Madam Huang and Madam Lu left with a gloomy face.

Just after their carriage was away from the prince"s mansion, they two couldn"t help crying on each other"s shoulders, "I can"t believe that the Song Family have maltreated their eldest legitimate daughter to that degree! Even though she is fine now, she has been forced by her birth father like that! How can the grudge be settled?"

They decided to pay the visit as they thought Song Yixiao might harbor bitter resentment for being expelled out of the Song Family.

However, after they were here, they realized that it might be a good thing if the Song Family just ignored her after expelling her.

Most awfully, the Song Family took her back once!

And they didn"t do that for her own good but to desire to disable her and then marry her to the Liu Family right after Madam Liu was drowned to death due to Song Yixiao!

If they were Song Yixiao, they couldn"t be sure not to avenge in light of their current experience when facing such father and grandma!

What about Song Yixiao, a 14-year-old girl who was supposed to be impulsive?

"My poor daughter! I was hoping that you could bear children for the Song Family." Madam Huang cried with tears in great sorrow while hugging her daughter, "If you didn"t bear Yibao, you could get divorced just as Princess Consort Wei did before. Despite the bad reputation, you can have a better life though. Now you have Yibao, who is only three years old. Since the Song Family can be so merciless to their eldest legitimate daughter, they can do the same to Yixiao as well. If you leave the family, I"m afraid that Yibao may not be able to survive till she grows up!"

She regretted selecting a wrong son-in-law, "I never expected that a man who loves his wife so much could be so cruel to his own child. Now he is going to have a taste of his own medicine. Unfortunately, you and your daughter will be inevitably implicated!"

"Well!" Madam Lu sobbed for a while and then shook her head, saying, "It is only Princess Consort Wei"s side of the story! Mother, you have told me before that she is not a virtuous woman. Who knows whether what she says is true or not? We cannot ascertain it until I go back and ask my husband in secret. Anyway, I will not divorce, not only for Yibao but also for my husband!"

Song Yuan was a handsome gentleman full of talent. He was self-contained, but he was rather considerate. Most importantly, he was over 30 years old now but he only had two daughters, one of whom was raised by his ex-wife. Yet, he still didn"t feel like having any concubine. Wei Mengying could abandon such a faithful man but Madam Lu couldn"t!

She was willing to go to Prince of Hengshan"s mansion to suffer Wei Mengying"s temper regardless of floating rumor; she was willing to curry favor with the step-daughter who she hadn"t met before; she was willing to ease her step-daughter"s anger by all means. After all, her greatest motivation was not her child, herself or the wealth of the Song Family but her husband.

"If only it were not the truth!" Madam Lu thought silently, "If it is true..."

She took a deep breath and clenched her fists, "I must protect my husband at all costs!"

Although she didn"t hold any grudge against Song Yixiao and even felt sympathetic about her after hearing about her experience, she would be a vicious stepmother if this step-daughter really did anything against her husband!

Madam Lu returned home with her mind unhinged. After greeting Madam Pang perfunctorily, she was even not in a mood to play with her daughter. She just waved at the foster nurse, suggesting her to take away Song Yibao. Then she sat on bed to wait for her husband to return quietly so that she could figure out what she wanted to know.

After Madam Huang sent her to the entrance of the Song"s mansion, she didn"t return to the Lu"s mansion. Instead, she went to the Eastern Palace.

"Your Highness, I have failed your expectation. Please punish me!" Upon meeting the Crown Princess, Madam Huang knelt down instantly and cried out, "Your Highness, you allowed me and my daughter to go to Prince of Hengshan"s mansion to make peace with Princess Consort Wei and her daughter out of goodwill, but I never expected that the Song Family not only expelled Song Yixiao out of home but also tried to hurt her. Though they failed in the end, I"m afraid that the grudge cannot be settled forever!"

The Lu Family were on good terms with the Crown Prince but the Crown Prince was the future emperor anyway, he couldn"t have so much time to send news secretly to his close officials.

The Crown Prince disclosed the affair about Jian Xubai and Song Yixiao to Lu Yicheng for a reason. Jian Xubai was raised by the Empress Dowager and of course, she showed extra concern for him.

