Spring Drunk Chang'an

She stared blankly at the carriage going away. After turning the corner, she could no longer see it. Aunt Lai held the note and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes.

My heart is full of resentment and longing.

Qingru has been taken care of by her since she was born. Before she was three years old, she never left her arms. Later, she moved out of Rongxiyuan and went to Cuizhuxuan, which was only a few steps away.

Day and night, Liu Qingru spent more time in her courtyard than with the old lady.

Never before had Qingru been away from her for such a long time!

She really misses you.

She really misses him.

Therefore, he was particularly resentful of Song's divorce and taking Liu Qingru away!

"I reluctantly gave you my biological daughter, wanting to give her the best. A legitimate daughter, a distinguished family, so that people wouldn't laugh at her for being a concubine's daughter. But in the end, Song Zhilan, you ruined everything!"

"You're threatening a divorce, ruining Qingru's spotless reputation. A divorced mother will be three times shorter than her parents every time she walks out in the future, and you've removed her name from the family tree and taken her away!"

Aunt Lai, with her red nails stained like a crown, pinched the window frame fiercely, her eyes flashing with cruelty. "My daughter, I am precious and should have been born in heaven, the daughter of a fairy. How could you have implicated her, losing her status as the eldest daughter of the Duke's Mansion and becoming a cousin of some unknown origin?"

"She should have been selected, entered the palace, and become the ruler of the Eastern Palace. In the future, she should have become the queen who rules the country!"

"Song Zhilan!! Song Zhilan!!"

She gritted her teeth, as if she wanted to chew these three words into pieces and swallow them into her stomach with blood. She recited a few sentences and stared blankly in the direction where the carriage left for a long, long time. Finally, she gritted her teeth, waved her sleeves and left the rouge shop.

She got on the carriage and took a tour around the South City, bought a few pounds of osmanthus cake, and then returned to the Ningguo Mansion.

After entering the mansion, she first went back to Cuizhuxuan to wash off the dust on her body. Then, with a quick glance, she went to the main courtyard to pay her respects...

In the main courtyard.

Qu Qiutong lives there.

After Song left, Qu Qiutong took charge of the household affairs at the Ningguo Mansion and moved directly into the main courtyard. She treated Liu Xiu like a married couple and accompanied him day and night...

In the past, when Song was the wife of Duke Ningguo, Liu Xiu would only stay in the main courtyard for three or five days every month. Usually, he would either live in the front courtyard, stay with Concubine Lai, or other concubines, and behave like a person who did not care about desires.

But when Qu Qiutong came, things were completely different.

Liu Xiu moved directly into the main courtyard and stayed there day and night. Seeing this, the servants in the mansion did not dare to neglect Qu Qiutong and treated her with more respect than the Song family.

only……

Since the divorce, the Song family took away more than eighty people, leaving only about a hundred servants serving inside and outside the Ningguo Mansion. Together with the elderly, weak and sick who could not enter the mansion to serve, there were only about sixty people in the huge mansion.

Even including the ones Qu Qiutong brought from Liujiazhuang in Xinghuapo in the suburbs, there were only about eighty people.

It's not enough.

When Aunt Lai entered the main courtyard, she saw that the courtyard was no longer bustling with noise and cheers as it was during the Song family's time. Instead, there were only five or six maids standing in the courtyard, listless and shivering.

Qu Qiutong didn't trust the 'old men' in the Ningguo Mansion, so all those who served her were from the Xinghuapo Liujia Manor. However, how could the young girls from the manor compare to the servants of the Ningguo Mansion who had been carefully trained for generations?

To put it bluntly, the personal maids around Song, such as Rong Cui and Liu Changan, cannot match the manners and etiquette of the daughters of ordinary fifth- and sixth-rank officials, let alone those around Qu Qiutong?

When we entered the mansion, everyone looked like weeds hit by rain, and they all looked lifeless.

"Hehe, what is that?"

Aunt Lai looked at the maids, suppressed a sneer in her heart, and stepped into the main courtyard.

The maids looked at her cautiously, but no one dared to approach her.

Aunt Lai pursed her lips and stood for a moment. Finally, a maidservant with thin eyebrows and eyes named Ruchu came forward and asked her in a weak voice, "Aunt, what are you doing here?"

What are you here for?

I am a concubine, and I have entered the main courtyard. What can I do?

Aunt Lai despised Qu Qiutong for not having the means to discipline people, but she smiled humbly and said softly, "Miss Ruchu, Nunu is here to pay her respects to Madam Qu!"

"Please inform me!"

Qu Qiutong entered the Ningguo Mansion and lived in the main courtyard. She spent day and night with Liu Xiu, as close as a married woman. However, Liu Xiu had not proposed, nor had he held any formal wedding ceremonies, and he didn't even have a proper status. People in the mansion didn't know what to call Qu Qiutong. They could only vaguely call her "Madam"!

Aunt Lai also calls her that.

"Uh, Aunt, the Duke is talking to our lady in her room. You, please come in first!" Ru Chu stammered and responded in a daze, then turned around to lead Aunt Lai into the room.

Aunt Lai was startled, thinking: The Duke is here, and you, a maidservant beside Madam Qu, are taking Aunt Lai into the house. This, this is really...

Ha ha.

I've never seen anything so stupid.

But, the Duke is here, and there are benefits to having him around. She hasn't seen him for a while, so she should say a few words and find out more.

Aunt Lai's eyes turned slightly, and she replied "yes". Then, she followed Ruchu into the main house, turned around the screen, and came to the living room.

After the major case was resolved, Liu Xiu sat in the armchair, writing something. Qu Qiutong stood beside him, grinding ink for him and occasionally commenting. Liu Xiu tilted his head and smiled at her gently.

The picture is very beautiful.

It's like a married couple, with the beauty adding fragrance.

Gee tut.

Adulterer and adulterer.

What kind of thing is this? She has no status, not even a proper concubine. Yet she pretends to be a proper concubine. How shameless! If it weren't for you, the master wouldn't have swapped the child. If there hadn't been a swap, the Song family wouldn't have asked for a divorce. How could Qingru have ended up in such an embarrassing situation?

Qu Qiutong has done a lot of harm to people.

Aunt Lai sneered inwardly, then made up her mind. Without showing any emotion, she stepped forward and saluted solemnly, "I greet the Duke and Madam Qu!"

"Why are you here?" When Liu Xiu saw her, he didn't even raise his eyelids, but frowned.

Qu Qiutong leaned slightly against him and looked over with displeasure.

Aunt Lai still maintained her bowing posture, her face bowed respectfully, without a trace of coquettishness, and her voice was flat and calm, "In reply to the Duke, I left the house today on the orders of the old lady to meet the eldest lady."

"The eldest lady misses you and the old lady very much. She says she deeply regrets not being able to come back to be filial to you, so she asks me to kowtow to you two as a token of her gratitude!"

After saying that, without waiting for Liu Xiu's reaction, she knelt down and kowtowed several times.

There was a 'bang bang' sound.