Chapter 176 a.s.sa.s.sination!
“What the heck is going on?” Seeing that Jiang Yashuang and the others were far away from them and couldn’t hear them talking, Qiu Jinglan’s face suddenly turned gloomy, “It’s Her Majesty’s birthday today, but you unexpectedly took these people to my place. Do you want to make trouble?”
Qiu Yelan replied instantly, “Brother, let’s not talk about these now. We are in great trouble!”
Qiu Jinglan wasn’t surprised when he heard the words. He sneered, “Even if there was no trouble, now you’ve made trouble by bringing these people here with you.”
“That’s true.” Qiu Yelan was at a loss for words for a moment, but then said, “I misunderstood Princess Yongfu’s words. I thought that Empress Jiang knew your birth and wanted to take advantage of it. As I was worried about your safety, I ran out of the palace directly. But these people insisted on following me. I was too worried at that time to stop them. After getting here and seeing what happened, I realized that I had got it wrong!”
She said frustratedly, “So, we have to tell them now!”
Qiu Yelan’s gloomy look melted Qiu Jinglan’s heart, who changed his tone and said softly, “Since this is the case, let’s tell them.”
He frowned, looked at Jiang Yashuang, who was staring at him from afar, and sneered, “But I hope you didn’t trick me into doing it because you are afraid that Jiang Yashuang might misunderstand.”
“No way.” Qiu Yelan immediately acted girly, shook Qiu Jinglan’s sleeve and said softly, “You are the only one that matters to me.”
Qiu Jinglan laughed and scolded, “You little liar. Anyway, I won’t argue with you. Are you going to make it clear to him now? I can see that he already can’t wait to cut me up.”
“How dare he!” Though Qiu Yelan said so, she couldn’t help turning her head to look at Jiang Yashuang, who was staring at them right now. Qiu Yelan couldn’t see his expression clearly from afar, but it wouldn’t be good anyway.
Qiu Jinglan retorted, “Really?”
Qiu Yelan embarra.s.sedly retorted, “Do you have to get to the bottom of it? Well, okay, he is still a bit important, but how can he be compared with you?”
“Good.” Qiu Jinglan was very satisfied with his sister’s obedience, and thought about it, “If you want to come clean with him now, I think I’d better invite him to talk in the study. Otherwise, it’s not good to be with him in private now at the Ruan Family. However, if you enter the palace, you may not have the chance to talk with him. What’s more, someone might eavesdrop.”
Then he frowned and continued to ask, “Who is that Miss Ou?”
“Didn’t she say it in detail just now?” Qiu Yelan immediately took the chance to tease back.
Qiu Jinglan glared at her, “You brought her here!”
“I didn’t bring her. She followed me on her own!” Qiu Yelan pouted, “I still don’t know what her full name is!”
Qiu Jinglan frowned, “Really? Don’t give her any chance to come here again in the future. I’m too busy and have no time for her.”
Qiu Yelan promised certainly, “I also met her for the first time. I’ll evade her in the future.” She was not surprised that Qiu Jinglan did not want to respond to Ou Qinglan’s enthusiasm. After all, Qiu Jinglan was still mourning now. He couldn’t respond either for moral reasons.
What was more, there were too many beautiful women pursuing Qiu Jinglan. Although Ou Qinglan might be the n.o.blest one, Qiu Jinglan never took women seriously except for his cousin. Take Hua Shenshen, who had made great efforts to make contacts with n.o.bles in Jing City for him, for example. Not long after she introduced Ling Zui to Qiu Jinglan, Qiu Jinglan made her help Penglai Yue in Courtesan Compet.i.tion.
Now that Ou Qinglan, a straightforward young lady, adored him, she might have to suffer a lot in the future.
“Then you have to more careful!” Qiu Jinglan reminded, “She is not so easy to evade. She might beg you a lot, but you need to ignore her!”
“Of course.” Qiu Yelan proudly said, “I’m not soft-hearted! Besides, you are such a good brother, who has been nice to me, but only for a few years. Now, someone already wants to take you away from me. No way. She should be thankful that I didn’t beat her up.”
Qiu Jinglan liked what she said and then responded with a smile, “Relax, now that the big sister is here, it will be more convenient for you to come over. I won’t get married before you, and will never let you down because of my marriage.”
“Jinglan, you’re so nice!” Qiu Yelan got a radiant smile on her face, but thought bitterly in private, “I wish you could get married early. Now half of your focus is on the current situation, and the other half is on me.”
The two talked a bit more about how things went lately, and then ended their private conversation. They started to walk towards Jiang Yashuang and the others.
