Chapter 360 Fulfil Promises
The death of An Zhenshang’s trusted maid didn’t stir up a storm in the Jiang Family at all. An Zhenshang was no more than a concubine to the Jiang Family.
“No wonder she could make Jiang Yadan like her for so many years!” However, He Shuijin talked about it when Qiu Yelan asked her to stay and have tea while she was delivering things to each branch, “We could never have her determination and ferocity! I cried for days when Wan died. Even she was just a maid, we grew up together. Besides, she never ratted An Zhenshang out until she died. Although An Zhenshang mentioned her parents to threaten her, even an ant clings to life. How could she commit suicide if she wasn’t loyal to An Zhenshang?”
Qiu Yelan said flatly, “Our grandmother sees it all! Let’s see how her future will be!”
Let alone Madame Tao who hated her already, Marquess Qin probably also hated her at that moment. After all, how ambitious she was since she could discard her trusted maid who was with her for years! And she happened to be in a low status. Keeping her around surely would cause trouble.
Madame Tao and Marquess Qin probably had made a deal to get rid of her and keep her son.
He Shuijin got what Qiu Yelan meant. She said with a faint smile, “You’re right. The wages of sin are death!”
They moved on from that topic. He Shuijin was more interested in what happened in the Palace lately, “Her Majesty’s senior maid, Nijin, is given to Prince of Qi to be his senior concubine. I remember that she and you are close. I should congratulate you!”
“Yes. Such good news has come from the Palace at the end of the year. I’m thinking about preparing something to give to the Feng Family,” Qiu Yelan smiled. She thought that the words of Empress Dowager Jiang’s sister were indeed more useful than a junior’s words. Aunt Tianhe delivered a message saying it was done after she went to the Palace with Xin Fubing just once. It would be announced at an appropriate time.
The decree came yesterday.
Since Nijin’s status as a maid was too humble, Empress Dowager Jiang let the former mayor of Jing City, Feng Rugui who was now the Chief of the Directorate of Education, accept her as his goddaughter. As a flatterer with no morality, Feng Rugui was glad to have one more daughter. So, the adoption ceremony was as grand as an ordinary family marrying a daughter.
Everyone probably remembered that the former Chief, whose family name was Dou, was exactly Madame Dou’s older brother.
So, Qiu Yelan thought of something after saying that. She looked towards He Shuijin, “Shuijin, you’re best informed since you manage our household. I wonder how our eldest aunt is lately?”
“She got up this morning, complaining of a headache. I heard that she would rest for a few more days.” He Shuijin squinted, “Poor eleventh sister-in-law! It is said that our eldest aunt is always in a bad mood and constantly finds fault with her. If our eleventh sister-in-law hadn’t been too embarrassed to tell her maiden family about it, the Zhuang Family would have come to reason with our eldest aunt a long time ago.”
Qiu Yelan frowned and looked outside. Su He knowingly went outside and guarded the door. Qiu Yelan continued, “Talking about our eleventh sister-in-law, I’m really surprised. I heard that my mother-in-law had problems with our eldest aunt. But how did our eleventh sister-in-law marry into the first branch?”
Madame Zhuang humiliated Madame Dou badly back then. But her niece married a son of a concubine of the first branch. Did she want to suffer?
He Shuijin put down the teacup and whispered, “It’s a long story. It’s said that the Zhuang Family wanted to marry our eleventh sister-in-law to Jiang Yadan. But our grandmother has chosen our eighth sister-in-law to be Jiang Yadan’s wife. Jiang Yahong met our eleventh sister-in-law a few times and they had a great time. So, the Zhuang Family chose the second best one.”
It turned out that their intention of continuing being in-laws with the Jiang Family was to blame!
Qiu Yelan shook her head, “I’ll send someone to tell Zhuang Man about it. Keeping suffering in silence isn’t good for her health!”
He Shuijin agreed with her. The third branch and the first branch’s cooperation had fallen apart. And they began to undermine each other again. He Shuijin did Madame Zhuang Junior or even the Zhuang Family a favor and caused trouble for the first branch by doing so. Besides, she let Qiu Yelan deliver the message which gave Qiu Yelan a chance to do the Zhuang Family a favor. It could be described as killing three birds with one stone!
