Chapter 286 What’s on Madam Dowager’s Mind

After Mother Wang, who was “dying of illness” had moved away, Madam Dowager was in a good mood. She specifically asked Ning Xueyan to come to Auspicious Fortune Hall, trying to comfort her. After talking to Ning Xueyan for a while, she asked people to bring some clothes and ornaments which were all newly made. The Beauty Contest would last for a long time. Since every candidate’s conduct and character needed to be examined carefully, the competition would take at least a month.

All the candidates were all noble Young Ladies. It was said that some of them would be chosen as the wedded wives and co-consorts of the two most powerful princes. Therefore, they should be more careful. The Lord Protector’s Manor would send Ning Qingshan and Ning Xueyan to attend the contest. Madam Dowager was very confident that they both would marry the two princes in the way she thought was best for the Lord Protector’s Manor.

Madam Dowager was planning to marry one of them to Third Prince and another one to Fourth Prince. As Ning Xueyan’s status wasn’t high enough, she could only be a co-consort. But Madam Dowager did not think there was anything wrong with that. From Fourth Prince’s attitude toward Ning Xueyan, she could tell that he was fond of her.

It would be perfect to marry Ning Qingshan as Third Prince’s wedded wife and Ning Xueyan as Fourth Prince’s co-consort. Of course Madam Dowager would not make them look shabby or the others would laugh at them. She specifically prepared various kinds of clothes and jewelry for them so that they would not be looked down upon by other noble Young Ladies in the imperial palace and shame the Lord Protector’s Manor.

Madam Dowager made different types of clothes for them this time. Although Ning Qingshan’s clothes were not all red, the skirt hems and collars were red. On the other hand, all Ning Xueyan’s clothes were bordered with pink. Only very a few of them did not have a pink border, but they were all pale pink. This was not bad, but nobody would be happy with such deliberate pink.

“Xueyan, come here and have a look at these clothes. I have had these made for you. Young Ladies of the Lord Protector’s Manor should dress up decently,” Madam Dowager said with a smile, pointing at a pile of colorful clothes.

“Thank you for your concern, Grandmother. In fact, I don’t need so many clothes. If my sisters like them, you can give these to them,” Ning Xueyan said softly. She reached out and touched the clothes, looking as if she was a little reluctant to give them to the others, but still said this generously.

Seeing that, Madam Dowager nodded with satisfaction. She touched Ning Xueyan’s head and said with pity, “Yan’er, you’re closest to me by blood. I really love you. If your mother… hadn’t made that mistake, you would have been the daughter of Lord Protector’s wedded wife. Alas, it’s also the will of heaven. I was also disappointed with your mother, so I just left her alone, and you also suffered because of this…”

Madam Dowager said with a sigh. There was sadness in her eyes when she talked about Madam Ming, as if all Ning Xueyan had suffered because of Madam Ming, and she had turned a blind eye to Bright Frost Garden and left Madam Ming and Ning Xueyan alone because she was so angry about what Madam Ming had done.

Clearly, she was shifting all the blame to Madam Ming. Anyway, Madam Ming was dead, so she could not defend herself.

“Grandmother, what happened to my… mother?” Ning Xueyan sneered inwardly, but she did not show anything abnormal on her face. After hesitating for a while, she raised her head and looked at Madam Dowager. Although her face was pale, she was determined.

“Your mother… You were just a young kid when it happened. I don’t want to talk about it. Anyway, your mother wasn’t well-behaved!” Madam Dowager shook her head, as if it was painful to recall the past and she did not want to tell Ning Xueyan everything.

“Grandma, what kind of person was my mother?” Ning Xueyan asked softly, biting her lip.

“Xueyan, don’t ask anymore. Let bygones be bygones. Although she made a mistake, she is still your mother, so you should never hate her or blame her. You’ve had a hard time over the years because of her, but after all, she is your mother!” Madam Dowager looked generous, as if she did not want to look back into the past and if she brought up it again, it would be disrespectful for the dead.

Ning Xueyan’s eyes glinted. Madam Ling had bullied Madam Ming and her to this extent, but in Madam Dowager’s eyes, it was because Madam Ming had asked for it. Madam Dowager was repeatedly hinting her that if Madam Ming had not done anything disgraceful, she would not have led such a miserable life for so many years. What a vicious old woman!

For so many years, Madam Dowager had turned a deaf ear to Bright Frost Garden. Ning Xueyan had almost died several times because of Ning Yuling, but instead of punishing Ning Yuling, Madam Dowager had blamed and seriously punished Madam Ming, who had tried to protect Ning Xueyan. Before Ning Zu’an rising high, he had to rely on Madam Ming’s father’s support and he had promised to marry only one woman in his life.

They were all lying! Otherwise, why were Ning Huaiyuan, Ning Ziyan and Ning Yuling all elder than her? Why soon after Madam Ming was useless to Ning Zu’an, had she been found having an affair with someone and replaced by Madam Ling, who had been eager to be the wedded wife? Why had Ning Xueyan’s status at the manor even been worse than a servant?

No matter how Ning Yuling cursed or beat her, she had not dared to fight back.

In the end, Madam Ming had been murdered by Madam Ling. However, now Madam Dowager was telling Madam Ming’s daughter that her mother should be blamed for everything and she had forgiven her mistakes. It sounded so ironic!

