Chapter 25: Nanny Su, Grandmother’s Attendant

On the way back to the Shen residence, the carriage jolted unexpectedly from a bump in the road.

Shen Yuan, who had been leaning against the inner wall, was startled, her drowsiness vanishing instantly. She heard the coachman shouting at a beggar pleading for money by the roadside: "The road is so wide! If you want to beg, stay in a corner—don't come running into the middle of the street looking for death!"

Through a gap in the carriage curtain, Shen Yuan saw an elderly woman in rags sprawled on the side of the road, clutching a broken bowl in her hands as she scrambled to get up, trembling. She was muttering apologies repeatedly.

"Watch where you're going! If you lie in the middle of the road again, don't expect to keep your life!" The coachman grumbled as he prepared to pull away.

The old woman knelt on the ground and kowtowed to the carriage, her face so covered in filth that her features were indistinguishable. Seeing her, Shen Yuan was suddenly reminded of her own days spent wandering and begging. A surge of pity welled up in her heart; she reached up, pulled a hairpin from her hair, and extended it through the carriage window.

"Old grandmother, take this hairpin and pawn it for some food."

Hearing the sound, the old woman raised her head, trembling, and looked at her in disbelief. "Third Miss... oh, no, there’s a new Third Miss. You are not the Third Miss!"

The old woman swayed, muttering to herself. Her trembling fingers took the hairpin, and she cradled it as if it were a treasure. Hearing her words, Shen Yuan froze, her gaze fixed as she carefully studied the woman’s face. It did indeed look somewhat familiar.

"Are you from the Shen residence?" she asked softly.

The old woman slowly lifted her eyes, her deep-set wrinkles weary as she gazed at Shen Yuan, and she nodded faintly.

Shen Yuan’s eyes dropped, and when she caught sight of the silver bracelet with a small bell on the woman's wrist, her pupils flickered. "Nanny Su?" she asked, testing the name, though she already knew the answer in her heart.

Upon hearing those two words, the old woman looked as if she had been struck by lightning. She dropped the hairpin and scrambled to her feet, bolting into a nearby alleyway.

Shen Yuan rushed out of the carriage, telling the coachman to wait while she chased after the old woman into the alley. At the end of the long, narrow passage, there was nothing but a pile of discarded debris; the woman had vanished.

Shen Yuan stood at the mouth of the alley, hesitating. Her past trauma made her terrified of deserted corners. What if the old woman was bait for human traffickers? Would she be taken again...?

"Do you want to go inside and look?"

Pei Ji’s voice appeared in the space, entirely out of place.

Shen Yuan instinctively looked up, her gaze colliding directly with his. She averted her eyes, asking coldly, "Are you following me?"

"Jiang Yao, it saddens me that you would think that." He lowered his eyelashes, the shadows cast across his face making him look somewhat dejected.

Shen Yuan thought she must have seen wrong. In her eyes, Pei Ji was not the type to lower his head or try to please anyone; he had long been accustomed to standing above everyone else.

"Don't call me Jiang Yao. I have a name."

"Then I shall call you A-Yuan."

Shen Yuan sighed, too weary to argue with him. This was not the time for a war of words. However, with Pei Ji by her side, she felt less afraid.

Sensing her hesitation, Pei Ji stepped forward first to investigate. True enough, he found the old woman huddled in a corner behind a pile of debris. She was curled into a ball, clutching herself tightly, watching them with a look of intense vigilance. She kept muttering, "My life is cheap; if it’s gone, it’s gone. But the Old Madam cannot die—the Old Madam cannot die..."

Shen Yuan was now certain that this was Nanny Su, who had served her grandmother personally. The pair of silver bracelets on her wrists were the New Year’s gifts her grandmother had bestowed upon her years ago; though faded and worn, the design remained unmistakable. She could not be mistaken.

"Are you Nanny Su from Grandmother’s courtyard?" She crouched down. Seeing the woman’s entire body tensed in defense, and connecting it with her words, it was easy to imagine she must have suffered a great shock to end up like this.

Shen Yuan’s gentle voice caused the old woman to observe her silently. Then, as if struck by a sudden realization, she pointed at Shen Yuan and cried out excitedly, "Third Miss! Third Miss! You’ve finally returned!"

The next second, she hugged her head in terror and shrank backward, clearly deathly afraid of physical contact.

"Let’s take her back first. We can interrogate her slowly when she is lucid," Pei Ji said.

The old woman’s condition was indeed poor; wasting time questioning her now would yield no useful information. Shen Yuan realized the Shen residence had no place to hide Nanny Su, and she could not rest easy leaving her outside the estate.

"I have a villa in the northern suburbs. We can take her there; no one will discover her." Pei Ji stood with his arms crossed, his gaze lingering on Shen Yuan as he sought her approval.

Shen Yuan hesitated for a few seconds. Knowing there was no better alternative, she reluctantly agreed.

"I will have someone send you money for Nanny Su’s expenses. Since this concerns the truth behind Grandmother’s death, I ask that you, Governor Pei, keep a close watch and allow no strangers near her."

She did not want to owe Pei Ji a single cent.

Pei Ji’s eyes were dark. His lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he only replied, "I will see to whatever you command."

Shen Yuan turned her attention back to Nanny Su. She could not fathom how Nanny Su, a woman of gentle nature who had been so highly valued by her grandmother, could have fallen into such a state.

Back at the Shen residence, the faint sound of Shen Wanning’s sobbing drifted from the front hall. Seeing her slumped against Madam Chen’s lap, weeping quietly, with Shen Yong and Shen Lang sitting to the side with dark, grim expressions, Shen Yuan already guessed that her sister had gotten her story in first.

"Father, Sister Zhang and I only wanted to greet our sister. Who would have thought that she was hiding Brother Lu on her boat? Perhaps because she saw that Sister Zhang and I caught her meeting him in private, she was shamed into anger and threw a whole basket of live fish at us..."

Listening only to her description, even Shen Yuan felt she sounded like a wicked person devoid of human decency.

Shen Wanning exposed the scratched wound on her neck and broke into tears again: "The fish scales cut my neck—it hurts so much!"

Shen Lang looked closely and indeed saw two scratches on her neck. He stood up decisively, pointing at the late-arriving Shen Yuan and scolding her roundly: "In broad daylight, it would be bad enough if your secret meetings with Lu Chengyuan were the talk of the town, but why must you harm Wanning? Do you hold any regard for her as your younger sister? If she is disfigured and rejected by Governor Pei, can you bear the responsibility?"

Shen Yong kept his composure, letting Shen Lang rant and rave. Beside them, Madam Chen held Shen Wanning, also showing a trace of resentment toward Shen Yuan.

"I recall Father once teaching us that siblings in this house should stand united against the outside world." Facing Shen Lang’s accusations, Shen Yuan ignored him entirely. Standing in the hall, she questioned Shen Yong instead.

"I did indeed teach that."

All noble children, whether sons or daughters, were expected to prioritize the interests of their family above all else, with unity among siblings being the highest requirement. Otherwise, the family could not stand, and their legacies could not be upheld.

"Today at Taiqing Lake, the young lady of the Zhang family insulted me, and Wanning secretly acted to bolster her status. Does Father think such behavior is correct?"

As soon as Shen Yuan finished speaking, Shen Wanning looked up immediately to explain: "That’s not it! I wanted to speak up for you, but my mind just went blank for a moment."

"Is that so?" Shen Yuan’s cold gaze locked onto her.