In the previous life, Mrs. Qin had always portrayed herself as Qin Wanru's biological mother, therefore she was deemed to have done everything for her out of good intention. To Qin Wanru, Mrs. Qin was perhaps just showing favoritism, but would never harbor any evil intention towards her.
Mrs. Qin's repeated attempts to set Qin Wanru up secretly was explained away precisely by this reason.
It was later on that she eventually found out that she was not Mrs. Qin's own daughter. Mrs. Qin was only using her as part of her scheme to achieve her goal.
After Qin Wanru was reborn into this life, the first thing she wanted to do was to remove the mask of hypocrisy from Mrs. Qin to expose her, so she could put a stop to her shameless claim that she was Qin Wanru's birth mother.
"Are you truly unwilling to treat Wanru as your own daughter, my dear daughter-in-law?" pressed Old Grandma, giving Mrs. Qin a severe look, as she embraced Qin Wanru's slim body with a pained expression. Old Grandma was utterly disappointed with Mrs. Qin at this moment.
"It's not that, Mother, I yearned to treat Wanru as my own daughter, but I really have no control over Miss Qi… Although we do indeed have some conflicts in the past, it was all matters regarding the children. I didn't think they were a big deal. Little did I expect that Wanru would think otherwise. Mother, I… I really did not expect things to turn out this way!"
Mrs. Qin took out her handkerchief to start wiping away hers tears pitifully as she tried to explain herself.
Qin Wanru, who was in Old Grandma's arms, stopped crying when she heard the words that it was matters regarding the children and a look of hatred flashed across her eyes. In the previous life, she was misunderstood for this same reason and was time and again attacked by Qin Rongzhi's vicious accusations.
"You may excuse yourself from meddling with this child's matters from now on. I will be in charge now!" Old Grandma said coldly.
"… But you're getting old, Mother, you shouldn't be burdening yourself with the children's matters. If other people realized that you are still burdened with the matters of the children, how could I be at ease? How am I going to face up to people?"
There was no way Mrs. Qin would let Qin Wanru escape her control. She anxiously tried to stop the Old Grandma from taking over Wanru from her.
"You couldn't care less about other people's children, is this what you think you can brag about?" unmoved, Old Grandma questioned her back.
This made Mrs. Qin blush with embarrassment. She had not shown her much motherly concern in the past in front of others.
"Go back and settle the issue regarding Miss Qi. Do what you need. Although we are not totally free from blame, there was no need for us to lower ourselves in front of the daughter of the magistrate and put the life of your daughter at risk," Old Grandma said, putting down her feet. She then stood up, grabbed Qin Wanru's hand and led her out of the room.
Qin Wanru quickly held on to Old Grandma and tangled their arms together.
"Mother, I… " Mrs. Qin blurted out in panic and stretched out her to hold Old Grandma. Nanny Duan took two steps towards Old Grandma to hold on to her instead, at the same time, blocking and pushing her away. Mrs. Qin's arm dropped awkwardly back to her side and touched the little fragrant pouch she was carrying. A sense of familiarity came to her as she had always brought this fragrant pouch with her annually at this time of the year.
Qin Wanru casually glanced at the pouch but was not especially taken in by it.
"I would like you to stop meddling with matters concerning Wanru in the future. Return me all her belongings so I can keep them with me. Also, I will in charge of her marriage, so you don't interfere with it in the future!" Old Grandma stopped in her tracks, gave Mrs. Qin a cold look which showed her utter disappointment in her daughter-in-law.
Old Grandma ignored Mrs. Qin and Qin Yuru thereafter and led Qin Wanru out of the room.
"Grandma…" Qin Yuru stomped her feet, then decided to run after her grandmother when her mother stopped her. In the end, the mother-daughter pair stood there watching Old Grandma and her granddaughter leave.
"Why did you stop me, Mother, and not allow me to follow them?" asked Qin Yuru.
"Let's go have a look at Qin Rongzhi now," Mrs. Qin said calmly, now that she had regained her composure.
