Chapter 47 - Who's Shy?
Chapter 47 Who’s Shy?
Why embarrassing me so soon? What I said was true!
Am I a jinx so that whoever I praise, that person gets bad luck?
Qiu Yelan almost lost her breath!
Seeing Jiang Yashuang was looking at her with a half-smile, she got a quick wit and said, “Look, I told you that my cousin never wanted to take any notice of these girls! It’s all Young Earl Ling’s fault that he let them know his address, so they come here every day for my cousin! If he really cared about them, he wouldn’t have sent me to tell them to leave.”
Jiang Yashuang reminded her kindly, “A servant said it was the butler who told you to ask them to leave.”
“Right! When Young Earl Ling is not here, my cousin doesn’t care about Hua Shenshen or Hua Qianqian. All the people here know that. The butler can decide directly to drive her off without telling my cousin!” Qiu Yelan tried hard to describe Ruan Qingyan as one who “went to the brothel from time to time for necessary social activities but was an upright gentleman.”
“Really?” Jiang Yashuang thought for a while with his hand on his chin and said, “But since the butler can make the decision, why he asked you for help? You said young master Ruan treat you as a real sister, but he let a Commandery Princess sister to send away a courtesan…. It doesn’t seem proper.”
Qiu Yelan hurried to say, “This was the butler’s idea and he was afraid that my cousin was interrupted. The butler Mr. Ruan is a good man, but he’s a pushover. Hua Shenshen is a prostitute. If she loses her temper, Mr. Ruan may not hold her back, so he asked me to help.”
“Are you fierce?” Jiang Yashuang looked at her in amazement, “I thought you were gentle.”
“Well, the butler didn’t mean to let me drive off Hua Shenshen. How do I have such ability?” Hearing the word “gentle,” Qiu Yelan pretended to be weak, sweet and innocent and lowered her voice, “He just thought that I was a weak little girl and Hua Shenshen wouldn’t push me too hard… Right?”
Before her voice faded, she saw Jiang Yashuang smiled strangely and ambiguously. Suddenly it came to Qiu Yelan that back in Ganli Palace, she hid together with him under the bed and heard eighth young master Jiang and Fair Concubine’s affair. Later, in case of being killed, she spoke of the fact that she had killed Empress Dowager Gu’s confidential bodyguards to show her stance….
Jiang Yashuang knew her ability better than Ruan Qingyan. When she told Ruan Qingyan about the death of the two bodyguards, she only described it very briefly for fear that her cousin might worry!
As expected, Jiang Yashuang smiled for a while and nodded seriously, “You indeed seem weak!”
“Thank you for your understanding!” Qiu Yelan said calmly and pretended not to hear the word “seem” that he stressed. “Mr. Ruan may be worrying now. I’ll go there and please make yourself at home.”
“She is only a courtesan, but you are noble. It will be too much for you to see her on your own.” Jiang Yashuang stopped her with a light smile and said slowly, “Let my servant Jiang Tan go instead and send her away.”
Qiu Yelan said immediately without thinking twice, “No!”
He obviously wanted Jiang Tan to get information from her!
She hurried to find some excuse to prevent him, “Today you have sent for the imperial doctor for my grandfather and my cousin and I are so grateful. We haven’t treated you a cup of good tea, so how can we ask you for a favor again?”
“Don’t call it a favor,” Jiang Yashuang looked at her with great interest. “Plus, your cousin has gone with Qi Shuluo for the prescription. Will you leave General Ruan alone with the servants or an outsider like me?”
His words made Qiu Yelan speechless. Seeing the handsome servant Jiang Tan heading for the side door, she ran to the door in a hurry and called Chunran, “You follow him too!”
After the two servants went away, Qiu Yelan became restless, which made Jiang Yashuang very interested. He couldn’t help joking, “You seem to worry that I may know what that prostitute says?”
“Absolutely!” It was about her cousin’s future career. Qiu Yelan kept thinking and finally found a good excuse, “Did you forget that it was you who told me that in this year’s Courtesan Competition, Prince of Zhou supported this Hua… this Miss Hua!”
