青春期撞上更年期第1部

After going back to his mansion, he headed for his study to appreciate the satisfactory painting again. To his great surprise, Madam’s maid stopped him, saying that his wife wanted him to come to the inner court first.

Duke Cheng’en, who had no idea what had happened, followed the old maid in. When he entered the door, his eyes immediately fell on the table — his precious painting was right in the box on the table. For a moment, he had no clue of what was going on.

He entered the room. With his hands behind her back, he stepped to the table, looked at the painting, and turned back to ask in confusion, “What’s wrong? You said you didn’t want to see the paintings I bought, didn’t you?”

“Is this your birthday gift for the Empress Dowager?” asked Madam of Duke Cheng’en.

Duke Cheng’en turned around to sit beside her, nodded, and said with a smile, “This painting is not bad, right? It matches the occasion with fancy ideas. It’ll add glitters to the Empress Dowager’s birthday. Moreover, the Emperor will feel grateful for her warm affection.”

The more Duke Cheng’en thought about it, the more pleased and satisfied he became.

“You’d better not give it to the Empress Dowager in public. It is not an unparalleled birthday gift.” Madam of Duke Cheng’en waved her hand and said bluntly, “Rui’an Great Elder Princess and Princess Chen came over. Princess Chen also took out a painting that looked very similar to yours. It was even more exquisite. More than anything, she herself created the painting with maple leaves!”

“What? How… how is that possible?” Duke Cheng’en lifted his head in shock and was utterly flabbergasted.

Recently, he had been concentrating on looking for a suitable painting for the Empress Dowager. This maple-leaf painting was the best one he could find with the most fantastic idea. Before this, it had never entered his mind that maple leaves could be used to make a painting.

How could anyone else also get such an intriguing idea? In particular, it was Princess Chen. And she made it by herself. The Empress Dowager would prefer hers, for it required much more effort than his.

“His Grace, it’s true. Our daughter-in-law and I had seen it,” Madam of Duke Cheng’en reached out to rub her forehead and said helplessly.

Her husband was all right, but he was just too sweet-tempered and over-credulous. And he wasn’t capable enough. Nevertheless, despite all of this, Madam of Duke Cheng’en thought it was no big deal as long as he was fine and didn’t make any big trouble. Of course, it was better not to do anything shameful.

Since the Duke Cheng’en’s Mansion was the Empress Dowager’s parents’ home, anything shameful they did would dishonor Her Majesty.

“This painting will conflict with Princess Chen’s, and it can’t compare with hers. You’d better not use it as a birthday gift, lest it should embarrass you. What’s more, you are an elder. How can your gift resemble a junior’s? You might as well let it go!”

They had already known that Princess Chen would also send a maple-leaf painting even better than that in their mansion. Even if theirs looked better, Madam of Duke Cheng’en thought they had to give it up.

Elders ought to humor juniors a little, not to mention that it was Princess Chen. When others heard about it, they would only commend Duke Cheng’en for his generous and decent manner.

Princess Chen was newly married, and it was her first time picking up a birthday gift. If she wanted to curry favor with the Empress Dowager, she should try her best.

The Duke Cheng’en’s Mansion was the Empress Dowager’s parents’ home. Since Her Majesty doted on Prince Chen, the Duke Cheng’en’s Mansion should do something to support Princess Chen. In any case, the Duke Cheng’en’s Mansion had to give way to Princess Chen on this matter.

Honestly, they could do nothing about it if they didn’t know Princess Chen had also prepared a maple-leaf painting and accidentally presented a similar piece as hers. Now that they had learned about this, Madam of Duke Cheng’en felt it was inappropriate for them to pretend ignorance about this matter.

“Is her painting similar to the one I found?” Duke Cheng’en looked at his painting sadly and felt quite unconvinced. It was not easy for him to get such a painting, so he really didn’t want to return it.

“Of course, they’re alike, and hers is better. Your painting can’t compare with that of Princess Chen. You bought the painting, so it’s far less meaningful than hers,” Madam of Duke Cheng’en discouraged him mercilessly, making him feel his painting was worthless.

Duke Cheng’en felt so wronged because he highly valued the painting and felt a great yearning to send it to his sister. But since Madam of Duke Cheng’en said so, he couldn’t ignore it. He lowered his head in low spirits and said, “Since Princess Chen has a similar one, then… forget it. I won’t give it to the Empress Dowager!”

Yet he thought the Empress Dowager would love to see such a gift.

The more Duke Cheng’en thought about it, the sadder he became. He felt all his hard work was for nothing and couldn’t take it. With a peculiarly blank look, he looked toward the painting on the table, his heart throbbing. He felt reluctant to resign himself to defeat.

He appeared downcast, seemingly utterly disheartened. Helplessly, Madam of Duke Cheng’en rubbed the place between her eyebrows and said, “But if you insist on giving it to her, there is a way!”

“What could I do?” Duke Cheng’en’s spirits lifted. He sat up and looked at his aged wife with a severe countenance.

His wife could always come up with many brilliant ideas, while he was usually out of ideas. Sometimes, he had to ask his wife for advice.

