Chapter 582 Three People Go to Enjoy the Scenery Together!
“Greetings…” Before Chu Qing returned a salute, Qiu Yu turned to Shao Yanru and said. Seeing Shao Yanru’s eyes under her veil, he froze for a moment and wondered if he had mistaken Shao Yanru for Shao Wanru. So he took a deep breath and said hesitantly, “Greetings, First Miss Shao!”
Shao Yanru didn’t expect that Qiu Yu would mistake her with a veil for Shao Wanru. She smiled at once, bowed sideways and said, “Greetings, Your Excellency!”
Hearing Qiu Yu’s voice, Shao Wanru slowly opened her eyes, looked into Qiu Yu’s extremely surprised eyes and whispered, “Your Excellency, please forgive me for being unable to salute you because I’ve sprained my ankle!”
“It, it doesn’t matter!” Qiu Yu stammered, looking at Shao Wanru and then at Shao Yanru and feeling at a loss. Did he really mistake Shao Yanru for Shao Wanru?
Looking at Shao Yanru and then at Shao Wanru, he finally fixed his eyes on Shao Yanru. He first heard of the First Miss Shao’s reputation and fell in love with her later. How could he pa.s.s his affection to someone else because he mistook the First Miss Shao for someone else? The First Miss Shao was his beloved girl.
Of course, he found Commandery Prince Qing in front of him quite unpleasant to the eye and annoying, because Commandery Prince Qing seemed to be trying to please the First Miss Shao as well.
Hearing that Shao Yanru got involved in trouble, Qiu Yu left his work aside and hurried over with his subordinates. Now his subordinates had found out the cause of the incident and came to report to him.
After Qiu Yu’s two subordinates finished reporting, Shao Wanru said, “Your Excellency, is this case in the charge of the Ministry of Justice?”
In front of his beloved girl, of course, Qiu Yu wouldn’t say that such a trivial case was not in the charge of the Ministry of Justice. He straightened his back, looked at Shao Yanru and said seriously, “Of course, it’s in the charge of the Ministry of Justice. First Miss, Fifth Miss, rest a.s.sured. I will definitely interrogate the two old maids and find out the one behind them. I won’t let you feel aggrieved!”
Yujie curled her lip secretly and could think of nothing making the First Miss feel aggrieved. But now that the two old maids were going to be detained by the Ministry of Justice, the First Miss seemed to go to feel aggrieved!
“Thank you, Your Excellency!” Shao Wanru said gently.
“Thank you, Your Excellency!” Shao Yanru bowed with a smile and said.
Qiu Yu waved his hand at his two subordinates as a sign for them to take the two old maids back and put the case on record. He planned to investigate it after going back, because he didn’t want to go back in such a hurry. He had tried every way to get close to Shao Yanru. However, Shao Yanru rarely came out like Shao Wanru. He certainly would not let go of such a rare chance now.
“First Miss, do you come out to enjoy the scenery? I happen to be free now. I would like to have a walk with you and Commandery Prince Qing,” Qiu Yu said with a smile. Despite his reluctance, he had to invite Chu Qing at the same time. Otherwise, the First Miss Shao, who had always been steeped in propriety, definitely would not go to enjoy the scenery with him.
Of course, Chu Qing was very delighted to be invited by Qiu Yu. Now he had no trusted follower in the imperial court and knew that it was not easy for him to recruit followers slowly after he entered the imperial court. Nevertheless, no matter how difficult it was, he would not give up. Qiu Yu worked in the Ministry of Justice and came from quite a powerful family. It was a bonus that he could start with Qiu Yu.
He immediately agreed with a smile. Of course, he could tell that Qiu Yu seemed to have feelings for Shao Yanru, so he didn’t have to be Qiu Yu’s rival in love. He was really not eager to win the beauty’s heart!
“No, since my Fifth Sister has sprained her ankle, I… I can’t leave now!” Shao Yanru said with concern, looking at Shao Wanru again.
