Chapter 853 Grandmother, Let’s Tell Them the Truth!

“Third Sister, I think you have misread me. I have never been a good person!” Shao Wanru said coldly.

“You…” Shao Caihuan looked at Shao Wanru in a daze, with her words stuck in her throat. She slightly opened her mouth but couldn’t say a word.

It shouldn’t have been like this. Shouldn’t Shao Wanru explain this and then go in with her?

“Third Sister, actually, I’m neither a nice person nor a stupid one. So… you think yourself wise to do something… but you’d better not do that in front of me. You just waste your strength on me. Grandmother will definitely push someone out this time. I don’t know if it will be Third Aunt or not. It has nothing to do with me!”

Shao Wanru slightly raised the corner of her mouth, but her eyes were still cold. The glimmer of smile did not appear in her eyes at all, and it even made people feel a little sarcastic.

Shao Caihuan subconsciously opened her mouth and wanted to say something, but she didn’t know where to start. She could only watch Shao Wanru leave.

“Miss… What should we do? We…” Her servant girl stammered.

“Let’s go in!” Shao Caihuan gritted her teeth and wiped her tears under the veil with a handkerchief. She made a determined effort in her heart, but inexplicably felt a sense of guilt and fear.

When had Shao Wanru become so horrible? Why was Shao Wanru quite different from what she had thought? Hadn’t Fifth Sister always been nice to her? Shao Wanru had always been respectful to her too, but why was Shao Wanru different from her previous impression?

Fifth Sister shouldn’t be like this. Could it be that she had known something? An idea suddenly appeared in her mind. This made her stop after taking a few steps, and she looked at Shao Wanru’s back in horror. In a short while, Shao Wanru had walked to the door of a Moon Cave ahead and then slowly disappeared from her sight.

Her fingers couldn’t help trembling. When she had been stiff just now, she had not noticed her cold fingers, but now she felt timid and extremely cold.

Shao Wanru was just like what Shao Caihuan felt about her. If… if it was true… she would have never been very nice to her, let alone simply speak for her.

Shao Caihuan felt as if someone poured a basin of cold water on her head, which made her feel bitterly cold in her heart. Not only her heart but also her whole body was uncontrollably shaking, and her face was as pale as snow.

“Was I… cheated?” Shao Caihuan thought.

“Caihuan?” A puzzled voice came from behind. Shao Caihuan turned around stiffly and saw Shao Jing looking at her with displeasure. She hurriedly bowed to salute, “Second Uncle!”

“Why are you here?” Shao Jing looked at this Third niece and asked. He still frowned tightly, which could tell that he was in a bad mood.

“We heard that something happened here, so Mother asked me to come and have a look. She did not feel well, and she went to lie in bed for a while!” Shao Caihuan hurriedly restrained her mind and explained.

“Your grandmother is inside. Go back with her. You can’t intervene in this matter!” Shao Jing said coldly. After saying this, he ignored Shao Caihuan and turned to the courtyard nearby.

Shao Caihuan didn’t walk in until she had stood stiffly at the door for a while. Now she could only take it one step at a time and meet her Grandmother first. Besides, there were only few people knowing this matter, so it was impossible to put the blame on her…

The matter that the two princes had fought violently failed to be concealed, and it was slowly spread to the guests outside. Those guests who had not left yet immediately began to talk about this.

Now there was only Third Master of Duke Xing’s Mansion entertaining guests outside, and the other masters were not there. This also made the guests outside more convinced that this matter was true.

Someone went to ask Third Master Shao about this, but Third Master Shao really knew nothing about it. He even waved his hand generously and said, “It is impossible. How can it be possible?”

Seeing that he answered casually, everyone was rather in doubt. But at this time, someone saw how Prince Yue and Prince Zhou left. The two princes’ faces still had bruises and their clothes were in a mess with traces of tearing, which obviously meant that they had fought each other. Moreover, the two princes remained cold faces all the way. Although they came out together, they didn’t look at each other.

Indeed, there was something wrong between them.

After the two princes had left, others saw Duke Xing, who came late, and First Young Master, who had gotten married today. Although they talked gently, their awkward expressions obviously showed that something had happened.

Everyone sensibly took their leave one by one. Only some close relatives and friends were still waiting for the dinner party in the evening. After entrusting them to his Third Brother, Shao Jing took Shao Hua’an to Old Madam’s Chuntang Courtyard.

They had asked Old Madam to help inquire about the matter in the inner courtyard before, so they went there to see whether Old Madam had found out something. As for Shao Hua’an’s bridal chamber, Shao Hua’an had also asked someone to inform the newly married Madam that he had something important to deal with here and would go to see her later.

When the father and son came over, Old Madam was sitting in the room with a cold face. Sitting next to her, Third Madam lowered her head slightly and dared not to breathe too much, looking very nervous. She had been in poor health, but now she looked paler than usual, almost as weak as paper.

Shao Caihuan stood behind her mother and lowered her head tightly, making her expression unable to be seen clearly.

“Mother, how is your investigation going? Does it have anything to do with our mansion?” After saluting to Old Madam, Shao Jing sat down beside her and immediately asked anxiously.

