Chapter 176 Second Miss, Do You Dare to Accept Me?
However, Qin Wanru had a fatal attraction, which drew Nanny Zheng’s attention and made her unable to say no. Nanny Zheng was, in reality, unwilling to take her defeat lying down!
“Nanny Zheng, if you stay, I promise you that if you want to leave in the future, I will set you free!” Qin Wanru smiled more brilliantly when she saw the changing expression of Nanny Zheng.
Qin Wanru knew that she might not have peaceful days in her future. Only when she got a more capable a.s.sistant could she have a more stable future. Nanny Yu was the one who fed Qin Wanru when she was a baby. She had been staying with Qin Wanru then. However, she could not provide the help that Qin Wanru needed now. Nanny Yu was short-sighted and had limitations in various aspects, so she could never be the best a.s.sistant. She was loyalty but was lack of abilities. But Nanny Zheng before Qin Wanru was the best candidate.
In her last life, Qin Wanru had heard of a person of exceptional ability. But since this capable person was driven out of the Imperial Palace, she failed to become the aristocratic family’s etiquette instructor in the end. Even so, she eventually managed to enter the mansion of an official who had just arrived in the capital. Later on, because of her teaching, a little known lady of this mansion in previous became a debutante of etiquette. Soon after that, the lady entered the circle of those aristocratic girls in the capital.
Qin Wanru heard that the previous ordinary lady got an excellent reputation later. Moreover, after this lady married the second son of a well-known aristocratic family, she finally got the real power of the family she married into, which greatly surprised everyone. The most important reason for her success was that she had a supporter who was from the Imperial Palace.
And the so-called supporter from the palace should be Nanny Zheng, who was her etiquette instructor at first and then moved into the aristocratic family’s mansion with her!
A maid who was sent out of the palace as a punishment could be so capable. It made Qin Wanru appreciate her. And now that this person had come here, Qin Wanru would undoubtedly keep her.
“Second Miss, do you dare to accept me?”
“If you have the guts to stay, I will dare to accept you!”
“Second Miss, I will stay!” Nanny Zheng felt that such a small child was too astute, which should have frightened her. However, Nanny Zheng heard herself promise to stay without any hesitation.
After Nanny Zheng said that, she stood up, knelt to the ground, and made a few kowtows to Qin Wanru.
At this moment, Nanny Zheng was no longer the etiquette instructor of Qin Wanru, but a maid who should serve her.
“Please get up, Nanny Zheng!” After Qin Wanru received her kowtows, she stood up and reached out to help Nanny Zheng to get up. Yujie also gave her a hand aside.
“My honorable Second Miss, I will sign the contract of selling myself a while later!” Looking at Qin Wanru, Nanny Zheng said. The hesitation in her eyes had vanished at this time. Since she was now a maid of Qin Wanru, she should sight such a contract. After being driven out of the palace, she was free. Nanny Zheng had been serving people over the past years in the palace, and she didn’t know any relatives. Therefore, she didn’t know where she could go.
“Now that I have determined to follow Qin Wanru, I should undoubtedly get the selling contract of myself ready. Just let everything in the past vanish like mist and smoke. Afterward, my master was Second Miss Qin, the lady before me.”
“Nanny, you are still my etiquette instructor in the future!” Qin Wanru looked at her with appreciation and wanted to pull Nanny Zheng to take the seat beside her. “Nanny, you don’t have to be too polite. Later on, if I make any mistakes, you should feel free to tell me. Also, please pay attention to taking care of other affairs!”
“Yes, I remembered, Second Miss!” Sensing the respect that Qin Wanru showed from the bottom of her heart, Nanny Zheng called her less formally. But Nanny Zheng did not sit down next to Qin Wanru. Instead, she went to stand behind her in a proper manner. Since she had decided to be Qin Wanru’s maid, she should surely behave like one.
Nanny Zheng made the choice to be her maid, so Qin Wanru no longer stood on ceremony. She let Yujie take Nanny Zheng to write and sign the contract of selling herself. After that, Qin Wanru sent Yujie to inform Madam Dowager of this matter and report this matter to Shui Ruolan. As for the contract, Qin Wanru kept it to herself and did not intend to give it to anyone else.
