Chapter 63

Chapter 63 Who Was Responsible?

Since Yan Yu arrived, Qu Qiuyan had her head lowered all the time, feeling exasperated.

She had never expected things to go this way. She couldn’t figure out which part of her plan went wrong, but fortunately, she didn’t say anything to help Qu Caiyue. In this way, she couldn’t possibly be the one to blame.

Hearing the Old Lady’s words, Qu Qiuyan quickly raised her head and looked at her blankly, “Grandmother, I have no idea.”

“Follow me!” The Old Lady fell into silence for a second, suppressing her rage. After standing up, she added, “Yue, kneel here and take your time to think about what you did. Ying, you must be tired now. Go back to get some rest!”

Before, the Old Lady freed Qu Caiyue from her kneeling punishment when other people left her yard. However, she only wished she had kept Qu Caiyue kneeling on the ground. Then Qu Caiyue wouldn’t go out to make such a big scene.

Knowing the Old Lady wanted to have a talk with Qu Qiuyan in private, Qu Moying nodded at her grandmother and left with her two maids.

The Old Lady left an old maid to keep an eye on Qu Caiyue and then took Qu Qiuyan back to her yard. She seated herself on the chair in the middle of the main room and scolded Qu Qiuyan, “Kneel down!”

“Grandmother!” Qu Qiuyan fell to her knees with tears rolling in her eyes, “Grandmother, I don’t know what I did makes you angry. Please tell me.”

“Good, good. Look at what you did to your sister! What a good daughter taught by Yu!” The Old Lady let out a deep breath as she boiled with rage. “Do you really believe that I know nothing? Do you think you can get away with what happened today? Your mother is the one in charge of the whole mansion’s operation. Except for your mother, who else could allow that young master to send the gift into our mansion? No one!”

She couldn’t hide her anger toward Yu in her words.

Inwardly, she blamed her son for marrying a wife like Yu, who clearly was not good at parenting her daughter. The Old Lady didn’t doubt that Yu was the one behind the drama today, and Qu Qiuyan definitely was aware of it. But even if her granddaughter knew about it, she would still choose to stand on Yu’s side and hide it from her grandmother. Thinking about it, the Old Lady felt more furious.

However, the Old Lady still believed there was something between Yan Yu and Qu Caiyue with Yu as the middleman. Without Yu’s encouragement, Yan Yu couldn’t possibly contact Qu Caiyue.

“Grandmother, Mother really has nothing to do with it. Second Sister lives in the East Mansion, and Aunt Luo should be the one taking care of her daily life. Mother should know nothing about her,” Qu Qiuyan hurriedly explained and pouted as tears dripped down her face. “Grandmother, why Mother and I should take the responsibility for Second Sister’s misbehavior?”

“You two always hang out together, and Caiyue never dares to disobey you and will do whatever you say. I know your aunt is in charge of the East Mansion, but she will never allow a lady of our family to be so shameless. If Caiyue’s name is ruined, so will be your eldest sister’s. In the same way, since you both are the ladies from the Qu Family, your reputation will be affected as well,” the Old Lady said with exasperation.

The Old Lady wondered what on earth Yu filled in Qu Qiuyan’s mind. The young lady didn’t even know that the whole family was on the same boat, sharing glory and shame together.

Luo didn’t necessarily care about Qu Caiyue’s name, but she definitely cared about her own daughter’s, especially when Qu Xuexin was at the proper age for marriage. Luo even mentioned in front of the Old Lady before that thanks to the other ladies’ good reputation, Qu Xuexin wouldn’t have any trouble finding a decent husband.

However, it was before Qu Moying’s engagement with Xu Lipeng broke off. Now that Qu Qiuyan seemed to marry Lord Jing soon, but the two ladies in the East Mansion hadn’t got engaged yet.

Compared to Luo from the East Mansion, Yu from the West Mansion was the boldest and the most malicious. All she thought about was herself instead of the bigger picture for the whole family.

