Chapter 170 If You Really Want to Thank You, Return Ying'er to Me

The Du family's carriage left the dock first, but as they went farther and farther away, Su Ying discovered that they were not heading towards Yandang Mountain.

She couldn't help but lift the car curtain.

The two of them seemed to be in sync. In a split second, Du Heng noticed her lifting the carriage curtain. He raised his hand to ask the driver to stop, dismounted, and approached to ask, "Are you feeling uncomfortable sitting here?"

Su Ying shook her head and said, "This doesn't look like the way to the academy. Did we take the wrong path?"

Du Heng smiled and said, "We are not wrong. We are going to the Du Mansion."

Still on the road, Du Heng cut to the chase, "Even though the wedding is taking place in Yueqing, there's no point in asking my grandparents to take care of it. The Du family is supposed to be in charge of the wedding."

When he first arrived in Yueqing, Ying'er and his second aunt were abducted by Wei Liang's men. He did not want to disturb his second aunt, so he simply announced to the outside world that all preparations would be made after his mother arrived.

In fact, he had already begun to take care of everything. In his view, marriage is a lifelong commitment between two people, and even if the emperor pressed him hard, he was unwilling to let Ying'er suffer any grievances in the ceremony.

This Du Mansion was the house he had bought in Yueqing. Although it was only three-story and could not compare to the Du Mansion in the capital, it was the most decent house he could afford in the shortest possible time.

After resting, Du Heng took Su Ying to pay his respects to the old lady and Cheng.

But just as she kowtowed, Cheng quickly reached out and helped Su Ying up. "Ying'er, come here, let me show you the list of betrothal gifts. If there's anything you want that's not on it, just tell me. I'll add some for you while we still have some time!"

Now her son had won the top spot in the imperial examination and had received the emperor's personal consent for their marriage, something she hadn't even dared to imagine before the incident at the Spring Examination. She was so wrong in the past that she now wanted to be so kind to Ying'er that she wanted to bring everything she could to show her sincerity.

Su Ying looked embarrassed. How could she understand these things? Besides, were these what she should see?

"Jiahui!" The old lady stopped Cheng who was about to pull Su Ying aside, and couldn't help but sigh in her heart.

When they were on the boat, she repeatedly told Cheng to talk less and watch more. However, as soon as she saw Ying'er, her eldest daughter-in-law forgot everything she had said.

Fortunately, Cheng has been aware of her own problems these days. Whenever her mother-in-law calls her, she immediately keeps silent, even if she doesn't know why.

"I just heard Heng'er say that he was afraid that Ying'er's grandparents would worry, so he didn't inform them of our arrival. Heng'er deserves a beating!" The old lady glared at Du Heng. Although her face was stern, she was not really teaching him a lesson. She just didn't expect that her grandson, who always understood the rules the best, didn't even know this little bit of social etiquette.

Furthermore, the Du and Rong families were now so closely related that they couldn't neglect their in-laws. So the old lady instructed Cheng, "Take Wanyi and pay your respects to Mr. Rong first. We'll make a formal visit tomorrow. Also, don't worry about Ruolan. If she feels comfortable living in the academy, let her stay there and spend more time with her parents. If she still insists, tell her it was me who sent the message."

Naturally, my grandmother didn't know about the previous turmoil, so Du Heng took everything on himself.

When she arrived at the academy, Su Ying finally understood why the old lady insisted that Wanyi accompany her aunt.

She is sweet-mouthed and kind, and not shy at all. Although she has a childish nature, she is loved by her serious grandparents and is even more liked by them than herself.

After a happy moment, the grandparents did not want Wanyi and Cheng to be tired from the journey, so they asked them to go back and rest early.

"You've had a hard time on the journey. Tell your mother-in-law to rest well. We'll visit you again tomorrow."

Cheng Shi rarely said anything nice. She said, "If you want to marry me, then naturally it's us from the Du family who are here to visit. There's no reason for us to ask you two elders to come to our house."

Cheng's temper, if used in the right place, could really save people a lot of trouble and effort. Take the matter of persuading Rong Ruolan, for example. Although Madam Du had already told Ruolan to stay at the academy, she felt an inexplicable sense of guilt towards the Du family, especially her mother-in-law, because of Liu Xianling.

When a scholar meets a soldier, how can Rong Ruolan win over Cheng Shi?

"Ruolan, are you trying to make my mother-in-law think that I, the eldest daughter-in-law, am incompetent, or are you trying to make me, the younger daughter-in-law, feel filial?"

She pretended to be angry and stopped Rong Ruolan who was about to get on the carriage and go back with her. Su Ying felt a flash before her eyes and thought she was back to the time when she first arrived at the Du Mansion.

Rong Ruolan had no choice but to give in.

The carriage carrying Cheng's mother and daughter set off, and Du Heng still followed on horseback.

But before he had gone far, he saw a man and a horse galloping towards him, with his clothes fluttering and looking unrestrained and unruly. Who else could it be but Yuan Song?

Without much thought, Du Heng walked to the side of the road, reined in his horse and waited.

Yuan Song saw someone blocking the road from afar and tightened the reins. As the horse neighed and stopped, he looked closely and saw it was Du Heng. He couldn't help but ask unhappily, "What's the matter, Brother Du, are you afraid I'll steal your bride?"

Du Heng didn't answer. Instead, he dismounted and approached. He looked at Yuan Song, who was still sitting on his horse, his phoenix eyes looking down at him. He said respectfully, "If it weren't for Brother Yuan's intervention that day, Ying'er wouldn't have been saved so quickly. Thank you again, Brother Yuan, for your help. I'm deeply grateful."

Unexpectedly, Yuan Song said with a half-smile, "Thank you? If you really want to thank me, then return Ying'er to me!"

That night, he broke into the residence of the Yueqing County Magistrate and asked the man in middle clothes to leave the house. The County Magistrate was about to get angry, but when he opened his eyes and saw that the other party was the son of the Yuan family and the third place winner in the imperial examination, he hurriedly and politely asked the third place winner what was the urgent matter.

The next day, he was confined to his house after his cousin Yuan Ying, the head of the Yuan family, told Mrs. Yuan about his absurd behavior.

Yuan Ying was furious at his lack of fighting spirit. He always had a cynical air, and for the first time, in front of her aunt, she reprimanded him: "My father said in the letter that his ambiguous attitude towards the Lu and Pei families had displeased the emperor. Now that he's walking on thin ice in the court, he's worried about ruining your future, so he's resorting to this self-torture to distance himself from you."

"Your position as the top scholar in the imperial examination was not easy to come by, so you must be even more cautious in what you say and do. But you, how could you be so unscrupulous as to order the imperial officials around! If this were known to those with ulterior motives, those who knew would praise you for saving the damsel in distress! And those who didn't would surely file a report against our Yuan family. Then, not only you, but also my father, and our entire clan would be implicated!"