“She was afraid that you would be angered by the Jiang Family when you returned to Jing City and so she said she didn’t want to return to Jing City on purpose to get you to travel around. Didn’t she do that for avoiding your showing up in front of the Jiang Family?” Qiu Jinglan said, sneering, “Tired of prosperous land? You don’t even think about where she comes from! She is the first daughter of the Jiang Family and the princess crowned by the emperor! She is a gentle girl of noble birth. So, it would be a relief for her to return to the prosperous Jing City immediately after such a fright! If it weren’t for you, I’m sure she would have gone back to Jing City for rest and recuperation!”

Qiu Feng blushed at once, “It is thoughtless of me. I will go back and persuade her to go back to Jing City.”

“Go back to Jing City?” Qiu Jinglan continued to sneer, “Have Chunfu Princess beg her maiden family to let you off the hook, will you? Or will you continue to give her that attitude and remind her how much you don’t want this marriage?”

“We have a child now. And what do you think I can think about?” Qiu Feng, who had a pleasingly direct manner, was not an indecisive man. After hearing that, he could not help frowning, “I’ll take whatever punishment the Jiang Family wants!”

Qiu Jinglan sneered again, “Yeah. Master Qiu, you are excellent at martial arts and you are a righteous man. But have you thought about that? The Jiang Family is not the same as those you met in Jianghu! This time two of their trueborn sons died! Do you think that if you were stabbed by them, they would erase it all and give you a thumbs up afterward? Or do you want to simply die and leave Chunfu Princess being a widow and your child, who cannot yet walk or talk, losing his father?”

“What do you mean then?” Qiu Feng knew that what he said was true. Although Jiang Yayue and Jiang Yaqing were not killed by him, the trigger for the whole thing was that Jiang Qizheng travelled west to find her husband. Qiu Feng was the husband and the Jiang Family would naturally vent their anger on him.

He rubbed between his eyes and said expressionless, “After all that, what you want me to do is to listen to you. What do you intend to do?”

Seeing that, Qiu Jinglan made his tone down, “You can’t go to Jing City. You’ll get yourself killed! If the first branch and the third branch of the Jiang Family received the news that Jiang Yayue and Jiang Yaqing had died, they would go crazy, and at that time, even the fourth branch would be busy defending themselves. How could they have the time to care about you? If you go there, you will only be an inconvenience to Chunfu Princess and even your children. You can’t go to Jianghu as well!”

He raised his hand to stop Qiu Feng who was about to say something, “Much has changed! You have a wife and a son now. You are okay with the conditions in Jianghu. But Chunfu Princess is weak and delicate, do you think she can stand it? Even if she can stand it, don’t forget your son is still young. Can he stand it?”

“This is the most common difficulty in Jianghu. Do you think that the first branch and the third branch of the Jiang Family won’t give you any trouble? And the enemies you’ve made in the past are a piece of sh*t. What tricks can’t they use? When you are alone, you can barely manage it with your excellent martial arts skills, but you still need Mr. Ren to look after you in secret. That’s why you’ve come this far while remaining intact!”

“Now having your wife and son, how dare you wander outside?”

Qiu Jinglan said word by word, “even if you don’t care about your own life, can you bear the costs of losing your wife or your son?”

His words made Qiu Feng defeated. He was silent for a long time before he said, “I just want to live a free and easy life! I didn’t know where I came from before and I just wanted to live such a life without a guilty conscience. Now that I know about my background, I’ve thought about it carefully and I still think the same! Even if I have my wife and son, and my wife is a princess, I still want to stay away from the court and be free in Jianghu!”

“Just stay in Shazhou!” Qiu Jinglan ignored his words and said indifferently, “Previously, to cover up for Chunfu Princess, the Jiang Family made up the lie that you were serving in Shazhou. Now it’s just the right time to finish the story! Sir Jibei has already acquiesced to my taking over the Western Army. And the first branch and the third branch of the Jiang Family will soon be cleansed of their power in Shazhou. So, you’re safe only when you stay here.”

He paused a minute and said, “As for Chunfu Princess, you can decide with her about whether she should stay in Shazhou or go back to Jing City!”

With that, he didn’t give Qiu Feng a chance to answer but drew out his official documents to read, which made it clear that he wanted to send his guest away.

When Qiu Feng left with disappointment, Jiang Qizheng walked out from behind the screen and sighed softly, “General Qiu, thank you for being willing to keep him in Shazhou!” Qiu Feng was caught in a situation that he could not go to Jing City and could not stay in Jianghu. Since Jiang Qizheng was able to plan the murder of his two cousins and no one noticed that she was the one behind the whole thing, how could she not understand this?”

