Chapter 187 You Know Nothing about Men’s Relationship! You Little Girl!
The next day, Madame Tao did invite an official matchmaker to the Prince’s Mansion of Xihe.
Although Qiu Mengmin and his wife were unhappy that Qiu Yelan married into such a good family, they had to exchange the household registered card they got from the Deng Family with the official matchmaker.
Since there were still a few siblings older than Jiang Yashang who had not gotten married, the two families decided to be engaged for now and the date for the wedding ceremony had yet to be discussed.
After being busy for most of the day and sending off the official matchmaker, both Qiu Mengmin and Princess Yang felt that the future was bleak, “We have done a lot of mean things to the little bitch. And she’s the kind of person who holds a grudge. Now that she marries into an influential family. She will definitely take revenge on us in the future.”
“I know!”
The couple sat opposite each other, full of sorrow.
However, they weren’t the only ones who were distracted by the engagement between Qiu Yelan and Jiang Yashuang.
In the Hall of Taishi of the palace, Empress Dowager Gu’s face fell, “Jiang Yashuang of the Jiang Family and Qiu Yelan are engaged, which means that Qiu Jinglan finds a backer for himself! Up until now, Qiu Jinglan’s real identity hasn’t been revealed. It seems the Jiang Family is planning to use this card in the battle for the status of Crown Prince. In addition to the reward from the retired Sir Jibei who will return to the capital after the autumn, the Jiang Family, before the proposal of the Crown Prince is formally brought up for discussion in the court, has already had two cards!”
Speaking of this, Empress Dowager Gu sighed, “The people that XingKang trained are really useless. He even did not seize such a good opportunity to complete the mission satisfactorily. How was it possible that someone could switch off the poison on the blade? So much so that they lost it at the last minute! If Qiu Jinglan had died, I would have not worried about the Western Army as the Western Army could do nothing to me then!”
The maid promptly suggested, “My Empress Dowager, please don’t worry! Prince of Qi is mediocre and cowardly and far less intelligent than Prince of Yan and Prince of Zhou, who are polite and smart! The confirmation of Crown Prince is a matter which should be discussed in the court. Even if the Empress’s people are good at distorting the truth, Prime Minister Xue and his people are known as ‘loyal rulers’. They are impartial between you and Empress. As such, of course, they will choose whoever is the most outstanding from two princes… If that’s the case, there is no need to compare them! It’s obvious who will win.”
“It’s not that simple. Anyway, Prince of Qi is my first grandson!” Empress Dowager Gu shook her head, but her face softened a bit in the end, “However, the good news is that Prince of Qi is indeed cowardly, and those ministers who are unhappy with the female regent, would never select him. Prince of Yan and Prince of Zhou are much smarter than him… It’s fortunate that we started our plan early, otherwise, depending on Jiang’s arrogance today, if she had given birth to the trueborn, I would have nowhere to hide in the palace!”
The maid smiled, “Yes, I agree. The Empress is certainly domineering, yet you are the master of the palace!”
“And you shouldn’t treat her with a careless attitude. She has the backing of the Northern Army!” Empress Dowager Gu’s lips were slightly curved: she chose Jiang Tianluan to be the Empress because the emperor was so young and the people were so restless that they needed Marquess Qin, the “defender of national sovereignty” to secure the throne of his son.
When Jiang Tianluan entered the palace in the first place, she was not as domineering and arrogant as she was now. As her family had three dukes, Empress Dowager Gu must keep an eye on her! Young Empress Jiang, although often slept with the emperor, but could not have children. Instead, the concubines gave birth to children for the emperor from time to time… If Empress Dowager Ye, who had been secluded and dormant for years, hadn’t made a desperate move to get the promise from the Jiang Family to protect her and Prince Qiyang and his children. Empress Jiang wouldn’t even have Princess Yongfu!
Despite that, the Empress never had another child after giving birth to Princess Yongfu!
Several years ago, Empress Jiang’s focus had been on seizing power, which was clear that she no longer had any hope about whether she would have a son or not…
“Fortunately, I was prepared as early as possible. I made my move when she had just entered the palace…” Empress Dowager Gu felt pleasure when she thought of the silly Empress back then. After a moment, she asked, “Do you have a chance to speak to the Empress about Changping lately?”
The maid was a bit helpless, “No, although the sons and daughters of the Jiang Family kept committing bad deeds, they did nothing except what they had done in the past. Nothing new.” She said again hesitantly, “Rather, Jiang Yashang, the one who showed up at the banquet for 30 days’ baby in the Prince’s Mansion of Xihe, could have been charged with a crime like forcing a grace to engage with him. But the Prince’s Mansion of Xihe said nothing about it… Now she’s even engaged with a member of the Jiang Family, this can’t be considered evidence of guilt.”