"I'm not going! Qi Rongzhi thinks she is some important lady!" Qin Yuru said coldly as she cupped her face with her hands. She could still feel her cheeks burning from pain.
"Go, why not go? I would think Qi Rongzhi's character of provoking people to anger would work for us!" said Mrs. Qin with an insidious look on her face, as she looked on the grandmother-granddaughter pair. "If she is going to take my control over Qin Wanru away from me, I'll blow this entire matter up. You and Qi Rongzhi had many conversations in the past and you should know how to talk to her right?"
"Do you mean to push the blame on Qin Wanru again, so Qi Rongzhi can deal with her?" Qin Yuru dazed for a moment before she came to this realization. Now she was happy with the plan.
She was rather experienced in provoking discord all along.
"Go over to Qi Rongzhi, while I get the physician to come and have a look at her. It's a serious matter for a girl to fall into the water! As the mistress of this house, we have to show the appropriate amount of concern. Even your grandmother was at a loss of what to do," said Mrs. Qin with a sinister laugh as she put her hands on her hips. The old lady thought she could protect the little girl, but she did not realize that she did not have the energy to do so.
"Do you mean Old Grandma had no way of protecting that girl?" Qin Wanru queried with widened eyes.
"You go to Miss Qi and do what you can by talking to her. I will have the girl to visit her later!" said Mrs. Qin, still with a sinister look in her eyes. She could ride on the fact that Qin Wanru was a filial granddaughter always.
"I get it now, Mother. I'll go to Qi Rongzhi straight away!" said Qin Wanru maliciously, now that she got the idea.
Qin Yuru turned to leave with her maid, headed for the room Qi Rongzhi was changing her attire. She had clearly heard Nanny Duan instructing the other maid regarding where they should send Qi Rongzhi's change of clothing.
Once Mrs. Qin saw that Qin Yuru had left, she whispered a few words into Meiya, the chief maid's ears and Meiya nodded and left quickly afterwards.
When Qin Yuru arrived at the yard where Qi Rongzhi was, she enquired about her condition with the maids before entering the room with a smile on her face.
Qin Rongzhi was drinking ginger tea while seated on the chair when Qin Yuru entered the room. She had changed into a clean set of clothes and when she saw Qin Yuru, she rolled her eyes and did not bother about her.
"Are you feeling getter, Little Sister Qin? Is there any discomfort? How are my mother and I going to explain to your family about what happened? I… I'm clueless as to how to explain to your elder brother too! If I have known that my second sister was harboring this bad intention, I wouldn't have told you where she was!"
Qin Yuru tried to get intimate with Qi Rongzhi by sitting on the edge of the chair as she spoke affectionately to her.
"Are you saying that Qin Wanru was behind all this?" said Qi Rongzhi angrily, when she understood what Qin Yuru was trying to say, and slowly put the bowl of ginger tea down.
"It certainly was her. She realized that my mother was not her birth mother and decided to create chaos. It was mainly because she wasn't happy with my mother. We're really sorry to have implicated you, Miss Qi!" said Qin Wanru, sighing. She took over the bowl of ginger tea from Miss Qi and put it down on the table, looking grim.
Qin Yuru's intention was to make Qi Rongzhi believe that she was implicated when Qin Wanru was trying to target her mother.
This made Qi Rongzhi even angrier.
"Older Sister Yuru, wouldn't this sound as if you are all so useless that you can't even deal with Qin Wanru?" mocked Qi Rongzhi.
"What can Mother do if Grandma kept trying to defend my second younger sister!" Qin Yuru said, sounding helpless and tearing up as she took out her handkerchief and started wiping away her tears. "Grandma had always doted on my second younger sister and she didn't really like me. Even if I were to be engaged to your brother, she kept hinting that I'm not as good as my second younger sister. She kept saying she will seek for a better prospective family than your family for her. See, she was even showing favoritism with regards to our marriage!"
