Real Empress from a noble family

Qiu Yelan walked out, thinking in confusion. She found Dongran following her after she walked a long distance. "Anything report?" she stopped to ask.

"Lady Ciyi has not come so far. Should we inform her?" asked Dongran lightly. "Young Earl Ling has been here helping us now. But she is absent. This is…."

"Ruan Ciyi is not here?" asked Qiu Yelan with a surprise. General Ruan was still alive by his last breath, but he would pass away in any minute. Ruan Ciyi, the only grandchild related by blood was not in a hurry to see him. "Did you send somebody to invite her already?"

Dongran nodded. "The man came back and reported that she was a little busy now. She would be here later. But now Young Earl Ling and Qiu Nie have been here. Lady Ciyi still doesn't show up. This is…."

Qiu Yelan stopped to answer her for a moment and said, "Go and invite her again." She paused and continued, "Remember, if the thing she is busy with was not urgent, tell her to hurry up. Or she would be gossiped because of this."

A doorman came and reported that Ruan Ciyi and her family members came while they were talking. It was reported that three persons coming here. Ruan Ciyi and her husband, and the other one was Fang Zijun whom Qiu Yelan hated deeply.

Hearing that this pretentious nephew was here, Qiu Yelan felt disgusting.

But, he was Ruan Ciyi's son and his great-grandpa would pass away soon. He must be here to see him. Thinking of this, Qiu Yelan said to Qiuran, "Keep an eye on Fang Zijun. Although he is young, he is wicked. Remember, the most important part is that he always has dirty minds."

Qiuran nodded and then she hurried to the front door for entertaining guests.

Ruan Ciyi and her husband had taken off their bright colored clothes. They dared not to wear mourning dresses as General Ruan was still in his last breath. They seemed to have a lot on their minds. Fang Zijun, their son, cared nothing instead. He looked around with a sense of wonder. After seeing Qiu Yelan, he deliberately twisted his head to the side.

Qiu Yelan disliked him more after seeing his resentful behavior. For politeness, Qiu Yelan called Ruan Ciyi and greeted her, and then she had an empty talk with Fang Nongyan for a second. "You also come, huh?"

Looking at Fang Nongyan's figure, he must be a handsome man ten years ago. Or he would not have been General Ruan's son-in-law. At that time, General Ruan was a favorite man in the nation. After he was demoted and moved to Hezhou over ten years ago. He must have been busy in connections since then as he became canny from a sharp man. When he saw Qiu Yelan at first glance, his eyes sold him out. In a second, he realized his status and turned his eyes away from her. He lowered his head and said politely, "Sorry, we are late, Your Grace. How about grandpa now?"

"Dr. said… he is not well." said Qiu Yelan. That was the last word she wanted to talk with him. Then she turned to Ruan Ciyi and said, "Ciyi, let's go in together."

Glancing Fang Nongyan and Fang Zijun following them, she turned back, saying uncritically, "Well, Fang Zijun is still a boy. He'd better not get in. People inside are busy now. He may get hurt inside."

The boy was ignorant and had malicious intentions towards his mother, Ruan Ciyi! Qiu Yelan did not trust him to get close to General Ruan, who's only got one breath left. At this moment, Ruan Qingyan was upset and uncomfortable. Anyway, she wasn't afraid to offend the Fang family.

Hearing her words, Fang Nongyan was embarrassed. He thought to himself: it must be Fang Zijun's actions last time that had ruthlessly offended this aunt. He was about to say a few words of reprieve, but unexpectedly, Fang Zijun shouted in a sharp voice, "This is Uncle Ruan's home. It's none of your business. Are you trying to stop me from seeing my uncle?"

A slap!

Qiu Yelan was stunned first, and then, she looked at Fang Zijun coldly. Fang Nongyan hurriedly slapped Fang Zijun in the face to stop him. He then shouted angrily, "How can you talk to your aunt like that?" He apologized to Qiu Yelan for his son, saying, "Your Grace, don't be critical of him, it's our fault. Over the past years, we only have this child. We have spoiled him too much."

