Chapter 210 - Two Happy Events at Once
Chapter 210 Two Happy Events at Once
Madame Tao guessed correctly. After hearing his grandson’s words, Marquess Qin thought for a while and asked, “What’s this Qiu Feng’s background? How is his personality? Does Zheng’er like him?”
Jiang Yashuang’s heart sank. He said intentionally, “He’s just a normal guy from Jianghu with some small reputation. I’ve never really met him, so I don’t know his personality. As for Jiang Qizheng, she is grateful for his saving her life.”
Marquess Qin glanced at him and said, “Then ask your brother to ask around. If he is from a decent family and has a good personality and not bad-looking, he can marry Zheng’er!”
“Grandfather, his background is too different from Jiang Qizheng!” Jiang Yashuang looked down and said quietly, “If you marry Jiang Qizheng to him, when she meets other sisters in the future, she will hear a lot of talks!”
Marquess Qin said calmly, “That’s nothing. Aren’t you going to see your aunt in the Palace? Just ask her to find an excuse and elevate that Qiu Feng’s status. Since he has a reputation in Jianghu, he must have done something good. There are materials to use then. If you date back to our family, what background did we have? This is not an important thing!”
Jiang Yashuang didn’t say anything. Seeing this, he knew Jiang Yashuang was not happy about it, so he softened his tone and said in earnest, “Now the most important thing is fighting for the status of the Crown Prince. If Xue Chang is on our side, we need to take the win and root out the Empress Dowager and the Gu Family! We shouldn’t give the Empress Dowager a chance to pester with some personal matter! If Qiu Feng is really not a good match, when the situation settles, we can get Zheng’er to divorce him and marry a good match!”
“I was wondering why you came here looking all troubled. You are complaining for Zheng’er?” After a while, in the Beijue Hall, Empress Jiang held the teacup. She had a faint smile, “Really, there’s nothing to be sad about. Think about Jiang Qizhuan, who can be more miserable than her? Besides, you said it yourself. Zheng’er is willing to marry Qiu Feng. Maybe right now, she’s thanking your grandfather for helping her! Why should you be sulky?”
Jiang Yashuang thought for a while and said, “Maybe because this is likely to have done by my uncle. With grandfather’s intelligence, he should already know. Grandmother runs a tight family. Jiang Qizheng is not the kind that would babble about things. In this situation, the words still spread out. There’s definitely a mole in the family. Yet grandfather didn’t say a word about looking into it. He just wanted Jiang Qizheng to marry Qiu Feng quickly to finish this…”
“He has been biased towards the first branch for some days. Haven’t you gotten used to it?” The Empress smiled faintly, “Besides, if you don’t look into it, all is fine. If you do and find out it is indeed the first branch, so what then?”
Seeing Jiang Yashuang frowned, Empress said softly, “Doesn’t Qiu Feng live with Qiu Jinglan all along? If you’re not assured, you can go to ask Qiu Jinglan. For his sister, he wouldn’t lie to you.”
“Then excuse me.” Jiang Yashuang thought for a while. He stood up and said.
The Empress smiled, “Go!”
Soon, he arrived at the Ruan Family. Hearing the news, Qiu Jinglan and Qiu Yelan were all surprised, “How does it suddenly become like this?”
Qiu Yelan couldn’t help but look at Qiu Jinglan, “Didn’t you say last time that Qiu Feng didn’t want to marry her? Now her elders have made the decision for him! What’s all this mess!”
“Why would your family agree to a marriage of the two who have such extremely different backgrounds?” Qiu Jinglan was surprised too, “I heard that Chunfu Princess is very favored in your family.”
Jiang Yashuang was not in a good mood. He said quietly, “Can’t explain that. Anyway, I just hope he can treat Jiang Qizheng well!”
“With his personality, that won’t be a problem.” Qiu Jinglan looked at him for a while and also said quietly. “But he may be surprised by this news. I’ll ask someone to take you to see him, so you can talk with him.”
When the servant led Jiang Yashuang to the residence of Qiu Feng, Qiu Yelan grabbed Qiu Jinglan’s sleeve anxiously and asked, “Is he willing to marry her?”
“Haven’t you known about his personality? If he really had some inappropriate contacts with Chunfu Princess, even if it was to save her, he wouldn’t deny it… If the Jiang Family uses this as an excuse, he won’t fight with it!” Qiu Jinglan changed into a cold look. It wasn’t because Qiu Yelan’s question was inappropriate but, “If Qiu Feng becomes the Jiang Family’s son-in-law, I will lose a great help!”
