Real Empress from a noble family

Hearing the news, Jiang Qizheng exploded with anger, "What a good Gu Family! They lost the game but they remember to make up things against us!"

Because the competition was over, He Shuijin finally got the chance to come back from Jiang Qisheng. She comforted her, "Luckily, Duchess of Huainan didn't believe it at once but sent a servant to check it with us."

"Duchess of Huainan didn't believe it, but others may," Jiang Qizheng frowned. "Many people may be cheated and spread that we are peremptory when they come back."

Zhuang Man didn't care, "Just rumors! You don't need to explain to those who like to believe rumors."

"That makes sense." The main reason why Jiang Qizheng was angry was that they were set up by Gu E'nuo. As for Jiang Family's reputation of being peremptory, it was already well-known.

He Shuijin smiled and said, "Thanks to Yelan, we can continue our outing!"

"If you didn't invite me, I must be boring at home." Qiu Yelan said politely. "We have been down here for a while. What about going up the hill and chat?"

Jinxiu Slope was not a mountain so it was not high. There were roads built and the carriages could go straight to the top. In He Shuijin's words, "The road close to the top has the best view. We'd better get off the carriage there and see it."

As a result, except for Jiang Qisheng who claimed a foot injury, everybody got off the carriage and walked slowly.

The road underfoot was built with bluestones and it wound like ripples. The stones were covered with green moss and looked quaint.

On both sides of the road, there were peach, plum, pear and apricot trees. Though not in full bloom, some flowers fell with the wind, which proved He Shuijin's good recommendation.

When the girls arrived at the top, they picked an open space with the most beautiful blossoms, started to set up an enclosure and roll out the mat, and then took out fruits and cakes, pen and ink, musical instruments like zheng(Chinese piano) and flutes.

Qiu Yelan walked around and found that although Jinxiu Slope was not high, the top of it was wide like an enormous platform. When the trees were in full bloom and thousands of people came here, it would not seem too crowded.

In this age, thousands of people were a big sum.

"Yelan, shall we go and see Duchess of Huainan?" Jiang Qizheng came when she walked to a peach tree. "And ask her what the Gu Family told her by the way."

"Has Duchess of Huainan reached the top?" Qiu Yelan asked.

"They are arranging things now." Jiang Qizheng pointed to a place in a distance, but with the flower trees, one could hardly see anything. "We are not familiar with Duke of Huainan's family, but Commandery Princess Lihui is lively and I've met her on several occasions and had some nice chat.

Hearing the name of "Commandery Princess Lihui", Qiu Yelan looked at Qiu Jinzhu who had been following her everywhere, "I remember you also know Commandery Princess Lihui?"

Qiu Jinzhu had no idea how Qiu Yelan would do to her for the fact that she had hidden Gu E'nuo and ratted, so she said carefully, "Every year on her birthday I went to Mansion of Duke of Huainan to give my congratulations." Then she added, "I invited her too on my birthdays, but last year she didn't come."

"Kang Lizhang became her father's concubine. How could she be happy?" Qiu Yelan sneered in her mind and didn't say it out in front of Jiang Qizheng. She just said, "Then you can follow us." Qiu Jinzhu feared she couldn't stay close to her, while she couldn't feel relieved to see Qiu Jinzhu out of her sight!

So Jiang Qizheng called He Shuijin and left Zhuang Man here in charge. The four girls went to Duchess of Huainan.

When they arrived, they saw the enclosure hadn't been set up but there were seats for Duchess of Huainan and company to rest.

"Here you are." Duchess of Huainan saw Jiang Qizheng and stood up as they were of the same rank. "I just said that I would go and thank you with my daughter after a break."

After greeting each other, they took the seat. Jiang Qizheng smiled, "No need to thank us. No one owns this Jinxiu Slope, but Shou'an insisted on competing with us and said the loser should leave. It had nothing to do with others. If you didn't send your servant to ask us, we wouldn't know she was such a sore loser."

Duke of Huainan's family also belonged to the neutral party. But in view of Duke of Huainan's special status, they were not so close to Xue Chang and didn't treat him as the party leader. Thus they were pretty carefree and didn't need to distance themselves from the Gu Family in front of Jiang Qizheng. Now Duchess of Huainan smiled and said, "She's young and likely to have a temper. We don't often come out so we wanted to know what exactly was going on before we went back with disappointment."

Senior concubine Mo said, "We heard about Chunfu Princess's personality and know Your Grace is not that kind of peremptory girl."

After they chatted for a while, Chu Yitong, Commandery Princess Lihui, suddenly said, "This lady is unfamiliar to me. Are you Commandery Princess Ningyi from Prince's Mansion of Xihe?"

"Yes, my name is Yelan." Qiu Yelan nodded. "Nice to see you, sister Lihui!"

"Nice to see you." Chu Yitong smiled. "My name is Yitong. I have heard from Mistress Kang that you are a beauty and as I see you today, I find she was being too modest on that."

Both Jiang Qizheng and He Shuijin didn't know Kang Lizhang became Duke of Huainan's concubine. After all, Kang Lizhang was not even an official's daughter, which meant she was not at the same level as them. Besides, she was just a concubine and there was no need to pay attention to a concubine.

Hearing suddenly from Chu Yitong that a concubine praised Qiu Yelan, they thought she was taunting her on purpose and both their face darkened.

"Why did a concubine mention me?" Qiu Yelan smiled. "My uncle…" She glanced at the girl in a colorful dress standing behind Duchess of Huainan and shut up significantly.

If a daughter from an ordinary family became a concubine, her family would feel shame, let alone a niece of Duke of Xihe?

