Chapter 163 How Do I Call You?
But now, Qiu Yelan and her brother, unaware that Mei Xue had given them trouble, were discussing about going to the Xue Family, “In fact, if we go to the Xue Family with the excuse for pleading for Xue Fangmi, and if we go there as soon as we return to the city, we surely demonstrate our sincerity.”
“I will tell people that you caught a cold while you were in that village, and that you would go there tomorrow. Then I will tell them that you weren’t well today, so you dare not go over right away. That’s it,” said Qiu Jinglan gently while he took control of his horse and walked alongside the carriage. “You’ve only been relieved of the poison, and coming back to the city. You’d better have a rest for a day. We are late, anyway! Why don’t we have one more day off…”
Before he finished speaking, the sound of hoofbeats suddenly came from behind. One man shouted, “Ruan Qingyan. Please wait up!”
Upon hearing this voice, Qiu Jinglan felt very surprised. He reined in the horse rope and raised his hand to stop the carriages. Then, he turned his horse around to greet the man, “Young master Xue?”
It was Xue Nongying. He pulled his horse rope as he was approaching close to Qiu Jinglan. He pulled his horse so hard that the horse’s front hooves were off the ground and landed heavily after a long neigh. He hurriedly said, “Ruan Qingyan, my grandfather wanted to see you. Please come with me now!”
Qiu Jinglan was surprised and asked, “Going to the Prime Minister’s residence? But I’m still wearing mourning clothes.”
“No. It’s at a teahouse next to the residence, which is also my family’s property.” Xue Nongying said. “It’s urgent… grandfather said that you must come with me!”
It was his teacher summoning him. Qiu Jinglan had no excuses for not going. So, he said, “Excuse me. Let me inform my sister!”
Hearing Commandery Princess Ningyi being in the carriage, Xue Nongying said promptly, “Is Commandery Princess Ningyi in the carriage? Qingyan, please say thanks to her on behalf of my grandfather. My little aunt made a mistake at the Jinxiu Slope. It was Commandery Princess Ningyi who stopped her from making a big mistake… As our hands are tied in the family. My mother and my sister are busy too. So, they did not get a chance to visit Commandery Princess personally and say thanks to her face to face. Hope Commandery Princess won’t mind.”
Hearing the words, Qiu Yelan, sitting in the carriage, said some words to Su He immediately.
Su He understood what she meant. She lifted the curtain and went out to the handlebars, and then curtsied to Xue Nongying. She said, “Commandery Princess said that you are so thoughtful. Because of the emergency on that day, Commandery Princess felt upset for injuring your sister. She is planning to come to your home tomorrow to ask for forgiveness.”
Xue Nongying made a return salute and said, “Your Grace, don’t say so. My grandfather is a rational man, and what Commandery Princess did was for her good. How could my grandfather blame you?”
At this time, Qiu Jinglan approached the carriage. He said lightly, “I will go to visit my teacher. You have to go back to the Prince’s Mansion of Xihe alone, okay?”
Qiu Yelan said, “You do your business. It’s only several blocks away. It’s in the day and I have bodyguards protecting me. You must be a.s.sured. I am concerned that what’s going on there as Prime Minister Xue wanted to see you so urgent.”
Qiu Jinglan said while he was thinking, “I have no clue now… but according to my judgment from young master Xue’s tone, I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”
Then, he followed Xue Nongying to the teahouse and went upstairs. But he saw that the entire second floor had been booked by the Xue Family. In the largest and most secluded elegant room, Xue Chang was sitting there alone. Seeing him enter, he waved his hand, and Xue Nongying, who was leading the way, immediately retreated!
“Teacher Xue!” Qiu Jinglan said with a salute.
Rarely, Xue Chang did not ask him immediately and graciously to forgo formalities and allow him to sit down. Today, he stared at him for a moment before sighing lightly and saying, “I wonder if I should now call you Chunjun, or, the Young Prince of the former Duke of Xihe?!”
While Qiu Jinglan was forcibly calming herself down, Qiu Yelan also ran into trouble, in a secluded road only three blocks away from the Prince’s Mansion of Xihe, several soldiers who lined up in a row blocked the road fully!
Before she said something, a guard had already stepped forward and snapped, “Who are you? How dare you block Commandery Princess’s path?!”
“Commandery Princess?” The two hors.e.m.e.n in the middlemost parted, revealing the brocade robed gentleman on the green buckskin horse at the back. Kuang Qingwu rode towards the front with a seeming smile, frivolously saying, “I haven’t met many n.o.ble girls since I came to the capital, but today I’m catching a thief and I b.u.mp into a Commandery Princess? Don’t you dare scare me!”
