Chapter 257 The real arsonist appeared
Across the cold rain, everyone could not see the girl’s face clearly, but could see that she was wearing the uniform of a maid in Luo’s Mansion. It was a maid who set the fire. Some people suddenly lost interest and felt disappointed. Madam Luo walked forward to look at the maid standing behind Pu Gongying. And then, she turned around and walked towards the ancestral hall. She ordered, “Come on! Invite the three guests in and get some tea for them! Let’s go into the hall.”
For a while, everyone flocked into the ancestral hall. The servants opened the cellar in the backyard and took out all the tables, chairs and benches inside, but there were still not enough seats, so Luo Baiying and Luo Baiji only got a small futon for worship. After serving the tea, someone took the medicine box to deal with the scratches on Luo Baiqian’s face. Qi Chuan, who possessed the body of Luo Baiqian, grinned with pain. He stared at Luo Baiqiong and said with anger, “You are so fierce and domineering. No one would dare to marry you for a lifetime, and eventually you will become a lonely old woman!”
The ancestral hall was full of lights and candles, and the fire was blazing. Luo Baiqiong suspected that the things his father vomited on her head had not been cleaned up, so she hid behind Sun Meiniang and asked her mother to take herself home to change clothes. So far, Sun Meiniang had not caught He Danggui, so she would not give up. She comforted her daughter and became gentle for a while. Hearing what Madam Luo said just now, she knew that Madam Luo had a lot of grievances for a long time. However, Sun Meiniang was not very panic for she believed that as long as she cultivated good relations with Madam Luo’s beloved son, Madam Luo would sooner or later be mentally exhausted and completely decentralized. Madam Luo was getting old every day, but she had a lot of time to wait for her to get old.
Seeing Sun Meiniang standing aside obediently, Madam Luo was a little gratified. She looked at the bound arson suspect and asked, “Deng Cao, did I give you the wrong name? Your name sounds like a flaming object, so you really came to set on fire! How badly are you treated in Luo’s Family? How dare you burn the ancestral hall here to vent your anger?”
Deng Cao shook her head and said with tears, “Madam Luo, please forgive me. I’m innocent. As a maid, I don’t have the courage to set fire to the ancestral hall. I didn’t even enter the ancestral hall. I just burned joss paper for Gan Cao in the forest behind. Suddenly, some people came up to catch me. They yelled to catch the arsonist while tying me. I am really wronged!”
After she spoke, Madam Luo asked the people who caught Deng Cao, “Did she tell the truth?”
They looked at each other, and one of them stepped forward and replied, “We did catch her in the forest behind. There was some ash in front of her at that time, and some joss paper was burned in it.”
Pu Gongying also pleaded, “I beg Madam Luo to forgive her. Deng Cao is in charge of the fire candles in Fu Shou Yard. She has always been diligent and careful. Tonight, she talked to me that the death of Gan Cao is a terribly unfair loss. If she waited until the tenth day of the dead day to worship Gan Cao, she was afraid that Gan Cao’s soul will be gone, so she picked up a desolate corner to burn joss paper for Gan Cao to gather her soul. She was wrong to burn rashly on a fire-banned day, but Madam Luo, please spare Deng Cao for the sake of Gan Cao!”
Madam Luo pondered for a moment and nodded, “Well... It’s all right. But before the tenth day of the lunar month, you can’t burn the paper rashly. When the fire day arrives, I will naturally arrange Gan Cao’s funeral properly.” Hearing this, Luo Chuangu sobered up, and kept silent with his head lowering. Deng Cao and Pu Gongying thanked Madam Luo for her pardon and left while wiping away tears.
However, Qi Chuan, or Luo Baiqian, did not go out and did not know what happened in the mansion. He was curious about what they said and asked, “The death of Gan Cao is a terribly unfair loss? How did she die?” Nobody answered him, so he asked suspiciously, “The ancestral hall was on fire. You thought Deng Cao did it, but excused her just by a few words. You found Luo Baiqiong, but hid her without asking a question. Who was it that set the fire on?”
Madam Luo didn’t want to mention Gan Cao in front of the guests, so she asked Luo Baiqiong routinely to change the subject, “Baiqiong, did you set the fire? What did you do in the ancestral hall?” Of course, she just asked falsely. She surely believed that her granddaughter would not set fire.
However, Luo Baiqiong was dumbfounded, and suddenly she couldn’t say anything clearly. Sun Meiniang asked anxiously, “What’s wrong with you, Baiqiong? Are you sick?” Luo Chuangu came over to check his daughter’s pulse but found nothing. Sun Meiniang cried suddenly, “Baiqiong must be bewitched! Look, she can’t even speak well. It’s all caused by Luo Chuanxiong’s rag dolls. Evidently, the fire in the ancestral hall has nothing to do with Baiqiong. Please ask the sorceress to drive her away evil spirits and beat the villains!”
Qi Chuan felt unfair, “Oh, originally, you thought that it was Sister Qingyi who set the fire, so you wanted to slap in her face and asked her to walk the streets nakedly. But as soon as you saw that the person who set the fire was your daughter, you gave us the runaround. Later, another maid was arrested as a suspect. Madam Luo pardoned her for violating the rule easily, and you said nothing as well. Second Aunt, why are you so different from before? You are only against Sister Qingyi, aren’t you? Why is she the only suspect who has to be punished so severely? Isn’t she inferior to a maid?”