She had a small talk with Chu Qing with the intention of maintaining a good relations.h.i.+p with him. It was really hard to tell who could inherit the throne in the future. With a good relations.h.i.+p with Chu Qing, even if the result was unexpected, she could still make use of the good relations.h.i.+p between them. But now she was unwilling to go to enjoy the scenery with Qiu Yu and Chu Qing.
Although it was not a private date with a man, she considered neither of them as her ideal mate. So she did not want to hear any rumor about the relations.h.i.+p between her and any of them.
“Big Sister, go ahead. I feel much better after sitting for a while. I am not in a hurry to go back now, so I can sit here and wait for you!” Just as Shao Yanru was about to refuse, Shao Wanru raised her eyes and said.
“Since the Fifth Miss has sprained her ankle, we should let her sit here for another while. First Miss, you can enjoy the scenery and tell the Fifth Miss about it after coming back! It’s such a rare chance. If you refuse to join Commandery Prince Qing and me, we’ll feel sad! I’ll go back to work on the case later. It’s uneasy for me to enjoy the scenery!” Qiu Yu said with a smile. Since Shao Wanru helped him out by saying that, he immediately pretended to be joking and invited Shao Yanru again implicitly.
“Uh…” Shao Yanru said hesitantly. Although she didn’t think highly of Qiu Yu, she might need his help later. In addition, she wanted to maintain a good relations.h.i.+p with Chu Qing. If she refused again now, they would be embarra.s.sed. Moreover, Shao Wanru said that she was fine and wanted to sit here for another while instead of going back.
Although it was reasonable for her to insist on staying here with Shao Wanru, it would embarra.s.s Qiu Yu and Chu Qing.
“First Miss, let’s go!” Chu Qing helped Qiu Yu by saying so, while taking a step back with a smile and saluting with joined hands.
Since he said so, Shao Yanru couldn’t refuse even if she wanted to. She said a few more words to comfort Shao Wanru and asked about Shao Wanru’s injury with concern, and then reluctantly left. At first, she turned her head after taking a few steps.
She looked like such a good elder sister!
Seeing that they had left, the spectators also went away, leaving Shao Wanru sitting there alone. They couldn’t keep looking at Shao Wanru impolitely, so they followed Shao Yanru, Chu Qing and Qiu Yu to walk into the forest along the path to enjoy the scenery!
“Miss, are you okay?” After everyone left, Yujie asked anxiously and crouched down to take off Shao Wanru’s shoe.
When she saw Shao Wanru’s sprained ankle, her face immediately changed, because Shao Wanru’s ankle had been swollen.
“Call Qing’er over!” After her ankle touched by Yujie, Shao Wanru felt such great pain that the sweat on her forehead immediately dripped down.
“Where, where is she…” Yujie stammered with her face turning pale.
“Qing’er, come out!” Shao Wanru said in a low voice after gasping.
Yujie looked around blankly and immediately saw Qing’er come out quickly from behind a tree. She was overjoyed and said with tears in her eyes, “Qing’er, come and have a look at Miss’s ankle!”
Of course, she knew that Qing’er was a capable maid Prince Chen sent to protect Shao Wanru rather than an inferior maid.
In fact, Qing’er had followed Shao Wanru all the way here, but Shao Wanru didn’t instruct her to show up until everyone left.
Qing’er walked up to Shao Wanru, knelt down, put Shao Wanru’s sprained ankle on her knee, and said after having a look at Shao Wanru’s swollen ankle, “Miss, please hold on for a while!”
“Okay!” Shao Wanru said, gnashed her teeth, held Yujie’s hand tightly and looked straight into the distance.
Feeling a sharp pain in her ankle, she could not help groaning although she had been prepared for it. Her clothes were soaked in sweat. Fortunately, she no longer felt the pain, which seemed to be too sharp to be touched, after that.
