Chapter 18: So Embarrassing
Yue Tang guessed he had returned to divorce, after all, they had registered a marriage certificate at the government office, and not cutting ties cleanly would always leave hidden dangers.
And back then she had promised him that once she had a child, she would let him leave, and now that the child was born, he naturally wasn’t so anxious anymore.
A forced melon from a twisted vine is bitter, although she didn’t know if this child was a boy or a girl, Yue Tang thought it over repeatedly and still decided to let him go.
If the Emperor really made her give birth to a son to inherit the nobility title later, she could just take another husband then.
She hadn’t expected him to stay this time; everything was prepared for the birth on Bie Ye’s side, Yue Tang had no chance to slip away at all, so she even had to give birth in the village house.
While she was grunting and straining inside the room, he was pacing back and forth outside like a wild beast.
She thought he would bring it up after the child was a month old, but unexpectedly he didn’t; instead, this month he learned how to change the child’s diapers.
Seeing her sixteenth birthday approaching, she had no choice but to bring it to a conclusion; on the day the child turned one hundred days old, she prepared to lay it all out with him.
But unexpectedly, that day he went out.
He didn’t return even until evening.
So Yue Tang left a wooden box, inside which was a farewell letter stating that in her lifetime she would never disturb him again.
There was also a divorce letter, plus ten thousand taels in banknotes, and the deeds to a garden in Gusu and several shops with excellent docks.
These could be considered as buying A Li from him.
The matter with A Qi was thus turned over.
Now she only knew that the child she had labored so hard to give birth to had died under the Du Family’s conspiracy, died at the hands of the Zhang Family and He Family!
She was going to kill Zhang Shaode!
She was going to find her seal!
She was going to destroy the Marquis of Guangling’s Mansion!
She quickened her pace, soon leaving Lan Qin behind, passing through the alley and rushing toward their house on the other side!
……
“Twelve coppers! If you want it, guest, ten coppers will do.”
The stall owner ingratiatingly picked out a new rattle drum for Yan Bei.
Yan Bei took out a piece of broken silver and bought five in total, including A Li’s little friends.
A Li was gradually becoming sensible and always envied the children playing outside. Yan Bei wouldn’t let him go out, only having the married guards bring the children into the mansion to keep him company day and night.
He had to buy five rattle drums and five pastries. And they had to be from Bao Shan Tang.
As for why he had to come out to buy them personally?
Because A Li had just learned to play house and started envying the children of common folk who could personally buy gifts for their fathers.
After getting into the carriage, he rested his cheek on his hand looking at the street; it hadn’t gone a few steps before the carriage stopped.
The guard knocked on the carriage wall, then bowed as he entered: “Reporting to Your Highness, the Du Family has indeed run into some troubling matters. Two of their subordinates are fourth-rank generals in the court, in-laws to each other, but yesterday one family had a murder case, and then the dead man’s wife, who was brought in as a suspect, proved her innocence by colliding to death.
“This hasn’t even been fully investigated when evidence of the murder was found with the dead man’s younger brother’s wife.
“This younger brother’s wife was sent to prison by the two families yesterday, but who knew she would accuse her father-in-law of plotting treason from within the prison. The Marquis’s Mansion has been handling the aftermath for that family since the afternoon.”
Yan Bei withdrew his gaze from the back of the woman flying through the alley: “Plotting what treason?”
“Nothing was said openly, but it seems related to Princess Yongjia who was surrounded and killed by robbers in the outskirts of the capital three years ago.”
“Princess Yongjia?” Yan Bei put his hand down, “What did she say?”
“She didn’t mention the Princess personally, just spoke of the incident in the outskirts of the capital in the seventh month three years ago. Quite a few major events happened in the seventh month three years ago, but if it’s about the outskirts of the capital, then it could only be the matter of Princess Yongjia being murdered.”
Yan Bei unfolded his fan and slowly shook it a few times, then said: “Wasn’t it already determined to be refugees? I remember the scene was a mess, many people dead, weapons of all kinds. Or is it not?”
“It was refugees. After the former Emperor’s funeral, the court finally stabilized, and both the Emperor in the imperial palace and the Empress Dowager separately ordered investigations several times, all confirming it was done by bandits.”
The fan in Yan Bei’s hand shook even slower.
“Since it was bandits, yet Liu Shi has this line of talk, purely framing and blackmail?”
The guard considered carefully before saying: “This subordinate cannot be sure if that’s the case, but just half a shichen ago, that General of Martial Virtue himself also died. According to a servant who fled from the He Family, he died at the hands of his mad wife, who had gone insane from grief over recently losing her son.”
“Oh?”
The person in the alley had already run out of sight. Yan Bei withdrew his gaze from the empty alley: “What is this General of Martial Virtue’s name?”
“He Jianzhong.” Seeing blankness in his eyes, the guard added: “This He Family is one that wouldn’t even catch the eye in the capital; it’s normal for Your Highness not to know them.”
In the past, Yan Bei only liked listening to street rumors for novelty and never meddled, especially not in matters of the Marquis of Guangling’s Mansion, which he refused to touch even slightly.
The guard assumed it was the same this time and cupped his hands to withdraw.
But Yan Bei used his fan to stop him: “So many deaths, each in their own way, like a chain, not normal. Go listen to the follow-up and report back to me properly.”
The guard got out of the carriage.
Yan Bei turned his head to look at that alley again and lowered the carriage curtain.
That little woman running through the alley earlier had a quite slender waist, surely quite soft too.
Just from the back, she seemed comparable to seven or eight tenths of A Li’s mother.
“Your Highness, those two dancers that Lord Chu wanted to send over last time also have extremely soft waists.”
Only when this voice rang clearly in his ear did Yan Bei suddenly remember there was also the mansion’s erudite official Cui Xun in the carriage.
He lifted his head.
Cui Xun sat on the lower footrest with hands clasped, smiling understandingly: “The young heir apparent is already three years and four months old; if Your Highness feels lonely on long nights, it’s only natural.”
Not only were songstresses and dancers sent as gifts every few days, but the Ministry of Rites had submitted several memorials asking to petition the Emperor to select a princess consort for Yan Bei, yet he had never loosened his stance.
Today, to stare at a woman’s back waist for so long was truly rare.
Yan Bei’s brows and eyes twitched together.
What was he saying?
Oh no, what had he himself just been thinking?
He had been having lewd thoughts about the waist of a passing woman.
What was going on?
He actually had such wicked thoughts!
He hadn’t even seen her face!
So shameful.
He slowly shifted his gaze away, shaking the fan in a proper and solemn manner: “If I remember correctly, the duty of the prince’s mansion erudite official is to ‘teach and guide thoughts, correct behavior’—’dancers’?”
Cui Xun immediately slapped his own face: “This subordinate deserves death!”
Yan Bei drawled on: “The Shen Family, Mu Family, and Chu Family are forming cliques everywhere.
“What does Chu Yi want by sending dancers? Don’t tell me you don’t know.”
Under his righteous words, Cui Xun prostrated himself again: “Your Highness! This official’s thoughts are too filthy! I’ll go back and copy the Heart-Cleansing Scripture ten times!”
