Chapter 111 The Lost Property
Old people are usually light sleepers, as was with Madame Tao.
She woke up as usual and groomed. Then her confidant, the old maid Mom Hu, came in. After the other maids were sent away, she whispered to her what had happened last night. Although Jiang Yadan believed that the guards dared not leak out anything, it would be ridiculous that Old Madame Tao should be deceived by a grandson in the residence.
“Does anyone else know about this?” Madame Tao asked, frowning.
Hu whispered, “The young master gave the ban and the younger brother found a reason that he was injured in practice… No one knows yet.”
“Then just treat it as if nothing happened.” Madame Tao said immediately.
Seeing Mom Hu wanted to say something, Madame Tao sighed, “Why? Can’t you do it?”
“It’s not that.” Hu responded instantly, “You said it didn’t happen. How could it be let out?” She hesitated and said, “I just think the Commandery Princess next door… is not very reserved!”
Madame Tao said casually, “Don’t care whether she is reserved or not! Anyway, my grandson is fond of her.”
Hearing this, Mom Hu knew that Madame Tao liked Qiu Yelan’s status as a Commandery Princess and an orphan with no power behind her. She would not bring threat to Madame Tao Junior in the family, although she felt it would be unfair for Jiang Yashuang to marry such a shameless girl. She smiled, “Commandery Princess Ningyi is so lucky and Madame is tolerant. People in other families would…”
“It’s her ability to get my grandson hooked.” Madame Tao sneered. “I’m not all for Peibin! Believe it or not, now if you go to tell him to marry someone else, he won’t agree! Anyway, she’s not reserved before him and she didn’t have an affair with anyone else. My grandson does not care. Why do you care so much?”
Mom Hu said embarra.s.sedly, “I don’t mean that…” She thought that Commandery Princess Ningyi was only 13 years old. How could she have the skills to seduce men? It was all because she was good-looking. Jiang Yashuang was young and ignorant. He didn’t know that to marry a wife was to marry her virtue. She suddenly thought of Madame Tao Junior, who was universally recognized as being virtuous, and sighed in the heart, “Well, Jiang Yashuang is actually the same as Jiang Yadan. The girls they like may not necessarily have good virtues, but they must have good looks.”
She didn’t want to defend Jiang Yashuang anymore. Calming herself down, she asked, “What if he sent someone over to inform?”
“I will believe whatever he says. You remember those who doubt. I’ll explain for him.” Madame Tao said lightly. “Also, tell the guards to be cautious, in case it’s spread to the old residence. Don’t blame me for being ruthless if Chaohai got to know it!”
Mom Hu replied respectfully, “Got it!”
Two hours later, everybody in the residence knew that Jiang Yashuang got injured in the chest while practicing martial arts and was bedridden.
The Jiangs rose with military merits and all children were required to learn to read and write and practice martial arts. Everyone was used to the occasional minor injuries. And Jiang Yashuang’s maid informed with understatement. It didn’t seem critical. So n.o.body took it seriously. They just sent the servants to have a look or sent some gifts.
His sister-in-law Madame Tao Junior and her sister Jiang Qizheng came in person, but “unfortunately”, Jiang Yashuang happened to be asleep after taking medicine. The two asked the maid and knew that there was nothing serious and went back in relief.
When they returned to Madame Tao, they happened to hear Jiang Qisheng saying, “Has he been lazy recently? How could he get injured with a little movement in his own yard?”
Both Madame Tao Junior and Jiang Qizheng were irritated and were about to lift the curtain and go inside to reason with her when they heard old Madame Tao say lukewarmly, “Aren’t you ashamed of saying that?! All of you were talking about his marriage and now everyone in the family knows that he is fond of the little Commandery Princess next door, but only he has been kept in the dark. Could he be happy to know it?”
Did it mean that Jiang Yashuang “got injured” this time because he got to know what his sisters-in-law, sisters and cousins did behind him?
The two looked at one another awkwardly and dared not go inside for a while.
Inside, Jiang Qisheng felt wronged, “I did nothing. They were mainly arranged by cousin Qizheng. I just joined them two times! In my opinion, Commandery Princess Ningyi is not worthy of my brother!”
“Is it for you to determine?” Madame Tao, who was in a bad mood today for some reason, was extremely rude to Jiang Qisheng. “Even your parents didn’t say anything over the marriage. What do you worry about? Do you know the rules Madam Shao taught you? Get lost from me. I don’t want to see you now! Go back and copy Behavioral Norms of Girls ten times! Think about what Madam Shao taught you. Don’t spoil your status as a decent young lady!”
Jiang Qisheng was cursed and got rather annoyed “I would not come anymore if you didn’t like me. But you didn’t have to scold me like this!”
“You are spoiled! Why couldn’t I scold you?” Madame Tao raised her voice angrily. “Well, then you don’t need to be here with me. Go back to the old residence immediately to be with your mother in case you are wronged here!”
“Let’s come again later,” Madame Tao Junior pulled Jiang Qizheng by the sleeve and whispered. “If she came out and meets us, she might think we are here to eavesdrop!”
Coming to a secluded place, the two got worried, “He knew we were asking about Commandery Princess Ningyi. What should we do now?”
