Real Empress from a Noble Family

Chapter 235 I Wanted to Kill Jiang Yadan More and More!

Su He’s concern made sense. Rationally speaking, if Madame Tao allowed Yanniang to give birth to the baby and then she died after giving birth to the baby, everyone would say that the baby was saved by Sheng Shishui. But no need to say, the baby would suffer a lot during his or her development.

Or it might be that the baby would accuse his or her official mother of what he or she suffered.

After all, most people in the world were always strict with others and lenient with themselves.

However, after hearing the words, Qiu Yelan smiled coldly, “Do you really think Sheng Shishui wanted to save the baby? It is Madame who wants to save the baby!”

Su He was surprised, “But Mom Hu said...”

“If Madame did not want to save the baby, she might have done the exact thing she did to Luan, to kill her and then inform Sheng Shishui of her death!” Qiu Yelan said coldly. “But now, although Madame said Yazhu and his wife would have many children and there was no need to keep the baby given birth by a guilty concubine, she first sent Mom Hu to Sheng Shishui, telling her that she would kill Yanniang and her baby... After all, the baby is not given birth and he or she is innocent! If Sheng Shishui did not beg for the baby, she might be happy now, but she will be condemned for her stone heart without begging for the baby’s life. Sheng Shishui is cunning. She will not let that happen to her.”

“Oh, I see!” Su He understood. “I think, the young lady Shishui got back at Yang Yishi severely. She will not let Yanniang go easily!” Sighed Su He. “The young lady Shishui is lucky. A concubine hurt her but they found the troublemaker on the same day! I wonder when they can find who planned to hurt Madame Tao Junior.”

Su He changed Qiu Yelan’s principles into hers. That was: Anyone who was kind to Commandery Princess must be a nice person. On the other hand, he or she must be a bad one! Apart from these two kinds of persons, the rest were strangers...

So, back then, after Madame Tao Junior blocked a slap for Qiu Yelan, Su He immediately thought that she was a good person and stood firmly on her side!

Qiu Yelan glanced at her, saying dismissively, “It was trouble. But now, I think it will be solved soon.”

Su He was surprised, “Really?” Back then, Mom Hu did not mention what was going on about Madame Tao Junior.

“Madame Tao Junior was in trouble yesterday, and Sheng Shishui was in trouble today. A coincidence?” They had been in the inner chamber while they were talking. The left-behind Chen Shui served Qiu Yelan with mint tea. She took it and sipped. And then she ordered Chunran to go and take her dress for cooking. Before she changed her clothes, she enlightened her confidant, “Think about it. The trouble Madame Tao Junior and Sheng Shishui suffered is the same. Surely, their concubines did it!”

“You mean?” Su He asked, feeling that the answer was looming. But she was still too confused to see what the answer was.

“Let’s wait and see. I guess, grandmother will refuse Sheng Shishui’s plea!” said Qiu Yelan dismissively.

Su He was confused, so was Chen Shui, “My lady, you just said that Madame also wanted to save Yanniang’s baby.”

“Of course, “said Qiu Yelan, looking at them and managing to force a smile. “But you think about it. For Madame, even Jiang Yazhu is not important, let alone the baby!”

Seeing they did not see it through, Qiu Yelan told them more, “For Madame, whether the baby is given birth or not is not important. The important part is that Yanniang must be eager to give birth to the baby! Think about it, even if she doesn’t care about the baby, she must want to live for longer, right? Although Sheng Shishui begged for her life, Madame refused. Think about it. If you were in her shoes, what would you do next?”

“Begging?” Chen Shui thought for a while and said, giving an uncertain reply.

It dawned on Su He suddenly, “She must atone her crime by kind acts! We all know that Sheng Shishui has begged for her. The crucial part now is to persuade Madame to give up her decision.”

“So, what do you think she will do to atone her crime?” asked Qiu Yelan, giving her an appreciated glance and guiding them to think.

“You just said that there was only one day away between the trouble of two young ladies. It is a coincidence! You mean what Yanniang will do has a relationship with Madame Tao Junior’s?” reasoned Su He. She, at last, grasped the critical part of the story. As she was on the way to an answer, she continued to reason, “Yanniang is a maid-turned-concubine. She became a concubine after the young lady married the young master Yazhu. That meant Yanniang was raised in the Jiang Family! She must have a relationship with the concubines of the young master Yadan. So, she may know the clue why others attacked madame Tao Junior?!”

