Chapter 1173 The Loyal Servant Girl Getting Out of the Palace
Consort of Virtue had asked Shao Wanru to deal with Shao Yanru’s matter.
Shao Wanru was now the only capable person handling things for the Marquis Xing’s Mansion. As Consort of Virtue had ordered, Shao Wanru had to go to Shao Yanru’s residence and see if there was anything that needed to be packed up.
She asked a palace maid to lead the way for Shao Wanru.
The courtyard was very remote. They made a long detour to get there.
The palace maid left after taking Shao Wanru to Shao Yanru’s place.
The door stood ajar. There was no trace of vitality in it. Qing’er stepped forward to push the door open. Then, they found someone packing up in the corridor. When the person saw Shao Wanru coming in, her eyes turned red. It was Shao Yanru’s maid, Mo Yan.
“Greetings, Your Highness!” After putting down the things in her hands, Mo Yan stepped forward, bowed, and knelt on the ground. “Your Highness, my First Miss…”
As she spoke, she began to cry.
“Get up!” Shao Wanru said lightly and walked inside.
Mo Yan got up as she was told but stumbled. Yujie reached out to help her.
There was only Mo Yan in the cold and empty courtyard. The door of the main room was open. However, only an empty bed was in this bare room.
“Where is your master?” Shao Wanru looked at the spacious bed and asked.
“She… She has been sent outside and buried…” Mo Yan cried again and wiped her tears with a handkerchief. “Only… only wrapped in a blanket when she was carried out…”
“Her room looks desolate and chilly. In my previous life, Shao Yanru led a prosperous life of luxury. How could she die like this?” Shao Wanru felt a world of differences between Shao Yanru’s two lives and could hardly believe it. “Shao Yanru, scheming and vicious, died so quietly?”
Shao Wanru walked in. The barely furnished room showed Shao Yanru was out of favor.
If the Emperor did not like her, she would be ignored in the Palace. What was worse, Shao Yanru’s rank was low. It could be said she was the humblest imperial concubine in the Palace. Therefore, anyone could trample on her at will.
“Your master has always been in good health. How could she suddenly fall seriously ill?” Shao Wanru sat down on a chair and asked.
This chair looked good but when Shao Wanru sat down it was a little shaky. “Sure enough, there is nothing good here. With Shao Yanru’s temperament, she could never stand it.”
Her heart skipped a beat.
“Your Highness, please uphold justice for my master!” Mo Yan knelt again and pleaded.
“Is there anything behind it?” Shao Wanru asked and looked at Mo Yan, who choked with sobs and couldn’t speak.
“Your Highness, my master died with injustice unredressed. My master… my master…” Mo Yan sobbed too bitterly to speak. It took her a long time to finish her words.
It turned out that there was inside information.
Shao Yanru, neglected by the Emperor, had never seen him since she entered the Palace, let alone serve him in bed. The Palace was full of snobs. As a result, this place was even colder and more dismal than the Cold Palace. Even the food here was leftovers.
That day, it was time for dinner again. When Mo Yan carried a hamper and went to get food, she encountered an imperial consort. She was also a newcomer to the Imperial Palace, who belonged to the same batch as Shao Yanru in the Pageant. Although her rank was not high, her status was much higher than that of Secondary Consort Shao. It was said that she was from the same clan as the Empress. Thus, no one dared to offend her, even if she had not won the Emperor’s favor.
However, Mo Yan almost bumped into her accidentally. In a fit of anger, she asked someone to knock over Mo Yan’s food box. Seeing the food scattered all over the ground, she laughed and said even dogs would not eat such things.
Then she ordered Mo Yan to kneel under the scorching sun as punishment. The weather gradually became hot. After kneeling for two hours, Mo Yan couldn’t hold on any longer and fainted directly. Then she was sent back by imperial servants passing by.
A woman who had been inferior to her bullied her servant. Seeing this, Shao Yanru couldn’t let it go and went to that imperial consort’s door for justice. However, she was forcefully driven out and injured.
After that, the Imperial Institute of Medicine sent the medicine to her. Unexpectedly, she did not recover after taking medicine. In the end, she died.
After Mo Yan finished speaking, she fell to the ground with tears in her eyes. “Your Highness, you are from the same family. Please redress the grievance for my First Miss. She died with injustice unredressed. After that, she was wrapped in a blanket, sent out of the Palace, and buried. Until now, I don’t know where her grave is!”
After such a tragic thing happened, Mo Yan, as a servant girl, was certainly out of her wits. At this moment, Shao Wanru was like a family to her. She had plotted against Shao Wanru with Shao Yanru in the past, but who would care about it now? Shao Yanru was dead. How could others blame her for the past things? Moreover, she died so miserably.
Obviously, she was poisoned by the imperial consort.
“Has anyone from the Imperial Institute of Medicine come to examine her?” Shao Wanru asked with a trace of contemplation in her eyes.
“No, no one came to see her. After my master died, I reported her death. Then, someone came to take her away. No imperial physician had come to see her. I cried and begged them to send an imperial physician here, telling them that my master died with a grudge. But none of them believed me, and no one paid attention to me. They just took First Miss away!”
Mo Yan cried out.
Not to mention a servant girl like her, even Shao Yanru couldn’t be treated as she wished in the Imperial Palace. Not everyone could ask for imperial physicians at will.
