Chapter 296 The Level of a Woman Who Has Been a Mistress for Thirty Years

Of course, Qiu Yelan was startled, but she was quick. She immediately set up a straight face and said, “What nonsense! The third uncle and Uncle Mengmin were never good to each other. You knew that! Although He Shuijin privately gave this account to me to make us the fourth branch do this, personally she just wants us to own her a personal note!”

Jiang Yashuang tucked the account into his sleeve, gave her a gentle pinch on the cheek, and smiled, “Are you lying to me now? Let me tell you what’s wrong with that. It’s true that the contradiction between us and the first branch is an issue of interest, but we, the fourth branch, are not the ones who hate the Dou Family most! So if He Shuijin showed this account because of the contradiction between the third branch and the first branch, she had given this to our grandmother rather than you.”

He squinted slightly and said, “Especially now something happened to the Tao family. Although grandmother thought it served them right, it’s her family after all. She must be very unhappy. If our grandmother gets this account, I don’t know how happy she will be! How clever He Shuijin is! Why would she give this to you without noticing our grandmother? It’s not what she would do.”

“…” Qiu Yelan gave a thought for a moment, beat him shyly out of anger, and said, “Believe it or not! That’s the reason!”

Jiang Yashuang laughed and said, “It’s not decided by my will. He Shuijin hasn’t managed the account of the Dou Family, so the ledger could only have been inferred by her searching for information of the Dou Family. Of course, with her skill, even if it is a speculation, it should be pretty close. So the value of this account book is equal to that of the key account copied from the Dou family. But it’s just…”

He became serious and said, “Even if He Shuijin is so talented in this field, it’s so hard and tedious to make this account book only based on speculation. It’s impossible to finish this within one or two days! And He Shuijin was in charge of the general ledger of our family before she got married. Since then, she began to think about the family’s livelihood and barely had rested! After she got married, the only time when she could make this ledger was the days after her abortion. At that time, she was supposed to be immersed in the sadness of losing her child, and she even had the leisure to do this. You can tell how important this matter is to her. However, she gave this ledger to you rather than grandmother. Are you gonna still tell me that she doesn’t have any conditions at all, or that the conditions are just for us to help Jiang Yaheng in the future?”

Qiu Yelan was struck dumb, because the words she discussed with He Shuijin were that He Shuijin wanted the fourth branch to give Jiang Yaheng a hand in the future…

Now Qiu Yelan’s husband brought the plan out into the open, and she still couldn’t think of a new reason anyway. She just pulled up the quilt, covered her head, and joked, “Anyway, I gave it to you. Use it or not, it’s your choice!”

“I think it’s impossible for He Shuijin to know what happened in the army this fast.” Jiang Yashuang said. Seeing this, he didn’t push but smiled, “She should only speculate that there must be a plot in the first branch through her brother’s westward journey, so she prepared this account… What a coincidence! But what does she want from you?”

Listening to his steady tone, Qiu Yelan secretly prayed that he would never guess that right! She uncovered the quilt a little and slightly reb.u.t.ted, “Can’t it be that He Shuijin is afraid to give the account book directly to our grandmother and afraid that our grandfather is unhappy to know, so she wants us to deliver this?”

“If grandma can’t even cover up, it’s useless for her to take this account.” Jiang Yashuang muttered to himself. Then he said, “You’re afraid I’ll guess the truth? It seems that the truth is not something good. Let me think twice, it should be…”

“Stop guessing!” Qiu Yelan was frightened by his reasonable a.n.a.lysis. Seeing him getting closer and closer, she made up her mind. She threw the quilt, lay in his arms, put one hand around his neck, slided the other hand into his clothes, and said slightly, “It’s late at night. Shall we sleep together, Dear?”

The sound of “Dear” distracted Jiang Yashuang. Although he knew what she wanted to do, he couldn’t control himself. He turned over and pushed her down…

The next day, Jiang Yashuang went out with happiness. However, after Qiu Yelan got up, she repeatedly rubbed her waist. Su He and other maids didn’t say anything, but Mrs. Zhou and others who were married knew clearly what had happened. They snickered secretly with ambiguous smiles on their faces.

