Real Empress from a noble family

After asking He Shuijin to help, Qiu Yelan was still worried. After getting back to her courtyard, she sent people to find out how the thing went.

Chunran was on this errand. She came back and told her, "Madame Tao was tired. She kept those people in custody and asked Madame Tao Junior and Young Master Yadan to go back… She'll deal with it when people from the Tao Family get here tomorrow."

"Did grandfather ask about it?" Qiu Yelan asked.

"I haven't heard. I assume Old Master doesn't want to say anything because the situation is unclear," Chunran guessed.

Qiu Yelan felt a force on her waist while thinking. She got pulled into someone's arms by surprise! Then Chunran who was in front of her bowed, "Young Master, you are back!"

"I got it. You are back. Chunran is still here. You!" Qiu Yelan pinched Jiang Yashuang's arm with a complaint. She watched Chunran going away rapidly and then turned around, "Why did you come back so early?"

"Didn't grandfather ask me to come back early to teach you family rules?" Jiang Yashuang kissed her on the neck and then went around to sit beside her. He held her waist and asked with a smile, "What's wrong? Why do you look so worried?"

Looking at his smiling face, Qiu Yelan was a little surprised, "Don't you know? Yadan's son Jinghu is dead!"

As expected, Jiang Yashuang's smile disappeared at once, "What happened?"

"He and his ninth sister were playing on the artificial hill and they fell into the water together. It's said that he was close to the shore. But Luan got there first, she forced the servant to save his sister first and then him. He died because of it," Qiu Yelan didn't remember the ninth granddaughter's name. After she said all that, Jiang Yashuang stood up suddenly and hurried towards outside. She went after him in a hurry, "Wait! I haven't finished yet. Now Jinghu's mother Madame Feng, Mistress Lu who used to be Madame Tao Junior's maid and others all accused Madame Tao Junior of killing Jinghu. It's such a mess. They said that they would talk about it when the Tao Family came tomorrow!"

Jiang Yashuang stopped suddenly. He turned around and asked, "Where was Madame Tao Junior when Jinghu fell into the water?"

"She was taking care of Shishui under grandmother's command." Just when Qiu Yelan stopped talking, Jiang Yashuang sneered, "I knew it!"

He thought for a moment, "You seemed to have complained that Jingheng and Jinghu were disrespectful to Madame Tao Junior?"

"Caiqi and others told you?" Qiu Yelan frowned and then said, "Yes. I was visiting Madame Tao Junior the other day. Their mothers and they went in to ask for things. And they had their eyes on Madame Tao Junior's bracelet. They snatched it without saying anything. Madame Tao Junior's wrist was pinched red!"

After saying that, she mused, "They began to scheme against Madame Tao Junior since then?"

"They haven't done that in front of others before!" Jiang Yashuang went black in the face. He said angrily, "I reminded Madame Tao Junior a long time ago that she should be strict when she needed to. Otherwise, others would only get greedier! She… Alas! Come with me to comfort Madame Tao Junior. I'll talk to Yadan!"

Qiu Yelan puckered her lips, "You need to talk some sense into Yadan. The way he looked at Madame Tao Junior today was not good!"

"Jinghu is dead. You can't blame him for having a bad mood. He may not really doubt Madame Tao Junior." Jiang Yashuang walked towards outside holding her hand, "Although Yadan is lascivious, he should know better than this!"

Jiang Yadan didn't do well in life. But he wasn't stupid! Madame Tao Junior wasn't favored and didn't have kids. What was the use of her killing Jiang Jinghu? If she wanted to vent her anger, as the lineal daughter of the Tao Family, how could she not have an escape plan while doing this kind of murderous thing and get exposed in an instant? The Tao Family taught her to be a lady not a silly girl!

However, Jiang Yashuang knew Jiang Yadan didn't have much love for Madame Tao Junior. Even he knew his wife was probably wronged, with ironclad evidence, he wouldn't mind remarrying a young and beautiful wife via this chance.

So, he needed to go and persuade his brother who had low moral integrity as soon as possible.

But just when they walked out of the door, they bumped into Madame Tao's maid, "Madame Yelan, Madame Tao asks you to come over!"

