Chapter 1220 Obsession Hurts
“Greetings, Your Highness,” Madam Wen said with a smile.
Shao Wanru raised her hand slightly and said with an extraordinary bearing, “There’s no need to stand on ceremony, Madam Wen!”
“Did you happen to come to Huaguang Temple today?” Madam Wen asked with a smile.
“I came here with my Imperial Grandmother and Her Majesty,” Shao Wanru said.
Empress Dowager did not want to disturb others. This time, she traveled lightly and did not make her trip public. Only a few people knew about it.
“Her Majesty the Empress Dowager is also here. Where is she now?” Madam Wen said. Since Empress Dowager was here, she had to visit her.
“Imperial Grandmother has just fallen asleep. She may not be energetic enough to see you now.” Shao Wanru reminded her with a smile.
“Then I’ll go to see them later.” Madam Wen nodded with a smile and looked at Shao Wanru kindly. She found that Princess Chen was a kind and nice person, who was so beautiful without any arrogance.
She suddenly remembered that Gu Xishu had once said that Princess Chen was an unreasonable person, who didn’t appear domineering at all now.
“I happened to have something to do that day, Your Highness, so I postponed the banquet. I’ll invite you and Miss Qin to our mansion in a few days,” Madam Wen said. Although she had sent the invitation card again, she had to be courteous.
Originally, the most important one to Madam Wen was Miss Qin, who was from Consort Lan’s mother’s family. Recently, the Emperor did not go anywhere but to Consort Lan’s place. It could be seen that Consort Lan meant something different to the Emperor. Her niece from her mother’s family was also the niece of the wife of the deceased emperor. Originally, Madam Wen did not consider having Miss Qin as her daughter-in-law.
The Emperor would definitely be displeased if the deceased emperor and his wife were mentioned again and again.
But now, since Consort Lan could regain the Emperor’s favor, it meant that the Emperor did not mind that. Madam Wen thought that if Miss Qin could be her daughter-in-law, it would be of great benefit to her mansion.
One of Miss Qin’s aunts was the extremely beautiful wife of the deceased emperor, and the other was Consort Lan, who was currently favored. Although Madam Wen had never seen Miss Qin, she thought that the girl must be good-looking.
The more Madam Wen thought about it, the happier she became.
As for Princess Chen, Madam Wen had to invite her in person since they had met. Miss Qin was now living in Prince Chen’s Mansion. Princess Chen would be the most suitable person to accompany her when she went out.
“Thank you, Madam Wen!” Shao Wanru said lightly and pointed to a Buddha hall in front of her. “I’m going to ask for a draw for Imperial Grandmother. I shall excuse myself now!”
“Please help yourself, Your Highness!” Madam Wen stepped aside with a smile and made way for her.
Shao Wanru smiled slightly and walked over slowly with the servant girl behind her. From beginning to end, she did not look at Gu Xishu as if she were just an ordinary servant girl.
Sensing that Shao Wanru was being disrespectful to her, Gu Xishu was so angry that her face turned pale. She held Madam Wen’s hand tightly and pursed her lips. Anyone could tell that she was unhappy.
Madam Wen looked at her expression and then looked in the direction of her angry eyes. She sighed secretly. “This niece used to look nice, but now she is getting worse. Not only does she have indecent behaviors but is also narrow-minded. I’m not willing to even have her marry my second son.”
At the thought of this, Madam Wen was full of anger. Under her youngest son’s hint, she could also see that Gu Xishu wanted to marry her youngest son, but she had an ambiguous relationship with her second son. At that time, they had been caught red-handed. In this case, the reason why Gu Xishu was asked to marry Madam Wen’s second son was that the two families had a good relationship, and Madam Wen had raised her since she was a child.
“Now she even dares to think about marrying my youngest son. Doesn’t she know that her appearance and behavior are not worthy of my son?”
“Xishu, it’s time for you to get married to Shi’an. It’s not good to drag it on like this,” Madam Wen said as she walked forward.
“Aunt…” Gu Xishu interrupted her shyly. “Why are you telling me this? You can just mention it to my parents!”
In the past, if she said that, Madam Wen might think that she was really embarrassed. Young people blushed when talking about this kind of thing.
But since Madam Wen was reminded by her youngest son, what she saw and heard greatly changed her opinion of Gu Xishu and made her calm down a lot.
“You and Shi’an are in love with each other. I’ve known you since you were a child, so it’s not improper to talk about this,” Madam Wen said gently and did not give up this conversation because of the interruption of Gu Xishu.
“Aunt Wen!” Gu Xishu stole a glance at Madam Wen’s expression. Seeing that she looked calm, Gu Xishu breathed a sigh of relief and felt annoyed. She was going to marry her third cousin, so she had to marry him. E’niang had helped her plan it. After dealing with her second cousin’s matter, she could marry her third cousin.
But judging from her aunt’s attitude, she didn’t treat Gu Xishu like before. It seemed that she was a little distant.
