Chapter 60 Cannot See the Forest for the Trees
The spring breeze was still a little cold at the night on the end of February. The shadows of the c.r.a.pe myrtle trees are trembling and vague in winds, with only Qiu Yelan’s eyes brightly shining, looking out of here, mockingly and silently.
It took Qiu Mengmin a while to cover the door, and then he turned around, but with no surprise on his face. He only said faintly, “In the early years, I heard that General Ruan was superior in martial arts. Sure enough, you are a real offspring of Ruan. The servants I sent here to guard?”
“Fainted, over there. I know it’s not easy for uncle to cultivate your men. How could I just kill them?” Qiu Yelan covered her lips, laughing, and said softly.
“You know that I haven’t learned martial arts, so how about coming here to talk?” Qiu Mengmin blew out the lantern hanging under the back door and greeted, “I guess you stunned my men in the middle of the night, waiting for me here but still keeping the secret for me, so there is leeway for us to talk.”
Qiu Yelan said, slowly and proudly, “Surely we would talk. But uncle, you’d better go with me. I don’t know what you have arranged tonight, so it makes me intranquil if I go with you.”
Qiu Mengmin thought for a while, but finally did not object. He followed Qiu Yelan to have a talk in a pavilion surrounded by water on three sides in the garden.
“Uncle, have you ever ‘dismantled the bridge after crossed the river’?” Qiu Yelan stood in the pavilion and asked before he opened the mouth.
Qiu Mengmin said lightly, “You can rest a.s.sured. Mother did everything just because of the love for son, and she had never thought about hurting anyone.”
“Oh?” Qiu Yelan didn’t believe it, “You are a filial son, but now your birth mother has pa.s.sed away like this. Won’t you seize the opportunity to entrap your niece into trouble?”
“You expect me to be stupid?” Qiu Mengmin said indifferently, “You told me this idea, so how would you have no subsequent trick? Even if I can’t guess what it is, I know you have Empress’s support now. It would have been much easier to solve this problem if you were not engaged in; but you are now engaged in it, Empress will definitely make a thorough investigation… Even though I believe I leave no evidence and should be innocent, things still could not totally be predictable. The most important thing for me at present is to keep the t.i.tle of n.o.bility, so why would I take any other risk?”
He looked at Qiu Yelan, “What about you? You were just waiting for me alone, instead of calling out a group of people? This is weird.”
Qiu Yelan smiled and said, “Uncle, you are a smart man. How dare I be silly as your niece? I brought few old maidservants here, and you never know that I’ve learned some martial arts from grandfather before, so you carelessly let me wait outside for you! If I brought some competent servants here, how could it be easy to get something on you? You have taken the Prince’s Mansion for a dozen of years, and I am not confident enough to leave after blowing the lid off without paying anything!”
Qiu Mengmin noticed that she was talking about “paying something” instead of “leaving here alive,” which meant that Qiu Yelan, even though she thought Prince’s Mansion was under his control, she would still be able to retreat, with only suffering some losses.
“Let’s be honest,” Qiu Mengmin thought in heart and said, “No one is around now, and empty talk is useless. You drew my attention, so you must have a purpose—what you want?”
Qiu Yelan said, “How dare I talk about “want”? Just because I saw what I shouldn’t know, so… would you like to pay me something to help me get over a shock?”
“Since you have learnt martial arts secretly with n.o.body knows, and it seems that you have not learned too badly. Plotting in secret, anyone you want to murder in the mansion… you would be always able to find some chances to do something.” Qiu Mengmin said in a low voice, “But you, you beat around the bush and even got involved in the dispute between two Empresses! It is nothing more than you feel that it’s not harsh and cruel enough for Madame Lu, unless I do it by myself…. I just did what you want, so what else are you still unsatisfied with?”
“As your words, you have indeed fulfilled my dream for these days!” Qiu Yelan smiled lightly and said, “So, let’s let this go. You don’t mention me with this, and I won’t make you any trouble with it. But there is one thing I have to know: what are you going to do with Lu’s funeral?”
