Wei Chan wiped away her tears immediately and said expectantly, “What can I do?”

“Isn"t there a public notice of successful candidates at the beginning of next spring?” Madam Mu said, “At present, seventy to eighty percent of the candidates for the examination have arrived. Our family is not that n.o.ble, but at least has three generations of officials. It"s no problem to find you a successful candidate-to-be!”

Wei Chan heard Madam Mu say that her aunt and uncle didn"t want her to stay in the imperial capital at the very beginning, but she said later that there was a method, so Wei Chan thought that she could stay in the imperial capital. She didn"t expect that she was wanted to be married to a successful candidate-to-be from other places, which made her quite disappointed, and she said, “I"m sure the best ones will be able to pa.s.s the exam. But if they"re young and handsome, they will be taken a fancy by girls from n.o.ble families. How can I have the chance? If there are flaws in them, Mom, this will be…”

Of course, she didn"t want a flawed one.

She had nearly no chance to get married to the one who was not only perfect but also the best. And for the one who was not that brilliant, he would not be so certain to pa.s.s the exam!

If he failed, who knew when he would pa.s.s because there were talents year after year?

If she met a candidate who was full of talent but had a bad fate, and would not be able to pa.s.s in his lifetime, would she have to be the wife of a candidate for the whole life?

Although in the eyes of ordinary people, it was good enough to be married to a candidate, Wei Chan didn"t think so. She was born into an official family, whose aunt was a princess consort and little cousin was a first-rank t.i.tled lady. Therefore, even if she didn"t have any sn.o.bbery in mind, having been influenced by the surroundings since she was a child, she had formed a wide field of vision and understanding. Even her aunt"s former husband, Song Yuan, was a Number One Scholar!

Seeing her daughter"s unwillingness, Madam Mu sighed, “For the matter of your body, there"s still a way to cover it up! But you can"t hide the fact that you are going to withdraw your marriage with Third Young Master Lu. Our family is not pretty n.o.ble, and even your aunt and uncle don"t place obstacles in the way, in the imperial capital where there are many descendants of n.o.bles, how could it be possible to marry a good man for a girl who has withdrawn the marriage once?”

She also lowered her voice and said in Wei Chan"s ear, “Even the disguise is so real, the fake is just fake. If you were married to a son of a wealthy and n.o.ble family, even though you keep your integrity, it"s hard to say whether there are sophisticated old people beside him. What will you say when they find something? But those candidates, who come from other places, and many of whom are of poor origin, having no time to go out to fool around in order to pa.s.s the examination, inexperienced and ignorant, are easy to deceive.”

Wei Chan"s face turned pale when hearing this. She clenched her fists for a moment, and nodded in the end although full of tears, “Then I will do as mom says. But what kind of person have you found for me?”

“We"d love to get you someone, but we can"t even get involved this time!” Madam Mu laughed bitterly and said, “How about this, as your cousin said, you are only thirteen years old, and even if you withdraw your marriage to Third Young Master Lu, it is still not too late to wait two or three years before you marry to someone else. It"s not even a few months away from the spring exam now. Why do you try to find one in the candidates, how about waiting until the results come out next year?”

Seeing her daughter bewildered, she sighed, “Because there are too many people who are aiming at these candidates!”

Wei Chan was surprised, “How could it be? In previous years, it"s true that there were often cases of newly succeeded candidates being recruited by n.o.ble families. But there were many n.o.blemen in the imperial capital, and in most cases, these n.o.ble families were willing to marry each other!”

After all, Even though a newly succeeded candidate was very talented, if he came from a poor background, his family was still too poor in the eyes of the real n.o.bility. Getting marriage with him was far from the benefit of that of a suitable match.

“That was a long time ago!” Madam Mu pursed her lips, “Now the two princes" move to compete for the crown prince is becoming more and more obvious, there is news in the palace that His Majesty intends to let Prince of Zhao join the dynasty after the early spring, which was originally a treatment only available to the crown prince! It is evident that His Majesty, even though doesn"t have the thought of change the crown prince now, is not so fully committed to defending the Crown Prince!”

Under such circ.u.mstances, “Those who have the thought of entering the royal household will naturally expand their power in a big way, and the newly succeeded candidates are generally much better to rope in than those who have already entered the official!”

The people who didn"t want to get involved in this mess were “afraid of either delaying the youth of their girls, or being dragged into the mire by their in-laws if they are inadvertently married. Besides, they are unwilling to marry their girls in the family that doesn"t match them, so who else can they choose but to choose those newly pa.s.sed candidates whose lives look like blank sheets of paper?”

