Real Empress from a noble family

A gift granted by the emperor was caught on a prostitute's head. Surely, it was a big deal.

Qiu Mengmin and Princess Yang had expected that their coming must lead to big trouble, but they had not expected that was coming.

Both of them turned pale. They wanted to speak, but Ruan Qingyan shook his hand, saying, "Let's go to the point. As some stuff belonging to Old Princess Lian and my aunt have been sold in the market. I guess there might be more in the market. We both took the list of the dowry with us today. I suggest we open the boxes and check them in front of the servants. By doing so, the servants may realize that we pay close attention to the stuff and they should not do the wrongdoings again!"

Check? How to check?

Needless to ask for his wife's suggestion, Qiu Mengmin had known the answer. It was no.

When Princess Ruan was alive, she kept a close tab on her dowry, while Old Princess Lian did not. For safety, Old Princess Lian locked her dowry in the warehouse. Hence, Madame Lu, Qiu Yuqing and princess Yang had to slip into the warehouse and stole Old Princess Lian's dowry when she's not there. Anyway, Princess Ruan was in a weak position and she could do nothing about it even she had discovered who stole her dowry.

Princess Ruan's stuff had been removed after she died, and only left furniture like tables and chairs in her room. They were not removed because Princess Yang wanted to take advantage of the feud between Qiu Yelan and Madame Lu. Generally speaking, after the death of the mother, if only unmarried girls left, they would enjoy the right to inherit the dowry. And the furniture and other stuff would be recorded and locked in the warehouse thereafter. The shops and manors would be managed by the elders for her offspring. All would be handed over to her girls when they got married. But now, there was no more room for storing Old Princess Lian's and Princess Ruan's stuff in the Prince's Mansion of Xihe!

Their stuff had been allocated to others already!

"I don't think it's a good time now." said Qiu Mengmin, closing his eyes. "They had a lot of dowries over here. It's not an easy job. And my son would get married next month. All of us are busy preparing for the wedding. We don't have enough hands for the job. I think we should do it after the wedding. About the stealers in my house, they will be held accountable for what they did."

Hearing his excuse, Ruan Qingyan said lightly, "I heard that Mingzhu is also blind dating recently? That means that Mingzhu may get married after Qiu Hongzhi. There are sixth Commandery Princess and Young Master Qiu Yinzhi waiting in line? If you took the marriage as your excuse, you would be busy forever. We won't have time to check at all."

"What do you mean?" said Qiu Mengmin angrily. "Are you doubting that I embezzled their dowries?"

"If you did nothing wrong, why wouldn't lead us to the warehouse, checking the dowries?" questioned Ruan Qingyan. "If you both were too busy to be present, you could assign your confidant to check along with us. Lian Ding and I are willing to take our time checking the stuff!"

And then, he smiled coldly, "If there were no more stuff missing except the two after checking, I would kneel in front of you, begging for your pardon and I am willing to accept any punishment imposed by you."

Qiu Mengmin kept silent, unknowing what to say.

Seeing that Ruan Qingyan was getting impatient and began to speak again, Princess Yang said suddenly, "Can I have a look at the list you take?"

"Okay, here you are!" said Ruan Qingyan promptly.

Glancing that the list taken out of their pockets were new ones, Qiu Mengmin and his wife felt relieved, "Well, the list…"

"Oh, those are the copies." said Ruan Qingyan calmly. "As you know, there are only two lists in the world. We are afraid that we will lose them when we take them out. If Prince and Princess allowed us to check the dowries, I would send somebody to take it here. I have reported the whole thing to my teacher and he has agreed to send somebody over here as an inspector."

Ruan Qingyan's teacher, Xue Chang. Now he mentioned him to force Qiu Mengmin to agree.

Princess Yang held the list, flipping through it. She was shocked. She tried to calm herself down and said, "As what you just said, there are only two lists. You guys hold one copy, respectively. But the list for the Prince's Mansion of Xihe received is not available. As there is no cross reference, how should we know if yours are right?"

Ruan Qingyan said, "I also heard that there were two lists which were kept by my aunt before. But when she passed away, Yelan was not in the house."

From what he said, the implication was that the lists must be in their hands.

Princess Yang couldn't help cursing Madame Lu, "That old woman, she had dared to let Kang Jinzhang court Commandery Princess, and she even did not care about Ruan when Ruan was dying! If Qiu Yelan was there accompanying Ruan when she was dying, we should have planted the lie that Qiu Yelan got the lists. But now, it was obvious that Ruan had been dead for a long time before Qiu Yelan went back to the Prince's Mansion! How can I now ask Qiu Yelan to give me the lists?"

Now, Ruan Qingyan asked us to give them the lists!

"Though the lists are copies, there won't be mistakes as long as Prince gives the original one for cross-reference." said Ruan Qingyan, forcing them to the corner. "As you are busy now, I don't think we should sit here wasting time. Please give us the copies. We will go and check now."

Qiu Mengmin was nervous now. If he insisted, Ruan Qingyan, of course, would not break into the warehouse checking the stuff. But if he did not answer, Ruan Qingyan could report him to Xue Chang and ask for Xue Chang's help.

As he was wondering what to do next, Princess Yang talked coldly, "We are certainly not having their dowries lists. But I heard the stuff you guys had was sent to the Fang Family by Yelan, her sister's husband's home."

Noticing that Ruan Qingyan distrusted her words, Princess Yang proceeded, "Qingyan, if you don't trust me, you can send somebody to ask Fang Nongyan. He is in Hezhou!" She pointed to the lists, adding, "If both the lists were correct, you would be welcome to check the stuff in my warehouse."

