"The girl was good-hearted but had bitter fate!" Speaking of Shui Ruolan, the Old Grandma sighed again and turned pale.
"Grandmother, did you talk to Aunt Shui?" Qin Wanru asked cautiously.
"Your Aunt Shui... After all, she could not get over it in her heart!" The Old Grandma shook her head. She did not know how to explain it because of lacking for evidence.
"Grandmother, I'll go and expostulate with Aunt Shui!" Qin Wanru said.
"You?" The Old Grandma looked at the little granddaughter in front of her, who was still a little child. She was not convinced by her appearance.
"Yes, grandmother, let me try! I like Aunt Shui." Qin Wanru took the old lady's hand and shook it a few times. Her face became gloomy suddenly. She said on purpose, "It seems that my mother doesn't like me... I also want someone to love me!"
She bit her red lips in an aggrieved way. The sad expression on her small tender face made people feel sorry about her. Her eyes were so black and wet with expectations as if they were dyed with ink, which made people reluctant to refuse.
The Old Grandma's heart melted and gave her permission, "OK, OK, and then you can have a try!"
"Grandmother, I'll go and find Aunt Shui now!" Upon hearing the Old Grandma's promise, Qin Wanru stood up excitedly.
"Go!" said the old lady, kindly.
"I'll see you later, grandmother!" Qin Wanru saluted Old Grandma. When she saw the old lady nod to her, she turned away.
"The girl...was a poor girl. Mrs. Qin was so cruel-hearted to destroy the girl. No wonder this girl wanted to find another elder to love her!" Looking at her back, the old lady sighed. She really loved the child.
"Mrs... Mrs. Qin did that for Miss Yuru! Nanny Duan remade a cup of tea and said scrupulously.
"Could she trade Zhuozhuo's reputation for Yuru's? She should consider that if it had not been for Zhuozhuo's own father, Huaiyong would never have survived. Zhuozhuo's father lost his life in exchange for her high position and great wealth. But now she pretended not to know old friends, even let Zhuozhuo be the payment of her daughter's debts."
The Old Grandma snorted coldly and said. She knew that Mrs. Qin was not really nice to Qin Wanru. She just wanted to show her false kindness. They would harm Qin Wanru again and again for Qin Yuru's benefits. Before she thought they only mistreated her in material life and gave injustice to her grandchild, but she would make up for her grandchild's lost to compensate her.
It was unexpected that she had such a vicious thought this time.
"Mrs. Qin has gone too far!" Nanny Duan, who knew Qin Wanru's whole story, could not help sighing at this time.
There were other people in the mansion who knew that Second Miss was not Mrs. Qin's own kid, but they all thought she was just an orphan who was picked up. They didn't know that Second Miss's father saved the General's life. Otherwise, the General would have been dead, which meant there would be no glory of General Ningyuan's mansion.
It could be said that now everything of the General's mansion was gotten from Second Miss's own father who obtained everything at the cost of his life. Mrs. Qin still treated Second Miss so badly, which was mean and ungrateful.
"If Zhuozhuo can persuade Ruolan this time, Ruolan will be given a good position in any case. Mrs. Qin really thinks she is the boss of the General's mansion and she can scheme and take anyone's reputation she wanted to take!" The Old Grandma snorted coldly with a harsh gleam in her eyes.
She was the legitimate mother, so she was inconvenient to say some words to Qin Huaiyong. She had to see Mrs. Qin's feigned look and couldn't meddle in affairs too much. However, if Mrs. Qin really did that, she would have to perform her responsibility for being the legitimate mother.
The family temple was located in the northwest corner of the backyard of General Ningyuan's mansion. That place was so remote that no one came to it at all. The so-called family temple was just a small yard.
Qin Wanru pushed the door of the courtyard, and then she smelled the aroma of fireworks. She lifted the corner of her skirt and went in. Then she saw Qionghua, the maid of Shui Ruolan, cleaning the courtyard. Qionghua put down her broom and saluted Qin Wanru when she saw Qin Wanru coming to her.
"Where's Aunt Shui?" Qin Wanru looked around and asked.
