"How is this possible?!" Qiu Yilan was shocked and angry, "Nineteen couples are more familiar with the palace than I am, how could they break into the place where the princess lives?!"
Jiang Tan smiled bitterly and said, "I thought so too, but the palace servants who served Her Royal Highness Princess Lexin said so, and even presented a sachet that was said to have been dropped by the young master in the princess's bedroom, so Queen Mother Gu got the handle..."
Qiu Yilan interrupted him suspiciously: "Haven't you been following him? Why do you think so?" You should know very well whether Nineteen went to Princess Lexin's dormitory, okay? !
"... The queen wanted to have a secret talk with the young master, and the younger one was waiting outside the palace." Jiang Tan looked helpless, "Then not long after the young master came out, when he was about to leave the palace, he was stopped by the Queen Mother's people, who asked the young master to go and talk to the queen mother. "I'm afraid that she would be worried, so she quickly said, "The Queen got the news and rushed there in person. I don't dare to do anything to the young master!"
"Did grandma tell her?" Qiu Yilan asked silently.
Jiang Tan said cautiously: "I have already been there. The old lady asked me to tell you not to worry. The young master will never have any thoughts about the princess. It must be the queen mother who set up the frame. There is a queen The empress is here and she will definitely restore the young master’s innocence!”
Does this mean you don't want her to enter the palace? Or do you mean you have no plans to take her into the palace
Qiu Yilan thought for a while and said calmly: "What about grandma now?"
"I didn't enter the palace either." Jiang Tan said immediately, "The old lady said that we would wait for news from the Queen about this matter. The old lady also said that such a private matter should not be made known to everyone."
"...You go down first." Qiu Yilan frowned and ordered.
After entering the house, Su He and others saw her worried look, looked at each other, and came up to comfort her: "Young madam, why should you be worried? Who doesn't know what kind of character our young master is? I'm afraid that the princess is coveting our young master's reputation. Yi, I picked up the young master’s sachet and deliberately framed it in an attempt to descend!”
"This is simply wishful thinking. We all see how much the young master loves the young lady!"
"That's right! Just wait and see, young madam. The Queen has always loved the young master and you. It would be strange if she didn't punish those shameless ones this time!"
Although they had good intentions, their chattering made Qiu Yilan even more impetuous, so she waved her hand and said, "Everyone, get out!"
"Why don't you go out quickly?" Mother Zhou, who happened to come in, placed a cup of mint dew in front of Qiu Yilan, winked at the maids who looked worried and asked them to step back, and then whispered, "Are you worried? Master is really Went to the princess’s bedroom?”
"It's not that I'm worried, I just feel like I can't figure it out." Although Zhou's mother doesn't follow Qiu Yilan all the time like Su He and the others, Princess Ruan's status as a wet nurse is enough to make Qiu Jinglan and Qiu Yilan not dare to At this moment, she drove away the others but stayed. Qiu Yilan didn't want her to leave together, so he had to say a few words to her, "Whether it's the imperial city or the palace, Nineteen is very familiar with it. He He is also vigilant, and the Queen is taking care of him in the palace. Mom, how could he be caught breaking into the princess's bedroom?"
Zhou's mother said: "I think the young master never went in at all, but the people in front of Princess Lexin were talking nonsense under the orders of the Queen Mother? As for the sachet, who knows whether it was picked or stolen?"
"That sachet was tied up for him in the morning when I watched Caiqi and the others put it on for him." Qiu Yilan shook his head, "The sachet is mainly made of snow-green silk thread from the tribute, mixed with white and dark green silk threads. When tied into a knot, that kind of silk thread is the strongest. It is difficult to break even one single thread, let alone several strands. Furthermore, although the wishful knot is delicate, it is still strong, unless it is untangled by yourself. Come down, it’s impossible to fall!”
"Even if he dropped it, do you think that when he entered the palace, he took a clean and tidy road, and Jiang Tan was followed behind him. If something dropped, Jiang Tan would not see it? When he met the queen alone, the queen and the people in the palace , how could you not tell him if you saw him dropping something? If you were to steal it, how could it be so easy to steal something from him without making a sound? And if you were caught doing this, how could the queen? Can you give up?"
"What confuses me the most is that Jiang Tan just said that the Nineteenth Book was played privately in front of the Queen, and it was taken away by Queen Mother Gu just after leaving the palace - could it be that Nineteenth arrived in front of the Queen and ran away without saying a few words? Have you gone to Her Royal Highness Princess Lexin? How could such a thing happen?"
She exhaled and looked at Zhou's mother, "Gather a few things suitable for the Fourteenth Sister-in-law. While the people haven't been settled yet, can Mommy personally run the errands? Can I ask the Fourteenth Sister-in-law, Her Royal Highness Princess Lexin? What’s the origin? Why are you suddenly involved with Nineteen?”
Although the emperor was a puppet and could not even control the promotion and demotion of the concubines in his harem, neither Empress Dowager Gu nor Empress Jiang had much control over the number of people in his harem. In addition, he had no chance to worry about state affairs and had always stayed in the harem - so he had many heirs.
Speaking of which, after Qiu Yilan saw the strength of the Jiang family and the fierceness of the queen, she was surprised that the princes did not die one after another...
I'm going too far. In short, these princes and princesses, except for the legitimate Princess Yongfu, Princess Changping who was raised by the Queen Mother herself, and several princes who were involved in the dispute over the prince, they are all very low-key. So low-key that the outside world often forgets that Qiu Yilan has never heard of Princess Lexin, so she wants to find someone to find out.
