Real Empress from a noble family

Qiu Yelan hesitated for a while and finally decided not to mention it. After all, Fang Zijun was a child. She would be laughed at if others knew she told Ruan Qingyan about this child. Also, she had confidence in Ruan Qingyan that he would see Fang Zijun's true character in the end, however well he pretended in General's Mansion.

"'Uncle Ruan said I could do whatever I wanted'?" she sneered in her mind. "When my cousin and I first met, he also indulged my every whim. But when we got more familiar, he showed his true colors and was so controlling that whenever I saw him, I felt scary! Alas, how can I get through it this time?"

Thinking of her own stuff, Qiu Yelan was in no mood to care about Fang Zijun. That night she and Jiang Yashuang were caught together and Ruan Qingyan was so furious…. She thought for a long time with a frown. Finally, she covered her head with the quilt disappointed, "Anyway, both he and I can't go out now. Maybe his good mood will return as he rests in the house."

She also felt lucky, "According to what Chunfu Princess told me, thanks to the Jiang brothers, this thing has been hidden from others, or else I and my cousin would be in trouble. At that time, many people would twist the knife and it would be impossible to get back old Princess and Princess Ruan's dowries."

The day ended like that. Early in the next morning, Qiuran came for a visit with a basket of snacks.

Qiu Yelan felt guilty when she saw whoever from General's Mansion. After she woke up, she ventured to ask about Ruan Qingyan's wound.

Qiuran replied, "Young master will be OK. The doctor said that he could get up and walk in a few days. Please don't worry."

Then she added, "Old General is also fine."

After reporting the grandfather and grandson's condition, she talked about her real intention, "Last evening, young master heard that little young master Fang was naughty here, so he sent me to come and ask."

Qiu Yelan was angry in her mind, "That wild kid was probably twisted to try to kill my pet. I didn't punish him but gave him a set of glazed horses instead. How could he complain about me first?"

Her face darkened immediately. She said, "Well, that was not a big deal. I was talking with Cousin Ciyi yesterday. Seeing Fang Zijun feel bored, I asked Su He to take him to play in the yard, together with Whitey…. But it seemed that he hated Persian cats, or else why did he try to kill it when he saw it? All in all, it's just a cat and it was not something big. That was the first time we met and I won't be serious about his naughtiness."

Hearing this complaining talk, Qiuran hurried to appease her with a smile, "Don't get me wrong, Your Grace. Young master doesn't mean to blame you by sending me here. Actually, he wanted me to explain it to you. That boy is not Lady Ciyi's son. Young master inquired about them and found that she and her husband didn't have any children after her own son and two daughters died early. That may be because Young Master Fang was mad at Lady Ciyi for he was demoted years ago. Now all the children of him were borne by his concubines. If it were not you that Lady Ciyi visited yesterday, she would not have taken Fang Zijun together."

Qiu Yelan was surprised, "Fang Zijun is not Cousin Ciyi's son?" No wonder he did not look like Ruan Ciyi. She had thought he resembled Fang Nongyan!

"Young master was afraid that you might get her wrong because of little young master Fang." Qiuran sighed. "According to the old maids who followed Lady Ciyi when she got married, she had a hard time these years. Young Master Fang and little young master Fang's birth mother spoiled him very much, but Lady Ciyi couldn't say anything."

"I knew that no kid would try to kill his aunt's pet when he came to his aunt's for the first time!" Qiu Yelan quickly understood what was going on after she heard it. She couldn't help giving a cold smile, "I thought that kid had a poor character. Now I guess he is also malicious!"

It was obvious that Fang Zijun did it on purpose to make mischief between her and Ruan Ciyi!

She rubbed her forehead, "Now that my cousin knows that kid is not Cousin Ciyi's son, why did he also spoil him so that he said to me 'Uncle Ruan said I could do whatever I wanted'?" She was angered by it yesterday. It was like she was harsh to Fang Zijun as his aunt!

Qiuran smiled, "Young master said that little young master Fang had no descent from the Ruan Family. He is not related to either young master or Your Grace. Thus, why should we care whether he is good or bad?"

Like I said, my cousin's gentleness and sensitivity in the first meeting is fishy. He was not adoring Fang Zijun but he took him as an outsider and was just being polite!

"As you said, Fang Nongyan prefers his concubines to his wife? Or else Cousin Ciyi should have disciplined Fang Zijun well as his official mother," Qiu Yelan thought for a while and asked. "Before, they were in Hezhou, so even if we knew it, we couldn't deal with it. Now that they are here, are we still going to see Cousin Ciyi be bullied like this?"

"Certainly not. Yet Young Master Fang also knows that it is our young master who helped him to come back to the capital. In this case, he should not still be angry at Lady Ciyi," Qiuran said.

Qiu Yelan gave her a deep look and said, "In that way, I will rest assured."

