Chapter 488 Why is she back?
Zhou Xiangrong's carriage followed Su Ying all the way to the palace gate. She watched Su Ying return to the palace before she slowly left.
"Miss, are we going back home?" Xinyue asked softly as she looked at Zhou Xiangrong who was still looking at the palace.
Zhou Xiangrong came back to his senses and frowned, "Go back home."
"yes."
Xinyue helped Zhou Xiangrong back to the carriage and signaled the driver to take them to the Marquis Bo'an's Mansion.
The residence of Marquis Bo'an was quite a distance away from the center of the imperial city, and it took the carriage more than an hour to arrive there.
Although the gate of Marquis Bo'an's mansion does not look shabby, the two stone lions outside the gate that have changed color show that they have long been a member of the lowest class of the aristocratic family.
Outside the door, a guard lazily leaned against the door frame. He was a little surprised to see Zhou Xiangrong coming back, and asked without any rules, "Why are you back, Miss?"
Xinyue was embarrassed and annoyed by the guard's disrespectful attitude, "How dare you not show respect to the young lady."
The guard laughed sarcastically. Everyone knew that the eldest young lady was out of favor. She had been sent to a temple outside the city by the eldest lady a long time ago on the grounds that she was doomed to bad luck. The eldest lady said that the eldest young lady was not allowed to return home without her order.
"Please forgive me, Miss. I haven't received any orders from the Madam yet, so I can't let you in."
"You, you are really going too far!"
The guards then ignored the helpless master and servant.
"Xinyue, there is no need to argue with him. We can just wait on the side." Zhou Xiangrong said as she walked back to the carriage with an apologetic look on her face. "I'm sorry, brothers of the Imperial Guards. Something happened in the mansion. I'm afraid I can't go back for a while. Why don't you go back and report to the queen first? I'll wait for my father to come back and then ask him to let me go back."
Zhou Xiangrong spoke in a very gentle voice, and her almond-shaped eyes were filled with tears, which made me feel pity for her.
Su Ying asked the imperial guards to send Zhou Xiangrong back to Marquis Bo'an's Mansion. Since she was still outside, they would not have completed their mission. In addition, they had overheard her conversation with the guards and couldn't help feeling pity for her.
Zhou Xiangrong was a great hero who cured the epidemic. The Empress will definitely reward him later. The Bo'an Marquisate is so bold that they dare to treat the hero of the Chu State so harshly.
"Miss Zhou, don't worry. The Queen said that we can't leave until we see Miss Zhou enter the mansion. Miss Zhou wants to wait for Marquis Bo'an, so please wait in the carriage. We will inform Miss Zhou when he returns."
Zhou Xiangrong looked grateful, "Thank you so much, brothers of the Imperial Guards."
Xinyue helped Zhou Xiangrong back to the carriage and waited for Marquis Bo'an's return.
In her memory, her adoptive father would return home for lunch every day at noon, and now it seemed like the time was almost up.
Sure enough, before long, a carriage stopped outside the Marquis's mansion, and a middle-aged man in a navy blue robe got off the carriage. This man was none other than Marquis Bo'an.
The imperial guards were very familiar with the officials from the noble families in the capital, and they would step forward to stop them when they saw someone returning.
"Marquis Boan."
Zhou Pei stopped and looked back in confusion. Seeing that the other party was the imperial guards, he couldn't help but get nervous, "What are you guys doing..."
Zhou Xiangrong got down from the carriage.
As soon as Zhou Pei saw it, he started to have endless associations, "What did this rebellious girl do wrong? Good Zhou Xiangrong, your father asked you to go to the temple outside the city to reflect on your mistakes, but you dared to cause trouble for your father. Please don't blame me. If you want to punish her, just take her away." This attitude shows that he doesn't care about his daughter's life or death at all.
When the imperial guards saw Zhou Pei's attitude, they felt even more sympathetic towards Zhou Xiangrong. "My Lord, you have misunderstood. The plague in Luocheng was cured by Miss Zhou. Today, Miss Zhou returned to the capital with the Queen. Her Majesty said that she would reward Miss Zhou well on a chosen day. But I don't know why Miss Zhou was not allowed to enter the palace when she returned. I can only wait here to find out what happened."
Zhou Pei was shocked. He looked at Zhou Xiangrong with a look of bewilderment, thinking he had heard wrongly. "What did you say? She cured the plague? Is that true?"
The imperial guard said firmly, "Do you think the queen would joke with you? The queen ordered us to send Miss Zhou back. Now that the marquis is back, please take Miss Zhou back to the palace."
The imperial guard felt that he had made himself clear enough and he could not interfere any more. As long as Zhou Pei still had some brains, there was no way he could stop Zhou Xiangrong from entering the door.
Zhou Pei was indeed not stupid. His expression changed, and in the blink of an eye he turned into a loving father and said to Zhou Xiangrong with emotion, "You are indeed a good child of your father. You did not let your father down. Thank you very much. Why don't you come over to my house for a cup of tea and take a rest?"
"We have to go back and report to the Queen. Bye."
After the imperial guards left, Zhou Pei looked at Zhou Xiangrong with scrutiny. This daughter, whom he had never even opened his eyes to see, asked him to follow him in.
Zhou Pei came back, so the guards naturally didn't dare to stop him.
"Is what the Imperial Guards said just now true? When did you run to Luocheng?"
Zhou Pei was a scoundrel, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to rise to the sixth-rank official in the Ministry of Justice over the years. After Zhou Xiangrong's biological mother died of hemorrhage during childbirth, he immediately married An the following year, and left Zhou Xiangrong to be raised by An.
An Shi didn't like Zhou Xiangrong. She said one thing to her face and another behind her back, making Zhou Xiangrong timid and cowardly, just like a maid in the upper class. She was always timid when she had the rare opportunity to see Zhou Pei, so Zhou Pei didn't like this daughter.
A while ago, he inexplicably fell ill and the doctors couldn't cure him. A fortune teller said that there was someone in the mansion who was unlucky for him, and the person was Zhou Xiangrong. So An suggested sending Zhou Xiangrong to live in a farm outside the city.
His illness was cured just a few days after Zhou Xiangrong left, which made him believe that Zhou Xiangrong was really unlucky for him. After she was thrown out of the city, he never asked about her again, and he didn't even know that she had left.
Zhou Xiangrong lowered her eyes and said in a cold voice, "I go to worship my mother every year, but my father probably doesn't know about this."
Zhou Pei really didn't know. After all, he never cared about her life or death. If Qingyi Hou hadn't come to remind the two families about the marriage at the beginning of the year, he would have completely forgotten about his daughter.
In the backyard of the Zhou family's house, the maid who delivered the message hurried into the inner hall and told the Marquis' wife An the news that Zhou Xiangrong and Zhou Pei had entered the mansion together.
An leaned on the couch, and frowned when she heard the words, "Why is she back?"
"Madam, I heard that the young lady was sent back by the imperial guards. I don't know the specific reason."
"Imperial Guards?" The first thing An thought of was that Zhou Xiangrong had caused a big disaster, otherwise why would the Imperial Guards take her back to Marquis Bo'an's Mansion?
A cold look flashed across An's eyes. This was a good opportunity to completely get rid of her!
(End of this chapter)
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