Chapter 761 Exchanging a Simple Requirement With a Difficult One
“Was Prince Yue unwilling to come?” Shao Yanru said with a gloomy face.
“Prince meant that you don’t have to worry, Miss. He… will… will figure it out…” Shuqi stammered. The so-called meaning was roughly summarized by herself.
“What about Shao Wanru?” Shao Yanru asked, and her eyes were almost overflowing with malice. She felt that it was all Shao Wanru’s fault, because Prince Yue would not have been like this before. It was definitely because of Shao Wanru. She hated Shao Wanru so much that she wanted to kill her right now. But she also knew that it was not the right time to hurt Shao Wanru.
“Fifth Miss was in the pavilion where she had talked to Prince Yue just now. She looked happy and even prepared some tea and snacks!” Shuqi said angrily. Only after she had finished her words did she find that she had added the words “where she had talked to Prince Yue”.
So she was a little flustered for a moment and hurriedly lowered her head, for fear that Shao Yanru would punish her.
“B*tch! She is a b*tch!” Shao Yanru was furious and gritted her teeth in anger. Prince Yue was the one she liked, but Shao Wanru seemingly came to steal her man and Prince Yue also had a crush on Shao Wanru. How could Shao Yanru bear this?
She had originally wanted to take advantage of Prince Yue’s special treatment of her as a deterrent to other Misses and let them know who the final winner would be. But now she found that Chu Liuyue seemed to be somewhat estranged from her. How could she bear it?
After so many years of planning, how could she let it fail at the most critical moment?
Her eyes looked empty, and she stared at somewhere in the air coldly. Anyway, she must ask Chu Liuyue to come to Chuxiu Palace again for her.
“You go to invite Prince Yue again tomorrow. Tell him that I have something important to tell him and ask him to come here quickly!” Shao Yanru said slowly in a low voice.
“Tomorrow… where am I going to find… Prince Yue?” Shuqi hesitated. They were in the palace now, so she could not wander anywhere or know where Prince Yue would be. As a little servant girl brought by a beauty, she might lose her life if she was not careful.
“What are you afraid of? I will let you find him.” Shao Yanru said coldly. Wang Yuxin had told her where Chu Liuyue could be found.
At first, she had not cared where Chu Liuyue would be. At that time, Shao Yanru had just heard it and even said that Prince Yue might really have a crush on Wang Yuxin and let her cherish it. She had also secretly congratulated Wang Yuxin that she would be the future wife of Prince Yue. Wang Yuxin had been so happy about this sweet talk that she had told Shao Yanru everything that she had known.
She had not cared about it before, because she had known that it was impossible for Chu Liuyue to really like Wang Yuxin. Besides, Chu Liuyue had also mentioned to her before that Wang Yuxin could at most become a consort.
In order to help Chu Liuyue get that position, Shao Yanru once had said that she didn’t care about these. As long as Chu Liuyue was fine, she could accept anything, even if she suffered wrong.
Her generosity had been on the premise that Chu Liuyue would be devoted to her and take her seriously. But now, Shao Yanru felt a crisis, so how could she not care anymore?
She couldn’t let Shao Wanru steal her position as Princess. If Shao Wanru also wanted to marry into Prince Yue’s Mansion, she could only be the lowest concubine. Therefore, Shao Yanru had to seize the opportunity and couldn’t let Shao Wanru beat her to it.
“Yes, I’ll go there tomorrow. But will Prince Yue… not come?” Shuqi still said uneasily with hesitation.
If she was rejected by Prince Yue again, Miss would definitely vent all her anger on Shuqi.
“He won’t. Just say that it’s an important thing related to Wang Yuxin!” Shao Yanru gritted her teeth, and mentioned Wang Yuxin after thinking for a moment.
Had it been before, she would have been sure that Chu Liuyue would come, but now she was not that sure, and she even had to use Wang Yuxin as an excuse.
She clenched her fists and felt annoyed and resentful. She made up her mind that if he still didn’t come, she would turn into Chu Liuzhou’s arms and help him deal with Chu Liuyue.
Chu Liuzhou was restrained by the powerful Empress, so it was inconvenient for him to do something. But as long as Chu Liuzhou promised her to be his Princess forever, she could still take him into account.
She took a deep breath, looked at the screen coldly, and asked, “Is Shao Wanru still in the pavilion outside?”
“She was still in the pavilion when I came here, but I don’t know if she is still there now!” Shuqi reported.
“Go to see whether she is there. If not, bring that palace maid named Han Dan here secretly. I have something to ask her!” Shao Yanru said.
She had few people who could be used in the palace. Shuqi could not manage everything only by herself, and it was easy to attract people’s attention to use Shuqi. The best way was to use the people in the palace.
This palace maid named Han Dan was not bad. She seemed to be clever and had taken the initiative to show kindness to Shao Yanru again and again. If there was any news normally, she would report it to Shao Yanru as soon as possible, so Shao Yanru had a good impression of her.
The chief eunuch had sent someone to investigate the case related to Wang Yuxin. Shao Yanru had known little about it and she had only known that some palace servants had seen Han Dan and Shuqi being furtive. This had not been real evidence or proved anything about her. At most, it had just been a suspicion, so she had not been asked to confront the palace maid called Han Dan.
