Chapter 55 Actually, I Come Here to Offer Help!
“How dare you come here again?” Qiu Mengmin was just lifted back after being punished in front of the palace gate and Qiu Yelan came right with Kang Lizhang. All the people in Prince’s Mansion of Xihe knew that it was not proper to clash with her at present, but when she strode in smilingly, he still felt furious inside!
Qiu Yelan showed an amazed expression, “What? You mean when you permitted me to stay with my grandfather for a couple of days, you actually drove me off?” She didn’t wait for them to refute but took Kang Lizhang by her arm and sighed, “Even though you don’t like me, what’s wrong with my sending Lizhang back?”
All the people in Prince’s Mansion were angered by her words, but they didn’t dare to admit that they didn’t want her back. Princess Yang resisted her rage and said, “You stayed there for so many days and never came back! Who can tell you still want to come back here?”
“I certainly want to come back!” Qiu Yelan smiled humbly and sweaty and said sincerely, “My uncle will soon give up his title. I wonder who will be the next master of this Prince’s Mansion. My older cousin or my younger cousin? And as a Commandery Princess, I should always stay in the Prince’s Mansion and not in other houses that don’t belong to it. In this way, I certainly have to come back and find out who will be the next Prince. After all, my parents were all gone. Now my uncle will leave with his mother, so I have to stay with my cousins, right?”
Hearing her words, Qiu Mengmin, who was lying on the bed in the inner room waiting for the medicine to be applied on him, almost irritated to death. In the outer room, Princess Yang was first shocked, and then controlled her anger and looked at the inner room.
Although Qiu Mengmin and Madame Lu always liked the concubine’s son, Qiu Hongzhi, in the Imperial Court, the Yang Family had supported their son-in-law clearly. At this time, the heir should be Princess Yang’s son, the seventh child of Qiu Mengmin, Qiu Yinzhi.
“You will know that in the end,” Princess Yang said stone-facedly. As she was reminded of the most important thing at the time, she had no time to hate Qiu Yelan but only wanted her to leave right now so that she could go inside and discuss the matter of the heir with Qiu Mengmin. “Now that Lizhang is here and you should be tired, you can rest in the courtyard or go back to General’s Mansion to take care of General Ruan…. You decide. We are so busy now and have no time to look after you.”
Qiu Yelan let loose Kang Lizhang’s arm and sat down near Princess Yang. She compressed her lips into a smile and said, “If I left now, auntie, you would be in big trouble!” As she was saying, she gave a strange half-smile and looked at Kang Lizhang who wore a veil hat and didn’t say a word after coming in.
Kang Lizhang noticed her eyes and shivered!
Princess Yang turned suspiciously and asked, “What do you mean?”
“Just now, on the way here, Lizhang promised me that if the eldest cousin inherited the title, she would surely persuade him to treat me well,” Qiu Yelan said indifferently. “She also said that Aunt Yuqing liked him the most, and Lu liked Aunt Yuqing the most.”
“I didn’t say these!” Kang Lizhang defended after seeing Princess Yang looking at her viciously, though she was sophisticated and had Madame Lu to back her.
Princess Yang was not surprised that her nephew had such thought, but she also disliked Qiu Yelan. Plus, Qiu Mengmin who was in the inner room could hear their talk, so she said coldly, “You think you can fool me with such little trick?”
“In that case, you can ask my uncle who he wants to give his title to,” Qiu Yelan sneered and raised her voice a bit. She called towards the inner room, “Uncle, you should think it through. In the two meetings of the Imperial Court, Yang Tao spoke for you. But if you give the title to my little cousin…. You and my aunt will have no time to teach and care for him. Think of his age. He will need the help of his mother’s family, in which case, he will have to listen to his uncle from his mother’s side. Lu is still well now. Who knows how many years you should spend on her? Although he is your son, it’s said that ‘The favor of raising a child is bigger than the favor of bearing a child’. I’m afraid all your efforts would turn out to be in vain and you would give Yang Family a dutiful son!”
“Shut up!” Princess Yang was stunned by her words so that she was speechless for a moment. Then she jumped up, trying to stop her from continuing, “It’s all nonsense! Yinzhi is both the youngest son of Prince and my son. He will surely be dutiful to his father! He is not ungrateful as you are!”
