After a while, Qiu Mingzhu walked in looking pale-white and with coldness. She was wearing the silk shoes that she put on when she went to bed. The shoes were soaked by the snow, and it left a string of stamps on the thick blue blanket in the inner chamber.
She was two years older than Qiu Yelan, and her biological mother was Mistress Tian. She could only be named as the Fourth Lady instead of Commandery Princess.
Mistress Tian had almost fallen into disfavor, but she recommended her cousin who was Mistress Bian to the mansion. Mistress Bian was eighteen years old this year. She was a beauty and good at dancing and singing. So that Mistress Tian and her daughter had a pretty good life in the Prince's Mansion.
It's said that Qiu Mengmin once promised Mistress Bian to proclaim her immediately as the Concubine if she could give birth to a boy.
"... It seems that either Lu did not misjudge Princess Yang, or Princess Yang reacted very q
"Your Grace, why don't you listen to the secret that Miss Mingzhu said?" After Mrs. Zhou took Qiu Mingzhu to Princess Yang, Su He made a rose dew and handed it to Qiu Yelan. She asked curiously, “I think she should really know what the secret was...”"But must it have anything to do with us?" Qiu Yelan smiled slightly and took a sip of rose dew. "The first thing we are asking for is self-protection and then to live without acting according to where the wind blows. Then there are other things we ought to do... Knowing too many secrets too early is not a good thing! "She thought, "There was a chuckle out of the window just now. I'm not sure whether she is a servant of Princess Yang or Madame Lu. She followed the Qiu Mingzhu all the way, and maybe is lying in the back window and eavesdropping."Su He did not fully understand and nodded, "So Miss Mingzhu didn’t tell you because of her goodwill! She is so!""Aunt Yang and Madame Lu wil
At noon the next day, Hongyao, the first maid of Qiu Mengmin came to invite Qiu Yelan in person. “It said that you know about the things that Young Master Qiu Hongzhi fell into the lake last night and things of Mistress Bian and others, Your Grace. Now Prince is going to investigate by himself, so I'm here to invite you to help Prince tell right from wrong.”It was impossible to avoid this kind of thing, and Qiu Yelan also didn't want to hide. So, she brought Su He and quickly got on the sedan.Arriving at the back of the Prince's Mansion, she saw Madame Lu sat in the first place, and Qiu Mengmin sat with shame at the next seat.No one else had the right to sit. Even Princess Yang and Qiu Yuqing were kneeling at the front of the crowd. Of course, no one dared to stand, except Madame Lu and her son.But Qiu Yelan didn't intend to join in the fun. So as soon as she entered and witnessed the situation, she immediately raised her sleev
On the snow-covered street, pedestrians were all in a hurry with their clothes wrapped tightly.An inconspicuous carriage hoofed through the snow. Two bodyguards in green and three or four nannies followed the carriage on foot. It looked like some womenfolk of a normal wealthy family were going out.Some passersby checked the carriage occasionally and then looked away apathetically.Inside the carriage, Su He said excitedly, "Your Grace, you are really resourceful. You managed to make the Prince family agree to let you go to the General's Mansion. Now we are out and will never go back!""How is that possible?" Mrs. Zhou was about to say this. Seeing Qiu Yelan looked more relaxed than she was in Prince's Mansion, she managed to keep those words to herself.However, Qiu Yelan said it herself, "That's not possible. I have an engagement. How can I live at Ruan Family forever?" Besides, the best-case scenario was that grand
General Ruan's mansion was located at the north of the capital city. It was the only house Ruan Family had left.The whole mansion appeared to be a little gruesome because too many towering pine and cypress trees were planted there. It was colder inside the walls than outside in the wind.Qiu Yelan walked out of General Ruan's room with a gloomy face.Ruan Qingyan wasn't home on that day. Although he brought a few men into the General's Mansion after he got the right of inheritance, the housekeeper was still the same old Ruan An. So Qiu Yelan got here without any obstruction. She could tell that Ruan Qingyan put a lot of thoughts in settling General Ruan down.The room behind her was warm, clean and big. And the inside was very tidy. The underfloor heating was well functioned. Furnishings were simple. But all were carefully selected. There was a wintersweet bonsai on a higher table and a basin of daffodils on a lower shelf. The roo
"It's my first time to arrive in the capital city and I will take the Metropolitan Exam next year. I want to make the acquaintance of some future peers and Hua knows some of them. That's why I met her several times." As soon as the gate closed, Ruan Qingyan gave a dry cough and hurried to explain, "The other day, she introduced me to Earl of Jingchuan's youngest son, young master Ling. I made an appointment to treat him a dinner today, but I didn't know he also invited Hua. Just now I heard that you were here, and I wanted to come back early. But Hua insisted to follow me. I had no time to waste on her, so I got on my horse and left. I never thought that..."Qiu Yelan glimpsed at him and thought this cousin of her was really clever. As the General's Mansion was in decline, if he said he was the grandson of General Ruan, most probably no one would take notice of him and he would even be despised. Asking a famous courtesan to introduce him was at least a better way.
Su He said tremblingly, "I came up with it myself!""Why?" Qiu Yelan frowned."...because Young Master Ruan is focusing on his career now," Su He bit her lips and said timidly, "I'm afraid that he is nice to you only because of your engagement. So... I want to test him.""Should I be the one doing something like this?" Qiu Yelan realized that no wonder Madame Lu said that Ruan Qingyan might be up to no good. “See? Even Su He suspects him!”Su He cried, "How can you do that? When I say something wrong, you can apologize to Young Master Ruan by hitting me or scolding me. But if you and Young Master Ruan are in a stalemate, we are in his place now!""Don't worry about this kind of thing anymore!" Qiu Yelan looked at the little girl who was shorter than her and sighed, "I know what I'm doing!" Seeing Su He was about to say something, she pounded the table, "You don't want to listen to me anymore, do you?"Su H
Although there were not many stars at night in winter and they were far less bright and glorious than the summer nights, they had a desolate and lonely artistic conception comparing to the aliveness of stars on summer nights.At ten o'clock, Qiu Yelan came out from Lvqiang Court quietly. She didn't bring her lantern as she was afraid of revealing her presence. She secretly got to the back door of the General's Mansion based on her memory of the route during daytime.The back door had already been closed by that time, but fortunately, the door was plugged from the inside and it wasn't locked.Qiu Yelan pulled the latch carefully, and someone coughed lightly outside the door right after that, "Your Grace?"She didn't expect Jiang Yashuang to be here early and opened the door. Jiang Yanshuang was wearing a purple or black fur coat standing outside in the dark with a certain hat in his hand and he was smiling.There were t
Qiu Yelan got herself away temporarily by acting in a slick way. On the next day, the day of New Year's Eve, she got up and went to greet General Ruan as usual and talked with him for a while. As Ruan Qingyan gave up his yard to her, he had to sleep in the guest room in General Ruan's yard. When she got there, they would naturally meet.By then, Ruan Qingyan had already wiped, dressed and groomed General Ruan. He was sitting in the outer room, reading. Qiu Yelan whispered a greeting to him and went inside to fulfill her duties as a granddaughter.But today, just when General Ruan started to look tired, before Qiu Yelan even had the chance to leave, the maid Dongran came in from the outer room and said, "Young master, there was a palace servant on the door and he left after passing a word."Ruan Qingyan acknowledged with a "hmm", and seemed to make a gesture to Dongran, asking her to be quiet. Then, there was a sound of a table and chair moving,