青春期撞上更年期第1部

Mingqiu Nun was changing fresh dressing for her wound. Then, she said, “My Lady, you should be careful. If the sword went deeper, it would hurt your major blood vessels and risk your life!”

Mingqiu Nun remembered the time when dealing with Shao Wanru’s wound before and couldn’t help palpitating with anxiety and fear. Since she could be considered Shao Wanru’s master, how could she not feel distressed when Shao Wanru was seriously wounded?

In the past few years, Mingqiu Nun had been living a quiet and peaceful life in the Yuhui Nunnery. When she knew Shao Wanru was seriously injured, she was greatly frantic with worry.

“Please don’t worry. I’m fine now, right?” Looking at Mingqiu Nun’s pallid countenance, Shao Wanru stayed calm and said with a smile.

Her left arm was cut and carefully bandaged. In the past, she always had a fine color on her white and delicate face. However, her complexion became pale and pasty, and even the corners of her mouth turned colorless. Her black hair hung loosely down her back, making her look daintier and more slender.

At this moment, she endured the pain of the wound and comforted Mingqiu Nun with a smile. Mingqiu Nun was kind-hearted, so Shao Wanru felt reluctant to let her get involved in this disturbance. It was better for her not to know it.

“So ruthlessly they struck. Who on earth were they? They wanted your life!” Mingqiu Nun looked at the window broken by the arrow and said. The broken window had been replaced by a new window, but the heavy crossbow grazed the desk and left its shocking trace. At one glance, one could tell that the crossbow was powerful.

Fortunately, it didn’t hit Shao Wanru and her servant girls. Otherwise, if the arrow had been shot in someone’s arm, the arm would have been broken. If it had thudded into someone, the person would have been killed immediately.

The dead bodies in the courtyard had been dragged away, and the blood had been washed away. Mingqiu Nun had a keen sense of smell, so she could still smell blood. Inexplicably, the unpleasant smell made her feel the whole courtyard was gloomy.

All the servant girls and old maids were walking in the courtyard with fear and trepidation as if the invisible fierce aura from yesterday was still lingering in the air.

No woman in the inner court had witnessed such a gory scene.

“Madam, is our master okay?” Yujie lifted the curtain and came in, asking urgently. Since the incident happened last night, the servant girls here hadn’t slept. Though their faces were as white as paper, they felt greatly stressed and did not want to sleep.

“She needs a good rest!” Mingqiu Nun observed Shao Wanru’s face and told Yujie, “Recently, make sure to let your master have a good rest. Talk about those annoying things after His Highness comes back. She was merely a lady in the inner court but suffered such a big disaster. It’s really…”

Speaking of this, Mingqiu Nun sighed. Even if she was not involved, she felt something strange about it. Very likely, it was related to the succession of the throne in the royal family.

Affairs like this in the royal family would greatly fluster ladies in the inner court, especially girls like Shao Wanru. In Mingqiu Nun’s eyes, Shao Wanru was actually an immature little girl.

“Trust me. I will take good care of my master!” Yujie breathed a sigh of relief. Since Mingqiu Nun said this, Yujie knew her master must be fine. She turned to look at Shao Wanru whose delicate face had become ghastly pale. Even though Yujie was not injured, she still had a lingering fear.

If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she couldn’t have believed that her master dared to stab her arm with a sword.

Blood spurted from the nasty cut. The few servant girls stood there transfixed with horror. After all, no one had expected that their master would really cut herself in real earnest.

Even a man couldn’t do such a courageous act, but Princess Chen, a tender woman, had the guts to do it.

“My Lady, Great Elder Princess comes!” Qu Le came in and reported in a hurry.

“Yujie, please take Mingqiu Nun to rest!” Yujie nodded and left with Mingqiu Nun.

Rui’an Great Elder Princess held Shao Yuanhao’s hand and walked in with unsteady footsteps. When she entered, she almost fell at the door.

“Zhuozhuo, you…you…you…are you okay?” Seeing Shao Wanru lying on the bed, Rui’an Great Elder Princess asked with bloodshot eyes. She had been tough and strong, but she could hardly stand up. If Nanny Gao and Shao Yuanhao hadn’t supported her, she would have collapsed long ago.

“Grandma, I’m fine!” Shao Wanru forced a smile and comforted Rui’an Great Elder Princess.

Shao Wanru was lying there, her face pale and bloodless. Rui’an Great Elder Princess couldn’t help remembering her daughter. At that time, she also lay there with an ashen face and never woke up again.

No longer could she restrain her tears as she hurriedly took two steps forward and reached out to grab Shao Wanru’s hand. When Rui’an Great Elder Princess felt the little warmth in her hand, she breathed a sigh of relief and choked out, “You’re okay. Great! It’s so good you’re fine!”

“Sister, are you okay? Do you need more doctors?” Shao Yuanhao also came forward and asked worriedly like a grown-up.

“I’m all right. Don’t worry!” Shao Wanru said softly, smiling.

Qu Le brought a chair and invited Shao Yuanhao to sit on it while Rui’an Great Elder Princess sat at the head of Shao Wanru’s bed.

