Chapter 339 The Returned Gift
“What, what did you say?” said Rui’an Great Elder Princess in a hurry.
“Grandma, I’ve always been called Zhuozhuo!” Qin Wanru did not know why Rui’an Great Elder Princess was so shocked suddenly, and quickly took away her wet sleeves.
“Zhuozhuo… Zhuozhuo… It was Zhuozhuo. Qinghua has already told me… I… I’m stupid!” Rui’an Great Elder Princess burst into tears with thumping her chest and stamping her feet.
“Grandma, don’t cry. What’s, what’s going on?” Qin Wanru found that she could not stop Rui’an Great Elder Princess from crying and turned to look at Nanny Gao.
Nanny Gao was also crying and wiping tears with her handkerchief. Hearing Qin Wanru’s question, she wiped her eyes and said, “when infanta came back, she was murmuring heir’s nickname, as well as yours. But no one knew what infanta was saying and thought it was a slip of tongue. We all did not expect it to be your nickname…”
Nanny Gao remembered that Great Elder Princess had almost collapsed when she saw silly Infanta Qinghua, and could not say anything more.
“It turns out that my mother has already said my name. Grandmother said that I don’t have a name yet and only have a temporary nickname. It should be that my parents wanted to invite their elders to give me a name after they came back to the capital.”
“Zhuozhuo, the nickname, was given by my own parents, and in the whole Qin’s Mansion, only grandmother calls me Zhuozhuo. It’s highly possible that she began to call me Zhuozhuo when she heard my parents call me like that.”
“Cause and effect are predestined. It turns out that everything has been clear for a long time. However, in the Last Life, because of a strange combination of circ.u.mstances, I was replaced by Qin Yuru, who then became the Young Lady of Duke Xing’s Mansion.”
But maybe just because of that, Qin Yuru had not been accepted by Rui’an Great Elder Princess. So when she was dying, Rui’an Great Elder Princess neither recognized her nor liked her.
“Zhuozhuo, get up and follow me to see the Madam Dowager of Duke Xing’s Mansion. I’ll let her see you and let you restore your ident.i.ty, and then bring you back.” Rui’an Great Elder Princess did not cry long this time. After wiping away the tears, she pulled Qin Wanru to her feet with a serious look, and was going to Duke Xing’s Mansion.
“Princess, please calm down first. If you go like this, others will say that you’re going to throw your weight around again, which will affect little miss’s reputation!”
At the sight of Rui’an Great Elder Princess’s bl.u.s.tering appearance, Nanny Gao knew it was not good, and persuaded her in a hurry.
“So what? I can’t stand my granddaughter being bullied by them anymore. As for reputation, I don’t care. Her eldest granddaughter does have a good reputation, but does it mean that she’s a good girl? At first glance, I know that she and her niece are the same. They look gentle on the surface, but in fact, they are vicious!”
Rui’an Great Elder Princess thought of the tragic experience of her daughter’s family. She reached for the direction of Duke Xing’s Mansion and swore loudly. She was so angry for a while that she forgot that she had thought that the First Miss Shao was good and had raised her in her manor for some time when she was a child.
Qin Wanru took Rui’an Great Elder Princess’ hand and said, “Grandma, sit down first. I have something to tell you!” She was very happy in her mind.
Madam of Duke Xing and her eldest daughter, Shao Yanru, who was always a model for the young ladies of the aristocratic families in the capital, was indeed such a kind of person. Qin Wanru had died in Shao Yanru’s hands in the Last Life. Shao Yanru should have learned her ident.i.ty, so she killed her. Qin Wanru still remembered the deep pain of being cut in two at the waist!
“Grandma, people of Duke Xing’s Mansion has confirmed that Qin Yuru is the person they are looking for. Madam Di and someone of Duke Xing’s Mansion should have an agreement to replace me by Qin Yuru, so they forged Qin Yuru’s age. Qin Yuru once said that Madam Di had beaten her. It seems that Madam Di isn’t her biological mother. I think another seal will be presented by them later!”
Qin Wanru said that with coldness in her eyes. In the Last Life, her seal fell into the hands of Madam Di and Qin Yuru, which proved Qin Yuru’s ident.i.ty later. In this life, although she had taken the seal back early, she was sure that Madam Di had thought about it. She realized it when Madam Di embroidered patterns of orchids and gra.s.s on Qin Yuru’s clothes to inquire about Duke Xing’s Mansion before.
It was easy to make another seal when somebody knew the pattern.
Qin Wanru believed that there must be an old seal in Qin Yuru’s hands, which must have been engraved with orchid pattern. But this pattern was only in somebody’s memory, so it was a bit difficult to make it exactly the same. However, if someone of Duke Xing’s Mansion helped find the previous calligraphy and paintings of Qin Wanru’s mother, it would be possible that an identical seal would be made.
She wanted to see the seal in Qin Yuru’s hands to verify something.
“G.o.d! Oh my G.o.d! There should be such a thing. Needless to say, it must be done by the old lady of Duke Xing’s Mansion and Madam of Duke Xing. When my daughter was alive, they tried their best to embarra.s.s her. They always said that a woman should be dignified and decent. It’s all their lies. Qing’er was so kind and good that she listened to them. If she had listened to me, the woman would have been driven out and such a disaster wouldn’t have happened!”
When she heard that there was something else, Rui’an Great Elder Princess frowned and angrily said, “Without my permission, how dare Duke Xing’s Mansion accept this woman!”
“Princess, First Miss Qin and Madam of Ningyuan Army General treated little miss very badly. I heard something when I was in Jiangzhou. I heard that in order to get close to Duke Yong’s Mansion, the First Miss Qin pushed her own engagement on the little miss and almost ruined little miss’s reputation. After that, she almost killed the little miss several times!”
