After breakfast, Ning Shu followed the old madame to her room. The old madame sat down and ignored Ning Shu to start drinking tea.

  Ning Shu walked over and helped refill the old madame’s teacup, then said mildly, “Mother is angry with Daughter-in-law’s decision to send An Yu to the army.”


  The old madame humphed.

  Ning Shu didn’t mind the old madame’s displeasure and continued, “This daughter-in-law would like to say something that comes from the heart. Mother, you should know what this daughter-in-law is like. This daughter-in-law has called you mother for almost twenty years, you’re like this daughter-in-law’s birth mother. This daughter-in-law has only chosen to do this because there was no other choice.”


  The old madame’s expression loosened up slightly, and she finally asked reluctantly, “What reason requires you to send An Yu to the military?”


  Ning Shu pressed her lips together worriedly, then said, “Everyone in the general’s residence is of subject status in comparison to Princess Mingzhu who’s a monarch. Furthermore, the princess has yet to wed. If her reputation is damaged in the general’s residence and the empress dowager blames us, how is the general’s residence to withstand it? An Yu and Princess Mingzhu’s ages are similar. An upright gentleman should take the initiative to avoid causing controversy, especially since Princess Mingzhu is still in the mourning period for her family. If something like this spreads, it’d be a terrible scandal. Daughter-in-law is only doing this as a precaution.”


  As Ning Shu spoke, her face filled with helpless heartache. “An Yu is this daughter-in-law’s son, flesh from this daughter-in-law’s body. How could this daughter-in-law not feel heartache in sending him away? But this is for the residence’s sake, and also for the sake of tempering An Yu. This daughter-in-law wasn’t able to sleep the entire night due to worry about this. After considering things at length, this seemed to be the only way.”


  The old madame furrowed her brows and continuously rolled her clutch between her hands as she contemplated things. She had evidently come to understand the likely consequences.

  Finally, she rapped the floor with her clutch. “Then let’s go with this.”


  The old madame had An You send An Yu to the military as quickly as possible, and she even wanted him to be sent to the Profit Province army which was quite a distance away from the capital.

  Profit Province’s military was the most formidable out of all the troops. All the troops there were skilled fearless veterans and wily old foxes. If An Yu, this little pretty boy went there and didn’t work hard, he’d probably end up suffering a lot.

  An You indicated to have An Yu be placed in the capital’s cavalry, that way he could look after him a little. However, Ning Shu insisted for An Yu to be sent to Profit Province. After all, if he’s in the capital, they’d be able to see each other all the fudging time. How could that be allowed?

  The old madame glanced at Princess Mingzhu, then saw that her grandson’s gaze as he looked at Princess Mingzhu was obviously very different, and so she immediately nodded to this. She waved her hand; send him away, send him away!

  If they dragged things on any longer, something bad might actually happen.

  Ning Shu did this completely on purpose. She wanted to make An Yu suffer. Who asked for him to take his mother’s care for granted? White-eyed wolf.

  An Yu didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye before he was bundled up and sent away. Perhaps in his heart, he had some hazy feelings towards this Princess Mingzhu who he had seen a couple times.

  But even if there were some feelings, she’d frickin’ make sure they were all grinded away.

  An Yu won’t die. After all, he was a supporting male lead. But even if he didn’t die, he’d probably still lose a couple layers of skin.

  The moment An Yu left, Ning Shu felt much lighter. She looked towards the beautiful and pure Princess Mingzhu and smiled, especially when she heard Princess Mingzhu ask, “Why didn’t you see An Yu off?”


  Ning Shu’s smile became even more dignified. “Princess must not be aware of this, but if us womenfolk go to see him off, the military men of Profit Province will look down on An Yu and target him even more.”


  Princess Mingzhu’s expression was filled with disapproval. “Since you know that those people don’t have good intentions, why did you still insist on sending An Yu there?”


  Ning Shu: …


  There was no way to communicate.

  A while after An Yu left, Ning Shu discovered that An You was a little off. He would often stare into space, then show an expression of frustration and suffering. Otherwise he’d reveal an insuppressible expression of sweetness.

  Ning Shu knew that some things would inevitably come, like it or not. This was the storyline, it was impossible to fight against it. What she had to do was just to do her best to minimize the damage.

  She had to make sure the general’s residence didn’t end up falling apart, so she chose to save the two children and give up on An You.