Xiuyan was Princess Yang's confidential chief maid, who was bought by Princess herself several years ago. She strode in, saw the mess in the room and frowned gently, asking, "What happened? Commandery Princess is out of condition now. Who was so clumsy to break things up?"
Then she curtsied to Qiu Yelan, "Princess Yang sent me to visit you. But she was afraid that if I came here early, someone ill-intentioned might see this and bother you with it. That's why I come so late...How are you feeling now?"
"Thank you, Xiuyan!" Qiu Yelan sneered to herself, "They knew that I was almost beaten to death but still come here again and again. Who would visit a patient like this? They obviously want to make things worse!"
But she had to keep expressing her gratitude, "Thanks to First Aunt today, or I would probably be dead like my mother now!"
"Please don't say so!" Xiuyan hurried to say, "You are Commandery Princess. Lady Yuqing was driven by a temporary impulse to beat you. No one dares to kill you. You see, just now Prince Qiu also said that he wanted you to take a good rest and get well again soon!"
Qiu Yelan concentrated her mind, "First Uncle? Is the Jiang Family next door so powerful as to frighten the Qiu Family? No, the two families are not related. What's more, the Ruan Family does not get well with Jiang Qianchuan. It's lucky that they didn't come to give me more harm. It's impossible that they want to meddle in the Qiu Family's affair.”
Xiuyan recognized her amazement and lowered her voice, "Actually when Prince Qiu heard what Madame and Lady Yuqing said, he also thought it was you who killed Young Master Kang! Fortunately, Princess Yang defended you, and Prince Qiu believed her...Princess had argued firmly with Prince Qiu for you! Tonight, Prince Qiu didn't sleep in Princess Yang's room but went to Mistress Liu!"
Qiu Yelan was a little upset in her heart, "It must be true that Qiu Mengmin, Duke of Xihe, went to sleep in his concubine's room tonight. But that's probably because as a dutiful son he wanted to show respect to his mother Lu! As for whether it's the result of a quarrel with Princess Yang, that's impossible. Today Princess Yang mentioned Empress Jiang, who interferes in politics directly and openly! Even Empress Dowager, who meddled in politics for 30 years, can't deal with her. The Jiang Family's residence is only next door, and the Empress' mother is staying there. Also, just now people from the Jiang Family came to ask why there was noise in Prince's Mansion...So it's not possible that Qiu Mengmin dares to let me die at this point. He should feel grateful for Princess Yang's reminding!"
But on the outside, she showed her gratitude immediately, "Fir...First Aunt is so kind to me! I...I really don't know how to repay her!"
"Please don't say so," Xiuyan hurried to hand over a handkerchief for her to wipe the tears and said gently, "in fact, Princess has always treated you as her dear niece. But you know. Madame prefers Lady Yuqing in everything. That's why on most occasions, Princess can't speak for you and have to leave you to feel aggrieved for so many years!"
"I know. In this family, apart from my mother, only First Aunt cares for me!" Qiu Yelan took a deep sigh and sobbed with the handkerchief in her hands.
Xiuyan's eyes circled as her real intention was emerging. She said, "What a pity that Princess has deeply offended Madame, Lady Yuqing and Prince! Next, Princess may be confined in her room. At that time, I'm afraid she can do nothing to protect you anymore, even though she wants to!"
Qiu Yelan had known her real intention, but still showed a big panic on her face and almost sat up from her bed, "What? Then...I...First Aunt...What should she do now?"
"Madame and Lady Yuqing now must hate you very much!" Xiuyan pursed her lips and said in a low and deep voice, "so the only way is to let Prince Qiu speak for you!"
"But First Uncle..." Qiu Yelan was at a loss. Her finger joints became pale as she grasped the quilt too hard.
Xiuyan's eyes blinked, "I know Prince Qiu has an urgent thing now. If you can help with it..."
"An urgent thing?" Qiu Yelan said in a hurry, "I can help First Uncle?"
"You know Prince likes his eldest son the most," Xiuyan said calmly, "right now Prince Qiu wants to get First Young Master a position out of town, but he needs 800 thousand tael of silver to make it happen! If you help him this time, won't he like you and treat you well?"
Qiu Yelan really wanted to check how much her grandmother and her mother's dowry was. 800 thousand tael of silver! The whole wealth of this Prince's Mansion was about 2 million tael. Although Qiu Mengmin was hereditary Duke of Xihe, how could he dare to use almost half of the family's wealth to find a position for his son borne by his concubine?
This was too much bullying for a child!
She thought Xiuyan would be kind as her attitude was good, but it turned out that she was even more cruel than Mrs. Fan sent by her cousin Kang Lizhang! Kang Lizhang only asked her to give out her dowry. As for how much money she could get from the dowries, that was Kang Lizhang's business. However, Princess Yang directly set a price of 800 thousand tael of silver. What if two dowries couldn't match this price?
Qiu Yelan's face turned pale, "So much money?"