Qiu Yelan looked at him emotionlessly and glanced at Ruan Ciyi out of the corner of her eye. She was in embarrassment as well. Ruan Ciyi saw Qiu Yelan being angry. She dared not speak. Qiu Yelan said faintly, "You'd better stay here and look after Zi Jun. Nowadays, everyone here has something to do. Please don't take it personally. Zi Jun is still a child. It may not be possible to take good care of himself nor do the maids. So, why don't you look after him yourself here? I will go inside with Ciyi to see Grandpa. Do you think this arrangement is okay?"

Fang Nongyan knew that she, as a Grace, was Ruan Qingyan's loved sister although she had lost her parents. And it's said that she could visit the emperor if necessary. So, he said yes promptly.

After leaving Nongyan and his son behind, Ruan Ciyi said to Qiu Yelan with a guilty, "My son, he… was rude just now. Sorry that he offended you."

"So, why are you late today?" asked Qiu Yelan. She did not reply to her words.

Ruan Ciyi's face froze for a moment and then she said, "Someone in the family is sick. I've delayed getting a doctor for her."

"Oh? It seems that you and Nongyan are fine, it's Zijun? But he doesn't look like he was uncomfortable, either?" Qiu Yelan guessed that this "someone" must be a concubine of Fang Nongyan. She was furious, but she still deliberately asked so.

Ruan Ciyi smiled bitterly and said, "Not us, but others." She paused for a while and continued, "Somebody is pregnant."

Qiu Yelan frowned, "Ciyi, we haven't met much before, and you are my elder sister. Reasonably speaking, it's inappropriate for me to say something about you. But there are no outsiders here now. So, no offense, I will speak it out frankly. Even though Nongyan has few children, and it is rare for his concubine to become pregnant. There is nothing wrong with being extra cautious. But on Grandfather's side, he is his wife's own grandfather, is he any less important than a concubine?"

This was simply a deliberate attempt to disgrace Ruan Ciyi. It's unlike that the Fang family didn't have maids to take care of the pregnant concubine, so much so that the Fang Nongyan was delayed because of it!

"Alas…." Ruan Ciyi sighed but did not speak.

Seeing her like this, Qiu Yelan could no longer criticize her but only pondered what to do with this matter.

Soon, the two arrived at General Ruan's room. Ruan Qingyan and Ruan An, who had been staying here all the time, saw them coming and immediately got up to greet them. Seeing Ruan Ciyi coming over alone, Ruan Qingyan was surprised and asked, "Where are Nongyan and your son?"

Qiu Yelan interjected, "I think Zijun is too young and we have no time to be distracted, so I asked Nongyan to take care of Zijun in the hall."

Hearing her words, Ruan Qingyan frowned imperceptibly and said, "He is, after all, my grandfather's great-grandson. It's better to call him over and meet."

Ruan An was afraid that Qiu Yelan would be embarrassed. He said promptly, "Your Grace, your concern is also true, it is indeed messy here. But now that Qingyan has regained his energy, even if Zijun came over, I don't think it would be a big deal."

Although Qiu Yelan was a bit upset in her heart, here was the Ruan family. She had asked Fang Nongyan and Fang Zijun not to come here before, which was also overstepping her authority. It was because Ruan Qingyan who took care of her and never cared that she was calling the shots in the General's office. So she pursed and didn't speak a word.

After a while, Fang Nongyan and his son arrived. As soon as Fang Zijun entered the door, he ran up to Ruan Qingyan and said, "Uncle Ruan, someone doesn't want me to see you!"

Hearing these words, Qiu Yelan immediately became severe. The couple rushed to stop him!

Ruan Qingyan was in a good mood. He raised his hand to gesture for the couple not to speak, and then touched Fang Zijun's head and lovingly said, "Zijun, keep your voice down, your great grandfather is sleeping."

Fang Zijun deliberately acted well before Ruan Qingyan. Upon hearing this, he immediately raised his hand to cover his mouth and blinked his big black eyes as he whispered, "Ah, is great grandfather here?" He looked left and right. He only found the person lying quietly in bed. He tiptoed over there and called the man. Of course, General Ruan would not answer him, so he ran back to Ruan Qingyan and said pitifully, "Uncle Ruan, great-grandfather ignored me because I am bad?"

