With a flick of the lower hem of a dress, an eavesdropper around the corner noiselessly walked away, which escaped the notice of Zheng shi who was in ecstasy.
Su Yaoyao hurried off from the corner, instructed her handmaid accompanying her not to breathe a word of it to anybody, quietly returned to her courtyard house and found Mrs. Su, her mother.
“Mother, there seems to be something going on in Aunt’s family. I saw a handmaid sent to the first branch of the Yuwen family to help prepare for the wedding stealthily come back and tell Aunt that something was done, and Aunt was ravished with joy at the message,” Su Yaoyao said to Mrs. Su in an undertone.
Mrs. Su’s face took on a serious expression. “Did you hear what was done exactly?”
Su Yaoyao shook her head. “That handmaid didn’t give any details. I find it very strange that Aunt suddenly made an apology to Yu… to Marshal Yuwen, suggesting they wipe the slate clean. Do you think Aunt by any chance has secretly done something?”
Mrs. Su rose to her feet, walked around the room and then said, “We need to figure out a way to find out about it. I’ll go and pay her a visit. You stay here and wait for me.”
Su Yaoyao wanted to go with her, but Mrs. Su had already hurried out of the room, so Su Yaoyao had no alternative but to give up.
When Mrs. Su arrived at the doorway of Zheng shi’s courtyard house, Zheng shi was just about to leave to see Yuwen Qi and was quite surprised to learn that Mrs. Su came to visit her at this hour of the day, but she couldn’t treat Mrs. Su the same way she did Su Yaoyao, so although bursting to share the good news with her younger son, Zheng shi subdued her urge and went to meet Mrs. Su.
“What brings you here, Sister?” said Zheng shi.
Mrs. Su didn’t go straight to the point but made small talk with Zheng shi for a while. Seeing Zheng shi begin to show unmistakable signs of anxiety in her eyes, Mrs. Su grew more positive that Zheng shi had something urgent to attend to. Taking advantage of this opportunity, she casually started trying to worm the truth out of her.
Eventually, Zheng shi became suspicious. “Why do you keep making inquiries about the first branch, Sister?”
Mrs. Su replied, “Nothing escapes your discerning eyes, Sister. I and Yaoyao have been staying in your house all this time, relying on you for survival. And these days, people of the first branch have been making preparations for the wedding. It concerns me that if by any chance I and my daughter come into some kind of contact with any of them, we’d be putting you in an awkward position, Sister.”
Zheng shi didn’t think Mrs. Su was lying. On hearing this, she said, “You and Yaoyao may dismiss all worries from your mind and just live in this house. Nobody would dare pick on you, Sister, I guarantee you that. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and check on Qi’er.”
Mrs. Su stood up as well. “How about I go with you, Sister?”
Zheng shi intended to talk with Yuwen Qi in private and didn’t want Mrs. Su to be in her way, so she made a few more remarks to dismiss Mrs. Su and then hastily left.
Mrs. Su’s face darkened the moment she left Zheng shi’s courtyard house. After returning to her own place, she told Su Yaoyao, “I couldn’t worm anything out of her. She was impatient to see Yuwen Qi and dismissed me in haste.”
When Mrs. Su mentioned Yuwen Qi, a distressed and hesitant expression appeared on Su Yaoyao’s face. “Mother, are we really going to do what that person told us to? Actually Second Cousin is also a very good man–”
“You are not seriously stupid enough to fall for his lies?” spat Mrs. Su, frowning, expecting her daughter to see sense.
“I don’t really have anything Second Cousin needs to tell lies to get,” contradicted Su Yaoyao in a muted voice. “If I marry Second Cousin, I’ll get part of the ownership of that bank as well. Besides, Second Cousin is actually very good to me.”
