Chapter 4 - Finish Him Off

Chapter 4: Finish Him OffTranslator: Luo YixinProofread by Men Shunde

When she wakes up the following day, Li Wanrou finds that the small window is open and a jade vase is on a console table by the window, in which peach blossoms are in full bloom, red and heartwarming.

She would never expect that the allegedly weak Crown Prince has such tenderness. Pitifully, he died too early in his previous life. There isn’t record of his life even in historical books.

While Furong is dressing her up at her order, Li Wanrou looks at herself in the mirror. Her cold eyes are as deep and serene as an ancient well, Without the innocent look that a rich family’s daughter should have. Seeing this, she unexpectedly curves her lips and smiles.

Seeing that her master, Miss Li Wanrou, is in good mood, Furong takes the opportunity to remind her: “A grand Spring Feast is to be held in the Mansion today and somebodies of the capital city are all coming to the feast. It is such a big occasion that you should not miss it though you are not quite yourself today.

After having rested for a few days I should have to see the damned first madam and Li Shifu, thought Li Wanrou, and it is such a big occasion today that even Ouyang Rongji might come.

Having changed into a green gauze skirt that she favors, Li Wanrou smiles and says: “Let’s go.”

With flowers in bloom, spring is very much in the air. Approaching the garden, Li Wanrou suddenly hears a voice and she freezes.

The voice is so soft and gentle that any man would be melted on hearing it. However, intense hatred rises in her when Li Wanrou hears the voice.

It is Li Shifu who is talking!

Li Wanrou suddenly pushes Furong into the rockery nearby and she herself manages to squeeze inside too, trying to peep through the crevice to see what is on in the garden.

Li Shifu is sitting in the pavilion, smiling and talking. The man sitting opposite her has lustful eyes and disgusting smiles on his pale face.

All of a sudden, Li Wanrou remembers that the man is Qin Qianshan, the legitimate son in the Mansion, and a kin nephew of the first madam. He idles all day long, doing nothing but going between brothels and pubs and there is a scandal that he has made a brothel girl pregnant. He is merely good for nothing!

“Cousin, you may have seen my half-blooded sister Li Wanrou. Although she couldn’t be counted as an extraordinary beauty, she is still young and cute, which common girls fail to match. If you miss this opportunity, it will be difficult for you to get her!”

Qin Qianshan seems diffident. It is true that he really wants to have Li Wanrou, who must have turned into a beauty no less than his cousin Li Shifu, for she had a good face when she was in her childhood. However, he becomes nervous at the thought of the stern face of the prime minister.

“Once a girl loses her own chastity, she can do nothing but has to obey you. And then, Father would allow make her a concubine for you for the sake of face. What on earth are you afraid of?”

Li Shifu looks at Qin with a sneer and feels contemptuous in her heart. She would not pay any attention to her useless cousin if it were not for getting rid of Li Wanrou who is such an obtrusive trouble!

She takes out a handkerchief from her sleeve and waves it. With a smile of triumph on her small face she says: “This is her personal handkerchief, which is embroidered with her name. When the right time comes, you can bring it out in public and say that you two have already privately pledged to marry, and no one will doubt it.”

Qin Qianshan is actually a lecher. Smelling the fragrance on the handkerchief, he promptly grabs it into his hand and smells it with his nose greedily.

How sweet it is! Li Wanrou must be a ravishing beauty!

With a cunning, cruel and eager air in his eyes, he nods his head: “Great! Don’t worry, cousin, it has always been easy for me to seduce women! See, with a little use of this handkerchief in my hand, it is enough to make the most virtuous woman beg me to possess her!”

He touches the jade bottle in his hand. This is Ecstasy Incense often used in brothel. Once on bed, nobody can escape from his hand!

Li Wanrou hears their dialogue clearly in the rockery. Her sneer on the mouth becomes more and more gloomy, which makes Furong worried and nervous.

“Miss, we had better go back… ”

“I sit in my courtyard, but the disaster can come from nowhere. Even if I can avoid him this time, how long can I hide?” Li Wanrou sighs.

Li Wanrou does not come out of the rockery until Li Shifu leaves. She looks around, finding no one there, and walks towards Qin Qianshan with confidence.

