Wen Mingfeng tugged at the corner of his mouth: “Yes, someone like me, good things are always unrelated to me.”
When he said this, his expression instantly darkened.
Xie Ying also immediately realized he had said the wrong thing. After a moment of silence, he explained, “That’s not what I meant. She’s the eldest young lady of Yongping Marquis Manor, you should have heard of her.”
“Yongping Marquis Manor?” Wen Mingfeng reacted at once: “That Qi Yuan who’s famous throughout the capital, Eldest Miss Qi is her? She doesn’t look like it at all on the surface.”
Xie Ying was unwilling to discuss girls, so he said lightly, “So you should understand why I said it has nothing to do with you or me. Focus on your studies for the exam.”
They had come to stay at the temple precisely because it was quiet there, borrowing the place to review their lessons.
All for the sake of preparing for the imperial examinations after the new year.
Xie Ying did not take the encounter with Qi Yuan to heart, because he had always known that after making a roundabout journey, the person Miss Qi intended to find when she returned was not him.
Since that was the case, everyone has their own cause and effect; he should not have taken it too seriously to begin with.
Wen Mingfeng, however, was different. That evening, he made a trip back to the capital.
But he did not return to the Wen family residence in the capital; instead, he went straight to Duke Cheng’s Manor.
Inside Duke Cheng’s Manor, the Duchess Cheng was in a towering rage.
Holding Ling Qiang, who was crying in her arms, she suddenly grabbed the teacup beside her and hurled it at Duke Cheng Shizi Madam.
Duke Cheng Shizi Madam was immediately splashed head to toe with tea, looking utterly disheveled.
But filial piety outweighs everything; even after being drenched, she could only kneel on the ground with a bitter smile and explain: “Mother, in this matter, Ah You was indeed at fault first…”
She was truly exhausted.
Duchess Cheng had a stubborn temperament. For so many years, she insisted on grasping everything in her hands without letting go in the slightest.
Even if she took the children back to her natal home for half a day or a day, the duchess would not rest easy and would follow step by step.
As if the children had not been born by her at all.
In earlier years, Duke Cheng Shizi Madam had not felt much about it, but as the children grew older, she increasingly realized that her mother-in-law’s desire for control was excessive.
Not to mention, among the children of the second and third branches, not a single one of the wives they married met the duchess’s approval.
As a result, the female members of Duke Cheng’s Manor had become more miserable one after another, miscarriages where there were miscarriages, divorces where there were divorces.
With so many lessons from the past, Duke Cheng Shizi Madam did not want her own son, Ling Chuhan, to walk the same path as his elder brothers. That was why she had bypassed the Duchess Cheng and personally selected a marriage for him.
Who would have thought it would end up causing such unhappiness?
At this thought, her heart could not help but skip a beat.
She knew very well that Ling Qiang had been raised by Duchess Cheng.
If not for the duchess’s instruction, no matter how arrogant Ling Qiang was, she would not have deliberately embarrassed Wang Chan on such an occasion.
So that means…
She could not help but raise her eyes to look at the Duchess Cheng.
But the duchess lashed out harshly: “I thought our Shizi Madam had found some extraordinary in-laws, but it turns out they’re just a ruined household notorious throughout the capital! You’re practically rushing to put a green hat on your own son!”
……
Duke Cheng Shizi Madam could no longer endure it.
For the duchess to say such things in front of the children was simply deliberate provocation, trying to drive a wedge between her, as their mother, and the two children!
For so many years, it had always been like this.
Duchess Cheng guarded against her as if guarding against a thief.
She controlled the children tightly, if she sent snacks, the snacks would supposedly upset their stomachs; if she sent soup, the soup would supposedly make them vomit.
To the point that later on, she hardly dared show any concern at all.
In the past, she had tolerated it.
But now she merely wanted to arrange a suitable marriage for her son, and yet the duchess still obstructed her with such sarcastic insinuations.
She truly could not bear it anymore: “Mother! That is a proper Marquis household! How can you speak like this?”
The Duchess Cheng sneered: “A Marquis household? Such a good marriage you worked so hard to find! Before she’s even entered the family, her helpers are already beating your daughter! You, as the mother, not only feel no heartache, you’re even helping outsiders!”
This was simply unreasonable!
Duke Cheng Shizi Madam trembled with anger, feeling dizzy for a moment: “If Ah Qiang hadn’t said things she shouldn’t have said, it wouldn’t have come to this at all! Mother, Ah Qiang is also a noble young lady, does speaking without restraint do her any good?!”
Although she also felt that Qi Yuan’s act of striking someone was excessive, that did not mean Ling Qiang was blameless.
If Duchess Cheng continued indulging her like this, sooner or later Ling Qiang would suffer for it.
Duchess Cheng let out a cold laugh: “What did she say? She merely told the truth. If the Wang family and the Qi family are dissatisfied, let them come!”
Duke Cheng Shizi Madam was so angry that her vision went dark. She looked in extreme disappointment at her silent son and her daughter crying in her grandmother’s arms, then laughed in fury.
Only after leaving Duchess Cheng’s room did she sway, nearly collapsing to the ground.
Fortunately, she grabbed the curtain beside her and steadied herself.
Ling Mama was extremely worried: “Shizi Madam?”
Duke Cheng Shizi Madam shook her head and was about to speak when she suddenly saw a lantern approaching from afar. She narrowed her eyes, and when she recognized the person, her brows jumped sharply: “Why has he come back again?”
Ling Mama followed her gaze. Seeing a young man carrying a lantern walking through the corridor, she was also startled: “Oh heavens! Who’s on duty at the gate tonight? How dare they let him in?!”
She immediately lowered her voice: “Shizi Madam, I’ll go have someone…”
“No!” Shizi Madam pondered for a moment, then said coldly, “He’s coming to see his own father, why stop him? There’s nothing to stop. Just pretend we don’t know.”
……
Ling Mama was terrified. After accompanying Shizi Madam back to the room, she hurriedly said, “Shizi Madam , you also know, the old madam hates Wen Mingfeng to the bone. If she finds out you let him in…”
Wen Mingfeng was the illegitimate son of Duke Cheng.
Some time ago, because of this matter, the household had been thrown into chaos.
Although it had been suppressed, and those who knew had either been sold off or dealt with, leaving almost none behind, the matter was still a taboo within the manor.
Especially for Duchess Cheng, because of this incident, her moods had become even more unpredictable.
Shizi Madam sneered: “She doesn’t treat me like a person, why should I care about her? She disgusts me, so naturally I can disgust her too.”
Let’s see who can disgust the other more!
Duchess Cheng guarded against her daughter-in-law more strictly than against a thief.
She had neither a husband, and now even her children were no longer truly hers.
Since that was the case, what was left for her to worry about?
They might as well all go mad together.
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