This time, he chose Song Yixiao to be his wife. The Empress Dowager was delighted to hear that the girl was so exceptionally pretty and talented that even Prince of Hengshan"s daughters were no match for her. However, when she asked about the girl"s family background, she learnt that the girl not only had a birth mother who abandoned her previous husband and remarried afterwards, and a birth father who didn"t manage the household affair well but also lived under the roof of Prince of Hengshan over the past six years herself!

How could the Empress Dowager not frown?

"I will not talk of other things. Xubai is of high birth and he doesn"t need his wife"s maiden family to be so great. As long as the girl is good enough, I will not have any objection. However, he is marrying the daughter of the Song Family. Can the imperial decree of granting the marriage be sent to the prince"s mansion? Is it appropriate?"

Commandery Princess Qingjiang, who was ready to make up for her brother and sister-in-law with a perfect and luxurious wedding ceremony, was dumbfounded to hear that!

Yeah, Song Yixiao had been raised in Prince of Hengshan"s mansion but she still had her father!

Her father was not only alive but also had gone back to the court as an official!

Therefore, where should the imperial decree of granting the marriage be sent?

Even if the imperial decree could be left out to avoid embarra.s.sment, could the six etiquettes be omitted?

Since the six etiquettes couldn"t be omitted, in light of the Empress Dowager"s favor for Jian Xubai, how could she not give him the honor of granting the marriage?

All in all, now that all the preparations for the marriage were ready, where to send the imperial decree became the problem!

"According to the rules, all the wedding gifts and related things should be sent to her father"s family! But the girl doesn"t live with her father!" The Empress Dowager didn"t look happy, "Moreover, Prince of Hengshan has raised the girl for so many years and you tell me that she is very good. Obviously, Prince of Hengshan must have spent some effort in bringing her up. If we just leave out Prince of Hengshan, she will be inevitably regarded as an ungrateful person who kicks down the ladder!"

The problem was that the Song Family couldn"t be left out either. Song Yuan was Song Yixiao"s birth father! If she just excluded her birth father out of her marriage, wouldn"t she be censured by others?

How could Jian Xubai not be affected by having an unfilial wife?

The Empress Dowager would never allow her beloved grandson to have such a blemish!

"How about splitting the things and sending them to both parties?" Commandery Princess Qingjiang was quite good. She even partic.i.p.ated in the preparations for the wedding ceremony of the Crown Prince, but it was the first time that she had encountered such a knotty situation. Upon confusion, she came up with a lousy idea, "You prepare two imperial decrees..."

"What about the wedding ceremony?" The Empress Dowager rolled her eyes at her impatiently, "During the ceremony, she must say goodbye to her parents first! Do you plan to ask Song Yixiao to go to two places to do that? Moreover, Xubai has to pay a returning-home visit for the bride too. How come he falls for a girl of such family background?"

Even the Empress Dowager had no idea how to propose the marriage!

However, despite the complaint, the Empress Dowager still loved her grandson. She couldn"t come up with any result with Commandery Princess Qingjiang, so she directly called on the Empress and Crown Princess to discuss together!

Eventually, the Empress put forward an idea, "Why not ask them to negotiate themselves?"

She explained, "It is said that Miss Song lives under the roof of Prince of Hengshan for six years but she always calls Prince of Hengshan as His Highness. Obviously, Prince of Hengshan doesn"t regard her as daughter. Yet, Madam Lu is her legitimate step-mother. If she sets off from the Song Family, she will have both her parents. At most she can bid farewell to the direction of Prince of Hengshan"s mansion before setting off. After all, a father prevail a mother. Moreover, it is a ritual for a girl to set off from her father"s family. No one can have a word about it!"

"Auntie, you are right!" Commandery Princess Qingjiang felt delighted and said, "Regardless of gender, if the birth mother is remarried and so is the father, it is impossible to ask the birth mother to come back and partic.i.p.ate in the wedding ceremony. It will be good enough to bow to the birth father and the step-mother!"

"But Prince of Hengshan still has raised Miss Song for several years anyway." The Crown Princess reminded in a soft voice.

The Empress Dowager said smilingly, "So you have to deal with this. Isn"t Madam Lu"s father working in the Eastern Palace? Give him a hint that he should tell Madam Lu to come up with a good excuse with Prince of Hengshan so as to stop others from gossiping and avoid Xubai being implicated!"

