Before Cang Xuan showed up, Su Qingyu had lied to the queen several times. She even called the maids up for confrontation, apparently confident that she could exonerate herself.
That is to say, Su Qingyu had already thought out all her escape routes. If Cang Xuan hadn't come to testify and the emperor hadn't made a final decision on the whole thing, last night's matter might not have ended so easily.
Su Yuanyuan had fought with Su Qingyu for so long in her previous life. She knew her opponent best.
It is said that a cunning rabbit has three burrows, but Su Qingyu's mind is more convoluted than a spider's den. One has to be extremely vigilant when dealing with her.
After much thought, Su Yuanyuan believed that the most opportune moment for Su Qingyu to manipulate the situation was the scene when the original body met Su Qingyu.
There was no one around at that time. Cang Xuan only saw Su Qingyu push someone, but the specific reason for her action could be greatly exploited.
Thinking of this, Su Yuanyuan's train of thought became broader.
Su Qingyu would surely make her act of pushing someone into the water seem reasonable and arouse people's sympathy for her!
Yes, given Su Qingyu's personality, she would never obediently accept the punishment after going back. She would definitely sow discord in front of the Marquis of Pingyang and Lady Tong, portraying herself as a poor victim.
Su Shian, the Marquis of Pingyang, attached great importance to rules and face. Since the punishment was personally decided by the emperor and the queen and Cang Xuan had testified, he would only let Su Qingyu and Su Zeqian obediently accept the punishment.
But Lady Tong was different. She would surely try every means to intercede for Su Qingyu, so that she would suffer less and maintain her precarious reputation.
Lady Tong's methods were nothing more than three kinds. First, she would send people to spread rumors unfavorable to the Duke of Yongguo's Mansion in the streets. Second, she would go to the Tong Mansion to cry to the old matriarch of the Tong family and use the power of the Tong family to suppress the outside rumors. Third, she would enter the palace to ask Concubine Tong for help.
Concubine Tong and Queen Wang were in the same camp in the harem. As long as Concubine Tong said a few good words about Su Qingyu in front of the queen, and then found an opportunity for Su Qingyu to meet the queen and please her, Su Qingyu would be exempted from punishment.
Su Yuanyuan guessed that Lady Tong would probably choose the methods of spreading rumors and entering the palace to ask Concubine Tong for help.
She hadn't heard any rumors from the maids today. Maybe it wasn't that the Marquis of Pingyang's Mansion hadn't taken any action, but that the rumors hadn't spread yet. She just needed to wait for a couple of days to see the effect.
It had to be said that Su Yuanyuan's guess was completely accurate. However, she didn't expect that Lady Tong failed to enter the palace to visit Concubine Tong smoothly because she had two nightmares.
Was she just going to sit back and wait for death?
That was out of the question. She had been reborn. If she allowed others to manipulate her again, she wouldn't be herself.
Since Su Qingyu and Lady Tong wanted to use the power of rumors to protect their reputations, she would make them take a big fall on this.
This feeling of being in the dark while the enemy was in the open made Su Yuanyuan extremely delighted.
Now that she had come up with a countermeasure, Su Yuanyuan relaxed. She reached under the pillow and took out the rabbit carved from agarwood that Su Huaisheng had given her during the day, as well as the dagger that Su Huaiyuan had given her just now.
A faint fragrance of wood wafted from the rabbit, making one feel peaceful.
The dagger inlaid with gems and embroidered with gold threads sparkled intoxicatingly in the lamplight. It was the best weapon for self - defense.
The kindness of her two elder brothers made her cherish this hard - won warmth even more.
When she put the things back, for some reason, Su Yuanyuan had the feeling that there was a faint golden halo on the wooden rabbit.
She was stunned for a moment, then rubbed her eyes and looked at the rabbit again, but everything seemed normal.
It must have been her imagination.
Laughing at her own over - sensitivity, Su Yuanyuan lay down with the dagger and the wooden rabbit under her pillow. She closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep with a glimmer of expectation.
