Dou Zhao wanted to give his mother a hint, but he felt a headache when he thought about the maids and wives who were locked up in the room over there and had not been dealt with yet.

She slid up, sat on the bed and shouted "Daddy" loudly.

If her mother was smart, she would have had the idea to take her to her father.

If grandfather blames her, she can just push the responsibility onto her. Can't grandfather still argue with an ignorant child?

However, she obviously overestimated her mother's wisdom and overestimated her own influence.

Seeing her making a fuss, her mother frowned unhappily: "It's so late, why is this child still not asleep?" Then she ordered Yu Ma: "Take my sister away! Her noise is giving me a headache."

Nanny Yu smiled at her mother apologetically and helped her put on her clothes swiftly: "Fourth Miss, be good. Nanny Yu will carry you to find your wet nurse! Don't cry..."

Dou Zhao really wanted to imitate those country women on the farms and roll his eyes at his mother to show his disdain.

Why is mother so childish?

If she was like her mother, she would have been eaten to pieces long ago.

Dou Zhao hugged the curtain hanging beside the bed, crying and shouting for "Daddy", but was eventually forcibly carried by Nanny Yu to the warm room behind the inner room.

Without her mother, Dou Zhao also became quiet. She looked listless as Nanny Yu put her on the kang.

Nanny Yu silently helped her tidy up her messy hair. She looked at Dou Zhao with a dazed look and whispered, "Do you also think that what happened today is a little unusual? I'm going to take a sneak peek. You just stay here and don't make any noise, okay?"

Dou Zhao suddenly perked up.

It’s true that real people never show their true colors!

I never knew that Nanny Yu was so smart and capable.

Her eyes were wide open and she nodded like a chick pecking at rice.

Madam Yu was startled, then smiled kindly, and said with some emotion: "Our Fourth Miss is really smart. She is young, but she knows everything. Unlike Seventh Madam..." At this point, she paused and said to herself, "I am talking to a child about this and that..." Then she turned around and called a maid in: "Hanxiao, you stay here with Fourth Miss, I'll go to Heshou Hall to take a look."

Hanxiao was about seventeen or eighteen years old, with a handsome face and a gentle and steady demeanor.

After hearing what Yu Ma said, she was surprised, but she quickly replied "yes" and said very cleverly, "If there is anything, I will ask Shuangzhi to call you immediately."

Nanny Yu nodded with satisfaction and quickly walked out of the warm room.

Hanxiao and Dou Zhao got on the warm kang. Seeing that Dou Zhao was neither crying nor making a fuss, and was as quiet as an adult, she smiled slightly and asked Dou Zhao softly, "Fourth Miss, can I pat you to sleep?"

Dou Zhao shook his head.

Her smile became more intense, and she said, "Then can I help you to flip the rope?"

Does she like tumbling?

Dou Zhao shook his head.

She smiled and said, "So what do you want to do?"

"Wait...Madam." Dou Zhao said.

He looked at Dou Zhao with a surprised smile.

Dou Zhao ignored her, pulled a large pillow over, and leaned on it in a daze.

He smiled and helped Dou Zhao put on a thin quilt.

She felt something was wrong from the way her father treated her mother. How did Nanny Yu see that something was wrong?

What else doesn't she know?

Dou Zhao was lost in thought, his eyelids growing heavier.

No, we have to wait until Nanny Yu comes back.

She wants to know what happened!

And what about Tuoniang? What kind of person is she?

Dou Zhao shook his head and forced his upper and lower eyelids apart.

But after a few breaths, his eyelids drooped again on their own initiative.

Can't sleep!

If she fell asleep, maybe she would go back again.

What if she returns to the dream of wisteria?

"Smiling," Dou Zhao squinted his eyes, "Mammy, find it!"

"No!" She waved her hand gently with a smile, "I want to stay here with you."

"I, will be obedient!" said Dou Zhao.

After thinking for a while with a smile, she saw that Dou Zhao's expression was becoming more and more determined, so she said hesitantly, "Okay, I'll go see what Nanny Yu is doing?" Then she called Shuangzhi in.

Shuangzhi was a little girl with a round face. She accompanied Dou Zhao silently.

After a while, she came back with a smile: "Fourth Miss, Nanny Yu and Madam have gone to see the old lady."

"Oh!" Dou Zhaorang went to find Nanny Yu with a smile.

Hanxiao refused to agree no matter what: "If I am discovered, I will be skinned alive."

That's true.

Dou Zhao had been a household manager before, so he knew how serious this was.

She could only wait for Nanny Yu and her mother to come back, hating herself for being restricted instead of being able to do whatever she wanted like in the other dream with wisteria flowers.

Time passed little by little, and there was still no sign of his mother and Nanny Yu. Dou Zhao's eyelids were glued together, unable to be separated.

She fell into a sweet sleep.

It seemed like only a moment, yet it also seemed like tens of millions of years, Dou Zhao woke up.

Without thinking, she jumped up.

Someone was shouting "Miss Four" nearby.

Dou Zhao opened his eyes and saw Shuangzhi's round, smiling faces.

She breathed a sigh of relief.

Still dreaming.

She suddenly felt at ease and asked Shuangzhi: "Hanxiao? Madam? Mother?"

"Hanxiao was called away by Nanny Yu." Shuangzhi smiled and helped Dou Zhao put on his clothes, and asked the maid to pour in some hot water.

The attic became lively.

Only then did Dou Zhao realize that it was already daybreak.