"What are you talking about?" Seeing this, Xiuyan became angry right away, "Princess Yang did so many things for you and even offended the whole family, while you still don't know how urgent it is? Fine, I'm going back to tell Princess Yang that you don't care about her kindness at all!"
"Please wait, Xiuyan!" Of course, Qiu Yelan had to stop her and she said anxiously, "It's not that I'm unwilling to give money, but...I don't have any!"
Xiuyan turned around and said angrily, "How come that you don't have money? The old Princess and Princess Ruan's dowries are all yours!"
"Well?" Qiu Yelan said in a loss, "Where are they?"
Xiuyan was shocked. Then she looked at Mrs. Zhou and Su He, "Where are the lists of old Princess and Princess Ruan's dowries?"
"I don't know!" Mrs. Zhou's heart missed a beat and answered immediately.
Su He said in anger, "When our Princess passed away, Princess Yang and Lady Yuqing sent servants to search for the dowries. They nearly broke down the house but found nothing. This time as soon as Commandery Princess came back, she was searched by Lady Yuqing's servants, but still, they found nothing...How could we know where they are?"
Xiuyan frowned, “although old Princess and Princess Ruan's dowries were taken over by Prince Qiu when Princess Ruan passed away, without a list, many things were lost, and no one knew where to find them. Small objects like a piece of antique or a piece of jewelry could be hidden in any corner of any shop, let alone the deeds and shops unknown to Prince Qiu's family.
She asked in suspicion, "You really have no idea?"
"As First Aunt is so kind to me, I tell you the truth, Xiuyan" Qiu Yelan sighed faintly, "If I knew where the wealth was, why did I come back here?"
Xiuyan thought and agreed.
"I will ask Princess Yang when I'm back," knowing that she couldn't get money from this visit, Xiuyan's attitude changed at once. Flinging her hand, she left in a gloomy face.
"Your Grace, we have trouble now!" Mrs. Zhou changed the quilt for Qiu Yelan and said anxiously, "the Kang Family asked for the dowries, while Princess Yang asked for money. But we can't even find the lists of the dowries. What are we going to do now?"
Qiu Yelan said to Su He, "See if there are other people coming. If not, close the door and windows."
When Su He came back and confirmed there was no one eavesdropping, Qiu Yelan sneered, "The lists were already sent to my aunt's home a thousand kilometers away! If I die before I'm married, my aunt will have someone take the letter written by my mother and the dowry lists to the capital city for a lawsuit...Such a big sum of money will surely attract many people. As Duke of Xihe's family has fallen into decline now, someone may seize this opportunity to rob a big part of Duke of Xihe's industry!"
Mrs. Zhou and Su He were surprised, "What?"
"I’m here right for it," Qiu Yelan said grinding her teeth, "If I died today, within three months, this Xihe Mansion would not live for long either!"
After she said this, she heard some faint noise outside. The corners of her mouth curved up: It was natural that Su He couldn't check this big yard alone, and Xiuyan did come back for more information...In this way, her delaying tactics would be working. When the Qiu Family went for that aunt of her and realized it was all bullshit, she would have got the most precious time!
Qiu Yelan was awakened by a strange sound not far away at this night.She kept breathing smoothly and opened her eyes secretly, only to feel her heart jerk suddenly!After calming down, she finally found that it was a cat squatting at her feet.It pressed part of the curtain, whose eyes were round with different colors and glowing in the night. It looks like a ghost at first glance, and it was so scary!"It was put in deliberately or came by accident?" Qiu Yelan thought, "Mrs. Fan and Xiuyan had approached my bed before. Did they do something?"She was afraid of the cat rushing to scratch her, while footsteps that were deliberately lowered down occurred out of the curtain.Qiu Yelan's heart was stunned, and she closed her eyes, pretending to sleep.A moment later, a figure flashed into the curtain with the faint exotic scent. She seemed relieved and yelled softly, "Find you finally!"