This time, Su Yuanyuan dreamed about her previous life again.
It was still the Marquis of Pingyang's Mansion, and still the maid Hongzhu was sowing discord in front of her. Everything was the same as last night's dream, except that this time Su Yuanyuan was no longer angry and sad because of the content of the dream. She stood aside and watched coldly, feeling as if she was watching a play starring herself.
When the "her" in the dream was wrapped in a straw mat and thrown into the mass grave, Su Yuanyuan's heart trembled. Coldness and fear assailed her again.
But perhaps because she knew there was a sharp dagger under her pillow, she felt more confident. Her courage was a bit greater than before. She forced herself to watch the scene of her own corpse being devoured by wild dogs. Thinking of the arrow that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, even in the dream, she could feel her heart pounding violently.
Was this really a dream, or just her delusion?
Would the arrow that pierced the wild dog's head appear again?
Su Yuanyuan watched as the wild dog opened its blood - red mouth and was about to bite off her neck. Suddenly, an arrow came through the air again, piercing the wild dog's head and nailing it firmly to the ground!
This sudden scene almost made Su Yuanyuan scream. Since she was so close, she clearly saw the end of the arrow and found that there seemed to be patterns and words engraved on it.
In order to see the words clearly, she involuntarily "floated" forward and tried to open her eyes wide, but...
Suddenly waking up from the dream, Su Yuanyuan found that her heart was beating extremely fast and she was covered in a cold sweat again.
The scene of the wild dog tearing at her body in the dream still lingered in front of her eyes, but at this moment she had no mood to be afraid. She only felt excited.
She saw it clearly! She saw the patterns on it clearly!
There were large clouds engraved on the end of the arrow, and there was also a character "Yun" on it.
It was real! There really was someone who rushed to the mass grave and saved her corpse! She was spared the fate of being devoured by dogs!
Who could it be that used such an arrow with auspicious clouds as a symbol and had the character "Yun" in their name?
Su Yuanyuan searched carefully in her mind for people she had met in her previous life, but no matter how hard she thought, she couldn't figure it out.
She angrily slapped her own head, scolding herself for only focusing on fighting with Su Qingyu in her previous life and not paying any attention to the people around her. As a result, she couldn't immediately figure out the identity of her savior.
She gritted her teeth and lay down again, planning to return to the previous dream. But because her mind was in such a turmoil, she tossed and turned several times but couldn't fall asleep.
Just as she was thinking about whether to call Chunxiao to make her a bowl of calming soup, she heard a faint sound in her ear.
This sound was not very obvious. If she had been in a dream, she would never have noticed it.
But at this moment, Su Yuanyuan happened to hear it.
The experiences in her previous life had made Su Yuanyuan a vigilant person. She immediately threw off the quilt and planned to go and check the situation.
As she got up, she suddenly thought of something. She took out the dagger that Su Huaiyuan had given her from under the pillow, drew it out of the scabbard, held her breath, and slowly approached the direction where the sound came from bare - footed.
The sound came from behind the screen, and she had just seen during the day that there was a window there.
Was she so unlucky to have encountered a burglar?
As the screen got closer and closer, Su Yuanyuan couldn't help but nervously swallow her saliva.
Finally, she reached the screen. She tightened her grip on the dagger and rushed out in one step, only to find that there was nothing behind the screen. The window was also tightly closed, looking completely normal.
However, Su Yuanyuan keenly smelled a faint smell of blood lingering in the air. She also saw several dark - brown dots under the window.
She stepped forward, squatted down, and gently wiped one of the dots with her finger. Immediately, a sticky and warm feeling came from her fingertip.
It was blood!
Someone had broken into her room!
The hairs on her body stood on end instantly. A chill rushed from the soles of her feet to the top of her head. Her heart was beating even more heavily and quickly than when she had woken up from the dream just now.
She tightened her grip on the dagger and stood up, planning to call Chunxiao. But suddenly, a body pressed against her from behind, and a hand tightly covered her mouth and nose.
"If you dare to scream, I'll kill you."