Chapter 3 - Cruel and Unscrupulous Relatives (1)
Chapter 3 Cruel and Unscrupulous Relatives (1)
“You suffered a lot, Your Grace” At dusk, Su He, the personal maid, took the medicine and fed Qiu Yelan who was lying on her side, with a spoon. Qiu Yelan’s scars were still shocking after taking the medicine. From time to time, Su He turned her head and wiped tears on her own shoulders, “Lady Yuqing is so hardhearted!”
“It’s lucky that the Prince got there in time.” Mrs. Zhou was an old domestic maidservant of Princess Ruan. Her eyes were red and swollen, but she still tried to show happiness on her face and said, “With Prince’s words, Commandery Princess can have a good rest to nurse the injury. After Commandery Princess recovers… we can ask her cousin for help and ask him to make an excuse and take Commandery Princess to live in General’s House…”
Su He was the granddaughter of Mrs. Zhou. Since now there was no other people in the inner room, Su He couldn’t help speaking out, “The Prince didn’t mean to save our Commandery Princess, did he? It’s clear that he was just afraid to bother the lady of Marquess Qin enjoying the plum in the next house, so that he let others put our Commandery Princess down! If it were not for General Jiang’s coming, our Commandery Princess would have been…”
“Hush!” Mrs. Zhou frowned and dressed her down in a low voice, “Do you want to kill our Commandery Princess!”
Then she said to Qiu Yelan softly, “Commandery Princess, we are living under other’s thumb now, and you… you have to bear it! Never show your hatred to the Prince!”
“Mrs. Zhou, I know.” Qiu Yelan coughed a few times and then spat out some blood. She said lightly, “Not only Prince, but also my Aunt. I understand her. After all, Kang Jinzhang is her only son.”
Listening to her bland tone, Su He looked at her in amazement, but she only saw Qiu Yelan’s indifferent expression and her unfathomable eyes being like the deep cold lake. Just having a glance, Su He couldn’t help trembling!
“It is good that you can understand.” Mrs. Zhou also noticed Qiu Yelan’s anomaly, and she sighed, “We can only endure…”
“Mrs. Zhou, you just mentioned my cousin, and who is he?” Qiu Yelan suddenly interrupted her, “My male cousins of my grandfather’s family have all been gone, haven’t they?”
In her memory, her grandfather, General Ruan, was the No.2 in the Dari’s Army. His prestige was only second to that of Marquess Qin, Jiang Qianchuan, who was also known as Piaoqi General and the “Defender of the State”. At that time, Ruan Family was also very prominent.
However, due to a fiasco of General Ruan ten years ago, his sons, grandchildren, and Qiu Zhongyan who was his son-in-law and the former Duke of Xihe all lost their lives. It not only led to the death of all offspring of Ruan Family and his relatives by marriage but also took away all his honor gained from the half-life army experience, only leaving him one General’s Mansion and the vacant title of General.
For this reason, the Madame Lu had the courage and opportunity to take action on General Ruan and Princess Ruan!
“He is the heir adopted by General Ruan when you just left the capital city.” Su He whispered, “It is said that he is the offspring of General Ruan’s former subordinate. On the Princess Ruan’s funeral, he also showed up. When hearing that you were trapped on the mountain by the avalanche and hanging between life and death, he proposed initiatively that he could attend Princess Ruan’s funeral in your name.”
While saying, Su He’s eyes turned red, “As soon as Princess Ruan passed away, Lady Yuqing and Princess Yang just sent someone over to tell us that it wasn’t a good day when Princess Ruan died. They said if she was not buried soon, it would hinder all the members of the family… If it hadn’t been your cousin who gave Prince’s Mansion five thousand tael of silver as the present for the first-time meeting, they would have even planned to carry the Princess out that day.”
Qiu Yelan exhaled, “I see. This cousin… Is he my elder cousin or younger cousin?”
“This young master is five years older than you.” Su He said, “By the way, he originally asked Princess Yang to let him know as soon as you came back. Perhaps he was caught by something in the daytime, otherwise…”
“Since he used five thousand tael of silver for a chance to attend the funeral, if he comes to see me again, how can he be empty-handed?” Qiu Yelan said nothing, thinking in her heart, “It seems that the reason why Princess Yang protected me is not so simple. However, in my memory, Ruan Family has a very hard life since they failed, and Princess Ruan often sold her dowry secretly to help them. For this reason, General Ruan was poisoned by Lu when she got a chance. Could this cousin who suddenly showed up have so much money?”
