"Second Miss Qin, Miss Qi had invited you to join her in her visit to Eldest Miss Qin tomorrow to be a witness!" said Chun Yi, Qi Rongzhi"s personal maid, with a smile as she bowed to Qin Wanru. She had come to convey a message for her mistress.
"What witness?" Qin Wanru asked without betraying any emotions.
"Tomorrow, my young mistress would be going to Elder Miss Qin"s room to look for evidence. If they were to get into an argument and someone questions them, we would like Second Miss Qin to testify honestly what exactly happened," said Chun Yi with a smile.
"Is your young mistress going to find trouble with my elder sister?" asked Qin Wanru, frowning.
The question was so direct that Chun Yi found it too awkward to answer. She forced a chuckle and continued to explain, saying, "It"s not that my young mistress is going to find trouble with Elder Miss Qin, but she just wanted to know if Eldest Miss Qin was speaking the truth regarding her breaking her engagement with our young master, as well as what happened today!"
"So she is still going there to find trouble after all!" said Qin Wanru impa.s.sively as she lifted her eyes to look straight at Chun Yi.
Chun Yi was cornered and did not know how to respond to Second Miss Qin, it was almost impossible to answer her.
"Go tell your young mistress that I"ve to take care of my grandmother tomorrow and have no time to accompany her to make trouble. Tell her not to make trouble too because this is our General"s Mansion. While Miss Qi can do as she pleases in her own house and no could stop her, this is our house and my mother and elder sister would not allow do as she pleases."
The look in Qin Wanru"s eyes was cold, indicating that what she said was a warning to Qi Rongzhi for her to keep from creating trouble. Otherwise, both Mrs. Qin and Qin Yuru would not let her off.
What was said had somehow upset Chun Yi. She bowed to Qin Wanru and turned to take her to leave in frustration.
"Miss, would Chun Yi complain to Miss Qi about you?" asked Qin Yue. Qing Yue was becoming worried, seeing that Chun Yi was provoked to anger.
"I"m sure she would!" said Qin Wanru, nodding her head, as she turned to walk towards her yard.
"What should we do then? Based on Miss Qi"s character, wouldn"t she storm over immediately?" asked Qing Yue as she followed closely behind Qin Wanru. She was really anxious now, knowing how spoilt and wilful Miss Qi usually was. She was never kind to Qin Wanru, but always vents her frustration on her. Unfortunately, even Mrs. Qin and Elder Miss Qin always sided with Miss Qi and as a result, Qin Wanru was always wronged.
"This time, however, she won"t!" Qin Wanru said with confidence. Qi Rongzhi was not a dim wit. She used to have her way in the General"s Mansion because she had Mrs. Qin and Qin Yuru backing her. However, she had lost her support from Mrs. Qin and Qin Yuru by now.
Moreover, she was no longer the Qin Wanru who was used to be an easy target.
"Then I suppose she wouldn"t come to look for you, that"s good!" said Qing Yue, feeling relieved as she patted her chest.
"She will definitely come to look for me!" said Qin Wanru as she entered the room, followed by Qing Yue who was taken aback by her words. "Miss Qin, did you say Miss Qi will come to you looking for trouble?"
"Yes, she will tomorrow!" Qin Wanru said with a smile, then made herself comfortable sitting down on a chair and taking up a book to read, which happened to be one on medicine again.
Puzzled, Qing Yue remained by Qin Wanru"s side and asked, "Will Miss Qin go to Old Grandma"s place tomorrow just so she could stop you?"
It was because Qing Yue overheard Qin Wanru saying that she planned to visit Old Grandmother tomorrow.
"She would naturally go there, perhaps even she will arrive before we do. She will be trying to persuade grandma to accompany her to confront Qin Yuru. She is looking for someone to back her up!" said Qin Wanru as her smile faded and she opened up the book in her hands and rested her eyes on a picture in the book.
She was not worried about what Qi Rongzhi was going to do. In fact, she would make use of Qi Rongzhi"s anger to work to her advantage.
"Are you planning to go after all, Miss?" Qing Yue queried anxiously.
"Certainly! Since Qi Rongzhi tried so hard to get me to accompany her, I will take it as I"m going to enjoy some entertainment! It"s even better if the matter is being blown out of proportion," said Qin Wanru. There were only a handful of people in her house who knew that she was not Mrs. Qin"s real daughter. She would be happy to proclaim this information through Qi Rongzhi"s mouth to the outsiders.
Coming to the book on medicine, she was actually staring at a picture of a herb that looked very familiar, yet she could not recall what it was after scrutinizing it. She widened her eyes and looked at the footnote beside the picture which said, "July Fragrance", which grows in bunches of three, golden in color, tiny flower, branches out from the main stem into three branches, tapers at the end, blooms during July and August, which gave the name "July Fragrance."
The root, stem, and flowers of July Fragrance could all be made into medicine for people who had difficulty in breathing and coughed blood!
Why did this picture look so familiar? Yet she was unable to put a finger to it. She vaguely felt that it had to do with something of importance, however, she was unable to pinpoint what exactly it was. Rubbing her forehead, she realized that in this life, she had totally no impression of certain things about her previous life, while she had some vague memories of other things.
This "July Fragrance" was a vague memory she had of a very important thing from her previous life.
