五月阁色婷婷丁香五月

With a smile, Nanny Wei accompanied the Empress Dowager to stroll in the imperial garden.

A large group of palace maids and eunuchs followed her, carrying various practical items.

“He’d better not hurry up. If he can’t make it, let it be. He has just recovered a little and can’t exert himself,” the Empress Dowager sighed and said. She didn’t want Chu Liuchen to be in a hurry.

“You care so much about His Highness. He has been wholeheartedly grateful and filial to you. Even if he can’t return in time, he will ask Princess Chen to prepare a lovely gift for you. His Highness knows best about your preferences. Sometimes, even I have to ask him for advice.”

Nanny Wei said with a smile, extolling Chu Liuchen to the skies.

“You overpraised. His gifts were merely a token of his regard. Only a few people dote on my grandson in poor health. This child is luckless.” The Empress Dowager looked happy but sighed later on. “If I don’t love him dearly, he will be more pitiful.”

“With Your Majesty around, Prince Chen won’t be pitiable. Now he has married Princess Chen. I think Her Highness is clever and sensible. Although young, she has behaved quite experienced in life since she arrived in the capital city. I admire her for that.” Nanny Wei praised Shao Wanru, remaining as calm as usual.

A sophisticated young woman must be full of maneuvers.

Nanny Wei reminded Empress Dowager that Shao Wanru might be overly crafty and cunning, though everything Shao Wanru did was good when she arrived in the capital city three years ago.

These words were just chit-chat. Occasionally, the Empress Dowager would also gossip. Nanny Wei was a trusted personal servant, so the Empress Dowager wouldn’t feel her comment was out of line.

With regret, she sighed. “Princess Chen is too young, after all. She didn’t grow up in the Marquis Xing’s Mansion.”

Compared with Shao Wanru, the Empress Dowager preferred an elder Miss from an aristocratic family. It would be even better if she grew up with her parents. Educated by her parents and the rules of the aristocratic family, such a Young Madam must be a dutiful wife. If she was elder, she could take better care of Prince Chen.

“Your Highness, don’t worry. Princess Chen is an outstanding lady. Prince Chen chose her as his wife because he likes her, doesn’t he? His Highness must be heartily grateful to you, his Imperial Grandmother, for his happy life.” Nanny Wei pretended not to hear the regret in the Empress Dowager’s words and continued to praise Princess Chen.

“She is young and doesn’t strictly follow rules of etiquette. Her mother died when she was little, and no one taught her how to behave properly. It mattered little when she was only an ordinary Miss in the Marquis Xing’s Mansion. But now that she has become Princess Chen, her words and deeds will affect my grandson’s reputation. If she does anything wrong, Chen’er will have to bear the consequences.”

Hearing Nanny Wei’s words, the Empress Dowager became increasingly worried and sighed again.

The more she thought about it, the more anxious she became. The Empress Dowager had heard that she had been unfavored in the Ningyuan Army General’s Mansion for many years. Since the mansion’s hostess was Madam Di, the Empress Dowager did worry about Shao Wanru’s character, whether Madam Di had taught her or not. Madam Di, never a decent lady, was unvirtuous and had been unfaithful to Ningyuan Army General.

How could Madam Di raise any good child? If Madam Di didn’t teach Shao Wanru herself, it would be even worse for the servants to teach her.

The Empress Dowager didn’t think this way before, but now as she thought it over, she grew regretful. If she had known this earlier, she would have waited and seen. She would have waited until Chu Liuyue and Chu Liuzhou married. Maybe she could find a better one, and Chen’er might meet a more suitable wife.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t do anything about it for the time being.

Thinking of this, the Empress Dowager felt depressed.

“Her Majesty, what’s that?” Nanny Wei was about to speak when she suddenly spotted something red under a cluster of flowers, though no hint of red could be seen among those big, yellow flowers on the tree.

Nanny Wei walked over curiously and bent down to pick something up.

“Your Majesty, it’s a note.” Nanny Wei said while walking back and murmured to herself, “Why is it red?”

She walked up to the Empress Dowager, opened the folded note, and immediately a few words abruptly appeared before them.

The Empress Dowager frowned because it turned out to be a contract with a red stamp. How could such a thing be left here?

She checked the signature on it: Butterfly Clothing Shop.

“Who owns it? It actually was dropped here,” the Empress Dowager said. She had been managing family affairs before getting married, so she naturally knew how vital this contract was. She didn’t know who was so careless to drop a contract here. If it rained, the contract would be ruined.

“Butterfly Clothing Shop?” Nanny Wei read it out and muttered, “Why do I feel the name sounds a little familiar?”

“I feel the same way!” The Empress Dowager nodded, feeling it familiar too.

Nanny Wei thought for a while and said, with a twinkle in her eye. “I remember now. Isn’t this the shop Princess Chen has mentioned? She talked about it yesterday. Your Majesty, can you recall it?”

Now that Nanny Wei reminded her of this matter, the Empress Dowager came to think of it and nodded repeatedly. “Yes, right, there is such a thing. It is indeed that shop. Princess Chen said the shopkeeper had married a villainous and ungrateful man. He was greedy for her shop and even wanted her to remarry into his mansion.”