Seeing this, Qiu Yelan beat the dressing table with hatred, but she startled Chunran who was making up for her. Chunran said, “Did I do anything wrong, madame?”

“Send something to my cousin later.” Qiu Yelan said. She was going to ask someone to pick up a person at the address given by He Shuijin this morning, but she had a second thought. Jiang Yashuang was suspicious yesterday. Although she distracted him in that way, who knew if this guy would send someone to watch her action today?

In order to keep her promise to He Shuijin, she decided to postpone and walked around in circles to confuse potential watchers. She thought, “I will try to stay more at my cousin’s house to see whether the new brother-in-law is good to her.”

Chunran didn’t know what she meant. She just obeyed.

So after a few days, Qiu Yelan saw Jiang Yashuang still did not move and just got relieved. She ordered two bodyguards who were sent by Qiu Jinglan to quietly pick up the person outside the city.

The two bodyguards went for two days and two nights. On the third day, they came back to report that they had placed that person in a house near a certain street. They said, “We left five taels of silver for the master and servant, and the rest is here.” And then they handed in some silver tickets and some silver coins.

Qiu Yelan was shocked and said, “How can you only give her five taels of silver? That’s too little.”

The bodyguards looked at each other and said, “We would like to give more, but that…” After thinking, they decided how to address that person and said, “Lady Chi said that she didn’t need too much, because too much money would make people suspicious. Just leave her some money to buy food, and she won’t live there long.”

She was really confident, Qiu Yelan thought. She couldn’t help asking, “What’s the girl like?” Even if she used to be Jiang Tianqi’s love, they hadn’t seen each other for two or three years. Jiang Tianqi had high status. There was no lack of beauty’s attention in his daily life. How could this girl be so confident that she could hold Jiang Tianqi’s heart again when she showed up again?

“Uh, so beautiful? And she’s quiet.” The two bodyguards were trained by Qiu Jinglan herself. They were now in their twenties, and they were single. At this moment, they all blushed after hearing these words. They didn’t know whether they felt embarra.s.sed because Qiu Yelan asked too directly or they thought of Lady Chi’s behavior.

Hearing the bodyguards’ words, Lady Chi should be a girl from a respectable family. But could this kind of girl be so confident about seducing a man?

It was quite possible that she was a virgin! If Jiang Tianqi liked these kinds of girls, Madame He could have a good play! Qiu Yelan mocked and let Su He get the reward.

The bodyguards took the reward money and went out. What a coincidence! They met Jiang Yashuang coming back earlier than usual. Jiang Yashuang went into the room and asked suspiciously, “Anything happened? Why did you call in the bodyguards?”

Qiu Yelan was cautious. She made a wink to him meaning to shut up and found an excuse to let others out. Then she blamed, “Why are you yelling? It’s so hard for me to make an excuse to call them in and let them meet with our maids. If you yelled, they would understand what I meant!”

Jiang Yashuang was suddenly enlightened and laughed, “Who was introduced? Su He or Chunran? Uh, Caiqi and Caiying are old enough to get married. They two have served me for many years and have always been devoted. How about finding a good husband for each of them by the way?”

“I know!” Qiu Yelan was happy that her husband believed her this time. She said, “We all know that! Just do not interfere!”

It turned out that Lady Chi was really qualified to be confident. After the bodyguards went back, Jiang Tianqi formally married Lady Chi within ten days!

Qiu Yelan was so surprised that she praised that girl when she secretly met He Shuijin again. She said, “I really don’t know how she did it!”

“Why is that hard?” He Shuijin was calm and sneered, “As long as he is not a gentleman like Jiang Yashuang, how many people can hold it when seduced by a beautiful woman?” Her words were jealous. Obviously, it was because Jiang Yaheng couldn’t hold it.

