Chapter 132 - 84: The Way You Look Without Clothes
No wonder Cui Mei chose such a drastic way to kill herself; she had to risk her life to protect her mother, only to find it was too late to extricate herself afterwards.
Infected with syphilis, her beauty destroyed, and pregnant out of wedlock, she was at the mercy of someone else holding the evidence against her. Moreover, she might have harbored a trace of affection for Han Shan. Some say, the shortest path to a woman’s heart is the "yin path," which might well apply to a courtesan like Cui Mei who remained chaste even in a brothel.
"Who killed Fan Chun? And who wanted to kill you?" Ran Yan asked.
"Fan Chun was killed by Yin Wanwan and Wei Xia." As Wan Lu spoke of Yin Wanwan, there was a mix of sighs of sympathy, hatred, or pity—her feelings were unclear, "Fan Chun was originally Yin Miaomiao’s maid. A few days before the tea party, Wei Nang said she was short-staffed, so Yin Wanwan volunteered to send Fan Chun to help. The next afternoon, Yin Wanwan went to visit Wei Nang and ’accidentally’ soiled her clothes, so she bathed and changed in Wei Nang’s courtyard. At that time, it was Wei Xia and Fan Chun who were attending her, and Yin Wanwan and Wei Xia together killed her."
This appeared to be a premeditated murder, and one could easily guess why Fan Chun was killed. As Yin Miaomiao’s personal maid, she would have been more aware of every nuance and detail of her lady’s life than even Yin Wenshu and Lady Ling. If Han Shan was murdered by Yin Wanwan just for a few words he said, what more Fan Chun?
"As for me, that day in the garden I overheard Cui Mei plotting to frame Qin Silang with another woman, when I was struck from behind and knocked out. From Wei Xia’s mouth, I learned that it was Yin Wanwan who had hit me. I had a concussion and couldn’t see clearly, but I saw a hand with a jade bracelet choking me." Wan Lu thought for a moment, then added, "Wei Xia said the woman conspiring with Cui Mei was her."
Ran Yan, recalling the lively young girl in a cherry red bodice skirt, truly couldn’t connect her with the later Yin Wanwan; one was innocent and naively sweet, the other crazed and extreme. The only thing that never changed from the beginning to the end was her love for Qin Musheng.
"It’s really true that everyone has their own tastes." Ran Yan muttered to herself; she looked at Qin Musheng from head to toe and couldn’t find anything appealing about him, yet Yin Wanwan was unwavering in her love for him.
The beginning of all these tragedies was a letter from Qin Musheng. He was deceived by Zhang Fei into writing an invitation letter to Yin Miaomiao, and after Yin Wanwan secretly read it, she snuck to the meeting place only to have her innocence taken by Zhang Fei.