She narrowed her eyes and asked Shuangzhi: "Hanxiao, where are you?"

Shuangzhi smiled and said, "At the old lady's place." As she spoke, she saw out of the corner of her eye that the warm curtain was lifted and someone was looking inside.

Her face darkened and she whispered, "Who is sneaking around outside the warm curtain?"

Immediately a little maid went to lift the warm curtain.

The person behind the warm curtain had nowhere to hide, and twisted his fingers nervously: "I, I'm looking for the fourth young lady..." Then he shouted arrogantly, "The fourth young lady asked me to help her find someone..."

Dou Zhao followed the trail and saw Xiangcao.

Her heart was slightly moved and she shouted "Vanilla" loudly.

Shuangzhi and the little maid were confused, but they still put the vanilla in.

Xiangcao proudly raised her chin towards Shuangzhi and the little maid, then ran to Dou Zhao and said humbly, "Fourth Miss, I have found the Tuonian you were talking about." After she finished speaking, her tone paused slightly, and she looked at her with eyes full of expectation.

Dou Zhao smiled slightly.

She had seen many maids like this in the Jining Marquis' Mansion.

In order to get ahead, they will do everything they can to grab any glimmer of hope.

She has no aversion to such people or such practices.

If everyone is content with the status quo, what is the point of life?

However, Vanilla was too impetuous, pinning her hopes on a child who was still ignorant, without considering the situation carefully and making long-term plans. But she still had to thank Vanilla. Otherwise, how could she have any news about Tuo Niang?

Dou Zhao said to Shuangzhi, "Thank you, vanilla!"

Shuangzhi couldn't make up his mind.

As the head of the family, the fourth young lady is too... young!

Should we go and ask Grandma Seven for instructions first?

As she was thinking, she saw Xiangcao's eyes light up and she knelt down to thank Dou Zhao. Then she came to Dou Zhao and chattered, "Tuoniang is a maid in the backyard's laundry room. She was brought back by Seventh Grandma when she went to Daci Temple to burn incense. I asked everyone in the mansion before I found her. What do you want to see her about? Do you want me to call her for you? She is very easy to talk to. In the laundry room, she is always eager to do the dirty and hard work. The sisters-in-law in the laundry room like her very much. As soon as I asked around, they took me to find Tuoniang..."

Dou Zhao suddenly realized.

Those who could work for my mother or her were all well-known servants in the Dou Mansion. How could they know the maids in the laundry room? On the contrary, as a maid in the Dou Mansion, Tuoniang did not participate in what happened in the past. She just heard about it afterwards. This also explains why Tuoniang's words are inconsistent with the facts...

Her eyelids twitched.

Fact!

Could it be that deep down in her heart, she believed that everything happening before her eyes was real?

Then where is she?

Some thoughts that she had ignored earlier started swirling in her mind again, causing Dou Zhao's heart to tremble with fear and a chill all over her body.

A little maid rushed in.

"Sister Shuangzhi, something terrible has happened." She looked panicked, as if she were facing a powerful enemy. "There's a commotion in Heshou Hall!"

Dou Zhao's heart skipped a beat.

Shuangzhi asked anxiously, "What happened?"

"When the Seventh Master was in Kyoto, he was bewitched by a woman," she said, her face pale. "He wanted to marry that woman and even asked the Third Master of the East Palace to intercede for him. The old lady was so angry that she drew her sword and wanted to kill the Seventh Master!"

"Ah!" The room was in chaos. "What happened next?"

"Fortunately, the Third Master did not leave and stopped the Old Mistress." The little maid said, "But the Seventh Master was determined to let that woman in. In the middle of winter, he knelt in the snow and begged the Old Mistress to agree. As a result, the Seventh Mistress came to find him, and the Seventh Master begged the Seventh Mistress. The Seventh Mistress was so angry that she not only did not agree, but also cried and scolded the Seventh Mistress for being ungrateful. Even the Old Mistress could not get a word in. When the Third Master saw this, he asked Dafu to quietly invite the Third Mistress over."

"No wonder Sister Hanxiao disappeared after being called away by Nanny Yu!"

"Is that woman prettier than Grandma Qi?"

"Did the old lady allow that woman to come in?"

"Wouldn't that mean there would be another master in the family?"

The maids were talking at once, and no one paid attention to Dou Zhao.

Dou Zhao sat there like an stupid clay sculpture, extremely shocked.

She has been very confused ever since she took charge of the Jining Marquis's mansion and became the head of the family. Why did her third uncle, an elder respected by the Dou family's children for his good management of miscellaneous affairs, go to the farm every now and then to visit her grandmother, who was born a concubine and had no connection with the Dou family at all?

It turned out that he went to visit her.

Tuoniang said that her mother was forced to hang herself.

As the third aunt who spoke on behalf of his father, he must have been filled with unspeakable guilt towards her, which is why he acted like this, right?

Dou Zhao thought of the way her third uncle looked at her.

There is always a bit of pity in kindness.

There was also a will left by her third uncle after his death, which wanted to leave all the calligraphy and paintings by famous people from the previous dynasty that he had collected to her.

At that time, the Dou family had not yet divided up, and my third uncle had no private property. All he left to his biological sons, Dou Fanchang and Dou Huachang, were a few inkstones and jade.

She always thought that it was because her third uncle particularly liked her.

It can be seen that what people see is not necessarily the truth, what they hear is not necessarily the truth, and even what they feel is not necessarily the truth.

Dou Zhao said in a hoarse voice: "I want it, Tuo Niang!"