“Please keep this a secret from my sister.” When the meeting in the study of Marquess’s Mansion finished, Qiu Jinglan asked seriously, “After I leave the city…”

“Remind everybody of that when you go back!” This was nothing difficult. Before he could finish, Marquess Qin nodded and ordered people to not mention anything to Qiu Yelan. He then voluntarily guaranteed, “And I will take care of Lady Ruan’s marriage. Rest assured!”

Because of his status in the family, what he asked was carried out meticulously.

Therefore, everyone knew an expedited message came from the west, yet Qiu Yelan didn’t know anything. This day when Jiang Yashuang went back, what she cared about was, “What did aunt say about Duanrou’s matter?”

“They will engage first. After a few years, when Yongfu has a child, she will then marry.” Jiang Yashuang rubbed in between his eyebrows, “Luckily, she and Xiao Su are not too old now.”

Qiu Yelan remembered Chu Chunxiao was the same age as her, so she didn’t agree with that, “After a couple of years, Duanrou will be 20. Will there still be anyone suitable then?”

“My aunt is really worried about her now. Maybe after Yongfu is married, she won’t care about it this much.” Jiang Yashuang said gently, “Then we can persuade her. I tried my best to talk to her but this is what I got today.”

“Did you talk to sister?” Hearing that, Qiu Yelan knew this was the best Empress Jiang would do. She sighed and asked, “She cried home yesterday. She must feel terrible now. If we tell her now, things may get better…”

Jiang Yashuang looked embarrassed, “I forgot!”

Before they could deal with Duanrou’s matter, they received the expedited message. He followed Marquess Qin back when they left the Palace. He couldn’t find any time to give a message to Prince Qiyang’s Mansion.

Qiu Yelan complained, “How can you not tell her? Can you imagine what’s going on in Prince Qiyang’s Mansion? Sister puts up with everything for so many years and all she has is Duanrou. What if she didn’t think straight?”

While complaining, she called Chunran and Su He and asked them to send the message.

They just left and Chen Shui came in hurriedly, “Young master, Madame, Jiang Jingzhui died!”

“What?!” Jiang Yashuang and Qiu Yelan were dazed for a while before they asked unbelievably, “Who did you say died?”

“The twelfth grand young master of the third branch, the eldest trueborn son of the sixth young master.” Chen Shui had her head down and said carefully, “Just now.”

Jiang Yashuang’s face went pale in a second and then turned into an abnormal red. He felt his blood was rushing through his body. He took some time to calm down. Finally, he asked, withholding his anger, “How did this happen?”

Not so long ago, his nephew died. Days ago, one child was miscarried. Now another nephew died. All three of them were Jiang Yashuang’s blood relatives. Even if he was usually a peaceful man, he couldn’t hold his temper and felt blood rushing into his brain!

Chen Shui noticed his tone was not normal. She was so terrified that she started trembling, “I, I don’t know! They didn’t say anything! A servant just gave me the message and left!”

“Let’s go to the third branch!” Qiu Yelan stood up, but what she was thinking was, “Did Madame He kill him?!” That was her own grandson! It wasn’t like the one who was miscarried and didn’t get to bond with her. This was her grandson who grew in front of her for six years. How could she do that?! Was she still human?

Jiang Yashuang didn’t know this. He noticed that her fingers were trembling when he was holding her hand. He thought she was sad that Jiang Jingzhui died so little. He grabbed her hand with some strength and said with a quiet voice, “Zhui is gone. Don’t get too upset and hurt yourself!”

Qiu Yelan smiled bitterly and didn’t explain anything.

They didn’t have time to change their clothes and rushed to the third branch. Before they entered, they heard Madame He cry loudly!

“Is she caught?” Qiu Yelan felt cheerful. But on second thought, she didn’t feel right, “If she is caught, the third branch won’t let us in and they would have gagged her.” What Madame He did was something that neither the He Family nor the Jiang Family would want to let out. They would choose to eliminate this threat. If she were caught, they wouldn’t give her any chance to speak.

Now even though Madame He was crying fiercely, she was not restrained. Clearly, she was not exposed.

Indeed, when walking into the yard through the front door, they saw Jiang Tianqi whose official robe was all messed up. He was holding a plank in his hand. His eyes were red and he breathed heavily. Jiang Yayi and Jiang Yaheng kneeled by his side, holding him tightly so he couldn’t move!

Not so far away from Jiang Tianqi, another trembling figure was also kneeling. The blue silk shirt he was wearing now was stained by black marks. Looking closely, they found that was all bloodstain!

Madame He was holding him in her arms and crying loudly, “Beat! Beat! Beat some more! Just beat your eldest trueborn son to death! Are you happy now? Qing didn’t mean it yet you meant to kill him! How dare you beat him?! You should just beat me to death as well!”

Jiang Yayi and Jiang Yaheng tried to calm him down while crying, “Calm down! Clam down! Brother didn’t mean it! It is your grandson who died but that is also his son! If you’re still angry, please just take it on us!”

“Father, it’s all my fault! I shouldn’t have given them attitude when Madame Shi and brother came with Zhui to apologize. Otherwise, why would brother hit Zhui? It is me that should be beaten to death!”

