Xiao Lan was about to cover Wang Qingyao's mouth and nose when she saw Wang Qingyao give her a strange smile.
Xiao Lan froze.
Wang Qingyao's eyes were dark, clear, and full of lively cunning, not at all like someone who was blind.
In an instant, a chill rose from the soles of her feet, and she had a bad premonition.
"You..."
As soon as she uttered a sound, she heard Wang Qingyao call out "Zhen Zhu" behind her. She subconsciously turned her head, only to see a blur before her eyes and her spine go numb. She couldn't move.
She tilted her neck and saw that the maid of the Prince of Ding'an, whom she had finally managed to push away, had returned.
"Your Highness," Zhen Zhu stood beside Wang Qingyao, "Are you alright?"
Wang Qingyao shook her head and stood smiling opposite Xiao Lan. Now Xiao Lan didn't have to look at her askance.
"You..." Xiao Lan finally realized, "You're not blind at all!"
"It's too late to realize that now."
"It's not too late at all," Xiao Lan sneered, "Princess Ding'an has a good scheme. But if others knew that the Princess pretended to be blind when she wasn't, what would they think? Would anyone believe what Princess Ding'an says?"
Wang Qingyao also smiled, but her words were like ice and snow in the depths of winter: "Do you think I'll give you a chance to speak?"
Xiao Lan's eyes tightened, and then she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen.
Wang Qingyao stabbed her with a knife.
One stab, two stabs, three stabs...
Blood soaked her clothes and dripped onto the ground.
Zhen Zhu, at some point, had released Xiao Lan's pressure points and disappeared.
However, Xiao Lan was immersed in disbelief and intense pain, and didn't even notice that Zhen Zhu was gone.
"You..." she said, falling to the ground, unable to even complete a sentence.
Wang Qingyao screamed, "Help! Help! Someone is trying to kill me! Someone is trying to kill me!"
As she screamed, she thrust the knife into Xiao Lan's lower abdomen again. Xiao Lan reached out to grab the knife, wanting to pull it out, but she had no strength at all.
Wang Qingyao suddenly pushed her away and fell to the ground herself, looking greatly startled.
"Your Highness! Your Highness!"
The sound of hurried footsteps approached from a distance.
In Xiao Lan's dying eyes, she saw the figure of Zhen Zhu, who was running at the forefront.
When had she left?
Xiao Lan thought, tired and desperate.
"Your Highness!" Zhen Zhu rushed to Wang Qingyao's side and helped her lean against her.
Wang Qingyao trembled all over, her hands and body stained with blood.
"Your Highness, what happened? Are you injured?"
Wang Qingyao trembled and cried, "Someone tried to kill me. In my panic, I used my self-defense dagger to stab her. Where is she? Did she escape?"
"Your Highness!"
"Your Highness!"
"Your Majesty!"
At this time, Yin Zhu, Shan Hu, and Ma Nao also ran over. Behind them were the noble ladies and young ladies who had come to watch the excitement after hearing the commotion. Wei Yu was among them.
As soon as Yin Zhu saw Wang Qingyao's blood-stained hands, tears gushed out.
"Your Majesty, what's wrong? Why are you covered in blood? Don't scare me!" Yin Zhu's limbs also trembled, and she knelt on the ground with a thud.
Zhen Zhu glanced at her with a look of disappointment, handed Wang Qingyao to Shan Hu, and then walked to Xiao Lan's side, kicking her leg. Seeing that she didn't react, she bent down to check her breath.
"Reporting to Your Highness, the assassin is dead."
Wang Qingyao breathed a sigh of relief.
Shan Hu and Ma Nao helped Wang Qingyao stand up. Shan Hu also pulled Yin Zhu up. Seeing that Wang Qingyao didn't seem injured, Yin Zhu also relaxed, her legs stopped trembling, and her heart stopped racing.
The others had also arrived at the scene.
When Wei Yu saw Xiao Lan lying on the ground, her eyes wide open in death, while Wang Qingyao stood unharmed beside her, her expression was as if she had seen an alien.
How could this be?
She stared at Wang Qingyao in disbelief.
Her plan was flawless.
The fire at the Prince of Yue's mansion, and even the suggestion to seek refuge at the pavilion on the lake, was proposed by Princess Mu Jin, and had nothing to do with her.
She had extricated herself completely. At most, she would be accused of poor supervision, fined some salary, and confined for a few days.
But Wang Qingyao hadn't died!
She hadn't died!
Xiao Lan was not an ordinary maid; she was an informant arranged by the Wei family in the East Palace.
Wang Qingyao's maids had all been sent away. How could a blind person stab Xiao Lan to death?
This was absurd!
Wei Yu couldn't figure it out no matter how hard she tried.
"Princess Ding'an, what happened?" As the future mistress of the Prince of Yue's mansion, Princess Mu Jin was no longer shy about such a major event and stepped forward to inquire.
Wang Qingyao looked terrified and recoiled a few steps, then screamed, "I was separated from my maid. This person, Xiao Lan, claimed to be a maid from the Prince of Yue's mansion and offered to escort me to the pavilion on the lake. Instead, she brought me here and tried to drown me, making it look like an accidental fall!"
A collective gasp went through the crowd.
Princess Mu Jin picked up the handkerchief beside Xiao Lan, sniffed it, and frowned, "There's a sleeping drug on this."
Wei Yu felt she had to say something.
"Ah," Wei Yu said, appearing to want to investigate the truth, "Why would a maid from the Prince of Yue's mansion want to kill Princess Ding'an? Aren't Xiao Qi and Prince Ding'an always on good terms? Has something happened between them that we don't know about?"
Xiao Lan was dead, and Wang Qingyao was alive.
The plan had completely failed.
Wei Yu could only shift the blame to the Prince of Yue's mansion.
These ambiguous words were very likely to arouse suspicion from others.
Unexpectedly, when Wang Qingyao heard her words, she flinched back in fear and shrieked, "The assassin said she was acting on the orders of the Crown Princess!"
The entire audience erupted in an uproar.