Chapter 204: Chapter 204: Fourth Master (3)
"Nanny Qian went back to the mansion with the Lady the day before yesterday, and when she returned in the evening, she quietly gave this to me, saying Master Xu asked us not to tell Miss about it, so I didn’t say anything!" Sixing said, sneaking a glance at Xiqiu. "The servant thinks Master Xu is concerned about Miss, that’s why I accepted it!"
Xiqiu’s voice gradually turned cold as she looked at Sixing and said, "What did I tell you all initially? In the future, if anything is brought in, except from my elder brother and seventh brother, do not keep anything from others. Yet, what did you do? Not only did you accept it, but you also hid it for him!"
Sixing knelt down, and even Chunyan, frightened, knelt beside Xiqiu’s feet, who squinted at them and said, "This is the last time I say this. If anything like this happens again, I will certainly not let it go easily."
"The servant remembers!" Sixth Miss rarely gets angry, but when she does, it’s terrifying. Moreover, whatever she says, she will do it. Therefore, she listened to Xu Tianqing and concealed things from Xiqiu.
After all, having followed her for many years, Xiqiu understood Sixing’s nature and motives. She sighed softly with compassion and said, "Stand up!"
Sixing stood up, silently replacing the medicine in her hand with the ointment prescribed by the Imperial Physician. Xiqiu lay back on the bed with her eyes closed, not saying another word.
After washing and grooming in the evening, Xiqiu leaned against the bed reading. Outside, Daijuan called out through the window, "Sixth Miss." Chunyan, sitting by the bed, was startled, got up, and went out. After speaking a few words with Daijuan under the window, Daijuan followed Chunyan inside. Looking at Xiqiu, Daijuan said, "Sixth Miss, Fourth Miss... is missing."
Xiqiu was startled and sat up from the bed, asking Daijuan, "What do you mean missing? Did you search thoroughly?"
When the Lady entrusted Fourth Miss to her and Daiju, she mentioned that if anything happened to Fourth Miss, they would be held responsible. Xinzhu and Xinmei’s fates were witnessed by her own eyes. Just thinking about these things made her legs weak, unable to take a step. She intended to plead with her eldest aunt, but considering the relationship between the eldest aunt and the Lady as mother and daughter, telling her would be equivalent to informing the Lady. After much contemplation, the only suitable person was Sixth Miss. She endured fear, secretly searching with Daiju and Nanny Qian in the Marquis Mansion, but dared not alert others, searching anxiously for over an hour to no avail.
Where could Fourth Miss have gone? Leaving the mansion was definitely impossible, but the Marquis Mansion was so big, if they wanted to hide, finding her would be difficult.
"Did you tell eldest sister?" Xiqiu did not immediately get out of bed. The Marquis Mansion was not as convenient as the Tong Mansion, and the security was strict. Tong Xiyan couldn’t possibly leave, which meant she was somewhere inside, and her going there wouldn’t be of any use, so she could only ask Tong Xihua for help.
Daijuan knelt down with a thump, tears welling up in her eyes as she looked at Xiqiu. "The servant dared not tell the eldest aunt. Fourth Miss has been gone for two hours. The servant searched secretly nearby but couldn’t find her and had no choice but to come to Sixth Miss, begging for your help to think of a solution."
"How would I have a solution?" Xiqiu sighed. "This matter can only be resolved by asking eldest sister. Even if I go, I can only join you in searching!"
Daijuan began to cry, "Sixth Miss, please! The lives of the servant, Nanny Qian, and Daiju are in your hands. Before the Lady left, she instructed the servant that if anything happened to Fourth Miss, only us three would be questioned. How dare the servant tell the eldest aunt!"
Nanny Qian?! Xiqiu’s eyes flickered as she instructed Chunyan to help Daiju up. She said, "I’ll go take a look with you." Nanny Qian had helped her before, not for Tong Xiyan, but for Nanny Qian!
Daijuan, overwhelmed with joy, quickly assisted Chunyan in helping Xiqiu get dressed. Outside, Nanny Song, upon hearing the noise, peeked inside through the door and, seeing Daijuan, flashed a look before quickly leaving under the cover of darkness.
With Daijuan leading the way with a lantern, Sixing and Chunyan escorted Xiqiu, walking along the winding path to Tong Xihua’s courtyard.
Entering the room, Nanny Qian and Daiju were at a loss, pacing inside anxiously. Upon seeing Xiqiu enter, they immediately approached in excitement. Nanny Qian said, "Sixth Miss, what should we do? It’s been two hours, and Fourth Miss hasn’t returned!" She was not afraid of anything else but feared Fourth Miss doing something drastic like finding a place in the mansion to commit suicide, which would render her lifetime’s worth of hard-earned possessions gone in an instant!
"Don’t worry, Nanny," Xiqiu said, glancing at the items on the bed and then asked, "Tell me exactly when Fourth Miss was last seen and why none of you were with her."
Nanny Qian replied, "The servant and Daijuan went to the front to get dinner, leaving Daiju in the room to accompany Fourth Miss. But when we returned, Daiju said Fourth Miss had disappeared!" After saying this, Xiqiu turned to look at Daiju, who, crying, said, "I was guarding the door, and then a young unfamiliar maidservant from the mansion, said she served by the eldest aunt’s side, talked to me for a while, and asked to borrow a couple of patterns. I took her to my room, which is in the side room. Fearing Fourth Miss might leave without my knowledge, I left the door unlocked and especially paid attention to any noise in the courtyard. But in the blink of an eye, when the young maid left, I returned and stood guard in the original place. Yet I felt something amiss, realizing there was no sound from Fourth Miss’s room, which made me anxious and I pushed the door open to find that Fourth Miss was not in the room at all."
She cried as she spoke. She had only been in the mansion for half a year. A few days ago, she thought she had good fortune working in the main lady’s room, but things took a sharp turn for the worse overnight, and she feared she might even lose her life!
Xiqiu frowned. The side room is only a few steps from the main house, with people constantly coming and going, making noise. If Tong Xiyan wanted to leave, Daiju would surely have seen it.
Unless...
She didn’t use the main door?
Without a word, she left the room and went to the back hall. Outside the back hall, there were two rooms housing scattered, unused tables and chairs, with no one living in them. Beyond them was the courtyard wall. Tong Xihua intended to enclose the area, so the wall wasn’t built very high, only about a meter tall. Standing under the wall, she estimated that while she couldn’t scale the Tong Mansion’s walls, this wall could be easily climbed with a stool!
Could it be that Tong Xiyan left from here?
After some thought, Xiqiu turned back to instruct Nanny Qian and the others, "Daiju and Daijuan, go to the back garden to search, carrying lanterns. If anyone asks, say Fourth Miss’s cat has gone missing and don’t say much more!" Daijuan and Daiju nodded, and Xiqiu further said to Nanny Qian, "You stay here to wait. Firstly, if the eldest sister comes, you can explain. Secondly, if Fourth Miss returns, someone is here to report."
Nanny Qian replied, "The servant understands!"
Xiqiu then looked up over the courtyard wall. With Sixing and Siliu, she bypassed the main courtyard exit and walked to the courtyard wall outside the back shed housing. Several newly planted osmanthus trees were bare, providing a good view. She instructed Sixing to hold up the lantern and look around, spotting two small yet deep footprints on the ground, suggestive of someone having jumped down from a height, leaving imprints.