As soon as Shen Xiangwan turned around, she saw several women walking towards the courtyard. This was the place where all the handymen, maids and servants lived.
Only higher maids could live in their master's side courtyard, and they would stay in a separate room. It was not easy to get close to a higher maid like Ruyi, so not many people in the manor had the privilege.
"Oh, this is awful. Master Luo had always looked pretty healthy. No one would ever have thought that he would pass away like this."
"That’s right. It was only three days ago, when Master Luo greeted me when he came for his wine."
"He is gone in a blink of an eye, and he died so miserably! He... he looks terrible. Can you even drink yourself to death? Looks like we have learned a lesson from him. We should always control our appetite."
Listening to the crowd's discussions, Shen Xiangwan hurried over and asked, "Mama Ma, Mama Liu, what are you talking about?"
The faces of all three women who just came in blanched when Shen Xiangwan asked the question, and they shook their heads in unison.
"Something bad happened in this mansion. Master Luo, the guest, is dead."
"What? Dead? How did he die?"
"How did he die? He drank too much, and when he went to the toilet in the middle of the night, he might have fallen into the river, and he was bitten by insects and vermins in the river. Tsk tsk, it was a miserable death."
Shen Xiangwan's body turned cold.
When she went to the toilet last night, she vaguely heard groans from a distance. It was just that she was startled by Feng Zhuoqing, and then she became drunk, so she forgot all that. Now, when she heard about the news, she felt dizzy.
"It was him... it was him..." She lowered her head and whispered to herself.
Feng Zhuoqing finally fought back, and when he grew up, he would be a famous poison master.
He must have been experimenting with his skills at this time. It was no wonder that after he grew up, he would be so vicious. If he was already acting like a madman at this age…
‘I must stay away from that monster’, Shen Xiangwan thought. She had made up her mind now.
She could only hope that Jiuye would be alright.
As she thought of her Ninth Young Master’s previous life, she sighed secretly.
In his previous life, he was an outstanding man that shone like a bright star when he grew up. However, with so many enemies in the mansion, he could not fight them back at all. In the end, when she was dying, he was by her side.
Shen Xiangwan still remembered the look in his eyes when she was about to die. Although his affection for her was like burning flame, it turned into heartache in an instant. No matter this life or past life, Jiuye was the one who cared about her most. However, the Ninth Young Master from the past two lives was too weak, and she must think of some ways to make him grow stronger. She became even more certain that she would follow Jiuye as her master.
After Master Luo's accident, the mansion gave the Luo family some compensation. Since Master Luo fell by the lake after drinking, and due to the unnatural cause of his terrible death in which he was stung to death by bees, the Luo family couldn’t find any ways to blame anyone else. Instead, they only hastily collected the body and the money for the burial.
However, one after another, accidents kept happening in the mansion.
First, the Lady whom the Duke favoured had disappeared.
Then, someone from the Second Lady's courtyard was bitten by a snake.
Accidents happened one after another, causing everyone in the mansion to panic, especially the Second Lady’s courtyard. The Second Lady searched for the culprit frantically and investigated everyone from the whole mansion. She ordered her minions to search for the rooms in the mansion. Supervisor Liu, who had just recovered his position, had been very busy with these kinds of matters in the courtyard.
Originally, Shen Xiangwan wanted to reveal the secrets to her, however, she found out shocking news from Supervisor Liu.
Among all five courtyards from all the Duke’s wives, none of them were clean.
After the search, they found all sorts of voodoo dolls, curses, and stolen goods hidden in the rooms.
Even the secret affairs between the Young Masters and servants were revealed. After listening to all the reports, the Elder was stunned. He was so angry that he even lost his appetite. Instead, he gave orders to strictly control the Second, Third and Fourth Young Masters. If such a mess kept going on, something bad would really happen in this mansion.
Since one of the Ladies from the Second Lady’s courtyard was bitten by a snake, the Second Lady was named as a jealous woman. During this time, her leadership was doubted by the Elder and the Duke’s brother, so it was a depressing time for her.
However, her dismay was soon replaced by something else. It was the thing that everyone in the mansion was concerned about. The missing Lady from the Duke’s mansion was found. However, her state was so horrifying that one would lose their appetite if they were to take a look at her body.
When they recovered the Lady’s body, her lower body was swollen, and there were various bruises all over her body. Her body was already rotten when it was found, and it stank. She was also bitten by rats, ants and snakes.
The people who had seen her body had nightmares for three days and three nights, and they lost the appetite to eat.
Shen Xiangwan was even more shocked. In the previous life, none of these things had happened, but in this life, the Duke’s favorite Lady was dead.
Something happened in the Second Lady’s courtyard in this life too.
"This life is actually different from the previous one..." She sighed softly, sensing that many things had changed in this life.
Fortunately, the monster had already left the mansion long ago. However, even when Feng Zhuoqing had left the mansion, she still felt that all the tragic deaths in this mansion were connected to him.
The once famous Poison Young Master had an extremely vicious character since he was young, and he always had an intimidating air around him.
Despite all these things, the life of a slave was actually quite comfortable. That day, Shen Xiangwan, Yixuan and Ruyue secretly discussed matters about the leader of the mansion when they were washing their underclothes at the Huayi Bureau. After all, the Second Lady’s fall would mean a change of the throne of the leader of the mansion.
"This is not as simple as what we have seen. Have you ever thought about how the Second Lady could remain in power for so long?" Yixuan asked the two little girls.
"Why?" the two girls asked puzzledly.
The two of them were too young to understand the politics in the mansion, after all. Therefore, Yixuan would always ask them about their opinions after encountering an incident, and then, she would slowly analyze various reasons.
"Have you ever wondered why?" Yixuan asked them.
"Mama Yi, I would like to answer. Firstly, the Elder was biased towards the Second Lady. The Duke’s brother has always been an elegant man, and he has an excellent reputation to outsiders. The second lady is said to come from a scholarly family. Together, they are a well-known couple. It is understandable that they are favored by the Elder. Secondly, maybe—"