Qiu Yilan had never met King Chu Weize of Yan, and even if she had, it was not the time to greet him now, so after going up to him and bowing, he turned around and followed Ni Jin into the palace.
"Your Majesty Qiu Yilan, I wish the Queen long happiness and good health!" She was led to the Beique Palace and saluted according to the rules. Queen Jiang shouted cheerfully: "Sit down, you are the princess of the first rank. Don’t be too restrained.”
"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Qiu Yilan speculated that since the Queen didn't talk back to the Queen Mother without any tact - she should like her generous and straightforward character? So I sat down on the Xiashou embroidery stool without hesitation.
She quietly glanced at Danchi and saw that Empress Jiang had now changed into regular clothes. She wore a deep pink dress with a four-way Ruyi Ruiyun pattern, tied with a jade belt, and a bun with a heart-shaped bun, making her look pretty and cute.
However, the queen's momentum remained the same. She leaned on the phoenix throne and asked lazily: "What did you do at Dizi Mountain last winter?"
Qiu Yilan thought about it a lot, but she didn't expect Queen Jiang to ask such a question. She was stunned for a moment and then said: "My cousin was studying in the other courtyard of Dizi Mountain and accidentally caught the cold. So my uncle's biological mother , Let me go and see him."
"That Kang Jinzhang has his biological sister Kang Lizhang, as well as several children of your uncle." Empress Jiang said casually, "I want to visit him. It's not like you don't have cousins, so why do you have to go? Besides," the queen smiled half-heartedly. He looked down and said, "You visited him like this, but he disappeared?"
Qiu Yilan's thoughts flashed in her mind - Queen Jiang must have noticed something fishy about the Emperor's Mountain incident when she mentioned this, but Queen Jiang's tone did not mean that she valued Kang Jinzhang himself. So, what the Queen said...
Without saying a word, she turned over and knelt down: "Please forgive me, Queen!"
Queen Jiang smiled, and it seemed from her tone that she was very satisfied with her knowledge: "Tell me what happened!"
"...That's what happened. I really didn't want to harm my cousin. I just wanted to scare my cousin so that he wouldn't continue to...continue to bother me!" On Qiu Yilan's cheeks, which were as white as gardenia petals, there were two lines of clear tears. Hang down, Chu Chu said pitifully.
Apart from concealing her time travel, she did not change a word about what happened in Dizi Mountain. It's not that she didn't want to add fuel to the fire, but Queen Jiang had already made it clear that she had checked it out first and said it was too exaggerated. If it aroused the Queen's resentment, it wouldn't be worthwhile.
But the thing is that she is right. She is young and is easier to sympathize with. Several palace attendants on the left and right of Queen Cong Jiang turned their backs and quietly wiped the corners of their eyes, which shows this tearful and vivid accusation. , still very successful.
Queen Lian Jiang also frowned slightly, but what she said was: "Your uncle's biological mother... what does this mean? Your grandfather's concubine, you should at least call her your great-grandmother, right?"
"Reply to your Majesty." Qiu Yilan waited for her to ask this question and immediately said, "My uncle's biological mother was indeed my grandfather's concubine, but..."
"Did you?" Queen Jiang reacted immediately, sat up slightly and looked down at her, "You mean she was no longer your grandfather's concubine?"
"Your Majesty is wise!" Qiu Yilan said timidly, "According to my uncle's biological mother herself, she broke the rules when serving my daughter's direct grandmother, so she was kicked out of the palace by my direct grandmother. Later, because of my daughter's My father died in battle, and my brother also died young. My uncle returned to the palace to inherit the title, so he took his biological mother back with him and respected him as Mrs. Lu... "
Mrs. Lu, thank you for telling me why you were kicked out! Otherwise, how can I confirm that you have broken the rules
Empress Jiang took a deep look at her, her face suddenly darkened, and she shouted angrily: "Absurd! Since she is a concubine who was kicked out by Princess Xihe, she has nothing to do with the Xihe Palace! The current Xihe King Qiu Mengmin not only picked her up Returning to the palace - why do you still respect her as an old lady? This is obviously because she doesn't care about her legitimate mother, Princess Xihe! Does such an unfaithful and unfilial person deserve to inherit the title of king?"