“This is…” The Empress Dowager suddenly took the note from Nanny Wei’s hand and scrutinized it. “It’s not an ordinary contract.”

“Er… I don’t quite understand. It seems to be a mortgage certificate.” Nanny Wei looked quite taken aback. After taking a closer look at it, she said, “Your Majesty, take it easy. It might not be what you think!”

“How could it not be? What a surprise… I didn’t expect…” The Empress Dowager’s face turned livid with anger, and she couldn’t even finish her words.

An ordinary mortgage certificate was nothing serious, but the problem was that the shopkeeper only got a mortgage of a bit of money. It was evident that someone deliberately took advantage of the shopkeeper’s crisis to force her to sign such a contract.

There is no doubt that it was accidentally dropped here when Princess Chen entered the Palace yesterday.

The Empress Dowager checked the paper. It had got damp and didn’t seem to be splashed wet by water. It should be the morning dew that soaked the paper. Otherwise, the vermilion seal paste inside the folded paper wouldn’t have penetrated the paper, and Nanny Wei couldn’t have noticed it at a glance.

Obviously, it was dropped here yesterday and remained under the flower tree for a whole night.

“There may be some other reasons for it. Princess Chen wouldn’t take her position to lord over innocent people. She is always gentle and soft-spoken.” Seeing the Empress Dowager was irritated, Nanny Wei hurriedly soothed her in a low voice, “Your Highness, you are not very well. Too much anger is like a toxin in your body. Prince Chen will blame me for not taking good care of you!”

“How can you defend her when seeing all of this? Princess Chen wouldn’t make this contract if she were a good person. She had just felt pity for the shopkeeper, but soon she lost no time taking advantage of that poor woman. It’s crystal clear that Princess Chen had been interested in her shop. As expected, she didn’t have a mother to educate her and became ruthlessly stingy.”

The Empress Dowager was pissed off and snarled, violently shaking the paper in her hand.

As a noble lady of high status, Princess Chen coveted a poor woman’s shop. What was worse, she maliciously beat down the price when the shopkeeper urgently needed money. How could she buy a shop at such a low price? The Empress Dowager laughed in a fit of anger, thinking that Princess Chen was making a fool of her.

“Your Majesty, please calm down. I’ll invite Princess Chen over so that you can hear her explanation. Is that okay?” Nanny Wei advised softly again.

“Don’t go. Even if we ask about it, Princess Chen can explain her action. No wonder she said those words to me yesterday. In her opinion, all of this was someone else’s fault, not hers. She deliberately came to me and reported the story in advance. In this way, she doesn’t need to be responsible for anything bad that happens later on. She must have made up some reasons for me. I don’t want to listen to these lies!”

The more Empress Dowager thought about it, the angrier she became, especially after connecting the matter’s beginning and end. It made sense. Otherwise, how could Shao Wanru specially go to visit her yesterday?

The Empress Dowager didn’t suspect Shao Wanru before, so she didn’t think much of it. But now, when the Empress Dowager no longer trusted her, Shao Wanru’s every word and action appeared suspicious in her eyes. Shao Wanru had long schemed to take the shop when its poor shopkeeper from a humble background was in a perilous plight. How could any decent and noble princess do such a despicable thing?

“Your Majesty…” Nanny Wei softly called out.

“Go out of the Palace and check it out. I don’t believe her words anymore. Find out who did this. If Princess Chen did it, tell her to take care of this matter. She is not allowed to take over the shop. The shopkeeper can do anything she wants to the shop, but it has nothing to do with Princess Chen.”

The Empress Dowager was fuming with rage and repeatedly urged Nanny Wei to investigate it.

“Yes, don’t be angry. I’ll go out of the Palace to check it out right away. Should I go to see you first or Princess Chen?” Nanny Wei nodded vigorously and asked.

“If it is her deliberate plan, you should go to the Prince Chen’s Mansion before returning to the Palace. If there is anything, tell her to see me in person!” The Empress Dowager growled.

“Yes, Your Majesty. I will help you go back first and go out to inquire about this matter.” Nanny Wei was secretly delighted but pretended to be only concerned about her master.

“I’d like to sit here longer. It’ll be harder for me to calm down if I go back now. Take out the portraits I’ve prepared for Prince Chen and bring them to the pavilion ahead. I’m going to choose a few virtuous and outstanding Misses for Chen’er. Since she can’t behave well as Princess Chen, let someone else take her place!”

The Empress Dowager pointed to a pavilion in front of her and said in a burning fury, regretting making Shao Wanru Chu Liuchen’s legal wife. At that time, she only wanted Chu Liuchen to feel satisfied, so she agreed to his request without serious consideration. Little did she think that Chu Liuchen, a young man not sophisticated enough, might become very infatuated with a Young Madam. Since she had seen Shao Wanru in her unpleasant true colors, she would ask Chen’er to pick up a few better Misses marrying into his mansion.

The title of Princess Chen didn’t have to be Shao Wanru’s.