Gu Xishu didn’t know what her aunt was trying to do now.
Thinking of E’niang, Gu Xishu couldn’t help thinking of E’niang’s matter, which would be a favor she did E’niang after E’niang helped her with the planning.
Gu Xishu was going to repay E’niang, but now she failed in her business. When she thought of E’niang’s matter, she felt a little annoyed.
At first, she promised to introduce E’niang to other Misses or Madams from aristocratic families. Although her aunt invited the Misses to her banquet, everyone knew that not only the Misses but also the Madams would come over since it was a blind date banquet. Gu Xishu thought that she could complete her task if E’niang could show up at this time.
She would never forget that she had promised Shao Hua’an to do so.
Moreover, she had a good relationship with E’niang.
However, there were always unexpected changes. After Madam Jiang died, the original banquet was canceled and got postponed. In the past few days, E’niang had come to urge Gu Xishu almost every day for a real chance to show up in public. It was also because of this that Gu Xishu deliberately said something in front of Madam Wen.
“Aunt…” Gu Xishu wanted to say something but stopped on second thought. She looked at Madam Wen timidly, as if she were still the child who had just been sent to the mansion.
“What’s wrong?” Madam Wen’s voice softened unconsciously.
Although she was dissatisfied with what Gu Xishu had done, she could not be cruel to her because she had raised Gu Xishu as her daughter.
“Aunt Wen, Aunt Lu will go up the mountain today. I’ll ask her to come and see you later, okay? When she came to see me before, she said that she wanted to see you, but you’re always busy.”
“It’s better not to meet her. I don’t know her!” Madam Wen refused.
“Aunt Wen, Aunt Lu has a very poor family background.” Gu Xishu tried to persuade her again.
“How do you know she is pitiful?” Madam Wen glanced at her and frowned secretly. When had Gu Xishu ever been so enthusiastic? Her excessive enthusiasm made Madam Wen skeptical.
“Everyone… everyone said so.” Gu Xishu held her handkerchief and lowered her head.
“Did everyone say that? Who said that?” Madam Wen asked, trying to get to the bottom of the matter.
“Didn’t everyone say that? She… she is really a good person and in a very poor situation,” Gu Xishu murmured. Of course, she was the only one who said that.
“You’d better stay out of her business!” Madam Wen said coldly.
Prime Minister Wen specially told her not to intervene in the affairs of Lu E’niang. What Shao Jing, Marquis Xing, had done, became more and more unpleasant. It was obvious that Lu E’niang was not a good person. Although Madam Wen had never seen this woman called Lu E’niang, she sent her trusted subordinates to see her and they all said that she was not a simple woman.
“There is nothing good going on in Marquis Xing’s Mansion now, let alone getting involved with those people.”
“You should stay away from her. You are an unmarried Miss. If you stay with her, your reputation will be ruined!” Madam Wen said.
“Yes, Aunt Wen!” Gu Xishu knew that since Madam Wen had said so, she could not try to persuade her. She bit her lip and was secretly angry.
Of course, she didn’t want to interfere, but she had no choice. Shao Hua’an had something on her. If she didn’t help E’niang, her past would be exposed.
Shao Yanru was the only one who knew about it. Unexpectedly, Shao Yanru told Shao Hua’an what she had on Gu Xishu before she died.
How dare Gu Xishu resist?
In any case, she had to help E’niang appear in front of everyone, in an aboveboard and straightforward way. A trace of gloom flashed in her eyes. “Since Aunt Wen doesn’t care about what we had together, she’s leaving me no choice.
“It was E’niang who came up with the idea. She told me what to do if Madam Wen insists on stopping me!
“I didn’t think I could use it before, but now I do. Then I’ll do as E’niang said. Aunt Wen asked for it. It’s not my fault…”
Shao Wanru walked outside for a while. Only Yujie and Qing’er followed her, so she had a leisurely time. She found that it was almost lunchtime. She walked back slowly, walked around the purple bamboo forest, and looked at the forest of steles inside. In fact, she was not very hungry, so she was not in a hurry.
This time, she came with Empress Dowager to worship in private, so she didn’t have many servants with her. She could even stay on the mountain for one night, which would be very comfortable.
The courtyards of the Empress Dowager were in the middle. The one on one side belonged to Shao Wanru, and the one on the other side belonged to the Empress. Shao Wanru just needed to go back to her courtyard for lunch.
The Empress Dowager had told them before that they didn’t need to follow her. As for the Empress, she didn’t seem willing to eat with Shao Wanru. Coincidentally, Shao Wanru also had the same idea.
They didn’t use the courtyards left by the royal family. The courtyards they stayed in were basically for ordinary distinguished guests, which were elegant and inconspicuous.
While Shao Wanru was walking, she suddenly saw an old maid coming out of a path in a hurry. Because she walked so fast that she almost bumped into Shao Wanru. After forcing herself to stop, she fell heavily to the ground and covered her foot in pain. It seemed that she seemed to have been injured from her fall.
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