If you were a good boy, then there would be no bad boys in the world!

Qiu Yelan thought with hatred in her heart, "The more I look at this kid, the more I hate him."

"Zijun has always been a good boy. Great-grandfather didn't mean to ignore you. It's just that he's so sleepy now that he can't even answer you… Don't be sad, look at this little frown in your face, it hurts uncle's heart." Ruan Qingyan smiled softly and hugged him up. Seeing Ruan Qingyan loved his son so much, Fang Nongyan sighed in relief and passed an apologetic look towards Qiu Yelan.

He probably hadn't thought that Qiu Yelan was sympathizing with Fang Zijun: "Why did Qingyan still call him over to cause trouble at this critical moment even he knew that this kid was not a good boy? It turns out that he is now planning how to deal with them!"

Although she still couldn't see what Ruan Qingyan was planning to do with them, judging from the fact that he immediately thought of her after he regained energy days ago, there was no way he didn't have a plan for Ruan Ciyi.

From what Qiu Yelan knew of Ruan Qingyan, it was highly likely that this so-called plan was involved in Fang Zijun.

Ruan Qingyan played with Fang Zijun for a second, and then whispered to the couple what Dr. Qi had said, Fang Nongyan hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Since it's just these few days, why don't we stay here with the grandfather?"

"What about your work…." asked Ruan Qingyan inquisitively.

"It doesn't matter. No much workload there…" said Fang Nongyan. He smiled awkwardly when he realized that he let slip it. After all, it was Ruan Qingyan who helped him to get the position. Now he mentioned the work was a relaxed one, it's inevitable to make others think that the position was not a good one.

Realizing what's going on here, Qiu Yelan thought to herself: Fang Nongyan was a smart man despite his one step back today for two steps forward tomorrow. But how a smart man like him taught a boy to be so naughty? Although he was six years old and not old enough to understand many things, he must be old enough to behave himself.

When she stood still and fumed, Ruan Qingyan was telling them to live in General's Mansion from now on, and to stay around with General Ruan for his last days.

As the shared aim was to stay with General Ruan, they certainly had to live in any place arranged for them. In fact, there were no extra rooms for so many people to live at the same time.

They briefly decided to leave Qiu Yelan to live in the Green Rose Garden where she used to live. The Fang Family would live in the Cuiwei Pavilion where Deng Yi used to live.

To take care of General Ruan, Ruan Qingyan and Fang Nongyan would take turn. They would live in the study which was next to General Ruan's room.

After their discussion, Qiu Yelan went back to the Green Rose Garden for dress changing. Qiuran followed her and said, "Young master said that you should not have any talk with Zijun later."

"What's his plan?" asked Qiu Yelan, plucking out a silver hairpin. She had asked Su He to comb an ordinary hairstyle for her. "I think Nongyan is a smart man but his son, Fang Zijun, is not like his father. They must not have taught him how to behave. I did not hear that he made big trouble for in Hezhou. Lucky them."

"We can't judge people by their appearances." said Qiuran with a smile.

This was a sentence with complicated meanings. Qiu Yelan thought quickly, "Fang Nongyan is a good man? No, he's not. Or how can he teach his son to be a boy I hate so much?"

She sighed and said, "Forget it. The most important thing currently is to take care of my grandpa."

"Your Grace, you take a rest. Qingyan will stay with grandpa tonight. I would inform you as soon as possible if something happened." said Qiuran.

"Okay." replied Qiu Yelan. She knew that Ruan Qingyan had everything arranged well. So, she went to see General Ruan at nightfall and then backed to her room for sleep. She thought when she was lying in bed: It was said that people who are dying would be spiritual suddenly for a while. Maybe, my grandpa would do this as well. If so, he would still have a chance to make some arrangements. She had taken him as an excuse for several times, but she never talked with him.

At midnight of the day, she was woken up, "Your Grace, General Ruan passed away!"