No matter how Qiu Yelan refused and persuaded, Mrs. Zhou was determined to protect her to the end.Mrs. Zhou even wanted to walk into the brocade curtain and lift up the bed-curtain to sit by the bed and show her loyalty to Qiu Yelan. Qiu Yelan was so scared that she allowed without the hint of the boy next to her.And then, Mrs. Zhou blocked them while Su He took the beddings here. The grandmother together with her granddaughter made a shakedown in front of the south window and the door separately.What made the two on the bed more in despair was that Mrs. Zhou still couldn't rest assured when she slept there. Mrs. Zhou whispered to Su He, "Since we have served Commandery Princess the whole day, now we should not sleep too deeply that cannot notice if someone comes in!"Then, no matter how Qiu Yelan persuaded, Mrs. Zhou was so clever that she took a belt to connect the door and window to her body. It ensured that if something happ
"Ah, where's the cat from?" In the next morning, Mrs. Zhou braced herself up and came in to serve Qiu Yelan’s grooming. But she found that there was a snow-white cat on Qiu Yelan's quilt.The cat had long hairs and short ears, looking like a lion. The most attractive part was its eyes, which were round and big, bright and dazzling. One was blue, and the other was yellow. The cat was so beautiful when it looked around.As a person who didn't like cats so much, Mrs. Zhou was also attracted while seeing it. She reached out and petted its soft and luxuriant hairs, and then she held it to the ground, "Don't scratch my Commandery Princess!""I don't know where it came from. It ran to my bed last night. I saw that it didn't hurt me, so I just let it go." Qiu Yelan tried to suppress her good mood. In fact, the cat was left by the boy yesterday.Being worried that Mrs. Zhou and Su He would block him again, the boy had no time to say other w
"You want to see me?" Qiu Jinzhu, Commandery Princess Ningtai, walked in proudly with her head up, followed by her servants who also held their heads high.She was a younger cousin of Qiu Yelan and ranked sixth.In Prince's Mansion of Xihe, there were seven of Qiu Jinzhu's generation, including both boys and girls. Except for the eldest young master, Qiu Hongzhi who was the son of a concubine, the late former heir Qiu Jinglan who ranked third, and Qiu Yinzhi, son of the official wife, who ranked seventh, others of the seven were all girls.Among the four girls, only Commandery Princess Ningxin, Qiu Baozhu, got married. Other girls all lived in Prince's Mansion, but none of them was familiar to Qiu Yelan.She said frankly, "It's me who found that Persian cat. I thought it would be returned in your name. How come it turned to be Cousin Lizhang?""How dare you say it?" Qiu Jinzhu was so angry about it that she didn't have
"You all move away!" Madame Lu's deep and furious voice came from outside of the window.Inside the room, Xiuyan didn't look out of the window. She said with a smile on her face, "… Don’t worry. Even if Madame comes in, Prince will still agree with Princess. You are the Commandery Princess after all. How can they let you suffer again and again at home?""I have troubled First Aunt," the scar on Qiu Yelan’s face had faded away. Although she couldn't get up, her spirit was good. She said with a smile, "I also have troubled you to come here. This golden hairpin looks great on you...""Eh, I came to save you from trouble under Princess's command. How can I accept this?" Xiuyan said those words. But she kept looking at the golden hairpin."I'm in the period of mourning for my mother. I can't use any of these," Qiu Yelan gave her a reason. Then Xiuyan took it with a smile.Madame Lu forced her way into the room at this momen
That night, Su He held Qiu Yelan on to the sedan chair sent by Princess Yang and went to the yard of Madame Lu.Princess Yang didn't set anyone to keep a watch on and even sent her people away to avoid any suspicion.Qiu Yelan thought that it would take a while for her to meet Madame Lu. Madame Lu might not want to suffer again and refuse to meet her. To her surprise, Madame Lu was sitting on the couch and drinking a bowl of spun gold bird nest porridge, looking calm.People could still believe that she would live for eighty more years with her rosy cheeks and the youthful look."What? You are disappointed to see that I'm not lying on my couch and dying?" Madame Lu handed the bird's nest porridge, which she had only two or three tastes, to the maid and said, "It tastes bad. You can use it to feed the dog!""Yes, Madame!" The maid looked at the almost untouched porridge enviously and took it away carefully.
After a while, Qiu Mingzhu walked in looking pale-white and with coldness. She was wearing the silk shoes that she put on when she went to bed. The shoes were soaked by the snow, and it left a string of stamps on the thick blue blanket in the inner chamber.She was two years older than Qiu Yelan, and her biological mother was Mistress Tian. She could only be named as the Fourth Lady instead of Commandery Princess.Mistress Tian had almost fallen into disfavor, but she recommended her cousin who was Mistress Bian to the mansion. Mistress Bian was eighteen years old this year. She was a beauty and good at dancing and singing. So that Mistress Tian and her daughter had a pretty good life in the Prince's Mansion.It's said that Qiu Mengmin once promised Mistress Bian to proclaim her immediately as the Concubine if she could give birth to a boy."... It seems that either Lu did not misjudge Princess Yang, or Princess Yang reacted very q
"Your Grace, why don't you listen to the secret that Miss Mingzhu said?" After Mrs. Zhou took Qiu Mingzhu to Princess Yang, Su He made a rose dew and handed it to Qiu Yelan. She asked curiously, “I think she should really know what the secret was...”"But must it have anything to do with us?" Qiu Yelan smiled slightly and took a sip of rose dew. "The first thing we are asking for is self-protection and then to live without acting according to where the wind blows. Then there are other things we ought to do... Knowing too many secrets too early is not a good thing! "She thought, "There was a chuckle out of the window just now. I'm not sure whether she is a servant of Princess Yang or Madame Lu. She followed the Qiu Mingzhu all the way, and maybe is lying in the back window and eavesdropping."Su He did not fully understand and nodded, "So Miss Mingzhu didn’t tell you because of her goodwill! She is so!""Aunt Yang and Madame Lu wil