Jiang Yashuang said smilingly, “What’s the matter? This courtesan is now running after your cousin.”
“Who knows whether she takes the order of Prince of Zhou?” Qiu Yelan said seriously. “My cousin is studying with full attention now and my grandfather’s disease got worse today. It’s not strange that she didn’t know it before she came!” She implied again that Ruan Qingyan was not familiar with Hua Shenshen. “After she came, the doorman of the side gate should have told her, but she still refused to leave, which in my view, is on purpose! When she sees your servant there, she will surely say something bad!”
Jiang Yashuang laughed, “As both the grandson of a general and a Juren, how can your cousin be easily insulted by a prostitute? Now that Hua can have Prince of Zhou as her supporter, she won’t be so silly.”
Qiu Yelan insisted, “What if Prince of Zhou likes her dumbness and ignorance?” Men’s joy of seducing innocent girls to the wrong track could only compare with girls’ sense of fulfillment of getting the playboys back to the right way. Though Miss Hua had already been on the wrong way….
Jiang Yashuang couldn’t help laughing, “Why do you praise your cousin so eagerly? Do you do this for my Jiang Family’s power? Till now, you haven’t even asked what my elder sister looks like.”
“Do I need to? With your look, even if you were a beggar on the street, there would be numerous wealthy girls who wanted to take some valuable things from her home and run away with you! You are so handsome, so your sister must also be pretty!” Qiu Yelan said without thinking too much.
Before she finished her words, she didn’t feel anything strange, but Jiang Yashuang was stunned, and his face immediately became red.
He quickly gave some dry coughs as a cover-up and was about to blame Qiu Yelan for her recklessness. But when he saw her calm face, he found he overthought: this little Commandery Princess is very young. It’s said that her mother was always sick and weak, and her uncle and aunt are not good guardians. Maybe no one taught her well and she didn’t know it was improper to speak like that in front of a young man.
Thus, after hesitating for a while, Jiang Yashuang had no choice but changed the topic, “The snow is heavy today….” While he was speaking, the sound of footsteps came, and it was Jiang Tan rushing in!
Seeing this, Jiang Yashuang felt relieved inside. He thought it was the right time for him to come back so that the ambiguous aura caused by Qiu Yelan’s praise of his look could stop now. But Jiang Tan looked weird and didn’t say anything after saluting.
Without seeing Chunran, Qiu Yelan started suspecting.
“Did you ask the courtesan to leave? How did you do it?” Jiang Yashuang asked with confusion.
Jiang Tan coughed and said, “She has left…. When I arrived there, I told her that General Ruan was ill and young master Ruan had to study, and it was inconvenient for the Ruan Family to welcome a guest. Then she left.”
“That’s all?” Jiang Yashuang was surprised.
“… Yes, that’s all,” Jiang Tan stammered but automatically glanced at Qiu Yelan.
It not only made Qiu Yelan’s heart sink, but Jiang Yashuang became serious, “Tell the truth!”
Jiang Tan’s mouth opened and said helplessly, “Young master, can I tell you when we are back?”
“No!” hearing this, Qiu Yelan hurried to say. “Hua is so good at lying! If you tell us here, I can explain it to young General; if you tell it when you leave, my cousin may be misunderstood. He doesn’t deserve it!” When saying the last sentence, she faced Jiang Yashuang.
Jiang Tan was shocked, “How does it relate to young master Ruan?”
“Then who does it relate to?” Qiu Yelan and Jiang Yashuang both asked in surprise.
Jiang Tan was urged for a long time before he carefully said, “Miss Hua knows whose servant I am and she… she said that… now that young master helped Commandery Princess Ningyi openly, why he still let her stay with the Ruan Family.”
“….!”
All the people in the room were silent for a moment. Jiang Yashuang’s face color changed rapidly and he was so angry that he couldn’t speak. Qiu Yelan had to ask alone calmly, “Why did she say so?”
