五月阁色婷婷丁香五月

Chapter 1047 Thorough Preparations, Where Did It Start?

“My Lady, a pigeon mail from His Highness!” Qing’er came over in a hurry and delivered it to Shao Wanru.

Chu Liuchen’s letters were usually sent from the courier station or delivered along with Empress Dowager’s letters. Compared with his thick letters to the Empress Dowager, the letters that Shao Wanru received were thinner. But even so, each letter had several sheets of paper.

But this letter only had one piece of paper. After opening it, Shao Wanru saw only a few words.

“A rumor: Princess Yutao will marry me. Be careful!”

These few scarlet words were written with a cinnabar pen. It seemed that these vigorous strokes were going to go through the paper. Even the back of the paper looked blood-red, which looked quite terrifying.

!!

Shao Wanru’s heart thumped. She reached out to touch her head and closed her eyes slightly. The red words made her feel weird.

For some reason, the color reminded her of the remaining memories of her previous life. There was a bloody imperial palace with so many dead palace maids and beauties…

“My Lady, what’s wrong with you?” Seeing Shao Wanru’s uncomfortable look, Qing’er asked hurriedly.

“I’m fine!” Shao Wanru shook her head and struggled to open her eyes. She heaved a deep sigh after carefully folding the letter paper in her hand.

“Recently, let’s stay in our mansion and handle everything at home.” Shao Wanru instructed them to make preparations. “Reinforce our mansion’s security. If anything goes wrong, report to me right away.”

“Okay, I see. Shall I inform the Palace?” Qing’er answered and asked again.

She was now in charge of Princess Chen’s safety, so Qing’er felt worried.

“No, we don’t have to do that. We can cope with shifting events by sticking to some fundamental principles.” Shao Wanru shook her head. The situation in the Palace was unclear, and she couldn’t see through it at the moment. It would be better for her to stay in her mansion.

By a carrier pigeon, Chu Liuchen passed the message with a few words to her, exhorting her to be doubly careful. Their enemies must have been busy preparing for attacks.

She had always believed in Chu Liuchen’s words!

As Chu Liuchen said in his previous letter, he had handled the trouble with Princess Yutao. This mail the pigeon brought to her was short but clear.

Some people wanted Princess Yutao to marry Chu Liuchen. In this case, she was the only obstacle. Only her death could make way for Princess Yutao. When making that clear, Shao Wanru felt the shadows that those coming perilous events cast before her.

“My Lady, before His Highness left, he said you could go to find Consort Lan in the Palace when encountering something too much for us. She will protect you!” Qing’er suggested.

“Consort Lan?” Shao Wanru said, her arched eyebrows frowning slightly. She had heard of Consort Lan and even inquired about her later, but few people had seen her. It was said that the people who had seen were senile and muddle-headed. It has been such a long time. They only knew Consort Lan was exceedingly beautiful but couldn’t tell any special thing.

“But when I mentioned Consort Lan, he looked displeased. Why would he ask me to rely upon Consort Lan?”

“You’ll be in charge of the safety of the mansion from now on. Go and invite Nanny Zheng here!” Shao Wanru said. They mentioned Consort Lan, who had sent someone here to deliver a message. Anyway, she had to ask Nanny Zheng about it.

Qing’er withdrew. After a while, Nanny Zheng came in. After bowing to Shao Wanru, she stepped aside.

“Please sit down!” Shao Wanru said politely.

After thanking Shao Wanru for that, Nanny Zheng sat on the round stool of average height on Shao Wanru’s right side, smiling at her.

“Nanny, could you tell me whether Consort Lan is reliable or not?” Shao Wanru looked at Nanny Zheng seriously and said bluntly.

“My Lady, trust me. Consort Lan is reliable and will never have any bad intentions towards you and His Highness,” Nanny Zheng didn’t hesitate for a moment to answer this question sincerely.

“Won’t she do anything for others?” Shao Wanru asked, putting her doubt in another way.

“She won’t put His Highness and you in danger for others. Consort Lan… owes His Highness a lot and always wants to do something for him, but His Highness never accepted her kindness…” Nanny Zheng blurred the critical points.

Shao Wanru looked deeply at Nanny Zheng but didn’t intend to ask more. If Chu Liuchen wanted her to know something, she would investigate it. But if not, he wouldn’t ask.

Just now, Nanny Zheng’s every action and expression told her that Consort Lan genuinely cared about Chu Liuchen. In addition, Chu Liuchen said that Consort Lan was reliable. So, she could ask for Consort Lan’s help at a critical moment.

Of course, it would be best if she could get through the crisis herself. Shao Wanru didn’t want to use Consort Lan’s power until the last moment.

“My Lady, Consort Lan wanted you to know she can protect you if you are in danger. Even the Empress can’t do anything to her!” Nanny Zheng was afraid that Shao Wanru was not confident in Consort Lan, so she lowered her voice and added.

Shao Wanru was astounded, her liquid eyes lighting up and her thick eyelashes raising. How could Consort Lan be so confident to say that?

The master of the imperial harem was the Empress. Shao Wanru had seen Consort Lan, a bright and pretty lady who couldn’t say such arrogant words for no reason. So, was it true?