Qiu Yilan was "shocked" and said: "Mother, my uncle is fulfilling his filial piety!"
"You can have no rules by being filial?!" Empress Jiang said coldly, "The aunt is respected and the concubine is humbled. This is the rule in the world! Even if the concubine earns his royal life, why should he give it to his aunt first? Zhaoqiu Meng Min’s behavior will be messed up in the future!”
Empress Jiang said these words very loudly and with righteous indignation. She just wanted to run to Ganquan Palace and shout to Empress Dowager Gu - Concubine Xihe is dead, but the empress under the late emperor and the current Empress Dowager Ye is still there! Empress Dowager Gu, the late emperor's noble concubine, that is, concubine, actually squeezed Empress Dowager Ye so much that not many people in the palace even remembered her!
This is not just a mess in the future, it is a mess now!
Qiu Yilan tried her best to bring the topic into the deep pit she had prepared for the Xihe Palace. Of course, she could not miss this opportunity to build a ladder for the Queen. Without saying a word, she fell to the ground to apologize and said loudly: "I thank the Empress for your teachings - I beg you." The empress thinks that my daughter is young and ignorant and does not know that this is against the rules. Please forgive me for not telling my uncle to respect my grandmother in time!"
"Come here!" Empress Jiang was worthy of her royal family background, and she ordered succinctly, "Yi Yi's decree! King Qiu Mengmin of Xihe despised his aunt, murdered his niece, was unfaithful, unfilial, and unjust. He is not worthy of attacking the king. He will be removed from the title and demoted to a commoner!" After thinking about it for a while, I felt that it was not enough.
The female officer in front of the empress was very neat. By the time the empress finished speaking, she had almost finished writing an imperial edict from Li Si and Pian Liu. After writing, she dried the ink and presented it to Empress Jiang for her to read.
Queen Jiang slightly changed a few words to make Yizhi's tone sound harsher, and then nodded.
So another person came forward and copied it into the official decree.
"Why can't you see the uneasiness and kindness of Mr. Lu and your uncle at all? Nor can Princess Ruan, who was still alive at the time, see it?" Qiu Yilan was secretly happy, but to her surprise, Queen Jiang turned her head and asked, "Especially at a young age, you have a beautiful face, which is no worse than Yongfu of this palace! Princess Ruan actually allowed you to take a maid of about the same age with you to go to Dizi Mountain to find Kang Jinzhang? Kang Jinzhang often went in and out of brothels, wasn't it? What a good thing! Princess Ruan actually trusts him so much?"
Qiu Yilan's eyes turned red instantly: "The mother-in-law wants me to take the opportunity to escape."
"Escape?" Empress Jiang smiled, "You are a little girl, in the barren mountains like Dizi Mountain, where can you escape? Are you going to escape into the belly of a jackal?"
The palace people who had their eyes reddened by Qiu Yilan's words also laughed.
"Because of my daughter's marriage." Qiu Yilan's thoughts were racing and she choked out, "It was Lu who persuaded my daughter's uncle to arrange it without telling the mother and concubine. The mother and concubine were extremely opposed to Deng Yi because of him... but she couldn't. I can't resist my uncle's deliberate embarrassment... So I want my loyal servant to take my daughter away and go to my relatives far away while I'm at Dizi Mountain!"
Queen Jiang asked: "Then why do you want to go back to Prince Xihe's Mansion?"
"After the avalanche, I managed to escape with my life, only to find that the place where cousin Kang fell was buried flat by snow! I was worried that my mother and concubine would be angered, so I really couldn't leave alone, so..." If there is an opportunity to show filial piety, Of course Qiu Yilan couldn't let it go either.
Sure enough, Empress Jiang nodded slightly and looked at her with a hint of softness - the empress had been in charge of the middle palace for many years, fighting against the empress dowager and controlling the emperor's temper, but so far she only had Princess Yongfu at her knees.