Qiu Yelan looked at him strangely, “I forgot to ask you. Didn’t he want to kill you before? How did you trick him back to work for you?”
“Why are you asking this?” Qiu Jinglan glanced at her, “Have you finished your homework today? Did you practice boxing? The marriage relationship of the royalties in Jing City that Ruan Ciyi wrote for you, do you remember it?”
Qiu Yelan looked at him bitterly, “If you don’t want to answer, just let it go. Why are you doing this to me…”
“Go find Ruan Ciyi and tell her about Qiu Feng and Chunfu Princess. Qiu Feng now lives at our place. He won’t care about it. But once the marriage is set, we need to worry about it for him.” Qiu Jinglan ignored her and said, “Ruan Ciyi is the best at this. Tell her sooner so she can start planning sooner.”
Qiu Yelan couldn’t win him, so she gave up asking how Qiu Feng changed his mind. She sullenly went to find Ruan Ciyi.
Marquess Qin was really still in charge of the Jiang Family. After he said it, when people were still laughing at the absurd news that Jiang Qizheng who was adored by the Jiang Family and the Empress was going to marry a guy from Jianghu, the Empress’s decree that praised Qiu Feng and gave him the title of a duke already came to the Ruan Family!
Actually, Qiu Feng was of low born. Even if the Empress had wanted to elevate his status intentionally, he wouldn’t have gotten a title of duke. But he did too much good before, the beneficiaries also included some government officials. So, when the Empress sent someone to look into him, she found that regardless of his background and status, he did do many good deeds that deserved praising and awarding!
Empress Jiang was biased towards Jiang Qizheng, so she just raised the title to the rank of duke.
After giving him the title and the mansion, when he received the decree to marry the princess, it wouldn’t embarrass Jiang Qizheng too much.
At the moment, everyone in Jing City was discussing the luck of Qiu Feng. Let alone the people in Jianghu, they all envied him. But Qiu Yelan knew that even though Qiu Feng took the title and engaged with the princess, he actually wasn’t fond of any of it.
Especially to Jiang Qizheng. After the Empress’s decree of their marriage came, she came to find Qiu Feng once with joy, yet Qiu Feng was very polite to her. He was so polite that he was distancing her, which disappointed Jiang Qizheng.
“Don’t you like the princess?” After hearing it, when encountering Qiu Feng again, Qiu Yelan couldn’t help but ask, “Then why don’t you just leave? The Jiang Family can’t put out a wanted poster and catch you back.”
Qiu Feng was drinking sulkily. He took his time to say, “Even though I was saving her, but I did offend her. I am an honest person. I won’t shift the responsibility that I need to take!”
That was exactly what Qiu Jinglan said before!
Qiu Yelan looked at him sympathetically: Qiu Jinglan really knew him in and out! No wonder he was yelling to kill Qiu Jinglan before, yet now he came to live with Qiu Jinglan after half a year.
“Besides, you looked all troubled since I met you in Mount Dizi. What’s worrying you?” He answered and went back to drinking. Seeing that, Qiu Yelan rolled her eyes and asked tentatively.
She couldn’t get the word out from Qiu Jinglan no matter what she did or said. She wondered that since Qiu Feng was so noble that anyone who knew his pattern could take advantage of him, maybe he would tell her because he was honest and couldn’t keep a secret.
But she was disappointed. Qiu Feng dropped the flagon and said quietly, “Your brother said that I couldn’t tell you a word about it!”
“You already knew it but I still don’t!” Qiu Yelan gritted her teeth, “Was I an adopted kid that he randomly picked on the street?”
But no matter how hard she badgered, Qiu Feng ignored her. In the end, when he was annoyed, he took the flagon and jumped over the wall. In a moment, he was gone!
“Why did I choose boxing? I should have told my brother that I wanted to practice slingshot!” Watching him go away, Qiu Yelan stamped her feet angrily!
She still had the time trying to pry the word out of Qiu Feng, yet the fight of Crown Prince in the government had heated up. Almost every day, someone would impeach Prince of Zhou and the Seven Prince. Almost every day, there were officials from each side getting punished or dismissed. The Empress and the Empress Dowager were fighting fiercely. Yet Xue Chang was still staying neutral and didn’t give out his opinion easily.
