“Alright, Marquis Jing Yuan, I only ask you not to mention the marriage again in future. Indeed this marriage exists in name only. I"ll wait for my father to come back and exchange your copy of the marriage contract.”

Having said those words, Wei Yuewu swept a glance at Wei Yan and Chen Nianshan to direct everyone"s attention to the two of them.

“Alright!”

Seeing everyone"s gaze falling on Wei Yan and Chen Nianshan, Mo Huating involuntarily recalled what had just happened. He felt a burst of pain in his chest.

Now that Mo Huating agreed, Wei Yuewu and Lady Tu stood up and left first. The Madam Dowager ordered other servants to take Wei Yan and follow behind, though the latter was still reluctant to leave. The group exited the mansion of Marquis Jing Yuan and went away.

As soon as people from the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang were gone, Mo Huating couldn"t hold on any longer. He spat out a mouthful of blood. Chen Nianshan screamed in fear. She didn"t have the heart to pretend to be wronged any more. She hurriedly came to support Mo Huating. “Cousin, how are you feeling? Are you alright? Don"t scare me!”

“I"m fine!”

Mo Huating shook his head.

He had been wounded. Besides, he felt extreme grievance that his own plan did not succeed. Instead, he had ended up in such a situation. How could he not be annoyed? He vomited a mouthful of blood due to his burst of anger. After that, he became sober. He shook his head with a sinister look in his eyes and stood up.

“You clean up this place first. Don"t mind what I said just now. You are my cousin and grew up here. You will still live in the mansion of Marquis Jing Yuan.”

Mo Huating said to Chen Nianshan with a gloomy expression.

Now things were carried this far, it would seem that he had a guilty conscience if he sent her away. Moreover, he needed Chen Nianshan to take charge of the affairs in his mansion for the time being. Even if he decided to send her away, he couldn"t do it now!

“Really, cousin? So you won"t send me away?”

Seeing that Mo Huating didn"t blame her, Chen Nianshan was pleasantly surprised. She held the handkerchief in her hand and was deeply touched. She looked pitiful and moving.

“No, just live here.”

Mo Huating comforted her with a softened voice. However, Chen Nianshan did not notice that a trace of sinister ferocity flashed in his eyes.

After comforting Chen Nianshan, Mo Huating went to his study.

In the current situation, he couldn"t afford to lose Wei Yan"s heart. With Wei Yan"s help, it would be absolutely much easier for him to deal with Wei Yuewu. Moreover, when Wei Yan was involved, the Madam Dowager had to take her into consideration when taking actions.

Anyway, he must contrive to settle everything before Marquis Hua Yang was back in the capital…

He wouldn"t agree to break off this engagement, so Wei Yuewu must die. If she didn"t die, she must marry him and live with him in the mansion of Marquis Jing Yuan. As for whether she would be alive or dead after entering his mansion, it all depended upon his order. Such a weak girl like her should have the guts to fight against him…

As for Wei Yan, he believed that it wasn"t a problem to coax her back. He knew it from Chen Nianshan"s reaction.

Mo Huating sat behind the wide desk in the study. The window was half closed. The sunlight shone through the window and fell on one half of his face. The other half seemed morose and enigmatic. It was completely different from the embarra.s.sed look he had showed in front of the group…

Lady Tu left that very night. It was approaching the end of the year. It hadn"t been easy for her, the daughter-in-law in charge of the family, to leave for some days. She could not stay any longer. As for her parents" family, since she was parentless before she married and her marriage displeased the first branch of the family, she had basically cut off her ties with the family after so many years without reciprocal visits.

Naturally, she would not go back for a visit at this time.

After Lady Tu left, Wei Yuewu finally had the time to take out the box that her granny had asked Lady Tu to give her. The key was hanging on the box and looked very ordinary. However, without reading the instructions in the letter from granny, she would not be able to open the box even if she had the key.

She turned the key to the left twice first, then to the right three times, and pressed it down hard.

With a crisp sound, the box opened. Wei Yuewu was surprised to see that there was nothing inside but a thin piece of paper at the bottom of the box.

Unfolding the paper, she saw a few delicate words that denoted two names, one of a mansion and the other of a person. The words were written in two lines that were definitely not related to each other.

“The mansion of the Prince of Bei"an”

“The Crown Prince Tianyao”

The signature at the end was Qin Xinrui.

Qin Xinrui was her mother"s name. It was said that her mother had difficulty giving birth to her. Although she managed to get through, her health deteriorated, and she died within a few years. When Wei Yuewu was five years old, she was brought to her maternal grandparents" home. She lived there for many years and didn"t return to the capital till now.

Wei Yuewu was uncertain whether she had heard of the mansion of the Prince of Bei"an or not. It seemed that there was no such a branch among the royal bloodlines. She knew of the mansion of the Prince of Nan"an. The current wife of the Heir-apparent of the Prince of Nan"an was Wei Yan"s eldest sister, the eldest daughter of Lady Li. With her eldest daughter backing her up, no wonder Lady Li was in charge of the internal affairs of the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang and enjoyed absolute superiority over Lady Zhang.