Shao Hua’an looked at Old Madam, whose face was as pale as paper, and also sat down on the other side of Shao Jing.

“All rascals!” Old Madam pounded the table heavily with her hand.

Third Madam next to her couldn’t sit still anymore. She plopped to kneel down and cried with her hands covering her face. “Mother, it is all my fault. Because of my poor health, my management has been loose recently. Although I’ve assigned some things to Third Miss and Fifth Miss this time, I still felt a little tired, so I took a short break. I didn’t expect that it would get into trouble!”

“You evil creature!” Old Madam was exasperated, heavily pounding the armrest of the chair.

“Mother, do you mean that our mansion is really related to this matter?” Shao Jing looked at his sister-in-law, who was kneeling on the ground, and then looked at Old Madam and asked coldly.

Originally, even if this matter had nothing to do with Duke Xing’s Mansion, he would still be rebuked by Emperor. If it was really related, Emperor would definitely punish him. Shao Jing could not help but break out in a cold sweat on his back. He looked at Third Madam kneeling on the ground, with more anger in his eyes.

“Yes, it does have something to do with our mansion!” Old Madam said angrily, “It is said that someone sent a pot of medicinal wine to several Princes. The medicinal effect is not very strong. Actually, it is not particularly powerful wine, but there are some tonic components in it. The supervisor told her that and she thought it was good, so she sent it to those Princes!”

“Sending them medicinal wine with tonics in it?” Shao Jing’s face changed greatly. He stared at Third Madam kneeling on the ground in astonishment and said in a sharp voice, “What’s going on? Who wants to hurt Prince Chen?”

Since it was medicinal wine, it didn’t matter for common people to drink it. It would still be fine even if the wine was more alcoholic. But Prince Chen was not included in these common people. If Prince Chen drank a little, no one knew what would happen. If he vomited blood on the spot or it was life-threatening, the whole Duke Xing’s Mansion would be buried with him.

Shao Jing was not stupid. He immediately thought of Prince Chen who had come here today, and Prince Chen was also the most likely to come here. When he had sent the betrothal gift last time, Prince Chen had come here to show that he attached great importance to Shao Wanru. When Duke Xing’s Mansion held a wedding, he probably would come here to show his support and help keep up appearances.

“Second Uncle, I didn’t know Prince Chen was also here. The supervisor said that several Princes came over and he asked whether we could prepare some wine and medicinal wine was also fine. So I agreed and sent over the treasured medicinal wine in our mansion. I thought it was not a big deal, and the medicinal wine was not very alcoholic. Even I used to drink a cup of it occasionally!”

Third Madam cried on the floor and explained.

“You… you…” Old Madam pointed at Third Madam with her fingers and said angrily, “Can you compare yourself with Prince Chen? Your body can bear this, but it doesn’t mean that Prince Chen can. Fortunately, Prince Chen is fine this time. Otherwise… otherwise…” Thinking of that, Old Madam shivered and sweated all over her back.

The current situation had been the best. Fortunately, Prince Chen was not fond of drinking alcohol.

“Mother, Big Uncle, I really didn’t know it would turn out like this!” Third Madam could not stop crying.

Old Madam was so angry that she could not say a word. Shao Jing looked at Third Madam kneeling on the ground with cold and disgusted eyes. Shao Caihuan did not dare to move at all, only feeling that her whole body was numb. The current situation was totally different from what she had imagined. How could it be like this? And why had it been like this?

Shao Hua’an coughed in a low voice and said, “Third Aunt, you can get up first. Since this matter happened like this, we have to come up with a plan! Come on, help Third Aunt stand up. Third Aunt is not well, so she can’t kneel too long and even get hurt!”

Looking at Old Madam’s expression and seeing that Old Madam nodded slightly, an old maid hurried over to help Third Madam up and helped her sit down on a chair aside.

“Grandmother, it is impossible for us to conceal this matter now!” Shao Hua’an looked at Old Madam, who was sitting in the main seat, and said.

“Then what should we do?” Old Madam said angrily. In the current situation, even though she had weathered notable storms, she felt that those were not as dangerous as it was this time.

Originally she had not liked the daughter-in-law of Third Branch, and now she couldn’t like her at all. As expected, this daughter-in-law was not presentable and couldn’t take responsibility. Her granddaughter-in-law was more reliable, so the affairs of the inner courtyard seemingly had to be managed by someone else.

“Grandmother, let’s tell the truth! The supervisor did what Third Aunt had promised, so it should be easy to find out. If we deal with this group of people, it will arouse Emperor’s anger in the end. So we’d better gather them together and wait for Emperor’s servants to come over. Then we can send them all to the palace and let Emperor investigate as he wants!”

Shao Hua’an thought for a moment and said. At present, there was no better way than this to deal with this matter.

Hearing this, Old Madam and Shao Jing nodded repeatedly. They looked at each other and also felt that this was the best way to deal with this matter now. They couldn’t make Emperor suspect Duke Xing’s Mansion, so Duke Xing’s Mansion had to do nothing at the moment and just wait what would happen next!

“No… It can’t be like this. Grandmother, we can’t do this!”