The two dared not say anything more. Liu Nian packed up the clothes and walked out of the upper room. He saw Bai Shi coming in. "What are you doing?"
Liu Nian handed the bundle forward and smiled bitterly, "The Concubine asked me to take it back to the Viscount's Mansion for my aunt."
Bai sighed slightly when she heard this. "It's not good for her to keep sending things over there every few days. I also heard that she not only takes care of her aunt, but also her aunt's family."
Liu Nian glanced towards the upper room and pulled Bai into her room. "That's right. I don't know what the concubine is thinking. It started last autumn. Before, she just sent the things back to the mansion and let the concubine give them to whoever she wanted. But now she sends them directly to the concubine's home. You see, no matter if the people in the Viscount's Mansion or the Prince's Mansion find out, there's no way to explain it."
Mrs. Bai looked at Liu Nian, who had a sad face, and patted her hands. "She is the master and you are the servant. There is nothing we can do about it. No one knows how stubborn Sister Lin is better than us. It was easy to talk to her before, and we could persuade her on some things. But now that the new princess has come in, if we say too much, she will think too much. I don't mind it. At most, I will get a few scoldings from her, and then I will go back to my own courtyard and pretend I didn't hear anything. Poor you and Mother Lu, alas..."
When Liu Nian heard this, he also sighed, "It's more than that."
Bai was surprised and asked, "What else?"
"We spent so much effort to recruit Xiao Songzi. Which of the servants and eunuchs in the outer courtyard is easy to bribe? With someone like him in the outer courtyard, even if we don't hide him, we can't let him run to Huamu Garden every day, as if we are afraid that others don't know that he is one of our courtyards."
Bai nodded and said, "You are right. I think Concubine Li seems to know something."
"Ah? Really?" Liunian said.
"Fortunately, Concubine Li is a non-committal person. If Concubine Wu finds out, she will definitely complain to the princess. And then the princess cuts off Xiao Songzi's work in the inner palace. What will we do then?"
Liu Nian said, "That's not the case. Don't you know that she just wanted to go and see the princess's fun in the evening, saying that she wanted to buy furnishings for the young master's new house in the outer courtyard."
"Watch the fun? What fun?" Liunian whispered to Bai's ear and told her the news he had heard.
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In Yinyan Pavilion, Wu happily showed off the hairpin that Meng Qi gave to Song Nongyu to Ms. Zhang.
"Look, it looks good, doesn't it? I heard it's a new style in the palace. Unfortunately, the young lady still has a little hair, so she'll have to wait a while before she can wear it." Mrs. Wu said.
Ms. Zhang took the hairpin and turned it over to look at it. "It is indeed a good thing. I didn't expect that the princess would still think about the eldest lady after visiting the palace."
"This is all the benefit I gained by lowering myself to curry favor with the Meng family. Looking at it this way, the decision I made back then was truly a wise one."
Jinzhi poured tea and brought it over. Upon hearing this, she glanced at Ms. Zhang and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that there was nothing wrong with her expression. Wu was also from an official family, so how could she have such a petty attitude? It was Ms. Zhang who came up with the idea and helped her analyze the problem. She opened her mouth to thank her. Was it difficult to give Ms. Zhang two pieces of jewelry?
Ms. Zhang didn't care at all about Wu's words. She smiled and said, "Otherwise, it's the concubine who has thought it through. I originally thought that the princess had upset the prince last night, and you brought the eldest daughter with you, fearing that the princess would be unhappy, but I didn't expect to get such a beautiful hairpin."
Wu put down her hairpin and said mysteriously, "I see that the princess doesn't care about the prince at all."
Ms. Zhang asked in surprise, "What do you mean? Did you see anything?"
Wu curled her lips and said, "Ever since the prince didn't stay in Jing'an Garden last time and went to Bibo Hall, I heard he hasn't returned to Jing'an Garden since. Unfortunately, I can't find out what the princess did to upset the prince last night, but when I went there today, the princess seemed completely unconcerned. When I went there, I specifically asked the eldest lady to ask the princess where father had gone in front of her. After the eldest lady asked, what do you think the princess replied?"
Ms. Zhang looked interested, "What's going on?"
Wu burst into laughter. "The princess said where the prince goes is none of her business. It's not like he's not being looked after, so it's not worth her asking too much. If the prince doesn't return to the inner chamber, she'll have some peace and quiet."
Ms. Zhang was genuinely surprised to hear this. It turned out that Meng Shi didn't care about the prince at all. How could she get along with the prince like this when she was just married and hadn't given birth yet? If she had angered the prince early on and couldn't have children, how would she have managed to stay in the palace?
"Did the princess say this? They've only been married for over a month. The princess really doesn't care about the prince at all." Ms. Zhang said.
Wu laughed contemptuously and said, "It's not the first day you've known that she doesn't care about the prince. What a pity, the person she cares about is going to marry her cousin. Haha, what a big deal! You said both of them have the surname Meng. It's inevitable that we'll meet at the Huainan Marquis' Mansion in the future. How embarrassing."
Ms. Zhang smiled and said, "You just said that she cares about that person. She would be happy to see him, not embarrassed."
Wu narrowed her eyes and smiled when she heard what Ms. Zhang said. "That's right. None of this has anything to do with us. Let's just enjoy the show. Oh, that's great! I have to go tomorrow. I heard that Xiaolin has snatched up several batches of good materials. If the princess can let me manage the warehouse, even just one will do."
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