Suddenly, Shen Mingzhu felt her sleeve being tugged. A look of surprise flashed across her face as she turned to look at Xie Lang, only to find him staring at her intently with a deep, solemn look in his eyes. [Shen Mingzhu, are you going to see that Green Bamboo guy? That's too much! You brought him to my mansion and now you're going to see him right in front of me!]
[I must get rid of that man tonight.]
Shen Mingzhu: "..."
Although she really wanted to ask Xie Lang how he was going to "get rid of" Qing Zhu, a living person, her intuition told her that the word "get rid of" in Xie Lang's mouth might not mean the same thing as what she thought.
Tsk.
She stared at him for a few moments, her heart calm and without a hint of fear. Having been accustomed to power and wielding great authority herself, Shen Mingzhu had never been afraid of anything. She just found Xie Lang a bit strange.
"Of course I'm going to take a stroll around the Xie Mansion," Shen Mingzhu replied calmly, giving Xie Lang a disdainful look.
Xie Lang's imagination was really quite rich.
[I always feel like she's lying to me, but I have no evidence.]
Shen Mingzhu almost rolled her eyes at Xie Lang again. She waved his hand away with her other hand and said, "A good dog doesn't block the way."
Seeing Shen Mingzhu leaving, Xie Lang immediately gritted his teeth and said, "Your Highness, let me show you the way."
Without waiting for Shen Mingzhu to speak, Xie Lang walked straight up to her. His expression had already returned to calm, and he gave her his familiar smile.
However, not long after they started walking, Shen Mingzhu and Xie Lang looked at the corner in front of them and fell silent.
"Xie Lang! Didn't you say you'd show the way?"
Seeing the hesitation on Xie Lang's face, Shen Mingzhu found it unbelievable. A hint of indescribable annoyance flashed in her eyes.
"You don't even know your own mansion?" Shen Mingzhu sneered.
Xie Lang fell silent.
"No way!" Seeing that Xie Lang didn't say a word, Shen Mingzhu finally couldn't hold back and raised her voice, "You really don't know the way?"
Xie Lang continued to be silent.
After a long while, he looked at the corner and calmly said, "Go this way."
Shen Mingzhu asked suspiciously, "Are you sure?"
"Not very sure."
Hearing Shen Mingzhu's doubt, Xie Lang curled his lips, his voice filled with a smile. "Anyway, this is the Xie Mansion. Your Highness won't be abducted anywhere by me."
Shen Mingzhu couldn't help but roll her eyes at him again. She felt that she had rolled all the eyes she hadn't rolled in the previous years today.
Xie Lang was really a fool! He clearly didn't know the way, but he had chased away all the servants of the Xie Mansion who were following him before leaving the courtyard. Now, there were only a few personal maids following Shen Mingzhu. How could they know the way in the Xie Mansion?
As they walked on, they still didn't see any familiar places. Shen Mingzhu was even too lazy to argue with Xie Lang. She sighed and mocked, "The Xie Mansion is really big. Even the young master of the mansion can't tell the way."
"However, it's not as big as Your Highness's Princess Mansion."
Shen Mingzhu gritted her teeth.
Her Princess Mansion was still under construction. Who knew if that bastard Shen Mingyuan would make things difficult for her? Although according to the regulations, that Princess Mansion was indeed more luxurious than all the previous princess mansions, considering all the bad things Shen Mingyuan had done, Shen Mingzhu didn't have high hopes for that mansion. She was even prepared to rebuild it to prove Shen Mingyuan wrong.
"Oh, it's still better than not being able to recognize the way."
Hearing this, Xie Lang gave a half - smile. He originally wanted to continue to mock Shen Mingzhu, but when he met her angry eyes, all his thoughts of provoking her disappeared. He sighed and continued, "There's nothing I can do. I'm really not very familiar with the Xie Mansion."
"I've grown up by my grandfather's side all these years and only returned to the capital when I was sixteen."