Wearing a gentle and charming smile, she looks more enchanting with her pretty face and delicate skin.

Qin Qianshan glances at her and can’t move his eyes any more. His heart beats faster and he calls out passionately: “Sister! Why are you here?”

Her little face has turned into a pretty one as expected, and she is no less beautiful than his cousin Li Shifu. Besides, her temperament is pure and cold, which is rather different from anyone else.

“Furong!” Li Wanrou timidly hides behind Furong and bends her head. Her earlobes are all red, which seems to show her shyness.

Fierce-browed, Furong has no option but shouts out loudly, “Who are you? This is an inner courtyard where men are forbidden!”

Qin Qianshan is too stunned to speak at first, then he realizes that this timid and shy cousin does not recognize him, so he wears a friendly smile and says: “I am your cousin Qin Qianshan.”

He secretively opens the jade bottle and pours some powder into his palm. Just before he is about to carry out his intrigue, Li Wanrou starts to speak sweetly: “It’s you, my cousin! I am sorry for what I did just now. Would you please give me a chance to make up for it by showing you around the Mansion since you are not very familiar with the place?”

Her soft voice almost melts his heart and he is more than happy to agree. He says with a smile: “Thanks for your kind help.”

When they approach the carp pond, Li Wanrou suddenly points to the center of the pood and exclaims: “Who is that there?”

Looking in the direction of her finger, Qin Qiangshan moves close to Li Wanrou, and all of a sudden, he is pushed from the back into the water with high splashes.

The carp pond is too deep for him to touch the bottom. Qin struggles a few times and falls headlong. Soon the dead body rises to the surface.

Furong bends her head, not daring to look at the young lady. She nervously asks, “Miss, we’re killing him! It will be found out! How about the corpse…?”

“Go and get some hemp ropes! Be quick, and don’t let anyone see you!”

Flustered, Furong goes to look for ropes and Li Wanrou gets some heavy stones back.

When Furong gets the ropes back, Li Wanrou immediately takes off her shoes and takes the stone in her arms and then dives into the water.

She ties the stones to the feet of Qin Qiangshan with the ropes, and seeing that the body sinks into the deep water without any trace, Li Wanrou then goes up to the surface of the water totally relieved.

Furong is so frightened that her face turns pale. Today she just gets to know that the seemingly effeminate lady is a real hard-ass, whose disposition is incomparable.

She clenches her teeth and swears to herself she would rather die than betray her. After that, the two quickly go back to their own rooms to change out of their wet clothes and stay there quietly.

Li Wanrrou then goes on to read her medical book with a placid face. There is no sign of panic on her face for killing a man just now. However, Furong is so scared that she becomes restless.

“Do you think that I’m scary?”

Furong shudders and jerks back to herself. Glancing at Li Wanrou’s gentle face, she feels more flustered and says tremblingly, “No!”

“If I hadn’t taken my own initiative, their intrigue would have been successful, and I would have been utterly discredited and seen as an unscrupulous slut, who would either die or suffer great pains! Qin Qianshan’s death is absolutely due to his own fault! Besides, we need not be afraid, since the dead body could not be found, no one will suspect that he is dead.”

In her previous life, she had been a good person for too long and she didn’t know that good people often ended most miserably until she died. She was shut up in the death jail, sexually harassed wantonly and excruciated repeatedly. In the end no one sympathized with her, and with her dead body not buried decently and no peace in death. She has sworn to pay off old scores, so what if she commits murder?

At noon.

Li Wanrou has just finished her lunch when she hears a commotion in the courtyard, as if someone were about to break in, only to be stopped by Furong.

“Everyone has come to the Spring Feast except my sister. I am very worried about her health condition and come to visit. You don’t have to stop me.”

It is Li Shifu’s voice. There is a deep concern on her face but a subtle hint of happiness in her voice.

Unable to stop her, Furong could only watch the First Young Lady make her way straightly to the door and gently push the door open. Before going into the room, she deliberately takes a step back in order for those behind her to see the inside of the room clearly.

“It’s very kind of you to come to see me, my dear sister! I am very sorry for not being able to get up to greet you due to my poor health.”

Li Wanrou is lying on bed, feeble and pale, with sweat on her forehead. It seems that her health is as poor as it is said.

