Real Empress from a Noble Family

Chapter 201 Rumors, Intended for the East Palace, Were Everywhere

As they were talking, Qi Shuluo had already walked towards the inner chamber. Qiu Yelan saw that Qiu Jinglan hadn’t moved, so she asked, “Won’t we go in?”

“Madam Sun and Miss Nongqing in the Xue Family are both inside, accompanied by the big sister.” Qiu Jinglan said, “You may go in but I won’t.” Although he was Xue Chang’s pupil once, it was inappropriate for him to be inside with three womenfolk.

“I’ll take a look.” Qiu Yelan thought for a while, and felt that since she was here, she had to go in and ask, or it might seem like that she didn’t care enough.

She walked in later than Qi Shuluo. As soon as she entered, Qi Shuluo had already finished the diagnosis. He was talking to Madam Sun and Xue Nongqing, who had tears on their faces, “After he finishes taking the medicine, I will examine young master Xue again to see if it is necessary to change the medicine.”

Xue Nongqing asked worriedly, “Then when will my brother get better?”

“Well…” Qi Shuluo pondered.

Ruan Ciyi was afraid that he would say something bad to increase the pressure on the mother and daughter of the Xue Family. So, she hurriedly said, “Anyway, he’s back to Jing City now. All the medicinal materials can be prepared and there’s a house to live in. It’s definitely better than being on the mountain, isn’t it?”

Qi Shuluo nodded and commented on what she said, “You’re right, Lady Ruan.”

Madam Sun was also afraid of hearing the bad news. She pulled her daughter’s sleeves to prevent her from asking and forced herself to bear up to greet Qi Shuluo, “We’ll have to trouble you a lot in the future, Dr. Qi.”

“No problem, Madam Sun. I’ll stay with the Ruan Family for a few days anyway.” Qi Shuluo said politely, “It’s not a big deal. Besides, it’s my job.”

“Speaking of which, my son’s life has been saved by your family this time.” Madam Sun hurriedly thanked Ruan Ciyi and suddenly saw Qiu Yelan standing at the doorway. She wiped the tears on her face and was about to come over to bow to her, “I just have one son. Saving his life is like saving mine. It was inconvenient to give you a salute before, but now, please receive my salute, Commandery Princess!”

Qiu Yelan quickly grabbed her and refused to accept the salute, “Don’t mention it, Mrs. Sun. How will we calculate the cultivation of Prime Minister Xue to my brother? Besides, a good man is always blessed. Young master Xue was being lucky himself and I just happened to run into him. That’s it. I dare not to take credit for saving him.”

Madam Sun was about to say something again but Qi Shuluo coughed to remind her, “It’s better to let young master Xue rest at this moment!”

“Right, right. I’m being ridiculous.” Madam Sun was at a loss. All her hope fell on Qi Shuluo. Surely, she would listen to Qi Shuluo. After hearing his words, she hurriedly pulled Xue Nongqing, and everyone came out of the room quietly. Qiu Jinglan had left the peach tree and was waiting outside. He asked about the situation when they came out.

Without full certainty, Qi Shuluo couldn’t make any promises. He said a few words vaguely, and then excused himself to go to see the medicine he was making. Seeing it, the others stopped talking about Xue Nongying and discussed where to live.

It was not difficult to arrange. Madam Sun planned to make her bed on the floor next to Xue Nongying’s bed and to stay with her son until his condition was stable. Xue Nongqing was asked to stay with Ruan Ciyi in her courtyard.

Qiu Yelan would live in her own place. Xue Nongqing wanted to live with her, but both Ruan Ciyi and Qiu Jinglan knew that Qiu Yelan didn’t like being disturbed, so they pretended to not know and deliberately let Ruan Ciyi pulled her away. The girl was not sophisticated. She was too embarrassed to refuse, so she had to agree to the arrangement.

In the following days, Xue Nongying’s condition was very unstable, not to mention Madam Sun, but even Qi Shuluo had to keep an eye on him all night.

During the time, aftershocks occurred twice, but each time it got fainter, and the last time it just shook a ripple out of the water on the table and stopped.

In this case, Empress Dowager Gu finally decided to return to Jing City after discussing with Empress Jiang.

In fact, the relevant officials had long gone back to Jing City to control the situation. However, there were still rumors in Jing City that Empress Dowager Gu and Empress Jiang’s Regent was detrimental to the country, and that the earthquake that occurred in Emperor’s birthday was a warning to the Emperor from heaven.

However, Qiu Yelan felt that this kind of rumors couldn’t be a threat to the Empress Dowager and the Empress. Let alone that there was a large army behind both of them, as far as the character of the Emperor was concerned, it could be seen from the earthquake that this guy was hopeless.