"She is offering incense to Buddha in it!" answered Qionghua. "I'll go and inform Miss!"
Qin Wanru shook her hand. "No, Qionghua, I have something to ask you!"
"Second Miss, please say!" Qionghua said.
"On that day... Where did you go on the night of the accident? You were supposed to be accompanying with Aunt Shui, weren't you?" she asked and didn't enter the room in a hurry to persuade Shui Ruolan.
"I had loose bowels that night since I ate something bad. Young Madam saw me being uncomfortable, so she didn't let me keep watch at night."
Qionghua lowered her head with her eyes turning red. Her lady was now affected by so much injustice and had to hide in the family temple. Qionghua felt she had a great deal of responsibility for the whole incident because she didn't keep her safe. If she hadn't had a stomach and hadn't left, the General would have been stopped when he broke into the room.
"Did you eat the rest of Aunt Shui's dinner that night?" Qin Wanru asked. Maids had their own dinner. But when their masters did not eat much, they would give the rest to the maids since the dishes were better than theirs.
"No, I didn't eat Miss's dishes that day. I ate my own share!" Qionghua thought for a moment, shook her head, and then explained, "I didn't want to take my share that day, either, but Miss didn't have enough that day. A woman in the kitchen advised me to take my own share to prevent Miss from not having enough food!"
"Why did they provide Aunt Shui so little food which was only enough for herself?" Qin Wanru grasped the key and was sure that there must be something fishy.
"I also asked why they offered such little food that day. They said that they didn't buy much food. In addition, Mrs. Qin ordered the same food with Miss Ruoshui, so they divided the food into two parts, which was only enough for herself." Qionghua said.
Coincidentally, Mrs. Qin ordered the same dishes with Aunt Shui. In fact, even if she needed the same dishes which were divided into two parts, it couldn't be so little for every dish. It was coincidental that she ordered the exact same dishes with Aunt Shui.
"You know the woman who advised you to take your own share, don't you, Qionghua? Go and find out who she is? Can you do that?" Qin Wanru said.
"Don't worry, Second Miss, I'll go now!" Qionghua nodded.
Qin Wanru asked her to go and turned into the room, which was in the middle of the yard. This was the family temple of the mansion, and there was a lonely Buddha statue in the middle of it. The white smoke was coming out from the incense burner in front of the Buddha statue.
A thin figure kneeling on the futon in front of the Buddha was praying piously with her hands folded as if she didn't hear the footsteps coming from outside.
"Aunt Shui!" whispered Qin Wanru.
The figure on the futon slowly turned around, who was a twenty-something pretty girl. Although she was wearing rough clothes, she was still very gentle, which made people feel relaxed.
"Aunt Shui!" Qin Wanru's tears fell down, for she had not seen her Aunt Shui for a long time. This tender woman in her memory gave her maternal love which she needed. She had protected Qin Wanru wholeheartedly. Even if she was pregnant and couldn't protect herself, she still defended Qin Wanru time and time again.
The previous life slipped like a dream, but only the feeling existed.
"Wanru, what's going on? Who bullied you? Come over and let Aunt Shui see, what made you be so aggrieved!" Shui Ruolan stood up with her hands on the table. She almost fell down because she was in a hurry.
Qin Wanru stepped forward quickly to hold her up. Smelling the familiar smell on her body, Qin Wanru shed tears. She embraced Shui Ruolan suddenly and jumped into her arms.
It was great that Aunt Shui was not dead because of premature birth. She must protect the poor woman in this life.
Shui Ruolan almost fell down when Qin Wanru ran into her arms, and fortunately, she stood still after staggering, for there was an altar table behind her. But with her back getting a heavy hit, she could not help frowning in pain.
Feeling the stiffness of her body for a moment, Qin Wanru came to her senses and stretched out her arms to hold her back and kneaded her back, "Aunt Shui, have you gotten any pain?"
"No, you could not hurt me with such a little strength!" Seeing the girl's black eyes with tears, Shui Ruolan's heart melted. Shui Ruolan stretched out a hand to pat on her back and said gently, "I'm not so delicate and precious, and I'm OK!"