There are quite a few young ladies coming with Li Shifu, who look at Li Wanrou with different eyes, some sympathy, helplessness, disregard and some schadenfreude.

Comments (3)

Mandy JI wonder if she took her handkerchief back from the body 🤔13 days ago1

Xevursthank you for the chapter , totally loving the novel19 days ago0

❤︎❥ѕιℓєитℓσνє❤︎❥Totally worth reading20 days ago0Comment

Chapter 5: Searching the MansionTranslator: Wang XinyiRevised by Men Shunde

Li Shifu is stunned. She couldn’t believe her eyes. How could Li Wanrou lie here on the bed safe and sound?

Where is my cousin Qin Qianshan! Where is the useless guy?

Li Shifut tries hard to hold back her shock, manages to be calm and says with a gentle smile: “Yu’er, send somebody to have my newly-obtained hundred-year-old ginseng and the golden bird’s nest stewed, and then bring them here. They are good for my sister’s health.” She says this in a natural and graceful manner.

Li Shifu’s slender eyelashes look like feather fans and her clean and clear eyes roll coquettishly. Her thin lips are red and cute and her white neck is as bright and smooth as jade. With the most engaging eyes, her whole body is full of noble temperament.

Li Wanrou saw such an elegant and exalted appearance of Li Shifu for too long a time in her previous life. However, it makes her sick now.

“How can I afford it? I am extremely flattered since you all have come to see me. If I accepted such a favour from my sister Li Shifu, I would have been …,” says Li Wanrou.

Li Wanrou looks around and she knows quite well that it is Li Shifu who invites all the young ladies to come here in order to catch adultery in the act, for it is a trap that she made for Li Wanrou and Qin Qianshan, the concupiscent cousin of hers. It seems that they are all kept in the dark.

Just then, a servant girl rushes into the room, yelling out of breath: “Bad news! Miss! Bad news!”

On hearing of that, Li Shifu’s heart sinks and her face darkens. A little fear comes over her and she reproaches: “How dare you shout in public? Don’t you know the rules that you have learned here?”

In a daze for a second, the servant girl meets Li Shifu’s cold eyes. Kneeling down terrified with a pale face, she says: “The childe is missing….”

“What!?” Li Shifu is so astonished that she moves back a step, her face turning pale. Holding her head with her hands, she says: “Sorry. Please you all move back to the hall. I have something urgent to deal with.”

The young ladies are in panic when they hear the word “missing”. They are all in a hurry to leave the room with one another without any interest in staying for fun.

Then, Li Shifu takes a deep breath and says coldly, “How is my cousin Qin Qianshan missing? I saw him in the garden a moment ago. He said he was coming to visit his sister Li Wanrou. How can a living man disappear? Is Dad informed of it?”

The servant girl is Qing’er, Li Shifu’s confidant, who knows what is at stake today, so she replies immediately: “Yeah, I have seen the childe going towards this house, too…”

Qing’er watches Li Shifu’s face and sees that there is a rage in her eyes, so she speaks more cautiously: “The childe is the apple of the eye of the madam of the Marquis Mansion. She went to Lord, the Prime Minister, as soon as she found her son was missing. Now, our Mansion has been searched thoroughly except…”

Seeing the looks in the eyes of both of them, Li Wanrou sneers in her heart. What a cunning trick! “Do they really think that I myself have hidden him? Obviously, they intend to search my house.”

She pretends to be in a panic and says eagerly: “How could my cousin Qin Qianshan come to see me? We have not seen each other for quite a few years. He may have come to see you, my sister, or he may have gone back to the Marquis Mansion.”

Li Shifu’s heart is filled with joy. The corners of her mouth curve into a mysterious smile as she looks at Li Wanrou’s pretty little face, which is now full of fear.

Li Shifu has been waiting for this day for a long time! Li Wanrou should have died a long time ago, for the most beautiful girl in the Mansion should be no others but Li Shifu herself. The only person Li Wanrou should blame is herself. Why should she have such an engaging face which blocks her way!

“Your house has not been searched yet. To be cleared of suspicion, you have to tolerate it,” says Li Shifu with a soft and gentle voice showing her sincere carefulness as if she is really a good sister.

