Chapter 231 Plan to Stay One More Day
“Miss, are you alright?” Seeing that her asking almost ran into trouble, the old maid hastened to apologize with regret and helped Yujie to pick Qin Wanru up.
“I’m fine.” Pulling herself together, Qin Wanru shook her head and said.
She held Yujie’s hands and stood still. Her eyes fell on the old maid standing in front of her, an old maid smiling with affinity. Although the clothes on the old maid were very simple, her bearing didn’t look like that of common people. So, Qin Wanru couldn’t help becoming cautious in her heart.
In this capital city, there were lots of dignitaries, so n.o.body knew who they met before their eyes.
“Madam, what’s the matter?” The deep meaning in her eye vanis.h.i.+ng, Qin Wanru asked gently.
“You look so young and so weak. I’m really surprised to see you climbing this mountain right from there, so I come to ask if you want to take a rest.” The old maid laughed.
“So she has looked at me all the way?” thought Qin Wanru.
“I’m too tired to climb now.” Qin Wanru took out a handkerchief, wiped her face and smiled sincerely. “I just held a breath to climb up.”
After such a pause, she indeed felt tired, because her feet could hardly be lifted.
Seeing that Qin Wanru seemed to have no intention of concealment, the old maid wore a kinder smile on her face. “I was wondering whose Miss you are. I haven’t seen such an interesting Miss.”
“Our Miss is the Second Miss in Ningyuan Army General’s Mansion!” With puffed-out chest, Yujie said proudly, having a vicarious expression.
“Ningyuan Army General’s Mansion?” The old maid frowned and said to herself, seeming to fail to come up with at once who she was.
“Madam, anything else?” Qin Wanru smiled and politely changed the topic.
“Nothing else. Wouldn’t you need more rest?” The old maid moved her body aside to give a way and smiled in a gentle and elegant manner.
“No more rest. I want to walk a little further.” Qin Wanru shook her head with a smile, walked by the old maid and moved forward without looking back, followed closely by Yujie behind her. The master and her servant walked slowly upwards. Although their speed was not fast, it was their persistence that counted. So they climbed up towards the top of the mountain in this way.
Standing behind them, the old maid looked at Qin Wanru, who just mounted several steps. The maid nodded and turned to the pavilion on the side.
In the pavilion, there was a large group of old maids and girl servants waiting outside, all with great respect. Despite many people there, not a sound came out.
After entering the pavilion, the old maid reported to the Madam Dowager, who sat in the middle with magnificent clothes, “Madam Dowager, it is the Second Miss in Ningyuan Army General’s Mansion. Is there a Ningyuan Army General in this capital city? I feel much regretful, because I really don’t know there is such a dignitary in the capital city!”
“Ningyuan Army General?” The Madam Dowager looked down and thought carefully for a while. Then her eyes lit up. “Is that the Ningyuan Army General from Jiangzhou? The one who has had the most rumors recently outside?”
“Madam Dowager, you mean it is Ningyuan Army General Qin’s Mansion, the one which has made headlines recently because of the affairs in Duke Yong’s Mansion?” The old maid suddenly remembered and asked in surprise.
“It should be. There couldn’t be two Ningyuan Army Generals in the capital city!” Madam Dowager raised her head and looked at the back of Qin Wanru. Just for a moment, the figure had gone far away. “It is a lovely Miss, but why she must be from Ningyuan Army General’s Mansion!”
About the affair between Ningyuan Army General’s Mansion and Duke Yong’s Mansion, recently there had been various opinions expressing anything in the n.o.ble circle of the capital city. However, Di Yan from Duke Yong’s Mansion was not a good person and it seemed that this First Miss of Ningyuan Army General’s Mansion was not good either.
Not only her mother had a bad disposition, but also she was under suspicion of killing Ningyuan Army General’s wife. As for this affair, someone said that it was because this First Miss of General Qin’s Mansion couldn’t tolerate others that the Miss of Ning’s Mansion finally had to take the worst step and ended up with death. The radical reason was the intolerance.
“She seems to be a polite person, because she should have identified that I am a servant, but she still calls me ‘Madam’.” The old maid had a good impression of Qin Wanru, thus quietly saying a good word for her.
“She is not bad in nature, appearance or origins, and she is polite. But what if she is the same as her Big Sister, not being generous and having no tolerance for others, something will happen at that time too! After all, Ningyuan Army General is also a rash person. He actually took the initiative to have a hand in its backyard affairs for his elder daughter.”
Madam Dowager shook her head with disapproval.
“Yes, Madam Dowager. You are right!” Not daring to say anything more, the old maid merely answered with a smile.
“Let’s go. We have rested for such a long time. With these old bones, I am not a patch on a weak little girl!” Madam Dowager smiled, standing up and stretching her body.
“Madam Dowager, when you were young, your body was also in very good condition. Then you came to walk this Wenxin Road too. I remember at that time I accompanied you to walk a great part of distance in a breath.” The old maid laughed as she asked someone to clear away the tea set on the table.
“What time was that? After such a long time, it is really hard for you to still remember!” Madam Dowager laughed with a sigh and said in a reluctant tone.
