The Noble Woman’s Guide On How to Tease One’s Husband

The Noble Woman’s Guide On How to Tease One’s Husband – Chapter 82

Translated by: Oinkoink

Chapter 82 – Strangled

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The treading sound of orderly boots broke through the unique silence of spring night. Four teams of guards with torches took turns patrolling the periphery of Xie mansion. As they passed the foot of the wall, the fleeting flames illuminated the glazed tiles enroute that the radiated brightness almost overshadowed the stars and moon on the horizon.

The honey-colored candles in the study were still burning quietly and exuding some faint fragrant. The temperature of the few teacups on the four-legged long tables on both sides still remained, presumably the guests had left not long ago while the host, Xie Yuan was still sitting on the seat of honor with his eyes closed with contemplation.

He had made an error.

Previously, the Wang family insisted emphatically that there was another hidden agenda with Wang Feng’s death and filed for a re-investigation which in the end was rejected by Chu Sanghuai. Even the personal urging from the Empress failed to change his mind, which immediately gave the others some kind of impression that the standing of the Wang family in Chu Sanghuai’s mind seemed not so unshakable.

But later he knew that he was wrong. When his son had a brawl with Wang Ying’s son in the restaurant, Chu Sanghuai forcibly suppressed the matter of his son being beaten into serious injuries based only on the speculation of no evidence and then ordered the Ministry of Justice to investigate thoroughly, as if his Xie family was really behind the murder of Wang Feng.

Which of these two families’ standing is important or inconsequential could immediately be discerned.

But how could he stomach this anger? Xie Da is his only son and now is in bed in a coma while Wang Yu, who assaulted people, is still happily free and unfettered out there. He will not be a man if he does not pay this back, so he summoned a few of his clansmen, who have some influence in the royal court on this very night to prepare filing a joint petition tomorrow to seek justice for Xie Da.

But before that he must find out one thing – where exactly has Xie Peng gone to?

According to the statement of the people from the guard yard, he was not on night duty the day he went missing and so he had gone back early to rest in his room. The guards on patrol never saw him coming out of the room, let alone leaving Xie mansion. It could be described as bizarre to the extreme for a large living person to just vanish.

That being said, the reason why the Wang family dared to buckle this shit pot* on Xie family’s head was nothing more than the whip mark. Hence, he had approached someone and understood that it was indeed very similar to Xie Peng’s skills yet as it happened, Xie Peng was also missing at this time. Someone must be playing tricks behind this and the purpose is to bring down their Xie family. One has to know that Wang Feng is the brother-in-law of the country and the charge of murdering the kinsmen or relatives of the Emperor is not a joke. Should this be substantiated, the entire Xie family will still be punished even if they escape death.

[T/N: 屎盆子 (Shǐ pénzi) – metaphor for notoriety or bad things / slander.]

The aging face of Xie Yuan glowed and dimmed alternately under the bronze palace lantern, seemingly brewing up countermeasures when the window shadow shifted suddenly, as if a cluster of black fog floated by. He immediately shouted vigilantly, “Who is there?”

The shadow stopped at the door and replied in a low voice, “Uncle, it’s me.”

Xie Yuan narrowed his dark eyes and said after a moment of silence, “Come in.”

Hearing that, the person pushed open the reddish brown partition door. While the shadows of the trees outside danced, the moonlight that poured through the gaps reflected the person’s slender figure clearly. He was seen stepping into the room steadily and closing the door in passing before bowing to greet Xie Yuan.

Xie Yuan waved his hand with a trace of impatience hidden in his slightly tired look and said to, “It’s the middle of the night, what are you doing here instead of sleeping?”

“I came to solve Uncle’s confusion.” Xie Miao lifted his face slowly, his expression was incomparably profound like a deep dark pool, “I know where Xie Peng went.”

“You know? Where is he?” Xie Yuan asked successively.

“He’s right under the flowerbed in my yard.”