What a beautiful and well-behaved child she was! How wonderful it would be to have such a daughter! But even if she was not her daughter, Shui Ruolan was also willing to raise the child as her own children.
"Doesn't it really matter?" Qin Wanru sniffed and said.
"Nothing serious, of course!" Shui Ruolan said with a soft smile.
"Aunt Shui, don't lie to me. If nothing happened, why did you come here? Here... The house has been unoccupied, how can you live here?" Qin Wanru looked up at Shui Ruolan and said.
She knew that these days Shui Ruolan had lived here. She even didn't allow others to visit her the other day.
"Here... In fact, the place is quite good and quiet. You know I always like peace!" Shui Ruolan thought she should not talk to a little girl about that thing so that she talked about it shortly and shifted the subject.
"No! It's not a good place here!" Qin Wanru shook her head, wiped the tears from her eyes and said firmly, "Aunt Shui, let's get out of here."
"Wanru, don't get upset, I think this is a good place. If you miss me, just come here to see me!" Shui Ruolan thought Qin Wanru lost her temper again and cajoled her gently.
"Aunt Shui, someone is hurting us. Grandma and I both need you!" Qin Wanru said, looking at Shui Ruolan in a calm voice which should not belong to a girl at her age. Her eyes looked sparkling and sharp, making people feel surprised and frightened and have to listen to her.
She wouldn't allow Mrs. Qin to get what she wanted in any case. She made some crimes, and she deserved to pay for that. She doomed to pay for her crimes with karma.
Seeing that she used such a dignified expression and statement to say such a thing, Shui Ruolan was shocked. She stretched out to reach Qin Wanru's hand, took her to the stool nearby and sat down, she also sat down in the opposite side of Qin Wanru. "Who wants to hurt you and your aunt?" "Has Aunt Shui stopped to manage things outside and asked Qionghua not to report what happened outside to you ever since she committed to the family temple in the past few days?" Qin Wanru asked. "She wanted to have some quiet time for a few days!" Shui Ruolan's eyes started to wander. "Aunt Shui should know about what happened between my big sister and Qi Tianyu. My sister wants to play up to the Duke Yong in the city, so my mother instigated Nanny Fang to tell me that I am the one that Qi Tianyu wants to marry, and asked me to agree. She also told me to hide it from Qi Tianyu, so he could be surprised when he lifted the curtain on my head whe
"It was not a very interesting thing. We were just young at that time." Qin Huaiyong said it bitterly, and found it was harder and harder to swallow the delicate snack in his mouth. "Were you just as young as me right now? And innocent?" Qin Wanru became more and more curious, "Father, can you talk about what happened between you and Aunt Shui when you were young, what did you play at the time?" "It's been so long, I can't remember it!" Qin Huaiyong didn't really want to say something happened back then. Thinking about what happened in the past few days, he just felt guilty and sad. "Just say something, father, I want to hear it. Next time when I visit Aunt Shui, I could tell her about these things. Maybe she would be happy then. I heard that she has been in a bad mood recently, and moved to the family temple to live alone there!" Qin Wanru said it sadly. Seeing the little daughter's cute face, even though Qin Huaiyong had kept
In the study room, Qin Huaiyong smashed the cup in Mrs. Qin's foot, who was scared to step back and hit the table on the side. "Talk about it, what is going on?" Qin Huaiyong gloomily looked at Mrs. Qin with a pair of fierce and suffocating eyes. Mrs. Qin was shocked and knew that Qin Huaiyong was really angry. She then hurriedly pretended to be confused and said. "General, I don't know what you are talking about?" "How come I didn't know that you have the same taste as my cousin? When did you actually take away the dishes she likes!" Qin Huaiyong harshly said with a cold voice. "I··· General, I··· I just wanted to taste her food that day so I told people in the kitchen. After they sent the food, I didn't feel very good after I tasted it, so I didn't care. I didn't know that they went behind my back and actually took away more than half of cousin's dishes!" Mrs. Qin was flustered. She knew about the problem, so sh
Qin Wanru was running, running hard, but she could not find a way, and she was lost! It was bottomless darkness in front of her, and some people were chasing behind her with heavy breathing, as if there was a knife behind her. But she just couldn't see the direction and she didn't know where to escape. Someone was calling her. It seemed to be very far when she first heard it, but it seemed to be right to the ear when she heard it again. She wanted to run over as if the sound gave her guidance, but she heard the screams of others before she had time to run over, she subconsciously turned back and saw nothing but blood··· "Ah!" She screamed and sat up. "Young Madam, what happened to you, did you have a nightmare again?" Qing Yue rushed over, and saw Qin Wanru's pale and sweaty face while picking up the gauze. Her face was pure white like snow, but the lips were bright red, and some black hair were dripped with sweat on her cheek.
