This shout scared the two people in the room who were at a critical moment. Zhao Jingping collapsed on the spot, rolled off Qin Wanru, and immediately pulled up the quilt to cover himself.
Qin Wanru was horrified and embarrassed. If it wasn't the first night of her wedding, she really wanted to kick him: "Why are you hiding? Go and take a look!"
Zhao Jingping shivered as he wrapped himself in a quilt, "I can't go. What if there are robbers? A gentleman doesn't stand on a dangerous wall, don't you understand?"
Qin Wanru looked at him in a daze, feeling that he had suddenly become so strange, completely different from the person he was before marriage.
"You are the only man in the courtyard. If you don't go, who will? You can't ask me to go, right?"
"Don't worry about it. The maids outside will come out to check when they hear it." Zhao Jingping said, "In the absence of clear reasons, the most important thing for us is to protect ourselves."
Qin Wanru: “…”
At this time, hurried footsteps were heard outside, the light flickered, and servants came rushing in with lanterns.
"It's Yunying, Yunying fainted." someone shouted.
"Yunying, wake up, wake up..."
Then someone knocked on the door: "Prince, Madam, are you all right?"
Zhao Jingping breathed a sigh of relief and said to Qin Wanru, "Look, aren't they here?"
Qin Wanru rolled her eyes at him, said nothing, put on her clothes and went to open the door.
Zhao Jingping was disappointed and said awkwardly, "I'll go with you."
"A gentleman does not stand on a dangerous wall. You'd better not go." Qin Wanru said indifferently and went to open the door alone.
Zhao Jingping followed from behind and explained, "Now that everyone is here, there will be no danger."
The door opened, and Madam Lu, who came with the dowry, looked into the room with a worried look on her face and asked, "Madam, are you all right?"
"It's okay. You guys came right after I woke you up." Qin Wanru said as she stepped over the threshold. "What's wrong with Yunying?"
"She fainted, as if she had been frightened by something." said Nanny Lu, helping her walk over.
Zhao Jingping followed timidly behind.
When the servants who were standing in a circle saw the Crown Prince's wife coming, they automatically made way for her to see Yunying's situation clearly.
Yunying hadn't woken up yet and was being held in a woman's arms. The light from the lantern shone on her face, which was so pale, without a trace of blood. It was as creepy as it could be.
"Carry her to the ear room, wake her up and ask what happened." Qin Wanru ordered.
Everyone followed the order and hurriedly carried the person to the side room. They pinched her Ren Zhong acupoint and sprayed cold water on her. After a while, Yun Ying let out a long moan and woke up slowly. She blinked and looked around, then suddenly covered her face with her hands and shouted in horror: "It's not me, it's not me, Madam, spare me..."
It was obvious that the Crown Prince's wife she was talking about was not the one in front of her, otherwise she would not have been frightened to death.
Could it be that the Crown Prince married a new wife before the mourning period was over, angering the spirit of the previous Crown Prince’s wife…
Everyone in the room was frightened and a layer of cold sweat instantly broke out on their backs.
Qin Wanru's heart skipped a beat. She picked up the half-empty bucket of cold water and splashed it on Yunying's face. She said calmly, "I didn't hit you or punish you. Why are you shouting for mercy for no reason? Did you fall asleep just now? Did you have a nightmare?"
Yunying shook her head repeatedly with her face soaked with water: "No, I didn't have a nightmare. I was standing there perfectly fine, and suddenly a head floated over. It was a woman with disheveled hair, and there was blood on her mouth..."
The trembling tone of her voice and her wet hair made her look like a ghost that had just crawled out of the water. They were so scared that they huddled together unconsciously, staring at the light, not daring to move their eyes away.
Zhao Jingping was also frightened. He grabbed Qin Wanru's hand and said tremblingly, "Wanru, let's go back to the room first and ask someone to invite mother..."
