Real Empress from a Noble Family

Chapter 323 Someone Must Be Responsible for It.

For an elder, treating young people well was nothing more than rewarding and praising them for being good.

Compared with Qiu Yelan’s dowry, Empress and Marquess Qin could hardly give a gift for her kindness because of which she would be grateful to them.

After all, both the Ruan Family and the Qiu Family got rich in the same period as Darui Royal Family.

Qiu Jinglan was also very good to his young sister for fear that she hardly had so many things, and most crucially, Qiu Yelan didn’t love property and treasures at all.

If they wanted to compliment her on her obedience... However, Qiu Yelan hid in the room these two days, giving the excuse that she needed to rest because of the extreme anger in her heart, so as to avoid going to help the third branch check the accounts.

As the elders, they couldn’t get into her inner room, let alone praise her. Even if they could really ignore their own identities and authorities, they still had to think about whether this obvious flattery would arouse her suspicion or not.

So this kind of care could only be expressed through Jiang Yashuang and they should also make it clear to him.

However, after hearing this, Jiang Yashuang went crazy immediately, ” At the beginning, I told you not to let Ningyi go. Grandfather, you and my aunt promised. But you...”

“It’s no use talking about it now!” Marquess Qin calmly copied Empress Jiang’s previous lines, “Fortunately, Empress Dowager Ye is dead and this is also blamed on the Kuang Family. You’d better think about how to settle this.”

Jiang Yashuang sneered, “Outsiders think the Kuang Family did this, but actually they didn’t. Don’t we know it? Do you think Ningyi won’t know this? ”

“In a word, we can’t make Qiu Jinglan and her, as well as the old subordinates of the Ruan Family, be suspicious of us.” Marquess Qin frowned and said, “But now we are actually the most suspicious one, and once Qiu Jinglan rebels, you know the consequences.”

“Empress Dowager Ye has gone. How could you stop my brother suspecting us?” Jiang Yashuang thought about it and knew that his aunt had made a big mistake. Sandwiched between the family interests and the guilt for his wife and brother-in-law, he just felt that he had never been so angry. Gritting his teeth, he said, “I can’t help it! Grandfather, please make decisions with my aunt. ”

Marquess Qin and Empress Jiang were always the elders he sincerely respected, but at this moment Jiang Yashuang had the feeling of “how could I have such elders”. He was in a disturbed state of mind. “How can I put an end to it when you have killed her? The dead cannot give witness. If you don’t want the evidence, that will be good, but you just need it to prove your innocence, and then her death meant that you take all the matter on yourselves.”

After all, if someone wanted to know who did this, he or she wouldn’t make a mistake by finding out who would get the most benefit after the event.

Therefore, after the grave of General Ruan was dug up, the Empress’ party benefited the most, which of course made them become the prime suspect.

Jiang Yashuang thought that his brother-in-law was intelligent and had a very suspicious mind, and it would be basically impossible to make him believe that this had nothing to do with the Jiang Family without Empress Dowager Ye. Because it was not a matter of difficulty.

Marquess Qin didn’t take his refusal seriously. He said lightly, “If Qiu Jinglan turned against our family and your wife helped her brother, what would you do? Would you help your wife and break up with us, or continue to be my good grandson and kill your wife?”

“...” Jiang Yashuang suddenly lost his words. No matter what others thought of the Jiang Family and no matter how many immoral things the Jiang family had done, he was always the most valued and beloved one in the Jiang Family and was also the most unqualified one to dislike and betray the Jiang Family.

Even if Qiu Yelan’s position in his mind couldn’t be replaced, he couldn’t kill his relatives and rebel against his parents. Jiang Yashuang felt that he would rather stab himself if it came to this.

“So we mustn’t let them know the truth.” Marquess Qin said calmly, “Your wife and her brother are smart, but smart people think too much, especially that Empress Dowager Ye has been sheltered by our family these years. Even if she was still alive, it would also be difficult to explain.”

Jiang Yashuang stayed silent for a long time. He said, “Someone must come out to take this responsibility.”

