Chapter 934 The Mother and Son Have to Make a Concession!
Old Madam was purple with anger because of the onlookers!
With the opinion stricken into people’s hearts, it was hard for Shao Jie’er to marry any other princes. In other words, Shao Jie’er could only get married to Commandery Prince Qing. Moreover, it was acceptable if Commandery Prince Qing didn’t give her any titles like Consort Qing. In others’ eyes, now she was just a humble girl who was lucky enough to be a concubine due to Marquis Xing’s Mansion.
Shao Jie’er was very useful for Old Madam. Otherwise, Old Madam wouldn’t have cared about such a daughter of a concubine.
“Great Elder Princess, how could you confuse right and wrong!” Old Madam had to be tough at this moment. If she gave in, Marquis Xing’s Mansion would lose!
“Old Madam, I didn’t come to argue with you about what was right or wrong. It’s the business of your mansion, which has nothing to do with me no matter how ridiculously you deal with it. I am just worried about Princess Chen. You’ve made things like this. Just deal with it yourself and don’t take her down!”
“You never doted on Princess Chen in the past. You have always been partial to Secondary Consort Shao in the Palace the most. So, don’t ask Princess Chen for help from now on! She is now a member of the royal family, Prince Chen’s wife! She is no longer the Fifth Miss Shao, whom you can order at your will, and she is no longer the loneliest Miss of the main branch, on whom none of the people in your mansion dotes!”
Great Elder Princess rebuked Old Madam in a cold voice. She looked calm, but everyone could see that she was suppressing her anger.
Everyone nodded. A lot of things had happened in Marquis Xing’s Mansion recently, but no one had ever supported Fifth Miss Shao. She had lived a hard life in Marquis Xing’s Mansion. For instance, she was forced to cultivate in seclusion in the mountain to observe mourning for her parents for three years. No elders who loved their children would do such a thing!
In addition, Fifth Miss Shao didn’t grow up in Marquis Xing’s Mansion. It could be said that the people in Marquis Xing’s Mansion had not raised her. From this point of view, Marquis Xing’s Mansion was even less qualified than Ningyuan Army General’s Mansion to ask Princess Chen to do anything.
“How poor Princess Chen is!”
“Indeed. How Princess Chen’s parents died is still unknown!”
“The second branch has got all the benefits. A daughter of a concubine from the second branch even thinks she is better than Princess Chen. It’s too much!”
People defended justice for Princess Chen with one voice. Everyone was full of sympathy for Princess Chen. “In fact, Marquis Xing’s Mansion has never raised her, so how could they ask her to be respectful to them now?”
“Great Elder Princess...” Old Madam wanted to say something but she was interrupted by Great Elder Princess.
“Old Madam, that’s all I want to say. Please don’t ask Princess Chen to help with the business of your mansion anymore. And don’t force her to follow the tradition of your filial piety, which will make things difficult for her. She is Princess Chen, and more importantly, she is a member of the royal family. Don’t trick her with the trick you use to deal with your inner court!” Great Elder Princess said.
Then she turned around and left without any hesitation. Out of expectation, she didn’t ask those aggressive servant girls and old maids to smash things.
However, that made Old Madam more flustered. If Great Elder Princess behaved rudely, other people would pay attention to criticize Great Elder Princess’s violence rather than focus on Marquis Xing’s Mansion.
“Great Elder Princess...” Old Madam was stunned for a moment, but she hurriedly tried to remedy the situation. “I have always cared for Fifth Girl! She is also my biological granddaughter, the only daughter of my eldest son! How can’t I care about her?”
Just as she said that, Old Madam’s eyes turned wet. She kept wiping the corner of her eyes with a handkerchief.
“Great Elder Princess, Grandma really loves Fifth Sister. She didn’t mean to trouble Fifth Sister. She just wanted Fifth Sister to know what has happened in the family!” Zhao Xiran hurriedly echoed Old Madam’s words.
The two of them sang the same tune and cooperated very well, and some people were confused. “Could it be a misunderstanding between the two families?”
Great Elder Princess stopped and turned to look at Zhao Xiran. She slightly lifted the corners of her mouth and thought, “Zhuozhuo once said that this newly married sister-in-law was a smart woman. It seems to be true! She knows what to say to retrieve their reputation!”
However, she had cast aside all considerations of her reputation before she came here. So, she didn’t care about the face thing at all!
Great Elder Princess turned around beside the carriage and questioned coldly, “Old Madam, do you mean that you never planned to ask Third Miss to replace Second Miss to get married?”
“I... I...” Old Madam didn’t dare to deny what Empress Dowager had been informed of, but she was unwilling to admit it. She could only pretend that she didn’t know what to explain for a while.
“Well, if you have never had such a plan, why did you push such trouble to Princess Chen again?” Great Elder Princess asked again.
Old Madam was choked by the two questions! She felt that the Great Elder Princess in front of her was no longer rude and unreasonable as before, and she was much more cunning. Old Madam disliked Great Elder Princess’s rude and irrational behaviors in the past. But now she wished to see her like that.