If the Empress Dowager and the Empress gave back the political power to him, instead of being happy, he would probably feel bad.

“It’s not sure whether this rumor was spread by someone or it just happened occasionally. But the people who talked about it will definitely be unlucky.” Qiu Yelan told Qiu Jinglan privately, “I think Prince of Qi and Prince of Yan are more vulnerable to this earthquake incident.”

Qiu Jinglan said, “Haven’t you heard the latest words on the street? One kind of rumor says that Prince of Yan celebrated the Emperor’s birthday with too many precious and unique objects, which backfired and aroused the wrath in heaven; another is about that Prince of Qi is not worthy of being Crown Prince at all, so after he revealed the intention to fight for the status of the crown prince, heaven immediately showed signs; there is another, that both Prince of Qi and Prince of Yan are not worthy of being Crown Prince…”

He sighed, “The source of these rumors has not been verified yet!”

Qiu Yelan was surprised, “So, the previous rumors that accused the Empress Dowager and the Empress of causing earthquake were to pave the way for these?” Everybody knew that the two of them had been in politics for so many years, and if an earthquake rumor could get rid of them, they would return to Imperial Harem a long time ago to fight against with other women and there wouldn’t be a place for them in the court.

However, regarding the current words about Prince of Qi and Prince of Yan, if these rumors were from the same person, then, from the beginning, they were not targeting the Empress Dowager and the Empress, but targeting the two candidates for Crown Prince.

After all, the earthquake had appeared. The court had to find someone to blame at this time.

The Empress Dowager and the Empress would never admit that they had anything to do with the earthquake. So, they needed a scapegoat. However, it was not like a random person who could be blamed for an earthquake! The first choice was the Regents, Emperor, and Crown Prince. At least, it had to be someone important in court. If it was less important than that, it would be obviously fooling people.

Prince of Qi and Prince of Yan, who had just fought against each other on the Emperor’s birthday and had shown obvious intention to fight for Crown Prince, were perfect choices. The two miserable brothers had just shown themselves once and were caught up with this disaster. Now they were framed for being unable to be Crown Prince.

As for Empress Dowager Gu and Empress Jiang, although they had chosen Prince of Qi and Prince of Yan at present, it didn’t mean that they couldn’t make other choices.

Empress Dowager Gu had Prince of Zhou, who was her grandson; Empress Jiang… For the Empress, all the concubines’ sons who were not close to the Empress Dowager and were well-controlled could be cultivated!

“Anyway, it is getting more and more complicated!” Qiu Jinglan said intently, “I don’t know which prince did this or who did this for which prince, but the Emperor and the Empress are about to return. The Empress Dowager and the Empress would thoroughly investigate it!”

He glanced at his sister, “But I think Prince of Qi and Prince of Yan may have no chance anymore.”

“What does it have to do with us?” Qiu Yelan said disapprovingly, “As long as Empress Jiang wins, it doesn’t matter who the Crown Prince is. Anyway, he’s a puppet.”

“Have you forgotten that Jiang Qiyun in the Jiang Family is engaged to Prince of Qi?” Qiu Jinglan frowned, “Even if Prince of Qi has no hope of being the Crown Prince and he can’t keep the title of Prince, he is always a member of the royal family! Not to mention the engagement was arranged by the Empress. So, unless Jiang Qiyun is dead, she’ll have to marry him. How can the first branch of the Jiang Family not resent?”

Qiu Yelan was stunned, “But what does it have to do with me? Will she vent her anger on me just because her daughter can’t be the Crown Princess?” Do I get a full set of taunting skills? Will I attract so much hatred?

Qiu Jinglan said, “It’s not entirely impossible! Didn’t you say that you have never offended Jiang Qiyun but she always messes with you? In the past, she was expected to become the Crown Princess. She was proud and satisfied at that time, so she might be more open-minded. But now she has become a joke. Who knows if she will make others’ life hard because she can’t have a good one herself?”

“But she can’t possibly just come at me, right?” Qiu Yelan thought for a while and said, “I don’t think I’m someone who can be bullied easily.”

“Anyway, be careful.” Qiu Jinglan warned, “You have to keep an eye on those who have evil intentions, no matter they are proud of themselves or frustrated.”

Qiu Yelan sighed and agreed.

As for the Xue Family’s return to Jing City, because they had to “look for” Xue Nongying, they came back relatively late. For this reason, Xue Chang specifically reported to the Empress Dowager and the Empress.

Meanwhile, Madam Sun sent someone she trusted to guard the Xue Family, and said that her son was missing and her daughter was in poor health, so that she was crying all day long and taking care of her daughter without receiving any guests.

