Minister Kou’s residence was Qiao Zhao’s maternal grandfather’s home. Although she rarely visited, she had a good memory and remembered the entire layout of the Minister’s residence clearly.
Qiao Zhao handed Chen Guang the layout map she had drawn earlier.
Chen Guang took it in a daze, and when he opened the layout map, he couldn’t help but be shocked.
The third Miss had drawn the map so realistically that even the rocks and trees were depicted in minute detail. If this skill were used on the battlefield—
No, he had to help General marry Third Miss home!
Qiao Zhao had no idea Chen Guang’s thoughts had wandered off again. Her slender finger lightly pointed at the layout map: “There’s an osmanthus tree here. You can enter from here, then walk this way…”
After explaining, Qiao Zhao looked up at Chen Guang: “Any questions?”
“No.” Chen Guang shook his head, couldn’t help asking, “Who am I supposed to scare?”
Qiao Zhao smiled: “Not necessarily anyone specific. Just try to let as many people see you as possible. Remember to hide your tracks near this courtyard, then you can come back.”
She was pointing to Madam Mao’s courtyard. As long as Chen Guang disappeared near this courtyard, creating the illusion of entering Madam Mao’s courtyard, those people would naturally think of that rumor.
“Chen Guang, if you can’t do it, don’t force yourself. I’ll think of another way.”
Chen Guang patted his chest: “Third Miss can rest assured. This is a piece of cake for me.”
He had even followed the general into Tartar army camps before—what was a mere civil official’s residence?
“Good, I’m counting on you for everything.”
That night, the lights in Minister Kou’s residence were dim.
Granny Wang from the kitchen still couldn’t sleep from the heat.
In such hot weather, the masters’ sleeping quarters had ice blocks, and the senior maids could enjoy some of the coolness, but servants like her couldn’t even see a piece of ice.
“What a sin! Why did I learn to cook when I was young? If I could have become a wet nurse, I’d be enjoying comfort now instead of suffering like this!” Getting up in years and having frequent urination, Granny Wang grumbled as she got up. After taking care of business, she was walking back while holding her waistband when a white shadow suddenly flashed before her eyes.
Was she seeing things?
Granny Wang held her waistband with one hand and raised the other to rub her eyes.
The moonlight was bright, allowing her to dimly see a huge creature lying by the flowers and trees.
This was—
Still drowsy, Granny Wang’s mind wasn’t quite clear yet. At this moment, she forgot to be afraid and instead, driven by human curiosity, moved closer and craned her neck to look.
“A tiger!” A shrill scream pierced the night sky.
The old woman, terrified beyond measure, let go of her hand, and her pants fell, revealing her bright red undergarments.
According to the plan, Chen Guang should have immediately disappeared, but wearing the tiger skin, he was stunned. If not for his good composure, he almost screamed along with her.
It wasn’t until lights came on in multiple places and people began moving about that Chen Guang snapped out of it and ran frantically.
He was done for—he would get styes! He had never seen a grown woman’s undergarments in his entire life. How wronged he was!
If not for the important mission, the little coachman would have nearly fainted from crying.
“Granny Wang, what’s wrong?”
“There’s a tiger, a huge white-haired tiger! It was lying right here just now…” Granny Wang was so frightened that tears and snot flowed down her face, and she even forgot to pull up her pants.
“How is that possible? You must have been seeing things.”
“I wasn’t seeing things! That white-haired tiger stared at me for quite a while!”
Because of Chen Guang’s momentary hesitation, some sharp-eyed people who came out early also caught a glimpse, and they chimed in: “I think I saw it too. That white-haired tiger went that way.”
“Impossible! How could there be a tiger in the residence? Come on, let’s all go look together!”
Seven or eight servants who had been awakened chased in that direction.
“There, there, there!” One person pointed ahead, so frightened that his legs were shaking.
This time, everyone saw it.
A white-haired tiger leaped up from the wall and then disappeared. Before vanishing, the white-haired tiger even looked back once.
This glance frightened several more people until their legs went weak.
After quite a while, someone finally said: “There is a tiger!”
“This isn’t some deep mountain forest—how could there be a tiger…”
“Hiss, have you heard that rumor?”
“You mean—”
“But that kind of thing can’t be real, right?”
Someone’s expression changed: “Isn’t that courtyard the First Madam’s courtyard?”
Everyone’s faces completely changed color.
After this night, the appearance of a white-haired tiger in Minister Kou’s residence caused even more uproar.
Because many people in the residence swore they had seen it with their own eyes, Old Madam Xue could no longer ignore it and called in the people from last night to question them thoroughly.
Who would have thought that after this questioning, even Old Madam Xue lost her confidence?
One person might have been seeing things, but could so many people all be seeing things together?
“Search every part of the residence!” Minister Kou said with a dark expression.
Bedridden Madam Mao had been drowsy all along. When she woke up and wanted to call a maid to bring water, she suddenly heard low murmuring voices.
“Did that white-haired tiger transform from Madam?”
“Don’t talk nonsense! If Madam hears you, she’ll tear your mouth apart!”
“Madam has been sleeping the whole time. Maybe Madam isn’t sleeping but has lost her soul, and her departed soul transformed into the appearance of a white-haired tiger, wandering through the residence.”
Upon hearing this, Madam Mao was so angry that her vision went black. She opened her mouth to scold them but held back and continued listening to the maids’ discussion.
“Don’t talk nonsense—those are all rumors. Our Madam is such a charitable person. How could she harm Young Master?”
“But so many people in the residence saw the white-haired tiger last night! Today, the old master has already ordered a search of every place, looking for traces of the tiger!”
“Cough, cough, cough—” Madam Mao could no longer hold back and struggled to sit up.
The two gossipy maids were frightened out of their wits and both knelt: “Madam, you’re awake.”
“Speak! What exactly happened?”
The two maids looked at each other.
“Don’t you dare hide a single word from me. Tell me everything clearly, or I’ll have you sold immediately!”
After hearing the two maids’ account, Madam Mao’s face alternated between green and white, looking rather sinister.
The two maids unconsciously shivered.
“Get out!”
After everyone left, Madam Mao closed her eyes, but her eyelashes kept trembling, her heart churning like stormy seas.
Could it be that heaven was watching human deeds?
No, no—there were so many people in this world who had done countless evil deeds without receiving retribution. She was just a mother thinking wholeheartedly of her daughter’s happiness. She hadn’t even taken anyone’s life. Why would she receive such punishment?
From this day on, Madam Mao became even more seriously ill. She had no energy at all and spent most of her time in a drowsy sleep. The Minister’s residence invited all the famous doctors in the capital, even several imperial physicians, but they couldn’t even find the root of her illness.
The theory that the First Madam had lost her soul and transformed into a white-haired tiger to harm people spread even more widely in the Minister’s residence and began to spread outside.
From initially disguising himself as an assassin to abduct the servant who had administered poison, to disguising himself as a tiger for a nighttime stroll through the Minister’s residence, Chen Guang, who had participated in the entire affair, was completely puzzled and finally couldn’t help asking Qiao Zhao: “Third Miss, has Madam Mao been frightened out of her soul?”