Nanny Qin was probably around fifty years old, but maintained herself so well that she still looked like someone in her thirties. Her brows and eyes revealed shrewdness that she tried her utmost to restrain.

At this moment, as she looked at Song Chuning, her upturned eyes and brows inexplicably displayed a sharp, overbearing superiority. She casually took a sip of tea from the young nun’s hand, waved dismissively, and smiled at Song Chuning with deeper meaning. “But as for whether this news is good or bad, I dare not guarantee anything to you, Miss Song.”

Her gaze was piercing, looking directly at Song Chuning without any avoidance, appearing not at all like a wet nurse but rather like Prince Duan’s birth mother.

Such a gaze made Song Chuning’s heart irritable. She let out an insincere “oh my” and then pretended to accidentally knock over the tea the young nun had handed her.

The scalding tea looked as though it would all spill onto Nanny Qin, but a little maid suddenly flashed out from beside her, lifted the tablecloth from the table and rolled it up. The teacup tumbled and rolled onto the floor.

This was clearly deliberate provocation. Nanny Qin’s smile immediately vanished from her face. Suppressing the anger in her heart, she rebuked, “What is the meaning of this?!”

Song Chuning didn’t even look at her properly, lazily fiddling with her fingernails. Only when Nanny Qin raised her voice and asked again did she finally turn her head to glance at Nanny Qin, coldly curling the corner of her mouth. “No particular meaning.”

Madam Fang secretly reached out to pinch Song Chuning and warned her in a low voice, “Don’t be presumptuous. This is—”

Before she could finish, Song Chuning laughed once and brushed Madam Fang’s hand away. She turned her head to stare at Nanny Qin and said in a heavy voice, “Did Teacher Fang not tell you, Nanny, that I’ve never liked people staring at me with dead fish eyes?”

Nanny Qin finally couldn’t help but fly into a rage. In her eyes, Song Chuning was nothing more than a snot-nosed little brat who couldn’t distinguish the severity of situations. Yet now she was publicly humiliating her and putting her on the spot, simply making her blood boil.

“If Nanny wants to be angry with me, you’d be better off caring more about your daughter languishing on a sickbed at home.” Song Chuning smiled sweetly, her words stunning Nanny Qin on the spot. “Otherwise, if you wait another two months and she passes away, Nanny, you probably won’t even have tears to cry. Don’t you think so?”

Nanny Qin’s daughter was a concubine of Prince Duan. By now, she held the rank of lady at least. After giving birth to a daughter two years ago, she had been bedridden ever since.

However, when renowned physicians were invited to examine her, they all said it was merely due to poor postpartum care and catching a chill. They only said she needed proper rest and recuperation, and this recuperation had continued until now.

Nanny Qin most hated hearing people say her daughter was short-lived. Song Chuning’s words clearly lit the fuse, causing all the anger she had just been suppressing to explode out like fireworks.

“How dare you!” Her face twisted slightly, contorting as she extended her hand—made even more slender by long fingernails—pointing at Song Chuning. “Don’t play your young miss temper in front of me, or I’ll make sure you don’t even know how you died!”

If anyone else had said such words, Song Chuning would at most have scoffed and dismissed them. But when Nanny Qin said these words, they couldn’t be taken lightly—after all, she was a special existence who could influence Prince Duan’s decisions.

Madam Fang became somewhat anxious. She was first to step forward to support Nanny Qin, then turned her head to gently rebuke Song Chuning. “You’re young and speak clumsily, not knowing what should and shouldn’t be said! Quickly apologize to Nanny!”

Song Chuning still sat leisurely in her chair with an indifferent attitude, beginning to cut a golden yellow orange. After she finished peeling the orange, she wiped her hands and only then sighed coolly.

“If Nanny truly believes what those quack doctors say and is certain that the lady is really suffering from postpartum imbalance and physical discomfort, then the lady is truly not far from death.”

Madam Fang’s expression changed drastically. She looked anxiously at Nanny Qin, whose veins were bulging, wanting nothing more than to rush over and cover Song Chuning’s mouth.

But Nanny Qin suddenly calmed down instead. She stared at Song Chuning with both eyes, suddenly remembering why this little girl was valued by Prince Duan—wasn’t it precisely because of her so-called foresight?

“Why don’t you explain the reasoning to me, so I can understand.” Nanny Qin instantly grasped the key point. She put away all her temper and dissatisfaction, as if she were a completely different person from the one who had been jumping with rage just moments ago. She said calmly, “If you can truly resolve this difficulty for me, naturally things will be much better for you in the future. Don’t you agree?”

Song Chuning finally swallowed the orange in her mouth. She smiled slightly with deeper meaning as she reminded her, “Someone as clever as you, Nanny—why have you never suspected who it was that invited the physicians for the lady? I’ve only heard that the imperial physicians in the Imperial Medical Bureau all speak with the same mouth throughout their entire bodies.”

Nanny Qin’s expression became serious. She raised her head, still somewhat unwilling to believe. “We’ve also invited renowned physicians ourselves…”

Yet what they said was pretty much the same as what the physicians invited by the prince’s consort said—all claiming it was due to postpartum imbalance, and that careful recuperation would suffice. But despite all this recuperation, her health had only grown worse and worse.

The entire room was filled with the fragrance of navel oranges. Song Chuning picked up where Nanny Qin left off and laughed coldly. “The prince’s inner court is ultimately the princess consort’s domain. Even the lady and you, Nanny, hold her in the highest esteem, don’t you?”

Yes, otherwise they wouldn’t have entrusted the child to the princess consort’s care.

Nanny Qin stood up with a start, her entire body trembling with fury—if it was truly the princess consort who had done such a thing, then it was really…

Seeing Nanny Qin calm down, Madam Fang released the hand she had been holding and, after thinking it over, said cautiously, “Sister, why not… why not quietly bring in a physician to the manor to examine the lady…”

“Nanny should stop harboring illusions about sisterly affection. Never mind just being cousins—even blood sisters can kill each other. Just look at my elder sister and me, and you’ll understand, won’t you?”

The princess consort of Prince Duan came precisely from the third branch of the Hanshui Qin family, which was also the most prosperous branch of the Qin family. As for Nanny Qin, she was the eldest daughter-in-law of the second branch of the Qin family. Her daughter—now Lady Rui of Prince Duan’s household—was precisely the princess consort’s cousin.

Speaking of which, if it weren’t for her weight as Prince Duan’s maternal aunt and wet nurse, the Qin family might not necessarily have been able to produce a princess consort. But who would have thought this niece would be so capable as to set her sights on her own family? However, upon careful consideration, Nanny Qin inevitably found the reason—Lady Rui had always been favored and had given Prince Duan his only daughter to date. Yet the princess consort had produced nothing at all so far. What was worse, she had already been married into the prince’s manor for three or four years. It was inevitable that she would be anxious.

Her mind went through countless turns, working through all these twists and complications. Her expression finally softened as she gently nodded to Song Chuning. “Thank you for the reminder, Miss Song.”