Chapter 105 - Soup with Blood
“Nanny Zhou, what’s the matter?” Qin Wanru stopped and asked her.
“Miss, this… Can you help madam take it to the General? This is the soup Madam made for the General in the kitchen.” As she spoke, Nanny Zhou opened the basket she was carrying. It was really a bowl of thick soup. It smelt really good.
“Can’t you take it yourself?” Qin Wanru raised her head and looked at the servant who guarded the study, then asked in confusion.
“This… The servant won’t let me go in, so I have to ask you for help, Miss. Madam had spent a lot of energy cooking this soup. She picked all the materials by herself. She even injured her hand cooking this soup.” Nanny Zhou smiled and kept asking her for help.
“Have you found a doctor for her?” Qin Wanru was worried when she heard that, so she asked softly.
“Hmm… No, I haven’t. I want to tell the General about it and then go find the doctor.” Nanny Zhou suddenly avoided eye contact with Qin Wanru.
“How can you wait for this? I’ll ask someone to find the doctor right away!” Qin Wanru said.
A trace of panic flashed through Nanny Zhou’s eyes. She hurriedly put down the basket and waved her hands. “Second Miss, you don’t need to worry about that. Now you need to take the soup. It’s more important. It won’t taste good if it gets cold. Please help me take it to the General.”
“Madam’s hand is quite urgent.” Qin Wanru looked around, then saw a maid coming toward her. She told Yujie to stop her. “Go find a doctor right now to help Madam and take a look at her injury. She got hurt while cooking.”
“Yes, Miss!” said the old maid.
She was so fast that Nanny Zhou couldn’t get the chance to stop her. Then the nanny suddenly turned angry. She pointed at the old maid who was walking away, trying to accuse Qin Wanru. “What kind of doctor is she going to get? Miss, does she know the doctor who always takes care of Madam?”
“Didn’t the Madam just lightly hurt her hand while she was cutting vegetables? Does Madam really need a doctor who always looks after her to take care of such a small wound?” Yujie blinked, asking in confusion.
That made Nanny Zhou so angry that her face turned red because of anger. But she couldn’t say anything. This was not what she had planned and discussed with Madam Di.
They wanted to deliberately bring the soup with blood to the General. When he saw the soup, he would need to ask what happened. Then she could explain to the General that Madam had hurt her hand while cooking the soup, so she accidentally stained the soup. The General would definitely ask to get a doctor for her.
She could also take the opportunity to go out of the house. But now, what Qin Wanru did just ruined their plan. There was no way that she could go out now. So, of course Nanny Zhou was angry.
“How can a little maid like you know about Madam’s health?” Nanny Zhou was angry, so she spoke in a cold tone. Now she lost her chance, so she would not have some kind attitude toward Qin Wanru.
“We did need a doctor to tell us Madam’s condition. You should go back, Nanny Zhou. If the doctor comes, he may need someone there to tell him what happened to Madam,” Qin Wanru said calmly.
Nanny Zhou took a look at Qin Wanru. She knew that it wouldn’t help even if she stayed here. She snorted, picking the basket up, and left.
The servant who guarded at the door saw the scene in front of him, and he could not help laughing. Nanny Zhou did keep bothering him to let her in. And she wouldn’t give up, which made him so sick. But the General had given the order earlier. He said not to let Nanny Zhou enter. Now she finally left.
“Is Father inside?” Qin Wanru walked toward him and said.
The servant hurriedly greeted her. “The General is dealing with official business inside. Does Second Miss have something to talk to him about? I’ll inform him right away.”
“No, it’s OK. I just came back from outside and I brought some delicious cakes for my father. You can just take them in for me.” Qin Wanru smiled.
Yujie got them out from her behind her, then gave the servant the cakes in her hands. The servant took them immediately.
“Father won’t let Nanny Zhou go in?” Qin Wanru asked.
“The General has said to not let the servants of Madam Di come and bother him. If they really have something important to say, they can go talk to Madam Shui. Now Madam Shui is in charge of everything in the inner court,” the servant replied.
So the Old Grandma had discussed it with Father. That was why Nanny Zhou did this. They made up the thing about hurting the Madam’s hand.
Qin Wanru smiled slightly. It was great that they were so anxious. Once she got the chance to go out, she would definitely find the buyers for the shops and negotiate the price with them.
The price to sell a shop was quite high. So the first time she went out, she could only find the buyers and set the price, but she wouldn’t be able to receive the money.
Then the second time Nanny Zhou went out, she would have to go to take the money.
When Qin Wanru came in from the Chuihua Gate, the old maid was surprised that she got out. But she had come back like this so many times, so the maid didn’t take it seriously, thinking that maybe she didn’t see that she went out.
Now Madam Shui and Second Miss were in power. No one would be so dumb as to come and question her.
Back in the courtyard, after freshening up, Qin Wanru sat down by the window. She took out a pile of paper and wrote down what she needed to bring to the capital this time, as well as some necessary items and medicinal materials.
