Chapter 8 Who has lost his conscience?

Xiao Yuan narrowed his eyes dangerously, “What sincerity does Miss Shen want?”

Shen Anan looked away, his eyes swept over the busy servants of the Shen Mansion one by one, and the corners of his lips curled up.

"I'm short of people. If the Fourth Prince really wants to thank you, how about staying and helping out?"

"That's unacceptable, unacceptable." Li Huaiyan squeezed to the front and waved his hands repeatedly, "He still has a lot of government affairs to deal with."

"How can government affairs be more important than people's livelihood? Don't you think so, Fourth Prince?"

Shen Anan’s words were full of sarcasm.

Xiao Yuan's head sank, and an unprecedented sense of familiarity surged into his heart, as if this scene and these words had happened before.

“Miss Shen is right, people’s livelihood is the most important thing.”

Shen Anan curled her lips, "So, the Fourth Prince agreed?"

Xiao Yuan nodded, "But..."

"Don't worry, after seven days, the favor of saving my life will be written off, and we will have nothing to do with each other."

Shen Anan turned around and left this place, as if she didn't want to stay for another quarter of an hour.

“…”

But he only knows how to do simple tasks...

He didn't mean that just now.

"Seven days? That's crazy." Li Huaiyan shouted in shock.

"Shut up."

"Shut up."

Two gloomy gazes shot over at the same time, and Li Huaiyan immediately closed his mouth.

The Fourth Prince, a proud son of heaven, came down to help in person, which frightened the housekeeper of the Shen Mansion so much that he dared not assign any work to him. As soon as Xiao Yuan started, someone would come forward to take it away. As soon as he bent down, every grain of sand on the ground had to be rubbed clean.

Shen Anan looked at him coldly for a while, and said in a calm voice, “Butler Shen, are you free?”

"No, no, no."

Butler Shen turned around and met his daughter's sinister gaze. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Then go to work. The Fourth Prince is precious. You are so close to him, so don't be afraid of contaminating him with vulgarity."

"Yes." The butler looked back every few steps and walked away under Shen Anan's oppressive gaze.

The other servants did not dare to step forward to help, and just kept peeking.

Li Huaiyan tugged at Xiao Yuan's sleeve, "How did you offend her?"

Listen to those sarcastic remarks. They can't express the resentment that has been accumulated for ten or eight years.

"have no idea."

Xiao Yuan dipped his bony hands into the water and washed the rice that Shen Anan had not finished washing.

“…”

Since Xiao Yuan had already taken action, Li Huaiyan naturally couldn't just stand by and watch, so he reluctantly helped.

In early autumn, the evening wind is cool.

Shen Anyang was so delicate that after a busy day, she sat in a chair feeling dizzy and weak.

"Girl, eat something to replenish your energy first."

Shen Anan took it, took small bites of the cake, and looked ahead with cold eyes.

"Don't say that. Although you are a bit aggressive, you are well-mannered."

Shen Anan raised her eyes and glanced at Li Huaiyan who was sitting opposite her, "Are you praising me or scolding me?"

"Of course I'm praising you. Look, you are worthy of being the eldest daughter of the Shen family. Even eating is so elegant and beautiful."

Shen Anan suddenly felt that the pastry in his mouth had lost its taste, so he raised his hand and threw it into the plate.

"Everyone in the capital knows that I was raised in Jiangnan and came from a poor and remote area. Are you deliberately mocking me?"

“…”

Whatever you say is wrong.

Li Huaiyan said, "What a remote and poor place! Those people are blind. What kind of place is Jiangnan? Willows are green and flowers are lush, mist and rain are everywhere. The girls raised in Jiangnan are as graceful as willows, as graceful as paintings, and their smiles are like the spring breeze..."

"Shut up, what do you want to say?"

"Can you please not let him come tomorrow?" Li Huaiyan leaned on the table and negotiated, "I will send you twenty servants and you can use them however you want, even to carry manure for your house."

"He asked you to come?" Shen Anan raised her voice and glanced at where Xiao Yuan was.

"Hush, keep your voice down." Li Huaiyan said with a bitter face, "He is still injured. If you ask him to do these things, if something happens, neither you nor I can bear it. Please be merciful and let me do whatever I want."