Especially two years ago, two girls from the Yang Family had sex before getting married. Even now Qiu Jinzhu was called the cousin of Yang Yishi and Yang Yifu. What's worse, after only less than one year, Kang Lizhang chose to be a concubine, which made Qiu Mengmin and his wife furious and they claimed to disown this descending niece.

That was why last time Kang Lizhang had to sneak to tell Qiu Yelan some clues of the missing industries of Prince's Mansion of Xihe. If the guard knew the servant was sent by Kang Lizhang, he wouldn't let the servant in.

At the moment, Qiu Yelan referred to this concubine thing, Duchess of Huainan coughed lightly and said, "Yitong, watch your words."

Then she said, "Commandery Princess Ningyi, don't mind her. She's spoiled by me and often says something without careful thought. She doesn't mean anything."

Qiu Yelan smiled, "Never mind."

Jiang Qizheng and He Shuijin realized there was something behind, but it was not convenient to ask now, so they stood up and asked permission to leave.

Duchess of Huainan and the senior concubine gave some insignificant words and then let Chu Yitong see them off on behalf of Duchess.

As soon as she went out of the sight of Duchess of Huainan, Chu Yitong took Qiu Yelan's hand and said, "Don't mind me mentioning Mistress Kang. Do you know why my mother and I came to Jinxiu Slope on such a cold day, especially when my mother is old? It was because of Mistress Kang!"

Qiu Yelan was stunned for a moment, "Why?"

"She said she wanted to meet you but was afraid that with the status gap, you wouldn't see her. So she asked us to come with her and cover for her." Chu Yitong sneered. "In my opinion, you should ignore her. She used to be the daughter of a good family, liked by Duke of Xihe, and grew up in his mansion, but she decided to be my father's concubine! It was right for you and your uncle to cut off the relations with her!"

Jiang Qizheng and He Shuijin was surprised, "It turns out that Mistress Kang is your cousin Kang Lizhang? How come she became a concubine?"

Qiu Yelan sighed, "I have no idea." She lowered her voice, "Actually I know, but it's not proper for me to tell."

Chu Yitong was thinking about ways against Kang Lizhang, so she would love to listen. She held her arm tight right away, "Yelan, I want to tell you something, but please don't be angry. I heard that Mistress Kang's mother, your aunt, once nearly beat you to death! You are a Commandery Princess, while what is Qiu Yuqing? As they say, like mother like daughter. How can my mother not be bothered by her in our mansion? You see how old my mother is, so could you help us, at least for the sake of my filial piety to my mother?"

Hearing it, Qiu Yelan looked at Qiu Jinzhu.

Others saw it and it clicked. Chu Yitong said immediately, "That's impossible. Princess Yang did dislike her, but would she force her to be a concubine?"

Qiu Jinzhu was nervous and said, "That's nonsense! At that time, she and her mother disappeared suddenly and my parents sent people to look for them. But finally, when we heard the news, she had already moved into your mansion!"

She and Chu Yitong knew each other for years and she felt wronged now, "I intended to explain it to you on my birthday, but you didn't show up."

Chu Yitong was stunned and sighed, "You didn't know how hard my mother's life turned after Mistress Kang came…."

"My parents announced that they disowned her!" Qiu Jinzhu argued. "If she said something about my family, then she would be making it up!" She couldn't help complaining, "How could your father agree to let you and your mother come here with her to see her cousin! Who is her cousin?"

Chu Yitong said weakly, "My father is old and old people are often willful… Well, never mind. She was so confident and I thought it was because you also wanted to meet her!"

"If we did, she shouldn't have feared that we would refuse to talk with her for her status." Qiu Yelan exposed her lie calmly.

Chu Yitong was embarrassed, "Alright, she said she feared the noble girls you hang out with would despise her. I guess she was afraid that the same thing happened again when she came to our mansion with Jinzhu and was scolded by my cousin from my father's side."

"Now that it is clear, just let it go." Jiang Qizheng concluded. "The enclosure is almost done and Zhuang Man may be worried about us as we've been here for so long."

"OK." Chu Yitong nodded and said sorry again. "Please forgive me if I said something offensive."

"Never mind." Qiu Yelan said offhandedly. She took Qiu Jinzhu together and said goodbye.

After Chu Yitong was out of sight, Jiang Qizheng asked, "What does Kang Lizhang want?"

"I don't know either." Qiu Yelan thought it was abnormal for Kang Lizhang to do this. Then she thought Qiu Jinzhu was also up to something in this trip. Are they aiming at the same thing? It's very possible! Though she didn't care about the missing industries, Qiu Mengmin and Kang Lizhang did.

"Do both of them think I know where it is?" Qiu Yelan sneered in her mind. "If Jiang Yashuang didn't tell me, I would still not know it. Let's see how you are going to find it!"

Jiang Qizheng saw she was silent after a short response and deemed she didn't want to tell, so she stopped asking further. She said, "If you don't want them to bother you so often, shall I ask my aunt to keep them off for you?"

"I won't bother Her Majesty for such a trivial thing!" Qiu Yelan hurried to decline. If it involved Empress Jiang, a trivial thing would become a big one.

As they chatted, they arrived at their place and the enclosure was set up. All the carriages were parked in the shade and all was arranged well.

Yet Zhuang Man and other girls were not resting in the enclosure or waiting for them at the outside, but quarreling with a bunch of people, "Open your eyes and see. Do I need money as compensation? I won't let it go if that bastard is still alive!"

"Young lady, your Persian cat is only frightened, but our mastiff is borrowed from my friend and it is valuable to him…" That was a man's voice neither too fast nor too slow which sounded like a spring in the mountain. He was interrupted by a man behind him, "Commandery Princess Ningyi? Is she your friend? Can you explain it for us?"

Qiu Yelan felt that spring-voice man looked familiar. Then she looked to the man who was talking to her and found it was Qiu Feng dressed like a scholar!