tallest building

Chapter 318 It turns out

It was late at night, but the light was still on in Wen Mingqian's room. The light was not very bright, casting a dim, yellowish glow in the room.

Xiaoyue picked up the candle scissors on the table and gently trimmed the scorched end of the wick. She whispered, "My lady, you don't know how sweaty my palms were when I went to find Dong Gang's attendants tonight. If I hadn't been holding that handkerchief, I'm afraid the sweat would have dripped down my face."

"You did very well. Even though you were nervous, no one could tell, could they?" Wen Mingqian smiled, her face as white as the moon even in the dim light.

“Actually, even if he noticed I was nervous, he wouldn’t have suspected anything, since this matter is unusual,” Xiaoyue said. “They look down on us women, let alone a lowly palace maid like me.”

Yes, people like Dong Gang only treat women as playthings. How could they possibly see them as flesh-and-blood people with backbone and cunning?

"Serves him right!" Xiaoyue cursed fiercely. "That kind of playboy deserved to be punished long ago. Good riddance, Madam!"

"That's all thanks to your help." Wen Mingqian took Xiaoyue's hand. "No matter what, you risked your life for me, so you deserve my gratitude."

Xiaoyue quickly pulled her back: "My lady, you flatter me! Not to mention that you have already done me a great favor, when Dong Gang came to me, I was already in a difficult position. I didn't want to go against my conscience to harm good people, but I was also afraid that he would harm my family. I was in such a dilemma. If it weren't for your solution, I really wouldn't know what to do."

It turns out that Wen Mingqian knew Dong Gang wouldn't let the matter rest, and he wanted to take advantage of the situation to scheme against him.

That's why Wen Mingqian played along with him, luring him into a trap.

Dong Gang never expected Wen Mingqian to plot against him. He thought that Wen Mingqian was just a woman who couldn't lower herself and that he needed to use some tricks to win her heart.

The saying goes, "If you have the will to calculate against the unintentional, even if you can't achieve 100%, you can still achieve 99%."

Wen Mingqian seized upon Dong Gang's lust-induced folly and devised a plan to substitute one thing for another.

The plan was devised long ago, but no one expected Consort Hui to interfere again.

She became suspicious of Wen Mingqian and his mother, and she also had a close relationship with Dong Gang. Since they were people she was going to clash with sooner or later, it was always more advantageous for the one to strike first.

So Wen Mingqian framed Consort Hui as the one who caught him in adultery. Taking advantage of her desire to punish him, he had Xiaoyue go to find Xiaoshunzi and tell him that he had been tricked and was sleeping in an empty room at Yunshui Pavilion.

Xiao Shunzi would naturally go to Dong Gang to report the news, but Consort Hui already knew that Xiao Shunzi was Dong Gang's lackey, so she had been on guard against him for a long time. As soon as he showed his face, he was pressed down and interrogated.

Xiao Shunzi, of course, couldn't keep his mouth shut, and under duress and enticement, he chose to tell the truth.

Consort Hui thought she had everything under control, so she turned around and tried to get back at Wen Mingqian by framing her for having an affair and then leading people to catch them in the act, which ruined her reputation.

As a result, the Empress naturally disliked her, and Dong Gang would inevitably despise her as well.

Once she loses the Empress's favor, wouldn't it be easy for me to manipulate her however I want?

More importantly, now that Wen Mingqian has become an adulteress, it will be much easier for me to tell the Empress about her suspicious behavior. Otherwise, the Empress would find it hard to believe me, since I don't have any concrete evidence yet.

However, after they got Zhang Yunqi drunk and sent him to that room, Princess Duanmin's men were already waiting there.

They quietly smuggled the unconscious painter Zhang out through the back window. Then, after Consort Hui and the others had left the banquet, Xiaoyue found Dong Gang's attendant again. Dong Gang, unsuspecting, happily went to Songfeng Pavilion.

There were already people lying in ambush there, and he was knocked unconscious as soon as he entered.

Songfeng Pavilion and Yunshui Pavilion are not far apart, separated only by a lotus pond. Dong Gang was put into the room through the back window of Yunshui Pavilion. Fearing that he might suddenly wake up, some sleeping pills were given to him. Alan was already prepared in the room.

Then Consort Hui pretended to have discovered the affair and came to report it to the Empress.

The crowd went to catch the adulterers in the act, and the drama came to a successful conclusion.

As for Consort Hui, she was the one who found this most difficult to accept.

I thought I was the mantis stalking the oriole, but I ended up unwittingly shooting myself in the foot.

If she hadn't reported him to the Emperor and Empress, she wouldn't have attracted so many people to watch Dong Gang's disgraceful behavior. Moreover, because she was the first to report him, Dong Gang seemed even more innocent.

After all, Consort Hui would never frame her own son-in-law.

Xiao Shunzi was brought over, looking timid and like a rat.

He already knew what had happened, and he was almost scared out of his wits. As soon as he entered the door, he cried and tried to clear himself: "Your Majesty, please be wise. I was really kept in the dark. I had no intention of framing the Prince Consort!"

"Stop talking nonsense, the things you've done are enough to kill you!" Manager Hu kicked him.

"Yes, yes, yes, I deserve to die, I deserve to die, but I really didn't expect it to turn out like this." Xiao Shunzi had a look on his face as if he had eaten shit; he really didn't expect such a thing to happen.

"Now that the Prince Consort is under surveillance, we can't communicate with him. Tell me everything that happened before in detail. If you still hide anything, you'll just have to wait until next year's anniversary!"

Calling him here wasn't to scare him, of course. Even if he died, it wouldn't change anything. The important thing was to find out what happened and see if there was any way to salvage the situation.

Xiao Shunzi could tell the time was right. If he didn't tell the truth now, he would be reduced to a leaf, and even three layers of skin wouldn't be enough to peel off his body.

"After the Prince Consort returned from his southern tour, he went to the palace to pay his respects to the Empress. Unexpectedly, he ran into Lady Wen. Then he came to me and said that he had taken a liking to this Lady Wen and asked me to act as a matchmaker..." Xiao Shunzi told him everything he knew. "Xiao Yue originally agreed readily, and I even gave her several gold melon seeds!"

Today she found me and said it was done, and she even told me the location. So I went to the front, and then I ran into Granny Xia and the others. After I finished explaining, I was tied up, and I don't know what happened after that.

“Xiaoyue is probably telling you false information,” Consort Hui said. “You fool, you think you’ve bribed her, but you don’t know that she’s set a trap for you to fall into.”

"Alas, I was so stupid, I really didn't see how cunning she was." Xiao Shunzi admitted that he had misjudged her, but felt wronged. "But even now I still can't figure out how she dared to deceive us."

“Or perhaps Xiaoyue didn’t lie, but Wen Mingqian tricked her as well,” Granny Xia suggested another possibility. “We don’t know the details yet, so we can’t fully speculate on the situation.”

"Hmph, better to kill a thousand innocent people than let one guilty person go free. Don't think about who's innocent at this time," Consort Hui said with a sneer. "Haven't we suffered enough in silence?"