Chapter 59 Playacting, Who Cheated Who?

Sending Qiu Mengmin away, Madame Lu asked servants in to clean and dress her up, and she was figuring out how to make this drama, “committing suicide to protect son,” much more real. So, she ordered servants to take two grandsons here to kindly and pleasantly show solicitude for them.

Qiu Hongzhi didn’t feel any strange for he had always been spoiled by his grandmother and father. But as to Qiu Yinzhi, who had been disliked by Madame Lu due to Princess Yang and had always been rebuked, he felt extremely flattered with surprise then.

After all they were her own grandsons. Seeing them, Madame Lu’s heart suddenly softened, and she opened a chest, taking a pair of jade kylins to give them, “These are the best pair of jade crafts of mine. Just for you brothers, exactly one for each.”

“Thanks, grandma!” Both grandsons said with one voice.

They both thought that Madame Lu was about to leave Prince’s Mansion. Thus, at this time, it was not surprising that she would like to leave the young descendants some gifts. So they just thanked without asking for reasons—after all, it may make everyone embarrassed.

Madame Lu also felt pleased as neither of them mentioned the reason. After few words, she hastily sent them away. And she thought about to meet her granddaughters as well. Actually, if she really did not want to live any longer, Commandery Princess Ningxin, Qiu Baozhu, who had married out of the mansion, should also be called back, but Madame Lu supposed that would be too affected, which may be utilized by the Empress party to accuse Qiu Mengmin as he failed to find out the unusual situation of his mother.

Moreover, Qiu Baozhu, whose birth mother was forced to die by Madame Lu and Qiu Mengmin together to give way to Princess Yang, who was the beloved daughter, the apple of eye of an influential dignitary and his wife, had never got close to Prince’s Mansion. After she married, except returning back on the third day of the wedding as the custom, she hadn’t stepped over the threshold of this family even once. Her husband’s family was also not as noble as Prince’s Mansion, so Prince’s Mansion seldom cared about her.

“This granddaughter is also ungrateful,” Madame Lu thought, “never mind, maybe just ask Mingzhu, Jinzhu to come and chat for a while, as well as Yuqing and Lizhang.”

Preparing everything as plots to make the drama real, Madame Lu had talked with all descendants. She stayed up late until the middle of the night, waiting for everyone to fall asleep, then quietly, putting on a new suit, combing hair and making up, even inserting a pearls and jade hairpin, and finally she took the pill which was given by her son with some water.

Although her son took it in person to show her the innocuity, she was still a little worried, so she just dug more than a spoonful, thinking that if the reaction would not be great after she ate, and then she could add some more. But she should ever never take too much of it.

However, which was beyond her imagination that even though she arbitrarily reduced half of teaspoon’s amount, once after she took it, she still felt like a sharp knife was cutting her intestines violently, and this pain made her can’t help to cry loudly!

Unfortunately, because she planned to do everything to make the drama as real as possible, she unusually ordered all servants to rest at night, with no one left!

“Little Mengmin took it in front of me, it seemed this medicine wasn’t that strong!” Madame Lu can’t stop rolling on the wool-woven blanket. She had no time to consider how much furniture she had knocked down, and she was just begging someone could find her, “Do I have such an uncommon constitution that is unable to take this medicine?”

As she was struggling to crawl towards the door, the door opened.

Madame Lu deeply breathed with a sigh of relief and was about to say something. But out of her expectation, the person quickly stepped into the room and then closed the door!

This action made Madame Lu startled and panicked, “Is that little b*tch again…?”

However, before her second thought, she was almost shocked to faint when she put all effort to look up! Under the light, the person who changed into the servant’s clothes and looked at her with a complex expression, could only be Qiu Mengmin without anyone else!

When Madame Lu saw his son just quietly witnessing her rolling with great pain without doing anything to help, she suddenly realized something horrible, which made her feel like falling into an ice cellar!

But as the closest kin, the mother and the son, even if she had guessed eighty percent of the whole thing at this moment, she still held a glimmer of hope, and she shouted piteously, “Little Mengmin, I’m afraid I took too much of this medicine and I can’t stand anymore! Go to find a doctor!”

