"Wanru, have you confirmed your choices?" said Shui Ruolan, sounding concerned, as she shifted her vision from Qin Yuru's back to Qin Wanru. "Aunt Shui, I will settle these few maids. I trust Nanny Yu's choices!" said Qin Wanru, nodding. "Come in a minute!" said Shui Ruolan to Qin Wanru, getting on her feet and entering the room. She wanted to have few words with Qin Wanru in private, so she instructed Qin Wanru to follow her into the room. She did not want the others to hear what she was going to say. "Wanru, did you find your big sister behaving strangely today?" said Shui Ruolan after she hesitated for a while after Qin Wanru followed her into the room with a frown. She had meant to warn Qin Wanru about Qin Yuru. "Rest assured, Aunt Shui. I will be on my toes around her!" Qin Wanru said with a smile. She had guessed as much since earlier on. "Do you... do you want to let all these maids go, and have Old Maid Ya

"What happened?" asked Qin Wanru without even looking up. "They said Qu Le bumped into Elder Miss Qin's maid when she was out running errands. Her maid gave Qu Le two tight slaps and Qu Le could not swallow it and fought back, that's when they started fighting. For this reason, Mrs. Qin had taken both of them away!" said Nanny Yu, looking displeased, not so much because the maids got into a fight, but rather, that somehow Mrs. Qin was involved in this matter. Qin Yuru's maid? Qin Wanru had observed Qin Yuru's interest in Qu Le yesterday. She did not expect Qin Yuru to have thought of a plan to lay hold of Qu Le so quickly. It would appear that Qin Yuru and Mrs. Qin was really quite interested in Qu Le. She was merely a common maid and Qin Wanru did not think she was especially important if not for her memory of her previous life. Given that Mrs. Qin was trying to intervene, it looked like this was no ordinary maid and she had t

"My parents were from the capital city, but I was born in Jiangzhou, so I suppose I'm from Jiangzhou!" said Qu Le hesitantly. "Why did your parents relocate to Jiangzhou then?" asked Qin Wanru, with a flash of light across her eyes. "I think they moved here... following their master. My parents were supposed children born to servants in an influential family in the capital city. Later on, they were separated from their master somehow and so ended up in Jiangzhou. They didn't dare to return to the capital city they lost their master." Qu Le blurted out everything she knew even though her father had given her instructions not to reveal certain things. She was not planning to return home because she knew she would be sold as a slave anyways. It seemed to her that her mistress right in front of her was a kind girl, who was able to protect her even in a precarious circumstance a moment ago. What a strange thing to have happened! How

"Do you mean..." said Shui Ruolan with a trembling voice. "What triggered it? Was it the same in the previous years?" asked Qin Wanru, as she caught the implication, and tried to hold back the despair in her heart. "In the past, the illness was also triggered by unforeseen circumstances, when the weather turned cold in autumn and winter. On one hand, it was because your grandmother's body was unable to withstand the cold because age is catching up with her. On the other hand, it could be because of the hayfever which was caused by the pollen of flowers that blooms during autumn. This could be one of the most important triggers to your grandmother's illness." The reverend of Jingxin Monastery explained. She did not want to mention these two factors because she thought that Shui Ruolan was after all Old Grandma's niece who did not really have control over anything, and Qin Wanru was still a young girl. She thought it was not appropriate for he

"You..." stammered Qin Yuru, tightening her grip on her teacup. "If there's nothing, Elder Sister, I'll make a move first. It's Aunt Shui's turn to rest. Grandma's health is deteriorating. If I'm not by her side, Aunt Shui would have to keep an eye on her. Aunt Shui had lost so much weight in the past few days, taking care of Grandma!" said Qin Wanru, shaking the dust of her sleeves and she got up to leave. Qin Yuru's face turned ashen. Fortunately, she was hanging on to the last thread of rationality in her, otherwise, she would have hurled the teacup at Qin Wanru's face. How dare this debased lass tried to imply that Qin Yuru had not been taking care of the sickly grandmother, claiming that only Qin Wanru herself and Shui Ruolan were the only the ones doing it. "Elder Sister, I don't time to be idle, please excuse me!" Qin Wanru said, turning to leave before Qin Wanru could explain herself and Qing Yue quickly followed her.