Medical Princess

“But you haven’t bought it yet. How can you say that it’s your lady’s?” Seeing that their Miss was at a disadvantage, a servant girl behind Gu Xishu stood out to defend her. She glared at Qin Wanru and Yujie as if they were the ones who robbed.

Qin Wanru drew back her sight from Wen Xichi and landed Gu Xishu’s face. At this time, her arched eyebrows slightly wrinkled, and the rims of her eyes became a little red. Gu Xishu looked as if she had been greatly wronged. Qin Wanru lifted her lips a little. Her eyes looked calm and deep.

“Young Madam, I saw this hairpin first, and I asked the shop-boy to take it out. Can you let me see it first?”

It was Qin Wanru who saw it first, and it was Qin Wanru who let the shop-boy take it out. Typically, it meant that Qin Wanru had reserved it. No other guests were allowed to take it unless Qin Wanru gave it up.

Wen Xichi’s attention was now switching from Yujie to Qin Wanru. At first, he didn’t know the lady was Qin Wanru because her face was under her curtain hat. But as soon as she started to talk, he immediately recognized her. When he saw the servant next to her was Yujie, he was one hundred percent sure that the lady before him was Qin Wanru.

“Cousin, return the hairpin to this lady!” Wen Xichi said in a gentle voice.

“Cousin… I didn’t grab her hairpin…” Gu Xishu defended herself. Wen Xichi did not help her, but instead, he admitted her guilty. At this time, she nearly cried. Lowering her head, she wiped her eyes with her handkerchief. Her act made her appear even more pathetic.

Though they made only a little fuss, they attracted the attention of the people around. In particular, they repeatedly mentioned the word “grab.” What those Misses from aristocratic families emphasized the most was their dignity. They would never go to “grab” anything.

“Miss, can you give the hairpin in your hand back to me? I will pay for it!” Ignoring Gu Xishu’s pathetic look, Qin Wanru said naturally and gracefully.

Her pair of watery, cold eyes fell on Gu Xishu. “This place is not in the Deputy Prime Minister’s Chambers in my last life. There are also no Prime Minister and Madam of Prime Minister who were extremely partial to her. Therefore, Gu Xishu’s tricks which were effective in her last time won’t work now. Besides, Wen Xichi is not the same person who was hoodwinked by his family affection to her.”

They did not say a word to each other, but from Wen Xichi’s words, Qin Wanru still clearly knew that he had alienated from her. It seemed that the warning that she gave him had really played a role.

Qin Wanru curved her lips and showed a slight smile under her curtain hat.

“I… please let me have it, will you? I will pay you twice the price… This hairpin has my cousin’s favorite Tang Qianyan on it.” Seeing that Qin Wanru would not budge and Wen Xichi did not want to help her at all, Gu Xishu had no other choices but stopping crying. Timidly, Gu Xishu raised the hairpin and begged.

She looked as if she grabbed this hairpin only for Wen Xichi. Meanwhile, by saying like this, she implicated that she had quite an unusual relationship with Wen Xichi.

There was a saying that a gentleman was always willing to bring a romance to a happy ending. Thus, Qin Wanru should give her the hairpin at this time.

Even if Qin Wanru felt reluctant to do so, she had to give blessings to them and make a concession. After all, being a noble lady she needed to show her tenderness and kindness in front of others.

Especially at this time, the Blossoms-Appreciating Banquet would begin soon. Everyone guessed that the banquet might be related to several princes. Thus, if each of the Young Madams could get such a chance to show their tenderness and kindness, she was surely willing to give up the hairpin to publicize her reputation.

But unfortunately, the person that Gu Xishu asked for a favor today was Qin Wanru!

“I’m really very sorry. My mother also likes the hairpin with Tang Qianyan. I found this hairpin first. Please give it back to me, Miss!” Qin Wanru bowed sideways to her and told her lightly when she straightened up.

The affection between cousins could also be family affection. But the affection that Gu Xishu mentioned was related to the hairpin, which made the whole matter become a little embarrassing. After all, sending a hairpin to her cousin was not a good reason. However, Qin Wanru planned to send this hairpin to her mother to show her love for her mother. Compared with the affection that a woman wanted to show to a man, the love that a daughter would like to demonstrate to her mother appeared much more appropriate and decent.

Only by a simple sentence, Qin Wanru defeated Gu Xishu.

Her words also reminded many Young Madams on the spot. Covering their mouths by their handkerchiefs, they all watched at Gu Xishu with their eyes full of sarcasm. Some of them who knew Wen Xichi looked much more sarcastically at Gu Xishu.

They thought, “Isn’t she the cousin who was raised in Deputy Prime Minister’s Chambers?”

“I heard that this Miss seems to admire the Third Young Master Wen in her heart. She took a fancy to him, but Wen Xichi doesn’t have the same feeling toward her! Obviously, the Third Young Master Wen, who stood beside her, only considered himself as a looker-on. Neither had he spoken a word for Gu Xishu, nor he intended to protect her.

“Third Cousin!” Gu Xishu did not expect that Qin Wanru was so hard to deal with. Then, turning around, she stared at Wen Xichi miserably. Clenching the hairpin, she just wouldn’t want to let go. Whatever she settled on would always be hers.

“Cousin, give the hairpin back to this Miss. It is a gift that she will give her mother. Taking her hairpin is not right!” Under Gu Xishu’s expecting gaze, Wen Xichi finally opened his mouth.

However, he didn’t mean to back Gu Xishu up at all. Only by a sentence, he closed the dispute between Gu Xishu and Qin Wanru. He suggested that Gu Xishu was the unreasonable one who had robbed Qin Wanru’s hairpin.