Qin Wanru was also nervous, but at this moment, she was already the legitimate wife of the prince, so she could not let her emotions show easily. She bit the bullet and rebuked Yunying, "There is no evil ghost in this world. You are just imagining things. You are either dreaming or you are dazzled. Go back and rest quickly, and don't talk nonsense anymore!"
Yunying wanted to explain, but when she met Qin Wanru's warning look, she had to stop abruptly and said no more.
Zhao Jingping asked, "Aren't you going to invite your mother?"
"Look at what time it is now?" Qin Wanru said, "It's just a girl having a nightmare. How can we disturb our mother so easily? Let's talk about it tomorrow!"
After saying that, he instructed Nanny Lu to rearrange the people to keep watch at night so that Yunying could go and rest.
As soon as everyone heard Yunying talk about the head with blood at the corner of its mouth, they were afraid that Nanny Lu would call them, so they all stepped back.
There was nothing Lu Ma had to do but arrange for everyone to take turns on night duty, three people in a shift, changing every hour, and just wait until the night was over.
After a period of hustle and bustle, the yard finally returned to peace.
Zhao Jingping and Qin Wanru undressed and went to bed again, but they no longer had the same enthusiasm as before. They lit candles, kept their eyes open, and thought about their own things.
No matter how difficult the night is, it will eventually pass. At dawn the next day, everyone in the yard breathed a sigh of relief, as if they had seen the light of day again. They wished that the sun would not set again and that the night would not come again.
Qin Wanru was going to offer tea to the newlyweds today, so she got up early in the morning to wash and dress.
She hardly slept last night, and the dark circles under her eyes couldn't be completely covered even after applying several layers of powder.
Taking advantage of the time when she was dressing up, she dismissed everyone and left Yunying alone in the room, and asked her in detail about what happened last night.
Although a whole night had passed, Yunying still got goosebumps when she talked about the floating head.
"Madam, I am not dreaming, nor am I talking nonsense. I really saw that head. I swear to heaven that if I tell even a single lie, I will die a miserable death."
"I believe you." Qin Wanru said, "I said that to you last night because I was afraid that everyone would be scared. Don't be angry."
"I dare not be angry with the Crown Prince's wife. I am just simply afraid." Yunying said aggrievedly.
"Well, I understand." Qin Wanru said, "But I have to go and offer tea to the new bride later. By then, the elders and young ladies from the three mansions will be here. In order to avoid being laughed at by others, this matter cannot be made public for the time being. Everything can be discussed after I come back from offering tea, okay?"
"I will obey the prince's wife." Yunying replied while wiping her tears.
The Crown Prince's wife offered tea to the new bride, and most of the mansion was busy, except for the people in Sijin Courtyard who were not affected at all. They still did what they were supposed to do as usual.
As the only son of Zhao Jingping, the little boy should have been brought to the front to meet his stepmother. However, due to the ten conditions of the general's wife, Qin was afraid that Qin Wanru would think of those bad things when she saw the child, so she took the initiative to not let the child go.
This was exactly what Xie Nanjia wanted. She herself also wanted to accompany the Fourth Young Lady to the front to go through the formalities. She didn't want to see her son being held in her arms and called son by Qin Wanru hypocritically, and she didn't want to hear Qin Wanru calling herself mother in front of her son.
At one o'clock in the morning, relatives from the three mansions gathered together, waiting happily to drink the bride's tea.
Xie Nanjia looked around and found that Zhao Jingyu was not there.
Although Zhao Jingyu never liked to participate in the various activities in the mansion, he was not absent when she offered tea to the bride.
Thinking of this, she inexplicably felt a sense of superiority.
The bride's tea is not drunk in vain. The elders have to give the bride a gift, and peers also have to give each other gifts. Although Qin Wanru is the second wife, she still has to be given the face she deserves. Everyone carefully prepared precious jewelry as a gift.
Among the young ladies in the three mansions, Zhao Lanzhi is the poorest one. Because of the farce in the dressing room yesterday, Zhao Lanshu has been brooding over her and stared at her the whole time, just waiting for her to take out the gift so that she can mock her.
