Real Empress from a Noble Family

Chapter 259 - Seduction Under Admiration? How Was It Possible!

Chapter 259 Seduction Under Admiration? How Was It Possible!

In front of Empress Jiang, this murderous question of the Empress Dowager naturally did not scare Qiu Yelan. She said with a relaxed expression, “How dare I? However, although Kuang Qingwu is your grandson, my cousin is also a Commandery Princess registered by the imperial court, and her grade is higher than Kuang Qingwu. Now you just question my cousin without questioning Kuang Qingwu, so I really feel wronged for my cousin!”

Empress Jiang said with a smile, “That’s right. Mom, you love your grandson, but I also love my niece-in-law! If you are partial, I won’t agree!”

From her tone, it seemed that the relationship between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law was so good and the daughter-in-law was just acting like a pampered child. However, everyone knew that the Empress was just warning Empress Dowager Gu. If Empress Dowager Gu still aimed at Commandery Princess Ningtai but ignored Kuang Qingwu, she would make trouble for him then!

However, to Empress Jiang’s surprise, Empress Dowager Gu sneered a few times after hearing this and said, “Since you are so worried, then you’ll question Qingwu!”

The Empress was stunned. But before she questioned Kuang Qingwu, he had already stepped forward and fell on his knees to explain the process of his relationship with Qiu Jinzhu. What he said was basically the same as what Qiu Jinzhu said. However, he said that he fell in love with Qiu Jinzhu at first sight, so he often wandered around the tent where Qiu Family lived to meet her accidentally.

As for why he refused to let people know about that since he really loved Qiu Jinzhu, Kuang Qingwu explained, “I heard that my father had a grudge against Ruan Family and Qiu Family, and I had conflicts with Commandery Princess Ningyi when I came to Jing City before. I was afraid that the Duke of Xihe would not agree to marry her daughter to me, so I planned to win a position in the imperial examination in spring...”

“The imperial examination in spring has been over already, right?” Empress Jiang, who stood high on the red steps, could easily see the people below. When Kuang Qingwu was telling it, Qiu Jinzhu, who was originally terrified and dejected, became more and more surprised. And finally, she even tried to hold back her tears with sleeves covering her mouth. If Qiu Yelan hadn’t moved quietly to completely block her, maybe everyone in the whole Hall would have seen that scene.

The Empress felt frustrated in her heart and interrupted, “Even if you want to report back to Kuang Shihan first, isn’t it long enough for the messenger to come and go back from the imperial examination in spring till now?” You wouldn’t have the guts to say that you didn’t like Princess Changping in front of Empress Dowager Gu!

What was more, it was only tacitly disclosed in private, and it had never been brought out in the open. If Kuang Qingwu dared to do so, Empress Dowager Gu would immediately accuse him of slandering the princess before the Empress scolded him. Kuang Shihan would not have allowed him to go to Jing City if he had been so stupid.

Kuang Qingwu said with shame, “It’s just because my father didn’t allow it.”

“Oh? Kuang Shihan didn’t agree to this marriage? Why? In terms of family status, your Kuang Family is not better than Prince’s Mansion of Xihe. Does he look down on Commandery Princess Ningtai?” Empress Jiang narrowed her eyes and asked.

Although Qiu Jinzhu was deliberately blocked by Qiu Yelan, the hem of her sleeve that was exposed also shrank obviously.

“Her Majesty, how can my father be like this?” Kuang Qingwu smiled bitterly, “It’s just my father and mother have made a private marriage for me, and they planned to tell me that after the imperial examination in spring. I didn’t know before... ”

“Then what are you going to do now?” Empress Jiang was too lazy to listen to him. When he told the reason, she asked straightforward, “Although it is said that the parents are in charge of their child’s marriage, since you deliberately seduced Commandery Princess Ningtai, you can’t just forget that just because you’re betrothed.”

Kuang Qingwu kowtowed, and said bluntly, “Your Majesty, you are right. Therefore, I’ll send a letter to my parents immediately and choose a day to marry Commandery Princess Ningtai then!”

