Sir Jibei was not easy to deal with as Ling Zui thought.
He just never suspected Jiang Qizheng and Ou Qinglan.
After all, in the eyes of the elders, the former was a typical lady from a noble family, who was simple, innocent, and weak. And despite her recognized force, the latter was not a deep one. Anyway, the two were sheltered children to Sir Jibei.
Furthermore, they were part of his own family.
So, Si Jibei could never guess that the death of Jiang Yayue and Jiang Yaqing was basically planned and executed by the two “terrified” juniors. And the black sheep of the family Jiang Yadan, whom he had the almost overwhelming desire to kill, just bore the blame for them as the first true-born son of the fourth branch.
But he suspected Qiu Jinglan, the savior of his two children!
So, after giving some comfort to Jiang Qizheng and Ou Qinglan, Sir Jibei started to get them to talk smoothly, “Thankfully, you survived! It is our mistake to make you suffer… Thanks to Chunjun, he was prepared and protected you in time! But he was too careful. Even though he didn’t know who was behind Kuang Qingwu, he should have sent us a message! You didn’t know how we were worried about you. At least, Yadan was known to be in Shazhou. We in Jing City were almost going out of our minds!”
His words were filled with hidden traps. It had been some days since Jiang Qizheng and the other two were taken away. Especially Jiang Qizheng and Ou Qinglan were both women. Since that they said they were not humiliated, they must have been rescued very early on. Otherwise, given the feud between Kuang Qingwu and the Jiang Family, there was no way they could be spared.
As such, Qiu Jinglan saved them for sinister motives. Why did Jiang Yadan kill Jiang Yayue and Jiang Yaqing? The most direct reason was that Jiang Yadan believed that his sister was murdered by them!
If Jiang Yadan had known earlier that his sister was alive and well, how could he have killed his two cousins in a fit of rage?
Sure enough, Sir Jibei also wondered, “Could the case be that the first branch and the third branch were actually wronged and that the fourth branch was obfuscating the issue?”
If so, the fourth branch was quite suspicious. “Qizheng was pampered. It could be understood that she missed Qiu Feng a lot since he had left for more than a year. But Shazhou was so far away and her child was so young. Why did she suddenly wanted to find her husband by herself? Xing claimed that she went there for Qiu Jinglan, but how could we know that she was not trying to confuse others? And Ling Zui is a great friend of Qiu Jinglan!”
“Plus, Yadan tried to get them back at that time. Yadan is a man, but he loves to live a luxurious life. How could he give up the pleasure in Jing City and go with them? I thought it was strange earlier, but Yadan always has his own way and is capable of doing anything. So, I didn’t think much about it… If all these were calculated by the fourth branch, their purpose would be to let Kuang Qingwu ‘grab’ the three of them and provide a reason for Yadan to attack Yayue and Yaqing… And then Qiu Jinglan would be able to take over the Western Army, which meant that the army was given to the fourth branch…”
The realization made Sir Jibei look bad!
Jiang Qizheng replied while wiping her tears, “Granduncle, there are things you do not know. General Qiu had placed a man in Kuang Qingwu’s army, but that man didn’t have the ear of Kuang Qingwu. When Kuang Qingwu wanted to… grope Xing… that man risked his life to drive Kuang Qingwu away. Xing could therefore take the horse and escape, running for many days over the snow. Thanks to Xing’s skill in riding and shooting and great prowess at martial arts, otherwise, the consequences would be dire!”
When Kuang Shihan was killed last year, Qiu Yelan got transferred into the army as a General.
“Ling Zui and I survived with the help of that man as well. After letting Xing go, he knew that he could no longer hide his identity and so poisoned Zheng with orchid incense. Mr. Zheng was the old servant accompanying Kuang Qingwu since he was young. So, under the threat of losing the antidote, Kuang Qingwu was hesitant to act and didn’t dare to hurt us! But despite his care about the old servant, he harbored malice towards us! In retrospect, those days were like a lifetime. But for Ling Zui’s protection, I wouldn’t want to live!”
She sniffed and looked down at her scarred fingers, “Right! I had written a letter with my blood and asked the bodyguard to take that with them. I ordered that if they had the opportunity to escape, they should run away themselves and leave me there… How about them now?”
Sir Jibei had noticed the wound on her hands when she looked down. With his eyes, he could tell instantly that those scars had been made for some days rather than these two days. And there were clear bite marks on the edges of the wounds, which suggested that without an instrument to cut her fingers, these wounds could only be made with her teeth.
“When Qizheng was at home, she would be surrounded with concern even for bumping or jarring somewhere, not to mention biting her fingers by herself!” Sir Jibei speculated on Jiang Qizheng as he always thought of her. So, he went soft, “No matter who is behind the whole thing, the kid… was deserving of pity!” He could see that many of those scars would be impossible to remove.
Even though Sir Jibei was a man, he knew that how much a beautiful young woman, who was especially a princess, valued her body and hair! The hands, part of the body that would be seen by others at all times, were taken good care of by every eligible noblewoman. So, why would Jiang Qizheng do this to herself if she didn’t have to?
But he was still very suspicious of Qiu Jinglan. So, he asked, “Did Kuang Qingwu highly value Zheng? What a surprise!”
Zheng was just a servant. Even though Kuang Qingwu valued his relationship with Zheng, how could the servant be more important than his father Kuang Shihan?
Kuang Qingwu had a vendetta against the Jiang Family because of his father’s death! At a time like this, he was threatened because of a servant. What a great joke!