"She probably wants to ask me about my visit to the palace today," Qiu Yelan realized it at once and said to Jiang Yashuang, "Go find Yadan yourself. I'm going to talk to my grandmother."

"Okay," Jiang Yashuang nodded. They went separate ways.

When she was in front of Madame Tao, Madame Tao looked very different from usual. She was very gloomy. As expected, she asked without hesitation, "What did the Empress say?"

"Aunt agreed." Qiu Yelan said with respect, "Aunt gave me gifts and asked me to bring back her gifts for Shishui." Speaking of which, she didn't expect this. She thought the carriage of gifts she brought back should draw most of the attention in Marquess's Mansion on this day. She was psychologically prepared to deal with her sisters-in-law. However, Jiang Jinghu died, and no one had time to care for those gifts. Almost everyone was focus on this thing!

Even Sheng Shishui probably wasn't in the mood to check the gifts from the Empress. Her maiden family wasn't illustrious. Her origin was awkward. And her husband was a concubine's son whom his official mother hated. She was only doing all right after getting married because she had Madame Tao Junior this kind of kind sister-in-law.

If a fierce woman became her sister-in-law, even she already had a son by then, considering Jiang Yazhu's status in the Jiang Family, Jiang Yadan's new wife could bully her if she wanted to!

All in all, all sisters-in-law including Madame Dou Junior and her gang didn't want Madame Tao Junior to be replaced!

Unless it was their sister who was going to replace Madame Tao Junior. But as long as Madame Tao and Empress Jiang were here, it was nearly impossible for Jiang Yadan to remarry the daughter of the Dou Family or the Miao Family. They couldn't make the decision for Jiang Yadan. But they had many ways to undermine it!

"The one who wants to replace Madame Tao Junior is probably from outside. But the funny thing is that the outsider is most likely from Madame Tao's family…" Qiu Yealn thought. Madame Tao nodded while saying, "Did she say anything else?"

She pulled herself together and said, "No. Because Princess Changping came to report that Princess Yan was pregnant. I left after her."

"Princess Yan is pregnant?" Hearing this news, Madame Tao's look became gloomier. She knew exactly how much the Empress had suffered back then. Now she heard that Empress Dowager Gu was about to have a great-grandchild. She felt sorry for her daughter even more. But she couldn't scold Tang Xinyao who was a junior in her status. She had to take it out on her own family, "Qiyun is really useless! She married before Tang. But she is still not pregnant!"

Judging by her tone, she didn't seem to know that Jiang Qiyun had humiliated Prince of Qi. Qiu Yelan thought for a while and said nothing. Qiu Yelan just comforted, "Prince of Yan will just be a prince for his whole life. There is no need to care about him."

"That's right," Madame Tao squinted, "I bet Empress Dowager Gu is regretting it now, right? Her maiden family has raised such a good daughter!" If it wasn't for Gu E'nuo's mistake, Prince of Yan was better than Prince of Qi and now Princess Yan got pregnant first which would have given the Empress Dowager's clique the upper hand in the battle for Crown Prince!

Not like now, Prince of Zhou didn't want to confront the Seventh Prince so much that he tried so hard to avoid him. But he still slipped into the Seventh Prince's traps. His clumsiness always brought out his brother's cleverness.

Madame Tao pictured Empress Dowager Gu's remorseful and angry look after hearing the news. She felt a little better and asked while leaning her head, "Okay. Since the Empress didn't say anything else, let's talk about our family business!"

Qiu Yelan said with respect, "I'm all ears!"

"Your sister-in-law is wronged," Madame Tao sighed, "If she were willing to harm others, frankly speaking, with Yadan sleeping at his mistress's place almost every day and my help at home, Yadan wouldn't be able to have so many children!"

"You are right. If Madame Tao Junior didn't protect me the other day, I would be the one getting beaten!" Qiu Yelan said in a hurry, "She suffered a lot because of me. But she had no complaint against me which showed her generosity! I haven't married into our family for long. Let alone Jinghu whom she watched growing up."

Qiu Yelan's criterion was, "A good person was someone who treated me well. A bad person was someone who treated me badly. The rest were strangers.".

Madame Tao Junior protected her before. So, whether Madame Tao Junior harmed others or not, Madame Tao Junior was a good person to her.