Seeing this, the officials of the Empress’s party were anxious, “I thought we agreed that if we chose the Seven Prince, he would help us. So far so many of us have been taken down by the Empress Dowager’s party. Why is he still standing by?”
Marquess Qin was not anxious, “The competition just began. If Xue Chang comes to our side now, he will spook the enemy. He won’t be able to attack them surprisingly. Don’t forget, now it’s just the imperial censors battling. Tang Zimo hasn’t come to play and Western Army also hasn’t said anything.”
This fight over the Crown Prince, for the two Empresses, was a blow-up of the grudges that accumulated over the years! It was a dead or alive situation. Both sides wouldn’t hold anything behind. They would play all of their cards. How could anyone expect it to finish soon?
But the Empress’s party was thinking that they would definitely win with the surprising ally of Xue Chang. With this in mind, they all hoped to win today and change the Emperor tomorrow. Then they could divide the Gu Family’s cake! But they didn’t see the cake, instead, a bunch of their allies was taken down by the Empress Dowager. They naturally got anxious.
After being consoled by Marquess Qin, this kind of anxious attitude eased. They no longer dared to hold the attitude that since Xue Chang would come to their side anyway, the Crown Prince would be the Seven Prince’s. They started preparing for the fight seriously!
The fight between the two Empresses went from the end of the year to the start of next year. When the metropolitan exam started in February, they were still tied. The situation had become fiercer!
Jiang Yashuang who took the exam now was unsurprisingly implicated. From the ranking of the metropolitan exam to the palace exam, the two Empresses fought from the Imperial Harem to the government. It was so fierce that they almost went physical!
Then the chief examiner Xue Chang made the decision and gave Jiang Yashuang the third place both in the metropolitan exam and the palace exam. He was titled Tanhua!
The third place of the first rank was a glorious result in any household.
Yet Qiu Yelan who knew what went on was twitching her mouth after hearing it, “So Prime Minister Xue is taking the ‘fair and honest’ attitude towards the end!” Shameless! Empress Dowager Gu and Empress Jiang only fought over the first and second place! Yet he decided to give Jiang Yashuang the third place!
He said that Jiang Yashuang’s work was “beautiful yet slightly blemished”. It was basically saying “I don’t want you to get the first place”!
It was clear that Xue Chang persuaded the Jiang Family with the excuse of lowering Empress Dowager Gu’s guard down and then took the chance to amplify his reputation of “fair and strict, fearless to the power, and the best of the state” to the public!
“Poor you. You didn’t get the reputation of winning three first places in a roll. And that Xue Chang used you to build his reputation.” Qiu Yelan was mumbling angrily. Jiang Yashuang didn’t really care about it. They were holding hands and wandering on the Jinxiu Slope. The flower bloomed like a piece of brocade. The green grass was like a blanket. They walked under the flowers and trees. It was like a painting.
Jiang Yashuang scratched her nose tip. He said with a smile, “As long as I can get into the Hanlin Academy, it’s fine. It’s all the same as long as I enter the government.”
“That’s true. With Her Majesty supporting you, I guess the first and second place are also envious of you!” Thinking about his powerful background, Qiu Yelan was satisfied.
Hearing this, Jiang Yashuang glanced at her with a faint smile, “Don’t get used to calling her Her Majesty. If you can’t change it next month, that would be awkward!”
“I’m not awkward!” Qiu Yelan clutched her fist and beat him. She said, “I’m not wrong calling her this!”
In the past Spring Holiday, Qiu Feng couldn’t stand the endless visitors. He told the Jiang Family that he would leave Jing City for a while. The Jiang Family knew him. A person who was used to wandering around in Jianghu would be hard to get used to how royalties socialize. With the prestige of the Jiang Family, there would be endless people who wanted to play up to the soon-to-be son-in-law.
So, the Jiang Family thought about it and decided to hold their wedding in February. The stuff for Jiang Qizheng’s wedding was already prepared anyway.
So, with Jiang Qizheng holding off people for Qiu Feng, he finally found some peace.
Jiang Qizheng who ranked the eighteenth was married, so the elders in the Jiang Family naturally thought about Jiang Yashuang who engaged earlier than Jiang Qizheng. He just received a good result in the examination, so they thought they could arrange his wedding and gave him two happy events at once!
Therefore, right after the wedding of Jiang Qizheng, Madame Tao sent someone to the Prince’s Mansion of Xihe to discuss the wedding date of Qiu Yelan. It would be next month!