Empress Dowager Gu frowned and hated, “Qiu Mengmin, the old thief! I even tried to keep his position for him back then!”
Then she sighed, “We must get Changping married soon! Kuang Shihan didn’t have the ability to get his wife pregnant, and XingKang has been married to him for so many years. I even had given her prescriptions for pregnancy, but she never got pregnant. If a son were delivered by her, he would be my firstborn grandson. And then I don’t need to try everything to get Kuang Qingwu to stand on my side…”
The maid reminded, “Your Majesty, among the princes, only Prince of Qi is engaged.”
“I will think about who the princesses should be for King of Yan and the King of Zhou. As for the others who are older than Changping, just find men for them. Anyway, no matter who marries whom, the royal family will give them a big sum of money!” Empress Dowager Gu waved her hand, apparently not taking most of her grandchildren’s marriages seriously.
Empress Dowager was now rather hesitant, “Among Changping’s daughter and the girls from the Prince’s Mansion of Guangyang… How should I choose?”
Because among the military representatives of the Empress Dowager’s side, Kuang Shihan did not have a single female relative who was valued. Empress Dowager Gu had thought of choosing one out of Kuang Shihan’s subordinates. This would at least strengthen the ties with the Western Army. The problem was that in those years, Kuang Shihan was the one who pitted his benefactor and old leaders as well as his colleagues to take power, and now if seeing that Empress Dowager Gu become the relative of one of his subordinates by marriage, Kuang Shihan might think he was targeted.
So, princesses of Prince of Yan and Prince of Zhou would be chosen from the daughters of the officials in the court.
According to the proximity and prominence of power, the first choice for the Empress Dowager was the Tang Family and the Gu Family.
“Exactly two girls?” The maid suggested, “I think that the second daughter of the Tang Family and Princess Shou’an are both extremely intelligent girls.”
“It’s trouble to have many Princesses. Have you forgotten that there is only one Crown Prince?” Empress Dowager Gu frowned, “I have chosen one for Prince of Yan. And in the future, Prince of Zhou and his princess, they will assist Prince of Yan and his princess… Xinyao and Shou’an are the best daughters of their respective families. If both become princesses, neither wants to be the worse one?!”
One of them was the Empress Dowager’s granddaughter and was still a princess even though her mother had her title deprived once; the other was Empress Dowager’s grandniece, who was not of royal blood but had been named a princess… When facing Jiang Qizheng and the others, although Tang Xinyao and Princess Shou’an were able to unify their thoughts and be on the same page, they must have fought against each other in private as well!
The maid realized that she had said something wrong and she hurried to ask for forgiveness.
Empress Dowager Gu was not in a mood to punish her. She frowned in deep thought for a long time before finally deciding, “Let Prince of Yan pick his own princess. And through this, I, at least, can know his ability.” She also wanted to use this to see his ambition and to judge whether he was easy to be controlled or not. Even if he was her own grandson, and his biological mother was her own niece, Empress Dowager Gu didn’t want to treat him lightly!
Otherwise, if she finally got rid of Empress Jiang, she could have been forced to live in the Imperial Harem, doing nothing, or even worse, “die out of an incident” in the palace… That was not what she hoped for… it would be too tragic!
The maid asked for instructions, “My Empress Dowager, do you need me to summon Prince of Yan now?”
“No need,” Empress Dowager Gu said. “Don’t tell him yet. May is coming up soon. We will go to Mount Dizi for the summer vacation. At that time, I’ll tell him that there will be plenty of opportunities for young men and women to meet, so let him take a good look before he decides. After all, he hasn’t had many chances to meet with the cousins of these two families before.”
While Prince of Yan met his cousins and chose from them, the Empress Dowager would use this opportunity to investigate her grandson, which was really a “One stone, two birds” situation.
And there was such a buffer of time, maybe the Empress Dowager herself would have chosen someone…
The issue of the battle for the status of Crown Prince due to the age of the empress brought the conflicts between the two Queens that had been stressed up over the years to the table. Empress Dowager, Empress and their followers and the neutral ones, all felt the undercurrents in the imperial court were intensifying as the day grew hotter.
All parties were gearing up and not making any moves yet, so on the surface, it looked like this May of the year was quiet as usual. Nothing particularly serious happened. As in previous years, the emperor and his ministers would move together to the Mount Dizi before it heated up in the capital.