When Qin Wanru sent Yujie to Shui Ruolan’s place to report, she especially asked Yujie to do a thing: let Qionghua send someone to inform her if anyone in Madam Di’s place went out later.
If Madam Di knew such news, she would inevitably inquire into the matter about Nanny Zheng. How could Madam Di let such a good chance go!
Temporarily, Madam Di would not play tricks on Shui Ruolan and her baby, but it did not mean that she would not have ideas about other things. This time, Qin Wanru almost sent Madam Di the evidence that she could hold against her. Why wouldn’t Madam Di take it?
Besides, Qin Wanru learned that a girl servant had stayed outside the gate for a few days. It must be hard for Di Yan to stay in the mansion these days!
Madam Dowager was very surprised that Nanny Zheng was willing to stay in Qin’s Mansion. Among all the officials in the capital, the owner of Qin’s Mansion hadn’t even got an actual official post. Therefore, Qin’s Mansion was quite small and extremely unstable compared with other mansions. Madam Dowager did not know what Nanny Zheng was thinking about such that she actually chose to stay.
However, Madam Dowager still was happy to see that such a person from the Imperial Palace was willing to stay in the mansion and teach Qin Wanru as her maid. Hence, she immediately sent Nanny Duan to reward Nanny Zheng and tell her to take good care of Qin Wanru.
Qin Wanru was still very young such that it was indeed a good thing for her to have an etiquette instructor accompany her for a long time.
Etiquette instructors like Nanny Zheng, who came to teach young madams in all the families, would not stay long in each mansion. These instructors would leave when the young madams had almost grasped all the etiquette that they needed to learn.
Of course, a few of them would stay in these mansions for a much longer time. But except for Nanny Zheng, there was no other etiquette instructor who would be willing to sell herself and became a maid. Therefore, the matter about Nanny Zheng was rare. When Qin Yuru heard the news, she was startled at first and then fell about laughing.
“Qin Wanru actually keeps such an unlucky maid from the palace beside her. She is not afraid that the people in the palace will blame her for keeping Nanny Zheng sometime in the future. What a stupid and bold girl!” Qin Wanru thought in her mind.
Nanny Huang also heard the news, but she didn’t laugh at Qin Wanru. She slightly closed her eyes and then opened them. Looking at Qin Yuru, who totally forgot herself at this time because of laughing, Nanny Huang just said lightly, “First Miss, no matter what happened, you should not have laughed like this. This is a breach of etiquette. You can only smile a little at most.”
“Nanny Huang, I knew. It was just that I could hardly control myself for a while. Nanny Huang, since Nanny Zheng is willing to stay, you may as well stay too! The condition of my place is as good as my second sister’s. And I can offer you better treatment than what Nanny Zheng has got!” Qin Yuru smiled with a little sarcasm.
“First Miss, you are joking!” Nanny Huang’s face sank a little. She could not figure out why Nanny Zheng would do this and felt that the matter was weird somehow. However, Qin Yuru could not say those somewhat insulting words to her because of that!
Nanny Huang suddenly felt that she might have misjudged her. This First Miss was in fact did not know much about etiquette.
“Nanny Huang, don’t be angry. I really think that this thing is quite amusing. Others cannot easily make a fool of my second sister because she has a quite sophisticated character. Has Nanny Zheng been cheated by her so that she was willing to be a maid of this mansion? She gave up her ident.i.ty as an etiquette instructor and chose to be a maid. I really don’t know what this Nanny Zheng is up to!”
Qin Yuru teased.
“First Miss, please be cautious with your words!” Nanny Huang felt that she really had misjudged her. “Although she is now in her own mansion, she should not have kept on speaking ill of her sister. Is First Miss really an educated and reasonable lady?”
“Okay, okay. I only invited you to be my etiquette instructor. I didn’t ask you to blame me. You just got here, so I will let someone take you to have a rest. And I will go to see my mother!” Qin Yuru said very impatiently. “There are no outsiders here. Although etiquette instructors are not servants, they are just like servants when they entered the mansion to live and teach. Does she really plan to impose severe discipline on me?”
