Real Empress from a noble family

Unlike what Qiu Yelan had expected, Ruan Qingyan didn't go straight to her and lecture her. Instead, after he came back to Jing City from burying General Ruan in the Emperor's tomb, he didn't come to Qiu Yelan in half a month!

The reason is simple: he was so busy!

He had to thank the emperor, receive the guests, especially General Ruan's old contacts who had rarely visited him when he had been alive, and follow the end of the conflicts between the Ding Family and the Yang Family. This result was a relief for Xue Chang. As he had expected, his insisting on posthumously awarding General Ruan led Empress Dowager's party to suspect he wanted to seize upon the defeat of General Ruan that year, so their attention to the Ding Family and the Yang Family was distracted to a more important thing, the military command of the Western Army.

The final result of the conflicts between the Ding Family and the Yang Family was that Ding Yiming, the head of Hanlin Academy, was demoted from senior-level three Hanlin Academician Recipient of Edicts to junior level three Inspector of Shangzhou because of his nephew. Ding Qingyan was exiled to Lingnan for a year and he had to marry Yang Yishi's memorial tablet, which means his future wife would be his second wife. This would surely have an impact on his future marriage.

Yet the Yang Family was no better. Yang Yishi was not forced by Ding Qingyan in this incident, so it was Yang Tao who hadn't taught her daughter well. He could no longer be an official in the capital and was demoted from senior-level four, upper Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Personnel to junior level six, upper District Magistrate, thanks to the Empress Dowager's party's endeavor.

Or else, according to Chancellor Dou of the Directorate of Education, this man couldn't even teach her daughter well, so he should have no qualification to be an official! Well, as for Ding Yiming, he was only the uncle rather than the father. Everyone knew that Ding Qingyan was raised by his grandmother Madame Xue, who was already over 60 and could be exempted from such punishment!

The conflict which had lasted for so long was resolved so quickly and it was because the Empress Dowager's party was alerted by General Ruan's death and the Western Army. Ruan Qingyan was the grandson of the former commander of the Western Army, General Ruan. Even though he was in the mourning period, he couldn't get himself out of it.

Ruan Qingyan certainly needed much time and endeavor to think about how to take advantage of this situation, at least to make sure he would not get into trouble. So temporarily, he had no time to care about his naughty cousin but had to take as much time as possible to look after Ruan Ciyi!

Qiu Yelan was surprised when she heard it, "Cousin Ciyi? Didn't she divorce Fang Nongyan? Why he has to take so much care of her?" Ruan Ciyi was now in General's Mansion. Well, it was now the Ruan Family Mansion and she was back to the good life where she was served by many servants before her marriage!

It didn't mean that since he had given her such a good life, he could leave her alone, but…. According to what Chunran heard from Qiuran and Dongran when she sent something there, Ruan Qingyan almost came to this elder sister several times a day and often asked the servants to talk deep with her with care, but he was still worried…. What was happening?

"Most of elder sister's scars were not given by Fang Nongyan, but by Suxin who did that under her own order." after half a month, Qiu Yelan couldn't help going to Ruan Qingyan and asking him and he told her. "That was because after her own two daughters and a son were murdered by Hua and Yan, Fang Nongyan believed his concubines and blamed her for not taking good care of her children. You know she used to be adored by grandpa and would not accept such a result. So she took her close maids who followed her since she got married to question Hua and Yan, but this was known by Fang Nongyan and she was beaten by him… Those close maids were also sold by Fang Nongyan."

Saying this, he sighed, "At that time, she had no relatives around her and could do nothing to him. If it were not because there was no other descendant in the Ruan Family and she didn't want her dowery to go to Hua and Yan, she would have killed herself. Maybe because she was too sad and blamed herself too much for her children's deaths, she asked Suxin to belt her to relieve her feelings of guilt…. Thus as time went… When they came back here, Suxin found a chance and told me about it. That's why I want her to separate from Fang Nongyan."

Qiu Yelan was surprised, "Then why was she unwilling to part from Fang Nongyan at first?"

"She thought that was not enough." Ruan Qingyan said flatly. "In my view, she has a complex feeling to Fang Nongyan. They were husband and wife and I heard from some servant that they used to love each other deeply. So when she saw me, she knew she had a brother to depend on and hoped Fang Nongyan could change his mind and punish Hua and Yan. She thought only in this way could she feel good again!"

"That's really…" Qiu Yelan opened her mouth and thought: Don't ruin yourself when taking revenge! What's good to stay with that scum? It's better to marry a better man with the help of your brother and show off to Fang Nongyan! Certainly, there is no need to show off now as he is soon going to die. Hua was sunk into the river. Yan and Fang Zijun lost Fang Nongyan as their prop. Even though the Ruan Family doesn't punish them, they won't end well. So Ruan Ciyi should stay healthy and prepare for her second marriage!

But when she was considering whether such words would make her scolded by Ruan Qingyan, he suddenly changed into the lecturing mode. He said, "You have seen what happened to her. In the past, grandpa was so good to Fang Nongyan because of her! He had got benefits from grandpa, so how could he feel unhappy when grandpa was defeated? The elder sister had been married to him for over a decade. Although she once felt jealous of his concubines, she still had children, did housework, and even sold almost half her dowery for him… But he never thought of these!"

"That Jiang Yashuang…"

Qiu Yelan groaned and felt powerless, "I never went to him since you told me not to!" He came to me twice, but I ignored him! Of course, she didn't say it out….

