Because she was so tired, Shen Ning fell asleep quickly. Qin Zhuo's restraint reassured her. It was the first time in her life that she had let a man stay in her boudoir.
However, when she was woken up by Liu Ying in the morning, Qin Zhuo was already gone.
The quilt was put away neatly, and there were no traces left on the bed, as if this person had never been there at all.
Shen Ning couldn't help but recall Qin Zhuo's expression last night. Instead of going home on New Year's Eve, he came to sleep at her place, which didn't seem like he simply missed her.
Could there be a problem at his home?
Shen Ning didn't pay much attention to the Qin family, but Qin Zhuo had established his own residence and didn't live in the Duke of Qin's mansion, and she had never met anyone from the Duke of Qin's mansion, which was indeed a bit strange.
The first day of the lunar new year was the most leisurely. After giving out red envelopes, Shen Ning had nothing to do, so he asked Liu Ying and the others to prepare a pot, and everyone gathered around the pot to cook vegetables.
The second day of the Lunar New Year is the day when married daughters return to their parents' home to visit their families. Shen Sui and Shen Xia both returned, and they even came to the eldest son's house first, which meant they wanted to be on good terms with each other.
Shen Ning ignored their probing. Since they were being nice, she accepted their gifts in return. She couldn't care less about anything else.
Because of his filial duty, Shen Ning doesn't need to visit other people's homes for the Lunar New Year this year, making it another year of laziness for him.
In contrast to her leisurely pace, everyone else was incredibly busy. Princess Chang Le didn't have any free time until the tenth day of the new year, and whenever she had a spare moment, she would sneak over to the Shen family.
"It's so nice here, quiet and comfortable."
As a princess of the Qi Prince's mansion and now the young mistress of the Luo family, she has many social engagements to attend to during the New Year. She is extremely busy but still doesn't get any credit. She has been suffering a lot of anger and is feeling very uncomfortable these days.
In Shenning, there are no elders or children, and everyone is in charge. Even Princess Changle couldn't help but envy her.
"I've decided. Once I get a divorce, I'll buy the house next to yours and become your neighbor."
Being in charge of my own life and being able to visit Shen Ning every day—that kind of life sounds wonderful.
"OK."
Shen Ning couldn't bear to shatter her illusions. It would be strange if the Princess Consort of Qi could tolerate her daughter being divorced and widowed. Unless she became a nun and devoted herself to Buddhism like in her previous life, she would probably find it difficult to obtain peace and freedom.
As they talked, Princess Chang Le brought up her brother's matter. The wedding date between Li Kun and Miss Liang was set for the second day of the third month.
Shen Ning had almost forgotten about it, since it had nothing to do with her. However, when Princess Chang Le brought it up, she casually asked, "What about Lu Shuying?"
Princess Chang Le's face immediately turned cold: "She made a scene at home. She had a miscarriage on the 29th of the lunar year and gave birth to a daughter."
“My mother didn’t like her, but it was a matter of life and death, so she arranged for a midwife and even invited the imperial physician to make sure she gave birth to the child safely.”
“My mother was indifferent to this child. She didn’t like him, but she wouldn’t do anything to the child. She just ignored him. Anyway, my brother and she lived a quiet life behind closed doors. They had plenty of food, clothing, and servants. My mother just pretended not to see it. But she couldn’t understand it. She felt that my mother had called the imperial physician because she cared about the child in her belly. But she was useless and couldn’t give birth to a son.”
"That was the child she insisted on having, but just because it was a daughter, it couldn't help her gain status. She didn't even pay attention to it, not only did she not breastfeed it, but she also wouldn't even hold it for long and just left it all to the wet nurse."
“You said it would be fine to let the wet nurse take care of the baby, but she saw that the wet nurse was very nice to the little girl. The little girl smiled at the wet nurse, but cried as soon as she was held by the wet nurse. She was jealous and insisted on taking the baby back. She didn’t understand and didn’t listen to the wet nurse. As a result, the baby got sick several times in just a few days after birth.”
Princess Chang Le said with a headache: "My mother sent a petition to the imperial physician again yesterday. The physician said it was pneumonia and jaundice, which was very troublesome. My mother couldn't bear to see this baby girl being raised to death by her irrational mother, so she forcibly took the child away last night. And guess what? This morning, my idiot brother took Lu Shuying, who is still in confinement after childbirth, to kneel at my mother's door, begging her to return the child and not separate them from their child."
Shen Ning: "..." She had always known that these two were difficult to judge, but things always managed to surprise people more and more each time.
This kind of mindless yet determined desire to show others true love is just like Shen Shu. They don't know what they're talking about, they just annoy people, and it's unclear what they want.
"Did the princess return the person?"
Princess Chang Le nodded: "I returned it, but the person was furious and swore that if I interfered again, I would cut off my hand."
"......"
Princess Qi was truly unlucky to have encountered such two people.
Even more unfortunate was the newborn baby, who did nothing wrong but was disliked and fought over. It was clearly an adult feud, but she had to suffer.
"Let's not talk about them anymore." Princess Chang Le felt choked up just thinking about it and didn't want to mention it again.
Shen Ning didn't want to pay attention to the two of them, so she immediately changed the subject. As they chatted, she suddenly thought of Qin Zhuo.
"Does Ah Xuan know much about the Duke of Qin's mansion?"
Princess Chang Le raised an eyebrow, her eyes full of amusement: "Why are you starting to get curious about this?"
Shen Ning pretended not to see the deeper meaning in her eyes: "Can't I even ask around?"
Princess Chang Le propped her head up with one hand and grinned mischievously: "Sure, why not?"
Then, the conversation turned to the Duke of Qin's mansion: "The old Duke of Qin is bedridden and his health is deteriorating. His condition is negligible, since he has already passed on the title to his son. Let's talk about the current Duke."
“I didn’t actively pay attention to the Qin family, but I heard some things from my father and uncles. When the Duke of Qin was young, he was probably a bit like my brother. He married a wife when he was young and had children. His family was harmonious, but when he went out on official business, he met Hu, the daughter of a poor family, fell in love with her, and couldn’t extricate himself. After returning, he made a fuss about divorcing his wife, but it was suppressed. Hu became a concubine, and less than a year later, he angered his first wife to death.”
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