Her analysis surprised Chen Shui a lot, “But, my lady, you just said it was a coincidence, isn’t it?”

When Sheng Shishui noticed something wrong with the rose cake in the morning, she found out who did it at the noon–but on Madame Tao Junior’s side, the people were interrogated until night but nothing worth was found. And today, they ordered all people in the Tao Family to be here, but still, nothing had been found yet. Compared to the trouble Madame Tao Junior faced, the trouble Yanniang made was like a child’s game.

If you thought about it once more, you would notice that the reason that Yanniang made the trouble for the lady of the house was ridiculous because they both were pregnant at the same time. She was a maid-turned-concubine. She should feel lucky if she could give birth to her baby successfully. How dare she fight for her baby’s status? As for the gelsemium elegan powder in the rose cake, it was also lousy. Even Sheng Shishui, who did not know medicine, could notice the cake tasted different...

To simply put, in the entire farce, Yanniang, the killer, was such a simple...

“Let’s wait and see,” said Qiu Yelan dismissively. “I think before tonight, we will know who made the trouble for Madame Tao Junior!”

As expected, before Jiang Yashuang went back, the news spread from the Madame’s side that Yanniang, who was trying to save her baby, had disclosed that she saw in person Jiang Yadan’s concubine, Madame Feng had an affair with an outsider!

“Madame... plans far ahead!” Hearing the news, Qiu Yelan, who was cooking in her kitchen, confirmed that the trouble made by Yanniang for Sheng Shishui, was merely a plot designed by Madame Tao who attempted to atone Madame Tao Junior. Yanniang was born in the Jiang Family. Madame had married and had been living in the Jiang Family before she was born. So, it was not strange that Madame Tao bribed her.

“She used Jiang Yazhu’s concubine to expose Jiang Yadan’s concubine. It was one stone, two birds’ thing. Madame Tao Junior was spared punishment. At the same time, nobody will realize that the Tao Family is the real murderer,” said Qiu Yelan while she was cooking and reasoning Madame Tao’s intentions. “The most interesting part of the story is that Yanniang exposed Madame Feng, telling that she has an affair with an outsider, not other scandals... Whether it is real or not, Madame has been running this family for many years and it is easy for her to force a pregnant woman to be a Woman of Sacrifice and find evidence to prove a concubine having an affair.”

In particular, as Jiang Yadan was a playboy and always stayed outside, leaving Madame Feng at home alone, against this backdrop, it was reasonable that Madame Feng had an affair with others. It turned to be the evidence used by Madame Tao! Because of this, Jiang Jinghu’s offspring was questioned. By doing so, Madame Tao could not only undermine the credibility of Madame Feng’s testimony accusing Madame Tao Junior of not being able to tolerate concubine’s children, but also decrease the sympathy people gave to her because of her son’s death.

“In this way, it would be logical to demand Madame Tao Junior to truly be in charge of the house on the ground of preventing something like this from happening again!”

“And what’s more, although Jiang Yadan is a playboy, he might not be tolerant of being cheated! I guess that there is no need for him to be mentioned by Madame. He will ask for Madame Tao Junior to be strict with the women in the family!”

To simply put, by sacrificing Yanniang and Sheng Shishui, Madame Tao, basically, could protect Madame Tao Junior without exposing the Tao Family.

The crucial part of the entire plot was...

“How badly on earth does Jiang Yadan want to replace Madame Tao Junior with the girl from the An Family!?”

Qiu Yelan knew Yadan well. She knew he was a loser. If Jiang Yadan made his decision to replace his wife, he could divorce his wife in an excuse that she did not manage the house well even though Madame Tao showed him human and physical evidence.

If this happened, to Madame Tao Junior, nothing changed.

“As Madame has almost broken the game set up by the Tao Family, I’d better go to see He Shuijin, changing my consignment so that she can go and put an end to An’s delusion,” Qiu Yelan thought, deciding to send a maid to the third branch later.

After she finished cooking, she asked the maids to bring out those dishes cooked for Sheng Shishui and put them into the food container–when they were about to go there, He Shuijin showed herself at the door.

