Chapter 208: The Madam’s Name is Above

Leng Qing Yu quickly looked up at the woman’s head after hearing Ban Xia’s words.

When Ning Yu Er realized that she had been noticed, she hurriedly tried to leave.

However, Ding Qiao was quick on her feet and blocked her just as she was about to step out of the hall.

“Sorry, I bumped into you. Are you hurt anywhere?” Ding Qiao apologized as she gently held onto Ning Yu Er’s arm.

On the surface, she was checking for injuries, but in reality, she was preventing her from leaving.

“I’m fine, let go!” Ning Yu Er said, flustered.

She tried to pull away from Ding Qiao’s grip but couldn’t free herself.

At this point, Leng Qing Yu and Ye Xin Ran also walked up.

Leng Qing Yu glanced at the woman’s hairpin, and with just one look, she recognized it as her own.

She signaled to Ban Xia, who immediately stepped forward and pinned the woman down. Ban Xia then raised her voice, saying, “You’ve been watching us for quite a while, why are you trying to run now?”

Ning Yu Er, seeing that she couldn’t escape, stopped struggling and no longer tried to flee. She tugged at her skirt to calm herself and said, “This young lady is being very rude. We’ve never met before, and I came here to offer incense and pray, why would I secretly watch you?”

“Don’t try to deny it! You were clearly spying on my lady and daughter!” Ban Xia retorted loudly.

Her voice wasn’t soft, and as soon as she said that, all the people who had been waiting to enter the hall stopped and turned to look.

Ning Yu Er had initially planned to argue back, but when she saw how many people were now looking at them, her eyes suddenly reddened. She said with a tone of grievance, “Don’t go too far! You’re accusing me of something I didn’t do.

This is such a big place as Ling An Temple, and it’s only natural for people to cross paths.

Is this temple only for the daughters and madams of the noble families? Can’t we poor people come here too?”

She spoke with such grievance that her tears began to fall, and her petite frame, combined with her pitiful appearance, made her look even more vulnerable.

The women nearby, who had come to offer incense, felt sympathy for her.

“A Buddhist temple is a peaceful place, and the Buddha sees no difference between rich and poor.

You noble families often act as if you’re superior, but now you’re bullying others in the temple. Isn’t that too much?”

“Exactly! Just because you have money doesn’t mean you’re above everyone else!”

“Who does this woman belong to? Making a scene like this in such a sacred place is really embarrassing!”

“Seems like she’s from the Jing An Marquis’s family!” someone in the crowd recognized Leng Qing Yu.

“Really? The madam of the Jing An Marquis’s family could do something like this?”

Seeing the surrounding discussions turning unfavorable for their madam, Ban Xia became even more furious:

“You’re talking nonsense! Who’s bullying you?”

“Ban Xia!” Leng Qing Yu quickly stopped her servant.

She stared at Ning Yu Er and asked, “Do you know us?”

Ning Yu Er felt a surge of jealousy and resentment when she heard Leng Qing Yu speak to her, noticing the noble and graceful way she carried herself. Her emotions intensified.

With red eyes, she tried to suppress her feelings, speaking softly, “I already told you, I don’t know the madam. I was just passing by here. Please let me go, I have young children at home…”

“If you don’t know me, how could you have known that we are from the Marquis’s family just now?”

Before Ning Yu Er could finish her sentence, Leng Qing Yu interrupted her with a pointed question.

“I…” Ning Yu Er finally realized she had unconsciously blurted out the words “Marquis’s family” in her agitated state.

The crowd quickly caught on.

“Yes, this woman just recognized that they are from the Marquis’s family, didn’t she? How could she tell?”

“How could she recognize them just from their clothes?”

“How could she claim not to know them, when she actually knows?”

The crowd’s gaze turned back to Ning Yu Er.

Ning Yu Er felt anxious and bit her lip, nearly on the verge of tears again.

“I… I just said that in the heat of the moment. Who knows if you’re from the Marquis’s family or the Wang family? Anyway, you’re different from us common folk,” she stammered.

Seeing her pitiful appearance, Leng Qing Yu had an unsettling thought.

Could this be the concubine that Lu Ting En has been keeping outside?

She had just returned to the capital and hadn’t had the chance to visit that Yong Ning Alley yet, and now she bumped into this person?

Sweat began to form in her palms, and her body slightly trembled.

Ye Xin Ran noticed her mother’s strange behavior and quickly reached out to support her.

Leng Qing Yu took a moment to calm herself and then turned to Ning Yu Er, saying, “You keep saying you don’t know me, then why are you wearing a hairpin that I brought as my dowry?”

Hearing Leng Qing Yu’s words, Ning Yu Er was startled.

She instinctively reached for the hairpin on her head, but Ding Qiao was quick and had already pulled it off.

At this point, Ning Yu Er’s eyes truly reddened. She reached out to snatch the hairpin back, but Ding Qiao swiftly dodged.

Ding Qiao handed the hairpin to Leng Qing Yu, and Ning Yu Er immediately shouted, “This hairpin was given to me by my husband! When did it become yours? In broad daylight, in front of the Buddha, do you really intend to steal my token of love?”

Ban Xia nearly laughed out loud at her audacity and couldn’t help but retort, “Your token of love? When your husband gave you this hairpin, did he tell you that it had my madam’s name engraved on it?”

“My madam’s name?”

Now, it was Ning Yu Er’s turn to be shocked.

She paused for a moment, then quickly said, “Impossible! There’s no name on it!”

“Am I hearing things wrong?” someone from the crowd asked.

“Is there a name or not?”

“If there really is a name on it, then this woman is truly pretending!”

Leng Qing Yu handed the hairpin to Ban Xia, signaling her to show it to everyone.

Ban Xia took the hairpin from her master’s hand, gently twisted it, and suddenly, the top of the hairpin opened, revealing a small blossoming plum flower.

In the center of the plum flower was a single character engraved: “Yu.”

The crowd gasped.

“There really is a name!”

“There really is a name!”

“That woman is lying!”

“She’s been crying and acting pitiful this whole time, turns out she’s just pretending!”

“To lie in front of the Buddha, she must be asking for trouble!”

Before the murmurs had even died down, Leng Qing Yu asked, “Do you have anything else to say?”

With the evidence right in front of her, Ning Yu Er was speechless.

Leng Qing Yu continued, “Since this hairpin was given to you by your husband, why don’t you call him out? I’d like to ask him where he got something from my family’s storeroom!”

“I…” Ning Yu Er stammered, “My husband is away doing business in another place. He’s not in the capital.”

“That doesn’t matter.”

Leng Qing Yu replied, “Actually, whether he shows up or not doesn’t change anything. I now suspect that you stole something from my family’s storeroom, and I’m going to report this to the authorities.”

“Whatever you have to say, you can tell the officials!”