At this moment, Shao Yanru thought that this palace maid was sincerely coming over to her.
Originally, it was not Shao Yanru’s character to easily trust people. However, Shuqi was the only one that she could use at the moment. She finally had a person crossing over to her, and this palace maid had done a good job these days. She was indeed devoted to Shao Yanru, so she could be used first.
When Shuqi went out again, Shao Wanru and her servant had left. Looking at the empty pavilion, Shuqi carefully walked to the door of Shao Wanru’s room, only to find that the door had been closed and both of them were inside.
It was time for dinner. The little eunuch who delivered the food put it down, and when he was about to leave, Shuqi came out and gave a pouch with money to the little eunuch with a smile. When he took it, the little eunuch beamed with smiles.
Shuqi whispered some words in his ears, and the little eunuch nodded repeatedly. He looked around and left after seeing that no one noticed him.
Not long after, the palace maid Han Dan secretly entered Shao Yanru’s door in the dark. She was a little palace maid and was not eye-catching in the Chuxiu Palace. Besides, it was a dark winter night now. How could it be possible for those noble and delicate beauties to come out now? The accident had just happened, so no one dared or wanted to go out.
No one would see her when she went out at this time.
“Your name is Han Dan?” Shao Yanru sat under the lamp. She looked dignified with gorgeous clothes, and her hair was well combed.
She looked beautiful and behaved with elegance. Even in the inner room at such a time, she could still show her temperament as a Miss from an aristocratic family. Han Dan was impressed with this immediately.
Even some imperial concubines in the palace did not have such kind of temperament. She once had seen the Empress from a distance, and the Empress seemingly had such a calm temperament.
“Yes, my name is Han Dan!” Han Dan replied timidly.
“You are indeed an outstanding girl. If there is a chance in the future, I will definitely give you a great fortune!” Shao Yanru smiled slightly and looked calm. She was still the noble eldest daughter of a lineal descendant from Duke Xing’s Mansion, the most famous beauty in the capital for a long time.
“Thank you, First Miss Shao! Thank you, First Miss Shao! I will definitely serve you with all my heart and soul!” Han Dan was very excited. What she wanted was such an opportunity to stand out. Now that this opportunity was in front of her, how could she not take it?
She was so excited that her eyes turned red. Although she was young, she had lived in the palace for a few years. Seeing that her sisters had lost their lives one by one for different reasons, she felt that she could only live better if she climbed up.
She wanted to be a chief palace maid and a decent person. If there was a chance, she might even try to approach the Emperor and become an imperial concubine.
“It’s best of you to think so!” Shao Yanru wiped her lips with a handkerchief slowly, and there were flickers in her eyes under the light. “Here is a thing that I need you to investigate. If you do it well, I will take you with me. If not…”
“Don’t worry, First Miss. I will do a good job, absolutely!” Han Dan hurriedly expressed her loyalty.
“It’s not a big deal. Do you know Prince Zhou?” Shao Yanru asked.
“I know, I know. Prince Zhou is the legitimate son of the Empress. He has an extraordinary status!” Han Dan was so excited that her heart almost jumped out of her mouth. Did this First Miss Shao mean that she had something to do with Prince Zhou?
“Find out Prince Zhou’s whereabouts and the places at which he mostly would appear. Also, find out if he will come to Chuxiu Palace. If he comes, you must report it to me as soon as possible!” Shao Yanru said slowly.
Shuqi glanced at Shao Yanru in surprise. She didn’t understand why she mentioned Prince Zhou at this time. Since Prince Yue’s affairs were not settled, it would be easy to get into trouble if she got Prince Zhou involved.
“First Miss… I’m just a little palace maid. I don’t dare to inquire about the whereabouts of Prince Zhou casually. I will be beaten to death!” Han Dan stammered and said with a bitter face.
It was not that she wanted to refuse. Considering her identity, she could not ask too much about this, otherwise, it would arouse suspicion.
“I’m just asking about his common whereabouts. But if Prince Zhou comes over, you must inform me of this immediately. And if you can’t find out Prince Zhou’s whereabouts, help me keep an eye on my Fifth Sister!” Shao Yanru said generously, as if she had found another simple thing because Han Dan failed to do the first task.
Her task being changed from inquiring about Prince Zhou to monitoring a beauty, it seemed that Han Dan took advantage. If it were someone else, they would be overjoyed to thank Shao Yanru at this time. But the person that she needed to monitor was Fifth Miss Shao!
Han Dan’s heart was beating wildly. Among the people she was afraid of, Shao Wanru was high on the list.
Either Prince Zhou or Prince Yue had superior status. Even though she was afraid, they normally had nothing to do with her, and would not find trouble with a little palace maid for no reason. But this Fifth Miss Shao was different.
Every time Han Dan saw her, she would show a meaningful smile. Fifth Miss Shao’s smile was very beautiful, but in Han Dan’s eyes, this Fifth Miss’s hand seemingly had been hitting home, which made her dare not to disobey.
Was it Fifth Miss Shao who First Miss Shao was going to deal with?
Han Dan looked up in a panic and opened her lips subconsciously as if she wanted to say something.