Ruan Qingyan took no notice of her resistance and gave her a lecture of "How a woman ends in 99 sad ways if she doesn't have a good husband". Not until Qiu Yelan wanted to bump her head against the wall, did he let her go, "OK. Go back and be careful on the way." Then he regretted, "Your Cousin Ciyi is still not well these days and I can't let you stay with her now. When she becomes better, I will be reassured about you two living together here."

I will never come! Qiu Yelan thought as she cried in her mind, "I only come here once in a while and you lecture so much to me. If I really stayed here long, how could I live well?"

Back to Prince's Mansion of Xihe, Qiu Yelan heaved a long sigh of relief and felt safe.

But at night, she found she heaved the sigh too early!

She woke up at midnight hearing some noise from the rear window. She thought it was Jiang Yashuang. Thinking of the lecture given by Ruan Qingyan during the daytime, she felt unhappy and pulled away her covers. She went barefoot to the back of the screen and found the noise didn't come from the inside, but the outside.

She didn't think twice but opened the window, shouting, "I have told you not to come, but you just won't listen! If my cousin knew it, he would… he would…" She didn't finish her angry words when she saw Qiu Feng lying on his arm on the persimmon tree and drinking spirits from the jar. She was shocked, "You…. Why are you here?"

It seemed that Qiu Feng was drinking to the moon. He put down the jar and smiled at her, "Your cousin asked me to guard you as he was afraid that someone might come and disturb you."

Qiu Yelan asked discreetly, "Then did you hear something?"

"I will complete what I was entrusted." Qiu Feng's smile was pleasant and frank. But in Qiu Yelan's eyes, it was annoying: "You are doing a wrong thing! My cousin will surely beat me to death!"

Qiu Feng took a sip of the spirits and smiled, "He cares about you much, or he wouldn't let me guard you." It implied that you shouldn't worry that he might beat you to death.

Something came to Qiu Yelan's mind, "Are you a member of Tianya?"

"Tianya?" Qiu Feng was always free and easy, but when he heard this name, his face darkened. After silently taking another dozen of sips, he sighed, "No, I'm not." He paused for a moment and said seriously, "I never belong to it!"

A hero was always a person with stories!

Qiu Yelan asked in curiosity, "Then why do you listen to my cousin? Are you also hired by him?"

Tell me how much money you need to keep your mouth shut! I'm rich now!

But she was proved to have underestimated Qiu Feng's integrity and IQ. Qiu Feng laughed and shook his head, "I do receive money from him, but I do this mainly to return his favor. Your Grace should not ask more. Now that I was entrusted with this task, I will tell him what I saw and heard."

"Don't push me!" Qiu Yelan was angry. She waved her fair little fist to him and growled, "If you pushed me to the end, I would never let you get away with it!"

Apparently, Qiu Feng didn't see it as a threat. He only said wryly, "Your Grace is still young. It's good to listen to your cousin."

To Qiu Yelan, his words sounded like "little Yelan, you should be a good girl and listen to your cousin so that you can have candies". She got furious immediately, "Are you looking down on me? Do you think I'm too young? Do you dare battle me?"

Qiu Feng took a sip of the spirits and guessed correctly, "Do you mean if you win, I will not tell your cousin what I heard?"

A famous man in the world of Jianghu was always sophisticated!

As her provocation failed to work, Qiu Yelan quickly turned to play the role of a feeble maiden. There were sparkling tears in her peach blossom eyes and she seemed so poor. She put her hand on the window ledge and stared at Qiu Feng sadly as if looking at a man who had cheated her for her whole life. It seemed that she would cry aloud in the next moment, but she said, "If you don't give me a chance to save myself, I will tell my cousin that you covet my beauty…"

Qiu Feng laughed and interrupted her, "He knows that I won't do anything improper to Your Grace. That's why he entrusted me."

"Really?" Qiu Yelan changed from a poor little girl to a vicious little monster and sneered with her hands on her hips, "Then I will tell him that I like you! I must marry you! And then give you a hard life!"

"Ahem…." Qiu Feng, who had been light-hearted, fell from the tree together with his jar!

He stood up embarrassedly and gazed at Qiu Yelan with a strange eye for a long while before he said with his lips twitching, "Your Grace, please don't be joking."

"You think I can't make it happen?" Qiu Yelan slapped the window ledge and sneered. "It was not the first time that I had seen Jiang Yashuang at midnight and my cousin has been considering my future marriage for a long time. He doesn't like Jiang Yashuang but he trusts you. You tell me, will he agree with me if I tell him I want to marry you?"

Qiu Feng muttered, "That's impossible…."

Qiu Yelan was confident, "Oh? Then tomorrow I…"

"I promise you." Qiu Feng wiped away his sweat and sighed. "But only this time and don't play tricks, like you want to have a competition in sewing…"

"I know nothing about that either!" Qiu Yelan admitted without hesitation that she was a disqualified noble girl. She ran to her bed to put on her shoes and then jumped out from the rear window. She walked slowly to Qiu Feng and gave a strange smile, "In order to be fair, I decide to compete with you in something you must also be good at!"

Her slim finger pointed lightly to the jar in his hand, "Spirits!"

"You mean who can drink more spirits?" Qiu Feng glanced at this little girl who was lower than his shoulder and couldn't help laughing. Yet before he said his refusal, a light cough came from not far away. It was Jiang Yashuang in a green robe coming from under a tree. He smiled, "Yes, but, your rival is me!"