The hors.e.m.e.n around him laughed in the time and said in the chorus, “Young Prince, you are right. Commandery Princess is n.o.ble. How could she steal our horse?”
“How? n.o.bler than Empress Dowager? Young Prince was invited to meet Empress Dowager as soon as he arrived in the capital!”
“Who knows? No matter n.o.ble or not, as she stole the stuff from the Western Army, she must answer for it!”
In the carriage, Qiu Yelan rubbed her forehead and sneered, “The Western Army! I thought it was someone else. It’s the only son of that old thief, Kuang Shihan! He got to the capital safely. I wonder how many men were a.s.signed to protect him along the road so that he didn’t die on the way here.”
Chunran said worriedly, “He’s deliberately trying to trouble you, what should we do now?”
Qiu Yelan felt tricky. In terms of status, she, as the junior level one Commandery Princess, was n.o.bler than Kuang Qingwu, the son of a Duke of the state. But now, Kuang Qingwu was clearly trying to play a trick. He doubted her ident.i.ty and framed a charge of horse stealing. In terms of Kung Fu, she was sure that she could defeat him. The critical part of this was that he had crack forces from the Western Army helping him. He, of course, would not fight against her alone. Only a fool would do that!
“Bullsh*t!” Although the problem was tricky, Qiu Yelan was not the kind to sit around and wait for death. Seeing her own guard have already been pushed and shoved by them and suffered some because he was the closest one to them, she commanded the driver to call him back. She put on her veil hat, lifted the curtain and said, “Kuang Qingwu, your father, Kuang Shihan, was raised and nurtured by my grandfather, the General of ‘Warrior’. As his son, you did not pay your respects at my grandfather’s grave as soon as you arrived in the capital. However, you are blocking my way for no reason. You are simply ungrateful! Morbid!”
Before Kuang Qingwu replied, she raised her voice and scolded those bodyguards from the Western Army, “My grandfather, the General of ‘Warrior’, and my father, the former Duke of Xihe, they were your predecessors and comrades in arms! You unruly creatures! Is this how you treat the children of the seniors of the Western Army? G.o.d is watching you and he will repay unfailingly on you all. Today you bully me as you know I have lost my parents and I am young. But the other day, your family or your children will be bullied by others too. How could you ensure if they would be taken care of at that time?”
Hearing her words, Kuang Qingwu frowned, pondering how to reply. The guards from the Western Army was selected by Kuang Shihan himself for protecting his only son. They must be the loyalists of the Kuang Family. Hence, they couldn’t hold back and said, “The General of ‘Warrior’? If he hadn’t made a mistake back then, how could the Western Army have suffered such a significant loss at the battle with the Western savages?”
“That’s right. If it weren’t Duke of the state, we all have been killed…”
“General of ‘Warrior’ was given posthumously by the imperial court when my grandfather pa.s.sed away two years ago!” Qiu Yelan sneered, “This t.i.tle was suggested by Prime Minister Xue and agreed upon by the Empress Dowager and Her Majesty! It seems that the Western Army is displeased with the court’s orders?!”
Kuang Qingwu snorted lightly and said, “Hey, you little girl, don’t talk nonsense! I have great respect for the General of ‘Warrior’. But what relationship do you have with General of ‘Warrior’? You must prove it!”
“Oh? You honor my grandfather?” Qiu Yelan said icily. She added, “As you have been in the capital, have you gone to the Ruan Family to pay your condolences? Have you paid your respects before my grandfather’s grave? Have you checked if he has children or grandchildren? If you’d asked around, you would have recognized me! It’s no wonder that Kuang Shihan’s mother and her uncles didn’t want to raise him. When I heard this story in the first place, I thought they were cold and heartless. Yet, it turns out that they had the foresight and knew that you and your father were ungrateful people!”
Although Kuang Qingwu had always harbored resentment against the Kuang Shihan because of his early childhood encounter. But he was also depressed when his father was scolded in public. He snapped, “How dare you! How can my father’s name be called directly by you, a little girl!”
“Unruly b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Do you know who you are talking with?!” Qiu Yelan was furious. She added, “A Marquess is only a second-rank, but I am junior level one, which allows me to call his name. Anything wrong! If you have a problem with that, why don’t you ask the Darui and the imperial court to make the Marquess become the level one? In my opinion, you’re all trying to rebel! Soldiers are questioning the court’s posthumous t.i.tle. You doubt ranks! Could it be that the imperial court is your Kuang Family’s?”