“In my eyes, Madam Dowager is always healthy.” The old maid flattered the Madam Dowager with a sweet sentence. Madam Dowager heard it and laughed with her eyes squinting. “What nonsense you are talking! If I were really healthy, why do I still have to take medicine every day? Thanks to the several Fragrance of July that Chen brought, they are really good medicine. Even thousands of gold could hardly get such medicine.”
Madam Dowager said it as she climbed onto the mountain steps and walked upwards at a slow pace. She walked very slowly, mainly to enjoy the scenery. Having walked few steps, she rested again in the pavilion alongside.
After that, she no longer mentioned Qin Wanru in her conversation with the old maid. It was merely an encounter by chance. She just listened to her grandson’s advice and specially climbed the mountain to exercise and walk a few more steps. Could it be possible to discover a desirable Miss from an aristocratic family?
There were so many young daughters from aristocratic families in this capital city and lots of girls to choose from. By that time, she could hold a banquet, invite them and pick thoroughly and carefully. This time, it couldn’t be like the last time, at which she made Chen unhappy.
Now Qin Wanru had walked more than half of the way. When she could hardly hold on, she sat on the stone from roadside to take a rest. Breathing heavily, she could scarcely say a word, her hair on her forehead having been wet by her sweat. In this period, she walked so quickly that Yujie was out of breath too.
Finally feeling better in breathing, Yujie looked behind her in surprise and asked, “Miss, is there someone who is chasing you? You have walked so quickly that I could hardly catch up with you.”
Yujie felt that she admired Miss more, because Miss was much thinner and weaker than her, but Miss could climb to the degree that she gasped in admiration.
“Just now the madam shall not be… a common person. She seems to be a servant of some influential officials’ mansion in the capital city. Why such… a person came to ask if I want to take… a rest without any reason?” Seemingly Qin Wanru was still out of breath. That old maid behaved politely with senses of elegance in her action, which made her very wary.
She was definitely not an old maid from common families!
Her own troubles had never ended and she didn’t want to get in trouble any more. Because there were always lots of troubles in such influential official families, Qin Wanru thought that she’d better stay away from them.
That was why she just climbed up and never looked back, regardless of breathing heavily.
Intuitively, she’d better stay away from such kind of people!
“Miss, there is another one behind her?” Yujie said as she wanted to turn to have a look at, but Qin Wanru stopped her and gasped, “Don’t… look back. We just take a rest. They won’t climb up so quickly!”
Having climbed so much in a breath, even Qin Wanru admired herself, because not everyone could climb up so high in one breath.
Although the mountain path was rugged, Qin Wanru could still see it clearly when looking upwards. She found that there was much less distance above to go than that they had walked below.
After resting for a while, Qin Wanru encouraged herself again to climb up. At this time, she felt more tired as if her body and mind had reached their extreme. The whole body wanted to relax, so her strength on foot was much less than when she climbed up in one breath. The distance was shorter, but it also took less time.
Finally climbing up the mountain, Qin Wanru had no more energy to visit other places. So, she returned to the incense room first, and after bathing and changing her clothes, she sat in front of the window to take a rest.
Yujie combed for her the beautiful hair that had just been washed. Qin Wanru looked more beautiful than flowers against the background of her black hair hanging down. With the breeze blowing from the window, the color of her complexion was better than that of flowers.
“What does Grandmother say?” Sitting in front of the window, Qin Wanru casually asked the old maid who just came back.
“Madam Dowager says that it depends on Second Miss. If Second Miss wants to stay a few more days on the mountain, then living several days will be fine with her!” the old maid answered.
Before that, the supervisor of Qin’s Mansion was under Qin Huaiyong’s order to go up the mountain and invite Madam Dowager down the hill, saying that now everything was fine.
“What does Mother think?” Qin Wanru thought and asked.
“Madam Shui says that it depends on you, Miss. You recently have always been detained in the mansion without coming out. Madam Shui is afraid that you feel hurt and unhappy because of the detainment!” The old maid laughed. Regardless of Madam Dowager or Madam Shui, they all thought highly of her master, and thus servants would certainly be happy in their heart and kept honor on their face when going out.
Qin Wanru paused for a while. “Actually it was OK to go back at this time, but tomorrow would be the first day of the month.” It was quite rare to have such a chance, so she must warn again. It might not be convinced, but Wen Xichi with his intelligence and wisdom should have thought of it.
Actually, it was improper for a girl in boudoir to keep in touch with someone. It could be an opportunity that Qin Wanru took to settle the previous fate! To return the grat.i.tude for good treatment and half teacher in the previous life.
“Please reply to Grandmother and Mother that I want to stay one more day, because I haven’t been to the bamboo forest behind the Huaguang Temple. It is said that there is a purple bamboo forest. I haven’t seen a purple one yet! It is also said that there are some inscriptions left by the ancient sages, and I really want to have a look!” Qin Wanru said in an extremely natural way.
She indeed hadn’t been to the purple bamboo forest and the forest of ancient tablets, which were the original excuses that she had left at first.
“Okay, I will reply now!” the old maid answered with a grin, not surprised at Qin Wanru’s words.
Qin Wanru waved her hand and the old maid left to reply to Madam Dowager and Shui Ruolan. Not having arrived at the gate of the yard, she nearly ran into the girl servant who rushed from the opposite. Within a quick reaction, the girl servant pulled back the old maid and asked her with a worried looking, “Is Second Miss in the room?”