“Wouldn’t I know you so well? I told you to take two spoons at most, and I know you would only eat one spoon for most.” Qiu Mengmin pitifully looked at her while his words were like knives, “I had eaten the antidote before I took a spoon of it in front of you. So, I guess you would try the same amount, a spoon, after you saw me do it successfully.”

Madame Lu was already sore to death with all three tiers of clothes wet with sweat, but the pain deep in her heart was worse than the poison. She couldn’t believe it, “You… why are you doing this?! I had already told you that I am willing to die for you! Why, why do you lie to your mother?!”

Her own son told her to act in a play, so she believed him. She happily chatted and cared for the young children, then grooming, putting on the best new clothes, and planned to cooperate with her son to deal with Qiu Yelan. But who could imagine, the person Qiu Mengmin really wanted to get rid of was not Qiu Yelan but his birth mother!

The pain in Madame Lu’s heart at this moment was complexed beyond words!

She would rather be asked to die by Qiu Mengmin in the day—though that would also be painful and overwhelmed with grief, it would still be happier than now, being tricked into death by her own son step by step!

Qiu Mengmin looked at her with pity, but said, “Mother, you have always had a bad time, and you can’t bear others to live well, even including your own child! Although the old Princess had quarreled with my father for several years because of my birth, which was totally your design, however, to be honest, the old Princess was nice and impartial to others, and she only hated you and father, but had never mistreated me for it.”

There was a gleam in the very deep of his eyes, not for Madame Lu, but for the deceased old Princess. “I still remember the old Princess holding me under the cherry-apple tree to enjoy the flowers. When did the old Princess start to keep me in distance? Why did she finally turn to be totally indifferent to me and even drive me out of the Mansion? It all started from the day you incited me, and I believed that the old Prince had a vicious motive when she tried to treat me well!”

“Actually, you said those words for nothing more than yourself. You were scared, weren’t you?” Qiu Mengmin burst into tears sorrowfully. “You designed the birth of me only for pursuing wealth and status. Although the old Princess was soft-hearted and did not want you to die, but you were not allowed to meet my father anymore. Grandmother hated you for breaking the rules and never liked you as well. If I alienated from you as others did, how could you gain your ends? So, when you found the old Princess treated me well and I also liked the Old Princess, you were scared. You couldn’t leave any possibility for me to get along well with the Old Princess! Unfortunately, I was too young and too naive at that time, thinking that my birth mother would never hurt me. So I believed you! But the old Princess had her pride. When she found out that I doubted her, she simply refused to explain anything under the anger! This misunderstanding got deeper and deeper. In the end, I completely lost the old Princess’s favor!”

“If I were raised by the old Princess, instead of living a poor life with you for so many years…. Even if you may come to the Mansion now, I should also be able to give you some benefits in private and send some servants for you. And that’s all! Enough! So how could I be cornered by a niece and was unduked for the guilt?”

Qiu Mengmin seemed like laughing at himself, “Outsiders thought that Old Princess was more or less sorry for me, and I tacitly approved it in public. But deep in my heart, it was very clear: how could it be the old Princess treated me bad! In contrast, it was me treating her so terribly! — How kind the old Princess was at that time! However, because I listened to you, I gradually broke her heart! I was not her own son, and she lost her face soon after her marriage because of my birth. But she tolerated so much, and let me grow up without any hurt. She also conventionally gave me money before asked me to leave the Mansion when I grew up. She had done too much for me. What can an official mother do more?”

Madame Lu’s face was covered with tears, and she bit the wool-woven blanket on the ground to bear the pain, crying, “So you always remember the old Princess?! Fine, when you were a kid, the old Princess treated you well! But why didn’t you think about this? She had no son of her own at that time. Treating you well, on the one hand, she could separate us mother and son; on the other hand, both your grandparents would think her as a good mother. Who in this family wouldn’t say that she is a virtuous wife and generous mother? You were spoiled at that time, knowing nothing about my life, your own mother’s poor life!”

