Chapter 251:
The day after the marriage was called off, Master Lin hired another good match for his son.
To avoid further delays, this wedding ceremony was rushed; within a month, the wedding day arrived.
In the end, an accident still happened.
On the day the new bride entered the household, the great filial son—who had studied the classics since childhood, was respectful and knew propriety, and was renowned far and wide—actually abandoned his parents and eloped with his former fiancée.
That incident caused a sensation in Bianzhou City that year, and even after so many years, many people still remember it vividly when it is mentioned.
A few years ago, the Old Madam of the Lin Family fell seriously ill and somehow learned of her second son’s whereabouts, then passed the news to him.
Second Young Master Lin returned, but he was alone; Miss Liu, who had eloped with him that day, was nowhere to be seen, and he never left again after that.
Not long after Xie Wanning arrived in Bianzhou, she inquired and learned the full story of that year’s events.
It was also at this time that she learned just how tumultuous that Madam’s fate had been.
Her father was a juren and originally from an aristocratic family, but after the family fell into decline, even her marriage could not be preserved; if not for Second Young Master Lin eloping with her, a young lady like her who had lost her reputation and been jilted would find it hard to secure another good match.
Her fate in this life would either be to shave her head and become a nun in a temple, or to marry some widower much older than herself as a second wife.
That Second Young Master Lin did not mind her lost reputation and abandoned everything to elope with her could only mean their childhood sweethearts’ bond was truly deep.
The elopement away from home went smoothly; they married and had a daughter, everything proceeding steadily, but then her husband went home to visit his parents and never returned, leaving her and her daughter in such a brutal place in the Northern Region.
In the end, they met that kind of consequence.
Thinking back now on what happened on the boat that night, Xie Wanning still found it utterly tragic.
After receiving that woman’s help, she took the initiative to fulfill one of her wishes.
That Madam had only one thing on her mind before her death: she wanted to know if her husband was still alive in the world.
The journey from the Northern Region back to Bianzhou was far and fraught with peril; she did not believe that if her husband were alive, he would be willing to abandon her and their daughter.
If her husband had died on the way, then she and her daughter going down this time would allow the family to reunite.
If…
At the time, Xie Wanning asked her: if her husband was still alive, should she tell him that she and her daughter had come looking for him?
Half a year later, Xie Wanning still remembered that woman’s gaze.
Haunting, helpless, and tinged with faint sorrow.
She said, no.
Do not tell him.
Since he chose not to return, it meant he regretted that year’s elopement.
Whether it was the harsh life in the Northern Region that made him regret it, or his guilt toward his parents and family over the years that made him decide not to go back, either way.
In the end, he had made the decision to abandon his wife and daughter and return to his own family.
After learning that Second Young Master Lin had safely returned to Bianzhou City a few years ago, Xie Wanning actually wanted to go ask him why, after coming back from the Northern Region, he never went back in all those years?
Did he still remember that he had a wife and daughter in the Northern Region?
However, she respected that woman’s own decision.
Later, upon discovering she was pregnant, she set the matter aside.
Until now, with the Lin Family behind the Li Family case.
Hearing the surname Lin, she recalled past events and could not help but ask one more question.
Unexpectedly, it really was that Lin Family.
She recounted her experiences from that day in full, then asked curiously: “Is Second Young Master Lin planning to take this provincial examination, so the Lin Family acted against his potential rivals?”
