Chapter 704 Rip Down the Veil of Tenderness
Shao Yanru, who supported Old Madam beside her, also saw Shao Wanru, who was so calm in the corridor. She couldn’t help shivering in her heart.
Seeing Old Madam coming over step by step with Shao Yanru’s help, Shao Wanru looked at her with extremely cold eyes. Under Old Madam’s angry gaze, she took two steps forward slowly with a slight smile, came over and said after bowing sideways, “Greetings, Old Madam!”
“What are you doing?” Old Madam asked with a cold and unfriendly look. Shao Wanru, who stood in the corridor and looked at her in that way just now, didn’t look like an obedient granddaughter.
“Miss Wang invited me here to talk about what happened in the imperial palace at that time. Old Madam, why do you come here at this time?” Shao Wanru looked up at Old Madam and said with a slight smile.
“Hearing from the servants that something terrible happened to cousin sister, grandma felt worried, so she led us to come to check on her!” Shao Yanru pulled herself together and said with a smile. Knowing that there was the hope of her recovery, she returned to the gentle and decorous First Miss of Duke Xing’s Mansion at this time.
“Something terrible happened to Miss Wang? She was fine when I got in her room just now. Why did someone report it to Old Madam long before?” Shao Wanru said calmly and looked at Shao Yanru with burning eyes, which made Shao Yanru have an inexplicably bad intuition.
But she, who had always done a good job in controlling her emotions, just took a small step back and hid half of her body behind Old Madam, looking a little timid.
“Maybe someone reported it to me at the thought that something terrible was going to happen to her!” Old Madam looked at Shao Wanru with an unfriendly look and said. Seeing that even her favorite granddaughter stood aside to avoid confronting Shao Wanru, Old Madam became increasingly displeased with Shao Wanru.
“Bad news. Bad news. Something terrible happened to Miss Wang!” The maid suddenly rushed out of the room and screamed loudly.
After getting out of the room and seeing so many people outside, the maid froze for a moment, and then suddenly rushed to Old Madam, burst into tears and said, “Old Madam, please save Miss Wang! Save her! She… she’s dying!”
The maid said with tears streaming down her face and almost crashed to the ground when she threw herself at Old Madam’s feet.
“What happened to cousin sister?” Shao Yanru asked anxiously with her face changing dramatically, stepped forward and was about to rush in, but she found Shao Wanru was in front of her.
They met each other’s eyes in silence.
“Fifth Sister…” Shao Yanru said and looked at Shao Wanru with a pleading look, as if Shao Wanru tried to stop her from getting in.
Shao Wanru leaned to one side and said, “Big Sister, after you!”
“Fifth Sister…”
“Big Sister, what else do you want to say at this time? Aren’t you going inside to see Miss Wang? I heard that you have been on friendly terms with Miss Wang!”
Shao Wanru interrupted her rudely.
Shao Yanru clenched her fists in her sleeves and gritted her teeth secretly. But at this time, continuing the conversation could only make her seem to be less anxious than before. So she could only lift the edge of her dress and hurried into the room.
As the curtain was lifted, the smell of medicine mixed with a stench and a moldy smell immediately came out. It smelled so bad that Shao Yanru almost threw up. After getting her footing and catching her breath, she immediately rushed to Wang Yishu, who was lying in bed.
Wang Yishu was in poor condition at this moment. She pressed her hands on her chest with blood on her lips and a livid face, out of breath. When Shao Yanru came in, her blurred vision only allowed her to see a figure vaguely.
She pressed her chest hard. Seeing her in this state, Shao Yanru was shocked with her face changing dramatically. Although she was prepared for it, she stopped approaching Wang Yishu.
“Big Sister, seeing you come here, Miss Wang must want to tell you something!” Shao Wanru came in from behind her and said calmly, “If she can’t finish her words now, she… may come to finish them later!”
Hearing her creepy words, seeing Wang Yishu struggling in pain, Shao Yanru hesitated at this moment although she was bold. She stood still at the door curtain and did not dare to move, only feeling that she could hardly breathe in such a depressing room.
Wang Yishu almost fixed her eyes on her, who was standing at the door curtain, with the kind of despair from a dying person. Wang Yishu’s death was a part of her plan, but she didn’t expect that when she saw Wang Yishu dying in front of her with her own eyes, she would be so disgusted and panic-stricken that she even wanted to throw up.
“Big Sister, Miss Wang is waiting for you… Would you like to go over there, take her hand and comfort her… If Miss Wang sees that you come to see her, she will be delighted although she’s dying. In the future, she will meet you in your dream every day and thank you for what you have done to her. Big Sister, you and Miss Wang are so close sisters!”
Shao Wanru said in a very low voice, but even so, Shao Yanru heard her words clearly. With her face turning pale, Shao Yanru held her handkerchief with her cold fingers and kept thinking of Wang Yishu struggling with pain on the brink of death, feeling as if she were seized by the throat.
She felt as if something greasy was being stirred in her throat, but she couldn’t throw up.