As soon as they came near, Jiang Yashuang stared closely at Qiu Yelan and said in a deep voice, “Lanlan?”
“I’ll tell you. Come with me!” Qiu Jinglan said briefly, turned and walked away. The reason why he suddenly became so arrogant was, of course, because of his ident.i.ty as Yashuang’s future brother-in-law. He had to put on air for Qiu Yelan. Let alone his natural hostility towards his brother-in-law, the Jiang Family was a big force now. As Qiu Yelan’s brother, his att.i.tude had been too modest. He would be considered to be under the power of the Jiang Family, and thus let Qiu Yelan lose face.
However, Qiu Jinglan only took Jiang Yashuang into consideration, but not Princess Yongfu, who had long been unbearable and hadn’t lost her temper only because of Jiang Yashuang’s appeas.e.m.e.nt. She immediately sneered, “How dare you talk to my cousin like this? Do you think you can treat my cousin as a servant just because he likes Yelan?”
Qiu Yelan was shocked and hurried to help, “Your Highness, please don’t take it wrong.”
“Take it wrong?” Princess Yongfu said angrily, “We saw with our eyes that you kept on pawing each other in broad daylight. Did you treat my cousin as a dead person? My cousin can tolerate you, but I can’t!”
Ou Qinglan saw that both Qiu Jinglan and Qiu Yelan could not find a way out, so she stepped forward to hold the arm of Princess Yongfu who was going away, “Your Highness, please calm down. Young master Ruan looks like a very smart person. How could he do such an unwise thing in front of us? I think they might be like close to each other like real brothers and sisters. Anyway, didn’t they say that there will be an explanation? How about listening to this explanation first?”
Princess Yongfu had always been indulgent. How could she be willing to listen? She took her arm back with force, “Shut up! Ruan Qingyan, explain to me. What is your relationship with Commandery Princess Ningyi? If you can’t explain it clearly, I’ll…”
“Yongfu!” When it was about to get out of control, Jiang Yashuang closed his eyes and groaned, “I’ve already waited for a long time. There’s no harm to go with him. Just stop talking.”
Princess Yongfu did not have any real brothers. She only had cousins from Empress Jiang’s maternal relatives. Jiang Yashuang was one of them, but she treated him like her real brother. Although she was still angry, she bit her lips and stopped talking with annoyance, still staring at Qiu Jinglan and Qiu Yelan with an unfriendly look.
However, Qiu Yelan liked the way she had protected Jiang Yashuang, and cast an appreciative glance at her. Then he said to Jiang Yashuang, “Let’s go to the study and talk.”
Jiang Yashuang nodded blankly.
Unexpectedly, when the two were about to go to the study, another servant came over with cold sweat on his back to report, “There are two eunuchs at the back door. They said they wanted to find General Jiang and Princess Yongfu for urgent matters!”
“Find us? Why?” Princess Yongfu asked in surprise.
Jiang Yashuang immediately got it, “The palace must have known that we suddenly came to Ruan Family. Since they are at the back door, it’s very likely they were sent by my aunt, who wants to help us.” He immediately stopped going to the study, and said in a low voice, “Let them come in and ask what is going on!”
After hearing it, the crowd temporarily put aside what Qiu Jinglan was going to say, and hurriedly greeted the two servants, whose robes were messy. They must have run all their way here. And one of them was still holding a golden box in his arms.
When he saw Jiang Yashuang and Princess Yongfu, he didn’t even have time to salute. He directly raised his hand, handed the golden box over, and gave a series of explanations, “You came to the Ruan Family to get this. After young master Ruan got this for Commandery Princess Ningyi, he was worried that she was young and might break it accidentally, so he kept it for her. However, he forgot to give it to her before she entered the palace. After going to the palace today, Commandery Prince remembered it, so she hurried back to get it. As for the rest of you, you were just curious and wanted to check it out early. That’s why you all came together.”
Another eunuch said, “Remember, you have never entered the front door of the Ruan Family. You have only waited at the back door. Now all your carriages and horse are at the back door, and the doormen at the front and back doors have been warned that you have never entered the door today!”
Everyone quickly nodded together. Then, Princess Yongfu asked, “What about the palace?”
“Empress Dowager is furious!” The eunuch wiped his sweat. “I have no time to elaborate. Let’s go back first. If someone asks why it took you so long to get it, tell… just say that the key to the warehouse couldn’t be found for a while! ”
Princess Yongfu repeated the saying for several times, “Remember it. Let’s all say that… don’t get imposed in front of my grandmother!” Then she looked at the two eunuchs again, “You don’t look familiar, so you can’t be eunuchs in the inner palace. You have rendered a good service this time, so I will definitely give you a good word after going back!”