However, Li Wanrou knows clearly that Li Shifu’s heart is black. But she is not as good as she was in her previous life in hiding her real intention, for she is too young now.

“How should I have believed Li Shifu’s words easily in the previous life? Maybe because I had been lonely with no one to rely on since my childhood, I was longing for warmth and kinship. In the end I died in tragedy only because I had trusted the wrong person!”

Li Wanrou sighs slightly and lowers down her eyebrows to hide her sneer. She says helplessly: “If it is known to the outsiders that every corner of the Mansion is turned over just for a man, how should Dad face others? What consequences we should take?”

Even Li Shifu, who looks like the most dignified and graceful lady, cannot help but be frightened if the blame comes. It is not that she doesn’t know the consequences, but no one will care about the details as long as Qin Qianshan is to be found out here.

At that moment, there is a sudden sound of footsteps outside. Furong is pushed into the door and falls on the ground without standing firmly. It is the first madam who comes in on her little feet.

The first madam turns her head, saying respectfully: “My Lord, servant girls all say that they have seen Qianshan coming here. There is no reason that this place is not to be searched.”

“She really cannot wait to put me to death”, thought Li Wanrou.

“It’s great of you to come here to see me, Dad. I am so sorry for not being able to rise to greet you due to my poor health. Please forgive me!” says Li Wanrou, and then she coughs unceasingly. She takes out a square handkerchief and wipes the blood off her mouth.

Seeing that Li Wanrou tries hard to get up to curtsy him, Prime Minister Li feels his heart aches. However, his eyes quickly fall on the face of Li Shifu, whose brows knit. And then the words that finally come out of his mouth are:

“Search, search thoroughly the whole house!”

Then comes the madam of Marquis Mansion with a frozen look on her face. She goes to Li Wanrou, looking at her up and down and says sneeringly: “Sure enough, you have a seductive face. It is you who seduces my son Qin Qianshan. Tell me where have you hidden him?”

The madam knows very well that her son Qin Qianshan is such a man who could not move a step further when he sees a pretty girl and she has been used to seeing that beautiful women flatter and seduce his son. But now with her son’s safety as the top priority on her mind, she has no regard for the feeling of the Prime Minister.

The madam of the Marquis Mansion turns into a rage when she sees that Li Wanrou says nothing with a face of timidity.

She becomes so impatient as she speaks that a cruel and loud slap falls on the face of Li Wanrou. Her pretty little face is hit to the side so that Prime Minister Li sees clearly the marks of five fingers left by the slap.

It is just like the slap on his own face!

Prime Minister Li frowns and says in a deep voice: “Very good! The businesses in my Mansion should be intervened by an outsider. Do you really think I am dead?”

What he says is so harsh for her that the madam of the Marquis Mansion cannot help but cringe. Though the Marquis Mansion has a history of over 100 years, it is declining now as compared with the promising Prime Minister’s Mansion. The title of the Marquis Mansion today is merely a succession of the previous generation’s glory, which is hard to carry on. She murmurs and stammers, winking eagerly at the first madam.

“My Lord, she is a little out of her mind in what she says and does due to her worries about her son’s safety, which is understandable. There is no need to castigate her for that,” says the first madam.

“Shut up! What is my Mansion is her eyes? Is it that Qianshan is her son and Wanrou is not your daughter? How do others think of my Mansion if what happens today is known to all? How do I face my fellow officials?” berated Prime Minister Li.

Prime Minister Li does not really care about whether Li Wanrou lives or dies in his mind. What he does care about is his reputation. If it is known to the outsiders that a daughter of his concubine is tormented by the first madam, the consequences are imaginable!

“Dad, I don’t mind them searching my house for nothing evil or dirty has ever been hidden here. Let them do it if they want to,” says Li Wanrou. Her voice is soft but it is like a whip on the madams.

In a deep voice, the first madam gives an order: “Search! Search the house carefully!”

Prime Minister Li gives a glance at her coldly and then sits on the side of the bed with frowned brows.

Old Maid Wang, a servant of the first madam, searches the whole room thoroughly in front of everybody’s eyes, and then she goes out to ransack the yard. Her face turns pale when she comes back. Looking at the ferocious-looking minister, Old Maid Wang reports in a tremulous voice: “Nothing…, Nothing is found!”