“So you drag your son into the mire with you?” Qiu Mengmin said lightly, “When Princess Ruan was alive, she was always worrying that we would murder Qiu Yelan. Any food must be tasted by her half a day before her daughter was allowed to eat. You both are birth mothers, but why the only thing you keep doing was implicating your son into trouble, and into continuous trouble?”

“If I were the official mother, wouldn’t I love you?!” Madame Lu rolling to him, reaching out and grabbing his boots, wanly smiled, “After all, you blame me for being unblessed with no luck and unable to be the wife but only a concubine, do you? But is it because of me? You think I am unwilling to be born as a noble and be married as the legitimate wife ceremoniously with a decent wedding?”

Qiu Mengmin shook his head and looked at her with mercy, “Mother, you think that I treat you like this is for the resentment in the past? No, those things have passed. You see, even if I remember the Old Princess in private, I have never cared more about Qiu Yelan. You know, I… am actually similar to you, not a grateful person! I am just worrying that you could once ruin your son’s future for your own before. Now, your son asked you to sacrifice for the family…. Would you listen to it?”

“I have told you, to die for you, I am always willing to die for you as your mother!” Madame Lu shed tears, shouting hysterically!

She saw that Qiu Mengmin listened to her words without any change on his face, but he merely sighed, “You said you would like to, but as the previous matter, how could I believe you once more? Who knows if you promise it readily in front of me but then with hate in heart, manoeuvre to make me and my entire family to die with you!”

Madame Lu was trembling all over, not only for pain, but also for her shock and rage, “In your heart, I… your mother… is like this?!”

“You are the birth mother of me. I… I really don’t want to do this.” Qiu Mengmin whispered, “But you just spoke against to appoint Yinzhi as my inheritor, I… I am… sorry to you….”

“I… just… said… it… without… any… meaning…. If… you… you really… want… to… appoint… Yinzhi….” Madame Lu gradually stopped struggling for she knew she was dying, and said at her last gasp, “I… as… your mother….”

“Not for this.” Qiu Mengmin said indifferently, “I know why you oppose to appoint Yinzhi as my heir, for Yang, right? This time, I was trapped by Qiu Yelan, so you would either blame Qiu Yelan or the old Princess. But actually you had never thought about my tough situation. You just slightly said that you made my whole family so many troubles as late as I had resigned and came back home today. But soon, you just followed the idea of suppressing Yang! If you mentioned, maybe only for one word, maybe just showing me ambiguously that you would be willing to do anything for me… I, I would had not cheated to you like this!”

He looked with great sorrow at Madame Lu, who suddenly widened her eyes, and said, “You have always only thought of yourself! So to be honest, is there anything wrong I do to take precautions against you?”

… After a while, Madame Lu’s life gradually ended in silence, but Qiu Mengmin was still worrying, and stretched out fingers to check the heart pulse. After assuring that she was really dead, he finally cried with tears, “What you mostly pursued in your life was to overpower the old Princess. Now you committed suicide for your son, so he no more needs to support you and could be able to keep the title of Duke of Xihe. Well, it’s also a kind of fulfillment of your wish. I have never mentioned your bad behaviors within these years and treated you so well as the old Princess. For this time, I have to do this to you, but I don’t owe to you. We mother and son… call it even!”

After he finished the words, he gently kicked, to shake off Madam Lu’s hand which was holding his whip, and then looked down to check if there was any evidence in her palm showing his presence. Finally, he sighed and turned to leave.

Qiu Mengmin stumbled out of the back door of the courtyard where Madame Lu lived—he had arranged all for it, and there was no one as plan.

But at that moment he turned back to close the door, he heard a fearful cough right there under a nearby crape myrtle tree that made him almost frightened out of his wits!

“Uncle is really decisive and merciless!” Followed was Qiu Yelan’s voice, which was deliberately lowered but still revealed her kind of meaningful smile, “I just made the suggestion few hours ago, and I have never imagined that you could make it so soon…. But, as the niece, I wanted to remind uncle that for such a good idea, would uncle cross the river and dismantle the bridge, to kill me later?”