"A lover?" Di Lanmo burst into laughter. "The lover you're talking about is this plain - looking, shabby - dressed man?"
It wasn't that Di Lanmo was being mean - spirited. It was just that Di Tingyu was so stupid. If she wanted to frame her, she should have at least found someone decent.
She wondered where on earth Di Tingyu had found this oddball!
Di Tingyu gritted her silver teeth and kicked the man. The man immediately stepped forward and knelt on the ground. "Your Highness, please grant the union of this humble man and Miss Di! This humble man and Miss Di have been in love since last year. It's just..."
The man paused and continued mournfully.
"Miss Di promised this humble man that she would elope with me and meet me. But this humble man waited for so long without any sign of her. So, I had no choice but to find the second miss! Mo'er..." The man stared at Di Lanmo with his beady eyes full of affection, which made Di Lanmo suspect that Di Tingyu wasn't here to frame her but to disgust her!
If that was the case, she had to admit that Di Tingyu had succeeded!
"Stop!" Di Lanmo couldn't bear it any longer. She was afraid that if she listened any more, she would vomit!
As a mercenary who had experienced all kinds of life - and - death situations, she would never allow herself to act so disgracefully!
Di Lanmo didn't want to look at this poorly - acting man anymore. She directly asked Di Tingyu, "My dear sister, if you want to find someone to slander me, why don't you discuss it with Mother? To be honest, even a little maid could come up with a better plan than yours!"
Di Lanmo sneered and continued, "If you want to frame someone, you need evidence. You..."
Before she could finish her sentence, Di Tingyu interrupted her loudly, "Of course, there's evidence!"
Di Tingyu took out a stack of letters from her bosom, shook them, and looked at Di Lanmo confidently. "These are the letters you exchanged with this man during your secret meetings. He showed them all to me. The content is really affectionate! Sister, do you want me to read them to you?"
Di Mingye quickly stepped forward, snatched the stack of letters, and flipped through them one by one. With each letter he read, his face turned darker.
"Mo'er! This is really your handwriting!" Di Mingye looked at Di Lanmo in disbelief and whispered, "Could it be that you really..."
Chu Zhiyan also looked at Di Lanmo. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, but he wanted to see how Di Lanmo would react and handle this situation.
Di Lanmo casually took the letters and glanced at them. Well, they were well - prepared. It was indeed her handwriting!
However, this Di Lanmo was not the original one. This was the handwriting of the previous owner!
Di Lanmo looked calm and retorted, "It seems that my sister doesn't know me well enough. You went to get someone to copy my handwriting from who knows how many years ago. Why didn't you take my recent one?"
"Fine!" Di Lanmo called out to Qingque, "Qingque, go and get the writing brush and ink. I'll prove my innocence!"
When Qingque came back with the writing brush and ink, Di Lanmo directly turned over a piece of letter paper and wrote her name on the back.
Chu Zhiyan looked down. What beautiful calligraphy!
The three characters 'Di Lanmo' were bold and unruly, just as grand as her way of doing things, not like the small - mindedness shown in the letters.
If a person's handwriting had just changed recently, the direction of the brushstrokes would still be the same. It couldn't be changed that much.
Di Lanmo's calligraphy was completely different from the previous one. Seeing this, Di Tingyu was immediately at a loss for words. She wanted to argue but didn't know what to say. Her face was full of panic.
Seeing this, Di Mingye also understood that Di Tingyu must have framed Di Lanmo.
Di Lanmo continued, "Not to mention how different the handwriting is. Look at my face and then look at the王爷's face. Do you think I'm as blind as you, abandoning a god - like man and choosing a toad? I told you last time to use your brain more, but it seems you didn't listen. Otherwise, you wouldn't have done such a stupid thing."
Although Di Tingyu didn't understand those two words, she knew they must not be good. Just as she was about to fight back, she was interrupted by Chu Zhiyan.
Di Tingyu, who had been unable to speak several times, turned green with anger.
Chu Zhiyan was in a good mood. After all, this was the first time he had heard Di Lanmo praise him. As for the man Di Tingyu had found, Chu Zhiyan didn't even give him a glance.
He said calmly, "General, your daughter's actions really opened my eyes!"
Although his words were cold, the sarcasm in them was too obvious.
Di Mingye's face turned ashen, but he had to admit that the Prince of Qin was right. Di Tingyu's stupid actions were so embarrassing that he couldn't bear to watch. He quickly bowed and said, "It's my fault for not disciplining my daughter well. I've disturbed Your Highness and the Princess. I'll take her away now and confine her for reflection!"
