“How could anyone in the Marquis Xing’s Mansion write a letter to me?

“It’s so unexpected!”

Shao Wanru took it and opened the envelope to read the letter. There was no signature. It could be seen that the person who wrote it was very cautious. Her eyes fell on the characters with vigorous and slashing brushstrokes. The letter was from a man, but not any servant in the mansion. Shao Wanru’s heart suddenly thumped.

After Shao Wanru saw the letter’s contents, her face changed significantly, and her fingers tightly clenched the letter in her hands.

“My Lady?” Yujie sitting next to Shao Wanru asked anxiously.

Shao Wanru glued her eyes to the letter, watching each word on the letter again. The letter was straightforward. It indicated Shao Jing’s whereabouts more than a decade ago: he left the capital and went to the area around Jiangzhou.

Actually, it was more than the area around Jiangzhou. He had been to places near the battlefield. As for where it was exactly, Yan Xi was not sure.

Yes, this letter was from Yan Xi, who implicitly thanked Shao Wanru’s kindness in the Number One Scholar Restaurant. After telling her who he was, he came straight to the point. His father told him Shao Jing sneaked out of the capital secretly ten years ago. At that time, Yan Xi’s father, who was also at the border, met Shao Jing unexpectedly and received him.

Shao Jing told him that he came out to gain experience. The Duke Xing’s Mansion, an aristocratic martial arts family, sent him out to gain experience, but he didn’t join the army. He just sneaked around and secretly sent people to search for something.

Yan Xi’s father, as an officer of the army station there, paid particular attention to Shao Jing’s actions because they had been at war, although he believed Shao Jing’s words. Only then did he find that Shao Jing seemed to be looking for someone. However, he did not overthink this matter. Then Shao Jing left.

Before Shao Jing left, he exhorted him not to tell anyone about it, saying that he was just looking around and didn’t want others to know his whereabouts.

It wasn’t a big deal, so General Yan agreed and took no notice.

After they parted, General Yan was busy fighting the war and suppressing the rebellion. When the war was over, he heard that the Heir of Duke Xing was dead after something happened. Only Infanta Qinghua, who was pregnant, was found. As for the specific matter, General Yan did not pay much attention to it because it had little to do with the Yan’s Mansion.

It was a pity that the Heir of Duke Xing died young in this rebellion.

This matter was over. After so many years, General Yan had already forgotten most of it. And since then, the relationship between Yan’s Mansion and the Duke Xing’s Mansion in the capital city became better and better. Shao Jing, who had become the mansion’s master, had been very kind to General Yan. Even if General Yan had some slight doubts, they faded as many years passed.

However, after Yan Xi entered the capital this time, Wang Shengxue’s schemes and traps were vaguely related to the Marquis Xing’s Mansion. Yan Xi wrote to his father, asking about his doubts.

General Yan also felt strange and blamed Yan Xi for being so suspicious. After scolding him in a letter, he wrote another letter about their past.

Yan Xi read the letter but found nothing unusual. But the incident that happened in the Number One Scholar Restaurant was obviously targeted at Yan Xi, who was not a fool after all. After giving a lot of thought to the matter, he remembered the letter that his father wrote later and shared it with Shao Wanru.

He was not clear about what had happened to the former Heir of Duke Xing, but his intuition told him that something wrong had happened…

When Shao Wanru read it again, her face suddenly turned ghastly pale.

“My Lady…” Yujie saw that something was wrong and hurried to help her. However, Shao Wanru had already spat out a mouthful of blood, and her body slowly crumpled.

At this moment, her eyes blurred, and Shao Wanru could only see a vast expanse of red before her. “Sure enough, Shao Jing, it is indeed him…”

“My Lady, My Lady…” Yujie’s anxious voice faded away.

“Dad, what kind of flower is this?” a little girl, well-dressed to boot, asked sweetly in a handsome young man’s arms, holding his hand tightly. The messy bouquet in her hand was no longer as bright as before, but the little girl didn’t know that she had damaged the flowers.

The young man looked at his daughter with a gentle smile, reached out to touch her hair, and said tenderly, “They’re your mother’s favorite flowers. How did you pick them? Be careful that your mother may spank you later!”

“Mom? Where is mom?” The girl looked around and buried her head in the young man’s arms. “Daddy, hug, hug. Mom, no spank!”

“How dare you ask your father’s help?” A woman’s voice came from behind. Then a beautiful young lady came out with a gentle and amiable face.

“Mom! Mom is here. Daddy, Daddy!” Her tiny body twisted as she squeezed into the man’s embrace. She thought if she hid in her daddy’s arms, her mom wouldn’t see her. Her hands moved here and there, which printed the flower juice all over the man’s body and face.

“Miss, come here. Let me hold you.” A maid came up to get her.

“He Xin, go away!” The girl twisted her body hard and patted the maid’s hand hard. She raised her head with grievance and looked at her mother standing behind her father. “Mom, hug, hug me. Please, Mom! I don’t want He Xin!”

In just a while, she had forgotten that her mother was going to punish her. Looking at her adorable face, the young man and woman couldn’t help laughing…

“Dad, mom, don’t go. Dad, mom…” Shao Wanru suddenly screamed and sat up, staring blankly ahead in a panic.

