Chapter 193: Why Do I Have to Avoid Them?

Mengtao hurriedly said, “No. I have something to tell you.” She bent down and whispered to her, “Her Majesty asked if you could write another one similar to the one written at Jinxiu Slope back then.”

Qiu Yelan’s look suddenly changed, “About the Emperor’s birthday?”

“Not necessarily.” Mengtao’s voice was lower, “As long as it is auspicious and beautiful, it will do!”

Qiu Yelan recalled the guidance of Ruan Ciyi, the noble lady. As the future daughter-in-law of the Jiang Family, she must not be low-key when she should be in the limelight. Otherwise, she would be underestimated by her sisters-in-law, and even by the elders of the Jiang Family. And then her life here wouldn’t be easy in the future.

She nodded thoughtfully, “I’ll think about it. It should be easy!” Then she asked, “When is it needed? Before the middle of the banquet?”

“Before the end of the banquet.” Mengtao whispered, “Don’t worry about the flower. It’s just that…”

Qiu Yelan asked in surprise, “Just what?”

“Could you give your poem to someone else?” Mengtao’s lips almost touched her earlobe and she whispered in secret.

“…” Qiu Yelan was stunned for a while before she realized that she was asked to be a ghostwriter. She thought about it and suddenly guessed, “Is it for Prince of Qi?”

Mengtao pursed her lips, “Exactly.”

Obviously, Prince of Qi, who was supported by the Empress, failed to win Prince of Yan on the birthday gift. This was a plan to let him be in the limelight in another way.

Qiu Yelan didn’t care so much. Anyway, hers was copied. To be honest, she felt somewhat guilty by putting her name on it. If it was given to Prince of Qi, not only the Empress would be pleased, but it would also help the Jiang Family in the court. So, she nodded without hesitation, “Then I won’t write anything down. Please try to memorize it!”

Last time at Jinxiu Slope, Mengtao followed Jiang Qizheng there and saw how “talented” she was. At this moment, she was not surprised when she heard that. She said with a light smile, “I will leave for now and will come back later in case others get suspicious.”

“Go now. I have to think about it for a while.” Qiu Yelan nodded. She thought, “Which one should I copy? This is a problem.”

And then she kept thinking and almost knocked over the wine cup several times. Qiu Jinzhu glanced at her out of the corner of her eyes for a long time, and couldn’t help but courageously ask in a low voice, “Qiu Yelan, what’s wrong with you?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.” Qiu Yelan calmed down after hearing the words and said nonchalantly.

Qiu Jinzhu lowered her head to withdraw her gaze and said, “Yelan, there are many flowers in the palace today. Let’s go out and have a look later.”

“Sorry, I can’t go with you. I already have an appointment.” Qiu Yelan shook her head.

“All right.” Qiu Jinzhu seemed disappointed.

Qiu Yelan ignored her. She was having wine and food while choosing good poems from her memory. After finishing a few dishes, she looked towards the Jiang Family and saw Mengtao. She winked at her.

After a while, Mengtao came over secretly and asked in surprise, “Have you got one?”

“Yes.” Qiu Yelan whispered the poem for her to recite. Mengtao gasped after listening to her, and admired, “Commandery Princess, you…” She didn’t seem to be able to find a suitable word for a while. She praised sincerely, “You are really a talent!”

“Some of the poems were written earlier. I just finished the rest just now. But I promise no one knows, including my close maid.” Qiu Yelan coughed, “Okay, you can go now!”

Mengtao recited the poem repeatedly for a while and made sure that she got it right. And then she made sure of the homophones in the poem and then left.

At this time, several rounds of singing and dancing performance were finished. The atmosphere of the Hall gradually became lively, and the bold ones started to walk around.

Zhuang Man came over to Qiu Yelan first and asked with a grin, “I saw Mengtao come for you several times. What’s the matter? Is it that Jiang Yashuang wants to find you? Has he asked Mengtao to help?”

“Of course not.” Qiu Yelan said with a smile, “It’s Chunfu Princess. As it’s the first time for me to attend this kind of banquet, she has provided me with some guidance.”