Zhou’s mother left in a hurry and came back in a hurry. She refused to take a sip of water after the ceremony. She couldn’t wait to report: “Her Royal Highness Princess Lexin is a daughter of Qu Baolin. She is one month younger than Princess Changping. She is usually cautious in her words and deeds. She never Confused, the Fourteenth Young Lady thought about it for a long time, saying that she only remembered that she seemed to love her brother the Tenth Prince who was five years younger than her, but she had no memory of other things. She also felt that she must have been raped by the Queen Mother this time. Only with instigation can you dare to slander the young master!"
Baolin's position was not very high. Qiu Yilan thought that this Qu family was either related to the Queen Mother or not very good at pleasing the Queen. In this case, the possibility of leaning towards the Queen Mother would be greater.
"With just a few palace servants and a sachet, it is impossible to frame Jiujiu in the presence of the Queen." Qiu Yilan thought, "I'm afraid that Princess Lexin will imitate King Qi. Come and prove what you said... This is troublesome! Could it be that the Queen Mother was reminded by King Qi's incident and she was the one who dragged Princess Lexin out to be the consort this time? , I won’t speak for Nineteen! What’s more, how can I explain the secrets clearly?”
Then I thought, "The queen has rich experience in palace fighting, so she should be able to take this into consideration... Alas, there are really a lot of things going on during this summer vacation!"
... By the early morning of the next day, Jiang Yashuang had not come back yet, but Ni Jin came: "The Queen knows that the Nineteenth Young Master did not come back last night. Please be sure to watch and ask your maid to come over and say: The Nineteenth Young Master will be here now." I'm with you, please don't worry."
Qiu Yilan hurriedly dismissed everyone around her, took her hand and asked: "What is going on? How could my nineteenth family disturb Her Highness the Princess?"
Ni Jin whispered: "How could the Nineteenth Young Master do such a thing? It's not the Queen Mother's fault!"
"The Queen Mother?" Although this was the most likely answer, when Ni Jin said it, Qiu Yilan always felt that something was wrong and frowned, "Then what does the Queen Mother plan to do now?"
"Don't worry, the Queen knows what she's doing. Just a few palace servants and a sachet that God knows where they got are trying to slander the Nineteenth Young Master?" Ni Jin vowed.
Suddenly Qiu Yilan asked: "So that sachet is really the one on Nineteenth?"
"Uh..." Ni Jin was startled, then said, "I haven't seen it with my own eyes. I heard that it looks like the Nineteenth Young Master, but I don't know if it's true or not."
"The one on Nineteen is also missing, right?" Otherwise, how could you not know the truth
Nijin said implicitly: "The Queen sent people to conduct a thorough inspection of the palace last night." Is this a hint that the Queen had the Queen Mother's spy in front of her and took the sachet away when Jiang Yashuang wasn't paying attention
There was a hint of suspicion in Qiu Yilan's eyes: Is Nineteen such a careless person
"Then when will Nineteen come back?" Seeing that Nijin had no intention of telling her more news, she sighed and asked.
Nijin said respectfully: "My wife still wants to leave the Nineteenth Young Master for a conversation, I'm afraid it won't be until noon."
What happened yesterday evening will come back this afternoon. It doesn't look like the matter is too serious - Queen Mother Gu is willing to take advantage of her own granddaughter's reputation to be so anticlimactic
Qiu Yilan's doubts deepened and she sent Ni Jin away. She thought for a moment alone and ordered someone to go to the kitchen to tell Mother Li: "I want to eat mung bean cake in the afternoon. You can make more and give it to grandma, my Eighth Brother and Sixteenth Brother later." Send some over there.”
We need to cool down this season, so we have enough mung beans in our small kitchen. Mung bean cake is not difficult to make. With the help of two cooks, Mrs. Li made it quickly.
According to Qiu Yilan's instructions, the still steaming mung bean cake was put into food boxes and sent to three places.
Among them, Qiu Yilan specially asked the steady Xia Ran to deliver the portion to Jiang Yadan's room.
After a while, Su He came back from Shengguishui, bringing two large bunches of grapes as a return gift; Caiqi also brought back a few pomegranates from Mrs. Tao - only Xia Ran came back last and didn't bring anything. No one was surprised by this. Jiang Yadan's first wife, Xiao Tao, moved into Mrs. Tao's yard to raise her because of illness. Although there were many concubines in his house, there was no one who could take charge of the affairs, so naturally no one was prepared to return the gift.
Qiu Yilan didn't have time to care about anything else at this moment. She dismissed everyone and asked Xia Ran in a low voice, "How is it? Did Bage not come back yesterday?"
Xia Ran whispered: "The servant is incompetent. The people over there seemed to have known that the servant was here to find out the whereabouts of the Eighth Young Master. They all kept their mouths shut. The servant was delayed there for a long time. Yes, but I couldn’t find out anything accurate.”
"This shows that I guessed it right." Qiu Yilan sneered, "How smart is the old lady? I'm afraid I sent someone over last night to train them to prevent me from sending people to insinuate me, right? But if Bago's whereabouts are No problem, why worry about me knowing?”
Xia Ran asked cautiously: "Do you suspect that the young master's failure to come back last night has something to do with the eighth young master?"
"Otherwise, how could his sachet disappear, and then Princess Lexin's palace servants get something like that?" Qiu Yilan gritted her teeth and said, "I'm afraid this good starling doesn't know what he did to the princess - with him Even if this incident had not happened, a few more words would have made her famous. Only Nineteen was recognized as a clean and self-sufficient person. If the matter was brought to his head, the Queen Mother could confidently say that it was the Queen Mother and the Princess who slandered the children of the Jiang family - why did I get married? Entering such a house?"
Xia Ran didn't dare to say anything.
... But Qiu Yilan, who was so angry that she was dying, didn't know that she really guessed wrong this time!