“My Lady, My Lady!” Several servant girls waiting by the side came over and hurriedly called her.

Their continuous calls went into her ears and woke Shao Wanru up from her dreamlike illusion. She looked around at the familiar. “I’m in my bedroom.”

“My Lady, are you all right?” Nanny Yu walked to the bed and asked anxiously.

Shao Wanru raised up, her face still pale. “He Xin?”

Yes, He Xin was the principal maid who had always been with her mother. There was no such a maid in her memory. But now, she blurted her name out.

Nanny Yu and others looked at each other in mystification, not understanding what Shao Wanru meant. What was “He Xin”? Or what was the matter?

“My Lady…” Qu Le said.

“How did I come back?” Shao Wanru looked at Yujie. Before she fainted, Yujie was the last person she saw.

“Don’t worry, Miss. I have put it away. It’s under your pillow. You suddenly vomited blood in the carriage and passed out when we returned.” Yujie, knowing what she’d like to know, hurried to explain.

Shao Wanru’s eyes fell on the bowl on the table before the bed. There was a strong smell of medicine.

“The imperial physician must have come. What did he say about me?”

“After I came back, Nanny Zheng immediately sent for the imperial physician in the Palace. After asking about your condition, he prescribed the medicine. Besides, he said that you suddenly spat out blood and blacked out, possibly because of the side effects of the previous medicine you smelled!” Yujie answered with worry, observing Shao Wanru’s complexion.

Princess Chen didn’t look well at the moment.

Shao Wanru fell silent, her watery eyes slightly cold, and she didn’t speak for a long time.

Nanny Yu got very worried. “Your Highness, did you think of something? If you recall anything, say it. Don’t keep it in your heart. His Highness is not here now. It will be terrible if you get sick because of troubling thoughts!”

“Don’t worry, Nanny Yu. I’m fine. I just figured something out. All of you can withdraw now and leave Qing’er here!” Shao Wanru calmed down and looked up slowly.

Although they were worried about Shao Wanru’s health, she looked much better, so they had to go out one after another.

Nanny Yu was busy, so she went to do her business. Several principal maids stood outside the door, waiting for further instructions.

Only Qing’er was left in the room.

“Qing’er, what can you learn from it?” Shao Wanru took out a letter under the pillow and handed it to Qing’er, who was proficient in analyzing.

Qing’er took the letter with great respect and looked at it carefully. The more she looked at it, the more deeply she frowned.

“Can you tell anything from it?” Shao Wanru asked slowly, and her eyes were like bottomless dark pools. She wanted Qing’er to make a judgment as to whether her thoughts were correct or not.

In fact, she had always had this idea, but she could not find any evidence. At present, it was based on merely her own supposition. Thus, she wanted to know how others viewed this letter, and Qing’er was the best candidate with an extraordinarily penetrating gaze.

“My Lady, Marquis Xing left the capital secretly that year, so he didn’t want others to know it. But Childe Yan’s father accidentally saw him!” Hearing Shao Wanru’s question, Qing’er said slowly, “After that, the two mansions were on good terms. In my opinion, Marquis Xing wanted much more than General Yan to maintain a good relationship between them. It was because he didn’t want General Yan to tell others about the past event.”

“If it was just a small matter, Marquis Xing couldn’t keep such a long period of friendship with him. And this time Childe Yan had taken the exam in the capital. With his talent and background, he should be selected as an official and settle down in the capital, which is a very common future for someone like him. But now someone framed him because some people in the capital didn’t welcome him. More specifically, he was not allowed to be an official in the capital.”

Qing’er analyzed rationally, “This matter involves the Marquis Xing’s Mansion again. I’d like to make a guess. If the Marquis Xing’s Mansion was behind this, Marquis Xing must be the chief plotter. What kind of person is Wang Shengxue? He is only willing to listen to a few people, and Marquis Xing is one of them. After connecting the series of things, I think Marquis Xing didn’t want anyone from the Yan Family to be an official in the capital because he feared they would talk about what happened that year.”

Qing’er grew more and more certain about her conclusions.

Some of these things had happened more than a decade ago, and some appeared recently, all of which could prove the relationships between these people involved. Many things that they couldn’t figure out in the past became clear. It turned out the answer didn’t lie in the present but more than a decade ago.

Qing’er had helped Shao Wanru investigate many things secretly and knew what Shao Wanru cared about. She saw Shao Wanru’s lips tremble. She didn’t say all the things out loud, but Princess Chen must have thought of it. She vomited blood because of grief and anger. If she told her all the truth, could Princess Chen bear it?

Although Princess Chen was smart enough to figure out these things by herself, it was another matter for her to hear the truth from others.

“I want the truth!” Shao Wanru’s voice became a little hoarse.

They were talking about the real things that happened in her previous life and in this life! One after another, they emerged in her mind. Compared with Qing’er, Shao Wanru knew more and experienced more. She had already figured out the causes and effects. The rims of her eyes reddened a little, and her eyes suddenly turned fierce and solemn!

“Marquis Xing has something to do with your father’s death!” Qing’er gritted her teeth and said clearly, “Also, because of him, Childe Yan fell in trouble!”