Shao Yanru took two steps back and almost stepped out of the room. Old Madam came in with Nanny Yu. Compared with Shao Yanru, Old Madam had much more experience. Although Wang Yishu seemed to be in poor condition, she, who had seen various situations, walked slowly towards Wang Yishu’s bed after freezing for a while.
“Old Madam, please wait!” As Shao Wanru said, she reached out to stop Old Madam.
“What’s going on? Do you have to kill her, who’s on the brink of death?” Old Madam said with a gloomy face.
She meant that she was sure that it was Shao Wanru who put Wang Yishu in the current situation.
Shao Wanru almost burst out laughing. As she expected, they wouldn’t be willing to let her go until they ruined her life. Old Madam declared her guilty even without asking.
“Old Madam, if you go there, you will destroy the traces left at the bedside. Although I came here before you, I didn’t go there. If you go there now, it will be difficult to explain!”
Shao Wanru said very calmly, raised her head slightly and looked indifferently without dodging Old Madam’s eyes.
Hearing what she said, everyone glanced at the bedside. Wang Yishu’s bedside was relatively clean, and there were only a few light footprints left by the maid and a few big footprints which should be left by Doctor Qiu. Except for these, there were no other footprints.
“It’s snowing outside. I came here just now and just had a short conversation with Miss Wang at the door before leaving. As soon as I got out of the room, Old Madam came with Big Sister and said that someone intended to hurt Miss Wang and Miss Wang was in poor condition. I don’t know what it means. Could it be that someone intended to set me up? Old Madam’s courtyard is far away from here. I probably haven’t set out when Old Madam left her courtyard!”
Shao Wanru said with contempt.
Her attitude enraged Old Madam. Old Madam said with a gloomy face, “Since I didn’t know that you were coming here, why do you think my visit here means someone intended to set you up?”
“Many people in the kitchen heard that I was coming to see Miss Wang. It was Doctor Qiu who kept telling me that Miss Wang wanted to meet me. However, I saw her dying when I came here. If Old Madam insisted that I have done something to Miss Wang, I can only say that I kept standing here until now!”
As Shao Wanru said, she stamped her feet gently, and there was snow falling off her soles.
She had stepped on plenty of snow on her way here, so there was a lot of snow on her soles. After she stamped her feet lightly, there was snow falling off her soles. If she had walked on the clean ground, she would inevitably leave some traces. It was impossible that there was no trace at all.
Wang Yishu’s bedside was very clean. There were only a few footprints, which were left by the maid and Doctor Qiu.
After the maid, who came in with Old Madam, took a look at the ground in front of Wang Yishu’s bed, her face darkened. Shao Wanru’s words left her no chance to say what she had prepared before.
“What have you done to her so that she’s in such a miserable situation?” Old Madam asked in an unfriendly tone.
“Old Madam, what do you think I could do to her from a distance?” Shao Wanru asked her back.
Her unruly attitude completely enraged Old Madam. Old Madam reached out angrily in an attempt to slap Shao Wanru.
Yujie stepped forward in a hurry to stand in front of Shao Wanru and was slapped by Old Madam.
“Old Madam, do you think that I probably put Miss Wang in this situation by enraging her? I could enrage her from a distance?” Shao Wanru pulled Yujie back and said with coldness in her eyes.
It was what Old Madam wanted to say, but Shao Wanru said it before her so that she couldn’t speak at the moment. Of course, she would like to make Shao Wanru take the blame, otherwise, she wouldn’t have come here in such a hurry.
“Fifth Sister, this is grandma. How can you talk to her in this way!” Shao Yanru rebuked her.
“Big Sister, do you mean that even if it has nothing to do with me, I should take the blame since Old Madam thinks so?” Shao Wanru glanced at Shao Yanru’s hypocritical face and asked with a sneer.
“How… how can you say that!” Shao Yanru said in embarrassment.
“Since that’s not the case, shouldn’t we send for a doctor to treat Miss Wang now? Shouldn’t we take this maid aside and ask her about what happened? Why did you keep staring at me and insist that I should take the blame without asking? Since I’ve been standing so far away from Miss Wang, how could she blame me for this? I couldn’t poison Miss Wang from a distance, right?”
Shao Wanru said with a sneer.
Since Old Madam intended to make her take the blame, she would not care about the veil of tenderness anymore.
Wang Yishu was in terrible condition. She clearly knew that Wang Yishu could not survive although she was far away from her.
She was supposed to take the blame for Wang Yishu’s death.
“Go and ask Doctor Qiu to come here!” Old Madam said with a cold face.
Immediately, an old maid ran out in a hurry. However, before she could reach the gate of the courtyard, Wang Yishu, who had been struggling under everyone’s gaze, suddenly opened her eyes wide and her body began to twitch. After a while, she, who had leant against the cushion, became limp and fell off the cushion feebly.
The maid serving her screamed and pounced on her. After reaching out to feel her breath, she shouted bitterly, “Miss Wang is dead! Miss Wang is dead!”