So, she said gladly, “I’m also worried! Our eleventh sister-in-law doesn’t look well lately.”
Since her purpose had been achieved, she left after chatting for a while.
Qiu Yelan sent someone to tell the Zhuang Family about Madame Zhuang Junior’s situation immediately. The Zhuang Family was furious after getting the message. However, Zhuang Mo decidedly rejected Zhuang Man’s suggestion of going to the Jiang Family to make a fuss, “It’s okay for your aunt to pick up a fight with the first branch if she is in Jing City. She has already been a member of the Jiang Family after all. It’s their family affair no matter how much your aunt makes a scene. But we’re outsiders even though we’re their in-laws. Do you truly think that Marquess Qin has a good temper because he tolerated your aunt in those days? Besides, your sister already has kids. What will she do if it doesn’t end well? Her kids belong to the Jiang Family. Do you think they will let your sister take them away? If she can’t take them away, are you willing to let your brother-in-law’s next wife abuse them?”
Zhuang Man’s anger was largely quenched by reality. She said listlessly, “Are we going to sit by and watch my sister suffer?”
“Aren’t you close with the Xin Family’s kid?” Zhuang Mo surely couldn’t sit by and watch his daughter get bullied. He said to his younger daughter after some thought, “Madame Tianhe of the Jiang Family came back. Her words mean a lot to the Empress Dowager. Beg the Xin Family’s kid to arrange a job outside Jing City for your brother-in-law so that your sister could be far away from that vicious woman!”
“We put up with her too much!” Zhuang Man’s temper was very much like Madame Zhuang’s. She wasn’t the kind of person who was willing to suffer losses. She said angrily, “Besides, what if Madame Dou forces my sister to stay when my brother-in-law transfers?”
Zhuang Mo’s face was dark, “I’ll make sure she has to let your sister go!”
“I’m going out now.” Although Zhuang Man agreed, she went to see Qiu Yelan first. She wanted to ask Qiu Yelan to come up with a good idea to avenge her sister. But her trip was in vain. She didn’t get to see Qiu Yelan when she arrived at the Jiang Family. She was told that Qiu Yelan went to the Palace to visit the Empress Dowager.
Zhuang Man had to go talk to Xin Fubing first.
Qiu Yelan didn’t know Zhuang Man was looking for her as she was in the Palace of Ganquan now. However, instead of keeping Empress Dowager Jiang company, she was playing go with Princess Royal Yongfu in the side palace.
Neither of them was very good at playing go. So, they were neck and neck.
“It’s fun to play with you. Playing with Jiang Yashuang was so boring. He always won within a few moves!” Princess Royal Yongfu said while placing a go chess piece, “What annoyed me most was that I couldn’t win a fight with him! So, I couldn’t beat him up to vent my anger!”
Qiu Yelan burst into laughter when she heard that, “Really? Was he so annoying? I’ll beat him for you when I go back.” She actually knew why Jiang Yashuang didn’t go easy on Yongfu. His studies were so intense back then and Yongfu was bad at playing go. So, Jiang Yashuang didn’t feel challenged enough when playing go with her. He just felt it was a waste of time. So, to prevent her from badgering him, he chose to beat her to the ground so that she would lose interest and stop playing with him.
So, her husband wasn’t so innocent back then. She was a fool to think that he was gullible.
Qiu Yelan was distracted for a moment. When she came to her senses, she only heard half of what Princess Royal Yongfu said, “I don’t know who I can play with in the future.”
“I’ll come to play with you when I have time.” Qiu Yelan thought what she didn’t hear was Princess Royal Yongfu complaining about not having people to play go with. So, she comforted her casually.
Princess Royal Yongfu said, “You need to spend time with Jiang Yashuang and take care of trifles in your place. How could you come here to play with me every day? Niguang was my mother’s maid. I can summon her any time. It’s a pity…” She shook her head.
Qiu Yelan squinted and thought, “Did something really happen to Niguang? Nijin really kept her promise.”
Probably because the happy event of Nijin’s marriage had just happened, Niguang’s incident was hushed up. If it were not Princess Royal Yongfu who mentioned it to her, Qiu Yelan was going to send someone to ask Nijin some other day if she would fulfil her promise.
