NOVEL WEB
Chapter 436
She did not expect that Gu Ying and Jiang Yin had such a past history, but after getting along with Gu Ying for so long, she still liked Gu Ying very much as a daughter-in-law.
That night, the incident happened suddenly, and she was indeed angry.
Du was fighting on the battlefield with unknown life or death, while Gu Ying was entangled with her old lover in Bianjing, which made anyone upset to hear about it!
However, when she returned to the mansion and thought about it, what kind of person was her son, how could he allow another girl to marry him while pregnant with someone else's child?
The love between Gu Ying and Du was obvious to everyone in the mansion.
Even Zhao Hui told her, "Gu Ying would never betray Du."
So even though she was unhappy, in her heart she believed Gu Ying was innocent.
As for her adopted daughter, who had always urged her to drive Gu Ying away, it made her a little worried, "Ru Xu, tell mother honestly, do you still not give up on Du?"
When Shen Ruxu heard this, her heart ached terribly, and her eyes reddened slightly, "I..."
As soon as Mrs. Lin saw her grieved and pitiful look, what else did she not know?
"You, you! Didn't mother tell you! Mother will find a good family for you! Why don't you listen!"
Shen Ruxu smiled bitterly, and tears slid down the corners of her eyes, "Mother, I'm sorry... I made you angry again."
Mrs. Lin irritably pulled her up and headache said, "These two days, dress up properly, mother will take you out to meet people, we don't have to wait for Du to come back, your marriage must be settled soon."
Shen Ruxu’s fingers clenched tightly together in a flash.
Before she could retort, she saw Yin Lan coming into the Lingxi Pavilion again with delicacies carved from tallow from the Hu Ji restaurant.
Although Mrs. Lin believed in Gu Ying, she couldn’t be completely indifferent about her and Jiang Yin’s affairs either.
So she had never had a good face towards Yin Lan.
Seeing Yin Lan come over, she frowned and told her to get out.
Yin Lan was also a good-tempered person. She had been sending things to the Lingxi Pavilion for ten days now, and she hadn’t seen her be impatient. She calmly placed the food box on the pear wood table in the Lingxi Pavilion’s flower room, and said some more kind words to Mrs. Lin before leaving.
Shen Ruxu stared at the box on the table for a good while without waiting for Mrs. Lin to call her, and hurriedly took her leave.
When she went out of the Duke’s mansion, she secretly followed Yin Lan’s pace.
But she did not expect to see a good show.
It turned out that Yanzhi was also in the carriage of the Censorate, and she and Yin Lan had come to do things together.
But when entering the Duke’s mansion to deliver things, only Yin Lan went in alone.
The two maidservants were arguing about something beside the carriage.
Yanzhi was clumsy with words and naturally could not argue with the elder and steadfast Yin Lan. She was so angry that her face turned red and she arrogantly threatened, "What do you think you are, just a later acquired servant. I grew up with the Lady since I was little, that’s deep affection. How can you compare? In the end I am the most trusted person to the Lady, you are just a bootlicking errand runner!"
When Yin Lan heard this, her eyes dimmed.
Afterwards, Yanzhi angrily shook the curtains and got on the carriage.
She didn’t even wait for Yin Lan and directly let the coachman drive away.
The intrigues and contention for the favor of the master among servants was commonplace in large households.
She just didn’t expect that the people around Gu Ying were no exception.
She had thought that Gu Ying had good discipline over her subordinates, and the maids were all loyal to her. It turned out that they still stood on different hills and governed on their own.
Looking at Yin Lan’s lonely and pitiful back, Shen Ruxu curved her lips and walked out from the shadows, pretending not to see the redness in Yin Lan's eyes, she exclaimed in surprise, "Sister Yin Lan, why are you alone here?"
Yin Lan's eyes were evasive as she lowered her eyelashes, forcing back the tears in her eyes, and smiled bitterly, "I sent the lady's things over and will leave soon."
Shen Ruxu said, "Walking by foot? How can Sister Gu Ying treat Sister like this? She actually won’t even arrange a carriage for you?"
For first-class maids from wealthy households going out to run errands for their masters, there was no reason to walk by foot.
A maid's dignity was the master's dignity.
Only crude maids like Yanzhi didn't understand this rule, and actually left Yin Lan here alone.
If Shen Ruxu hadn't looked into Yin Lan's background early on, she still wouldn't believe that Yanzhi dared to treat Yin Lan like this.
In the end, Gu Ying favored and believed in Yanzhi too much, and it would sooner or later make Yin Lan feel cold towards her.
Shen Ruxu had long forgotten about the incident in Yueyang when she had almost killed Yin Lan. She kindly said, "It’s getting late, I’ll have someone prepare a carriage to send Sister Yin back, otherwise going back to report so late, I’m afraid it would bring punishment from Sister Gu."
Yin Lan's body shuddered, "This..."
From her expression, Shen Ruxu knew that she must have suffered a lot under Gu Ying, so she said, "Sister don't worry, just sending you to outside the Censorate’s street, no one will see."
In the end, Yin Lan still couldn't resist Shen Ruxu's enthusiasm and got on her carriage.
In the following days, Shen Ruxu would wait for her at the door.
Sometimes she would give her food, sometimes gold and silver jewelry, and occasionally she would take her out to buy snacks downtown.
At first, Yin Lan was still a little wary of her, but gradually she lowered her guard and treated her as a bosom friend, and started returning her kerchiefs and sachets.
Shen Ruxu naturally would not easily believe that Yin Lan could be so magnanimous as to be friends with her.
She even spent money to bribe the maidservants of the Censorate to inquire about the news of the Qinghe Garden.
It turned out that as early as a month ago, Yanzhi had become the sole favorite, arrogantly ordering around the other maids of Qinghe Garden.
She completely looked down on Yin Lan. Otherwise, on such extremely hot days, the terrible summer heat would not have fallen on Yin Lan to go deliver food to the Duke’s mansion every day.
By now, Yanzhi and Yin Lan were almost at daggers drawn. The two competed openly and maneuvered covertly, constantly trying to get the better of one another.
Shen Ruxu gradually won over Yin Lan as a confidante, and even extracted a lot of Gu Ying’s whereabouts from her.
She tentatively tested it three times, and each time it was true.
This made her trust Yin Lan even more, so she thought, the time was ripe and her plan could also be implemented.
However, what made her even more pleasantly surprised was that this evening, Yin Lan took the initiative to ask her out for a drink.
After getting tipsy, Yin Lan was half drunk and half awake, and actually asked her if she had any colorless and odorless poison that could make people bleed from the throat and choke them.
Her heart shuddered, and she asked guardedly, "Sister, what are you going to use this poison for?"
Yin Lan irritably laughed, pulled Shen Ruxu over, and whispered, "I'm more and more annoyed by Yanzhi’s smug look. So I was thinking, can I get rid of her... Good sister, I know you must have this kind of medicine as a doctor, right?"
After that, she even gave a drunken hiccup.
Yin Lan reeked of alcohol, and Shen Ruxu also felt a little drunk.
Ever since she came to the Duke's mansion, she wanted to kill Mrs. Lin who was biased towards Gu Ying.
Now, hearing what Yin Lan said, this idea became more and more strong, and it even made her vaguely