At this time, the door of the inner room was suddenly opened, and a well-dressed old maidservant came in swaggeringly. As she saw Qiu Yelan awake, with a long voice of “Yo”, she went to a drum stool not far away and sat on it directly. She said harshly, “You are not dead yet?”
“You!” Su He was so angry to stand up, but she was quickly pressed back by Mrs. Zhou. Mrs. Zhou quickly gave Qiu Yelan a wink, and then she made a fawning smile at the old maidservant, “Mrs. Fan, what brings you here?” She was Mrs. Fan, Qiu Yuqing’s trusted servant.
“Ridiculous!” As Mrs. Fan heard it, she immediately grabbed the tea bowl on the table and smashed it to the ground, “Your Commandery Princess killed our young master! You even dare to think that it is over just because General Jiang came, and the princess said something for you?!”
Su He could not help shouting, “My master did not harm anyone! It was you who forced my master to…”
“You the little b*tch dare to talk back to me?” As Mrs. Fan heard it, an angry look flashed in her eyes, and she stood up and gave Su He a slap in the face heavily! Su He screamed and fell on the quilt covering Qiu Yelan, together with the small bowl of medicine that had not been fed!
“Your Grace!” Having no time to care about her granddaughter, Mrs. Zhou hurriedly came forward to check Qiu Yelan. Qiu Yelan’s face turned pale for Su He fell right on the wounds on her whole body. But when Su He got up, Qiu Yelan shook her head slightly to show she was fine. And then Mrs. Zhou was in relief.
Seeing this, Mrs. Fan suddenly pushed Su He again, but this time, Su He fell down on the blue brick floor rather than press Qiu Yelan again!
“Bah! Slut! No manners!” In the end, Mrs. Fan didn’t dare to hit Qiu Yelan directly. When she found that she had no opportunity to hurt Qiu Yelan, she spat on Su He and said scornfully, “All in all, our young master is dead, but you are still alive. It is impossible for our lady to let it go!”
“What does my aunt you want?” Qiu Yelan’s face was pale, and she looked at Mrs. Fan for a moment, asking indifferently.
Mrs. Fan felt a little scared when Qiu Yelan stared at her. But thinking that Princess Ruan was dead and the so-called Commandery Princess was only twelve years old, while she had the backing of Qiu Yuqing, she opened her eyes widely and fiercely again, “What does she want? Our lady just has the only one son, and she undergoes all sorts of hardships to raise him! Let alone the love…”
Mrs. Fan said for a long time while patting her legs and the table. When seeing that Qiu Yelan slowly closed her eyes and seemed to be tired, she was afraid that the real business was held up, so she stopped grunting and said hatefully, “Take all the old Princess’s and your mother’s dowry out as the dowry of my young lady later! My young lady may beg for forgiveness in front of our lady to save your life! Otherwise…”
Both Mrs. Zhou and Su He exclaimed, and Mrs. Zhou angrily said, “These all belong to our Commandery Princess! If they were all given to the young lady, what should we do?”
“Don’t think that with the two poor wretches who are still willing to serve you, you will be able to keep your life!” Mrs. Fan sneered and squinted at them, “If it were not for that my young lady feels you pitiful and remembers the cousin relationship between you and her, it would be no wonder that you cannot live through tonight! I can tell you now. You have this only one chance. If you don’t finish the document of giving us the two dowries voluntarily as the compensation for killing our young master before dawn, you can just wait to accompany your buried mother!”
After that, she spat on Mrs. Zhou again, and then she went away proudly!
Mrs. Zhou raised Su He in tears and asked Qiu Yelan, “Your Grace…”
Before she finished her words, there was a noise outside. It was a gentle voice, “Oh, why don’t you close the door?”
“Xiuyan!” Mrs. Zhou was startled. She had no time to change Qiu Yelan’s quilt and rushed out eagerly. “What brings you here? Is it that Princess Yang has some orders?”