A plain-looking carriage moved steadily on the road. The coachman was a lad. He had a simple and honest smile on his face and drove the carriage steadily.
In the carriage, a young girl dressed as a maid in pale bluish-white said softly,
"Miss, there is only an hour's ride to the gate of the capital. We'll enter the capital city soon."
"Um." The voice was low but pleasant, and listeners were naturally attracted to listen carefully to figure out what she had said.
The interior of the carriage was extremely comfortable, with all kinds of gorgeous and exquisite items. A young girl was half leaning on the pillow embroidered with delicate peonies, holding a book in her hand. Her eyelashes were long and thick, casting a light shadow on her flawless face, forming a scene radiating with tranquility and charm.
The maid who was dressed in white and sitting on her heels beside the girl said, "Miss, the road is not very smooth. I think you shouldn't read any more. It's not good for your eyes."
"It's hard for us to have such leisure in the future. I want to read for a while. Bi Zhu, have you sent the message to the Shen family? "
"Yes, miss, I have." The maid in dark green said, while sorting out the books in the carriage. "But there was no reply from either your father or mother."
The girl curled her lips. Her smiling eyes indicated that she was in a good mood. She was Shen Ninghua, who had been missing for more than half a year. "I'm just a neglected daughter. How can I expect them to write back when they know I'm going back?"
"Miss, your returning home this time will surprise them."
Shen Ninghua's smile deepened. A trace of coldness flashed in her eyes, but that was quite invisible even if someone looked carefully at her eyes. "Haha, I'm afraid they would be oversurprised."
From her appearance, no one would ever think there was any connection between this extremely beautiful girl with the dark-skinned girl she used to be: one was as dark as a pile of mud whereas the other as beautiful as a peach flower in full blossom. They were way too different.
Shen Ninghua looked at the book, but her eyesight was not focused on it. After she was bitten by an inch snake, she woke up to see Granny Poison. In fact, she didn't know Granny Poison’s real name. She only called the old woman Granny Poison because she had tested various poisons on her for the past half year.
When she woke up that day, she was shocked by Granny Poison's scarred face. After living with her for some time, she felt that the scarred face was actually more pleasing to her eyes than Shen Linghan's peerless beautiful face.
Besides treating her with all kinds of medicine every day, Granny Poison did not have a single word with her. Therefore, although they had lived together for nearly a year, she didn't know why Granny Poison lived in the valley. She only knew that Granny Poison was proficient in medical skills and seemed to have a deep hatred towards the Zhao family in the capital, because she accidentally found a jasmine tattoo on Granny Poison's ankle, a pattern unique to the direct line of women of the Zhao family, tattooed at birth. Granny Poison always looked at the pattern with hatred on her face.
Seeing that Shen Ninghua was lost in her thought, Bai Ruo gently reminded her, "Miss."
Shen Ninghua regained her presence of mind. She put down the book in her hand and looked at the four girls around her. The light in her eyes slightly darkened.
The four young girls in front of her were Bai Ruo, Bi Zhu, Hong Ling and Qing Que. She had taken them out of the valley to be her maids. Granny Poison had brought the four of them into the valley to test her medicine. When they first came into the valley, they were either seriously injured or ill. Granny Poison left them to Shen Ninghua. Although she herself was suffering from the pain of being tested by Granny Poison, she kept reading medical books all day and applied what she learnt to save them bit by bit.
The four of them were grateful to Shen Ninghua. After they recovered, they all begged to stay with her. Shen Ninghua happened to need assistants, so she let them stay with her. Granny Poison showed no objection. After they became her maids, Granny Poison stopped testing medicine on them. Later, she found that each of the girls had different abilities and she came to realize that Granny Poison had actually brought them into the valley to be her maids.
The carriage continued moving forward smoothly. Hong Ling, the liveliest among the four maids looked outside through the gap of the curtain and said happily, "Miss, the capital is really different. The women here are so beautiful. However, they are not as good-looking as you." Of course her master was the best-looking!
Shen Ninghua smiled and looked at her fingers carefully. She used to think she was born with dark and ugly skin, but didn't know the reason: someone had applied poison to her when she was still in her mother's womb.
In order to recover her appearance, she lived a miserable life in the past half year... What made her even worse was the poison had been with her when her mother was pregnant. So the fact that her mother died in giving birth to her was questionable. As the prime minister's wife, who also had an imperial mandate, who could have the chance to poison her when she was pregnant?
