened his mouth. “Speak clearly. Do not hold back a single word.”

“Yes…” The doctor wiped the sweat on his forehead and reported the entire results of his diagnoses.

This matter was not very complicated. Concubine Lin’s daily meals had been tampered with by someone so that they were not conducive to fetus health. Concubine Lin ate it so the baby was gone.

Fu Yanlin’s complexion turned ashen and immediately ordered people to search the Marquis mansion from top to bottom. The old madam also became extremely upset when she heard about it.

Among the spectators, some women were restless, some sneered, some only lowered their heads without speaking.

When a bag of safflowers was found in the bricks of Mu Huanqing’s courtyard, she was first stunned then seemingly smiled in awareness.

She did not argue and did not defend herself. She just waited to see how the Marquis household would deal with her. What she was rewarded with was an order. An order that she was to pack her things and leave the Marquis house to live in a country village.

Mu Huanqing raised her eyebrows. She didn’t cry or shout, she didn’t even resist. She only nodded her head and replied to the steward Zhao Wei, “I understand.”

The steward was stunned. The reason the old madam had him inform the young madam was that if she began to make a fuss, he could find a way to restrain the young madam. But when the young madam heard the order, she didn’t question it and didn’t argue. Just said one line, that she understood. It was as if this news was not a big deal to her.

When Mu Huanqing saw that the steward was stupified, she asked. “Does the steward have something else to say?”

The steward couldn’t help but wonder if the young madam didn’t understand what he said.

“The old madam means that this house does not suit the young madam. It is better to ask the young madam to go to the countryside for a period of time for proper rest. Trusting that the young madam will definitely like the mountains and water of the village.” The steward repeated.

Old madam’s meaning? She thinks that it was Fu Yanlin’s meaning!

Mu Huanqing also didn’t expose him and just nodded and smiled. “I will also ask the steward to inform my mother-in-law that I will not be able to filially serve mother-in-law in the future. I entreat her to take care of herself.”

Since she knows clearly that she is being chased away to the countryside, how could she be so unperturbed? Is it because she is backed by Lord Mu? The steward ridiculed her in his heart but didn’t show it in his face and just smilingly agreed.

“Then politely asking the young madam to pack up for an early morning departure.” The steward had received the Marquis’s will and didn’t stall. In one or two days, they need to chase this woman out of the house.

“No need to wait till tomorrow. It is still early now and the weather is fair. Let’s depart in an hour.”

The steward froze again before continuing to smile. “So be it, this small one will get someone to prepare the carriage.”

After the steward left, Mu Huanqing turned around to smile at Liu Yun and Liu Mu. “There are so many people watching over this courtyard yet none of them saw me smuggle safflowers in. But when something happens, that safflower was so easily found. Tell me, isn’t this trick too contradictory?”

The Liu siblings were embarrassed. Truthfully, even they knew that the safflowers were planted by somebody. But what did it matter? They were only subordinates.

Mu Huanqing didn’t care about their lack of response and continued, “If I really wanted to do something, I would use far superior tricks. To frame me with such a crude and contradictory way, they are really insulting me.”

The two siblings had nothing to say. So it turns out that the young madam didn’t care about being wrongly accused, but was dissatisfied with the clumsy method?

Very quickly, the fact that the young madam was being chased to live in the countryside spread in her courtyard. Her servants began to panic and some began to walk away. They hoped to stay in the Marquis house. If they followed the young madam to the countryside to endure hardships, they could only stay there until death because she was so unfavoured.

Xin Yu and Li Yuan were the exceptions. The two of them knelt in front of the young madam with faces full of determination.

“You want to follow me?” Mu Huanqing asked.

The two of them nodded with all their strength.

Mu Huanqing smiled. “Alright, I’ll bring you along. Go and pack.”

They rejoiced and immediately obeyed, hurriedly returning to their rooms to pack their bags.

Mu Huanqing suddenly turned to look at Liu Yun and Liu Mu. Her gaze was like a torch and her expression was imposing. They couldn’t help but stand up straight.

“Go tell the Zhenyuan Marquis that I will do as he wishes and leave the house. But I have some conditions that need to be told to him personally. Please ask him to come and discuss them.”

Liu Yun and Liu Mu felt that this was like their first time seeing the young madam. The young madam in the past was sweet-tempered, gentle, and good at talking. But the young madam standing in front of them now exuded an aura of dignity that couldn’t be ignored and causing the two of them to have great respect for her.

“Just tell him that I can quietly leave without the Mu family knowing and save him some trouble. But if the situation blows up, well, I trust he knows just how difficult Lord Mu can be. If he doesn’t want that complication then invite him to come over in person. When the conditions are finalised, I will leave quietly. He saves trouble and I save effort. I will await in this hall.”

