“He asks me to explain it? This is absurd!” Shao Yanru threw the letter in her hand hard and said with an angry look.

“First Miss… How dare he ask you to explain it! Who does he think he is?” Shuqi cautiously picked up the letter on the ground and said angrily.

The letter was sent to the mountain in the name of Miss Qi, but it was actually sent by Miss Qi’s brother. As Shao Yanru’s trusted maid, Shuqi certainly knew who wrote this letter.

“Tell him to look out for himself. If he doesn’t want to work for me, just drop it!” Shao Yanru said with a sneer, sat down heavily on the chair and became increasingly angry as she thought about it. Who did he think Qi Rongzhi was? What made him think that Qi Rongzhi could compare with her? How dare he ask her to explain for Qi Rongzhi without thinking who Qi Rongzhi was and whether Qi Rongzhi deserved it!

“Miss, shall, shall I pass on exactly what you said?” Shuqi looked at the blank letter paper on the desk and asked uneasily.

“Yes, tell the maid delivering the letter exactly what I said,” Shao Yanru said in rage.

“First Miss, it’s not a good idea. If the maid realizes something and passes on some rumors, it will cause trouble. Miss, with such a noble reputation, how can you get involved in this kind of thing!”

Shuqi advised her.

Shao Yanru looked a little better, stood up, walked up to the desk, picked up a writing brush and wrote a letter. After finishing it, she read it carefully and said coldly, “Tell the maid that I will think about it. If possible, I hope that I won’t do harm to her!”

In fact, the maid didn’t work for Qi Rongzhi, but worked for Qi Tianyu.

“Yes, First Miss. I got it. I will suggest that you will not do harm to the First Miss Qi and will protect her if possible. But now you are on the mountain and held back by the Fifth Miss. You can’t do anything about it even if you want to, and can only pass on a message to Madam and ask her to deal with it,” Shuqi said smartly.

Since the letter was written in the name of Miss Qi, she regarded it as Miss Qi who wrote the letter. In fact, the Miss Qi in Duke Xing’s Mansion was a coward with no courage to disobey Shao Yanru’s order. It was impossible for her to write a letter to ask for help.

Seeing that her maid knew well about her, Shao Yanru nodded and became at ease.

Before she became the empress, Qi Tianyu was a great help to her. At this time, she did not want to displease Qi Tianyu.

Shao Yanru was angry about her grandma’s decision to choose Qi Rongzhi as the scapegoat. She thought that her grandma was a dotard. Her grandma could choose any one among the descendants of the third branch. After she became the empress in the future, the entire Duke Xing’s Mansion could be extremely distinguished. There was no need to care about the descendants of the third branch.

Moreover, it was more convincing to make the descendants of Duke Yong’s Mansion take the blame than to make Qi Rongzhi take the blame. Now they couldn’t get Duke Yong’s Mansion involved in it, but got into trouble instead. Both her mother and her grandma were too old to be ruthless enough.

Shuqi walked up to the desk. Seeing that the letter paper had dried up, she folded it, took out a blank envelope and put it in the envelope, and said after hesitating for a moment, “Miss, shall I send back the two old maids sent here by Young Master Qi?”

“Let them stay for the time being, since Qi Tianyu didn’t ask them back. Anyway, they are just two ordinary old maids who came to offer incense!” Shao Yanru shook her head and said. Although they weren’t put to use before, it didn’t mean that they wouldn’t be put to use later.

Shao Wanru was a trouble after all. That would be great if she could get rid of Shao Wanru on the mountain.

“Yes, I will arrange it later!” Shuqi said with a frown. The two old maids had come to her before and said that they were going to go down the mountain if there was nothing else. She didn’t know whether it was because they got Young Master Qi’s order or because they couldn’t bear to stay any longer.

It would be great if the Fifth Miss was lured to climb up the mountain last time. The two old maids hid there at that time, intending to rush down and knock the Fifth Miss down the mountain after the Fifth Miss came up. Regarding the maid following the Fifth Miss, she was confident that they could get rid of the maid.

Unexpectedly, the First Miss failed to lure the Fifth Miss to go up the mountain, which ruined the First Miss’s plan.

After what had happened to the First Miss Qi, Shuqi was afraid that Young Master Qi and her master would bear grudges against each other. So when she met the maid sent by Qi Tianyu, she specially expressed her concern and said that her master actually wanted to help Miss Qi. However, the rumor had been spread, so it was useless to deny it. But the First Miss would write a letter back right away and ask Madam to take care of the First Miss Qi.

The reason why the First Miss couldn’t leave was that the Fifth Miss not only copied scriptures for her parents, but also kept the First Miss here to do it together. If the first Miss refused to do it, the Fifth Miss would claim that the First Miss was unfilial.

She implicitly told the maid about these. Hearing her words, the maid delivering the letter nodded repeatedly and thought that the Fifth Miss Shao was really not a nice person and the First Miss Shao treated Miss Qi sincerely and kindly. She decided to tell the Eldest Young Master about the First Miss Shao’s kindness.

After tricking the maid sent by Qi Tianyu to leave, Shuqi went to the two old maids sent by Qi Tianyu. She specially gave them two pouches and asked them to stay for another period of time. If her master couldn’t think of a way to deal with the Fifth Miss later, she would let them go. She said that her master had always been bullied by the vicious Fifth Miss. As the First Miss’s personal maid, she couldn’t stand it anymore, so she asked them for help.