— Long ago, General Ruan was defeated in a war. Because Fang Nongyan was involved in the war, he was relegated to an inferior place which was thousands of kilometers away from the capital!

What Princess Yang thought was that if Ruan Qingyan agreed to send somebody there asking for the truth, it would take about a year to go and return. The man sent by Princess Yang there was still on his way back!

If the Prince's Mansion of Xihe had the buffering time, they probably would figure out how to handle the trouble.

Hearing his wife's explanation, Qiu Mengmin felt relieved.

But Ruan Qingyan gave her an implicated look, saying, "No need to go to Hezhou. My sister and her husband will arrive in the capital a few days later. By then we can go and ask them. Will you come with me, Princess?"

Princess Yang said in a very shock, "How is that possible?"

"At the beginning of this year, my brother-in-law received a job transfer certificate commanding him to work in the capital. As it is too far away from the capital, he has been on his way since long ago." said Ruan Qingyan calmly. He thought to himself: I had done what I could do to take care of my sister. So what, the only granddaughter living in the world did not care about it!

When he was informed that Qiu Yelan had made up a story sending the lists the Fang Family, he had bribed some key officials for transferring Fang Nongyan to the capital.

What a coincidence it was! Ruan Qingyan tried everything to avoid Yang Tao, one of the officials in the Minister of Personnel, making trouble for himself. Fortunately, Fang Nongyan had been the County Magistrate for many years and the newcomers in the Ministry of Personnel knew nothing about his past. Plus, the department Fang Nongyan would work for was a place few people would visit in a year. For these reasons, the formal transfer certificate could be issued before Yang Tao vetted it.

Unexpectedly, his job transfer made big trouble for Qiu Mengmin.

Realizing that Qiu Mengmin and his wife were in shock, Ruan Qingyan knew what he did before was worthwhile. He said calmly, "So, don't worry. My brother takes many servants who had to work for them for many years in Hezhou. If Yelan did send something over there, it would be impossible to hide from everyone."

He gave a cold simile while speaking of this, "But I am curious. It was said that when Yelan went to the Mount Dizi, she only took a maid named Yue Zhi who had been dead because of the snow slide! And I also knew that the maids serving for my aunt and my sister are in your control, right? So, could you tell me how Yelan got a man to send the list to Hezhou?"

Damn it!

Qiu Mengmin and his wife felt like hearing a thunder over their heads.

Princess Yang repented that she focused on the list only at that time and did pay scant attention to the details! But now, everything blew up.

From Ruan Qingyan's words and pose, they realized that they had screwed up everything.

On the last glimpse of hope, Qiu Mengmin said, "Okay… Let's get it clear after they arrive in the capital!"

"They will be here within three days, the most." said Ruan Qingyan, standing up and speaking goodbye. "By then, I surely will be here with them!"

Seeing them off, Qiu Mengmin questioned Princess Yang immediately, "How many have you got from the old Princess's and Ruan's dowries?"

"Except some heavy furniture stored in Yelan's room, the rest…" said Princess Yang with trembling lips.

"Return them soon!" screamed Qiu Mengmin, standing up. "Go and get them back to the warehouse now! And don't forget to get some old seals nailed on the doors! Ruan Qingyan and Lian Ding had been here. I guess Fang Nongyan did not get the list. Ruan Qingyan and Lian Ding have support from Prime Minister Xue, Young Earl Ling and the Jiang Family in the next door. In the past, the Ruan Family was weak and had no power. It's okay to take advantage of them. But now, we should not have done it."

Princess Yang was also angry, "You did not say no when we took it! And the four treasures of study (including a brush pen, ink-stick, paper and inkstone) are also the stuff of old Princess's dowry… And you like them very much!"

"Do you think it's time to listen to your nagging? Go and get the things back!" screamed Qiu Mengmin.

"What about the stuff in Yuqing's room…" asked Princess Yang, giving him an angry look mixing with a smile.

"I'll return mine. You go and check every branch and ask them to return theirs. We must get it done in three days… The stuff missing or sold must get back or repurchase them using our account! Anyway, Hongzhi's wedding is drawing near. We must get everything out of the way!" ordered Qiu Mengmin, shaking his sleeve impatiently. "That's it. You go and get all things done now! I'll go and see Bian!"

His words made Princess Yang angry. She clenched her fist.

Xiuyan came over and said, "Princess, don't get angry at Prince. Our reputation would be ruined if Ruan Qingyan and Lian Ding made a big deal out of it!" Qiu Mengmin had been sentenced the name of disrespecting the official mother. Because of this, the Prince's Mansion of Xihe had been disgraced since then.

Adding an accusation of invading the niece's property would be the last straw of the whole family.

Thinking of this, Princess Yang felt disrupting, "Okay, okay. Let's go and see Qiu Yuqing now. That bitch must have got many stuff under the cover of Lu in the past. We go and ask her to give all back!"

"Don't forget Young Master Qiu Hongzhi." reminded Xiuyan. "We knew that Prince used to give him money behind your back. Taking advantage of the opportunity for giving stuff back to Commandery Princess Ningyi, we should check his account too. After this, he won't have money to bribe anyone!"

"Great idea!" said Princess Yang. Fighting against them encouraged her again. "And don't forget Bian… Huh! As Prince has been there by himself, we could let her live longer. But I won't let Tian and her son go this time."

After checking, it turned out that it was a disaster. Princess Yang was in a complete daze after being informed. "What? Only thirty percent left in the warehouse? Where are the seventy?"