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,
Qiu Yelan went into the palace very smoothly because of the palace carriage sent by the Empress Dowager.Unfortunately, the Emperor and the Empress were talking to the Empress Dowager when she came to Hall of Taishi, the main hall of Palace of Ganquan where Empress Dowager lived. So, the servant of the palace arranged Qiu Yelan to wait in Lodge of Liuchun, which was not far from Hall of Taishi.Qiu Yelan and Su He didn't wait long when there was a sudden sound of footsteps outside the door. At the same time, a man who she seemed to have met before said with a smile, "Cousin, let's wait in Lodge of Liuchun for a while."A man in gorgeous clothes and a gold crown stepped into the door with a smile and just happened to meet Qiu Yelan just after he finished saying, and they were all stunned.Qiu Yelan recognized that he was Gu Yan, the Young Prince of Duke of Guangyang, who she came across on the way to General's Mansion. So, she immed
At this time Jiang Yashuang walked to Gu Yan and was about to give him another kick. Hearing Qiu Yelan's warning, he knew something was wrong and backed off quickly like a swimming fish. It was a narrow escape—the dagger only scratched his sleeve. The edge of the bagger seemed to be blue. It was poisoned!"How dare you carry a weapon into the Palace!" Jiang Yashuang's calm face turned sulky. He looked down at the breach in the sleeve and said severely, "Are you going to rebel?""You think you have something on me?" By now, Gu Yan's golden hat slanted to the back of his ears. He unloosed the strings to throw it at his feet and laughed awfully, "This Water-Cutting Bagger is an antique of the last dynasty. Empress Dowager likes all kinds of weapons as a hobby. Today is the Lunar New Year's Eve. I took it to the Palace to give to the Empress Dowager. I had got the permission from the Empress Dowager before I came! I didn't think it could also be used to kill yo
"What is going on?" Along with the rebuke, a whole set of grape pattern porcelain bowl was smashed from the top of the stairs. The lid of the bowl grazed through Qiu Yelan’s hair and broke into pieces on the floor behind her.Above the stairs, Empress Dowager Gu’s eyes had a piercing gleam. Her angry face implied her intention to kill.Emperor and empress who sat a little lower than Empress Dowager were watching her blowing off her steam calmly. Four people kneeling below the stairs had different looks. Qiu Yelan who had no connections was looking down timidly. Gu Yan and Deng Yi were scrambling to talk about their grievances. Jiang Yashuang was calm. Seeing Qiu Yelan looking at him, he was chill enough to give her a smile. He obviously had a lot of confidence in his Empress aunt.He was Empress’s biological nephew after all. And he had a biological grandfather who was called the Defender of the State.Qiu Yelan bit her lips anxiou
"Ganli Palace is where Empress Dowager Ye lives alone, so the side halls have not been opened for many years." Nijin said while watching the young maids cleaning the elegant room covered with dust, "The only place people can live in is this Wangxing Pavilion, as County Princess Duanrou comes here once in a while. Your Grace, it's just for one night."Qiu Yelan asked in confusion, "Should I not greet Empress Dowager Ye? Didn't you say that Empress Dowager Ye would be settling me?""Empress Dowager Ye generally does not meet outsiders apart from the Empress and County Princess Duanrou." Nijin smirked and said, "She's just saying... I'll go to find you some clothes. You would stay here for one night and I'll find someone to send you back tomorrow, and that's the end of your visit to the palace this time.""What do you mean by 'the end'? Gu Yan was beaten so badly. Even if I leave the palace, would he let me go?" Qiu Yelan thought."No