Chapter 700 The Ring Dropped in the Snow
Both parties wanted to get close to each other, so they talked gently. It could be considered the first time that Shao Wanru had a friendly talk with her sisters since she moved to Duke Xing’s Mansion.
Shao Caihuan was not as arrogant as she was when they first met, and was very polite. Meanwhile, Shao Cailing was not talkative. She just responded in a lukewarm voice and looked Shao Wanru up and down with explorative eyes from time to time.
Generally speaking, the two sisters of the third branch came and left joyfully, and they even invited Shao Wanru to go out together in a few days.
After they talked for a while, the two sisters went back. Shao Wanru specially walked them out of her courtyard and watched them leave before turning around to return to her courtyard.
It had snowed heavily last night. When she got up this morning, the snow piled up in her courtyard had been shoveled off, but the road was still wet. For fear that Shao Wanru would fall, Yujie specially supported her on one side and cautiously helped her to the main room.
After getting her footing in the corridor, Shao Wanru stamped her feet and suddenly found something dark red on the steps, which looked particularly enchanting and dazzling against the snow.
“Miss, what is this?” Yujie asked. She, who also found the dark red stuff, took a few steps down and picked it up. It turned out to be a ring made of a dark red gem with a circle of fine pearls around it. The dark red gem surrounded by white pearls made it look like a simple but gorgeous flower.
Such an exquisite flower ring was quite rare.
Shao Wanru took it and looked over it a few times. She rolled her eyes and fixed them on a small mark at the edge of the internal surface of the ring. It was a mark she had seen many times in the last life…
“Miss, it should be dropped by the Third Miss and the Fourth Miss!” Yujie looked around and said. Such an exquisite ring definitely did not belong to a servant, because it was impossible for a master to give a servant such a ring as a reward.
“Go and send it to Third Sister and Fourth Sister!” Shao Wanru rolled her watery eyes, handed the ring to Yujie, and gave an order.
“Yes, Miss, I’m going right away!” Yujie said with a nod, picked up the ring and rushed out.
Shao Wanru raised her head to look outside. It hadn’t been a long time since Shao Caihuan and her sister left. After a heavy snow, although the snow on the road had been shoveled off, other places in the mansion were still piled up with snow. They must walk slowly.
“Miss, I didn’t see any ring on the two Misses’ hands just now!” Qing Yue lifted the curtain, came out and said. She, who came out after hearing the sounds from outside, also heard the conversation between Shao Wanru and Yujie.
The ring was so conspicuous. If either of the two Misses wore it, she couldn’t have neglected it!
Shao Wanru smiled slightly and stepped into the room beneath the lifted curtain. Suddenly she felt a stream of warmth dispelling the coldness she brought from outside.
Qu Le brought over the refilled heater. Shao Wanru took it, walked up to the couch, sat down and looked out of the window thoughtfully. Yujie, who walked fast, ought to have caught up with them at this time.
As she expected, soon there came footsteps. After walking to the corridor and stamping her feet to shake off some snow, Yujie lifted the curtain and came in.
“Miss, both of the two Misses said that it didn’t belong to them. They have never seen this ring nor worn any ring.” Yujie came in with the ring in her palm and said.
“Put it down!” Shao Wanru said indifferently, “When you caught up with them, were they walking very slowly around our courtyard?”
“Yes, the two Misses were not far from the door of our courtyard. They walked very cautiously, laughing and talking, so they didn’t go far. They stopped immediately when they heard me calling them,” Yujie answered with a nod.
Shao Wanru put the ring in her palm, rotated it in her palm, and then turned it over and narrowed her watery eyes to look at the small mark at the edge of the internal surface of the ring.
“It’s from the imperial palace!” she said slowly.
Most of the things in the imperial palace had common marks, and this ring was such a case.
“Why was something from the imperial palace dropped here?” Yujie asked in surprise.
“They brought it here!” Shao Wanru said and turned to look at Qing Yue, “Where is the picture alb.u.m sent by maternal grandma?”
“Yes, Miss. Please wait for a moment. I’m going to fetch it right away!” Qing Yue answered and went into the inner room. After a while, she came out with a picture alb.u.m.
This picture alb.u.m was one of the detailed records of Infanta Qinghua’s dowries.
The picture alb.u.m contained the pictures of some specially made things.
Shao Wanru opened it and read it page by page. As she expected, she found a ring in the bottom right corner of the page, which presented a set of jewelry.
The set of jewelry included a bracelet, a pendant, a hairpin and this ring.
“Is it Infanta’s dowry?” When Shao Wanru saw it, Qu Le, who was sharp-eyed, also found this picture. She looked at the ring on the table and then looked at the picture in the alb.u.m, and immediately discovered that they were exactly the same.
“It’s one of my mother’s dowries!” Shao Wanru said with a smile, closed the picture alb.u.m in her hand, and handed it to Qing Yue. When she saw this ring, she had this speculation, so she was not surprised at this moment.
The Emperor thought highly of Duke Xing’s Mansion, so it was not surprising that something from the imperial palace appeared in the mansion. However, Shao Caihuan and her sister offered her the ring by accidentally dropping it in her courtyard, which indicated the different meaning of the ring. The only connection between the ring and her was that it was one of her mother’s relics, and it could be useful to her.
As she expected, Shao Caihuan and her sister came here today not only to make friends with her, but also to offer her an excuse.