Qiu Mengmin snorted, “Since you said I am a filial son…”
“Don’t forget that she is an abandoned concubine of the Prince’s Mansion!” Qiu Yelan interrupted with a light smile, “In early last winter, when my mother pa.s.sed away, her funeral was almost shabby to worse than servants if without my cousin’s helping hands! Uncle, are you as muddled as to allow Lu’s funeral to be better than my mother’s?”
“I mean, since I am a filial son…” Qiu Mengmin said with a poker face, “I should be extremely grieved when I suddenly hear my birth mother died for me. So I should naturally hardly be able to get up from bed and go to work for some time! And your cousins are young and have never experienced such a big event. Even if they are negligent, they are worthy of forgiveness… After the funeral is done, I will probably recover then.”
Qiu Yelan froze for a while and couldn’t find any flaw. She couldn’t help laughing, “Uncle, you are so decisive! I used to say that you are not a person who is able to make great achievements! But now I know that I am still too young, and I made a wrong judgement!”
“What the h.e.l.l is your plan? Just say it.” Qiu Mengmin said quietly, with neither angry nor happy expression on face.
“You witnessed that I was beaten after I returned from Mount Dizi. You saw it in your eyes.” Qiu Yelan smiled brightly, “It’s been so long time I wait before Lu died. My grievances rise up from deep of my heart, which makes me hard to fall asleep in the middle of the night! So, how could we solve this?”
Qiu Mengmin said coldly, “Jinzhang was indeed killed by you. A life for a life, it’s always the convention! You was just beaten, is there anything wrong?”
“Lu told you?” Qiu Yelan smiled faintly, “What about the death of my mother concubine?”
Qiu Mengmin sneered, “If there is no ironclad evidence for things that have happened such a long time ago, don’t waste your time talking about this anymore.”
“My mother’s death is not a trivial matter!” Qiu Yelan said lightly, “As for the evidence, how do you know that I don’t have any?”
“Even if you may have, the dead are dead. What could you do any further?” Qiu Mengmin glanced at the courtyard where Madame Lu lived and calmly said, “What could you do to a person who has been dead already?”
Qiu Yelan pondered for a moment, then said, “You mean, I can only let this go?”
“Aren’t you already holding Lizhang?” Qiu Mengmin whispered, “Well, if you want to do something to your aunt in the future, I can also pretend not to know for a few times… But, don’t think about anything else. I could do this to my own mother. So, you know I have already made a great concession to you, for the sake of the old Princess!”
… Watching Qiu Mengmin went far away, Qiu Yelan wandered alone in the pavilion for a while, and then left, too.
On the following day’s morning, after a heartrending scream of Cui Mei, the maid who went into the inner chamber to serve, the whole Prince’s Mansion of Xihe went into chaos!
Qiu Mengmin, who was lying on the bed after being punished on the Imperial Court, was barefoot and scattered with hair after learning of the bad news, crazily rushing to the birth mother’s place. Watching the cold body that had been moved to the couch, regardless of the messy room, he fell down on his knees, and screamed, “Mum!” Then, he fainted and lost consciousness!
After this, the Prince’s Mansion went even more chaotic!
Taking advantage of this messy situation, Chunran and Xiaran tied Kang Lizhang tightly with her mouth stuffed with cloth from the garden pavilion, and quietly put her into Qiu Yelan’s room.
“So?” Qiu Yelan smiled and personally untied her, then asked Su He to bring in some food. Watching Kang Lizhang who was devouring like a wolf, she kindly reminded, “I said it’s for your own good that I cheated you there and tied you! I definitely didn’t mean to harm you. Could you believe in me now?”
“Cousin, please! Please save us!” Kang Lizhang was tied up confusedly for a whole night, and heard the thrilling thing Qiu Mengmin personally admitted. Although in this season unchanging clothes for one night wouldn’t make people stinky, now there was an obvious urine smell emitting from her, which showed how scared she was!
She quickly ate some food when Qiu Yelan was talking, and gathered a little strength then. Kang Lizhang had no more time caring about whether her wound on face was cured or not. She just kept kowtowing on the ground and refused to stand up, saying, “My brother deserved it! It’s right for you to kill him. My mother and I have mistakenly offended you so many times before, but you helped me to know the true face of First Uncle. I believe you also feel pitiful to us mother and daughter! Please, cousin, please show mercy and save us!”