“Really?” Zhuang Man didn’t buy it. “You were trained by Madam Shao anyway. Besides, your aunt is nearby. Do you need her guidance? Also, the banquet is not extraordinary.”

Before Qiu Yelan said anything, Xin Fubing came over, “Zhuang Man, you were fast. Yelan, Jiang Yashuang got the lotus for you from the lake. Is it that you don’t need it anymore? ”

“I’m about to talk to you about this.” Qiu Yelan said apologetically, “Now the villa has planted…”

“It’s okay!” Xin Fubing waved her hand, “Actually, the ones in my family were also dug from there. Oh, I’m here to ask you if you want some carps. It’s nice to have them in the lotus pool. There are many in mine.”

Before she could finish her words, Mengtao came over again, smiled apologetically at Zhuang Man and Xin Fubing. Then she leaned over and told Qiu Yelan, “The Empress said if you want some flowers, just go get them as there are many people here now. There is someone from the palace waiting to show you the way.”

Qiu Yelan was stunned for a moment, looked up in the Hall, and saw that Empress Jiang was turning around to talk to her maid. Qiu Yelan guessed that Empress Jiang was planning to let Prince of Qi show the poem to the crowd. Probably the Empress was afraid that others might associate the poem with her, so Empress hoped that she could avoid it.

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“I’m going now.” She gave out the poem, and didn’t care about being more generous. She got up immediately.

Seeing this situation, both Zhuang Man and Xin Fubing laughed teasingly, “Going out?”

“What are you thinking about? Her Majesty wants to reward me with a few pots of flowers. As there are not many people outside, she lets me take the chance to go out and pick some.” Qiu Yelan yelled.

“Why are you explaining if you are not thinking about anything?” Her two friends smiled with their mouths covered by their hands, “Aren’t you afraid of being found out?”

“I don’t want to argue with you!” Qiu Yelan took the silk fan handed by Su He and pretended to slam them down. She turned around to ask for Princess Yang’s consent, and then went away.

As she left the table, Zhuang Man and Xin Fubing who had come over for her would surely not stay here anymore. Xin Fubing asked while they were going back to their seat, “Do you want some carps, Zhuang Man?”

“There are some in the villa of my family!” Zhuang Man was confused, “It’s not like you can’t afford it. Why do you want to give them away in such a hurry?”

“There are too many. I’m afraid the pond is a bit small.” Xin Fubing explained, “When I went out this morning, I saw a large group of carps jumping there, which frightened the parrots hanging by the lake. Every parrot was so hysterical! So, I figured that I could ask the servants to get out some later.”

When she said this, a girl, who was not far away and was about twelve or thirteen years old in a light-yellow summer dress, heard it, raised her head and interrupted her, “So, something strange has happened in your villa today. The rabbit of mine was also crazy. I originally thought that perhaps a servant who got punished deliberately disturbed it!”

“Hush!” Before Xin Fubing and Zhuang Man said anything, an older young lady next to the girl had already rebuked her in a low voice, “Guoxi, what are you talking about? Isn’t it just about a rabbit creating a disturbance? What’s special about it?”

Looking at Xin Fubing and Zhuang Man again, she calmed down a little, “Am I right? You know, today it’s the Emperor’s birthday!”

Xin Fubing and Zhuang Man were more mature, so they immediately got it, “You’re right. We were being reckless.” After saying that, they bowed to her and walked away quickly.

After they left, the girl named “Guoxi” said with some dissatisfaction, “Something strange is happening. When we came over, we saw mice moving on the mountain road.”

“All right!” The lady, who persuaded her, sighed, grabbed her arm, pulled her to her side, and lowered her voice, “Today is the Emperor’s birthday. If it were something auspicious, it would be nice to say it. But we only saw rabbits and mice. Those are not auspicious signs. If you talk about it, it will make the Emperor unhappy. What benefit can our family get from it?”

