Chapter 543 Is What He Saw in His Dream Real?
Old Madam didn’t expect that Rui’an Great Elder Princess would suddenly do that. After getting a shock, she flew into a rage. Rui’an Great Elder Princess really thought that she could disregard everything. In any case, Old Madam was a first-cla.s.s imperial mandated Madam of Duke Xing’s Mansion.
“Your Highness, what do you mean by doing that?” With her face darkening, she said, pounded the table, and stood up.
“Come and seize this evil Taoist priest! The officials of the Ministry of Justice happen to be here. Take her to them for interrogation!” Great Elder Princess ignored Old Madam and said harshly.
Two guards came over to seize Taoist Priest Xiushui and were about to drag him down. Taoist Priest Xiushui panicked and loudly cried for help from Old Madam. No one expected that Great Elder Princess would be so domineering that she acted so directly and rudely.
Old Madam trembled in rage, reached out to point at the guards, and said, “Stop them. I’m wondering who gets the nerve to seize such a decent Taoist priest today. Great Elder Princess, you are quite domineering!”
A few inferior female servants of Duke Xing’s Mansion hurried to block the two guards’ way at the door. Dragging the Taoist priest to the door and seeing that their way had been completely blocked, they did not dare to take him away and looked back at Great Elder Princess.
“Old Madam, do you think so highly of such an evil Taoist priest who has won a following with strange doctrines? Can you guarantee that she is innocent?” Great Elder Princess sneered, squinted at Old Madam, and said scornfully.
Old Madam was so angry that she could barely speak. She reached out her trembling finger to point at Taoist Priest Xiushui and said, “Your Highness, does the Empress Dowager know that you are so insolent?”
“At least I have a reason for being insolent. Old Madam, even if you don’t want to make it known by the Empress Dowager, I’m not going to hide it from her. You trust an evil Taoist priest and even intend to forfeit your own granddaughter’s future and push her into an abyss of suffering for an evil Taoist priest. As a grandma, you are not only partial but also implausibly vicious. Come on, come on. Let’s enter the imperial palace now and ask the Empress Dowager to make a judgment!”
Great Elder Princess said in a rage with her eyes about to burst into flames. Thinking of the evil Taoist priest’s true ident.i.ty that Qing’er told her, she really wanted to slap the old woman of Duke Xing’s Mansion hard until the old woman sobered up.
Apart from ruining her granddaughter’s future, she could think of no other intention of this old woman, who entrusted her granddaughter to the evil Taoist nun, who was actually a man!
Thinking of this, she grabbed Old Madam’s collar in anger and walked outside.
Great Elder Princess, who had practiced martial arts for a period of time when she was young, was much stronger than ordinary weak ladies. How could Old Madam be a match for her? Pulled by her, Old Madam even failed to stand still and staggered out.
She almost pa.s.sed out with her face turning red in anger, and had to clench her teeth and struggled to say, “Okay… okay, let’s go and ask the Empress Dowager to make a judgment now!”
Seeing Rui’an Great Elder Princess come over, the female servants at the door did not dare to block the door and hurriedly stepped back. Their master Old Madam was suppressed by Rui’an Great Elder Princess and seemed to be at a disadvantage. As servants, if they refused to step aside, they might lose their lives in the end.
Rui’an Great Elder Princess got out ahead of them while instructing the guards, “Send this evil Taoist priest to the Ministry of Justice and tell them to interrogate her carefully, especially to find out her background, and report it to me after finding it out!”
“Yes!” The two guards responded and dragged Taoist Priest Xiushui out.
They made such a scene here that it had alarmed the officials of the Ministry of Justice. Because of the unusual ident.i.ties of Rui’an Great Elder Princess and Old Madam of Duke Xing’s Mansion, Wen Xichi had been waiting outside for a long while. Seeing two guards drag a Taoist priest over, he winked at the subordinates around him. Two of them immediately went over and took over the Taoist priest.
One of the guards took two steps forward and whispered in the ear of the official who took over the Taoist priest from the Ministry of Justice. The official from the Ministry of Justice immediately opened his eyes wide and looked at the Taoist Priest Xiushui, who fell on the ground and looked in a mess, in astonishment.
The Taoist priest in front of them was actually a man! If it was true, it was really serious!
Numerous people knew about Taoist Priest Xiushui, who usually got in and out of the backyards of aristocratic and rich families as an extremely famous Taoist nun. If he was actually a man, there might be some ladies, whose reputation was ruined by him, and things got serious.
The official of the Ministry of Justice didn’t dare to hide it and hurriedly whispered in Wen Xichi’s ear. Wen Xichi looked at the Taoist priest’s face.
From his appearance, one could not tell that he was a man. He looked like a slender lady who was quite good-looking. He was properly dressed with his neck wrapped in his robe, so it was hard to tell if he had a protruding Adam’s apple. At this moment, he was in a mess, while his pitiful look made him more like a lady.
“Take him back and check his body!” Wen Xichi said coldly.
Since the guard of Great Elder Princess said so, it must be true. They could identify his gender by checking his body. The Ministry of Justice had brought some ladies with them this time because they came to the Yuhui Nunnery, where the nuns and almost all pilgrims were female. These ladies happened to be able to check the Taoist priest’s body now.
The officials of the Ministry of Justice got the order and took Taoist priest Xiushui away. He intended to ask Old Madam for help, but Wen Xichi impatiently instructed someone to gag him.