Yesterday the Queen Mother asked Princess Yongfu about inviting Kang Lizhang into the palace. Queen Jiang put the responsibility on herself without saying a word, which shows her love and protection for her biological daughter.
The love between mother and daughter is of course the easiest thing to impress the queen.
"You are a filial child, and I have given you a hard time over the years." Empress Jiang sighed, "It's just that you are too honest. Qiu Mengmin and the Lu family are so unruly, why didn't you explain it to me earlier, so that you can be praised? Will I make the decision for you?"
Before Qiu Yilan could speak, a middle-aged female official standing behind Empress Jiang answered for her: "Empress, do you think Qiu Mengmin is the eldest son of the old King Xihe? He has read books and knows the truth. How can he do this? I wonder if what he has done over the years is disrespectful to his aunt? If this is the case, how can anyone get the chance to expose them?"
Empress Jiang thought it made sense, and stopped questioning Qiu Yilan. She encouraged her a few words, saw that it was getting late, gave her something casually, and asked Nijin to take her out of the palace.
To be honest, leaving the palace like this made Qiu Yilan a little disappointed - she specifically said she was not satisfied with her marriage to Deng Yi, but Queen Jiang approved Qiu Mengmin again and again, but said nothing about terminating her engagement. Don’t mention it.
Although technically speaking, Qiu Yilan's grandfather and father are gone, and she has no brothers, Qiu Mengmin should indeed make the decision on her marriage. Even if the marriage arranged by Qiu Mengmin for her was not good, others would most often comment that Qiu Mengmin's uncle was unloving but not easy to interfere with.
But Queen Jiang is so powerful in front of the Queen Mother, so what's the point of interfering in the family affairs of a Wang family with a different surname? !
I don’t know if he kept this shackle on purpose so that he could drive Qiu Yilan in the future
"Perhaps Queen Jiang's first priority now is to use Qiu Mengmin's disrespect for Princess Xihe to insinuate that Queen Mother Gu treated Queen Mother Ye badly." Qiu Yilan thought to herself, "I'm worried that if I break off the engagement at this time, it will harm Lady Gu. Here’s a chance for the Queen Mother to change the subject!”
If this is the case, then after the matter of Qiu Mengmin's disrespect for her aunt is settled... there is hope for her to regain her freedom.
Thinking of this possibility, Qiu Yilan started looking forward to it with a happy mood.
However, this joy was ruined by a greeting from behind on the way to the palace gate - Gu Yan walked out from the nearby corridor, it seemed that he was waiting for her here specifically.
He wore a curtain hat to cover the scars on his face and a complicated dress. He probably entered the palace just after worshiping his ancestors and didn't have time to change.
"Is Princess Ningyi also going to leave the palace? What a coincidence, so does my son." Gu Yan walked over and followed Qiu Yilan's sedan chair, and said calmly, his voice was a little hoarse. He didn't know if he screamed too much yesterday. caused
Qiu Yilan was now in a hostile camp with him, and she was not afraid of offending him even more. She coughed dryly and said, "These words sound familiar."
Su He lowered his head and remained silent, but Ni Jin, who was accompanying him, didn't have to give Gu Yan any face. He laughed out loud. Yesterday, Jiang Yashuang said, "What a coincidence, Prince Gu also wants to find someone to learn from." How could the people in the Queen's Palace not talk about the bloody incident involving Deng Yi's cousins
As a result, now Gu Yan also said "such a coincidence", which was simply a mockery for Qiu Yilan.
The muscles on Gu Yan's face jumped, and he glanced at Ni Jin, who showed no respect for him. He took a deep breath, calmed down his emotions, and said: "When I went back last night, I mentioned the princess to my aunt. My aunt was very I regret the death of Princess Ruan, and I plan to take the princess to live in Guangyang Palace for a while... The princess will not go back to the General's Palace today. She will go back to Xihe Palace to pack up. Someone will pick her up tomorrow. "
Su He's face turned pale when he heard this!