No matter how Qiu Yelan refused and persuaded, Mrs. Zhou was determined to protect her to the end.
Mrs. Zhou even wanted to walk into the brocade curtain and lift up the bed-curtain to sit by the bed and show her loyalty to Qiu Yelan. Qiu Yelan was so scared that she allowed without the hint of the boy next to her.
And then, Mrs. Zhou blocked them while Su He took the beddings here. The grandmother together with her granddaughter made a shakedown in front of the south window and the door separately.
What made the two on the bed more in despair was that Mrs. Zhou still couldn't rest assured when she slept there. Mrs. Zhou whispered to Su He, "Since we have served Commandery Princess the whole day, now we should not sleep too deeply that cannot notice if someone comes in!"
Then, no matter how Qiu Yelan persuaded, Mrs. Zhou was so clever that she took a belt to connect the door and window to her body. It ensured that if something happened in the two places, the belt would wake her up soon! Even if this belt was cut, the movement would wake her up.
What a loyal servant!
Qiu Yelan sighed deeply!
Qiu Yelan held her breath and stared at the top of the bed-curtain for a long time. Until she thought that Mrs. Zhou and Su He should fall asleep again, she carefully turned her head to look at the boy beside her. At the sight of him, she was stunned slightly. The boy was so handsome!
The boy was only fifteen or sixteen years old. His dashing eyebrows seemed like a sword, and his phoenix eyes were as light as stars. Under the dim light passing through the bed-curtain, his white face was like a beautiful flawless jade! The slightly pursed thin lips were as red as fresh flowers. He was so handsome that there was no one to match him!
Originally, since he was much more beautiful than ordinary people, it would make others have a sense of inferiority at the sight. But a helpless bitter smile on his face at the moment made him seem to be sociable.
When he saw Qiu Yelan turn her head, this bitter smile mixed with embarrassment became a little deeper.
"They're asleep. Go quickly." Although Qiu Yelan had developed a strength-based aesthetic in the last days, she was also shocked by the boy's flawless appearance at this moment. And then she whispered, "You can go out through the rear window. It is behind the screen and locked from the inside. Just open it carefully."
But when the boy heard it, his bitter smile became deeper. He whispered to her, "I was afraid my cousin would escape from the rear window. So, just before calling for her, I went to the back of the house and blocked all the rear windows from the outside."
If you had not done this, you would not have been in such a situation.
Qiu Yelan suddenly remembered, "How did your cousin just go out? I saw her go towards the rear window!"
"She didn't go out through the rear window but hid behind the screen. When your servants went to the courtyard to check together, she took the opportunity to slip out. While I..." The helpless expression in the boy's eyes became clearer. He watched his cousin slip out, but he was unable to get out because he was in the bed, blocked by Qiu Yelan. In addition, he rushed to a girl's bed and the girl covered him, and how could he just go away without any words?
But for such a little case, almost as soon as his cousin went out, Mrs. Zhou came back to report the trace on the wall of the courtyard!
Qiu Yelan sighed silently, "So what can you do?"
"..." The young boy asked tentatively. "Could you send your servants away on some pretext?"
"I wish I could. But as you saw just now, they are all afraid that I will be murdered. It will not work whatever pretext I use!" The corner of Qiu Yelan's mouth jerked, "Don't you have another choice?"
The boy thought for a while, "I can stun them in a moment, but..."
He didn't finish yet. Suddenly there were some fierce gong sounds from outside!
The sounds came in the silent night so suddenly that almost scared Qiu Yelan to death!
Mrs. Zhou and Su He, who just fell asleep, jumped up at the same time!
"Your Grace?!" Mrs. Zhou and Su He looked at the bed-curtain first!
"I'm okay. It seems something happened outside?" Qiu Yelan didn't know if she should breathe a sigh of relief or not. Just after she finished, someone outside already screamed out loudly, "Fire! Quick! Fire!"
Upon hearing this, Mrs. Zhou was shocked, "It seems to be right next to our yard?!"
Suddenly, an old maidservant scolded with her shrill voice, "What a cursed person who did harm to her parents and brother! In the daytime, Lady Yuqing was so kind that she did not beat her to death, and now she caused a fire in the house. What a cursed person! Doing harm to the whole family, you are doomed to be ulcerated and die in your boots!"
Su He was so angry that her face was pale, "Mrs. Li! How could she be so vicious?! Our Commandery Princess has been staying in the house, and she blamed us when there's a fire outside?!"
"I'm afraid that there are some people who don't believe that the list of two dowries is not with me." Qiu Yelan said calmly with a cold look, "And they want to force me to run out with the list!"
Just now Mrs. Zhou slept without taking off her clothing. At this time, she put on her robe and said in a deep voice, "Your Grace, stay here and wait a moment. I will go out and have a look!" Before Qiu Yelan asked Su He to accompany her, Mrs. Zhou ordered Su He seriously, "Look after our Commandery Princess here! If I can't stop them later, you should protect our Commandery Princess to your death. Do you remember?!"