Except for Empress Dowager Gu, everyone was startled in the Hall after he said that!

It was not over. Kuang Qingwu then kowtowed to Empress Dowager Gu and begged, “Grandma, I can’t help associating with Commandery Princess Ningtai without the permission of the Duke of Xihe, and now Prince’s Mansion of Xihe is being talked about because of me. I have no face to meet Duke of Xihe and the Princess and beg for their forgiveness. So Grandma, please explain and convey it on my behalf, so that I can get the opportunity to offer a bumble apology!”

Empress Dowager Gu said expressionlessly, “I will send Zheng to Qiu Family. Think about how to explain it to your father and mother!”

Speaking of this, Empress Dowager Gu turned her head to look at Empress Jiang, “Do you have anything else to ask about?”

Empress Jiang’s face looked extremely bad!

If a young man and lady of equal status, both unmarried, had an affair, as long as the man was willing to marry the lady, the matter would be over then.

Of course, if things like this were exposed and got a lot of trouble, both the man and the lady would still be punished. After all, they brought about bad social morals.

However, with Kuang Qingwu’s status, the punishment would not be serious certainly.

Just like when Empress Jiang was here, Empress Dowager Gu couldn’t handle Qiu Yelan no matter how impolite she was, Empress Jiang couldn’t handle Kuang Qingwu as well even if she had something on him as Empress Dowager Gu was here. As for Qiu Jinzhu, such a small role, punishing her or not had no effect on the overall situation. The Empress was too lazy to deal with her. What was more, Qiu Yelan was standing up for her cousin, so the Empress had to take care of the sake of her niece-in-law.

In other words, the storm should end then in the open.

“Since you have the intention to take responsibility, I wanna know when you plan to marry Commandery Princess Ningtai.” Empress Jiang thought for a while, ignored Empress Dowager Gu, and continued to question Kuang Qingwu.

“I’ve just sent someone back to the west to report to my father... ”

His words were interrupted by the Empress again, “It means that you’ll marry her after getting the letter in reply of Kuang Shihan, right? It can be done this year, right?”

Kuang Qingwu lowered his head, “If there is no accident, I think it is the case.”

“I have nothing to ask about them.” Empress Jiang smiled towards Empress Dowager Gu. “Congratulations, mom. You can have such a beautiful granddaughter-in-law then! You were served only by Changping before, but soon Ningtai can help to serve you, and they two can accompany each other. That is great!”

Empress Dowager Gu looked insipid without showing her mood, “Since you have nothing to ask for, let’s end this matter.”

“Wait a minute!” Empress Jiang stopped Empress Dowager Gu who intended to disperse the crowd, staring at her, and asked with a smile, “Mom, even if you have a granddaughter-in-law then, you can’t leave Changping alone. It is time for her to get married. I don’t know... ”

“Let’s talk about the family commitments in private!” Being satirized by her again and again, Empress Dowager Gu put on a gloomy face. She gave her a warning glance, “Yongfu and Changping are about the same age. When I am free, I will discuss children’s marriages with you carefully!”

Since Princess Yongfu was mentioned, Empress Jiang snorted and stopped the topic.

After a long while, Qiu Yelan stopped on the way out of the Palace. Seeing nobody around, she asked Qiu Jinzhu, who couldn’t help biting her lip behind her to hold back the happy smile. “Do you really think the result today is great? ”

Qiu Jinzhu was stunned, and then hurriedly smiled, “Thank you so much today... I will never forget your great kindness in my life!” She said so sincerely, and Qiu Yelan could see that her words really came from the bottom of her heart, which showed how much she hoped for an upright combination with Kuang Qingwu.

Therefore, Qiu Yelan’s eyes were even more compassionate, “Although Kuang Qingwu didn’t make the marriage he talked about clear, you should guess that he was talking about Princess Changping. The princess is raised by Empress Dowager Gu personally, while Kuang Qingwu is just Empress Dowager Gu’s grandson in name. If he were not the only son of Kuang Shihan, Empress Dowager Gu might not be willing to marry Princess Changping to him! Now Kuang Qingwu abandoned the princess to marry you, while Empress Dowager Gu didn’t care about that much but agreed to his request instead and sent someone to persuade your father to agree to the marriage... Haven’t you felt anything wrong?”

