Mo Huawen came to the Old Madam’s yard. As he entered, he saw a group of people whispering around a man who was lying on the ground.

“Was he killed?”

“No, he shouted very loudly just now.”

“He doesn’t look like a man in black. Look at his expensive clothes, he doesn’t look like a robber.”

“Is he from some well-known family, who went the wrong way?”

“How can that be? This is the Old Madam’s yard, not a miss’s…” said a maid.

Then she was immediately reprimanded by another, “What nonsense are you talking about?”

“Yes, yes, I’m talking nonsense, nonsense.” The maid immediately responded and gently slapped herself in the face.

As a maid saw Mo Huawen entering the door with a grim face, she warned, “The old sir’s here! The old sir’s here!”

The crowd quickly made way for Mo Huawen. When he saw the man lying on the ground, he called his servant to come and turn him over. As he saw the man clearly, his face grew more sullen. The Old Madam was up by this time. She was awakened from a short sleep. At first, she cowered under the covers, and now she finally put on her clothes and came out of the room.

Mo Huawen told his servants to take the men to the Old Madam’s inner room. The room was warmed by the stove. Presumably, because he felt warm, the man slowly woke up.

“Who are you? How dare you break into the inner yard of the Mo Manor?” shouted an old maid who managed the inner yard.

The man was now too black and blue to be recognized. He dressed in a bright green robe made of fine silk from Hangzhou. Ordinary people could not afford such silk, and it was not something that money could buy. Most of such cloth was sent as tribute to the palace, which meant that the man was no ordinary robber.

Yu Mingyong just woke up and had no idea what was going on. He touched his head and looked at the Old Madam at the head and Mo Huawen next to her. His heart did a flip, and he was secretly glad that their plan had been exposed!

But he was beaten too hard. Fortunately, he wore many clothes today, or his leg might have been broken. He looked at the Old Madam with some anger in his eyes.

“Sir Mo, it’s me.” Yu Mingyong pulled himself up against a chair beside him. He tried to salute Mo Huawen, but suddenly he felt a pain in his waist. He quickly reached out to support his waist, grinning painfully and unable to greet Mo Huawen clearly.

“Who are you?” Mo Huawen eyed him up and down and asked coldly.

“I am Yu Mingyong, the younger brother of Consort Yu in the imperial palace. We met at the last banquet, Sir Mo.” Realizing that Mo Huawen didn’t seem to recognize him at all, Yu Mingyong said anxiously as he looked over to the Old Madam and beckoned her to help him.

As the Old Madam realized that the man was Yu Mingyong she sent someone to contact, she got angry.

She glared angrily at an old maid beside her. She clearly asked her to take the man to the Qingwei Garden. Why was this man in her yard? It was really hard for her to deal with this thing when it came up to her.

The old maid, shuddering at her glance, bowed her head aggrievedly. She was really wronged because she did take this man to the Qingwei Garden and didn’t leave him until he was climbing the wall. She could not understand why the man had come into this yard.

“Sir Yu, why are you here?” Mo Huawen asked coldly, his eyes following Yu Mingyong’s eyes to the Old Madam, who looked a little nervous. Then he frowned.

“I’ve been asked here. Otherwise, I won’t be able to get into your back door,” Yu Mingyong answered carelessly, covering the corner of his cracked lip. Although he suffered a lot, at the thought that he would get the beauty, Yu Mingyong thought it was worth it. Then he rolled his eyes and went on as planned.

“Nonsense. How could a lady stay up at midnight and ask you to meet her in the back garden?” fumed a nanny beside the Old Madam. “And this is the Old Madam’s yard. Are you in the wrong place?”

The nanny put Yu Mingyong on a date with one of the ladies. So, no matter this matter involved which young lady, people could say that Mo Manor’s daughter lost their reputation. Mo Huawen gave a cold look at the old maid who had been following the Old Madam. A trace of sharpness flashed through his eyes.

He certainly did not think that the old maid said that on her own. How could an old maid say such things in his face without the Old Madam’s permission?

Before, he thought the Old Madam was a reasonable and kind person, so he respected her very much. Even though she was his father’s concubine, he demanded that his children should treat her as if she were their own grandmother. Now it seemed that no matter how much he respected her, she was doomed to be ungrateful.

Mo Huawen looked at them coldly and clearly saw that the Old Madam got nervous. Yu Mingyong had no fear. The nanny behind the Old Madam targeted his daughters. Did she think she was the master of the house? Mo Huawen’s deep eyes fell on the old nanny, and a cruel smile came over his lips.

“You have again framed my daughters. Do you really think I’ll let you have your way?”

The nanny, startled by his glare, felt that the old sir’s face was full of malice, not the same as usual. His eyes looked as if he had searched everything. The nanny ducked behind the Old Madam, her head bowed, afraid to speak again. Anyway, she had said what she wanted to say. It was up to Mo Huawen to understand.