Besides, considering how arrogant and imperious Jiang Yadan's concubines and their children were, Qiu Yelan felt even Madame Tao Junior did terrible things to them, they deserved it. Only you guys could humiliate the wife because you guys were favored. The wife was not allowed to fight back?

She said that from the bottom of her heart.

Madame Tao felt it. She felt both relieved and dejected, "However, there are too many people trying to harm her this time… I don't know if I can get her off the hook!"

"Grandmother, who is behind the scheme against Madame Tao Junior?" Qiu Yelan surely couldn't ask Madame Tao directly if her maiden family was behind it. She had to make a roundabout attempt, "Madame Tao Junior is so nice. I wonder who would want to harm her?"

Madame Tao's face was contorted. After a long while, she said, "Some people are just insatiable!"

So, was it really the Tao Family?

Otherwise, considering that Madame Tao was friendly to Qiu Yelan on purpose for the last few days and she didn't even hide her hate towards the first branch, if it wasn't that she really couldn't say, how could she not tell Qiu Yelan?

Qiu Yelan thought about how to answer it. Before she could say anything, Madame Tao said, "Anyway, I'm not in the mood of telling you the details… Let's wait to see the result when the Tao Family comes tomorrow."

She asked, "Is Yashuang back? Tell him to persuade Yadan and speak up for Madame Tao Junior. Don't let others fool Yadan!"

"When I came over just now, Yashuang has already gone to Yadan," Qiu Yelan said in a hurry.

Madame Tao sighed, "Hope he could talk some sense into Yadan!"

"Talk sense into Yadan?" After a while, Qiu Yelan went back to her courtyard. Jiang Yashuang was already back. He sat in the room sulkily with a livid face. She was a little surprised. She was about to ask him. But he asked her about her meeting with Madame Tao first. After hearing what she said, he sneered, "Yadan doesn't need people to talk sense into him. He knew exactly what happened!"

Qiu Yelan said in surprise, "Then what's he going to do with Madame Tao Junior?"

"He has been seeing the young daughter of the An Family for a few years. She is over 20 and hasn't married yet. She doesn't want to hear the gossip. So, she lives on a farm outside the city. She claims that she is recovering from her illness," Jiang Yashuang kept sneering, "He wants to marry her via this chance!"

"Then she is behind the scheme this time?" Qiu Yelan was surprised.

Jiang Yashuang shook his head, "How could the An Family meddle with our family business? But judging by Yadan's attitude, Madame Tao Junior is really in a tight spot."

He frowned tightly and exhaled, "Go talk to Shuijin tomorrow. She is experienced in this kind of thing. Alas. I just happen to be busy. Otherwise, I'll get to the bottom of it myself!"

"I have already talked to her," Qiu Yelan puckered her lips and said with doubt, "You are busy? Didn't you come back early today?"

"I'm not kidding!" Jiang Yashuang obviously wasn't in the mood of teasing her because his nephew was dead, and his sister-in-law was being condemned. He said flatly, "I came back early to write a constitution of the princess's wedding ceremony for the Seventh Prince!"

Qiu Yelan said in surprise, "Aunt took action so fast? But the wedding ceremony… Isn't the Ministry of Rites supposed to do that?"

"The Seventh Prince asked aunt to let me help him," Jiang Yashuang smiled. This prince was indeed smart. Jiang Yashuang who was the most beloved nephew of the Empress was his first choice. He showed that he wanted to be close to the Jiang Family. And also, he could use Jiang Yashuang's influence in the Jiang Family. If anything went wrong, Jiang Yashaung could take some of the pressure off him in front of the Empress.

"Anyway, I'll be busy from now on. You need to pay more attention to the family business," Jiang Yashuang sighed, "Not just Madame Tao Junior, Yazhu's harem is also a mess. Shishui just got pregnant. You watch out for her. Don't let those malicious people harm her!"

What he said turned out to be a prophecy. The next day morning, just after Qiu Yelan walking him out, she heard the news, "There seems to be something wrong with the rose cake Madame Shishui ate this morning. They are sending people to find the doctor. Madame Tao asked you to go there and keep an eye on!"