The Devious First-Daughter

“What’s the difference? Maybe she is more mature because her mother died.” Xia Yuhang smiled unnaturally, a subtle look of complexity crossing his eyes.

“Another day, I saw her outside Cloud Reflection Courtyard. She was standing beside a tree and looking at Cloud Reflection Courtyard in a trance,” Ning Huaiyuan said. He poured a glass of wine for Xia Yuhang, and then for himself.

Cloud Reflection Courtyard? Xia Yuhang’s heart beat fast. He grasped the wine glass more firmly, as if he wanted to hold something in his hand.

“Does Ning Xueyan really know what happened between Ning Ziying and me?” he wondered. Ning Xueyan had been at the gate of Cloud Reflection Courtyard when he saw her last time. Now Ning Huaiyuan told him that he had seen Ning Xueyan near Cloud Reflection Courtyard. He also recalled what Madam Ling had said. Thinking about these, Xia Yuhang couldn’t help but feel something wrong.

“Maybe she likes that place,” Xia Yuhang answered with a smile, hiding the suspicion in his eyes.

“Maybe!” A cold and thoughtful look appeared in Ning Huaiyuan’s eyes.

He had secretly visited Madam Ling last night. Madam Ling gritted her teeth when she talked about Ning Xueyan. She told him that if not because of Ning Xueyan, she wouldn’t have been locked up in the Buddha Hall and Ning Yuling wouldn’t have been sent away. She asked him to find a way and get rid of that b*tch.

It seemed they couldn’t continue the topic about Ning Xueyan anymore, so they chatted at random. While they were talking, a young male servant of Ning Huaiyuan ran in.

“Eldest Young Master, Madam Dowager was extremely angry and she had Third Young Lady’s personal maid beaten to death!”

“When did that happen?” Ning Huaiyuan stood up and asked in surprise. He was shocked not because a maid had been beaten to death, but because he wondered why Madam Dowager had lost her temper like that.

“I don’t know. It’s said Third Young Lady wanted to take the power of administrating the manor… so her personal maid was jealous of Fifth Young Lady helping Madam Dowager with the internal affairs… and she deliberately stained the account book Fifth Young Lady was going to check.” The young male servant wasn’t quite clear about this matter, so he faltered and described what he had heard briefly.

“Yuhang, I have to leave now.” Hearing what happened in his manor, Ning Huaiyuan couldn’t stay calm any longer. He then said good-bye to Xia Yuhang.

Xia Yuhang nodded and didn’t ask him to stay longer. He then saw him off at the gate.

“Arrange someone to investigate the background of Fifth Young Lady of the Lord Protector’s Manor. I want the detailed information about her,” Xia Yuhang ordered his servant on his way back to his manor after Ning Huaiyuan had left. He couldn’t help but think of the jet-black eyes. They looked familiar, but the coldness in them was totally strange to him.

Her action of touching the tea cup looked so familiar.

Did he really see this girl the first time?

“Got it,” the young male servant answered and ran away.

After returning to Bright Frost Garden, Ning Xueyan asked Mother Han to buy a new account book cover. She then began to tear off the stained cover with Lanning and Qingyu. Ning Xueyan had sprayed some fragrant powder on the new cover she had made, so the fishy smell was covered by the smell of the fragrant powder.

But the fragrant powder had a characteristic that it would disappear after an hour. Now her two maids had to cover their noses while tearing off the cover due to the strong fishy smell.

“Miss, Third Young Lady wanted to frame you, but she had to eat her own bitter fruit now. I think she won’t dare set up others again,” Qingyu squatted on the floor and said with a smile while tearing off the cover.

“I don’t think so!” Ning Xueyan answered with a smile.

“She had lost her personal maid. How dare she do this again?” Qingyu said in surprise.

Ning Xueyan smiled, but didn’t say anything.