A simple casual sentence that seemed to end frivolously in the air yet sounded like a sudden clap of thunder on the ground, causing Xie Yuan to stand up straight and roared with startling anger, “What did you say!”

Xie Miao still looked unperturbed and repeated in detail, “I said that I had Xie Peng killed and buried in my yard. It’s been quite a few days already.”

No wonder! No wonder no one saw Xie Peng went out nor could he be found. So it turned out, he was the one setting this sinister plot up!

Xie Yuan was so angry. He was about to raise his voice to call the guards to seize Xie Miao when his whole person fell into the chair before he even opened his mouth. His wrinkled hands trembled in mid-air for a moment but hung down when he eventually lost his strength, followed closely by a stiffened neck that to look up was also difficult. Just like a puppet whose string had been drawn out, he was unable to move at all.

“You — why?”

With forced out deep furrows, his face was purplish as if he was extremely enraged at the situation he was subjected to. Though the utterance he tried his best to squeeze out still existed the remaining prestige, it was still particularly light and feeble like a small stone thrown into the deathly still deep sea which was unable to raise the least bit of waves.

“Before I answer this question, should you not tell me first why did you kill my father?”

A trace of terror flashed across Xie Yuan’s eyes that was instantly held back in its depth, so fast that no one could have detected it. If Xie Yuan was not staring at him closely, he would definitely have missed this subtle change of emotion.

It was vain of him to still have a wishful thought before he came, hoping that this was a misunderstanding. Now it seems that he was just too naive ….

“Miao’er, are you crazy, how could I … “

With a thud, a steel token engraved with the Xie family crest was thrown in front of him. It was not the kind carried by the ordinary guards, rather a small water-drop shape which apparently for a different purpose.

“In that case, why don’t you explain to me why this token appeared on a woman who lacks the strength to truss a chicken? She said it was left behind by her husband who was a doctor. There are even several correspondences and a fatal prescription. I can bring them all over if you want to see them.”

Xie Yuan’s complexion gradually became ashen.

“It looks like you do recognize this stuff.” Propping both arms on the table, deep hatred seethed within Xie Miao’s eyes, “Come to speak of it, it was still Xie Peng’s fault for not doing his job well. Seeing that both mother and daughter had jumped off the cliff, he just came back but who would have thought that they floated along the river to a small fishing village and live a stable life incognito. Later, they were found by the Ye family and brought back to Wangdu. I just talked to her a few days ago and know everything that you did back then.”

Ye family!

Xie Yuan’s chest rose and fell sharply, seemingly enraged to the extreme which nevertheless was nothing more than a spent force as he could only stare fixedly at Xie Miao with bloodshot bulging eyes as if he wanted to peel off a layer of his skin.

“You … dare to collude in doing evil … Ye family …”

“Collude in doing evil?” After a burst of grim laugh, Xie Miao gritted his teeth and said, “You and Chu Sanghuai conspired to murder the loyal subjects, that was what called collude in doing evil was! Today I will take revenge for my father and Great Teacher Lu!”

Xie Yuan was horrified and instinctively wanted to escape but his feet seemed to have taken root as he could not even take half a step. Just when he was sweating profusely out of anxiety, a long snow-white silk quietly wrapped around his neck.

“It’s been six years, you should go down and apologize to my father.”

Xie Miao tightened the long silk abruptly. Following the sound of a sharp intake of breath, everything quietened down and a wet full-stop was finally drawn on this long bloodbath case.

The next day.

At the first faint rays of dawn, a little eunuch hurriedly stepped foot into Lingxiao Hall. The horsetail whisk on his arm swept across the screens and layers of tulle before finally stopped outside of the veiled canopy. Under the dim light and shadow, a snow-white naked body with dainty small waist and rounded buttocks could vaguely be seen lying horizontally inside while still exuding the aura of sex.

In the short moment that the little eunuch was dazing, a large palm suddenly stretched out from the back of the bed and accurately grasped the beauty’s chest. Letting out a sudden delicate moan, the beauty’s long glossy white leg immediately hooked on the man’s waist and sank down. With a low growl, the man instantly rolled over when the little eunuch’s timid voice drifted into the veiled canopy.