"My Shen Mansion is short of those twenty odd jobs?"

Shen Anan raised her eyebrows slightly, "If you regret it and can't do it, then leave as soon as possible. I won't force you. Don't make it sound like I've tied someone up as a laborer."

"..." Li Huaiyan was silent, at a loss for words.

Yeah, they didn’t say that he couldn’t leave, but he was stubborn.

Xiao Yuan turned around and cast a cold gaze at Li Huaiyan who was scratching his head. He said in a cold tone, "If you don't want to stay, get out."

"No, I'm willing to stay. I'm willing to stay." Li Huaiyan stood up miserably and hurried to help.

Both of them are masters, he can't afford to offend them.

"If you keep talking too much, you will go back to your Duke's Mansion."

A gentleman's word is as good as his bond. Is Xiao Yuan a person who goes back on his word? He has fought in the war and suffered all kinds of hardships. Why would he be afraid of doing some work?

Half of his sleeves were soaked by water and lifted up, revealing his strong and muscular arms.

Shen Anan looked at him coldly. It turned out that even gods who had been pulled down from the altar were no different from ordinary people.

Perhaps her gaze was too naked, Xiao Yuan tilted his head to look over, Shen Anan raised her lips and immediately withdrew her gaze.

"Mo Xiang, do you know what the four words 'repaying kindness with enmity' mean?"

? ? ?

"I know. The young lady taught me a long time ago."

"Yeah." Shen Anan nodded, tapping her fingers on the table, and leaning lazily in the chair, "As a person, the first thing you need to learn is to be upright and honest. Repaying kindness with enmity is the most conscienceless thing. You must not be a conscienceless person in the future."

"Yes, I've made note of it."

Li Huaiyan stretched his neck and asked curiously, "Who do you say is repaying kindness with enmity and has no conscience?"

I definitely don't mean them. After all, they are both almost becoming housewives.

Shen Anan glanced at him coldly without saying anything. She lowered her head and dusted herself off. "It's getting late. Let's go back home. I don't know if my brother's injury has healed."

The butler had already prepared the carriage, and Shen Anan got in smoothly and left without even saying hello.

After the carriage left, Butler Shen hurried to the porridge shed, "Fourth Prince, Master Li, it's getting late, just leave the rest of the work to this old servant."

"My girl is in a bad mood because of the punishment given to you, Your Highness, please don't mind."

“…”

? ? ?

If I remember correctly, it seemed that Xiao Yuan ordered Shen Changhe to be beaten, so losing conscience was scolding Xiao Yuan.

The corners of Li Huaiyan's mouth twitched, and he looked up with a wry smile.

Xiao Yuan had already walked out of the porridge shed.

"Xiao Yuan, I definitely didn't mean it."

That girl, every word she says is a trap.

The man got on the carriage with a cold and sinister figure and full of hostility.

Experience told Li Huaiyan that he should never get close to it at this time, so he stopped in time, touched his nose awkwardly, and watched the carriage go away.

When Shen Anan returned home, she went straight to Songzhuyuan. Shen Changhe was reading the files and was stunned for a while when he saw her.

"Are you feeling better?"

“Much better, your clothes…” Shen Changhe’s eyes fell on the hem of her skirt covered in mud.

"Oh, we were short of manpower, so I just helped out for a while, it's no big deal."

"Why don't you send someone back to the mansion to get more people?" Shen Changhe frowned, "How can you do those jobs?"

"It's very simple, just wash it quickly or something like that."

Shen Anan walked over and sat down opposite him, glanced at the file in his hand, and said casually, "Today, there are many refugees gathered in Nanhua Street, including some with disabilities, the elderly, women and children."

"Um."

"Later, a group of soldiers suddenly arrived and drove the refugees away in the name of maintaining order."

Shen Changhe paused, closed the file, and looked at Shen Anan.

"I had people distribute food to them, but the officials were not very happy."

“An’an.” Shen Changhe opened his lips, but was interrupted by Shen An’an, “Brother, is this what you often call being smooth, following the general trend, and being one with the light?”