The two eunuchs were overjoyed. At a bang sound they knelt down to the ground, showing their grat.i.tude towards Princess Youngfu.
“OK, OK, let’s go back quickly in case my grandmother finds fault with my mother’s birthday!” Princess Yongfu, who was upset, waved to urge them. At this time, Qiu Yelan was anxious, “But my brother…” It was possible that Empress Dowager Gu would send someone to kill Qiu Jinglan after they left.
Even the reasons for the killing were readily available now: The Gu Family suspected that Qiu Jinglan had seduced Deng Yi’s fiancee.
“Go back for…” Before Qiu Jinglan finished speaking, the two eunuchs, who kneeled not far away from him and were about to stand up, suddenly moved as quickly as a rabbit!
One of them got out an elaborate crossbow from his back, and there was a touch of turquoise color on the arrow. Even a blind man could tell that the arrow was highly toxic!
The other one put both of his hands into the opposite sleeves and pressed hard. Suddenly thick pink fog was sprayed from the sleeves.
This change was so abrupt. After all, everyone was now thinking about how to deal with the questioning of Empress Dowager Gu after returning to the palace. In addition, no one doubted the two eunuchs, so that they could come really close. When the crowd found out there was something wrong, the pink fog had spread over more than ten meters in an instant, almost covering Qiu Yelan, the rest of them as well as their servants.
After she accidentally inhaled a little bit, Qiu Yelan suddenly felt dizzy.
Of the people who were plotted against, Qiu Jinglan and Jiang Yashuang had the highest fighting skills.
They were also the fastest to react as they almost stopped breathing in an instant. At that time, there was absolutely no problem for them to withdraw from the poisonous fog with their flying kung fu skill.
But the a.s.sa.s.sin had obviously taken everything into consideration: Qiu Jinglan wouldn’t leave Qiu Yelan behind!
It was also impossible for Jiang Yashuang to leave Qiu Yelan, Princess Yongfu and Ou Qinglan behind!
So they were unable to retreat at all! And there was no way for them to fight back because they had to save people first.
According to their memories before the spread of poisonous fog, Qiu Jinglan and Jiang Yashuang made their first cooperation. Qiu Yelan and Princess Yongfu were almost simultaneously thrown to the rear where the poisonous fog was out of reach!
The difference was that Princess Yongfu was supported by a gentle force when she landed. She stumbled and stood firm, but Qiu Yelan, who was rescued by Qiu Jinglan and Jiang Yashuang at the same time, landed badly due to the two internal forces. She fell to the ground hard and couldn’t get up for quite a while.
Finally, it was Ou Qinglan. She had lost consciousness when she was thrown out.
“My grandmother, she…” Princess Yongfu was furious, clutching her sleeves and looking into the fog on her tiptoe. The princess had no kung fu at all, so she couldn’t help now.
“The Empress Dowager Party is indeed ruthless!” Princess Yongfu only knew that her grandmother, Empress Dowager, could not bear it, and took the lead to fight against the Empress party. But Qiu Yelan knew that the a.s.sa.s.sination was targeted at Qiu Jinglan!
This happened only a short time later after she went to the Ruan Family due to the misunderstanding. The Empress Dowager party actually launched an a.s.sa.s.sination in the name of Empress Jiang. It is conceivable that if the a.s.sa.s.sination were successful, Empress Dowager Gu would blame the Empress Party for the murder of Young Prince of the former Duke of Xihe. Even the tragedy that had happened to Ruan and Qiu families thirteen years ago would also be planted on the Empress party.
Qiu Yelan stood up with her trembling lips, looking at the poisonous fog where booming sounds came over from time to time. But she dared not go in. She was not afraid of death. She was just afraid of becoming a burden.
After all, ninety percent of her force was based on the subtlety of her skill. In an environment that required internal force to resist the poison fog, she was no different from an ordinary people.
Qiu Jinglan and Jiang Yashuang hadn’t got out of the poisonous fog yet. She also got it: now they were on the path in the garden, and the poisonous fog just happened to be a barrier. Those two were worried that once they got out of the poison fog, the a.s.sa.s.sins would follow them out. By that time, Qiu Yelan, Princess Yongfu and Ou Qinglan would all be directly exposed to the attacks!
So they would rather keep the attackers in the poisonous fog.
“Your Princess, drag Miss Ou over there to hide for a while, and then you also hide there. I will go get someone!” Qiu Yelan took a deep breath, forced herself to calm down, and told Princess Yongfu. Then she just ran towards the place where she recalled that there were lots of people, without time to care about if Princess Youngfu would actually do what she had told her to do.