“That day, if I hadn’t asked Xianwen to take you away with me, you would have been killed by the Jiang family. You’ve been in our Ye family for seven days, eating our food, living in our house, and using our things. We can’t get rid of you. Do you really want to stay in our Ye family and freeload for the rest of your life?” Ye Jinghuai frowned and said.

"Master Ye, you misunderstand. I'm just temporarily short of money. Once I find something to do, I will leave the Ye family." A blush appeared on Qi Jiu's handsome face.

Who could have imagined that a prince would one day fall so low as to have to mooch off other people's homes and shamelessly refuse to leave?

He was forced into this situation.

Who told his father, the emperor, to be so ruthless?

"Although you can read and write, on your third day helping out at my Ye family school, you scared away my only remaining student. Why did you say such treasonous things to him? Look how frightened he was."

Ye Jinghuai said with some disdain, "These past four days, I've also had Xianwen take you to town to find work, but what have you done? You can't lift a finger, and no one has hired you as a helper. This can't go on."

After hearing his words, Qi Jiu was at a loss for words.

He was a prince who had been pampered since childhood, never having experienced any hardship. Suddenly, his father abandoned him in this remote mountain village and gave him nothing. He truly felt like every day was an eternity.

He really doesn't know how to do the jobs that ordinary people do.

Ye Jinghuai and the others were kind-hearted, which is why they helped him find work, but unfortunately, he couldn't do any of it.

While chopping wood for someone, he almost chopped his own leg, which frightened the shopkeeper so much that he quickly chased him out.

Although he could read, he couldn't understand what the doctor had written on the prescription when he went to get medicine from a traditional Chinese medicine shop. He could only guess and make things up, and in the end, he was kicked out.

While helping someone press oil, he was able to push the stone mill, but he slipped and fell, knocking over the oil barrel. The Ye family even paid him half a string of cash in compensation.

...

In short, he did a lot of things these past few days, but accomplished nothing.

"Master Ye, could you please let me stay for a few more days? Once I find something to do, I'll leave the Ye family," Qi Jiu said shamelessly.

From a dignified prince to an exiled prisoner, the only thing he learned was to be shameless.

It was precisely because he was thick-skinned that he didn't starve to death during his two weeks in Qingya Village.

Because he was thick-skinned, he wasn't kicked out of the Ye family after arriving there.

"I can point you in a direction," Ye Jinghuai said in a low voice.

Qi Jiu knew what he was about to say.

Does he have to marry a widow and become a live-in son-in-law just to survive?

"As long as you are willing to marry Miaoyun, you will be a member of the Ye family. You can stay and eat at the Ye family as long as you want, as long as we provide you with food, you will not go hungry," Ye Jinghuai said with a hopeful expression.

If it weren't for saving his daughter and granddaughter's lives, even if it damaged his daughter's reputation, he wouldn't have wanted her to remarry a criminal who had been exiled.

But now that things have come to this, they have no other choice.

Even though that bastard Jiang Mingtao became an official in the capital, and even though he went to the capital to file a complaint with the emperor, ruining Jiang Mingtao's reputation and making him unable to deal with his daughters, Jiang Mingtao still married a legitimate daughter of an official in the capital.

According to Xianya, that woman gave birth to two sons and a daughter for Jiang Mingtao.

Even if Jiang Mingtao falls, that woman won't let them go, she won't let Miaoyun and her daughter Xianya go.

They are just ordinary people, how can they fight against officials?

The only solution now is to have our daughter remarry immediately.

If they wait another two years, they can choose someone else.

Now, her daughter has no choice but Qi Jiu.

The affair between my daughter and Qi Jiu caused quite a stir before, so no one else would want to marry her.

Moreover... there aren't many widowers in the town.

In contrast, although Qi Jiu was an exiled prisoner, he had inquired and learned that Qi Jiu had not committed the serious crime of murder, but was only implicated by the rebels. Moreover, he was handsome and literate.

Let's choose him!

Having lived for so many years, Ye Jinghuai knew that people's hearts were unpredictable.

Even if Jiang Mingtao and that woman look down on Miaoyun for marrying an exiled prisoner, they probably won't kill her.

That's just human nature.

Seeing that the people they dislike are doing much worse than themselves, practically living in the mud, they must feel very smug.

He felt he was letting his daughter down, but staying alive was the most important thing.

Qi Jiu looked at Ye Jinghuai without saying a word.

"If you are unwilling, then you will have no choice but to leave the Ye family," Ye Jinghuai sighed.

"Master, can't you grant me a few more days?" Qi Jiu asked tentatively.

"No." Ye Jinghuai shook his head.

Qi Jiu felt helpless upon hearing this. Was he going to have to sleep on the streets again and go hungry?

Even if a person was once high above others and lived a life of luxury, once they fall into the dust, they still have to bow to reality.

It has been more than two months since he left the capital. Penniless, he has suffered a lot, sometimes even worse off than a beggar.

If it weren't for his mother and daughter, he would have died long ago.

In the past two months, only during these few days at the Ye family's house did he feel like a human being.

As for Ye Miaoyun, he really didn't remember her.

When he woke up that day, Ye Miaoyun was lying next to him, her face covered in mud. He wasn't much better off, disheveled and filthy.

Later... Ye Miaoyun was almost drowned.

He was almost pushed into the water by the Jiang family.

Later... they were taken back to the Ye family by Ye Xianwen.

He hadn't seen Ye Miaoyun for the past few days. He'd heard that the poor woman had gone mad and was talking nonsense every day.

It seems he's not only going to marry a widow, but a crazy one at that.

"Okay, I agree," Qi Jiu said through gritted teeth in a low voice.

Who told his father to push him so hard?

He couldn't go on like this anymore, he was dying, so he had no choice but to become someone's son-in-law. Even if it was shameful, it would be his father, that old man, who would be the most shameful.

Upon hearing this, Ye Jinghuai breathed a sigh of relief and instructed Ye Xianwen to take Qi Jiu and hurry to the county town to prepare the marriage certificate.

Once the county government issues the marriage certificate, his daughter is considered to have remarried.

According to the laws of the Great Yan Dynasty, when the government issues a marriage certificate, the groom must be present in person, while the bride does not need to go; her family members can represent her.

Watching their departing figures, Ye Jinghuai felt much relieved, and his chest didn't hurt as much as before.

"Stop looking, the doctor is still waiting inside. Let's see the doctor first. Xianzhang, quickly help your father inside," Madam Hua urged hurriedly.

The old man was indeed at fault for things to have escalated to this point, but... the most hateful one is Jiang Mingtao, and that whole bunch of heartless bastards in the Jiang family.

If it weren't for Miaoyun and Xianya's good fortune, they would have been killed by them long ago.