“But why would it be like this? Did I misunderstand something?”

“You can contact Consort Lan, can’t you?” Shao Wanru calmed down a little and asked slowly. It wasn’t the time to figure out why Consort Lan dared to say that.

“Don’t worry, My Lady. I can do it. That day, Consort Lan also found something unusual, so she sent someone to notify you.” Nanny Zheng nodded and said with certainty.

“Okay, then let’s wait and see what will happen!” Shao Wanru felt secure and said coolly, her rosy lips lifting slightly and revealing a trace of coldness.

Nothing venture, nothing have. All the people in the imperial court were concerned about Princess Yutao of the Xu State, which brought convenience for her to carefully do something she wanted to do and prepare for any changes as soon as possible.

The Empress Dowager’s birthday was close at hand, which made the coming period more critical. With a wave of her hand, Shao Wanru let Nanny Zheng leave and sat alone in the room. After thinking for a while, she sent for Nanny Yu.

Nanny Yu was now the supervisor in charge of the inner court. As for the outer court’s affairs, the chief supervisor was handling them. The chief supervisor and the outer court supervisor worked for Chu Liuchen loyally. Even if Chu Liuchen was not at home, his people arranged everything well. Shao Wanru didn’t intervene in the affairs of the outer court. Since Chu Liuchen was assured of the people in the outer court, her intervention would only make them panic.

Nanny Yu didn’t come fast because she was occupied with many things. The servant girl didn’t find Nanny Yu soon. After searching for some time, she found Nanny Yu in the kitchen.

Hearing that Shao Wanru needed her, Nanny Yu ran over, panting and sweating profusely.

“Nanny, don’t worry. It’s nothing serious. I need to ask about some petty things.” Shao Wanru smiled and ordered Yujie to serve tea for Nanny Yu.

Nanny Yu sat down and drank a cup of tea before recovering. She reached out to wipe the sweat on her forehead and said with a bitter smile, “I’m old now. If I were younger, I could be more capable.”

“Nanny, you are not old. With you around, I could live a comfortable and safe life,” Shao Wanru said with a smile.

Qu Le brought a basin of warm water for Nanny Yu to wash her face, and then she bowed to Shao Wanru again before taking her seat.

“Nanny Yu, you were in the kitchen. Did anything happen just now?” Shao Wanru asked with a smile after Nanny Yu sat down again.

Nanny Yu was in charge of the affairs of the inner court, but she didn’t have to manage everything herself. There were many big and small supervisors under her command. Previously, Shao Wanru usually asked her to order others to run errands.

The inner court of Prince Chen’s Mansion, which was under Shao Wanru’s control, had been kept in good order. She would ask several supervisors about the general situation every day, and Nanny Yu dealt with other things for her. In a sense, Nanny Yu was managing everything, so the low-ranking supervisors would usually go to see Nanny Yu for advice.

“Indeed, I was dealing with something. Nothing serious. There was something wrong with the food ingredients, so I went there to check it up. The kitchen is a little far from here, so I came here late!” Nanny Yu was in a peeve over it.

“What’s the matter?” Shao Wanru asked leisurely.

“Actually, not a big deal. The person delivering the food for our mansion was sick, so he asked someone else to do the job. But the newcomer is not very sensible. Although the number of ingredients was correct, they were obviously of inferior quality. The supervisor of the kitchen asked me to go and have a look.”

Nanny Yu reported in detail.

“Couldn’t you just return the bad ones?” Shao Wanru was surprised because it was a trivial matter. She could refuse to accept them and ask the person to deliver fresh vegetables and meat instead.

“I’m afraid… I couldn’t…” Nanny Yu said with embarrassment.

“Why not? Could there be some reasons behind it?” Shao Wanru said with a vague feeling of surprise. She didn’t have the faintest idea why Nanny Yu couldn’t do that.

Nanny Yu heaved a sigh and said helplessly, “The delivery guy is said to have some link with the chief supervisor. Returning those vegetables and meat would humiliate him. So, the servants in the kitchen didn’t have the courage to… Well, in fact… I didn’t dare to do it either!”

She came here when Shao Wanru married into this mansion. In contrast, the chief supervisor, Prince Chen’s trusted subordinate, had been processing everything inside and outside the mansion for a long.

Speaking of the chief supervisor, Nanny Yu admitted his superiority because he was highly experienced and astute. In her view, he was way superior, and she couldn’t compare with him. If without Princess Chen’s support, Nanny Yu would get too flustered to behave normally whenever she saw the chief supervisor.

“How bad is the food?” Shao Wanru pondered for a moment and asked.

“Many leaves outside cabbages are rotten, and some vegetables don’t look fresh. The meat is overly fat and shoddy at first sight. As for those potatoes and many other things, they look much smaller.” Nanny Yu recalled for a while and presented many examples.

“Nanny, how did you respond to it?” Shao Wanru blinked, her long eyelashes fluttering, and asked.

“I had asked the chief supervisor for advice. He let me handle it, but I didn’t dare to make any hasty decisions and intended to discuss it with you. It happened that you asked to see me, so I hurried over!” Nanny Yu said with a bitter smile.