But she was just worried that if she analyzed the situation with Qiu Feng, he would not listen to her. So, she turned to Qiu Jinglan for help in secret. As a matter of fact, Qiu Jinglan came out and managed to persuade Qiu Feng, easily making him have no room to argue.

“Qiu Feng, my master, and I are closely connected. Even if you kept silent, I would not let him do something stupid.” Qiu Jinglan put down his pen and stood up. He bowed to her with hands folded and smiled faintly, “You’re welcome, Princess!”

Jiang Qizheng gave a bitter smile, “Anyway, he is my husband. I appreciate it that you are willing to help him!” Although the trip was confidential and the matter had been finished, she did not want to stay longer with Qiu Jinglan. She bowed her body, “If there is an opportunity in the future, I will pay you back… I should get going!”

Qiu Jinglan returned the salute, watching her playfully as she walked out the door. When Jiang Qizheng was almost out the door, he suddenly asked, “Aren’t you curious about where Qiu Feng came from? He said this himself just now!”

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“Did he get married before? Does he have a son or daughter outside?” Jiang Qizheng stood still at his words and then she smiled back at him, asking calmly.

This answer caused Qiu Jinglan to be slightly stunned and he laughed at once, “Of course not!”

“I don’t think he is that kind of person!” As the wind blew through the door, Jiang Qizheng raised her hand to sweep up a strand of her hair and said sweetly, “Otherwise, how could he, such a person who wants to be free, be willing to acquiesce to your arrangement for the sake of our child and me?”

“So?”

“So, no matter where he came from…” Jiang Qizheng said with dignity, “It’s not a big issue for me!”

With a bright light shining in her eyes, she beamed with pleasure, looking frank and calm, “If that is the case, why should I consume your time for something so trivial that it will be forgotten in the blink of an eye?”

“I used to think that you were no different from other noble ladies, but today I realize that I underestimated you.” After a pause, Qiu Jinglan gave a bow to her again and showed his appreciation, “You are more open-minded than any man! It is such a blessing for Qiu Feng to marry you. I will tell him about what you did in the future…”

But Jiang Qizheng shook his hand and interrupted, “That’s not necessary! Didn’t you just say that? We’ll take care of our own business! Besides, my husband hasn’t done me any wrong. We’re just…” She frowned, which clearly showed that even though she knew well that Qiu Jinglan did have a great influence on Qiu Feng, she was not willing to tell others what had happened between her husband and her.

“General Qiu, since that you compliment me on my open mind, you are surely a supporter of ladies’ being forthright?” Jiang Qizheng was about to end the conversation and leave, but as she just took a step, she suddenly had a thought and said, “But in terms of forthrightness, I think I can never compare with Xing! You know that on this trip to the west, Qiu Feng and I are married, but Xing is…”

Qiu Jinglan stopped her at once, “Princess, now there is a turmoil in Shazhou. We still don’t know how those in Jing City will deal with the deaths of two young masters of the Jiang Family. I’m not in the mood to think about love affair!” As noble as Jiang Qizheng was, if she made it clear, it was almost impossible for Qiu Jinglan not to give a definite answer. So, Qiu Jinglan could not let her say it.

“General Qiu, just give me the dope on it.” Jiang Qizheng insisted, “I am not forcing you to do something by mentioning Xing to you! After all, I have already experienced it by myself, and I don’t want you or Xing to repeat the same mistake! I just want to say that General Qiu was a regular visitor of the whorehouse back in the day and so you can’t be unaware of Xing’s thoughts! Both in terms of honor and the age of her…”

After a short silence, she said coldly, “If you don’t intend to choose Xing, please let her down easy as soon as possible!”

“I believe that with your great tact and cruelty, it’s not difficult for you, right?”

Qiu Jinglan looked at her in silence and then nodded calmly, “Yes, Princess!”

“Alas!” He promised with sincerity, but Jiang Qizheng’s heart was suddenly shaken, “It looks like he won’t choose Xing.”

But when she thought about her own expectations before the wedding and the grievance she swallowed in silence afterward, Jiang Qizheng gritted her teeth, “It’s better to have a short pain than a long one. Xing will understand one day!”

She went out of the door, looking preoccupied. Just as she reached the corridor, she heard a familiar voice coughing behind her, “Qizheng!”