“Did you not see how brutal the way he treats his servants is? Did you not see his erratic temper? He’s been acting weirdly all along ever since his legs were broken, and I’ve lost count of how many batches of servants he’s chucked off! It’s time you saw reason, Daughter! That private bank was given to the second branch by Marshal Yuwen, and it’s also the most profitable business of their family. You think your aunt would let you get a slice of the pie instead of keeping it all to herself? In addition, Yuwen Qi is not her only son. There’s also Yuwen Feng, who’s the firstborn son and will carry even more weight in this family after the two branches separate. Even if some day that private bank is to be handed over to someone else, it would be Yuwen Feng who gets it. Yuwen Qi won’t stand a chance.”
“But that day when we were in the bank, I heard with my own ears Aunt say that she would let Second Cousin read all the account books. Aunt always favors Second Cousin, and I don’t think she’d go back on her word. Besides, Second Cousin said that as long as I marry him, all the–”
“Oh, my daughter, why is it so hard to knock sense into you?!” Mrs. Su was consumed with anger. “Yuwen Qi has lost his mobility. What good can you possibly expect to come out of your marrying him?!”
“Everything will be fine. Aunt has found a miracle-working physician to treat Second Cousin’s legs, hasn’t she? He will make a full recovery.”
Mrs. Su shook her head. “Even if he fully recuperates, he’s still second in the pecking order. There’s no doubt Yuwen Feng will get to pick first when the two of them divide up family property. No matter how much your aunt favors Yuwen Qi, it doesn’t change the fact that your uncle is the one calling the shots in this family, and he values your first cousin more. Try as your second cousin might, he could never outshine his brother. Even aside from all these, which one do you think is of higher status – wife of the second son of a collateral branch of the Yuwen family, or wife of Marshal Yuwen?”
If anybody else were in the room to hear Mrs. Su’s last remark, they would no doubt be shocked and unable to believe she had said such words. She actually had the fond hope of marrying her daughter to a marshal. Leaving aside the fact that the Su family had lost all its former influence, and that even Zheng shi, the one they’d been depending on, didn’t have any authority over Yuwen Tong, Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong would soon be married. Had these two women of the Su family lost their mind?
However, neither Mrs. Su nor Su Yaoyao felt there was anything wrong with this remark. If they hadn’t gone crazy, then it must be because of something else.
At this moment, Su Yaoyao, after hearing Mrs. Su’s words, appeared to be having a fierce struggle within her breast, her very troubled face tinged with fear. “He scares me.”
“Who scares you?”
“Marshal Yuwen.” Su Yaoyao bit her lower lip. “Mother, you have no idea how scary he was the day Second Cousin’s legs were broken. Even Uncle was pressured by him into personally breaking Second Cousin’s legs. His eyes were icy and he didn’t even give me a glance. He looked like a ca–cacodemon. Even if I married him, I wouldn’t dare stay in the same room with him.”
“Stupid girl, what nonsense is this? He cold-shouldered you that day because you were an outsider. Once you marry him, you’ll become his wife, and he naturally will treat you in a different way. Think about it, has he ever been apathetic to Ling Zhang?”
Su Yaoyao thought for a while, as if in a trance, and then shook her head. “No. He has a very gentle expression in his eyes when he looks at Ling Zhang.”
“Of course he does. His eyes are gentle when he looks at Ling Zhang because he’s going to marry Ling Zhang and sides with him at every turn. If you marry him, you will be the one whom he looks at with gentle eyes, and whom he sides with at all times. Do you not want any of these?” wheedled Mrs. Su in a quiet voice.
As expected, Su Yaoyao was swayed. After another few moments’ daze, her eyes gleamed longingly and expectantly, a pink flush on her cheeks.
Seeing that she was convinced, Mrs. Su breathed a sigh of relief. “As long as you do what Mother tells you, you’ll get all these.”