Hence, the task was handed over to the Crown Princess from Commandery Princess Qingjiang. Actually, it was the Empress"s proposal approved by the Empress Dowager. Madam Huang and Madam Lu didn"t need to be that humble. Instead, they could have completed their task by flaunting their backing connections!

However, the Crown Princess always played things safe. After taking the order, she invited Commandery Princess Qingjiang to sit awhile in the Eastern Palace so that she could inquire about the things between Jian Xubai and Song Yixiao. Commandery Princess Qingjiang was guilty about her future sister-in-law. Besides, in her eyes, as Song Yixiao told her that Jian Xubai used to lend her a favor six years ago, she thought that they two must have been in love with each other since then and that Jian Xubai continued to contact Song Yixiao in the guise of Marquis Boling just after he returned to the imperial city.

Therefore, here was how Commandery Princess Qingjiang summarized what she had known. They two fell in love at the first sight when they were young and they couldn"t forget each other over the past six years. Hence, at the feast of Shangsi Festival, Jian Xubai didn"t pay any attention to the other girls and only wanted to marry Song Yixiao!

As she told the whole story to the Crown Princess, the latter one felt stern instantly. She didn"t expect her cousin to love Miss Song so much! Wouldn"t offending her be the same as offending Jian Xubai?

If she offended Jian Xubai, it was not different from offending the Empress Dowager. Even the Crown Prince would feel discontented!

Amidst thinking so, the Crown Princess asked the Crown Prince to tip Lu Yicheng and made Madam Huang to meet her. After telling her the ins and outs of the matter, the Crown Princess ordered grimly, "Miss Song is going to marry Duke of Yan, so she will become my sister-in-law! You mustn"t force her to do anything against her will with the order of the Empress Dowager and Empress. What you should do is to convince her in a nice way! Otherwise, if you p.i.s.s her off, she may take revenge on you and I will not help you then!"

In this case, how dare Madam Huang take lightly of this matter? She hastened to summon her daughter to go back to the Lu Family. After all, her daughter was married. She was afraid that Madam Lu might not try her best to convince Song Yixiao given the order of the Empress Dowager and Empress after learning about the whole truth, so she left out this part and intended to find a chance to tell Wei Mengying.

However, before she found a chance, Wei Mengying told her that Song Yixiao was almost made disabled by her birth father and grandmother!

Madam Huang was not as naive as her daughter Madam Lu. After hearing that, she felt so shocked. It was no laughing matter. The Empress Dowager was engaged in the matter and it was easy for them to confront. How could Wei Mengying lie about it?

Hence, she thought, "Does Princess Consort Wei want Song Yixiao to break away from the Song Family by telling us about this matter?"

In light of Jian Xubai"s favor from the Empress Dowager and Emperor Xianjia, it was surely possible to let his fiancée be adopted by Prince of Hengshan under a new name and be included into the imperial clan!

In this way, Song Yixiao would not be one of the Song Family legally. Even if Song Yuan was still her birth father, he couldn"t suppress her anyway. As the wife of Duke of Yan, with a little cover-up, she could take her revenge on the Song Family at will!

The reason why Wei Mengying accepted the gifts on behalf of her daughter might not that they could bury the hatchet with the Song Family but that they regarded the gifts as the compensation for what they had done to Song Yixiao.

"Since it is no use swallowing my pride and grudge is bound to harbor, I may as well take the initiative!" Madam Huang was a determined woman. Although she was apologizing to the Crown Princess, she tried to suggest that Wei Mengying was dissatisfied with the empress"s proposal just because Jian Xubai loved her daughter and insisted on marrying Song Yixiao. She also tried to make the Crown Princess believe that Wei Mengying not only refused to send her daughter back to the Song Family to wait for the wedding ceremony but also wanted to instigate her daughter to completely separate from the Song Family!

She and the Crown Princess were relatives and they used to spend years together. Of course she knew how to guide the Crown Princess.

As expected, the Crown Princess listened to her with a poker face and then her eyes got colder, "I thought I could do my cousin a favor and also get some luck as he has found someone he loves. Now it seems that I cannot make it because I am not thorough enough! Forget about it! Since so, you just stay out of this. Let me think it over..."

The Crown Princess didn"t talk further but evidently her tone showed her disgruntlement for Wei Mengying and Song Yixiao. Madam Huang was pleased in secret and yet, when being comforted, she didn"t pay attention to Crown Princess"s faint doubts in her eyes.