There was some unique medicine that she could only find in Jiangzhou. Actually, she could also find them in the capital. But that wouldn’t be so nice and suitable. So she just wanted to just bring them all to the capital this time.
When she finished, she put down the pen and dried the paper off. Then she looked over the paper again to check every detail.
“Qing Yue, please help me give this to Nanny Yu and help her pick up these things for me.” Qin Wanru pointed to the papers on her left. She had these things in her yard, they just needed to help her pack it up.
“Yes, Miss!” Qing Yue nodded. She took a look and then put it away. Nanny Yu was illiterate. But Qin Wanru wasn’t, so it would be better that she helped Nanny Yu to pack.
“Yujie, could you help me take a look? Do I need to add more medicine?” Qin Wanru pointed to another pile of paper. Compared with Yujie’s understanding of the medicinal materials in Jiangzhou, what Qin Wanru knew was not enough, so she asked Yujie to help her.
Yujie picked up a few other pieces of paper and looked at them. “Miss, it is indeed a few more. I’ll add something when I go to the pharmacy. If I see something good, I’ll also buy it. Although Jiangzhou is far from the central city, it has plenty of precious medicine.”
“Great!” Qin Wanru nodded her head and replied.
Over the next few days, things went well. In particular, Nanny Zhou had gone out and sold the eight shops in Madam Di’s hands with great efficiency, and Madam Di stopped making any more trouble as if they were also preparing to go to the capital.
Madam Dong and her daughter also got into the house because of Qin Wanru. Qin Wanru had directly told Old Grandma that she wanted to open a shop in the capital. Although the old lady thought she was too young to open a shop, she was convinced because Shui Ruolan agreed and told her to let go.
The old lady also thought that Shui Ruolan would help Qin Wanru if she couldn’t handle it. And they also needed to open some shops in the capital. Then they could also take care of Qin Wanru.
Qin Wanru was finally relieved when Madam Dong and her daughter entered the house. In her last life, the embroidery and toggle-and-loop buttons made by them were quite popular in the Capital City. The price rose again and again. Even the queens in the palace would love to use their embroidery and toggle-and-loop buttons.
This also made the ordinary tailor shop become the biggest tailor shop in the capital. Many highly custom supplies were made from this shop.
And Madam Dong also won the heart of the Empress Dowager.
But in her last life, Madam Dong didn’t come to a good end. Her boss threatened her with her crippled daughter. When she entered the palace, she had to pass things unto others that she shouldn’t have. In the end, both mother and daughter died.
Qin Wanru didn’t know who was doing this to Madam Dong. She had already gone into the palace to paint portraits for the girls at that time. She only heard from others that Madam Dong, the Empress Dowager’s most valued woman, was involved in something big and serious. And they couldn’t find out the truth about why she did that. The last thing she knew was that Madam Dong and her daughter were pushed out from the palace.
What surprised her most was that when Madam Dong met her in the palace, she seemed excited and wanted to say something to her. But every time she did, someone happened to be there.
So up until when Madam Dong and her daughter died, Qin Wanru and Madam Dong had no chance to speak privately!
At that time, she vaguely felt that Madam Dong and daughter’s things were not simple. It seemed to have something to do with her. Then she heard that they were from Jiangzhou. And they went to a tailor shop because they couldn’t find their relatives.
Since it had something to do with herself, in this life, Qin Wanru had to strike first. When she came to the capital, she needed to take Madam Dong and her daughter with her. As for Dong Xiuer’s leg, she also saw that it was not congenital. It was when Dong Xiuer was traveling in a carriage two months ago that she was hit by another carriage and fell off the carriage and hurt herself.
Although she had been seeing doctors, she didn’t recover. And the injury seemed to worsen.
Madam Dong urgently looked for many doctors. They all said that they could not do anything. But they all said that there might be doctors in the capital city who could cure her. Doctors in Jiangzhou couldn’t help her at all. The doctors’ words made Madam Dong and her daughter have more expectations of the capital city. But with no money in hand, they had to wait.
Qin Wanru’s invitation to them was great news. Then Qin Wanru said that she could cure Dong Xiuer’s injury, which made them take her as a lifesaver.
Madam Dong took Dong Xiuer’s hand, kowtowing to Qin Wanru. They even decided to get to the house to serve her, but Qin Wanru refused.
If Madam Dong was only a servant, she would not be able to meet the Empress Dowager in the future, and she would not be valued by her. Qin Wanru needed someone to be valued by the Empress Dowager, someone to speak in front of her, and someone to deal with the outside world. But it could not be a servant because there were so many limits for a servant. And a servant couldn’t do things that made others feel that it was not fair.
On her way to the capital, she had to be well-prepared.
Over the next few days, her life was quiet and peaceful, but then Madam Di broke that.
When Madam Di was making trouble like a madwoman, Qin Wanru was taking care of Old Grandma and treated her. With Qin Wanru by her side, the old lady’s condition improved.
“Old Grandma, Madam Di took a group of people to rush to Madam Shui’s courtyard!” When they were talking and laughing, a maid came in anxiously and informed the old lady.