Chapter 371 Qi Rongzhi Came Here out of Envy
Qin Wanru freshened up and organized her dress in Madam Dowager’s inner room but she didn’t come out immediately. She just sat there and listened carefully for their talk outside while her s.h.i.+ning eyes were overshadowed. “Is Madam of Duke Xing unwilling to stop? Doesn’t she know Qi Rongzhi is quite jealous?”
She was about to ask something about Duke Xing’s Mansion while Qi Rongzhi suddenly came. What a big surprise…
Outside there sat Qi Tianyu and Qi Rongzhi.
They came here to send gifts to Qin’s Mansion on behalf of Qi’s Mansion. They said that Magistrate Qi brought some native products from Jiangzhou which had arrived this morning.
Qi Tianyu was courteous and so was Qi Rongzhi. She said that Qin’s Mansion once helped her before so she particularly came here from Duke Xing’s Mansion and brought some presents in order to show her grat.i.tude to Qin’s Mansion.
After a while, Qi Rongzhi looked around and asked smilingly, “Madam Dowager, where are Sister Yuru and Wanru? I haven’t met them yet.”
“Something happened to Madam Di so Yuru is taking care of her.” Madam Dowager smiled and answered.
“What? I must go to see Madam Di!” Standing up immediately, Qi Rongzhi said hurriedly.
“Don’t bother. Several doctors are treating her most of whom are male so it is inconvenient for you to go there!” Madam Dowager turned down her mildly.
“What about Sister Wanru?” Hearing that it was inconvenient, Qi Rongzhi stopped insisting and then sat down.
“Zhuozhuo now is checking her dress in the inner room because she went to see Madam Di and cried badly,” answered Madam Dowager.
“Then I go to see Wanru!” Qi Rongzhi said anxiously. She seemed to care about Wanru very much, which made Madam Dowager stared at her out of curiosity as she knew Qi Rongzhi had always taken pride in bullying Qin Wanru. When did her become so kind?
“Madam Dowager, Rongzhi was quite immature before. When she went to the Duke Xing’s Mansion, she finally found out that Second Lady Qin and she quite hit it off. Second Lady Qin is innocent and clever. n.o.body can be comparable to her,” answered Qi Tianyu, smiling. He only used a few words to explain the change of Qi Rongzhi’s att.i.tude and also apologized for her for her faults.
He sounded natural and relaxed as he looked gentle and refined, which quite impressed others in a good way!
Qi Rongzhi coordinated perfectly and quickly stood up. She deeply bowed to Madam Dowager, looking regretful. “Madam Dowager, I am really sorry for my immature which has aggrieved Sister Wanru before!”
“You don’t have to, Lady Qi!” Qin Wanru’s gentle voice came up as she appeared at the door of the inner room, staring at Qi Rongzhi. She gave Qi Rongzhi a cold shoulder even though she sounded polite.
Glancing at her slightly red eyes, Qi Tianyu found out that Qin Wanru just cried, badly. Since he had been in contact with Qin’s Mansion for years, it was the first time that he had seen Qin Wanru cry so badly which led to her red swollen eyes. His eyes gradually darkened.
“Sister Wanru, what, what’s wrong? Are you bullied by someone?” Seeing Qin Wanru’s red eyes, Qi Rongzhi shocked and shouted.
She came to Qin Wanru and tried to take her hand.
Qin Wanru remained expressionless and quickly stepped backwards to avoid touching Qi Rongzhi’s hands. Biting her cherry-red lips hard which then turned white, she answered, “Lady Qi, I am afraid I could not accompany you and I think I’d better leave and take a rest.”
As she finished, she bowed sideways to Madam Dowager and Shui Ruolan. They both nodded in agreement for they could tell that Qin Wanru was not good.
“Sister Wanru, what happened?” Qi Rongzhi reached out and held Qin Wanru’s sleeve. Tilting her head, she watched her face and showed her concern.
“Madam Dowager, may I accompany Sister Wanru to her room? I won’t bother her as I would come back as soon as she arrives at her room!” Qi Rongzhi turned to Madam Dowager and asked concernedly.
Looking at Qin Wanru, Madam Dowager hesitated and said nothing.
“Madam Dowager, please allow Rongzhi to accompany Second Lady! She comes here today mainly because she wants to tell Second Lady Qin something!”
Qi Tianyu also said.
“Fine. Sorry to trouble you, Lady Qi!” Hearing what they said, Madam Dowager replied resignedly. She looked at Qin Wanru and saw her nodding silently.
Then they left together.
At first, they both kept quiet and walked shoulder to shoulder but when they were away from the entrance of the courtyard, Qi Rongzhi turned to look at Qin Wanru beside her and asked, “Sister Wanru, what happened to you on earth? Why would you cry so badly? Or did Qin Yuru bully you again? Let me know! Don’t worry for I could help you!”
Seeing Qi Rongzhi pretending to be so righteous, Qin Wanru blinked her eyes in which a trace of sarcasm emerged. “Just a family matter. Don’t bother.”
“I won’t get bothered! You took care of me when I was here even though we had a quite bad relations.h.i.+p. But I bullied you only because I had believed Qin Yuru’s words! Now I finally find out that it is Qin Yuru who tries to mess up our friends.h.i.+p secretly and that’s why we couldn’t get on well with each other before!”
Qi Rongzhi said angrily.
“Do you still remember the day we first met each other? You got on well with me! We shared everything, including those delicious foods and funny toys! We always played together!”
Seeing Qin Wanru still keep silence, Qi Rongzhi continued to say.
“You don’t have a rough time in Duke Xing’s Mansion, do you?” Unwilling to listen to her recollection, Qin Wanru asked lightly while her voice sounded much duller than before.
