Jun Jiuling

Chapter 100: Not Scary Questions

Registrar Lin stood at the center of the room, a line of his servants next to him.

From behind him, separated by a screen, came quiet sobs. Those were the sobs of the servant of the Lin Family who was watching over their young miss.

Because Miss Lin was too emotionally overwhelmed after waking up, she had to be put to sleep.

Although Registrar Lin only knew that they were embracing each other, not exactly what happened, but for something like that to happen in public was enough to destroy a girl’s purity.

As a father, seeing that his daughter’s life was forever ruined would prevent him from maintaining reason. He certainly would be furious.

He did not slap the girl in front of him. Lord Lin had at least that much restraint.

“I don’t know what explanation I should give Lord Lin,” Miss Jun said, her expression calm. “I don’t know what you have heard from other people. First, it was Miss Lin who invited me to come here, everything that we did was arranged by her. Secondly, we came here to the Jinyun Hall together but quickly separated. I went to play pitch-pot, so whatever happened to Miss Lin shouldn’t be mine to explain.”

Lord Lin smirked.

This young woman faced his questioning without being flustered or angry. Instead, she calmly fended off his question. Obviously she came prepared.

“You say it so simply. As for what happened, could it be that you do not know?” he said.

‘This sort of bluff wouldn’t work against this girl,’ thought the director standing off to the side. For a girl who could win that much money off of pitch-pot in the Jinyun Hall, her heart must be strong.

“I really do not know what happened,” Miss Jun said.

“Xianglan,” Lord Lin shouted out.

Xianglan, who had also passed out, did not get the treatment that Miss Lin did. She was forcefully kept awake by needles. At this moment, she was trembling on the ground, choked for air. When Lord Lin suddenly shouted for her, she began to tremble even more violently, her eyes almost rolling all the way back to her head.

The servant boy on the side hurried to lift her up from under her shoulders.

“Say it, what happened,” Lord Lin shouted.

Xianglan trembled, then pointed at Miss Jun.

“She, she drugged Young Miss,” she wailed.

Everyone in the room looked to Miss Jun. The Lin Family people were angry, while the Jinyun Hall people wore complicated expressions.

Even hearing this dreadful accusation, Miss Jun was still not anxious, not angry.

“You can’t think it’s true just because you say it’s true?” she said.

Fang Jinxiu spat.

“Your proof?” she said. “Don’t think just because people from your household are here you can bully us two children. Baseless accusations. Where is the drug? Where were you drugged? At what time?”

Xianglan collapsed into a sobbing heap.

“When we were at the Jinyun Hall, sh-she drugged the tea,” she said.

Miss Jun smiled in response.

“Xianglan, did I not drink any of that tea?” she asked.

Xianglan trembled all over on the ground, her voice wavering.

“Lord Lin, your servants were there and my servants were there. Besides the servants were the Jinyun Hall’s attendants. You are a respected official. You should know that we cannot just rely on one person’s word, but a proper reviewal of evidence, no?”

Miss Jun did not wait for Xianglan to answer, and looked at Lord Lin.

“Exactly. You say the Jinyun Hall’s tea was drugged, could it be that the Jinyun Hall has nothing to say about it? You have so many people here, so why didn’t she say the tea was drugged until now?” Fang Jinxiu said, looking at the pitch-pot director.

Lord Lin’s expression was cold, a sneer in his eyes.

Silly girl, you are trying to lead the battle to the east [1]? Who do you think you are?

“Of course we will have a proper reviewal. Miss Jun, do not worry. This official just wants to clear up what happened,” he said coldly. “Come.”

The servant boys on either side of him responded.

“Invite Miss Jun to this official’s county office.”

This was obviously an arrest.

Fang Jinxiu clenched her fists and looked at the director.

‘Hurry up and speak up. This implicates your Jinyun Hall, it was said that your tea was drugged. Could it be you can stand this?’

The director only lowered his head and sighed internally.

Lord Lin was very smart. He knew that the Jinyun Hall would not let them straight-up arrest someone in the building, so he didn’t use his status as an official and didn’t say ‘arrest’, instead ‘invite.’

Inviting someone to peacefully leave, whatever happened afterward had nothing to do with their Jinyun Hall.

“Lord Lin,” he said.