The two old maids took the pouches and pinched them. Finding that there was much money in the pouches, they immediately beamed with joy and said that the Eldest Young Master only allowed them to stay on the mountain for another half a month at most. If they stayed longer, the Eldest Young Master would have issues with it.

After expressing her profound gratitude, Shuqi hurried back to report to Shao Yanru.

Shao Yanru was very satisfied with it. She had considered every detail. Even if anything went wrong, it wouldn’t have any influence on her. No matter in front of others or behind others, she was the incomparably noble, dignified and pretty First Miss of Duke Xing’s Mansion.

Hearing that Shao Wanru had stopped chanting scriptures and seeing two maids come in and out, she knew that Shao Wanru was not meditating at the moment, so she packed up a few copies of Buddhist scriptures and came to the silence room with Shuqi. She had plenty of ways to deal with Shao Wanru and was confident that Shao Wanru would definitely fall into the trap!

Except for some things that everyone knew, she knew some other things about Commandery Prince Qing’s visit, such as the news that he was going to stay on the mountain for a couple of days…

At the door of the silence room, Qu Le, who happened to come out, bowed sideways to Shao Yanru after seeing her.

“Is your master having a rest?” Shao Yanru stood at the door and asked with a smile. When she looked up, she saw Shao Wanru sitting on the mat and reading a volume of Buddhist scriptures. Hearing her voice, Shao Wanru raised her head and looked at her leisurely with a slight smile. It seemed that she was not surprised at Shao Wanru’s visit.

“Big Sister, have you finished copying the Buddhist scriptures?” Shao Wanru asked.

Shao Yanru walked over, sat down on the mat, and said with a smile after gently pinching her right hand, “I need to have a rest. After copying for so many days, I find that my hand goes sore easily. I wonder if it’s because I haven’t spent so much time writing before!”

Shuqi put several volumes of Buddhist scriptures copied by Shao Yanru on the desk between the two of them and said with a smile, “Fifth Miss, these are copied by my master these days. Her hand is so sore that she couldn’t eat by herself!”

“Thank you, Big Sister!” Shao Wanru stood up, bowed to her respectfully and said with a serious look.

“You are very kind to say so!” Shao Yanru said with a gentle smile and reached out to let her sit down again, “Fifth Sister, can you show me the Buddhist scriptures copied by you?”

Shao Wanru nodded. Yujie took out a few scrolls of scriptures from behind the screen. At the sight of this, Shao Yanru knew that Shao Wanru didn’t lie and really spent her time copying the scriptures whenever she could. Shao Yanru involuntarily frowned and thought, “Could it be possible that it’s Shao Wanru’s real desire to stay here for copying and chanting the scriptures?”

She looked at the volume of scriptures Shao Wanru had been reading just now, only to find that it had been closed when she didn’t notice it. With a trace of astonishment crossing her eyes, she involuntarily took another glance at it. This time she found something strange. The cover of the book seemed to be too big for the pages inside.

“Fifth Sister, what are you reading? Can you let me have a look?” Shao Yanru, who didn’t read the volume of scriptures in her hand, but reached out to take the one beside Shao Wanru’s hand instead, said with a casual smile, as if she happened to feel like having a look at it.

Shao Wanru reached out to take the book, and then turned her head, handed it to Yujie and said, “Big Sister, I’m very sorry that I’ve been reading it and I’m going to copying it after finishing reading it. Can I give it to you after I finish copying it?”

“Of course no problem. You can give it to me after finishing copying it. Since you read it so carefully, it should be a good book. I’ll copy it too!”

Shao Yanru said indifferently and withdrew her hand, as if she had just asked the question casually. However, she sneered in her heart. She was sure that the book was a script. It was improper that Shao Wanru read scripts during the period of time when she was supposed to observe mourning for her parents on the mountain. People would think that she just pretended to be filial and was quite hypocritical.

Shao Wanru would finish reading her scripts one day. Shao Yanru decided to send someone to keep an eye on her and see when her maids would go down the mountain to get new scripts. It would be great if they could be caught on the spot!

Needless to say, there must be a lot of scripts in this room.

“Of course it’s good!” Shao Wanru nodded and said with a smile.

“Fifth Sister, how is your hand? Does the ointment work?” Shao Yanru said, as she stretched out her hand, which was as smooth as it hadn’t been scalded before. It could be seen that the ointment was really effective.

The wound on Shao Wanru’s hand was still bound up with a handkerchief. She subconsciously reached out to touch it and said with a frown, “My wound has not healed yet!”

“How come? Could it be possible that the ointment from the imperial palace mainly works on scalds?” Shao Yanru, who was also surprised, said and reached out in an attempt to unbind the handkerchief on Shao Wanru’s hand and check her wound.

However, Shao Wanru stopped her with the other hand and said with a forced smile, “It should heal soon. Don’t worry, Big Sister. I’m not seriously injured, and it just heals much slower than the scald on your hand.”

“Since it gets better, you don’t have to be anxious. Just wait for the ointment to work. Maybe it doesn’t work as well as it does on scalds!” Shao Yanru comforted her in a soft voice.

“Maybe!” Shao Wanru said, looked a little hesitant and seemed to be doubting the effect of the ointment. But when she saw Shao Yanru’s white and tender hand, she became less puzzled.

After they chatted for another while, Shao Yanru left. When she walked to the door, she suddenly turned back and said as if she just remembered it, “Fifth Sister, there is a maple forest in the Yuhui Nunnery. It’s a good time to enjoy the scenery now. Shall we go to enjoy the scenery tomorrow?”