As Luo Baiqian was very respectful to Sun Meiniang generally, Sun Meiniang passed over his rude remarks at first. But now, Luo Baiqian’s words were clearly structured even though he was sick, so that Sun Meiniang was annoyed with him. She sneered, “As a junior, you openly criticized the elders. Why are you so rude? Madam Luo has spoken out for Deng Cao, so shall I be against her? I let you go for your illness. If you bully your sister any more with nonsense, our Second Branch will not be a pushover!”
First Miss Luo Baiying suddenly said, “I just remembered that the two servants who tied Second Sister said that the gatekeeper only saw Third Sister enter the ancestral hall. Why have we only met Second Sister since we came in?”
Luo Baiji immediately answered, “Maybe the gatekeeper misunderstood the two of them. Third Sister has never been allowed to enter the ancestral hall. Why would the gatekeeper let her in?” Only grandchildren and wives of Luo’s Family could enter the ancestral hall. Other people with different surnames and concubines could not approach the ancestral hall. This is an old rule that had been followed for many years. Therefore, even though He Danggui silently burned incense outside the ancestral hall to pay homage to her grandfather every year, and Madam Luo was quite moved, thinking that the most conscientious among the younger generation was her, the rules were inviolable, and Madam Luo couldn’t allow people of other surnames to enter the ancestral hall. If it weren’t for a fire, the three doors would not be opened to let guests come in to shelter from the rain.
The servant who guarded the gate happened to be in the house. Hearing that, he stepped forward and replied, “Madam Luo, Second Young Master, I just guarded the door well. Suddenly, I fell to the ground with a bend in my calf. Above my head, a figure flashed by. It was indeed Third Miss. She always walks around the entrance of the ancestral hall with a large gray cloak every Spring Festival. Second Miss wears a green dress, so I don’t mistake the identity.”
“Where is she?” Luo Baiji tried his best to gain time, “We crowded in the ancestral hall just now, and our people searched the ancestral hall several times. Who found Third Sister?” He secretly prayed that Third Sister had run away just now, and had gone back her yard. He guessed that she must have been sad as she couldn’t enter the ancestral hall in previous years, so she sneaked in to worship before anyone saw her.
The doorman insisted, “I really saw Third Miss, and she walked quickly. She was wearing a thin veil and carrying a cloth-wrapper...”
While this servant was talking, Ning Yuan suddenly took two steps and pulled back the bluish curtains on the side of the ancestral hall. Everyone looked towards it, seeing there was a young girl standing beautifully behind the bluish curtains. Just as the description of the doorman, the girl wore a white veil, draped in a gray cloak, and carried a flat cloth-wrapper in her hands. She was He Danggui actually.
Sun Meiniang immediately hyped up, returning to the arrogant state before being blamed by Madam Luo. She pointed at He Danggui with one hand on her hip and said, “Look, the real arsonist appeared! She had a guilty conscience and hid behind the curtain! Madam Luo, please call the shots! She committed three crimes of witchcraft, arson and incitement of collective reaction in Tao Yao Yard. Even if she is a miss in the mansion, she must be beaten fifty times on her back!” Beating on back was a rigorous punishment modified by Sun Meiniang. Although it seemed to be the same punishment as another one, there were actually three kinds of sticks, the upper, the middle and the lower. The most ruthless upper stick was the finest one that had invisible thorns on it. It was the best way to punish disobedient people.
Luo Baiji was very anxious, “Second Aunt, you can’t convict Third Sister with just a few dolls. Even if the note was written by my aunt, it can’t prove that the doll was made and buried by my aunt, let alone indiscriminately punish the innocent Third Sister. Even if she sneaked into the ancestral hall, she must have nothing to do with the fire. Is it right, Third Sister?”
He Danggui felt stifled as everyone stared at her, but it was not as strong as Ning Yuan’s presence beside her. She tried to stop the discomfort caused by Ning Yuan’s presence, and replied, “I dreamed about my grandfather while I was sick, so I couldn’t help but walk to the ancestral hall. I threw a silver at the doorman’s feet and sneaked in while he was bent over to pick up money. Then I saw that the door of the ancestral hall was not locked, so I walked in to visit the ancestral tablets. Madam Luo, please forgive me for breaking into the ancestral hall wantonly. As for the witchcraft and incitement mentioned by Second Aunt, I don’t know what those mean.”
Sun Meiniang twisted her lips and sneered, “Don’t indulge in sophistry. The door of this ancestral hall was originally locked. We saw the doorman opened it just now, but you hid in the ancestral hall early in the morning. No matter how you came in, it was suspicious that you got here in the middle of the night. What is in your cloth-wrapper? Come on, take a look at it!”
Ding Rong’s wife immediately took advantage of Sun Meiniang’s power. She stepped forward and took the small cloth-wrapper in He Danggui’s hands. Then she shook off facing the public. Among the things that fell one after another, one of them shocked Madam Luo. She cried, “Rag… Rag doll! It’s a witchcraft rag doll!”
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