Qiu Yelan touching her chin, said with a smile, “What can I do to save you? If it weren’t for the Empress’s previous favor, I even should have not survived last night!”
“Cousin, do you have any arrangement? Please feel free to tell me!” Kang Lizhang heard her words and knew that she was putting on airs. Madame Lu was gone, so Kang Family’s mother and daughter suddenly lost support, too. They wouldn’t have easy days even if they only considered about the hatred of Princess Yang.
Qiu Mengmin has been filial to Madame Lu over years, and was partial to nieces. These made the Kang Family mother and daughter feel that he would not let Princess Yang treat them too bad in his presence even when Madame Lu is no more here.
But now, knowing that Madame Lu was actually cheated and murdered by Qiu Mengmin, how could Kang Lizhang count on this uncle anymore?
Even though she was sophisticated, she still can’t help being in chaos at this moment. Face, hatred, future… she could think about none of them now. The only thing she did was stepping forward, grabbing Qiu Yelan’s skirt corner and begged, “As long as you are willing to help us to survive, we’ll do whatever you want!”
Qiu Yelan seemed to wear a faint smile on her face, “There is a way to survive, but don’t you dare to go?”
Kang Lizhang hurriedly replied, “Cousin, please tell!”
“To find a chance, you just tell your First Uncle alone that you have known everything happened last night!” Qiu Yelan didn’t finish her words, but Kang Lizhang was scared to loosen the corner of her skirt, with her arms clasping her chest tightly, horrifiedly said, “Then First Uncle must not leave me alive!”
“How about the truth would be disclosed if he dare to kill you?” Qiu Yelan snorted, “If you don’t say like this, your First Uncle may think you don’t know the truth, so he may do nothing to you. But, don’t forget your First Aunt, how miserable she was because of you mother and daughter’s so many years bully? Guess will she let you go or not?”
She leaned down and ignored Kang Lizhang’s bad smell, leaning in her ear and said softly, “You heard it last night: the idea was mine, and I said in front of your First Aunt…. At that time, your First Uncle did not agree. Could you a.s.sure that you First Uncle adopted this method at last without any of your First Aunt’s instigation?”
Kang Lizhang was trembling all over and her lips were trembling for a long time as well before she finally said, “But… I…”
“No more ‘but’,” Qiu Yelan threw up hands and said mercilessly, “I point you the way to survive— if you don’t threaten your First Uncle, your First Aunt can kill you mother and daughter as easy as blowing off dust! You are able to threaten your First Uncle, as long as you have further preparation… And then, is there any need for you to worry about that he may not protect you?”
While saying this, her eyes flashed and then she reminded, “You grew up in Prince’s Mansion. Are you seventeen this year? With no engagement, so guess what kind of husband your First Aunt will find for you? Without Lu… Aunt Qiu, or you whole Kang Family, how can you confront First Aunt? I, as a Commandery Princess, have been arranged to marry such a guy, so what kind of garbage will you marry with? Think about it!”
Sending Kang Lizhang away, Su He and other maids quickly opened the window to ventilate the room, and lighted the incense burner to disperse the smell she brought in. And she said, “I used to see Lady Lizhang’s being capable. Who knows she’s also so timid!”
“She used to be courageous because the bad luck had never fell on her.” Qiu Yelan snorted, “Now things are coming to her, so she suddenly reveals the true colors!”
After thinking for a while, she asked, “Everything’s ready?”
Su He hurriedly replied, “Yeah, all of it. Your Grace, do you want to look?”
“No, I do not know much about these….” Qiu Yelan exhaled, gazing and saying, “This time is mainly to tell mother this good news. As to the oblation… I guess mother will not be too concerned about it!”
Although she still hadn’t figured out how Madame Lu got the poison Youmianxiang and plotted in secret against Princess Ruan and General Ruan, however, at least this person who directly killed Princess Ruan’s father and daughter was dead now.
Qiu Yelan felt that she should go to sweep the grave and report this happy news to Princess Ruan.