Of course, another possibility was that sending out Nijin’s good news at that moment was to cover up Niguang’s incident.
Qiu Yelan asked, pretending to be careless, after placing a go chess piece, “What happened to Niguang? I didn’t listen carefully because I was thinking about my next move.”
“She was careless on such a cold day. She was too lazy to fetch hot water when she was thirsty at midnight. So, she drank cold water which gave her enteritis.” Yongfu sighed, “She was at her last breath when the imperial doctor arrived in the morning. And she was gone because of it.” No matter how Empress Dowager Jiang valued Niguang, she was still just a maid. There was no such a rule about opening the palace gate to summon the imperial doctor for a maid in the Palace. But diseases like acute enteritis must be treated in time. So, everyone lamented her death, but no one doubted it.
“I’m shocked!” Qiu Yelan knew that Nijin and Niguang lived in the same room. However, since Nijin was close to her and Niguang tried to undermine her marriage, they didn’t get along well. So, Niguang always took precautions against Nijin. She wondered how Nijin managed to make it look like Niguang died of enteritis. Especially, Niguang was Maid Lin’s goddaughter. Maid Lin had taken care of the domestic affairs of the Palace on behalf of Empress Jiang for years. She was extremely clever!
But it wasn’t important. She was glad that Niguang was dead. She didn’t care how Nijin did it. The senior concubine position didn’t matter to Qiu Yelan and Jiang Tianhe was the one doing the work. It was a good deal to get rid of Niguang who coveted her husband by offering Nijin that position.
She spent a whole afternoon playing go with Princess Royal Yongfu and left at dusk.
She heard that Zhuang Man came to look for her when she got back to her place. She could guess why she came. So, she turned her charm on Jiang Yashuang, “She definitely came for our eleventh sister-in-law. But I can’t do anything about it. I can’t go to the first branch and beat our eldest aunt up for her, can I? I’ll be happy then. But even if I’m not afraid, how will our eleventh sister-in-law face the others? She’s our older cousin and Man is our younger cousin. We must do something about it. Hurry and give me an idea!”
Jiang Yashuang sneered, “No need to go and talk to our eldest aunt. Although those people of the Dou Family left the Jiaofang, they were still in low status. I’ll ask the head of the Jiaofang to hand them over to me tomorrow. Let’s see if our eldest aunt dares to vent her anger on our eleventh sister-in-law again!”
The Dou Family took the blame for the first branch which implicated all the womenfolk in their family. They were all relegated to the Jiaofang. And the Empress Dowager’s party hit them when they were down by making their lives a living hell. And then the Empress Dowager’s party fell from power. Madame Dou begged so earnestly that she managed to take them to her villa to rest.
However, they were still in low status. After all, their crimes were too great. But that was just an excuse to fool Madame Dou. The real reason was that the Jiang Family didn’t want Qiu Yelan and her brother to hold them accountable for digging up General Ruan’s grave. They planned to keep using the Dou Family as the scapegoat. So, they couldn’t be too nice to them.
If they lifted them out of their low status at that moment, would they throw them back to the Jiaofang again when Qiu Jinglan came back and tried to find someone to blame? That would be a slap in the Jiang Family’s face. How could Marquess Qin do something like that?
It was better to let Madame Dou take them to her villa without lifting them out of their low status. So, the Jiang Family could give them to Qiu Jinglan when he asked and let him do whatever he wanted. Because killing a few people of low status wasn’t a big deal.
Madame Dou arranged for those people to live in her villa to rest at that moment. Jiang Yashuang didn’t plan to force them back to the Jiaofang. He just wanted to make Madame Dou afraid to vent her anger on Madame Zhuang Junior.
Qiu Yelan was so satisfied that they could use it to their advantage, “In that case, Man should be happy.”
Chunran came in to report with a grave look when they were talking, “News came from Kui County, saying that Madame Han is seriously ill…”
Jiang Yashuang stood up suddenly before Chunran finished talking and asked in a low voice, “Really?”
“News came from Madame Tao,” Chunran answered at once.
“How badly is she ill? Is it critical? What does the first branch plan to do?” Qiu Yelan was stunned and then came to her sense. So, she asked a series of questions. Madame Han was Jiang Qianshan’s second wife who was also Jiang Tianao’s stepmother.