Qiu Yelan stood in the moon gate. Her mouth was twitching, looking at this family, “Jiang Yaqing just came back to the Jing City yesterday because of his job. He came back to stay while the document was under review. And today he beats his own son to death?”

She remembered when she was chatting with Madame Shi, Jiang Yaqing went to the Northern Army when his eldest son was still a baby. He never spent much time with Jiang Jingzhui. Now when they finally had some time together, he beat his own son to death. It sounded like he was angry because when he took his son to apologize to his brother and sister-in-law, Jiang Yaheng said something.

“Now they will surely become archenemies!” Qiu Yelan looked at Madame He who almost went crazy. She felt chills running down her spine, “The child He Shuijin miscarried was still a fetus. Jiang Jingzhui was young and He Shuijin understood Madame He was the one to blame. So that was still resolvable. Yet Jiang Jingzhui was already six years old and was about to go to school! How can parents forget that?!”

Even though Jiang Jingzhui was beaten to death by Jiang Yaqing and Jiang Yaheng was apologizing, the wrong had been done. Even if they wouldn’t seek revenge on each other, they wouldn’t want to see each other ever again. For them, the best ending would be drifting apart.

And who would have thought that it was their mother, Madame He, who caused all these?!

She stood there dazedly and couldn’t move. Jiang Yashuang also stopped in shock. They stood in the moon gate like statues for a while until they heard the angry scolding of Marquess Qin coming from behind. They finally woke up and moved out of the way.

“Go back! It’s none of your business!” Marquess Qin who had a straight face threw them out of the yard. Until then, they finally realized their palms were all covered with cold sweats.

“Let’s go.” They didn’t want to say anything but held on to each other’s hand and went back to their own residence with their minds totally lost.

After they went back, they didn’t have much peace. Because besides the third branch, all others of their generation sent someone to ask how Jiang Jingzhui died.

Only until then did they know they went early and everyone who went later was sent back by Marquess Qin halfway. No wonder they stood in the moon gate for quite some time, yet only Marquess Qin came.

“What can we say? Besides, grandfather doesn’t want us to be there. Clearly, he wants to keep this quiet.” Qiu Yelan told Chen Shui wearily, “Just go tell them that we don’t know!”

Even though Marquess Qin wanted to keep this quiet, after Jiang Tianqi knew his son was the reason why his grandson died, he was so furious that he nearly beat Jiang Yaqing to death. Madame He and his other two sons tried so hard to drag and persuade Jiang Tianqi and finally kept Jiang Yaqing alive. It was so much noisy that it couldn’t be contained.

Therefore, on the next day, everyone knew.

Then Jiang Yashuang and Qiu Yelan finally found out that what happened was not what they had thought. Jiang Jingzhui wasn’t beaten to death by Jiang Yaqing. Jiang Yaqing did beat him up but he knew what he was doing. He didn’t hurt Jiang Jingzhui, let alone kill him.

Yet Jiang Yaqing went to the army before Jiang Jingzhui was a year old. In these years, even though Sir Jibei and Jiang Tianchi allowed their nephews to go home and be with their families when they needed to file documents. But it was not too often. It was imaginable how much Jiang Jingzhui wanted his father’s love!

This time he used a snake and scared his aunt into a miscarriage. He was already punished by Madame He and Madame Shi. When his father came back, he was about to tell him and hoped his father would comfort him. Yet what he got was a beat-up. As the eldest trueborn grandson of the third branch, Jiang Jingzhui was spoiled since birth. He was also still very young. How could he take all these punishments?

After the beat-up, he told the servants he didn’t need anyone to be with him for the night. The servants thought he was in a bad mood and persuaded him a little. Yet he started smashing things, so the servants all shut up. Then, at midnight, this kid tied a jade pendant on lace and threw it over the beam. Then hanged himself on it!

But the incident that the Jiang Family’s great-grandson killed himself did not bring a heated discussion in Jing City.

Because in the next noon, the Empress had a decree and married Young Prince of Jingbo, Ou Bicheng, to Princess Yongfu!

This alone was not enough to trump what happened in the Jiang Family. However, another piece of news came out at the same time. The marriages of Prince of Lu, Prince of Cai, Prince of Wei, Princess Changping, and Princess Lexin were not decided. This immediately drew all the attention!

The Princes and Princesses were not as powerful as those during the former emperor’s reign, but the title of Prince and Princess’s spouse was attractive anyway.

After all, not everyone had the same ambition. Some people knew they weren’t lucky enough to be the Emperor’s father-in-law, so they thought it was also glorious to marry a daughter to a Prince. Even in those prestigious families, a Princess’s husband could at least get those children who didn’t have much ability or title to get a job.

For a moment, the prices of make-up, jewelry, and clothes in Jing City were all raised. The enthusiasm of marrying into the royal family easily won over Jiang Jingzhui’s incident.

Even Jiang Jingzhui’s mother Madame Shi, under the pressure of her maiden family, had to wipe her tears, dress up, put on make-up and go to the Palace to greet Empress Jiang and to tell Empress Jiang that she had a cousin who was not married and she would be a good match for Prince of Lu.

Then Qiu Yelan was hated by this sister-in-law. For no reason!