Then she lowered her voice even more, “Also, the two you saw just now both side with the Empress. One is the niece of Madame Zhuang from the Jiang Family, the other is Mingzhu, the daughter of the fifth sister of the old master of the Jiang Family, and the beloved daughter of the Inspector of Guanzhou. Perhaps they know that you just entered Jing City, so they deliberately got you to talk about it. Remember, our father has always sided with Prime Minister Xue. Don’t be like Xue Fangmi, Prime Minister Xue’s young daughter. She always makes trouble for her family.”

The corner of Cheng Guoxi’s mouth twitched, “I just think… There’s something wrong.”

“It’s not your turn to worry about those things.” The lady who persuaded her frowned, “Our father finally got this chance to be transferred back to Jing City. Prime Minister Xue promised to give him the position of Ding Hanlin. For now, we need to be low-key and stay out of trouble. Do you understand?”

“Okay!” Cheng Guoxi replied absently and muttered softly, “But I still feel something is wrong.”

Meanwhile, Qiu Yelan had been led by a maid to walk around for a long time after leaving the Hall. They never stopped and passed many flowers. Qiu Yelan felt something was wrong, so she asked, “Where are you planning to take me? I see that the flowers around here are pretty good.”

If Mengtao hadn’t handed her over to this maid, Qiu Yelan would have doubted that the maid wanted to hurt her.

Fortunately, the maid hurriedly explained, “Jiang Yashuang is waiting for you in front…”

“…” Qiu Yelan was speechless for a while and said, “Okay.” She thought she was asked to be away for a while due to Prince of Qi. But Zhuang Man had guessed it correctly.

After a while, she saw Jiang Yashuang, who had been waiting on an artificial hill. Today, because of the banquet, he was in a crimson robe made of brocade and was wearing a jade belt with beautiful jade. His long black hair was made into a square bun on top of his head. The bamboo hairpin decorated by nice jade was inserted in his hair. His hand with slender fingers was holding a dazzling rose. He looked really handsome and was as bright as a precious pearl.

After the maid left, Su He and Chen Shui also walked away wittily and turned around to admire the surrounding scenery.

Jiang Yashuang inserted the rose into Qiu Yelan’s hair and said with a smile, “You look so good today!”

“Enough of you!” Qiu Yelan didn’t appreciate it, knocking on his shoulder with a fan and shouted, “Even though I haven’t seen you for a few days, do you need to be so anxious? It is the Emperor’s birthday banquet today. Mengtao asked me to leave with her in front of Zhuang Man and Xin Fubing. Zhuang Man laughed at me at the time. I told her that I came out to pick some flowers and it had nothing to do with you. They’re going to laugh at me later!”

“They were joking. I’ll help you if someone laughs at you!” Jiang Yashuang took her hand and coaxed, “Though we haven’t seen each other for only several days, I’ve missed you so much.”

Qiu Yelan snorted, “I don’t want to listen to this!” She wanted to go back, ” If others see us, who knows what they will say! Even if I don’t care what they say, I have to think about how my brother would punish me if he knows.”

Seeing this, Jiang Yashuang hurriedly lowered his voice and said, “You’re here for a reason!”

“Prince of Qi?” Qiu Yelan said suspiciously, “You know how to use excuses.”

Jiang Yashuang was stunned when he heard the words, “What’s the matter with Prince of Qi?”

“Then why did you get me here?” Qiu Yelan was surprised.

Jiang Yashuang looked around and then pointed to his cheek.

Qiu Yelan lifted her dress and stepped on his foot without saying anything!

“All right, I’ll tell you. But don’t be angry after you hear it.” He failed to get her to kiss him but instead got punishment. Jiang Yashuang said depressed, “My sister, Jiang Qisheng, is getting married soon. My Cousin Tao will soon leave Jing City with her husband. So, my third aunt asked my grandmother if she could let you be away in the banquet. My grandmother had to agree.”

Qiu Yelan was startled for a while and couldn’t help being furious, “Just because Jiang Qisheng and Tao Peibin don’t want to see me, I have to be away. Why do I have to avoid them?”