When she learnt the message from Granny Poison, she immediately thought of Zhao Yunxiang, Shen Dong's current wife. Only she had the motive to poison her mother. When she returned to the Shen family, she would find out the truth.
The noise outside the carriage was loud. Shen Ninghua closed her eyes, calmed down, and let out a little sigh of relief. Only then did she feel that she was really alive: now she was neither in the dark cold palace or in the valley where she had undergone an abyss of suffering.
All of a sudden, the horses hissed; the carriage shook and then came to a stop.
Bi Zhu and Bai Ruo guarded Shen Ninghua on her left and right, while Qing Que and Hong Ling nimbly jumped out of the carriage. After a while, Qing Que came back and reported, "Miss, a horse was startled and it has been stopped. We can reach the Shen Mansion in a quarter of an hour." Qing Que was seriously injured when she was rescued. She didn't talk much and it took Shen Ninghua quite some time to discover that Qing Que was a master of martial arts.
"Anything unusual?"
Qing Que frowned and thought a while, "Miss, I didn't see anything unusual, except that the horse suddenly appeared and we didn't see its owner."
"Well, that's not our business. Let's move on." A faint smell of blood came from the tip of the nose. What a coincidence it was to encounter a startled horse upon arrival at the capital, Shen Ninghua thought to herself.
Chu Junyi was now standing on top of the Qinyang Building. He was dressed in silk gown and had a flash of light in his eyes as he held a folding fan tightly in his hand. He drank up the wine on the table as Shen Ninghua's carriage disappeared. He got up and said to a man in a green robe, "Elder brother, I'm leaving now to deal with some business."
The man in green looked cold and stern. He frowned and asked Chu Junyi, "Was the first daughter of the Shen family sitting in that carriage? Junyi, for more than half a year, you have been prying into the Shen family just for this girl?"
"It's a long story. Anyway, you needn't worry about it." Having said that, Chu Junyi straightly went downstairs and walked toward the Shen family. He needed to find out with his own eyes whether it was that dark-skinned girl in the carriage.
"Who are you guys? Keep away from the gate of the Prime Minister's residence." Just after the carriage stopped, the guards on both sides of the red gate immediately came forward and shouted.Shen Ninghua couldn't help sneering. Such an insult was too low. It couldn’t be her stepmother Zhao Yunxiang. She wondered who had instructed these two guards to play rough with her."How dare you be so arrogant! The First Miss is here. Back off !" Hong Ling relentlessly rebuked.One of the guards laughed: "Today, the First Miss is having a party. She has not been out of the mansion. Where has Second Miss come out? Who is pretending to be a miss of the Shen family, get off the carriage and let us have a look!"Hardly had the guard finished his words when the curtain of the carriage was slowly lifted. A girl in pale bluish-white got out of the carriage, placed a footstool on the ground, and respectfully led a girl dressed in pale blue down the c
Along the way, Nurse Zhou was still regretful that she had failed to humiliate Shen Ninghua upon her arrival. Instead, what had happened just provided an excellent chance for Shen Ninghua to help her to prevail. After this event, no one in the mansion would dare to look down on her. The madam would be very unhappy if she knew what had happened.Shen Ninghua, however, looked around with ease and the smile lingered on her lips. She hadn't seen the scenery for more than ten years. Now she felt that the beautiful courtyard looked really different. Especially when thinking that nothing had happened at this time, she couldn't help but feel delighted because this meant she had a lot of time to trample the enemies of her previous life one by one into hell.Shen Dong was the Prime Minister of the country, and he had always been favored by the emperor. This mansion was also conferred by the emperor and everywhere of the mansion was delicate."Miss, the m
Shen Linghan stood straight. Her eyebrows were like black mountains from afar, her eyes were as clear as autumn water, and her lips were like red flower petals and her skin was like white and flawless jade... Just by standing there quietly, she made people feel that the whole world was bright. Such a beauty was very rare to see. Otherwise, Baili Jinze wouldn't have treated her as the treasure of his life and loved her in all his life."Elder sister, we haven't seen each other for a long time. I really couldn't recognize you. Mother told me earlier that your illness has been cured. I haven't received any message from the villa in the past half year and I have privately asked mother several times. What kind of adventure did you take to make yourself change dramatically?" Shen Linghan held Shen Ninghua's hand intimately. Her words sounded full of concern.If Shen Ninghua did not know the true nature of Shen Linghan, she would think that this sister really care