Seeing Shen Mingzhu looking at him in disbelief, Xie Lang smiled and said, "What, Your Highness doesn't believe me?"
"But..."
Shen Mingzhu fell silent and began to search her memory for the part about Xie Lang.
Among the many playboys in the capital, Xie Lang could be considered "famous at a young age". Shen Mingzhu had heard of Xie Lang's bad reputation a long time ago, probably earlier than the age of sixteen he mentioned.
At first, it seemed that the eldest son of General Xie did nothing all day long and even made the teacher faint in anger. Now that she thought about it, Xie Lang probably wouldn't lie to her. He wasn't even in the capital at that time, so what was being spread was really worth Shen Mingzhu's thought.
"Did Lady Liu do it?" Shen Mingzhu thought for a while and then understood the mystery.
This Lady Liu had planned early. She had started spreading bad rumors about Xie Lang before he even returned to the capital. Xie Lang's mother had passed away, and the Wen family's power had declined, so Lady Liu had got the chance.
But... But given the friendship between her mother and Xie Lang's mother, would her mother really just watch the son of an old friend fall into a quagmire?
Shen Mingzhu looked up at Xie Lang. Seeing a bare tree and a small stone table and chairs in front, she pointed there and motioned for Xie Lang to go and sit there for a while before continuing to stroll around the Xie Mansion.
After the maids took out handkerchiefs to wipe the dust off the small stone table and chairs, Shen Mingzhu sat down first and looked at Xie Lang, signaling him to continue.
Xie Lang was choked by the blatant curiosity in Shen Mingzhu's eyes. He sighed and continued, "Yes, it was her and some others who used to dislike my mother."
"My mother just..."
Shen Mingzhu opened her mouth, but before she could finish her sentence, she saw a group of people walking straight towards them. When they saw Shen Mingzhu, they immediately bowed respectfully and said, "Greetings to Princess Highness."
It was actually Lady Liu and her son Xie Yun.
Seeing this, Shen Mingzhu didn't say a word. She just watched the two of them maintain their bowing postures until Xie Yun couldn't hold it any longer and looked up at her.
Seeing that Shen Mingzhu didn't speak, Xie Lang gloated and watched the two of them. He pretended not to see and looked up at the sky.
Lady Liu couldn't hold it any longer. A hint of hatred flashed in her eyes, and she couldn't help but whisper, "Your Highness?"
"Ah?"
Shen Mingzhu came back to her senses. Looking at Lady Liu in surprise, she said, "I didn't even see you just now. It's really inappropriate."
"How could that be?"
No matter how stupid Lady Liu was, after these days of lessons, she had understood that Shen Mingzhu was not as simple as she seemed. No matter how down - and - out the fallen princess was, she was still not someone a housewife like her could afford to offend.
Moreover, after Shen Mingzhu returned to the palace last time, the emperor's attitude had suddenly changed, which had even made General Xie change his tune and told her to be careful not to provoke Shen Mingzhu.
Lady Liu only regretted that she had been too impulsive and hadn't left a good impression on Shen Mingzhu when she was in a difficult situation. Now she could have taken advantage of her.
"It was my voice that was too soft and didn't reach Your Highness's ears."
Lady Liu forced a smile. Pulling her son, she became more and more stiff under Shen Mingzhu's gaze.
"Madam is so magnanimous," Shen Mingzhu said with a slight curl of her lips. "I just took out a set of headdresses from the palace the other day. Why don't I give them to Madam? They seem to suit you very well."
"This... How could I be so embarrassed?" Lady Liu was overjoyed. Her eyes looking at Shen Mingzhu were filled with disbelief.
Shen Mingzhu raised her hand and accidentally touched Xie Lang's hand.
[Tsk tsk tsk, it's not that easy to take Shen Mingzhu's things.]
"Why should you be embarrassed?" Shen Mingzhu's smile deepened. "It's just that the third young lady of the mansion has some opinions about me. I'm really troubled. I just hope Madam can help me persuade the third young lady."