"Confine her?" Chu Zhiyan sneered. "She slandered the relationship between me and the Princess. Is this how you're going to deal with it, General?"
The veins on Di Mingye's forehead throbbed. "Your Highness is right!"
He waved his hand to call the butler. "The second miss is rude and has offended Your Highness and the Princess. She should be severely punished! Fetch the family law!"
He looked at the stunned man with a cold look in his eyes. "Take this man away, give him fifty big boards, and then throw him out of the mansion!"
Seeing that she not only failed but also was going to be punished, Di Tingyu immediately burst into tears in fear. "Father! Don't beat me. Don't..."
At Fengming Tower.
"Hey, have you heard?"
"What? What's the latest news?"
A group of young men were sitting around a table in the first - floor hall. They all leaned their heads together and whispered.
The first speaker said, "You all know that the grandson of my mother's second cousin works in the general's mansion. Yesterday..."
The young man talked eloquently, telling the story of what had happened in the general's mansion yesterday like a storyteller. Everyone in the restaurant was attracted.
When he talked about how the man had framed Di Lanmo:
"Hiss..."
"This man is really despicable!"
"Right, he's so shameless!"
When Di Lanmo exposed their plot:
"The Princess of Qin is really intelligent!"
"Is the second miss of the Di family really so vicious?"
When the Prince of Qin ordered the punishment for the two of them, everyone was so excited that they slapped their thighs!
"Great! It's really satisfying!"
"The Prince of Qin is a real hero of our time!"
Fengming Tower was the largest restaurant in the capital and also the biggest source of news in the capital!
From the families of high - ranking officials to ordinary civilians, people would come here to have a cup of tea in their spare time.
It was imaginable what kind of public opinion would be caused when yesterday's incident spread here.
From mouth to mouth, the story finally turned into that Di Tingyu had had an affair with someone outside. But she was jealous that her elder sister had married into a good family, so she colluded with her lover to frame her elder sister!
In the mansions of high - ranking officials in the whole city, and even in the mansions of sixth - rank officials, as long as there were unmarried young men in the family, they were all saying almost the same thing.
"The second miss of the general's mansion is young but vicious and shameless. We must never mention her again when looking for a match for our son in the future!"
"I think that as the saying goes, like father, like son. Judging from the behavior of the second miss of the Di family, we can tell that Mrs. Lin is not a good person either!"
For three consecutive days, the whole capital had been talking about Di Tingyu's "great deeds". The whole city was in an uproar.
It was five days later when the completely distorted news finally reached Mrs. Lin's ears.
"Smack - " The teacup hit the young servant who came to report the news and then rolled to the ground. The hot tea in the cup spilled out and flowed onto the servant's hand as he lay on the ground.
Mrs. Lin, who was in a fit of rage, didn't care about the servant's red and blistering hand.
"Useless!" Mrs. Lin's face was ashen. "The news has spread like this, and you just found out about it now!"
The servant shivered in pain but didn't dare to show it in front of the furious madam. He had to grit his teeth and bear the pain silently.
After enduring it for a while, he replied, "In the past few days, when the servants in the mansion went out to buy things, the common people would point at them and whisper. But when they asked, no one would say a word. It was this humble servant who was careful and hid aside to find out the news."
"Get out!"
Mrs. Lin stood up and paced back and forth.
When Di Lanmo, that little bitch, somehow became known as the most beautiful woman in the capital, she had spent a lot of effort to build up Tingyu's reputation so that she could find a good marriage for Tingyu when she came of age!
But now that her reputation had been so ruined, which high - ranking official's family would come to propose marriage to Tingyu?
Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks. "Jinfang, go and give the order! No one is allowed to talk about this matter in the mansion! And don't let the second miss know about this!"
It was too late, though.
Di Tingyu stumbled in crying. "Mother!"
Mrs. Lin suppressed her anxious mood and forced a smile. She quickly stepped forward to catch the staggering Di Tingyu. "My dear daughter, what's wrong?"
"Mother, everyone outside is saying that I've had an affair with someone. How can I live like this?" Di Tingyu sobbed. "It must be that little bitch Di Lanmo who spread these rumors! Mother, she's ruining me! I'm going to kill her!"
"Shut up!" Mrs. Lin stopped Di Tingyu. She winked at Jinfang.
Jinfang understood and led the servant and the other maids out and closed the door behind her.
In the room, seeing that there was no one else but herself and Di Tingyu, Mrs. Lin heaved a long sigh of relief.