She sneered again, “And, what is Kuang Shihan? He’s not worthy of being my elder! My grandfather raised and nurtured him, but did he ever get anything in return for all these years? If my grandfather had known to raise such a person, he might as well have had a dog in the first place!”
The veins on the forehead of Kuang Qingwu were bruised. He was furious now, “Go, go there and drag her down!!!”
His father was called a dog in public, so what was he?
“Young Prince, that’s Commandery Princess…” Before, the soldiers were very arrogant, but now that they heard him give the order, they were a bit worried in the end, mainly because they were in the capital instead of in the west where the Western Army was afraid of nothing. If they were in the west, they wouldn’t have anything to worry about.
Kuang Qingwu said furiously, “I will be responsible for anything that happened here!” He had got the information in the past two days and he knew that Qiu Yelan was close to the Jiang Family – But he had backers too. As long as he didn’t kill Qiu Yelan, Empress Dowager Gu and Kuang Shihan would handle the trouble for him!
Besides, the Jiang Family was a wealthy family with a lot to deal with. How could they do much for a junior’s sweetheart?!
Anyway, he must make Qiu Yelan suffer a lot today!
However, what Kuang Qingwu did not know was that after witnessing the Western Army soldiers hesitating and then crowding towards her, Qiu Yelan, under the curtain hat, smiled lightly. With the cover of the veil aligning with her chest, she quietly took an antidote. At the same time, she put her hand behind her back and opened a small porcelain vase – this porcelain vase was given to her by Qiu Jinglan when she was in that village. It was mainly because last time she was careless and fell for Mei Xue and Qiu Qian’s tricks. Qiu Jinglan was afraid of a repeat of the incident and gave her two bottles of extremely knockout drugs.
It’s just that although these knockout drops were quick and effective, it didn’t have wide side effects. After all, it’s only used to protect against close attacks!
Especially it was for outdoor use… Qiu Yelan had just used harsh words to anger Kuang Qingwu and let those placid Western Army soldiers approach herself. Seeing her own guards had gathered around intending to protect her, she pressed the bottle mouth with her thumb, scolding angrily, “All of you, stand down! I don’t believe that a Young Prince of a Marquess with a few soldiers would dare lay a hand on me! You all stand down. They dare not come within three paces of me!”
Unexpectedly, after she tossed out the words and before the guards took orders, an angry voice suddenly came from behind the carriage, “You’re right! I also want to see which b.a.s.t.a.r.d, in the day, dares to disrespect Commandery Princess openly!”
Hearing this voice, Qiu Yelan was stunned. She turned her head, and she saw Ling Zui. He dressed in fresh clothes, rode a horse and led a large number of guards, rushing over menacingly!
He was far away and didn’t realize that the two sides were facing each other. He thought they were catching up on old times, so he didn’t gallop. Hence, neither Qiu Yelan, who was bent over infuriating Kuang Qingwu, nor Kuang Qingwu, who was furious by her words, noticed his arrival.
Then Ling Zui arrived nearby, and he happened to see the scene where the Western Army soldiers rushed towards Qiu Yelan, as Qiu Jinglan’s best friend, how could he not be angry?
He was the son of the Grand princess and a son of a rich family who was used to fear nothing in the capital. After rushing in, he first crossed the horse in front of Qiu Yelan, and then pointed to Kuang Qingwu, saying, “Upon your accent, you, a black dude must not be a native. I don’t care how you’re doing in your own place, but you’re here and want to do what you used to do in your place?! Do you think all my people are dead? I’ll pluck out your eyes as they don’t know what to see. Then you kneel and slap yourself thirty times, and then cross my crotch. I’ll be generous for once today and let you go, you little brat!”
Kuang Qingwu was just so angry with Qiu Yelan. Hearing the younger Ling Zui call himself “little brat”, he truly wanted to draw his sword to kill him. He laughed in anger, “From the way you talk, you’re the boss in this capital? And yet, I don’t know who you are. I am wondering who indeed dared speak to me like this?!”
Ling Zui said promptly, “As you know I’m your boss, why don’t you roll over and kowtow quickly? You don’t even know who your boss is? How dare you forget your ancestors? I don’t even know why I should leave you living in this world now.”
Qiu Yelan teasingly looked at Kuang Qingwu whose face turned pale and red in a moment. She thought: you, as a student rushing to the capital for the exams, had to fight against a professional fighter with dirty words in the street? You must not know that the numbers of fights Ling Zui did in the past must be more than the numbers of the books you read!
“Go, kill him!!!” Kuang Qingwu screamed. He was so angry that he felt dizzy, almost falling from the horse.
At this instant, he didn’t even care about Qiu Yelan. What he wanted to do was to kill Ling Zui!