“Second Sister lives in the East Mansion. She has nothing to do with us,” Qu Qiuyan was clearly not convinced.

She didn’t even think that stupid girl lived in the same world with her, let alone affected her life. Since Lord Jing had already shown interest in her, these little stains on her name left by her other sisters wouldn’t make any difference.

Not to mention the person involved this time was Qu Caiyue, who was just remotely related to her. Even with the Old Lady as the bond of the two families, they still lived separately. If it really came to the worst situation, she could just ask her father to settle a partition of their property to cut off the connection between the two families. By then, Qu Caiyue would be more irrelevant to her.

As for her own sister Qu Moying, Qu Qiuyan had never cared about her in the first place. In her opinion, the so-called name of Qu Moying was already notorious. Now her situation was even worse as an ugly, blind girl whose engagement got broken off. Qu Moying was born to be like this, which had nothing to do with her.

Well, she certainly was not going to tell her grandmother these thoughts. Yu and Qu Qiuyan had prepared a proper explanation before to get themselves out of Qu Moying’s trouble. Now, Qu Moying was replaced by Qu Caiyue, which even became easier for them to get rid of the trouble.

“Grandmother, Second Sister lives in the East Mansion. Although she hangs out with me every time she comes over, she never tells me such private things. After all, she and First Sister are real sisters. We are just cousins, and our good relationship is a mere formality. Aunt Luo doesn’t like her staying close to me either, so she still spends most of her time with First Sister. What happened today is due to the East Mansion’s mismanagement, but I live in the West Mansion. How would I know? Grandmother, do you think Second Sister would tell me in advance? I’m as shocked as you when seeing Second Sister blame it on Moying. If I knew about it, this would never happen in the first place.”

Qu Qiuyan’s tears were still dripping. She covered her eyes and started to cry out loud, sounding pitiful.

The Old Lady’s eyes darkened, “Do you mean I blame you and your mother wrongly?”

“Grandmother, my mother has always treated Second Sister well. I’m her only daughter, so she’s always happy to see a young girl of my age. Whenever Second Sister comes over, my mother gives her anything she has, even though Second Sister is just a nephew for her. She had put a lot of effort into Second Sister. Grandmother, you can’t judge her wrongly…”

Her words ended here as she was choked while sobbing, with her face full of beads of tears. She struggled to adjust her breath, and tears dripped down even faster.

“Your mother really treats Caiyue so well?” The Old Lady couldn’t believe what she heard. She never found Yu’s personality pleasing. Yu hadn’t shown any kindness to Qu Moying, her husband’s daughter, why would she like a concubine’s daughter from another family so much?

Seeing the Old Lady’s doubtful look, Qu Qiuyan knew her words started to take effect. She wiped her tears with her hanky and put on a sorrowful look. “Grandmother, if you don’t believe me, you can ask Second Sister about how my mother treats her. Even though she hasn’t treated her like her own daughter, she will never try to harm her.”

The teary-eyed girl’s honest tone made the Old Lady hesitant. Did she not know about it? Did Yu introduce Qu Caiyue to Second Young Master Yan but hide it from her daughter at the same time?

The more she thought about it, the more convinced the Old Lady felt. As a mother, it was reasonable that Yu didn’t want Qu Qiuyan, a noble lady who hadn’t got married yet, to be exposed to such a disgraceful thing.

The look on the Old Lady’s face softened, “You can stand up now.”

Qu Qiuyan knew the toughest part was over. She obediently stood up with Granny Wu’s help while still wiping her face, trying to act as pitifully as she could.

“Qiuyan, no matter how your mother thinks about this, you and Ying are sisters bonded by the same blood, who should support each other. Otherwise, our family will become a joke in other people’s eyes. If Ying doesn’t have a good name, you will be the one affected the most. She’s just a poor girl. Don’t be so narrow-minded as your mother.”

The Old Lady’s words were still harsh since she hadn’t got over her rage yet. Even if Qu Qiuyan was unaware, she wouldn’t allow Yu to get away with it.

