The Devious First-Daughter

Hearing that the back door may not be sealed, Ning Huaiyuan hesitated for a moment, then walked to the back door which was just round the corner.

The back door of the Ningying Courtyard was facing the direction of the Bright Frost Garden. But when one came from that direction, one could not see the back door directly, because of a side room that was located there. Part of the room jutted out and hid the back door from one’s view. Only when one walked round the side of this room, then could one see the entrance of the backyard.

Most of the people came through the main entrance. Only the maids and the older female servants went through the back door due to the convenience.

Ning Huaiyuan had orders from Xia Yuhang today, so he had to go to the Cloud Reflection Courtyard to do a search. Xia Yuhang did not say what it was. He just asked Ning Huaiyuan to send Ning Ziying’s books to him. Ning Ziying liked reading books. These books were nothing special, so they were not part of her dowry.

They were not valuable ancient books, but the usual fiction books. People read them to kill time when they were idle, and no one would care about them. After Madam Ling and her daughter drowned Ning Ziying and her maid, no one really bothered about them. Of course, these things should still be piled up in the same place.

The narrow back door was indeed not wholly sealed, mostly because no one gave it a second look. So, a few bricks were laid casually across the door. If one removed the bricks slowly, it should not be a problem to enter, because the bricks were just randomly piled together.

However, when Ning Huaiyuan came over, he did not even think about doing that. He did not have a servant with him. As a noble young master, he could not remove bricks in person, as this would cover him with mud.

But he told Xia Yuhang yesterday that he would bring Ning Ziying’s old books to him by today. After all, Ning Ziyan’s current situation was not good. It was better to avoid making trouble over such a small matter. After making up his mind, he decided to get someone to remove the bricks from the back door.

After making up his mind, he strode back. When he passed by the tree, he found that Ning Xueyan was no longer there. He could not help looking over at the tree where she had just stood. He frowned slightly and walked over.

It was not long before he came across two young male servants . Thinking that the back door was not that big, he decided that the two of them would be able to move the bricks.

Ning Huaiyuan was not Madam Ling. He had thought that Madam Ling’s behavior of sealing the Cloud Reflection Courtyard was inappropriate, which was almost equivalent to telling others that some mystery underlied Ning Ziying’s death in the Cloud Reflection Courtyard. The courtyard had been sealed off when someone had just died. With the wall outside, it was almost impossible to cover it up totally

Now it would be even worse if everyone knew that he was going to remove the bricks from the back door.

The two young male servants were about 13 or 14 years old. They saw the sizes of the bricks at the back door and felt that it was not a big deal. So they rolled up their sleeves and got to work.

Ning Huaiyuan stood behind them and watched them work.

The first few pieces were removed easily. The bricks were laid entirely outside the back door, and the back door was closed. Once the bricks were removed, the back door could be seen. At that time, he could just enter the courtyard by asking the older female servant to open the door for him.

The back door was not big. The two of them stood in a row, and it was a bit of a squeeze. After removing the first few bricks, it was estimated that one could jump into it. Thus, one could stay inside, while the other took the bricks away. In this way, the work would be faster. So, a servant jumped into the small space.

However, he did not know how he tripped, as he suddenly fell. He subconsciously stretched out his hands to hold on to the tightly closed back door to steady himself. However, he did not expect that the back door was not locked. The momentum of his fall was so strong that he fell inwards.

To his surprise, there were several bricks behind the half-closed door. As the door was pushed open, the bricks fell in a cloud of dust.

The young male servant closed his eyes to avoid the dust, before he was hit on the head by a falling brick. “Ah!” He screamed and started bleeding profusely from the head. He immediately fainted and fell to the ground.

When the young male servant jumped in, Ning Huaiyuan was looking casually around, with his hands behind his back. He looked thoughtfully at the plum tree where Ning Xueyan had stood earlier. His eyes had a complicated look. When he looked to see if there was anything something unusual, suddenly he saw the young male servant’s head bleeding as he fell with a flop on the ground.

The young male servant standing outside was stunned. He shivered and gawked at the half-open door.

“What’s wrong?” Ning Huaiyuan came over and asked.

“Eldest… Eldest Young Master… there are… ghosts, there is… a ghost.” Hearing Ning Huaiyuan’s voice, the young male servant outside suddenly screamed as he pointed at the back door. Right now, the back door was slightly ajar. When he heard the young male servant’s cry, he looked up and saw a white shadow sliding through the back door.

The servants in the manor had mentioned that this place was haunted. When he recalled that, the servant was scared.

“What are you talking about? Go and see to him.” Ning Huaiyuan’s face darkened, and he said coldly.

“Yes… yes… I’ll go and check it out. After getting chided by Ning Huaiyuan, the young male servant looked inside with trepidation. When he saw the young male servant lying there with his head bleeding, and seemed lifeless, he trembled even more. Although he said that he would check it out, he did not move.

The medium-sized boy was quite bold ordinarily. But when something like this happened, he was not able to recover in such a short time. He only remembered the stories about the Cloud Reflection Courtyard in the mansion. He also heard that an older female servant and a maid had disappeared in the courtyard for no reason, which even alarmed the First Madam. But there were no conclusions to all these tales.

