Chapter 944 The Recognition Isn’t As Simple As It Looks
“Yes! It was Yuru. It was Qin Yuru who set the fire!”
Madam Di struggled hard to get up from the bed. However, her body was so stiff that she couldn’t coordinate her limbs. Every time she was deep in her thought, she couldn’t even notice the surrounding environment.
But she was well aware now that her daughter wanted to murder her!
She wanted to live. She rolled off the bed and tried hard to crawl towards the door with a ferocious and resentful face. “If I had known that she is such an unfilial daughter, I should have strangled her to death when she was born…”
When the fire broke out, Qin Yuru had been at the outside of the inner court. She looked back at the fire and then left with a calm face.
When she returned to Ningyuan Army General’s Mansion, Qin Yuru had decided to kill her mother, which she thought was the best choice!
Madam Di could not live on after she confessed everything!
“I won’t regain my reputation if I have an unfaithful mother. Only when she is dead can I gain people’s sympathy, and Duke Yong’s Mansion will give up the idea of divorcing me!
“Anyway, Mother is the daughter of Duke Yong’s Mansion. Everyone knows that Countess Yong once coveted her dowries and mine, and now Mother is dead. If Di Yan divorces me in such a situation, the whole world will spurn him!”
Qin Yuru realized that Madam Di’s death would bring her a chance. Moreover, she had the stuff Madam Di gave her. After getting on the carriage, Qin Yuru ordered the carriage to leave for Grand Prince’s Mansion.
Nevertheless, Qin Yuru didn’t notice that Qing Xue stalked her. Qing Xue also called an ordinary oil-walled carriage and followed Qin Yuru to Grand Prince’s Mansion.
Qin Yuru took out the bundle from her pocket and opened it. She found there was an old hairpin. It should be exquisite when it was new, but now it looked inconspicuous.
Under the hairpin was an old note.
She unfolded the note and found it was a simple address, from which she couldn’t see anything special. It seemed to be a place where they dated in secret.
Then there was another letter. Unlike the note, it was new, sealed with seal paste. Obviously, it was carefully sealed by Madam Di.
Qin Yuru was in a dilemma for a few seconds and finally decided to keep it sealed. She could not touch Madam Di’s things now so that everything she planned would look convincing.
“Mother is dead, so I have no second chance!”
Qin Yuru took a deep breath. She wrapped them up, put them into her sleeve, and straightened up. “Though he is a black sheep, he is my father! From this point of view, I am a member of the royal family.
“I am a granddaughter of the Emperor’s uncle! I am of much higher rank than Duke Yong’s Mansion!”
Her carriage stopped in front of Grand Prince’s Mansion, and Mei Xue got off and knocked on the door.
“Who is it?” the gatekeeper looked at Mei Xue’s embarrassed face and asked in a strange voice.
“Our Young Madam wants to see Fourth Master Chu!” Grand Prince’s sons were no longer young, and his fourth son had been the famous Fourth Master in the capital city now.
“Your Young Madam?” The gatekeeper poked his head out to look at the carriage parked outside and then at Mei Xue’s swollen face. He just waved his hand and said impatiently, “Get off! Grand Prince said he would never recognize you no matter what happened to you and our Fourth Master. All of you only want to curry favor with Fourth Master! Just think over whether you are qualified!”
Fourth Master Chu kept having visitors, most of whom were women from indecent families. The gatekeeper got accustomed to it, so he didn’t think much of it and just waved to ask them to leave.
Mei Xue didn’t understand what he meant at first, but later she blushed with shame.
“Our Young Madam has something to talk with Fourth Master!”
“Okay, okay! Everyone came and said the same line. Which brothel do your Young Madam come from?” the gatekeeper puckered his lips and said disdainfully, “Grand Prince said their family would not embrace your Young Madam no matter who she was or what Fourth Master had promised her. How can you take what a man promised in bed seriously?”
The gatekeeper became more and more relentless. He just regarded Qin Yuru as one of those women from a brothel and didn’t respect her at all. “Even if they can enter our mansion, Fourth Master must send them out a few days later. Do they really think they can turn into noble swans from ugly ducklings? Think how much sincerity Fourth Master has as a playboy!”
However, even though they knew that Fourth Master was not sincere to them, they still came one after another, trying to become a member of Grand Prince’s Mansion.
“What are you talking about? Our Young Madam… is Fourth Master’s daughter!” Mei Xue was so ashamed that she almost couldn’t speak a word. She stamped her foot hard and handed the hairpin and note over. “These are the tokens from your Fourth Master!”
“Daughter?” The gatekeeper looked at her in shock and took the tokens.
The old tokens and Mei Xue’s serious look shocked the gatekeeper so hard that he could not speak. He had never met a woman who called herself Fourth Master’s daughter. Studying the hairpin and the note in his hand for a moment, he found that they were old. Finally, he decided not to refuse them and hurriedly ran into the mansion.
Qing Xue’s carriage followed and stopped behind Qin Yuru’s. She saw Mei Xue go to the door and talk with the gatekeeper. After a long time, someone opened the side door and let Qin Yuru’s carriage enter Grand Prince’s Mansion.