“Grandmother, can I go to my father’s study to find some books. I want to kill time at the imperial palace by reading.” Ning Xueyan seemed to be obedient and she did not ask further. Her long eyelashes trembled, casting a pair of curved shadows on her face and adding a hint of coldness in her extreme beauty.

She did not seem to be in a good mood, and looked somewhat lonely.

Madam Dowager was trying to draw Ning Xueyan to her side. From her words and depressed look, she knew that Ning Xueyan was not happy. Now Ning Xueyan was useful to the manor, so Madam Dowager would not upset her for such trifles. She pretended not to have noticed her abnormality.

“Okay, go ahead. If you can’t find any book you like in your father’s study, you can look some up in your brother’s study. Don’t spend all your time reading. It’s necessary to keep in touch with those noble Young Ladies.”

“Yes, Grandmother, I will follow your words,” Ning Xueyan stood up and answered. After saying goodbye to Madam Dowager, she walked to the front yard with Xinmei.

She had inquired about it and knew that normally, Ning Zu’an was not in his study at this time.

Nobody was allowed to enter Ning Zu’an’s study without permission.

The servant at the door froze for a while when he saw Ning Xueyan coming over with a maid. He immediately took a few steps forward and bowed to her respectfully. “Greetings, Fifth Young Lady!”

“Madam Dowager asked my master to find some books in the marquis’ study and take them to the imperial palace,” Xinmei walked out from behind Ning Xueyan and said, raising her head.

“Got it. Fifth Young Lady, this way, please!” Since they came on Madam Dowager’s order, the servant did not dare to stop them, but watched Ning Xueyan and Xinmei entering the study.

Ning Xueyan had once come to the study and seen Wen Xueran in the room. It seemed that there was nobody inside today.

The door of the study was half closed and with a slight push, it opened. When Ning Xueyan was going to step in, Xinmei suddenly pulled her sleeve and shook her head at her quietly.

Ning Xueyan looked up and saw the four treasures of the study on the table in the middle of the room. The table was neatly arranged and everything on it was in order. There was a bookshelf on each side of the table. After all, Ning Zu’an used to be a military man, so he did not have many books. Ning Xueyan knew that Ning Huaiyuan’s study had the largest collection of books in the manor.

On the tall bookshelves, rows of books were neatly arranged. Obviously, they were carefully taken care of everyday. However, Ning Xueyan saw a book strangely hanging from the top of the shelf. It was half-opened with a corner folded and half of the book protruded from other books, as if someone had left in a hurry and failed to put it into its original place.

“Who has been here today?” Ning Xueyan stopped the servant who was about to leave and asked.

“Nobody. The marquis went to the court in the early morning and hasn’t come back yet,” the servant answered. Usually, Ning Zu’an would not have returned to the manor at this time. Servants who had served him for a long time knew this well.

Ning Xueyan looked back and stopped walking further into the study. “Have you been here all the time?” Narrowing her eyes, she stared at the servant and asked coldly, her eyes full of scrutiny.

The servant did not know what this Fifth Young Lady meant. He secretly looked up and happened to meet her thoughtful and cold eyes. He was shocked and lowered his head in a hurry. Before he could answer, Xinmei’s voice rang out coldly. “The marquis’ study is such an important place. If you found something unusual, you must report to the marquis immediately. Otherwise, nobody can defend you if something goes wrong.”

Although Xinmei was only a maid, what she said made the servant tremble. A few days ago, another servant had been beaten to death on marquis’ order because he lost something of the study. Thinking of what had happened just now, the servant could not help feeling guilty and broke out in a cold sweat on his forehead.

“I, I’ve always been here!” he stammered.

“If that’s the case, anything bad happened to the study should have something to do with you. You can’t make up your fault even with your life,” Ning Xueyan said softly. However, to the servant, her voice sounded terrifyingly grim. He opened his mouth and his face flickered.

“Can it be that there is something wrong with the marquis study? That servant who was beaten to death was also the marquis’ henchman, but he died before he could say anything.” Thinking of this, the servant was frightened.

“Fifth Young Lady, I, I just left for a short while.” The servant knelt in front of her, sweating with fear.

He was not lying. He had left for a while when he saw a pretty maid waving at him in the corner just now. Thinking that she might want him for something, he had run over to her. However, that maid had gone when he arrived at where she had been and he had to return to the study. After that, he had not seen anyone in the study before Ning Xueyan came.

“Fifth Young Lady, I really just left for a while.” After finishing his words, the servant kept kowtowing to Ning Xueyan, showing that it had nothing to do with him.

“Get up. Look, did you drop that book?” Ning Xueyan smiled slightly and asked the servant to stand up. Then she asked, pointing at the half-fallen book.

The location of the book was very suspicious. The servant’s face turned pale and he said anxiously, “I arranged the books on that shelf, but I didn’t see the book hanging there.”

“Even though you didn’t drop the book, you have been guarding here, so you should be blamed for it. Could that be some assassin or spy from other manors rummaging my father’s study?” Ning Xueyan sized up the servant and curved up her lips. However, there was a hint of coldness in her gentle smile.

The servant turned pale with fear and began to sweat. “Spy! Hurry up and come here! Some spy broke into the marquis’ study!” he suddenly shouted.

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