Qiu Yelan stood up to escape her attack and said smilingly, “Who cares if he is the son you bore for my uncle? You won’t stay with him every day and it will be natural that you and he become distant. Do you really think my youngest cousin can be the real Duke of Xihe when you two leave with Lu? Don’t be joking! Even if I don’t get him into trouble, the servants in this mansion can easily make him a puppet of them!”
“Moreover, the Imperial Court was held twice recently and my uncle was convicted and punished. He can no longer stay in Jing City. It would be better for him to take Lu to a far place and let people forget him soon.” Qiu Yelan ran briskly around the seats without stopping the provocative words. “If he went far away, wouldn’t my little brother ask his uncle for help instead of sending people all the way to find you? Would there be enough time when something urgent happened? So if my little cousin became the heir, ha-ha!”
Princess Yang became more and more anxious. She picked up something and was about to throw it on Qiu Yelan, “Are you crazy?”
“I think the crazy one is you,” Qiu Yelan stopped running when she saw Princess Yang wanted to hurt her. She tucked her hair on the temple behind her ears and sneered, “You should be grateful that I didn’t blackmail you when I came in. How dare you hit me?”
Princess Yang was seething with anger and said, “Are you as fragile as glass? Although your uncle will give up his title, don’t forget that we are still your elders. Your parents have gone, so we have the right to lecture you!”
“Lecturing is different from hurting,” Qiu Yelan sneered. “If you hurt me, even if one touch, I can lie in bed for half a year! Since you can make up my grandmother’s final words, it won’t be strange that you ill-treat me, her only child alive now!”
Princess Yang was overwhelmed by her anger, “Don’t you dare! I tell you—” But she was stopped by Xiuyan, who persuaded her, “Princess, you don’t need to quarrel with Commandery Princess. The top priority now is not letting her convince Prince!”
“What I said is true,” Qiu Yelan heard it with her sharp ears. She gave a slightly cold smile, “If you don’t trust me, auntie, you can go in and ask my uncle right now to whom he wants to give the title.”
She said firmly and Princess Yang’s heart sank: if Prince didn’t believe her, why he didn’t refute her? Currently, the door connecting the inner room and the outer room was open. The outside words could be heard inside, and vice versa.
Princess Yang knew that Qiu Mengmin hated this niece of him. If Qiu Mengmin was able to prove her wrong, he wouldn’t stay silent.
Especially although he gave up his title for filial piety, the heir was still his son. For Princess Yang, having a son as Duke of Xihe was more reassuring than having her husband as Duke of Xihe, even at the cost of she not being the Princess.
So far, Princess Yang felt first chilling, then furious…. She took a deep breath and chose to ignore Qiu Yelan, who was admiring the antiques in the room with great interest. She walked straight in the inner room, drove out the servants and closed the door. Then she discussed the matter of the heir with Qiu Mengmin directly, “Look how brash she is! She really thinks she can decide who you will give the title to!”
To Princess Yang’s disappointment, Qiu Mengmin sighed and said helplessly, “I also want Yinzhi to get the title. After all, he is your son. But that little devil is right, too. Yinzhi is too young. Because of Empress Dowager, the Imperial Court agreed to give us three days to pack. When we left, even if your family can come and help, can they come every day? I’m not worried about the servants but that little devil. Look what we end up with! If she schemes against Yinzhi, he must have a worse end than us!”
Princess Yang was upset that her husband seemed to agree with every word of Qiu Yelan.
She refuted sulkily, “You lose your title because of your mother.” After saying it, she hated Madame Lu more. A moment later, she continued, “Except that, how could she have other things against you? Yinzhi is young, but she is not much older. With so many people helping Yinzhi, can’t he defeat her?”
Qiu Mengmin muttered, “I hadn’t noticed her ability before Ruan died. Do you really think Yinzhi can beat her?”
Being stared at by her husband, Princess Yang wasn’t confident to admit Qiu Yinzhi was a rival of Qiu Yelan. She only said that according to Qiu Yelan’s performance at the Imperial Court, she could easily kick Qiu Yinzhi’s ass!
But as a mother, she always had a way to say good words for her own son, “Can Hongzhi compete with her? Don’t forget that she has Ruan Qingyan to back her up. He became a Juren before he was 20 and he took the imperial examination in spring lately. Whether he can pass it or not, he shows his talent, while Hongzhi has studied for so many years but he is just a Xiucai.”