“Isn’t this tea set also one of them? Why did they secretly throw this ring at the snow in the corridor after bringing the tea set here?” Qu Le asked in confusion.
At this moment, the maids all understood that this ring had something to do with the Third Miss and the Fourth Miss. However, the two of them kept denying it. They really could not figure out what they meant by doing that!
Shao Wanru reached out to open the gift box on the table and looked at the tea set inside. It was indeed the tea set she had seen in the picture alb.u.m just now. She had read the picture alb.u.m sent by her maternal grandma several times. In particular, she had tried to roughly memorize some distinctive items in the picture alb.u.m. But because there were numerous items in the picture alb.u.m, she failed to memorize all of them.
She guessed that this small ring belonged to her mother, but she couldn’t identify it before checking the picture alb.u.m. Now she realized why they left the ring here.
“This tea set should be given to the Third Madam by Old Madam. The Third Madam gave it to me because she wanted to be friendly with me. But if I make a scene with it, the Third Madam should also take the blame. So she told her two daughters to leave this ring here. This ring shouldn’t be given directly to the Third Madam by Old Madam!”
Shao Wanru fixed her eyes on the tea set, picked up one of them and looked at it. Obviously it had been well preserved almost without traces of usage. It should be rarely used.
“The Third Madam didn’t get it from Old Madam directly? In this case, where did she get it?” Qing Yue, who was shocked by the twists and turns behind it, asked.
“She might get it from third uncle or get it by chance… or even pick it up somewhere!” Shao Wanru said and narrowed her eyes slightly, looking lazy and casual.
The Third Madam was indeed thoughtful!
“Pick it up? Could it be possible to pick up such an item?” Qu Le asked in shock.
The ring was obvious very valuable and must belong to a master. Any servant, who picked it up, would not dare to keep it for his own and would definitely return it to its owner. In this case, how could it fall into the hands of someone else?
“The Third Madam has prepared it long before?” Yujie, who figured out what Shao Wanru meant, suddenly opened her eyes wide and asked.
Shao Wanru didn’t answer, but just nodded. It seemed that the Third Madam had prepared it for her long before, and today the Third Madam invited her over in order to sound out her att.i.tude.
If she was really useless and timid, she wouldn’t be able to get the ring and would even be suppressed by the third branch.
Now, giving her the ring was a sign of befriending her, as well as a sign of putting forward their requirement!
It was exactly what she was thinking! Since they had secretly left the ring to her and indicated that it had nothing to do with them, it meant that she could look into why the ring showed up here with relief.
“Put this ring away. I’ll handle it after dealing with w.a.n.g Yishu!”
“Yes, Miss!”
“Can you fix my leg as soon as possible?” Chu Liuzhou looked at the imperial physicians, who knelt on the ground, with a cold face and said in a sharp voice.
“Your Highness, please take it easy. It takes time to fix your leg!” The imperial physician on duty hurriedly tried to comfort him. In fact, Prince Zhou was not seriously injured.
“Take it easy. Take it easy…” As Chu Liuzhou thought about it, he got increasingly furious. How could he not get mad about getting hurt in an accident? He picked up the cup and smashed it hard on the ground.
How could he calm down? The consort selection was coming, and he got a lot on his plate. This was a big event that had a great influence on his life. How could he break his leg at this critical moment? He had always been in good health and had never thought that he would fall at the gate of the imperial palace like the invalid Chu Liuchen.
Last time when Chu Liuchen was knocked out at the gate of the imperial palace, he had laughed at Chu Liuchen in his mansion afterward. Now it was his turn to get seriously injured. He only felt extremely ashamed and furious.
“Your Highness, the Empress told you to take it easy. She will definitely find some famous doctors to treat you!” The personal eunuch standing by his bed answered cautiously.
“If the famous doctors are so capable, Chu Liuchen won’t remain sickly till now!” Chu Liuzhou realized that the eunuch was obviously trying to comfort him, so he said grumpily.
“Your Highness, in fact… there is indeed a famous doctor… but…” the eunuch said as he glanced at the imperial physicians, who were straining their ears to listen to him in the room.
There was only one person, who could be the greatest scholar or martial artist, but could be plenty of people proficient in literature or martial arts, and it also applied to medical skills. Each of these imperial physicians had extraordinary medical skills, knew well about Chu Liuzhou’s condition, and thought that Chu Liuzhou had to spend a long time recuperating. Now the eunuch seemed to suggest that there was a famous doctor who thought that he could cure Chu Liuzhou in a short time.
After exchanging glances, they all strained their ears angrily to listen to the eunuch, intending to find out who dared to deceive Prince Zhou with this kind of nonsense.
“You may leave now!” Noticing the imperial physicians’ action, Chu Liuzhou waved his hand grumpily and scolded them, “You are all useless!”
The imperial physicians could only stand up one by another with their tails between their legs, and left after exchanging glances.
“Tell me, where is the famous doctor?” Seeing that the imperial physicians had left, Chu Liuzhou hurriedly asked.
“I heard that there is a miracle-working doctor in Prince Chen’s Mansion…” the eunuch answered, but he was interrupted by Chu Liuzhou impatiently before he could finish his words, “A miracle-working doctor? If he’s really capable, Chu Liuchen will not remain half-dead till now!”
With no outsider in the room, Chu Liuzhou was not afraid of being heard!