“Why couldn’t your daughter ask me here? Why else would I climb the wall? How could I have stayed up at night, come here, and been beaten up, if someone in there hadn’t invited me? Sir Mo, you know, my sister is a decent person in the imperial palace. How could she put up with the humiliation of her only brother bearing?”

When someone started the topic, Yu Mingyong became even more defensive and threatened Mo Huawen, pointing to the wounds on his face.

There were many bruises on his face, black and red, which had been inflicted by the servants.

“Sir Yu, are you sure the people in this courtyard asked you here?” Mo Huawen asked coldly.

The Old Madam shuddered. As soon as she opened her mouth to speak, Mo Huawen’s cold eyes stunned her.

“If anyone in this room dares to utter a word, he will be sent to the court to be punished for complicity with the thief.” Mo Huawen’s cold eyes moved from the Old Madam to the old maid behind her. Seeing his unmistakable warning, everyone knew that the old sir was really angry. The old maids knew that things went wrong, and all bowed their heads and dared not speak.

“Someone from the yard asked me here, of course. The messenger was a young maid, and she brought me in. I don’t know how I became a thief. Sir Mo, I did not take anything from your house, nor did I destroy anything in your house. How can you think I am a thief?” Yu Mingyong still didn’t figure out the situation and how he became a thief.

He happily came to the appointment, in order to have an affair with the third miss, the Princess Anping, and then successfully marry her home. Ever since he got a picture of Mo Xuetong, he had been thinking about the beautiful lady in the picture. So, although he knew he would be beaten, he came here as soon as he received the letter.

“Who came to fetch you?” Mo Huawen asked coldly.

The room full of people was quiet now. As it was quiet, the Old Madam’s rapid breathing was audible.

The Old Madam sensed it herself. She calmly picked up the blue and white porcelain teacup and took a sip of tea, trying to calm down before making plans.

“Who brought me here? Of course, the people who are with the Third Young Miss Mo.” But Yu Mingyong knew that he couldn’t say it so obviously. “It’s an old maid. As it was too dark, I didn’t see who it was. The maids all look alike. I can’t tell now,” he answered, after a moment’s reflection.

“Even though it’s night, there’s moonlight tonight, so you should be able to see what color she’s wearing,” Mo Huawen pressed on.

“Color… I have a little impression. She seemed to be wearing a blue coat.” Cornered, Yu Mingyong turned his head and saw the old and young maids in the same blue coat and blue dress. So he randomly pointed at a person and said, “It’s like this. Everyone has dressed pretty much the same anyway. I didn’t see it clearly.”

As soon as these words were spoken, the Old Madam’s hands trembled, and her teacup tinkled. Although the sound was very light, in this quiet room, the sound seemed to hit hard on the heart. All the maids winced quietly.

“Are you sure that’s what she was wearing?” Mo Huawen sneered.

“Yeah, that’s what she wore.” Yu Mingyong also sensed that there was something wrong with the atmosphere in the room, but he was on the spot, and could only answer.

“If so, then, Sir Yu, you do have something to do with the people in this yard. What do the people in this yard ask you to do?” Mo Huawen looked up with a cold flash in his eye. His eyes rested on the Old Madam, who was somewhat prim, and faint mockery crept over his lips.

Tong’er had bought the blue cloth for the maids. But when the cloth was sent home, she found that the cloth had some quality problems. It seemed to have been washed by the rain and had faded in many places. Since this batch of cloth could not be made into clothes at all, she returned the cloth for another batch.

However, the Old Madam did not like the second batch of pale pink cloth and thought that it was not dignified for the old maids. She sent someone to pick out some of the blue cloth. As the number of purchases was small, only the maids in her own yard and Mo Xueyan’s yard wore the dress made of such cloth. That was to say, the maids in other parts of the house were dressed quite differently.

Yu Mingyong didn’t know this and thought all the maids he saw were from Mo Xuetong’s yard. He was thrilled and cheered up when Mo Huawen finally asked him the crucial question.

Ignoring the pain, he took two steps forward and dropped to his knees in front of Mo Huawen. “Sir Mo,” he said, “the third miss and I love each other so much that we met at night. If you will marry the third miss to me, I promise to love her forever.”

His words were sudden and blunt, and the room was stunned by his shameless remarks.

It was not the word of a gentleman at all. He talked so grandly of meeting a lady privately.

The Old Madam, however, breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Yu Mingyong was not too stupid. She thought that it was right to find this man. She placed her teacup on the table beside, put on a fake face of exasperation, and scolded, “How dare you say that, you lecherous pig?”

When the Old Madam began to speak, the nanny standing behind her also snapped, “Who are you? How dare you have such feelings for our third miss? You must have come on purpose to ruin the third miss’s reputation. Do you think our third miss is as shameless a person as you to do such a thing?”

“I have proof. I have a token from the third miss.” Yu Mingyong put his hand into his bosom triumphantly. It was something he had been prepared for, and it was the highlight of the evening. He must play well at all costs.