For the summer vacation, Qiu yelan and Ruan Ciyi were a little worried, mainly because they were afraid that the wounds that Qiu Jinglan had only just healed. They might split again due to the bumps along the road.
Originally, as per the suggestion of Qi Shuluo, Qiu Jinglan should not go there with the others. Especially since the Mount Dizi was several days away from the capital, it would be even slower as they had to follow the fleets.
The problem was that the Empress Dowager hoped to kill Qiu Jinglan as early as possible. And along the road to the Mount Dizi, it was a perfect time to do something big and then denied it afterward. In that case, it was impossible for Qiu Jinglan to only rely on the “Tianya” to save his life.
Usually, as the Jiang Family was in the capital, they could assign people to protect him if anything bad happened. But now… The Jiang Family was going with the Emperor and Empress to the Mount Dizi, and most of their men would be taken with themselves, which would leave fewer men for Qiu Jinglan. Once they were attacked, it would not be so convenient for the Jiang Family to send enough men for him!
So, for safety, Jiang Yashuang strongly suggested that they went to the Mount Dizi together, “We can pad more soft and gentle mats in your carriage. And we don’t need to hurry as the Royal Guard is slow anyway. The Guard doesn’t move fast. If you stay in the capital, nobody can guarantee your safety. Although you are not scared, please think for your sister Ciyi and Lanlan’s safety!”
Qiu Jinglan nodded after contemplating with his authoritarian personality, Ruan Ciyi and Qiu Yelan could only obey what he nodded at, even though they didn’t feel at ease.
So, the sisters had literally gone to great lengths to pack the carriage for this summer vacation!
On the day of departure, Jiang Yashuang and Ling Zui coincidentally ran over to help. After seeing the carriage parked in the courtyard for Qiu Jinglan, they were both stunned: “How many blankets are these? Ten? Twenty?”
“Not that many? Just seven!” Qiu Yelan walked along from the porch with wooden clogs and sniffed, “Twenty… That’s all piled up to the top. There might be no room for a person if it’s twenty.”
“Good thing is that you know this is for a person!” Ling Zui said, “Yelan, I have to say that you know it is very hot outside. With so many blankets, it’s soft enough, but it will make Chunjun hot. ”
Ling Zui was also a funny person. A few days ago, after Qiu Jinglan was assassinated, he knew that Qiu Jinglan was hiding his real identity from him. He menacingly stated that after Qiu Jinglan got better, he needed an explanation from Qiu Jinglan. Unexpectedly, later on, after Qiu Jinglan was getting better, he talked to him alone behind closed doors for less than half an hour… And then Ling Zui opened the door and walked out of the room as if nothing had happened!
Out of curiosity, Qiu Yelan ran to ask what they were talking about in the room. Hearing her questions, Ling Zui was happy then, and touched her head dismissively. He righteously said, “It’s about the relationship between men. You, as a little girl, won’t understand what’s going on.”
Now, it was a good chance for narrow-minded Qiu Yelan to attack him with his word with a few words changed. She rested her hands on her hips and said, “It’s about taking care of people. You, as a bit of a boor, won’t understand what’s going on?!” With a wave of her hand, the servants brought up white steaming ice, “I also arranged two maids to fan my brother. With so many people serving, how can my brother be uncomfortable?!”
Ling Zui touched his nose in embarrassment, “Why are you so fierce today? You used to talk to me softly.” And then he twisted to Jiang Yashuang and squinted at him, “You are a mean man!”
Jiang Yashuang, who was innocent in the conversation, was in a desperate state. He thought about it and simply admitted it, “I just call her Lanlan, but you call her Yelan? From now on, you just call her Sister Qiu, Okay? And more, I don’t think Brother Lin is an appropriate address. Lanlan, you just call him brother. I think it’s enough.”
“Believe it or not, I’m going to complain you to your brother!” Ling Zui immediately threatened!
“Don’t you dare!!!” Before Jiang Yashuang could say anything, Qiu Yelan shouted first, “If you go to tell on him, my brother definitely will criticize me. If you really go, I won’t let you go easily!
Jiang Yashuang was filled with sweetness, looking at Ling Zui proudly, “Lanlan said you are not allowed to go. Don’t blame me for kicking your ass if you dare to go!”
“I know girls always take her boyfriend’s side,” Ling Zui grumbled, despondently turned around and asked Dongran, who was standing not far away, “But something is not right. Chunjun once told me that she always followed his words. I am also his brother. Why doesn’t she follow me? It’s just because I am not fierce to her?”
Dongran tried hard to hold back her laughter and whispered, “It’s because the young master would never admit that Your Grace didn’t listen to him…”