Qiu Mengmin disliked to hear his beloved eldest son was looked down on and said, “A young Juren like Ruan Qingyan is rare. It’s impossible for him to pass that exam and became a Jinshi. He just wanted to avoid the designs of his brother so he hurried to come to Jing City by the excuse of taking the exam. That’s his family affair and we should stop talking about it. Hongzhi is older and more reliable than Yinzhi!”
“Even if he is more reliable, how about the Lian Family? They came all the way to Jing City, won’t that little devil ask them to stay longer here and threaten us again?” Princess Yang said angrily. “Even we have to show respect to the old master of the Lian Family and call him uncle, let alone Hongzhi? If Yinzhi inherits the title, we have my mother’s family to look after him. None of the Lian Family members is an official, so they won’t dare to bully my mother’s family!”
Qiu Mengmin said flatly, “Will the young lady of the Ding Family end the mourning period in this May? When she marries Hongzhi, we will have the Ding Family to back us.” Qiu Hongzhi was 23 but didn’t get married. It was an old age to get married, though his fiancee had to observe the mourning period for her mother before the wedding.
It was also a result of Qiu Mengmin’s high expectations. He had thought his eldest son could study well and had a good future, so he didn’t let him get married too early, in case that the wife was not decent enough. But Qiu Mengmin inherited the title of Duke of Xihe before Qiu Hongzhi took the Apprentice Exam, the qualification exam of the imperial exams. So he didn’t wait for Hongzhi to have a bright future by passing the imperial exams and engaged him to the daughter of the official wife of a Hanlin Academy official, which was this Miss Ding.
In the past, Princess Yang had thought Miss Ding was not bad. Even though she was a daughter of a Hanlin Academy official, she had thought Qiu Yinzhi would have a better wife. Now she heard what Qiu Mengmin said and sneered, “Did any member of the Ding Family speak for you this time? If you let Hongzhi be your heir, will the Ding Family help him? In the two meetings of the Imperial Court, among all the relatives, only my brother helped you!”
Qiu Mengmin and his wife talked in a low voice in the inner room, and it couldn’t be heard outside.
But Qiu Yelan wasn’t interested in eavesdropping. She was just admiring the delicate objects one by one in the room leisurely.
Kang Lizhang lost her patience and asked carefully, “May I go back to my mother?”
“Are you going to tell her about me and let her give me trouble?” Qiu Yelan said while watching a beige vase with tube-shaped ears and didn’t even look up.
Kang Lizhang was frightened and said hurriedly, “Never! I’m just afraid that the servants may tell my mother that I’m back and it may cause you… Your Grace trouble!” The servants were surprised by the humility in Kang Lizhang’s tone.
“It won’t,” Qiu Yelan put down the vase and smiled friendly to her, which made Kang Lizhang chill. Qiu Yelan said, “If Aunt Qiu comes, it will be you who will get into trouble.”
Kang Lizhang could only give a bitter smile and said, “It’s all up to you.” She had learned from the torture in General’s Mansion that she should be meek before this cousin, let alone the position of one of her moles was recorded by Qiu Yelan.
“Do you believe that the reason why auntie hasn’t come out is that uncle wants the eldest cousin to get the title?” Qiu Yelan smiled and said suddenly.
“I agree….” Kang Lizhang had also thought so long before. Qiu Yinzhi was only 8. He was too young and naughty. If he inherited the title at his age, even if Princess Yang took Qiu Hongzhi along with her, he would never be the real Duke of Xihe.
Qiu Mengmin had suffered half his life under his official mother and only recently had he finally got rid of her. He would surely prevent the new duke from being a puppet, even if he didn’t care about the assumption that Qiu Yinzhi might be drawn by the Yang Family. He had only two sons. As the younger one was too little, who else could he give his title to?
Kang Lizhang was trying to guess Qiu Yelan’s thought and said in a low voice, “If you want little cousin to get the title, I can persuade my grandmother for you if you agree….”
“Little cousin?” Qiu Yelan smiled casually and put down the yellow lotus petal patterned jar with green patches and four ears. She said with a strange expression, “No, no. Actually, I come here to offer help. I have a good idea that can preserve uncle’s title without much trouble, but I wonder whether he wants to know.”
Qiu Yelan said the last sentence with a sudden loud voice. Before her voice faded, she heard a “bang” from the inner room, as if something was broken.
After a moment, Princess Yang opened the door and came out with a sulky face. She said, “Are you done with laughing at our misery?”