Qing Xue kept watch outside. It was not until two hours later that she saw Qin Yuru’s carriage come out of Grand Prince’s Mansion and leave for Duke Yong’s Mansion. Qin Yuru did it to pretend that she didn’t know what happened to Madam Di…
After thinking for a while, Qing Xue ordered her coachman to drive to Prince Chen’s Mansion. After all, Shao Wanru told her that she had to come back and report if anything happened.
“No soon had I left Qin’s Mansion than something bad happened to Madam Di. First Miss was the last person Madam Di met before the fire! How vicious First Miss is!” Qing Xue thought.
“Qin Yuru went to Grand Prince’s Mansion and asked them to recognize her as a family member?” Shao Wanru put down the teacup and asked in surprise. She had never thought that Madam Di would be such a person, though she didn’t like Madam Di at all.
“Qin Yuru is not Qin Huaiyong’s daughter! So this is the secret Madam Di has kept for long! Old Madam of Duke Yong’s Mansion should have known it early, so she treats Qin Yuru so well.” Shao Wanru started to figure out the answer to the question that had puzzled her for a long time.
In fact, Shao Wanru had such a guess when Madam Di did nothing under threat. But Shao Wanru felt that it was too ridiculous.
“I had never heard about the story in my last life! How unexpected it is that it’s uncovered now!” Shao Wanru thought in her heart.
She rubbed the teacup with her fingers and frowned slightly. “Did it not happen in the last life? Or it indeed happened, but I was blocked from the news?”
In Shao Wanru’s last life, Qin Yuru lived a good life like a noble lady in the capital city, with Duke Xing’s Mansion and General’s Mansion as her backup. “Was it because Grand Prince’s Mansion was the power behind her?
“If that was the case, it could explain why she lived a better life than Shao Yanru!
“Shao Yanru, as the First Miss of Duke Xing’s Mansion, entered the Palace but didn’t get what she wanted. However, Qin Yuru achieved her goals. So, Qin Yuru seemed to have taken advantage of the power behind her in the last life! It was unclear whether Qin Huaiyong knew about the secret or not…”
A thought suddenly entered Shao Wanru’s mind. “At that time, I no longer paid attention to Ningyuan Army General’s Mansion. How would Qin Huaiyong treat Madam Di as usual if he knew that his only daughter was not his biological daughter?”
“Yes! I had followed First Miss since she came back to Qin’s Mansion. But later… when Madam Di’s main room was on fire and smoke was rising in the direction of her courtyard… I saw First Miss pause at the back door for a while,” said Qing Xue.
Qing Xue had been keeping an eye on Qin Yuru after she reported to Madam Shui that Qin Yuru had returned home. She sneaked to Madam Di’s window outside and eavesdropped on parts of the conversation between Madam Di and her daughter, but she left soon and sneaked out of the courtyard and waited outside in case she was discovered.
Since Qing Xue had served Madam Di in the courtyard for a long time, she was very clear about the layout of Madam Di’s courtyard, which was the main reason why Qing Xue could come and go at will and was not discovered by Qin Yuru and her servant girl.
Moreover, Qing Xue saw Qin Yuru walk out of Madam Di’s room and then followed her up. However, Qing Xue didn’t see what Qin Yuru did before she left Madam Di’s room! So Qing Xue didn’t expect that Qin Yuru would be so cruel that she even wanted to burn her mother to death!
“How is Madam Di?” Shao Wanru asked.
Shao Wanru didn’t feel sorry for Madam Di. “Madam Di herself is such a vicious woman that she deserves what she has suffered. On the other hand, she gave birth to a more vicious daughter, who could even live a wealthy and glorious life in my last life! How unfair it was!”
However, no matter how vicious Madam Di was, she still treated her daughter well. But she had never expected that she would be murdered by her beloved daughter one day.
“Something must have happened to Madam Di! She is in poor health with a stiff body that causes her slow reaction. When she’s deep in thought, she seems to lose her senses and doesn’t even notice the screams of the people around her!” said Qing Xue. She knew Madam Di’s condition well because she used to serve the poor patient.
Anyone familiar with Madam Di knew that she was dull and abnormal when they saw her!
“Qing Xue, you go back first,” Shao Wanru nodded and said, “and report it to General Qin!” After all, Qing Xue shouldn’t stay outside for too long.
“That First Miss wanted to murder Madam Di with fire?” Qing Xue asked.
“And that First Miss is not General Qin’s daughter. Just tell him that you only heard part of their talk. Then you followed First Miss and saw her enter Grand Prince’s Mansion recognizing her father!” said Shao Wanru lightly with deep eyes.
She felt the whole thing was as not simple as it looked. “I am unable to deal with it alone. So I have to ask His Highness about Grand Prince and his fourth son!
“The stuff Madam Di took out must be something very important, because she knows that such a playboy as her former lover won’t carry out his promise that easily. Otherwise, she would have asked Qin Yuru to recognize her father earlier.
“But why does Madam Di think that an unreliable person like Fourth Master of Grand Prince’s Mansion would be willing to help Qin Yuru wholeheartedly for the sake of their past relationship?
“It is definitely not as simple as it looks. It is more like a trick that Madam Di asked Qin Yuru to find her biological father…”