“If you stick to your opinion and are sure the Empress Dowager will like it, you can give it to her in private!” Madam of Duke Cheng’en said helplessly, feeling that her husband looked increasingly like an obstinate child. If she didn’t appease him today, he would stay depressed for several days.

He would be in low spirits, and it was not a good thing for old people to remain inert.

“Could I?” Duke Cheng’en’s eyes lit up, and he asked excitedly.

He didn’t have to send it before the Emperor and officials, but he was confident that the Empress Dowager would like it. If he couldn’t give it to his sister, he would feel bad about it.

“It’s okay, but you must make it clear Princess Chen’s painting is better and you shouldn’t bring it to her. However, you can’t help doing it because you’re pretty sure she’ll like it.” Madam of Duke Cheng’en reminded him.

“Okay, okay, I know. I’ll pack up and see Her Majesty in the Palace in a while.” Duke Cheng’en nodded repeatedly. As long as he could send it out as his sister’s birthday gift, he would be happy and wouldn’t care about what he had to do and say.

He just wanted the Empress Dowager to see his good intention and feel happy about it.

“Zhuozhuo, how did you know about the painting?” asked Rui’an Great Elder Princess. She had been surprised initially, but when she chewed over it, she was confused.

Shao Wanru suggested going to the Duke Cheng’en’s Mansion, and it was also Shao Wanru who took out a similar painting.

“Grandma, I heard Duke Cheng’en got a painting similar to mine. So I specially asked you to help me inquire about it. If my painting wasn’t as good as theirs, I should put it away and not present it to the Empress Dowager. Or, if Madam of Duke Cheng’en said anything improper about it, I wouldn’t take it as a birthday gift either.”

Shao Wanru lowered her head in embarrassment and apologized with shame in her eyes, “I didn’t know what precisely would happen, so I didn’t explain it to you in detail. Please forgive me, Grandma!”

Rui’an Great Elder Princess hated to see her granddaughter like this, so she waved her hand carelessly and said, “Since you’ve married into the royal family, you can’t share everything with me. Just tell me what you can say and keep those things you can’t say to yourself. There’s no need for you to tell me some of Prince Chen’s things. You know, the royal family has many rules. After marrying into the Prince Chen’s Mansion, you should always look out for Prince Chen because you’re his family.”

When she said that, Rui’an Great Elder Princess stopped and said steadily, “No matter what you have done, I will stand on your side, but you don’t have to tell me everything.”

Shao Wanru’s nose twitched, and she could hardly hold back her tears. In her previous life, she and her grandma had missed each other. In this life, her grandma gave her all her love.

She would protect her grandmother and all the people who loved her.

“Grandma…”

Biting her lip and suppressing the sadness in her heart, Shao Wanru raised her head with tears but showed a smile. “Grandma, don’t worry. I know how to protect myself. More than that, I’ll protect you and Hao’er.”

“My little girl…” Rui’an Great Elder Princess, a person of strong character, said with tears in her eyes, “Little girl… what are you talking about? I should protect you two. Your irresponsible mother made things as miserable as this. She left you two little children and died…”

Thinking of her deceased daughter, Rui’an Great Elder Princess couldn’t help but shed tears.

She had been angry with her daughter, but now her daughter made her heart ache: How could she die when she had old and young at home? Why didn’t she know how to treasure her life?

“Grandma, don’t be upset. You have Hao’er and me. We will live a good life.” Shao Wanru comforted Rui’an Great Elder Princess.

She reached out to pull her grandmother’s sleeve and shook it gently, looking like a lovely and innocent little girl. Seeing that, Great Elder Princess felt a little less pain in her heart. Although her daughter was gone, her children were still with Rui’an Great Elder Princess. For the sake of this pair of lovely grandchildren, she couldn’t collapse.

She had to be their strong backing. Even if her granddaughter was Princess Chen and no longer needed her support, Rui’an Great Elder Princess felt she must hang on.

“You… have you found out anything about the matter related to Shao Jing?” Thinking of her daughter, Rui’an Great Elder Princess suddenly remembered what Shao Wanru had mentioned, her face instantly turning solemn. “If Shao Jing did it, I will never let him go.”

“Grandma, we have to investigate this matter. Without any concrete evidence, we can’t make it clear. There is no hurry.” said Shao Wanru.

She hoped that she could do these things by herself. Her grandma was aged and not good at disguising herself. After all of this was settled, she would tell her grandma everything.

She couldn’t perturb her grandmother, let alone make her angry and worried. She had revealed something to her before, but it was because she had to get some information.

She would personally avenge her parents.

Her father died because of Shao Jing, who was also closely related to her mother’s death. Madam Jiang, Madam of Marquis Xing, must have known the inside story.

However, these things happened long ago, and it was not easy to find evidence. Shao Wanru would take it slow and push her enemies into the abyss of destruction step by step.

“Grandma, I’ll tell you after I find the truth. I need some scripts and paintings now. Can you find some for me?” Shao Wanru, for fear that Rui’an Great Elder Princess kept asking these things, hurriedly changed the topic and talked about the important thing she needed to do…