“No! No! Madam of Duke Xing likes me as well as the Old Madam of Duke Xing’s Mansion. The latter even gave a lot of presents to me!” Qi Rongzhi laughed with her answer sounding complacent.
“If you do enjoy your life in Duke Xing’s Mansion, you shouldn’t be here today! Isn’t Duke Xing’s Mansion going to hold a ceremony to wors.h.i.+p their ancestors? Now you are Madam of Duke Xing’s nominal daughter. Don’t you need to prepare? Even though your name has not been written down in Madam of Duke Xing’s family list yet, you should follow your nominal mother, Madam of Duke Xing to the ceremony for your parents are not here with you!”
When Qi Rongzhi stopped laughing dramatically, Qin Wanru debunked her lie mercilessly without hesitation.
The smile immediately froze on Qi Rongzhi’s face and finally turned into an angry look after a while. “It is your ‘nice’ Big Sister who led to this situation! Without her, I should be in Duke Xing’s Mansion now and prepare for the ancestor wors.h.i.+p!”
“Madam of Duke Xing sends you here, right?” asked Qin Wanru calmly.
“IT IS OLD MADAM OF DUKE XING!” Gnas.h.i.+ng her teeth, Qi Rongzhi answered with hatred. She had thought she finally acquired relations.h.i.+ps with Duke Xing’s Mansion and was able to force Sisters of Qin’s Mansion to honor her. However, she didn’t expect that Old Madam of Duke Xing would prefer Qin Yuru!
“Old Madam of Duke Xing must worry what happened to Qin Yuru in Qin’s Mansion so she asked me to check.”
Once thinking that Nanny Yu, Old Madam of Duke Xing’s servant, held her head high and inform her of this matter with other servants following her, Qi Rongzhi felt angry!
When she left Qin’s Mansion, Qin Wanru once came to Qi Rongzhi and told her Qin Yuru tried to scramble for being Madam of Duke Xing’s nominal daughter so she must be careful of Qin Yuru. And that was why Qi Rongzhi found an excuse to slap Qin Yuru twice when meeting her in Duke Xing’s Mansion.
However, Qi Rongzhi didn’t expect that Old Madam of Duke Xing would give Qin Yuru a blood jade bracelet in front of all the guests at the ceremony to celebrate her for being Madam of Duke Xing’s nominal daughter! The bracelet given to Qin Yuru was much expensive and decent than hers, which embarra.s.sed her to the utmost!
Qi Rongzhi once doubted Qin Wanru’s warning but this time she was sure that Qin Yuru was quite ambitious in consideration of Old Madam of Duke Xing’s behavior.
One nation can’t have two kings and so did the position of Madam of Duke Xing’s nominal daughter. Once she chose two ladies to be her nominal daughters, the position would not be wanted badly and be useful anymore. Therefore, Qi Rongzhi would definitely not let Qin Yuru take her position away.
However, she had no idea yet while Old Madam of Duke Xing today suddenly sent her old maid to tell Qi Rongzhi to check what happened to Qin Yuru here and said that Qin Yuru should visit her in Duke Xing’s Mansion today.
“Qin Yuru again!” Qi Rongzhi’s anger flared. However, she had to bite the bullet and took a carriage to go home. Then she found an excuse to come here with her brother.
“What do you want now?” Qin Wanru asked directly.
“I don’t want to see Qin Yuru in Duke Xing’s Mansion!” said Qi Rongzhi, gnas.h.i.+ng her teeth.
“Well, it is… impossible,” said Qin Wanru, “Old Madam of Duke Xing’s Mansion likes Qin Yuru while Madam of Duke Xing also prefers her to you. It is only a matter of time. Their att.i.tudes won’t change only because of your complaint!”
“Why do they prefer her so much? They should dislike her, disdain her and discard her when thinking of Qin Yuru’s personality, shouldn’t they?” Qi Rongzhi shouted hatefully. Qin Yuru was the worst woman she had ever known in her whole life! This mean girl even dumped her brother after treating him! Every time she thought this she would felt terribly mad!
“Qin Yuru lies about her age and she now estranges herself from Madam Di. What’s more, it is known that Duke Xing’s Mansion once lost their little lady while Qin Yuru’s information was similar to the lost lady’s!” explained Qin Wanru expressionlessly.
As soon as she finished, she frowned, thinking that she had talked too much. Then she quickly organized her expression and said again, “Lady Qi, the matter between Qin Yuru and you has nothing to do with me. And I just heard about the news from others and I can’t promise that they are true! You don’t have to take it serious. I am really tired. If you have any problems, just let me know later. I should go!”
Then Qin Wanru lengthened her stride and hurried to leave, seeming that she was trying to escape something for saying something wrong.
Hearing Qin Wanru’s words, Qi Rongzhi stared in amazement and was too shocked to react. She could hardly believe what she just heard.
“What is that?”
“Qin Yuru is the lost lady of Duke Xing’s Mansion? What, what the h.e.l.l is that? Hard to understand! Or does Qin Yuru want to pretend to be the real lady of Duke Xing’s Mansion?”
Qi Rongzhi’s mind went completely blank. She seemed to understand something but she just let the clue slip away. When she finally came to a sudden realization and wanted to ask Qin Wanru, she found out that Qin Wanru had gone away.
Standing still, Qi Rongzhi seemed jealous and irritated. Stamping her feet madly, she then turned around and rushed to Madam Dowager’s Xinning Pavilion as an idea suddenly occurred that her brother got the evidence! Qi Rongzhi’s mother once mentioned the matter was related to Qin Wanru in her letter!
She didn’t care what Qin Yuru’s plan was but she won’t let her take away her favor from Duke Xing’s Mansion…