Chapter 10 Mother
Seeing the smiling look in the Duke of Chu's eyes, Jiang Yu knew she had passed the interview.
The grandfather and grandson chatted for a while longer, but the Duke of Chu seemed a bit listless, so Jiang Yu took his leave. As he exited the study, he saw Li Zhong and an old woman standing in the courtyard.
Upon seeing her come out, the old woman stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Miss, Madam has instructed this old servant to wait for you here."
Jiang Yu knew her; she was her biological mother's personal nanny. She paused for a moment and said, "Tell my mother that I'll go check on how my parents are being settled, and then I'll go find her."
The old woman was taken aback by her words, and then said, "Miss, ever since you went missing, Madam has been worried about you almost every day. She is waiting to talk to you now."
Jiang Yu glanced at her indifferently and said, "Go back and give me your reply."
After saying that, she looked at the butler, Li Zhong, and asked, "How are my parents being settled?"
Li Zhong quickly came over and said, "It's all settled in. It's at Shianju, right next to your courtyard."
Jiang Yu nodded, "Take me there."
"Yes." Li Zhong led the way with his back slightly bent, and Jiang Yu followed behind him without glancing at the old woman again.
She could understand her biological mother's desire to have a heart-to-heart talk with her immediately, but her parents were in a new environment where they were unfamiliar with everyone and everything, so she had to go and see them first.
As for whether her biological mother would be saddened or feel alienated from her, she didn't think about it, nor did she want to. She treated everyone with sincerity, but if they insisted on arguing about closeness or distance, she couldn't do anything about it. She had many things to do and wouldn't pay too much attention to these matters.
Moreover, this is her way of doing things; it won't change just because she has a different identity.
The old woman looked at Jiang Yu's retreating figure with a very unpleasant expression.
......
Jiang Yu followed Li Zhong for several minutes through the long corridors, pavilions, and gardens until they arrived at an exquisite courtyard with a plaque reading "Shi An Ju" hanging above the gate.
Jiang Yu went inside and saw several maids and servants bustling about quietly in the courtyard. She walked to the main hall, lifted the curtain, and went in, where she saw Cheng Yunxiu and Jiang Mingchang sitting at the table, staring at each other.
"Father, Mother." Jiang Yu walked over and sat down beside them.
"Why are you here? You should go and talk to your parents." Cheng Yunxiu herself has never had children, but she raised Jiang Yu for more than ten years and can understand the feelings of parents who have lost their children.
Jiang Yu smiled at them and said, "I've come to see how you've settled in."
"Everything's fine," Jiang Mingchang said with a chuckle.
Cheng Yunxiu, however, hesitated, as she was usually straightforward and had never acted this way before. Jiang Yu's heart sank. She said, "Mother, you're not the type to keep things bottled up."
When Cheng Yunxiu saw her joking with her, she glared at her and said, "The people in the Duke's mansion treat us very well. Look at the maids and servants outside; they try not to make a sound when they're working. And the furnishings in this room look incredibly valuable; your father and I don't even dare to touch them."
Jiang Yu understood; this meant that since it wasn't their own home, they couldn't do anything casually. She took Cheng Yunxiu's arm and said, "I'll arrange for someone to look at the house in a little while. Once we've bought the house, you can move in."
Cheng Yunxiu and Jiang Mingchang breathed a sigh of relief when they heard her say that. They would have felt extremely awkward if they had continued to live in the Duke's mansion.
"Go and talk to your parents right away," Cheng Yunxiu pushed Jiang Yu.
Jiang Yu stood up. "Do whatever you want, don't overthink it."
Cheng Yunxiu nodded in agreement and pushed Jiang Yu out. When they reached the courtyard gate, Li Zhong had an old woman lead Jiang Yu to the courtyard of the deceased wife. As the steward of the outer courtyard, it wasn't appropriate for him to be walking around the inner courtyard.
Jiang Yu followed the old woman towards her biological mother's courtyard. This old woman was from the Duke of Chu's residence; her husband's surname was Liao, and everyone in the mansion called her Granny Liao. Granny Liao didn't talk much, but every word she spoke was to the point.
She told Jiang Yu that the Crown Prince's wife, Lu Yifang, was soft-hearted and easily influenced, and had been depressed for years because of the loss of her daughter. Not long after her son, Jiang Jiarong, got married, she handed over the power of managing the household to her daughter-in-law.
In other words, the inner courtyard of the Duke of Chu's mansion was managed by Jiang Jiarong's wife, Zhang Xiangling. Jiang Yu listened attentively, and soon they arrived at the courtyard of the Crown Prince's wife, Lu Yifang.
From afar, two maids could be seen waiting at the door. Upon seeing Jiang Yu, they stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Miss, Madam is waiting for you inside."
Jiang Yu stepped inside, with Granny Liao following beside her. Upon reaching the main hall, she lifted the curtain and entered, where she saw Lu Yifang sitting on a soft couch, with Granny Feng talking to her beside her.
Upon seeing Jiang Yu arrive, Lu Yifang stood up and pulled her to sit beside her. When she saw that the person accompanying Jiang Yu was Granny Liao from the Duke of Chu's courtyard, she paused for a moment and said, "I didn't expect it was you who came with Zhu'er."
Granny Liao bowed to her, "The Duke said that the eldest young lady has just returned home and asked this old servant to look after her."
Lu Yifang beamed with joy upon hearing this, and said, "The Duke is indeed very thoughtful."
Granny Liao bowed to her and withdrew. Lu Yifang waved for all the servants in the room to leave. She held Jiang Yu's hand and looked at her carefully with teary eyes.
After a while, he said, "Your former name was Jiang Baozhu, which I gave you. But the name Jiang Yu is better now."
Jiang Yu took a handkerchief to wipe her tears, saying, "I've really had a good life these past few years. There's a school in our town, and I started school when I was five. Although there were few female students in the school, I was strong, and the male students didn't dare to bully me."
Her tone carried a hint of pride, and Lu Yifang couldn't help but wipe away her tears and smile.
“I didn’t return home until I was thirteen,” Jiang Yu continued. “By then, my parents’ business was doing much better than before, so I helped them run the family business. And then…”
Jiang Yu held Lu Yifang's hand and decided to tell her about her relationship with Qi Yuanhong and Su Yuezhen. She said:
“When I was six years old, a child of eight or nine years old came to our house. He was wearing clothes that were patched upon patched. He knelt in front of his parents and said that his family was too poor to survive and asked his parents to give him a job. He didn’t want wages, just food. My parents were kind-hearted and took him in.”
Lu Yifang listened carefully, and Jiang Yu smiled slightly and continued, "He worked very hard, and my parents gradually trusted him. Later, he knelt in front of my parents and said he wanted to study. My parents saw that he was smart and agreed without hesitation. Later, we naturally got engaged. The year he passed the imperial examination, we got married."
Lu Yifang's eyes widened in surprise; she hadn't expected Jiang Yu to be married. But then she thought, Jiang Yu was already eighteen or nineteen, the age for marriage.
But why didn't the Duke mention Jiang Yu's marriage at all?
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