Chapter Fourteen: The Venomous Plot

  Su Mochen slowed down her breathing, cautiously pulling out a sharp golden hairpin from under the pillow. Since her past life, she had developed the habit of putting sharp objects under her pillow. She moved quietly to the edge of the wall, gazing at the dark shadow through the moonlight.

  A faint strange smell wafted through the room, Su Mojin's head was dizzy and heavy, her eyebrows were tightly furrowed, she pinched herself hard to keep herself awake.

  Calm down, Su Mochen narrowed his eyes to examine the black shadow. Through the moonlight and thick curtains, he could see that the person was slender, and through the hairpin on the shadow, he could tell it was a hairstyle worn by the maids in the mansion.

  The person who can enter her room without startling anyone, except for the maid in her courtyard, doesn't think of anything else.

  Su Mojin's lips curled up coldly, just today she told her father that she wanted to change a batch of maidservants, and tonight someone came to her room and even lit the calming incense. It seems that some people have been waiting anxiously.

  The girl was still some distance from her bed and showed no intention of approaching it. She moved very cautiously around the multi-treasured shelf, which was made of delicate pear wood with intricate hollowed-out flower patterns that were quite beautiful. However, there was nothing valuable on her shelf, only a few decorative vases and several small boxes, from which Zhong Shuyan and the others would take their needles and threads when doing needlework in the room.

  She slightly moved her body, hiding her shadow in the dark, and stretched out her fingers to lift the curtain open a small gap. In the darkness, the woman's facial features could not be seen clearly, and she seemed to be extremely worried and afraid, completely unaware of Su Mojin's small movement.

  The woman tiptoed and carefully placed an object into a vase, her movements hasty. Accidentally, the tip of her finger touched the porcelain, producing a crisp "ting" sound. This sound would normally be inaudible, but it was unusually clear in the quiet night air. Su Mochen saw that the woman suddenly became flustered, peeking out into the outer room, perhaps relieved to find that the night watchman, Qin Se, had not woken up, and patted her chest, letting out a gentle sigh.

  After putting it down, she looked in the direction of the bed again. In the darkness, Su Mo Jin was motionless, and the woman didn't notice anything unusual before quietly leaving.

  Before leaving, he also opened the window of the room.

  Before long, Su Mu Jin heard the sound of the door closing softly.

  Su Mojin waited for a long time, until the sky was slightly white before getting out of bed and lighting the oil lamp. The qin se who was keeping watch in the next room also got up and heard the movement inside, walked into the house, and saw the wooden window set up in the inner room.

  She was slightly puzzled, "Huh, I clearly remember closing the window yesterday." Without thinking, she quickly walked forward and pulled the window down again. Seeing Su Mochen already dressed, she rubbed her eyes and said softly, "Miss, it's not dawn yet, why did you get up so early today? Your body hasn't recovered yet, Liu Mama said to let you rest more."

  Su Mojin gazed at Qin Se's innocent appearance and let out a soft sigh. Qin Se was clever but not cautious enough. If it were Xiang Xiao keeping watch tonight, with her prudent nature, she would probably have aroused suspicion by now.

  It's likely that the person behind the woman also knew that the night watch was Qin Se and that's why they made their move.

  She didn't want to say more, since Qinshe didn't know about it, she wouldn't tell her. The person behind her back wouldn't put things in her vase without a reason, and she was waiting for the next move. She just hoped that after today's events, Qinshe would learn some lessons. Her personality was too simple, and people like this were not suitable to stay by her side, otherwise they would only harm others and themselves.

  Gently shaking her head, she pushed away the qin and se, "Suddenly I thought of something, Qin Se, go get me some toiletries, I couldn't sleep."

  "Oh." Qinshe hadn't woken up yet and rubbed her eyes again, "I'll go now."

  After Qin Se left, Su Mo Jin finally moved the vase down. The neck of the vase was long and slender, about the length of an arm. If she hadn't known in advance that there was something inside, even the maid who came to clean the room every day might not have noticed it.

  Su Mochen lifted her long sleeves, reached in and felt a soft object, she scooped it up and placed it on her palm. Under the dim light of the lamp, she could clearly see an exquisite silk pouch lying quietly in her hand. The pouch was not small, about the size of her palm, with intricate embroidery of twin lotus flowers on it. Su Mochen's eyes narrowed, this pouch's embroidery technique was surprisingly similar to hers.

  Her embroidery skills were taught by a master embroiderer from the Duan family, who was specially invited from Jiangnan by her mother. The Duan family's embroidery skills are renowned throughout the Great Zhou Dynasty, especially their double-sided embroidery which is exquisite and unparalleled. Previously, even the dragon robes of the emperor and the phoenix robes of the empress were embroidered by people from the Duan family, but later they were exterminated due to bad luck while escorting the dragon robe into the capital.

  Her master Duan Xiangniang was exempted from the disaster because she got married, but Duan Xiangniang's husband's family was afraid of being implicated and drove her out. She felt that there was no place for her in Jiangnan, so her mother could invite her to come.

  Four years ago, the Embroiderer died of illness in the mansion. Since then, the Double-sided Embroidery has been lost, and no one in the Great Zhou Dynasty has this embroidery skill except for her.

  This brocade pouch is not a double-sided embroidery, but the needlework and stitching method are 90% similar to her embroidery. If you look at this brocade pouch, I'm sure no one would think it was embroidered by someone else.

  Su Mu Jin sneered repeatedly. It seemed that the person who harmed her had not harbored malicious intentions for just one day. If they hadn't made preparations in advance, where would they have found such a brocade pouch?

  She opened the brocade pouch, and inside it lay a neatly folded white paper. Su Mu Jin unfolded the paper and held it close to the lamp light, and after one glance, her eyebrows became even more stern and profound.

  On the white paper, a vivid and lifelike painting of the old lady from the mansion was drawn. With her hair styled in a dignified manner and sitting upright in the main hall, she looked very majestic. If one only looked at the painting, there would be no mistake whatsoever. However, to everyone's surprise, a huge "X" was boldly painted on top of it with thick ink.

  "What a clever move! What a brilliant plan!"

  She could imagine that if this picture was "accidentally" found from her room and reported to the old lady, with the old lady's dislike for her, plus the exquisite workmanship of the brocade pouch, she would be speechless! She would be directly accused of being "unfilial and disobedient", and even if her father intervened, he wouldn't be able to save her.

  Such a vicious pen is completely beyond Liu's imagination.

  She held the blueprint towards the candle flame, her eyes coldly watching as it turned to ashes. Her misty eyes were inch by inch dyed with a chill intention.

  "Liu's family, let's wait and see about tomorrow's big show!"

  Digression

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