Jiang Qizheng didn’t answer this question, instead, she shook her head, “I don’t know the reason. As Kuang Qingwu didn’t get the antidote of orchid incense by methods of torture, he started to treat us with decorum!”
“That guy gave himself away!” Sir Jibei flew into a volcanic rage! With efforts to conceal his great anger, he coaxed the two juniors who were “frightened”. Seeing that they were calm, he excused himself and left at once.
After he was gone, Ou Qinglan, who had echoed what Jiang Qizheng said, was a little worried, “Qiu…”
“If your Qiu failed to get through with grand uncle junior…” Jiang Qizheng said airily, “He should stop thinking about the Western Army and go back to Jing City to accept Xue Chang’s promotion!”
For a long moment, Qiu Jinglan was summoned to the temporary barrack. He was cool when he faced with Sir Jibei’s questioning, “The so-called spy whom Chunfu Princess and Miss Ou have thanked is indeed not my subordinate!”
Sir Jibei said coldly, “Really? I’ll know when I get to the bottom of that!”
Sir Jibei made it clear that he didn’t trust him.
Qiu Jinglan kept calm and said, “I suddenly received the news that Chunfu Princess and others had been attacked and were trapped somewhere. Even though I was suspicious, but I had nothing else to do and I did hear that they were heading towards Shazhou. So, I took some men out of the city… And I happened to meet Miss Ou on the way! That was why I could rescue Chunfu Princess and Ling Zui.”
“It seems that you are meant to be the savior of them!” As Sir Jibei said it, there was a clear point of murder in his tone. “We in Jing City thought the three of them all died. Yashuang of the fourth branch, in front of my second brother and me, turned against the first branch and the third branch! So, my second brother had to ask me to get over here. However, we had no idea how it went. The thing once led to the fourth branch’s fight or even a vendetta against the first branch and the third branch, but it didn’t prove to be a problem. In a twinkling, it was settled by you!”
“Afterwards, I also found it very strange. So, I asked Miss Ou specifically how she came across my team in all that snow.” Qiu Jinglan continued, “Miss Ou said the man who let her out had prepared a horse for her that knew the way! All she needed to do was to let the horse run!”
Sir Jibei heard that with a slight frown.
Qiu Jinglan’s expression remained unchanged as he continued, “Furthermore when I met Miss Ou, she was barely alive! If it hadn’t been for her tenacity, she would even have been dead…”
He paused, which left time for Sir Jibei to think. How difficult and frightening was it for a pampered young lady to escape alone on a horse in the frozen wilderness?
“If I had been the one who instructed Kuang Qingwu to hijack the group of Princess Chunfu, I would never have let Miss Ou go alone. And even if I had done so, I would not have used my own name!” Qiu Jinglan said calmly, “If something had happened to Miss Ou, I would not have been able to bear the responsibility! After all, Miss Ou’s brother, Ou Bicheng, is the best friend of my brother-in-law!”
“You know my whole story and you of course know how important my sister is in my heart! No matter how much I calculate, I will not harm my sister!”
Sir Jibei said, deadpan, “If you succeed to run the Western Army, your sister will be able to domineer over her sisters-in-law on your power!”
“I haven’t achieved something now, but is my sister treated badly in the Jiang Family?” Qiu Jinglan asked in return, “A wedded woman’s pride in her sisters-in-law depends on her husband and son. If she relies only on her maiden family, with all due respect, Princess Qi is a good example!”
His words made Sir Jibei speechless. Indeed, since Qiu Yelan had married into the Jiang Family, she was the hardcore one among her sisters-in-law, which made her look like Madame Zhuang, her mother-in-law. But the one that she did rely on was Jiang Yashuang rather than Qiu Jinglan!
Qiu Jinglan added, “Besides, a few days ago, just before what happened to the second young master and the sixth young master of the Jiang family, I had already received the news that my sister was pregnant and that Marquis Qin asked her in person!”
What he really meant was that his sister had been privileged before she got pregnant. Now she had a baby, she could never be too happy and carefree! It was not even a problem for him, as her brother, to take advantage of her glory! Why would he risk his life to harm the young masters? Did Sir Jibei think he was stupid?
Sir Jibei listened grimly and after a while, he only said eight words, “The lies mixed with the truth, vice versa!”
Qiu Jinglan knew that Sir Jibei was apparently suspicious. He thought that Sir Jibei probably held that, “Maybe it is because you are able to list all these reasons why you are not likely to make this. And then you just did it, didn’t you? The more unlikely, the more likely!”
However, Sir Jibei hesitated in his heart.
This was what Qiu Jinglan had expected. Because as Sir Jibei calmed down, deep down in his heart, he hoped that this had nothing to do with Qiu Jinglan!
Otherwise, the Jiang Family would lose not only two true-born sons but also a most promising in-law. Furthermore, the Jiang Family would have to decide who would be the next one to take over the Western Army!
Qiu Jinglan could be a general as well as a minister. Who would say they have too many talents like him?
But if he were involved in the death of Jiang Yayue and Jiang Yaqing, he must die!
If the outsider dared to attack the sons of the Jiang family, it would be generous of the Jiang Family to only kill the culprit. There was nothing to bargain with on that point. Even if Qiu Yelan were standing there with her pregnant belly, nothing would be changed!
“Did Yadan do it?” Sir Jibei had no idea that he should be relieved or outraged at that time.
“Tianchi and his wife are in Beijiang. Even if you escape from me, but when you return to Jing City… how will you explain to others?” Sir Jibei was at a loss, “We were such a good family with so many descendants that many people envied us. Unknowingly, things have turned out in this way… Are we brothers not able to teach our sons?”