Qin Wanru did go to the garden, and went towards the lotus pond. The lotus pond was a good view in the General's mansion. As long as it was not winter, lotus pond was always the destination to people when they came to the mansion. Although it was not big enough as ten kilometers, it was not small in scope. It was already the autumn, and the leaves were somewhat withered. However, lotus leaves still could be seen here in the pond. A few lotus flowers fell on the green lotus leaves, and the withered flowers were still enjoyable. Qin Wanru went to the pavilion of the lotus pond. The path of the pavilion expanded on the lotus pond. There were several rooms in the innermost, and there was an octagonal pavilion on the outside of the house. People could enjoy the scenery of the lotus pond in the pavilion, or invite several friends to chat here. There was still a place to rest in the room. The leftmost one was filled with
The Old Grandma stood outside the crowd with Nanny Duan, looking at the crowd around her while frowning, then slowly walked over and asked. "What happened?" "Old Grandma, everyone in your house is bullying me!"Qi Rongzhi immediately cried when she saw Madam coming over. She was not afraid of Mrs. Qin, but she was afraid of the Madam. "Falling into the pond? Come on, why don't you take Miss Qi to change clothes, why are you still crying here?" The Old Grandma had never liked Qi Rongzhi and looked indifferent when seeing her crying. Under such situation, she should change her clothes first then talk about it. Nanny Duan then asked someone to hold Qi Rongzhi to change clothes. She also felt cold and knew that it would bad for her if she continued to do so, this she got up quietly and was taken away with tears falling down from her face. "You all come here!" The Old Grandma looked at Mrs. Qin coldly and walked towards
In the previous life, Mrs. Qin had always portrayed herself as Qin Wanru's biological mother, therefore she was deemed to have done everything for her out of good intention. To Qin Wanru, Mrs. Qin was perhaps just showing favoritism, but would never harbor any evil intention towards her. Mrs. Qin's repeated attempts to set Qin Wanru up secretly was explained away precisely by this reason. It was later on that she eventually found out that she was not Mrs. Qin's own daughter. Mrs. Qin was only using her as part of her scheme to achieve her goal. After Qin Wanru was reborn into this life, the first thing she wanted to do was to remove the mask of hypocrisy from Mrs. Qin to expose her, so she could put a stop to her shameless claim that she was Qin Wanru's birth mother. "Are you truly unwilling to treat Wanru as your own daughter, my dear daughter-in-law?" pressed Old Grandma, giving Mrs. Qin a severe look, as she embraced Qin Wan
"Grandma had gone to bed by now!" said Qin Wanru matter-of-factly. She recognized that the maid was none other than Mrs. Qin's chief maid, Meiya. "Gone... gone to bed? What do I do?" Meiya said as she walked up and down in panic. "What's the rush?" asked Qin Wanru, frowning. "This... this Magistrate Liu sent someone to our house to inquire about Miss Qi. What do we do now... that this mishap befell Miss Qin?" Meiya asked, looking all panicky like she had lost all her nerves. She continued, "Madam said that Old Grandma has to be the one to settle the matter with them. Miss Qi usually only listens to Old Grandma." How was Old Grandma going to make Qi Rongzhi listen to her if she was already so unwell due to her cough? "Second Miss, will you please let me tell Old Grandma about it, so she can decide what to do?" Meiya pleaded with Qin Wanru after walking up and down the corridor for a while. "Grandma is