“Or shall we start with Commandery Princess Ningyi?” The two took Madame Tao’s words to be true and believed that Jiang Yashuang was really mad at the matter now. They felt guilty and was afraid that Jiang Yashuang would demand them for an answer when he got better. After struggling for a while, Madame Tao Junior suggested, “He likes her. If she doesn’t care and says a few words for us, I believe he will satisfy her.”
Jiang Qizheng was embarra.s.sed, “But last time I didn’t know Mrs. Gu was deliberately bad to her and was very indifferent to her when she left. She seemed to be aware of it but ignored me. Now what should we say if we went to see her?”
“Is Shuijin busy lately?” Madame Tao Junior hadn’t even seen Qiu Yelan. She gnawed at her lip for a while and thought of He Shuijin.
Naturally, He Shuijin had been busy recently. The Dings and the Yangs were in a life-or-death struggle. There had been several fights between the two families. With their family status, it was unlikely that the conflict was unknown in the court. After all, it was in the capital.
Both Empress Dowager Gu and Empress Jiang had inquired about the process. Every time, Empress Jiang only asked He Shuijin, who knew everything in and out of the court, so it was impossible for her to focus on other things.
In this case, Jiang Qizheng had to brace herself and go in person. She was afraid that her brother would really fall out with her. However, Qiu Mengmin and his wife almost knew nothing about it, except that Princess Chunfu sent her brother and even came in person to ask for the dowry for Qiu Yelan.
“… What should we do now?” Princess Yang asked listlessly, “The two of the Jiangs gave us only three days. The day before yesterday, Ruan the beast also said that he would bring the Fangs here three days later. It’s tomorrow!”
Qiu Mengmin said after a long time of silence, “What else could we do if we didn’t give them what they want?”
“Give her?!” Princess Yang opened her eyes wide in astonishment. “That list… It would be a million taels if you took the income of the shops and farms over the years into account! Now you cannot even find a tenth of that much! Shall we pay the rest? Don’t forget Ruan sold a large part of her own share. Shall we make up for that too?”
“If you didn’t pay, they would let out the secret!” Qiu Mengmin said expressionlessly, his facial muscles twitching constantly. “Ruan’s part should not be paid by us. But have you thought about it? How much is left of the old Princess’ share now? Can we afford to bear the accusation of embezzling the legal mother’s dowry?”
Princess Yang said, “Just say Ruan sold it! Anyway, when she was alive, the old Princess’ dowry was in her custody.”
“Are you stupid?” Qiu Mengmin said angrily, “Without Princess Ruan’s private seal or written confirmation, do you think we can blame it on her even if she is dead? And Ruan sold her own dowry to help the General’s family. Do you think Ruan Qingyan and Qiu Yelan did not know that? But did you notice whether Ruan Qingyan mentioned this when he came over that day? No! Do you know why? It means this is their offer!”
He gasped for a few moments and said in a trembling voice, “Both the Ruans and the Lians kept the old dowry lists. Even if all our property were confiscated, we had to give Qiu Yelan her share. The Ruans and Lians only sent two juniors here. Obviously they don’t want to let it out! Do you think they consider it for us for nothing? They just want to turn what Ruan sold on us!”
“In a word, we can’t reason with the Ruans and Lians and cannot compete in power with the Jiangs.” Qiu Mengmin said with a wan smile. “Even Empress Dowager, who is now entangled in the conflicts between the Dings and the Yangs, has no time to care about us who have no real power. It’s just a great loss to the property. If it gets into a life-or-death struggle, our t.i.tle…”
Princess Yang remained silent for a long time and muttered, “But all our property adds up to no more than three million taels… and one million will be immediately allocated to that little b.i.t.c.h. What will we leave to our own sons Hongzhi and Yinzhi?”
Qiu Mengmin rubbed his eyebrows, “Burn a few warehouses tonight!”
Princess Yang was startled.
“Deduct all of the old Princess’ things and make up for the amount according to the dowry lists.” Qiu Mengmin lowered his voice, “I heard my mother say there should have been more property in the family. The old Princess might have hidden some! But it hasn’t been found all these years… I had thought since Qiu Yelan was the last direct heir of the old Princess, she would have told Ruan. But Ruan never admitted… Since Qiu Yelan suddenly asked so many people to help her this time, I wonder whether it has anything to do with the lost property.”
Princess Yang’s eyes lit up, “How much did the old Princess hide?”
“Mother said that our present property is but leftover compared with my father’s times.” Qiu Mengmin frowned, “Anyway, Qiu Yelan won’t leave until she has fulfilled the mourning period here. Keep an eye on her in the next two years! If the property hidden by the old Princess really got into her hands, it would be not difficult for us to find clues! The old Princess and Ruan’s dowry should of course belong to her, but the property of our family has nothing to do with her!”
Hearing these words, Princess Yang got fiery, “Why not give the Old Princess’ stuff to her so that we can keep an eye on her secretly and take action when she gets the property? If we didn’t give, what if she couldn’t get the property?”
Qiu Mengmin sneered, “Stupid! Did you forget that the Jiangs made every effort to help her? Princess Chunfu knew her for only a few days. Why should she stand up for her? I think she must have promised to divide the profit with Princess Chunfu. If the old Princess’ legacy or something in the dowry is needed to get the property hidden by her, with the Jiangs’ interference, how can it be left to us? So we need to be prepared just in case.”