Su He nodded seriously, "Grandma, please rest assured!"
As soon as Mrs. Zhou went out, Qiu Yelan quickly said to Su He, "Go outside and help Mrs. Zhou! Mrs. Zhou is getting on in years, and Mrs. Li sounds formidable. Don't let Mrs. Zhou get the short end of the stick!"
Su He shook her head, "Grandma lets me look after you!"
When she just finished speaking, it was already noisy outside. The voices in argument even could not be covered by the sounds of gongs and the firefighting.
"Mrs. Sun! You should speak with conscience! My Commandery Princess has been staying in the room. You accidentally caused a fire yourself, and why should you scold my Commandery Princess?"
"I scolded a cursed person. You mean the one you serve is a cursed one?"
"You!"
"Mrs. Zhou, you see, Mrs. Sun has scolded here for a long time, but there is no other servant in other rooms coming out to argue for the master. Only you came here. It is because you are guilty, isn’t it?"
"You guys..."
"What's wrong with us? What's wrong with the words of Mrs. Sun? There is no fire in Prince's Mansion before, let alone in the snowy day! As soon as your master came back, the fire came. If she did not cause it, who else should be to blame?! Tell me! Tell me! You tell me!"
"Go out and persuade Mrs. Zhou to come back." Qiu Yelan's face was pale with anger, and she said to Su He softly, "Mrs. Zhou is alone, and those people outside step on us together. The more Mrs. Zhou argues with them, the more difficulties she will face. If the fire is not coming towards us, let it go."
Su He hesitated for a moment before she said, "Well... I go to call her in the corridor?"
Qiu Yelan breathed a sigh of relief. Under noises outside the window, she said to the boy beside her, "Prepare. Seize this opportunity!"
The boy whispered, "Thank you. There will be rewards in the future!"
But!
The next moment, Qiu Yelan shouted in amazement, "Why are you going out from the window?!"
The little maid, who carried a drum stool and was about to climb the window, explained with flushed cheeks, "I am afraid of the darkness, and the outside room did not have a light now. I... dare not go out from there."
"...OK." Qiu Yelan fell back to her pillow weakly.
She thought, when the maid got out, the boy by her side should have a chance to leave.
However, after Su He went out through the window, she did not leave! She just stood outside the window and called Mrs. Zhou!
Su He did it for that the door of this house was just in the corridor where she was guarding.
Qiu Yelan and the boy beside her felt that it was doomed. Suddenly, there was a noise coming from the rear window. And then the girl, who had got her cousin into a fix, said in a low voice, "Cousin! Go out quickly before the fire set by me goes out! If you don't leave now, you will become a perverted thief!"
Qiu Yelan was shocked and speechless and so did the boy.
"Ah, where's the cat from?" In the next morning, Mrs. Zhou braced herself up and came in to serve Qiu Yelan’s grooming. But she found that there was a snow-white cat on Qiu Yelan's quilt.The cat had long hairs and short ears, looking like a lion. The most attractive part was its eyes, which were round and big, bright and dazzling. One was blue, and the other was yellow. The cat was so beautiful when it looked around.As a person who didn't like cats so much, Mrs. Zhou was also attracted while seeing it. She reached out and petted its soft and luxuriant hairs, and then she held it to the ground, "Don't scratch my Commandery Princess!""I don't know where it came from. It ran to my bed last night. I saw that it didn't hurt me, so I just let it go." Qiu Yelan tried to suppress her good mood. In fact, the cat was left by the boy yesterday.Being worried that Mrs. Zhou and Su He would block him again, the boy had no time to say other w
"You want to see me?" Qiu Jinzhu, Commandery Princess Ningtai, walked in proudly with her head up, followed by her servants who also held their heads high.She was a younger cousin of Qiu Yelan and ranked sixth.In Prince's Mansion of Xihe, there were seven of Qiu Jinzhu's generation, including both boys and girls. Except for the eldest young master, Qiu Hongzhi who was the son of a concubine, the late former heir Qiu Jinglan who ranked third, and Qiu Yinzhi, son of the official wife, who ranked seventh, others of the seven were all girls.Among the four girls, only Commandery Princess Ningxin, Qiu Baozhu, got married. Other girls all lived in Prince's Mansion, but none of them was familiar to Qiu Yelan.She said frankly, "It's me who found that Persian cat. I thought it would be returned in your name. How come it turned to be Cousin Lizhang?""How dare you say it?" Qiu Jinzhu was so angry about it that she didn't have
"You all move away!" Madame Lu's deep and furious voice came from outside of the window.Inside the room, Xiuyan didn't look out of the window. She said with a smile on her face, "… Don’t worry. Even if Madame comes in, Prince will still agree with Princess. You are the Commandery Princess after all. How can they let you suffer again and again at home?""I have troubled First Aunt," the scar on Qiu Yelan’s face had faded away. Although she couldn't get up, her spirit was good. She said with a smile, "I also have troubled you to come here. This golden hairpin looks great on you...""Eh, I came to save you from trouble under Princess's command. How can I accept this?" Xiuyan said those words. But she kept looking at the golden hairpin."I'm in the period of mourning for my mother. I can't use any of these," Qiu Yelan gave her a reason. Then Xiuyan took it with a smile.Madame Lu forced her way into the room at this momen
That night, Su He held Qiu Yelan on to the sedan chair sent by Princess Yang and went to the yard of Madame Lu.Princess Yang didn't set anyone to keep a watch on and even sent her people away to avoid any suspicion.Qiu Yelan thought that it would take a while for her to meet Madame Lu. Madame Lu might not want to suffer again and refuse to meet her. To her surprise, Madame Lu was sitting on the couch and drinking a bowl of spun gold bird nest porridge, looking calm.People could still believe that she would live for eighty more years with her rosy cheeks and the youthful look."What? You are disappointed to see that I'm not lying on my couch and dying?" Madame Lu handed the bird's nest porridge, which she had only two or three tastes, to the maid and said, "It tastes bad. You can use it to feed the dog!""Yes, Madame!" The maid looked at the almost untouched porridge enviously and took it away carefully.