“So, that was how she got an acute illness?”
Shao Wanru narrowed her eyes slightly, her eyes with a deep look landing on the big empty bed. “Did Shao Yanru die like this?” Perhaps because Shao Yanru had given her a strong impression in her previous life, she didn’t believe this matter even when seeing the large bed with nothing on it. She always felt she had neglected something in the whole case.
“What happened to the imperial consort later?”
“I don’t know. I am alone in the Palace now. I cry and think about First Miss while packing up the things I need to take away with me,” said Mo Yan.
“Are you leaving? Where are you going?” Shao Wanru asked.
“I don’t have any other place to go. I’m not a palace maid. I temporarily lived in the Palace for First Miss. Now that she is gone forever, I certainly will go back.” Mo Yan said, “I’ll return to the Marquis Xing’s Mansion. Even if my master is no longer there, I can go to serve First Young Master and First Young Madam!”
“Since you’ve entered the Palace, you may not be allowed to leave as you want.” Shao Wanru reminded her. Once consorts or even servants entered the palace gate, they could hardly decide their own destiny.
Even if Mo Yan moved into the Palace for Shao Yanru, she could not leave at her own will.
“Your Highness, please save me. First Miss passed away, and I don’t want to stay in the Palace!” Mo Yan kowtowed to Shao Wanru a few times. Then, she raised her head and looked at Shao Wanru in tears while pleading, “Your Highness, I know my master had plotted against you and owed you an apology. But now, she is dead. No matter what, she is your family. Please help me go out of the Palace. I only want to light a few incense sticks for First Miss and serve her family in the future.”
She cried mournfully and wiped her tears hard. After a while, her eyes became red and swollen.
“Get up and talk,” Shao Wanru ordered.
Yujie came over to pull Mo Yan’s hand, intending to help her up. However, Mo Yan struggled and shook off her. “Your Highness, I won’t get up. If you still want to vent your anger, you can beat me. I hope you can be magnanimous and forgive my master. Then, I’ll be happy even if I die today.”
Her words meant Shao Wanru still bore grudges against Shao Yanru. That was why she was unwilling to help Shao Yanru’s servant girl.
The dead should be honored and forgiven. Most people would not be hard on the deceased. After all, when a person died, there was nothing left. How could anyone fuss too much over past events? Thus, those still alive would usually leave the dead in peace.
“Where is the other palace maid?” Shao Wanru didn’t answer her. Her eyes swept around the room, and she found Han Dan, the other palace maid, was not there. Then, she asked lightly, her long eyelashes fluttering.
“When First Miss is gone, all the other palace servants have left. Han Dan seemed to have served First Miss with all her heart, but… but after all, she was not brought here by First Miss. So, she… she also left!” Mo Yan said bleakly, with sadness on her face.
There were only a few people here. It was the Empress who sent some people here to serve Shao Yanru. But those servants were all unhappy when degraded to an inferior place. In this case, how could they do their best to help Shao Yanru? They were relieved to see Shao Yanru fall seriously ill and die. After that, they found different places to go and left one by one.
“Didn’t you mention it to Consort of Virtue and Consort Ming?” Shao Wanru brought up the topic again as if she didn’t see the panic in Mo Yan’s eyes. Mo Yan looked a little flustered. When Shao Wanru began talking about something else, she finally calmed down.
“I’m just a palace maid serving First Miss. I couldn’t even enter the gates of their living places, not to mention meet them!” Mo Yan felt very wronged. “If I hadn’t seen you today, I wouldn’t have dared to say that just now. I… I just… want to leave the Palace and serve my master’s family!”
Mo Yan insisted.
From this point of view, Mo Yan was a loyal servant. Even if she was not Shao Wanru’s servant, she was faithful to the Marquis Xing’s Mansion. Masters were always kind to such loyal servants.
“You can get out of the Palace, but…” Shao Wanru thought for a moment and said.
“What is the method? Your Highness, no matter what it is, I’m willing to try it as long as I can return to the Marquis Xing’s Mansion!” Hearing that there was hope, Mo Yan was excited and looked at Shao Wanru expectantly, waiting for her answer. She was determined to leave the Palace. Since she could not go out with First Miss, Princess Chen was the only one she could ask for help.
This was also First Miss’s idea.
“I can ask these people in the Palace to do this favor. But since you are still a palace maid, you can’t leave the Palace casually. So, you can come to my mansion first and wait some time. When this matter is settled, I will send you back to the Marquis Xing’s Mansion,” Shao Wanru said, “but I don’t know if you are willing to go to the Prince Chen’s Mansion?”
“Yes, I do. Thank you, Your Highness. Thank you very much.” When Mo Yan heard she had a chance to leave the Palace, she kowtowed heavily to Shao Wanru a few more times in tears, full of gratitude.
It hadn’t been long since she entered the Palace, but she had endured various hardships. When Shao Yanru was alive, they lived in misery. After Shao Yanru’s sudden, unnatural death, Mo Yan must be too scared to stay. Nothing happened to that imperial consort. She might think of Mo Yan and choose to kill her to keep her mouth shut!
“What’s that? Do you want to take it out with you?” Shao Wanru didn’t care about Mo Yan’s answer. Instead, her eyes fell on a candlestick, and she asked meaningfully.
A ray of light flashed across her eyes.