“She said that she saw Your Grace and our young master walked out of a shop together and Your Grace saw our young master off,” Jiang Tan said in a low voice.
“Now it’s clear!” Qiu Yelan looked at Jiang Yashuang whose face was still red and said seriously. “Hua is sent by Prince of Zhou!”
Because his brother, eighth young master Jiang was spoiled by his family, he started to flirt and sleep with women from 12 or 13. As he grew older, he became more dissolute and harder to persuade, which disappointed Marquess Qin very much. When it came to the younger grandson Jiang Yashuang, Marquess Qin learned from the lesson of his former grandson and disciplined him strictly in case he might be like eighth young master Jiang.
As a result, although Jiang Yashuang was taught to be sophisticated by his grandfather at a young age, when it came to the relation between men and women, he always avoided it and refused to mention it.
Just now, in this room, there was only General Ruan in a coma except him and Qiu Yelan. It could also be said that he and Qiu Yelan were in a room alone. When Qiu Yelan casually praised his good look, his face turned red immediately; now when he heard from Jiang Tan how he and Qiu Yelan were described by Hua, he felt too ashamed to stay here!
Now Qiu Yelan’s conspiracy theory was equivalent to rescue for him. He asked at once, “What do you mean?”
“Do you remember Renqing Pharmacy? Prince of Zhou did the same thing to make you shy so that you would leave us alone. In this way, he could do whatever he wanted to harm me and my cousin.”
Qiu Yelan looked very serious. That’s right. She shouldn’t laugh now, “Or else, with her identity, how can Hua gossip about us like that?”
Jiang Yashuang realized, “I see….”
“That’s because no matter Prince of Zhou or Prince of Yan, they are all afraid of you!” Qiu Yelan kept complimenting him with all her efforts. “They can only make you shy with such things and let you escape from them. That’s all they have!”
“Who’s shy?” Jiang Yashuang gave a snort and rolled his eyes to her. “A little girl like you knows nothing!”
He actually agreed with Qiu Yelan. With a powerful Empress aunt, although Prince of Yan and Prince of Zhou are of noble origin, when they saw members of the Jiang Family, especially Jiang Yashuang, the beloved nephew of Empress Jiang, they always avoided to meet them directly.
But…
As a member of the Jiang Family and the beloved nephew of Empress, he was described by a 13-year-old girl as a shy man twice!
How could he agree!
“But just now you almost wanted to leave at once. Prince of Zhou’s plot really….” Qiu Yelan opened her clear eyes wide and stared at him innocently.
“When did I say I would leave?” Jiang Yashuang sneered. “Was I afraid of Prince of Zhou when he made up those lies of us? You have looked down on me so much!” Then, he reprimanded Jiang Tan, “That’s only a rumor from a prostitute and you told me particularly! Didn’t you know you could deal with her on spot? As a servant of our Jiang Family, why didn’t you get such nerve?”
Jiang Tan apologized with a bitter smile, “I was too feeble. Please punish me!” If Commandery Princess Ningyi didn’t persuade you, the rumor could prevent you from seeing Commandery Princess Ningyi again! That’s why a servant like me wanted to tell you when we were back!
I know you are always shy about such things so I was afraid if I told you before Commandery Princess, you would be so embarrassed!
Chunran came back very late after Jiang Tan and she was also scolded. After they saw off Dr. Qi and Jiang Yashuang, Qiu Yelan called her over with a sulky face, “Why didn’t you stop Hua from talking nonsense? It was lucky that I thought of a method quickly, or that shy General Jiang would never come to us! If another man of Jiang came instead of him but was not as good, with the condition of us now, how can we deal with him?”
Chunran had no time to laugh at Qiu Yelan’s mock of the “shy” Jiang Yashuang who was three years older than her. She said seriously, “The reason why I was late was that when Jiang Tan went back to report to you, Hua pulled me aside and told me that Prince of Zhou planned to harm our young master….”
Qiu Yelan was shocked, “Tell me the details! When my cousin finished reading….”