"Your tea, Miss!" Qing Yue offered Qin Wanru a cup of tea she brewed when she saw her looking troubled.
Qin Wanru used her fingers to rub on her forehead again, then took the cup of tea from Qin Yue to take a sip, then she went back to look at the picture of the "July Fragrance". She was sure she had seen it before, or at least know something about it.
However, she was also certain that in her previous life, she had no use of this herb.
"Are you alright, Miss? Are you worried about how Miss Qi was going to make use of you tomorrow?" asked Qing Yue, looking concerned, when she saw Qin Wanru rubbing her for brows.
However, Qin Wanru shook her head. She folded the corner of the page with the picture and closed the book, brought the cup of tea to her lips and took another sip and she stared into the air for a moment, pondering.
She wanted to study medicine!
Looked like it was a good idea for her to pay a visit to Jingxin Monastery! She suddenly remembered that that day when she visited Jingxin Monastery, the reverend had asked about the ointment Grandma had put on her wound. She had yet to ask Grandma about it. She would do that tomorrow. However, she wondered why the reverend at Jingxin Monastery wanted to know who gave her the ointment. Could there be something behind this?
Chun Yi was Qin Ronzhi"s most trusted personal maid. In the past, everyone in the Qi family treated her with some level of respect. No one in the General"s Mansion treated her with contempt whenever she was here with her young mistress. This time she was being struck dumb by Qin Wanru"s question time and again, she felt especially humiliated by Qin Wanru"s mockery.
Feeling provoked, Chun Yi reported to Qin Rongzhi the exact words Qin Wanru had said.
"What did she mean by all these?" cried Qi Rongzhi, and she smashed her hand on the table, infuriated, after hearing the report.
"Miss, I"m guessing that the Second Miss Chin doesn"t dare to accompany you to confront Mrs. Qin and Qin Yuru," said Chun Yu, rolling her eyes as she was also feeling indignant about it.
"While she doesn"t want to go, I will make her! There"s no way she can escape this!" said Qi Rongzhi, giving an evil laugh. Did Qin Wanru not say that she was going to Old Grandma"s tomorrow? Qi Rongzhi made up her mind to pay Old Grandma a visit before going to look for Qin Yuru.
She made up her mind to go to the Old Grandma"s the next day to stop Qin Wanru. After all, she had not visited her since her arrival at the Ningyuan Army General"s Mansion.
Because of the cordial relations.h.i.+p between the magistrate and the army general, Qi Rongzhi had been a frequent visitor at the General"s Mansion.
Early the next day, Qin Rongzhi got out of bed and prepared herself to visit the Old Grandma with Chun Yi.
By the time Qi Rongzhi arrived, Old Grandma had been awake but had not got out of bed. She was sitting on the bed, chatting with Nanny Duan. When she heard that Qi Rongzhi had come, she frowned with displeasure, but still instructed her servant to let her in.
Once in Old Grandma"s room, Qi Rongzhi paid her respect to her and greeted her in pretense, saying, "Are you feeling better today, Old Grandma?"
"I"m fine. I"m getting old and it"s only normal that there will be problems with my body!" answered Old Grandma with a hoa.r.s.e as she cleared her throat with a cough. She had been coughing so much that she could only speak softly.
"You should take care of your health, Old Grandma, especially when the weather is turning colder now." Qi Rongzhi said while scanning the place to see if Qin Wanru had arrived. Was she glad when she realized that she had arrived earlier than Qin Wanru! Now there was no way Qin Wanru could escape from her.
Old Grandma could see from Qi Rongzhi"s furtive eyes that she was putting up an act coming to visit her so losing all energy to entertain her, Old Grandma leaned back and said, "I"m getting old and I"m feeling tired even after sitting up for a while now."
What she meant was for Qin Rongzhi to leave.
"Old Grandma, I"m sorry about yesterday. After falling into the pond, I..." Qin Rongzhi did not seem to get the hint from Old Grandma for her to leave. Pretending to look apologetic, she continued, "I hit the Elder Miss Qin yesterday and felt really bad now. I would like to go apologize to her today!"
"You"re being silly, Miss Qi. Yuru and you are like sisters. You just have to explain to her and that would resolve any misunderstanding!" said Old Grandma as she coughed and tried to comfort her. However, Old Grandma could see that Miss Qi was not sincerely apologetic but was just putting up an act. She did not think much of it since she had been so used to her acts.
The only difference this time was that she was here because Qin Yuru had been hit by her. Other times, Qi Rongzhi had always acted apologetic and regretful after bullying Qin, pretending to want to make good with her. Seeing her favorite granddaughter being bullied by Qi Rongzhi, Old Grandma truly irritated by her pretentious look of remorse.
In the past, Mrs. Qin and Qin Yuru would brush this off as petty quarrels so Old Grandma could not doing anything even if she was upset. She did not want to come across as some elder oppressing the young girl, or a petty old lady. Moreover, she did not wish that the relations.h.i.+p between the two families be strained.
"Old Grandma, Second Miss Qin is here to see you!" a voice said from outside the room.
Just as Qin Rongzhi expected, Qin Wanru had come and a smug looked flashed across her face. She hated both of the Qin sisters now and she planned to let both Qin Yuru and Qin Wanru suffer.
None of them would escape her!