“It’s like the accusation of the Kuang Family now. People who know the inside story can see at a glance that they have been framed.” When Marquess Qin called him, he had thought about it, “As soon as this happened, we are the biggest beneficiary. So why can’t it be that we are framed? You know we are truly innocent this time.”

“First of all, it can’t be the Gu Family.” Jiang Yashuang was upset in his heart, but he had to restrain it and follow the ideas of Marquess Qin to deal with the aftermath. After all, he really didn’t want to see the fierce conflict between his wife’s family and his own family.

“The Gu Family has been almost defeated. Although Prime Minister Xue framed Prince of Zhou for His Majesty’s poisoning, he gave the reason why Prince of Zhou wanted to kill His Majesty. It is because that His Majesty prefers the Seventh Prince to be the Crown Prince, which is to pave the way for us.” He said with no expression on his face, “The reason for the failure of the Gu Family is that the tomb of grandfather Ruan was dug up, and so it can’t be them.”

“It can’t be other people of the Empress Dowager’s party, too. Their performance in the matter of the excavation of grandfather Ruan’s tomb definitely showed that they didn’t know”

“Empress Dowager Ye, the real planner, has been dead.”

“It needs not only courage, but also ability and power to dig grandfather Ruan’s tomb and frame us. Of course, we need more reasons.”

Jiang Yashuang looked at his grandfather and said, “I can’t think of anyone else who can be the scapegoat except the Dou Family. The premise is that my brother believes that the Dou Family is capable of doing this.”

Marquess Qin pondered and then said, “He should believe it. First of all, the Dou Family is your Aunt Yang’s family. Over these years, they have always been the best in daughters-in-laws of our family. If they could connect with the western savages, it wouldn’t be difficult to bribe a few people from the Emperor’s mausoleum.”

The Imperial Guard of the Emperor’s mausoleum was respected by no one. Before the collapse of the Dou Family, if a person in charge had the least amount of power in the mansion, he was worth Cao Zizhong’s flattery.

Here was a reason for tomb diggers to sneak into the Emperor’s mausoleum.

“Second, the fact that the Dou Family came to such a tragic end was because they were the scapegoat of our family. I think your wife should have known it for a long time. So they have reason to take revenge on our family.”

“Third, our family is now prestigious. It’s just an arrogant fantasy for the Dou family to think of other ways to retaliate and only tricks like instigation can work.”

Hearing this, Jiang Yashuang reminded, “If it were the Dou Family, why didn’t they just gang up with Empress Dowager Gu? In this way, when the news came, Empress Dowager Gu would not be caught unprepared, be framed from the beginning, and consequently be defeated step by step.”

“Don’t you know, or don’t you notice?” Marquess Qin didn’t think so. “The men of the Dou Family were all killed before the Lunar New Year’s Eve and the women were sent to the Jiaofang, an institution to train musicians and singers. Empress Dowager Gu knew that your Aunt Yang and sister-in-law would keep pleading for them. Just because something big happened at the banquet on Lunar New Year’s Eve, they didn’t have the chance to say that. So in the first lunar month, young men of Gu, Tang, Qiu, Yin and other families rushed to Jiaofang to...”

Marquess Qin didn’t care much about young men’s sex with prostitutes, as long as they didn’t indulge in it. But as an elder, it was improper for him to say it out when talking about business.

Although he didn’t finish uttering them, Jiang Yashuang could still know what he meant. Women of the Dou Family were teased, humiliated, or even tortured by the Empress Dowager’s party after they were sent to Jiaofang.

Therefore, even if the Dou Family wanted to revenge on the Jiang Family, they would not join hands with Empress Dowager Gu.

In this way, they found out the way to deal with the aftermath. Qiu Yelan didn’t know the painstaking efforts of the grandfather and grandchildren. She was now worried about the death of Empress Dowager Ye, “Jiang Yashuang told me that they would let her live on her own. Last time I saw her, she was not far away from death, but she could still last for a few months. How could she die suddenly? Especially now...”