Meanwhile, Rui’an Great Elder Princess and Old Madam had walked out angrily. Rui’an Great Elder Princess had let go of Old Madam’s collar. After all, they were both respectable ladies. Rui’an Great Elder Princess did that upon her sheer anger. At this moment, in front of so many people, it was inappropriate for her to do that.
The two of them got in their respective carriages and led their entourage to go down the mountain angrily, going to enter the imperial palace to ask the Empress Dowager to make a judgment.
After the two of them took their entourage away, it became quiet here all of a sudden. Shao Wanru looked at the messy room and sneered. Old Madam thought she did nothing wrong, but she did not know that only the fact – Xiushui was not a lady – was enough to prove that what she had said was false.
“Miss.”
“Miss.” Yujie and Qu Le came over with fear on their faces and said, standing on each side of Shao Wanru. They were both frightened by what had happened in front of them just now. No one expected that Rui’an Great Elder Princess would drag Old Madam directly, but they had vented their spleen after watching it.
“Let’s go!” Shao Wanru comforted them with a slight smile and said softly.
She was the cause of the matter, but now she seemed to have been forgotten. At the thought that it couldn’t be settled today, she decided to wait for her grandma’s news.
“Miss, Old Madam went so far that she intended to deal with you without saying anything. She really doesn’t regard you as her biological granddaughter!” Yujie, who had collected herself at this moment, said and stretched out her foot to kick away the razor happening to fall in front of her, “She intended to make you a nun and go with the evil Taoist priest. Bah!”
Yujie, who was furious, was in no mood to care about Old Madam’s ident.i.ty at this moment and said with hatred.
“She regards me a stranger, who displeases her, rather than her granddaughter. Since she doesn’t care about me, why should I care about her?”
Shao Wanru said, looked at the razor on the ground and lifted her delicate lips slightly to show a gentle but indifferent smile, as if she was talking about someone else’s matter.
Wen Xichi, who was standing at the door, felt that his heart seemed to be lashed by something. He felt a little pain and uncomfortable with some unspeakable emotions, which made him feel sad.
Seeing that all people of both mansions had left, he thought that there was no one here, so he came in to have a look. Unexpectedly, he happened to see Shao Wanru and hear her words, which were so indifferent that they didn’t seem to come from Old Madam’s biological granddaughter.
He recognized Shao Wanru at a glance. Her face, which used to be childish, became so charming that it could not be ignored. He could almost see the ripples in her eyes, which were as fluid as water when she glanced at him. Her long and curly eyelashes covered her bright eyes from time to time.
Her skin was as delicate as jade, and her lips were naturally red. All her delicate features were pretty and charming, but gave a sense of coldness.
She seemed to be so familiar to him as if she had shown up in his dream. In the past, he might doubt if the girl in his dream was Shao Wanru. But now, the scene in front of him proved that the girl, who accompanied him in his dream but he couldn’t see clearly, should be Shao Wanru.
He clenched his hands into fists and then relaxed them, telling himself that it was just a dream. Could it be true?
In his dream, he was so sick and weak that he could only lie in bed. He was obviously healthy. How could he lie in bed weakly? So it was impossible for him to be accompanied by Shao Wanru.
“Fifth Miss Shao!” Suppressing the emotions in his heart, Wen Xichi said and slowly eased his expression. It was not real. Although he didn’t know why he kept dreaming of Shao Wanru with her current appearance, it was a dream which couldn’t be taken seriously.
“Your Excellency!” Shao Wanru said. She was stunned when seeing Wen Xichi, and then understood. Since things got serious, the officials of the Ministry of Justice must have known it.
“What happened just now?” Wen Xichi glanced at the messy room, fixed his eyes on Shao Wanru again and asked.
“It’s about the bracelets. You must have seen them before, right?” Shao Wanru said with a smile and a kind of inexplicable indifference in her watery eyes.
“Is it related to the bracelets?” Wen Xichi immediately understood and said.
“The bracelets belong to me. They said that I’m possessed by an evil spirit, so they found an evil Taoist priest to explain it, and then asked me to shave my head and become a nun following this evil Taoist priest!” Shao Wanru said in an increasingly light tone. She walked a few steps to the razor, stepped on it, and then turned to look at Wen Xichi and said, “Your Excellency, you can take it as evidence!”
After that, she bowed sideways to Wen Xichi and then walked to the door. Yujie and Qu Le hurriedly followed her.
It became quiet in the room, and Wen Xichi could only hear the footsteps coming from outside and getting farther and farther away.
After falling silent for a moment, Wen Xichi walked up to the razor, squatted down, drew a snow-white handkerchief, and picked it up. After standing up, he looked at it and looked around the room calmly. Finding nothing weird, he stepped back and handed the razor wrapped in the handkerchief to a staff member of the Ministry of Justice.
“Put it away. This is the evidence. After identifying the Taoist priest’s gender, send someone to report it to Great Elder Princess immediately!”
“Yes, I’ll do it now!” The staff member of the Ministry of Justice took the handkerchief and the razor and hurriedly left. Wen Xichi waved his hand, and the rest of the others left. After taking a few steps, only he looked back at the room with Shao Wanru’s indifferent and cold face inexplicably flas.h.i.+ng across his mind.
Was it a dream or reality?