After a while, Qiu Mingzhu walked in looking pale-white and with coldness. She was wearing the silk shoes that she put on when she went to bed. The shoes were soaked by the snow, and it left a string of stamps on the thick blue blanket in the inner chamber.She was two years older than Qiu Yelan, and her biological mother was Mistress Tian. She could only be named as the Fourth Lady instead of Commandery Princess.Mistress Tian had almost fallen into disfavor, but she recommended her cousin who was Mistress Bian to the mansion. Mistress Bian was eighteen years old this year. She was a beauty and good at dancing and singing. So that Mistress Tian and her daughter had a pretty good life in the Prince's Mansion.It's said that Qiu Mengmin once promised Mistress Bian to proclaim her immediately as the Concubine if she could give birth to a boy."... It seems that either Lu did not misjudge Princess Yang, or Princess Yang reacted very q
"Your Grace, why don't you listen to the secret that Miss Mingzhu said?" After Mrs. Zhou took Qiu Mingzhu to Princess Yang, Su He made a rose dew and handed it to Qiu Yelan. She asked curiously, “I think she should really know what the secret was...”"But must it have anything to do with us?" Qiu Yelan smiled slightly and took a sip of rose dew. "The first thing we are asking for is self-protection and then to live without acting according to where the wind blows. Then there are other things we ought to do... Knowing too many secrets too early is not a good thing! "She thought, "There was a chuckle out of the window just now. I'm not sure whether she is a servant of Princess Yang or Madame Lu. She followed the Qiu Mingzhu all the way, and maybe is lying in the back window and eavesdropping."Su He did not fully understand and nodded, "So Miss Mingzhu didn’t tell you because of her goodwill! She is so!""Aunt Yang and Madame Lu wil
At noon the next day, Hongyao, the first maid of Qiu Mengmin came to invite Qiu Yelan in person. “It said that you know about the things that Young Master Qiu Hongzhi fell into the lake last night and things of Mistress Bian and others, Your Grace. Now Prince is going to investigate by himself, so I'm here to invite you to help Prince tell right from wrong.”It was impossible to avoid this kind of thing, and Qiu Yelan also didn't want to hide. So, she brought Su He and quickly got on the sedan.Arriving at the back of the Prince's Mansion, she saw Madame Lu sat in the first place, and Qiu Mengmin sat with shame at the next seat.No one else had the right to sit. Even Princess Yang and Qiu Yuqing were kneeling at the front of the crowd. Of course, no one dared to stand, except Madame Lu and her son.But Qiu Yelan didn't intend to join in the fun. So as soon as she entered and witnessed the situation, she immediately raised her sleev
On the snow-covered street, pedestrians were all in a hurry with their clothes wrapped tightly.An inconspicuous carriage hoofed through the snow. Two bodyguards in green and three or four nannies followed the carriage on foot. It looked like some womenfolk of a normal wealthy family were going out.Some passersby checked the carriage occasionally and then looked away apathetically.Inside the carriage, Su He said excitedly, "Your Grace, you are really resourceful. You managed to make the Prince family agree to let you go to the General's Mansion. Now we are out and will never go back!""How is that possible?" Mrs. Zhou was about to say this. Seeing Qiu Yelan looked more relaxed than she was in Prince's Mansion, she managed to keep those words to herself.However, Qiu Yelan said it herself, "That's not possible. I have an engagement. How can I live at Ruan Family forever?" Besides, the best-case scenario was that grand