In her manor, Gu Xishu was good at playing tricks to get the others’ attention such that people in her mansion always humored her. Thus, she had never expected that Wen Xichi would help an outsider only for a hairpin. For a time, she felt ashamed and angry. At this moment, the color of her face came and went as she looked at others’ sharp eyes. She couldn’t hold back her tears and then burst into tears.

Suddenly, she threw the hairpin in her hands away. In tears, she turned around and ran away.

“Miss, Miss!” The servant girl next to her chased after Gu Xishu in a hurry.

With her dim eyes, Qin Wanru gazed at the hairpin dropped to the ground by Gu Xishu. On the ground, the delicate flower on the hairpin was already broken. She thought, “It’s just who Gu Xishu is. If she cannot get the thing that she takes a fancy to, she would rather ruin it than give it to others. That was why she destroyed Wen Xichi in my last life.”

The face of shop-boy turned ghastly pale when he saw that Gu Xishu smashed the hairpin. Hurriedly, he ran out of the counter and picked up the pieces of the hairpin on the ground. With a mournful face, he looked at Qin Wanru, “Miss, look…”

A little shop-boy like him could never afford such a hairpin.

“I’ll pay…” Qin Wanru certainly understood his difficulty, so she told him that she would pay for the hairpin.

However, Wen Xichi interrupted her words with his gentle voice. “Let me pay for it. My cousin was so ignorant that she grabbed your hairpin. And I’m very sorry that she smashed it in anger because she couldn’t get it.”

Wen Xichi felt that Gu Xishu should take the blame for this, and he didn’t intend to cover her. In the past, he ignored all her misbehaviors because he thought this cousin was still a child. Since his sister was gone, Wen Xichi took Gu Xishu as his own sister. Besides, they grew up together in the same mansion, so he didn’t always keep on guard against her.

But unexpectedly, his attitude helped to grow her ambition.

“Seducing her Second Cousin and hitting on me at the same time, she thinks that men in my family are all in control of her hands!” Wen Xichi thought.

Knowing this, Wenxi Chi was only willing to maintain a superficial affinity with Gu Xishu. Thus, at this time, he wouldn’t go out to chase her as she had wished, nor would he blame Qin Wanru.

Originally, he considered her as a cousin who was brought up with him in the same mansion. So he had always been sticking up for her before. But now… he would no longer accommodate her!

“I’m so embarrassed. I picked this hairpin first, so it is mine of course!” Raising her head, Qin Wanru looked at Wen Xichi and said lightly.

Saying like this, Qin Wanru tried to alienate herself from Wen Xichi.

“Well, in this case, you can choose another hairpin. I will pay for it to compensate for your loss of this hairpin!” Seeing that Qin Wanru liked the hairpin so much that she rejected all their proposals, Wen Xichi had to offer to make up for her loss.

“Thank you for your kindness. But I have no appropriate reasons to let you pay for me, let alone it is an item which is used only by women. I appreciate your kind offer but cannot accept it. Well, you’d better check on your cousin because she looked furious. I’m afraid that she will be angry with you later!”

Once again, Qin Wanru refused him with a flat affect.

Her extremely polite words gave him a sense of alienation, plus she looked as if she didn’t want to be associated with him at all. Even if Wen Xichi wanted to say something to her, he couldn’t continue the conversation. Helplessly, he saluted her by cupping one hand in the other before his chest. After uttering a sign, he turned around and went to catch Gu Xishu in the direction that she left.

The whole thing happened in a short period. But many Misses and Madams from aristocratic families had heard Gu Xishu smash the hairpin and turned around to look at them. After Wen Xichi left, some people who knew him started to whisper about them.

“Is he the Third Young Master of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Chambers?”

“Yes, he is the Third Young Master Wen. I heard that he would be very likely to pass the examination in this spring.”

“Is that lady the cousin in his mansion? Has the Madam of Prime Minister ever said that her niece was tender and nice? But she bullied others in such an overbearing way…”

“I thought this cousin must have taken a fancy to Third Young Master Wen! Didn’t she know her status?”

Wen Xichi was a gorgeous noble childe who had a rather good reputation in the capital. Except for Gu Xishu, many other Misses also liked him. To women, he was always polite and respectful, but he had never been close to them. In this case, some Misses who knew him dared not to come up to talk to him. Now when Wen Xichi was gone, they began to talk about this cousin of him with contempt.

Moreover, they sneered at Gu Xishu above board. They might not know how Gu Xishu behaved at the beginning, but they could infer from the conversation between Wen Xichi and Qin Wanru that she must have acted in a very lousy way.

Such a rude Miss like her could even win so much praise from the Madam of Prime Minister, which successfully caused the envy and jealousy of those Misses who admired Wen Xichi. So, they would never let go of this heaven-sent opportunity to tease her. Even worse, each of them thought about talking to their seniors when they went back. Thus, when the Madam of Prime Minister praised this niece once again, they could share the thing that happened today with her.

In that case, how could this Madam of Prime Minister keep praising her niece in the future?

The Deputy Prime Minister’s Chambers was only her adoptive home. How dare she lay her eyes on the Third Young Master Wen? He was a perfect son-in-law that many aristocratic families would like to choose!

Only because of this point, many Misses would hate her. In the past, they didn’t find any wrong-doing of her. But now, they saw that she was definitely not the person that the Madam of Deputy Prime Minister’s Chambers had described. One after another, they expressed their disdain!

As these people were discussing animatedly, the shop-boy here breathed a sigh of relief! Nodding and bowing, he couldn’t thank Qin Wanru enough. As he was wrapping the broken hairpin up, he started to introduce other jewelry here to Qin Wanru with enthusiasm.

He didn’t want Qin Wanru to feel the least bit of dissatisfaction.

“Wait a minute. Let me see this hairpin!” Suddenly a hand reached out from the side and took the hairpin away by force when the shop-boy was still wrapping it.