Chapter 815 - 817: The Young Master’s Deliberate Fall _1
Bai Ruozhu paused as she picked up some food, a mocking smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. She had seen through Xiaoning’s "fainting" the moment it happened. She figured if Xiaoning loved to pretend, then let her— it also provided a quiet moment. Unexpectedly, Xiaoning turned out to be really unfortunate— her stomach growled the moment she smelled the food. She probably scared herself to death, right?
Suppressing her laughter, Bai Ruozhu continued to eat without giving anything away. She wanted to see how long Xiaoning could keep up the act.
As the meal was nearly finished, everyone from Cai Xiu Xuan, from the shopkeeper to the embroiderers, were brought in.
Bai Ruozhu wiped her mouth and said, "You all continue eating; I’ll go out and ask some questions."
Lin Ping’er looked at Xiaoning, who was still "unconscious" in the yard, and asked with some concern, "Is she alright? Why hasn’t she woken up yet after so long?"
Bai Ruozhu started laughing, "If she doesn’t want to wake up, of course she won’t. But she’s not dead yet, so mother, you needn’t worry."
As soon as Lin Ping’er heard this, she understood— Xiaoning was feigning unconsciousness! She had been worried for nothing all this time; how foolish of her.
Bai Ruozhu approached Xiaoning and, when no one was paying attention, subtly moved her fingertip. Soon enough, the girl on the ground started squirming, as if lice were crawling all over her.
The corner of Bai Ruozhu’s mouth twitched upward slightly. With a dash of Itchy Powder, she doubted Xiaoning could continue to resist.
She strode in front of everyone from Cai Xiu Xuan and announced loudly, "The Young Master has lost his Jade Pendant, and here Xiaoning is, clutching the Jade Pendant, insisting it was a gift from the Young Master. You all know what this kind of talk implies. So, I hope anyone who knows anything will speak up now. If this matter tarnishes the Young Master’s reputation, I’ll have no choice but to have someone report it to the Government Office for a thorough investigation."
Having said this, she gave a signal to a maid on the side, "Take the Jade Pendant from Xiaoning’s hands and show it to everyone."
As the maid tried to snatch the Jade Pendant from Xiaoning, Xiaoning looked panicked and started crying again, "This was given to me by the Young Master. You can’t take it away!"
Upon entering the room and seeing Xiaoning in such a sorry state, the people from Cai Xiu Xuan were all startled. Recalling her attempted suicide from a few days before, many of them started to speculate wildly. Bai Ruozhu didn’t beat around the bush and laid out the facts clearly. After all, her elder brother had done nothing shameful, and making a fuss would only embarrass Xiaoning.
Now, hearing Bai Ruozhu’s words and recalling Xiaoning’s suicide attempt, as well as her reappearance in the Bai Residence, they already had an idea of what was going on. A look of disdain appeared on the faces of many embroiderers.
What a shame for a proper young lady to cling to someone else’s household, especially to a married man. Truly shameless.
The manager of Cai Xiu Xuan was the first to speak upon seeing the Jade Pendant, "I remember the Young Master wearing this Jade Pendant when he came to the Shop a few days ago. The next day, he even asked me about it, saying the Jade Pendant had gone missing. I said we should have a thorough look, but the Young Master said there was no need to make a fuss over it, as it was only an ordinary Jade Pendant."
"Was it stolen by Xiaoning? She’s always claiming her family is poor and that her father is waiting for her to earn money for his medicine. Now she’s stubbornly clinging to the Young Master; perhaps her hands aren’t clean either," commented an embroiderer who had been at Cai Xiu Xuan for some time and didn’t like the suddenly-appeared Xiaoning, immediately lacing her words with sarcasm.
Xiaoning burst into tears once more, scratching her body and looking utterly ridiculous as she cried.
"You’re talking nonsense! Ever since I joined Cai Xiu Xuan you’ve been picking on me, and now you’ve found an opportunity to kick me while I’m down. Just because Miss said she wanted to get to the bottom of this, does it mean letting people like you slander me?" Xiaoning asked indignantly.
