They sat down in the study, and Qiancao brought in some tea.
“Second Young Master, please have some tea.”
Duan Ning nodded to her. “Thank you.”
Qiancao smiled faintly. “You’re always so polite, Second Young Master. I hardly deserve it.”
With a small smile, Qiancao withdrew. Duan Ning took a sip of tea.
Mingxi carefully studied him. Since taking office, his demeanor had changed greatly—he had become more composed and refined, with upright, luminous eyes.
At this point, the man before her was becoming hard to distinguish from the version of him in her past life.
“I hadn’t wanted to bother you with family matters and make you worry, but this one, I have to tell you about,” Duan Ning said.
Mingxi understood right away that this was about the Marquis Household. “Second Brother, for you to come all this way, it must be something that involves me directly. Just say it.”
“Ever since Jiang Liangdi entered the Eastern Palace, she’s been sending invitations for Second Sister to visit. Grandmother felt it was inappropriate and declined, but today, another invitation came.”
Mingxi scoffed. “So Jiang Sujie thinks that just because she’s now a Liangdi, she can order people around?”
“Though she’s only a Liangdi, she is connected to the Marquis Household through marriage—and she is now part of the Crown Prince’s inner circle,” Duan Ning said. “If the Marquis Household rejects her too forcefully, we may provoke trouble. Eldest Brother wants to approach the Jiang family directly, but I think that’s useless.”
“When Third Brother was in the capital, Jiang Sujie didn’t dare pull anything with Duan Huirou. Now that he’s left, she thinks the coast is clear.”
“Exactly. She needs to learn that even if Third Brother isn’t here, she won’t get her way,” Duan Ning said, his voice cold.
Since the Qiao Wan incident, Duan Ning had become even sharper than before—though he kept this sharpness hidden most of the time, it showed now.
From his words, Mingxi could tell that he and Duan Yu had been cooperating more closely, and that their relationship had improved a lot.
All her efforts back then to support and protect them had not been in vain.
“You’re absolutely right. We can’t let her succeed. The Jiang family is insatiably greedy—if they use Duan Huirou to get their foot in the door, it won’t just be trouble after trouble. Disaster might not be far behind. We’ve seen it happen before.”
Duan Ning understood she was referring to the time when the Third Master Jiang targeted Duan Pingchang. “Yes. That’s why we can’t back down. I came today partly to discuss how to deal with Jiang Liangdi—and also to tell you something else.”
He paused.
Mingxi asked, “What is it?”
Duan Ning looked at her seriously. “Someone has started investigating Fengcheng Marquis’s case files.”
Mingxi’s spine straightened involuntarily, her eyes locked on his. “Second Brother, how do you know this?”
Duan Ning gave a slight smile. “I work at the Hanlin Academy, where I handle the most dossiers. Since the Academy collects books and occasionally liaises with the Six Ministries and Three Judicial Offices, I’ve gotten to know quite a few people. Of course, with a sister who’s now Duan Wangfei, and a brother-in-law like Duan Wang, it’s quite easy to build connections wherever I go.”
Mingxi was surprised at first, but then fell silent, looking at Duan Ning. “Second Brother, is this because of Yang Yiniang?”
Yang Yiniang had nearly been killed by the Crown Prince’s men, and that had driven him to climb the ranks with even greater effort.
He wanted revenge for Yang Yiniang, but his current official rank was far from high enough to touch the Eastern Palace. The day of revenge was still far away.
“As a son, how could I not avenge this?” Duan Ning spoke lightly. “And it’s not just for Yang Yiniang. Little Sister, I’ve received much help and support from you. In the years to come, I hope to repay that, and be someone who can protect you.”
Duan Ning only mentioned Yang Yiniang and her. Mingxi lowered her head and smiled, then lifted her gaze again. “Second Brother, with those words alone, I’m already content.”
Duan Ning also smiled. There was no need to say more—some things only needed to be said once.
“Mingxi, about the matter with Fengcheng Marquis—do you know something about it?”
Mingxi nodded. “The Eastern Palace tried to win over Fengcheng Marquis. When that failed, they sought to impeach him, using the excuse of tax and grain collection.”
At this, Duan Ning immediately sensed something was off. “The Eastern Palace is becoming increasingly reckless. They dare to move against someone like Fengcheng Marquis? Aren’t they afraid of chilling the hearts of the entire military?”
“It won’t be easy to stop this, but Fengcheng Marquis must be protected,” Mingxi said, frowning.
Fengcheng Marquis was aligned with Duan Wang—at least had one and a half feet firmly on the same boat. He absolutely couldn’t be allowed to fall.
“If we can’t stop it, then we might as well blow it up,” Duan Ning said, eyes flashing with cold determination. “What does Wangye say?”
“I just received the news, haven’t had a chance to inform him yet. I’ve already sent someone to deliver a message,” Mingxi replied.
“Then I’ll wait until Wangye returns to discuss it with him,” Duan Ning said decisively.
Mingxi nodded and called Qiancao in to ask her to have someone check when Wangye would return, then continued discussing Jiang Sujie’s issue with Duan Ning.
“This is a matter of the inner courtyard, so I’ll handle it,” Mingxi said.
“How will you handle it?”
“I’ll send a message directly to Jiang Liangdi,” Mingxi replied bluntly.
“Won’t that offend the Eastern Palace?”
“I already have. One more offense doesn’t matter. The key is, if the Marquis Household intervenes, Jiang Sujie can just play dumb, clinging to her cousinly relationship. What, is Grandmother supposed to go to the Eastern Palace herself with a cane and make a fuss?”
Duan Ning frowned.
“Eldest Madam probably won’t go so far as to completely sever ties with the Jiang family either.”
Duan Ning fell silent.
So, Madam Jiang couldn’t control Jiang Sujie, the Eldest Madam was elderly, and Jiang Sujie was thick-skinned and manipulative. The only one who could handle her was indeed Mingxi.
“What are you planning to do?”
“I have some rapport with the Crown Princess. I’ll send her a message and ask her to rein in Jiang Liangdi.”
“Will that work? If Jiang Sujie dares to do this, the Crown Prince must be backing her,” Duan Ning said.
“Exactly. That’s why the message is for the Crown Prince to hear. If Jiang Sujie doesn’t rein herself in after the warning and keeps targeting Duan Huirou, I’ll just have to go to Niang Niang’s and cry about it.”
Duan Ning: …
Well, that’s actually a good strategy. It might just work!
The siblings were in agreement—Jiang Sujie was leveraging her cousinly bond with Duan Huirou, knowing that the Duan and Jiang families lacked the resolve to cut ties. That was how she maintained her grip.
When dealing with someone shameless and self-serving, you had to tear down the facade bit by bit.
Soon, Qiancao returned. “Lord Qi sent word—Wangye will return in about half an hour.”
Mingxi finally relaxed. She turned to Duan Ning and said, “Second Brother, have some tea. I’ll go write to the Crown Princess now and shake up Jiang Sujie a bit.”
Let’s see how it goes. If she still doesn’t stop, they’d have to escalate things. As for whether that would make the Empress or Crown Prince look bad—that wasn’t her concern.