“It’s you?” Jiang Qizheng turned around in astonishment, but she saw Qiu Feng, who had left before, coming slowly from a short distance away. She quickly looked at the room where Qing Jinglan was, only to find the door was closed in such a short time. She understood at once and could not help but be furious. She said through clenched teeth, “Qiu Jinglan, you such a… You said you would not let him know. You dare… I’ll get back to you!”

She concealed her anger with efforts and explained to Qiu Feng cautiously, “I don’t mean anything else. I’m just thinking that…”

“In the future, if you have anything in mind…” However, at that time, Qiu Feng said carefully as well. Both of them looked at each other’s apprehensive and somewhat timid look at the same time so that they could not help stopping their words.

After looking at each other in silence for a while, Jiang Qizheng could not help herself but chuckle. As she was afraid of making her husband embarrassed, she quickly lifted her sleeves to cover her mouth and coughed to hide it.

Qiu Feng slowly blushed and didn’t know how to act for a while. And then he made up his mind and finished his speech loudly, “If you have anything in mind in the future, you can tell me directly! There is no need to ask someone else to convey it!”

Looking at the sudden tears and the stunned look on Jiang Qizheng’s face, he felt his heart unprecedentedly softened, like a pool of water. His heart was so soft and tender that even his voice was subconsciously tender like water. “After all, we are husband and wife! There isn’t something that we cannot say directly, is there?”

“You’re right!” Jiang Qizheng wept and laughed at the same time. After a while, as Qiu Feng wiped her eyes clumsily, she nodded vigorously and said earnestly, “From now on I’ll tell you whatever I want to say and never look for someone else to tell it to you, especially the guy in there who is such a bad egg!”

“She does burn the bridge!” Ruan Yi, who was peeking from behind the window, turned down the corners of his mouth and crept back to Qiu Jinglan’s table to help with the ink, saying angrily, “You have just helped Chunfu Princess while she is scolding you!”

Qiu Jinglan continued to read through his official documents and said coolly, “They were just past all this and a bit awkward. They’re trying to get out of that by scolding me!”

“Master, you are the one who knows Master Qiu well!” Ruan Yi said in admiration, “How did you know that with such arrangements, Master Qiu would show his true feelings?”

“Do you think everyone is like me?” Qiu Jinglan stopped writing, looked at his trusted subordinate, and said with a smile, “Since I was a child, I have been carrying a blood feud. Lingering in the whorehouse was just a means to an end. No matter how good those women I met were, I dared not to disappear among them in front of the revenge plan. Over time, how could I not be stone-hearted?”

“But Qiu Feng is different from me. He has been taught to be righteous by the Oldman from Lingnan. And he is such a man who would rather let the world betray him than betray the world!” Qiu Jinglan said evenly, “Earlier, Chunfu Princess forced him into marriage without knowing the true story, but he didn’t even have an outburst of resentment in his heart. And after the marriage, despite being treated coldly by him, the princess still protected him from her maiden family. Furthermore, she almost died because of him this time!”

“Even so, after meeting him, she didn’t say any word to complain about him but tried awfully hard to think about his safety…”

Qiu Jinglan continued, tonelessly, “The most precious thing is that Chunfu Princess never acts like a princess but like a selfless and devoted woman in the world… Except for a few people like me, how many men in the world can be unmoved? Particularly, a righteous man like Qiu Feng is much easier to be moved!”

While looking at Ruan Yi’s look of inward illumination, Qiu Jinglan thought in his heart, “Chunfu Princess and Jiang Yashuang are really the siblings! Back then, didn’t Jiang Yashuang coax my sister over by being kind and gentle to do whatever she wanted? That even worked for such a tough person like my sister, not to mention Qiu Feng, who is easier to dupe than her, right?”

“But my sister is a girl and has a bit of a difficult temperament. So, Jiang Yashuang always has to coax her so far!” Qiu Jinglan gloated in his heart, “The more you get along with Qiu Feng, the kinder Qiu Feng is… And Chunfu Princess is gentle on the surface but ruthless inside. Hopefully, he can keep Chunfu Princess in love with him in the future, otherwise… Ha-ha!”

After his snigger, Qiu Jinglan suddenly remembered what Jiang Qizheng told him just now. He slightly frowned, “To let Miss Ou down easy? She’s the only girl in this generation of the Jingbo’s Family and her father and brothers are both right-hand men of the fourth branch of the Jiang Family. I can’t offend her too hard, or else I’ll get my sister into trouble… I have to think about it carefully!”