Shao Huai also said angrily. When he was in Jiangzhou, he heard a lot. But at that time, he only regarded them as personal affairs of somebody else. Even though he sympathized with the Second Miss Qin, he thought it had nothing to do with him and never cared about it. But now when he thought about it, he felt angrier and angrier.
“I won’t forgive Madam Di, Duke Yong’s Mansion and Duke Xing’s Mansion. Zhuozhuo, I’m going to avenge you now.” After hearing Shao Huai’s story, Rui’an Great Elder Princess was very angry. She stood up and said to Nanny Gao, “Take my clothes, and I’m going to the palace to see the Empress Dowager.”
“Grandma, where are you going?” Qin Wanru had sharp eyes and agile hands. Seeing that, she quickly stood up and caught Rui’an Great Elder Princess’ clothes.
“I’m going to see the Empress Dowager and ask her to judge it and prove that you’re the right one,” said Rui’an Great Elder Princess angrily.
“Don’t go, grandma. I want to investigate the affairs about my father and mother first,” Qin Wanru said, “If you go now, I’m afraid I can’t find anything!”
There was a trace of violence in the Qin Wanru’s watery eyes. The things about Madam Di and Qin Yuru were now related to Madam of Duke Xing. Even if Madam of Duke Xing hid well, she believed that she would find the evidence one day.
When Qin Wanru came back from Rui’an Great Elder Princess’ mansion, she brought back the gift of Rui’an Great Elder Princess. After she got off the carriage and went back to her courtyard, she asked maids to divide the gift into several parts and send them to various places.
The Spring Festival was coming soon, so these gifts were sent as new year’s gifts. Madam Dowager, Shui Ruolan, and Qin Yuru got one separately. Qin Wanru kept one for herself. And the one for Madam Di was returned by Qin Huaiyong. He sent someone to tell Qin Wanru that there was no need to send any gift to Yulan Pavilion in the future.
Qin Wanru naturally understood his meaning, knowing that it was also his compensation for her. Previously, Qin Huaiyong showed his partiality in dealing with Qin Yuru’s affairs.
Qin Wanru took back the gift calmly and asked Qingyue to put it away. She just wanted to get an att.i.tude by sending this gift. Of course, what she wanted was not only Qin Huaiyong’s att.i.tude, but also Madam Di’s!
“Miss, since you didn’t plan to send a gift to Madam Di in your mind, why did you send it? And why did you send it to the door of Madam Di’s place?” Qingyue asked as she cleared up.
Before the gift was sent to Yulan Pavilion by a little maid, but it did not go directly to the Yulan Pavilion. Instead, it was stopped at the gate of the Yulan Pavilion. Then Yujie was sent to the study to ask for Qin Huaiyong’s meaning. Immediately, Qin Huaiyong sent someone to say that there was no need to send the gift to Yulan Pavilion. Yujie then turned to the gate of Yulan Pavilion, and asked the little maid waiting there to go back and said that the general had said that there was no need to send gifts to Yulan Pavilion in the future.
Being looked at two stunned old maids who only did manual work, the little maid then went back along the original road. It was said that not only the two old maids guarding the gate, but also some servants in the courtyard who had seen this scene at that time.
The present that was going to be sent to the courtyard soon, unexpectedly, came back the same way. This matter was already enough to make Madam Di angry. In addition, Qin Yuru had broken the blood jade bracelets sent by Madam Dowager of Duke Xing’s Mansion and made a scene in the street before. It appeared that Madam Di could not bear it anymore!
“The Young Lady naturally wanted to make Madame Di angry. Qingyue, you didn’t see that the two new maids, together with Qing Xue, were standing not far from the gate of the courtyard at that time. They just watched us leave and could do nothing.” Yujie thought of the previous scene and giggled, feeling relieved.
“Have you seen Nanny Zhou?” Qingyue also came to be interested and asked with a smile.
“I didn’t see her… She should have accompanied Madam Di in the room. I guess people in the room also knew what was going on outside. When I was going to leave, I heard the sound of something breaking in the room. Did teacups were smashed again?” Yujie thought about it and said.
The two maids smiled as they packed up the gifts. They were in a good mood!
The ident.i.ty of their Young Lady was now clear. After being recognized and accepted, she did not have to deal with the anger of Madam Di and the First Miss anymore. At the thought of that, Qin Wanru’s several henchmen were very happy.
Qin Wanru, with a slight smile on her face, picked up the teacup on the table and drank the tea. The blood jade bracelets? Among the gifts she just gave Qin Yuru, there was a pair of blood jade bracelets, which she asked for from her grandmother and gave to Qin Yuru specially. Although they were not as good as the bracelets of Madam Dowager of Duke Xing’s Mansion, they were also excellent and looked very similar to that pair which Qin Yuru had broken!
“How’s the old maid over there in the kitchen?” Converging the coldness in her eyes, Qin Wanru put down her teacup and asked.
“She’s very quiet and honest. When she heard that you don’t like the food with a strong smell, she apologized repeatedly and said she would change. Look, Young Lady, this pastry was made by her before. It’s very fragrant. I’ve tasted one before. It’s really delicious!”
Qingyue put down the gifts she was tiding, turned to the outside of the room, and took out a plate of pastry from the basket which was placed on one side. As soon as it was taken out, there was strong smell in the room, which they did not smell when it was sealed in the basket before. The smell made people feel hungry immediately after smelling it. Looking at the steaming pastry, Yujie felt hungry!