Empress Dowager Gu was about to fall. Even if Empress Dowager Ye was near death, she should live until Empress Dowager Gu was completely defeated. Only when she saw that could she die without regret.

But She was dead!

“If it was the Jiang Family, why?” She didn’t know that after Empress Jiang coaxed her nephew, she continued to let Empress Dowager Ye die as soon as possible according to her plan. She didn’t intend to tolerate Empress Dowager Ye’s life at all. When Empress Dowager Ye ordered her men to dig General Ruan’s grave, she made up her mind to take advantage of her decaying body to pave the way for Qiu Yelan. Before she died, she fooled Empress Jiang, which made Qiu Yelan feel guilty at the moment. “Have they found out what Empress Dowager Ye did? Will they suspect me? God, don’t doubt that it was I who wanted to dig up the Ruan Family’s tomb... If so, how could I live in the Jiang Family in the future? How could I explain to my brother when he came back?”

Others didn’t know what she was thinking. Looking at her worried face, they only said that it was because of the bad experience of General Ruan. They went in and out gently and all people in the yard were cautious.

Until Zhuang Man, Xin Fubing and Ou Qinglan, the three young ladies dressing up nice and pretty, came, their caution was alleviated.

They came to comfort Qiu Yelan because of what happened to General Ruan’s tomb.

However, the last thing Qiu Yelan wanted to hear at the moment was someone mentioning it, so as soon as they came, she took the initiative to ask questions and didn’t give them a chance to say any comforting words.

Zhuang Man and others realized that, so they had to follow her meaning and discuss all kinds of family topics, which seemed to be a common visit.

In the middle, Ou Qinglan was about to talk for several times. Qiu Yelan was just pretending. She knew that Ou Qinglan wanted to ask her about Qiu Jinglan. To be honest, Qiu Yelan always didn’t agree with Ou Qinglan on being her sister-in-law, because Qiu Jinglan’s attitude towards Ou Qinglan remained lukewarm. He had clearly said that he was not interested in Ou Qinglan and didn’t want to be entangled by her.

Looking back at women who had close contact with Qiu Jinglan in the past like Hua Shenshen and Penglai Yue, they were charming, elegant, and obedient to Qiu Jinglan.

Even so, Qiu Jinglan abandoned them when he didn’t like them at all.

Qiu Yelan thought that with her brother’s desire for control and the feudal style, Ou Qinglan, who looked beautiful, fierce, and passionate, might not be his type.

But after experiencing these frightening days, Ou Qinglan’s sincere concern also made Qiu Yelan feel warm, so she asked, “Xing, what do you want to say?” This was the first time that she called Ou Qinglan’s nickname “Xing”, which could be regarded as showing goodwill.

“Of course, I’m thinking about your brother.” Ou Qinglan was surprised and flattered, but Zhuang Man spoke first before she could answer, elongating the word. “How’s your brother recently? Tell her quickly. I’ll tell you. She talked about this these days when she saw me. I can’t stand it anymore. After all, who can I ask about your brother’s recent situation?”

“Keep your voice down.” Xin Fubing was dumbfounding, throwing the chestnuts against her, and said, “Although there are no outsiders, can you say it casually? Xing is generous, but you shouldn’t be too careless. You should avoid spreading rumors to harm her.”

Ou Qinglan didn’t care about this. She said, “It’s OK, I can’t hear the comments behind, too. If anyone dare to talk about this in front of me, I will slap him or her in the face.”

She said this calmly. Zhuang Man listened quietly to her, taking out a chestnut slowly and peeling. She said, “That’s right. Just rumors. Punish those who talk about rumors strictly, and then no one will talk about that.”

“Preventing people’s words is more important than preventing floods.” Xin Fubing touched her forehead. Her friends were crueller than another one. As the fiancée of the crown prince, she felt the big pressure. She had thought of the days when she begged mercy for her friends.

“Take it easy. There must be someone wishing to be with you.” Ou Qinglan and Zhuang Man said this as if they were experienced, and then they turned to Qiu Yelan and asked, “So can you talk about this?”