But Mrs. Zhou couldn't rest assured. After Qiuran left, Mrs. Zhou said with upset, "Your Grace, I never thought Young Master Fang was someone that would be mad at Lady Ciyi because of Old General! He should think that without Old General, he would not have that high position in those days! Even though he is a Jinshi, many others could also be a District Magistrate in a remote place for more than a decade for many reasons such as lack of contacts in the imperial court, poor relationship with the superior, little political achievement… How could he blame Lady Ciyi? She must have suffered much in these years… Back to the days when her mother was alive, she was a pampered daughter…."

She chattered for a long while. Qiu Yelan still got the patience to listen, but Su He couldn't take it. She grasped Mrs. Zhou's sleeve, "Now Lady Ciyi is back and with Young Master Ruan and our Commandery Princess, if she were bullied again by Young Master Fang, she would have someone to support her."

Our Commandery Princess could kill a man and still be calm, even her uncle and aunt failed to defeat her. This cousin-in-law is only a level seven official who was transferred back to Jing City recently. Don't be silly to think he can make anything different.

Qiu Yelan understood what Su He meant and laughed, "I think I have no chance to interfere in it. Didn't you hear what Qiuran said? Cousin Ciyi's husband has known why he could come back to Jing City. If he cared about his career, he would have to treat Cousin Ciyi well."

Mrs. Zhou agreed and felt relaxed.

But she and Su He didn't know Qiu Yelan had other considerations: "Now that my cousin let Qiuran tell us he didn't take Fang Zijun as one he could trust, he certainly didn't like Fang Nongyan either. However, Cousin Ciyi now belongs to the Fang Family. If the father and son did something bad, she would also be involved. Did my cousin really force Fang Nongyan to treat Cousin Ciyi well only with his career? Well, when I was fighting with the three ladies from the Yang Family, I gained the upper hand and defeated them. Even so, he wanted to punish them more… This time, it's this Cousin Ciyi, who might be his real sister…."

"Fang Nongyan will get in trouble." Qiu Yelan was clear. "But what kind of the trouble?"

Probably because Ruan Qingyan was still nursing the injuries, in the next days nothing happened to the Fang Family.

Qiu Yelan was in no rush. As long as Fang Nongyan was not a fool, he would be good to his wife, whose brother just helped him to be transferred to Jing City. In this way, it was okay to get even with him several days later.

Then the day of Qiu Hongzhi's wedding came.

At this time, Qiu Yelan's foot did not fully recover, but she could walk around the yard.

Nevertheless, she didn't bother to attend it and still took her foot as an excuse for not going.

It was May 26. Listening to the uproar in the Mansion, Qiu Yelan was playing with Whitey idly. Although it was thrown to the ground by Fang Zijun, as he was still a little boy, Whitey only felt scared and two days later, it could run and jump as usual. But now it only stuck to Su He and would not stay close to any other servants in this court. It seemed to be really frightened by that incident.

Yet Whitey was clever to know who its real master was.

"They won't stop until midnight." Qiu Yelan listened and said to Su He. "Let Mrs. Zhou sleep in another room tonight, in case she couldn't fall asleep."

Su He replied, "Just now Chen Shui and others went there. They told me that although the noise was loud, there were not many guests today."

Qiu Yelan was not surprised, "The conflicts of Ding Family and Yang Family are getting more severe. I guess they would end up taking it to the imperial court if they kept doing it like this. They certainly had no mood to attend the wedding."

No mood was one of the reasons. Another was that the two families would fight whenever they met. It was ridiculous to fight on the wedding reception in Prince's Mansion of Xihe, so they could only send some distant relatives here or just send no one.

Thus, Qiu Hongzhi's wedding was doomed to be very awkward.

But no one could have expected that this wedding reception was not the most horrible part of Qiu Hongzhi's wedding. It was the day when the couple went back to the bride's home on the third day of their wedding that the most horrible thing happened. The Ding Family opened their gate widely to welcome their daughter and son-in-law, but the first one who walked into the gate was not Qiu Hongzhi and his wife, but a girl in mourning clothes who dashed suddenly from the crowd — Yang Yishi!

Before the Yang Family changed their stance, they were also the neutral party like the Ding Family. The two families often had contact with each other, though not so close, or Ding Qingyan would not have a chance to seduce Yang Yishi.

If Ruan Qingyan hadn't become a Jinshi and rose to fame at the age of 18 during that time and if Yang Yishi hadn't determined to revenge against Qiu Yelan, she would not have taken Ding Qingyan for Ruan Qingyan or been tricked to this extent today.

Many of the young and old maids at the gate knew her as she was the daughter of the Minister of Personnel. At this moment, they saw her and knew something bad might happen, so they quitted making congratulations to Qiu Hongzhi and his wife but all ran over, trying to stop her.

Yet having sneaked in the crowd and stayed silent for a long time, Yang Yishi was prepared for this chance. As soon as she walked into the gate of the Ding Family, she yowled, "Ding Qingyan! You will never get away with it!" The old maid who was closest to her could only grasp the edge of her drawstring when she had already taken out a dagger from her sleeve and gashed her throat with it!

The blood spurted out to the head and body of everyone around her, including the newly married couple!