“Miss, I’m done. Let me apply some ointment to your wound now. You’ll recover after resting for a few days! It takes a few days for the swelling to subside!” As Qing’er said, she drew a bottle of ointment from her bosom and cautiously applied it to Shao Wanru’s ankle. The coolness immediately diluted the burning pain.
The ointment Qing’er brought was granted by Chu Liuchen, so it was extremely effective.
After treating Shao Wanru’s wound, Qing’er intended to tear apart her underskirt, but was stopped by Shao Wanru. Looking at Yujie, who was standing beside her, Shao Wanru pointed at her and said, “Tear apart Yujie’s underskirt!”
She only brought Yujie with her when she went out, so the cloth used to dress her wound could only be torn from Yujie’s clothes. She didn’t want to expose Qing’er’s real ident.i.ty too early.
Qing’er and Yujie both understood. Yujie lifted her outer garment. Qing’er grabbed the edge of her inner garment and got a piece of cloth after tearing it hard. After that, she wrapped Shao Wanru’s ankle in it and then put down Shao Wanru’s foot.
“Go to ask Huiding Nun, Mingqiu Nun’s disciple, to come here and have a look at my wound. It would be better if you could ask another nun to come here!” Shao Wanru gave an order. She stretched her foot and found that it was nothing serious although she still felt weakness and dull pain in her ankle.
Although others didn’t know the relations.h.i.+p between Mingqiu Nun and her, the fact that both of them came from Jiangzhou was enough to provoke some speculations.
Qing’er nodded and disappeared from their sight in a flash…
After sitting for another while, Shao Wanru felt that there was nothing serious with her ankle, so she stood up with the help of Yujie and walked into the forest slowly. Since there was such beautiful scenery, she might as well enjoy it. In this way, she could not only enjoy the beautiful scenery, but also make Shao Yanru suspect that she pretended to have sprained her ankle. Why not?
What Shao Yanru had done today seemed to be a set of interlocking stratagems. When Shao Yanru first met Chu Qing, it seemed that Chu Qing had mistaken Shao Yanru for someone else. Could it be possible that Chu Qing actually wanted to meet her? But she obviously had no connection with Chu Qing.
These confused her. Regarding the two old maids, Qing’er had discovered that Shuqi contacted with them in secret. They stayed on the mountain as ordinary pilgrims from down the mountain. They looked like real villagers rather than servants from a mansion, because from their deeds, she could tell at a glance that they had never been trained in rules.
It was impossible for Shao Yanru to get in touch with this kind of person, so who found them for her? It was impossible for someone as cautious as Shao Yanru to directly instruct her servants to find them, because she could be exposed easily in this way. Shao Yanru always thought about the bad result before doing anything. It was the most difficult to deal with such a person.
She lifted the corners of her mouth silently and thought that she should mess up Shao Yanru’s plan step by step. If she maintained the status quo, she would not be able to make Shao Yanru take the blame even if she saw through Shao Yanru’s scheme.
The reason why Shao Yanru dressed exactly like her today was that Shao Yanru was afraid that she would change her clothes rather than that Shao Yanru intended to set her up?
If that was the case, did it mean that it was not a coincidence for them to meet Chu Qing here today? Thinking of Chu Qing, who behaved gently and politely, she wondered if Shao Yanru intended to bring Chu Qing to her.
As she thought about it, she found it increasingly suspicious.
“Yujie, my hairpin was broken just now. Go and look for it.” She stopped and suddenly said.
“Yes, I’ll go and look for it right away!” Yujie said. After looking at Shao Wanru’s hair and finding that the hairpin was gone, she immediately turned back to the place, where the accident occurred, found the broken hairpin on the ground and walked back with a bitter face. The hairpin looked simple, but it was valuable.
“Miss…”
“It doesn’t matter. Put it away. I’ve brought another one!” Shao Wanru drew a hairpin from her sleeve and handed it to Yujie as a sign for Yujie to insert it in her bun.
Yujie took the hairpin and was stunned!