“Why didn’t she dare to do this again? Third Young Lady has endured the poor life at the nunnery for three years. Now is the right time for her to shine. She will dare do anything to reach her goal. Xia’er used to be a smart girl. I wonder why she became so stupid after becoming Third Young Lady’s personal maid. Since she was so pushy, it was no wonder that she got into trouble,” Lanning said.

She had been acquainted with Xia’er for a long time, and they used to serve Madam Dowager at Lucky Garden together. But later, Xia’er went to the nunnery with Ning Qingshan, and Lanning became Ning Ziying’s personal maid. She had never expected that Xia’er was abandoned by Ning Qingshan and died miserably just after she returned to the manor after leaving for three years.

“Madam Dowager was really cold-blooded. Staining an account book isn’t a big deal at all,” Qingyu said disapprovingly.

Now the cover had been completely torn off. Although the pages inside were not stained, the fishy smell was still very strong. It had lasted for one day, and the smell made them uncomfortable.

“It’s not just a matter of an account book,” Ning Xueyan explained with a faint smile, a touch of sarcasm on her lips. “Ning Qingshan cared about the account book so much, and it aroused Madam Dowager’s suspicion. This manor belongs to the Nings. No matter how popular Ning Qingshan is, she is just an adopted daughter,” she continued.

Ning Qingshan was in the game, but she didn’t know what Madam Dowager was thinking. If Madam Dowager meant to let her manage the manor, she wouldn’t have easily agreed with Ning Qingshan’s going to the nunnery when Ning Qingshan had requested. Before she left for the nunnery, Ning Qingshan was helping Madam Ling in managing the manor.

Three year had passed, but Madam Dowager’s mind didn’t change. So obviously, she had never planned to take the power to Ning Qingshan.

Ning Qingshan should bear most of the responsibility for Xia’er’s death. If she hadn’t mentioned the account books again and again at Auspicious Fortune Hall, showing her caring about it, Madam Dowager wouldn’t have been so angry. If she was smart, she would have refused when Ning Xueyan proposed her to check the account books.

Since Ning Qingshan was ambitious, she slipped into the trap without knowing it.

Hearing Ning Xueyan’s analysis, Qingyu nodded. She seemed had vaguely understood the whole story.

Since the cover had been torn off, they put the account book near the window to speed up the spreading of the fishy smell. Lanning and Qingyu went out to wash hands, while Ning Xueyan picked up a book at random. She sat under the window and was about to read the book when Lanning suddenly came in. “Miss, Mother Wang asked if you were free now. She wanted you to her room and she had something to tell you.”

“Well, I’m going now.” Ning Xueyan put down the book on the table and stood up.

Now she hadn’t gotten the new account book yet, so she wanted to talk with Mother Wang as well.

She pushed open the door and entered the room. Lanning hesitated for a short moment before following her in. She then closed the door from inside. At Bright Frost Garden, only Ning Xueyan and her personal maids knew about the real status of Mother Wang. And Lanning and Qingyu would send food and daily supplies to Mother Wang in person.

Mother Wang leaned against the head of the bed with something in her hand and looked emotional, quite different from her usual calm appearance. When she saw Ning Xueyan coming in, she put down the item in her hand and immediately shifted her gaze to Ning Xueyan. She examined Ning Xueyan’s face carefully, as if she wanted to find something out.

“Mother Wang, what did you want with me?” Ning Xueyan asked with a slight smile. She sat on the chair beside the bed and looked at Mother Wang with her clear eyes.

“Miss. Fifth Young Lady.” Mother Wang’s hands shivered slightly on the quilt. She was still staring at Ning Xueyan. Excitement, sadness, doubt, all mixed together and made her suddenly unable to speak. She paused for a while.

“Mother Wang, are you going to ask me why I knew the method to make that kind of fragrant powder?” Ning Xueyan reminded Mother Wang, smiling. She hadn’t used the method which Aunt Xiang had taught her to make the fragrant powder today, but used the method Ning Ziying had known.