Prince Nan"an was emperor Tai"an"s brother. He was a renowned figure in the imperial court. Even if Wei Yuewu was among the folks, she had heard of Prince Nan"an. However, she had never heard of the mansion of Prince of Bei"an. Did the mansion really exist? Was this prince also the emperor"s biological brother?

But why was his name so unknown if he really was the emperor"s brother?

Looking at this yellowish note, Wei Yuewu was sure that it was left behind by her mother more than ten years ago. Could it be thin the mansion of the Prince of Bei"an had been ruined for some reason at that time?

Her gaze moved downward and fell on the words “The Crown Prince Tianyao.” Her long eyelids flickered twice. The Crown Prince, Wen Tianyao, was the emperor"s first and eldest son and was born to Empress Tu. He was appointed the Crown Prince many years ago. No one doubted that he would succeed the throne in the future. Yet what did that have to do with her mother?

This note must be written by mother after she married father, but what did the Crown Prince have to do with mother, a woman who only walked within the walls of her manor?

Wei Yuewu"s fingers unconsciously touched the imprint on the paper. It felt slightly wrinkled. It was slightly different from the surrounding parts of the paper. When she closely examined it, she noticed that there were a few yellowish imprints. The color had slightly faded. It looked like that a few droplets of water had fallen on and wet the paper.

Such an important piece of paper that was so secretly locked must be something of extreme importance. Could it get tainted by water by accident?

Wei Yuewu"s look grew solemn. If the stains weren"t caused by water, they must be caused by tears.

Why would mother cry when she wrote these two names of a person and a residence that she had no ties with?

How was the Crown Prince relevant to mother? Many years ago, the Crown Prince was probably just born or was only a child. How come he got to know mother, who had stayed in her boudoir all along? Furthermore, mother felt so much about him that she cried silently while writing. These few words were enough to produce such a wrench in her heart that her tears even dampened the letter paper.

Wei Yuewu felt that she should pay more attention to the mansion of the Prince of Bei"an and the Crown Prince. Since granny had asked Lady Tu with such seriousness to send this box to her, she did not believe that this box was just an item that was casually delivered without deep meaning.

However, she couldn"t promptly find a clue from her messy thoughts. It was as if her vision was blocked by a heavy fog. When she was living in granny"s house, no one mentioned anything about her mother. She was also afraid of making granny sad, so she never asked either. But now that she was in the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang, she could inquire about this issue.

“Miss, the Madam Dowager asked those from the sewing room to come here and make some clothes for you. She said that Prince Nan"an"s birthday was in a few days. She will take the young ladies with her to the birthday party.”

Jin Ling sent a cup of tea in and reported with a smile.

The mansion of the Prince of Nan"an! Wasn"t it the mansion of the husband of the eldest young lady from the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang, namely Wei Yan"s older sister? Wei Yuewu curled the corners of her lips silently. What a coincidence!

She locked the box, had the key to herself, and asked Jin Ling to put the box away. She then turned around and walked out of the inner chamber.

Outside were a few old maidservants from the sewing room. They looked very capable. Seeing Wei Yuewu come out, they saluted to her and were about to take her measurements. Seeing the cloth they put aside, Wei Yuewu walked over and stretched out her slender hands to fiddle the material. Her b.u.t.terfly-like eyelids slid down. A trace of thoughtfulness slid through her watery eyes.

The cloth was all of bright colors that were most suitable for girls in these days. However, there wasn"t the red color, the most commonly seen color. The quant.i.ty of red and light-yellow cloth was obviously less than that of other colors.

Judging from Wei Yan"s dresses these two days, it was clear that she liked bright colors. So…

“Was the cloth selected by the Madam Dowager?”

She asked casually in a gentle voice, raising her watery eyes.

“Yes, all the cloth was selected by the Madam Dowager. Her ladyship specially asked me to come to you first, Sixth Young Lady. We"ll make two sets of dresses for other young ladies and two more sets for you, so we"ll make you four sets. The Madam Dowager especially let you pick first. Then we will go to the other young ladies for them to pick.”

An old maidservant, who looked like the supervisor of the sewing room, smilingly walked over and picked some cloth for Wei Yuewu.

“The Madam Dowager said that this bolt of cloth is very suitable for you, Sixth Young Lady. She hoped you could have some bright-colored dresses. The spring festival is approaching. People look jubilant when they are dressed brightly.”

The supervisor"s pick was indeed very good. It was indeed the most suitable for a girl as young as Wei Yuewu. Furthermore, she also considered Wei Yuewu"s preference of colors. This bolt of cloth was pink, but it had a light color rippling around at the bottom, like the whiteness on a flower. Although it was just ordinary faint whiteness, it looked elegant and gorgeous on the pink cloth.

This cloth suited Wei Yuewu"s taste in every way.

When Wei Yuewu left for the capital, she didn"t have many sets of dresses. Later she made some new sets for the occasion, but they were all left behind after she survived the a.s.sa.s.sination. Yan Huaijing perfunctorily bought a few for her after that. Since Yan Huaijing liked pure white, Wei Yuewu"s dresses were all pure white as well.

She was exactly dressed in a skirt of that kind when she entered the mansion. Naturally, people in the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang thought that she liked light colors.