“Old Madam, God is watching everything you do. Do you think that you will be forgiven by God, though you have done so many evil things?” Great Elder Princess said with cold eyes. Then she ignored Old Madam, who couldn’t speak right now because of her trembling lips, and got on the carriage with Nanny Gao’s help.
Zhao Xiran wanted to say something more, but when she made eye contact with Great Elder Princess sitting in the carriage, she was intimidated and immediately lowered her eyes in a panic to hide the nervousness.
“Great Elder Princess’s carriage left! She just left like that?”
Looking at the deserted gate and the gossiping onlookers around, Old Madam swayed and almost fainted.
Zhao Xiran hurriedly reached out to hold her and said in a low voice, “Grandma!”
“Help me go to your father’s courtyard!” Old Madam whispered. She felt as if she were stepping on a pile of cotton and could not touch the ground. If it were not for Zhao Xiran’s help, she might have fainted.
Rui’an Great Elder Princess had gone too far today. Though she didn’t smash things, she said something more humiliating than that. Moreover, she revealed in front of others Marquis Xing’s Mansion’s pretentious kindness to Shao Wanru. If Old Madam wanted to control Shao Wanru with filial piety again, people would suspect her of having a bad intention.
Shao Jing was in the mansion, but it was not suitable for him to deal with Great Elder Princess.
Since Great Elder Princess had made trouble many times before, Shao Jing had thought that she would do the same at most once as usual. So he had planned to report her to the Emperor later by uniting with several imperial censors, who had a good relationship with him.
After all, the imperial censors were well aware of Rui’an Great Elder Princess’s hostile attitude to Marquis Xing’s Mansion and her repetitive rude behaviors there. Shao Jing thought it was time to fight back. “Marquis Xing’s Mansion has always suffered losses in front of her. This time, I have to make her pay a price.”
So he stayed in his study and waited for the news.
Unexpectedly, instead of being informed that Rui’an Great Elder Princess caused trouble in Marquis Xing’s Mansion, he was told that she exposed his flawless secret plan in front of many people.
He had promised to marry Shao Jie’er into Prince Cheng’s Mansion! But how could he do that now? Shao Jing understood that Prince Cheng would not accept Shao Jie’er’s entering his mansion after his plot was revealed!
Shao Jing walked around his room for a long while, but he still couldn’t calm down. When he finally stood still, he couldn’t help asking again, “Mother, did Great Elder Princess really say that?”
“Yes, that was what she said. I doubt whether she knows something, my second son!” Old Madam said in a low voice in nervousness. She had calmed down at this time.
Only two of them were in the study. Zhao Xiran was asked to stand outside. Even Old Madam’s servant Nanny Yu was sent to guard the door.
“Impossible!” Shao Jing shook his head decisively. Great Elder Princess could not know anything.
“So, it is Empress Dowager’s idea?” Old Madam shivered. This supposition also frightened her.
“It should be that Empress Dowager wants to warn us not to implicate Princess Chen!” Shao Jing said with a gloomy face.
“I just asked Shao Wanru to beg Empress Dowager for mercy. How could it be possible that she will be implicated? If she is not a Miss of Marquis Xing’s Mansion, could she be qualified to marry Prince Chen? What an ungrateful woman! How dare she complain to Empress Dowager!” Old Madam couldn’t help cursing.
Shao Jing frowned hard and stretched out his hand, wanting to stop Old Madam’s curse.
“What should we do now, my son? What are you going to do with Second Girl’s thing?” Old Madam felt helpless and changed the topic. Shao Jie’er’s problem was the most urgent.
“Let’s leave it up to Empress Dowager. There should be news soon, but don’t expect too much!” Shao Jing said helplessly.
“No way...” Old Madam stood up and said in a hurry.
“We have no other choice. Dare you disobey Empress Dowager’s order?” Shao Jing said in a bad mood.
Of course, Old Madam dared not. She plopped down and became angrier and angrier while reviewing the incident. She couldn’t help cursing again, “What a troublemaker! If I had known this, I wouldn’t have invited her to come back at that time. What’s the use of her coming back? She didn’t offer any help to us, and even brought us trouble with Great Elder Princess!”
“Mother, what’s the point of talking about this now? Go and tell Jie’er to get ready to marry into Commandery Prince Qing’s Mansion. Don’t think about anything else anymore!” Shao Jing waved his hand impatiently and said, “Mother, you leave first, please. I need some time to think about it again!”
The most terrible thing was that Prince Cheng was also involved. Shao Jing believed that he would pay a higher price if he offended Prince Cheng, compared with offending Commandery Prince Qing. It seemed that he could not give up Shao Yanru.
“I have to get in touch with Ru’er!” Shao Jing thought, “Though she once said that she didn’t want to do that, she has to do it now...
“It is at least worth a try! Compared with Eldest Daughter, Second Daughter has lost her value! Forget about her! She has never been a good girl!”
After making up his mind, Shao Jing raised his voice and ordered, “Come on, get a carriage. Old Madam is not feeling well. I’m going to ask for a string of Buddhist beads for Old Madam!”