Although it was said that three or two hundred people should be chosen for a course, how many would remain after excluding those who were old, married, ugly, of n.o.ble birth and being unapproachable and of questionable temperament?

And those who could be called n.o.ble family were likely to have rich heirs. Even if some of the daughters were too old and too young, for each family with one or two need to choose a son-in-law in the imperial capital full of the royal families and the powerful and n.o.ble families, the total number was not small!

So next year, this list of the candidates had become the meat and potatoes that were fought for by the families in the imperial capital!

“Our family is not qualified to fight for you at all, and we can only count on your cousin to send another kindness to do you this favor!” Madam Mu sighed, “Your grandmother said that she would hurry up and withdraw the marriage for you, so that you could make the decision before the public notice of successful candidates comes down. Otherwise, if they find some n.o.ble families, they won"t necessarily take to you!”

Wei Chan listened with mixed feelings, and cried for quite a long time before she said, “As you know, Cousin has been so busy lately that she was called to Linghu"s mansion after not sitting for long. Will it be disgusting if I ask her to help me with my marriage at this point?”

“But who else to beg except for her now?” Madam Mu said helplessly, “If we ask your aunt, do we dare accept even though she just agrees to help? It"s a matter of a lifetime, and if you don"t be thick-skinned now, I"m afraid you"ll regret it in the future!”

Wei Chan bit her lips and didn"t say a word. She said again, “Your grandmother heard that there were several talents in some of the candidates for the exams and have recently tended to scorn each other. But tomorrow is the Shengshou Festival, and in a few days it will be the Wanshou Festival, so no fool would dare to make a fuss over this. So they plan on gathering some friends in Taoli Restaurant at the end of the month for a literary compet.i.tion!”

“And ask your cousin to show you around then?”

Wei Chan hesitated for a while before saying, “I can"t continue to live here if I"m going to withdraw my marriage, or else people will think I have something to do with my cousin"s husband whatever reasons we have. Let"s withdraw my marriage before talking about it!”

Madam Mu didn"t push her, just said, “I thought you were still sick and was hard to move. Since that"s the case, I"ll go back now and pick you up tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, OK?”

After exiting from the mansion of Duke of Yan, Madam Mu looked at the imperial plaque above the gate through the gap in the curtain, a glimmer of complexity appearing in her eyes. She sighed deeply before lowering the curtain, “Let"s go!”

At this time, Song Yixiao"s carriage had just stopped in front of Song"s mansion.

“It"s cold and windy. Mother and Yibao, please hurry up and move inside before you are frozen!” Song Yixiao had planned to leave after sending them to the gate, but Madam Lu was uncooperative. When she took Song Yibao out of the carriage, she did not immediately say goodbye, but stood by it instead.

Seeing this, she had to get out of the carriage, said politely, “It is snowing. Mother, how can you and Yibao stand in the wind?”

It was obvious that she couldn"t wait to go, but Madame Lu was still hesitant, “In such snowy weather, the eldest young lady of the Song Family arrived at the gate, and especially sent me and my daughter back, how could we not invite her in to sit and have a tea or a meal? But Mother-in-law and Yuan treat her…”

In the midst of a dilemma, the gate was suddenly opened which was closed tightly–Song Yuan, wearing sable black clothes, with two of his attendants, just stepped outside!

“Dad!” Song Yibao turned her head to look up and suddenly said with joy, “Dad, hug me!”

“Behave yourself!” Madam Lu was shocked when hearing her daughter"s calling. It was fine when her daughter behaved in a spoiled manner in front of her husband in normal times, but now it was in front of her half-sister! Everybody knew that Miss Song had been kicked out of the family by her own grandmother and father in disguised form!

Now, how should Song Yixiao feel when she saw her half-sister being treated as a treasure by her real father?

But how could a three-year-old child be so good as to understand so much? Being scolded by her mother, she still looked at her father with love on her face although she felt aggrieved.

“Father!” Madam Lu was in a state of shock and anger, but Song Yixiao didn"t look emotional. The moment she saw Song Yuan, she bowed down and said softly, “Long time no see. You look great, and I think that"s due to Mother"s good care.”

Song Yuan glanced at her without speaking, leaning down and picking up his younger daughter before faintly saying, “Why are you here?”

“Yixiao sent us back.” Madam Lu sighed again and again in her heart. It was fine that her daughter was young and ignorant, but her husband just added fuel to the fire and she could only do her best to make things right. She said, “Just now the carriage broke down in the middle of nowhere. If it were not for Yixiao who pa.s.sed by and took her carriage to bring us back, I"m afraid we would still be stuck on the roadside!”