But after most of the officials followed the royal family back to Jing City, Madam Sun had to temporarily leave her son and secretly returned to the Mansion with her daughter.

Because the Prince’s Mansion of Puyang sent out the obituary.

Old Princess Qin had died in less than half an hour after returning to Prince’s Mansion.

Xiao Mu felt both guilty and sad for old Princess Qin’s death. There was no use in crying and screaming. The stewards among the servants persuaded him together, and began to discuss the funeral, but they could not reach an agreement. Xiao Mu was both a concubine’s son and was young. Neither his official mother, old Princess Chu, nor his official brother, the Duke of Puyang, was there. How could he bury old Princess Qin alone?

Therefore, he could only have the old Princess’s body preserved with ice and have a mourning hall built, waiting for old Princess Chu and Xiao Su to return to Jing City to host.

Now that the two of them had come back to host the formal mourning. With old Princess Qin’s popularity, almost all the noble families in Jing City had received the invitation, including the Ruan Family. After all, Ruan Ciyi’s grandmother and old Princess Qin were sisters, so they were considered as relatives.

The Xue Family had surely been invited. Madam Sun had to leave her son with the Ruan Family and went back to arrange the mourning in person.

As for the Ruan Family, they were still in the mourning period. According to the custom, they wouldn’t go to the mourning of other families at this time. So, they just needed to send someone there to offer some condolence money.

Qiu Yelan needed to go back to Prince’s Mansion of Xihe and go with Princess Yang to mourn. After all, she had a title as Commandery Princess, not to mention she had been engaged to Jiang Yashuang. She was not the kind of person who could be ignored. Besides, the old Princess had a different surname from the Emperor, so she, the Commandery Princess, had to stop by and mourn. Also, she gave Xiao Mu a hand when she went down the mountain before. It wouldn’t be good if she didn’t go to mourn at this moment.

Anyway, when she returned to Prince’s Mansion of Xihe, where she had not lived for several months, she saw that her yard had collapsed in half.

Fortunately, the inner chamber was intact, so she could still live here.

When she was about to send someone to clean up, she heard some noise from the school. She went over and was very surprised, “Is Madam Shao still teaching?”

Then she found something that was even more surprising, “Miss Sheng, Qianqian, are you still attending the class?”

It might be easier to explain why Wang Qingqian and Shao Yuemei were here. The uncles of the former had not yet reached the level of traveling with the royal family to avoid the heat, and she was unwilling to go with Qiu Yelan; the latter did not like staying on mountains, so she stayed in Jing City every year during the time.

But Sheng Shishui had followed the Lu Family to Mount Dizi. She must’ve just gotten back. And she was already in a class. Did she want to excel in the study?

“It is messy at home now and I can’t help. So, I came over to have a look. I happened to see that Madam Shao was giving Qianqian a lecture, so I joined her.” Sheng Shishui was very thoughtful and knew her doubts when she heard it.

Shao Yuemei said, “The house is still very solid, not to mention the spacious yard outside. If there is any movement of the ground, we can just run out.”

Qiu Yelan looked at Wang Qingqian, she stuck out her tongue, “I have nothing to do at home, so I often run over to talk to Madam Shao. After the earthquake, classes were suspended. But we can’t just sit around all the time.

“You guys are really hard-working!” Qiu Yelan said, “But I’m afraid I can’t attend the class for now. I’m going to mourn old Princess Qin tomorrow. And I haven’t stayed in this yard for a long time, so I have to clean it up before I can live in it. I’m not attending the class. Please forgive me, Madam Shao!”

Shao Yuemei had no problem with it, “Just feel free to do as you please, Commandery Princess.”

When Qiu Yelan left the school, she saw that Chunran had ordered some servants to clean up the courtyard. So, she walked to the stone table under the pear tree and rested. Soon, it was almost noon. Suddenly Xiuyan walked in and saw her in the courtyard. She hurried up to greet, “Your place has collapsed. The Princess asked if you would like to go over and stay with her.”

“No. It’s all right. It’s easy to clean up.” Qiu Yelan shook her head. Although Princess Yang wouldn’t dare to make a move against herself at the moment, there was no harm in being careful.

Xiuyan hesitated a bit when hearing this.

“Why are you still here?” Qiu Yelan waited for a while and asked in surprise. It had been two or three years. Didn’t the servants in Prince’s Mansion know her temper? If she said she wouldn’t go, then she wouldn’t go.

Then, Xiuyan said cautiously, “Princess also invited… Invited Miss Sheng and, of course, Miss Wang to have dinner together.”

Qiu Yelan narrowed her eyes and thought to herself, “Obviously, Wang Qingqian was invited in passing, but Sheng Shishui…”