Meanwhile, An Lingyun and Princess Mingzhu quickly became good friends. Since An Lingyun was now managing the household, she often took out some money to go shopping with Princess Mingzhu.
When Princess Mingzhu lived in Cloud Province, she lived a very wealthy lifestyle, so she had very high quality taste. The things she took a liking to were all very expensive and rare, so An Lingyun also started following her example and also started spending a lot.
When Old Madame happened to check the ledgers, she was given a huge shock and hastily went to tell Ning Shu.
Ning Shu looked at the ledger, then looked towards An Lingyun who was shifting in place uneasily. Princess Mingzhu was also standing next to An Lingyun with a pitiful expression.
“Lingyun, where did all this money go? You’re in charge of managing the household, so you possess control over the livelihoods of everyone in the general’s residence. Using this money means that the people in this residence might not be able to eat.” Ning Shu spoke in a gentle tone.
An Lingyun wrung the handkerchief she was holding with her head lowered.
“What happened?” asked An You as he walked in.
The moment An You walked in, Princess Mingzhu’s gaze never left him. An You met her gaze, then immediately looked away. A dim expression then appeared on Princess Mingzhu’s face. It caused An You’s heart to ache faintly with pain, but he forced himself to endure it.
Ning Shu told An You about what happened today. An You frowned but didn’t say anything.
Ning Shu then said, “Lingyun, you should be recording the purpose every time you take out some money. What did you use this money to buy? You’re no longer a child, you can’t be so willful.”
When Princess Mingzhu saw that her good friend was being scolded, she abruptly fell to her knees. Her kneel caused everyone present to freeze in shock.
Ning Shu was the first to snap out of it and she immediately dropped to her knees. After a moment of hesitation, the old madame also knelt down. An You saw that even his mother had knelt down, so he knelt down as well.
An Lingyun looked completely bewildered, but since everyone in the room was kneeling, she knelt down too.
“Princess Mingzhu, please forgive us. You’re a princess, how can you kneel to us? We truly cannot afford to take this,” said Ning Shu. “If the empress dowager finds out that you suffered grievances in the general’s residence, the entire residence would suffer punishment, so please Princess, forgive us.”
When Princess Mingzhu saw that An You was kneeling in front of her, she felt her heart clench with pain. Was this the distance between her and her sky god?
She didn’t care about the fact that she was a princess at all. Even if she had to be like nothing but a cat or dog, as long as she could stay by his side, she’d be happy. However, he had a magnificent wife, a son and a daughter, and a residence filled with warmth that she could only long for.
Princess Mingzhu felt like her words were stuck in her throat. In the end, she finally said, “Madame, please don’t blame Lingyun. Lingyun had gone out with me. If it’s because of money, I’m willing to take out my money, so please don’t blame Lingyun.”
The hell? This wasn’t a matter of money. This ma’am is educating her daughter, what the fudge did it have to do with you?
Based on Ning Shu’s usual explosive temper, she would’ve already gotten out a whip to start whipping people, but in this task, she had to maintain her calm and avoid falling into the same situation of crazed anger and depression that the original host had ended up in.
When An Lingyun heard Princess Mingzhu plea for leniency for her sake, she was very touched. Meanwhile, An You couldn’t tear his eyes away from Princess Mingzhu. He felt woman was the kindest and most unaffected woman he had ever seen.
But… Between them, there were too many things. Taking one step forward would destroy everything.