“First Miss, you’d better learn a rule first!” Nanny Huang said with a poker face. She stood in front of Qin Yuru and did not intend to let her go.
“What? Do you dare to stop me?” Qin Yuru was furious because she was not yet ready to be educated.
“If you want to drop out, then I will go back!” Nanny Huang took a step back and saluted Qin Yuru respectfully. After that, she straightened her back, turned around, and was about to leave.
Qin Yuru had never expected that Nanny Huang, who was always wearing a smiling face, could be so hard to get along with. Qin Yuru was stunned at first, but then she realized her current situation. Her face instantly became very ugly.
Qin Huaiyong and Madam Dowager decided to let Nanny Huang teach her. Therefore, she was not allowed to refuse!
Mei Xue, who was standing on her side, knew what Qin Yuru was thinking at this moment. So she hurriedly stretched out to pull Nanny Huang’s hands and tried to ease the situation. “Nanny Huang, don’t worry. First Miss wants to learn the etiquette, and also she respects you. But you see, you have just arrived here. So we should arrange a place for you to stay first. She will spend a lot of days with you later and will not stop learning until you are satisfied. But it seems that First Miss cannot learn today!”
“Nanny Huang, please go to see the place I arranged for you first. If there is any part that you are not dissatisfied with, just tell me. And I will let someone change it right away.” Qin Yuru pulled her face, wearing only a faintly discernible smile. Anyone could see that she was not very happy.
At this time, Qin Yuru thought that her aunt must have given her the wrong person. “Why can Qin Wanru get such a docile etiquette instructor? And Nanny Zheng was even willing to sign the contract of selling herself and be Qin Wanru’s maid without any hesitation. My instructor looks like an easy-going person. However, it is difficult to get along with her. She is an unpleasant person who doesn’t know how to accommodate herself to circ.u.mstances.”
“If I had known this, I would have picked Nanny Zheng.”
Nanny Huang watched Qin Yuru’s expression and secretly sighed in her heart. “It seems that things will not be going smoothly as I have expected if I am going to teach her later. Apparently, it is not easy to control this First Miss of Qin’s Mansion. But since I have just arrived here, I cannot push her too hard.”
After a careful consideration, Nanny Huang no longer tried to stop Qin Yuru. She stood up and left with Mei Xue to see the room that they had prepared for her.
“Who do you think you are? Do you consider yourself as my master?” Seeing Nanny Huang leave, Qin Yuru snorted coldly. Then she walked out of the door and went to Madam Di’s Yulan Pavilion.
Madam Di’s Yulan Pavilion was very quiet. This place had always been very quiet since that day when Qin Huaiyong nearly killed Madam Di. Of course, the servants here didn’t know that Madam Di was nearly killed. They only felt that the atmosphere in this courtyard was awful recently. Hence, people in this courtyard dared not to talk more. They even whispered the orders, for fear of provoking Madam Di.
Madam Di let others beat the little girl servant to death. Now the blood on the ground was washed away, but people could not easily forget the b.l.o.o.d.y scene they saw.
Many people newly arrived here. In secret, they said that Madam Di was a ferocious person! Some people said that Madam Di was jealous and vicious. She made the trouble in the kitchen because she planned to kill Madam Shui’s unborn baby. Madam Di could not have any baby, so she didn’t allow others to give birth.
Of course, these rumors were secretly spread out. What was worse, these people even took these rumors out of the mansion without knowing it…
When Qin Yuru entered the house, the outhouse was very quiet. She could only hear the little noises inside. It seemed that Madam Di was talking with someone. However, Qin Yuru could not catch their words but could barely hear that her name was mentioned. Inclining her head, Qin Yuru listened carefully but still failed to hear their words. Therefore, she walked to the inner room.
When she lifted the door curtain and went into the room, Qin Yuru b.u.mped into Madam Di and Nanny Zhou, the faces of whom looked a bit of panic…