Real Empress from a Noble Family

Chapter 290 Something Wrong with the Dowry

Qiu Jinglan already left. No matter how worried and how angry Qiu Yelan was about being lied to for so long, she couldn’t do anything.

Thus, after she entered the room and complained to Jiang Yashuang for a while, she could only let it go. But she was worried about Ruan Ciyi’s wedding, “Now that brother left, she is the only one here. She can’t go everywhere by herself to plan it. I want to stay there for a couple of days.”

Jiang Yashuang didn’t support her idea. He had noticed that since the fight with that pill, Madame Tao and Empress Jiang treated him the same, but they were dissatisfied with Qiu Yelan. Now that Marquess Qin had already promised Qiu Jinglan to send his daughter-in-law over to help Ruan Ciyi before her wedding, yet Qiu Yelan still wanted to live at the Ruan Family. This would surely make Madame Tao unhappy. Who would like to see their daughter-in-law or granddaughter-in-law staying outside all the time and not coming home?

And it would also offend Madame He. It was clearly showing that she wasn’t relieved with Madame He being in charge.

But he knew if he had said that directly, Qiu Yelan would just have a problem with Madame Tao and Madame He. He thought for a while and said politely, “It’s not appropriate for you to go over. After all, your surname is Qiu, not Ruan. You can treat yourself like you’re a family member at other times. But when it comes to a wedding, you going out and hosting it is really not suitable. It may not bring honor to Sister Ruan. People may even gossip.”

Technically, Ruan Ciyi was old enough to be Qiu Yelan’s mother and Qiu Yelan was already married. Now she going to the Ruan Family to plan Ruan Ciyi’s wedding looked ridiculous.

Qiu Yelan frowned and said, “I know that. But it’s better than sister planning it herself!”

“You really underestimated your brother!” Jiang Yashuang said, “Even though he left in a hurry. He did plan her wedding. He already prepared the trousseau. As for everything else that wasn’t prepared, he already made a list. The third aunt only needs to take some people there to get ready when the day comes. Otherwise, she will go there way more often. Grandfather asked her to do this!”

Indeed, no one dared to slight what Marquess Qin ordered besides Jiang Yadan.

Qiu Yelan barely rested her mind. After some days, she sent Su He to give Ruan Ciyi some in-season fruit. She then received another piece of news, “Madame Feng took some people and went to the Ruan Family to help Lady Ciyi with her wedding!”

“Is she the one who held sister in her arms and cried when sister had the compulsory divorce with Fang Zijun? She was asked by Madam Sun to witness it, right?” Qiu Yelan immediately asked.

“Yes!” Su He nodded, “She was the best friend of Madame Tan when she was still alive. Sister Ruan is supposed to call her aunt Feng.”

This Madame Feng was the same age as Madame Tan, Ruan Ciyi’s mother. She already had a grandson. No one was above her to regulate her and she gave all the household business to her daughter-in-law. She was quite free. With her there, Qiu Yelan finally rested assured.

Several days passed after Madame Feng arrived at Ruan’s Mansion. It was Prince of Zhou’s wedding. Because Prince of Zhou was the candidate of Crown Prince of Empress Dowager’s party, this wedding was very grand. The dowries of Princess Shou’an, Gu E’nuo, were amazingly heavy. Some people suspected that it was about two million tales. It was way higher than the 1.5 million tales of Princess Qi, Jiang Qiyun.

Neither of them had more than Qiu Yelan, because Qiu Yelan had special circumstances. Two Princesses’ dowries all went to her. She also took extra dowries for Commandery Princess and her guilty brother also gave her some. Thus, she had three million tales.

While Gu E’nuo and Jiang Qiyun didn’t get all their grandmothers and mothers’ dowries, what they received from their maiden families alone was impressive.

But no matter how grand the wedding was and how heavy the dowries were, the senior concubine, Tang Xinqiong, who married to Prince of Zhou earlier, had quite a deep relationship with Prince of Zhou. So Prince of Zhou was quite bored on the wedding.

After Prince of Zhou was Prince of Lu. Yet Tao Yibin’s dowry was not as much as Gu E’nuo’s. After all, Tao Yinsong had been dead for some decades. The Tao Family also had some wastrels, so the Tao Family’s wealth was not as heavy as before.

Her dowries were estimated to be around 500 thousand tales. According to Ling Zui’s estimation, Madame Tao and Empress Jiang even had to give some to them in secret, “Did you remember the Persian cat trend a couple of years ago? That was the Tao Family crying about how poor they were in front of Madame Tao and Madame Tao asked He Shuijin for advice. She couldn’t decline and made some proposals. Selling Persian cats was one of them. He Shuijin also made it a popular trend. So there’s no way the Tao Family could have 500 thousand tales.”

Qiu Yelan thought it was nice, “Then if Qingqian can have a million tales as dowry, she can hold her head up after she’s married!”

She hoped that the Princess following had fewer dowries!

But Duan Wenji’s dowries were more than Tao Yibin by 50 thousand tales. Clearly, it was to shame the Tao Family.

Prince of Lu’s and Prince of Cai’s weddings were less grand than Prince of Zhou’s. It was just following the convention. They were not mistreated. Because they needed to show some respect to their Princesses’ maiden families. Yet they also weren’t treated extra well because they really didn’t matter. Anyway, these were normal weddings.

