Chapter 33 A Cousin Who Cares for You like Your Mother

“Your Grace!” Seeing Qiu Yelan coming out, Qu Shan and his family were all excited.

Qu Shan’s mother, Mrs. Li was about sixty. She was born in Prince’s Mansion of Xihe and had a talent for cooking. When she was only over 20, she took charge of the old Princess’ diet.

When the old Princess of Xihe passed away, Qiu Mengmin was in charge. He didn’t trust the servants of his official mother, so he sold most of them. Qu Shan’s family was supposed to be sold as well, but Princess Ruan kept them and some other servants, so they started serving Princess Ruan and her daughter.

It could be said that his family watched Qiu Yelan grow up, so they had a unique feeling for her.

Now when the master and the servants saw each other again after a long time, Mrs. Li couldn’t help bursting into tears. Sobbing and bowing down on her knees, she said, “I couldn’t imagine that I would see Your Grace again!”

“Mrs. Li, please stand up!” Qiu Yelan was shocked by her act and hurried to reach her.

After she persuaded the Qu family to stand up and when they calmed down, Qiu Yelan asked, “Mrs. Li, didn’t you leave the Jing City?”

As Mrs. Zhou recalled, the Qu family was sold to an official who was relegated to a distant place, probably to Lingnan. Mrs. Li was old, and transportation was difficult at this time. If she did go to Lingnan, they would never meet again, so her excitement was no exaggeration.

“My family indeed was sold to Prefect Wu, who was going to Lingnan for office, and was taken out of the Jing City,” Mrs. Li just regained her composure but cried again after being asked, “But before the Lunar New Year, before we arrived in Jiangnan, Prefect Wu resigned because his parent passed away! So, he took us to his hometown, which was in a county three day’s walk away from Jing City. The other day, someone came and said he would buy us back to Prince’s Mansion under your order. Prefect Wu asked for my will and we certainly love to go back and serve Your Grace….”

Qiu Yelan’s heart sunk and looked at Ruan Qingyan who was also looking at her, saying, “I didn’t know where you were sold. How could I buy you back?”

“Yes, Your Grace,” Mrs. Li sobbed, “Actually those people were sent by Prince and Princess Yang to kill us. On the way back to the Jing City, they showed their true colors and was going to bind us to stones and throw us into the river! Luckily, General Jiang and his people came in time, and we were able to see Your Grace again!”

Qiu Yelan’s face was livid and said, “And then? Did Jiang Ya… General Jiang say anything?”

“General Jiang escorted us to the Jing City and told us to come here to Your Grace for shelter.” Mrs. Li lifted her sleeve to wipe her tears and begged, “We have always been planning to serve Your Grace and Princess for our whole life. Before Princess passed away, she told us to take good care of Your Grace! Now that we meet again, please take us!”

Before Mrs. Li’s voice faded, behind her, Qu Shan had silently held a set of slave contracts up with both hands.

Qiu Yelan sighed. She didn’t take the slave contracts but said, “Mrs. Li, I won’t hide it from you. I think it is because of me that you were almost killed.”

“How can we blame Your Grace? Although I’m not clever, I know the fact that I served old Princess is disliked by Prince and Princess Yang,” hearing this, Mrs. Li had no complaints but smiled bitterly, “It seems that by selling us to Prefect Wu, Lady Yuqing showed mercy. But if Prefect Wu didn’t resign and return to his hometown, if we had followed him to Lingnan where poisonous air and diseases were everywhere, I would have already died on the road! Qu Shan and my other family are not so good in health either. They might also have died! The masters in Prince’s Mansion obviously planned to exchange our lives for some money!”

She took the slave contracts from Qu Shan’s hands, staggered over and put them in Qiu Yelan’s hands, “Your Grace, don’t you want us to serve you?”

So far Qiu Yelan had to take the slave contracts. She had mixed feelings, but Ruan Qingyan smiled lightly. He thought now that the Qu family was former servants of Princess Ruan and was almost killed by Qiu Mengmin’s people, he could trust them. He had been worried that there were not enough servants around Qiu Yelan. Now Qu Shan and his family came back, his worry could be relieved.

Thus, when he saw Qiu Yelan took the contracts, he immediately rewarded them with 50 silver taels as a praise for their loyalty on behalf of her.

Qiuran and Mrs. Zhou went to help Qu Shan’s family settle down. Ruan Qingyan discussed with Qiu Yelan, “It seems that by agreeing to deal with Qiu Mengmin after the Lantern Festival, Empress Dowager Gu aimed to give him a chance to kill the witnesses!”

Qiu Yelan’s face didn’t look good, “We didn’t think of this. But even if we thought of it, it was no use, for we don’t have so many men! It’s lucky that the Jiang Family thought of it.”

She frowned, “Actually, as witnesses are all servants, they are not so reliable. I’m worried about the evidence.”

Ruan Qingyan said, “You mean the genealogy? I guess it’s hard to tamper with it.”

According to the rules at this time, only the wife can be written down in the genealogy. As for concubines, only if they gave birth