“As you said, they just cannot hold it. Men in the families like ours are easy to be seduced, but it’s hard to marry with these men!” What Qiu Yelan said was not baseless. Misbehaved men like Jiang Yadan, they had numerous lovers outside the family. Even many of the lovers were from decent families. But they cannot be the legal wife?!

Even if Lady Chi met Jiang Tianqi as soon as the bodyguards left, it had only been ten days. She could make Jiang Tianqi return to her and marry her. And now it was the critical moment when the whole Jiang family was busy checking accounts!

This was the thing that could be achieved by a woman who had been a mistress for thirty years!

He Shuijin smiled and said, “You don’t understand. Now our family is busy. It’s not safe for my father-in-law to spend the night outside. Lady Chi is just a girl. No matter what background she has, she is just a mistress in Marquess’s Mansion. We just need to watch her cautiously. Will she blow here up?”

Qiu Yelan thought that was right and said, “You are so shrewd. You can a.n.a.lyze this thoroughly!”

“I was pushed!” He Shuijin said. She didn’t think it was a good thing to be thoughtful. She gave a bitter smile and said, “Now Lady Chi will watch my aunt. I can relieve a little… Oh, did Jiang Yashuang doubt about the Dou Family’s account?”

“That’s impossible!” Qiu Yelan felt upset when she thought of that. She said, “But don’t worry, I didn’t tell him the truth. I think it’s hard to guess things like that. And he has been busy, he doesn’t have time to infer this all the time.”

He Shuijin relaxed and said, “It’s good for him not to know the truth. Although my aunt was cruel to me, the rest of the He Family were innocent. I can’t bear to make my family ashamed because of her. I hope you can help me. Don’t let anyone know!”

Of course, Qiu Yelan gave a promise to protect the secret.

It was already in the twelfth lunar month. This year’s twelfth lunar month was especially bad for Madame He. First of all, He Shuijin, the most capable daughter-in-law, fell ill at the critical moment. Even if she insisted on working with illness, her work efficiency was low.

Although the Jiang Family verified the account records, Spring Festival was coming. However, He Shuijin worked in illness. The preparation of Marquess’s Mansion for the lunar new year was naturally attributed to Madame He, the wife of Marquess’s firstborn son. Because He Shuijin was too capable, she was used to enjoying. It was understandable that she made mistakes frequently when she suddenly got busy.

Unfortunately, Madame Tao was angry about what happened in the Tao Family. She was less tolerant to daughters-in-law. Therefore she was blamed for many times, even in the face of servants.

Madame He was so busy and was blamed by Madame, and her husband married his old lover. But for He Shuijin’s help, Madame He would almost divorce with her husband because of Lady Chi. This time it even went too far. Jiang Tianqi had made his decision to marry Lady Chi rather than talk it over with Madame He.

Lady Chi had a delicate face. And she dared to give Jiang Tianqi a charming expression with affectionate eyes in front of Madame He. With all of these, Madame He even wanted to kill her.

However, under the pressure of her husband, she had to smile and manage the wedding ceremony.

So many sad things made Madame He more and more gloomy, so that she barely had the energy to prepare for the Chinese lunar new year. Although it seemed that Marquess’s Mansion was as lively as before, the atmosphere had lingering coldness.

Although this month was not happy enough, there was a piece of good news at the family dinner near Lunar New Year’s Eve: Madame Tao Junior was pregnant!

Marquess Qin and Madame Tao were not happy when they saw that Madame Tao Junior had no time to greet and immediately rushed out of the house to vomit. Then the doctor came and made a diagnose, confirming that Madame Tao Junior was pregnant. The old couple became happy and the atmosphere of the family dinner became alive.

Jiang Yashuang and Qiu Yelan were especially relieved and said, “They really believed!”

With Marquess Qin’s state, there was no need to worry about the status of Madame Tao Junior. Now that she had a child, she realized the biggest dream of her life. Even if Jiang Yadan still misbehaved, she could live a good life.

But in such a festive atmosphere, servants rushed in to report, “The mansion of the Dou Family is surrounded by the Imperial Army! It is said that it was because of the impeachment of Censor Qiu!”