It was the end of October. Everyone thought that Prince of Wei’s wedding would be in the next year. It was indeed next February. Yet Princess Changping married Kuang Qingwu urgently in November!

Qiu Jinzhu just died in July. Four months later, Kuang Qingwu married another Princess. Even though everything that happened in between already washed off the tragedy of Prince’s Mansion of Xihe, but after this marriage, Commandery Princess Ningtai who died so young was mentioned again. Princess Changping naturally felt disgraced.

The public didn’t know, yet people in higher positions all knew, “Kuang Shihan’s emergent message was plotting against Qiu Jinglan, but also thinking for his son.”

The war was happening in Xijiang!

Kuang Shihan wanted Kuang Qingwu to take this chance and build his prestige, so he naturally hurried Princess Changping to marry.

Now Empress Dowager’s party needed Kuang Shihan a lot, so Princess Changping could only tolerate a hurried wedding.

After the wedding, Kuang Qingwu was given a position in the army. He left Jing City in a hurry and went back to Shazhou. Because he couldn’t find Qiu Jinglan and Princess Changping guessed he would be plotting on his way, so she didn’t follow him to save him trouble.

When Kuang Qingwu left, Qiu Jinglan finally started to go to Shazhou. The Jiang Family sent someone to help him. Let’s talk about what happened in the government.

The war in Xijiang was not very intense. The safety of Darui was not on the line. Therefore, no matter Empress Dowager or the Empress’s party was putting all their energy into plotting and backstabbing.

Before November was over, quite a few officials on two sides were taken down. The level of all the plotting was getting higher and higher. It quickly implicated the important ones.

In the last Imperial Court Assembly in November, the Jiang Family attacked first. They questioned the assistant minister of the Ministry of Justice, Duan Jin, about Princess of Cai’s dowry, “Your family has been farmers for a lot of generations. Your father had no more than a thousand acres of fields at then. How come in a decade, you get five hundred and fifty thousand tales to be Princess of Cai’s dowry?”

Duan Jin would never admit that the money was not clean, “Prince of Cai is prestigious. My niece is lucky to marry him. We feel so grateful, so we tried our best to prepare this wedding. That money was all my savings since I entered the government, plus the loan I took in private. None of them is dirty money! Please, Your Grace, believe me!”

Empress Dowager Gu naturally supported him, “When Princess Qi married, she had about two million tales. Why didn’t you say so then? Do you think Princess of Cai is someone you can pick on?!”

This was the time when He Shuijin really shone. The Empress’s party said in confidence that the Jiang Family absolutely could give Princess Qi a heavy dowry because her sister-in-law, the family business holder these years, He Shuijin, was known for making money. If they didn’t believe it, they could go ask around!

Not only asking around. At then, He Shuijin could stand up and walk around. So when Jiang Tianao was fiercely arguing with others, he directly asked He Shuijin to come and explain how clean the Jiang Family’s money was.

Even Empress Dowager Gu who lived in the Palace heard of He Shuijin. She knew He Shuijin was born with a talent for finance. Her accounting skill was even better than some old officials in the Ministry of Revenue. Talking to her about the ledger was useless. Empress Dowager Gu wouldn’t let Jiang Tianao direct her. She had embarrassed herself enough with Qiu Jinglan!

So Empress Dowager ordered directly, “If Head of the Secretariat thinks that Duan Jin is suspicious, then you should hand in evidence of him being corrupted. Otherwise, even if you are the Deputy Premier, it’s still a major crime to wrong other government officials.”

The Empress’s party came prepared. They indeed had evidence. A Censor came out of the line and showed the little pamphlet they already prepared. He started counting Duan Jin’s wealth from his grandfather, all the way until the recent wedding. In the end, he concluded, “With what the Duan Family had over the years and assistant minister’s salary, it’s impossible for him to get five hundred and fifty thousand tales!”

What they implied was that Duan Jin absolutely was corrupted!

“Then what about borrowing money for the wedding?” Someone in the Empress’s party asked intentionally.

“That’s also impossible.” That Censor said seriously, “I’ve counted that assistant minister should only have some thousands of tales. Who will loan someone more than he owns? Aren’t they afraid that he can’t pay back?”

That was not borrowing money. That was giving out money as a gift!

“So you’re saying, even if assistant minister borrowed this money, it’s under a special circumstance?” Jiang Tianqi laughed coldly and looked at Duan Jin, “So where did you borrow this money? Can you get the receipt for this loan and show us?”

Duan Jin didn’t even see this coming. Where could he find a receipt?

But he reacted quickly, “If you want to see it, sure. As long as the Empresses allow, I will send my servant to get it!”

Empress Dowager Gu supported his idea. Empress Jiang was surprised that he prepared a receipt. But if she stopped him now, it would look guilty.

With their permission, not so long after, the servant of the Palace presented the receipt that the Duan Family’s servant brought. It was given to Empress Dowager and Empress first. After one glance, Empress Jiang was furious, “This is not even your handwriting!”

Hearing that, Duan Jin was relieved. He saluted and said with a smile, “Don’t be angry, Your Grace. I didn’t write this receipt!”

When he just finished the sentence, everyone in the Hall was surprised. He didn’t write it? Then was he playing the Empress?