Hearing Shao Wanru asking about her, Shuiyi answered hurriedly, “My name is Shuiyi, and I am a second-class servant girl of Old Madam!”

Shao Wanru threw a few glances at her and asked slowly, “What did Nanny Xi and Old Madam say just now? Why did Old Madam suddenly ask Nanny Xi to live in the Piaoyun Courtyard?”

When she left just now, she was sure that neither Old Madam nor Nanny Xi had suspected her. Unexpectedly, in the blink of an eye, they had made her a target.

“I don’t know. I was in the courtyard!” Shuiyi lowered her head and spoke.

Shao Wanru stopped talking but looked at Shuiyi, leaving a cold atmosphere in the room.

After quite a while, Shao Wanru waved her hand and said, “Go ahead and tell Old Madam that there will be an etiquette instructor here and she doesn’t have to worry about it!”

“Fifth Miss…” Shuiyi seemed to not want to give up on trying to persuade her, but Shao Wanru’s eyes had been slightly closed, as if she didn’t want to talk anymore. As soon as she saw Shao Wanru’s look, Shuiyi bowed to her and left.

“Miss, Old Madam won’t let it go!” Yujie said after Shuiyi left. How dare she defy Old Madam’s decision? Wasn’t it like a slap in her face in front of Nanny Xi?

“Go and ask Nanny Zheng to come here!” Shao Wanru shook her head calmly and spoke.

“Yes, I will go now!” answered Yujie. She did not dare to hesitate and then left.

Nanny Zheng seldom showed up in front of others. She usually did embroidery in the wing room and helped Shao Wanru deal with some affairs in the courtyard. When Shao Wanru was not there, she secretly arranged people around Shao Wanru and paid extra attention to the new servant girls and old maids in the courtyard.

Everyone in the Piaoyun Courtyard knew Nanny Zheng, but others in Duke Xing’s Mansion didn’t even know that she existed.

On the surface, the supervisor of the Piaoyun Courtyard was Nanny Yu. The servants in the courtyard also had their own guesses about Nanny Zheng’s identity. Most of them thought that she was the Fifth Miss’s henchman but was not as useful as Nanny Yu, so she just helped the Fifth Miss with some errands, and usually she had nothing to do but some embroidery in the wing room.

“Miss, is there an etiquette instructor coming from the palace?” Nanny Zheng came over very fast and asked. On her way over, Yujie had brought up this matter.

Shao Wanru stood up to welcome her, and then the two of them sat down separately.

“Yes, have you ever heard of Nanny Xi?” Shao Wanru nodded and asked.

“She works for the Empress!” Nanny Zheng thought for a while then said with certainty.

“She’s the Empress’s pawn. There are four people in our mansion who will attend the Beauty Contest this time. The Empress sent a nanny especially for me who was very hostile. Just now, she provoked me again and again in Old Madam’s courtyard. She said that I shouldn’t attend the contest because I was supposed to mourn for my parents…” Shao Wanru also told her what had happened in Old Madam’s courtyard including what she told her at the gate of the courtyard.

After hearing Shao Wanru out, Nanny Zheng thought about it then said, “I think Old Madam must have reached an agreement with Nanny Xi!”

“What agreement? It didn’t seem to be like that before.” There was a glint in Shao Wanru’s eyes. That was exactly what she thought too, but there were still some key points missing.

“The Empress must have seen the background of Duke Xing’s Mansion. If she wants to choose a Miss from there to marry her son, it’s most likely to be the First Miss.”

She had been in Duke Xing’s Mansion for a while. In fact, Nanny Zheng had secretly found a lot of evidence, and this also helped Shao Wanru come to some conclusions.

This conclusion was drawn by what she found out and what she had already known.

“Since First Miss is going to marry a Prince from Prince Zhou’s Mansion, of course you won’t be able to do it. The royal family will not allow two sisters both to be Princess. What’s more, there are only so many single princes in the Mansion!” Nanny Zheng was even more sure.

Shao Wanru knew it. There were only four princes, including Chu Liuchen, who was raised and ranked as a Prince. The amount of selected people was numbered, and there was only one Princess, two Consorts, or even only one Princess for each Prince. If there were two selected from Duke Xing’s Mansion, what would the other officials think?

Shao Wanru had heard a lot of phrases like “the balance of power” in her last life.

In both the front court and the imperial harem, people paid close attention to the balance of power, which meant that the result was destined. Between Shao Yanru and her, if one was selected, the other could no longer be chosen as the consort of a prince, unless there was a special reason.

”The reason why the Empress and Old Madam were so eager to work together was that they wanted her to lose the contest. However, with the power of Rui’an Great Elder Princess, maybe she still had a slight chance to win.” Shao Wanru thought.

“They were worried, so they wanted to get rid of the hidden danger as soon as possible!” Shao Wanru connected all the dots and slightly narrowed her watery eyes.

“That’s their trick. After the Beauty Contest starts, it’s not up to them to decide. Even if the Empress wants to meddle, she has to take Rui’an Great Elder Princess’s wishes into account. If this matter is exposed to the Empress Dowager, it will be even more complicated!” Nanny Zheng said.