Fang Jinxiu rejoiced in her heart. ‘Say it, say it.’

“Miss Jun has some unfinished procedures to finish with. I ask of Lord Lin to wait a moment for us to deal with it,” the director added.

Wait a moment?

Only wait a moment?

Fang Jinxiu’s smile froze on her face. Lord Lin’s smirk deepened, and satisfaction flashed in his eyes.

From the pitch-pot director’s words, he could tell that Miss Jun had probably won a lot of money, so she was a guest of the Jinyun Hall.

But so what? There were many people in the Jinyun Hall who won money. Could they protect them all?

The protection only went so far as to prevent a ruckus happening in the Jinyun Hall. So that nothing would affect the business.

The Jinyun Hall was a mountain, but not just anyone could lean against it. These two silly girls were just too laughable.

A spark of surprise flashed through Miss Jun’s eyes.

It seemed that this situation was unexpected.

……

“That was unexpected.”

At the moment, outside the door in the corridor, were the five Jinyiwei.

“At that day in the teahouse, when we announced the wedding of the commander to the princess, that young woman was the first to ask a question,” one of them explained the circumstances of that day.

“That girl is certainly courageous,” he finally commented.

The other people weren’t there that day at the teahouse, but Master Jin listened to his subordinates’ accounts, especially of the people who had ran away; those he remembered well. They would get their lesson.

When the people were all running away, only this young woman walked in. She also took the initiative to ask for more details, preventing the storyteller from being too awkward, and making the thing look more beautiful.

Of course, they would only praise this girl as having good taste and a good head. They wouldn’t be so moved as to seek her out and bestow her a gift or something.

Does there need to be reward for doing what should be done?

“Oh, it’s that young woman,” Master Jin said, nodding. “Her guts are really big. No wonder she could win that much money while hurting someone. Really clever.”

When he said clever, he slapped the banister in realization.

“I remember, it’s her.”

Who is she?

Master Jin stared at the head of the corridor, but Miss Jun and the others could no longer be seen.

“That young lady was the one who last December sold a five tael hairpin for one hundred fifty,” he said, smiling. “She’s not just the Jinyun Hall’s god of wealth, she has also earned a bit extra for our jewelry store, the Jin Hall.”

“A hundred taels of silver is still silver,” said one of his subordinates in praise.

“This young lady really is gutsy, clever, and doesn’t take a hit. At that time, the other girl wanted to trap her, but she was the one who got trapped instead,” said Master Jin, looking at the room. “And this time, it was definitely the Lin Family’s young miss who wanted to trap her. As a result, she fell into her own hole.”

The four men exchange glances.

So was this his decision about the incident?

He wouldn’t be helping Lord Lin?

“Children argue and fight and cause trouble. Lord would not entangle himself with this, we are also not children. If we say something here, we’ll just be the laughingstock of our brothers elsewhere,” said Master Jin, shaking his head. “In any case, we came here with Lord Lin, so we cannot make him lose face.”

“Now it’s already March[2], the congratulatory gift for the wedding should be ready to go to the capital,” said the man who was trimming his nails suddenly.

Lu Yunqi and Princess Jiuli’s wedding was set for June. They must prepare.

“I will go look for some things. Master Jin, you go and see what’s happening.”

“What kind of objects, you’re still looking at me.”

They cracked jokes and walked forward, like they were just admiring the scenery. They saw Ning Yunzhao at the start of the stairs, and Master Jin smiled and called out a greeting.

“It’s Tenth Noble Son. You still haven’t gone to the capital?” he asked.

You wouldn’t raise your hand to hit a smiling person. Although he stayed far away from the Jinyiwei, it was not worthwhile to maintain an arrogant attitude.

Ning Yunzhao smiled and returned the greeting with a nod.

“I’m about to leave,” he answered.

Just a brief exchange. Eighteenth Jin did not continue the conversation, and Ning Yunzhao did not ask anything. They just nodded at each other, brushed shoulders, their words not intimate, restraint in their hearts.

But, what happened?

If the Jinyiwei weren’t backing the Lin Family, then what were they standing here before? Were they really just chatting and admiring the scenery?

If they were backing the Lin Family, even if they didn’t go in, they should at least stay here without leaving.

Right now, what was happening?

Ning Yunzhao didn’t understand.