“What happened last night? Did some people attack the Prince Chen’s Mansion at night? What did they want to do? Prince Chen is a prince with no real power. Can’t they even tolerate him?” Rui’an Great Elder Princess tried to compose herself and said through clenched teeth.

Everyone could see this attack must be related to the few princes fighting for the throne.

Rui’an Great Elder Princess got the message a little late. The news that Shao Wanru had an accident nearly scared her into unconsciousness. Then, Shao Yuanhao brought her here with him. At that moment, Rui’an Great Elder Princess seemed to have come back to the day when her daughter died, and she could no longer think clearly.

She felt better only when she saw Shao Wanru was fine.

“Grandma, I’m fine. The Emperor will find out the truth!” Feeling the warmth from her grandma’s hands, Shao Wanru felt touched in her heart.

“I’ll go to look for the Empress Dowager in the Palace. Prince Chen hasn’t affected anyone’s business and has been sick and weak for many years. But they can’t tolerate him and even you when he is slightly better. These people are too heartless!” Rui’an Great Elder Princess rebuked angrily.

“Grandma, don’t go there now. The Palace must be in a mess now. The Empress and Consort of Virtue will get you involved in this matter,” Shao Wanru comforted her grandma and said.

“So what if I’m involved? I’m not afraid of getting into trouble because of this.” Rui’an Great Elder Princess said in resentment. She was very anxious to go into the Palace and rebuke Prince Yue and Prince Zhou before the Empress and Consort of Virtue, who must have instigated the two princes to do the evil thing. Otherwise, who would attack Shao Wanru?

These cruel-hearted people couldn’t even tolerate Princess Chen, who was not a threat to them. If any of them ascended to the throne one day, only a few people might stay alive. Rui’an Great Elder Princess didn’t believe others would have no idea about it.

“Grandma, it may or may not be done by them. Let’s wait and see. Stay here to take care of me, okay?” Shao Wanru was afraid that her grandma would rush to the Palace to make trouble.

Before the situation became clear, she didn’t want Great Elder Princess to get involved.

At this time, horrible things might happen to whoever got involved in the dispute. The best way was to wait for some time. Since this disturbance was not a small matter, the Emperor would investigate it. That night, they had drawn out a lot of people in black. Though well prepared, she was pretty taken aback. To make the show more authentic, she stabbed herself with a sword.

She had planned to let the guards left by Chu Liuchen in the mansion fake an ordinary assassination of her. She discussed it with the chief supervisor, and they agreed to carry out their plan at night. But later, the chief supervisor came over, saying that he had received new orders from Chu Liuchen: more people would part in the assassination so that she and her servant girls should hide.

In fact, it was not Shao Wanru who stayed in her room that day. She and a few servant girls were hiding in the wing room. Therefore, the crossbow entering the room didn’t hurt anyone, but the noise was loud.

After that, several groups of black-clad men were drawn out. In the darkness, many people were locked in a tangled fight, but no one knew who the other parties were. When the chief supervisor rushed in with some people, those intruders wearing black clothes had run away. Then, Shao Wanru returned to her room with her servant girls and cut herself with a sword.

Everything had been arranged except that Shao Wanru stabbed herself, which was a complete surprise to everyone. The chief supervisor almost passed out when learning that Princess Chen was injured for real.

Prince Chen had reminded him many times to protect Princess Chen well, but he didn’t expect that she was still hurt. The chief supervisor kept blaming himself for having failed his master.

At that time, Shao Wanru had clearly seen more than two batches of black-clad men. There seemed to be about four groups. They looked like two parties, but how could four teams show up?

There were three groups respectively from the Prince Yue’s Mansion, the Prince Zhou’s Mansion, and the Prince Cheng’s Mansion. Then, who sent the fourth squad? These people from the Prince Chen’s Mansion didn’t appear when those men in black were attacking each other in the melee. These people from the Prince Chen’s Mansion shot the crossbows and quietly retreated. None of them was injured or died there.

Shao Wanru decisively stabbed herself after discovering the appearance of the fourth group. The matter was so complicated that she did not want to expose Chu Liuchen’s secret merely because of a fake wound on her.

Since she was supposed to get injured, she had better have a real wound in the eyes of everyone, whether the imperial physicians from the Palace or other people. This was why she didn’t hesitate to cut herself on the spot.

A lot of people might be implicated in this matter, but Shao Wanru couldn’t let the Prince Chen’s Mansion get involved. In this case, it would be her responsibility to prove their innocence.

“Grandma, many people in black came here yesterday. I don’t think they belong to one large group. I’m afraid that many people will be involved. I’m the victim, so you should know the right thing to do and the principles to follow. Even if the Emperor doesn’t want to look into the matter, he has to get to the bottom.”

Shao Wanru implicitly reminded her grandma.

Rui’an Great Elder Princess, after all, had experienced big events. Before this, she only cared too much about Shao Wanru to think clearly. After listening to Shao Wanru’s advice, she pondered for a moment and knew now was the best time to do it. No matter how the Emperor viewed it, this matter had to be investigated, and it had to be surveyed thoroughly. Some people struck a prince’s mansion with military crossbows late at night. Then, would these people attack the imperial Palace next time?

If the Emperor could not guarantee his safety, how could he sleep peacefully? Even if this trouble was stirred up by his sons, so what?