“What if I won’t change my mind about attending the Beauty Contest?” Shao Wanru asked slowly.

“If you really want to participate in the Beauty Contest, they will definitely make a move, unless you take the initiative to withdraw. According to Nanny Xi’s aggressive manner, she’ll probably deal you a head-on blow and shock you. Then, she will give you a hint with soft words. If you take her advice and give up, it would be the best result for her; but if you don’t, I’m sure Nanny Xi must have other tricks up her sleeve. At that time, she will force you to withdraw from the Beauty Contest!”

Nanny Zheng sorted out her thoughts and spoke.

She actually knew what kind of person Nanny Xi was. When they were in the palace that day, they didn’t have much interaction, but she could tell from the details.

“What should we do now?” Shao Wanru blinked and asked. Currently, her power was certainly not equal to Old Madam’s, let alone the Empress’s.

Chu Liuchen had his aspiration for her to win the Beauty Contest.

“Don’t worry, Miss. I knew this Nanny Xi. She will definitely come over later. I will deal with her then!” Nanny Zheng suggested.

This proposal made Shao Wanru feel relieved. Since Nanny Zheng had offered to help, It was obvious that she was confident that she could handle it.

“Can you guarantee that she won’t be living in the Piaoyun Courtyard?” Shao Wanru asked cautiously even though she knew the answer.

“She won’t be living in the Piaoyun Courtyard,” Nanny Zheng said with certainty, while reminding Shao Wanru, “But she probably will live in the mansion someday, so I’m afraid that she will cause us some trouble. After all, she has the Empress on her side!”

“Then get her out of the mansion!” Shao Wanru sneered.

As soon as Nanny Xi entered the mansion, she wanted to meddle in her affairs. They were enemies, and she would never show mercy to her enemies. She had set up the pawns around Madam of Duke Xing, and she had figured out that the people sent by the Empress would not be easy to get along with.

She didn’t believe that her etiquette instructor had to be sent back to Duke Xing’s Mansion while the Empress would have the nerve to send another one instead.

As an etiquette instructor, she taught the ladies basic rules of etiquette. If she couldn’t follow them herself, how could she teach others?

“I heard that the Empress and Old Madam are distant relatives. Honored Consort Shu in the palace is also related to Madam of Duke Xing. Nanny, do you not know?”

Shao Wanru had asked Nanny Zheng about Honored Consort Shu before, but she was caught up in Wang Yishu’s matter, so she didn’t pay much attention to it for a while. At this time, it came back to her.

“The Empress is indeed a distant relative of Old Madam, but their relationship was not close at all, they did have the same ancestry, which could be traced back five generations. Old Madam brought it up, but the Empress wouldn’t admit it. As for Honored Consort Shu and Madam of Duke Xing, they visited each other and had a closer relationship.”

Nanny Zheng thought about it and detailed their relationships in a few words.

Given the status of the Empress, she couldn’t care less about such a distant relative. However, she didn’t mind them reaching out to her. After all, the stronger Prince Zhou was, the better.

Honored Consort Shu had no child. It would benefit her a lot if she could have a good relationship with them. This was also the reason why she would occasionally visit Duke Xing’s Mansion.

To admit it or not, it was just a matter of benefits.

This was in line with Shao Wanru’s guess. The corners of her mouth were slightly raised, and her smile was sweet but also a little cold. Her charming smile looked even a bit colder because of this distance.

She had already made arrangements for it. The rest was up to how much Nanny Xi could take before she was driven out of the mansion…

“How… how dare she refuse…” Hearing Shuiyi’s report, Old Madam almost couldn’t catch her breath. Her lips trembled and she couldn’t believe what she had heard.

Seeing that it was not going well, Nanny Yu hurriedly went up to Old Madam and patted her on the back to help her catch her breath.

“She’s gone too far!” Nanny Xi was even angrier. She smacked her hand heavily on the table, and her face was livid with anger. Not to mention outside the palace, even in the palace, few people dared to say such disrespectful words to her. She was the etiquette instructor sent by the Empress. How arrogant Fifth Miss Shao was to say such words.

She couldn’t bear it.

“Old Madam, since I am Fifth Miss Shao’s etiquette instructor, I should teach her to behave. And Fifth Miss Shao has a lack of respect for others, I think it’s my duty to ask your permission to do my job!” Nanny Xi said, taking a deep breath to suppress the anger in her heart.

She didn’t expect Shao Wanru to refuse her offer. She felt so ashamed.

“You… you go ahead!” Old Madam said with difficulty, gasping for breath—she was really angry. Nanny Yu did not dare to speak, she just slapped her back gently worrying that she would really faint out of anger.

She took Old Madam’s order. Angrily, Nanny Xi stood up and let an old maid lead the way to the Piaoyun Courtyard along with two palace maids of hers.

She didn’t believe that she couldn’t handle a little girl!

After they arrived at the Piaoyun Courtyard, they didn’t wait for the servants to report, but went straight for the main room while putting on airs. When they were in front of the door, she said coldly, “Fifth Miss Shao, I’ve come to teach you some manners on the orders of the Empress!”

After that, Nanny Xi lifted the curtain and walked in. When she stood still, she saw a woman turn around. Their eyes met and she took a step back in shock…