Oh, look, this little girl has quite the acting skills.
Bai Ruozhu couldn’t be bothered looking at her and said to the other embroiderers, "Who shares a room with her, stand out."
There was limited space in Cai Xiu Xuan, with six embroiderers sharing a room. After Bai Ruozhu had spoken, five embroiderers stood up, each one of them looking somewhat nervous, afraid of being implicated by Xiaoning.
"You share a room with her, have you noticed any abnormal behaviors of hers on regular days?" Bai Ruozhu asked.
The five of them did not dare to speak, and it took a long time before one embroiderer cautiously said, "She doesn’t get along too well with the people in our room, mainly because as soon as she arrived, she has always been showing off, claiming she was personally arranged to come here by the Young Master, though she seems to have a better relationship with Xiaoju from the next room."
At the mention of Xiaoju, a younger embroiderer couldn’t help but shiver, and Bai Ruozhu, who had been observing everyone’s reactions, immediately knew who Xiaoju was.
She walked up to Xiaoju and asked, "Xiaoju, what are you afraid of?"
Xiaoju kept her head lowered, and upon closer inspection, her body was slightly trembling. The shopkeeper saw she was too frightened to speak and hurriedly said, "Miss, Xiaoju is the daughter of an old embroiderer who retired from the Shop. She hasn’t been in the Shop for long and is quite young and timid, even afraid to speak loudly on a normal day."
Bai Ruozhu nodded, knowing that the Shop took care of retired embroiderers by allowing them to send their daughters or relatives to become embroiderers, as long as they were skilled.
"Xiaoju, lift your head," Bai Ruozhu told Xiaoju.
Xiaoju timidly lifted her head but dared not meet Bai Ruozhu’s gaze, her eyes darting around like a child who had done something wrong. If it wasn’t because she was really that timid, it was because she was hiding something.
"Xiaoju, you’re not just timid, are you? You’re hiding something for Xiaoning? If you cover for Xiaoning, you will also be expelled from the Shop. Do you really want to let down the nurturing your mother gave you, the care the Shop has for you?" Bai Ruozhu’s tone grew more severe towards the end, and sure enough, Xiaoju trembled in fright and fell to her knees with a thud.
"Miss, that Jade Pendant was taken from my hands by Xiaoning, but I really didn’t steal it, I truly wouldn’t dare to steal from the Young Master," Xiaoju said, crying.
Xiaoning’s expression twisted fiercely, and she screamed, "Xiaoju, how could you frame me? It was clearly given to me by the Young Master, you knew it too. How could you side with others against me? After all the kindness I’ve shown you!"
Xiaoju, who was timid, quivered even more when she was yelled at by Xiaoning and became so distraught that she could barely speak. Meanwhile, Xiaoning tried to rush over to hit Xiaoju but was thankfully stopped by the maid watching her.
"Shut your mouth, who gave you permission to speak? La Mei, slap her face!" Bai Ruozhu barked sternly.
La Mei didn’t speak, but that didn’t stop her from carrying out Bai Ruozhu’s orders. She had accompanied Bai Ruozhu to the capital and had become particularly adept at her tasks, and at Bai Ruozhu’s command, she pulled back her hand and gave Xiaoning several hard slaps, leaving Xiaoning wailing and no longer daring to scare Xiaoju.
Seeing Xiaoning beaten so harshly, Xiaoju shuddered and dared not hide anything anymore, crying out, "It was me who saw the Young Master drop the Jade Pendant that day. I picked it up, but I didn’t dare to speak to the Young Master, so I thought I would take it to the shopkeeper. Then... then Xiaoning saw me. She said the Young Master intentionally left it for her and told me not to mistake his intentions, which might upset the Young Master. She also said that since the Young Master had arranged for her to come here, not only would he give her a jade pendant, but he would also give her many more nice things in the future."