Qiu Jinzhu lowered her head, concealing the impatience passing by on her face, saying in a docile manner, “Her Majesty spoke up for me today just for your sake... ” She said thankful words while she felt deprecating, thinking in her heart, ” Even if Kuang Qingwu’s father killed your father, it was not Kuang Qingwu who did that! You can go to trouble Kuang Qingwu’s father if you are powerful enough! Why you keep staring at Kuang Qingwu? Since Kuang Qingwu has promised to marry me, you really think I will be so stupid to hurt my husband for you, my cousin?”

In fact, not only Qiu Jinzhu thought so, even Xiuyan also felt that Qiu Yelan stopped here just to kill Kuang Qingwu but not to help Qiu Jinzhu. She couldn’t help crying secretly, “I’ve thought that the sixth Commandery Princess would be done this time, but the bad thing just turned into a good thing! If I had known that Kuang Qingwu was willing to take responsibility, I shouldn’t have gone for Commandery Princess Ningyi! How should I explain to her now?”

Qiu Yelan could see through the thoughts of the two of them certainly. Knowing that it would be useless to persuade them, she shook her head, “Let’s go then.”

Since Kuang Qingwu promised to marry her in front of Empress Dowager Gu and the Empress, in Qiu Jinzhu’s and Xiuyan’s eyes, he was a responsible and sincere man. But from Qiu Yelan and Empress Jiang’s opinion, who were discerning, Qiu Jinzhu would be done then since Kuang Qingwu made the promise!

After all, there were major political interests in Princess Changping and Kuang Qingwu’s marriage. What was more, since the husband chosen by the dignified Empress Dowager for her personally-raised princess was robbed by the Commandery Princess of a declining Prince’s Mansion, how could the Empress Dowager bear it? How could the princess bear it?

Even if they two could bear that, Kuang Shihan couldn’t!

He had only a son, and all the possessions he had saved all his life would be inherited by this son. He was abandoned by his relatives in his early years, so he could not count on those people after he developed. In this case, he had to find a powerful father-in-law for his weak son certainly!

Qiu Mengmin and Duke of Xihe were noble enough in terms of their rank. While as for power and strength, they couldn’t even rejuvenate the Prince’s Mansion of Xihe, let alone support their son-in-law in the future! How could Kuang Shihan accept such a daughter-in-law who couldn’t bring much help to his son but might need Kuang Family’s help in turn?

Therefore, even if Kuang Qingwu promised to marry Qiu Jinzhu, and Empress Dowager Gu and Princess Changping agreed to that, it was impossible for Kuang Shihan to really let his son marry Qiu Jinzhu!

But at the moment, Qiu Jinzhu and Xiuyan were both confused by the bright turning point. They couldn’t see and didn’t want to see that. With Qiu Yelan’s relationship with them, she was afraid that they would think she just wanted to use her position to get even with Kuang Qingwu for their private grudge firmly no matter how she persuaded them!

Since so, Qiu Yelan was reluctant to make effort then. Hope Qiu Mengmin and her husband could be smart about it!

She still had a lot of things to worry about, so she didn’t have much time and energy to waste on this cousin who had been overwhelmed by feelings.

“Yes!” Qiu Jinzhu and Xiuyan replied respectfully and looked at each other behind her with happiness in their eyes.

After getting out of the Palace, the two sisters naturally parted immediately.

Qiu Yelan returned to Jiang’s residence and Jiang Yashuang was already there, waiting for her to tell him what happened on this day. After listening to her, his eyes narrowed slightly, “Kuang Qingwu seems to have a master beside him!”

“Why you think so?” Qiu Yelan was startled.

Jiang Yashuang poured her a cup of plum juice and asked slowly, “Do you think Kuang Qingwu seduced Commandery Princess Ningtai really because he liked her?”