When Ning Ziying was learning the method, Mother Wang had been by her side.

“Fifth Young Lady, who taught you the method to make the fragrant powder?” Mother Wang asked with difficulty. She took a deep breath to calm herself down. She looked at Ning Xueyan anxiously, hoping to hear the answer she wanted.

“Mother Wang, what are you still expecting? Sister Ziying is dead. She has left us for a long time!” Ning Xueyan answered cruelly, without mercy, but she still looked calm.

Mother Wang’s pupils suddenly dilated. She looked painful and her eyes turned red. “But, but why could you make the fragrant powder with the method that my young master knew? How did you know that I could make the cover of account books?”

Lanning who was standing behind Ning Xueyan was confused as well, and her intuition told her that Ning Xueyan was hiding something from them.

Ning Xueyan hadn’t hidden from Mother Wang when she sprayed the fragrant powder on the account book. She had done this in front of Mother Wang in her room.

It was Mother Wang who had made the cover that had been stuck onto the bottom of the account book. Mother Wang was good at handwork, and she had made all the covers of the account books Ning Ziying used. The covers she made were thinner and firmer than the average, so Madam Dowager and Ning Qingshan hadn’t found anything abnormal today.

Because the new cover was thin enough and had been perfectly stuck onto the account book, nobody had found any flaws.

Mother Wang had only shown this technique when she was in Ning Ziying’s hometown, so even Lanning had no idea about this. The moment Ning Xueyan came to her with a stained account book in her hands, what she had said was, “Mother Wang, please help me to make a cover of account book.”

She even hadn’t asked Mother Wang whether she knew how to make an account book cover!

Because Ning Xueyan needed it in urgent, Mother Wang hadn’t thought that much at the moment. However, after Ning Xueyan had left, she felt something wrong. She thought it over, and became more confused. A bold hypothesis had come to her. “Maybe my young master is still alive.” Thinking about this, she couldn’t stay calm anymore.

“Mother Wang, do you believe that someone will tell you something in your dream?” Ning Xueyan asked with a smile when she saw that Mother Wang looking at her doubtfully. She couldn’t tell them the truth, but she could explain to them by saying that she knew many secrets about Ning Ziying because the latter had told her in her dream. No matter whether the others believe her or not, at least she should make it sound reasonable.

“Tell you something in your dream?” Mother Wang murmured, looking at Ning Xueyan in surprise.

“Since Sister Ziying passed away, I have dreamed of her many times. She told me many things about herself, including the happy time she had been with you and Xiang’er when she was in regions south of the Yangtze River, the engagement between Xia Yuhang and her, and…” Ning Xueyan paused for a while before continuing. “In fact, I’m not sure whether what she told me in my dream is true or not. Nobody can tell what happened in the middle of a dream is real. If I haven’t been desperate for your help today, I wouldn’t have believed what she said was real!”

Nobody would believe this kind of thing like ‘rebirth’. She wouldn’t have believed it if she hadn’t turned from Ning Ziying to Ning Xueyan. Now she was both Ning Ziying and Ning Xueyan. What the two had experienced would appear in her mind, as if they were the same person.

Of course she wouldn’t tell this to Mother Wang and Lanning. It wasn’t because she didn’t believe them, but because it was too incredible, and even she had told them, they wouldn’t believe it was real. So she preferred to explain to them that it was Ning Ziying’s soul that had communicated with her in her dream. That would be more convincing.

“My young master appeared in your dream and made requests to you? So she, she has really… died?” Mother Wang stammered. She stared at Ning Xueyan anxiously, hoping to see the opposite answer from her eyes, denying that Ning Ziying had already died, but to her disappointment, Ning Xueyan nodded slowly, but firmly.

Tears streamed down her cheeks. Mother Wang immediately turned her head and wiped them off.

Lanning lowered her head, trying to hide the sadness in her eyes.

For many things, what you imagined and reality were not the same.