And then she put on a different face and observed, “The reason why your father inexplicably died in the Court Prison was because he did something under your aunt’s orders. She owes it to us to show us kindness, and even if you’re to marry Yuwen Qi, there would be nothing that should make you feel unworthy of him, but look what she’s been doing to you. She not only makes you frequently go in and out of a man’s chambers, but also have you apply ointment to his wounds. There are so many handmaids present, but she pays no regard whatsoever for your feelings. It’s only too evident that she thinks little of you, treating you as some insignificant nobody. Her intention is very clear. There’s no way she’s going to let you be Yuwen Qi’s legal wife. Since she has no gratitude for your father’s sacrifice, why should we throw ourselves on her mercy?
As long as we follow that person’s instructions, submit the forged evidence to prove that Ling Zhang was the one who ordered your father to spread the rumors, let everybody know that Ling Zhang resorted to the ruse of self-injury to play Marshal Yuwen off the second branch of the Yuwen family, then Ling Zhang will be toast. Given that even your father, a courtier, was condemned to death after being convicted of calumniation of the former emperor, Ling Zhang who’s a commoner would no doubt be executed.
That person also said that he just wants to get revenge, that as long as we help him kill Ling Zhang, he would petition His Majesty to designate you to be Marshal Yuwen’s wife, and when he does, even Yuwen Tong won’t dare defy an imperial edict and will have no choice but to take you as his wife!”
Mrs. Su sounded almost hysterical at the end of her remarks, as if what she was depicting had already come true.
As Su Yaoyao listened to her mother talking, her heart was beating increasingly fast, her chest heaving more and more vigorously, her cheeks blushing further with excitement.
“Mother, when will we submit the evidence that person gave us?” Su Yaoyao couldn’t help but ask.
Mrs. Su said, “I’ve already had it planned out. Tomorrow I’ll submit it. You may wait and see. The wedding that the Yuwen family have been preparing for is bound to belong to you.”
“Mother!” Su Yaoyao called Mrs. Su, face full of anticipation and timidity.
…
It was quite a while before a secret bodyguard, who had been crouching on the rooftop, closed his mouth. He could have sworn that he really had just come to this rooftop out of curiosity. It’d never crossed his mind that he would hear this kind of conversation.
He was supposed to spy on Zheng shi. It was so obvious that Mrs. Su had gone to talk with Zheng shi for a particular reason, and Zheng shi was probably the only one stupid enough to neglect it. The bodyguard had felt that it was very suspicious of Mrs. Su to, directly and indirectly, make inquiries about the first branch of the Yuwen family, so he’d decided to come and take a look.
‘With an oversight of ours, these two women were bought by someone, and they’re so close to ruining the Marshal’s plan. Fortunately I’m alert enough,’ thought the secret bodyguard.
Hearing the two women in the room talking about their ‘bright’ future in excited tones, the secret bodyguard rubbed his hands covered in goosebumps and then left. He had to return immediately to report it to the Marshal that someone else was plotting to make mischief. And given that this man deliberately chose to stir up trouble at this time, he undoubtedly was a foe of Childe Ling’s.
Yuwen Tong, after hearing the secret bodyguard’s report, instantly emanated a menacing air.
“Marshal, let me look into this matter,” said Miao Shisan.
The preparatory work for the Marshal’s and Childe Ling’s wedding had already started, but troublemakers had been showing up one after another, trying to thwart it. How could they stand by and swallow this?
Yuwen Tong had a dark look in his eyes. “I’ll handle it personally.”
Miao Shisan and the others exchanged glances, beginning to feel sympathetic towards those who had been secretly scheming.
“Marshal, in all likelihood Zheng shi is going to contact the one behind the scenes and take action tonight or – at the latest – tomorrow morning. It’s inadvisable for you to leave at this time. I suggest you let me keep a close watch on Xiao Zheng shi (Mrs. Su). After Zheng shi makes her move, Xiao Zheng shi definitely won’t dare do anything rash and will try to make contact with the one she’s been colluding with; I’ll follow her and ascertain the mastermind’s identity, and then you may make your move,” said Miao Shisan.
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