“Yes, Grandmother. I understand. I didn’t treat Moying well because I thought she wanted to disfigure my face. Since her innocence has been proven already, I won’t hold any grudge against her. I know Moying had a tough time back in the village, and now her engagement with Young Master Xu was even broken off. She must feel very upset. I promise I will treat her nicer.”

Qu Qiuyan said firmly to the Old Lady while wiping her tears.

Hearing her sincere words, the Old Lady didn’t know what to do except for hoping what she said was true. She waved her hand to signal Qu Qiuyan to leave. Qu Qiuyan cleaned her face up and bowed deeply to her grandmother, “Grandmother, I’ll go take a look at Moying first.”

“Go. You should’ve done this earlier. Remember, Moying is your own sister. Technically, she is your father’s first daughter,” the Old Lady sighed.

Qu Qiuyan clenched her fist hard and dug her nails deep into her palms. This was the most annoying thing for her to hear. If Qu Moying was the first daughter given birth by a wife, did it mean she was just a concubine’s daughter before?

Why? In her mind, her mother Yu was her father’s official wife, the real Second Madam. She couldn’t accept that a blind girl whose mother was dead appeared to compete for the position of the first daughter with her. She should be the most dignified daughter from the Qu Family, not Qu Moying!

Both Qu Qiuyan and her mother Yu were unwilling to mention Yu’s previous identity as Qu Zhizhen’s noble concubine. This was the biggest shame of their life.

If it weren’t for the Old Lady who was talking, Qu Moying would probably walk up and throw a slap on the person’s face.

“Yes, Grandmother!” Qu Qiuyan responded while gnashing her teeth. The Old Lady kept adding pressure to her mother by mentioning her father’s dead ex-wife and her mother’s previous identity, which had irritated her mother countless times. When she became Madam Jing, she would definitely make the old woman pay for it.

It must be luck that made Qu Moying somehow get away with their plan, but she doubted if Qu Moying could be lucky all the time. From Yan Yu’s personality, she could tell that he wouldn’t easily get over the shame he bore this time. All she needed was to ask Yu Qingmeng to add some more fuel to the fire.

Seeing Qu Qiuyan leaving, the Old Lady let out a deep sigh with exasperation, closed her eyes, and leaned back in the chair.

“Madam, do you want me to get you a pill?” noticing the Old Lady’s exhausted look, Granny Wu hurriedly asked. There were not many pills left. It was probably the time for the Second Master to ask an Imperial Doctor to make some more.

“No need. I’m fine! There are not many left. Better to save it for now,” the Old Lady shook her head and said in a weak voice.

After leaving the Old Lady’s yard, Qu Qiuyan stopped outside and looked back at the yard door with a trace of hatred showing up in her eyes. She really hated that old woman!

“My lady, do you want to go to the Fourth Lady’s yard?” her maid Qing Ju asked in a low voice, looking hesitant.

“Yeah, why not? The Old Lady is waiting for us to get along with each other!” Qu Qiuyan sneered, heading to Qu Moying’s yard.

She passed by Qu Xuexin’s yard on her way. Meanwhile, the yard door opened, and Qu Xuexin walked out, her face was still a bit pale. She was stunned for a second when seeing Qu Qiuyan and then gave her an amiable smile. “Qiuyan, are you coming in? I heard something happened in Grandmother’s yard. I’m heading there right now. Do you know what is going on?”

“Nothing happened. But you’d better go check on Second Sister first!” Qu Qiuyan sounded impatient.

“Qiuyan, what happened to her?” Qu Xuexin put on a frightened face.

“Who knows? If you are worried about her, just go take a look. I’m on my way to Moying’s yard,” Qu Qiuyan faked a smile on her face, turned around, and ignored Qu Xuexin. Such a useless girl, she thought. She asked Qu Xuexin to come with her so that all the blame could be shifted to her eldest sister. It was lucky for Qu Xuexin that she accidentally avoided the trouble.