Unexpectedly, after Zhao Lanzhi accepted the royal blue and kingfisher bead hairpin from Qin Wanru, she casually took out a sandalwood bracelet with a thousand-petal lotus carved on it from her sleeve pocket and handed it to Qin Wanru, saying in her usual soft voice, "Sister-in-law, you gave me such a beautiful hairpin, and I don't have anything to give you in return. This bracelet was obtained by my second brother from the abbot of the Fanyin Temple. It was consecrated at the Nalanda Temple in Tianzhu. Today I give it to you, and wish you and the prince a loving marriage and a long life together. I also wish the little nephew in your belly to grow up healthily and be born safely."
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone in the room had different expressions.
Zhao Jingyu actually gave the treasure that the abbot of Fanyin Temple brought back from Nalanda Temple in India as a toy to an unfavored half-sister. This alone was enough to make the brothers and sisters in the three mansions go crazy with envy.
Especially Zhao Lanshu, her eyes turned red with jealousy.
Even Zhao Jingping was itching to go there and planned to come over with Qin Wanru to play for a few days after returning.
Qin Wanru had never expected that this inconspicuous half-sister would give her such a special gift right away. While she was pleasantly surprised, she also felt that the gift she had given Zhao Lanzhi was too shabby, and secretly thought of giving her a set of good jewelry as a gift after she returned.
The younger generations were only concerned about the bracelet, while the elders were concerned about the belly. Except for a few people in the Marquis' Mansion, no one in the East and West Mansions knew about Qin Wanru's pregnancy. After hearing what Zhao Lanzhi said, they suddenly realized that they were so anxious to bring good luck to the old lady, but it turned out that she was getting married because of pregnancy!
After realizing this, when he looked at Qin Wanru again, his eyes were filled with more contempt and disdain.
How could Qin not understand what those people were thinking? She secretly blamed Zhao Lanzhi for her outspokenness, but considering that Zhao Lanzhi had given Wanru such an expensive bracelet, she couldn't get angry with her.
The old lady's mood did not change much. She sat there calmly. After Qin Wanru and all the family members had greeted each other, she said she was tired and returned to Ci'anju early.
On the way, she casually said to Aunt Hua: "The fourth girl has always been very slow in speaking, but why is she suddenly so smart today? I'm afraid someone taught her to speak!"
After the old lady left, everyone sat for a while and then stood up to say goodbye.
Xie Nanjia accompanied Zhao Lanzhi back to Yilan Courtyard. As soon as they entered the door, Zhao Lanzhi let out a long sigh as if she had finally let go of her disguise and asked Xie Nanjia, "Xiu'er, why did you insist on making me say those words?"
Xie Nanjia smiled and said, "Nothing, I just want you to leave a good impression in front of your new sister-in-law. She is the future mistress of the Marquis's Mansion. It will be good for you to have a good relationship with her in the future."
"Really?" Zhao Lanzhi looked at her doubtfully.
"Of course it's true." Xie Nanjia confirmed with a smile.
At the same time, Qin Wanru also returned to her Nuanyu Pavilion, refreshed her makeup, and waited for Zhao Jingping's concubine to come and serve her tea.
After a while, the concubines, led by Aunt Xue, arrived one after another, kneeling in the hall and kowtowed to her and greeted her.
After waiting for so long, she finally got her wish and became the real wife of the prince. Qin Wanru contentedly put on the posture of a principal wife and looked at the respectful concubines with a smile on her face.
At this moment, a figure flashed outside the door, and Lvliu walked in wearing plain clothes, holding a tablet in both hands.
Qin Wanru's smile froze on her face, and she asked in surprise, "What are you doing?"
Lvliu said calmly, "Madam, didn't you promise the general's wife that you would wake up the former prince's wife every morning and evening? I was afraid that it would be too tiring for you to run to the ancestral hall twice a day, so I specially brought the former prince's wife's tablet for you."
(End of this chapter)