The siblings looked at each other and then faced the young madam and nodded. The young brother Liu Mu went to inform the Marquis while Liu Yun stayed behind to wait.

After Liu Mu went, Mu Huanqing sat down.

Liu Yun secretly looked at the young madam. She felt that the young madam was very different from the usual. She was too calm. It was like being driven out of the Marquis household was not a big deal.

Although she and Liu Mu were apparently planted by the old madam, they were actually following the Marquis’s orders. The fact that the young madam spoke openly to them today meant that she already knew much earlier.

Although it had only been a short two months, to be perfectly honest, the siblings had some good feelings towards this young madam. It was a pity that she was the daughter of the Mu family. Although they sympathised with her bitter experiences, they could not do anything.

When Fu Yanlin finished hearing the report of the young servant, he had Liu Mu enter his study.

After hearing what Liu Mu had to say his brows tightened and he lowered his head to think.

“Just go! See what conditions she has. The earlier she leaves, the less we have to worry.” The old madam said to her son. Her head hurt just thinking about Lord Mu that old fox. She didn’t want that person to make any troubles for her son.

“If that old Mu fox knows that we sent her out of the house, he will definitely interfere. If she will obediently cooperate and not let her father know, you and your father won’t suffer his anger at court.”

Fu Rong snorted. “Mother, why are we scared? She should be scared! She deliberately caused cousin Rouyou’s child to die. The fact that we didn’t kill her and only chased her out is extremely benevolent. If this matter is known outside, then it would only further her malicious image. She’s just worried about that so she deliberately agreed to go to the countryside and doesn’t want her father to know. I think she’s just not satisfied so she wants to take advantage of this opportunity to get into big brother’s good graces. This is just one of her pesky plans.”

What Fu Rong said was reasonable and fair. The old madam also thought along those lines. After all, it was unthinkable for a main wife to not make a fuss after they know they’re being chased out of the house.

At this moment, Fu Yanlin thought otherwise. He was not a person that easily fooled. There were too many doubtful points in this scenario of poisoning Rouyou’s food. He also didn’t believe that it was mere coincidence that the safflower just happened to be in that woman’s courtyard. Perhaps someone was using this as a pretext to frame her.

But he had no intentions of exposing this matter because he could use this reason to send that woman to the village.

What was the harm in him going to see what her conditions were? It didn’t matter what she wanted, he had already decided to chase her away. He won’t let her make use of any scheme or opportunity to appear in front of him again. If she wanted to blame someone, she could only blame the fact that her father was Lord Mu!

When he thought it through, he got up and said to the old madam, “Mother, since it is like this, I will go to see.”

The old madam nodded and urged. “If she gives you any trouble, you don’t need to be polite. We can always complain to the Emperor and see what that Lord Mu has to say.”

Fu Yanlin thought, ‘Mother, this is a matter between women. If we bring this matter to court, it would not be this easy to chase that woman out of the house.’ But he didn’t say it. He only nodded and left, going in the direction of Mu Huanqing’s courtyard.

On the other hand, Mu Huanqing was calmly and patiently drinking tea. Just waiting until Fu Yanlin came to negotiate.

Within this period, Nanny Ji hurried over to request an audience. Mu Huanqing saw her immediately kneel down without an extra word and entreated the young madam to let her follow her to the village.

Mu Huanqing was quite surprised. It was normal for Xin Yu and Li Yuan to wish to follow her but she didn’t think that Nanny Ji also wanted to go.

“After going out of the Marquis’s doors, we will not be coming back. I will have nothing to do with the Marquis household in the future. Your monitoring will be useless, there will be nothing good to report back to the old madam. Why?”

Not only was Liu Yun astonished when she heard but Nanny Ji was so shocked that she raised her head to look at the young madam. The young madam was just quietly watching her as if she was just evaluating her intentions.

As expected, the young madam knew everything. She looked gentle and harmless, didn’t argue or fight, but her thoughts were clear and insightful. She only didn’t say it out loud.

Nanny Ji grit her teeth and kowtowed, begging. “Asking the young madam to take in this old slave. Truthfully this old slave has no use in this household. The old madam placed me here ostensibly to monitor the young madam but in reality, it was due to disliking this slave’s old age hindering usefulness and coincidentally borrowed the monitoring excuse to place me at young madam’s place. Now that the young madam is going, the old madam will not use me. When I look around this house, there is no one familiar and I can only eat and wait for death.”

Naz's interesting tidbits: The safflower flower (say that three times fast...) is not recommended to be taken during pregnancy. However the oil, according to google, is possibly safe.

Also I was having major trouble translating the first bit of this chapter because I had to pause after every sentence I read cause I was so angry at Fu Yanlin haha.