“Shuijin, do you have any news to tell me?” Seeing her coming, Qiu Yelan commanded Su He to send the dishes to Sheng Shishui and she stayed in the room, entertaining He Shuijin.

He Shuijin went to the topic straightly instead of starting with empty words. She said, “As for the thing you asked me to do, I have arranged people to do it. But now, Yanniang has exposed Madame Feng. I am afraid that you don’t need me to do it, right?”

Qiu Yelan lauded her quick response in her heart. She nodded, “Yes, you are right. But I have another thing and I need your favor!”

“What you want to say is An Zhenshang, the Director of temple etiquette’s youngest daughter, right?” He Shuijin was worthy of the child raised in the Jiang Family. She knew well about Jiang Yadan’s love stories. Hence, she continued, “She is a tough girl. She has been with Yadan since fourteen. It has been six or seven years until now. Although Yadan has many other lovers during the past years, he must go to the city’s outskirts, staying with her for days in every month. And she is the only one who can stay with Yadan for so long!”

Qiu Yelan frowned, “Yes, I just want to say it. Yashuang told me yesterday that Yadan wanted to replace his wife by her!”

“What can we do?” said He Shuijin, pausing for a while, adding, “About An Zhenshang, she once said that she was willing to be Yadan’s mistress in her whole life! As for her family members, every one of them is snobbish and loves money. In public, they said they wanted nothing. Their real thought is that they wish she could stay with Yadan as long as possible! Back then, An Zhenshang’s father and elder brother arranged for them to meet each other... So, unless Yadan did not want to replace his wife by An Zhenshang, otherwise, the An Family will seize the opportunity with all their might! And the most challenging part is that although the farm where An Zhenshang is living, nominally, belongs to the An Family, the servants and maids in the farm are arranged by Yadan. Nothing will happen in the farm without Yadan’s knowledge.

“Yadan thinks so highly of her?” Qiu Yelan asked in surprise. She felt the thing went more complicated. This kind of mistress, who completely disregarded shame, was a bomb in the family. She thought that if the trouble Madame Tao Junior was facing could be solved, the trouble the Tao Family made would be solved too. But now, depending on what was happening, the Tao Family played a minor role. The lead role in the play was watching what was going on in the sky!

“So, it boils down to the fact that Jiang Yadan is a crap!!!” Qiu Yelan cursed Yadan, “What should we do next? I really want to kill him more and more!”

He Shuijin said, “Anyway, there is only one solution.”

Qiu Yelan was surprised, “What solution?” She thought that He Shuijin was at her loss too. Unexpectedly, she got a solution.

“An Zhenshang has been living in a humble fashion under the protection of Yadan. It’s not easy to make trouble for her as she never goes outside,” said He Shuijin, a severe flash appeared in her eyes. “But we know her parents are living in the capital without Yadan’s protection... Even if An Zhenshang is a shameless girl, she must follow morality. Even if she doesn’t care about morality, the Jiang Family won’t let her break the rules!”

She looked at Qiu Yelan, suggesting, “An Zhenshang’s parents are alive. If one of them dies, An Zhenshang must mourn for three years... Even if An Zhenshang continues to stay with Yadan, nobody can ensure Yadan won’t get a wife during the three years.”

An Zhenshang would give up her plan to be Yadan’s wife as she was not entirely sure she would be successful. After all, as the Jiang Family was prominent in the capital, many parents or grandparents would arrange their daughters or granddaughters to meet Yadan or even marry him despite that Yadan was a playboy. Among the girls, there must be one from an official family who was qualified to be his wife.

For An Zhenshang, it would be better to let the ordinary looking, childless and unpopular Madame Tao Junior continues occupying the lady’s position. It would be a better option for her than letting other girls who might be beautiful take the position. More importantly, the girl’s status and intelligence might be superior to her to replace Madame Tao Junior during her three years of mourning. As for three years from now... It was a long time. We had to wait and see if An Zhenshang could still stay with Yadan.

Qiu Yelan looked at He Shuijin for a long time, which made He Shuijin shy. She sighed, “I finally understand why you can be in charge of the house account before getting married now!”

She was quick-witted and decisive. If she had been a man, she would have been another Tao Yinsong!