Chapter 181 - The Evil Beauty Employed an Artful Ruse by Inflicting an Injury on Herself to Win the Trust (1/2)

Mo Xuemin arrived in a short period of time, dressed in plain clothes without any rouge on her face, which made her more pitiful and delicate than in her usual luxuriant garments. Before words could be spoken, she knelt in front of Mo Huawen’s writing desk and cried on the ground, her sleeves covering her face.

Mo Xuemin cried painfully and aggrievedly, which seemed very innocent.

“Father, I, I… really don’t know what happened. I just wanted to go to the market to buy some rose pastries. I knew you liked them and would be happy to see them on your desk in the morning. But I, I just suddenly pa.s.sed out on the carriage. When I woke up again, I found His Excellency Sima lying beside me with blood all over his body…”

On the way here, Mo Xuemin had thought the whole thing through. Although the nanny at the back entrance had been Auntie Fang’s confidant, the nanny wouldn’t keep the secret now that Auntie Fang lost her power and Mo Xuemin was not doing so well. She had told the truth before Mo Huawen found out from someone else.

After all, her father was too proud to let anyone frame his daughter, so she had to make him believe that she was innocent. She hoped her father would forgive her for the sake of this and had naturally made Sima Lingyun disappear in this matter.

Mingguo Manor would hold a feast in a few days, and by that time she would have a great chance to frame You Yuecheng and make him marry her. She wanted to marry into a rich family with a high position rather than Duke Zhenguo’s manor which had no real power but a t.i.tle. She had to get her father’s support.

According to her experience, playing pitiful and miserable was quite a useful tactic to use with her father.

“Mo Xuemin, you said your younger sister asked you to Qingfang Pavilion last night, but she was with the princess. Are you saying the princess lied?” Mo Huawen said with a dark expression, ignoring Mo Xuemin’s pale face covered with tear stains.

“Dad , when I was in the palace, a maid sent me a note, which said my third sister asked me to Qingfang Pavilion. I thought she had something to tell me, so I hurried there. By the time I was there, I saw the her maid following a girl into Qingfang Pavilion, so I thought it was the third sister. It was very chaotic in the palace, and I was afraid of being accused of having improper relations with that libertine, so I wanted to ask my sister to prove for me. I never expected that someone would try to frame both of us at the same time. So, my third sister was suspected in the end, which was definitely my fault.”

Mo Xuemin wiped her tears. They were only young girls who couldn’t have offended others. If someone wanted to frame them, it could only be Mo Huawen’s political enemies.

She saw clearly that night. That attractive man who held Mo Xuetong in his arms just lifted his eyes, and then the blood-covered head of a human being fell in front of her with those dead fish eyes and wavering lips. In those eyes, she saw a frigid callousness that left endless terror in Mo Xuemin’s heart.

But she would never tell that to Mo Huawen!

She had a feeling that if she had said something about King Xuan, she wouldn’t live to see another sunrise.

She didn’t dare to offend such a man!

Seeing her used a compromising tone to explain for herself as in usual days, Mo Huawen didn’t say anything for quite a while. When the oppressive atmosphere pushed Mo Xuemin so hard that she could barely breathe, he asked, “You mean you were both framed?”

“Father, I thought it was like that. But I don’t have much knowledge and can’t tell if it’s true. It’s also possible that she and I got lost and somehow confused in the palace.” Mo Xuemin knew her father and could sense the discomfort in Mo Huawen’s voice. She quickly changed the topic and took up the handkerchief to wipe off her tears.

When she was ten, Mo Xuetong was “accidentally” pushed into the river by Mo Xuemin and almost died. Then she just used a few caring words to get out of it. Mo Xuetong’s mother, Luo Xia, was still alive and almost died when she saw her daughter in a coma.

Mo Huawen did punish Mo Xuemin for that, but he still forgave her. He just said it was an accident because the little daughter was too naughty and noisy and no one wanted it to happen!

This kind of thing happened many times, and Mo Xuemin was very skilled at manipulating events.

Mo Huawen looked at his daughter, who was crying so hard with a handkerchief in her hand. There were no real tears, and he saw that she was watching for his reaction behind her handkerchief.

He had never noticed these things before, because he had trusted this beloved daughter so much that he ignored the details. Now that he saw Mo Xuemin wipe her face while observing his reactions through glances, he realized that she had been manipulating him all along.