Shen Changhe lowered his eyes and said nothing.

"It's getting late, big brother, go to bed early. I'll come back to see you in a few days. Take good care of your injuries."

"An An." Shen Changhe stopped her, "What you saw is just the tip of the iceberg of officialdom and all kinds of things. There are many more tragic and unfair things. When you don't have the ability, you must know how to keep yourself out of trouble."

"Don't worry, big brother. An An understands." She turned around and smiled brightly, as beautiful as a peach.

When they returned to the Begonia Garden, Mo Ran had already prepared a bath. The scent of rose petals mixed with the hot steam made them relax physically and mentally, and they began to feel sleepy.

The skin as smooth and delicate as jade sank into the water, leaving only the round, porcelain-white shoulders and slender arms exposed.

Shen Anan pressed half of her body against the edge of the bathtub, her soft and bright face resting on her arms, her eyes half closed.

Mo Xiang wiped the water stains off her hair and said, "Miss, you haven't eaten yet, so bear with it for a while and eat before going to bed."

"I don't want to eat." Shen Anan muttered.

Mo Xiang quickly straightened her hair, put a blanket on her, and helped her onto the bed.

Shen Anan rolled inside, picked up the soft pillow, and buried her face in it.

"Girl, you still need to apply snow skin cream."

Shen Anan frowned, turned over and lay flat, motionless, the cool snow skin cream with a faint fragrance was pushed on her body, coupled with Mo Xiang's gentle technique, it was cool and very comfortable.

"Miss, I'll serve you some soup. Please drink some to replenish your energy. How can you work without eating?"

"Yeah." She nodded with her eyes closed.

Mo Xiang collected the snow skin cream, washed the residue off her hands, filled a bowl of chicken soup, skimmed off the oil, and fed it to Shen Anan spoonful by spoonful.

After much coaxing and persuasion, he finally drank half a bowl.

Shen Anan sank deeper into the quilt, “If my mother comes, you can say that I am exhausted and just fell asleep.”

"yes."

After extinguishing the candle and lowering the curtain, Mo Xiang tiptoed out.

As soon as I closed the door, I saw Madam Shen and her maid walking in, “Madam.”

Madam Shen glanced at the darkened room and asked, "Is the girl asleep?"

"Yes, the girl was exhausted today and didn't even eat a few bites of food."

Hearing this, Mrs. Shen was reluctant to disturb him, so she asked a few questions roughly and left.

The next day, Shen Anan got up very early, but Mrs. Shen got up earlier than her.

Just as they were about to eat, the little maid came to report that Madam Shen had arrived. Shen Anan sighed, and her little face immediately became a little listless.

Mrs. Shen walked in and immediately asked distressedly, "Why are you so listless? Didn't you get enough rest last night? If not, let the housekeeper go today, and you stay at home and rest for a while."

Shen Anan, "Since we are doing good deeds, there is no reason to give up halfway."

"You kid." Madam Shen sat down next to her, "I heard from the housekeeper that you helped in person?"

"Yeah, that helped a little."

“An An is kind-hearted.” Madam Shen patted her head with a look of relief.

Shen Anan put down the spoon and stood up, "It's getting late, I should go, I'll talk to mother when I come back."

"Wait a minute." Mrs. Shen held her back.

When the butler reports, he will not only report good news but also report all the bad news.

"I heard that you asked the Fourth Prince to stay in the porridge shed to do odd jobs?"

Shen Anan said expressionlessly, "The Fourth Prince puts people's livelihood first and is willing to help the refugees and do his best. How could my daughter have the face to let him stay?"

Mrs. Shen tilted her head and looked at her daughter carefully, trying to find any signs of lying.

"I don't believe that a prince would be willing to do odd jobs."

"Then mother, do you think your daughter has any ability to mobilize the Fourth Prince who is above ten thousand people?"

That’s true.

Madam Shen let go of her hand and warned earnestly, "Since you don't like him, don't have too many ties with him, so as to avoid being entangled in the end. The royal family is not so easy to get rid of."

"Don't worry, mother. I have my own ideas."

After a few words of comfort, Shen Anan quickly left the house.