“If you start spouting nonsense again, you will not go back tonight.” Hearing the servant’s continuous shouting, Ning Huaiyuan was furious and shouted.

Seeing that his Eldest Young Master was angry, the young male servant dared not leave him on his own. He trembled as he went inside. Then, he managed to get the young male servant out. This time, Ning Huaiyuan could not remove the bricks, because he had to tend to the servant’s injury first. He had no choice but to leave with the two young male servants.

He had to check the young male servant’s condition, before making any further plans.

Although the young male servant’s head was bleeding, at least he was still alive. However, the servant outside was shivering. It was evident that he had been scared out of his wits. Along the way, they came across many servants. The uninjured young male servant held the injured one.

Both of them looked pale and scared. Those who knew nothing about it would think that they had been in a fight. All kinds of speculations ran rampant at that time. Seeing the Eldest Young Master’s gloomy face, no one dared to ask for the reason. Looking at where they had come from, some people privately guessed that something had happened in the Cloud Reflection Courtyard.

Many servants were whispering. Some of them even remembered what had happened before. At that time, there were indeed two people missing. The First Madam had sent people to investigate, but found nothing. Could it be that something… had happened over there?

Ning Huaiyuan did not expect such a trivial thing to cause such widespread panic in the manor. When the older female servant and the maid disappeared, he was not back yet. When he came back, nobody had told him about this matter. So, he naturally did not expect that the chain reaction would be so great.

Although there had been an accident, he still had to enter the Cloud Reflection Courtyard.

So when he saw Housekeeper Lu of the inner courtyard after turning a corner, Ning Huaiyuan hurriedly called her and said, “Mother Lu, find someone to remove the bricks that are blocking the door in the backyard of the Cloud Reflection Courtyard. I’ll go into the Cloud Reflection Courtyard later.”

Housekeeper Lu was Madam Ling’s henchman. Of course, she knew what had happened there before. So, when she heard what Ning Huaiyuan said about the Cloud Reflection Courtyard, her hands and feet started trembling. Looking at the servant who had been hit by the falling brick, and whose head was bleeding, and then at the other servant, whose face was pale and sombre, her face paled immediately.

“Eldest Young Master… they… they were injured at the gate of the Cloud Reflection Courtyard?”

“They were accidentally hit by the bricks. Let me know after you remove all the bricks.” Ning Huaiyuan said indifferently. Without looking at the stewardess, he went to the study room. He was bored at having to wait outside. Remembering that he had something to do, he went to meet the Fourth Prince first.

“Eldest Young Master, Eldest Young Master…” Before Mother Zhang could say anything, Ning Huaiyuan strode away and left her to settle all the tasks.

“Mammy…” The maid who followed Mammy Zhang said, with a pale face, “It’s said that… there’s… there’s…a ghost in that… that… place!”

“What are you talking about? If you continuing saying that, I will rip your mouth apart. Go and ask a few people to come over and demolish the brick wall at the back door of the Cloud Reflection Courtyard.” Although she was also afraid, Mother Zhang, who had gone through all the vicissitudes of life, stamped her feet and shouted.

“Yes, I’ll go right away.” The maid ran out in fright.

In the Bright Frost Garden.

Ning Xueyan was sitting in front of the window and reading a book. If Xia Yuhang was here, he would find that the book had been taken from the Cloud Reflection Courtyard. There were Ning Ziying’s notes in the book. Ning Ziying’s handwriting was delicate and elegant, much like the people’s impression of her at that time.

It was a very ordinary poem, but she found something she was not familiar with.

“Young Lady, five or six servants have gone to tear down the bricks. Housekeeper Zhang of the inner courtyard asked her maid to tell us not to send people from the Bright Frost Garden.” Lanning came in and reported. When Ning Xueyan came back, but Lanning had not left yet.

The bricks had been placed on the back door for a long time already. There was grass growing around the slightly closed door. If nobody exerted any strength, it could not be opened at all, and the bricks on it could not be removed.

After the master was gone, the back door was overgrown with weeds, which had sprouted all around the bricks. It grew all over the back door and was messy and tangled. If one was not careful, it was easy to trip and fall.

The area where the bricks had been demolished was small, and it was easy to tear down the bricks inside. They only had to jump inside and start tearing down the bricks.

As for white shadow that the other young male servant saw, it was just a piece of white cloth that wad hanging by the door. When the door was opened, the white strip of cloth dropped to the floor. At that time, the servant was in a panic and did not dare to look around carefully. Of course, he did not see that it was only a piece of white cloth that had dropped, and made him so panic.

So everything went according to Ning Xueyan’s plan.

“Has Xinmei arranged for everything there?” Ning Xueyan carelessly turned over the pages of her book, and tilted her head. Under her elegant long eyelashes, her eyes were filled with hatred. Madam Ling thought that she could easily conceal this matter after sealing the Cloud Reflection Courtyard. Unfortunately, she did not have the same idea.

Lanning looked at Ning Xueyan with admiration and answered, “Xinmei is back. She told me that everything has been done per your instructions.”