She also showed the hand stove in her hands that was forgotten to put down when she got out of the carriage, “This hand stove was also given to me by Yixiao, otherwise I"d really be in trouble!”

She thought if she said like that, her husband would say something soft and conciliatory even if he didn"t like his eldest daughter at all.

But Song Yuan didn"t even look at Song Yixiao, only looking at his younger daughter who was pampered in his arms and saying coldly, “You are her mother and Yibao is her sister. In such cold weather, when you are trapped by the road, it would be ok if she didn"t pa.s.s by. Since she has pa.s.sed by and seen this, if she didn"t help, would she be a person?”

Madam Lu was speechless.

“Father is absolutely right.” Song Yixiao had seen her father"s heartlessness in her previous life. What he would respond was as she had expected, but she still managed to say, “I told you, Mother, you regraded yourself as an outsider. Look at the snow and wind. It is more and more heavy. You"re pregnant and Yibao is young, so go inside quickly!”

Madam Lu was always obedient to her husband. Although her face turned very red, and she was pretty embarra.s.sed which couldn"t be described with any words, she couldn"t say anything to blame her husband, and she couldn"t stand it any longer. She pursed her lips, took Song Yibao from Song Yuan"s arms, and hastily said, “Thanks to you, be careful when you go back!”

She took her daughter and entered the gate in big steps. It was like running away!

But after she left, Song Yuan was still standing there, looking at Song Yixiao with a deep gaze, saying, “It"s a coincidence that your mother and sister"s carriage broke down and you met them.”

Song Yixiao"s entourages could stand his previous partiality.

But these words were a clear suspicion that Song Yixiao"s intention in sending Madam Lu and her daughter back was bad!

As a biological father, he should return kindness with ingrat.i.tude evil for good and go so far. Qiaoqin, Liyu and other servants, although did not dare to make a scene because of their lower status, more or less brought a little bit of annoyance to their faces.

It was a good thing that Song Yixiao was still able to handle it, she said calmly, “It"s not a coincidence. One of Director Linghu"s parents pa.s.sed away and I met them when I was on my way back from Linghu"s mansion after offering condolences.”

“…I"m leaving. You go back, too.” Song Yuan frowned when heard that, but didn"t say anything. He nodded slightly, and led the two attendants down the steps. Song Yixiao curtsied behind him and said respectfully, “The snowy road is slippery. Be careful, Father!”

The carriage was not far from the Song"s mansion, and Qiaoqin could not help but be angry, “Madam, it"s not that me talking too much, but Master went too far! Apart from that you forgot the past and sent Mrs. Song and her daughter back, you treated him with such respect, how dare he!”

“That"s my father!” Song Yixiao leaned on the carriage with eyes closed, hiding her true emotions. Although she had prepared in her heart for the situation, how could she really be indifferent when she was really facing it? She tried her best to say it in a tone as if it was nothing, “Besides, he doesn"t necessarily suspect me. Maybe it"s just caring. When I told him the reason later, didn"t he say anything?”

Qiaoqin used to serve Wei Mengying. When did Wei Mengying suffer such a grievance? She was more and more stifled by her words, “Mrs. Song is not a good person either! If it weren"t you, how could she and the second young lady have come home so smoothly today? When the master spoke like that, she should walk away!”

“She is pregnant, and the Song Family has no male heir until now, so if something goes wrong, would it be a small matter? I sent her back personally because I didn"t want her and sister to be frozen. And that would be waste of my kindness if she would have to stand outside the gate to be blown in the wind. It"s long overdue to go in!” Song Yixiao was already in a bad mood, and although Qiaoqin"s words were meant to defend her against an injustice, they were also tantamount to poking her wounds. She couldn"t help but be slightly angry, “The noise is giving me a headache. Be quiet!”

As the saying goes, blessings never came in pairs; misfortunes never came singly. It might mean what Song Yixiao met today.

The minute when she reprimanded Qiaoqin, the carriage went “bang” and lurched hard to the left!

The defenseless mistress and servants nearly rolled into a heap!

Qiaoqin cried out in surprise and went to help Song Yixiao, while scolding the coachman, “b.a.s.t.a.r.d! How did you drive the carriage?!”

The coachman was also terrified, “Your Highness, forgive me! The snow was falling too fast and covered the pits in the road…”

“Hurry up and get the carriage out!” Qiaoqin interrupted impatiently, “If Her Highness is hurt, you will be punished!”

A moment later, the mistress and servants reluctantly wrapped up fox fur and got off the carriage. Looking at the carriage whose hub had changed obviously, they were at a loss what to do. Well, now it was their turn to break the carriage, but it was much less than half of the way to the mansion of Duke of Yan!