Shen Ninghua gave a cold smile when they came to the courtyard arranged by Madam Zhao.Nurse Zhou surreptitiously looked at Shen Ninghua's face, but could not figure out what she was thinking, "Miss, the madam had intended to let you live in Luomei Courtyard, but your cousin from the Zhao family often comes to live there, and the madam has been so busy recently with the madam dowager's birthday feast that she had no time to get things done before your arrival. Please excuse her.""You worry too much. I surely know that mother has been busy. This place is also excellent. Qing Que, see Nurse Zhou off.""Yes, miss."Bai Ruo tidied up the house quickly and made a cup of tea, "Miss, although the yard is spacious, it is not a good place to live in."Madam Zhao was smart enough to avoid gossip about her arrangement of residence for Shen Ninghua. The courtyard was spacious and pretty nice. But it was called Tranquility Courtya
In the room, Bai Ruo gently helped Shen Ninghua set her hair while Bi Zhu was holding a bronze mirror on the other side to let Shen Ninghua take a look at the hairpin."Miss, you look like a fairy when dressed up like this."said Hong Ling.Shen Ninghua seemed a little absent-minded. In the past two days she had been thinking about Chu Junyi's words about the black jade pendant, but she had no clues. She heard Hong Ling's words and regained her presence of mind, smiling, "You are more and more talkative. Have you spent all your time thinking about how to praise me?""Why, miss, you 've wronged me. You' re so beautiful that I can keep praising you for three days without thinking." Hong Ling said with her smilingly eyes. Then she got serious after Bai Ruo glared at her, "Miss, you instructed me to keep an eye on what's happening in the mansion, and I dare not neglect my duty at all. Today, the master took a day off and you can meet him when you go
"My aunt, you are right. This porcelain vase is really my mother's legacy." Shen Ninghua's face had a light smile, but her eyes turned red. Her appearance made people feel more and more pity for her.Her mother, Xia Jingyan, died when giving birth to her. However, her mother held a great place in her heart. When she was very young, her nanny used to tell her stories about her mother. She told her that her mother was quite knowledgeable and intelligent. However, she had to marry Shen Dong hastily when her family was persecuted later. With her intelligence and beauty, people thought she would definitely be favored by Shen Dong. On the contrary, Shen Dong was very fond of his concubines and turned a cold face towards Xia Jingyan. And she died when giving birth to Shen Ninghua.After Shen Ninghua became the empress, she implicitly asked Shen Dong several times about her mother, but every time he scolded her. In order to maintain the weak family relationship, sh
"Bang! Bang!" The sound of breaking porcelain lasted for a long time before it subsided. In Qinxue Courtyard, broken exquisite porcelains scattered everywhere. Shen Linghan angrily sat on the chair and Wan Xiang knelt on the ground with her forehead bleeding.Zhao Yunxiang, the first lady, frowned as soon as she entered the door. She hurriedly let Nurse Qin to ask someone to clean up the debris on the ground. "What are you doing? You can simply vent out by punishing the servants, but if you become ill by being too upset, won't you make that bitch satisfied and rejoice in your pain?"Shen Linghan's eyes turned red with resentment. She sat on the chair and said, "Mother, I can't bear this at all. Grandma said Shen Ninghua was the first daughter. What am I?" Thinking that Shen Ninghua would excel her everywhere in the future, she felt indignant and disturbed. That bitch had no business to be so conceited.Madam Zhao lovingly tidied Shen Linghan's
As the prime minister who was deeply trusted by the emperor and was good at maintaining relationship, Shen Dong maintained a balanced relationship with several princes in the court, neither too close nor too alienated. Therefore, when Shen Linghan held a banquet, many officials and young ladies came willingly. After all, the first daughter of the Shen family was so talented and beautiful that she was well-known in the capital city. There was no harm in making friends with her.Today's party was different from those of the past. Shen Ninghua, the real first daughter of the Shen family, was back. Although people did not talk about it in public, they were all secretly expecting a drama. They wondered how Shen Linghan, the second young lady, would get along with her.Because of the hot weather, the banquet was held in the pavilion beside the garden. Shen Ninghua came with Qing Que and other maids. From a distance, she could see the exquisite pavilion was surrou