“Reporting to Your Majesty, Lord Yue requested to see you.”

Chu Sanghuai roared in annoyance, “Get out! Not seeing!”

The little eunuch swallowed his saliva and said boldly, “Your Majesty, Lord Yue said there is an urgent matter to report to you.”

The two moving bodies in the canopy stopped at the same time. A black shadow stepped down from the bed all of a sudden and approached. One side of the hanging veil was brushed aside abruptly when a voice filled with coldness asked, “What is it?”

“Reporting to Your Majesty, it is Lord Xie … died by hanging last night.”

The beauty gasped out of shock while Chu Sanghuai was greatly shaken too that the previous sexual drive faded completely. He immediately called out the palace maids to change his clothes and put on his crown then left the beauty behind, rushing to the imperial study.

Entering the palace at the hour of chenshi (7am-9am), Yue Ting had already waited for a long time. He fastened his sleeves first then greeted with a grand salutation when he saw Chu Sanghuai before reporting in great details of the whole matter.

“ … the general situation is more or less like this. The people from the capital’s Yamen[1] have already gone to Xie mansion. After the inspection of the body, the coroner said he had died in the middle of the night yesterday. There was no sign of damage to the doors and windows in the mansion. The guards also stated that no one broke in. It stands to reason that he should have hung himself but what’s odd was that there were also traces of strangulation on the back of his neck which obviously were not caused by voluntarily hanging.”

“You are saying … he was killed by someone?” Visible radiance slightly flashed in the long and narrow eyes of Chu Sanghuai.

“Tentatively it looks like this but the specific conclusion will be clear after the submission of the documents by the capital governor.”

“Son of a bitch!” Chu Sanghuai smote the table and jumped up in anger suddenly, apparently was burning with wrath, “Who actually is so audacious to the extreme to dare kill a dignified first-ranked official!”

Yue Ting was surprisingly quiet with both his hands clasped in front of him as he stood there silently, not knowing what he was thinking.

Looking at him inquisitively for a moment, Chu Sanghuai asked, “What is your opinion, Minister Yue?”

“It’s a matter of great importance. This minister is not the one who handles the case, so I dare not presume to deduce.”

Dare not? He has always been outspoken. Not mentioning all the ministers and generals of the royal court, he will also not concede even when facing himself. It was really rather surprising for these two words to spring out today. Chu Sanghuai had such thoughts in mind while his suspicion also deepened yet he slowly smiled at Yue Ting with an affable expression.

“Why not dare? Go ahead and speak bluntly, We[2] will not criticize.”

Head hung, Yue Ting frowned and said, “This minister does not have any insight and only thinks that Lord Wang’s case has yet to be solved. If Lord Xie did not commit suicide, the Ministry of Justice will most likely have trouble mobilizing manpower to investigate.”

A few brief words seemingly brought these two cases inadvertently together which instantly drew Chu Sanghuai’s attention — could it precisely be the Wang family wanted revenge and thus killed Xie Yuan!

His face turned cold all of a sudden, so gloomy that it aroused dreadfulness.

He will not let the Wang family off so lightly if it’s indeed them. No one here can exceed the authority of the Emperor and take matters into their own hands.

Seeing that Chu Sanghuai had understood, Yue Ting stopped talking. After paying his respects, he quietly withdrew from the imperial study and walked silently to the gate of the Imperial Palace. The servant had been waiting on the carriage outside when he bent to enter the carriage and ordered in a low voice, “Prepare an ordinary carriage, I will leave the city in a while later.”

The servant complied softly and continued to flick the long whip to spur the horses in the direction of the Yue residence. His movements were strong and underneath the coarse clothes vaguely revealed outlines of his muscularity.

[1] Yámén (衙門) – official government that also responsible for adjudicating cases

[2] 朕 (Zhèn) – used by an Emperor in proclamations instead of I

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