"Do you mean that Old Grandma was even interfering with your engagement with my brother?" Qi Rongzhi was fuming by now. Qi Tianyu was her brother, whom she idolized after all.
"How else did you think Qin Wanru would dare to create such havoc? Have you ever seen her behaving in this way?" Qin Yuru continued to provoke Miss Qi.
"I will not let this contemptible girl off!" Qi Rongzhi stood up abruptly as she was set on looking Qin Wanru up to settle scores, but Qin Yuru grabbed on to her arm to stop her.
"If you rush over to look for my second younger sister, you'll end up the one at fault."
"So what if I'm at fault? What can Qin Wanru do to me? She's merely the daughter of a concubine, who does she think she is?" mocked Qi Rongzhi. Qin Yuru had misled her to think that the reason that Qin Wanru was not Mrs. Qin's own daughter because she was the daughter of a concubine, but came under Mrs. Qin's care.
Miss Qi was usually arrogant and had never really treated Qin Wanru seriously.
"She will definitely give you a visit because you fell into the water!" Qin Yuru hinted.
Qi Rongzhi immediately took the hint and came to a realization. "I'll make sure to give her a hard time when she comes later. I'm not going to let her off!" she said coldly.
As Qin Yuru bowed her head, a smile spread across her face. She knew Qi Rongzhi to be overbearing and ruthless, she was not one to suffer wrong. If she were shortchanged, she would retaliate with vengeance. Although Mother could no longer deal with Qin Wanru, that did not mean others could not.
Back in Old Grandma's yard, Old Grandma started coughing badly once she entered her room and Qin Wanru quickly went up to her to give her some pats on her back and with a concerned tone, she said, "Why are you coughing so badly, Grandma?"
Old Grandma had this coughing problem for a long time. She used to start coughing once autumn arrived when the wind became chilly. This brought to Qin Wanru's mind the day Old Grandma passed away in the previous life. Her face was jaundiced, drained the blood color, yet she was coughing so much blood that the corners of her lips were stained. Qin Wanru could hear her coughing even when she away far away from her room.
In the end, the sound of coughing only stopped when Old Grandma passed away. At that time, Qin Wanru almost fainted from weeping in front of Old Grandma's bed.
In this life, her grandmother's cough had always been her troubling her mind. Although in the last few days, Old Grandma did not really cough much when she first woke up in the morning, she was coughing on stop at this moment.
Nanny Duan poured some warm water and brought it over to Qin Wanru who fed it to her Old Grandma's mouth.
After Old Grandma took a sip, her throat finally felt better and she coughed lightly for two more times and stopped, but her countenance did not look well.
"Did you catch a cold, Old Grandma? You usually did not start coughing this early in the year in the past," said Nanny Duan, confused.
Qin Wanru took a handkerchief to wipe off the sweat beads off Old Grandma's forehead and a worried look appeared on her face.
"I'm alright. I suppose it was because the past few days had been so hectic… and the weather is changing!" said Old Grandma, who held on to Qin Wanru's hand tightly and began coughing so hard that Qin Wanru felt painful from her tight grip.
Qin Wanru did not retract her hand but allowed Old Grandma to squeeze her hand during her coughs. She used the other hand to lift up the cup again to Old Grandma's lips for another sip of water.
After a long while, Old Grandma finally let go of her hand.
"Old Grandma, why don't you lie down a bit to rest!" Nanny Duan urged, looking worried.
Old Grandma nodded with the little strength she had. She had wanted to tell Qin Wanru many things, but at this moment she could muster the strength to do so. She was, in fact, feeling a little giddy and her throat was starting to feel sore. She could not speak for now.
Qin Wanru, together with Nanny Duan, helped Old Grandma onto the bed and put the blanket over her. Qin Wanru waited for Old Grandma to finally close her tired eyes before she got up to leave.
"Second Miss, Madam had instructed me to come to get Old Grandma," said a maid, who was rushing down the corridor towards her.